Review of Economic Philosophy

Tag: Entrepreneur

  • The Nietzschean Origins of Ambiguities of the Entrepreneur Concept: Schumpeter as a Reader of Nietzsche

    Abstract

    The figure of the entrepreneur is now used in a wide variety of public discourses. This work seeks to trace one of the theoretical sources for the constitution of this figure: Schumpeter’s 1911a, b theory of the entrepreneur. This study shows, by taking into account Schumpeter’s intellectual and theoretical context, that he was led to import a philosophical anthropology in economics, that of Nietzsche, an author widely read in Austria at the beginning of the 20th century. By transposing, within his economic theory, some of the main features of the great Nietzschean creative man into the figure of the entrepreneur, Schumpeter develops an original explanation of the dynamic nature of the market and of economic evolution. Nevertheless, a whole series of ambiguities are also important to Nietzsche, particularly with regard to the origin of the individual exceptionality of the entrepreneur, and more specifically his creative power. A second ambiguity is very widely inherited, which concerns the extension of the individual entrepreneur model: does it constitute a theory of action valid for all individuals or only for a particular type of individual? How can we reconcile the exceptionality of the entrepreneur with the norm of entrepreneurship for all? The last part of this work thus explores these ambiguities, which appear in Schumpeter and his successors, notably Israel Kirzner.

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    JEL Codes: B13, B25, B31, B40

    [Read the review in Cairn]

  • The entrepreneur in left libertarianism: A critical discussion

    Abstract

    The aim of this paper is twofold: to argue that the theory of justice of left-libertarianism implies that the entrepreneur—a notion rarely mentioned and yet central to understand this theory of justice—is a “gray eminence,” and to challenge the criticisms aimed at this theory.

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    JEL classification: D63, H20, P14, P16.

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

    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.

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    JEL classification: A12, B25

  • Between the coerced and capable individual: the responsibility of the social entrepreneur. Elements for a phenomenological reflection

    Abstract

    Social entrepreneurship leads us towards two types of responsibility, the first as a type of obligation which refers to the juridical and viewpoints, and the second of a cosmological type, pointing towards the domain of action and creation. Entrepreneurship as a practice in itself promotes primarily a cosmological responsibility, so that by contrast the social dimension of this practice refers to its obligatory aspect. In this article, we propose to revisit the genealogy of these two fundamental significations of responsibility. Both have been founded in Kantian philosophy. We propose to explore the impact and also the limit of their articulation within the social-entrepreneurial activity. We show that the first refers to several traditions of moral philosophy, suggesting various extensions of the concept, which forces us to question its operative value, and the second which we will illustrate with entrepreneurial discourse – has been promoted in recent times more by using the phenomenological and philosophy of action approaches. We finish by considering the prospect for social-entrepreneurs to break away from this procrastination between two types of responsibility in the current context, formerly anticipated by Hans Jonas. The current success of political ecology and sustainable development is a sign of this possibility. This context is now characterized by fear of the future in human action, all other things being equal.

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    Code JEL: M13, M14.