Conference program.indd - CBS OBSERVER

CONFERENCEThe Uses andAbuses of Kierkegaard:Lessons for Integrating Humanities inFuture Business EducationOrganized byThe Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy,Copenhagen Business School and The Søren KierkegaardResearch Centre at the University of CopenhagenThe conference will take place atCopenhagen Business School,Dalgas Have 15, 2000 Frederiksberg, DenmarkOctober 16-18, 2013

Why a Kierkegaard conference at Copenhagen Business School?Business education is being currently rethought, most recently by the inuential CarnegieFoundation report, and philosophy is increasingly cited as one possible new source of inspiration.Top leadership training, executive education as well as coaching have long revisited philosophy torethink management education. Today Business Schools are urged to become Business Universitiesconnecting both graduate and undergraduate business education to the humanities and philosophy.Are there limits to such philosophy stretching? What is a fruitful “use” and what “abuses” shouldbe avoided?For Copenhagen Business School, a Danish Business University connecting business educationwith philosophy, Søren Kierkegaard, one of the most “stretched philosophers,” is impossible toavoid. Kierkegaard is referred to in management, business administration, organizational studiesand leadership. Kierkegaard’s thought pragmatically fuels a wide range of intellectual programs inelds such as philosophy, theology, religious studies, psychology and political science. His emphasison human freedom, choice and responsibility has led to him being co-opted by the existentialists,who hailed him as one of the forerunners of their movement. This, in turn, may easily turn him intoa guru for individual development in a human resource context. His reections on ethics, art andaesthetics echo recent ideas in the theory of organizations. Similarly, his use of irony, pseudonymsand different literary voices has been seen as an early form of the postmodernist dogmas of thedeath of the author or the deferment of meaning. Likewise his views about individual action andsociety have been an inspiration for thinkers with very different views from both ends of the politicalspectrum.The conference wants to examine various “uses” of Kierkegaard, some of which have been calledinto question as “abuses” by scholars who, trying to restore Kierkegaard to his original context,have pointed out important distortions of his thinking that have been made by those wishing toappropriate him for their own set purposes. Yet the study of Kierkegaard cannot be limited to achapter in the history of thought. How then can Kierkegaard inspire new thinking in contemporaryelds? What are the truly fruitful uses and interpretations of his thought? By focusing on the specialcase of Kierkegaard, Copenhagen Business School wishes this conference to provide a better generalunderstanding for how to integrate humanities and philosophy into tomorrow’s business curriculumby both constructive uses and creative abuses.The Conference is sponsored by The Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy,Copenhagen Business School, The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University ofCopenhagen, the Danish Society for Education and Business and The Danish Council forIndependent Research: Humanities.2

PROGRAMWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16Auditorium: DSC033 (Dalgas Have 15)Words of Welcome9:10-9:15 Camilla Sløk (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)Morning Session I: Limits to Philosophy Stretching?Moderator: Morten Sørensen Thaning (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)9:15-9:45 “Kierkegaard and Asian Thought: In Search of a Method for Comparative Religion”William McDonald (University of New England, Australia)9:45-10:15 “All Uses are Abuses”Anders Rendtorff Klitgaard (Københavns VUC, Denmark)10:15-10:30 Discussion10:30-10:45 Coffee/Tea BreakMorning Session II: Stretching to the Political?Moderator: Rasmus Johnsen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)10:45-11:15 “Neither Fish Nor Fowl”J. Michael Tilley (St. Olaf College, USA)11:15-11:45 “Kierkegaard and Political Theology”Henning Nörenberg (University of Rostock, Germany)11:45-12:15 “Kierkegaard’s Subversion or Indirect Politics for our Time”Bartholomew Ryan (Universidade Nova da Lisboa, Portugal)12:15-12:35 Discussion12:35-13:30 LunchAfternoon Session I: Tracking Abuse?Moderator: Christian Garmann Johnsen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)13:30-14:00 “The Useful Abuses”Curtis Thompson (Thiel College, USA)14:00-14:30 “Methodology for (Mis)use: Legitimacy and Limits”Mélissa Fox-Muraton (France Business School, France)14:30-14:45 Discussion14:45-15:00 Coffee/Tea BreakAfternoon Session II: Tracking Abuse?Moderator: Thomas Presskorn-Thygesen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)15:00-15:30 “From Abuse to Therapy”Jamie Turnbull (St. Olaf College, USA)15:30-16:00 “ ‘I Pray No Unseasoned Hand Meddles’: What Counts as an Abuse”Sergia Karen Hay (Pacic Lutheran University, USA)16:00-16:15 Discussion16:30 Reception3

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17Auditorium: DSC033Morning Session I: Stretching to the Social Sciences.Moderator: Pernille Pedersen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)9:00-9:30 “Kierkegaard and Contemporary Psychology”John Davenport (Fordham University, USA)9:30-10:00 “Kierkegaard and Public Education”Timothy C. Hall (Franklin Academy, USA)10:00:10:15 Discussion10:15-10:30 Coffee/Tea BreakMorning Session II: Stretching to the Social SciencesModerator: Marius Gudmand-Høyer (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)10:30-11:00 “Self-Critique: Using and Abusing Anti-Climacus’ View of Self”Annemarie van Stee (Leiden University, Holland)11:00-11:30 “Existential Anxiety and Professional Football: Love and Suffering!”Mark Stephen Nesti (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)11:30-11:45 Discussion11:45-13:00 LunchAfternoon Session I: Stretching to ExistentialismModerator: Jon Stewart (Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Denmark)13:00-13:30 “Das Leben als ‘Geste’. Zur Kierkegaard-Interpretation von Georg Lukács”Zoltán Gyenge (University of Szeged, Hungary)13:30-14:00 “Das Problem des religiösen Akosmismus in der Kierkegaard-Rezeption Karl Jaspers’ ”István Czakó (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary)14:00-14:15 Discussion14:15-14:30 Coffee/Tea BreakAfternoon Session II: Stretching to ExistentialismModerator: Sverre Raffnsøe (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)14:30-15:00 “The Prophet, the Ideologist, the Philosopher”Jakub Marek (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)15:00-15:30 “Kierkegaard’s Existentialist Ethics versus Hegel’s Sittlichkeit in the State”Øjvind Larsen (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)15:30-15:45 Discussion4

Auditorium: DSC033FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18Morning Session I: Stretching to Catholicism:Moderator: Timothy C. Hall (Franklin Academy, USA)9:00-9:30 “New Perspectives on the Catholic Reception of Kierkegaard”Peter Šajda (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia)9:30-10:00 “Human Being as Transformative Reality: Kierkegaard for Catholic Spirituality”Daniel M. Dion (Loyola University Chicago, USA)10:00-10:15 Discussion10:15-10:30 Coffee/Tea BreakMorning Session II: Kierkegaard for Management and OrganizationModerator: William Sullivan (Wabash College, USA)10:30-11:00 “Kierkegaard’s Concept of Seduction Applied to Leadership and Management”Camilla Sløk (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)11:00-11:30 “Lifting Kierkegaard: (Ab)using His Ideas and Identity in Management”Ross A. Jackson (Center for Strategic Inquiry, Ltd., University of Phoenix, USA)11:30-11:45 Discussion11:45-13:00 LunchAfternoon Session I Kierkegaard for Management and OrganizationModerator: Robin Holt (University of Liverpool, UK)13:00-13:30 “Either/Or-ganization: Seduction, Bystanding”Stephen Linstead (University of York, UK)13:30-14:00 “The Conditions of Possibility of Organizational Ethics”Jacob Dahl Rendtorff (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)14:00-14:15 Discussion14:15-14:30 Coffee/Tea BreakAfternoon Session II Kierkegaard for Management and OrganizationModerator: Jacob Dahl Rendtorff (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)14:30-15:00 “Drawing from Kierkegaard? Critical Reections on Organizational Aesthetics Research”Antonio Strati (University of Trento, Italy CRG-Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, France)15:00-15:30 “Approaching Kierkegaard from Nothing”Janet Borgerson (University of Exeter Business School, UK)15:30-15:45 Discussion15:45-16:00 Coffee/Tea BreakPanel DiscussionModerator: Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)16:00-17:00 “Uses, Abuses and Creative Stretching: Ideas for Future Business Education”Invited Panel of Students and Researchers sum up and indicate future explorationsClosing Words17:00-17:15 Jon Stewart (Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Denmark) and Camilla Sløk(Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)18:30 Gala dinner5