Ingo Pies

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Ingo Pies (* 1964 in Arnsberg ) is a German economist and business ethicist . He holds the chair for business ethics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , editor-in-chief of the specialist journal ORDO - Yearbook for the Order of Economy and Society , publisher of the book series Economics and Ethics - Studies on the Social Structure and Semantics of Modern Governance and co-editor of Series of Concepts of Social Theory and Applied Ethics .

Life

Pies studied economics at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation . He did his doctorate in 1992 at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt under Karl Homann with a thesis on normative institutional economics . After research stays with Gary S. Becker at the University of Chicago and with James M. Buchanan at the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia (both Nobel Prize winners ), his habilitation followed in 1999 with Karl-Hans Hartwig, again in Münster. Since 2002 Pies has held the chair for business ethics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg .

theory

Pies does not understand business ethics as "ethics for business", but as general, practical ethics with an economic method; H. as an economic theory of morality. The approach advocated by Pies can be summarized in two points:

  • His business ethics is looking for institutional reforms in order to bring moral concerns to bear not by overriding them, but rather vice versa, by better enforcing the market . Competition is neither an end in itself nor morally per se. Rather, competition - under certain conditions - can be used as an instrument of social cooperation for a general betterment.
  • His corporate ethics looks for institutional ties through which companies can act productively as value creation agents on behalf of society. Morality and the pursuit of profit are consequently not in an indissoluble contradiction. Rather, it is possible for companies as corporate citizens to use morality as a production factor.

Methodologically , this constructivist approach comes up against a dualism of different, seemingly antagonistic values such as profit versus morality , freedom versus justice , solidarity versus efficiency , ecology versus economy , state versus market and so on. Any argument that positions itself within such a “value trade-off ” is neither compatible with Max Weber's postulate of freedom from value judgments , nor is it useful for the practical implementation of moral concerns, because it always only leads one value against the other in the field and thereby exacerbate social conflicts instead of overcoming them .

  1. The positive economics Gary Becker with the normative constitution economics James Buchanan connecting, Pies tried to solve the problem of the implementation of morality means of the semantic construct of the "orthogonal positioning". This metatheoretical concept provides for practically relevant problems - firstly - not to be reconstructed as pure conflicts of interest or zero-sum games , but as social dilemma situations based on the prisoner's dilemma , in which the simultaneous existence of conflicting and common interests puts the conflicting parties in a Pareto-inferiores Nash- Balance leads. According to the approach, every [sic!] Socially relevant problem can in principle be reconstructed as a social dilemma or as a problem of collective action in the sense of Mancur Olson .
  2. Such dilemma situations can now be overcome in a second step . To this end, Pies introduces a distinction, terminologically based on game theory and systematically on regulatory policy , between "moves" and these channeling "rules of the game": While from a dualistic perspective only moralizing appeals to the "players" can be addressed in a given game at the level of the moves in favor of a postulated "morality" against their own interests, be it from the perspective of the orthogonal positioning, the players are now able to modify the rules of the game by means of individual or collective self-ties in the sense of Thomas C. Schelling and Jon Elster that in comparison to the status quo Pareto-superiores , i.e. mutually advantageous and thus capable of consensus, can be achieved. This would turn the conflicting parties, originally perceived as opponents, into potential social contract or exchange partners who - despite conflicting interests in action - have a common interest in mutual improvement.
  3. In order to be able to realize such mutual improvement potentials in practice, however - thirdly - a paradigm shift in the sense of Thomas S. Kuhn should be aimed for, because as long as the dualistic-moralizing semantics outlined above dominate the rule-finding discourse, the systematic search for mutually beneficial self-binding strategies (and their implementation too) will be ) disabled or at least disabled.

In his more recent writings, Pies emphasizes the interdependence of social structure and semantics - and describes an analysis of this interdependence as "ordonomics": the semantics that still largely shape people's perception and interpretation patterns (and thus also their problem-solving strategies) today have turned out to be Developed an answer to problems that have historically occurred in small communities (such as the family or the village community). These small-group semantics, which are still dominant in moral discourse today, are therefore largely unsustainable , but often dysfunctional in solving new types of problems that are developing in the course of an increasingly rapid development towards an anonymous, global , pluralistically structured, open society in the sense of Karl Popper inevitable. The task of an ordonomic business ethics is to reveal discrepancies between social structure and semantics and to overcome them through (if necessary mutual) adjustments.

Piess's three-stage distinction between moves (“economy”), rules of the game (“politics”) and rule-finding discourse (“semantics”) can be interpreted as an analogy to Karl Popper's theory of the three worlds .

reception

According to Heinz Grossekettler, it is difficult to see what remedy the orthogonal positioning method should bring. The problem of today is not so much the elaboration of pareto-superior proposals, but rather to bring about a serious, competent discussion. In addition, not every economic problem can be presented as a conflict of values ​​or interests. The demand for a transition from Eucken's thinking in terms of order to thinking in terms of incentives comes to nothing because thinking in terms of incentives does not even address stability problems and real conflicts of interest.

According to Markus C. Kerber , the effect of Piess's thesis of the need for theory of social problems remains narrow. The application of the concept of “orthogonal positioning” to specific questions rarely goes beyond well-known positions in economic discourse. To qualify the antagonism of the market and socially motivated redistribution as an unnecessary opposition, which can be replaced by the idea of ​​a “social policy for the market”, is merely a discursive formula, not a concept. The specific application remains vague.

See also

Fonts (selection)

  • Normative Institutional Economics. To rationalize political liberalism . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck) , Tübingen 1993, also dissertation.
  • Regulatory Policy in Democracy. An economic approach to discursive policy advice . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2000, also habilitation thesis.
  • Eucken and von Hayek in comparison. To update the regulatory concept . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-147636-0 .
  • How do you fight corruption? Lessons in economic and business ethics for a "second order policy" . wvb, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86573-359-7 .
  • Ingo Pies, Markus Beckmann, Stefan Hielscher: How companies can counter the loss of trust in the system and in the system of the market economy . In: Business Research and Practice (BFuP), 2009, vol. 61, issue 5, pp. 442–464.
  • Ingo Pies, Stefan Hielscher, Markus Beckmann: How can corporate citizens learn from each other? Ordonomic suggestions for inter-organizational learning in the Global Compact of the United Nations . In: Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik (zfwu), 2009, Issue 10/1, pp. 41–65.
  • Ingo Pies, Stefan Hielscher, Markus Beckmann: Moral Commitments and the Societal Role of Business: An Ordonomic Approach to Corporate Citizenship . In: Business Ethics Quarterly , 2009, 19, 3, pp. 375-401.
  • Ingo Pies, Stefan Hielscher, Markus Beckmann: Business administration and business ethics - an orderly contribution to building skills for managers . In: DBW - Die Betriebswirtschaft , 2009, 69th year, issue 3, pp. 315-330.
  • Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke: Ludwig von Mises ' economic argumentation studies . Mohr, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150514-0 .

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Ingo Pies: Economic Approach and Normativity. For the value-free handling of values . In: Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke (ed.): Gary Becker's economic imperialism . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1998, pp. 107-135.
  2. ^ Ingo Pies: Public Choice versus Constitutional Political Economics. A Methodological Interpretation of the Buchanan Research Program . In: Constitutional Political Economy . Volume 7, 1996, pp. 21-34.
  3. ↑ The term refers to a conceptual “right-angled” positioning to a supposed conflict of two values. It is therefore not a question of finding a compromise between such values, but of looking for alternative solutions that would make it possible to realize both values ​​more comprehensively than is the case in the status quo. Cf. Ingo Pies: Regulatory Policy in Democracy. An economic approach to discursive policy advice . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2000.
  4. ↑ Martin Petrick, Ingo Pies: In Search for Rules that Secure Gains from Cooperation. The Heuristic Value of Social Dilemmas for Normative Institutional Economics . In: European Journal of Law and Economics . Volume 23, Issue 3, 2007, pp. 251-271, especially p. 257.
  5. ^ Karl Homann, Ingo Pies: Business ethics and regulatory policy. The role of scientific education . In: Helmut Leipold and Ingo Pies (eds.): Order theory and order policy. Concepts and development prospects . Stuttgart 2000, pp. 329-346. Ingo Pies: Eucken and von Hayek in comparison. To update the regulatory concept . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2001; and Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke (eds.): FA von Hayeks constitutional liberalism . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2003.
  6. ^ Ingo Pies: Theoretical foundations of democratic economic and social policy. The contribution by Thomas Schelling . In: Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke (Hrsg.): Thomas Schelling's strategic economics . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2007, pp. 1-37.
  7. ^ Ingo Pies: Theoretical foundations of democratic economic and social policy. The contribution of Jon Elster . In: Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke (Hrsg.): Jon Elster's theory of rational ties . JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 2008, pp. 1–31.
  8. ↑ The word ordonomics can literally be translated as “order theory”. Compare with Ingo Pies: Market versus State? About thinking and action blocks in times of globalization . In: K. Graf Ballestrem, V. Gerhardt, K. Ottmann, MP Thompson and B. Zehnpfennig (eds.): Political thinking. 2006/2007 yearbook . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, pp. 259-293; and Ingo Pies: Market and Organization. Programmatic considerations on business and business ethics . In: Wolfgang Kersting (Ed.): Moral and Capital. Basic questions of economic and business ethics . mentis, Paderborn 2008, pp. 27-58.
  9. ↑ Heinz Grossekettler: Walter Euckens Ordnungspolitik as reflected in the contributions of this volume and his complete works . In: Ingo Pies, Martin Leschke: Walter Euckens Ordnungspolitik . ISBN 3-16-147919-X , pages 234, 235
  10. ↑ Markus C. Kerber: New rules for politics . In: FAZ , June 5, 2001
personal data
SURNAME Pies, Ingo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and business ethicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Arnsberg