Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Using's Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason for Managerial Decision-Making

Thinking of Sartre, not sure why.
First seen in 2015's "Existential Questions I Hadn't Considered: 'Is There a Gnawing Ennui Within the Financial Industry?'"

Via SpringerLink:
Abstract
This article will offer an alternative understanding of managerial decision-making drawing from Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason rather than simply Being and Nothingness. I will begin with a brief explanation of Sartre’s account of freedom in Being and Nothingness. I will then show in the second section how Andrew West uses Sartre’s conception of radical freedom from Being and Nothingness for a managerial decision-making model. In the third section, I will explore a more robust account of freedom from Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason. I will attempt to show that freedom is not simply a matter of choosing (or not choosing) to perform an action, but entails external constraints—including other people. Finally, I will provide the implications of this account of freedom for managerial decision-making. I will show that it’s unreasonable to place full responsibility and/or blame on managers given their constraints. This does not absolve them from responsibility, but better accounts for the way in which we ought to hold them responsible.
I like that "including other people" which is of course an homage to 'ol J.P.'s line “L’enfer, c’est les autres” which we last visited in 2017's "David Byrne Has a Theory of An Overarching Agenda In Technology (and Sartre does a driveby)".

All of which is just an excuse to reward any reader who has stuck with me this far and revisit a bit of genius:

Le Blog de Jean-Paul Sartre

From the New Yorker:
Saturday, 11 July, 1959: 2:07 A.M.
I am awake and alone at 2 A.M.
There must be a God. There cannot be a God.
I will start a blog.

Sunday, 12 July, 1959: 9:55 A.M.
An angry crow mocked me this morning. I couldn’t finish my croissant, and fled the cafĂ© in despair.
The crow descended on the croissant, squawking fiercely. Perhaps this was its plan.
Perhaps there is no plan.


Thursday, 16 July, 1959: 7:45 P.M.
When S. returned this afternoon I asked her where she had been, and she said she had been in the street.
“Perhaps,” I said, “that explains why you look ‘rue’-ful.”
Her blank stare only reinforced for me the futility of existence.

Friday, 17 July, 1959: 12:20 P.M.
When S. came through my study just now I asked her to wait a moment.
Rueful,” I told her. “Because ‘rue’ is the French word for street.”
“What?” she said.
“From yesterday,” I said.
“Oh,” she said. “Yeah. Right.”
“And you said you had been in the street.”
“I got it,” she said.
“It was a pun,” I said.
“Got it,” she said. “Puns aren’t your thing, are they?”...
...MORE

HT: Marginal Revolution