Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hjorth ◽  
Robin Holt
Keyword(s):  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Process Thinking ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Agency And Structure

Baruch Spinoza is rarely read in organization studies and figures in discussions on process philosophy or process thinking only occasionally. However, he becomes a most apposite thinker of organization and process in the context of ethics. Spinoza’s philosophy emphasizes both agency and structure as the active or passive modulation of nature, rather than individual agents in their status as subjects, or on structures as determining constraints. This chapter examines Spinoza’s philosophy based on three basic concepts: substance, mode, and attribute. It also discusses his ideas about God, Nature, ethics of coping, conatus, affect and affective capacity, actorship, and organization.

The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies

2014 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ◽  
Charles Sanders Peirce ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Wilhelm Dilthey ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Process Thinking ◽  
Self Force

This book examines process philosophy in organization studies by focusing on the life and work of a specific philosopher such as Jacques Derrida, Zhuang Zi, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Wilhelm Dilthey, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Gabriel Tarde, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Henri Bergson. It looks at process from five different aspects—temporality, wholeness, openness and the open self, force, and potentiality—that all touch on emerging concerns in organization studies. Each chapter considers how a philosopher’s work could potentially be useful for thinking processually in organization and management studies. Viewing process philosophy as a way of thinking rather than as a specific theory to be used, the book explores how philosophers might make us see things anew. For example, it discusses Daodejing, a compilation of sayings by Laozi, as well as Heraclitus’ philosophy and its inspirations for process thinking in organization studies. In addition, it analyzes the link between process and reality.

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Weik
Keyword(s):  
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Infinitesimal Calculus ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Perfect System ◽  
Process Metaphysics ◽  
The World ◽  
René Descartes ◽  
Human World

Born in Leipzig in 1646, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is an influential figure in the world of process philosophy. In addition to his philosophical contributions, Leibniz invented the infinitesimal calculus and binary numbers, along with mathematical and logical forms of notation still used today. Leibniz believed that the worlds of theory, praxis, nature, morals, and the divine as well as the human world all formed one perfect system. This chapter examines Leibniz’s philosophy in relation to process metaphysics and its relevance to organization studies. It also discusses his responses to René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza concerning various issues, such as why he called the monads substances. It also considers which organization studies authors use Leibniz today.

scholarly journals Documenting the invisible – on the ‘how’ of process research: (Re)considering method from process philosophy

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979911774578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Pallesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Process Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
The World ◽  
Process View ◽  
The Universe

Currently, there is a growing field in organization studies, reflecting a stream in social science more broadly, which seeks to encompass a process philosophical view of the world as multiple and in constant becoming. However, this raises new questions and challenges to the field of methodology: If movement and process are the basic forms of the universe, then the vagueness and multiplicity that come with the flux of the world are not to be ruled out by rigorous research designs; rather, relating to vagueness and multiplicity may be the very precondition of approaching the studied phenomena. For some scholars, this has been an occasion for deeming the discipline of methodology ‘dead’ or ‘emptied’. In contrast to such claims, this article argues that the scholar doing empirical research from approaches drawing on process philosophy to no less extent than other scholars must deal with problems of methodological character. However, he or she may need a renewed understanding of traditional methodological categories such as documentation, validity and variation. Rather than cancelling such concepts, this article experimentally reconsiders them in a process view, using a piece of observational material to think from. The article suggests that process philosophy may open up a methodological thinking that has room for a more connotative, playful way of relating to research material – which does not demand from a method to overcome the gap between what is there and what is captured but makes use of this gap as a space of invitation and play. Rather than adhering to the promise of ruling out vagueness and filling out a gap, the article, therefore, in itself aims at being such an invitation for a connotative, playful methodology.

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders R. Kristensen ◽  
Thomas Lopdrup-Hjorth ◽  
Bent Meier Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Process Ontology ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Process Thinking ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Contemporary Management

Gilles Deleuze is a French philosopher known for his ontological thinking. In the field of organization studies, Deleuze is associated with postmodernism and post-structuralism along with fellow thinkers such as Jacques Derrida. This chapter examines Deleuze’s philosophical views and considers how processual thinking has emerged as an important area of research within organization and management studies. It first looks at Deleuze’s understanding of metaphysics and the creation of concepts, along with the connection between process organization studies and the creation of concepts. It then discusses the process ontology that exists within process organization studies in the context of process thinking. It also describes the new spirit of capitalism and its implications for contemporary management thought and highlights some individual cases in which a certain, perhaps Deleuzian, philosophy of organization is developed. The chapter concludes by arguing that the deployment of Deleuze’s philosophy in process organization studies should be more normative and pragmatic.

Arne Naess (1912–2009)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carien de Jonge ◽  
Gail Whiteman
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Process Theory ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Active Processes ◽  
Arne Næss ◽  
Arne Naess

Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher known for his work on semantics and philosophy of science, was committed to Gandhian, non-violent enquiry. As an ecophilosopher and the father of the deep ecology movement, he developed a philosophical system termed ecosophy. According to Naess, the path to understanding lies in an interconnected set of active processes, which include cognitive and emotive components and involve a widening and maturing of the self, which he termed self-realization!. This chapter examines the building blocks of Naess’ ecosophy and its relevance to process philosophy in organization studies. It also discusses four of his key philosophical insights: self-realization, relationalism, gestalt ontology/perception, and the genesis of the Place-person. The chapter concludes by considering how Naess’ work contributes unique insights to a process theory of organizing.

Sweet Spots: Writing the Connective Tissue of Relation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattie-Martha Sempert
Keyword(s):  
Connective Tissue ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
William James ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Human Material ◽  
The One ◽  
Sweet Spots

Sweet Spots thinks transversally across language and body, and between text and tissue. This assemblage of essays collectively proposes that words—that is, language that lands as written text—are more-than-human material. And, these materials, composed of forces and flows and tendencies, are capable of generating text-flesh that grows into a thinking in the making. The practice of acupuncture—and its relational thinking—often makes its presence felt to twirl the text-tissue of the bodying essays. Ficto-critical thinking is threaded throughout to activate concepts from process philosophy and use the work of other thinkers (William James, Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Baruch Spinoza, and Virginia Woolf, to name a few) to forge imaginative connections. Entangled in the text-tissue are an assortment of entities, such as bickering body parts, quivering jellyfish, heart pacemaker cells, a narwhal tooth, Taoist parables, always with ubiquitous, stretchy connective tissue — from gooey interstitial fluid to thick planes of fascia — ever present to ensure that the essaying bodies become, what Alfred North Whitehead calls the one-which-includes-the-many-includes-the-one. The essaying bodies orient towards the sweetest sweet spot which is found, not in the center, but slightly askew, felt in the reverbing more-than that carries their potential. Crucially, this produces a shift in perspective away from self-enclosed bodies and experts toward a care for the connective tissue of relation.

Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Chia
Keyword(s):  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Kyoto School ◽  
Lao Tzu ◽  
Pure Experience ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Kyoto School Of Philosophy ◽  
Social Entities ◽  
Nishida Kitaro

Nishida Kitarō, the most significant and influential Japanese philosopher of the twentieth century, was the founder of the Kyoto School of Philosophy which focuses on the notion of pure experience or absolute nothingness. According to this worldview, the existence of social entities such as individuals, organizations, and societies is preceded by actions, relations, and experiences. Nishida’s work contributed to the emergence of a unique Japanese philosophy that combines Anglo-European philosophy with ancient Asian sources of thought such as Zen Buddhism and the philosophy of Lao Tzu. His thinking has profound implications for contemporary process organizational theorizing and especially for a revised comprehension of consciousness, self, world, and organization that is compatible with process philosophy. This chapter examines Nishida’s Zen-based philosophy and its relevance to self and process in organization studies.

scholarly journals The performative power of frictions and new possibilities: Studying power, performativity and process with Follett’s pragmatism.

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062110317
Author(s):  
Piera Morlacchi
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Process Research ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Process Ontology ◽  
Start Up ◽  
The World ◽  
Performative Power

This article seeks to open up new possibilities for process organization studies to reimagine power and performativity by exploring the potential of Mary Parker Follett’s pragmatism as process philosophy. I revisit her body of work to show how she translated her process ontology into theoretical resources and practical insights that allow for new ways of understanding power and performativity together and explore them as mutually constituting processes of organizing. In particular, I mobilize Follett’s view of conflicts as emerging differences in the world and frictions as constructive conflicts with the potential to generate something new in order to introduce and conceptualize ‘performative power’, that is, the power emerging from relating and integrating differences in organizational situations that are experienced as frictions by people involved. Drawing on my ethnographic study of an entrepreneurship accelerator – a training programme for innovators and start-up projects – I discuss and illustrate empirically how performative power is generated from frictions that arise in ordinary lived experiences. This conceptualization of performative power is an attempt to develop a processual and performative understanding of power, and a useful lens to conduct process research. Making a connection between performative power and the experience of frictions provides a new way to see, talk and study processually power in contemporary organizations.

scholarly journals From End-State Fit To Fitting Dynamic: Implications For Organizational Studies

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Janice Black
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Austrian Economics ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Dynamic View ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Learning And Change

Austrian economics is a disequilibrium-based understanding of how firmsinteract in markets. Using basic concepts from Austrian economics and themarket dynamics implied from them, this paper presents a dynamic view offitting as one of the implications for organization studies and highlights othercritical areas including entrepreneurship, innovation, information processingand organizational learning and change.

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