The success of business firms and other organizations relies on the trustworthiness of reports and other documents prepared by management accountants. This study examines the personal ethical values and ethical value types of management accountants. Data were obtained from a survey of members of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). The survey, composed of the Rokeach Values Survey and demographic questions, was delivered by the IMA Research Lab to membership samples. Importantly, the results indicated that the highest-ranked values were consistent (...) with values included in the IMA’s Statement of Ethical Professional Practice. That management accountants hold high ethical values better enables them to provide reliable and meaningful work to business firms and other organizations. Another important finding is that older management accountants are more concerned with moral values than their younger colleagues. This finding has notable implications for the future of the profession. (shrink)

As one of the most important ethicists to emerge since the Second World War, Alan Gewirth continues to influence philosophical debates concerning morality. In this ground-breaking book, Gewirth's neo-Kantianism, and the communitarian problems discussed, form a dialogue on the foundation of moral theory. Themes of agent-centered constraints, the formal structure of theories, and the relationship between freedom and duty are examined along with such new perspectives as feminism, the Stoics, and Sartre. Gewirth offers a picture of the philosopher's theory and (...) its applications, providing a richer, more complete critical assessement than any which has occurred to date. (shrink)

This collection of essays, offered in honor of the distinguished career of prominent political philosophy professor Clifford Orwin, brings together internationally renowned scholars to provide a wide context and discuss various aspects of the virtue of “humanity” through the history of political philosophy.

In the course of a controversy with donald davidson, Professor chisholm, In several papers, Presents and defends an argument (in support of his views on events) whose conclusion is that nixon's becoming president (n) and johnson's becoming president (j) are distinct events, Despite nixon's being johnson's successor. The argument hangs on the claim that n, But not j, Would have failed to have occurred, If humphrey had won the election. I argue, However, That chisholm's argument seems to work only (...) if 'j' is construed as a rigid designator, And that such a construal begs the question at issue. Moreover, If 'j' is taken as a non-Rigid designator, Then his argument is irrelevant. Thus, Chisholm's "counterfactual argument," I conclude, Cannot be used in favor of chisholm's view of events as a species of states of affairs. (shrink)

Schneiderman, Teetzel, and Gilmer offer an amusing but misleading response to my article on medical futility. Although I did make note of the falloff in citations to medical futility in Medline and Bioethicsline after 1995, my analysis focused on the precipitous rise in professional publications on the concept in the period from 1988 to 1995—a trend confirmed by the authors' own search results. I certainly did not argue, either explicitly or implicitly, that the discussion of medical futility was over. I (...) made limited use of this citation survey—to raise a question about what sparked so much professional debate after 1988. This seems to me an entirely appropriate methodology. (shrink)

Researchers tracking social trends have discovered a remarkable labor-saving device called the computer. They sit down before the instrument, call up a search engine, enter a key word that they believe represents the trend, and count the number of articles aroused by that key word. They track these numbers over a period of time and even graph them. Those who dislike a certain concept are happy to report the concept's rise and fall. Such has occurred with two articles, one of (...) which appeared in CQ, reporting the rise and fall of medical futility. We are impressed with the power of this research methodology, which seems capable of eliminating concepts, even when our own more labor-intensive yet apparently less perceptive daily experience finds evidence of their existence all around us. (shrink)

Hegelians and those scholars concerned with the history of idealism owe Lawrence Stepelevich a vote of thanks for this useful, clearly presented collection of texts from the Young Hegelian philosophers who extended Hegel’s philosophy according to their own lights in the first two decades following Hegel’s death. Hegel died in 1831. Stepelevich understands Young Hegelianism as an identifiable philosophical movement to have existed from 1830 to 1848. It begins with Feuerbach’s work, Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit of 1830, and (...) finds its last real expression in Karl Schmidt’s Das Verstandestum und das Individuum in 1846. In addition to selections from these two figures, the volume contains selections from the works of Strauss, von Cieszkowski, Bruno and Edgar Bauer, Ruge, Engels, Marx, Stirner, and Hess. Much of the work presented appears for the first time in English translation, and the volume itself is the first English language text devoted to the writings of this movement. Although most Hegelian scholars know German, and thus these texts are available to them in the original, it is a great advantage to have such texts available in competent translations. Hegel himself recognized this in his well-known letter to Voss of May 1805, where he compares translations into a people’s own language to a gift and expresses his wish to have philosophy speak German. (shrink)

Hegelians and those scholars concerned with the history of idealism owe Lawrence Stepelevich a vote of thanks for this useful, clearly presented collection of texts from the Young Hegelian philosophers who extended Hegel’s philosophy according to their own lights in the first two decades following Hegel’s death. Hegel died in 1831. Stepelevich understands Young Hegelianism as an identifiable philosophical movement to have existed from 1830 to 1848. It begins with Feuerbach’s work, Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit of 1830, and (...) finds its last real expression in Karl Schmidt’s Das Verstandestum und das Individuum in 1846. In addition to selections from these two figures, the volume contains selections from the works of Strauss, von Cieszkowski, Bruno and Edgar Bauer, Ruge, Engels, Marx, Stirner, and Hess. Much of the work presented appears for the first time in English translation, and the volume itself is the first English language text devoted to the writings of this movement. Although most Hegelian scholars know German, and thus these texts are available to them in the original, it is a great advantage to have such texts available in competent translations. Hegel himself recognized this in his well-known letter to Voss of May 1805, where he compares translations into a people’s own language to a gift and expresses his wish to have philosophy speak German. (shrink)

In this study, we examined moral issues and gender differences in ethical judgment using Reidenbach and Robin’s [Journal of Business Ethics9 (1990) 639) multidimensional ethics scale (MES). A total of 340 undergraduate students were asked to provide ethical judgment by rating three moral issues in the MES labeled: ‚sales’, ‚auto’, and ‚retail’ using three ethics theories: moral equity, relativism, and contractualism. We found that female students’ ratings of ethical judgment were consistently higher than that of male students across two out (...) of three moral issues examined (i.e., sales and retails) and ethics theories; providing support for Eagly’s [1987, Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-role Interpretation. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Hillsdale, NJ, England)] social role theory. After controlling for moral issues, women’s higher ratings of ethical judgment over men’s became statistically non-significant. Theoretical and practical implications based on the study’s findings are provided. (shrink)

Preface Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was throughout his mature years professor of Latin Eloquence at the University of Naples. His works, first written in ...

A systematic theory of naturalism, bridging metaphysics and the science of complexity and emergence.

_A systematic theory of naturalism, bridging metaphysics and the science of complexity and emergence._.

What is the relation between a reason and an action when the reason explains the action by giving the agent's reason for doing what he did? We may call such explanations rationalizations, and say that the reason rationalizes the action. In this paper I want to defend the ancient - and common-sense - position that rationalization is a species of ordinary causal explanation. The defense no doubt requires some redeployment, but not more or less complete abandonment of the position, as (...) urged by many recent writers. (shrink)

It is widely claimed that the second Critique’s argument for the postulate of immortality is relevantly different from the first Critique’s argument for the postulate. It is also widely claimed that after the second Critique, Kant distances himself from its particular version of the argument, and even the postulate altogether. It is the purpose of this article to challenge these claims, arguing instead that (a) there is overwhelming textual evidence showing that Kant did not abandon the postulate; (b) the second (...) Critique does not contain a substantially different argument for the postulate than how it is argued for in the first Critique; and (c) the philosophical objections levied against the second Critique’s argument, including its putative substitution of holiness for virtue, become moot once its argument is better understood. (shrink)

"Davidson begins by harking back to an early interest in the classics, and an even earlier engagement with the workings of grammar. In the pleasures of diagramming sentences in grade school, he locates his first glimpse into the mechanics of how we conduct the most important activities in our life - such as declaring love, asking directions, issuing orders, and telling stories. Davidson connects these essential questions with the most basic and yet hard to understand mysteries of language use - (...) how we connect noun to verb. This is a problem that Plato and Aristotle wrestled with, and Davidson draws on their thinking to show how an understanding of linguistic behavior is critical to the formulating of a workable concept of truth. Against a whole army of contemporary philosophers, Davidson argues that the concept of truth is not ambiguous.". (shrink)

Logic and Computation is concerned with techniques for formal theorem-proving, with particular reference to Cambridge LCF (Logic for Computable Functions). Cambridge LCF is a computer program for reasoning about computation. It combines methods of mathematical logic with domain theory, the basis of the denotational approach to specifying the meaning of statements in a programming language. This book consists of two parts. Part I outlines the mathematical preliminaries: elementary logic and domain theory. They are explained at an intuitive level, giving references (...) to more advanced reading. Part II provides enough detail to serve as a reference manual for Cambridge LCF. It will also be a useful guide for implementors of other programs based on the LCF approach. (shrink)

In the Treatise of Human Nature , Hume argues that, because we have adequate ideas of the smallest parts of space, we can infer that space itself must conform to our representations of it. The paper examines two challenges to this argument based on Descartes's and Locke's treatments of adequate ideas, ideas that fully capture the objects they represent. The first challenge, posed by Arnauld in his Objections to the Meditations , asks how we can know that an idea is (...) adequate. The second challenge, implicit in Locke's Essay , asks how an empiricist can characterize an idea as inadequate, as both picking out an object and yet failing to capture it fully. In showing how Hume responds to these challenges, his theory of perceptual representation is explained and his treatment of space is related to his scepticism. His conclusion is shown not to be a characterization of space as it exists wholly apart from our powers of conception. Instead, in an adumbration of Kant, his claim is restricted to space as it appears to us. (shrink)

The study of the physical world had its origins in philosophy, and, two-and-one-half millennia later, the scientific advances of the twentieth century are bringing the two fields closer together again. So argues Lawrence Sklar in this brilliant new text on the philosophy of physics.Aimed at students of both disciplines, Philosophy of Physics is a broad overview of the problems of contemporary philosophy of physics that readers of all levels of sophistication should find accessible and engaging. Professor Sklar’s talent for (...) clarity and accuracy is on display throughout as he guides students through the key problems: the nature of space and time, the problems of probability and irreversibility in statistical mechanics, and, of course, the many notorious problems raised by quantum mechanics.Integrated by the theme of the interconnectedness of philosophy and science, and linked by many references to the history of both disciplines, Philosophy of Physics is always clear, while remaining faithful to the complexity and integrity of the issues. It will take its place as a classic text in a field of fundamental intellectual importance. (shrink)