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“Economics and Ethics at
the Forefront”, p. B2
Dec. 2, 2010 Economics
and ethics at the forefront Few are more poised to speak about economics and ethics
and how they relate to each other than economist and philosopher Rodrigue
Tremblay, an emeritus professor of economics and finance at the University of
Montreal and a part time resident of Marco Island with his wife Carole. Dr.
Tremblay is the author of thirty nonfiction books, including a basic textbook
in Economics, and the 2010’s The Code for Global Ethics (Prometheus Books), and he
writes an international blog about geopolitics on the Internet (www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/blog)
that is posted in ten languages. Now that he is semi-retired, Dr. Tremblay feels that he
has more time to devote to big issues. He is particularly worried that our
current economic and financial problems are as much moral as technical in
nature. “Why do political leaders seem to be lying most of the time?
Why is uncontrolled greed so prevalent in corporate boardrooms? … Why
does materialism seem to trump everything else? Why do we have the uneasy
feeling that our society is going in the wrong direction? The very fact that
we have to raise such questions may be a sign of the times,” Dr.
Tremblay wrote in a recent blog entitled “The Moral Dimension of
Things”. “Historically”, he says, “it can be shown
that when the moral environment in a society is deteriorating, problems tend
to pile up.” Tremblay thinks that we are presently living in one of
those times, characterized by deep and entrenched political corruption, by
routine abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law in high places, and
by unchecked greed, fraud and deception in the economic sphere. The results
are all there to see: Severe and prolonged economic and financial crises,
rising social inequalities and social injustice, increasing intolerance
toward individual choices, the disregard for environmental decay, the rise of
religious absolutism, a return to whimsical wars of aggression (or of
pre-emptive wars), to blind terrorism, and to the repugnant use of torture,
and even to genocide and to blatant war crimes. These are all indicators that
our civilization has lost its moral compass. And devising such a moral compass is the central object
of his most recent book, The Code for Global Ethics. In it, Dr. Tremblay
postulates that many of our problems and threats are not only severe but they
have also become global in nature. He also thinks that our scientific and
technological progress is advancing faster than our moral progress, with the
consequence that problems seem to arise faster than our moral ability to face
them and solve them. Dr. Tremblay doesn’t hesitate to place part of the
blame on old religion-based rules of morality, essentially because they have
not incorporated new scientific knowledge discovered over the last four
centuries. Indeed, Dr. Tremblay stresses three facts that have
changed forever our worldview and humans’ vision of themselves in the
Universe. They are: • Galileo’s proof, in 1632, that the Earth and
humans were not the center of the Universe. • Darwin’s discovery, in 1859, (“On the
Origin of Species”) that humans are the outcome of a very long natural
biological evolution. • And, the Watson-Crick-Wilkins-Franklin’s
discovery, in
1953, of the structure of the double helix DNA molecule in human cells, and
the devastating knowledge that humans share more than 98 percent of the same
genes with chimpanzees. These discoveries have tremendous consequences for our
moral stance and for the pursuit of a global civilization. Asked what a more universal civilization would look
like, Dr. Tremblay answers the following: “First and foremost, the scope of human empathy
would be more universal and more comprehensive, and would not merely apply to
some chosen people, to members of a particular religion or to persons
belonging to a particular civilization. In practice, this would require that
we establish a higher threshold of human morality, beyond the traditional
norm of the Golden Rule (“Treat others as you would have others
treat you.”) It would require that we adopt what I call a Super Golden Rule of humanist morality that
incorporates the humanist rule of empathy: “Not only do to others as
you would have them do to you, but also, do to others what you would wish to
be done to you, if you were in their place.” — Of course, the
corollary also follows: “Don’t do to others what you would not
like to be done to you, if you were in their place.” Dr. Tremblay does not believe that we currently live in
such a global civilization. “My best hope, he says, “is that we
will avoid falling back into an age of obscurantism and of decadence, and
that we will be able to build a truly humanist civilization for the
future.” To meet the basic criterion for such a future global
civilization, Dr. Tremblay establishes ten fundamental principles in The
Code for Global Ethics. Sunshine Booksellers on 677 South Collier Blvd. in
Marco Island will host a book signing session for Dr. Tremblay’s The
Code for Global Ethics, on Tuesday, December 7, from Noon to 2:00 pm. For more information,
call (239)393-0353 or (239)389-1688. For
further reference, see “The Code for GLOBAL ETHICS, Ten Humanist
Principles”, [ISBN: 978-1616141721], by Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay, prefaced by Dr. Paul
Kurtz and published this year by Prometheus Books in the United States. Rodrigue
Tremblay
is professor emeritus of economics at the University
of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com. He is the author of the book "The
Code for Global Ethics"
at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/ The book “The Code
for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles”, by Dr. Rodrigue
Tremblay, prefaced by Dr. Paul Kurtz, has just been released by Prometheus
Books. Please visit the book site at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/ See it on Amazon
USA: See it on Amazon
Canada: See it on Amazon
UK: or, in Australia
at: Please ask your favorite bookstore and
your local library to order the book: The Code for Global
Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles, by Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay, prefaced by Dr.
Paul Kurtz, Prometheus Books, 2010, 300 p. ISBN: 978-1616141721. *****The French version of the book is also now
available. See: www.lecodepouruneethiqueglobale.com/ or on Amazon
Canada _____________________________________ Posted, Tuesday December 7, 2010, at 5:30 am Email to a friend: http://www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/tremblay=1131 or click on Blog at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com Send contact, comments or commercial reproduction
requests (in English or in French) to: N.B.: Messages may be published in our
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