Competency Addiction

We seem to be addicted to competencies; we train incessantly to improve existing ones and innovate to acquire new ones. Our curriculum vitae is packed with exquisite details of competencies in great variety. Competency is distinctly and deliberately formulated away from goodness, the long-standing m...

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Main Author: Shiqiao Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2022-12-01
Series:Ardeth
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/ardeth/2856
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author Shiqiao Li
author_facet Shiqiao Li
author_sort Shiqiao Li
collection DOAJ
description We seem to be addicted to competencies; we train incessantly to improve existing ones and innovate to acquire new ones. Our curriculum vitae is packed with exquisite details of competencies in great variety. Competency is distinctly and deliberately formulated away from goodness, the long-standing moral quality that grounded virtue. Virtue is about the moral conditions of being, while competency is about an amoral effectiveness. When we say one is too clever for one’s own good, we speak of a paradox of addiction: pushing adrenaline and dopamine towards the levels of harm. Business corporations and educational institutions seem to have self-selected their prestige by aligning themselves with market value and research funding, seeing them as benchmarks of competency and success. Like substance addiction, competency addiction began with genuine excitement of innovation and benefit but developed into an all-consuming desire for techno-utopias oblivious of their damage to ecology. Perhaps it is time to ask: why did we switch from virtue to competency in the first place?
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spelling doaj.art-5626050dad0443e4a19c38fdd6e1de332023-12-06T15:44:57ZengRosenberg & SellierArdeth2532-64572611-934X2022-12-01103947Competency AddictionShiqiao LiWe seem to be addicted to competencies; we train incessantly to improve existing ones and innovate to acquire new ones. Our curriculum vitae is packed with exquisite details of competencies in great variety. Competency is distinctly and deliberately formulated away from goodness, the long-standing moral quality that grounded virtue. Virtue is about the moral conditions of being, while competency is about an amoral effectiveness. When we say one is too clever for one’s own good, we speak of a paradox of addiction: pushing adrenaline and dopamine towards the levels of harm. Business corporations and educational institutions seem to have self-selected their prestige by aligning themselves with market value and research funding, seeing them as benchmarks of competency and success. Like substance addiction, competency addiction began with genuine excitement of innovation and benefit but developed into an all-consuming desire for techno-utopias oblivious of their damage to ecology. Perhaps it is time to ask: why did we switch from virtue to competency in the first place?http://journals.openedition.org/ardeth/2856CompetencyCompetitionChinese ThoughtBiome Aesthetics
spellingShingle Shiqiao Li
Competency Addiction
Ardeth
Competency
Competition
Chinese Thought
Biome Aesthetics
title Competency Addiction
title_full Competency Addiction
title_fullStr Competency Addiction
title_full_unstemmed Competency Addiction
title_short Competency Addiction
title_sort competency addiction
topic Competency
Competition
Chinese Thought
Biome Aesthetics
url http://journals.openedition.org/ardeth/2856
work_keys_str_mv AT shiqiaoli competencyaddiction