1st Edition
Following Reason A Theory and Strategy for Rational Leadership
Throughout history, humanity has regularly followed anti-rational figures and forces: demagogic rulers, perverted deities, exploitative economic systems, and so on. Such leadership and followership have wrought all kinds of oppression and conflict. What if this pattern could be altered? What if society were led by Reason instead? Prompted by Cicero’s exhortation to "follow reason as leader as though it were a god", Following Reason: A Theory and Strategy for Rational Leadership explores this intriguing and potentially transformative possibility.
Manolopoulos uniquely blends leadership psychology with a deep understanding of philosophical reasoning theory to show how leaders can bravely reimagine and reconstruct society. The book retraces leadership mis-steps in history, and proposes a more "logicentric" theory of leadership, built on compelling philosophical axioms and arguments. Following Reason emphasizes the weight of philosophy and cognition in leadership, and advocates for a diverse network that can create, uphold, and implement a blueprint for a better global society.
This wide-ranging and timely book is ideal for leadership, management, and philosophy students at undergraduate and graduate levels.
Series Editor Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Chapter 1: DEFINING LEADING
Skepticism Toward Skepticism
Changing Situations
Maintaining Contested Situations
Chapter 2: DIFFERENTIATING LEADING FROM MANAGING
Distinguishing and Confusing the Two
History’s Glorified Managers
Chapter 3: FOREGROUNDING FOLLOWING
Reversal’s Value
Declaration of Interdependence
Chapter 4: RETHINKING REASON AS LEADER
From "The Thinker" to Epistocratic Democracy
From Platonic Epistocracy to Democratic Logicracy
Realizing Logicracy: On the Way to a Strategy
Chapter 5: FAITHFULLY FOLLOWING REASON
Toward a Quasi-Religious Following
Spreading the Good/Better News
A Skeptical Obedience
Logicracy’s People Power
References
Biography
Dr Mark Manolopoulos is a Research Associate in Philosophy at Monash University, and a former Research Fellow at Swinburne University’s Leadership Institute. He is the author of Radical Neo-Enlightenment (2018), If Creation is a Gift (2009), editor of With Gifted Thinkers (2009), and the author of numerous scholarly journal articles and op-ed pieces.
