Peter Koslowski

The theory of capitalism and of the economic order is the central topic of the German economic tradition in the 20th century. Capitalism has not only been the topic for Marxist economics and for the Frankfurt School but also for the Historical School and for the postmarxist theory of capitalism in Ordo- and Neo-Liberalism as well as in Solidarism. The question of the foundations of the economic order of the market economy and of capitalism as well as the problem whether a third path between capitalism and social ism is possible occupied this tradition from the Historical School to Ordo Liberalism and the theory of the social market economy. The theory of capitalism and of the social market economy as well as the critique and reform developed in this theoretical tradition is important for the theory of economic systems as well as for today's problems of the eco nomic order. Its relevance for the present world economy is visible in the discussions whether there exist different models of capitalism and whether they can be described as the Anglo-American and as the Rhenish model of capitalism influenced by the thought of the German economic tradition. Michel Albert, the author of this classification, gave the key-word in his book Capitalism against Capitalism. The papers of this book can help to clarify this debate by giving a first hand introduction to some of the main economic thinkers of capitalism.

Historism, Ordo-Liberalism, Critical Theory, Solidarism

The Theory of Capitalism in the German Economic Tradition

The theory of evolution and Neo-Darwinian biological theory extend their analysis in sociobiology from the life sciences and the animal societies to human societies. Sociobiology as a unifying theory of the social interaction within and between species has led to an integration of economic analysis into biology. The economy of nature has become the subject of bioeconomics which in turn transferred biological analysis to the human economy. Evolution, competition, selection, and cooperation are phenomena common to the economy of nature and human economy. The inclusion of economic and cultural theory in evolution theory raises the question whether the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis with its exclusive concern with somatic heredity is able to incorporate developmental systems of the human economy and of cultural heredity. A new synthesis of the natural and the social sciences is in the making.

The Theory of Evolution in Biological and Economic Theory

Sociobiology and Bioeconomics

Andreas Follesdal

The welfare state has been developed first and in its largest extent in North-Western Europe, in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It is also in these countries where the crisis and financial problems of the welfare state are felt first. The need for restructuring the welfare state is a challenge of a supra-national, European and international scale. The book analyses the different welfare states in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden with outlooks to Eastern Europe and Japan and examines the proposals for reforming and restructuring the welfare state in Europe. The book offers a unique combination of empirical and philosophical-ethical analysis of the welfare state.

Theory and Reform of Social Policy

Restructuring the Welfare State

Karl Homann

Christoph Luetge

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume provides a theoretical overview of how business ethics deals with the phenomenon of globalization. The authors examine both the origins and development of globalization and its interaction with business ethics, before discussing the impact on national and multinational corporations and the role they play.

Globalisation and Business Ethics

German Idealism develops its philosophy of history as the theory of becoming absolute and as absolute knowledge. Historism also originates from Hegel's and Schelling's discovery of absolute historicity as it turns against Idealism's philosophy of history by emphasizing the singular and unique in the process of history. German Idealism and Historism can be considered as the central German contribution to the history of ideas. Since Idealism became most influential for modern philosophy and Historism for modern historiography, they are analyzed in this volume in a collaboration of philosophers and historians. German Idealism is presented in Schelling and its critics Schlegel, Baader, and Nietzsche; Historism in Ranke, Droysen, Burckhardt, and Treitschke. The volume further presents the impact of Idealism and Historism on present German approaches to the philosophy of history and outlines the debates on the possibility of a philosophy of history and on the methodology of the historical sciences.

The Discovery of Historicity in German Idealism and Historism

Europa ist dabei, den Nationalstaat zu }berwinden und einen }bernationalen Bundesstaat zu entwickeln. Die wirtschaftli- che Vereinigung Europas ist weit vorangeschritten, seine kulturelle, geistige und soziale Einigung h{lt jedoch mit der wirtschaftlichen nicht Schritt. Die kulturelle Aufgabe der europ{ischen Einigung, das gemeineurop{ische Bewu tsein, deneurop{ischen Bundessaat und die gemeinsame humane Lebensordnung der Europas zu schaffen, trritt verst{rkt in den Mittelpunkt der europ{ischen Frage. DasBuch Europa imaginieren, eine wissenschaftliche Gemeinschaftsarbeit franz]sischer, polnischer und deutscher Autoren, antwortet auf diese europ{ische Herausforderung. Es untersucht, wie das Europa der Zukunft, seine wirtschaftliche Lebensordnung und seine Kultur desGeistes und des Alltags aussehen wird. Es analysiert die wirtschaftliche Vereinigung des europ{ischen Binnenmarktes als kulturwissenschaftliche, philosophische, theologische und ]konomische Aufgaben. Zugleich wird die europ{ische Themtik des Binnenmarktes und der Vertiefung der Europ{ischen Gemeinschaft erg{nzt durch die Frageder Erweiterung der EG um die osteurop{ischen L{nder. Es gibt wenige Werke zum Thema "Europa," die in {hnlich umfassender Weise die wirtschaftlich-kulturelle Einheit Europas in Kultur, Religion, Spiritualit{t, Philosophie und Wirtschaftsverfassung darstellen.

Der europäische Binnenmarkt als kulturelle und wirtschaftliche Aufgabe

Europa imaginieren

The volume gives an exposition of the achievement and present relevance of the Newer Historical School of Economics and of the theory of the Humane Sciences that accompanied its development. It describes the methodology of economics and the social sciences, the economic ethics, and the theory of the social and human sciences in the Historical School. It shows how its emphasis moved from an ethical economics or ethical economy to the methodology of the social and economic sciences. Together with the volume on the theory of ethical economy in the Older Historical School, the reader is provided with an encyclopedic description and analysis of the entire Historical School and of the German speaking tradition of economics and the social sciences in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.

From Max Weber and Rickert to Sombart and Rothacker

Methodology of the Social Sciences, Ethics, and Economics in the Newer Historical School

antiker Gnostizismus, Franz von Baader, Schelling

Philosophien der Offenbarung

Grundlegung der Wirtschaftsethik und der auf die Ökonomie bezogenen Ethik

Prinzipien der ethischen Ökonomie

The book has two subjects, first the ethical theory of the economic order, and secondly the critique of sociobiology and its theory of evolution. The first part, the ethics of capitalism, analyzes the rise of capitalism and the business ethics and moral theory of a capitalist economic order in a perspective from philosophy and economics. The second part, a critique of sociobiology, gives a philosophical assessment of sociobiology's contribution to the theory of the economy and society and of its impact for metaphysics and a general world view. James M. Buchanan, Nobel prize winner in economics, discusses the first part of the book in his comment "The Morality of Capitalism".

Two Essays with a Comment by James M. Buchanan

Ethics of Capitalism and Critique of Sociobiology

Managing as a form of human action has an inherent link with philosophy, which is also concerned with choosing the right action and the best way to lead our lives. Management theory and philosophy can join forces in epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge), ethics, and cultural theory. The epistemology of management concerns the question of how management can improve its ability to create knowledge about managing companies and about using management theory in the task of managing. Management ethics investigates the question of what the right management actions are. The cultural theory of management examines how corporate culture can increase the cooperation within the firm and how the cultural surplus value of products and brand management can increase the firm’s value creation in its products. This book introduces the readers to central approaches in this new field, which represents a synthesis of management and philosophical theory.

Peter Koslowski

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