Some Regards on the Possibilities of Constructing an Appreciative Ethics

FORMAT | Presented paper

LANGUAGE | English

HOW TO CITE| SANDU, Antonio. (2014). Some Regards on the Possibilities of Constructing an Appreciative Ethics. Prezentată la International Conferences Engineering Philosophy & Ethics in Society-EPHES 2014, 20-22 July 2014, Suceava, România.

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Replacing welfare society with the network society, globalization of interdependence and the reconstruction of social paradigms through displacing individuality obsession specific to postmodern society, with “transmodern spiritualization of borders” (Sandu, 2009c), will change the social interventions objectives from dynamic potentialities of self-determination and self-update of the client (Rogers, 1966). This change will be manifested into the adaptive restructuring of social networks for positive development of the client. The client individual-centred intervention model or task centred model are both tributary to the individualistic and deconstructivist vision specific to postmodern paradigm. The individual is natively equipped with the necessary self-actualization skills (Rogers, 1966) that counsellor’s intervention should cultivate, showing to the client the option that will ultimately lead to solving the social problems he/she faces. Individualism is a methodological option, and therefore social intervention in a postmodern manner aims at the individual himself/herself (client-centred approach) or the individual in action (task-based approach). In terms of appreciation, we can see both models as belonging to the deficiency paradigm, because one of the main stages of the intervention is to identify the problem. Both views, and most of those based on deficiency paradigm (Cooperrider, Srivatsva apud Cojocaru, S., 2005), are tributary to the deconstruction model and therefore to postmodernism. We base this statement precisely on atomization of social reality, which is the substrate of failure identification. Failure of the (autonomous) individual is related to malfunctioning of the systems that comprise it.

The appreciative model has on the other hand as an epistemological substrate, the principle of connectivity and social interdependence. Individuals are not only equipped with self-actualization potential which can produce social change, but they are the very key of changing through attitudes, which are generated in social networks and responses generated within networks. The autonomy of the subject is represented, in the context of appreciative practice, by this very self-actualization potential. From epistemological view, the appreciative model is tributary to transmodern perspective and therefore can be conducted in the coordinates of a multi-layered social reality, where the client is part of a communicational and interpretative trans-network.

KEYWORDS:

Possibilities of Constructing, Appreciative Ethics, appreciative ethics.