Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:47:26.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Varieties of Postmodernism as Moments in Ethics Action-Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Richard P. Nielsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Through an international case study, this paper illustrates how a conversation method was used effectively to address a cross-cultural ethics problem. The method included as moments in one continuous process three different dimensions of postmodernism—Gadamer reconstruction, Derrida deconstruction, and Rorty neopragmatism. In addition to including different dimensions of postmodernism, the method combines effective mutual learning and effective action. Strengths and limitations of the approach are discussed. The article demonstrates how it can be beneficial to build bridges between and within the postmodernism and organization ethics literatures. Also, the article demonstrates how postmodernism can be positively ethical and not necessarily aethical or nihilistic.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 251 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Argyris, C. (1976). Leadership, Learning, and Changing the Status Quo. Organizational Dynamics, Winter 1976, 29–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argyris, Chris and Schon, Donald A. (1988). “Reciprocal Integrity: Creating Conditions That Encourage Personal and Organizational Integrity,” in Suresh, Srivastva and Associates (1988). Executive Integrity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar
Argyris, Chris, Putnam, Robert, and Smith, Diana McLain. (1987). Action Scienee. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. (1971). Praxis and Action, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. (1985). Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Borges, Jorge Luis. (1951). Pascal’s Sphere. In Borges, Jorge Luis. (1964). Other Inquisitions 1937-1952. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. (1977). Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. See especially, “Afterword: Toward an Ethic of Discussion,” pp. 111–54.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. (1981). Three Questions to Hans-Georg Gadamer. Interpreting Signatures (Nietzsche/Heidegger): Two Questions. In Michelfelder, Diane P. and Palmer, Richard E. (1989). Dialogue and Deconstruction: The Gadamer-Derrida Encounter. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. (1992). The Language of International Corporate Ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, July, 2, 3, 271–282.Google Scholar
Donaldson, Thomas. (1989). The Ethics of International Business. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G. (1970). Sprache und Verstehen. Zeitwende, 6, 364–377, Translator, Lawrence, F..Google Scholar
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1975, 1986, 1989a). Truth and Method, New York: Crossroad. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1989b). Text and Interpretation. Reply to Jacques Derrida. Letter to Dallmayr. Destruktion and Deconstruction. Hermeneutics and Logocentrism. In Michelfelder, Diane R and Palmer, Richard E. (1989). Dialogue and Deconstruction: the Gadamer-Derrida Encounter. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jurgen. (1983, 1990). Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. (1932, 1962). Being and Time. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.Google Scholar
James, William. (1907). Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 290, 297–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, I. (1765, 1959). Foundation of a Metaphysics of Morals. (Beck, L. W., Trans.). New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Soren. (1846, 1938). Purity of Heart. Translated by Douglas, Steere. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Lawrence, F. (1981). Translator’s Introduction. In Reason in the Age of Science by Gadamer, H.-G.. Cambridge: MIT Press, ix–xxxiii.Google Scholar
Lobkowicz, N. (1967). Theory and Practice: History of a Conceptfrom Aristotle to Marx. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Geoff, Bennington and Brian, Massumi, translators. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1993). Organization Ethics from a Perspective of Praxis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 3, 2. The Indonesian case was also referred to in this article along with several other cases in a context of considering relationships between ethics understanding theory and ethics action theory.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1991). “I Am We” Consciousness and Dialog as Organizational Ethics Method. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 9, pp. 649–64.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Richard P. (1990). Dialogic Leadership as Ethics Action (Praxis) Method. Journal of Business Ethics, 9, pp. 765–83.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1887, 1969). The Genealogy of Morals. Translated by Walter, Kaufmann and Holingdale, R. J.. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1878, 1969). Ecce Homo. Translated by Walter, Kaufmann and Holingdale, R. J.. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. (1991). Essays on Heidegger and Others: Philosophical Papers, Volume 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rorty, Richard. (1982). Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo and Cropsey, Joseph. (1987). History of Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. (1989). Political Philosophy: Ten Essays. Detroit: WSU Press.Google Scholar
White, Stephen K. (1991). Political Theory and Postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar