Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

This article presents an analysis of the ethics of free choice and human existence based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s book about collected works of the French poet Jean Genet. With Sartre’s presentation of the life of Genet it is possible to ask the question whether one consistently can choose an evil moral maxim. It seems like it makes no sense to speak of a will that follows a categorical imperative to act unconditionally evil in everything that you do. But this means that an ethics of pure evil is impossible. Accordingly, Sartre’s preface becomes a powerful investigation of the foundations of ethics in human life. In this sense the book about Jean Genet may be the place where Sartre presents his most genuine ethical reflections through rethinking morality by looking at the existential ethics of Genet’s radical poetic negativity searching for the other and otherness in contrast to conventional aesthetical beauty.

This article presents a philosophical approach to social work, specifically through mentorship programs aimed at helping young individuals in vulnerable positions. Integrating existential phenomenology with practical philosophy, it explores how these mentorships can act as experiences for personal and societal transformation, addressing both ethical and existential dimensions. For instance, mentors may develop a renewed sense of moral responsibility and self-understanding, while mentees can experience a reorientation toward trust, education, or social participation. The study articulates the need for a deeper philosophical grounding of mentorship practices, responding to emerging trends in voluntary social work that emphasize organic, self-driven engagements over traditional models of mentoring. Building on a case study, the findings advocate for a model of mentorship that emphasizes authenticity, ethical engagement, and reciprocal personal growth, posited within an evolving theoretical framework that seeks to align mentorship practices with existential social philosophies.

This article presents a discussion of the relation between Jean-Paul Sartre and Benny Lévy, based on the book by Laurent Touil-Tartour, Achever Sartre (Completing Sartre), Figures, Grasset, Paris 2024. Lévy and Sartre worked together on the newspapers La Cause du peuple and Libération, and Lévy was Sartre’s personal secretary from 1975 to 1980. Just before Sartre died in March 1980, Lévy and Sartre published a set of articles in Le nouvel observateur with the title L’Espoir maintenant (Hope Now), which discussed and evaluated important parts of Sartre’s philosophy. The text led to a considerable scandal among Sartre’s friends and collaborators, because it implied critical challenges to many key concepts of existentialism, and because Sartre now was much closer to Emmanuel Levinas in the sense of searching for a solution to the problems of morality in Jewish humanism and Talmudic wisdom. Lévy was accused of manipulating Sartre and forcing him to publish something which was very far from his usual philosophy.

The article presents the development of business ethics in Denmark in recent years. As a small open economy well-integrated in the Europea Union, the case of Denmark represents a view on business ethics that has been very open to integration and development of international promotion of business ethics. Even though the concept of business ethics less used, Danish law makers and businesses do a lot to ensure responsible and ethical business at all levels of society. Businesses have prioritized partnership on social impact of business. Key concerns of business ethics in this context include sustainable development, sustainable development goals (SDGs), corporate social responsibility, ESG, the UN Global Compact, OECD-Guidelines, business and human rights, EU due diligence directives, including CSRD and CSDD. Thus, business ethics in Denmark is characterized by a strong focus on the responsible, political corporation by integrating international standards and sustainable development goals in business operations and strategies.

Due to the global environmental crisis and problems of climate change, but also the economic problems of neoliberalism and inequality, it is important to rethink our ideas about society, business, and economic organization in the context of a transition to a more sustainable society. Important themes of a political economy of sustainability are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the philosophical underpinnings of governance and sustainability management. Reforming global economic and political institutions means finding new, creative, and imaginative solutions for managers, administrators, and members of government critically to evaluate our political economy and management concepts and values. It is important to rethink policies and strategies in the light of challenges of the global society. We will do this in what follows by focusing on important topics such as 1) The origin of our contemporary crisis 2) The political economy of the crisis 3) The transformation of governance for lasting change.

This chapter analyzes Danish pharmaceutical and healthcare corporation Novo Nordisk which is known for a model of management that integrates business ethics, stakeholder management, and the balanced scorecard in their strategy. The main product of Novo Nordisk is insulin to treat diabetes, but the corporation also engages in research to manufacture related medicines and to find a cure for the disease. Novo Nordisk is a company that considers good corporate citizenship and CSR as fundamental for a management strategy. The company also works with stakeholder communication as important for corporate self-perception in order to improve the balanced scorecard. In many ways, Novo Nordisk promotes itself as a virtuous corporation that is able to deal with business dilemmas in a constructive way. Balance is considered as a vital aspect of organizational culture to create the right atmosphere and a tool to build corporate identity, image, and self-perception. Moreover, values of balance are also connected with external stakeholders in the sense that they contribute to the formation and identification of ethical integrity as a central component of organizational identity. Novo Nordisk is a large multinational corporation with approximately 20,000 employees, operating in more than 75 countries, and selling its products in nearly all countries in the world.

The main goal of this chapter is to discuss the epistemological and practical features of the basic ethical principles in European bioethics and biolaw as a result of a relevant project supported by the European Commission between 1995 and 1998. That project was based on cooperation between 22 partners coming from most EU countries. Its aim was to identify the ethical principles relating to autonomy, dignity, integrity and vulnerability as four important ideas or values for a European bioethics and biolaw. In this chapter it will be showed how the authors reach the conclusion that the basic ethical principles cannot be understood as universal, everlasting ideas or transcendental truths but they rather function as “reflective guidelines”, and important values in European culture.

What are the essential conditions for achieving sustainable capitalism in turbulent times? What is the new management philosophy that can solve our problems? And what are the corresponding ethics and politics? Decision-making in turbulent times concentrates on green transitions towards sustainable futures. But how should sustainability be defined? In this context, regenerative management philosophy offers a valuable perspective on sustainability. Therefore, this article proposes a regenerative turn of the international approach to sustainability, which has recently been formulated in connection with the politics of the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) for green transition, sustainability, and the fight against poverty everywhere on Earth. Today, the global goals for sustainability have become a yardstick for political and economic success in both private and public organizations and institutions. But how can sustainable development goals be interpreted from the point of view of regenerative management philosophy? And what is the global responsibility for climate, the environment, and human rights? And how should we conceptualize the ethical economy behind it? We therefore need a new regenerative management philosophy that is based on ideas about how to recreate, renew or restore nature. This article proposes such a regenerative concept of sustainability as essential for the ethics and politics of the green transition. The aim is to make regenerative management philosophy and ethics essential for implementing the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).

This article discusses the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre on Frantz Fanon’s political thinking. Sartre presents a dialectical social theory, based on the progressive-regressive method, considering the interplay between individual and collective, history and contemporary action, past and future. This philosophy has had a critical impact on Fanon’s political theory of neocolonialism, race, and intersectionality. Fanon studied colonialism based on Sartre’s philosophy and analyzed the problems of racism and oppression. He developed the concept of the colonial gaze as internalization of the gaze of the colonial order as self-oppressive othering of the self. The point of departure for the article is a short presentation of Fanon’s biography. From this the article discusses the famous meeting between Fanon and Sartre in Rome in 1961. Finally, the article places this encounter within the development of a critical philosophy of race, as proposed in the work of Robert Bernasconi.

This article presents a theory of the scientist and researcher as a public intellectual who contributes with political, social, and ethical justified opinions and views on the future of society. In recent discussions the figure of the activist researcher has emerged as subject to criticism by defenders of science as being objective and neutral about politics and value-claims. However, the restriction of science as separated from politics has also been a limitation of academic freedom. In this context, I propose a political theory of academic freedom that argues that it is a part of the intellectual duty and responsibility of modern researchers, scientists, and academics to formulate the ethical and political implications of their research. Such a theory is necessary due to the social and political challenges of contemporary society. The activist voice of the researcher can therefore be justified as an integrated part of academic freedom in contemporary society.

What is the role of researchers in society? Can research be political? A heated debate in Denmark about activist research and pseudoscience raised many philosophical issues about the role of the scientist in society. In this article, we distinguish between different strands of this debate about activist research and the limits of academic freedom from the perspective of ethics and the philosophy of science. We begin by presenting some topics from the debate. Then we discuss perspectives from the ethics of science in relation to science and society, cancel culture, pseudoscience, demarcation, and academic freedom. Moreover, we analyze the ethical obligation of researchers to be public intellectuals as essential for ensuring the ethics and responsibility of science in democratic societies. Accordingly, we present the idea of the public intellectual proposed by Hannah Arendt as a justification for the protection of academic freedom and for the ethical responsibility of science in society.

In Cosmopolitan Business Ethics: Towards a Global Philosophy of Management, Jacob Dahl Rendtorff maps the concept of global business ethics, related to sustainability and corporate governance, via an examination of the major theories of business ethics and the philosophy of management. The book is based on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the European tradition, which is applied as the foundation for the analysis of the contemporary European and Anglo-American debate on business ethics in order to formulate an up-to-date theory of global business ethics. The book will compare the different schools of business ethics, corporate citizenship and the philosophy of management and will address the modern-day issues of sustainability, business and human rights, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management and corporate governance, offering insights on how to deal with these international challenges of global economics, the development and protection of human rights and the environment. This book proposes a decision-making model for Cosmopolitan business ethics as the foundation of management and leadership in dealing with the complexities of globalization. The case-studies will address the efforts of businesses to work with global and cosmopolitan business ethics at the levels of maintaining corporate integrity. Both the theoretical argument and case-studies presented in the book are supplemented with interviews with notable business ethicists, philosophers of management, business managers and public policy-makers.

The present book comprises thirteen chapters written by Nordic scholars in the human and social sciences, and developed out of conference papers presented at regular winter and summer symposia held by two research groups emanating from the Nordic Summer University. Born within and informed by this specific milieu, the chapters address significant sociopolitical implications for contemporary societies emerging from the ethical reflections of leading 20th century thinkers (e.g. Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas), important procedural as well as substantive aspects of democracy, and pivotal ethico-political issues arising from the abstract logic and concrete manifestations of market economies. Though by no means devoid of their own economic, cultural and political problems, the Nordic countries are still paramount examples of humane prosperity, democratic civility, environmentally sound policy, and peaceful resolution of social and industrial conflicts. Year after year, if not decade after decade, they keep topping the international charts for socio-economic indicators about sostainable development, healthcare quality and accessibility, educational levels, crime control, preceived happiness and much else. As such, the scholarly and scientific reflections orginating within the Nordic Summer University might prove to be useful sources of insight for policy-makers, intellectuals and interested persons outside the Nordic context, and not solely inside it.

This chapter discusses the theoretical foundations of bioethical decision-making and provides the basis for bioethical judgment in bioethics and biolaw. The age of technology challenges the ethical views of humanity of earlier times. At the same time, developments in biomedicine, biotechnology and human genetics require reflection on the appropriateness and consequences of biomedical and biotechnological interventions. Therefore, it is important with a bioethical turn in ethics where we include the whole living world in ethical reflections. Here, the chapter discusses bioethics, bioethical judgment, and responsibility in relation to the person, body and its boundaries. Ethical theory of the good life, utility, biomedical principles, freedom and justice in health care are presented in order to formulate a theory of bioethical judgment and applied bioethics. On this basis, the chapter develops reflections on the foundations of bioethical decision-making based on the philosophy of the basic ethical principles in bioethics and biolaw. This approach to bioethical decision-making can also be considered as the basis for bioethical decisions in ethics committees and for ethics and values-driven management in hospitals and health care organizations.

Due to the global environmental crisis and problems of climate change, but also the economic problems of neoliberalism and inequality, it is important to rethink our ideas about society, business, and economic organization in the context of a transition to a more sustainable society. Important themes of a political economy of sustainability are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the philosophical underpinnings of governance and sustainability management. Reforming global economic and political institutions means finding new, creative, and imaginative solutions for managers, administrators, and members of government critically to evaluate our political economy and management concepts and values. It is important to rethink policies and strategies in the light of challenges of the global society. We will do this in what follows by focusing on important topics such as 1) The origin of our contemporary crisis 2) The political economy of the crisis 3) The transformation of governance for lasting change.

The market requires more focus on responsibility and business ethics. This article discusses the vision of the business company as a responsible company with focus on good corporate citizenship as an expression of the limits of the market with regard to social responsibility and values of business organizations. This includes discussion of the challenges of business legitimacy in a global society. These must also be seen in the relation between economics and religion. Social, spiritual and cultural values lie behind the search for business legitimacy and the republican conception of corporate citizenship, and this is also an expression of ethical values at the limits of economic rationality. But cosmopolitan business ethics can be criticized for moralizing the market so we move from economic religion to moral economy forgetting the importance of economic rationality.

L’article se concentre sur la pandémie de covid-19 dans une tentative d’évaluer la contribution éventuelle de l’analyse philosophique à la compréhension et à la résolution des problèmes éthiques, juridiques et sociopolitiques qu’elle soulève. On aborde une série de dilemmes cruciaux qui requièrent des décisions pratiques, avant et après la production et la disponibilité des vaccins, à la lumière des théories éthiques et politiques contemporaines. Il s’avère que dans la plupart des cas les conceptions déontologiques semblent l’emporter sur les considérations conséquentialistes, qui ne s’imposent à notre raisonnement que dans des situations d’urgence immédiate. La pandémie nous permet également d’apprécier le rôle important des vertus éthiques et épistémiques dans la prise des décisions critiques.

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.

In this book about the Economies for Sustainability: Limits and Potentials for Possible Futures we have presented different perspectives for sustainability in the economic transition of economy, politics and society. The focus has been the search for new economic models for a more sustainable future. The background of this is the ecological crisis, growing global inequality and the challenges to political and economic systems. Global crises like the financial crisis, the climate crisis, the poverty crisis of the global south and more recently the epidemic crisis of the spread of the global pandemic of COVID-19 means that it has been necessary to propose new concepts of ethics, economics and economic theory and philosophy to find new principles for organization of society. We have called this proposal of taking back the economy a search for a new kind of economy, sometimes called heterodox economics, meaning that it was necessary to move beyond neoclassical economics towards another kind of economics integrating economics in the other social sciences like political sciences, anthropology and sociology. These proposals for a sustainable economics and visions of new economic systems have moved beyond the traditional concepts and challenged the boundaries of different concepts of economic systems and society in the context of sustainable transitions towards new and more ethical economic systems.