_Beyond the Pleasure Principle_ is Freud’s most philosophical and speculative work, exploring profound questions of life and death, pleasure and pain. In it Freud introduces the fundamental concepts of the “repetition compulsion” and the “death drive,” according to which a perverse, repetitive, self-destructive impulse opposes and even trumps the creative drive, or Eros. The work is one of Freud’s most intensely debated, and raises important questions that have been discussed by philosophers and psychoanalysts since its first publication in 1920. The (...) text is presented here in a contemporary new translation by Gregory C. Richter. Appendices trace the work’s antecedents and the many responses to it, including texts by Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, Melanie Klein, Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler, among many others. (shrink)

Beyond the Pleasure Principle is Freud's most philosophical and speculative work, exploring profound questions of life and death, pleasure and pain. In it Freud introduces the fundamental concepts of the "repetition compulsion" and the "death drive," according to which a perverse, repetitive, self-destructive impulse opposes and even trumps the creative drive, or Eros. The work is one of Freud's most intensely debated, and raises important questions that have been discussed by philosophers and psychoanalysts since its first publication in 1920. The (...) text is presented here in a contemporary new translation by Gregory C. Richter. Appendices trace the work's antecedents and the many responses to it, including texts by Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, Melanie Klein, Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Derrida, and Judith Butler, among many others. (shrink)

Organizations routinely make choices when addressing conflicting stakes of their stakeholders. As stakeholder theory continues to mature, scholars continue to seek ways to make it more usable, yet proponents continue to debate its legitimacy. Various scholarly attempts to ground stakeholder theory have not narrowed down this debate. We draw from the work of Juergen Habermas to theoretically advance stakeholder theory, and to provide practical examples to illustrate our approach. Specifically, we apply Habermas’ language-pragmatic approach to extend stakeholder theory by advancing (...) seven sets of normative axioms. We conclude that a deliberative approach, with its focus on the conditions of legitimation and deliberative democracy, has the potential to become a cornerstone of stakeholder theory. The need for global stakeholder discourse and its internalization in corporate structures and institutions is exemplified by a multitude of CSR and stakeholder initiatives that have mushroomed in response to global risk scenarios such as climate change, nuclear warfare, or terrorism. Further research may help to build a functioning global governance system in order to provide guidance for management in the 21st century. (shrink)

The program of the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, formulated primarily by Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Reinhart Koselleck, calls for relating conceptual change to structural transformations of government, society, and economy in German-speaking Europe. J. G. A. Pocock, of Cambridge, identified the range of alternative and competing political discourses available to early modern writers, while Quentin Skinner, also of Cambridge, treated political theories in terms of those historical contexts and linguistic conventions which both facilitate and circumscribe legitimations of political arrangements, and he (...) described such theories as intentional speech acts. Despite the differences in the German and Anglophone modes of treating political language, however, there are no major obstacles in bringing them together. The GG could profit from Pocock's technique of analysis and comparison in identifying early modern political languages, and the issues raised by Skinner about political thought and theorizing as forms of linguistic action, as well as the effect of general linguistic conventions upon available modes of legitimating political arrangements. The Anglophone mode might profit from considering the GG's non-reductive use of social history in conjunction with that of concepts, and from the GG's systematic use of contemporary sources of language and linguistic definitions. (shrink)

In this article Kant’s conception of practical reason is reconstructed in order to address a problem of effectiveness inherent in the space of reasons: How can actions be thought of as being free whilst at the same time being bound by the knowledge of practical necessity? Following Kant, the concept of law proves to be central to the transcendental cognition of the presuppositions of practical reasoning. The starting point of the transcendental argument is not the ordinary »moral« judgment, but the (...) capability of the power of choice. The power of choice is executed via practical judgments, which can be understood as a practical knowledge with more or less satisfactory reasons. By interpreting the »paradox of method in a critique of practical reason«, an indirect argument uncovering the undeniability of a lawful form of practical knowledge can be reconstructed. Therefore, actions cannot be understood as single events that direct reasons into a world lacking any reference to reason. Rather, no intentional action is conceivable without a connection to the form of practical knowledge. (shrink)

Corporate psychopathy thrives perhaps as the most significant threat to ethical corporate behaviour around the world. We argue that Human Resources Management professionals should formulate strategic solutions metaphorically by balancing what strategic military planners famously call ‘Search and Destroy’ and ‘Hearts and Minds’ counter-terrorist strategy. We argue that these military metaphors offer creative inspiration to help academics and practitioners theorise CP in richer, more reflective and more balanced and complementary ways. An appreciation of both metaphors is likely to favour the (...) use of hybrid strategies comprising SD and HM elements, which may provide the best HRM solutions to CP for the same reasons as the military now considers parallel hybrid solutions optimal for combating terrorist and guerrilla insurgency. (shrink)

Volume 25, Issue 2, February - March 2020, Page 227-229.

When originally independent pragmatic texts were included in larger early Chinese compilations, this entailed a recontextualization that potentially transformed the meaning of those texts significantly. Focusing on examples from the Analects and the Zengzi chapters in Da Dai Liji, this paper demonstrates that some didactic precepts which have come to be appreciated as general Ru moral and political philosophy are probably rooted in concrete and more modest applications. The texts discussed are in part based on a discourse accompanying the establishment (...) of meritocratic administrative structures in the early to mid Warring States period. These pragmatic discourses inspired didactic texts that reflected shi status anxiety. Members of the shi class not only composed texts for the edification of their rulers and the education of their princes. They also directed admonitions at their own peers, formulating standards by which they could manifest their claim to elevated social status. The further these texts became removed over time from their original historical context, the more they came to be read as Ru ethics in the sense of universally applicable standards. (shrink)

In this short introductory article the origin of this special issue in a Cambridge conference in 2019 is briefly sketched. Moreover, the specific approach which the organizers wanted to highlight is elucidated. Also, a preview is offered of the various contributions to this special issue.

This paper considers comparison in eighteenth-century Europe 1) as philosophical reflection upon an operation of the human mind and passions, 2) as a discourse on diversity and similarities of regimes and societies within and beyond Europe. Der Beitrag befaßt sich mit dem "Vergleichen" - "comparison" - im Europa des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. "Comparison" ist einerseits eine philosophische Reflexion über einen Prozeß des menschlichen Geistes und der menschlichen Leidenschaften, andererseits ein Diskurs über die Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten von Regierungs- und Gesellschaftsformen innerhalb und (...) außerhalb Europas. (shrink)

Philosophen, Theologen und Soziologen deuteten in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts die Technik als ein die gesamte Lebenswirklichkeit prägendes Phänomen. Dabei entwickelten sie sehr unterschiedliche Positionen. Walter Benjamin sah in der Technik einen Weg, die Wirklichkeit neu zu konstruieren; Rudolf Bultmann nahm die Technik zum Anlass, das Transzendente neu zu bestimmen. Der Band bietet in Teil I Rekonstruktionen klassischer Positionen der Technikdeutung: Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger. Die Beiträge in Teil (...) II des Bandes thematisieren neuere theologische Zugänge zur Technik. (shrink)

In the human sciences of eighteenth century Europe, systematic comparison played a crucial part, generally as a method but also occasionally as a target of criticism. Particularly in the domains of political and social thought, comparison was conceptualized and practiced in sharply contested forms: philosophical, social-scientific, and rhetorical. While some of the meanings now carried by the concept of comparison in the human sciences coincide with what was understood by it in the eighteenth century, others do not. This paper discusses (...) such competing concepts and practices of comparison in Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Hume, and Herder, who contested the very notion of the commensurability of human regimes and societies. Comparison turned out to be a profoundly ambiguous and controversial concept, holding in suspension a number of disparate intentions and methods. Writers could use comparative studies to accentuate differences, establish similarities, or reveal ranges of variation within the same category. Comparisons and contrasts became crucial weapons in all major eighteenth century disagreements dividing Europeans among themselves, as well as in theories of where they stood in relation to the rest of the world. (shrink)

Introduction : the art of reading -- Adorno and the uncoercive gaze -- Buried possibility : Adorno and Arendt on tradition -- The inheritance of the constellation : Adorno and Hegel -- Judging by refraining from judgment : Adorno's artwork and its Einordnung -- The literary artwork between word and concept : Adorno and Agamben reading Kafka -- The artwork without cardinal direction : notes on orientation in Adorno -- False life, living on : Adorno with Derrida -- Conclusion : (...) a kind of leave-thinking. (shrink)

In der gesamten Neuzeit war Freiheit ein Schlüsselbegriff für das Selbstverständnis Europas und Deutschlands. Doch was galt hierzulande zu welchen Zeiten als "Freiheit"? Wie und von wem wurden in Deutschland seit der Frühaufklärung Freiheitsvorstellungen formuliert, diskutiert oder auch machtpolitisch vereinnahmt? Anhand ausgewählter Texte aus vier Jahrhunderten verdeutlicht dieses Buch, dass sich Freiheitsvorstellungen in Deutschland wandelten. Der Begriff blieb jedoch stets eine zentrale politische Kategorie, um das Verhältnis des Einzelnen zur Gesellschaft zu verhandeln. Immer bewegte er sich dabei im Spannungsfeld von (...) Selbstbestimmung und Kontrolle, Freizügigkeit und Sicherheit, Alterität und Konformität, Emanzipation und Diskriminierung, Gleichheit und Ungleichheit - also von Themen, die auch heute noch ins Mark der politischen und gesellschaftlichen Debatten treffen. (shrink)