I know i'm really "into" a book if I find myself taking all sorts of notes on it, not only for my own use--but to share others . . . the biggest problem I now face is to edit these down to just a few passages, but let me try: If Aristotle ran General Motors, everyone employed there would think of it as one large partnership, encompassing myriads of smaller partnerships for the purpose of living well. If he ran the corner grocery store, he would instill in everyone there the same mindset. And if he offered you advice, I think that this would be at its core: Always think of yourself as entering with other people into partnerships for living well. This highly general truth about the deep beauty of business can provide us with an important perspective on many specific decisions we face. We should always be asking ourselves whether what we contemplate doing will enhance or diminish this crucial function of the business within our own domain of influence. Are we building partnerships for living well?
I saw the professor later that day and asked him about it. He answered with a big smile, "At Hampden-Sydnery, we have a rule that every student must greet everyone they pass on campus." I said, Why do you have a rule like that?" And he explained, "At Hampden-Syndey, we believe that etiquette is where ethics meet everyday life. . . . If we don't help our students get it right in the little things, they'll never be in a position to get it right in the big things. We teach them to be courteous, hoping that this will help them to be moral."
In an office building full of hundreds of Ph.D.s, whenever anyone faces a personal challenge, has trouble at home, is bothered by any sort of worry or fear, or just needs a spark or renewed energy, they easily discovered that the wisest course of action is to seek out the one man in the building who didn't graduate from high school, Brother Jeff. He whistles while he works, he sings, he greets everyone with a big smile and a kind word: "How are you today, my friend?" An otherwise dour face may brighten and respond, "Fine, Jeff and how are you?" The inevitable answer: "Everything's pretty!" A conversation then may or may not ensure, on almost any topic imaginable. But if it does, it always ends with a hearty send-off: "You have yourself a great day, my friend!"
Why?
Aristotle's ideas can be like knives cutting through cluttered thinking, but his presentation can be a bit long and dry. Morris does a nice job of presenting Aristotle's virtues of Truth, Goodness, Unity, and Beauty as they can be applied to business while putting a fun and popular face on them.
You can find good arguments in many books for being honest in business as well as doing good and creating a sense of unity. Beauty was a surprise, but Morris argues well for it. I felt that the combination of ancient wisdom with modern examples made Morris' message meaningful and more inspirational than many other business books.
I've gotten a lot of mileage out of these ideas, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to find Aristotle's virtues in the workplace.
This book, brilliant in every way, attempts, and succeeds, in arguing that wisdom and its concrete manifestation in ethics, should be the cornerstone of business life. The author is a philosopher, and not a business owner, but with his insight into the dynamics of the marketplace and its optimization, his ideas are clearly thinking "out of the box". One can only hope that business leaders (and others) will discover the ideas in this book or some other like it. With today's headlines in corporate fraud and other scandals (some justified and some not), business people need to start believing in the efficacy of ethics in optimizing their business ventures.
The preface to the book concerns "reinventing corporate spirit", the author drawing on the thoughts of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to set up the foundation for his arguments in the book. He recognizes correctly that it is ideas that fundamentally move the world.
Throughout the book are many interesting insights into the psychology of business practices. When speaking of happiness for example, in relation to Aristotle's notion of eudaemonia, one of these is the recognition that money is frequently not the end goal for business people, the real goal being to achieve admiration in the eyes of others. The resulting ostentatious lifestyle is primarily done to impress, this being a transient and ultimately unsatisfying motivation in the eyes of the author.
The book is divided up into four parts: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity. Each of these stand for respectively, the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spirtual necessities for achieving true happiness. In "Truth" the discussion is interesting in that it emphasizes the importance of telling the truth not just from the standpoint of what it will do in relation to others, but what it will do for the individual involved. Telling a lie damages one's self confidence. Individuals who practice the telling of falsehoods are intimidated by truth and do not have any confidence in the efficacy of their own minds. In addition, the author discusses the importance of "open-book management": that the sharing of knowledge results in greater productivity among the employees. This is to be contrasted with the nervous attitude among some managers who feel threatened by information, again lacking self-confidence and are in a perpetual state of worry that the dissemination of knowledge among employees or co-workers will result in their comptetitive demise. These views on truth are most refreshing. "Lying is the most dangerously corrosive and subtly destabilizing activities to be found in human life" he says. He's right.
Quoting the Hindu proverb "The true nobility is in being superior to your precious self", the author encourages the view of competition as being one in which individuals surpass their former abilities, instead of worrying about their status in relation to others. He's right.
Even more important is that the author addresses the influence of philosophy in the development of ethical attitudes in business. Ethical relativism and nihilism have wreaked havoc in society as a whole, not just in business, and the author emphasizes the need for coming to grips with these beliefs, and replacing them with sound philosophical systems that are both rational and meshed with common sense. "Ideas rock the world" he states. He's right.
Most refreshingly, the author does not shy away from addressing the issue of self-interest. Confronting the "What's in it for me?" question that is asked by some, he clearly believes that self-interest is not something to be swept under the rug in discussions on ethics and morality in business. "The view that ethics requires total personal disinterestedness is a dangerous distortion of the truly moral point of view", he states. He's right.
Peer pressure and "going with the flow" are always issues that everyone has to deal with in the business environment. Not being labeled as a "team player" can be detrimental to one's growth in a particular organization. The author asks the reader to count the costs of conformity and not to "associate with evil men, lest you increase their number", quoting George Herbert. He's right.
But ethics is not merely a collection of arbitrary rules to follow, the author argues. The right course of action is built into the nature of reality and meshes with human nature and human needs. Since this is the case, the practice of true ethical norms is not only productive, but pleasureful to the individual, and instead of causing boredom as some might believe, alleviates it, argues the author. He's right.
Some might label, and the author does unashamedly, the framework outlined in the book as "spiritual". Goal-oriented, truth-valuing, truth-loving conduct results in a productive, life-loving spiritual individual, in complete antithesis to that of a sterile, non-creative, cynical one who views life as a burden with crosses to bear.
Some of course might view this book, and one on ethics in general, as being "idealistic" or "naive". Such individuals may not wish to even pick it up, let alone read it. But individuals who practice these ideas, or ones very similar, haved moved the world, and will continue to do so.