Rethinking Business with Dr. Krisha Kops

Yesterday, the last lecture of our series Rethinking Business took place as part of our event series HSBA Beyond Business: In four events, philosophers and a Zeitgeist researcher presented inspiring ideas on what is important for the economy of the future.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to discuss one of the most central philosophical topics of our economy: Philosopher Dr. Krisha Kops inspired us with his thoughts on freedom, which is nowadays often defined by the absence of restrictions and constraints.

However, freedom does not mean freedom in equal measure for everyone, which is why different concepts of freedom intervene with each other. Particularly relevant in this context is the distinction between quantitative and qualitative concepts of freedom.

The quantitative concept of freedom with an utilitarian tendency strives for 'more'. In the long run, this not only leads to the overexploitation of resources: a paradox arises when striving for more freedom leads to constraint and thus, by definition, to unfreedom.

Qualitative freedom puts the question of 'how much' freedom second - instead, greater importance is placed on the reasons for the quality of different options. This allows us to assess how much of this freedom we want to allow ourselves and others, and brings into focus the question of 'what kind of freedom' and 'whose freedom'.

According to Dr. Krisha Kops, more freedom isn't better, nor is less freedom more - it should always be: it depends.

Dr. Krisha Kops, Ringvorlesung