Thank you to Odile for an extremely interesting insight into the tensions between neo-liberal economic theory and Catholic Social Teaching from the perspective of a practitioner with wide experience in a variety of different organizations including the EU Commission and a UN specialized agency.
I think what struck me most forcibly was the way that a theory can become a straitjacket: instead of a starting point which then has to take into account the messy realities of culture and psychology, Odile sketched the ways a blind adherence to an economic model can lead to unsuitable policies in the real world. The virtue of prudentia (practical wisdom) is relevant here:
547. The lay faithful should act according to the dictates of prudence, the virtue that makes it possible to discern the true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means for achieving it. Thanks to this virtue, moral principles are applied correctly to particular cases. We can identify three distinct moments as prudence is exercised to clarify and evaluate situations, to inspire decisions and to prompt action. The first moment is seen in the reflection and consultation by which the question is studied and the necessary opinions sought. The second moment is that of evaluation, as the reality is analyzed and judged in the light of God's plan. The third moment, that of decision, is based on the preceding steps and makes it possible to choose between the different actions that may be taken.
548. Prudence makes it possible to make decisions that are consistent, and to make them with realism and a sense of responsibility for the consequences of one's action. The rather widespread opinion that equates prudence with shrewdness, with utilitarian calculations, with diffidence or with timidity or indecision, is far from the correct understanding of this virtue. It is a characteristic of practical reason and offers assistance in deciding with wisdom and courage the course of action that should be followed, becoming the measure of the other virtues. Prudence affirms the good as a duty and shows in what manner the person should accomplish it. In the final analysis, it is a virtue that requires the mature exercise of thought and responsibility in an objective understanding of a specific situation and in making decisions according to a correct will.
(Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, paras 547-8: here.)
Odile's notes for the class with suggested further reading and links are here.
Next class: 11 March Philippa Bonella (Head of Communications and Education, SCIAF) 6pm-7pm Option for the poor – putting Catholic social teaching into practice. (Full details here.)
The blog of the Albertus Institute in Scotland
Friday 27 February 2015
Saturday 21 February 2015
Next session: Wednesday 25 February
25 February 6pm-7pm: Odile Pilley: Challenging economic ideology: case studies from international organizations.
At the Catholic Chaplaincy, Edinburgh.
Odile is an international consultant in development policies/strategies and postal affairs. She has extensive experience built up over several years working as an academic and within the private and public sectors in several countries.
While working in retail financial services in Scotland in the nineties, post big bang, Odile started wondering about the assumptions behind decision-making in retail financial services. Weren’t a staggering number of people gradually excluded from access to financial services in one of the most sophisticated markets in the world ? Was tax avoidance morally acceptable even if it was legal ? Isn’t the rationale in mergers and acquisitions more often than not personal hubris ? Were decisions rational, as they were portrayed to be, or were they ideologically based ?
She then focused on how to make financial inclusion into an anti-poverty tool, before working for four years in the European Commission (Competition Directorate, State aid, public services and undertakings). Competition is a basic principle in the EU but states are entitled to entrust public services with specific entities. Where is the balance to be struck between public service obligations and competition? Are competition and liberalisation tools or ends per se ? Does public procurement really reach the objectives it is meant to achieve or, more counter intuitively, does it create more problems than it solves ? What about the procurement of public services ?
Subsequently, while employed by a UN specialist agency, she witnessed the harm that the Washington consensus had done to development and the increasing powerlessness of multilateral organisations vis-à vis multinationals and business interests. What can really be done in an interconnected world to reduce imbalances ? What can we, Christians, do when we play a part, however small, in supporting the decision-making process of international organisations so that they work towards the common good ?
In these three cases, Odile will try to illustrate how prayer and exchanges within dedicated groups can inspire those involved in the decision-making process choosing two examples of particular interest to our community in Edinburgh: the joint work of civil servants, NGOs and the Jesuit/Dominican groups in Brussels and the initiatives of the Observatoire de la Finance in Geneva.
She then focused on how to make financial inclusion into an anti-poverty tool, before working for four years in the European Commission (Competition Directorate, State aid, public services and undertakings). Competition is a basic principle in the EU but states are entitled to entrust public services with specific entities. Where is the balance to be struck between public service obligations and competition? Are competition and liberalisation tools or ends per se ? Does public procurement really reach the objectives it is meant to achieve or, more counter intuitively, does it create more problems than it solves ? What about the procurement of public services ?
Subsequently, while employed by a UN specialist agency, she witnessed the harm that the Washington consensus had done to development and the increasing powerlessness of multilateral organisations vis-à vis multinationals and business interests. What can really be done in an interconnected world to reduce imbalances ? What can we, Christians, do when we play a part, however small, in supporting the decision-making process of international organisations so that they work towards the common good ?
In these three cases, Odile will try to illustrate how prayer and exchanges within dedicated groups can inspire those involved in the decision-making process choosing two examples of particular interest to our community in Edinburgh: the joint work of civil servants, NGOs and the Jesuit/Dominican groups in Brussels and the initiatives of the Observatoire de la Finance in Geneva.
Any queries? Please contact Elizabeth Drummond Young: elizdrummondyoung@gmail.com
Tuesday 17 February 2015
Ash Wednesday
Aquinas on fasting:
The mean of virtue is measured not according to quantity but according to right reason, as stated in Ethic. ii, 6. [ie in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics]. Now reason judges it expedient, on account of some special motive, for a man to take less food than would be becoming to him under ordinary circumstances, for instance in order to avoid sickness, or in order to perform certain bodily works with greater ease: and much more does reason direct this to the avoidance of spiritual evils and the pursuit of spiritual goods. Yet reason does not retrench so much from one's food as to refuse nature its necessary support: thus Jerome says: "It matters not whether thou art a long or a short time in destroying thyself, since to afflict the body immoderately, whether by excessive lack of nourishment, or by eating or sleeping too little, is to offer a sacrifice of stolen goods." In like manner right reason does not retrench so much from a man's food as to render him incapable of fulfilling his duty. Hence Jerome says... "Rational man forfeits his dignity, if he sets fasting before chastity, or night-watchings before the well-being of his senses."
[...]
The fasting of nature, in respect of which a man is said to be fasting until he partakes of food, consists in a pure negation, wherefore it cannot be reckoned a virtuous act. Such is only the fasting of one who abstains in some measure from food for a reasonable purpose. Hence the former is called natural fasting [jejunium jejuni] while the latter is called the faster's fast [jejunium jejunantis] because he fasts for a purpose.
[STh IIaIIae q.147 a.1 here.]
Explanation: One eats normally to sustain human nature. In some circumstances, it is reasonable to reduce consumption of food below this normal intake for some special purpose (say, to avoid sickness). Given our supernatural end is superior to our natural end, it is reasonable to reduce intake of food to advance our supernatural end. It is not virtuous, however, to do this to the extent of damaging our body.
Simply going without food isn't virtuous. It is only virtuous when done to fulfil a (good) purpose of the faster.
Picture: Bernardino Pinturicchio - Saint Jerome in the Wilderness [Wiki page here.]
Donations to SCIAF can be made here.
Friday 13 February 2015
Reflecting on 11 February session: Lord Drummond Young on natural law
An extremely successful session on Wednesday: many thanks to all those who attended and contributed, especially to James Drummond Young for leading the session.
As a non-lawyer, I was particularly struck by the emphasis on the way natural law insights played a part in the exercise of judicial decisions in what otherwise have seemed fairly dry, fairly technical cases of commercial law. The willingness of courts, particularly the higher ones, to pay regard to moral principles in interpreting the law so as to achieve a just result, was (to me at least) both unexpected and rather reassuring. Whilst the application of natural law in the framing of statutes was something I'd thought about before, I hadn't given much thought to the way it was also applied -at least implicitly- in the interpretation and application of law.
By the end of the session, it was clear that a number of issues in this area could be developed. How can the certainty required by law be balanced against the need for judicial discretion in achieving just outcomes? How can the danger of the sensibility of judges in applying law differing too much from that of the surrounding society be avoided? How confident can we be that the moral principles actually applied by judges are the truly morally right ones?
Handouts from the session are available here.
Next class: Odile Pilley on Challenging economic ideology: case studies from international organizations 25 February, 6pm [Details here.]
As a non-lawyer, I was particularly struck by the emphasis on the way natural law insights played a part in the exercise of judicial decisions in what otherwise have seemed fairly dry, fairly technical cases of commercial law. The willingness of courts, particularly the higher ones, to pay regard to moral principles in interpreting the law so as to achieve a just result, was (to me at least) both unexpected and rather reassuring. Whilst the application of natural law in the framing of statutes was something I'd thought about before, I hadn't given much thought to the way it was also applied -at least implicitly- in the interpretation and application of law.
By the end of the session, it was clear that a number of issues in this area could be developed. How can the certainty required by law be balanced against the need for judicial discretion in achieving just outcomes? How can the danger of the sensibility of judges in applying law differing too much from that of the surrounding society be avoided? How confident can we be that the moral principles actually applied by judges are the truly morally right ones?
Handouts from the session are available here.
Next class: Odile Pilley on Challenging economic ideology: case studies from international organizations 25 February, 6pm [Details here.]
Friday 6 February 2015
Next session: 11 February Lord Drummond Young on natural law
Wed Feb 11th 6.00pm Catholic Chaplaincy library, Edinburgh. (Location details here.)
James Drummond Young (bio here) will lead a session on how the natural law approach of John Finnis and others applies in the real world. Examples and discussion based on real legal cases from recent years. [Stephen Watt writes: For those interested, a brief introduction to John Finnis can be found in his Wikipedia article.]
Further CST sessions will be on Feb 25 and Mar 11. Full details here.
New participants welcome; no need to sign up. No charge, but donations to Albertus Institute appreciated. Enquiries to elizdrummondyoung@gmail.com
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