What can bodies do? Reading Spinoza for an affective ethics of organizational life

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20501009
AutoresTorkild Thanem (0000-0001-6020-1304, Stockholm University, autor correspondente), Louise Wallenberg (0000-0002-8389-5908, Stockholm University)
Ano2015
Volume22
Fascículo2
Páginas235-250
Data de publicação2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoOrganization (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350508414558725
OpenAlexW2171310819
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas34
Referências citadas24

Recent attempts to develop an embodied understanding of ethics in organizations have tended to mobilize a Levinasian and ‘im/possible’ ethics of recognition, which separates ethics and embodiment from politics and organization. We argue that this separation is unrealistic, unsustainable, and an unhelpful starting point for an embodied ethics of organizations. Instead of rescuing and modifying the ethics of recognition, we propose an embodied ethics of organizational life through Spinoza’s affective ethics. Neither a moral rule system nor an infinite duty to recognize the other, Spinoza offers a theory of the good, powerful and joyful life by asking what bodies can do. Rather than an unrestrained, irresponsible and individualistic quest for power and freedom, this suggests that we enhance our capacities to affect and be affected by relating to a variety of different bodies. We first scrutinize recent attempts to develop an ethics of recognition and embodiment in organization studies. We then explore key concepts and central arguments of Spinozian ethics. Finally, we discuss what a Spinozian ethics means for the theory and practice of embodied ethics in organizational life

Applied ethics · Duty · Embodied cognition · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethics of technology · Individualism · Information ethics · Meta-ethics · Normative ethics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Virtue · Virtue ethics · Ethics in Business and Education · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory