Abstract
This paper focuses on the fable as a sustainable good and presents some fables which foster the idea of sustainability.
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Notes
- 1.
The Perry Index is a widely-used index of “Aesop’s Fables” or “Aesopica”, the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Modern scholarship takes the view that Aesop probably did not compose all the fables attributed to him; indeed, a few are known to have been in circulation before Aesop’s time, while the first record we have of many others is from well over a millennium after his time. Traditionally, Aesop’s fables were arranged alphabetically, which is not helpful to the reader. Perry and Rodriguez Adardos separated the Greek fables from the Latin ones by putting the Greek ones first; then they arranged each group chronologically and by source; finally they arranged the fables alphabetically within these groups.
Ben Edwin Perry (1892–1968) was a professor of classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1924 to 1960. He was the author of Studies in the Text History of the Life and Fables of Aesop and many other books. His Aesopica (“A Series of Texts Relating to Aesop Or Ascribed to Him Or Closely Connected with the Literal Tradition that Bears His Name”) has become the definitive edition of all the fables attributed to Aesop, with fables arranged by their earliest-known source. His index of fables has been used as a reference system by later authors. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_index. (2012. 06.12).
- 2.
“Nicht allein aber die Kinder/sondern auch die grossen Fuersten und herrn/kan nicht bas betreigen/zur Warheit/und zu ihrem nutz/denn das mas inen lasse die Narren die Warheit sagen/dieselbigen koennen sie leiden und hoeren/sonst woellen oder koennen sie/ von keinem Weisen die Warheit leiden.” Martin Luthers Fabeln. W. Steinberg, 1961, pp. 86 (in Leibfried 1967, p. 3).
- 3.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote several fables with plants and objects as characters.
- 4.
In recent times, the fable has again been put to political use by both sides in the social debate between those who support a culture of enterprise and those who consider that the advantaged have a responsibility towards the disadvantaged.
The Greek economist Yanis Varouvakis uses the fable in his blog of the 15th of December 2012. A modern satirical version of the story, originally written in 1994, has the grasshopper calling a press conference at the beginning of the winter to complain about socio-economic inequity, and being given the ant’s house. This version was written by Pittsburgh talk show guru Jim Quinn as an attack on a social program of the Clinton administration in the USA. In 2008 Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin also updated the story to satirize the policies of ‘Barack Cicada’ (Wikipedia.org/wiki. The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper#The_moral_debate) Retrieved 2012-06-22.
Alternative versions of this fable have been written by W. Somerset Maughan (The Ant and the Grasshopper 1924) and John Updike (Brother Grasshopper 1987). In both stories it is the merry ‘grasshopper’ brother who at the end is in luck, while the hardworking ants pass their days in solitude. In Leo Leonni’s children’s book Frederick, the poet who does not gather food is recognized as a valuable member of the group.
- 5.
In Caxton’s translation (1484) this moral is added: For who trauaylleth wel / he hath euer brede ynough for to ete / And he that werketh not dyeth for honger. In L’Estrange’s Translation (1692) it is formulated as follows: THE MORAL. Good Counsel is the best Legacy a Father can leave to a Child, and it is still the better, when it is so wrapped up, as to beget a Curiosity as well as an Inclination to follow it.
- 6.
One could mention here ‘the invisible hand’ of Adam Smith. Benefits can sometimes be obtained even when they are unintended. In a more economic context: individual ambition benefits society, even if the ambitious have no benevolent intentions.
- 7.
www.leidenunivnl/fsw/verduin/kerst/festlent.htm (2012.06.12).
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Ghesquière, R. (2015). Sustainability and Wisdom: The Power of the Fable. In: Zsolnai, L. (eds) The Spiritual Dimension of Business Ethics and Sustainability Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11677-8_7
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