# Code: Diversity ========================= ## Source: SPRING 2015/Socratic Dialogue reflection paper - Marion Sathicq.docx ------------------------- -Business have nowadays more impact on the environment and the groups of people they interact with (the DIFFERENT stakeholders) -I want to become exemplary, but I am afraid that it is hard to find a good balance of managing your responsibilities as a manager towards many entities that often have DIFFERENT interests -How can you arbitrate between those DIFFERENT responsibilities? Is there a responsibility that is more important than another one? Hans Jonas and Xenophon can help us respond these two questions: - What responsibilities do businesses have? - What responsibilities do I have as a manager? Hans Jonas defined the imperative of responsibility as the necessity for human beings to take care of the environment in the face of rising powers and technologies in order for human beings to survive -It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of need, in PARTICULAR the essential needs of the world's poor people, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitation imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs -I can try for instance to answer the following questions: what is the PARTICULAR problem I am struggling with? What are the options for resolving it? Facing this options, what are the possible outcomes for each? For each of the options, what would be the impact for the stakeholders, both on the short run and on the long run? Am I able to rank those impacts from the most important to the less important? Can I state clearly what would be the benefits and the risks associated to those options? Is the option that has the less negative impact to wish for? Once I have answered to the questions and laid out my framework, I will be able as a manager to determine which options is the more suitable regarding my values, my ethics and the goals I pursue ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Reflection Paper Juliette ten Brink.docx ------------------------- -Basically, women have a DIFFERENT moral compass related to improving their relationship with others and taking care of others -On the meaning of life ‘Life has meaning when you share what you have with others’ What does life mean? Being able to act, think, feel and dream, what is the purpose of that? I find this question so interesting, because no matter how long you think about it, people can come up with widely DIFFERENT answers -Reading Michael Sandel’s book on Justice helped me further understand DIFFERENT ways of looking at justice and I’ve realized that utilitarianism for me does not work ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/SD_FinalEssay_ViktorPenzinger.pdf ------------------------- -Initial expectations, individual preparation and the first Socratic Dialogue session As soon as I got notice of my admission to ESADE, I immediately checked the online course catalogue and found this course, which seemed so DIFFERENT from all the “usual suspects” of courses taught at what one would call traditional business school -Herein, I see two DIFFERENT areas of personal learning outcomes -What have I learned throughout the course? First of all: I have learned a massive amount of names of philosophers from DIFFERENT epochs of time, whose contributions (especially with regards to the Hellenists) were not always easy to differentiate at the beginning -Hence, it was necessary for me to develop a personal mental framework to categorize DIFFERENT philosophers not only with regards to their 3 Socratic Dialogue, Final Essay Viktor Penzinger ESADE, Spring 2016 viewpoint on a given topic (e -Is my identity as a manager DIFFERENT from what my identity is as a whole? Do I play a role, which means some kind of narrative I tell myself to be (Paul Ricœur) or am I even faking 4 Socratic Dialogue, Final Essay Viktor Penzinger ESADE, Spring 2016 it to know myself better (see: Fernando Pessoa)? And, last but not least, who should be the one to judge about my identity as a manager? Who really knows my identity better – me as the “owner” holding the strings of my identity, or my social environment, i -Still, on the road to gain this enlightenment or knowledge, a manager will face situations where decisions can be based on DIFFERENT “sets of knowledge”, which are all valid if we consider them from an isolated perspective -Despite the usual need for quick decisions, it is still paramount for managers to allow for more shades of grey between black and white by hearing the opinion of DIFFERENT people involved and by being open to change one’s initial judgement if necessary -However, I think that a final learning outcome for my future career as a manager can be Carol Gilligan’s approach of the “DIFFERENT voice”, i -to not only listen to my established way of thinking as a men, but also to remind myself of this DIFFERENT voice constantly and to take its considerations into account ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/SOCRATIC DIALOGUES JOURNAL.pdf ------------------------- -However, we also examined some other philosophers that supported DIFFERENT reasoning’s, such as Clement Rosset that states that identity is social and therefore depends on the people surrounding us -Happiness “If one has character, one has also one’s typical experience that recurs again and again” (Nietzsche) Is character influenced by the experiences that we have or is it the other way round and the experiences will affect us differently depending on our character? There seems to be no clear answer to this question as we were discussing it for long, but the only conclusion we reached was that people had DIFFERENT character -There can be a case when you have a why, but this why is not strong enough to cope with the DIFFERENT circumstances you encounter throughout the life -There are three DIFFERENT ways to achieve a meaning, and one of them is suffering -However, the question is, is it necessary that we have a meaning in life? Victor Frankl thought is very stoic in the sense of believing that there are things that we are not able to change, however we all have the freedom to cope with these situations in DIFFERENT ways -After the discussion held in class, we worked in groups in order to elaborate a theory regarding the DIFFERENT stages of moral evolution, that in the next class we were able to compare with DIFFERENT moral theories that were discussed in class -CEMS Spring 2016 Elisenda Sumarroca Talking about the right path Kohlberg’s theory differentiates three DIFFERENT stages in terms of ethical evolution: pre- conventional, conventional and finally post-conventional -We discussed two DIFFERENT schools of thought, on one hand there is the deontological line of thought (e -Justice In this session we saw the documentary “Philosophy behind bars” which brought DIFFERENT topics for discussion in the class -It has been proved thorough the course how powerful it is in order to build the best opinions from DIFFERENT opinions, and how it helps to develop better solutions comparing it to a debate -As the course was moving on, I felt more comfortable with these reflections and I gave more and more importance to the concept of Socrates of know thyself, as it is the way to understand better the environment, others and also to better face the DIFFERENT situations I encounter thorough life -I understood the DIFFERENT views there are about happiness, responsibility or justice, even though if the final conclusion was that there is no absolute answer to all this questions -In the beginning of the course, at the time of being Socrates it was more an exercise of throwing DIFFERENT questions, but not paying so much attention about the answers, but actually as the course went on I realized how important it was to listen with attention to the other’s thoughts, in order to be able to ask the best questions at the moment -Finally, it was a very rich experience to get to know the opinion of a person with a completely DIFFERENT culture than mine, and it was shocking how my point of view during the discussions was also much influenced by Dasha -The second is to understand more the DIFFERENT opinions and DIFFERENT approaches people can have to the same topic, as this was something constant in our class -Gathering people from DIFFERENT countries and cultures helped to enrich significantly the discussion and also to learn to understand and listen completely DIFFERENT points of views and opinions -I believe that this is the way to get to know myself more deeply and therefore be able to cope with the DIFFERENT circumstances I find along the way ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Final Essay.docx ------------------------- -What I don’t like at all of the European university approach is the fact that you can hardly take courses or exams outside of your major, while I think that being interested in DIFFERENT topics and open your mind studying a subject through the lenses of DIFFERENT disciplines it is fundamental for becoming a better manager, doctor, architect… I was extremely sad to not have this possibility in my home university, that only offers courses strictly related to business and management -This is why when I had a look at the DIFFERENT courses offered by the Cems universities in order to decide my ranking between them, I was so excited in seeing that Esade was offering classes related to philosophy or religious values etc that I immediately decided to put this university first in my ranking, despite the fact that originally I wanted to go outside Europe -This was the only chance I had in these years to analyze the world of business taking a DIFFERENT perspective and to increase my knowledge in DIFFERENT fields in order to open my mind -I could not bear another semester studying marketing 4Ps or the DIFFERENT strategies for international expansion, I had the need of studying something more, something DIFFERENT, something that I was missing since years, and the absence of this “something” was making me a person that I liked every day less -In PARTICULAR, three big themes were extremely important for me: happiness and meaning of life, which I consider strictly related, justice and morality and responsibility -Thanks to the discussion in class and the authors analyzed thoughts, I started thinking about the dilemma: is happiness an attitude or it is related to the circumstances that you have to face? Following the thoughts of the first authors that I read, in PARTICULAR Epictetus and the Stoics (Epicurus) initially I propended more for the attitude aspect -And in PARTICULAR I agree with Epictetus that “the circumstances” should refer more on how you behave in every situation, and not to what is outside of your control -I am still working on understanding why some people tends to believe and accept behavioral rules from outside and others cannot avoid questioning external rules and need to find their own, and if this two DIFFERENT levels of “behavioral rules”, extrinsic or intrinsic, can influence the final outcome, that is the “level” or the “intensity” of happiness you can reach -I guess there is a difference in the happiness that you can reach with this two DIFFERENT methods, at least in terms of awareness given the DIFFERENT level of efforts the two DIFFERENT groups of people need to put to be happy, but I still have to work on this, I am not satisfied with the answer I gave to myself up to now -Moreover, I reflected many times about “criminals” and I usually keep me updated with the psychological researches in this field, mainly because I am in love and genuinely curious about human nature and human mind and all the DIFFERENT faces of it -Second, having the possibility to talk and meet classmates that, as me, were interested in understanding the complexity of the world, in discussing abstract topics, in talking about philosophy, in respecting DIFFERENT point of views… was an extremely valuable gift for me, since I have rarely met such persons in Business Schools -What is next for me? Now that, thanks to this course, I have clear what I don’t want to do and what I don’t want to be, I have to start consider DIFFERENT options of what I want to be and do ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Final.pdf ------------------------- -Although I do agree to this distinction and granting of DIFFERENT levels of morality to DIFFERENT levels of “moral engagement” with society, I still cannot fully agree with Kohlberg’s theory that universal principles are the highest form I believe moral of moral development -development should also imply being able to recognise complexity and the DIFFERENT nuances of what would be right in DIFFERENT contexts -I realised While later reflecting on Socrates’ maxim of living the examined life I realised that in spite of our opposing views about the nature of reality and truth, this did not degrade the socratic methodology of living the examined life, but actually that this MULTIPLICITY of reality could make socratic dialogue even more valuable: instead of helping us reach one universal truth, socratica dialogue can help us discover other truths and hence enrich our own experiences, perceptions and perspectives -While discussing about happiness in our third session, it was interesting to see how in PARTICULAR, the the Hellenistic and Aristotelic definition of happiness is radically opposed to the concept of happiness much of society in wealthy countries today holds: stoicism and asceticism have been replaced by pleasure and instant gratification -In this respect, it was also very interesting to study Frankl’s theory of logotherapy and in PARTICULAR, how his of pan- determinism defied the influence of the in environment and goes a step further affirming human beings’ control of their lives and happiness, as he states that man always has a choice -We also were confronted to how the DIFFERENT situations of the inmates and the students shaped DIFFERENT realities for them that in turn somehow framed the path each took -§ Although it is still a work in process, I think the course and the dialectic technique have helped me become a better listener, in PARTICULAR, realising the importance of making sure that we understand what our counterpart really means; trying to identify the assumptions underlying their statements, and the importance of un- biasing ourselves and put our own opinions to the side while listening to other people in order to truly keep an open mind ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Final Essay - Dasha.pdf ------------------------- -He further defined virtue as the midpoint of two extremes, and living virtuously requires the fulfillment of a broad RANGE of conditions, including physical as well as mental well-being -Desires come in DIFFERENT shapes and forms -Compared to the time when most of Ying Tung (Dasha) Lin CEMS Spring 2016 the philosophical theories were developed, people nowadays have very DIFFERENT priorities and naturally have developed very DIFFERENT desires as well -Consequently, DIFFERENT questions aroused: Are we supposed to suppress our desires? Can desires be good or bad for us? To answer these questions, we defined desire as a more instinctive feeling, as opposed to wanting, a rationalized motive -Fear posts DIFFERENT meanings in DIFFERENT individuals, but it is also easy to be passed on -For instance, a tribe living in a secluded area in Africa would have very DIFFERENT ideas of morality than a group of university-educated students in Spain -We continued the discussion on morality by the introduction of DIFFERENT moral development theories -We were often taught to have Ying Tung (Dasha) Lin CEMS Spring 2016 priorities and way of handling matters that are DIFFERENT from that of men -Coming from a DIFFERENT cultural background, I do find myself resisting the desires to follow the stereotypes when they work in my favor -After this course, I would not say that I know much about the DIFFERENT schools of philosophy now, since that takes years to master ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Isabelle Spicker_Socratic Final.pdf ------------------------- -Moreover, it is a beautiful concept because everyone is DIFFERENT and contributes to this world in a DIFFERENT way according to his or her meaning in life ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/KGanko_paper.pdf ------------------------- -Instead of benefiting from gaining understanding through active listening and openness to DIFFERENT ideas they want to win the debate and do not question their opinions nor are willing to change them -Furthermore, during the session students analysed DIFFERENT philosophical approaches concerning happiness -Next approach was Spinoza’s contemplation that we should simply be happy, however it is a very naïve statement, since people have DIFFERENT emotions, and it is very hard to just simple be happy all the time -People can interpret the situation in many DIFFERENT ways -After discussing the theories, we moved to the analysis of our stories, and comparison of the results between DIFFERENT genders as well as between CEMS cohorts and other groups of students ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/SD_FinalEssay_AlessaVogler.pdf ------------------------- -I was so thankful because although my job there was not as meaningful as being a doctor, I felt like my presence made a DIFFERENT -We were 20 students from around ten DIFFERENT countries and three continents and despite all the differences that we embody, the endeavour to think for ourselves, to be responsible for our own actions, and to be willing to ‘educate’ others in that matter were characteristics that united us throughout the course -The output of dialogue is way more DIVERSE and often richer in content and higher in quality as it would be when debating -Desires have always been eyeballed with scepticism by philosophers and so we talked about the DIFFERENT perceptions of desires -There is, however, a DIFFERENT notion about desire -Our Relationship With Others first into six DIFFERENT stages -The During one of our classes we touched upon the topic of moral evolution and its DIFFERENT stages -She came up with three DIFFERENT stages of the “Ethic of Care” -The majority of a DIVERSE RANGE of women that she researched challenged the mostly male idea of isolated individuals that just coexist -Only thinking in black and white will rather lead to a debate than to a dialogue and in many cases will not result in DIVERSE and qualitatively high outcomes ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/socratic final essay.docx ------------------------- -It turns out that, how DIFFERENT or strange we might seem to each other we actually all share a passion to express ourselves and make ourselves understood and we all strangely somehow feel ashamed by doing it that we need an encouraging kick to open up -This discussion allowed me again to see the similarities between me and my classmates whom I for once assumed to be very DIFFERENT for me -Each discussion led to me believing we are not all that DIFFERENT and eliminating the ambiguity that we see in difference, I was able to feel more comfortable in class with those people -We live in a world where morality is a hard thing to define and to live by, in this course I was able to see how so many DIFFERENT variables affect the morality and ideology of a person that it each person requires specific attention to be understood, because morality or values are too complex to be defined by just a culture or a gender ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Marek Medvesek_Final essay_ Socratic Dialogue.pdf ------------------------- -Even though it seemed we were a rather homogenous group, the opinions on DIFFERENT matters varied vastly -There was no agreement within the group and each of us had DIFFERENT reasons supporting their choice -The main takeaway from this exercise for me was that somehow all of us managed to fit into various DIFFERENT established schools of philosophy: utalitarian, Marxist, liberal and Rawslean -Having stuck to my own values may have put me in a totally DIFFERENT, better place now -From this difficult statement we managed somehow to arrive at a yet DIFFERENT conclusion, that was directly related to the main subject of the class - DIFFERENT characters experience happiness in a DIFFERENT way -Again we have here the social pressure context - I will work hard all my life, have a beautiful wife and be crazy rich! Suddenly after 40 years it turns out you’ve wasted your life because what you actually wanted was something totally DIFFERENT -My pursuit for happiness will consist of constantly trying DIFFERENT things, because how otherwise can you actually understand yourself and what you want -7 Session 6 Morality We started off session 5 with a brief discussion about the 3 DIFFERENT morality development concepts: Kohlberg’s theory, Erikson’s Stage Theory and Gilligan’s Stages of The Ethic of Care -It turned out that our brain often tells us DIFFERENT things than our heart and comparing the two leads to interesting findings -We had very DIFFERENT opinions on that matter as well ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/AKBAR, Sumer - SD Final Essay.docx ------------------------- -By taking Socratic Dialogue, I had the opportunity to self-reflect and push boundaries to challenge my norms and rationalize why I think in a PARTICULAR manner -Through this exercise, I realized how similar and DIFFERENT I was in comparison to my peer group made up of 10 countries -Perhaps, it is our generation or the fact that we are all completing a similar Master’s program, or that relatively speaking, we have come from fortunate backgrounds with fewer and DIFFERENT difficulties than someone raised elsewhere -This does not discredit my experience; it just makes my perception very DIFFERENT than other -I continue to struggle to place myself in a PARTICULAR school of thought in the paradigm from Utilitarism to Marxism -Happiness is not temporary but rather fluctuates between DIFFERENT valleys and peaks throughout our lifetime -As a class, we came to the consensus that individuals experience happiness in DIFFERENT ways as represented by the schools of thought presented by Aristotle and Spinoza -Fear can manifest in many DIFFERENT forms -I've seen a number of DIFFERENT cases where people are so stuck in their fear that they are not willing to change their ways and their fear becomes a hindrance for future success -For example, the media tends to sensationalize many DIFFERENT events that happen ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Laker, Maximilian - Final Essay.pdf ------------------------- -Moreover, the remarkably DIFFERENT set-up of the course as a Socratic Dialogue made me interested in participating, on the one hand to learn from other students, and on the other hand to experience a completely new methodology -Moreover, listening to others phrasing their perception was also very valuable for understanding one’s own ideas better by corresponding or contrasting the DIFFERENT elements of their and my ideas -Sira Abenoza | ESADE | CEMS | Maximilian Laker atmosphere of this setting, encouraged everybody’s participation: We were genuinely listening to each other, referring to others’ remarks by building on what they had said and considering the DIFFERENT elements of their perspectives in a very differentiated manner, at times partially agreeing, at times partially disagreeing, but always respectful and in a constructive way -As a consequence, today’s generations are certainly less reflected and less aware of their PARTICULAR meaning -Frankl’s (temporary) meaning of publishing his unfinished manuscript, thus refers to a DIFFERENT degree of meaning of life ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Final Essay_Phillip Schmalzried.pdf ------------------------- -When talking about this with family and close friends, they all have a DIFFERENT set of advice -We have DIFFERENT perceptions as to what identity really is -We were discussing whether it was just to deprive people of their freedom for committing a crime, thereby discussing the DIFFERENT degrees of crime and evaluating how much damage these crimes cause to society -So while the majority of humans have a strong natural desire for justice, there are DIFFERENT approaches on how to ensure a just society -I have experienced this myself many times and for many DIFFERENT reasons, when experiencing the fear of making a mistake, of failure, or of disappointment for instance -I believe it is very important that we think of courage not only in the concept of fighting bravely, but also as the ability to overcome all the DIFFERENT fears we are experiencing, regardless of their nature ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/YelizSunay_FinalReflectionandEssay.pdf ------------------------- -I am very convinced that this is the most interesting course I have taken so far and I have started to look at things in a DIFFERENT way -According to my peers, there might be DIFFERENT definitions to thinking, they could either be subconscious or conscious and sometimes thinking would involve decision making -However, every person has a DIFFERENT mindset and therefore has a DIFFERENT thinking process, depending on a variety of factors -We were able to come to the conclusion that with the help of others we are able to connect the dots and see the world in a DIFFERENT view and supported ‘Aristotle’s statement that humans are social beings -I believe that this exercise was very beneficial in understanding the DIFFERENT perspectives and standpoints on the issue, and again there is no right and wrong here -When looking back at certain moments in my life I experienced DIFFERENT moments of happiness, or as Arturo was referring to it as ‘peaks of happiness’ -This clearly relates back to what ‘Carol Giligan’ said about women and there are many times we are trying to accommodate to our beloved ones and that the good woman is selfless, because of all the DIFFERENT voices present in her life -However, everyone has a ‘DIFFERENT voice’ and in the end I have to decide what makes me happy -I knew that this is what I want and I should stop listening to DIFFERENT voices -As mentioned during our final symposium I grew up in two DIFFERENT societies and have shared and experienced completely DIFFERENT values -These two societies are contradicting and laws are DIFFERENT-­‐ but ethics are universal -People have experienced DIFFERENT moments in their lives and nobody can judge them accordingly – yet if we see something wrong we need to speak up -Rather would I prefer to have less intimacy to people and maybe not being liked for being DIFFERENT instead of supporting evil actions and sacrificing myself ------------------------- ## Source: SPRING 2015/Dimitrios Mitropoulos - Final Essay.docx ------------------------- -And in this sense, I am a supporter of a DIFFERENT rehabilitation system -All in all, I am truly pleased for having the opportunity to see that in us, and as I mentioned, it is comforting to see that so many people from so DIFFERENT backgrounds have the same anxieties and thoughts about our world -------------------------