Moralism and Morally Accountable Beings

abstract In this paper I consider the nature of the purported vice of moralism by examining two examples that, I suggest, exemplify this vice: the first from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter; the second from David Owen's account of his experience as European negotiator between the warring parties in the former Yugoslavia. I argue that in different ways both these examples show the kind of human weakness or failure that is involved in the most extreme version of moralism, a weakness that involves an inability to see or acknowledge those one seeks to judge as real, morally accountable, human beings.     

Is The New Entrepreneurial Era Over?

ABSTRACT The United States experienced an outburst of entrepreneurial energy in the early 1970s that flooded through the 1980s. But, why did the outburst occur? And, why did it occur when it did? Long term trends including the changing role of women and the two-income family, new technology, lower costs of business entry, and a supportive culture propped a general rise in entrepreneurial activity. However, economic turbulence, the baby boom generation and the residual of 1960s attitudes were the catalysts. Whether that outburst of entrepreneurial energy will continue through the 1990s is doubtful.