The Management Scholars of Ancient Greece

Today's Financial Times has a good article by Simon London reviewing a book by Jim O'Toole, Creating the Good Life .  Yes, it's another attempt to draw lessons from Aristotle for business.  Let's see -- add it to the list, Tony Soprano for Managers, Genghis Khan for Human Resources, etc.

I made the mistake (!) of sending the article to my co-author Jonathan Sallet, who replies as follows:

From next week's FT.

"Many people, when they've lived for half a century begin to think of how they will conclude their career or begin their retirement. For inspiration, they turn to religion, spirituality of different forms, or to gurus, of the management or zen persuasions.

"But I have taken a different path. Is it not Socrates who offers us the meaning of a good life? Think of him not just a tutor of Plato but also as the middle aged hoplite, fleeing for safety from the site of a terrible Athenian military disaster. Or, more famously, voluntarily committing suicide rather than departing the Athens whose democracy he despised.

"Do not these choices - and the autocratic (some say fascist)  philosophy so nobly pursued by his most notable disciple - give us a new way of viewing our life? Why hang around corporate boardrooms awaiting the arrival of the next Enron scandal when fleeing is a pathway right there in front of you?  Why show up to vote or embrace a social cause when cyncism can be raised to an art form (and remember Socrates didn't even have a blog, much less a talk show)? And why wait for the debilitating ravages of retirement, as your artificial knee begins to buckle under the weight of 18 holes, when such an obviously self indulgent (not to say self erasing) alternative is as close as, say, a cup of hemlock?

"Perhaps you have a different view. But I choose to ignore it, for Socrates has shown me the light. Engage in disalogue with others if you must, for me just make it socratic.

Comments

[John Konop]

Child Slavery Threat To Justice

This was a very interesting article I found on The Conservative Voice. Do you think slave labor should be a moral issue in trade deals?

TCV-In the US, slavery was outlawed at the national level in 1865. “Oppressive child labor” was outlawed at the US national level in 1938. Yet child labor persists around the world as national and multinational companies seek lower labor costs and greater profits. Adult consumers around the world benefit with cheap goods made with child labor.

Will worldwide morality over this issue become so great that all countries will banish child labor forever as they did the once prevalent black slavery? Or will the benefits that accrue to consumers and corporations by child labor prevail? Will economics trump morality or not? Stanly asked. Read the rest of this entry »

[Alex]

Jonathan Sallet's commentary on Socrates is absolutely awful, and reflective of the fact that he is ignorant on the topic of Socrates, whereas the very essence of being Socratic was to know one's ignorance. Socrates was abrasive, yes, but he was always questioning people's beliefs so he could get at the truth of things, as he claimed to know nothing and sought to be enligthned by the people around him, who thought they possessed knowledge, although most of them did not. Socrates was imprisoned and judged guilty on the matters of corruption of the youth and impiety. One has to remember that Athens at the time had wrapped up the disastrous Peleponnesian Wars, and the society was pretty fraigle when Socrates was on the scene. As to his suicide, if you ever bothered to read the Crito, you would see that he reasoned that he should not escape from jail because, in breaking the law, he would be doing bad, whereas the goal in life was to lead a good life, where one did not do bad. Indeed, in one of the Socratic dialogues, it is said that it is better to suffer harm than do harm, as suffering harm was inflicted on the body, which was considered less important than the mind, whereas doing harm hurts the mind. Anyways, I would hope that in the future when you discuss historical figures, that you are accurate in your descriptions, instead of just making crackpot remarks, as unfortunately some people might take such ranting as wisdom, not the talk of fools.

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[Alex Smith]

Hey buddy! Nice blog that you maintain here.. I just chanced upon your blog surfing the blogosphere. I was thinking.. you could try out some interesting widgets on your page and spice it up with more relevant information. E.g try out the new widget on http://www.widgetmate.com with your relevant keywords

[conservative news]

It was a good article

[conservative news]

It was a good article

[Peninah]

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[Adrian]

Very interesting, a Socrates blog would be cool, im sure he could get to grips with blogger or typepad pretty quick lol..

You need to get on top of the spam in your comments though, not sure what Socrates would have thought to spam :(

[Ghazala Khan]

Hello Dear and Respected,
I hope you are fine and carrying on the great work you have been doing for the Internet surfers. I am Ghazala Khan from The Pakistani Spectator (TPS), We at TPS throw a candid look on everything happening in and for Pakistan in the world. We are trying to contribute our humble share in the webosphere. Our aim is to foster peace, progress and harmony with passion.

We at TPS are carrying out a new series of interviews with the notable passionate bloggers, writers, and webmasters. In that regard, we would like to interview you, if you don't mind. Please send us your approval for your interview at my email address "ghazala.khi at gmail.com", so that I could send you the Interview questions. We would be extremely grateful.

regards.

Ghazala Khan
The Pakistani Spectator
http://www.pakspectator.com

[Ghazala Khan]

Hello Dear and Respected,
I hope you are fine and carrying on the great work you have been doing for the Internet surfers. I am Ghazala Khan from The Pakistani Spectator (TPS), We at TPS throw a candid look on everything happening in and for Pakistan in the world. We are trying to contribute our humble share in the webosphere. Our aim is to foster peace, progress and harmony with passion.

We at TPS are carrying out a new series of interviews with the notable passionate bloggers, writers, and webmasters. In that regard, we would like to interview you, if you don't mind. Please send us your approval for your interview at my email address "ghazala.khi at gmail.com", so that I could send you the Interview questions. We would be extremely grateful.

regards.

Ghazala Khan
The Pakistani Spectator
http://www.pakspectator.com

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