Marxism in French Philosophy: From Existence to Structure and Beyond

Abstract

This chapter presents the debate about Marxism, dialectics and social theory in French philosophy in the 1950s and 1960s in relation to the foundations of ethics and organization theory. The chapter focuses on Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser. This debate about Marxism in French philosophy and social theory relates to philosophy of management and business ethics through the questions that it generally asks about the role of business and privately owned corporations in society. Indeed, it mobilizes the question about the problematic and dark sides of corporations in society, where corporations and capitalism may contribute to the alienation and oppression of the people. But it also raises questions related to the inefficiency of the state-governed economy and of the structure and development of social and corporate organization in society Indeed, the debate about Marxism provides us with the foundations of a theory of how to apply dialectics to the analysis of social and economic aspects of society, including business and organizations.