“Clipping an angel’s wings”: on the value and limitations of philosophy in management research

Abstract

Ramoglou and McMullen (2022) offers a logically rigorous extension and refinement of earlier work on the conceptual foundations of entrepreneurship theory – the actualization perspective of entrepreneurship. Leunbach (2023) and Mitchell, Israelsen, Mitchell & Hua (2023) have crafted two thoughtful and highly scholarly commentaries that help augment this theoretical perspective. The backbone of our rejoinder is the rebuttal of Leunbach’s criticism of our rejection of metaphysics. We clarify that there is nothing problematic with metaphysics in the sense of abstract theorizing, philosophical questions, or uncertain answers. What is nevertheless problematic is the metaphysics that emerge when linguistic confusions derail our academic imagination. In defending our approach, we further demonstrate that the practice of “clipping an angel’s wings” – i.e., the practice of disciplining our theoretical imagination by means of philosophical analysis – is not a purely destructive endeavor. Far from that: the analytic method has a highly constructive component as well: it helps us increase conceptual clarity by laying out the ground rules that prevent our theoretical developments from becoming “nothing but houses of cards” (Wittgenstein, 1958: 118).

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ORCID for Stratos Ramoglou: orcid.org/0000-0001-5134-5525

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