Human Brain and Moral Relativism and Universalism in Business

By S.Belen

         Education Consultant, Department of Education, Jakarta

Introduction

I already read Damianus Abun’s article entitled Moral Relativism, Universalism / Absolutism and the Teaching of the Church on Catholic Morality in AERA Research Journal, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 2010.

Dami’s analysis is profound and systematic leading to a clear conclusion about his stand to defend moral universalism, specifically from Catholic Church’s point of view. He starts his writing by illustrating discussion with his students about whether morality is universal or relative. He then points out the definition of descriptive morality and normative morality and classifies moral relativism into three categories, i.e. descriptive relativism, meta-ethical relativism and normative relativism. He shows the history of opinions on this issue, from Protagoras (as mentioned by Plato, 1591 B.C.), Herodotus (484 – 420 B.C.), David Hume and Edward Westermarck.

 He then criticizes moral relativism based on four different flaws existing within the arguments. Based on all the analysis, he then emphasizes points to be learnt from Catholic encyclical doctrines / teaching, i.e. Veritatis Splendor (Pope John Paul II, 1993) referring to Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI, 1969) about the teaching of birth control and the analysis of Pope Benedict XVI. Eventually, he comes to a conclusion that moral universalism is not against freedom of an individual or a group but is inclined to protect and promote freedom in our efforts to reach perfection. The perfection is salvation according to the teaching of church. The morality cannot be perceived as relative depending on pure reasons and feelings. The morality depends on the natural law, i.e. God’s law which was taught by Jesus Christ. There is only one truth; there are no two truths or many truths on an issue. Slavery, death penalty and rape for example are against universal law of morality. There is no room for exception or circumstances to be deliberated in order to judge a wrong action as a good moral action as indicated by Humanae Vitae. There is only one truth. There is no relative truth which depends on context, situation, culture or person.

Allow me to comment this issue from other perspectives to enrich Dami’s standpoint. Those perspectives are the relation between morality and human brain, the need for rational analysis and the problem of executing moral values in business.

Morality and human brain

 Basic needs of human brain are oxygen, nutritional food, information and love. Without sufficient supply of each need, brain will die and consequently an individual will die. Because moral values are predominantly based on love, it is clear that the life of a human being cannot be separated from practicing love and its basis, i.e. moral values. As a basic need of brain, love guarantees the survival of brain and consequently the survival of the owner of that brain, i.e. an individual. (Tony Buzan, 2003. Cf. Tony Buzan 2001).

 Additionally, neuroscience researches suggest a number of working principles of human brain:

1. Success principle: every human being is designed to reach success, not failure.
2. Imitation principle: every human being likes to imitate every thing, including language, motions, elder brother or sister, animal, machine sound, a variety of natural sounds, friend, teacher and parents.
3. Synergy principle: human brain is synergic, continuously develops. Illustration: 1+1=2+. In this system ”2+” can be equal to 3, 5, 224, some millions or unlimited. Human brain has unlimited potentials. From baby to old person, an individual can continuously develop his / here spiral thought and learn in a synergy along his / her life.
4. Trial and success principle: an individual is inclined to follow these following steps in achieving success, i.e. trial – event – feedback – check - adjust – succeed.
5.  Perseverance principle: perseverance is a vital intelligence, a learning machine, thinking and creativity.
6. Radial thinking principle: human brain thinks to all directions like a light bulb shines rays to all directions.
7. Brain as a mechanism of truth seeking: human brain does this for the survival of an individual.

The seventh principle is related to moral values. According to this principle, a baby for example should know that fire can burn or a knife can cut finger. If the baby does not know, the chance for survival decreases or even the baby will die. When brain says about truth, the body becomes responsive and all senses work more strongly and stress decreases significantly. Truth is a necessity for the brain. Therefore, many popular genius figures see their life goal as a “truth seeker” in science, arts, philosophy, religion and technology. Unsurprisingly, many heroes and noble figures, saints, state leaders and community leaders frequently say that the goal of their struggle is to build or uphold truth, to protect and sustain life. (Tony Buzan, 2003; Cf. Tony Buzan 2001).

This research result shows that human being keeps striving to reach the truth. And, one of important truths is the universalism of morality. The history of humanity shows that people from generation to generation always develop moral principles and their implementation in real life in many spheres of life for the betterment of humanity. Long time ago slavery was accepted but now slavery is rejected. In the past racism was allowed but nowadays racism is rejected. More and more countries apply death penalty in state laws. Harder sanctions are taken to punish rapists in the countries all around the world. Those examples indicate the prevalence of moral universalism over that of moral relativism throughout the history of mankind.

Rational analysis is needed

Moral relativism has two components, i.e. the negative: “there are no universal moral rules” and the positive: “right and wrong is relative to the society in which the person lives”. On the other hand, absolutists or proponents of moral universalism argue that there are basic universal rules, e.g. “murder is wrong”. Let’s see one example.

The relativists say that the habit of killing an old parent who is very ill whilst healing cure is impossible by his / her child in Eskimo community is not wrong according to the moral value of Eskimo people. From moral universalism / absolutism point of view, murder is wrong. However, in this case we cannot judge this action as immoral because a seriously rational analysis will conclude that a greater value underlying this action is honor to parents as an obligation of a child. This value is morally right. This is a more important moral value. Thus, although from a simple perspective the murder action is immoral but this action can be accountable for the child to stop a long painful suffering of his / her parent in very cold temperature of North Pole. This action is motivated by a right and important moral value.

This case shows that to determine an action whether it is moral or immoral should be conducted by using reason, logic, concepts, rational explanation and public discussion to analyze problem and to find an answer.

 In order to solve the big debate on relativism or universalism of morality, it is important to discuss about the implementation of morality in business area. The reason for this is that the application of moral values seems to be more complicated and there is no easy answer or solution for solving moral problems in business practices, especially in international business interactions due to an increased number of multinational companies operating in many countries and cultures in this global world.

Moral values in business

In general and specifically in business there are at least four major sources of moral values, namely religion, philosophy, culture and law.
In reality it can be seen that there are global differences in moral practices or ethics. Pluralism applies. There are different ethical theories for guiding moral decision making. Additionally, it seems that culture and economic development drive global differences.
Because cultures of nations and ethnic groups are diverse, the implementation of moral values tends to be different. Regarding cultural effects on ethics, Geert Hofstede discusses about Individualist vs. collectivist approaches to deciding who to hire, ‘feminine’ vs. ‘masculine’ approaches to the environment, and high vs. low power distance approaches to responsibility for moral decisions.

Kohlberg also proposes a model of moral development across cultures, which shows a type of hierarchy from the bottom to the top, i.e. (1) obedience and punishment, (2) individualism and reciprocity, (3) interpersonal conformity, (4) social system / law and order, (5) social contract, and (6) universal ethical / moral principles. From observation in a variety of cultures, it can be concluded that stages 1 to 4 apply to various cultures whilst stages 5 and 6 apply only in a limited cultures.
In terms of economic development and how it affects ethics, the tendency is that there is a correlation between higher levels of economic development and the application of higher standards of ethics. This idea is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Midgley argues against relativism by saying that it results in an inability to judge anything, including relativism, since relativism is a judgment against making condemnations of other cultures. It shows internal inconsistency because if one culture believes that it is all right to condemn other cultures, by relativist standards, there’s no way to tell them to stop immoral practices.
On the other hand, Tom Donaldson argues against absolutism or universalism by saying that it is not respectful, ignores local context and assumes one set of concepts overrides all others.
Donaldson’s Hyperrnorms emphasizes three human values, namely respect for human dignity, respect for basic rights and good citizenship. In terms of respect for human dignity, people should be treated as ends in themselves. For example, corporate culture that respects customers and suppliers and safe products, services and workplace.

In terms of respect for basic rights, a business enterprise must support and protect rights of employees, customers and community and must avoid relationships that violate people’s rights to health, education, safety and adequate standard of living.

In terms of good citizenship, a company should support essential social institutions, such as economic system and education system, and works with other organizations to protect the environment.
According to Donaldson’s Hypernorms Model,  in reality it seems that there is still a moral free space. A corporate is obliged to allow local units to adapt to local standards and to support efforts to decrease corruption.

In implementing supernorms, corporate standards are accepted as absolutes and a corporate should deliberate conditions of acceptance of buyers and suppliers and the corporate should support efforts to decrease corruption. From another point of view, Donaldson’s arguments really show the prevalence of moral universalism. Although the implementation of moral norms or standards is not perfect, a corporate is demanded to rectify the implementation, such as by supporting efforts to decrease corruption.

 From international point of view, it can be stated that there is an evolution among business enterprises to reach universal principles which can be realized globally in various cultures. (Source: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/). One reason for this symptom is pointed out by Pojman. Because of limitations in resources, intelligence, knowledge, rationality and sympathy, the social fabric tends to become chaos. Morality is anti-entropic: it counters the set of limitations, expands our sympathies, and contributes to the betterment of the human predicament.

One important example of international efforts to implement moral universalism is UN Global Compact. This was founded by Kofi Annan in 1999 through international ethics guide which should be known by managers. At least there are 2900 firms in over 100 countries already signed this consensus.
This guide consists of ten universal principles within four categories, i.e. human rights, labor standards, environment and anti-corruption. The vision of this guide is a more sustainable and inclusive global economics. Company can use this as a platform to develop their own specific codes of conduct. In their annual reports, the companies publish how they are promoting the ten principles in their businesses.

Human Rights

•         Principle 1: Support & respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

•         Principle 2: Do not comply with others in human rights abuses.  

Labor Standards

•         Principle 3: Uphold freedom of association;

•         Principle 4: Eliminate forced labor;

•         Principle 5: Abolish child labor; and

•         Principle 6: Eliminate discrimination in employment. 

Environment

•         Principle 7: Support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
•         Principle 8: Promote greater environmental responsibility; and
•         Principle 9: Encourage development & diffusion of environment-friendly technologies.  

Anti-Corruption

•         Principle 10: Work against all forms of corruption, including extortion & bribery. 

(Business 303   Sheppard, Business Society & Ethics, Week 10:  Global Ethical Dilemmas).

The big debate on relativism or universalism of morality or the question whether moral standards are universal or dependent on local norms results in three schools of thought, namely moral universalism, moral relativism and integrative social contracts theory. According to the school of moral universalism, same standards of what is moral and what is immoral resonate with people of most societies regardless of local traditions and cultural norms. Consequently, common moral standards can be used to judge conduct of personnel at companies operating in a variety of country markets and cultural circumstances.

Examples of universal moral principles or norms are, honesty, trustworthiness, treating people with dignity and respect, respecting rights of others, practicing the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pojman), avoiding unnecessary harm to workers and users of a company’s product or service, and respecting the environment.

Moral universalism appeals to draw on collective views of multiple societies and cultures to place clear boundaries on what constitutes moral business behavior and immoral business behavior. A multinational company can apply a code of ethics more or less evenly across its worldwide operations.
On the other hand, according to the school of moral relativism, different societies/cultures/countries put more/less emphasis on some values than others, have different standards of right and wrong and have different social mores and behavioral norms. What is moral or immoral must be judged in light of local customs and social mores and can vary from one country to another.

A most risky moral problem faced by multinational companies is payment of bribes and kickbacks as part of business transactions.
Therefore, moral relativism applies multiple sets of moral standards. The proponents of this thought maintain that there are only a few moral absolutes to judge a company’s conduct in various countries. Conversely, there are plenty of situations where moral norms are contoured to fit local customs and traditions, local beliefs about what are fair and local standards of “right” and “wrong”. They also note that moral problems in business cannot be fully resolved without appealing to the shared convictions of the parties in question. The rule of this school of thought is “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

The third school of thought is the concept of integrative social contracts theory. According to this school of thought, the moral standards a company should try to uphold are governed by both limited number of universal moral principles that are widely recognized as putting legitimate moral boundaries on actions and behavior in all situations and the circumstances of local cultures, traditions, and shared values that further prescribe what constitutes morally permissible behavior and what does not.

Integrative social contracts theory appeals that universal moral principles establish “moral free space” based on the collective view of multiple societies and cultures. Commonly held views about morality and moral principles are used to combine to form a “social contract” with society. It is appropriate for societies or companies to go beyond universal moral principles and specify local or second-order moral norms. Where firms have developed moral codes, the standards they call for provide appropriate moral guidance.

Social contracts theory maintains adherence to universal or first-order moral norms should always take precedence over local or second-order norms.
Relativism (individual, group & culture based notions of right & wrong) and absolutism (universal law of right and wrong) are at extreme ends of the moral spectrum. However, pluralism holds that there are different ethical theories for guiding moral decision making.
Both social contracts theory and pluralism, from another point of view, show that although the big debate on relativism or universalism of morality is not yet finished, mankind keeps striving to improve moral standard implementation. Moral universalism prevails and the perfection process of moral universalism in this global world still evolves. Love as a main menu of human brain and brain as a mechanism of truth seeking are a pillar of this evolution. Let’s be optimistic!

Readings:

 “Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative”, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), file powerpoint (ppt)

 

15, Managing Ethical and Social Responsibility Challenges in Bumper Sticker Ethics S Wilkens, file ppt

 Business 303   Sheppard, Business Society & Ethics, Week 10:
Business Ethics, file ppt

Buzan Tony (2001). Head First, 10 Way to Tap into Your Natural Genius, Bahasa Indonesia version by T.Hermaya: “Head First, 10 cara memanfaatkan 99% kehebatan otak Anda yang selama ini belum pernah Anda gunakan, Jakarta: Gramedia, 2003.

Buzan Tony (2003). Head Strong, Bahasa Indonesia version by Susi Purwoko, Memperkuat hubungan otak-tubuh untuk mendapatkan fisik dan mental yang fit, Jakarta: Gramedia, 2003.

Global Ethical Dilemmas, file ppt  http://www.unglobalcompact.org/

Introduction to Ethics, Comp. Ethics, Intro to Ethics/2, file ppt

Introduction to World Religions, RLG 201a, file ppt

Steines John F, Business, Government, and Society, Chapter 7, file ppt

Louis P.Pojman, Ethics: discovering right and wrong Marketing Ethics, file ppt

 Mistakes in Moral Reasoning, file ppt

Multinational Companies, file ppt.

Railton Peter, Normative Guidance and Moral Motivation, Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan, Oslo, October 2008, file ppt

Rejecting ‘cultural’ justifications for violence against women, A Consultation Paper by the Research Programme Consortium on
‘Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: Gender, Poverty and Democratisation from the Inside Out’ (WEMC), file ppt

 Strategy, Ethics,  and  Social  Responsibility, Screen graphics created by Jana F. Kuzmicki, Ph.D., Troy University-Florida Region, The McGraw Hill Companies, 2007. file ppt

Week Three: The Morality of Human Rights, file ppt