ABSTRACT
Scandals, crises and major fi nancial improprieties have now become quite familiar news events within the worlds of business and professional services. In the wake of this, questions have been posed as to what is the function of ethical precepts and ethical problem-solving perspectives in the provision of justice, equity and the common good, not only in regard to individual conduct but also concerning the operation of businesses and organisations, even regulatory systems. Yet such questions are not new; Aristotle in the fourth century BC posed quite similar questions albeit in different circumstances, arguing that this good, this aspiration for a life optimally characterised by happiness or eudaimonia, is achieved by way of ethics. For Aristotle, as for many philosophers and commentators since, the wisdom to understand and put into practice ethical precepts is the best guarantor of personal fl ourishing or completeness. Aristotle would, moreover, suggest that major ethical virtues, or values as they currently may be termed, ought apply not only in the private dealings that one person has with another, but equally ought be relevant to social, community and public domains such as those of business, of civic organisations, of family and friendship, as well as in a variety of other contexts like those of leisure, recreation and travel. Aristotle (1955) in his The Ethics of Aristotle-the Nicomachean Ethics paints a picture of ethics that suggests an overarching relevance when the question arises as to how best a person might attain happiness. Ethical values here are seen to form an indivisible whole that admits no selective adoption; nor do they take second place to practices such as expediency, avarice or even convenient dishonesty. The attainment of happiness, in Aristotle’s view, did not come from selective virtue driven by the desire for material wealth and prestige; rather, it could only be realised by those ethical virtues such as honesty, altruism, courage and loyalty. This chapter will examine a number of perspectives wherein Aristotle’s views on the good life and ethics emerge in the positive psychology movement. The chapter will elucidate a number of core dimensions associated with well-being such as wisdom, life challenges, creativity and resilience as they now emerge within and severally shed light upon tourist behaviour; tourists and volunteers within cultural heritage contexts, industry ethical challenges in the context of tourists with a disability, creative
strategies in industry employment and training, work stress, mentoring and ethical climates within industry organisations will each be explored. The chapter will fi nally present a model adumbrating the associations that link wisdom, ethics and various tourism contexts with well-being.
