[ Authorized by IESE Alumni Magazine ]
Colloquium on Christian humanism examines the ethical dimensions of economics and the role of business in increasing the social good
The 2nd International Colloquium on Christian Humanism in Economics and Business was held on IESE’s Barcelona campus inOctober. It was chaired by Domènec Melé and Martin Schlag, who also organized the meeting, and took as its theme "Christian Humanism at the Service of Development."
The opening session was moderated by Monsignor Luis Romera, professor of philosophy and rector of the Universidad Pontificia de la Santa Cruz in Rome, reviewing Christian humanism in the current context, said that "recovering humanism means developing a vision of society and existence in which ethics are not seen as a code imposed by the entrepreneur or politician but rather as something intrinsic."
Miguel Alfonso Martínez-Echevarría, professor of the philosophy of economics at the University of Navarra, posed the question "does Christian humanism make sense in economics?" and concluded that we must not fall into the trap of believing in "the supposed anthropological neutrality" of the economy. "It is a waste of time to have pretensions of ethics of the economy or of commerce which approaches the economic phenomena with the lamentable and baseless prejudice that there exists a neutral humanism which supposedly gives foundation to economic theories."
Melè, professor of business ethics at IESE, talked about what Christian humanism can contribute to development, such as the wisdom, values and principles that ensure development is at the service of people, motivation and the fomenting of virtues such as solidarity, justice, truth and individual responsibility.
Maria De Benedetto, professor of administative law of economics at the Università Rome-Tre, said, economics should be judged by the light of the values they want to achieve. This implies a redefinition of profit, a strong regulation of financial markets and a moral and legal evaluation of consumer priorities ...
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