Oikonomia

I was reading an academic article recently that considered the history of Classical Greek and Christian thought about oikonomia – a term that can be translated into ‘household management’. This was applied by the writer to modern management practice and morphed into a discussion of the moral ends of an organisation. For Aristotle and Christian writers, such as St Paul, this had become a concern for ‘profit’ in its broadest sense and an enablement of all being able to reach their personal fulfillment.

‘Profit’ was couched in the term ‘the common good’. The writer attempted to understand what was ‘good’, taking a utilitarian approach. But I wasn’t sure I understood what they meant by ‘common’. Did they mean citizens / voters – or church members – or employees in an organization? There are many cases of organizations working to the detriment of individuals to generate profit – the tobacco industry is a good example. Ethics in organizations, real or promoted, seems as much a concern today as profit and often they are linked – as in the phrase ‘the triple bottom line’.

Coincidently, I read an article by Thomas Nagel in the London Review of Books, who considered both ends and means in moral thought. The discussion about means – right or wrong action – locates our ideas about means as essentially emotional whilst the calculation as to what would bring about the most good (ends) was a rational decision making process and may involve actions harmful to the individual (and therefore morally wrong) – the use of torture is one such debate.

It struck me that ‘whistle blowing’ is an instance of an individual pointing out the immoral actions of an organization / or a state. This made me think of the idea of sacrifice, such as the real possibility of losing your job, your career, your freedom, the regard of your less brave colleagues, and some friendships too. Are whistle blowers modern day martyrs?

Nagel was trying to bring these two ways of thinking about morality together and suggested that changing thinking about ‘right’ actions affects our ideas about ‘good’ ends. He mentioned views about homosexuality as an example of this. Civil partnership can be seen as an expression of ends in a legal sense. He suggested that ideas about collective property might challenge our thinking about private property.