Philosophical Counselling as a Tool to Enhance Social Wellbeing

The history of public administration in the different parts of the world has explicitly revealed its evolution, i.e., the transformation of organization, operation and management of the different branches of government, and their relations. Since it is a product of human activities, as a “social contract” between those who are in the government (i.e., the political agents for social change, especially those in office whose power emanates from the people) and the citizens to respond to “public interest,” and achieve “common good” or “general welfare,” its co-existence with philosophy is absolutely certain, as public administration could not exist without philosophy, though philosophy could exist even without public administration.

Teaching Public Administration, 2019

Public administration can be considered as an applied, interdisciplinary field, whose study demands the contribution of a range of disciplines, including political science, management, law, sociology and others. The article argues that the disciplines of public administration should also include philosophy, not as a discipline (philosophy is not a discipline in the sense modern sciences are; rather, at the roots of philosophy are key questions: what there is (ontology); who we are (philosophy of the mind); how to live well (ethics); how to live well together (political philosophy) and so on) but as the foundation of all the other disciplines studying public administration, from political science (whose roots are in political philosophy), to management and sociology (whose underpinnings are in ontological conceptions of the individual and society), to law (whose roots are in the philosophy of law) and so on. If philosophy is foundational to public administration, then two key questio...

2002

ABSTRACT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND ETHICS: PERENNIAL QUESTIONS Okçu, Murat Ph. D., Department of Public Administration Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Şinasi Aksoy October 2002, 286 Pages Ethical approaches trying to define what is to be ethical for public administration are clustered around two rival theoretical frameworks: bureaucratic and democratic ethos. These ethical frameworks are foundational theories mainly because they try to establish universal foundations that help to derive appropriate moral conduct for public administrators. In this regard, the distinction between bureaucratic and democratic paradigms is the reflection of modernist foundational ethical cleavage to public administration. This thesis, however, asserts that an anti-foundational postmodern perspective completely rejecting foundational moral positions can be found and that only such a perspective can move the debate on administrative ethics to its right place. Instead of offering more ‘universal’ ethical standards, principles and rules, it forces us to ask more significant perennial questions and re-think organization, structure and processes of public administration in a framework which appeals to public administrators’ moral responsibility of ‘being for the Other’. This thesis also asserts that only anti-foundational perspective can offer an antidote to (administrative) ‘ethics in the form of law’. Keywords: Bureaucratic Ethos, Democratic Ethos, Anti-foundationalism, Postmodern Administrative Ethics. ÖZ KAMU YÖNETİMİ VE AHLAK: KÖKLÜ SORULAR Okçu, Murat Doktora, Department of Public Administration Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Şinasi Aksoy Ekim 2002, 286 Pages Kamu yönetimi için neyin ahlaki olduğunu tanımlamaya çalışan etik yaklaşımlar birbirine rakip iki kuramsal çerçevenin etrafında kümelenmektedirler: bürokratik etos ve demokratik etos. Bu etik çerçeveler kamu yöneticileri için uygun ahlaki davranışı ortaya çıkarmaya yardımcı olacak nihai temelleri kurmaya çalıştıkları için temel arayıcı kuramlardır. Bu anlamda bürokratik ve demokratik paradigmalar modern temel arayıcı ahlaki yarılmanın kamu yönetimine yansımasıdır. Oysa bu tez, temel arayıcı moral konumları bütünüyle reddeden temel arayıcı karşıtı postmodern bir yaklaşımın bulunabileceğini ve ancak böyle bir bakış açısının yönetsel ahlak üzerine yürütülen tartışmayı olması gerektiği yere taşıyabileceğini iddia etmektedir. Temel arayıcı karşıtı yaklaşım daha fazla ‘evrensel’ ahlaki standartlar, ilkeler ve kurallar sunmak yerine bizi çok daha anlamlı köklü soruları sormaya iter ve bizi kamu yöneticilerinin ‘Öteki için olmak’ şeklindeki ahlaki sorumluluklarına gönderme yapan bir çerçeve içerisinde kamu yönetiminin örgüt, yapı ve süreçlerini yeniden düşünmeye zorlar. Aynı zamanda bu tez yalnızca temel arayıcı karşıtı bakış açısının ‘yasa şeklindeki (yönetsel) ahlak’ anlayışına gerçek bir çözüm sunabileceğini iddia etmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Bürokratik Etos, Demokratik Etos, Temel Arayıcı Karşıtı Yaklaşım, Postmodern Yönetsel Ahlak.

2015

Ethics is an attempt to guide human conduct and it is also an attempt to help man in leading good life by applying moral principles. Ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics is related to issues of propriety, rightness and wrongness. What is right is ethical and what is wrong is unethical. Value is an important conception in ethical discussion. Values relate to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. In certain cultures norms reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. Different cultures reflect different values. Over the last three decades, traditional-age college students have shown an increased interest in personal well-being and a decreased interest in the welfare of others. Recently, the department of personnel and training has decided to change the pattern of the Civil Services Examination by stressing more on general studies and aptitude skills. A notification has been issued is this regard. From this year the Civil Services (Mains) will also have a separate paper on "ethics, integrity and aptitude". The notification for the 2013 exam said the "paper (on ethics, integrity and aptitude) will include questions to test the candidate's attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem-solving approach to various issues and conflicts in dealing with society". There are six major sections (i) Ethics and Human Interfaith, (ii) Attitude, (iii) Emotional Intelligence, (iv) Contributions of Moral thinkers and philosophers of India and World, (v) Public/Civil Service Values and Ethics in Public Administration and (vi) Probity in Governance. In this paper an attempt is made to describe the values needed in public service sector and ethical principles might use in public administration and related to the V section of this syllabus.

USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration, 2015

Public services represent useful activities designated to meet a social need. The laws and regulations empower the activities of public services, without indicating the motives for public services. The impact of government in day to day life of citizens and communities is increasingly greater in terms of both public affairs management and budgetary aspect. The power to spend the community resources and to influence the lives of others means at the same time a great responsibility. That is the responsibility to act morally (with integrity) and ensure effective spending of resources. This means not to corrupt and do not let yourself be bribed, but it also means openness to dialogue with stakeholders, internal organizational climate of trust and cooperation, internal procedures to ensure ethical advise. In this sense, in the last 20 years, the public sector has developed legal rules or internal policies, procedures and organizational tools to ensure the integrity and responsible leader...

This dissertation provides a critical analysis of public administration’s understanding of the relationship between rational thought and action in its discourse on ethics. It argues that rationalist ethics assume a particular relationship between thought and action: that good knowledge leads to good, proper action. While there have been many critiques of rationalist administrative ethics, scholars have not examined the way in which rationalism persists in the way in which the teaching of ethics is conducted. The use of the case study figures prominently in this. Thus, the dissertation explores the historical and theoretical intersection of rationalism, ethics, and teaching through the lens of the case study. It be- gins with a history of the pedagogical use of the case study and the institutional transfor- mations of the university. While conventional accounts of the field locate its founding in the United States in the municipal reform movement, here the founding of the field of public administration is recast through connections to reforms in the university including changes in epistemic assumptions, pedagogical methods, and curricular changes in ethics in which the case study is central and remains so as the field develops. The dissertation then considers scholarship in public administration that raises questions about rationalist ethics. Three critical approaches are explored: recognition of the uncertainty and com- plexity of administrative practice, critique as unmasking of power relationships, and the shift of ethics from an epistemological to an ontological inquiry. The dissertation builds on the work in this third approach and shows how it attempts to articulate a non- rationalist, or immanent, ethics. This ethics is concerned with exploring the conditions that make possible mutually beneficial relationships and meaningful lives from which categorical norms of the good life could emerge. Drawing on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, it is argued that the distinction Deleuze and Guattari make between “arborescent” and “rhizomatic” knowledge gets to the root of the tension be- tween thought and action and offers an innovative and useful way to advance an imma- nent, non-rational ethics. The challenge digital technologies and the information society present to the field is considered to illustrate the need to rethink administrative ethics and also the particular usefulness of Deleuze and Guattari in doing so. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of pedagogical practices and classroom examples that encourage a rhizomatic understanding of the theory and practice of public administration.

The paper examines the control of power, using an account of the public good developed from Aristotle. It identifi es three different perspectives on the relationship between governance (the control of power) and the public good: a ' cybernetic ' perspective, an ' axiological ' perspective, and a perspective of ' critique ' . This framework offers a way to scrutinize the exercise of power, and to evaluate the linkages between a political administration and its citizenry. To evaluate an administration ' s legacy, this framework suggests we should study: (1) how an administration controls power over time;