Finite world and open future. Finality and growth criticism in contemporary political thought
Political Science
Final Report Abstract
The research project dealt with the history of ideas of the growth paradigm and the criticism of it. The first subproject focused on the emergence of the growth paradigm in the history of ideas with reference to historical interpretations of time and history. The guiding question here was the persistence of the economic growth paradigm, with simultaneous crisis(es) of the growth society. The historical reconstruction shows that modern growth efforts and their transformational persistence are the answer to an anthropological limit. Growth thus represents the compensatory efforts of the experience of finitude. This configuration is historically new and unique and may explain why the shift away from the growth paradigm in practice and theory has been so sluggish despite factual evidence. Such a departure would not only mean the end of an economic and social design, but would at the same time challenge the strongly habitualized individual and existential modes of world appropriation and structuring. The second subproject focused on the criticism of the growth paradigm and the proposed alternatives in political thought. More specifically, it aimed at a more precise understanding of the diagnosis of the ecological growth critique as well as the political alternative concepts derived from it. To this end, the respective landscape of political thought was examined at two selected time periods with a focus on the most relevant thought leaders in the Germanspeaking area. As a result, a comprehensive mapping of this stream of political thought could be developed, which analyses and describes the important basic positions and their premises, the development of the spectrum over time, shared assumptions and conclusions, as well as the relevant controversies. Thus, for the first time, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the political ideas of ecological growth critique. The in-depth review also allows for a critical reflection of the different positions. Thus, the results make an essential contribution to the foundation of today's sustainability discourse as well as to the reappraisal of the history of ideas of a strand of German political thought that has not been covered so far.
Publications
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Bewahren oder Erneuern, Gemeinschaft oder Menschheit, Endlichkeit oder Offenheit – Wie geht konservativ heute?, in: Michael Kühnlein (Hrsg.), konservativ?! Miniaturen aus Kultur, Politik und Wissenschaft, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2019, S. 359-362
Stein, Tine
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Moral in Zeiten der Klimakrise, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung v. 24.06.2019, S. 6 (Die Gegenwart)
Stein, Tine
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Hypermoral, die Grenzen der Individualethik und die Bedeutung für die Theologie, in: Pastoral im Kapitalismus, hrsg. v. Rainer Bucher, Echter: Würzburg 2020, S. 161-169
Stein, Tine
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Nachhaltigkeit und Politische Theorie. Kommentar „Zur Idee einer Nachhaltigen Politischen Theorie“ von Andreas Busen. Zeitschrift für Politische Theorie, 11(1-2020), 121-125.
Stein, Tine
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Ökologischer Neuanfang – mit der Demokratie!? In: Theorieblog. Politische Theorie, Philosophie & Ideengeschichte. https://www.theorieblog.de/index.php/2020/11/oekologischer-neuanfang-mit-derdemokratie/
Rathfelder, André
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Alternative Wirtschaftsformen. Handbuch Wirtschaftsphilosophie III (2021), 459-473. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Köhne, Ralf
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Freiheit und Verantwortung. Handbuch Wirtschaftsphilosophie III (2021), 269-290. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Heidbrink, Ludger & Lorch, Alexander
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Kultur als Steuerungsprogramm. Ein Erweiterungsvorschlag zur kulturalistischen Wirtschaftsethik. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, 22(3), 427-431.
Heidbrink, Ludger
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Auf der Suche nach Zukunft. Nomos.
Rathfelder, André
