轉載：
https://economicsociology.org/2018/09/28/r-i-p-james-march-success/
R.I.P. James March — “Success”
James G. March (1928-2018)
James G. March — a distinguished social scientist, great master of organisational and institutional theory, inspiring and towering intellectual, wonderful man, has passed away.
His voluminous, cross-generational, multi-topical, interdisciplinary, exceptionally influential scholarship does not need presentation — which is certainly the best presentation one could deserve.But only a few know that beside his tremendous academic career (by the way, he continued to publish insightful and illuminating papers until his last days), March was also an accomplished poet. Josef Chytry has an interesting essay on March’s poetic work that offers a glance and insights into his personal world and social life.
March has occasionally written about poetry in academic journals. In “In praise of beauty” (2013) he relied on several poems, including his own, to reflect on the importance of ideas in scientific thinking:
His voluminous, cross-generational, multi-topical, interdisciplinary, exceptionally influential scholarship does not need presentation — which is certainly the best presentation one could deserve.But only a few know that beside his tremendous academic career (by the way, he continued to publish insightful and illuminating papers until his last days), March was also an accomplished poet. Josef Chytry has an interesting essay on March’s poetic work that offers a glance and insights into his personal world and social life.
March has occasionally written about poetry in academic journals. In “In praise of beauty” (2013) he relied on several poems, including his own, to reflect on the importance of ideas in scientific thinking:
“Beauty is as elusive as truth. Many enormously thoughtful people have tried to provide an understanding of the architecture and appreciation of beauty, and anyone who has read Aristotle is conscious of the complications of aesthetics. Appreciating the elegance and evocativeness of ideas demands a nuanced and sensitive ability to impose standards while constructing them. It is essential to experiment with new components of beauty, even while embracing old ones. Imagining, identifying, reconstructing, and celebrating an aesthetic of ideas about organizations is an unending project… The scholar who seeks beauty in ideas, despite the unbearable lightness of the search—or perhaps because of it—affirms an essential element of humanity.”
In “Poetry and the Rhetoric of Management: Easter 1916” (2006) he mulled over the role of rhetoric in framing views of reality: “The rhetoric of management is a rhetoric of decisiveness, certainty, and clarity.” Poetry, in contrast, is “an exploration of ambivalence and paradox, of the possibility of feeling simultaneous sentiments that seem contradictory, of living in multiple worlds and experiencing multiple feelings, and of recognizing the role of ugliness in the creation of beauty.”
“Success” by James G. March
No one needs him
after he’s gone.
No one who stays
depends on him,
if he has done it right;
No one asks
why flowers grow,
or how a summer ends,
or notices long
that he has gone, quietly
into the dark.
after he’s gone.
No one who stays
depends on him,
if he has done it right;
No one asks
why flowers grow,
or how a summer ends,
or notices long
that he has gone, quietly
into the dark.
March, James G. 1980. Pleasures of the Process. London: Poets’ & Painters’ Press. (p. 98)
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轉載自 https://www.voicettank.org/single-post/2018/10/10/James-March-the-poet
卡內基三巨頭的 James March （1928-2018）於9月27日去世，曾經璀璨耀眼的卡內基學派終於安息塵土。
相較專心一致的芝加哥學派三劍客，卡內基學派三巨頭的多元包容固然對比明顯，但是彼此間角色相似性也值得一提：雙方的領頭羊 Milton Friedman 和 Herbert Simon 都是諾貝爾經濟學獎得主，芝加哥的 Friedman 主導了70到80年代美國學術界由政府管制到自由放任的思想轉變，卡內基的 Simon 則在人工智慧、社會學、管理學、政治學與組織理論都獲得了最高榮譽。
兩個學派中都有一位管理長才，芝加哥的 Allen Willis 擔任芝加哥大學商學院院長，然後長久成為羅徹斯特大學校長，卡內基的 Richard Cyert 擔任卡內基美隆大學商學院院長，然後長久擔任校長，並且是陳文成事件中的重要支柱。
芝加哥的 George Stigler 和卡內基的 James March 則是終身專心於學術， Stigler 是諾貝爾經濟學獎得主，出身政治系的 March 則成為知名的社會學家與管理學者。芝加哥三劍客都已仙逝， March 之後，卡內基三巨頭也告別人間。
March 學術著作等身，比較罕為人知的是， March 同時也是位詩人，從1974年的 Academic Notes 到2008年的 Quite Corners ，共出版了八本詩集。 March 說詩是心靈之美中超然人性的瞬間閃光。
James March 學術著作等身，比較罕為人知的是， March 同時也是位詩人，從1974年的 Academic Notes 到2008年的 Quite Corners ，共出版了八本詩集。 March 說詩是心靈之美中超然人性的瞬間閃光。圖片來源：擷圖自卡內基美隆大學網站
詩歌與故事在學術中扮演何種角色？ March 在《經驗的疆界》（The Ambiguities of Experience）中將經驗學習分為三個派別：
第一，組織學派：經濟學、心理學、管理學、社會學、政治學乃至人工智慧。多數笛卡兒的信徒，崇尚科學，擅長分析，強調用正式方法分析數據、檢驗假設、考驗模型、證明定理。
第二、適應學派：多從演化生物學與心理學借鑒，強調理論，僅偶爾做實證，強調物種、技術、組織與社會的適應機制的性質。
第三、敘事學派：文學、史學、人類學、語言學、法學與宗教。強調語言、暗喻與闡述意義，經常像佛洛伊德或是傅柯那樣以偏概全，但是也喜歡對人類狀況追根究柢。
詩與故事在敘事學派中扮演重要角色，因為他們喜歡琢磨語言的細微之處，從中發掘意義。人們透過故事來學習，但是卻給予既滿足現實又容易理解兩個彼此矛盾的限制：故事必須精妙複雜到有趣並足以彰顯人類的智慧，但又必須簡單到足以令人理解。人的有限理性影響了如何用模糊而複雜的經驗建構故事：儲存與回憶歷史的有限，使得人們重構記憶傾向於服務當前的信念與慾望；分析能力的有限，使得對加諸經驗之上的框架敏感；固守成見使得人們更加重視肯定的證據，必要時人們不惜扭曲觀察與扭曲證據以求一致性；認為原因必在結果附近，大果必有大因。
故事不僅具有所聲稱的真理價值，也有建立社會秩序的正義價值，以及審美樂趣的美學價值。為了表述其中的矛盾， March 曾經分析葉慈（ William Yeats ）僅有430字的《復活節 1916》短詩與管理學的關聯。該詩描述1916年復活節的都柏林起義，這是愛爾蘭獨立運動中最慘烈的失敗卻最鼓舞人心的革命。葉慈讚揚深具遠見的獨立運動領導人，向慘烈犧牲的烈士以及他們「可怕的美麗」致敬。
但是激進的領導人只有透過後來的重建才能成為聖徒，人們既活在決策、革命與共同目標的公共生活中，也同時生活在充滿野心、嫉妒、恐懼與憂傷的私人恩怨與私人生活中，這些矛盾、衝突與曖昧模糊是理解現實的一部分，信仰中有懷疑，愛中有恨，美中有惡，惡中有美。March認為葉慈的詩提醒我們當代管理辭令要求果斷、清晰、明確，而現實生活卻充滿懷疑、悖論與矛盾，March的詩反映我們這個時代的疑問：和古代的宗教與市民生活相較，當代更狹隘地強調物質社會的詩歌又有什麼意義？
加州大學柏克萊的 Josef Chytry 比較但丁與 March 的詩作，認為 March 雖然沒有佛羅倫斯作為但丁的原鄉，但是史丹佛大學所在的 Palo Alto 使得 March 作為一名反佛羅倫斯詩人，能夠利用當代的技術與金融的力量，這個「世界史上最大的財富合法累積」之地，成為一種新文明的無形城市，一種自成一體的共和國。
March作為史丹佛大學這個傳統的重要人物，他卻藉由他的詩作，為這個無形城市提供一些騷動、滿足、矛盾，以及虛擬時代的智慧，即使不知道這些騷動能持續多久；而這或許就是他詩作《成功》所謂，只是讓一個好人做他應該做的事，卻沒留下任何痕跡：
No one needs him After he’s gone.
No one who stays Depends on him,
If he has done it right; No one asks
No one who stays Depends on him,
If he has done it right; No one asks
Why flowers grow,
Or how a summer ends, Or notices long
That he has gone, quietly Into the dark.
Or how a summer ends, Or notices long
That he has gone, quietly Into the dark.
作者為加拿大約克大學副教授，專長在策略管理與組織經濟
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