The Wisdom of Mercy as the Foundation of Business and Peace: The Alternative to Fear

Searching for a foundation of Business and Peace, Galtung’s (2000) negative and positive peace framework is widely used and appears to be very helpful (Galtung’s and Jacobsen, 2000). Negative peace for Galtung refers to the absence of direct violence. Positive peace refers to the absence of indirect violence. In the first part of this chapter, we develop a foundation of business and peace, starting from Galtung’s negative peace concept. Eliminating violence and war leads to rediscovering the importance of Hobbes’ analysis of fear. Applied to business, Hobbes’ quote ‘Fear and I are twins’ becomes ‘Fear and business are twins’. In the second part, we use Galtung’s positive concept of harmony and cooperation to develop wisdom as the foundation of business and peace. The final part explores the specific wisdom of mercy. Not only mercy and peace are twins but also mercy and business. The conclusion will be that business and peace become twins when the mimetic desire is no longer the underlying drive of business but rather the desire for sustainability.