Cultivating a Global Mentality: Virtue Ethics for an Age of Globalization

Cultivating a global mentality is a contemporary need with a view to the formation of good habits or virtues necessary for co-existence in the present situation of globalization. Rather than providing a critique of globalization in terms of whether it is leading towards integral development or not (a method more suited along the lines of a deontological or teleological ethics), the author has preferred to adopt an approach more in keeping with virtue ethics. Accordingly, he has focused on the cultiva-­ tion of key virtues which are not only necessary to survive in this new age of globalization, but also to flourish in such a world. Furthermore, the cultivation of these virtues is with a view to guiding the processes of development along more salubrious lines. The virtues chosen are the following: dialogical plural­ ism, creative visualization, collaborative solidarity, transnational responsibility and pro-active optimism. A basic theme which underlies the discussion is the role of religion in this contempo­- rary situation, and how religion has the power to cultivate these virtues so as to flourish within such a world and also to guide such a world towards integral personal and social development