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Reviving Methods of Speculative Philosophy

Towards a New Enlightenment in Organization Studies

  • Living reference work entry
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Handbook of Philosophy of Management

Part of the book series: Handbooks in Philosophy ((HP))

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Abstract

Traditionally, philosophy has utilized three methods: analysis, synopsis, and synthesis. The exclusion of synoptic and synthetic thinking from organization and management studies can leave us without the means to fully develop the discipline. Deployment of metaphors deriving from ecology, without recourse to speculative philosophy, has reinforced the prevailing Cartesian dualism that treats experiencing subjects as outside nature and nature as devoid of subjectivity. This has led to the development of mechanistic formulations of systems theory and legitimated the quest for central managerial control of organizations. Utilizing synopsis and synthesis and developing the tradition of the Radical Enlightenment to bring together a range of disparate disciplines, a more comprehensive and coherent account of organized human action is offered, one that grants a central place to human experience as an emergent component of a self-organizing nature. It is shown how this conception of human action might be applied to develop new perspectives on managing organizations that can improve our relations to ourselves, to each other and, most importantly, to our environment, offering new approaches to meeting global environmental challenges such as global warming.

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Glenn McLaren, Michael Dix, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Brendan Cartmel, and all participating members of the Complex Processes Research Group in the Department of Social Sciences at Swinburne University, for their insightful comments on this chapter and the broader project it is seeking to establish.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Arran Gare

  2. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Cristina Neesham

Authors
  1. Arran Gare
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  2. Cristina Neesham
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Correspondence to Arran Gare .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Cristina Neesham

Section Editor information

  1. ESSCA School of Management, Paris, France

    Alejandro Agafonow

  2. GRANEM, Université d’Angers, Angers, France

    Alejandro Agafonow

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Gare, A., Neesham, C. (2022). Reviving Methods of Speculative Philosophy. In: Neesham, C. (eds) Handbook of Philosophy of Management. Handbooks in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48352-8_73-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48352-8_73-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48352-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48352-8

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