Philosophy

Duties

The way I define my professional life is primarily based on three duties:

• Duty to those who pay my salary: provide value in exchange for value.
• Duty to the larger social world: work to improve our collective lot in life.
• Duty to myself: perform meaningful work. A test: when I am dying, I want to be able to look back at my professional life and say, "I did something that mattered."

Over the course of my thirty years as a congregational rabbi, I have seen many people come to the end of their lives… Most people are not afraid of dying; they are afraid of not having lived… What frightens them … is the dread of insignificance, the notion that they will be born and live and one day die and none of it will matter.

Kushner, H. (2001). Living a Life That Matters, p 146

Implementation: Research

I try to do research that fulfills all three duties. It try to use my signature strengths:

• Technical skills.
• Some expertise in cognitive and social psychology.
• Training in research methods.
• An interest in philosophy, particularly ethics.
• A general background in business.

Publishability in top MIS journals is not a criterion.

The main research topic I have chosen is ethical decision support systems, software that helps groups in companies make decisions on difficult ethical issues. See the Research page for details.

Implementation: Teaching

I have done some research on how universities might encourage students to think about their own personal philosophy. Here are some links:

Do Our Students Want Values Programs?

Values programs are easier to justify if students actually want to participate in them. We analyzed data from the 2001 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) survey administered at Oakland University. About a third of the students thought that developing a meaningful philosophy of life was important. These students were somewhat more socially active, focused on individual intellectual pursuits, politically liberal, and spiritual than other students. They thought that individuals can change society. Students interested in philosophy of life don't appear to be more religious than other students. On average, black students were more interested in developing a meaningful philosophy of life than white students.

Elements of Moral Maturity

This paper offers an image of moral maturity that consists of seven elements: moral agency, harnessing cognitive ability, harnessing emotional resources, using social skill, using principles, respecting others, and developing a sense of meaning. The description can be used to start campus conversations on the goals of moral development programs.

Factors Predicting Intention to Enroll in a Philosophy of Life Course

This study used the theory of planned behavior to examine university students' intentions to enroll in a philosophy of life course. Students focused primarily on course outcomes. They wanted the course to help them understand life, themselves, and other's perspectives, but were concerned that instructors would have too much influence on their beliefs. To a lesser extent, students' perceptions of other peoples' views affected their intentions, especially the opinions of parents, friends, and religious people. Some students thought all beliefs are subjective, and discussing them would be pointless.

"We Don't Need No Stinking Ethics": The Struggle Continues

Some business faculty think that teaching ethics is a waste of time. Others think that teaching ethics might do students harm. Objections include "Values are formed in childhood and cannot be changed," "Nobody has the right to tell others what is ethical," and "Employers don't care about ethics." This paper offers a brief response to each objection, and presents supporting evidence. It is organized as a set of notes one might use in a debate.

Sneaking a Philosophical Camel into a Business Tent: Labeling the Summum Bonum for Business Students

Many students focus on financial security as the most important outcome of their university education. Students who are single-minded in their pursuit of financial goals may come to realize later in life that the philosophical assumptions underlying this choice may not have served them well. Educators wanting to help students become informed, independent decision makers might ask how they can introduce materially focused students to deeper issues. Discussions of philosophical terms like the summum bonum—the greatest good—might be resisted by students, if they think the terms are inappropriate for business courses. This study examined whether the term "personal success" would be an acceptable substitute. A survey of undergraduate business students found that on average they thought about the summum bonum more than expected. The data also showed that students deemed standard philosophical terms inappropriate for a business class. "Personal success" was judged appropriate, though not as much as pure business terms like "strategy" or "leadership." Analysis also suggested that thinking about ethics and the summum bonum was not driven entirely by interest in religion or spirituality. Implications of the results for business ethics education are discussed.

More stuff is listed on the research page.

There are some other things I do in teaching to meet the duties, such as:

• In introductory MIS classes, use Dioptra as an example of IT support for unstructured decision making.
• Create pages like this one.
• Talk about this page in class. I don't spend a lot of time on it, but let students know that life is worth thinking about.

I am only one
 But still I am one.
  I cannot do everything,
   But still I can do something.
    And because I cannot do everything
     I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale

Last updated: Thursday, June 19, 2008