Book Summary of Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women ofConscience by Rushworth M. Kidder
Citation:
Rushworth M. Kidder. Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women of Conscience. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994, 332 pp.
This Book Summary written by: Conflict Research Consortium Staff
Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women of
Conscience attempts to identify a core of
globally shared ethical values. The author interviews twenty-four
notable thinkers of diverse interests and cultural backgrounds, asking each to
describe their fundamental moral principles. Drawing on these
interviews, Kidder describes a core of common ethical values.
Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women of
Conscience will be of interest to those who
seek an ethical "common ground" from which to address issues of global
significance. This work is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter
argues that we need a globally shared code of ethics to "help
create the moral conditions for a sustainable twenty-first century."
Chapters two through six present the interviews, grouped by topic. In the final
chapter the author distills an eight-point code of ethical values from these
interviews.
Chapter two focuses on religion, philanthropy and charity.
This chapter includes interviews with Reuban Snake, Native-American tribal
chief; James A. Joseph, executive with a national philanthropic foundation;
Shojun Bando, Buddhist monk; Le Ly Hayslip, Vietnamese writer and activist; and
Father Bernard Przewozny, administrator of an international environmental prize.
Chapter three considers the ethical values associated with education
and youth, interviewing Graca Machel, former first lady of Mozambique;
Derek Bok, former Harvard University president; Dame Whina Cooper, New Zealand
Maori activist; A. H. Halsey, Oxford don; and Jill Ker Conway, Australian
author and former Smith College president.
Chapter four, Entrepreneurs and the Economy, concentrates on
ethics in business. Interviewed are: Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi
banker; Kenneth Boulding, British economist and author; James K. Baker,
American CEO; Newton Minnow, former Federal Communications Commission chairman;
John W. Gardner, founder of the citizen lobbying organization Common Cause.
Chapter five, discusses values in literature and journalism.
The writers interviewed include Nien Cheng, Chinese author; Varindra Tarzie
Vittachi, Sri Lankan journalist and former United Nations official; Astrid
Lindgren, Swedish author; Sergio Munoz, Hispanic columnist and editor; and
Katharine Whitehorn, British columnist.
Chapter six focuses on issues of political leadership, government
and politics. Individuals interviewed include Oscar Arias, Nobel
Laureate, Salim El Hoss, former Prime Minister of Lebanon; Jeane Kirkpatrick,
former U. N. ambassador; Federico Mayor, director-general of UNESCO.
The final chapter discusses eight core values which constitute a global code
of ethics: love, truthfulness, fairness, freedom, unity, tolerance,
responsibility, and respect for life.
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