THE MORALLY DECENT HR MANAGER 269Moreover, in discussing the pressure to compromise morality, many of the
HR managers indicated that they would only go so far: that at some point they
must ‘draw a line in the sand’. The point at which this line is drawn varied
across the HR managers interviewed and most said it was hard to draw a sharp
line. They all strongly affirmed a desire to act decently but it was clear that
knowing whether morality is at risk and, if it is, what a decent course of action
is, is difficult to discern. This is an area where guidance can be helpful.
Agnes Heller’s work as a path through debates
in moral philosophy
Without undertaking an exhaustive review (see Macklin 2001 for a fuller
description), any account of ethics should, in my view, address at least three
contemporary debates in moral philosophy: debates about the foundations of
morality, the universality of ethics, and the constitution of the self. The debate
about foundations focuses on whether it is possible to ground morality outside
human construction and whether an individual can assert moral claims as
more than statements of personal preference. The debate about universality
is concerned with the question of whether it is possible to identify or con-
struct moral principles that are capable of applying universally to any human
communities. Finally, the debate about the constitution of the self focuses
on the relationship between the ‘self’ and community and at its extremes
whether the self is prior to community or if it is the community that defines
the self.
In broad terms, Agnes Heller has written her philosophy with a commit-
ment to taking into account the situation and context that people face in
contemporary societies. She seeks to provide a framework that allows for
diversity and pluralism, recognizes the socially embedded nature of morality
and still affords a basis for critique.
More specifically, and with respect to the foundations of morality, Heller
does not rely on thick descriptions of the natural ends or goods of human life.
She identifies in a number of places (see especially Heller 1987a, 1985) the
development of endowments into talents and emotional depth in personal
attachments as essential elements of the good life. In a later work (1996)
she discusses the beautiful or sublime character and love which also points
towards the importance of talents and emotional depth. However, they are not
for Heller the direct foundations of morality. For her, decency is fundamental
to a good life, but she does not contend that people should be decent because
it will help them achieve a good life. In this sense, Heller’s approach is not
teleological or consequentialist. An act does not become moral simply because