Notes on Administration and Philosophy

Administration and philosophy are seen as having to do with human behavior. Philosophy, in its concern for interpretation of human behavior, provides a useful method in hemeneutics. Praxiology, as the study of goal‐oriented practice, lends itself to the study of administrative behavior. The two areas of analytic study provide a nexus between administration and philosophy. Human experience is seen as having two components, the one objective (signness) and the other subjective (symbolic). The symbolic aspect is an integral part of culture and provides the basis for social control through ideology which constitutes a patterned symbolic belief‐value system. The continuing creation of a symbolic representation of “reality” may be seen as social creation of text. Interpretation of that text is the task of hermeneutic method. Since goals are, by their very nature, primarily symbolic, praxiology needs to focus upon the role of symbolism in administrative behavior, particularly as it relates to organizational legitimacy and compliance. Issues that cut across the two fields included the nature of man, the nature of freedom and necessity, and the nature of the good society.