•  2
    Zu Martin Kolmars «Grenzbeschreitungen. Vom Sinn, dem gelingenden Leben und unserem Umgang mit Natur» (Wien und Köln 2021)
    with Anton Hügli, Fritz Breithaupt, Andreas Härter, and Martin Kolmar
    Schweizerische Zeitschrift Für Philosophie. forthcoming.
  •  16
    The contested role of AI ethics boards in smart societies: a step towards improvement based on board composition by sortition
    with Ludovico Giacomo Conti
    Ethics and Information Technology 25 (4): 1-15. 2023.
    The recent proliferation of AI scandals led private and public organisations to implement new ethics guidelines, introduce AI ethics boards, and list ethical principles. Nevertheless, some of these efforts remained a façade not backed by any substantive action. Such behaviour made the public question the legitimacy of the AI industry and prompted scholars to accuse the sector of ethicswashing, machinewashing, and ethics trivialisation—criticisms that spilt over to institutional AI ethics boards.…Read more
  •  6
    Greenwashing and Machinewashing: An Ethical Account and Criteria for Identification
    In Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 1023-1027. 2021.
  •  2
    Ordnungen im Übergang (edited book)
    with Katrin Seele
    Schneider Verlag Hohengehren. 2012.
  •  19
    Anthropomorphization and beyond: conceptualizing humanwashing of AI-enabled machines
    with Gabriela Scorici and Mario D. Schultz
    AI and Society 1-7. forthcoming.
    The complex relationships between humans and AI-empowered machines have created and inspired new products and services as well as controversial debates, fiction and entertainment, and last but not least, a striving and vital field of research. The convergence between the two categories of entities has created stimulating concepts and theories in the past, such as the uncanny valley, machinization of humans through datafication, or humanization of machines, known as anthropomorphization. In this …Read more
  •  9
    Cyberattacks as “state of exception” reconceptualizing cybersecurity from prevention to surviving and accommodating
    with Sebastian Knebel and Mario D. Schultz
    Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 20 (1): 91-109. 2022.
    Purpose This paper aims to outline how destructive communication exemplified by ransomware cyberattacks destroys the process of organization, causes a “state of exception,” and thus constitutes organization. The authors build on Agamben's state of exception and translate it into communicative constitution of organization theory. Design/methodology/approach A significant increase of cyberattacks have impacted organizations in recent times and laid organizations under siege. This conceptual resear…Read more
  •  3
    Digitalisierung
    with Mario D. Schultz
    In Ludger Heidbrink, Alexander Lorch & Verena Rauen (eds.), Handbuch Wirtschaftsphilosophie Iii: Praktische Wirtschaftsphilosophie, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 365-380. 2021.
    Mit der Digitalisierung geht ein fundamentaler, herausfordernder Wandel einher. Durch eine Begriffsbestimmung und Operationalisierung wird in diesem Beitrag der digitale Wandel aus wirtschaftsphilosophischer Sicht vorgestellt. Zunächst werden wirtschaftsphilosophische Grundlagen der Digitalisierung wie die Informationsethik erläutert, gefolgt von einer Diskussion der digitalen Wertschöpfung, die auf Überwachung aufbaut und von einer Überwachungskultur gespeist wird. Schließlich werden Zukunftspe…Read more
  •  8
    Recent developments in global business gave rise to innovative forms of digital-exchange, facilitated by a new big data-based infrastructure – the sharing economy platform. SEPs are rapidly expanding, challenging the political-economic order and the classical division of work in society. Against the background of the current sustainability crisis, we discuss the increasingly momentous role of SEPs as a potential driver toward a more sustainable economy and society. Drawing on the theoretical len…Read more
  •  15
    From Greenwashing to Machinewashing: A Model and Future Directions Derived from Reasoning by Analogy
    with Mario D. Schultz
    Journal of Business Ethics 178 (4): 1063-1089. 2022.
    This article proposes a conceptual mapping to outline salient properties and relations that allow for a knowledge transfer from the well-established greenwashing phenomenon to the more recent machinewashing. We account for relevant dissimilarities, indicating where conceptual boundaries may be drawn. Guided by a “reasoning by analogy” approach, the article addresses the structural analogy and machinewashing idiosyncrasies leading to a novel and theoretically informed model of machinewashing. Con…Read more
  •  6
    EM Forster’s short story “The Machine Stops” from 1909 is widely reread and discussed again for some ten years as it portrays a science-fiction world resting on similar technological advancements as today in the digital era. Also management literature reviewed the short story with regard to centralized decision making, rationality and totalitarianism. I argue instead, that the main theme of the short story is – in Forster’s own words – the closing of a civilization in times of transition and fac…Read more
  •  18
    Fast jeder hat Erfahrungen mit Siri, Alexa oder anderen Chatbots. Doch was geschieht, wenn ein Mensch einen Chatbot in einen Dialog über Philosophie verwickelt? Kann man mit künstlichen Intelligenzen (KI) überhaupt über Bewusstsein, Erinnerung und philosophische Theorien der Zeit diskutieren? Ja, man kann – zumindest der Form nach. Und das gleich zweimal: Mit den beiden für den Loebner-Preis für KI dekorierten Chatbots Rose und Mitsuku. Ob das geistreich ist? Das muss jeder für sich entscheiden.…Read more
  •  47
    In the following, I concentrate on the nefarious, harmful and unethical dimensions emerging only slowly as the rather new phenomenon of cryptocurrencies and blockchain at large become visible only gradually. For the positive and pro-social use of cryptocurrencies please refer to the article of Claus Dierksmeier in this issue of HMJ. As there are many different dimensions still unknown, I concentrate on the ethical issues emerging from the secretive nature of cryptocurrencies, less on the environ…Read more
  •  51
    Instrumental and/or Deliberative? A Typology of CSR Communication Tools
    with Irina Lock
    Journal of Business Ethics 131 (2): 401-414. 2015.
    Addressing the critique that communication activities with regard to CSR are often merely instrumental marketing or public relation tools, this paper develops a toolbox of CSR communication that takes into account a deliberative notion. We derive this toolbox classification from the political approach of CSR that is based on Habermasian discourse ethics and show that it has a communicative core. Therefore, we embed CSR communication within political CSR theory and extend it by Habermasian commun…Read more
  •  12
    Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’
    with Marta Pizzetti and Lucia Gatti
    Journal of Business Ethics 170 (1): 21-38. 2019.
    Greenwashing is a phenomenon that is linked to scandals that often occur at the supply-chain level. Nevertheless, research on this subject remains in its infancy; much more is needed to advance our understanding of stakeholders’ reactions to greenwashing. We propose here a new typology of greenwashing, based on the locus of discrepancy, i.e. the point along the supply-chain where the discrepancy between ‘responsible words’ and ‘irresponsible walks’ occurs. With three experiments, we tested how t…Read more
  •  20
    In this paper, we compare the two Global Reporting Initiative reporting standards, G3.1, and the most current version G4.0. We do this through the lens of political corporate social responsibility theory, which describes the broadened understanding of corporate responsibility in a globalized world building on Habermas’ notion of deliberative democracy and ethical discourse. As the regulatory power of nation states is fading, regulatory gaps occur as side effects of transnational business. As a r…Read more
  • Was musste geschehen, damit das Mittelalter passieren konnte? Das Buch vollzieht anhand der geistigen Entwicklung Augustinus den Übergang von der Antike zum Mittelalter. Die Bekehrung des Philosophen und Rhetors zum Priester, Bischof und schließlich zum Kirchenvater gibt der historischen Umwälzung und dem Niedergang der römischen Antike ein Gesicht und eine Geschichte anschaulicher und lebensweltlicher Philosophie.
  •  3
    Philosophie des Neuen (edited book)
    Wbg. 2008.
    Was ist das Neue? Wie kann man Innovation und Kreativität beschreiben? Das sind die Fragen, denen sich der Sammelband stellt. Denn so sehr die Sehnsucht nach Neuem und Erneuerung die Debatten beherrscht, so wenig kann man es eigentlich benennen oder seine Entstehungsbedingungen beschreiben. Die Autoren dieses Bandes nähern sich dem Neuen bei Helmholtz, Valéry, Whitehead und Hegel an, aber auch dem Neuen in der Evolution, als sinnstiftende Kraft und in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte.
  •  28
    This article discusses the transition that business ethics has undergone since its start essentially as a philosophical sub-discipline of applied ethics. Today, business ethics—as demonstrated by four examples of gatekeepers—is a well-established field in general management, and increasingly business scholars without a “formal” background in philosophy are entering the scene. I take this transition to examine an updated positioning of business ethics and offer a proposal to redefine what makes a…Read more
  •  19
    Mapping the Ethicality of Algorithmic Pricing: A Review of Dynamic and Personalized Pricing (review)
    with Claus Dierksmeier, Reto Hofstetter, and Mario D. Schultz
    Journal of Business Ethics 170 (4): 697-719. 2019.
    Firms increasingly deploy algorithmic pricing approaches to determine what to charge for their goods and services. Algorithmic pricing can discriminate prices both dynamically over time and personally depending on individual consumer information. Although legal, the ethicality of such approaches needs to be examined as often they trigger moral concerns and sometimes outrage. In this research paper, we provide an overview and discussion of the ethical challenges germane to algorithmic pricing. As…Read more
  •  3
    War in der Antike noch der Dreiklang der praktischen Wissenschaften von Ethik, Politik und Ökonomik geläufig, so hat sich in der akademischen Philosophie innerhalb der praktischen Philosophie ein Schwerpunkt auf ethischen Fragestellungen herausgebildet, hinter dem die Politik und Ökonomie weitgehend zurücktreten. Der vorliegende Band stellt die antike Ökonomie und ihre Bezüge zu Politik und Ethik als Topoi der antiken praktischen Philosophie dar. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der ökonomischen …Read more