It was if he had left his ethical principles behind when he entered a context where fulfilling his ethical responsibilities to others meant less than the competitive drive to reach his goal. The fact that he had tried and failed to make the climb before, as a result of altitude sickness, was a further motivator for his callousness. The other climber's similar lack of care and concern for the man created a context where 'every man for himself' seemed to be the dominant ideology, not 'all for one and one for all.'
Later, Stephen attributed his fellow climber's failure to provide adequate care for the sadhu because sadhu was not a part of the climber's culture in his demeanor, and appearance. (McCoy, 1983, pp.104-106) the sadhu was alien, and disoriented as a result of altitude sickness. It was easy to render the man as 'other' or fundamentally different, Stephen argued, which would not have been the case, had they found a fellow Westerner in similar distress.
Three principles -- the common good over self-interest, the Golden Rule, and social justice
Stephen, despite the alien appearance of the sadhu, and finding his himself in a similar situation to his fellow climbers, was able to overcome the pressures of the situation, context and bridge...
Parable of the Sadhu Bowen H. McCoy's 1983 Harvard Business Review article "The Parable of the Sadhu" describes the author's own experience of how he "literally walked through a classic moral dilemma without fully thinking through the consequences" (p.106). During a sightseeing junket to the peak of Everest, McCoy and his moralistic Quaker buddy Stephen have their travel interrupted by the discovery of a religious pilgrim -- a "sadhu" -- found
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