La 4ème de couv. indique : "À quatre-vingt-quatorze ans, Marcel Conche a encore quelque chose à dire sur la nature, l'infini, la vérité, la tradition, la création, le moi, le silence, le tragique, l’amour, la mort ou les mathématiques, mais aussi sur Héraclite, Descartes, Kant, Leibniz et, principalement, sur Spinoza.".

Zusammenfassung Sportverbände sehen sich immer wieder gedrängt, ihre Strukturen veränderten Herausforderungen anzupassen. Der Artikel konstruiert Sportverbände zunächst als rekursive Entscheidungsverbünde und reflektiert dann Veränderung als Steuerungsproblem aus der Perspektive organisationalen Lernens. Unter Bezug auf Untersuchungsergebnisse einer empirischen Fallstudie fokussiert er dann, wie verbandsintern mit Veränderungsaufforderungen der Verbandsumwelt umgegangen wird, wie veränderungsbezogene Entscheidungs- und Steuerungsprozesse verlaufen und welche strukturellen Bedingungen und Mechanismen dabei von Bedeutung sind. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Reflexion möglicher struktureller Alternativen der Verbandsentwicklung.

Zusammenfassung Vor dem Hintergrund steigender Erlöse in der Fußball-Bundesliga zeigt sich eine zunehmende Professionalisierung nicht nur bei einem Blick auf die Managementstrukturen der Vereine, sondern auch bei näherer Betrachtung der Gehaltsdeterminanten von Fußballspielern. Die Gehaltshöhe hängt unter anderem von der in der Bundesliga in der Vergangenheit gezeigten Leistung ab. Fraglich ist, wie sich die Höhe der Gehälter von Spielern ergibt, die neu in die Liga wechseln und bei deren Leistungsbewertung gewisse Informationsdefizite auf Seiten der Vereine vorliegen, und wie diese Informationsdefizite (...) ausgeglichen werden. Die Analyse der Marktwerte von 7.019 Spieler-Jahres-Beobachtungen zeigt, dass die Vereine recht gut in der Lage sind, die spätere Leistung ihrer Spieler einzuschätzen und die Marktwerte der Spieler entsprechend beurteilt werden. Wechseln Spieler aus einer anderen Liga in die Bundesliga, so dient die Liga ihrer letzten Karrierestation als Proxy für die später erwartete Leistung, und sie weisen in Abhängigkeit der Liga, in der sie in der Vorsaison gespielt haben, unterschiedliche Marktwerte auf, was gleichzeitig auf Unterschiede in den Gehältern schließen lässt. (shrink)

Peut-on dire qu'une philosophie est vraie?" [et la réponse négative de Canguilhem], "La réalité des philosophies" [et l'idéalisme radical de Gueroult], "Les deux systèmes de métaphysique" [et la place de Spinoza], "Comment je vois la Nature", "Les points cardinaux de ma philosophie", "Comment philosopher", "Faire son devoir" [ce qui compte est 1'k-te] sont parmi les chapitres principaux de cet ouvrage. Ceux-ci sont secondaires : "Bergson et Eucken", "Palmyre", "Kant contre Spinoza" [sur la place des définitions]."--Page 4 of cover.

Religionen unterbreiten Sinnstiftungsangebote und beeinflussen nicht unwesentlich den Umgang der Menschen miteinander. SIe konnen zu Fortschritt und Freiheit der Menschen beitragen, aber auch zu Fanatismus und Intoleranz fuhren. DEshalb ist ihr Stellenwert in einer sakularen Gesellschaft umstritten. WElcher Umgang mit Religionen empfiehlt sich? Ist es fur eine soziomoralische Fundierung der Gesellschaft nicht besser, allein auf eine vernunftbasierte Ethik zu setzen? Und lassen sich Glauben und Wissen uberhaupt miteinander versohnen? Mit Beitragen von Konrad Paul Liessmann, Volker Gerhardt, Nadia Baghdadi (...) und Jan Assmann. (shrink)

Religionen unterbreiten Sinnstiftungsangebote und beeinflussen nicht unwesentlich den Umgang der Menschen miteinander. Sie können zu Fortschritt und Freiheit der Menschen beitragen, aber auch zu Fanatismus und Intoleranz führen. Deshalb ist ihr Stellenwert in einer säkularen Gesellschaft umstritten. Welcher Umgang mit Religionen empfiehlt sich? Ist es für eine soziomoralische Fundierung der Gesellschaft nicht besser, allein auf eine vernunftbasierte Ethik zu setzen? Und lassen sich Glauben und Wissen überhaupt miteinander versöhnen? Mit Beiträgen von Konrad Paul Liessmann, Volker Gerhardt, Nadia Baghdadi (...) und Jan Assmann. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungUm Fachkompetenz zu stärken und Verantwortung an Entscheidungskompetenz zu koppeln, haben einige Sportverbände mittlerweile bezahlte Führungskräfte als Vorstand nach § 26 BGB installiert, während ein ehrenamtliches Präsidium im Sinne eines Aufsichtsrats fungiert. Der vorliegende Beitrag zielt darauf ab, das Verständnis für den mit einer solchen Änderung hinsichtlich Vorstand und Vertretung verbundenen organisationalen Wandel zu schärfen und daraus folgende Effekte auf die Verbandsarbeit zu beleuchten. Am Beispiel der DHB-Strukturreform „Perspektive 2020+“ eröffnet die Analyse – basierend auf Dokumentenanalysen und problemzentrierten Interviews – (...) differenzierte Einblicke in organisationalen Wandel von Sportverbänden und Schlussfolgerungen für die praktische Verbandsarbeit. (shrink)

Philosophy of Experimental Biology explores some central philosophical issues concerning scientific research in experimental biology, including genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, developmental biology, neurobiology, and microbiology. It seeks to make sense of the explanatory strategies, concepts, ways of reasoning, approaches to discovery and problem solving, tools, models and experimental systems deployed by scientific life science researchers and also integrates developments in historical scholarship, in particular the New Experimentalism. It concludes that historical explanations of scientific change that are based on local laboratory (...) practice need to be supplemented with an account of the epistemic norms and standards that are operative in science. This book should be of interest to philosophers and historians of science as well as to scientists. (shrink)

André Comte-Sponville livre ici vingt-six études d’histoire de la philosophie, portant principalement sur les traditions tragique et matérialiste, depuis l’Ecclésiaste jusqu’à Marcel Conche, en passant par Montaigne, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Spinoza, La Mettrie, Jean-Marie Guyau, Nietzsche et Alain. La préface propose une longue analyse de la notion de tragique. L’auteur y prend au sérieux ce que la littérature et la vie nous apprennent : que le tragique a à voir avec le malheur, mais réel plutôt que possible (par (...) différence avec le «suspense») et nécessaire plutôt que contingent (par différence avec le drame). Loin d’être l’affirmation joyeuse de tout, comme le voulait Nietzsche, le tragique est plutôt la prise en compte inconsolée de ce qu’il y a de catastrophique dans la condition humaine : la mort, la solitude, l’insatisfaction – trois formes de la finitude, qui ne sont tragiques que par la conscience, en l’homme, d’un infini au moins pensable. La conclusion, elle aussi fort développée, montre que le matérialisme, s’il est rigoureux, se doit d’être une pensée tragique, c’est-à-dire aporétique, déceptive, inconsolée. Et qu’une sagesse qui se sait insuffisante et insatisfaite (une sagesse tragique) vaut mieux, de ce point de vue, que la suffisance d’une sagesse prétendument satisfaite. Cela amène à prendre quelque distance avec Epicure, Spinoza, Nietzsche et Marx. Et à se trouver plus proche de Lucrèce, de Montaigne ou du dernier Althusser. (shrink)

According to Dr. Clare Graves, mankind has developed eight core value systems, as responses to prevailing circumstances. Given different contexts and value systems, a one-solution-fits-all concept of corporate sustainability is not reasonable. Therefore, this paper presents various definitions and forms of sustainability, each linked to specific (societal) circumstances and related value systems. A sustainability matrix - and essential element of the overall European Corporate Sustainability Framework - is described showing six types of organizations at different developmental stages, with different forms (...) of corporate sustainability, each supported by specific institutional arrangements. (shrink)

ABSTRACTIn this article, we explore the debate on corporate citizenship and the role of business in global governance. In the debate on political corporate social responsibility it is assumed that under globalization business is taking up a greater political role. Apart from economic responsibilities firms assume political responsibilities taking up traditional governmental tasks such as regulation of business and provision of public goods. We contrast this with a subsidiarity-based approach to governance, in which firms are seen as intermediate actors who (...) have political co-responsibilities in society endowed upon them by national governmental institutions. We argue that both approaches face conceptual and empirical problems, and do not make clear the content and scope of political corporate responsibility. Based on Iris Marion Young’s account of political responsibility we argue that corporate actors and governmental actors have a shared responsibility to tackle societal problems. Taking political corporate responsibility not only entails engaging in private action or engaging in public–private partnerships, but it also includes aiding governmental actors to remedy injustice or even create public institutions where they do not yet exist. By adding this perspective we contribute to the debate on responsibility in corporate citizenship and clarify the political role business can play in global governance. (shrink)

English summary: Am I free? Is this not the most fundamental question for all humans? For Spinoza, for us to be free, we must first free ourselves from the illusion of freedom; between determinism and free will is true freedom. Through Spinozas philosophy of desire and reason, the idea of living with our desires without being a slave to them allows us to come closer to answering the question of whether or not we are free. French description: Suis-je libre? (...) N'est-ce pas la question la plus fondamentale que se pose l'etre humain? Car de la reponse que chacun se donne depend la maniere de vivre et de penser. Or, il y a pour Spinoza un risque majeur: tomber dans l'illusion de la liberte. C'est le pire prejuge, la plus dangereuse erreur; se croire libre alors qu'on ne l'est pas. Pour etre veritablement libre, nous dit Spinoza, il faut avant tout se liberer de l'illusion de la liberte! Il n'y a pas ici de paradoxe mais une exigence de la pensee: entre le determinisme et le libre arbitre, il y a la vraie liberte. Ainsi la liberte est un combat contre le pessimisme du je n'y peux rien et l'optimisme du je fais ce que je veux. Si la liberte est une realite fondamentale de la nature humaine, elle est aussi une exigence permanente. Suis-je libre? C'est la question qu'il faut se poser tout au long de sa vie. Pour cette tache difficile mais passionnante, Spinoza est a mon sens indispensable. Des ma decouverte de la philosophie, j'ai voulu comprendre de quelle maniere Spinoza, le philosophe du desir et de la raison, nous parlait de liberte. La liberte individuelle d'abord: comment vivre avec ses desirs sans en etre esclave mais sans y renoncer? La connaissance nous aide et la necessite ne s'oppose plus a la liberte. La liberte politique ensuite: comment vivre en societe avec sa personnalite mais en harmonie avec les autres? La raison nous aide et la paix ne s'oppose plus a la liberte. Dans les deux cas la liberte est possible sans aucune aide, sans aucun ideal, sans aucune reference transcendante, a partir de la seule Terre et de la vie reelle de l'homme. Dans ma vie personnelle comme dans mon engagement collectif, les idees de Spinoza m'ont toujours guide, eclaire, libere. Elles me conduisent encore. Je dois d'ailleurs remercier Andre Comte-Sponville et Marcel Conche qui m'ont grandement aide a m'orienter sur ce chemin, des ma jeunesse. La liberte est une lutte infinie, nous dit Spinoza, la plus belle des luttes. J.F. Robredo. (shrink)

Decision outcomes sometimes result in negative emotions. This can occur when a decision appears to be wrong in retrospect, and/or when the obtained decision outcome does not live up to expectations. Regret and disappointment are the two emotions that are of central interest in the present article. Although these emotions have a lot in common, they also differ in ways that are relevant to decision making. In this article we review theories and empirical findings concerning regret and disappointment. We first (...) discuss how regret and disappointment differ with respect to their antecedent conditions, appraisals, and phenomenology. We also discuss possible behavioural consequences of experiencing these emotions. Next, we consider how the anticipation of regret and disappointment may influence decision making. We use regret and disappointment theory, developed by the economists Bell (1982, 1985), and Loomes and Sugden (1982, 1986, 1987), as a framework for our discussion. Finally, we argue that combining the theoretical approaches and research paradigms of behavioural decision theory with emotion theories will significantly increase our knowledge of antecedents and consequences of emotions. (shrink)

Based on two case studies of the design of electronic communication networks developed in the public and private sector, this article explores the barriers within current design cultures to account for the needs and diversity of users. Whereas the constraints on user-centered design are usually described in macrosociological terms, in which the user–technology relation is merely understood as a process of the inclusion or exclusion of users in design, the authors suggest that it is important to adopt a semiotic approach. (...) Moreover, they argue that we need to take into account the gender identity of designers to understand how design practices in ICT prioritize male users. The article shows how configuring the user as “everybody” and the use of the “I-methodology” are important constraints in the development of technologies that aim to reach users in all their diversity. (shrink)

Marcel Gauchet has launched one of the most ambitious and controversial works of speculative history recently to appear, based on the contention that Christianity is "the religion of the end of religion." In The Disenchantment of the World, Gauchet reinterprets the development of the modern west, with all its political and psychological complexities, in terms of mankind's changing relation to religion. He views Western history as a movement away from religious society, beginning with prophetic Judaism, gaining tremendous momentum in (...) Christianity, and eventually leading to the rise of the political state. Gauchet's view that monotheistic religion itself was a form of social revolution is rich with implications for readers in fields across the humanities and social sciences. Life in religious society, Gauchet reminds us, involves a very different way of being than we know in our secular age: we must imagine prehistoric times where ever-present gods controlled every aspect of daily reality, and where ancestor worship grounded life's meaning in a far-off past. As prophecy-oriented religions shaped the concept of a single omnipotent God, one removed from the world and yet potentially knowable through prayer and reflection, human beings became increasingly free. Gauchet's paradoxical argument is that the development of human political and psychological autonomy must be understood against the backdrop of this double movement in religious consciousness--the growth of divine power and its increasing distance from human activity. In a fitting tribute to this passionate and brilliantly argued book, Charles Taylor offers an equally provocative foreword. Offering interpretations of key concepts proposed by Gauchet, Taylor also explores an important question: Does religion have a place in the future of Western society? The book does not close the door on religion but rather invites us to explore its socially constructive powers, which continue to shape Western politics and conceptions of the state. (shrink)

Regret and disappointment have in common the fact that they are experienced when the outcome of a decision is unfavourable: They both concern “what might have been”, had things been different. However, some regret and disappointment theorists regard the differences between these emotions as important, arguing that they differ with respect to the conditions under which they are felt, and how they affect decision making. The goal of the present research was to examine whether and how these emotions also differ (...) with respect to the way in which they are experienced. Participants were asked torecall aninstance of intense regret or disappointment andto indicate what they felt, thought, felt like doing, did, and were motivated to do during this experience (cf. Roseman, Wiest, & Swartz, 1994). Significant differences between regret and disappointment were found in every category. These differences were most pronounced for “action tendencies” (what participants felt like doing) and “emotivations” (what they were motivated to do). These results suggest that the two emotions have differential implications for future behaviour. (shrink)

Can the perception that one’s partner is investing effort generate a sense of commitment to a joint action? To test this, we developed a 2-player version of the classic snake game which became increasingly boring over the course of each round. This enabled us to operationalize commitment in terms of how long participants persisted before pressing a ‘finish’ button to conclude each round. Our results from three experiments reveal that participants persisted longer when they perceived what they believed to be (...) cues of their partner’s effortful contribution. Crucially, this effect was not observed when they knew their partner to be an algorithm, nor when it was their own effort that had been invested. These results support the hypothesis that the perception of a partner’s effort elicits a sense of commitment, leading to increased persistence in the face of a temptation to disengage. (shrink)

This article examines the role of experimental generalizations and physical laws in neuroscientific explanations, using Hodgkin and Huxley’s electrophysiological model from 1952 as a test case. I show that the fact that the model was partly fitted to experimental data did not affect its explanatory status, nor did the false mechanistic assumptions made by Hodgkin and Huxley. The model satisfies two important criteria of explanatory status: it contains invariant generalizations and it is modular (both in James Woodward’s sense). Further, I (...) argue that there is a sense in which the explanatory heteronomy thesis holds true for this case. †To contact the author, please write to: SNF‐Professorship for Philosophy of Science, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 21, 4003 Basel, Switzerland; e‐mail: marcel[email protected]. (shrink)

Can the perception that one’s partner is investing effort generate a sense of commitment to a joint action? To test this, we developed a 2-player version of the classic snake game which became increasingly boring over the course of each round. This enabled us to operationalize commitment in terms of how long participants persisted before pressing a ‘finish’ button to conclude each round. Our results from three experiments reveal that participants persisted longer when they perceived what they believed to be (...) cues of their partner’s effortful contribution. Crucially, this effect was not observed when they knew their partner to be an algorithm, nor when it was their own effort that had been invested. These results support the hypothesis that the perception of a partner’s effort elicits a sense of commitment, leading to increased persistence in the face of a temptation to disengage. (shrink)

Kant stresses the regulative status of teleological attributions, but sometimes he seems to treat teleology as a constitutive condition for biology. To clarify this issue, the concept of natural purpose and its role for biology are examined. I suggest that the concept serves an identificatory function: it singles out objects as natural purposes, whereby the special science of biology is constituted. This relative constitutivity of teleology is explicated by means of a distinction of levels: on the object level of biological (...) science, teleology is taken as constitutive, though it is merely regulative on the philosophical meta level. This distinction also concerns the place of Aristotelian teleology in Kant: on the object level, the Aristotelian view is accepted, whereas on the meta level, as agnostic stance is taken concerning teleology. (edited). (shrink)

The conduct of most of social science occurs outside the laboratory. Such studies in field science explore phenomena that cannot for practical, technical, or ethical reasons be explored under controlled conditions. These phenomena cannot be fully isolated from their environment or investigated by manipulation or intervention. Yet measurement, including rigorous or clinical measurement, does provide analysts with a sound basis for discerning what occurs under field conditions, and why. In Science Outside the Laboratory, Marcel Boumans explores the state of (...) measurement theory, its reliability, and the role expert judgment plays in field investigations from the perspective of the philosophy of science. Its discussion of the problems of passive observation, the calculus of observation, the two-model problem, and model-based consensus uses illustrations drawn primarily from economics. Rich in research and discussion, the volume clarifies the extent to which measurement provides valid information about objects and events in field sciences, but also has implications for measurement in the laboratory. Scholars in the fields of philosophy of science, social science, and economics will find Science Outside the Laboratory a compelling and informative read. (shrink)

Causal selection is the task of picking out, from a field of known causally relevant factors, some factors as elements of an explanation. The Causal Parity Thesis in the philosophy of biology challenges the usual ways of making such selections among different causes operating in a developing organism. The main target of this thesis is usually gene centrism, the doctrine that genes play some special role in ontogeny, which is often described in terms of information-bearing or programming. This paper is (...) concerned with the attempt of confronting the challenge coming from the Causal Parity Thesis by offering principles of causal selection that are spelled out in terms of an explicit philosophical account of causation, namely an interventionist account. I show that two such accounts that have been developed, although they contain important insights about causation in biology, nonetheless fail to provide an adequate reply to the Causal Parity challenge: Ken Waters's account of actual-difference making and Jim Woodward's account of causal specificity. A combination of the two also doesn't do the trick, nor does Laura Franklin-Hall's account of explanation (in this volume). We need additional conceptual resources. I argue that the resources we need consist in a special class of counterfactual conditionals, namely counterfactuals the antecedents of which describe biologically normal interventions. (shrink)

I present a reconstruction of F.H.C. Crick's two 1957 hypotheses "Sequence Hypothesis" and "Central Dogma" in terms of a contemporary philosophical theory of causation. Analyzing in particular the experimental evidence that Crick cited, I argue that these hypotheses can be understood as claims about the actual difference-making cause in protein synthesis. As these hypotheses are only true if restricted to certain nucleic acids in certain organisms, I then examine the concept of causal specificity and its potential to counter claims about (...) causal parity of DNA and other cellular components. I first show that causal specificity is a special kind of invariance under interventions, namely invariance of generalizations that range over finite sets of discrete variables. Then, I show that this notion allows the articulation of a middle ground in the debate over causal parity. (shrink)

This article deals with the rationality and functionality of the existence of regret and its influence on decision making. First, regret is defined as a negative, cognitively based emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our present situation would have been better had we acted differently. Next, it is discussed whether this experience can be considered rational and it is argued that rationality only applies to what we do with our regrets, not to the experience itself. Then, research (...) is reviewed showing that both the anticipation of future regret and the experience of retrospective regret influence behavior. The influence of anticipated regret can be considered rational as long as the decision maker can accurately predict the regret that may result from the decision. The influence of experienced regret cannot be considered rational, since decisions should be based on future outcomes, not historical ones. However, influence of experienced regret can be called functional since it may result in increased learning from our mistakes. (shrink)

Griffiths et al. (2015) have proposed a quantitative measure of causal specificity and used it to assess various attempts to single out genetic causes as being causally more specific than other cellular mechanisms, for example, alternative splicing. Focusing in particular on developmental processes, they have identified a number of important challenges for this project. In this discussion note, I would like to show how these challenges can be met.