Ludger Heidbrink

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Ludger Heidbrink (2019)

Ludger Heidbrink (born June 13, 1961 in Bochum ) is a German philosopher . He is Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In addition to the philosophy of modernity, his research fields include the historical and systematic foundations of ethics , responsibility theories, political philosophy , social philosophy , corporate and consumer ethics , and the discipline of economic philosophy .

Career

Heidbrink was born in Bochum and grew up on the Möhnesee . After graduating from high school in Soest , he studied philosophy , journalism , German and art history in Münster and Hamburg . In 1992 he received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Hamburg under Herbert Schnädelbach . He worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the Universities of Hamburg , Rostock , Lüneburg and Kiel, where he completed his habilitation in philosophy with Wolfgang Kersting in 2003 .

From 2004 he headed the research group “Cultures of Responsibility” at the Institute for Cultural Studies in Essen . In 2007 he was appointed director of the Center for Responsibility Research at the same institute. Two years later, the University of Witten-Herdecke appointed him an adjunct professor for corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship. Heidbrink has held the Chair for Practical Philosophy at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) since October 2012. From 2013 to 2015 he was visiting professor for Corporate Responsibility & Citizenship at the Reinhard-Mohn-Institute for Corporate Management and Corporate Governance at the University of Witten-Herdecke.

Ludger Heidbrink is Director of the Kiel Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (KCPPE), Co-Director of the Gustav Radbruch Network for Ethics and Philosophy of the Environment at the CAU, Director for Business Ethics and Consumer Ethics at the Center for Business Ethics of the German Network for Business Ethics (DNWE) , Board member of the Values ​​Commission e. V. for value-conscious leadership as well as head of the working group Economic Philosophy and Ethics of the German Society for Philosophy. He is a scientific advisory board member of the Berlin Forum for Ethics in Economics and Politics and a member of the Economics and Ethics Committee of the Verein für Socialpolitik. In October 2018 he was appointed to the scientific coordination committee of the Consumer Research Network in the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Research (BMJV).

Since the 2015/2016 winter semester, Heidbrink has been offering the interdisciplinary master’s course "Practical Philosophy of Business and Environment" at Kiel University together with Konrad Ott (Professor for Philosophy and Ethics of the Environment). The course is based on the Oxford PPE model and is unique in Germany with its combination of economic philosophy and environmental ethics.

research

In his early research, Heidbrink dealt with the ambivalent character of progress and the historical and socio-philosophical criticism of modernity. His doctoral thesis “Melancholie und Moderne. Critique of Historical Despair ”was published in 1994 by Wilhelm Fink Verlag .

In the time that followed, he mainly dealt with the question of the extent to which the principle of responsibility can be transferred to complex social processes and where the limits of ascription of responsibility lie in functionally differentiated societies. His habilitation thesis “Critique of Responsibility. On the Limits of Responsible Action in Complex Contexts ”was published in 2003 by Velbrück Verlag.

His current research focuses on two areas. On the one hand, Heidbrink deals with the current development of liberalism , which ranges from the crisis of the democratic system to the erosion of normative foundations. Heidbrink sees this development as a gradual transition from liberalism to post-liberalism.

On the other hand, business ethics and business philosophy are in the foreground in his work. Heidbrink takes the position that economic actors are responsible for “maintaining the functional conditions of the social system”, “which enables them to carry out their operational activities”.

Act

Heidbrink has decisively coined the concept of responsibility . He divides it into four areas: "Responsibility as a person's responsibility and responsibility, as consequence-based legitimation, as a contextualist principle of reflection and as a structural and control element".

Heidbrink advocates taking a closer look at the limits of corporate and consumer responsibility. Why is there a big gap between alleged and actual assumption of responsibility in our economy? What incentives can be used to motivate companies to do business more responsibly? “What are the opportunities, but also the limits of the consumer's shared responsibility for socially and environmentally compatible development of society”? What effects do these developments have on the market economy? Among other things, Heidbrink calls for a modified incentive and bonus system that is not only based on mere profit, but also includes and rewards autonomous and responsible behavior in companies. He also argues that, like companies, consumers have a “consumer social responsibility” that obliges them to consume in a sustainable way. With his work, Ludger Heidbrink makes an important contribution to research into consumer behavior and the sustainability of the consumer society . Overall, Heidbrink represents a decidedly economic-philosophical position. Because business ethics usually only focuses on a limited part of moral action, business philosophy is the more important discipline for Heidbrink, as it connects questions of business ethics, economic history , economic ontology, economic sociology and economic culture. It acts as a kind of bridge between these disciplines and mediates between economic and philosophical approaches.

Heidbrink takes part in the public debate on the climate crisis ; He criticizes the fact that the German population is not prepared to give up the car, air travel or meat consumption, although they are mostly aware of the drama of the situation.

Publications (selection)

Monographs and editorships

  • Melancholy and modernity. To the criticism of historical despair. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 377052926X .
  • Criticism of responsibility. On the limits of responsible action in complex contexts. Velbrück Wissenschaft Verlag, Weilerswist 2003, ISBN 3934730698 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Alfred Hirsch (ed.): Responsibility in civil society. To the boom of a contradicting principle. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2006, ISBN 9783593380100 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Alfred Hirsch (ed.): State without responsibility? On the change in the tasks of the state and politics. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3593382173 .
  • Acting in uncertainty. Paradoxes of responsibility. Kadmos Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3865990204 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Alfred Hirsch (ed.): Responsibility as a market economy principle. On the relationship between morality and economy. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3593386393 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Peter Seele (Ed.): Entrepreneurship. The benefits and disadvantages of a risky way of life. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3593392134 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Imke Schmidt, Björn Ahaus (eds.): The responsibility of the consumer. About the relationship between market, morality and consumption. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2011, ISBN 978-3593395371 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Claus Langbehn, Janina Loh (eds.): Handbook Responsibility. Springer Verlag, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3658061098 .
  • Ludger Heidbrink, Alexander Lorch, Verena Rauen: economic philosophy as an introduction. Junius, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3960603085 .

Articles and contributions

  • Responsibility instead of duties? About the limits of obligations , in: Claus Langbehn (Ed.): Law, Justice and Freedom. Essays on contemporary political philosophy (Festschrift for Wolfgang Kersting) , Paderborn 2006, pp. 239–266, ISBN 978-3897855571 .
  • System responsibility, self-commitment and ethics of economic organization , in: Thomas Beschorner, Patrick Linnebach, Reinhard Pfriem and Günter Ulrich (eds.): Corporate responsibility from a culturalist perspective , Marburg 2007, pp. 45–66, ISBN 978-3895185984 .
  • Corporate Social Responsibility? About the limits of corporate responsibility , in: Claus Langbehn and Wolfgang Kersting (eds.): Moral and Capital. Basic questions of economic and corporate ethics , Paderborn 2008, pp. 153–174, ISBN 978-3897856301 .
  • The limits of responsibility in the age of globalization , in: Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 2009 , ed. by Myriam Gerhard, Oldenburg 2010, pp. 209–231.
  • The concept of responsibility in business ethics , in: Michael Aßländer (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Wirtschaftsethik , Stuttgart 2011, pp. 188–197, ISBN 978-3476022707 .
  • Ignorance and responsibility. On dealing with unintended consequences of actions , in: Claudia Peter, Dorett Funcke (Ed.): Knowledge on the border. On dealing with uncertainty and insecurity in modern medicine , Frankfurt / New York 2013, pp. 111–140, ISBN 978-3593398693 .
  • Libertarian Paternalism, Sustainable Self-Binding and Bounded Freedom , in: Dieter Birnbacher, May Thorseth (Ed.): The Politics of Sustainability. Philosophical Perspectives , Abingdon / New York 2015, 173–194.
  • Companies as Political Actors: A Positioning between Ordo-Responsibility and Systems Responsibility , in: Christoph Lütge, Nikil Mukerji (Ed.): Order Ethics: An Ethical Framework for the Social Market Economy , Dordrecht 2016, pp. 251-278, ISBN 978 -3-319-33149-2 .
  • Colin Crouch, Postdemokratie , in: Manfred Brocker (Ed.): History of Political Thought: The 20th Century , Berlin 2018, pp. 945–960, ISBN 978-3518298107 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kiel Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (KCPPE). In: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ Gustav Radbruch Network for Philosophy and Ethics of the Environment. In: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  3. ^ German Network for Business Ethics (DNWE). Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Values ​​Commission - Initiative Values ​​Conscious Leadership e. V. Accessed January 24, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Working group for economic philosophy and ethics. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  6. ^ Committees of the Verein für Socialpolitik. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Consumer Research Network from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Research (BMJV). Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Practical Philosophy of Economy and Environment (single-subject master’s course) at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink: Melancholy and Modernity. To the criticism of historical despair . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7705-2926-X .
  10. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink: Critique of Responsibility. On the limits of responsible action in complex contexts . Velbrück Verlag, Weilerswist 2003, ISBN 978-3-934730-69-4 .
  11. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink: Post-liberalism. On the change of liberal societies and democratic politics . In: Renate Martinsen (Hrsg.): Formation of order and delimitation: Democracy in change . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-02718-6 , pp. 87-103 .
  12. ^ Ludger Heidbrink: Companies as political actors. A determination of the location between regulatory responsibility and system responsibility . In: ORDO. Yearbook for the Order of Economy and Society . tape 63 . Stuttgart 2012, p. 204 .
  13. ↑ Martin Hartmann: Questions of responsibility We should take responsibility everywhere. Can we In: Frankfurter Rundschau. July 5, 2007, accessed February 16, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink: Definitions and requirements of responsibility . In: Ludger Heidbrink, Claus Langbehn, Janina Loh (eds.): Handbook Responsibility . Springer Verlag, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-06109-8 , pp. 3 .
  15. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink: The responsibility of the consumer. About the relationship between market, morality and consumption . Ed .: Ludger Heidbrink, Imke Schmidt, Björn Ahaus. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-39537-1 , pp. 7 .
  16. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink, Alexander Lorch: Bonuses for Managers? First morals - then ethics. In: FAZ. February 26, 2018, p. 13 , accessed January 4, 2019 .
  17. ^ Ludger Heidbrink: Consumer Social Responsibility. On the social responsibility of consumers . In: Ethics & Teaching . No. 1 , 2017, p. 7-10 .
  18. ↑ Ludger Heidbrink, Verena Rauen: Why economic philosophy? A controversial argument . In: Wolf Dieter Enkelmann, Birger P. Priddat (ed.): What is ?: Economic-philosophical explorations . Metropolis, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7316-1081-6 , pp. 183-207 .
  19. ↑ Philosopher on the hypocrisy of the Germans. In: Spiegel Online. Spiegel Online, accessed December 22, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Heidbrink, Ludger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Bochum