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Wisdom, Management and Moral Duty: A Greco-Roman Perspective

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Abstract

This paper applies Greco-Roman thinking about wisdom to contemporary business and management practice. The first section outlines the contexts in which Greek and Roman writers referred to wisdom and related terms. Hesiod, Aeschylus, Pericles, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle were concerned with sophia and phronésis. Cicero, Horace and Seneca referred to prudentia and sapientia. The second section consists of examples from contemporary business and management behaviour which ranged from the “cunning/clever to the intelligently wise”. Reference is made to current research highlighting concepts such as commonsense wisdom, conventional wisdom, contrarian wisdom and experienced based wisdom.

A wise person knows how to use moral skills in the service of the right aims.1

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References

  1. Barry Schwartz cited in Rowbotham J (2009) Discipline ought to be grounded in ethics Higher Education The Australian Wednesday November 11 2009 p. 28. 114

  2. Cicero (1981) Cicero Selected Works De Officiis On Duties III (A Practical Code of Behaviour) Penguin Classics p. 211

  3. Franklin B (n.d) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin To which is added Jared Sparks’ Continuation (Abridged) London, Hutchinson and Co Hutchinson’s Library of Standard Lives p. 340

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  11. ibid p. 502

  12. ibid p. 115

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  26. Ibid p. 73

  27. Ibid p. 80

  28. Aeschylus (1949) The Agamemnon by Gilbert Murray London: George Allen& Unwin, p. 8

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  42. ibid p. 173

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  46. ibid p. 157

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  50. Ibid p. 343

  51. Ibid p. 331, 333

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  57. The Australian June 16 2010 p. 5

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  1. Michael W. Small BA MEd, PhD, FAIM FIEA MACE
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Small, M.W. Wisdom, Management and Moral Duty: A Greco-Roman Perspective. Philos. of Manag. 10, 113–128 (2011). https://doi.org/10.5840/pom201110114

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