The paper deals with the notions of consistency, completeness, and coherence within the normative domain. It investigates their mutual relations by singling out relative and absolute consistency, weak, strong and trivial completeness, and three different functions of coherence. The main upshot of the inquiry is that coherence may be regarded as a complex combination of weak completeness and possible absence of consistency and strong completeness of a system of rules regarding a non-trivially complete/non-absolutely inconsistent system of underlying principles.

Does the law contain implicit exceptions to its own rules? If so, what consequence does that have for understanding the relationship between law and morality? This collection gathers leading legal philosophers to analyse the logical structure of legal norms, advancing the understanding of the general philosophy of law.

This paper examines the effectiveness of the use of executive compensation linked to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals across US firms. Empirical analysis of a cross-industry sample of 746 listed companies for the period 2002–2013 showed that the use of CSR-linked compensation contracts for Named Executive Officers (NEOs) promotes CSR performance. More specifically, we found that linking NEOs’ compensation to CSR goals produces positive effects in the 3rd year after adoption. As firms accumulate experience and learn how to use the (...) system over the following eight periods, CSR performance increases monotonically. Furthermore, experience accumulated over time affects the different specifications of CSR performance asymmetrically, by reducing both environmental and social CSR concerns and increasing only environmental CSR strengths. Interestingly, we also found that the simultaneous use of other CSR-focused governance systems moderates the effect of a firm’s accumulated experience in using CSR-linked executive compensation on CSR performance: the existence of a CSR committee at the board level and the public release of a CSR report are likely to have a positive moderating effect, while the purchase of a CSR audit has no moderating effect. (shrink)

Giovanni Battista Armenio & Rocco Monti – Who is Carlo Sini? Carlo Sini – As Giovanni Gentile would say, we die to others. Hence, I will answer this question by recalling a sentence by Charles Sanders Peirce: we cannot say who we are, who we have been, what we have done, what the meaning of our life has been. It is others who will outline our identity posthumously, as long as it will remain in personal and public (...) memory. And after all, what would I be without the memory of Peirce, of his life... (shrink)

L’intento di questo articolo è di porre in luce come, all’interno della Critica della ragione dialettica temi quali Prassi, Materia e Destino siano in un necessario ed essenziale rapporto. Per fare emergere tale cooriginarietà, ci siamo serviti della parola “costituzione”, intendendo con questa non una qualche descrizione statica, quanto piuttosto il senso dinamico della Storia secondo una motilità particolare, l’errare.

This article argues that Robert Alexy's influential theory of balancing is affected by a contradiction that makes it unfeasible as an instrument by which to explain some aspects of law and legal reasoning it aims to clarify. In particular, I will show that one of the premises of Alexy's theory of balancing is incompatible with its conclusion. Alexy's theory is based upon a sharp distinction between rules and principles. However, as my analysis will demonstrate, its conclusion implies that it is (...) impossible to distinguish between rules and principles. This is because the so‐called weight formula and the law of colliding principles (i.e., the two main notions used by Alexy to explain balancing) cancel out any difference between these two types of norms. (shrink)

v. 1. Morale generale. -- v. 2. L'uomo e i beni. -- v. 3. L'Uomo e gli altri uomini. -- v. 4. Matrimonio, famiglia, verginità. -- 5. L'Uomo di fronte a dio.

This work aims to scrutiny the concept of “taste” as developed by David Hume. Firstly, it will be highlighted the impossibility of thinking taste neither as a sub- jectivist nor objectivist aesthetic theory; on the contrary, it will be shown, through Agamben’s work, its underlying radical dialectical structure that seeks to unite subject and object. Furthermore, thanks to Deleuze’s enquiry in Hume’s thought, it will be possible to argue that Hume’s theory of art, rather than being a simple consequence of (...) his theory of mind, plays a fundamental role in the whole Humean system, especially in the accounts on history, civilization, and the role of philosophy. (shrink)

In jurisprudential literature, the adjective ‘defeasible’ appears as a predicate of many terms: concepts, laws, rules, reasoning, justification, proof, and so on. In this paper, we analyze the effects of some versions of the thesis of the defeasibility of legal norms on the reconstruction of the notion of legal validity. We analyze some possible justifications of this thesis considered as a claim concerning validity, and enquire into two possible sets of problems related to the defeasibility of the criteria of identification (...) of a legal system. We also provide a formalization of some options regarding defeasible criteria of identification, which can be used as a tool for meta-jurisprudential analysis. Finally, the thesis according to which defeasibility is better conceived of as a feature of legal application is examined and questioned. (shrink)

In the present work Berkeley's theory of vision is considered in its historical origins, in its relation to Berkeley's general philosophical conceptions, and in its early reception. Berkeley's theory replaces an account of vision according to which distance and other spatial properties are deduced from elementary data through an unconscious geometric inference. This account of vision in terms of "natural geometry" was first introduced by Descartes and Malebranche. Among Berkeley's immediate sources of knowledge of the geometric theory of perception, a (...) key role was played by the treatise of dioptrics of William Molyneux, Dioptrica Nova. Berkeley's understanding of "natural geometry" relies closely on Molyneux's description of the mechanism of vision which avoids the complexities of the accounts of Descartes and Malebranche. In the first chapter Berkeley's theory is presented by way of contrast with Molyneux's theory. In the second chapter I consider the relation between the theory of vision and immaterialism. In the final chapter I examine one of the first criticisms of Berkeley's theory, that which is found in William Porterfield's Treatise on the Eye. Dept. of Philosophy. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997.G72. Source: Masterss International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0076. Adviser: John P. Wright. Thesis --University of Windsor, 1997. (shrink)

According to Daniel Flage, Berkeley thinks that all necessary truths are founded on acts of will that assign meanings to words. After briefly commenting on the air of paradox contained in the title of Flage’s paper, and on the historical accuracy of Berkeley’s understanding of the abstractionist tradition, I make some remarks on two points made by Flage. Firstly, I discuss Flage’s distinction between the ontological ground of a necessary truth and our knowledge of a necessary truth. Secondly, I discuss (...) Flage’s attempt to show that, according to Berkeley, the resemblance relation does not constitute a necessary connection. (shrink)

Ratti has attacked principles theory in two respects. The first is that it is impossible to distinguish between rules and principles. The second is that the main thesis of principles theory, which says that balancing is the specific way of applying principles, is wrong. The result of Ratti's critique is his thesis that principles theory founders on a contradiction or, as Ratti calls it, an antinomy. All of this is based on two arguments: Ratti's disapplication argument (...) and his law of concretization. I attempt to reject this analysis, for it is incomplete. It claims to be an analysis of balancing, but it misses the decisive point of balancing. Informed by this background, I defend the distinction between rules and principles as a distinction of the real and the ideal “ought.”. (shrink)

In jurisprudential literature, the adjective 'defeasible' appears as a predicate of many terms: concepts, laws, rules, reasoning, justification, proof, and so on. In this paper, we analyze the effects of some versions of the thesis of the defeasibility of legal norms on the reconstruction of the notion of legal validity. We analyze some possible justifications of this thesis considered as a claim concerning validity, and enquire into two possible sets of problems related to the defeasibility of the criteria of identification (...) of a legal system. We also provide a formalization of some options regarding defeasible criteria of identification, which can be used as a tool for meta-jurisprudential analysis. Finally, the thesis according to which defeasibility is better conceived of as a feature of legal application is examined and questioned. (shrink)

Law and Economics deals with the economic analysis of legal relations, legal provisions, laws and regulations and is a research field which has a long tradition in economics. It was lost after the expulsion of some of the leading economists from Germany during 1933 to 1938, but then revived in Chicago. Both the subject of Law of Economics and the need for a concise Encyclopedia is particularly relevant in Europe today. Currently in the European Union there are several different legal (...) cultures: the Anglo-Saxon legal framework, the German legal framework, which for example also includes Greece, and the Roman legal family—three jurisdictions which have to be covered with one and the same theory. In the EU, the task of the European Commission to interact with the various European jurisdictions means different legal cultures collaborating and some degree of harmonization is necessary. The result is an immediate need, if only for the science, to show how a given problem is solved in each legal tradition and jurisdiction. This Encyclopedia provides both a common language and precise definitions in the field, which will be useful in the future to avoid misunderstandings during harmonization of EU Law. (shrink)

In the last decade, robustness has been extensively mentioned and discussed in biology as well as in the philosophy of the life sciences. Nevertheless, from both fields, someone has affirmed that this debate has resulted in more semantic confusion than in semantic clearness. Starting from this claim, we wish to offer a sort of prima facie map of the different usages of the term. In this manner we would intend to predispose a sort of “semantic platform” which could be exploited (...) by those who wish to discuss or simply use it. We do this by starting from a core distinction between the robustness of representations, which is a philosophy of science issue, and the representations of robustness, which instead pertains to science. We illustrate our proposal with examples from biology, physics and mathematics. (shrink)

Lo studio presenta la vicenda filosofica del giornalista calabrese Giuseppe Gangale , un protestante che operò in Italia tra il 1922 e il 1934 dirigendo dapprima il settimanale «Conscientia», edito dalla Scuola Teologica Battista di Roma, e in un secondo tempo la casa editrice Doxa, alla quale collaborarono personaggi come Adriano Tilgher, Antonio Banfi, Giovanni Miegge e Carlo Antoni. Gangale sostenne dapprima un’interpretazione teologica del sistema hegeliano in polemica con le coeve interpretazioni di Croce e Gentile; in seguito, (...) aperto agli stimoli provenienti da Barth, Troeltsch, Spengler, ecc., Gangale tentò la formulazione di una teologia sostanzialmente irrazionalistica che ebbe la sua espressione più rilevante in Il Dio straniero . Le altre sue più importanti opere furono: Rivoluzione protestante , Apocalissi della cultura e Revival . Nel 1934, Gangale lasciò l’Italia e il lavoro filosofico per dedicarsi a studi di carattere linguistico. (shrink)

This book examines the life and work of mathematician Giovanni Battista Guccia, founder of the Circolo Matematico di Palermo and its renowned journal, the Rendiconti del Circolo matematico di Palermo. The authors describe how Guccia, an Italian geometer, was able to establish a mathematical society in Sicily in the late nineteenth century, which by 1914 would grow to become the largest and most international in the world, with one of the most influential journals of the time. The book (...) highlights the challenges faced by Guccia in creating an international society in isolated Palermo, and places Guccia’s activities in the wider European context through comparisons with the formation of the London Mathematical Society and the creation of Mittag-Leffler’s Acta Mathematica in Stockholm. Based on extensive searches in European archives, this scholarly work follows both historical and scientific treads, and will appeal to those interested in the history of mathematics and science in general. (shrink)

Giovanni Battista Riccioli tem sido uma figura controversa do séc. XVII. especialmente no que se refere à sua posiçào sobre a polémica em torno do heliocentrismo. A sua opinião sobre figuras como Copérnico, Kepler e Galileu. e sobre o decreto dos cardeais que condenou a hipótese heliocêntrica tem sido vista até hoje com suspeita e cepticismo. O mesmo se pode dizer acerca do seu contributo para a ciência moderna. Este artigo procura iluminar a complexidade do trabalho científico e (...) das posições teóricas de Riccioli no contexto cultural de uma mudança paradigmática que tem um grande número de semelhanças com as transformações culturais que se estão a verificar na transição para o século XXI. /// Giovanni Battista Riccioli has been a controversial author of the XVIIth century, especially as to his stand on the polemic over heliocentrism. His mind both on figures such as Copernic, Kepler and Galileo, and on the cardino text of condemnation of the heliocentric hypothesis has been viewd until now withe suspicion and scepticism. The same may be said as to his scientific achievements. This essay aims at sheding some light on the complexity of Riccioli's work and views in the cultural context of a paradigmatic change that has quite a number of similarities with the changes that are taking place at the dawn of the XXIth century. (shrink)

Since the end of the 16th century, when the perfectly preserved remains of an ancient early Christian underground cemetery were discovered accidentally along the Via Salaria in Rome, Christian antiquities were studied mainly for apologetic propaganda purposes, i.e. to defend the primacy of the Church of Rome, which was faltering under the blows of the Protestant reformers. Everything changed, however, around the middle of the 19th century, thanks to Giovanni Battista de Rossi, a famous archaeologist whose 200th birthday (...) falls this year. This essay sets in the context of his biography the main coordinates of his training, his numerous and fundamental discoveries and his main publications, which brought him recognition in international cultural circles of the time as the “founder of Christian archaeology”, a science that was finally recognised as such, and no longer seen as just a learned pastime for amateur antiquarians. (shrink)

The origins of demography as a scientific discipline are usually seen as intimately connected to the organisational and economic needs of the early modern state. This paper, by contrast, presents an early demographic enterprise that falls outside this framework. The calculations performed by the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Battista Riccioli in an appendix to his Geographia et hydrographia reformata are the first systematic attempt presently known to arrive at an estimate of the entire world population. Yet they appear to (...) have no political purpose and rather belong to a learned, bookish tradition of demographical thinking that may be termed “humanist”. The article starts from a summary of Riccioli’s life, of the book wherein his demographic exercise is contained and of this exercise itself. Thereafter, Riccioli’s motives, sources, methodology and results are discussed. By way of conclusion, some preliminary reflections on the place of Riccioli and the humanist tradition in the early modern history of demography as a whole are offered. Two appendices present a translation of the Coniectura and tabulate its literary sources in order to provide some possible starting points for a study of the aforementioned tradition. (shrink)