Socrates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Socrates - Essay Example Socrates uses himself as an example when he teaches that beauty does not guarantee happiness. True beauty is inner beauty, the beauty of one’s spirit and character. In conjunction with happiness, which was also a construct that Socrates discussed, he denotes that one cannot tell if a person is happy or not based on his external appearance, but happiness, like kindness, is a matter of inner qualities. His famous motto: â€Å"An unexamined life is not worth living† is a testimony to how much he values thinking and philosophy and the perennial introspection of why we exist. Constantly reflecting about one’s life and impact on others creates meaning for a person and Socrates encourages that we indulge in deep, critical thinking ourselves at all times. Socrates’ legacy is not volumes of his philosophical writings, but how he impacted the thinking of other philosophers. Plato described him as an â€Å"unambivalent† individual who stood clearly for some va lues and firm against others. For him, there were no gray areas2. As a sophist, or wizened people who taught valuable skills for a price, Socrates went against their practice and did not charge for his instruction3. He is considered a paradigmic individual who is known to provoke intense reactions among people – love and acceptance or rejection and exclusion of his ideas. Being so, he is very â€Å"influential as a teacher, adviser, social reformer or a significant religious figure†4. His words are powerful enough to strike one’s emotions and conscience especially with moral dilemmas that can compromise one’s integrity. He has been known for his discourses using questioning or the Socratic dialectic wherein he draws out the truth from people by asking them questions. He believes that each person possesses an inherent truth and it only takes deep questioning to let it out. In doing so, the person comes up with a clearer definition of a key concept from his own thinking. Socrates believes this as a more effective method of learning rather than filling up an empty vessel with knowledge, or spoonfeeding information. The Socratic method involves a series of questions until a contradicting view surfaces to oppose the initial assumption.5 His controversial style is unparalleled and can be considered too heavy for some people because he communicates on more than one level. With his Socratic irony, he maintains two levels of meaning – the literal or obvious level and the hidden or real level. People with deep wisdom can easily understand his thinking and realize that things are not always as they first appear. Sometimes, there is a deeper meaning that should be unearthed6. The inquisitor begins with a position of not knowing anything but leads the questioning.7 At times, though, he uses ambiguous, but well-chosen examples in his discourses. They may even be counterintuitive or poorly supported claims, but he uses them with discernment , knowing that it would bring about more thinking from his students and could be a better strategy in achieving protreptic and pedagogical goals.8 In this way, Socrates may be considered a unique kind of teacher who successfully keeps his audience at awe of his teachings, ever alert and vigilant for bits of knowledge they can gain from such a wise man. From his earlier interest in scientific theories, he moved on to thinking about the development of the moral character of a person.9 Having served as a

Business Ethics and SRI Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Ethics and SRI - Literature review Example This emerging phenomenon is known as Socially Responsible Investment (Hicks,2003; Schueth, 2003) Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), also known as ethical investment, is an investment discipline that in addition to the risk and returns issues in investment, takes into account social or environmental issues. The difference between SRI and conventional investment is the employment of specific investment strategies. The purpose of such strategies is to select or exclude certain assets from investment portfolio. (Renneboog et al., 2008,p. 1723). It simply means that conventional investment strategies are considered natural—having financial return on investment at the core. However, SRI strategies are either socially sensitive or socially dictating(Hicks,2003; Schueth, 2003) SRI has three major distinctive techniques, which may overlap or follow one another. These are screening, activism, and cause-based investment( Spark and Cowton,2004; Vivers, 2007) . Further, SRI may be carr ied out at individual as well as institutional level. Individuals normally develop mutual funds whereas institutions execute it through charitable foundations and pension funds. Since its modern emergence, SRI, its strategies, its terminology and its definition have been under strong debates ( Spark and Cowton,2004; Schueth, 2003 Hicks,2003). ... At the end of this review , I shall present the growing importance of SRI at international level. 2. Definition and basic terminology 2.1. Business Ethics In current literature of business ethics, there are two major streams. One expects that business shall not be immoral enterprise and the second that consider the morality and self-interest at certain point sometime are opposite. ( Hicks,2003). The first group assume that business is amoral whereas second argue that if it is amoral it is immoral ( Hicks,2003).In current stream of business ethics literature second group is becoming dominant and either calls for the practice of personal values or even urges the investors to play an active role for the implementation of those values into the businesses.( Hicks,2003; Schueth, 2003, Vivers, 2007). 2.2. SRI and Other Terms There are various terms representing the concepts of business ethics. For instance, "Socially Responsible Investing" , "social investing," "socially aware investing," " ethical investing," "mission-based investing," and "double-bottom line investing.". These terms has been used interchangeably in literature (Pan and Mardfin ,2001; Schueth, 2003;Spark and Cowton,2004). However the two most common terms are â€Å"ethical investing† and â€Å"Socially Responsible Investment† (Spark and Cowton,2004, p 46). Term â€Å"ethical investment† is relatively older one and it reflects the fact that the movement was initially religiously motivated and churches played a vital role in the development of earliest ethical funds in UK, USA and Australia(Schueth, 2003; Spark and Cowton,2004). Later on, the term has gradually been replaced by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). Many people have reservation on the use of