Foundations: The Roots of Idealist and Romantic Opposition to Capitalism and Management

Abstract

A seminal feature of the closing decades of the twentieth century was the emergence of new postmodernist traditions opposed to industrial capitalism and its associated managerial systems. Unlike Marxism, these new traditions are idealist in orientation, giving primacy to individual identity. In exploring the origins of these postmodernist traditions, this chapter argues that their epistemological roots are located within German philosophic idealism and English Romanticism. Like subsequent postmodernist canon, these traditions shared a hostility to industrialization, an emphasis on consciousness and will, and a belief that humanity’s well-being rests on a harmonious relationship with nature. German idealism and English Romanticism also shared a distrust of empiricism or positivism, believing instead that evidence and knowledge are highly subjective. In assessing the influence of these traditions, this chapter suggests that their key assumptions – and of the postmodernist traditions that they helped inspire – are misguided. The pre-industrial, bucolic existence that they favored was a world of misery, filth, and illiteracy. An emphasis on consciousness and will frequently led to authoritarian conclusions. While rejecting positivist epistemological principles, this chapter also argues that the relativist assumptions of idealism, Romanticism, and postmodernism are in error. An objective world amenable to experimentation and inquiry does exist.