Panetics is an integrated discipline to study and help reduce the INFLICTION of suffering by humans upon other humans. It was founded upon the conviction that a growing international consensus supports the right of people to be relieved from suffering inflicted by other people when they act through governments, institutions, professions and social groups. To that end, Panetics is an evolving, "pan-ethical" approach to research, policy analysis, decision-making and management."Panetics" is a term coined by Ralph G.H. Siu from "paneti" which means "to inflict" in Pali, the language of the Buddha.

PANETHICS

Combining the Greek word for "all" ("pan") with "ethics", Panethics is an attempt to synthesize thinking from both East and West into a readily understandable and agreed upon system of ethics for a world community. It is based upon the fundamental principle that no one has the right to unjustly inflict distress, pain and anguish on another. The semantic and synergistic relationship between the two terms "panetics" and "panethics" is intentional.

The term "panethics" was first coined by Professor Rudolph Krejci during a lively discussion in April 1986 at the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute with its director Syun-Ichi Akasofu and the Visiting Lecturer in Panetics, Ralph G.H.Siu.

PANETIC OBJECTIVES

The main aims of Panetics are to analyze the sources of inflicted suffering, develop practical ways to help reduce human suffering inflicted by individuals through governments, institutions, professions, or social groups, and encourage their application.

PANETIC PREMISES

People have a right to be relieved from suffering inflicted by other people. The international community has begun to demonstrate a willingness to support that right. We lack both awareness and the tools required for decision-making and intervention to be sure that such actions actually alleviate, rather than increase, human suffering. To prevent such missteps, we must search for measures to assess potential and actual human consequences of actions with the same attempts at precision that we try to use in economic decision-making. Such panetic analyses can help leaders, professionals and managers evaluate the humane consequences of their actions, lessen the suffering they might otherwise cause, and thereby advance the well-being of humanity.

PANETIC PRINCIPLES

Ralph G. H. Siu first proposed the basic principles of panetics. While there is continuing disagreement, debate and research about Siu's precise proposals to effectuate each of them, panetics is based on the following principles:

1. Freedom from the Infliction of Suffering is a Human Right

The principal focus of panetics is upon ways to avert or alleviate the infliction of human suffering. Siu argued that, while humans have always suffered from non-human as well as human-engendered causes, in the past century more suffering has been inflicted by humans on humans than derived from non-human sources. Now, freedom from suffering, either willingly or inadvertently inflicted by individuals through governments, institutions, professions, or social groups, is viewed as an attainable human right gaining growing acceptance throughout the world community.

2. New Tools for Analysis and Intervention

From this premise, the second principal focus of panetics is to develop new tools of analysis that try to take full account of the humane dimensions of any action. While we have become comparatively proficient in the application of quantitative indicators to economic decisions, we are woefully behind in our development and systematic application of non-economic indicators in order to help ensure that choices alleviate rather than increase human suffering.

Whether this requires quantitative measures is a matter of debate within the field. Siu proposed such a quantitative measure: the dukkha. The dukkha multiplies the intensity of suffering by the time over which the suffering occurs by the number of people affected. While the use of such scales is common in medicine, the efficacy of applying such a quantitative approach to other fields of decision-making is a matter of continuing debate and investigation.

Through panetic analyses, paneticists seek answers to such practical questions as:

* How can we be sure that military or economic "humanitarian" interventions alleviate, rather than increase, human suffering?

* How can we be sure that single-minded interventions in, for example, medicine do not increase rather than decrease suffering?

* How can we prevent interventions in the name of preserving "law and order" from producing the very opposite result from that intended?

3. Holism

Panetics is an "integrative" discipline borrowing ideas and substance from many fields and cultures. Therefore, panetic analyses must be "holistic", i.e., they must try to look at an issue in the whole rather than in parts.

Reliance upon over-specialization in our institutions and professions has put blinders on much of our decision-making because we are all too often unaware of the full consequences of an action until it is too late. Panetic analyses should examine real or potential suffering at all levels and by all parties before reaching a conclusion.

4. Avoid Culture-Bound Values

A fourth principle is that panetic analyses must not be parochial or culture-bound or unresponsive to the values, interests and needs of those who are suffering, or who are in danger of having it inflicted upon them. Panetic process must find a way to accommodate and reconcile conflicts or differences in values.

THE DUKKHA

The dukkha is a quantitative unit proposed by Ralph G.H. Siu to measure suffering. The term is based on "dukkha", meaning "to suffer" in Pali, the ancient language of the Buddha. Siu developed a 9-step intensity scale to quantify the infliction of suffering. In step 1 suffering is "noticeable"; by step 9 suffering is so intense that "one would rather die". A rough description of the respective intensities:

1-Noticeable 2- Bothersome 3- Moderate 4- Considerable, seeking relief 5- Interfering with daily life 6- Quite A lot 7- Miserable, visiting physician 8- Excruciating 9- Unbearable, wanting to die.

The quantity of suffering borne by a person is calculated by multiplying the intensity of suffering by the duration in days. Thus, one dukkha expresses the amount of suffering endured by one person at intensity level one for one day. It is roughly equivalent to that felt by one person with a moderate toothache for eight hours, i.e. (1 person) x (intensity 3) x (8 hours / 24 hours in a day). A million dukkhas, or a megadukkha, represent the order of magnitude of suffering sustained for about 10 hours a day collectively by 1,000 persons with severe stomach ulcers without medication for a year, i.e., about (1,000 persons) x (intensity 6.5) x (10 hours / 24 hours in a day) x (365 days). To summarize, the dukkha is calculated by multiplying the number of persons by the intensity level by the number of days: persons x intensity level (1-9) x days.

Source: "Less Suffering for Everybody," pp. 23-24 Copyright 1996-97 The International Society for Panetics

If you wish to contact us by mail: International Society for Panetics, P.O. Box 142 College Park, MD 20741, USA

ISP had its beginnings in the seminal work of Ralph G.H. Siu in 1988. One day at lunch, he told me about his work on panetics—a topic on which he had been laboring for some years. He had completed work on a trilogy of books about the subject. His work arose from his conviction that in the present era more human suffering came from direct infliction by people upon people than from non-human engendered calamities. He asked ’What do I do now?" Almost without thinking, I said "Organize a society."

Over the course of the following year, we gathered from around the world a group of about 100 like-minded scientists, physicians, psychologists, public officials, business leaders, engineers, academicians, theologians, social scientists, lawyers, military officers, law enforcement leaders, poets and writers who concurred with Ralph’s general thinking. They became ISP’s Founders. The Articles of Incorporation were signed in the District of Columbia (Washington, USA) on March 8, 1991 by William Lanouette, Ralph Siu and myself. The International Society for Panetics was born shortly thereafter as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization on March 11, 1991.

Ralph Siu died in November 1998. He devoted the final decade and a half of his life to the formulation of ideas and proposals that provided a foundation for panetics as a new interdisciplinary discipline focused on bettering the human condition through the alleviation of human suffering. It was a reflection of where he had come intellectually over the course of a remarkable career. For several decades he had been writing a series of trilogies to synthesize the wisdom of the East with the rationalist scientific methods of the West.

He took the term "panetics" from the Pali word, "paneti", spoken by Buddha, that means "to inflict." To provoke debate and research, he then proposed a unit to measure suffering, the "dukkha" ("suffering" in Pali). Ralph’s Dukkha Scale was arranged from intensity 1, "barely noticeable", to intensity 5, "interfering with daily life", to intensity 9, "unbearable, wanting to die." As Ralph noted on numerous occasions, physicians find these descriptions clinically useful. (See Issues on this website.)

He said that it does not matter whether the measure is off by 100 or even 200 percent. Corrections will come in time. The important thing is to start measuring, and to bring public and private policy as close as possible to the elimination of suffering. (The goal to find ways to quantify suffering is matter of some debate. See, for example, Striner and Saunders on this website.)

The work Ralph Siu began with his monumental trilogies has sparked rigorous debate and an expanding volume of research and exploration and application by a growing number of leaders, academicians, and professionals throughout the world.

Examples can be found throughout this website. Their number will increase exponentially as more and more from around the globe join in these investigations.