Schizophrenics exhibit a deficit in theory of mind (ToM), but an intact theory of biology (ToB). One explanation is that ToM relies on an independent module that is selectively damaged. Phillips & Silverstein's analyses suggest an alternative: ToM requires the type of coordination that is impaired in schizophrenia, whereas ToB is spared because this type of coordination is not involved.

This paper explores an increasingly prevalent element of board-level commitment to sustainability. We propose a theoretical framework under which the existence and associated actions of board-level sustainability committees are motivated by shared value creation, where the interests of a diverse group of stakeholders are satisfied and sufficient profit is achieved. Using hand-collected data, we find that sustainability committees are heterogeneous in focus and vary in their effectiveness. Specifically, we disaggregate the sustainability committee construct based on stakeholder group focus and find (...) that associations between sustainability committees and performance outcomes are stronger when committees focused on a specific stakeholder group are paired with relevant performance outcomes. We generally find that sustainability committees are effective at impacting relevant strengths, but do not mitigate relevant concerns. These results are consistent with the shared value framework, where committees both generate value by pursuing sustainability-related opportunities and protect value by monitoring, but not necessarily mitigating sustainability-related risks. Univariate tests suggest that effective committees are also larger, more independent, and meet more frequently. Finally, we propose a new method to classify industries based on their sensitivity to certain stakeholder groups and find that the effectiveness of committees focused on specific stakeholders is more pronounced in industries that are sensitive to these stakeholders. (shrink)

This paper examines whether independent directors who have social ties to management (inside directors) can effectively perform their fiduciary duty to monitor management on behalf of shareholders. Ex ante, it is not clear whether social ties will enhance or obstruct the quality of board performance. Theory suggests that directors who are socially tied to management are ineffective and would make decisions favoring management. However, social ties can increase trust and information sharing between management and independent directors, improving directors' ability and (...) effectiveness in governing the company (Westphal, J. D.: 1999, The Academy of Management Journal 42(1), 7-24). To examine these contradicting predictions I use social network analysis and construct proxies for social ties between management and independent board members. Using these proxies, I first demonstrate that social ties are associated with higher managerial compensation. Further analyses reveal that these results are driven by social ties that include members of the compensation committee. Conversely, I demonstrate that financial reporting quality is improved when social ties exist. Specifically, I find that the likelihood of material weaknesses in internal controls and the likelihood of financial restatements are lower in companies with social ties. I further observe that this improved quality of financial reporting holds only when social ties include members of the audit committee. I conclude that ethically, socially tied independent directors should disqualify themselves from serving on compensation committees where social independence is essential. However, in tasks where collaboration with management is essential, directors with social links to each other can be of added value to shareholders. (shrink)

The emergence of the German Jewish philosopher Ernst Cassirer as the object of scholarly attention has been both surprising and rapid. In the decades since his early death while in exile in the United States, Cassirer never fell into complete oblivion. His works remained known to specialists in German intellectual history; his participation in a famous 1929 debate with Martin Heidegger in Davos, Switzerland, one of the most iconic moments in modern Continental thought, made his name familiar to most students (...) of modern philosophy. Yet Cassirer lacked the widespread recognition given to contemporaries such as Heidegger or Walter Benjamin, and his work never became the center of historical or philosophical study. This neglect stemmed, in part, from dismissal by his peers; as Edward Skidelsky explains in his new study, Rudolf Carnap found him “rather pastoral,” Isaiah Berlin dismissed him as “serenely innocent,” and Theodor Adorno thought he was “totally gaga”. The last few years, however, have seen the rise of a remarkable new interest in Cassirer in both Germany and the English-speaking world. Among this recent literature, Edward Skidelsky's and Peter Gordon's works lead the small “Cassirer renaissance” and offer the best English-language introduction to his thought. Both Gordon and Skidelsky ambitiously seek to relocate Cassirer at the forefront of modern German and European thought. Gordon goes as far as to call him “one of the greatest philosophers and intellectual historians to emerge from the cultural ferment of modern Germany” and one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. In making such bold statements, Gordon and Skidelsky clearly set their sights beyond the person himself; they aspire to highlight a central strand of thought that enjoyed a powerful presence in early twentieth-century Germany but fell into neglect in the postwar era. In doing so, they seek to reevaluate the nature and legacy of Weimar thought, its complex relationship with the period's unstable politics, and its relevance today. (shrink)

Abstract:This essay reviews Giorgio Agamben’s Omnibus Homo Sacer, a monumental project of nine books that was recently completed after two decades. Alongside outlining the project’s key claims, the essay reflects on its uneven reception: it seeks to explain why Agamben’s claims on politics, law, and violence received enormous attention, while his writings on economics and religion were largely ignored. The essay in particular discusses the values and limits of Agamben’s work for historians.

This paper deals with the role of Judaism in Walter Benjamin's famous 1921 essay on violence and law, Zur Kritik der Gewalt. Despite the intense attention devoted to this essay, the role of Jewish myth in it has not yet been thoroughly explained. This study contends that the association between what Benjamin termed revolutionary violence and the Jewish messianic tradition, which plays a central role in the evaluation of Benjamin's text, is far more problematic than has hitherto been assumed, and (...) poses a serious challenge, which has not been fully examined in its historical context. Second, this essay claims that the subversive elements that many have supposedly found in Benjamin's text and the attempts to link these elements to messianic traditions are also unconvincing. Third, the paper contextualizes Benjamin's thought within the framework of the Jewish political–theological debate of the period. It contends that Benjamin's theory of law and justice should be understood not as a revolutionary, anti-republican text, as has been generally accepted, but as a secularized conservative orthodox one. In doing so, it seeks to shed light not only on Benjamin's early thinking and its influences, but also on the neglected element of Jewish orthodoxy within the broader topic of political theology. (shrink)

In this paper I identify two different lockean concepts of justice - "proprietary justice" and "justice as fairness" - and examine the relationship between each of them and charity in John Locke´s theory of property. As I try to show, in both cases Locke considers that charity may have priority over justice. This undermines the classical interpretation of Locke as a defender of unlimited capitalistic appropriation and provides additional evidence supporting Locke´s acceptation of a minimal redistributive system which should guarantee (...) the material welfare of non-appropriators. (shrink)

Locke, además de justificar un derecho natural a la propiedad privada, también sostiene que todos los hombres tienen un derecho natural a la caridad. En el presente trabajo me propongo defender la hipótesis de que el derecho a la caridad postulado por Locke se explica por la presencia en su teoría de la propiedad de elementos procedentes de la teología cristiana. Cumpliría la función de garantizar que, en el contexto de una economía monetizada donde los individuos son, además, desigualmente industriosos, (...) se cumpla el designio divino de que todos los hombres dispongan de medios para preservarse. (shrink)

El presente trabajo aborda el pensamiento educativo de John Locke desde una perspectiva poco frecuentada: sus vínculos con la teoría lockeana de la propiedad. Como se pone de relieve, Locke discrimina entre la educación de los hijos de propietarios y la de los hijos de no propietarios. La finalidad primaria de la primera es cultivar una serie de valores morales estrechamente vinculados con la propiedad –como la liberalidad y la justicia. La educación de los pobres, en cambio, queda reducida al (...) cultivo de la virtud que en el futuro permitirá a los niños convertirse en propietarios: la laboriosidad. (shrink)

Con frecuencia la teoría política trata a la familia como un hecho incuestionable de la vida social. Sin embargo, y especialmente en el marco del liberalismo político, vale la pena preguntarse por su justificación. En el presente trabajo analizo la teoría de la justicia de John Rawls buscando reconstruir no sólo lo que efectivamente dice sobre esta cuestión sino también el potencial que encierra para propocionar respuestas más contundentes. Rawls parece suscribir una explicación puramente instrumental del valor de la familia, (...) centrada en su utilidad para la reproducción y estabilidad de una sociedad bien ordenada. Sin embargo, como señalaré, aunque Rawls no explora esta alternativa, una aplicación consecuente del “primer principio”, que pauta la distribución de libertades y derechos básicos de los individuos, abre el camino para una justificación normativa más concluyente. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo abordo el problema de la incompatibilidad normativa entre dos principios ampliamente aceptados entre los liberales igualitarios -el principio de igualdad de oportunidades y el de autonomía familiar- en el marco de la teoría de la justicia de Rawls. Luego de hacer explícitas las diferentes vías por las cuales la autonomía de la familia inexorablemente conduce a la desigualdad de oportunidades entre los individuos, me dedico a explorar dos soluciones al problema sugeridas por Rawls en Una teoría (...) de la justicia y a mostrar por qué las mismas son fallidas. This essay analyzes the problem of the normative incompatibility between two principles which are widely accepted by liberals -the principle of equality of opportunities and that of family autonomy- and this within the framework of Rawls´s theory of justice. After specifying different ways in which the autonomy of the family necessarily leads to inequality of opportunities between individuals, I examine two different solutions suggested by Rawls in A Theory of Justice and I intend to demonstrate why they are wrong. (shrink)

This paper deals with the role of Judaism in Walter Benjamin's famous 1921 essay on violence and law, Zur Kritik der Gewalt. Despite the intense attention devoted to this essay, the role of Jewish myth in it has not yet been thoroughly explained. This study contends that the association between what Benjamin termed revolutionary violence and the Jewish messianic tradition, which plays a central role in the evaluation of Benjamin's text, is far more problematic than has hitherto been assumed, and (...) poses a serious challenge, which has not been fully examined in its historical context. Second, this essay claims that the subversive elements that many have supposedly found in Benjamin's text and the attempts to link these elements to messianic traditions are also unconvincing. Third, the paper contextualizes Benjamin's thought within the framework of the Jewish political–theological debate of the period. It contends that Benjamin's theory of law and justice should be understood not as a revolutionary, anti-republican text, as has been generally accepted, but as a secularized conservative orthodox one. In doing so, it seeks to shed light not only on Benjamin's early thinking and its influences, but also on the neglected element of Jewish orthodoxy within the broader topic of political theology. (shrink)

The essay takes up that old Gordian knot of the Lockean exegetical tradition, that of the relationship between the right to life and the right to property, which was already analyzed in important articles by the author, developing the conclusions and completing the critical apparatus.

While the little-known thinker Sharaf al-Dīn al-Mas'ūdī may have had doubts concerning the Ishārāt of the great Persian philosopher Avicenna, no one should have doubts concerning Ayman Shihadeh's brilliant Doubts on Avicenna: A Study and Edition of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Mas'ūdī's Commentary on the Ishārāt. Professor Shihadeh's volume is a rich study of Mas'ūdī's alMabāḥith wa-l-shukūk 'alā Kitāb al-Ishārāt, which additionally offers the first critical edition of that work. Doubts on Avicenna affords the reader a snapshot of the middle period of (...) medieval Arabic philosophy and Islamic theology (ca. eleventh to fourteenth... (shrink)

In _Doubts on Avicenna_, Ayman Shihadeh offers an extended study and critical edition of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Masʿūdī’s _al-Mabāḥith wa-l-Shukūk_, a key and hitherto unstudied source for twelfth-century Arabic philosophy. This text inaugurates the long commentarial tradition on Avicenna’s _Ishārāt_.

Los orígenes del patriarcado se remontan a los comienzos del pensamiento filosófico, por no mencionar el religioso, y los cuestionamientos a esa noción vienen tomando cada vez más impulso a lo largo del mundo en los últimos años. Un reflejo académico de ese movimiento es la relectura crítica de los clásicos de la filosofía a la luz del avance de los feminismos y las consideraciones de género. Juliana Udi brinda en su introducción a Patriarca un análisis exhaustivo de un clásico (...) de la filosofía política seguido de una traducción elegante y cuidadosamente anotada. Con ello intenta un regreso a las fuentes modernas del patriarcado político para identificar sus fundamentos teóricos y su contexto histórico, pero también para discutir desde una perspectiva de género su persistencia social en nuestros días. (shrink)

Musk, which is produced from the glands of several species of deer, was a well-known perfume throughout the Mediterranean Basin in the Middle Ages. The current article examines the meaning of the gathering operation of myrrh mentioned in Song of Songs 5:1, according to R. Joseph Ibn Aknin and Naḥmanides. The two commentators argue that the phrase ariiti mori can be interpreted as the unique manner of gathering the perfume of the musk deer in its lands of origin in the (...) Far East. They contend that harvesting the perfume refers to gathering the perfume that the deer spreads on the rocks naturally, which is a higher quality product. The two medieval rabbis were exposed to contemporary scholars or oral traditions on the way of gathering the musk. Ibn Aknin took the information from Arabic writings, such as of al-Sirāfī and al-Masʿūdī and Ibn JulJuly With regard to Naḥmanides, his source of information on gathering musk is not clear. Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding of the issue of the sources of knowledge of scholars in medieval times and how the achieved information influenced their commentaries on the Biblical Text. The current study expounds the commentators’ interpretations from a multidisplinary perspective, such as the medieval zoology and perfume industry. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: A Tale of Two Philosophies: URIs between Proper Names and REST; From References to Referentialization; and Toward Ontological Politics.

In an interview with Udi Aloni in 2011, Judith Butler stated: “My politics, my life, even my feminism is about calling into question whether those ideas of femininity are necessary, and if I don’t...

The gendered occupational role can have an impact on both employees and organizations they work for. This study aims to explore different sides and factors that are related to experience, challenges, and coping mechanisms of male dry cleaners amidst gendered occupational roles. The methodology used were: Heideggeran Phenomenology, Semi- structured Interview Guide, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) by van Kaam and modified by Moustakas. This st udy had 15 participants. Based on the data collected, the following themes were identified in this (...) study; namely, (1) The Steadf ast, (2) and The Challenged. Likewise, the following sub themes were identified from the data- gathering and are based on their perspectives. Masculinity of a male laundry employee can really affect the perspective of an in dividual, the more the male look masculine the more that the people can easily conclude that his physique is not suitable on the jobs like laundry, because people always expect that men should work on a heavy work like truck, construction sites, etc. (shrink)

Alongside his much-discussed theory that humans are permanently, if only tacitly, self-aware, Avicenna proposed that in actively conscious self-knowers the subject and object of thought are identical. He applies to both humans and God the slogan that the self-knower is “intellect, intellecting, and object of intellection (‘aql, ‘āqil, ma‘qūl)”. This paper examines reactions to this idea in the Islamic East from the 12th-13th centuries. A wide range of philosophers such as Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī, Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, al-Šahrastānī, Šaraf al-Dīn al-Mas‘ūdī, (...) al-Abharī, al-Āmidī, and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī raised and countered objections to Avicenna's position. One central problem was that on widely accepted definitions of knowledge – according to which knowledge is representational or consists in a relation – it seems impossible for the subject and object of knowledge to be the same. Responses to this difficulty included the idea that a self-knower is “present” to itself, or that here subject and object are different only in “aspect (i‘tibār)”. (shrink)

This volume is the translation of a book whose title is Targeting Sunnis: Who Will Lead the Arabic-Islamic World, Sa’udi Arabia or Iran?—A Western-Israeli-Iranian Strategic Plan to Dominate the Mid...

Early oriental historians have used two series of sources about ancient history of Iran, including Iranian and non-Iranian sources. As these sources are independent of each other, two different chronologies about these ancient periods have arisen. Naturally, this duality has led to different and contradictory results about dating important events of this period. One of them is the contradictory reports about two separate religious personalities - Messiah Mehr and Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the fact that these historians have taken the (...) identity and time of appearance of Messiah Mehr and Jesus from the abovementioned two sources, they unknowingly considered the two characters as one and the same person. Al-Mas'udi is one of the earlier oriental historians who made remarkable reports and points regarding the alterations of political and religious history of the Ashkanian dynasty by the earlier Sasanians. These alterations caused the reality of Messiah Mehr to be concealed. This article tries to explain briefly the reasons for this topic through the viewpoints of oriental historians with emphasis on Al-Mas'udi's reports. (shrink)

In Doubts on Avicenna, Ayman Shihadeh offers an extended study and critical edition of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Masʿūdī’s al-Mabāḥith wa-l-Shukūk, a key and hitherto unstudied source for twelfth-century Arabic philosophy. This text inaugurates the long commentarial tradition on Avicenna’s Ishārāt.

An important contribution to the foundations of probability theory, statistics and statistical physics has been made by E. T. Jaynes. The recent publication of his collected works provides an appropriate opportunity to attempt an assessment of this contribution. * Review of E. T. JAYNES (1983): Papers on Probability, Statistics and Statistical Physics. Edited by R. D. Rosenkrantz. D. Reidel Publishing Company. US $49.50. Pp. xxiv + 434. We are grateful to Harvey Brown, Kenneth Denbigh, Udi Makov and Oliver Penrose for (...) their valuable criticisms of this paper. (shrink)