Philosophy
These are the philosophers, social theorists, and epistemologists whose ideas provide the intellectual foundations for the series. Management and organisational thinkers are listed on the Transformation page; this page collects those whose primary contribution is to philosophy of action, philosophy of science, social theory, moral philosophy, or epistemology.
Last updated: 21 March 2026
G.E.M. Anscombe (1919-2001)
Philosophy of action. The foundational analysis of intentional action and practical knowledge.
Intention (1957/2000). Under a hundred pages, and every one of them essential. The discussion of practical knowledge and the “Why?” question remains the starting point for all subsequent philosophy of action.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Action. Covers Anscombe’s foundational contribution. Freely accessible.
G.E.M. Anscombe: Modern Moral Philosophy (1958). The essay that reintroduced virtue ethics to analytic philosophy. Freely accessible PDF.
Kenneth Arrow (1921-2017)
Social choice theory. The impossibility of consistent preference aggregation.
Social Choice and Individual Values (1951; 2nd edition 1963, Yale University Press). No procedure for aggregating individual preferences into a collective ranking can satisfy a small number of reasonable conditions simultaneously.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. Freely accessible.
Gregory Bateson (1904-1980)
Anthropology, cybernetics, systems epistemology. The levels of learning and the ecology of mind.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972). The collected essays: levels of learning, the double bind, information as “a difference which makes a difference,” and the ecology of mind.
Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979). The late synthesis.
Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (1987, posthumous, with Mary Catherine Bateson).
Naven (1936). The early anthropological fieldwork that introduced schismogenesis.
infed.org: Gregory Bateson. Freely accessible.
An Ecology of Mind (2010). Documentary by Nora Bateson.
Gregory Bateson: Form, Substance, and Difference (lecture, 1970). Bateson Foundation resources. Freely accessible.
Simon Blackburn (b. 1944)
Metaethics. Quasi-realism: how moral discourse can work without moral facts.
Ruling Passions: A Theory of Practical Reasoning (1998, Oxford University Press). The fullest statement of the quasi-realist programme.
Spreading the Word: Groundings in the Philosophy of Language (1984, Oxford University Press). Where quasi-realism was first developed. The response to the Frege-Geach problem.
Essays in Quasi-Realism (1993, Oxford University Press). The collected papers.
Quasi-Realism, Expressivism, and the Explanation of Moral Language (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Freely accessible.
Simon Blackburn: Ethics (introductory lectures). Various freely accessible lectures.
Simon Blackburn: Cambridge Faculty page. Papers and resources.
Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)
Social philosophy. Habitus, field, and capital.
The Logic of Practice (1990). The most developed theoretical account of habitus, field, and capital.
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979/1984). How cultural capital reproduces social hierarchy.
Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant: An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (1992). The most accessible introduction.
The Forms of Capital (1986). The key essay on cultural, social, and economic capital. Freely accessible.
PowerCube: Bourdieu and Habitus. Clear practitioner-oriented explanation. Freely accessible.
infed.org: Pierre Bourdieu on Education. Overview of the conceptual triad. Freely accessible.
Robert Brandom (b. 1950)
Philosophy of language. Inferentialism: meaning as a role in a network of commitments and entitlements.
Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism (2000, Harvard University Press). The accessible introduction. Start here.
Making It Explicit: Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment (1994, Harvard University Press). The full theory. Deontic scorekeeping.
Robert Brandom: University of Pittsburgh page. Papers, lectures, and resources. Freely accessible.
Michael Bratman (b. 1945)
Philosophy of action. The planning theory of intention and shared agency.
Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason (1987). How intentions structure deliberation over time.
Shared Agency: A Planning Theory of Acting Together (2014). Shared intention and the conditions for genuine joint action.
Shared and Institutional Agency (2022). How organisations can have intentions.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Shared Agency. Comprehensive treatment of Bratman’s planning theory. Freely accessible.
David Chalmers (b. 1966)
Philosophy of mind. The hard problem of consciousness.
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (1996, Oxford University Press). Why functional equivalence may not be sufficient for experience.
Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness (1995). The foundational paper. Freely accessible.
David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness (TED Talk, 2014). Freely accessible.
Ruth Chang (b. 1963)
Philosophy of practical reason. Incommensurability and hard choices.
Ruth Chang (ed.): Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reason (1997). The academic anthology.
How to Make Hard Choices (TED Talk, 2014). When values are incommensurable, choosing is self-constitution.
Daniel Dennett (1942-2024)
Philosophy of mind. The intentional stance and functionalist accounts of consciousness.
The Intentional Stance (1987, MIT Press). If treating a system as if it has beliefs reliably predicts its behaviour, then for practical purposes it has them.
Consciousness Explained (1991, Little, Brown). The full functionalist account.
Daniel Dennett: The Illusion of Consciousness (TED Talk). Freely accessible.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Dennett. Freely accessible.
Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994)
Philosophy of science. Methodological anarchism and the case against methodological monism.
Against Method (1975; 4th edition, Verso, 2010). Why the only principle that does not inhibit progress is “anything goes.”
Science in a Free Society (1978). Why pluralism in method requires pluralism in institutions.
Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend (1995).
Matteo Motterlini (ed.): For and Against Method: The Lakatos-Feyerabend Correspondence (University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Feyerabend. Freely accessible.
Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933)
Political philosophy and management theory. Power-with, the law of the situation, and integrative conflict resolution.
Creative Experience (1924). The fullest statement.
The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government (1918). The democratic philosophy beneath the management theory.
Pauline Graham (ed.): Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management (Harvard Business School Press, 1995). The essential collection.
Mary Parker Follett Foundation. Freely accessible.
Talking About Organizations podcast: Episode 5 on Follett. Thorough audio review. Freely accessible.
Harry Frankfurt (1929-2023)
Philosophy of action and moral philosophy. Bullshit, free will, and the structure of caring.
On Bullshit (2005, Princeton University Press). The distinction between lying (engaged with truth) and bullshit (indifferent to truth).
On Bullshit (original 1986 essay). Freely accessible PDF.
Miranda Fricker (b. 1966)
Epistemology. Epistemic injustice: when power structures distort whose knowledge counts.
Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (2007, Oxford University Press). Testimonial and hermeneutical injustice.
Epistemic Injustice (Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture). Freely accessible.
Allan Gibbard (b. 1942)
Metaethics. Norm-expressivism and planning expressivism.
Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgment (1990, Harvard University Press). Moral judgments express the acceptance of norms that coordinate behaviour.
Thinking How to Live (2003, Harvard University Press). Planning expressivism: normative judgments as hyperplans.
Meaning and Normativity (2012, Oxford University Press). Extends the planning framework to meaning itself.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Moral Cognitivism vs. Non-Cognitivism. Covers Gibbard’s norm-expressivism in detail. Freely accessible.
Anthony Giddens (b. 1938)
Social theory. Structuration: the duality of structure and practical consciousness.
The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (1984). The definitive statement.
Central Problems in Social Theory (1979). The earlier, more concise statement.
Theory of Structuration: Overview. Accessible introduction. Freely accessible.
London School of Economics: Anthony Giddens. Profile and selected resources. Freely accessible.
Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929)
Social theory and discourse ethics. The conditions under which norms are legitimate.
Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (1990, MIT Press). Discourse ethics: a norm is legitimate if and only if it could be accepted by all those affected, in rational discourse free from domination.
The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2: Lifeworld and System (1987, Polity). The colonisation thesis.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Habermas. Freely accessible.
Christine Korsgaard (b. 1952)
Moral philosophy. The sources of normativity and self-constitution.
The Sources of Normativity (1996, Cambridge University Press). Why moral claims bind, and what gives them authority.
Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009, Oxford University Press). Agency and identity as self-constitution.
The Sources of Normativity (Tanner Lectures). The original 1992 lectures. Freely accessible PDF.
Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996)
Philosophy of science. Paradigms, normal science, anomaly, crisis, and revolution.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962; 4th edition with introduction by Ian Hacking, University of Chicago Press, 2012).
The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change (1977).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thomas Kuhn. Freely accessible.
Imre Lakatos (1922-1974)
Philosophy of science and mathematics. Research programmes and the rational reconstruction of scientific change.
The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers Volume 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1978).
Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery (Cambridge University Press, 1976).
Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.): Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 1970).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Lakatos. Freely accessible.
Imre Lakatos: Proofs and Refutations (lecture recordings). Various freely accessible lectures.
Alasdair MacIntyre (b. 1929)
Moral philosophy. Practices, internal goods, and the tradition-dependent character of moral reasoning.
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981; 3rd edition 2007, Duckworth). Moral reasoning is a practice with internal goods achievable only through participation.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: MacIntyre’s Political Philosophy. Freely accessible.
C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
Sociology. The sociological imagination.
The Sociological Imagination (1959). The most influential critique of Parsons.
C. Wright Mills: The Promise (Chapter 1). The most anthologised chapter. Freely accessible.
Judea Pearl (b. 1936)
Philosophy of causation. The causal ladder and the mathematics of intervention.
Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Judea Pearl: The Book of Why (UCLA resources). Chapter summaries and related material. Freely accessible.
Judea Pearl: The Seven Pillars of Causal Reasoning (lecture). Freely accessible.
Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Philosophy of science. Falsificationism, the open society, and the growth of knowledge.
Conjectures and Refutations (Routledge, 1963; 2002 edition). Start here.
The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge, 1934/1959; 2002 edition). The foundational text.
The Open Society and Its Enemies (Princeton University Press, 1945; 2020 edition).
Bryan Magee: Popper (Fontana Modern Masters, 1973). Still the best short introduction.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Karl Popper. Freely accessible.
Hilary Putnam (1926-2016)
Philosophy of mind and moral philosophy. Functionalism, and the collapse of the fact/value dichotomy.
The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays (2002, Harvard University Press). Why facts and values cannot be separated.
Psychological Predicates (1967; later retitled “The Nature of Mental States”). The canonical statement of functionalism.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Functionalism. Covers Putnam’s foundational contribution. Freely accessible.
Donald Schön (1930-1997)
Philosophy of professional practice. Reflection-in-action, knowing-in-practice, and the critique of technical rationality.
The Reflective Practitioner (1983). The most important critique of technical rationality.
Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987).
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön: Theory in Practice (1974). Espoused theory vs theory-in-use.
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön: Organizational Learning (1978). Deutero-learning.
Donald Schön and Martin Rein: Frame Reflection (1994).
infed.org: Donald Schon. Freely accessible.
John Searle (b. 1932)
Philosophy of mind. The Chinese Room argument and the limits of computation.
Minds, Brains and Science (1984, BBC/Penguin). The Reith Lectures. Syntax is not sufficient for semantics.
Minds, Brains, and Programs (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1980). Freely accessible PDF.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Chinese Room Argument. Freely accessible.
Wilfrid Sellars (1912-1989)
Epistemology. The space of reasons and the critique of the given.
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (1956/1997, Harvard University Press). The space of reasons: claims justified by their relations to other claims, not merely caused by prior events.
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind (full text). Freely accessible.
P.F. Strawson (1919-2006)
Moral philosophy. Reactive attitudes and the participant stance.
Freedom and Resentment (1962). Holding someone morally responsible is a participant stance. In Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays (Routledge, 2008).
Freedom and Resentment (full text). Freely accessible.
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Social theory. Bureaucracy, authority, rationalisation, and the iron cage.
Economy and Society (posthumous, 1922; translated 1968).
Peter Baehr: The Iron Cage and Its Alternatives (various publications).
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic (full text, various editions). Freely accessible.
Peter Baehr: The Iron Cage and Its Alternatives (various publications). Corrects decades of misreading.
Bernard Williams (1929-2003)
Moral philosophy. Thick ethical concepts and the limits of moral theory.
Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985; Routledge Classics 2011). Thick concepts, the impossibility of an “absolute conception” of ethics, and why moral philosophy should not try to be science.
Bryan Magee interviews Bernard Williams on Philosophy of Morals (BBC, 1978). Freely accessible.
This page is maintained alongside the Organisational Prompts series. Entries are added as new articles are published.