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Reestablishing the Commons for the Common Good

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Reestablishing the Commons for the Common Good Reestablishing the Commons for the Common Good Howard Gardner Abstract: For individuals living in a small community, the notion of “common good” seems almost nat- ural; it can be thought of simply as neighborly morality. However, in a complex modern society, it is far more challenging for individuals to de½ne and agree upon what is the common good. Nonetheless, two Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/142/2/199/1830201/daed_a_00213.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 contemporary roles would bene½t from embracing a broader sense of the good: 1) membership in a pro- fession; and 2) membership in a polity. Drawing on ½ndings from the GoodWork Project, I describe how the common good can become a guiding value in the professional and civic realms; discuss threats to such guiding values; and suggest some ways to promote the common good in contemporary American society. As high-end primates, human beings in earlier eras presumably had some notion of “common good.” Parents made sacri½ces for their children, and later in life, the favor was often returned. Siblings and more distant relatives cared for one another and, perhaps, for a broader group of persons. Precisely when such solidarity transcended blood relationships will likely never be known. The work of anthropologist Robin Dunbar hints at the scope of early conceptions of the common good.1 Dunbar argues that individuals can comfortably maintain relationships with up to 150 people: the maximum HOWARD GARDNER number of individuals in a clan or small tribe who , a Fellow of see each other regularly, and whose behavior– the American Academy since 1995, is the John H. and Elisabeth A. friendly and helpful, or hostile and injurious–can Hobbs Professor of Cognition and be remembered for purposes of cooperation or Education at the Harvard Gradu- retaliation. ate School of Education, where he I have coined the phrase neighborly morality to is also the Senior Director of Har- denote this conception of the common good.2 vard Project Zero. His many publi- Here, individuals handle a manageable cognitive cations include Truth, Beauty, and load, with some capacity to solve existing problems Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Age of Truthiness and and to anticipate new ones. It is logical for such Twitter (2012), Leading Minds (1995), individuals to help one another from time to time, and Frames of Mind: The Theory of to work together toward goals that would be Multiple Intelligences (1983). dif½cult or impossible to achieve independently. © 2013 by Howard Gardner 199 Reestab- Indeed, this is what happens in small set- compelled to do so; but some citizens lishing the tlements. also understood why it might be in their Commons for the Consider the Ten Commandments and interest to cooperate in such large-scale Common the Golden Rule. Traditional injunctions ventures. Whether literally religious, like Good make sense when dealing with a manage- Christianity or Islam, or better described able number of acquaintances. Honor your as spiritual, like Confucianism or Shinto, parents and desist from lying, stealing the belief systems of these civilizations from, and disrespecting your neighbors. provided rationales for pro-social behav- Moreover, sanctions that follow the break- ior, which motivated some inhabitants. ing of these codes–whether imposed by Both formal and informal educational the community or by God–reinforce the systems also represented efforts to instill desirability of the neighborly form of the such cooperative behaviors in the next Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/142/2/199/1830201/daed_a_00213.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 common good. generation. We lack thorough histories of such My concern is not with authoritarian small human groups. Communities large or totalitarian societies–the pharaohs of and literate enough to leave written Egypt, the Qin emperors in China–or records have dwarfed the type of neigh- the fascist and communist dictators of borhood that Dunbar describes. Yet the the twentieth century. Rather, the chal- need to recognize and address the com- lenge is to understand the speci½c condi- mon good scarcely disappears with the tions under which a voluntary conscien- emergence of larger settlements, villages, tiousness emerges in nonauthoritarian cities, and states. societies. In such cases, individuals who Is there evidence of voluntarism in have the freedom to behave sel½shly working for the common good in these instead elect to devote signi½cant effort larger communities? The slaves of Egypt to bene½t the larger polity. In contrast to built pyramids, burial tombs, and mas- neighborly morality, I term this variety of sive granaries that served others, but we service the ethics of roles. The two principal have no reason to believe that their roles with regard to serving the common actions were voluntary. So, too, serfs and good are those of the worker and of the peasants in ancient and medieval times citizen. mined for precious metals and harvested The ethical citizen views the polity as crops. Indeed, much of the political theory an extension of himself and his interests. developed in Europe in the seventeenth Not only does the ethical citizen identify and eighteenth centuries was an attempt with his city, region, or state; but con- to determine whether such apparently cerned with the welfare of that entity, he selfless actions were compulsory; or is willing to contribute to it, whether or whether people joined together voluntarily not he and his kin bene½t directly. to serve what they believed was a broader Such powerful civic associations are good than that extended to kith and kin. illustrated by the Athenians’ long-hon- ored concern with the welfare of their With the growth of states and the city. In ½fth century Athens, young adult emergence of nations, centralized pow- males swore the following oath: ers came to the fore. Inhabitants of the We will never bring disgrace on this our city great empires–Chinese, Indian, Ottoman, through an act of dishonesty or cowardice. Holy Roman–did not merely elect to pay taxes and tribute or to bear arms in a mili- We will ½ght for the ideals and Sacred Things tary expedition. At minimum they were of the city both alone and with many. 200 Dædalus, the Journal ofthe American Academy of Arts & Sciences We will revere and obey the city’s laws, and the greater good can be discerned in the Howard will do our best to incite a like reverence emergence of labor unions in Europe and Gardner and respect in those above us who are the Americas. prone to annul them or set them at naught. The ethical worker emerged with the development of the professions, some- We will strive increasingly to quicken the times called the learned professions. Paral- public’s sense of civic duty. leling the oath of the Athenian citizen is Thus, in all these ways we will transmit this the Hippocratic Oath, which is generally city, not only not less, but greater and more considered the ½rst example of a profes- beautiful that it was transmitted to us.3 sional oath and is still commonly taken today in one or another form. By taking In Western civilization since the height the oath, the physician pledges to come Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/142/2/199/1830201/daed_a_00213.pdf by guest on 29 September 2021 of Athens, there have been both periods to the aid of those who are sick, to do so of active ethical citizenship and periods without regard to the patient’s ability to when the role of the ethical citizen was pay, to avoid any form of bribery, to pass quiescent or even absent. Some periods on the trade to the next generation, and of ethical citizenship coincided with reli- to respect the patient’s privacy. While the gious agendas: for example, participation oath may protect the special status of the in the Crusades on behalf of Christen- profession, it also represents a pioneering dom seems to have been voluntary on the effort to stipulate what it means to serve part of many. Other periods coincided the larger community–the common good. with political revolution–be it the Amer- In the early 1960s Dædalus devoted an ican Revolution, the French Revolution, entire issue to the American professions. the founding of the modern Chinese The professions were then at their heights: state, or the Russian Revolution of the “Everywhere in American life, the profes- early twentieth century. It is also possible sions are triumphant,” remarked editor to evaluate and rank polities in terms of Kenneth Lynn.4 Professionals had pres- civic concern for the common good. tige, status, and adequate compensation. Contemporary Scandinavian and other They were viewed as individuals, and Northern European countries, for exam- because they had mastered their material, ple, stand out for embracing a voluntary were current in knowledge, and had been form of the common good. East Asian endorsed by the masters of their chosen countries also demonstrate a concern guild, they were granted considerable with the common good, though it may be autonomy. They were perceived as author- somewhat less volitional on the part of ities, capable of rendering disinterested their citizens. judgments in the face of complexity and The role of the ethical worker comple- uncertainty. Soon additional sectors of ments that of the ethical citizen, and its society, from business to journalism, history is no less complex. Early instances emulated the “gold standards” of medi- of the ethical worker include the emer- cine, law, and the professoriate with regard gence of trades and guilds in the late Mid- to credentialing, service, and objectivity.
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