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This book demonstrates how the conceptual resources of contemporary French philosophy from the early 20thCentury to the present day can be applied to give us new perspectives on business ethics and the ethics of organizations. In providing an overview of possible applications, the book covers a wide range of philosophers, philosophical movements and perspectives and provides detailed analyses of core materials relevant to business ethics. It explores and analyzes French philosophy, taking into account phenomenology, existentialism, French epistemology, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction and postmodernism as well as recent discussions of philosophy of organizations and management.

Each chapter contains suggestions for further reading and educational illustrations of possible applications to the mainstream business ethics and ethics of organization literature.

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Introduction: What is French philosophy and What does it mean for business ethics and philosophy of management?.- Business ethics and early modern French Philosophy in the beginning of the 20th Century.- Henri Bergson: Living presence and creative evolution.- Creative evolution and moral and religious development.- Bergson and Business ethics and philosophy of management.- Durkheim and the institutionalization of the moral economy.- From Durkheim to Marcel Mauss (Collège de Sociologie).- The gift in modern society, economics and business.- Introducing Hegel in French social philosophy: Alexandre Kojève.- Georges Bataille: Hegelianism and economy of the gift.- Personalism and Existentialism and their view on business ethics, organization and institutions.- Personalist existentialism and political economy.- Existentialism: Jean-Paul Sartre: Freedom and contingency.- Simone de Beauvoir, ethics and the Second Sex.- Existentialism and economics: Christian Arnsperger.- The phenomenological tradition: Experience, body and ethics.- Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Body and perception.- Emmanuel Lévinas: Phenomenology and the ethics of the other.- Marxism in French Philosophy: From existence to structure and beyond.- Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The ambiguity of dialectics.- Jean-Paul Sartre: Circularity of dialectics.- Althusser and Marxist Structuralism as theoretical anti-humanism.- Rancière, Balibar and Badiou: Marxism today.- Structuralism, structural anthropology and social theory.- Structure and language as a system of signs.- Claude Lévi-Strauss and structural anthropology.- Structuralism and contemporary society: Roland Barthes.- Jacques Lacan and the Freudian turn of structuralism.- Structuralism, ethics and organizational analysis.- Post-structuralism, organizational analysis and business ethics.- Michel Foucault: Power, subjectivation and governmentality.- Structures of power i modern society.- Archeology and genealogy of power.- Ethics beyond biopower?.- Gilles Deleuze (and Felix Guattari): capitalism, desire and control society.- Deleuze as a classical philosopher.- Criticism of psychoanalysis and social theory.- Deleuze and the arts.- Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction of CSR and business ethics.- Deconstruction of the political community of organizations.- Justice and responsibility in deconstruction.- Deconstruction and complexity thinking in business ethics.- Jean-Luc Nancy and the continuation of Derrida´s project.- Beyond Post-structuralism: The critical hermeneutical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur.- The ethical foundations of organizational deliberation.- Ethical life and judgment in organizations.- The tradition of political philosophy - From Raymond Aron and democratic institutionalism to Republican Liberalism.- Raymond Aron: Defense of liberal democracy.- Castoriadis and the concept of institutions and institutionalization.- Castoriadis´ critique of bureaucracy.- A new theory of democracy.- Claude Lefort and Marcel Gauchet.- From Luc Ferry and Alain Renaut: to liberalism.- Consequences for business ethics and philosophy of management of the liberal tradition.- Post-structuralist Sociology and the New Spirit of Capitalism: Bourdieu and Boltanski.- Pierre Bourdieu : Sociology of praxis and intentional structure.- Habitus and the social structures of the economy.- The economic sociology of late capitalism: Luc Boltanski.- Different orders or regimes of worth.- The new spirit of capitalism.- Post-Modernism, Hypermodernism and Critique of the Spirit of Capitalism.- Jean-Fran‡ois Lyotard: The Postmodern condition.- Jean Baudrillard: postmodernism, seduction and simulation.- Gilles Lipovetsky: From Postmodernity to Hypermodernity.- Bernard Stiegler: Hypermodernism, Pharmacology and Ars Industrialis.- Conclusion and perspectives: Implications of French Philosophy for business ethics and philosophy of management.- References (Cited Litterature)

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