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The Characteristic Thesis of Anti‐Individualism

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter presents a rejoinder to McKinsey's response to Chapter 18.

Brewer on the McKinsey Problem

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter discusses in great detail Bill Brewer's take on the McKinsey problem.

The Resiliency of the McKinsey Problem

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter raises some new points that seem to strengthen the McKinsey Problem. These are eventually defused.

Private Language and Privileged Access

Joseph Mendola

in Anti-Externalism

This chapter develops a symmetry between one simple form of Wittgenstein's private language argument against internalism and standard internalist complaints rooted in explanation and introspection, ... More

This chapter develops a symmetry between one simple form of Wittgenstein's private language argument against internalism and standard internalist complaints rooted in explanation and introspection, for instance arguments of McKinsey and Boghossian. It argues that all of these negative arguments should be answered by internalists and externalists through the same strategy. It also develops a positive account of our introspective access to our thoughts, partly by contrast with Wright's work.Less

Concept Externalism, Originalism and Privileged Access

R. M. Sainsbury and Michael Tye

in Seven Puzzles of Thought and How to Solve Them: And How to Solve Them: An Originalist Theory of Concepts

This chapter addresses the question whether we have infallible knowledge of comparative content (we don’t), whether we have privileged access to our own thoughts (originalism is consistent with an ... More

This chapter addresses the question whether we have infallible knowledge of comparative content (we don’t), whether we have privileged access to our own thoughts (originalism is consistent with an affirmative answer) and how these questions relate to various forms of externalism.Less

Second‐Order Knowledge

Adrian Haddock

in The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations

This chapter argues that the regress of justifications can be satisfactorily avoided by seeing the second-order knowledge of the justification involved in visual knowledge as knowledge of a ... More

This chapter argues that the regress of justifications can be satisfactorily avoided by seeing the second-order knowledge of the justification involved in visual knowledge as knowledge of a transparent fact, which constitutes an entitlement, but not a justification to the belief this second-order knowledge involves. The disjunctive conception of visual experience is employed to shed light on the idea of a transparent fact. This account can seem to be vulnerable to two powerful arguments: first, Williamson's argument against luminosity; and secondly, a version of McKinsey's argument against the idea of non-empirical knowledge of ‘broad’ mental states. It is suggested that the first argument does not affect the present account, and that the second argument can be avoided with the help of a distinction between the entitlements to, and the presuppositions of, the beliefs which knowledge involves. The upshot is an account of the second-order knowledge which visual knowledge involves as non-empirical knowledge, and hence as a species of privileged self-knowledge.Less

What an Anti‐Individualist Knows A Priori

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter gives the first reply to McKinsey in the literature, in which it is argued that McKinsey has misunderstood the implications of the doctrine of anti-individualism.

Wright On The McKinsey Problem

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter examines Crispin Wright's take on the McKinsey problem.

Externalism and Privileged Access Are Consistent

Anthony Brueckner

in Essays on Skepticism

This chapter contains the author's half of a point-counterpoint exchange with McKinsey in Blackwell's Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind.

Externalism, Twin Earth, and Self‐Knowledge

Brian P. McLaughlin and Michael Tye

in Knowing Our Own Minds

The paper defends the view that privileged access to our thoughts is compatible with content externalism against the charge, levelled by Michael McKinsey, Jessica Brown, and Paul Boghossian, that the ... More

The paper defends the view that privileged access to our thoughts is compatible with content externalism against the charge, levelled by Michael McKinsey, Jessica Brown, and Paul Boghossian, that the combination of privileged access to thoughts and content externalism leads to absurd consequences about what can be known about the environment independently of empirical investigation.Less

McKinsey One More Time

Crispin Wright

in Self-Knowledge

The so‐called McKinsey paradox consists in the apparently valid derivation of apparently non‐apriori knowable propositions about the satisfaction of certain putative external conditions on content ... More

The so‐called McKinsey paradox consists in the apparently valid derivation of apparently non‐apriori knowable propositions about the satisfaction of certain putative external conditions on content from apparently a priori knowable premises. This chapter returns to the suggestion that the correct diagnosis of this paradox discloses a failure broadly comparable to what goes wrong in Moore's notorious “Proof’ of an external world. The chapter offers a further exploration of the relevant notion of warrant transmission failure, then turns to sustain the proposed diagnosis of McKinsey in those terms, albeit with some qualifications.Less

Knowing That I Am Thinking

Alex Byrne

in Self-Knowledge

We often know that we are thinking, and what we are thinking about. That is a platitude, yet it is obscure how we know these things. The chapter defends the suggestion that one can know that one is ... More

We often know that we are thinking, and what we are thinking about. That is a platitude, yet it is obscure how we know these things. The chapter defends the suggestion that one can know that one is thinking about x by “hearing” oneself speak about x in inner speech.Less

Anti-Individualism, Self-Knowledge, and Why Skepticism Cannot Be Cartesian

Leora Weitzman

in Knowledge and Skepticism

This chapter discusses anti-individualism—which often depicts the individual as a physical creature bounded by its skin—and how it runs contrary to the Cartesian view of the mind—which states that it ... More

This chapter discusses anti-individualism—which often depicts the individual as a physical creature bounded by its skin—and how it runs contrary to the Cartesian view of the mind—which states that it is coherent to doubt whether any of one’s thoughts correspond to external objects. Anti-individualism contends that this is a conceptual truth; without objects external to an individual, that individual’s purported thoughts would have no content at all. A well-known argument presented by McKinsey holds out the possibility of proving to skeptics that there are physical things. Two things have been missing from this argument, however, and they shall be outlined here. First is a thorough assessment of the extent to which the anti-individualism it relies on can be made compelling for the skeptic. Second is the application of a lesson that can be drawn from Wittgenstein to the Cartesian self-knowledge which is the other main component of the argument.Less

Service Sector Productivity Comparisons: Lessons for Measurement

Martin Neil Baily and Eric Zitzewitz (eds)

in New Developments in Productivity Analysis

Starting with an international comparison of service sector productivity published in 1992, a series of projects have been initiated by the McKinsey Global Institute and carried out in collaboration ... More

Starting with an international comparison of service sector productivity published in 1992, a series of projects have been initiated by the McKinsey Global Institute and carried out in collaboration with McKinsey & Company offices worldwide and a number of academic economists. Although the emphasis of these projects has been to measure and explain productivity by industry by country for a range of service sector and goods-producing industries, another important concern has been with employment creation and the extent to which productivity increases will cause or alleviate unemployment. This chapter asks whether the results of these international comparisons cast any light on the problem of service sector output measurement. It presents case studies of five service industries: retail banking, public transport, telecom, retailing, and airlines. It describes the measurement of output and the main explanations for the resulting cross-country productivity differences. A commentary is also included at the end of the chapter.Less

Strategy Consultants: Knowledgeable Professionals

Richard Whittington

in Opening Strategy: Professional Strategists and Practice Change, 1960 to Today

This chapter examines strategy consultants as a major part of the Strategy profession. It examines their growth since the middle of the last century, and particularly the development of leading firms ... More

This chapter examines strategy consultants as a major part of the Strategy profession. It examines their growth since the middle of the last century, and particularly the development of leading firms such as Bain & Co., the Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey & Co. It demonstrates the structurally precarious and permeable predicament of strategy consulting firms, with many entries and exits. The challenging economics of strategy consulting are examined, with the problems of cyclical demand, low entry barriers, weak financial structures, and short pipeline highlighted. The chapter identifies three ways strategy consulting firms have managed their predicaments: cultivating professionalism, building relationships, and investing in knowledge. The chapter also examines the nature of strategy consulting work, particularly its combination of high demands and intellectual stimulus.Less

Strategic Planning: Choice and Competition

Richard Whittington

in Opening Strategy: Professional Strategists and Practice Change, 1960 to Today

This chapter examines the development of strategic planning practices from around 1960. Strategic planning advanced on the prior practice of long-range planning by emphasizing choice, competition, ... More

This chapter examines the development of strategic planning practices from around 1960. Strategic planning advanced on the prior practice of long-range planning by emphasizing choice, competition, and control. It also made an initial step towards more open forms of strategizing by widening the discourse of strategy among managerial elites. Strategic planning’s rise was supported by three exogenous forces: growing organizational complexity, a culture of rationality, and new analytical technologies. Nevertheless, strategic planning’s development still took two kinds of arduous and fallible institutional work: ‘rule-making’ and ‘resource-organizing’. Under the first, corporate strategists, such as Shell’s Pierre Wack, created and disseminated techniques, such as scenario analysis, while consultants, such as BCG and McKinsey, promoted portfolio analysis. Under the second, entrepreneurs, such as Bruce Henderson, had to create new consulting organizations, such as BCG, and corporate strategists, such as Jack McKitterick at General Electric, built the first corporate strategy units.Less

Strategic Management: Change and Implementation

Richard Whittington

in Opening Strategy: Professional Strategists and Practice Change, 1960 to Today

This chapter examines the development of strategic management practices from the late 1970s. Strategic management advanced on the prior practices of strategic planning by emphasizing change and ... More

This chapter examines the development of strategic management practices from the late 1970s. Strategic management advanced on the prior practices of strategic planning by emphasizing change and implementation. It also opened up the strategy process by decentralizing responsibilities and including employees in implementation. Strategic management’s rise was supported by three exogenous forces: growing pressure on big organizations to change, a new managerial culture of responsibility and learning, and new communication and participation technologies. Nevertheless, strategic planning’s development still took two kinds of arduous and fallible institutional work: ‘rule-making’ and ‘resource-organizing’. Under the first, Shell for example developed a version of strategic management as involving managerial conversation and learning, while McKinsey promoted strategic management as involving decentralization. Under the second, new consulting firms such as Gemini were created and large corporate investments in management training were made, as at General Electric’s Crotonville facility.Less

Introduction: Angels of Efficiency

Florian Hoof

in Angels of Efficiency: A Media History of Consulting

This introductory chapter establishes the book’s goal of recovering the media history of consulting and determining what the global growth of consulting knowledge can tell us about the modern world. ... More

This introductory chapter establishes the book’s goal of recovering the media history of consulting and determining what the global growth of consulting knowledge can tell us about the modern world. The time span of the investigation, from 1880 to 1930, covers three parallel developments, which lead to a fundamental transformation of industrial knowledge structures. First, there is the constitution of an independent form of managerial activity in industry. Second, there is the establishment of the field of corporate consulting. Third, there is the emergence of a series of visualization techniques after 1880, which are at the disposal of the first two spheres, management and corporate consulting. These three tropes lead to a new form of visual management that follows from oral and written forms of management. The introduction describes the interdisciplinary approach the author adopts to trace the visual culture and historical epistemology of business consulting and consulting knowledge between media and business history and theory.Less

The Ministry of Magazines

Howard Cox and Simon Mowatt

in Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain

This chapter focuses on the corporate development of IPC as Britain’s dominant producer of consumer magazines from its formation in 1963 up until the end of the 1970s. The chapter considers the ... More

This chapter focuses on the corporate development of IPC as Britain’s dominant producer of consumer magazines from its formation in 1963 up until the end of the 1970s. The chapter considers the difficulties the company experienced in trying to exploit the competitive advantages that were expected to accrue from its ownership of practically all the leading mass-circulation weekly consumer magazines in the UK, utilizing the benefits of vertical integration and large-scale production. It examines the structural reorganization that was implemented at IPC following a report by McKinsey management consultants and the later corporate restructuring that created the Reed International holding company. Intransient issues of industrial relations in printing are discussed in detail, in particular the attempts to move from the dominant letterpress technology towards the more versatile system of offset-litho printing.Less