The Concept of the Common Good I have argued elsewhere that the current debate on Ireland’s crisis needs to move away from economist dominated reasoning and be replaced by something more fundamental–a deeper and altogether more important consideration of the basic principles that we should use to organise our society. This week saw the publication of a document called From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good by The Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Episcopal Conference.  This is a welcome and much needed addition to the current discourse.  It is a thoughtful exposition of what it means to think ethically about the current situation particularly from the perspective of the common good. As you would expect much of the analysis is underpinned by Catholic Church doctrine and as such, it could easily be dismissed by secular thinkers.  For many, the notion of religious doctrine is synonymous with being told what to think and is therefore contrary to the justifiably high value placed today on self-determination and individual autonomy.  However, often on closer reading we find something different as is the case with this text.  Here we are challenged, encouraged to think critically and above all we are stimulated to give deeper consideration to the fundamental notion of the common good.  The core value at the heart of this vision is the common good, a value that emphasizes the essential equality of all persons irrespective of gender, race, colour or creed. This vision of the common good should not be confused with the idea of the greatest good for the greatest number. Rather it is a reminder of the duty of care on all of us to respect and to take account of the human dignity of all persons – as groups or individuals. (p 4) As the quotation suggests the common good is not a value based on the economic well-being of the majority.  It is not about wealth or income.  It is simply about human dignity and respect for others. Instrumental rationality alone (see Habermas’ Theory of communicative Action) is incapable of dealing with ethically based values such as the common good.  This is why much of the current media focus on managing our way out of the economic crisis is missing the full extent of the problem. Without doubt in years to come the Irish economy will recover but the underlying cause is not being addressed.  While government policy and our financial institutions promoted a rampant individualistic, materialistic culture based on greed and self-interest, our universities and most of the academic community were either compliant or silent.  Just as we need to rebuild our economy on something more sustainable than inflated house prices we also need to reframe our political, business and education systems to allow for more rigorous and ethical questioning of decisions and policies. As the title of the episcopal statement suggests we need to move from ‘crisis to hope’.  From crisis management to a vision for a better future.  And hope–this is not the forlorn hope that we will never again get caught out by the vagaries of international economic forces but the very real hope we find in the nature and goodness of every human being.  Let’s not loose sight of this again. posted by Leo Casey