XVI. Benedek pápa hívta életre a Népek Udvara elnevezésű nemzetközi rendezvénysorozatot, amelynek célja a hívők és nem hívők, agnosztikusok és ateisták közötti párbeszéd elősegítése. Az esemény szervezője a Kultúra Pápai Tanácsa, melynek elnöke, S.Em.a Rev.ma Gianfranco Ravasi bíboros a program szellemi irányítója. A Kultúra Pápai Tanácsa már eddig is több helyszínen rendezte meg összejöveteleit, melynek során Budapest a következő állomás. A Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetemet és a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetemet érte az a megtiszteltetés, hogy közös szervezésben a kétnapos konferenciának otthont adhat. A konferencia címe: Morality in Economics and secularized society in the 21 st Century Erkölcsi rend a 21. századi gazdaságban és a szekularizált társadalomban Megtisztelő részvételére feltétlenül számítunk! Szuromi Szabolcs, rektor PPKE Rostoványi Zsolt, rektor BCE
Morality in Economics and secularized society in the 21 st Century Erkölcsi rend a 21. századi gazdaságban és a szekularizált társadalomban című tudományos konferencia a és a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem szervezésében 1. nap: 2014. február 5. (szerda) 10-16 óráig II. János Pál Díszterem (1088 Budapest, Szentkirályi u. 28.) 2. nap: 2014. február 6. (csütörtök) 10-16 óráig Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, III. előadó (1093 Budapest, Fővám tér 8.) Regisztráció: 2014. február 5-re: rekthiv@ppke.hu vagy (36 1) 42 97 211 2014. február 6-ra: corvinusevent@uni-corvinus.hu vagy (36 1) 482 55 38
A konferencia részletes programja 2014. február 5. (szerda) 10.00 óra, II. János Pál Díszterem 9.30 10.00 Regisztráció (kávé, üdítő) 10.00 10.05 S.Em.a. Rev.ma Erdő Péter, nagykancellár Köszöntő 10.05 10.10 Szuromi Szabolcs, rektor Köszöntő 10.10 10.20 S.Em.a Rev.ma Gianfranco Ravasi bíboros Köszöntő 10.20 10.35 Varga Zs. András Towards a totalitarian rule of law? 10.35 10.50 Szolgay Péter Moral issues in Information Technolog y and in Bionics 10.50 11.05 Botos Máté The Disenchantment of Economics, or: Moral sentiments within a secularized context 11.05 11.20 Bándi Gyula Human Dignity, Rights and Obligations and Environmental Ethics
11.20 11.35 Katona Klára Corporate Social Responsibility from Catholic View 11.35 12.15 Kerekasztal diszkusszió az előadókkal 12.15 14.00 Ebédszünet 14.00 14.15 Tóth Tihamér Morality in competition regulation? 14.15 14.30 Kőrösi István Renewability of the social market economy from the perspective of Catholic social teaching 14.30 14.45 Győrffy Dóra Trust, morals and financial stability 14.45 15.00 Szigetvári Tamás Ethics of International Development Aid 15.00 15.40 Kerekasztal diszkusszió az előadókkal 15.40 Stephanus díj átadása Gianfranco Ravasi bíboros úrnak Kuminetz Géza laudáció
2014. február 6. (csütörtök) 10.00 óra Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem 9.30 10.00 Regisztráció (kávé, üdítő) 10.00 10.20 Rostoványi Zsolt, rektor BCE Köszöntő, laudáció 10.20 11.00 S.Em.a Rev.ma Gianfranco Ravasi bíboros előadás 11.00 11.10 Kérdések, hozzászólások 11.10 11.30 Baritz Laura Sarolta OP Civil economy historically and today 11.30 11.50 Kocsis Tamás Celestial footprint 11.50 12.10 Szilas Roland Character development in contemporary work organisations 12.10 12.30 Kérdések, hozzászólások 12.30 13.30 Ebédszünet
13.30 14.45 Kerekasztal beszélgetés: Gazdaság és erkölcs moderátor: Zsolnai László 14.45 15.45 Kérdezz-felelek! BCE-PPKE hallgatói és S.Em.a Rev.ma Gianfranco Ravasi bíboros úr párbeszéde 15.45 Rostoványi Zsolt rektor, Szuromi Szabolcs, rektor Zárszó Ezüst Corvina átadása
ABSTRACTS Towards the totalitarian rule of law? András Zs. Varga Separation of powers paradigmatic requirement of modern states was and still is accepted as a main guarantee against tyranny, authoritarian misuse of state power and arbitrary decision-making. Legality, legitimacy and efficiency cannot be avoided for a government in a constitutional state based on the separation of powers. However, in our culture based on rule of law it seems that legality is an overweight edge of governmentarchitecture. Courts with the power of interpretation of law are not only final forums of legal debates but final guardians of government. Higher national and international courts have acquired the position of co-lawmaker, they even gather more and more from pouvoir constituant. If there is no counter-balance to the free-interpretation of law by the courts, the outcome of the legal control of governmental activity will be inevitably arbitrary. Good and ethical government needs something to balance the ultra-estimation of rule of law. Our hypothesis is that one or a small bunch of fundamental and at the same time not formal but substantive principles (emerging from natural law) could help. Something like the Roman rule: salus rei publicae suprema lex esto or its Christian (canonical) version: salus animarum suprema lex esto. One modern paraphrase could be public weal respecting personal dignity and human rights is the fundamental, inviolable and incontestable criterion of good government.
Moral Issues in Information Technology and in Bionics Péter Szolgay The Statute of our university exhibits some basic values as cornerstones of our activity to protect the human life, to improve the life quality of ill persons etc. I try to show how it works in some of our currently running research projects. The new, low cost control strategy was elaborated to avoid collisions of air vehicles. How can the information technology help in rehabilitation interfacing the artificial and the living structures? Using the knowledge in bionics the capabilities/ functionalities of living cells can be modified. The Disenchantment of Economics, or: Moral sentiments within a secularized context Máté Botos The theory of moral sentiments of Adam Smith conceptualized the one s economic activity upon a solid ethical-theological base. Nowadays, economics seems to be independent from the origins, as the new ethical principles appears as respect of fair trade or ecological responsibility. Are this concepts completely new - and regenerating the economic praxis of our days, apparently suffering from the lack of ethical determinations -, or they are simply translations of traditional ethical values, reflecting the needs of a partially irreligious society?
Human Dignity, Rights and Obligations and Environmental Ethics Prof. Gyula Bándi Human dignity is an integral part of the social and moral teaching of the Catholic Church see the different encyclicals, from Gaudium et Spes to Caritas in Veritate and many others and also the basis of human rights, from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Art. 1 Human Dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected) or the Fundamental Law of Hungary (e.g. Art. II.). But human dignity may not be observed and understood as a right only without serious and extended obligations, without respect for others so rights may not survive without duties and obligations. These obligations shall not only focus on recognising the divine image in the other, but also incorporate other constituents of the Creation, as our task also is to be stewards called to collaborate with God in watching over Creation in holiness and wisdom. (Venice Declaration 2002) Today it is inevitable to remind everybody that human dignity may not be separated from the necessary environmental ethical behaviour, which requires the changes of lifestyle and patterns towards a responsible care. Corporate Social responsibility from Catholic View Klára Katona Catholic Social Teaching (CST) refuses the reductionist separation between business and ethics in which the only purpose of an economic organization should be efficiency and profit maximization. CST is based on the four principles of the centrality of the human being, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity. From this anthropological view, business
enterprises have multiple purposes as well, they should create not only wealth for shareholders but also value for a broader range of stakeholders and for the local and global communities in general. Pope Benedict XVI s Encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate [Love in Truth] is both a challenge to business ethics and an example of the holistic model on which Catholic Social Thought is based. Benedict describes love as the principle driving force in every person and all humanity. The fundamental claim that runs through Benedict s Encyclical is that economic exchange requires love. In my presentation I try to reveal how this approach can prevail in different concepts of corporate social responsibility including the sharing of tasks among the state, market and civil society. Morality in competition regulation? Tihamér Tóth Modern catholic social teaching has produced a set of principles by which economic activity, i.e. competition can be judged. I will summarize those points of encyclics where competition policy issues are raised, i.e. free competition, monopolies or the role of State in the economy. Increasing social or consumer welfare through enforcing competition rules and promoting the common good and the well-being of mankind are not necessarily contradicting aims. I will explain that although unregulated competition forces may cause more harm than good, there is certainly a legitimate sphere of autonomy in economic life which the State should not enter. Furthermore, our recent crisis has shown that the binary model of market/profit maximizing individualism or state/solidarity may not function well. We need a new concept where love/charity driven motives are integrated into business decisions. Conscious consumers representing the Christian life-style should contribute to the success of this new approach.
Economic development, financial disequilibria, human resources and employment a Catholic view István Kőrösi In the European Union including Hungary as well, the most important issue is how economic growth, decrease of financial disequilibria, increase of competitiveness can be provided, while protecting the existing level of the European social market economy as much as possible. It is an extremely complex theoretic, strategic and practical question. An unambiguous recipe to solve the problem has not been found yet. Nevertheless, the participants of the economy and politics have to / should concentrate on dealing with these problems as a whole. The current processes of the world economy take place in four areas: 1. globalisation, 2. integration, 3.upgrading of regionalism and subregionalism, 4. crucial change in the role of the state, especially in its participation in the economy. The active adaptation and its quality and efficiency, as well as the enhancement of competitiveness have been upgraded. There are four crucial areas which are undeniably necessary for the development of economy and human resources: human resources, health care system, education, infrastructure and environment policy. The quality and the development trends in these four areas determine changes in each country concerning their future, quality of life and competitiveness in the world market. Therefore, financing these areas should be increased in absolute value, moreover, their relative proportion in the national budget has to be increased. It is an essential condition for development and catching-up. The renewal of the social market economy requires the consideration and application of the results of the Catholic social teaching.
Trust, ethics and financial stability Dóra Győrffy In the context of the global financial crisis the presentation examines the possible role for modern Catholic social teaching in contributing to greater financial stability. The first part of the presentation underlines the critical role of trust during the crisis, and argues that in environments characterized by distrust among people and towards the institutional framework, the inclination of all actors to make short-term decisions contributes to the building up of financial imbalances. In such an environment state and market failures reinforce one another, resulting in financial collapse. The second part of the presentation discusses the literature on the sources of social trust, and relates these findings to the principles of Catholic social teaching. On the basis of the overview, the crucial relevance of its underlying principles is emphasized including the concept of the common good, the principles of subsidiarity and participation as well as the emphasis on the reduction of inequalities. It is argued that integrating these principles into policy-making is desirable not only from an ethical perspective but that it also contributes to greater financial stability. Ethics of international development assistance Tamás Szigetvári The concept of modern development aid goes back to the early post- WW2 period, and it was concentrated on how to foster economic growth in a country. It turned out, however, that there are a lot of problems with international development assistance: ineffectiveness, unwanted sideeffects, corruption, dependency. Even if called successful, development has frequently created as many problems as it solved And it turned out as well that development is very much connected to value issues as social
juctice, human rights, basic needs and that human conditions (in a theological interpretation) should be a part of development theories and practices. To be able to deal with the ethics of international development assistance, we need to examine both the ends and the means of economic development. Ethical questions will be raised related to the nature of the desirable development, the means for achieving development, and ethical questions will also emerge concerning the practice of development. Civil economy historically and today Sarolta Laura Baritz Current mainstream economic theory has not always been the guiding principle of economic science and economic life, there has been another economic paradigm affecting theories and praxis since Aristotle up to 21 st century civil society that is based on a different value order than that of the main stream. This civil paradigm in the history of human thinking is like an underground stream: it was on the surface during the ancient and Christian medieval times, becoming more compact during the 15th 18 th century Italian civil humanism, then it gives way to the Adam Smithian, political economic thinking, but returns in the ideas of the Catholic Social Thought beginning from 1891. Today ethical and value driven organizations pursue their economic activities according to this paradigm. The presentation will introduce the main characteristics of this economic paradigm and compare it to the mainstream thinking. We shall see how human happiness (public happiness) can be an economic goal instead of profit maximization. We will also discuss how profit is seen according to this civil paradigm.
Celestial footprint Tamás Kocsis There are thousands of ways to increase/maintain happiness but all these seem to have commonalities as they either have material (earthly) and/or non-material (celestial) factors. The latter is best understood as being happiness of non-material origin which is the celestial footprint (in contrast to the material focus of the well-known ecological footprint). As a theoretical concept it is not directly measurable, but as a good proxy it can be perceived as being the ratio of perceived subjective wellbeing and calculated ecological footprint over some time period. By analyzing this ratio, when mitigating environmental problems we are not limited to negative, restrictive messages but are enabled to create new strategic ways of problem solving about how to optimize the human celestial footprint (the ratio of human wellbeing to human environmental load). Character development in contemporary work organisations Roland Ferenc Szilas The social and economic uncertainties and the almost ongoing different types of crises of our time make it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the quality aspects of jobs created. Government, civil and corporate organisations put enormous efforts into maintaining and creating jobs to fight the terrible burden of unemployment and exclusion. At the same time, the quality of these jobs and their influence on the human person and character involved are often neglected. This presentation aims to differentiate between practices of employment from the perspective of job quality and to inspire stakeholder organisations to emphasize quality aspects of work in their efforts of developing society and economy.