Le conflit des interprétationsCes « essais d'herméneutique » réunissent des textes qui portent la marque du bouillonnement intellectuel des années 1960. Les sciences humaines font éclater les cadres reçus de l'interprétation, et créent même un « conflit des interprétations ». Le premier mérite de Ricœur, infatigable lecteur, est alors de reprendre longuement ce que disent les sciences de l'homme - linguistique, sémiologie, ethnologie, psychanalyse... - pour mesurer comment et pourquoi naît ce conflit.On est loin ici de toute « voie courte (...) », d'une philosophie se contentant de rappeler à hauts cris le « sens » face à la « mort du sujet ». S'il s'agit « d'explorer les voies ouvertes à la philosophie contemporaine » par cette nouvelle donne, il faut passer par le détour de l'analyse longue. Un détour, plutôt rare dans l'aire de la philosophie française, est ainsi très présent : il passe par l'exégèse biblique et des disciplines religieuses, qui furent à l'origine du problème herméneutique. Au terme de cette analyse seulement, il sera possible à nouveau de « donner un sens acceptable à la notion d'existence ».Paul Ricœur (1913-2005)Philosophe, monument de la philosophie française du XXe°siècle, il n'a cessé de nouer un dialogue avec les sciences humaines dans leur diversité et renouvelé les recherches exégétiques et bibliques.Préface de Jean Greisch Préface Note de l'éditeur Existence et herméneutique Structure et herméneutique Le problème du double-sens La structure, le mot, l'événement Le conscient et l'inconscient La psychanalyse et le mouvement de la culture contemporaine Une interprétation philosophique de Freud Technique et non-technique dans l'interprétation L'art et la systématique freudienne L'acte et le signe selon Jean Nabert Heidegger et la question du sujet La question du sujet : le défi de la sémiologie Le « péché originel » : étude de signification Herméneutique des symboles et réflexion philosophique (I) Herméneutique des symboles et réflexion philosophique (II) Démythiser l'accusation Interprétation du mythe de la peine Préface à Bultmann La liberté selon l'espérance Culpabilité, éthique et religion Religion,athéisme, foi La paternité : du fantasme au symbole Sources Ouvrages cités. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to discuss rival views of business and business ethics in terms of narrative. I want to show that we can tell various stories about business, and that our worldview narratives shape our accounts of business. These narratives not only involve description, but contain normative ramifications. We can only act within the world that we perceive. To evaluate competing narratives, I suggest dialectical comparison of the narratives with important values. The second part of the paper (...) discusses five distinct genres of worldview narratives and their implications for business: homo economicus, libertarian, conservative, liberal, and religio-philosophical. (shrink)

Taking the lead from Susan Wolf's and Linda Emanuel's work on systems thinking, and developing ideas from Moberg's, Seabright's and my work on mental models and moral imagination, in this paper I shall argue that what is often missing in management decision-making is a systems approach. Systems thinking requires conceiving of management dilemmas as arising from within a system with interdependent elements, subsystems, and networks of relationships and patterns of interaction. Taking a systems approach and coupling it with moral imagination, (...) now engaged on the organizational and systemic as well as individual levels of decision-making, I shall conclude, is a methodology that encourages managers and companies to think more imaginatively and to engage in integrating moral decision-making into ordinary business decisions. More importantly this sort of thinking is a means to circumvent what often appear to be intractable problems created by systemic constraints for which no individual appears to be responsible. (shrink)

Should a debate of the choice between metaphorical investigation and epistemological realism in organizational research be prioritized as Willy McCourt called for in Organization Studies? We argue here against doing any such thing — a ‘realism’ debate in organizational theory would merely be a ‘red herring’. Theoretical investigation from Ricoeur to Derrida has liberated us from the need to re-visit the theme, but examination of Gareth Morgan's intellectual development, as begun by McCourt, is of interest because it reveals two very (...) different ‘realisms’. What is of interest about ‘realism’ is not an eitherlor of either ‘realism’ or ‘constructivism’, but a polyphony of the many voices of research. (shrink)

This article echoes those voices that demand new approaches and ‹senses’ for management education and business programs. Much of the article is focused on showing that the polemic about the educative model of business schools has moral and epistemological foundations and opens up the debate over the type of knowledge that practitioners need to possess in order to manage organizations, and how this knowledge can be taught in management programs. The article attempts to highlight the moral dimension of management through (...) a reinterpretation of the Aristotelian concept of practical wisdom. I defend the ideas that management is never morally neutral and that Aristotelian practical wisdom allows the recovery of moral considerations in management practice. I analyze the impact and implications that the introduction of practical wisdom in business schools entails for the conception and objectives of management education. This view reconfigures management education in terms of attention to values, virtues and context. Therefore, management programmes should prepare students to critically evaluate what they hear and to make decisions coherent with their values and virtues. In the final section, I reflect on the pedagogical implications of this approach. I point out that an integrated model of ethics and practical wisdom promotes education of cognition and education of affect as well. I provide an example to illustrate my perspective and to support my conclusions. (shrink)

Depuis 1960, Paul Ricœur est le principal représentant de la philosophie herméneutique en France. Cet ouvrage, qui forme le troisième volet d'un triptyque dédié aux différentes expressions que l'idée de phénoménologie herméneutique a reçues dans la philosophie du XXe siècle, se donne pour tâche d'analyser et d'évaluer la contribution de Ricœur à ce courant. Il se focalise d'abord sur la percée herméneutique de 1960, qui a pour arrière-plan une phénoménologie du volontaire de l'involontaire et une anthropologie de la faillibilité. La (...) seconde partie, placée sous l'égide du " Cogito narratif ", retrace la genèse d'une herméneutique de la conscience historique sous le fil conducteur d'une analyse des opérations de mise en intrigue narrative dans le récit de fiction et le récit historique. La troisième partie dégage les principaux phénomènes qui étayent l'idée d'une phénoménologie du " sujet capable " qui domine les derniers travaux de Ricœur. Qu'il s'agisse de la capacité de se souvenir, d'oublier, de pardonner, de promettre ou de témoigner, ces recherches donnent tout son relief à la question kantienne : " Que m'est-il permis d'espérer? ". (shrink)

Narrative is increasingly being recognised as an important tool both to manage and understand organisations. In particular, narrative is recognised to have an important influence on the perception of environmental issues in business, a particularly contested area of modern management. Management literature is, however, only beginning to develop a framework for evaluating the quality and legitimacy of narratives. Due to the highly fluid nature of narratives, the traditional notion of truth as reflecting ' objective reality' is not useful here. In (...) this article, an alternative approach that evaluates a narrative in two stages is developed. First, a horizontal reading investigates the surface of the narrative, its textual features, instrumental devices and its integrity as a text, to assess the quality of a narrative. Second, a more philosophical or vertical reading makes explicit the underlying value assumptions that author and reader bring to the writing and reading of the narrative to assess the narrative's claim to legitimacy. The framework is then tested against a narrative on the relationship between business and environment as espoused by a supply chain manager of a UK-based manufacturing company. (shrink)

We present the findings of a worldwide survey that was administered to business ethic scholars to better understand journal quality within the business ethics academic community. Based upon the data from the survey, we provide a ranking of the top 10 business ethics journals. We then provide a comparison of business ethics journals to other mainstream management journals in terms of journal quality. The results of the study suggest that, within the business ethics academic community, many scholars prefer to publish (...) in the top business ethics academic journals over other mainstream management journals. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that within the business ethics academic field there are two dominant academic communities: one in Europe and one in North America. Each of these academic communities has its own preferred publication outlets, suggesting a potentially problematic bifurcation of business ethics scholarship. (shrink)

"The golden rule" (Matthew 7:12) is a formulation of natural moral law, a logical way to divide good from evil. It has been attacked by J.W. Hennessey, Jr. and Bernard Gert as a "particularist preachment." On the contrary, it remains a useful, universal guide to moral conduct and cannot be considered a self-centered, subjective guide to the moral life. We must agree with Jeffrey Wattles that there are multiple possible meanings to the "rule", some legitimate and some spurious. The legitimate (...) meanings, such as the "standard of God-like behavior," all yield the same judgment on morally doubtful actions such as forgery. The so-called "platinum" rule, "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them" has face appeal, but is fatally flawed in its logic, and does not supercede "the golden rule" because part of the treatment I wish from others is a full understanding of my true needs and wishes, even when I do not judge my own needs correctly. (shrink)

Exploring the concept of citizenship from the history of political philosophy provides suggestions about what corporate citizenship could mean. The metaphor of corporate citizenship suggests an institutional approach to corporate social responsibility. Citizenship is a social role, characterized by an orientation towards the social contract, collective and active responsibility, as well as a positive attitude towards the juridical state. By analogy, corporate citizenship is a social role, characterized by the social contract of business, a participatory ethics of business, the precautionary (...) principle and the promotion of just international institutions. It is considered that corporate citizenship depends on a number of interacting institutional conditions that hold society partly responsible for the social performance of their companies. Finally, the problem of the dissolution of corporate social responsibility is reviewed in an institutional environment where everyone is considered responsible. (shrink)

Approaches to business ethics can be roughly divided into two streams: ‹codes of behavior’ and ‹forms of subjectification’, with code-oriented approaches clearly dominating the field. Through an elaboration of poststructuralist approaches to moral philosophy, this paper questions the emphasis on codes of behaviour and, thus, the conceptions of the moral and responsible subject that are inherent in rule-based approaches. As a consequence of this critique, the concept of a practice-based ‹ethics of responsiveness’ in which ethics is never final but rather (...) always ‹to come’, is investigated. In such an approach the ethical self is understood as being continuously constituted within power/knowledge relations. Following this line, we ask how one can become a responsible subject while also acknowledging certain limits of full responsibility. We thereby explore responsibility as a considered but unconditional openness in response to the other. (shrink)

Reading Ricoeur -- Freedom and nature -- Ricoeur's turn to hermeneutics -- The fullness of language and figurative discourse -- Selfhood and personal identity -- Memory, recognition, practical wisdom.

This paper puts forward an argument for stakeholder rights. It begins by exploring two major answers to the question, 'in whose interests should the commercial company function?'. One claims parity for other stakeholders alongside the shareholder on the basis of a theory of property rights, and another on a theory of citizenship. Each of these answers, it is argued, fail to convince. The way forward is to recast the initial question, not asking in whose interest the company should function, but (...) which type of interest, potentially located in any sort of person, might the company serve. That interest is identified and distinguished from others that people affected by corporations might have. These distinctions then provide the basis for an argument in favour of enfranchising two sorts of individual: sovereign stakeholders, in charge of monitoring the formulation and revision of company objectives; and secondary stakeholders, who along with those in the first category monitor the means used to achieve those objectives.The paper concludes that these distinctions should lead us to reconsider other elements in the corporate governance debate, such as the nature of a director's fiduciary duty; and the difference between democracy in corporations and democracy in the wider society. (shrink)