Sukces we współczesnym kontekście kulturowym

Abstract

Win back freedom in the economy aroused a dream of success and a new situation brought in consequence led to a change of paradigms in society. Man was “doomed to be successful” This paradigm became an integral part of the mentality of people and economic, political and social institutions with the advent of the modern industrial revolution. That turning-point, itself a consequence of changes in philosophical and social reflection, made thinking in terms of effectiveness, utility and profit a feature specific to modern society. Rationalism, including its radical genre know as scientism, has caused disruption of man’s rationality viewed as “integral and adequate” The present-day crisis of culture is closely related to “confronting and contrasting the many different dimensions of man’s rationality” A limited rationality, encompassing only the market forces, is making a claim for supremacy over all spheres of individual and social life. This form of rationality can be reduced to the statement that „there is no salvation other than the market” Today there is an urgent need to understand reality as a whole in terms of sapiential knowledge. The crisis of modernism observed today has brought about a specific cultural response. The strong post-modernist tendencies are a reaction to the scientistic rationality of modernism. They are not, however, an attempt to conceive of rationality as adequate and integral, but an encouragement to turn away from rationality in favour of irrationality. “Modern man” in post-industrial society is supposed to be “homo ironicus” The profound disappointment with the consequences of disrupted rationality (such as “the concept of progress”) revives the need to recognise ethical criteria in life. With respect to being successful, the business ethics itself may, by virtue of its methodology, support the integration of different forms of rationality by resorting to philosophical anthropology. The current systemic change in Central and Eastern Europe has brought about a significant increase in the level of civilisation which calls for a new paradigm in the creation of a competitive society the paradigm of success. “Business” language more and more often is used for explaining the reasonableness of all human activity. Thus, it presents a new challenge for integrated and adequate rationality in what is called the age of post-rationalism.