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Qualitative Freedom and Cosmopolitan Responsibility

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Abstract

Resting as it does on the principle of freedom, today’s global economic system is in need of a global economic ethos of responsibility so as to assure its social and ecological sustainability. Not all ideas of freedom, however, are equally amenable to conceptions of cosmopolitan responsibilities. This article examines how quantitative versus qualitative notions of freedom respectively respond to this challenge. Simply put, quantitative models hinder the integration of responsibility into models of economic rationality whereas qualitative conceptions advance it. As a consequence, efforts to promote a humanistic paradigm of economics and management fare better when oriented at a qualitative idea of freedom. Cast along the lines of a qualitative conception of freedom, corporate responsibility more readily takes on a cosmopolitan dimension apt to meet the needs of the current age of globality.

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Notes

  1. On the history and theory of ‘humanistic management’ and for a list of relevant publications, see http://humanisticmanagement.org/.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Joscha Krug for important last-minute help with the bibliography and format.

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  1. Weltethos Institut, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Claus Dierksmeier

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Dierksmeier, C. Qualitative Freedom and Cosmopolitan Responsibility. Humanist Manag J 2, 109–123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-017-0029-3

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