Friends, Strangers, Enemies: Ethics at a Time of Populism

Prof. Ron Beadle, Northumbria University

In this seminar Northumbria Professor Ron Beadle will introduce his new book project 'Friends, Strangers, Enemies: Ethics at a time of populism'.  

Ron argues that populism must be understood in ethical terms.  If we do this, we find that populists replace an assumption of conventional ethical theory, that everyone has equal worth, with a feature of ethical anthropology, that people prioritise the interests of their friends over those of strangers and enemies.  Famous studies, from The Hawthorne experiments to Stanley Milgram, provide evidence how these dynamics impact on human action and ethical evaluation. Populism exploits this dynamic, by encouraging people to conflate similarity with friendship.  

In the discussion, we will consider how this might be countered.

About the speaker: Professor Ron Beadle joined Newcastle Business School in 1992; his work is regularly cited in research on the virtues in organisations.  He has been a local councillor since 1996, leads the Liberal Democrat opposition on Gateshead Council and writes a regular column in The Journal.'