In his Vermischte Bemerkungen 43, Wittgenstein notices that he was also influenced by Oswald Spengler. The paper deals with the question of in which way Spengler influenced Wittgenstein’s late works and if it really was influence or only a coincidence of ideas. It is put forward that Spengler’s rather unknown philosophy of language influenced Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, especially the concepts of family resemblance, antiessentialism, and language-game (Sprachspiel). A picture of the famous Neapolitan gesture of “negation” which motivated Wittgenstein to (...) give up the picture theory of language is also shown with an example taken from Andrea de Jorio, La mimica degli antichi investigala nel gestire napoletano, Napoli 1832. (shrink)

This paper investigates different modes of organizing for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on insights from organization theory, we theorize two ways to organize for CSR. “Complete” organization for CSR happens within businesses and depends on the availability of certain organizational elements (e.g., membership, hierarchy, rules, monitoring, and sanctioning). By contrast, “partial” organization for CSR happens when organizers do not have direct access to all these organizational elements. We discuss partial organization for CSR by analyzing how standards and cross-sector partnerships (...) make selective use of organizational elements. We maintain that an important feature of the increasing institutionalization of CSR—not only within businesses but also among non-governmental, governmental, and professional actors—is the rise of partial forms of organization. We discuss the contributions to this Special Issue in the context of our theorization of complete/partial organization for CSR and outline avenues for further research. (shrink)

According to a widespread view, a complete explanatory reduction of all aspects of the human mind to the electro-chemical functioning of the brain is at hand and will certainly produce vast and positive cultural, political and social consequences. However, notwithstanding the astonishing advances generated by the neurosciences in recent years for our understanding of the mechanisms and functions of the brain, the application of these findings to the specific but crucial issue of human agency can be considered a “pre-paradigmatic science” (...) (in Thomas Kuhn’s sense). This implies that the situation is, at the same time, intellectually stimulating and methodologically confused. More specifically—because of the lack of a solid, unitary and coherent methodological framework as to how to connect neurophysiology and agency—it frequently happens that tentative approaches, bold but very preliminary claims and even clearly flawed interpretations of experimental data are taken for granted. In this article some examples of such conceptual confusions and intellectual hubris will be presented, which derive from the most recent literature at the intersection between neurosciences, on the one hand, and philosophy, politics and social sciences, on the other hand. It will also be argued that, in some of these cases, hasty and over-ambitious conclusions may produce negative social and political consequences. The general upshot will be that very much has still to be clarified as to what and how neurosciences can tell us about human agency and that, in the meantime, intellectual and methodological caution is to be recommended. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate a logic for modelling individual and collective acceptances that is called acceptance logic. The logic has formulae of the form $A_{Gx} \phi $ reading 'if the agents in the set of agents G identify themselves with institution x then they together accept that φ'. We extend acceptance logic by two kinds of dynamic modal operators. The first kind are public announcements of the form x!ψ, meaning that the agents learn that ψ is the case in (...) context x. Formulae of the form [x!ψ]φ mean that φ is the case after every possible occurrence of the event x!ψ. Semantically, public announcements diminish the space of possible worlds accepted by agents and sets of agents. The announcement of ψ in context x makes all ¬ψ-Worlds inaccessible to the agents in such context. In this logic, if the set of accessible worlds of G in context x is empty, then the agents in G are not functioning as members of x, they do not identify themselves with x. In such a situation the agents in G may have the possibility to join x. To model this we introduce here a second kind of dynamic modal operator of acceptance shifting of the form G:x↑ψ. The latter means that the agents in G shift (change) their acceptances in order to accept ψ in context x. Semantically, they make ψ-worlds accessible to G in the context x, which means that, after such operation, G is functioning as member of x (unless there are no ψ-worlds). We show that the resulting logic has a complete axiomatization in terms of reduction axioms for both dynamic operators. In the paper we also show how the logic of acceptance and its dynamic extension can be used to model some interesting aspects of judgement aggregation. In particular, we apply our logic of acceptance to a classical scenario in judgment aggregation, the so-called 'doctrinal paradox' or 'discursive dilemma' (Pettit, Philosophical Issues 11: 268-299, 2001; Kornhauser and Sager, Yale Law Journal 96: 82-117, 1986). (shrink)

De publicatie van de Perzische brieven van Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) zorgde voor grote deining in het frivole en verdeelde Frankrijk van 1721. Montesquieu werd op slag een van de meest bewierookte intellectuelen van zijn tijd. Later schreef hij over de opkomst en de ondergang van het Romeinse Rijk. Zijn meest 'geleerde' werk, 'Over de geest van de wetten' (1748), was de echte prelude tot de sociale wetenschappen, tot een verreikend nieuwe kijk op (...) mens en samenleving. Montesquieu's oorspronkelijke denken kent nog steeds vele bewonderaars, maar roept ook vandaag nog controverse op. 0In 'Montesquieu: enigmatisch observateur' brengen twaalf auteurs zijn veelzijdige oeuvre opnieuw tot leven. Zij denken door op de onderwerpen die Montesquieu tot een groot schrijver maakten, op de polemieken die hij veroorzaakte en de pennen die hij in beweging bracht. Hun essays kijken naar Montesquieu vanuit een filosofisch, politiek, sociaal, literair en juridisch perspectief. (shrink)

Nel presente testo si propone un approccio alla neuroetica che si prefigge di attribuirle uno specifico ambito d’indagine in quanto esplorazione di ciò che apprendiamo su noi stessi e sul nostro “funzionamento”, grazie principalmente alle neuroscienze. In altre parole, si tratta di un nuovo genere di antropologia che si occupa dell’intersezione di diverse discipline la quale acquista sempre maggiore centralità nel dibattito contemporaneo a motivo della forte naturalizzazione delle indagini sugli esseri umani. L’oggetto di studio – alla luce di questa (...) particolare caratterizzazione della neuroetica – non sarà quindi ciò che possiamo fare, bensì ciò che sappiamo o riteniamo di sapere in modo affidabile. (shrink)

We study the extension of public announcement logic PAL by public assignments, which we call PALA. Just as in the case of PAL, the standard procedure for deciding PALA validity, i.e. the use of so-called reduction axioms to translate PALA formulae into formulae in epistemic logic EL, may lead to exponential growth. In this paper, we show that such a price is not mandatory, for we provide a polynomial translation of PALA into EL. This is based on abbreviations of subformulae (...) by new propositional letters. Such optimal translation also enables us to show the computational complexity of the problem of deciding PALA validity, which turns out to be coNP-complete in the single-agent case and PSPACE-complete in the multiagent case. (shrink)

In this article, we will firstly explore the concept of connected design; secondly, we will explain how environments can be understood as interfaces for knowledge; and thirdly, we will expose the characteristics and objectives of the project Wired Book & Electronic Margin, which is part of a larger project called Universal Margin, as an example of connective design. Lastly, we will show the benefits of contextualizing information and transforming the world into a connected and lively real-time library, to underline how (...) connected design can facilitate a bottom-up construction of knowledge. (shrink)

This case study chronicles the pedagogical decision making of one high school teacher, Mr. Diego de la Vega, a pseudonym, as he teaches about race and racism in his elective social studies class, Race, Gender, and Ethnicity. De la Vega draws upon his own racial biography and experiences with race/ism to engage with high school students around racialized content. A conceptual framework grounded in racial identity development theory is used. This snapshot of racial pedagogical decision making, or RPDM, features a (...) discussion of implications for social studies pedagogy to promote racial identity development in the classroom. (shrink)

Spin is a fundamental and distinctive property of the electron, having far-reaching implications. Yet its purely formal treatment often blurs the physical content and meaning of the spin operator and associated observables. In this work we propose to advance in disclosing the meaning behind the formalism, by first recalling some basic facts about the one-particle spin operator. Consistently informed by and in line with the quantum formalism, we then proceed to analyse in detail the spin projection operator correlation function \=\left\langle (...) \left \left \right\rangle \) for the bipartite singlet state, and show it to be amenable to an unequivocal probabilistic reading. In particular, the calculation of \\) entails a partitioning of the probability space, which is dependent on the directions \.\) The derivation of the CHSH- or other Bell-type inequalities, on the other hand, does not consider such partitioning. This observation puts into question the applicability of Bell-type inequalities to the bipartite singlet spin state. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The concepts of liberty and representation reveal tensions in Hobbes's political anthropology that only a study of the development of his philosophical materialism can fully elucidate. The first section of this article analyses the contradictory definitions of liberty offered in De cive, and explains them against the background of Hobbes's elaboration of a deterministic concept of conatus during the 1640s. Variations in the concepts of conatus and void between De motu and De corpore will shed light on ideas of (...) individuality, unity and agency that carry direct political relevance. The second section explains why the concept of representation that Hobbes elaborated at the end of the decade in Leviathan cannot be interpreted within an exclusively political and juridical framework. Rather, I will claim that it should be explained in the light of Hobbes's materialist theory of the power exerted by the sovereign persona on human imagination. (shrink)

This paper deals with the problem of future contingents, and focuses on two classical logical principles, excluded middle and bivalence. One may think that different attitudes are to be adopted towards these two principles in order to solve the problem. According to what seems to be a widely held hypothesis, excluded middle must be accepted while bivalence must be rejected. The paper goes against that line of thought. In the first place, it shows how the rejection of bivalence leads to (...) implausible consequences if excluded middle is accepted. In the second place, it addresses the question of why one should reject bivalence, and finds no satisfactory answer. /// Este artículo trata el problema de los futuros contingentes, y se enfoca en dos principios lógicos clásicos: el tercero excluido y la bivalencia. Se podría pensar que una solución del problema requiere actitudes diferentes hacia estos dos principios. Según una hipótesis que parece ampliamente compartida, el tercero excluido debe ser aceptado, mientras que la bivalencia debe ser rechazada. Este artículo argumenta en contra de esta línea de pensamiento. En primer lugar, se aborda cómo el rechazo de la bivalencia lleva a consecuencias poco plausibles si el tercero excluido es aceptado. En segundo lugar, se enfrenta la cuestión de por qué se debería rechazar la bivalencia, sin encontrar una respuesta satisfactoria. (shrink)

According to Arti Dhand, it can be argued that all Indian ethics have been primarily virtue ethics. Many have indeed jumped on the virtue bandwagon, providing prima facie interpretations of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist canons in virtue terms. Others have expressed firm skepticism, claiming that virtues are not proven to be grounded in the nature of things and that, ultimately, the appeal to virtue might just well be a mere façon de parler. In this paper, we aim to advance the (...) discussion of Indian virtue ethics. Our intent is not to provide a catch-all interpretation of the different Indian schools. Our goal is, more modestly, to offer a theory of virtues in Indian philosophies, as a framework for theorists and interpreters who see these diverse traditions as amenable to systematic virtue analysis. Our theory grounds virtues in the reality of genuine moral dispositions and in a system of beliefs where morality is understood as transformative in nature. (shrink)

Estimating the effects of introducing a range of smart mobility solutions within an urban area is a crucial concern in urban planning. The lack of a simulator for the assessment of mobility initiatives forces local public authorities and mobility service providers to base their decisions on guidelines derived from common heuristics and best practices. These approaches can help planners in shaping mobility solutions; however, given the high number of variables to consider, the effects are not guaranteed. Therefore, a solution conceived (...) respecting the available guidelines can result in a failure in a different context. In particular, difficult aspects to consider are the interactions between different mobility services available in a given urban area and the acceptance of a given mobility initiative by the inhabitants of the area. In order to fill this gap, we introduce Tangramob, an agent-based simulation framework capable of assessing the impacts of a smart mobility initiative within an urban area of interest. Tangramob simulates how urban traffic is expected to evolve as citizens start experiencing newly offered traveling solutions. This allows decision makers to evaluate the efficacy of their initiatives, taking into account the current urban system. In this paper, we provide an overview of the simulation framework along with its design. To show the potential of Tangramob, three mobility initiatives are simulated and compared in the same scenario. This demonstrates how it is possible to perform comparative experiments so as to align mobility initiatives to the user goals. (shrink)

In contemporary philosophy, it is tempting to apply the metaphysics of properties to the specific case of truth, in the hope of making progress on the investigation of the latter. In this paper, I argue that a different approach, mostly independent from the metaphysics of properties and based on the naturalness, in Lewis’ sense, of semantic nations, is often a better alternative, both in general and in some specific cases. In particular, adopting the new perspective, I present a new problem (...) of combining logical validity and strong truth pluralism, and offer a way to sharply distinguish deflationism and primitivism about truth. The main original upshot of the paper is offering a perspective on philosophy of truth that sheds new light on the general problem of truth and on some particular issues. (shrink)

In der Tugendlehre Kants findet die allgemeine ethische Orientierung, wie sie der Kategorische Imperativ ausdrückt, Anwendung auf die Bedingungen der menschlichen Existenz. Die vorliegende Untersuchung rekonstruiert den Kantischen Ansatz vor dem Hintergrund der gegenwärtigen, vor allem aristotelischen Tugendethik und löst dabei den Kantischen Tugendbegriff kritisch von seinen zeitbedingten Prägungen. Auf so erneuerter Grundlage wird eine transzendentalphilosophische Ethikkonzeption entfaltet, die den methodischen und inhaltlichen Einsichten der jüngeren Theorieentwicklung Rechnung trägt. Zu den Ergebnissen zählt die Bestimmung einzelner Tugenden, deren ethische Orientierung an (...) konkreten Strukturen unserer alltäglichen Praxis demonstriert wird. (shrink)

Since at least Hume and Kant, philosophers working on the nature of aesthetic judgment have generally agreed that common sense does not treat aesthetic judgments in the same way as typical expressions of subjective preferences—rather, it endows them with intersubjective validity, the property of being right or wrong regardless of disagreement. Moreover, this apparent intersubjective validity has been taken to constitute one of the main explananda for philosophical accounts of aesthetic judgment. But is it really the case that most people (...) spontaneously treat aesthetic judgments as having intersubjective validity? In this paper, we report the results of a cross‐cultural study with over 2,000 respondents spanning 19 countries. Despite significant geographical variations, these results suggest that most people do not treat their own aesthetic judgments as having intersubjective validity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theories of aesthetic judgment and the purpose of aesthetics in general. (shrink)

Der Band bietet einen systematischen Überblick über das Verhältnis von Literatur und Philosophie. Philosophische, literarische und literaturwissenschaftliche Ansätze kommen gleichberechtigt zu Wort. Die Beiträge loten die Bedeutung von Literatur aus und präsentieren gattungstheoretische Überlegungen zu literarischen Formen der Philosophie. Studien über philosophierende Literatur und philosophische Reflexionen über Literatur beschließen den Band.

Émilie Du Châtelet’s Foundations of Physics (Institutions de physique, 1740/42) has recently been attracting increasing interest from analytical philosophy in the anglophone world. Du Châtelet’s conception of space and time constitutes a controversial issue. I argue that the current debate underestimates the modal approach and epistemological turn in Du Châtelet’s view on space and time. A historical perspective on Abraham Gotthelf Kästner’s criticism and Jean Henry Samuel Formey’s plagiarism of Du Châtelet underlines the significance of this turning point. Against this (...) background, I revisit Leonhard Euler’s space-time realism and its influence on Immanuel Kant. -/- Les Institutions de physique (1740/1742) d’Émilie Du Châtelet suscitent depuis peu un intérêt croissant dans le monde anglophone, chez les philosophes analytiques. Une question controversée concerne les concepts d’espace et de temps de Du Châtelet. Je soutiens que le débat actuel sous-estime l’approche modale et la tournure épistémologique des considérations de Du Châtelet sur l’espace et le temps. Un regard historique sur la critique d’Abraham Gotthelf Kästner et le plagiat de Du Châtelet par Jean Henry Samuel Formey souligne l’importance de ce tournant. Dans ce contexte, je revisite le réalisme spatio-temporel de Leonhard Euler et son influence sur Emmanuel Kant. (shrink)

En el marco de una crisis democrática que ha hecho cuestionarnos la forma en que estamos llevando a cabo este sistema de gobierno, la presente investigaciónpretende retomar la vieja noción de la parrhesía griega como el ethos que debiera guiar el debate político, pero también como un principio que debe estar presente en aquellos que hacen filosofía. Un cruce entre la acción comunicativa habermasiana y las palabras de Vattimo acerca del rol de la filosofía nos ayudarán a elucidar cómo abordar (...) esta crisis: desde la discusión política para llegar al consenso, que forzosamente debe estar alineado con este potente concepto de parrhesía. (shrink)

En replaçant les travaux de Philippe Walter dans les cadres historique et théorique des analyses bachelardiennes et durandiennes sur l’imaginaire, Blanca Solares met en évidence les apports spécifiques de ses thèses, tant du point de vue méthodologique que du point de vue idéologique. Cette entreprise de reconstruction des présupposés conceptuels de Philippe Walter permet de souligner l’importance d’une réévaluation en profondeur d’un imaginaire médiéval trop souvent compris à l’aune d’une conception simplificatrice de la christianisation, tout en montrant la nécessité d’une (...) approche nuancée et renouvelée des sources traditionnelles. By putting the work of Philippe Walter in the historical and theoretical contexts of the Bachelard and Durand’s analysis on the imaginary, Blanca Solares highlights the specific contributions of his theses, both from methodological and ideological points of view. This reconstruction effort on the conceptual presuppositions of Philippe Walter serves to accentuate the importance of a thorough revaluation of a medieval imaginary too often understood, at the beginning of a simplified design to the Christianization, while showing the need for a nuanced and renewed approach to traditional sources. Al situar las investigaciones de Philippe Walter dentro del marco histórico-teórico de los análisis de Bachelard y Durand sobre el imaginario, Blanca Solares evidencia sus aportes específicos, tanto metodológicos como ideológicos. Esta labor de reconstrucción de los fundamentos conceptuales de Philippe Walter muestra cuánto importa cambiar el enfoque al imaginario medieval empobrecido por unas aproximaciones a la cristianización demasiado simplificadoras y justifica plenamente una aproximación renovada y fina a las fuentes tradicionales. (shrink)

Die Corona-Pandemie bestimmt seit fast einem Jahr nicht nur unseren Alltag, sondern ist in zahlreichen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen zum Gegenstand der Auseinandersetzung avanciert. Während allerdings beispielsweise Medizin und Public Health offensichtlich eine wichtige Rolle für die Bekämpfung der Pandemie spielen, lässt sich durchaus die Frage stellen, welchen Beitrag die Philosophie in einer solchen, anhaltenden Ausnahmesituation spielen kann und spielen sollte. In der Einleitung zum Schwerpunkt zur Corona-Pandemie werden daher drei Interpretationen des Einwands, es sei illegitim, dass sich die Philosophie mitten in (...) der Krise zu dieser äußere, diskutiert und zurückgewiesen. Philosophische Auseinandersetzungen mit der Corona-Pandemie in der Corona-Pandemie, so das Fazit, können einen relevanten Beitrag sowohl zur fachinternen als auch zur öffentlichen Debatte leisten, sind nicht per se pietätlos gegenüber Betroffenen und stellen auch keine spezifische Ungerechtigkeit gegenüber den von der Pandemie stärker betroffenen Kolleg*innen dar. (shrink)

Ce livre propose une interprétation inédite de la biologie d'Aristote. Il montre que, dans la démarche aristotélicienne, à côté de la pensée discursive, oeuvre une pensée visuelle qui élabore une représentation de l'organisation spatiale du corps vivant, apportant ainsi une contribution décisive à la définition des deux tâches majeures de l'enquête scientifique aristotélicienne: l'explication causale et la détermination des genres.

This paper reviews and discusses two extensions of Bohmian Mechanics to the phenomena of particle creation and annihilation typically observed in Quantum Field Theory : the so-called Bell-type Quantum Field Theory and the Dirac Sea representation. These theories have a secure metaphysical basis as they postulate a particle ontology while satisfying the requirements imposed by the Primitive Ontology approach to quantum physics. Furthermore, their methodological perspective intentionally provides a set of rules to immunize physical theories to the conceptual and technical (...) problems plaguing the standard formulation of Quantum Mechanics and QFT. A metaphysical analysis of both theories will be given, emphasizing the relevant features of each proposal. Finally, it will be acknowledged that, despite the metaphysical virtues and niceties of these frameworks, ultimately they do not provide definitive answers to other cogent foundational issues in QFT. Thus, these theories should be considered as partial solutions to the problems raised by the quantum theory of fields. This situation can be considered incentive for further research. (shrink)

Gracias a los rápidos progresos de las neurociencias cognitivas, algunos investigadores, sobre todo de áreas anglosajonas, comienzan a utilizar criterios basados sobre la neurobiología para redimensionar o disolver el concepto de persona -fundamentalmente en ámbito bioético- en cuanto definido ilusorio.En particular, se sostiene que exista un network cerebral innato, que comprende cuatro áreas especificas del encéfalo, que produciría en modo automático la percepción de una categoría especial de cosas, definidas personas. Tal hipÓtesis se basa sobre una creciente cantidad de datos (...) experimentales, tomados de modo individual y corroborados en las pruebas acumuladas.Frente a la dificultad de definir con precisión a la "persona" en los casos bioéticamente más dificiles y controvertidos, se sugiere por tanto que la idea misma sea abandonada en cuanto fruto de un mecanismo evolutivo-adaptativo actualmente inadecuado fi-ente a los dilemas creados por la medicina contemporánea. Se realiza así una naturalización total del concepto para luego sugerir el regreso a una perspectiva utilitarista respecto a los casos bioéticos en los cuales falle un acuerdo común.Después de haber presentado en detalle la propuesta presentada por MJ Farah y A.S Heberlein, en el presente articulo se ofrecen algunos argumentos para rejÚtar el monismo metodológico en el cual tal propuesta se basa, en particular subrayando la dimensión histórica del concepto de persona, surgido gradualmente y no en modo homogéneo, en contraste con la perspectiva neurobiológica innatista. Se pone en evidencia, por tanto el necesario pluralismo epistemológico que acompaña la definición de persona. No es posible excfuir a priori la dimensión filosófica, que es siempre jitndamental, mientras los descubrimientos de las neurociencias se proponen como elementos empiricos complementarios, actualmente no prescindibles por su crecienle relevancia. (shrink)

Hobbes’s political anthropology is grounded on a concept of liberty whose elaboration was influenced by the development of his project for a materialist philosophical system. Hobbes’s attempt to provide a definitive foundation for civil science led him to re-elaborate the concept of liberty after De cive, and eventually conflate its descriptive and normative components in Leviathan. Some of Leviathan ’s conceptual innovations can thus be related to Hobbes’s attempt to absorb the natural liberties of individuals in the body politic’s artificial (...) functioning. (shrink)

A patent is a property granted to any new shape, configuration or arrangement of elements, of any device, tool, instrument, mechanism or other object or part thereof, that allows for a better or different operation, use or manufacture of the object that incorporates it or that provides it with some utility, advantage or technical effect that it did not have before. As a document, a patent really is a title that recognizes the right to exploit the patented invention exclusively, preventing (...) others from making, selling or using it without the consent of the owner. The fact of making a patent is motivated by the fact of promoting creativity, hindering competition in the market as only one person holds the patent, thus protecting the initial investment and fighting against plagiarism. Patents are available to the public for dissemination and general knowledge. It is generally recognized in the specialized literature that patents can be used as an indicator to calculate the results generated by research and development activities, being a very useful indicator to measure various social, economic or technological aspects. For this reason, it is of relevant interest to have tools or systems that allow us to obtain the patents developed in a specific period of time and to carry out analyses of various economic and social factors. These analyses can serve to obtain a social perspective of society’s progress in the technological field, and this is why an analysis of patents is of our interest. This paper proposes a platform specifically designed to obtain knowledge about patents as an indicator of Spanish social, economic or technological aspects. For this purpose, the platform retrieves, analyses and visualizes functionalities that represent data on the landscape of patents obtained from the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office as a particular case of study. (shrink)