Values, ethics, and civil society.

• Author: Seel, Keith
• Position: Feature on Democracy

Often, people perceive ethics to be one of two things: an incomprehensible component of philosophy inherited from the Greeks of antiquity OR a strict set of rules set out by one profession or another. I suggest that ethics is part of the collective "we" at a much deeper and more profound level.

Several thoughtful writers, thinkers, and citizens have noted that in the rush to preserve our competitive place in the global economy, there has been a disconnection from the local --a process of de-traditionalization in which the neighbours and the ideas and beliefs that once bound together and defined local communities and associations become expendable. Thus, the move toward the global has heightened our longing for the community and the personal. Yet, it has also offered a kind of invisibility from which it may be easy, often self-advancing, to avoid our obligations and cut corners.

Civil society asks the deeply ethical question of how we want to treat one another--as individuals, as organizations, as governments, as economies and countries. The question of what civil means is central to discussions taking place at many levels throughout Canada. Many, if not most, of those discussions have operationalized the term so that civil society connotes service delivery; partnerships between and among non-profits, governments, and businesses; and similar techniques. What is not discussed is the deeper question of how it is that collectively we want to be in our community or society. Looking around, it is evident that people are longing to be ... they want to be-long and do so by affiliating with causes, groups, activities, and so on, that they have something in common with at a values level.

Ethics offers some guiding principles for how people can be and belong in their community, society, organization, or even family. Work by the Josephson Institute for Ethics suggests six core values that most people most of the time would agree are fundamental to the relationships that they have with the people around them.

Using these six core ethical values--and their associated ethical principles and vocabulary for ethical decision-making--in the furtherance of a civil society has the potential of radically shifting the discourse now taking place. Instead of talking about civil society in terms of service delivery models and accessibility, for example, imagine how different the conversation would be if it centered on ensuring that caring, responsibility, and...