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Article
Publication date: 30 August 2011

James E. Alvey

Economics was closely entwined with ethics up to the 1930s when this weakened subsequently. Amartya Sen first sketched this historical relationship in his book, On Ethics and

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Abstract

Purpose

Economics was closely entwined with ethics up to the 1930s when this weakened subsequently. Amartya Sen first sketched this historical relationship in his book, On Ethics and Economics. This paper is in broad agreement with Sen. It aims to explore the ethical foundations of economics in ancient Greece, focussing on Plato's Republic.

Design/methodology/approach

Key aspects of Sen's ethical framework (ethical motivation, human well‐being, and social achievement) are used as a template to re‐investigate Plato's work. A close reading of Plato's Republic is undertaken in order to demonstrate the foundations of economics as an ethical enterprise.

Findings

First, Plato argues that there is a range of motivations and behaviors along an ethical scale. For Plato, the goal is to try to establish what constitutes ethical behavior and then seek conditions suitable to bring it about. Second, in the Republic, one sees an outline of Plato's understanding of human well‐being. Human functioning (physical and mental flourishing, including friendship), and gender equality are key parts of his picture. Third, Plato is painting the picture of a utopian society in the Republic. In discussions of the ideal society, the economy, laws, and other policies must be set within an ethical framework. In several respects, Plato anticipates Sen's capabilities approach to economics.

Originality/value

In recent years, great efforts have been devoted to developing and extending Sen's Capability Framework. Part of that work has been devoted to tracing the origins of Sen's approach back to Aristotle. This paper represents the first attempt to trace that framework back further, to Plato's Republic.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 38 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 March 2021

Vasileios Georgiadis, Lazaros Sarigiannidis and Georgios Theriou

This paper aims at identifying critical components of leading change through relations of relevance with platonic philosophy. During this process, well-known aspects of change…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims at identifying critical components of leading change through relations of relevance with platonic philosophy. During this process, well-known aspects of change leadership are detected, but interpreted differently. Based on this relevance, a seven-stage tripartite model is proposed, in order to facilitate change implementation in the business world.

Design/methodology/approach

Contemporary trends in leading change are reviewed and enriched with platonic insights. A synthetic analysis is attempted, in which philosopher stochasticity and discernment validates modern synergetic and anthropocentric approaches to the field of change leadership, featuring key behavioral and perceptual characteristics, emerging during change process.

Findings

As the process of change is highly dependent on human behavior, Plato grants an enriched approach of its origins and causal causes. Therefore, key change factors are not only discussed in the light of his worldview, but also upgraded through the distillation of applicable ideas, summarized in the proposed three phase model.

Practical implications

The proposed tripartite model of leading change can function as a powerful guide of designing and successfully implement organizational change.

Originality/value

The screening of specific insights from platonic works in leading change conveys an alternative, more “poetic”, yet effectively flexible attitude endorsed and incorporated into a potentially applicable model.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2006

Richard A. Posner

This project of derivation that I have just described may seem strange, but is not. In this as in many respects Plato set the fashion for the millennia to come. The ideal state…

Abstract

This project of derivation that I have just described may seem strange, but is not. In this as in many respects Plato set the fashion for the millennia to come. The ideal state sketched in the Republic is not only an analogy to the soul (though it is that too); it is an implication of Plato's conception of human mental capacity, a conception that is ontological as well as epistemological. It was Plato who, according to Aristotle, first separated a universal (i.e., a concept) from particulars (i.e., a concept's physical embodiments or expressions). There are a multitude of chairs, very different in size, shape, color, and design, yet there is also a concept of the “chair,” in which all the physical chairs participate. The concept has no physical body and therefore in a sense exists outside time and space – it is immaterial and eternal. But Plato believed, reasonably as it seems to me, that it is real. It is real in the same way that a line or circle in Euclidean geometry is real even though it is not identical to any physical line or circle and cannot be – the Euclidean line has only one dimension, and the Euclidean circle only two, and there are no one-or two-dimensional objects in the physical world (although electrons are dimensionless), as far as we know.

Details

Cognition and Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-465-2

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2010

Tom Short

Describes how Plato's philosophy has influenced, and may continue to affect, modern human‐resource management.

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Abstract

Purpose

Describes how Plato's philosophy has influenced, and may continue to affect, modern human‐resource management.

Design/methodology/approach

Outlines some of Plato's main ideas – including the role of the philosopher king in striving for the ideal – and draws out their relevance for current HR thinking and practice.

Findings

Contends that the platonic HR manager would oppose the notion of flatter structures. Policy would encourage progression through education, recognizing that not everyone had the qualities or wisdom to become a top executive. Men would rise faster than women, and emphasis would be placed on age, experience and service. Training and development would be more segmented and orientated towards efficiency.

Practical implications

Argues that, on the basis of Plato's philosophy, educated and enlightened leaders would go the extra mile for the good of the enterprise and senior executives would set an example.

Social implications

Highlights an anti‐democratic notion at the heart of Plato's philosophy: that truth and reality reside in a universal series of ideals, or forms, that transcend the material world and are understood only by a few members of a privileged class.

Originality/value

Applies 2,500‐year‐old ideas to the modern HR world.

Details

Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-0734

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1997

Tuomo Takala

Based on Plato's thinking, connects several aspects of communication and leadership theory to focus on charismatic leadership. Speculates on the application of Plato's ideas to…

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Abstract

Based on Plato's thinking, connects several aspects of communication and leadership theory to focus on charismatic leadership. Speculates on the application of Plato's ideas to managerial communication and makes recommendations.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 January 2024

Sol Garrido

This study aims to introduce an alternative model, “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), Virtue and Vice” (3V’s), to unleash leadership skills, promote…

369

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to introduce an alternative model, “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), Virtue and Vice” (3V’s), to unleash leadership skills, promote organisational collaborative change and impact sales performance during an unprecedented crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology outlines action research based on the 3V’s model and its application in an international business-to-business sales organisation during Covid-19. It explores alternative paths informed by play-at-work and Plato’s philosophy applied to work-based-learning. Each action/iteration adds to the model, which becomes more likely appropriate for various situations.

Findings

The 3V’s boosted change implementation and improved sales performance. The 3V’s conceptualised an invitation to immerse oneself in the constant “river of change” (VUCA) and a means of understanding the role of leadership in navigating this change by embracing simple rules: searching for justice (Virtue) and overcoming the barrier of public opinion (Vice).

Research limitations/implications

The 3V’s model is grounded in leadership literature and a sole application, providing real international data relevant to organisations and leaders. This has yet to be evaluated further.

Practical implications

3V’s can enhance the understanding of a leading collaborative change and re-frame team dynamics in post-pandemic times for the broader public.

Social implications

The approach advocated is a practice of “swimming alongside the team”, which should enable empowerment and collaboration rather than a top-down direction. Focussing on leaders who are moral people, this approach becomes a differentiator in a digital world.

Originality/value

This study examines Plato’s philosophy, play-at-work and other leadership theories in a model which prepares organisations to respond to crisis by providing the ability to reflect on human aspects and straightforward, transferable skills.

Details

Journal of Work-Applied Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2205-2062

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 22 November 2016

Raymond Aaron Younis

Theoretical reconstruction for the sake of deeper and clearer understanding of an important theme in classical philosophy (aporia/euporia)

Abstract

Purpose

Theoretical reconstruction for the sake of deeper and clearer understanding of an important theme in classical philosophy (aporia/euporia)

Methodology/approach

Logical critique (and reconstruction); aporetic and euporetic logic.

Findings

Using key texts by Plato and Aristotle on aporia and euporia, I attempt to show that Derrida’s, and more broadly deconstructive, readings are problematic and require careful and critical reconsideration.

Research limitations

A full account of aporia in the work of Derrida is beyond the scope of the paper – so too is a full account of aporia and euporia in the works of Plato and Aristotle.

Practical implications

The paper has important implications in terms of our reading and interpretation of important classical texts such as Aristotle’s Metaphysics.

Originality/value

The paper builds on important research by philosophers like Matthews and on the nature and role of aporia in classical philosophy, just as it extends the author’s own critique of deconstructive appropriations of aporia. It argues for the importance of reconstructing our understanding of aporetic and euporetic thinking in order to see it more clearly especially in its classical forms, contexts and frameworks.

Details

Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-469-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 February 2008

Rob Atkinson

A central interest of the modern law and literature movement has been how literature can show lawyers what it is like to be different from what they are – in a word, “other.” This…

Abstract

A central interest of the modern law and literature movement has been how literature can show lawyers what it is like to be different from what they are – in a word, “other.” This essay examines the course of that “other” project through three critical phases: the taxonomic, which purported to give lawyers an external account of others, the better to serve their own clients; the empathetic, which has tried to give lawyers an internal account of others, the better to enable lawyers to improve the lot of those others; and the exemplary, which holds up models of how lawyers themselves might be more firmly and effectively committed to the commonweal, particularly the good of others less well-off. It argues that the law and literature movement should embrace this third phase of the “other” project. Although analytically last, this phase is chronologically first, anticipated in Plato's Republic. This essay concludes by placing the exemplary phase of the “other” project at the center of the law and literature movement's mission, with the Republic at the core of the movement's canon.

Details

Special Issue Law and Literature Reconsidered
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-561-1

Abstract

Details

Electronic Resources Review, vol. 4 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1364-5137

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1994

P.R. Masani

Presents the scientific methodology from the enlarged cybernetical perspective that recognizes the anisotropy of time, the probabilistic character of natural laws, and the entry…

Abstract

Presents the scientific methodology from the enlarged cybernetical perspective that recognizes the anisotropy of time, the probabilistic character of natural laws, and the entry that the incomplete determinism in Nature opens to the occurrence of innovation, growth, organization, teleology communication, control, contest and freedom. The new tier to the methodological edifice that cybernetics provides stands on the earlier tiers, which go back to the Ionians (c. 500 BC). However, the new insights reveal flaws in the earlier tiers, and their removal strengthens the entire edifice. The new concepts of teleological activity and contest allow the clear demarcation of the military sciences as those whose subject matter is teleological activity involving contest. The paramount question “what ought to be done”, outside the empirical realm, is embraced by the scientific methodology. It also embraces the cognitive sciences that ask how the human mind is able to discover, and how the sequence of discoveries might converge to a true description of reality.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

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