The Significance of Normativity – Studies in Post-Kantian Philosophy and Social Theory Solbjerg Plads 3 Dk-2000 Frederiksberg Danmark
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COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NORMATIVITY SOLBJERG PLADS 3 DK-2000 FREDERIKSBERG DANMARK WWW.CBS.DK ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93483-98-9 Online ISBN: 978-87-93483-99-6 – STUDIES IN POST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL THEORY – STUDIES IN POST-KANTIAN Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NORMATIVITY STUDIES IN POST-KANTIAN PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL THEORY Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies PhD Series 13.2017 PhD Series 13-2017 The Significance of Normativity Studies in Post-Kantian Philosophy and Social Theory Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen Main supervisor: Sverre Raffnsøe, Professor of Philosophy • Secondary supervisor: Christian Borch, Professor with special responsibilities in Political Sociology • Doctoral school of Organisation and Management Studies • Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy • Copenhagen Business School Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen The Significance of Normativity – Studies in Post-Kantian Philosophy and Social Theory 1st edition 2017 PhD Series 13.2017 © Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93483-98-9 Online ISBN: 978-87-93483-99-6 The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies (OMS) is an interdisciplinary research environment at Copenhagen Business School for PhD students working on theoretical and empirical themes related to the organisation and management of private, public and voluntary organizations. All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Preface First of all, I must thank the dissertation committee, Professor Patrick Baert of Cambridge University, Associate Professor Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen of University of Southern Denmark and Associate Professor Morten Sørensen Thaning of Copenhagen Business School. I am honoured that such immensely distinguished scholars from within both philosophy and social theory have agreed to evaluate my work. Secondly, I wish to thank my supervisors, Professor Sverre Raffnsøe and Professor Christian Borch. They have helped the dissertation in more ways than I think they know; and each of them in their own way. In addition to the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at CBS – which I think of as a second home – the Faculty of Philosophy at Cambridge University must be thanked for accepting me as a visiting academic of the Michaelmas term of 2015. At CBS, Ole Bjerg deserves thanks for inviting me into his research just as librarian Thomas Basbøll must be mentioned as an aid in the craft of research. Also, it is not the first time that Marius Gudmand- Høyer has been named as the sine non qua of a PhD dissertation and I doubt that it will be the last. This dissertation, in any case, confirms the rule. Finally, Lars Nørgaard, expert in the history of early modernity, must be thanked. Lars, you are, after all, my worst interlocutor and my best friend. Numerous other people also deserve and command my gratitude. Among them (but not limited to) are Ann-Christina Lange, Bent Meier, Bjørn Schiermer, Christian Garmann Johnsen, Henrik Bjelke, Henrik Hermansen, Kasper Villadsen, Kim Sune Jepsen, Kristian Bondo Hansen, Lone Christensen, Lotte Jensen, Magnus Paulsen Hansen, Mette Nelund, Michael Pedersen, Mike Withey, Ole Fogh Kirkeby, Ole Petter Graff, Ole Thyssen, Pernille Pedersen, Rasmus Johnsen, Stefan Gaarsmand Jacobsen, Steen Nepper Larsen, Steen Valentin, Stephen Dunne, Søren Brier, Søren Rohmann-Sønderby, Tobias Brask and Øjvind Larsen. The dissertation is dedicated to my family who – in an instance of cruel irony – has both suffered the most and supported me the most. Til Pelle, Sophus og Cecilie Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen Frederiksberg, 9th of November 2016 English summary This dissertation examines the concept of normativity through a series of studies in post- Kantian philosophy and social theory. The overall aim is to analyse the historical as well as systematic relevance of the concept of normativity to modern philosophy and to the methodological challenges of social theory. In pursuing this overall research agenda, the dissertation contributes to a number of specific research literatures. Following two introductory and methodological chapters, Chapter 3 thus critically examines the analysis of normativity suggested in the recent attempts at transforming the methods of neo-classical economics into a broader form of social theory. The chapter thereby contributes to the critical discourses, particularly in philosophy of science, that challenge the validity of neo-classical economics and its underlying conception of practical rationality. In examining the practical philosophies of Kant and Hegel, Chapter 4 substantiates and collects the numerous, specific insights on normativity, practical rationality and autonomy that have been generated by the so-called ‘post- Sellarsian’ reading of German Idealism. The chapter thereby contributes not only to this particular branch of philosophical exegesis, but also to the social theoretical concern with the conceptions of autonomy and agency that have influenced European modernity. Chapter 5 examines the social theoretical transfiguration of the problems of German Idealism that occurred in the works of Durkheim and Weber. It does so by situating Durkheim and Weber in the context of Neo-Kantian philosophy, which prevailed among their contemporaries, and the chapter thereby reveals a series of under-thematised similarities not only with regard to their methodological positions, but also in their conception of social norms. Chapter 6 employs the late Wittgenstein’s much-debated rule-following considerations to recapitulate the significance of normativity to philosophy and social theory; in this way the chapter shows a wider import of the rule-following considerations that go beyond the strict mathematical and epistemological perspectives most often analysed in the Wittgenstein scholarship related to this topic. Keywords: Normativity, post-Kantian philosophy, social theory, philosophy of social science, German Idealism, Neo-Kantianism in classical sociology, economic conceptions of norms, I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, É. Durkheim, M. Weber, L. Wittgenstein, G.S. Becker. v Dansk sammendrag Afhandlingen undersøger begrebet normativitet igennem en række studier i post-kantiansk filosofi og socialteori. Afhandlingens overordnede mål er således at analysere den ikke kun historiske, men også systematiske relevans, som dette begreb kan tillægges både i moderne filosofi og for samfundsvidenskabernes metodologiske udfordringer, således som disse sædvan- ligvis har været behandlet i såkaldt socialteori. Mere specifikt bidrager afhandlingen hermed til en række særegne forskningsområder. Efter to indledende metodologiske kapitler, undersøger Kapitel 3 således de nutidige forsøg på at analysere normer, som har fundet sted inden for transformationen af neoklassisk økonomi til en mere generel samfundsteori. Der bidrages hermed til kritikken, særligt inden for videnskabsteorien, af neoklassisk økonomi og dens underliggende men kontroversielle begreb om praktisk rationalitet. I en undersøgelse af netop opfattelser af praktisk rationalitet hos Kant og Hegel samler og underbygger Kapitel 4 den række af indsigter om normativitet, handling og autonomi, som den særligt ’post-sellarsianske’ læsning af tysk idealisme har genereret. Hermed bidrages der ikke blot til denne specifikke gren inden for filosofisk eksegese, men også til den socialteoretiske interesse i de opfattelser af autonomi og agens, som afgørende har præget den europæiske modernitet. Kapitel 5 undersøger på et mere konkret analyseniveau den socialteoretiske transfiguration af den tyske idealismes problemer, som fandt sted hos Durkheim og Weber. Dette gøres ved at genlæse Durkheim og Weber med udgangspunkt i de neo-kantianske standpunkter, der gjorde sig afgørende gældende i deres samtid og hermed vises en række undertematiserede ligheder imellem Durkheim og Webers metodologiske standpunkter såvel som imellem deres respektive analyser af normer. Kapitel 6 anvender Wittgensteins regelfølgeovervejelser til at reartikulere normativitet-begrebets betydning for moderne filosofi og socialteori og der vises dermed en bredere implikationsrække af disse overvejelser, der går hinsides de strengt matematiske og epistemologiske perspektiver, som regelfølgeovervejelserne sædvanligvis har givet anledning til at debattere. Emneord: Normativitet, post-kantiansk filosofi, socialteori, samfundsvidenskabelig videnskabsteori, tysk idealisme, neo-kantianisme i klassisk sociologi, norm-opfattelser i økonomi, I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, É. Durkheim, M. Weber, L. Wittgenstein, G.S. Becker. vii Table of contents Preface ................................................................................................................................... iii English summary ................................................................................................................. v Dansk sammendrag ......................................................................................................... vii Introduction Chapter 1: The question of normativity............................................................ 1 §1. Prologue: Introduction to the concept of normativity ................................................... 1 §2. The problems and aims of the dissertation .....................................................................