Ryan Shea

Located in Ghent, New York, The Nature Institute is one of only a handful of organizations worldwide dedicated to a rigorous application and further development of the Goethean method in ongoing scientific research and training (natureinstitute.org). These efforts are expressed practically in research projects, educational programs, and publications. We work to understand the living world as a dynamic, interconnected whole. Wholeness includes the scientist as a participant in a respectful dialogue with the wisdom that is inherent in nature. By researching, uncovering, and communicating the interconnected nature of things, we offer ways to overcome the destructive tendencies of fragmentation and isolation that dominate our age. We strive to embrace the complexity of life in all its appearances and awaken the capacity to care for the planet we share.

While many scholars agree that the ‘‘separation thesis’’ (Freeman in Bus Ethics Quart 4(4):409–421, 1994)—that business issues and ethical issues can be neatly compartmentalized—is harmful to business ethics scholarship and practice, they also conclude that eliminating it is either inadvisable because of the usefulness of the positive/ normative distinction, or actually impossible. Based on an exploration of the fact/value dichotomy and the pragmatist and virtue theoretic responses to it, we develop an approach to eliminating the separation thesis that integrates ‘‘business’’ with ‘‘ethics’’ while still permitting a positive/ normative distinction, which we call ‘‘ethics from observation.’’