Preconditions of a “good society”

The UK-based Centre for Social Ontology (CSO) held the fifth and last Morphogenetic Project workshop. Contributions to the final volume to be published in the Springer book series were discussed. The topic “Morphogenesis & Eudaimonia” comprised social science and humanities accounts of necessary and sufficient conditions of a “good society”.

Jamie Morgan, Reader at the Leeds Beckett University School of Accounting, Finance and Economics on tax avoidance through financial engineering (all photos: Wolfgang Hofkirchner)

“Morphogenesis” is a term used to describe unexpected social change in late modernity. “Eudaimonia” goes back to Aristotle’s virtue ethics designating good life and happiness. It is a matter of fact that recent developments make us raise doubts about how human thriving can be achieved, when even human surviving is at stake. How can we take advantage of morphogenesis in order to make it promote the common good for all?

The book containing answers to that question is scheduled for next year.

The workshop took place at SciencesPo Paris (formerly known as Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris) from 5 to 8 January 2016. The Bertalanffy Center is affiliated to the CSO.

Margaret S. Archer, CSO Director, University of Warwick, UK, Ismael Al-Amoudi, CSO Deputy Director, Cardiff University, UK, and Mark Carrigan, CSO Research Fellow, University of Warwick, UK

Philip Gorski, Yale University, U.S., Douglas Porpora, Drexel University, U.S., Colin Wight, University of Sidney, Australia

Jamie Morgan, Leeds Beckett University, UK, Andrea Maccarini, University of Padova, Italy, Emmanuel Lazega, SciencesPo, France, and Pierpaolo Donati, University of Bologna, Italy

The presentation of Wolfgang Hofkirchner can be found here.