The Parable of the Sadhu describes a real incident where a group of hikers found an injured sadhu in the Himalayas. Each hiker did a small part to help the sadhu but no one took full responsibility for ensuring his well-being. Later, one of the hikers realized they had walked by an ethical dilemma without proper action. While rule-based theories could justify the hikers' individual actions, they failed to explain why the hikers' actions were still blameworthy or address the relevance to corporate ethics. The story shows that groups and individuals have a responsibility to do more than just the minimally permissible in ethical dilemmas and instead act heroically.

1. The Parable of the Sadhu
Presented By
Abhishek Mudiganti U110124
Akankshit Kanungo U110126
Ansuman Pradhan U110128
Siddharth Panda U110167
Sumit Mishra U110174

2. Case Facts
• Based on a real life incident that happened
with Bowen H. McCoy, MD of Morgan Stanley
• Participated in the sabbatical program of
six months
• On a trip to Himalaya for 60 days
• Met with people from other countries

3. Encounter with Sadhu
• One of the New Zealander found an Indian Sadhu
• The Sadhu was shivering & suffering from
Hypothermia
• Everybody has contributed in reviving the Sadhu
• However, nobody took complete responsibility for
the Sadhu’s well being

4. Stephen’s Arguments
• Each did their bit as long as it was convenient,
then passed on the buck to others.
• Ponders about how different the action would
have been - “Had the person been a well
dressed Asian or a Western Woman”

5. McCoy’s Views
• At first, McCoy was defensive to Stephen’s arguments.
• Things like Stress, Once in a lifetime opportunity were
his excuses
• But later on, he realized how they had ‘walked by an
ethical dilemma without appropriate action’

6. Ethical Dilemma
• Individual Ethics Vs Group Ethics
• Applicability of Rule based Ethical Theory
• Implementing Ethics in Corporate World

7. Individual Vs Group
• Every person did their bit for the Sadhu
• However, no one ensured the ultimate well
being of the Sadhu
• Where does the ethical responsibility of an
individual end
• Is there something called collective or
institutional responsibility?

8. Ethics in Workplace
• How to ensure collaborative effort towards
end goal
• Synchronizing individual efforts with collective
vision
• Reaching consensus and selecting a leader in
crunch situation
• How to ensure group’s support?

9. Applicability of Rule Based Theories
• Deontology
• Utilitarianism
• Distributive justice

10. Deontological Analysis
• Action is moral if the action is universalizable
and reversible
• In the case, the actions are universalizable
• Reversibility is also justifiable
• However, the end result is not satisfactory

11. Utilitarian Analysis
• Maximum benefits for the maximum no of
people
• No person was harmed in the case
• Sadhu was benefited from their actions
• However, the final result is still unsatisfactory

12. Distributive Justice
• Tenets are –
- Maximum freedom for all
- Inequities to be tolerated only when the
weakest are benefited
• The case satisfies the necessary tenets for
distributive justice
• However the end doesn’t seem satisfactory

13. Teleological Analysis
• End justifies the means
• What is the end….completing once in a life
time trip or saving the Sadhu?
• It doesn’t specify the ends
• Hence teleological analysis is not satisfactory
in this case

14. Virtue Theory
• Morally good habits developed through
training and repetition
• Moral virtues are the traits that enable us to
live well
• Virtues are not rules to be followed, but habits
to be cultivated

15. Virtue Theory Vs Rule Based Theory
• Rule based theories are threshold theories
whereas virtue theory is an optimization
theory
• Rule based theory specifies the minimum
requirement for any action
• Virtue theory aims at excellence

16. Failure Of Rule Based Theories
What should the moral theories do?
• Justify McCoy’s conclusion that the hikers’ actions
were blameworthy
• Explain the relevance of the story to the corporate
world
• Offer sound alternatives to the moral failures that
the story cites

17. Relevance to Corporate World
None of them explain the relevance
• Corporate World – People have individual values based
on a set of shared goals.
• Similarly in the story - the hikers want to take care of the
Sadhu, they want to finish and enjoy the hike
• Rule based analysis looks at a moral question in analysis
– totally context-free
– character-free
– person gets his or her moral clues only from his or her
innate faculty of reason.

18. Coming Back to the Story
• Rule base theories can distinguish only between actions that
are morally permissible or justifiable and actions that are not.
• Surely the actions of the hikers were permissible.
• Distinction in Sadhu’s Case
– is not between actions that are right and those that are wrong, but
between actions that are merely okay and those that are excellent
– between those that are merely justifiable and those that are actually
praiseworthy.
• The Sadhu parable brings into relief our notions, about the
different moral characters of persons, rather than our
justifications of the moral worth of actions.

19. • As moral persons we have an obligation to expect the most from ourselves and from
others, and that is the way we and they behave well.
• McCoy regrets, not that he and other group members acted impermissibly, but that
they acted merely permissibly.
• That they acted only as anyone would be expected to act, and not as a good person
would be expected to act.
• McCoy and his fellow hikers were given one of life’s rare opportunities to be heroes,
and they let it pass unmet.
• The hikers’ actions, then, were blameworthy, because they were merely justifiable in
a situation which actually called for heroism and sacrifice.

20. Lessons of the Sadhu
• Pose questions to oneself in terms of excellences of character, to facilitate
good habits of moral thinking.
• See these good moral habits as the “dose of prevention” that will help keep
business persons out of moral jams in the first place, and will help them sail
heroically through those situations in which they might otherwise be tempted
by the vices.
• In a complex business situation, the individual requires & deserves the
support of the group
• If such support is provided, a person has a stake in the success of the group
• It will also direct & focus each member of the team & benefit the group as a
whole.

21. Thank You