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[HBA28c] Economics and Ethics: summary 2023/2024
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[HBA28c] Economics and Ethics: summary 2023/2024. Summary written using notes from classes and book chapters.
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Tension between progress and crisisProgress
The progress we’re currently experiencing wouldn’t have been possible without the so-called
STC system.
1. The STC system refers to the interactions between science, technology and
capitalism, creating a global system that provides us the tools to live a comfortable
and pleasant life:
a. Science provides insights on natural laws.
b. Technology builds systems based on these insights.
c. Capitalism provides the necessary raw materials and means of production to
discover new technologies.
2. However, the systematic use of the STC system has created an ecological crisis,
prompting questions on how long we should continue the exploitation of the Earth’s
resources and how we should prepare for the consequences of our actions.
3. Moreover, it looks like the ecological crisis isn’t the only isolated crisis we’re facing,
instead we’re facing a multitude of interconnected crises (ex: 2008 crisis, mental
health crisis, impact of AI, political crisis, Covid, etc).
a. This prompts the question of whether these crises are the result of our
exploitation of the STC system, or if they’re the expression of a deeper,
spiritual crisis.
Ecological and spiritual crisis
We can see the ecological crisis as a spiritual crisis from different perspectives:
1. The ecological crisis is the result of human attitudes that the Buddha has warned
against (ex: greed, stupidity, hatred).
2. Solving the crisis requires a shift in attitudes and mindset, so we need spirituality to
provide us with the necessary wisdom, strength and imagination to face the crisis.
3. Another perspective claims that the ecological crisis has become a spiritual crisis
because of two reasons:
a. Depicting nature as something without intrinsic value, that we can exploit
freely without limits or consequences.
b. Depicting the idea of a “good life” as a life with lots of material possessions
and economic growth.
i. Therefore, solving the crisis requires a moral perspective.
4. Finally, one can identify consumerism as the main driver of the ecological crisis, even
comparing it to idolatry.
a. In the Old Testament, idolatry is defined as the worship of “created things”
over God, seen as a source of evil.
b. Nevertheless, simply acquiring knowledge on religion and God won’t be
sufficient to prompt people in effectively solving the crisis: only morals will
do it.
, Spirituality
Spirituality and the spiritual crisis
Spirituality can be defined based on 3 elements:
1. Feeling of connectedness to someone or something (yourself, someone else or a
divine creature).
2. Sense of meaning in life.
3. Self-transcendence.
For example:
1. The individual is at the centre, experiencing reality and absorbing what happens
around him.
2. The individual is surrounded by small wholes (ex: family, friends, peers) and bigger
wholes (ex: city, region, country, culture, continent), and ultimately by humanity, the
Earth and the universe as a whole.
a. The outer circle then represents “something higher”, perhaps God.
3. Therefore, spirituality is a spiral movement starting at the centre, where the individual
experiences reality and absorbs parts of it.
,Based on this definition of spirituality, we can define a spiritual crisis as a collection of
crises:
1. Crisis in connectedness, due to disturbed relationships with reality and our
surroundings.
2. Crisis in transcendence, due to an inflated ego.
3. Crisis in meaning, potentially caused by our disturbed relationships and our inflated
ego.
Spirituality and religion
Analysing the relationship between spirituality and religion requires defining religion first,
which is a challenging task. Nonetheless, two approaches exist.
1. The substantial approach defines what religion is, while the functional approach
defines what religion does: both approaches have their flaws.
One might give a substantial definition of religion based on 4 elements:
1. Religion is a separate dimension of life.
2. It deals with God, gods or similar superhuman creatures.
3. It’s a set of propositions and convictions.
4. It expresses itself in many forms, thereby making it very personal and private.
a. However, the vagueness of such a substantial definition makes us wonder
whether the definition is sufficiently transcultural.
One might give a functional definition of religion by saying that religion is a set of beliefs
and practices through which a group of people struggle with the ultimate struggles of life.
1. However, such a functionalist approach leads to conceptual inflation, where the term
becomes so broad that it can include “anything and everything”.
2. Nonetheless, it appears that religious scholars tend to prefer the functional definition
over the substantial definition because it allows to define religion in terms of its social
and psychological functions.
One study found that people often give religion negative connotations, while spirituality is
often associated with positive connotations.
1. The authors conducted an experiment where they asked people to associate words
with “religion” and “spirituality”, and they found the following:
a. Religion is boring, outdated, narrow-minded and associated with fanaticism,
bigotry and persecution.
b. On the other hand, spirituality is associated with love, wholeness and depth.
i. One striking result is that even church-affiliated believers made this
distinction.
, 2. One explanation of these results is that nowadays, more people get meaning in life
from their own subjective experiences and dreams, instead of relying on pre-
determined beliefs and norms that individuals must follow: this is called “new
spirituality”.
a. However, defining all these new movements as “new spirituality” isn’t
appropriate, because many appear to be too detached from reality.
3. Another study tried to explain these results by saying that the world was experiencing
a new spiritual revolution, starting at the beginning of the 21st century, where
traditional religion would be replaced by new spirituality.
a. However, research found that this revolution never took place.
b. Instead, some sociologists argue that new spirituality is the final step in the
slow disappearance of religion from modern society.
4. Hence, it’s completely possible that spirituality in the future will be totally non-
religious.
Spirituality and natural science
One might argue that knowledge from the material world can be a source of spirituality.
1. For example, the “Pale Blue Dot” picture taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft,
depicting Earth as a little blue dot surrounded by the vast emptiness of the universe,
teaches us two important things about life:
a. First, our insignificance in the universe should prompt us to temper our ego
and overcome our differences with our peers.
b. Second, our loneliness in the universe makes us the only ones responsible for
solving the ecological crisis, because no one will come rescue us if we destroy
our planet and wipe ourselves out.
2. Religious naturalism recognises that reality can be explained without the need for
supernatural entities.
a. However, labelling this as religion is dangerous and misleading, depending on
the definition given to religion.
b. Instead, one better way to call it might be spiritual naturalism.
Spirituality and technology
Since technology significantly impacts connectedness and self-transcendence, technology can
indeed be a source of spirituality.
1. For example, a 2010 Ted Talk reflected on how humans have become cyborgs.
a. We often pay more attention to what’s on our phone than to the people
surrounding us at any particular moment.
b. Although this creates a dangerous situation (ex: children being always
connected and continuously exposed to stimuli), one could be optimistic about
the future because technology helps us be more connected and thus more
human.
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