Juan Andrés Mercado

Leonardo Polo sintetiza elementos del pensamiento clásico con el contemporáneo. Para él, las organizaciones modernas son un contexto privilegiado para estudiar el comportamiento humano porque optimizan el uso del tiempo humano. Lo optimizan si respetan la libertad de la persona, la cual es naturalmente proactiva. Por eso, las organizaciones deben poner en el centro la iniciativa y la creatividad, que es siempre en colaboración.Por eso el liderazgo es fundamentalmente la capacidad de crear ambientes donde todos los actores puedan desarrollarse, mientras se esfuerzan por conseguir objetivos de largo alcance. Tal ambiente depende la actividad virtuosa de los directivos, que partiendo de una visión de largo alcance con objetivos exigentes, comunican eficazmente. Para esto, promueven un “acompañamiento” de los subordinados, que los haga cada vez más autónomos y participativos.La conquista de objetivos compartidos genera una satisfacción que sirve como soporte del crecimiento permanente.En este artículo se busca establecer conexiones entre el pensamiento de Polo y corrientes actuales sobre el liderazgo y la psicología de las organizaciones. Esto puede servir a los docentes e investigadores de ambientes empresariales a dar un sustento más profundo a sus propuestas, y a los estudiosos de filosofía a acercarse a los progresos de las ciencias del comportamiento.

David Hume escribió muchas obras sobre asuntos religiosos. Sus Diálogos sobre la religión natural presentan ideas de una teología natural y la así llamada religión natural. Mi objetivo en este estudio es subrayar algunos aspectos de su Historia Natural de la Religión, en la cual presenta una historia deductiva de las instituciones religiosas. Por “deductiva” quiero decir un método con una preconcepción del objeto de estudio que es interpretado dentro de este marco. Tal método usualmente produce una concepción muy limitada del problema. Sin embargo, el estilo brillante de Hume y su aguda crítica, que se debe a los escritos de Bayle, han sido muy exitosos al modelar nuestra manera de dirigirnos a los asuntos religiosos.

Hume reacted against egoism, rationalism, teleology and the religious elements contained in moral proposals. He places feelings in first place along with the spontaneous generation of a legal order issuing from them. Yet, many texts of this philosopher point at the need of reconsidering order, finality and the role of reason in the realm of actions. His brilliant description of virtues goes beyond what this alleged spontaneity propounds, but it does not supersede the spectator’s perspective, and it also fails to provide away for the acquisition of the stable dispositions of character.

In recent decades, flourishing has been developing as a synonym of consistent personal growth both in the philosophical arena—from the Aristotelian perspective fostered by Anscombe—and in business ethics scholarship. The analogies between the terms maturity, growth, and flourishing—which have always been used to refer to positive human development—are coming to a point where they deserve systematic and scientific treatment. Important projects in psychology have implemented proposals to establish the kinds of contexts that allow human beings to develop in such a way. This also implies important distinctions between the subjects studied, i.e. some subjects more fully reflect this growth than others. Besides the question of measuring the added value of good personal and collective attitudes and practices, it is very relevant that psychology of organizations is rediscovering the importance of the meaning of life. A classical philosophical framework regarding happiness and the meaning of life is important to allow this contemporary trends to address such important aspects of institutional organization without reducing it to a mere functionalistic practices.

Taylor's political proposal is based on a particular way of explaining human action. The modern ideal of authenticity is used to underline the role of responsibility in personal agency. Aristotelian prudence or phronesis is considered one of the best interpretations of practical reason for completing the ideal of authenticity because it includes the distinction among goods and their influence in everyone's life. The contemporary notion of horizon is an aid for understanding the role of cultural frames and dialogical exchange in the construction of personal identity

Los pasajes de la Retórica de Aristóteles donde la inducción es discutida la muestran como un tipo muy útil de argumentación, de alguna manera relacionada con el ejemplo. Este último se basa en la percepción de algún tipo de similitud entre las cosas comparadas. Las características atribuidas por Aristóteles a estas formas de argumento nos permiten proponer un marco en el cual la noción de epagogé puede unificarse, a pesar del hecho de que algunas partes de las obras de Aristóteles pudieran sugerir que se entiendan sus diferentes significados en términos de oposición.

Antonio Valero founded IESE Business School, where he was also a professor of general management. The present chapter summarizes the main elements of Valero’s philosophy of the firm and his “Enterprise Politics Model”. Valero’s proposal manages to harmonize both personal and institutional ethics, while recognizing that it is not enough to foster personal virtues: the commercial firm requires a solid institutional framework and qualified individuals in order to be sustainable. The EPM considers the firm as a community of persons that is also an intermediate social institution that contributes to the formation and continuity of a good society; it stresses the relevance and responsibility of senior management in integrating justiceJustice and efficiencyEfficiency, as well as emphasizes the practical nature of management and the manager’s need for specific skillsSkill, moral character and practical wisdomWisdom. The EPM sees the firm as a political reality, a community of free and intelligent people under a given form of government following a common aim. Consequently, senior management should possess knowledgeKnowledge and skills of a political and technical nature. The EPM’s political procedure includes the philosophy of the firmFirm, programs of actions, policies and objectives. The model involves four areas of government: business activity; structure; institutional configuration; and living together with a professional commitmentCommitment.