Schumpeter’s conjunction cycle: Eternal return of the same?

André Lapied and Sophie Swaton

Table of Contents

Abstract

This article is in line with previous works aiming to analyze Schumpeter’s entrepreneur and Nietzsche’s superhuman together. Both share a creativity that can be interpreted as the externalization of an extra force. The latter, through Nietzsche’s perspective, is very close to the extra-moral source of the increase of life. But what we have not analyzed yet is the context in which each of them operate: is it the same? Beyond a historical approach of the economic cycle, we suggest that a philosophical approach turns out to be fruitful for a larger interpretation of such a cycle. Moreover, it could both complete and extend our conception of the superhuman and the entrepreneur.

JEL classification: A12, B25

Keywords

  • entrepreneur
  • innovation
  • cycle
  • eternal return
  • will to power