Human Flourishing: Ethics in Work and Everyday Life

What is a good life and how can we live it? How can we find happiness, fulfillment, and flourishing? Throughout history, great thinkers have considered these questions under the umbrella of ethics. In this seminar, we will delve into the three foundational schools of thought—utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics—and explore their relevance to everyday life, including work, friendships, and loving relationships. Come ready to ask tough questions, engage in meaningful discussions, and challenge yourself and others. Along the way, connect with like-minded individuals as we seek to answer one of life’s most essential questions: “What good shall I do this day?”

Virtue & Romance

Virtue ethicists argue that human beings have a certain potential nature that ethical life aims to realize. They argue that this concept of a human telos allows the classical and Christian traditions to justify their demanding ethical precepts: by ordering your activities and desires in such-and-such ways – starving these desires, channeling these others into these specific activities and institutions (e.g. marriage), and nurturing those ones – you’ll actualize your potential.

Reading: After Virtue, 51-5, and Erik Varden, Chastity, selections to be determined.

Join the Morningside Institute for a conversation with Dan Addison exploring Alasdair MacIntyre’s presentation of this view, and Erik Varden’s concrete working out of the idea with regard to sexual desire in particular. This dinner series on ethics in work and everyday life will take place over dinner from 6 p.m. till 7:30 p.m. at IESE’s New York campus (165 W. 57th Street). A registration fee of $10 offsets the cost of dinner.