Philosophy of Fairness and Executive Pay

THE DIRECTOR of an executive recruitment agency said on the Today programme last week that anybody over the age of seven who believes in fairness is a fool.

She was taking part in a discussion about executive pay and whether it's right that the highest-paid people in society have seen their salaries go through the roof while the rest of us have experienced declining living standards.

Her attitude was that life is cruel and unfair, that there are winners and losers, and that it's inevitable and right that some should have more money than they will ever need while others go hungry.

It was Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century philosopher, who famously said that the life of man was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". Hobbes argued that, with each individual fighting to fulfil his personal desires, a state of war is the natural condition of mankind.

However, he then went on to show that this is not the way in which humans are obliged to behave.

As we are capable of thinking rationally, we can see that a "war of everyone against everyone" is not in the interests of anyone.

Philosophy is sometimes accused of being too abstract, too far removed from daily life: but Hobbes' clear-eyed view of the world shows that while life can be cruel and unkind, it doesn't have to be that way.

He takes it as a given that we are selfish, that we are driven to gain the maximum possible benefit for ourselves: but he also realises that we make our lives better by working together.

Crucially, as a complete realist, he saw that this co- operation between ultimately selfish individuals requires some structure that will ensure people stand by their obligations to others.

This is the role that the state fulfils in modern society: to ensure that we act with fairness towards one another.

So, according to the law, if you buy something from a shop and it doesn't work then you can take it back and get a refund; that's fair.

As the novel Lord Of The Flies shows, it may be that fairness does not exist naturally – that, left to our own devices, it would be abandoned – but we have created a concept of fairness that the majority of people live by which improves all of our lives.

Collective decisions on what constitutes that fairness will never be easy, but the question of whether it's right that some chief executives earn up to 200 times more than their employees is something we should all consider – even after our seventh birthday.

Church leaders fail to walk the walk

We are waiting to hear what action the people in charge of St Paul’s cathedral are going to take against anti-capitalist protestors camped out in the grounds.

These protestors say that it is unfair that jobs are lost, benefits are slashed and services like libraries and nurseries are closing as a result of the ongoing financial crisis.

If the Church of England acted in line with the ideals that it claims to believe in then it would support those who are complaining about the rich getting phenomenally richer while the poor get kicked in the teeth.

But instead the church leaders bleat about health and safety and organise evictions. It’s very clear that their only interest is in pacifying the establishment of which they are a part.

Although I see no reason for believing in any religion, I appreciate the pastoral work carried out by some churchgoers and their message of kindness and compassion.

But the actions of those in charge of St Paul’s show very clearly that when the chips are down the principles they profess to live by go out the window.

If they want to be taken seriously they should heed the words of the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne who said: “The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts.”

What we do is much more important than what we talk about doing.

Philosophy and the X Factor

The X philosophy

The mighty X Factor is upon us and - even after swapping that nice lad from Salford for the man with the most famous moobs in show business - is set to keep millions of viewers entranced, thrilled and enraged every Saturday night for the coming months.

The programme is scorned by musicians and mocked by critics yet adored by enough of the British public to make it one of the top television events of the year.

Why is that? I think the key to the show’s success lies in the philosophy of the X Factor.

It was Aristotle who said that we should all strive for excellence in our lives. Just as we say that a knife is good if it performs its function properly – eg. cutting vegetables - we can be judged by how well we carry out the function of being human.

One essential aspect of being a good person is to find where your natural skills lie and to develop those skills to your full potential. So those of us who watched an incredible young singer from Northern Ireland perform a stunning version of Elton John’s My Song witnessed someone with great natural talent expressing that talent to the best of her abilities.

Conversely, there are some truly terrible acts that probably shouldn’t be put on television at all. When it’s bad it’s really bad and these people have completely misunderstood where their natural talents lie – unfortunately being ridiculed on national television is a tough way of finding out about a fundamental lesson.

Chin Up

The idea of the stiff upper lip is often held up for ridicule as a relic of an emotionally buttoned up past.

But maybe we have been too quick to discard this approach to life.

When it comes to a choice between the stiff upper lip and the emotional incontinence that is now all too common, I prefer the former as an attitude.

Some claim that the death of Princess Diana was the watershed moment. Instead of responding with grace - resigned to the fact that terrible things will sometimes happen – there were hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets pouring out their supposed grief over someone they didn’t know.

We have now become a society where people are endlessly encouraged to talk about their feelings – to ‘let it all out’. Unfortunately it seems that the more we talk about how we feel, the more we want to talk about how we feel, so that we end up treating everyday problems as cause for counselling, rather than as a problem to be shrugged off.

While I would be the first to encourage people to engage with their emotions and rational decision making I think this can be taken too far. We could take some advice from the Stoics, who argued that the key to happiness lay in accepting the world as it is rather than wishing it to be otherwise. As Epictetus said: “We must make the best of what is under our control, and take the rest as its nature is.”

Beach philosophy

Enjoying a day on the beach today my thoughts didn’t stray too far from waves, sunshine and ice-cream.



August in Cornwall



Having an interest in practical philosophy can sometimes feel like a curse when over-analysing the minutiae of everyday life.

Socrates started it all off with his claim that stands as the philosopher’s mantra: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

I think it’s vitally important that we ask ourselves fundamental questions about what we believe in as the answers should have a tremendous bearing on the way we live our lives.

As the great pessimist of philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer, warned against a life without self-reflection: “And so, the usual course of man’s life is that he, fooled by hope, dances into the arms of death.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

But while we need a certain amount of self-awareness and to think through why we are doing whatever it is we are doing, we also need just to get on with enjoying life.

Daniel Dennett sums it up perfectly: “The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the over-examined life is nothing to write home about either.”

Happiness and twitter

I don't like to think of myself as shallow but I know that I can be.

In some ways I think that social media can seem like a popularity contest.

Writing on the purpose of life the philosopher Robert Nozick said: "What we want, in short, is a life and a self that happiness is a fitting response to."

That is, if we chase after happiness for its own sake we probably won't get there. Happiness is a by-product of a fulfilling life rather than a goal in itself.

I think the same reasoning can be applied to social media and would convert Nozick's quote to read: "What we want, in short, is a social media profile that lots of followers and a high level of interest is a fitting response to."

Lost my mind...Ah, found it.

A colleague recently pointed out a top contender for most inane tweet ever. A mutual acquaintance tweeeted "Lost my stapler," followed up a few minutes later with the stunning news: "Ah, found it."

I get the point that Twitter is conversational and fleeting but I wonder if we should put a bit more effort into the fragments of our thoughts we share with the world.

The Italian writer Baldesar Castiglione wrote in the 16th century of the ideal courtier: "...if because of his other activities or through lack of study he fails to achieve a commendable standard in his writing, then he should take pains to suppress his work, to avoid ridicule, and he should show it only to a friend he can trust."

We're spilling everything out in a postmodern way and, while it's good to share, sometimes the results are not pretty.

From the West Briton newspaper - 05 May 2011

From footballers to philosophers

It’s useful to have heroes in life, people whose achievements or talents we admire. Our heroes can show us just what is possible and might inspire us to achieve, or at least to aim for, great things for ourselves.

My heroes have developed from a childhood obsession with George Best to a current fascination with great philosophers and their works.

While I might have sometimes got close to matching George Best’s performances in the bar my efforts on the football field have never been in any way comparable to the sublime skills of the Manchester United legend.

The work of the best philosophers however can give us an insight into what is needed to lead a meaningful life.

I favour writers whose work has a solid connection with the real world over those analytic thinkers who ponder questions that have little relevance to the way we lead our lives.

My true philosophical hero is the great French writer Michel de Montaigne. Although he was writing in the 16^th century his work is still as fresh and useful as ever. Montaigne is the ideal philosopher, who writes like a wise elderly uncle who has seen, done and understood as much as it is possible for one man to see, do and understand.

He was hugely knowledgeable but wore his learning lightly and his sole interest seemed to be that he might help us to understand a little more about ourselves and the world we inhabit.

Crucially he was fully aware that what we do is more important than what we say, as he wrote: “The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts.”


And he possessed a worldliness that meant he was always concerned with real life decisions rather than high minded principles. As he explained of his own behaviour: “As familiar company at table I choose the amusing rather than the wise, in bed I prefer beauty to goodness and for serious conversations I like ability even combined with dishonesty and similarly in other things.”

The topics that Montaigne covered were wide-ranging and could serve as a manual to life, indeed he spoke of philosophy as “the moulder of judgment and conduct”.

But while he was happy to offer his thoughts on issues from the education of children to cannibalism, from the importance of friendship to the best way to conduct yourself when approaching death, his desire for knowledge was matched by his realisation that ultimate answers to questions about the meaning of life are unreachable. As he said: “I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything but catch nothing except the wind.”

He is my favourite philosopher, his Essays would be the book I would take with me if I were cast away on a desert island. We need heroes, and ones that can help us to live a little more wisely should be cherished.

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From the West Briton newspaper - 20 January 2011

Do the right thing

At this time of long dark nights and post-Christmas empty bank accounts many of us are focusing on what we might do to improve our situation in life.

That could mean getting a new job, taking up a new hobby, losing weight - whatever we think will make our lives better and bring us more happiness.

New Year's resolutions often fall by the wayside as January rolls on but some simple ancient philosophy might help us to keep up the good intentions that mark the start of the year.

Aristotle, the Macedonian philosopher and tutor to Alexander the Great, was fascinated by the notion of the good life and what practical steps we could take to achieve it.

He realised the importance of reasonable material success but stressed that true happiness comes from our actions and behaviour. "The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow," he said.

Aristotle believed that we judge a thing to be good by how well it performs its function - just as a good knife is one that cuts well, a good person is one who lives well by acting virtuously.

He thought that without due reflection on our behaviour it is easy to fall into extremes. Virtuous living, however, could be found in the midway point or the golden mean between the extremeties.

So between cowardice and foolhardiness we find the virtue of courage; between stinginess and profliggacy we find generosity; between crash dieting and eating everything we can get our hands on we find the virtue of a healthy appetite.

The art of living virtuously is learned by practice. As Aristotle said: "People become builders by actually building...in the same way we become just by doing just acts."

Behaving in a virtuous way over time brings the happiness of living well, of fulfilling your potential as a human being - virtue carries its own reward.

As far as I'm aware, new year's resolutions did not exist in the 4th century BC when Aristotle was writing but I think he would have approved of the thinking behind them - sparked by a desire to make the most of ourselves and realising that something is amiss within our lives we act to put ourselves on the desired path going forward.

As the great man said: "It is those who act rightly who get the rewards and the good things in life."

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From the West Briton newspaper - 16 September 2010

Anything is possible

The latest book by Professor Stephen Hawking has once again sparked a flurry of articles in the media about the nature of the universe and whether there is a God.

While my capacity for understanding quantum physics is limited, I'm extremely interested in a key question posed by the professor.

He views the history of science as a history of theories that have got progressively better at defining and explaining the universe, and asks: "Will this sequence eventually reach an end point, an ultimate theory of the universe... or will we continue forever finding better theories but never one that cannot be improved upon?"

While this is an incredibly thought provoking question, it also seems to be unanswerable, and to me that is a beautiful thing.

As a committed religious sceptic I believe that knowing that we do not know all of the answers is a position that should be embraced.

The great philosophers were fully aware of this more than 2,000 years ago. As Socrates, the father of western philosophy, said: "True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves and the world around us."

The mystery at the heart of our existence is an inspiration and when contemplated upon, has very real consequences in our everyday lives and the way we conduct ourselves, the decisions we make and the passions we pursue.

Uncertainty and the absence of irrefutable knowledge might be at first unsettling - as the existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard put it: "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

But it also means that everything is possible.

There are no pre-written laws on tablets of stone - we are making it up as we go along and we should revel in the fact.

In every aspect of our lives, our freedom from pre-determined laws is a blessing, not a curse.



Albert Camus 1913 - 1960



As the great French writer and thinker Albert Camus said: "Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better."

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From the West Briton newspaper - 10 june 2010

Eternal wisdom as a guide to life


Aristotle 384 BC - 322 BC

 "It is from a feeling of wonder that men start now, and did start in the earliest times, to practice philosophy," said Aristotle, one of the great philosophers of the ancient world.

Who can fail at some point to feel that sense of wonder when looking out onto the world - a sense of awe in contemplating the universe and what part we might play in it.

Some people turn to various forms of religion as a way of making sense of their lives. The answers offered by religion have never satisfied me and instead I have found my solace and my inspiration in philosophy.

We are told by advertisements that confidence is to be gained through buying a new razor, self-assurance in a new car and happiness in a fizzy drink. But what was said by Epictetus in AD100 still holds true today: "It's not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgments, and these I can carry with me. These alone are my own and can't be taken away."

Philosophy, which literally means love of wisdom, earned itself a bad reputation in the 20th century for becoming increasingly remote and academic and reducing the key questions of existence to mathematical formulae.
This approach does not interest me.

My concern is with philosophy as it was originally intended - as a guide to how we might lead better and more fulfilling lives.

Over thousands of years the key questions we ask ourselves have not changed - why are we here, what are we meant to be doing and, in Monty Pythonesque fashion, what is the meaning of life?

We might become more acutely focussed on these issues when we have time to stand back from the day to day demands of modern living or when we face big choices in life or big events such as the death of a loved one.

Fortunately we have thousands of years of wisdom on which we can draw. Years in which truly great minds have devoted themselves to addressing these fundamental questions of life.

Through asking ourselves the right questions and being honest in our answers I believe it is possible to achieve a clear eyed view of the world which can only help us to make clear decisions about the sort of lives that we want to lead.

I would not pretend that final, unequivocal answers have been found. For me the joy is in the journey of discovery, the exchange of ideas, the recognition of the timelessness of truly perceptive thought.

 

Marcel Proust 1871 - 1922

 As the great French writer Marcel Proust said: "We don't receive wisdom - we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
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