The organizational problem firms face is the utilization of knowledge which is not, and cannot be, known by a single agent. Even more importantly, no single agent can fully specify in advance what kind of practical knowledge is going to be relevant, when and where. Firms, therefore, are distributed knowledge systems in a strong sense: they are decentered systems, iacking an overseeing 'mind'. The knowledge they need to draw upon is inherently indeterminate and continually emerging; it is not self-contained. Individuals' stock of knowledge consists of (a) role-related normative expectations; (b) dispositions, which have been formed in the course of past socializations; and (c) local knowledge of particular circumstances of time and place. A firm has greater-or-lesser control over normative expectations, but very limited control over the other two. At any point in time, a firm's knowledge is the indeterminate outcome of individuals attempting to manage the inevitable tensions between normative expectations, dispositions, and local contexts.

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The firm as a distributed knowledge system : A constructionist approach

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of methodology in action research. It begins by showing how, as a form of inquiry concerned with the development of practice, action research is nothing other than a modern 20th century manifestation of the pre-modern tradition of practical philosophy. It then draws in Gadamer's powerful vindication of the contemporary relevance of practical philosophy in order to show how, by embracing the idea of ‘methodology’, action research functions to sustain a distorted understanding of what practice is. The paper concludes by outlining a non-methodological view of action research whose chief task is to promote the kind of historical self-consciousness that the development of practice presupposes and requires.

Philosophy, methodology and action research

The past decade has witnessed a number of interesting shifts in the way people think about organizations. One of the most curious is the way in which much of the 'new thinking' is antithetical to mechanistic and rationalistic theories that have historically dominated organization and management studies. This paper investigates this shift, and argues that this new antithetical thinking can be interpreted as the re-surfacing, or recovery, of certain strands of Aristotelian philosophy, strands that were marginalized with the rise of scientific rational ism in the 17th century, before management and organization studies, as we tend to conceive of them, began. The discussion presented here demonstrates the traditional dominance of a disciplinary, mechanistic self-image in manage ment studies, whereby the field drew its boundaries in such a way as to exclude anything 'other' than this. We argue that reconnecting organizational and man agement research with systems of thought other than those traditionally assoc...

Marginalization and Recovery: The Emergence of Aristotelian Themes in Organization Studies

1. Introduction Robert J. Dostal 2. Gadamer: the man and his work Robert J. Dostal 3. Gadamer's basic understanding of understanding Jean Grondin 4. Getting it right: relativism, realism and truth Brice Wachterhauser 5. Hermeneutics, ethics and politics Georgia Warnke 6. The doing of the thing itself: Gadamer's hermeneutic ontology of language Gunter Figal 7. Gadamer on the human sciences Charles Taylor 8. Lyric as paradigm: Hegel and the speculative instance of poetry in Gadamer's hermeneutics J. M. Baker, Jr. 9. Gadamer, the hermeneutic revolution, and theology Fred Lawrence 10. Hermeneutics in practice: Gadamer on ancient philosophy Catherine H. Zuckert 11. Gadamer's Hegel Robert B. Pippin 12. Gadamer's relation to Heidegger and phenomenology Robert J. Dostal 13. The constellation of hermeneutics, critical theory and deconstruction Richard J. Bernstein.

The Cambridge Companion To Gadamer

This paper proceeds through four stages. First, it provides an account of the origins and evolution of the concept of educational theory. Second, it uses this historical narrative to show how what we now call ‘educational theory’ is deeply rooted in the foundationalist discourse of late nineteenth and early twentieth century modernity. Third, it outlines and defends a postfoundationalist critique of the foundationalist epistemological assumptions on which our understanding of educational theory has been erected. Finally, it argues that the only conclusion to draw from this postfoundationalist critique is that educational theory has run its course and should now be brought to a dignified end.

Education without theory

The title of my talk today could serve as a heading for this whole conference. It is evident that the expression \"human sciences\" is problematic for us today and that we must come to the conclusion that science should be defined by us in another way than it is for modern times. This, of course, includes a certain justification of the older Greek conception of knowledge as \"philosophy.\" It is not because of my special predilection for the Greeks that I propose this topic for today, but rather because of the necessity of seeking an epistemological selfunderstanding which is not based on the credence of the natural sciences and of the ideal of method as it was characteristically called at the beginning of the seventeenth century and as it dominates the research work and our academic activities in the humanities. It is for

Practical Philosophy as a Model of the Human Sciences

Acknowledgments Platonic Gestures 1. Memory and Life: Hermeneutics as Convalescence 2. Distressed Memory: Hermeneutics and the Venture of the Foreign 3. Beyond Distress: Toward a Community of Memory 4. The Fabric of Life: Dialectics, Discourse, and the Art of Weaving 5. Severed Threads: The Incapacity of Language 6. Reading beyond the Letter: On Memory and Writing 7. The Flash of Beauty Notes Bibliography Index

The Life of Understanding: A Contemporary Hermeneutics

Locating Shared Life in the ‘Thou’

This paper explores the place of Hegel in Gadamer's hermeneutics through an analysis of the idea of "infinite dialogue." It is argued that infinite dialogue cannot be understood as a limited Hegelianism, i.e., as the life of spirit in language that does not reach its end. Rather, infinite dialogue can be understood only by taking the Heideggerian idea of radical finitude seriously. Thus, while infinite dialogue has a speculative element, it remains a dialogue conditioned by the occlusion in temporal becoming. This idea is developed further by contrasting Gadamer's position with that of Blanchot, who also stands under the shadow of Hegel.

In the Shadow of Hegel: Infinite Dialogue in Gadamer's Hermeneutics

In understanding the world through language, silence, regarded simply as the absence of speech, appears to be the enemy of understanding. But in fact, it can be shown that silence is always a function of language. As we learn from Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, and others, the relation between silence and the word of language is a positive one. There are acts of silence that can generate the movement towards meaning in language. The focus of my remarks in this paper will explore three modalities of silence that characterize the positive relation between silence and the word of language. First, there is silence as the withdrawal of the word. This is the silence of the voice that wants to hold back from speaking and to hold back the word from falling into chatter. Second, there is silence as giving voice to words. This is the silence that enacts the spacing within language that possibilizes the intentions of meaning within speech and the efforts of communicative understanding. Third, there is silence as the beginning of the word. This is the silence that stands in relation to a hidden or absent origin, such as an unknown god, generating thereby a word from silence that is a beginning.

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jah/article/download/68705/53232

James Risser

Papers

Practical Philosophy as a Model of the Human Sciences

The Life of Understanding: A Contemporary Hermeneutics

Locating Shared Life in the ‘Thou’

In the Shadow of Hegel: Infinite Dialogue in Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Speaking from Silence: On the Intimate Relation Between Silence and Speaking