ABSTRACT
Truth means measuring choices against enduring ethical values, and thus against the inalienable dignity of the human being in the face of his temporal and eternal destiny. The Naples Declaration was adopted by all attendees at the World Meeting “The Human Being and the City. People need a reason, open to the ultimate horizon of life and history, to live together in true human dignity. Any vision of the city separated from its ethical and spiritual roots will inevitably be ephemeral and inconsistent. The ethical basis for the action might well be linked to Saint Augustine’s inspired reflection in an historical moment no less dramatic and complex than people own, during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The ideal of so-called good governance has a strong ethical element: it requires the participation of all stakeholders in decision-making and seeks to serve the community rather than taking advantage of it in order to build consensus.
