This paper studies proof systems for the logics of super-strict implication ST2–ST5, which correspond to C.I. Lewis’ systems S2–S5 freed of paradoxes of strict implication. First, Hilbert-style axiomatic systems are introduced and shown to be sound and complete by simulating STn in Sn and backsimulating Sn in STn, respectively(for n=2,...,5). Next, G3-style labelled sequent calculi are investigated. It is shown that these calculi have the good structural properties that are distinctive of G3-style calculi, that they are sound and complete, and (...) it is shown that the proof search for G3. ST2 is terminating and therefore the logic is decidable. (shrink)

This paper studies proof systems for the logics of super-strict implication \(\textsf{ST2}\) – \(\textsf{ST5}\), which correspond to C.I. Lewis’ systems \(\textsf{S2}\) – \(\textsf{S5}\) freed of paradoxes of strict implication. First, Hilbert-style axiomatic systems are introduced and shown to be sound and complete by simulating \(\textsf{STn}\) in \(\textsf{Sn}\) and backsimulating \(\textsf{Sn}\) in \(\textsf{STn}\), respectively (for \({\textsf{n}} =2, \ldots, 5\) ). Next, \(\textsf{G3}\) -style labelled sequent calculi are investigated. It is shown that these calculi have the good structural properties that are distinctive (...) of \(\textsf{G3}\) -style calculi, that they are sound and complete, and it is shown that the proof search for \(\mathsf {G3.ST2}\) is terminating and therefore the logic is decidable. (shrink)

Abstract:We discuss the role that transnational corporations (TNCs) should play in developing global governance, creating a framework of rules and regulations for the global economy. The central issue is whether TNCs should provide global rules and guarantee individual citizenship rights, or instead focus on maximizing profits. First, we describe the problems arising from the globalization process that affect the relationship between public rules and private firms. Next we consider the position of economic and management theories in relation to the social (...) responsibility of the firm. We argue that instrumental stakeholder theory and business and society research can only partially solve the global governance issue, and that more recent concepts of corporate citizenship and republican business ethics deliver theoretically and practically helpful, fresh insights. However, even these need further development, especially with regard to the legitimacy of corporate political activity. (shrink)

Donor conceived persons are likely to have a lower quality of life than persons who are genetically related to both parents. Empirical evidence is presented to corroborate this point. The evidence is subdivided into three sections: (1) negative experience of the donor conception itself, (2) negative effects of secrecy and openness and (3) negative effects of donor anonymity and donor identifiability. The principle of procreative beneficence requires parents to select the child with the best possible life. Given the difference in (...) quality of life, intended parents should try to have a genetically related child. This finding is also a strong reason for society to invest public resources in the development of techniques that enable people to create genetically related children. (shrink)

In this paper we study AGM contraction and revision of rules using input/output logical theories. We replace propositional formulas in the AGM framework of theory change by pairs of propositional formulas, representing the rule based character of theories, and we replace the classical consequence operator Cn by an input/output logic. The results in this paper suggest that, in general, results from belief base dynamics can be transferred to rule base dynamics, but that a similar transfer of AGM theory change to (...) rule change is much more problematic. First, we generalise belief base contraction to rule base contraction, and show that two representation results of Hansson still hold for rule base contraction. Second, we show that the six so-called basic postulates of AGM contraction are consistent only for some input/output logics, but not for others. In particular, we show that the notorious recovery postulate can be satisfied only by basic output, but not by simple-minded output. Third, we show how AGM rule revision can be defined in terms of AGM rule contraction using the Levi identity. We highlight various topics for further research. (shrink)

The goal of this paper was to investigate whether and how a firm that engages in different kinds of corporate social performance can create a favorable corporate reputation among its stakeholders, and as a result achieve a good financial performance. Building on stakeholder theory, we distinguish two types of reputation—reputation among public stakeholders and reputation among financial stakeholders. We argue that CSP activities affect these two reputations differently. In addition, we empirically test the relationship among different types of CSP, reputation (...) among public and financial stakeholders, and financial performance. Our results suggest that Carroll’s four types of CSP affect financial performance differently, and their effects are mediated by reputation among public and financial stakeholders. Our findings provide guidelines for managers on choosing to emphasize certain CSP aspects in their communication, depending on the specific stakeholder group they are targeting. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to provide a description, an analysis and an explanation of Mitteleuropa and of other closely related concepts, such as East-Central Europe. The first section briefly addresses the broad historiographical issues. The second addresses the more strictly political and intellectual history of the concept in the period between 1975 and 1989 while the third section will describe the evolution of the concept after the end of the Cold War. The final part outlines the future directions (...) in which the concept will change. (shrink)

Ha scritto Adorno: «la verità hegeliana non è più nel tempo, come era quella del nominalismo, e non è al di sopra del tempo, alla maniera ontologica: il tempo diventa per Hegel un suo momento». Un movimento complesso intreccia e separa l’eternità del Concetto dalla sua realtà temporale: la comprensione più precisa di questo rapporto resta una chiave di interpretazione fondamentale dell’idealismo hegeliano. Di questo problema la Fenomenologia dello Spirito offre un'immagine indicativa: racconta l’innalzamento della coscienza naturale fino al Sapere (...) Assoluto, che trascende il tempo. Il presente studio scorge nella memoria il motore di questa progressione: analizzando anche gli altri testi jenesi, l’autore ricostruisce la capacità speculativa della memoria, in grado di trasformare il passato temporale nel passato senza tempo dell’attività del pensiero. Una trasformazione, tuttavia, che supera il tempo nella stessa misura in cui ne rende visibile la qualità storica. (shrink)

This article examines the philosophical implications underlying Bacon's views on historical knowledge, paying special attention to that variety of historical knowledge described by Bacon as “natural.” More specifically, this article explores the interplay of history and fable. In the sphere of thought, fabula is the equivalent to materia in nature. Both are described by Bacon as being “versatile” and “pliant.” In Bacon's system of knowledge, philosophy, as the domain of reason, starts from historiae and fabulae, once memory and the imagination (...) have fulfilled their cognitive tasks. This means that, for Bacon, there is no such thing as a pure use of reason. He advocates a kind of reason that, precisely because it is involved with matter's inner motions, is constitutively 'impure'. The article shows how the terms historia and fabula cover key semantic areas in defining Bacon's philosophy: historia may mean “history” as well as “story,” fabula “myth” as well “story.” In both cases, we can see significant oscillations from a stronger meaning to a weaker one, as if the power of nature decreases moving from histories and myths to stories. On the other hand, there are cases in which Bacon seems to stick to a diachronic view of the meaning of fables and histories, such that the transition from myths to history, especially natural history, is described as a collective effort towards reality and enlightenment. (shrink)

While the transmission of Greek philosophy and science via the Muslim world to western Europe in the Middle Ages has been closely scrutinized, the fate of the Arabic philosophical and scientific legacy in later centuries has received less attention, a fault this volume aims to correct. The authors in this collection discuss in particular the radical ideas associated with Averroism that are attributed to the Aristotle commentator Ibn Rushd (1126-1198) and challenge key doctrines of the Abrahamic religions. This volume examines (...) what happened to Averroes's philosophy during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Did early modern thinkers really no longer pay any attention to the Commentator? Were there undercurrents of Averroism after the sixteenth century? How did Western authors in this period contextualise Averroes and Arabic philosophy within their own cultural heritage? How different was the Averroes they created as a philosopher in a European tradition from Ibn Rushd, the theologian, jurist and philosopher of the Islamic tradition? (shrink)

This article aims to explore the debate on human enhancement from the perspective of the evolutions of responsibility paradigms, and in particular from the perspective of the so-called Responsible Research and Innovation approach. The aim is not to explore the arguments pro or contra the ethical legitimacy and/or technical feasibility of human enhancement, but rather exploring if, and how, the RRI perspective can shape the debate on human enhancement.In particular, the human enhancement debate will be read through the lenses of (...) four main responsibility paradigms that we sketch by examining both, the historical and conceptual evolution of the responsibility idea and the dynamics of its ascription. In order to provide a useful scheme for interpreting human enhancement, RRI will be characterised as a distinctive responsibility model that can subsequently be used to frame the debate on HE with a particular emphasis on its normative implications, as well as on its social and political significance. (shrink)

Most attempts at parliamentary reform in Belgium are prompted by the desire to support a Parliament which is being marginalized by political actors such as the government and the parties. These efforts are inspired by traditional constitutional thinking. Initially parliaments were designed as democratie bodies which should challenge the aristocratie government. Nowadays, parliament has quite another function. It has to facilitate the political information and to counteract the incompetence of citizens who are willing but unable to participate in an increasingly (...) complex political system.Reform should aim at restoring the significance ofpublic debates in parliament.In order to be informative these debates should focus on important issues of the political agenda and catch the attention of the general public. Within the constraints of our political system it should be possible to upgrade the early debates on budget allocations and the late debates on the evaluation of public policy effectiveness. (shrink)

The hypothesis to explain the often puzzling variability of political language in Parliament is that phenotypical elements of political speech such as emotionality, hostility, and oratorical style can be explained by structuralelements, that is by various aspects of the issues under debate.The data led us to criticize the more common cultural hypothesis, which would explain the variations of political language by linking it to the political culture of the members of parliament. As a result the evolutionof political language would be (...) a global one, appearing in all policy domains. This was by no means the case. The evolution of political language between 1950 and 1970 is on the contrary a strongly differentiated one.The structural hypothesis performs much better both for the short- and for the medium-term variations. The expression of hostility during parliamentary debates can be explained satisfactorily by the stakes of the game. The expression of emotion seems to stem both from these stakes and from the level of aggregation of the issue. Finally, various aspects of oratorical style, such as the invocation of values, the principled motivation of proposals and the deductive logic used to legitimize the position taken, all seem to be derived from the level of aggregation and, most of the time, from the ideological contents of the issue as well. As a result we get a profile of political language which is rather tightly controlled by the opportunities and the necessities of the political agenda and much less by all kinds of extraneous factors. (shrink)

A political science program at the licenciate level is currently offered by the Department of the Political and the Social Sciences at the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen. It was able to do so with the cooperation of staff-members of other departments and other institutes of the University of Antwerp. The prÓgram is mainly focused on international polities and more specifically on European integration, North-South and East-West relations, as seen from the perspective of Belgian and West-European policy-makers. lts methodology is multidisciplinary and (...) encompasses politological and juridical as well as historical and economical perspectives. In the wake of the first encouraging from the student population, the Department has decided to strenghten further this Political Science branch of its program. It intends to invest more in full-time academie personnel and to add some more theoretical background courses to the present courses which emphasize mainly practical knowledge. Last but not least, it has initiated what it hopes shall be a new tradition of empirical research into the political culture and behaviour of international and supranational policy makers. (shrink)

In the collection of poems entitled Psychodia Platonica, and in particular in the poem entitled Psychozoia, Henry More laid the groundwork for his life-long inquiry into the nature of the human self. He provided a poetic commentary of Plotinus’s Enneads in which three ontological dimensions – the life of nature, animal perception and the intellect – created an allegorical background against which one could articulate a systematic analysis of the individual human self in its relationships with God and created reality. (...) Psychozoia ended with a conversion, in which the soul of a Platonic pilgrim was released from its condition of ‘autaesthesia’ so that it was finally able to reach a state of ‘anautoaesthesia’. Significantly, More characterized this crucial shift from self-perception to the annihilation of the individual self as a motion towards ‘self-senslessnesse’ and ‘self-deadnesse’. Regardless of its aesthetic merits, More’s poem dramatizes key philosophical notions, while bringing to the fore the prodigious effervescence of his linguistic skills. In this sense, Psychozoia remains an important document to understand the evolution of More’s thought. (shrink)

In a recently published study combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), an early component of TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs), i.e., M1-P15, was proposed as a measure of transcallosal inhibition between motor cortices. Given that early TEPs are known to be highly variable, further evidence is needed before M1-P15 can be considered a reliable index of effective connectivity. Here, we conceived a new preregistered TMS-EEG study with two aims. The first aim was validating the M1-P15 as a cortical index of transcallosal (...) inhibition by replicating previous findings on its relationship with the ipsilateral silent period (iSP) and with performance in bimanual coordination. The second aim was inducing a task-dependent modulation of transcallosal inhibition. A new sample of 32 healthy right-handed participants underwent behavioral motor tasks and TMS-EEG recording, in which left and right M1 were stimulated both during bimanual tasks and during an iSP paradigm. Hypotheses and methods were preregistered before data collection. Results show a replication of our previous findings on the positive relationship between M1-P15 amplitude and the iSP normalized area. Differently, the relationship between M1-P15 latency and bimanual coordination was not confirmed. Finally, M1-P15 amplitude was modulated by the characteristics of the bimanual task the participants were performing, and not by the contralateral hand activity during the iSP paradigm. In sum, the present results corroborate our previous findings in validating the M1-P15 as a cortical marker of transcallosal inhibition and provide novel evidence of its task-dependent modulation. Importantly, we demonstrate the feasibility of preregistration in the TMS-EEG field to increase methodological rigor and transparency. (shrink)

Um mistério revelado, entre magia, alquimia e filosofia.

IL MOSTRO E L'EROE. Quando Pomponio Algieri da Nola, all’età di soli 24 anni, viene bruciato vivo a Roma in piazza Navona, Giordano Bruno di anni ne ha appena otto. Oltre che per la giovane età del condannato, l’esecuzione è insolita anche per il luogo e il metodo scelto dall’Inquisizione: anziché le solite fascine, per alimentare il fuoco viene approntato un pentolone di pece, olio e trementina, nel quale viene immersa la povera vittima.

Giordano Bruno e i cacciatori di "bufale". Quello delle fake news, le cosiddette “bufale” per intenderci, non è il solo problema che affligge il web, strumento potentissimo, che dà voce a tutti, ma in maniera incontrollata. C’è un fenomeno ancor più preoccupante: quello delle false citazioni (fake quotes).

In this article we explore the ethical issues raised by permitting patients to pay for participation (P4) in clinical trials, and discuss whether there are any categorical objections to this practice. We address key considerations concerning payment for participation in trials, including patient autonomy, risk/benefit and justice, taking account of two previous critiques of the ethics of P4. We conclude that such trials could be ethical under certain strict conditions, but only if other potential sources of funding have first been (...) explored or are unavailable. (shrink)

Il fascino di un libro, tra Reuchlin e Bruno. -/- RINASCIMENTO ESOTERICO Speciale V centenario De arte cabalistica (1517-2017) -/- Nella sua rinomata libreria antiquaria, nel cuore di Firenze, Paolo Pampaloni sta sfogliando un grazioso volumetto in ottavo, rilegato in pelle scura. Si tratta di un esemplare del De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum di Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim.

Let us imagine for a moment that God is a most accomplished cithara player who nevertheless is not playing because he does not have a cithara; in other words, he is someone who has all the skills to act in the most masterly manner, but refrains from acting due to a lack of material implements. As no bodily counterpart can match his active power, he finds himself in the awkward situation of not being able to express himself. This is the (...) conundrum that the early modern philosopher Giordano Bruno brings to the attention of his readers in De l'infinito, universo e mondi, one of the... (shrink)