The Common Good Revisited

Abstract

A SURVEY of the horizon of contemporary social ethics suggests that some moral questions are indeed perennial. The late 20th centurywith its brave new technologies, frightful capacity for destruction, and growing web of political and economic interdependence-confronts the human race with ethical choices that are genuinely new. But in their efforts to address many of these new issues, a number of ethical thinkers have recently begun to debate the meaning and practical relevance of an idea that can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. I mean the notion of the common good. This essay will highlight some of the most important discussions going on in social ethics today by viewing them from the perspective of this debate about the meaning of the common good.First, some of the reasons why the question of the common good has re-emerged as a matter of serious moral argument will be outlined. Second, a theological argument for a pluralistic, analogical understanding of the common good will be outlined, an argument that draws on several themes present in Augustinian and Thomistic sources. Third, the possibility of reinterpreting the common-good tradition in a way that enables it to contribute to a nonindividualistic understanding of human rights will be explored. This essay will present only a sketch of some current discussions of the common good. It will focus on a theoretical question that cuts across numerous practical ethical discussions: whether the idea of the common good is meaningful and usable at all in present historical circumstances. If this essay is able to clarify the state of this question within the framework of theological ethics, it will have achieved its purpose. RE-EMERGENCE OF THE COMMON GOODThe debate about the meaning and utility of the concept of the common good is unfolding on a number of levels in contemporary intellectual life. Business and EconomicsIn some discussions of the future of American business and economic life the ethical category of the common good has surfaced in a variety of forms as an idea whose time has once again come. A recent interdisciplin-70

A Capability to Promote the Common Good

“…Hollenbach states three reasons for a pluralist modern society to pay attention to the concept of the common good. 12 First, the fact of pluralism in all aspects of our life invites society to find a new philosophy that pays more attention to the relations and cooperation among human beings. Tolerance has been glorified as the highest value in a pluralist society, but it fails to answer the new questions that arise.…”

Ethical Standards and Alleviation of Poverty in Africa

“…68 Hollenbach seems to suggest that liberals need to conceive of freedom as an empowerment that enables those who exercise it to be active 66 Berlin (1966) Ibid.,75. participants in the life of their communities. 69 In short, they need and should be allowed to become agents. To be free does not presuppose that one never cooperates with others.…”

Economic Development and the Common Good: Lonergan and Cobb on the Need for a New Paradigm

“…Th eir lead inspired theologians, philosophers, and political theorists to consider the meaning of the common good and its contemporary relevance. (See Dupré 1993;Hollenbach 1989;Rourke 1996. ) Continuing their reflection upon economic and political life, the US Catholic Bishops reaffirmed more recently that adequate responses to the problems facing American society at the cusp of the new millennium demand renewed inquiry and reflection into common good (NCCB/USCC 1999).…”