Original scientific paper
Being a Whistleblower (Parrhesiastes) – a Virtue of Courage or a Vice of Insanity
Franjo Mijatović
; Theology of Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Abstract
The article interprets and analyzes the global phenomenon of whistleblowing as one of the virtues, in the contemporary context of the ethics of virtues. The engagement of the individual whistleblowers in the social and political context is important, and the ethical and philosophical implications of whistleblowing are evident. But, whistleblowing as a virtue is not isolated, its roots are set in the value of the truth of the information possessed by the whistleblowers. These are of a crucial importance for every individual and society which receives the information. Therefore, the whistleblowing as virtue is unconceivable without the truth and courage for the truth. The main concern of the western philosophy is the truth, its universality and applicability in the practical and theoretical space of human existence. This exposing truth should guarantee a minimal moral system. Those who love the truth take care of the subsistence of such a system, and in this context, these are the parrhesiasteses in Foucaluts’ interpretation and the whisteblowers. The author interprets the activity of the whistleblower as the basic concern for the truth of the parrhesiastes, and ponders the possibility of its actualization in the society.
Keywords
whistleblowing; information; the ethics of virtues; Foucault; parrhesia; the courage of the truth
Hrčak ID:
177604
URI
Publication date:
6.3.2017.
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