Editorial: Making Sense

Some people expect or gain much from philosophy. In Solzhenitsyn’s The First Circle, the arrested
Volodin turned to philosophy in the face of death. In A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe’s imprisoned hero
finds the Stoics an antidote to the rigours of prison. And Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the condemned cell
declared in Letters and Papers from Prison that the value of a liberal education (including philosophy)
was that it equips one to deal with life’s extremes. Set against these claims, the account of philosophy
given recently by Bernard Williams may seem unduly modest: philosophy is ‘part of a more general
attempt to make the best sense of our life, and so of our intellectual activities, in the situation in
which we find ourselves’.1 It is an attempt to avoid that incoherence in our thinking which, at its
extreme, produces ‘a crisis of explanation’.2

Modest the account may be or not - and we think not - but managers can surely gain much from
philosophy which seeks to make sense. It was Peter Senge, after all, who noted that ‘the quality of
our thinking affects the quality of everything we do’ and managers continue to grapple with
challenges that require clear and cogent thinking. As they attempt this they are not always well
served by popular gurus. When ideas are another commodity in a marketplace whose pockets are
very deep, the half-life of the latest ‘wisdom’ is often staggeringly short.

This issue offers examples of how doing philosophy can help managers make better sense of and
think more effectively about some of their tasks such as encouraging creativity, fostering
community, learning from experience and thinking realistically about motivation.

In Creativity and Rationality, Frits Schipper questions the gurus’ invitation to abandon reason in
favour of creativity. His account explores the relationship of the two notions and argues that
rationality can foster creativity. Michael Fielding begins a two-part series about community and
organisation, arguing that Peter Senge’s influential account fails to deal with crucial facts of
organisational life. Managers who pride themselves on working in the real world and seeking to
build learning communities should find it helpful in avoiding false starts. An alternative model
follows in the second article in the next issue. Chris Provis tackles trust, a core concern for managers
seeking to replace adversarial relationships with partnership. He sets out the paradoxes managers will
need to live with if they are to retain the trust of others. Deborah Jackson and James Connelly in
Learning from the Past explore some of the hazards of taking the idea of ‘experience’ for granted and
Sheelagh O’Reilly continues in Reason as Performance to report on her reflections in the present.
Doris Schroeder subjects the idea of economic man to philosophical and empirical scrutiny while
noting the morally debilitating effects on some of those who work as if the idea is valid. Richard
Norman reviews a book for managers whose assumptions about human nature are open to question.
Paul Griseri offers insights into the guru phenomenon in his review of Staffan Furusten’s Popular
Management Books. Nathan Harter invites us to consider leadership from an alien perspective that
disturbs utilitarian assumptions. Jim Platts responds to Jos Kessels Socrates Comes to Market (Issue
1), and Yvon Pesqueux offers some thoughts on the relationship of philosophical notions to
companies.

These last two contributors provide what we hope will become common: items prompted by
previous papers. This is but one aspect of the dialogue we seek to encourage. Another took the form
of our first conference, a one-day event Introducing Philosophy of Management at the LSE in June.
Some 50 delegates from six countries attended. (The announcement is printed overleaf for the
record.) As a result of comments during and after the day more events are planned. In Australia,
Ashly Pinnington of the editorial board will host an Australian version of the LSE conference later
this year. And next summer we plan to hold a three-day international residential conference at
Oxford.

Our grateful thanks to all those readers who troubled to offer us comments and advice. If you have
any suggestions do get in touch.

1
‘Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline’, the Annual Lecture of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Philosophy
Volume 75 No 294 October 2000 p 479
2
Loc cit p 491

Reason in Practice Volume 1 Number 2 2001 © Reason in Practice 2001 3