Closing remarks from Patricia Werhane

an informal appreciation

David Bevan

pp. 183-199

in: R. E. Freeman, Sergiy Dmytriyev, Andrew C. Wicks (eds), The moral imagination of Patricia Werhane, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

This informal essay attempts to summarise Pat Werhane's performance at the conference celebrating her work and offer some insights into the light-handed carefulness that characterizes the continuing project of her work – her practice - in the field of Business Ethics. Appreciating the complex scope of the work to which this volume is a tribute, Pat presented her summary in front of a contrastingly simple organizational slide. At the center of the slide there is a text box containing the words "the linguistic turn". Radiating from this idea are a dozen or so distinct areas of Business Ethics to which Pat has contributed, including her ongoing areas of interest. At the foot of the slide was an animated graphic of an endless pile of turtles, one on top of the next. In this essay I shall explore some possible origins and significances for this characteristically modest scheme. How might this linguistic turn, that Pat has identified for us as a unifying thread, arise? What may we understand of its significance among her otherwise eclectic interests?

Cited authors

Werhane Patricia