TEHRAN - Professor John Haldane believes that the best approach to ethics and politics is the one provided by “the natural law tradition that originates in ancient philosophy.”

Haldane, a professor of St. Andrews University, made the remarks in an e-mail interview with the Mehr News Agency conducted by Hossein Kaji and Javad Heiran-Nia.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: What are the most important questions about the relationship between ethics and politics?
A: As regards the matter of ethics and politics. I believe that the latter should properly concern the promotion and protection of the common-good, subject to respect for authentic individual liberties. There are I think two opposing errors to be avoided: first treating politics as if it were not constrained by moral values; and treating politics as it it were a means of achieving perfection. The first priority for politics should be to protect values, and only secondarily to promote particular ends.
Q: Some thinkers have focused on the point that the Kantian ethics is for personal spheres and the utilitarian ethics is for public spheres such as political environment. Do you agree with this viewpoint?
A: My own judgment is that the best approach to ethics and politics is that provided by the natural law tradition that originates in ancient philosophy and was developed in the medieval period in both the west and the east. Kantians emphasize respect; Utilitarians emphasize welfare; the natural law tradition acknowledges these but also has regard to virtue and the aim of achieving the human good individually and socially.
John Haldane is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, where he also directs the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs