Abstract
The title of this essay suggests that one’s dealings with others might be ‘transparent’ in two senses: either in one’s ends or in one’s means. Of course, one may wish to combine the two but they pull in opposing directions. In the former case, one makes explicit an aim that is purportedly shared with the interlocutor, such as truth, justice or even mutual benefit. In the latter case, one is less concerned that the other party wants what she wants than that the other party abides by certain agreed procedures. Taken to their respective extremes, the pure pursuit of transparent ends could license the use of deceptive means, whereas the pure pursuit of transparent means could foster a sense of indifference to the fate of the other party, as long as they follow the rules. The difference is grounded in a timehonoured distinction rooted in medieval scholastic philosophy between the endstransparent intuitive and the means-transparent discursive expression of reason.
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Fuller, S. (2010). Be Transparent Only in Your Ends, Never Your Means. In: Jansen, S., Schröter, E., Stehr, N. (eds) Transparenz. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92466-3_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92466-3_26
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