The Principles of Mutual Understanding and Work for the Benefits of Others - Essay Example

?Aristotle’s Philosophy of Civic Relationships The philosophers dealt with a number of areas and provided us with the knowledge about the s ina new way. Their ideas are realistic in certain circumstances and imaginative in others. The philosophers provided us with the idea of a society where virtues, happiness, friendship, justice and deliberation of people is associated with the moral justification of impacts of those actions taken, on others in the society. This way, they create an imaginative yet perfect society where happiness and opportunities are not the right of a single class or group but are shared by all people in the society. Aristotle is the philosopher with great expertise to deal with topics related to civic relationships. His ideas are highly imaginative and call for a deep insight on the issues that are prevalent in the society due to negligence on the impacts of our actions that others face. His ideas are, hence, not for the good of an individual but for the society as a whole. His views incorporate the broader picture of the society by focusing on individualistic actions and reactions. He emphasizes on the concept of ethics in the society and moral justifications for every aspect of life and activities involved. This paper critically analyzes the concepts of Aristotle’s civic relationships in accordance with the contemporary ethical values as proposed and implemented by the practitioners in various fields. Civic relationships are constituted on a number of elements as proposed by Aristotle. The concept of civic virtue is one of the most important concepts in this regard. Civic virtue refers to promoting habits and activities of individuals which take the community’s good in view. According to Aristotle, civic virtue is related to the concept of morality and gives rise to the righteous behavior for citizen’s contribution in the society and community matters. Individuals may take part in civic virtue by voting, participating in public affairs, taking part in public programs and organizations as volunteers and so on. Aristotle believes that human beings find it pleasurable to take part in civic virtue. Civic virtue is a concept which promotes the way of achieving happiness. Aristotle views the concept of virtues as an important phenomenon to improve the community. He believes that virtuous behaviors and the concept of virtues in the civic relationship context may be taught. Civic virtue opens a wide area of understanding the role of individuals in the society and their duties in relation to it. The concept of friendship, according to Aristotle is not linked with earning profits or gaining advantages but it is the relationship between the people who work in the best favor of the other. This way, the relationships between people are built stronger promoting the sense of trust and understanding. Friendship is based on the notion that each individual works and acts in way to benefit the other without any personal interest except for advantaging the friend. Aristotle clarifies that friendship is not a relationship which can be developed with every other part of the social institutions. Rather, he defines this relationship to be limited to a number of people who have the feelings of benefiting each other without any consent of acquiring some advantage from the other at present or future. The perfect friendship, according to him, is the one which binds the individuals in mutual tasks, activities and spending more time together. Not every person, according to this explanation, falls in the category of friend as it is impossible to some extent to spend time with every other person in a way explained by Aristotle. The notion to benefit others by one’s action is also controversial as people in the complex society today have their personal interests and benefits that seek and believe to attain using or involving with others. Such relationships are called as ‘imperfect friendships’ which lack pleasure, mutual understanding and trust in each other. Aristotle defines happiness as an ‘activity’ which lies in the distinction he places between the notion of happiness that we have and the conception of virtues. Aristotle names it a ‘disposition’. Our conception of happiness is the achievement of an emotional state and explaining it as a feeling of being something rather than doing something. Aristotle’s idea of happiness is the idea of living well and on the other hand, virtue represents the ability to live well. Hence, having the moral virtues is useless until those are vitally accepted and performed to achieve happiness. Having courage does not translate happiness until the courage is tested and applied to beat fears. Virtue is the potential of having something and happiness lies in exercising those virtues. Hence, happiness comes when moral and ethical virtues are applied in the life. Aristotle provides the idea of making choices based on our deliberations. Deliberation according to him is the procedure of performing rational enquiries in order to evaluate the virtuosity of an activity. The virtues can be exercised in a number of ways to achieve happiness but deliberation is the concept which helps in exercising the noble ways to attain happiness. A good person, as per Aristotle’s ideas, is the one with quick and good deliberations. A good person, hence, is the one who can see and evaluate the practical deliberation of actions and reactions. Practical reasoning provides justifications about any actions and the best practice lies in the applicability of self-control to maintain justice and rational behaviors. Justice finds a different idea to different people. According to Aristotle, justice is the exercise of just behavior by people. Just, according to him, is the lawful and fair behavior. An unjust person is the one who is unlawful and greedy. He reverses this definition of unjust behavior to derive the definition of just. Hence, justice is the opposite of unlawful and greedy behaviors. Justice hence, is the good of others without being greedy and unlawful since laws are made to ensure the combined good of all people in the society, group or organization. The concept of justice, in short, is the application of ethical virtues to benefit the friends as well as the community. The business environment today is complex due to the diversified workforce and concept of globalization. The diversified population brings together different cultural backgrounds and values to work together. The cultural, moral, social and religious differences require a number of initiatives by the organizations to maintain flexible working environment and comfortable rules for everyone. The work environment of the companies means a lot to the employees as they spend a considerable portion of day there. They need comfortable time, friendly environment and certain incentives at workplaces to aid them. The concepts of Aristotle are important to clarify the concepts which may bring ease of working in the workplaces. His ideas about civic relationships are of particular importance to understand the milestones of building healthier workplace relationships and stronger community which in turn brings success for the organizations. The ideal state, as per Aristotle’s concepts, is the one where a person deliberates to exercise virtues to bring happiness to his friends/companions without any instance of self-interest. The exercise of such procedures by all individuals may end up creating a utopian culture in the organizations bringing justice as a practice for all and to be enjoyed by all members working in the organization. Such practices and lawful culture would enable the employees working facilities and environment which would be in best favor of them and others. The analysis of Aristotle’s ideas and concepts in modern working environments may be of particular importance to check the practical applicability of these ideas. The 100 best companies to work for, identified by CNN money, follow some or all of the concepts described above. These concepts are, however, not perfectly accomplishable in practical life due to different point of views of people working in each company. The common practices of these 100 best companies to work for include the justice paradigm by employing any kind of incentive program which is accessible to all. For example, healthcare premiums are provided to all employees in 21 companies out of the listed 100 best companies. Happiness as the way what people do rather than what they are, translates the philosophy of around 84 companies who allow the workers to telecommute 20% of the time. These companies keep the comfort of employees at the top which leads to the happiness of their employees by virtue of the company and the deliberation of it. Their deliberation is judged by the practical illustration of providing such policies and ease of work. The relationships which are developed by most of the top 100 companies to work for are of immense importance. They provide ways to the employees for good communication and friendship. The idea of team work, in today’s modern business environment, illustrates the concept of friendship that Aristotle described. However, it is difficult to identify the friendship as perfect or imperfect due to the complex competition that is prevalent. However, collaboration is somehow encouraging friendship in the workplaces with or without the consent of achieving personal motives by performing activities which are apparently in favor of others. The great place to work institute follows the principles of mutual understanding and works for the benefits of others. This clearly is the virtue accompanied by deliberation to help workers and management in making happiness as the key factor of organizational culture. The main aim of this institute is to provide an environment of trust and collaboration. However, the notion of working for others without any instance of self-interest does not fit here. They have the interest of management as well as employees. The organizations seek success of organizational goals and it is their self-interest to increase profits that motivates them to give incentives and benefits to employees. Hence, the definition of friendship is not applicable in today’s business environment as friendliness today is often associated with comfortable environment provided to the employees rather than working in the best interest of employees for the sake of their benefits solely. The great place to work institute conducts surveys and assesses companies’ cultures to provide recommendation on improving the relationship within the organization. These relationships are made in order to promote success of companies rather than individuals. They make decisions which are in best interest of employees as a whole to satisfy their needs and expectations of a good workplace. Their initiatives are based on the phenomenon of improvement for the employees and justice for them. Their deliberation is identified by the activities they perform to evaluate the culture i.e. the surveys which enable them to understand the actual problems or improvements required by the workplace employees. Bibliography http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper12.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/#Fri http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/aristotle/section8.rhtml http://www-philosophy.ucdavis.edu/mattey/phi001/arietlec.htm http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/index.html http://www.greatplacetowork.com/who_we_are/index.php Read More