Der ontologische Status des Betriebs in den aktualisierten Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts

Abstract

“The Ontological Status of the Company in the Re-Actualized Philosophy of Right.” This paper investigates under which conditions the self-conscious determination of the good life can be reconciled with the free market. Firstly, this means that the subjective autonomy is expressed in the system of the free market, thereby becoming part of a heteronomous law (the law of the market). Secondly, however, this market system may not be transformed into an independent alienated system, but must generate institutions that mediate the self-realization of the good life. Although Hegel’s “corporation” is meant as such a mediating institution, this concept has insufficient impact to avert the danger of an alienated (Marx) or colonizing (Habermas) free market. The normative conditions are elaborated that qualify companies for an adequate mediating role. The central problem is how to think the rationalization of the labor process in a way that no workers are excluded because they can be replaced by machines. Automation must not lead to expulsion, but rather to education of workers.