Heraclitus of Ephesus stated that we can not go into the same river twice. Each time it is a different river because everything flows (panta rei). This absolutization of becoming is dangerous as it is pointing to relativism and, in consequence, to skepticism: if things are constantly changing, how can we reach the truth? A true statement becomes false from the moment it is asserted! The person who corrected Heraclitus was Plato who used a logical argument: if there were no fixed point of reference, how could we tell that everything is flowing? He invented the World of Ideas, of immutable essences, for logical reasons: to be able to consider change we need fixed references, which are not subject to the becoming process.
In our days, Heraclitus’ river can be replaced by a waterfall. The 20th century has been designated “the century of speed”, our century is that of acceleration, and in the past few years there have been discussions about the “acceleration of acceleration”. Unlike the ancient Greeks, we are no longer able to find references in a platonic myth. For this reason, we need value systems that provide evaluation criteria for the change around us so that we may know what is worth accepting and what is not, what is worth taking over in our projects and what is not. Academia is the environment in which eternal values are preserved in the best conditions. Here, ideas, concepts, and values are not accepted only because they are fashionable; for them to be accepted, they must pass the test of time. At the same time, preserving authentic ideas is not confounded with dogmatism and with closed minds that are seen in other conservative environments.
As a consequence, ethics in academia is more than a simple objective amongst others, it represents the entire reason for academia’s existence. It is part of our value system, which was designated by the students from the University of Bologne in the 11th century, Universitas. Today, the mission of the university is to shape, at the same time, competent and moral specialists; morality can not be considered as an arbitrary extra when discussing training. A professional is either moral or s/he does not exist.
In today’s world, moral values are more than optional extras for individuals and organizations, they became means of legitimizing in the public space. An individual can not claim access to public office if he is not perceived as a trustworthy person; a corporation can not continue to endure in the market economy if it does not pass a good citizen (citizen company). This is why the graduates of a university with a “high degree of trust” must be formed in the best ethical climate, which conveys information about ethics and about the applied ethics of the specific environment for which they are training. At the same time, it conveys an ethical attitude toward work and toward the tasks from the future workspace.
The ethical formation process is extremely complex and has many specific features when compared with other formative processes. As a wise, inspired man, as was father Arsenie Boca, once said, we can give others from what we have or from what we are. In the moral education of the students, it is not enough to pass a part of the knowledge that we possess, we must also pass a part of our way of being; the first method relies on explicit learning, and the second, on tacit learning. Moral education is mainly achieved through tacit learning; it is inconceivable in the absence of a personal example.
Here is why a project that has targeted the formation of faculty members in their capacity of moral examples for students – irrespective of the taught subject – has proven extremely useful. It has facilitated the awareness of habits, customs, automatisms, mental biases, and verbal cliches which do not synchronize with the aforementioned objective: the moral education of the students through tacit learning. It has helped the young faculty members of SNSPA to better control that part of the institutional behavior that has an ethical impact on the students.
About the author
Dumitru Borţun is a doctor of philosophy and university professor at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest – SNSPA. He is teaching disciplines centered on corporate social responsibility and ethics. In 2009, the National Alliance of Student Organizations from Romania – ANSOC awarded him with the title of Professor Bologna, given to teachers who “are appreciated by students, add value to education in Romania and are models for students”. He has published numerous books, studies, essays, and articles. He is often invited by mass media to share his experience and knowledge. He is among the founding members of the Romanian Public Relations Association – ARRP (since 1995), whose president he was between 2005 and 2008. He is currently the President of the Honorary Jury of ARRP.
