Global Journalism Ethics by Ward Stephen J. A.;

Author:Ward, Stephen J. A.; [Ward, S. J. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ethical Flourishing Revisited

Ethical flourishing has been defined as the development of our capacities in an ethical direction. We now understand this idea as the establishment of congruence between the right and the good in individuals and society. We need both well-ordered persons and social structures where the right is prior in this liberal sense. When we pursue the good across the four levels and do so within the principles of the right, then we are pursuing ethical flourishing. Under such ideal conditions, humans fulfill their primary ethical impulses toward the good and the right. We fulfill our impulse toward the good in the highest ethical manner by seeking the flourishing of ourselves and others on all four levels. We fulfill our ethical impulse to realize right relations and justice. The good as flourishing and the right as well-ordered society, when brought together in one society, is the highest possible good for humans and the ultimate goal of ethics.

The capacities of central importance to a theory of ethical flourishing include the ability to conceive a rational plan of life, to have a sense of justice and to honour its principles, to act fairly and with reciprocity, to be concerned for others, and to be impartial in ethical judgment.114 Ethical flourishing is the liberal, open-ended development of our capacities within the bounds of ethics. Ethical flourishing is the fullest development of the two moral capacities.

In summary, we can say that ethical flourishing is the development and expression of ethical capacities, individually and socially, so that we morally perfect ourselves within the bounds of ethics – bounds defined by our ethical capacities and principles. The goal is an ethical form of flourishing, a human goodness that combines duty and human development. The goal is an ethical approach to life that cares about well-ordered souls and well-ordered societies.

Some readers may wonder how my final conception of the ends of ethics ends up being a theory of the good after I have argued for the prior of the right. The air of paradox is removed once we realize that “good” is ambiguous – it can refer to two different levels of ethical experience. On one level we speak of our individual pursuit of our goods. The good in this sense refers to the various things that we care about and value. It can come into conflict with the right. My idea of ethical flourishing is not a theory of the good in this sense; it is not a theory about the many things that people pursue and value, and why they might do so. My theory of ethical flourishing is a broader theory of the more comprehensive and final good, which includes both the goods of rational autonomy and the goods of justice. The four levels list the capacities and goods that are developed in a good and just society. These are the goods that we experience to the highest degree if we are lucky enough to live in an ethically flourishing society. To enjoy

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