LUW June 25 at 4pm CET - Maira de Cinque: Humanistic Demands and the Role of Chance in Business: A Plea for Mercy

[jean-yves beziau]

The next session of the Logica Universalis Webinar will take place next Wednesday June 25 at 4pm CET (Paris-Geneva-Rome)

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Speaker: Maira de Cinque, University of Canada West, Vancouver, Canada 

Title: "Humanistic Demands and the Role of Chance in Business: A Plea for Mercy"

Abstract: The paper explores the fundamental difference between humanistic logic and business logic. Despite the common belief humanistic ethics is hierarchically above business ethics - what is represented in the demand for social responsibility of business - they are irreducible games. Departing from the Greek concept of ethos as character, or guiding beliefs of a person, community or system, the idea is to show how each of the spheres operate with their specific rules and principles, emphasizing the contrasting role of chance in each of the games. While humanism tends to minimize the importance of chance, disregarding the impact of randomness throughout an individual’s life, in health and wealth for instance, businesses operate under the assumption that chance is decisive and should be accounted for. While humanism obliterates chance by supposing an initial equality that should be kept at all costs, business ethics departs from an inherent competitiveness and attributes a monetary value for the undertaken risks. The article is based on a Wittgensteinian way of analysis and will examine a scene in Merchant of Venice, where Shylock is asked to show mercy to Antonio. In court, the judge explicitly marks the difference between the two games, one that had been agreed upon between the two parties and a supposedly broader one, and hierarchically superior, that is not demanded by the law, but by the heart, or why not say, by God. The reference to the Shakespearean play shows how the condemnation of usury and the requirement for fairness in a christian/western/humanistic context often contradicts the rules of the game we play when in business mode.

Associate Organization:  University of Canada West presented by 

Stewart Fast, Director of Research and Scholarship 

Chair: Jean-Yves Beziau, 

Editor-in-Chief Logica Universalis

Everybody is welcome to attend, register here:

Humanistic Demands and the Role of Chance in Business: A Plea for Mercy