SOWING HOPE FOR THE COMMON GOOD: MONEY, LOVE & VIRTUE* FATIMA, OCT. 23, 2014 MARIA JOSÉ PEREIRA MELO ANTUNES * The talk is based on a book-in-progress WUCWO Panel at General Assembly

Challenges Economic Ecological Social Political We live in difficult times! Crisis? Or opportunity for reform?

Interconnecting Levels of Perception Consciousness Systems Problems

Ideology behind Financial Crisis Wealth maximizationPurpose For self (self-interest) leads to Benefits for all (invisible hand)Result Government’s role: to keep the economic wheel turning

Aristotle Oiko-nomus: home management - economy Market: place of exchange – money Harmony in the city state A life well lived > eudaimonia or happiness Required Philia: friendship, a form of love Virtue Justice, the virtue that permits all other virtues Proportionality or balance

Economy & Money Economy Management of material needs in society Focus cannot be just on money, but also on the person at the centre of the economy Money Life-blood of society Franciscan monks Quesnay: economist and physician to Louis XV Brings nutrients, but can also carry toxins

Civil Economy Civil economy in society: the common good Reciprocal relations 2 foundations for economic markets as expressions of virtue Justice Humanity Essential preconditions Reciprocal confidence in the other Public trust in the system Mutual assistance Friendship or fraternity

Virtue in Markets? Prevailing theory: setting of prices Self-interest alone required Choice and preference will set the price Contract w/o moral content: no virtue necessary Private incentive, not mutual assistance - no sacrifice needed Virtue in markets ( Bruni & Sugden ) Trust and reciprocity (no sacrifice implied) Market allows for dignity (humanity) No need to beg Fairness in exchange (justice) Each party must reap benefit

The Person in Society Who is the person? Material: the ego (primal needs) Spiritual/cultural: capable of generosity The person in society Each person as part of the whole (contributes & receives) Interdependent (impacting on each other and the whole) The common good Not just collection of public goods (commodities and services) But also the sum of the civic conscience Liberty as a mirror image of the other Sense of what is right Money, Love & Virtue

Competition vs. Cooperation Darwin’s survival of the fittest: competition Later Darwin: cooperation Humans possess “social instinct...becoming more tender and more widely diffused until they are extended to all sentient beings.” “[as] soon as this virtue is honored and practiced by some few of us it spreads through instruction and example to the young and eventually becomes incorporated in public opinion” Survival is as much about cooperation, symbiosis (living together) and reciprocity

Ontology of Love Empathy “Entering the private world of the other and...moving in it delicately without making judgments” (Carl Rogers) “The glue that makes social life possible” (Martin Hofmann) Compassion Sharing in another’s suffering Love Not simply emotion Moving power of life Drive towards unity > harmony/happiness Christian commandment of love

Financial Stewardship Government Safeguard financial system and control risk Financial legislation Supervision Institution Solvency Risk management Human Proper understanding of risks: bank and consumer (not buyer beware) Does it not involve more than this?

Finance & the Good Society Finance Permits constructive investment: Long Term focus Better future Involves stewardship of assets Security Finance is fides or trust and a means (life-blood) to an end (the common good) Love and virtue required to work alongside money

Building the future Education Reflection Virtue derived from within From love Not simply from rules Human Community

Money, Love & Virtue Love Money Virtue (or lack thereof)

Money, Love & Virtue Love Money Virtue Love Money Virtue “Goodness tends to spread.” (Pope Francis)

SOWING HOPE FOR THE COMMON GOOD: MONEY, LOVE & VIRTUE* FATIMA, OCT. 23, 2014 MARIA JOSÉ PEREIRA MELO ANTUNES * The talk is based on a book-in-progress WUCWO Panel at General Assembly