Moral Purpose Research Articles

Diderot: ironia e umorismo nel Salon 1765

Enlightenment philosophers often used irony in a philosophical manner. But irony is an ambiguous and complex figure of speech that can take on philosophical or anti-philosophical value, depending on the uses made of it. Diderot extensively resorts to irony throughout his works, even in unsuspected places in the Encyclopédie, but can we detect a philosophical use of this figure of speech in works of aesthetics as well? The Salon 1765 is considered here as an emblematic moment of Diderot’s reflection on the visual arts, in which irony is linked to the effort of objectivity of the art critic and to the one of the writer who intends to convey the emotion of the painting to the reader, even when it is negative. Irony therefore seems to perform two main functions: 1) to point out an inappropriate choice of subject (when this demonstrates the sterility of the artist’s ideas or licentious subjects that contradict the moral purpose of the pictorial or sculptural work); 2) to make those who read and cannot see the painting empirically understand its defect of composition, design, colour, rhythm. The irony, which is incorporated in the description, thus gives it a critical and emotional value at the same time, aimed at exercising and educating the readers’ taste.

Freedom's Course: Hegel's Concept of World History and the Greek War for Independence (1821–1831)

Abstract: A little-remarked aspect of Hegel's lecture courses on the philosophy of world history is that he delivered them five times during a nine-year period (1822–1831) that aligns almost perfectly with the years of the Greek War for Independence. If Hegel was tracking the French and Haitian Revolutions while writing The Phenomenology of Spirit , then he may have been similarly tracking the Greek Revolution when delivering these lectures. What Hegel had done conceptually in 1807 in his Phenomenology of Spirit , he now intended to do historically in this lecture course: namely, to theorize the historical course of human freedom. Since these lectures represent the first text of Hegel's to be translated into English (in 1857), and since they had been translated into Italian even earlier (1840), Hegel's contention that freedom from domination was the moral aim of world history would provide philosophical support for abolitionist and other emancipatory freedom movements in Europe and the Americas. Equating domination by tyrants with slavery would also inspire national independence movements from Greece to Italy and New Spain. Hegel's romantic account of Greece's emancipation from domination, in antiquity and the present, seemed to speak in favor of such nationalist uprisings. At the same time, his concern with the devolution of the French Revolution left him ambivalent about revolution as a political praxis. His lectures would strike both notes as the Greek Revolution unfolded.

Moral Purpose in Performative Times: Do School leaders’ Values Matter?

ABSTRACT School leaders are expected to act with integrity, but values are always contested: one person’s ‘moral purpose’ is not the same as another’s. Researchers have explored these issues from different angles. One approach focusses on individual leaders, seeking to understand how their values inform their practice. Other work highlights that individual values are only part of the story: values are embedded within professional norms and organisational cultures, while policy and governance frameworks serve to structure and constrain individual agency, particularly in marketised and performative systems. This paper draws on examples from recent research in England to argue that leadership responses to structural constraints should be seen on a spectrum in terms of how far they reflect individual agency and values, proposing four possible categories – ‘toxic leadership’, ‘pragmatic compliance’, ‘principled infidelity’ and ‘authentic agency’. It also discusses the question of how values operate at locality and national levels as well as within individual schools and draws the analysis together into a conceptual frame.

A proposal for a balanced scorecard for the water utilities sector to address the United Nations sustainable development goals

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the technical, social and moral aspects of accounting through the implementation of a novel balanced scorecard (BSC) that addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation – within the Portuguese water utilities sector.Design/methodology/approachA novel research design is adopted, using actor network theory (ANT) as a broad approach to frame the study. ANT emphasizes the importance of ever-evolving networks of relationships and how concepts such as the BSC are just as important in structuring social practice. A set of expert interviews was conducted with stakeholders in the water utilities sector in Portugal, which led to the iterative development of a context-relevant BSC proposal and associated indicators.FindingsA novel BSC architecture to achieve UN SDG 6 is proposed through a unique engagement between professionals and academics. The BSC, and the specific definition of indicators for an entire sector (water), contribute to bridging business processes with the common good to improve life and planetary conditions. Ultimately, the study discusses how the technical aspects of accounting can be enhanced to achieve social and moral imperatives. The paper also reflects on the limitations of broadening existing technical practices.Originality/valueThere is a burgeoning literature on how organizations are engaging with the UN SDG agenda. However, there is a dearth of studies on how management control systems are currently addressing, or can potentially contribute to measuring and managing specific UN SDGs such as Clean Water and Sanitation. This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by developing a novel BSC solution to SDG 6 measurement and management using a novel practitioner-led approach. Ultimately, our study highlights how accounting can be broadened to enhance technical practices while also serving a moral and social purpose.

A Cosmopolitan Revelation: Travel as a Religious Act with Rick Steves’ Europe

For nearly fifty years, travel writer Rick Steves has been guiding Americans through Europe. Nicknamed a “travel guru” by The New York Times, Steves preaches a prescriptive, redemptive vision of travel: by packing light, pursuing historically-rich experiences, and seeking to become a “temporary local” and extrovert in search the “real Europe,” Americans can be cured of their ethnocentricity and experience a cosmopolitan revelation. It is through this sense of moral purpose that traveling the “Rick Steves way” becomes more than a tourism: it is religion. This article explores how Rick Steves’ vision for travel is performed into being discursively and aesthetically, thereby constructing a particular material configuration of Europe imbued with iconic power.

Arab teacher educators and the moral work of teaching in Israel

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores how 14 Arab teacher educators perceive the moral preparation of teachers for Arab schools in Israel. The first theme highlights the contingent (institutional) factors that influence and may restrain the teacher educators’ mission of moral preparation. It highlights the importance of an organisational culture that supports student teachers’ learning to provide moral education, of empowering and unsilencing of student teachers, and of promoting morally oriented reflective practice in students’ clinical experiences. The second theme illustrates the teacher educators’ psychological assumptions about morality as represented by the possibilities and constraints of role modelling in preparing moral teachers. The third theme addresses the teacher educators’ socio-educational (universal, counter-hegemonic, and liberal) assumptions about the moral purposes of schooling. These assumptions are influenced by the asymmetrical structure of Arab-Jewish power relationships, as well as by the transitional status of Arab society in Israel.

Stakeholder exclusion practices of responsible leaders: an investigation into the application of responsible leader values in stakeholder inclusion and exclusion

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the stakeholder exclusion practices of responsible leaders.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretive multiple case analyses of seven responsibly led organisations was employed. Twenty-two qualitative interviews were undertaken to investigate and understand perceptions and practice of responsible leaders and their approach to stakeholder inclusion and exclusion.FindingsThe findings revealed new and surprising insights where responsible leaders compromised their espoused values of inclusivity through the application of a personal bias, resulting in the exclusion of certain stakeholders. This exclusivity practice focused on the informal evaluation of potential stakeholders’ values, and where they did not align with those of the responsible leader, these stakeholders were excluded from participation with the organisation. This resulted in the creation and continuity of a culture of shared moral purpose across the organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focussed on responsible leader-led organisations, so the next stage of the research will include mainstream organisations (i.e. without explicit responsible leadership) to examine how personal values bias affects stakeholder selection in a wider setting.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that reflexive practice and critically appraising management methods in normative leadership approaches may lead to improvements in diversity management.Originality/valueThis paper presents original empirical data challenging current perceptions of responsible leader inclusivity practices and indicates areas of leadership development that may need to be addressed.

Metode Membentuk Akhlak Mulia dalam Pendidikan Islam

The purpose of writing this paper is to discuss methods of forming noble character in Islamic education. Many see in the current generation that students do not implement noble character in everyday life. Morals are everything related to good or bad human actions. The understanding of morality in Islam is based on the Al-Qur'an and Hadith, which provide guidelines and examples of good behavior that must be followed by Muslims. The aim of morality in Islam is to form good character and improve human behavior so that they become responsible individuals. The research method used is library research. In this paper the author will discuss the meaning, distribution of morals and methods of forming noble morals in Islamic education by using exemplary methods, habituation, advice, stories and punishments so that students re-implement noble morals in their daily lives.

Practical wisdom in the workplace: conceptualization, instrument development, and predictive power

PurposeThe purpose of this Real Impact Research Article is to empirically explore one of the most controversial and elusive concepts in knowledge management research – practical wisdom. It develops a 10-dimensional practical wisdom construct and tests it within the nomological network of counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument was created based on the extant literature. A model was developed and tested by means of Partial Least Squares with data obtained from 200 experienced employees recruited from CloudResearch Connect crowdsourcing platform.FindingsPractical wisdom is a multidimensional construct that may be operationalized and measured like other well-established knowledge management concepts. Practical wisdom guides employee counterproductive and productive knowledge behavior: it suppresses knowledge sabotage and knowledge hiding (whether general, evasive, playing dumb, rationalized or bullying) and promotes knowledge sharing. While all proposed dimensions contribute to employee practical wisdom, particularly salient are subject matter expertise, moral purpose in decision-making, self-reflection in the workplace and external reflection in the workplace. Unexpectedly, practical wisdom facilitates knowledge hoarding instead of reducing it.Practical implicationsManagers should realize that possessing practical wisdom is not limited to a group of select, high-level executives. Organizations may administer the practical wisdom questionnaire presented in this study to their workers to identify those who score the lowest, and invest in employee training programs that focus on the development of those attributes pertaining to the practical wisdom dimensions.Originality/valueThe concept of practical wisdom is a controversial topic that has both detractors and supporters. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical study of practical wisdom in the knowledge management domain.

On Survival

Abstract An expansion of my 2022 Charles Seeger Lecture, “On Survival” unfolds as a set of reflections on the moment in the history of ethnomusicology that has followed intense periods of response to the COVID-19 pandemic and of racial self-reckoning worldwide. While examining common concerns and practices for ethnomusicology as a field, I do not propose a new theory or method, but rather I argue for the unity of the field rather than the separation of approaches into subdisciplines. The common ground of the present ethnomusicological moment, like that of the past to which ethnomusicologists now return, lies in a fundamental concern for ethical practice and moral purpose. Throughout the article, I draw upon case studies, many from my own ethnographic and historical work, especially from my research in and performances of music of the Shoah, to claim affinity between the fields of ethnomusicology and moral philosophy. These affinities emerge from common engagement with the moral dimensions of survival: trauma, mourning, border crossing, goodness, cohabitation with others in the Anthropocene, transcendence. The video clips are available here: https://files.press.uillinois.edu/journals/supplemental/ethno/seeger_lecture/

RESEARCH OF COMMUNICATION: CULTURAL-PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT

In this article the author reveals the specifics of axiological approach to modern problems of communication with the help of fundamental philosophical theories analysis. In the center of the study are such concepts as socio-philosophical reflection, intersubjectivity, alienation, personalism and ideal communicative community. These concepts have become the starting points of 20th century philosophy in the study of human being’s existential nature. The moral priorities of the philosophical theories’ founders were aimed against the monological concept of communication, the use of human being and various manipulative techniques directed solely for profit. According to the philosophers, the value basis of communication is in the process of building a true dialogue, where each of its participants acquires an ideal relationship and comes to an understanding of the other. The theories that contribute to the return of man to his true moral purpose are becoming particularly relevant in connection with the cultural world’s unification, the globalization process, and the humiliation of an individual as an object of virtue. The construction of an ideal communicative group becomes possible when the participants of communication overcome their own subjective attitudes and create mutual rational motivation. The considered theories call for such universal human values as love, care, respect, honesty, freedom, justice, spirituality, truth, and humanity. According to the philosophers, appeal to these values in the process of communication can lead a person out of the widespread alienation and unlock the destructive existential circle of modern human being, constructed of vices.

“Our People, Our Rules, and Our Border!”: Village Networks, People’s Economies, and the Functioning of the State at the Western Edge of Ukraine

This paper aims to present local state and border administrations in terms of people’s everyday economies (their function and purpose). Instead of seeing local state institutions and border administration from a top-down perspective, I present them as socially negotiated, since the days of socialism to the present, by locals who have lived by (and made a living from) the international border with Slovakia for almost eighty years. I particularly reflect on the social relations and informal practices carried out through the border and performed from within local state institutions, and the unwritten rules of people’s economies in a particular Transcarpathian village community in Ukraine. I argue these economies, carried out within family networks that form a village community (built on sense of common belonging, trust, and moral obligations to peers), have served to establish local networks as effective means for gaining control of public offices and institutions (including the administration of the border) during socialism and in post-socialism. Hence, the local economy is presented as a model of transacting within and between local family networks in the environment of the local state and border administrations, whose functioning is strongly influenced by sociality and practices of the village community. The community, I posit, had adapted to socialism as a state regime by developing a performative competence to act according to communally-shared rules, albeit sometimes beyond formal rules. Adding to the key influence of interactions and transactions within local networks’ economies on the functioning of the border, I argue that the economies here served also moral and solidary purposes in times of more recent crises, that is, during the ongoing war in Ukraine that has brought extensive traffic to the external Schengen border. Favouring as a key resource in managing, negotiating and ultimately subverting official structures and institutions should thus be considered a core strategy of long-term resilience of local collectives against past and present adversities.

Exemplars of purpose: Reliance on moral exemplars supports college students’ purpose in life

Using mixed-methods across two studies (Fall 2019 nintervention = 32, ncontrol = 42; Fall 2021 nintervention = 35; ncontrol = 42), we find that a college course featuring a moral exemplar-focused character intervention supports emerging adults’ reliance on moral exemplars and purpose in life. Quantitative analyses from Study 1 indicate that students in the character course (versus control group) grew in reliance on moral exemplars and purpose from pre- to post-semester. Moreover, the greater students’ reliance on moral exemplars, the greater their purpose at the end of the semester. Study 2 largely replicated that pattern but found differences by students’ developmental phase. Qualitative analyses underscored that students appreciated relatability and attainability in moral exemplars and moral exemplars bolstered students’ finding purpose in developing their moral character. The results have important implications for the design and assessment of character interventions intended to foster purpose and reliance on moral exemplars.

Biblical Call and Classical Response: Intertextuality and Image-Text Relations in Henricus Engelgrave’s Sermon Books

Abstract This paper aims to explore the unique structure and function of the emblems in Henricus Engelgrave’s (1610–70) sermon books (Lux evangelica, Caeleste pantheon, and Caelum empyreum). The emblems serve as introductions to sermons for Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year; they include two mottos: one biblical quotation and a quotation from classical Roman poetry. Based on a selection of exemplary emblems, this paper demonstrates that the second mottos are not merely decorative additions, as has sometimes been argued. Rather, they constitute key features in Engelgrave’s emblematic conception as they provide allegorical and pictorial imageries that affect the picturae of the emblems, the expression of the moral purpose of the sermons, and the relationship between both. This article is part of the special issue of the Journal of Jesuit Studies on Jesuit emblems and emblematic edited by Walter S. Melion.

India’s Democracy: The Competitive Authoritarian Propensity? Rahul Mukherji and Seyed Hossein Zarhani

This paper explains and corroborates the mechanisms by which civic and political spaces opposed to Hindu nationalism have been attacked, especially after the arrival of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2014. Three mechanisms are discerned for replacing pluralistic values with Hindu majoritarian ones. Sometimes institutions are just allowed to drift by interpreting old rules in new ways. For example, no formal rules for media control have changed but the government???s control over media has increased substantially. At other times, incremental legal and policy changes are executed to make the change explicit, often building on a new moral purpose. To give another example, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended and weaponized against NGOs in a layered way in 2020. Finally, when political opposition is weak, institutions that have provided guarantees for protecting diversity have simply been displaced by new and radically different ones. This was the case with abrogating Article 370, which converted the special status of the subnational state of Jammu and Kashmir to the status of two federally administered union territories–Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. These mechanisms place India in a competitive authoritarian frame, where those in power deploy electoral majorities to systematically attack the political opposition, making it more di(cult for it to rise. Despite these propensities, opposition parties have won elections in some of India’s subnational states. The challenges facing the world’s most populous democracy are significant, even though competitive elements co-exist. These elements in a competitive authoritarian regime, however, are under severe stress. India’s democratic credentials can be revived only if the competitive elements of India’s democracy stand united against ethno-nationalist Hindu majoritarianism.

A Brief Introduction to Gurukul Education

This paper presents gurukul system of education as the main concern in the quality of human beings. Education is the only means of civilizing ourselves to maintain high qualities of integrity, devotion, sincerity and an ethical and moral purpose in our national life. The goal of our national education should be to supply a constant stream of knowledge, character, fearless open minded, truthful, and patriotic people, who will become the basic material, for building up the nation. Gurukul Style of Education system is a 5000-year old Hindu tradition of transmitting higher knowledge and enlightenment to the students by yogic powers by the guru with an aim to develop the latent yogic powers of the child and build him up into a moral and spiritual power.

Culture–leadership intersections in support of deeper learning at a career and technical education center

PurposeAlthough much can be learned from schools that regularly foster deeper learning, little research has been undertaken into how and why these schools have been effective or to elucidate key leadership and cultural characteristics. Moreover, there has been limited attention toward deeper learning within schools that focus on career and technical education (CTE), a major omission given the potentially elevated potential for deeper learning in these contexts. This study aims to partially rectify these issues by examining the intersections of leadership and culture at an innovative school that has demonstrated excellence whilst providing a curriculum centered on CTE.Design/methodology/approachThis instrumental, insider, single-case study is focused on how leadership–cultural interactions have fostered and shaped students' opportunities to experience deeper learning. The authors take the perspective that it is largely through these leadership–cultural intersections that an organization and the work that happens within it takes on a particular meaning, direction and value. This study applies ethnographic methods, drawing upon formally and informally collected data over the past three years – e.g. from field notes, from leadership meetings and site visits; focus group interviews with students, parents, teachers, partners and school leaders; and additional artifacts.FindingsThe authors detail three interrelated features at this school, noting that it is: (1) driven by moral purpose; (2) open, collaborative and trusting; and (3) ambitious and entrepreneurial. The authors explain how/why such a culture has developed and to what effects, especially in relation to facilitating deeper learning.Originality/valueStudy findings meaningfully add to the literature regarding leadership for deeper learning, broadly and in relation to career and technical education and yield recommendations for educational leaders and policymakers.

Normative Overlaps between China and the Liberal International Society: China’s Developmentalist Human Rights

Abstract When different entities (actors) accept a certain norm or a particular agreement about normative principles, they are likely to have an overlapping but not necessarily fully shared understanding of the given norm. This article theorises and assesses the strength of such normative overlaps in international politics. It conceptualises normative overlaps as normative congruences across and within political orders. It follows a norm’s connection to constitutional layers of political orders (congruences within orders) and the way these constitutional layers of political orders, among which the norm is shared, overlap (congruences across orders). To do so, it builds upon and interconnects the literature on norms, especially norm diffusion, and the English School and constructivist literature on the composition of international order. The theoretical framework is utilised to analyse how China fits into the liberal international society, especially when it comes to human rights (HR) and humanitarian protection. The effect of the normative overlaps in this realm is China’s active engagement with the liberal HR regime, however, without deeper convergence or socialisation. The limits of convergence are underpinned by significant differences between the Chinese developmentalist and liberal conceptions of the moral purpose of politics.

Encouragement of the Arts During the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

This article examines how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá promoted the arts during His ministry, through His encouragement and support of a prominent artist in the early Bahá’í community. Mishkín-Qalam was the first and most celebrated Bahá’í visual artist from the East. Best known for his calligraphic design of the Greatest Name, his life exemplified the “twofold moral purpose”: through his art, he was able to develop his own inherent spiritual potential as well as make lasting contributions to society. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá employed his artisticskill in service to some of the most important achievements of His ministry: the interment of the remains of the Báb, the construction of the first Bahá’í House of Worship, and the transcription of Bahá’í literature. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s encouragement might serve as an emerging model for individuals, communities, and institutions of how to engage with artists and the arts, while Mishkín-Qalam’s response stands as an example to artists of how the pursuit of spiritual virtue and excellence in one’s craft can intertwine.

The Meaning of Successful School Leadership in Disadvantaged Contexts in Spain: Approach from the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP)

Successful school leadership in disadvantaged contexts is a topic of debate in the context of the Spanish education system. There needs to be clear identification of the concept of school success and what successful school leadership means. Thanks to the research carried out within the ISSPP project in Spain, we have been able to expand our knowledge on how success is defined in disadvantaged contexts: How have principals contributed to their school’s success? How has success grown and been sustained? And how have successful principals overcome internal and external factors to build a strong professional identity that enables them to fight for social justice? The ISSPP research in Spain finally concludes that the leadership variable may be considered decisive in the learning outcomes of pupils. It is not only the context variable that would be decisive in academic results, but rather leadership capable of making the moral purpose of education a reality.