Peter Koslowski

Peter Koslowski ( born October 2, 1952 in Göttingen; † 15 May 2012) was a German philosopher, economist and business ethics.

Career

Koslowski studied at the universities of Tübingen, Munich and Virginia Tech (USA). It was established in 1979 phil at Munich University in Hermann Krings and Robert Spaemann Dr.. PhD, made there a year later, his diploma as an economist and was 1979-1985 Wiss. Assistant at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Munich.

From 1985 to 1987 he was Professor of Philosophy and Political Economy and Director of the Institute for Fundamental Studies of the University of Witten / Herdecke, 1987-2004 there Extraordinary Professor of Philosophy and Political Economy. From 2004 he was professor of philosophy, especially philosophy of management and organizations, as well as the history of philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University Amsterdam), The Netherlands.

Since his Munich period of study Koslowski was a member of K.St.V. Rheno - Bavaria in CT. In 1987 he was appointed founding director of the Research Institute for Philosophy Hanover, which he headed until 2000. From 1997 to 2003 he headed the project discourse of world religions at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. From 2002 to 2003 he was a Visiting Scholar -in- Residence and Advisor to the Liberty Fund in Indianapolis, USA, 2003-2004 Fellow at the International Center for Economic Research, Turin, Italy.

Koslowski has been awarded two honorary doctorates awarded (Moscow and St. Petersburg, both 1998) and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. He was Chairman of the Forum for Business Ethics and Business Culture of the German Society for Philosophy.

Business Ethics

Peter Koslowski is the 1982 first appeared in writing one of the first, which started in Germany the issue of business ethics as a discipline " ethics of capitalism." He explains the re-emergence of ethics from the experience of crisis in the early 1970s as a reaction of postmodernism on the resulting in public awareness of the finite nature of the world and the scarcity of resources. He likes to talk in analogy to the political economy of the " ethical economy ', which is not only an application of ethics to normative rulings, but also integration of ethical theory components in the positive analysis of the production and demand relationship and the price system. " The business ethics has it has three functions:

Philosophically Koslowski linked to the hermeneutics Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey and the resulting -derived economic theory of the Historical School, Gustav Schmoller of to. Economy is one aspect of the entire social life as well as culture, politics or law. Business ethics is based alone by the side effects economic trade on other areas of life. The determination of the moral good is done on a part of these systems upstream level:

The economy can only be on the correct allocation of resources information. What purpose settlements are followed, however, is a matter of ethics. The agreement calls Koslowski business ethics as a deontological ethics, on the one hand is based on Kant and the other on the matrialen value ethics of Max Scheler.

In the economic coexistence there after Koslowski in all historical and contemporary societies three types of exchange: the socially determined exchange in the family, sharing markets and sovereign compulsion exchange. It is merely a matter of expression, which form of exchange in which degree comes into play. The story leads to an ever greater individualisation, which was heavily promoted especially in the Enlightenment. This results in modern societies to the dominance of the market over the other forms of exchange. In capitalism, there are three defining structural features: Private ownership, the pursuit of profit and the coordination of actions through markets.

The economic models, see the market in an institution that leads to an optimum, are idealized assumptions that are never put into practice. Then there is a sufficiently large number of buyers and sellers, adjustments are made at no cost and loss of time and the enforcement of market conditions is performed without transaction costs. In practice, it requires mechanisms that compensate for the deviations from the ideal conditions. Thus, reliability and trust have emerged as a particular ethical values ​​in commercial practice. However, in purely ethics-based schemes is the black rider problem. The larger the market, the lower the social control, the greater the risk that enrich unjustified individual at the expense of the whole. Koslowski sees this as a dilemma situation ( prisoner's dilemma ), which can not be overcome due to the incomplete information and thus justified uncertainty. In addition to market failure, therefore, an ethical failure is likely. The sole way out is the belief that there are certain values ​​externally, for example, in religion, in natural law or regulative ideas (Kant) that cause individuals to ethical behavior.

As an applied normative ethics Business ethics is a means to improve the coordination of business and society.

The task of business ethics is to identify the standards for objectivity and justice in exchange. Properly means to follow the economic rationality. Distortions that lead to unfair results, such as unfair competition, bribery or corruption are ethically prohibited from this perspective, like all other practices and structures that affect the efficiency of the allocation of resources. Who waived the market disruptive actions to those that are ethically good. Commutative justice means appropriateness of pricing, that is fair standards for determining fair prices, which lead to mutual profitability of an economic action. Taking advantage of market power or fraud concerning the product quality can be realized by the unreasonable prices are classified in this sense as ethically reprehensible.

As a prescriptive discipline, business ethics has a leading position on the right, where the normative ideas are codified in order to ensure their enforceability by compulsion.

Political commitment

In December 2009, Koslowski was active as a testimonial for the Initiative New Social Market Economy. He was involved as part of a PR campaign for the statement " social market economy makes it better ... because it is capitalism with a human face. "

Works (selection)

• Principles of ethical economy. Foundation of business ethics, Mohr Siebeck, 1988, 2nd edition 1994, engl., French, Russian, Chinese, span.Ubersetzung.
• Social coordination. A theory of market economy, 1991.
• The order of business, 1994.
• Politics and economics in Aristotle, 1976.
• State and Society in Kant, 1985.
• Economy as a culture passages Verlag, 1989.
• The examinations of the modern era. About postmodernity. Philosophy, Gnosis, passages Verlag, 1989.
• The myth of modernity. The poetic philosophy of Ernst Junger, 1991, Russian translation.
• Gnosis and theodicy. A study of the suffering God of Gnosticism, 1993.
• Ethics of the banks and the stock market, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1997 ( also Engl., And Spanish)
• Philosophies of revelation. Ancient Gnosticism, Franz von Baader, Schelling, F. Schöningh Verlag, 2001, 2nd edition 2003.
• Ethics of the banks. Consequences of the financial crisis, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2009. English translation of The Ethics of Banking. Conclusions from the Financial Crisis, Springer Science Business Media, 2011.

Editors et al the book series Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy since 1991, and Discourse of the World Religions, 2000-2002, Eng. A Discourse of the World Religions, 2000-2003. Publisher, inter alia:

• Friedrich Gentz ​​: The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution ( 1800), edited and with an Introduction by Peter Koslowski, translated by John Quincy Adams (6th President of the United States of America ) 1800 from the German original, Liberty Fund 2009, Chinese translation in preparation. Free edition available online: http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php % 3Ftitle = 2376 & Itemid = 28
• Prolongation of life - dying extension. The clinical medicine faces the challenge of end of life, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, in 2012.
• Endangst and salvation 2: justification, revenge, forgiveness, redemption, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2011.
• The Theory of Ethical Economy in the Historical School, 1995.
• The consequences of Hegelianism. Philosophy, religion and politics in the farewell to the Modern, 1998.
• The Social Market Economy. Theory and Ethics of the Economic Order, 1998.
• Shareholder value and the criteria of business success, 1999.
• Business Ethics - What is the philosophy of 2001? .
• Philosophical religion. Gnosis between philosophy and theology, 2006.

Co-editor of, inter alia:

• And commodification of society. Economy Philosophical distinctions ( with Matthias Kettner ), Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2011.
• Business ethics in medicine. How much economics is good for health? ( with Matthias Kettner ), Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2011.
• Endangst and redemption 1 (with Friedrich Hermanni ), Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2009.
• The free and the unfree will. Philosophical and theological perspectives ( with Friedrich Hermanni ), 2004.
• Ambivalence - ambiguity - postmodernity. Limited Unique thinking ( with Richard Schenk ), 2004.
• Business Ethics and the Electronic Economy ( with Christopher Hubig and Peter Fischer ), 2004, German translation.
• Business Ethics of Globalization ( with Karl Homann and Christoph Lütge ), 2005, Engl. Translation.
• Ethics of consumption ( with Birger P. Priddat ), 2006.
• The rationality of faith and the faith of reason. The encyclical Fides et Ratio in the debate between philosophy and theology ( with Anna Maria Hauk ), 2007.
• Bitter medicine. Business Ethics and Economics of the pharmaceutical industry ( with Aloys Prinz ), 2008.
• Machines that are our brothers. Human-machine interaction in hybrid systems ( with Christoph Hubig ), 2008.
• Endangst and redemption 1 (with Friedrich Hermanni ), Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2009.