If we were only to govern our actions by the reflection of the inert world's irrevocable laws in our own consciousness, we would be completely unmoral, or to put it better, amoral; Good and Bad would lack meaning for us... A. Caso A System is an imaginary machine... A. Smith
Abstract
This paper tackles the main changes that have taken place in the mechanical worldview of simple, self-regulating and intelligent machines, and studies their repercussions at the ethical and organisational level. These views of machines agree with the scientific, human-relations and postmodern proposals in organisation theory, in that they are in fact reflections on human nature which depend on metaphorical devices within which the machine metaphor is central.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aglietta, Michel (1979),Regulación y crisis del capitalismo, Siglo XXI, Mexico.
Alberoni, Francesco (1992),Las razones de bien y del mal, Gedisa, Barcelona.
Aoki, Masahiko (1990),La estructura de la economíca japonesa, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico.
Atlan, Henri (1991),Con razón y sin ella. Intercritica de la Ciencia y del Mito, Tusquets, Barcelona.
Aubert Nicole and Vincent de Gaulejac (1991),Le coût de l'excellence, Seuil, Paris.
Baritz, Loren (1974),The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry, Greenwood Press, Connecticut.
Baudrillard, jean (1983),Les stratégies fatales, Bernard Grasset, Paris.
Braverman, Harry (1974)Labor and Monopoly Capital, Monthly Review, New York.
Burns, Tom and G.M. Stalker (1961),The Management of Innovation, Tavistock Publications, London.
Capra, Fritjof (1982),The Turning Point: science, society, and the rising culture, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Caso, Antonio (1910), “La filosofía moral de don Eugenio M. de Hostos”, in Conferences de Ateneo de la Juventud, Mexico. Quoted by Zea, Leopoldo (1993),El postitivismo en México: nacimento, apogeo y decadenica, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico.
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1975)L'institution imaginaire de la Société, Seuil, Paris.
Clegg, Stewart R. (1981), “Organization and Control”,in Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 546–562.
Clegg, Stewart R. (1990),Modern Organizations. Organizations Studies in the Postmodernist World, Sage, London.
Cooper, Robert (1989), “Modernism, Post Modernism and Organizational Analysis 3: The Contribution of Jaque Derrida”, inOrganization Studies, 10/4, pp. 479–502.
Cooper, Robert and Gibson Burrel (1988), “Modernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis: An Introduction”, inOrganization Studies, 9/1, pp. 91–112.
Coriat, Benjamin (1979),L'atalier et le chronométre, Essai sur le taylorism, le fordisme et la production de masse, Christian Bourjois Editeur, Paris.
Desmarzèz, Pieerre (1983) “La sociologie industrielle. Fille de la thermodynamique d'équilibre?, inSociologie du Travail, No. 3, pp. 261–274.
Durkheim Emile (1987)La división social del trabajo, Colofón, Mexico.
Focault, Michel (1971)L'ordre du discours, Gallimard, Paris.
Fiedman, Georges (1963),Où ve la travail humain?, Idées/Gallimard, Paris.
Friedman, Georges (1977),La crisis de progresso, Laia, Barcelona.
Gaos, José (1992),Historia de nuestra idea del mundo, Fondo de Cultura Económica/El Colegio de México, Mexico.
Giddens, Anthony (1978),Durkheim, Fontana, Glasgow.
Henderson, Lawrence J. (1970),On the Social System, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Heydebrand, Wolf V. (1989), “New Organizational Form”, inWork and Occupations, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 13–31.
Homans, George C. (1959)The Human Group, Harcourt Brace, New York.
Kilduff, Martin (1993) “Deconstructing Organizations”, inAcademy of Management Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 13–31.
Legborgne, Danile and Alain Lipietz (1988), “L'après-fordisme et son espace”, inLes Temps Modernes, No. 501, abrill, pp. 75–110.
Lyotard, Jean François (1989),La condition postmoderne, Editions du Minuit, Paris.
March, James G. and Herbert A. Simon (1958),Organization, Wiley, New York.
Mayo, Elton (1933),The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, Harvard University, Boston.
Mayo, Elton (1945),The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization, Harvard University, Boston.
McCorduck, Pamela (1993), “Intelligencia artificial: an aperçu”, in Graubard Stephen R. (ed.),El nuevo debate sobre la inteligenica articial. Sistemas simbólicos y redes neuronales, Gedisa, Barcelona, pp. 81–101.
Montaño Hirose, Luis (1985), “Las esculas de las relaciones humanas: premisas para un debate”, in Ibarra Colado, Eduardo and Luis Montaño Hirose (eds.),Historia del pensamiento administrativo, vol. I, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico, pp. 351–356.
Montaño Hirose, Luis (1985), “Las nuevas relaciones-humanas: un falso reto a la democracia,” inEnsayos críticos para el estudio de las organizaciones en México, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico, pp. 63–102.
Montaño Hirose, Luis (1987), “El orden sistémico: algunos avatares del paradigma organizacional”, in Ibarra Colado, Eduardo and Luis Montaño Hirose (eds.),El orden organizacional: poder, estrategia y contradicción, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico, pp. 1–58.
Montaño Hirose, Luis (1993), “De la metáfora al poder. Algunas reflexiones acera de las aproximaciones organizacionales a la educación superior”, in Ibarra Colado, Eduardo (Ed.),La universidad ante el espejo de la excelencia. Enjuegos organiacionales, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalaga, Mexico, pp. 1–17.
Montaño Hirose, Luis (1994), “At the Edge of Modernity: Boundaries Mediations and Overlappings. The Lessons of the Japanese Organization” inOsaka City University Business Journal, pp. 35–57.
Morin, Edgar (1981),El Método: la naturaleza de la naturaleza, Cátedra, Madrid.
Newel, Allan and Herbert A. Simon (1972),Human Problems Solving, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.
Ouchi, William (1984),The M-Form Society: How American Teamwork Can Recapture the Competitive Edge, Addison Wesley, Massachusetts.
Pagés, Max, Michel Bonetti, Vincent de Gaulejac and Daniel Decendre (1979),L'emprise de L'organisation. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.
Parker, Martin (1992a), “Post-Modern Organizations or Post-Modern Organization Theory?” inOrganization Studies, 13/1 pp. 1–17.
Parker, Martin (1992b), “Getting Down from the Fence: A Reply to Harimodus Tsoukas”, inOrganization Studies, 13/4, pp/ 651–653.
Putnam, Hilary (1993), “Mucho ruido por muy poco” in Graubard Stephen R. (ed.),El nuevo debate sobre la inteligencia artificial. Sistemas simbólicos y redes neuronales, Gedisa, Barcelona, pp. 306–319.
Roethlisberger, Fritz and William Dickson (1976),Management and the Worker, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Simon, Herbert A. (1977),La nueva ciencia de la decisión gerencial El Ateneo, Buenos Aires.
Smith, Adam (1937),An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, The Modern Library, New York.
Smith, Adam (1976),The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Liberty Classics, Indianapolis.
Starkey, Ken (1992), “Durkheim and Organizational Analysis”, inOrganization Studies, 13/4, p. 627–642.
Taylor, Frederick W. (1972),Scientific Management: Shop Management. The Principles of Scientific Management. Testimony Before the Special Committee., Greenwood Connecticut.
Tsoukas, Haridimos (1992), “Postmodernism, Reflexive Rationalism and Organizational Studies: A Reply to Martin Parker”, inOrganization Studies, 13/4, pp. 643–649.
Waltz, David L. (1993), “Perspectives de la construcción de máquinas verdaderamente inteligentes” in Graubard, Stephen R. (ed.),El nuevo debate sobre la inteligencia artificial. Sistemas simbólicos y redes neuronales, Gedisa, Barcelona, pp. 218–242.
Wiener, Norbert (1969),Cybernetics. Or control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts.
Wiener, Norbert (1966),Ex-prodigy. My Childhood and Youth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hirose, L.M. Organisational spaces and intelligent machines: A metaphorical approach to ethics. AI & Soc 9, 43–56 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01174478
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01174478