Severyn T. Bruyn

The Moral Economy

Scottish philosophers in the eighteenth century interpreted the market economy as a “civil society,” a path toward freedom and a new morality, separate from monarchal government. They expected markets to be self regulating and expected them to function with ties to a moral life. The market was a civil order, but that vision was destroyed when corporations rose to power in succeeding centuries, and governments were enlarged to regulate markets. Today we see a concern about big corporations and government bureaucracy, and a return to the idea of a “civil society.” This article proposes that todays vision of “civil society” is advanced by an economy that returns to its principles of self (civil) regulation. Markets become civil and self regulating when government, business, and nonprofits cooperate to create systems of social accountability for the common good. A self-regulating market is constructed experimentally through civil associations with self-enforceable codes of conduct, civic-oriented partnerships, legislation, banking, investments, and corporations whose policies are based on stakeholder studies that reduce moral and financial costs. Modest steps toward a self-regulating economy offers a foundation for todays version of a “civil society.”

The Dialectical Society

Dialectical thought can be traced to early Chinese and Greek writings and then forward through modern thought and contemporary social theory. Its history and systematics are complicated and not within our purview here, but its significance and meaning for contemporary theory cannot be ignored. It clarifies the nature of social scientific work in the context of society with a power of insight that eludes all other forms of social theory. It generates insight into the opposition between the subject and the object in the totality of society. In the process, it helps explain the transition of sociology in American society from a profession whose culture has been characterized by objectivity, rationality, and individuality to a position appearing to move in the very opposite direction. It does not assume that social knowledge is derived primarily through the scientific method or professional studies. It assumes that knowledge is derived in the social whole where people live together as human beings. Consequently, it presents a major challenge to professional theorists in the complicated modern transition toward new institutions in society. The full recognition of the meaning of the dialectic

What is Sacred in a Secular University

Alpha Omega University is located on a beautiful campus of rolling green hills and small pine groves in the Midwest. For the past one hundred and fifty years, it has been a successful private university, with a college of arts and sciences, a school of law, and a school of business. Decades ago, a large state university was established near by; in recent years, it has been attracting students away from Alpha Omega. While Commonwealth State University (CSU) has been growing rapidly, building curriculum diversity, an accomplished faculty, and new science and technology laboratories, Alpha Omega has been struggling. The administrative costs at Alpha Omega are high, too high to be competitive with CSU.

A global civil economy

Abstract Every nation in the world has found it necessary to regulate markets to protect consumers, workers, and the public, but there are no plans to regulate business in the global market. There is no world government with agencies which can monitor and control corporate misconduct at the world level. The concept of a civil society, however, supplies ideas which have guided political philosophy for centuries, and today it is shaping public policy and socioeconomic research. This article (a) conceptualizes the problem of global markets in a civil society, (b) examines global business linked to civil market solutions, and (c) stresses the organization of world conferences to advance socioeconomic research on civil markets.