The Ideas about Man in Ancient Greece

Abstract

This article is the first of a series of documents that aim at identifying the anthropological paradigm upon which managerial thinking has been built as well as its effect on contemporary administrative practices. To do so, we start from a historical perspective, by examining the different beliefs on man and work, and how the have exerted a major influence on the theory and practice of management. This research also aims at finding out whether the hypothesis that states that during the last centuries a process of instrumentalization of reason has conceived man as a means to meet ends – mainly economic ones – is, indeed, true. Also, this research tries to determine whether the upsurge of management would be a manifestation of such process. This first article focuses on the study of the Greek conceptions about man and work.