This article carries out a critical analysis of the discourse/practice of Business Ethics that has developed to an unprecedented extent in the last decade or so. It argues that in the late-modern global political economy (GPE) there develops a form of a Gramscian hegemony of transnational capital and the discourse/practice of Business Ethics can be seen as a form of moral leadership in the context of the emerging hegemonic order.

This article examines the relationship between global poverty and terrorism. The approach is built around a concept of ‘social bandit’ developed by Eric Hobsbawm. By social bandits, Hobsbawm refers to those outlaws in pre-capitalist societies who robbed the rich, and gave to the poor. What was common to social bandits is a myth that surrounded their activity, and a strong popular sympathy and support. This article uses Hobsbawm's notion of social bandit to deal with the fact that in today's international (...) setting, particularly in the context of huge international inequality and widespread poverty in the non-western world, violence against western states, particularly the United States, enjoys significant sympathy elsewhere. This is not only an outcome of inequality and has to do with other factors, particularly certain political or military actions of the USA and other western states, but what is important to note here is that violence perpetrated by terrorists is directed at those who are seen as beneficiaries of the existing order, of international inequalities and injustices. In short, the operation of the international order, its asymmetries and inequalities, riches and wealth in developed countries and poverty and misery elsewhere, seems to play a role in the creation of such social bandits, and in providing them with support and legitimacy which they otherwise would not have had. (shrink)

This article carries out a critical analysis of the discourse/practice of Business Ethics that has developed to an unprecedented extent in the last decade or so. It argues that in the late-modern global political economy (GPE) there develops a form of a Gramscian hegemony of transnational capital and the discourse/practice of Business Ethics can be seen as a form of moral leadership in the context of the emerging hegemonic order.

This paper offers several new insights into the epistemology of immunity to error through misidentification, by refining James Pryor’s distinction between de re misidentification and wh-misidentification. This is crucial for identifying exactly what is at issue in debates over the Immunity thesis that, roughly, all introspection-based beliefs about one’s own occurrent psychological states are immune to error through misidentification. I contend that the debate between John Campbell and Annalisa Coliva over whether the phenomenon of thought insertion provides empirical evidence against (...) claims like Immunity has wrongly focused on de re misidentification and largely overlooked the role of wh-misidentification. I argue that, once we properly distinguish the two notions, subjects of thought insertion can be seen to make an error of wh-misidentification in their judgments. I argue that this disproves the Immunity thesis, properly understood, and show what broader implications this has for our understanding of IEM and the first person. (shrink)

Stewart Shapiro has objected to the epistemicist theory of vagueness on grounds that it gives counterintuitive predictions about cases involving conditional obligation. This paper details a response on the epistemicist’s behalf. I first argue that Shapiro’s own presentation of the objection is unsuccessful as an argument against epistemicism. I then reconstruct and offer two alternative arguments inspired by Shapiro’s considerations, and argue that these fail too, given the information-sensitive nature of conditional obligations.

Epistemicists claim that if it is vague whether p, it is unknowable whether p. Some contest this on epistemic grounds: vague intuitions about vague matters need not fully preclude knowledge, if those intuitions are response-dependent in some special sense of enabling vague knowledge. This paper defends the epistemicist principle that vagueness entails ignorance against such objections. I argue that not only is response-dependence an implausible characterization of actual vague matters, its mere possibility poses no threat to epistemicism and is properly (...) accounted for by the epistemicist’s own principles. (shrink)

Sorensen has argued that one can exploit the vagueness of an ordinary predicate like ‘small’ to induce a sort of vagueness in ‘vague’, by constructing a series of predicates of the form ‘n-small’, where x is n- small if and only if x is small or x n. The resulting ‘Sorensen’ed’ predicates present a Sorites case for ‘vague’ ; hence the vagueness of ‘vague’. Hyde argues that this demonstrates that all vague predicates are higher-order vague. Others doubt whether Sorensen’s series (...) really delivers such a result, claiming Hyde’s argument to be either: unsound, because it misidentifies the true source of vagueness in Sorensen’s Sorites ; invalid, because it fails to generalize to all vague predicates ; or circular, because it presupposes the very thing it tries to prove, namely, higher-order vagueness. This paper contributes to the Sorensen-Hyde vs. Tye-Deas-Hull-Varzi debate by clarifying the relations between vague vagueness and higher-order vagueness. I show how claims of higher-order vagueness are derivable from claims of vague vagueness. This is the missing piece needed to complete Hyde’s argument and overcome the objections presented by Deas, Hull, Tye, and Varzi. I then show how Sorensen’s considerations, once properly generalized, pose more far-reaching consequences about the vagueness of ‘vague’ than either defenders or critics of Hyde’s argument have appreciated. (shrink)

Višestoljetni model Crkve kao zajednice laika i klerika koji ju inspiriraju i vode, ulazi u funkcionalnu krizu. U doba revolucija i liberalizma laici se nalaze u novim, često oprečnim ulogama: vjernika odanih Crkvi i građana lojalnih sekularnom društvu. Tražeći izlaz iz krize, Crkva se oslanja na sposobnost demokratskog djelovanja laika koji svojim društvenim nastupom promiču kršćanske vrijednosti, ali se i bore za politička prava Crkve. Uz političke stranke katoličke inspiracije posebnu ulogu ima organizirani katolički laikat, kulturno i moralno oblikujući laičke (...) staleže. Pretpovijest nastanka katoličkoga laičkog pokreta (Katoličke akcije) daje uvide u složenost društava druge polovice XIX. i početka XX. st., ali i zavidnu razinu inventivnosti i laika i hijerarhije u aktiviranju laika, što će postati epohalni uspjeh Crkve XX. stoljeća. (shrink)

I propose a novel solution to the Sorites Paradox. The account vindicates the tolerance of vague predicates in a way that properly addresses the normativity of vagueness while avoiding sorites contradiction, by treating sorites reasoning as a type of defeasible reasoning. I show how this can be done within the setting of a nonmonotonic deontic logic. Central to the proposal is its deontic interpretation of tolerance. I draw a key distinction between two types of tolerance, based on different deontic notions, (...) and show how the account captures key differences between these types of sorites reasoning. I compare the resulting theory to various existing contextualist proposals and argue that it better accounts for the normative aspects of sorites reasoning. (shrink)

La flexibilidad y la mercantilización de lo espiritual ¿son aspectos característicos de la cultura contemporánea? Centrado en los casos de Alemania, Inglaterra y Francia, el artículo detalla cómo el romanticismo literario se articula como un movimiento pionero de la espiritualidad flexible, proceso que se entrelaza con su rol seminal en la formación del campo literario moderno. El crecimiento económico y demográfico sostenidos en Europa desde el s. XV, así como la alfabetización impulsada por el protestantismo, construyen un moderno público lector (...) que da pie —durante el s. XVIII— a la revolución y diversificación de la lectura, lo que promueve la difusión de incipientes tendencias modernas (ciencia, Ilustración, prensa). Oponiéndose parcialmente a estas tendencias y extendiendo la diversificación de lo impreso, surge la tendencia romántica. Sus autores flexibilizan la espiritualidad más allá de las convenciones religiosas de la época —y aportan a la formación del campo literario— (1) caracterizando el desencanto y otras formas de malestar moderno; (2) multiplicando el lenguaje imaginario-trascendente; (3) brindando connotaciones metafísicas al genio artístico; (4) promoviendo la autonomía y libertad expresiva del arte. La evidencia indica que el mercado fue una condición histórica básica para la EF. Se sugiere que esta flexibilidad se muestra como una adaptación de la espiritualidad a las circunstancias empíricas de la modernidad, la cual conlleva nuevas necesidades de sentido y una mayor capacidad para divergir de los relatos religiosos tradicionales. (shrink)

En la t eoría de la acción comunicat iva habermasiana nos enf rentamos al problema de la validez de cat egorías del ent endimiento comunicativo, que est án fácticamente enormemente cuestionadas. Es decir, Habermas ha definido al in terior del apart ado “Desacoplamiento de sistema y mundo de la vida” una sist emática de las f ormas de entendimiento. Allí aparecen doce f ormas de entendimiento que art iculan la di ferenciación de esf eras de validez con á mbitos de (...) acción que evolucionan socialmente desde f ormas de ent endimiento primitivas preconvencionales hacia las má s avanzadas postconvencionales, llegando así hasta las dos últimas categorías (11 y 12) que Haberma s denomina forma moderna de entendimiento y que es el punto de partida de su teoría de la modernidad. Sin embargo, a este sistema categorial, debe hoy enfrentar una realidad completamente distinta a la del mundo moderno t ardo-capitalismo, que opera como ref erente fáctico de la t eoría. La nueva realidad consiste en una globalización sist émica que ha puest o en espacios nacio nales específicos a una pluralidad de mundos de la vida que van desde el preconvencional al postconvencional. Es decir, hoy, en el cuadro de la figura 28 presentado por Habermas en TAC 1981, II, todas las categorías aparecerían juntas, aunque diferenciadas en grados de evolución, y en un espacio y tiempo presente y continuo. Por tanto, hoy, cuando Habermas habla de Europa y del Estado de derecho democrático habla d esde el principio del discurso, o desde presupuestos teóricos comunicativos; cuando aborda temáticas referidas a integración social intercultural lo hace de sde una racionalidad del sentido común democrático (common sense) al que deben subordinarse esas otras tradiciones culturales. Cómo opera este common sense en la raciona lidad comunicativa de J. Habermas es el t ema de nuest ra exposición. Es de cir, nuestro objetivo será determinar génesis y estructura de la categoría de common sense en la obra de Habermas, y sus implicancias e pistemológicas y socio-éticas para pensar sistemáticamente una integración social int ercultural. Y con ello evaluar críticamente si t anto, la t eoría de la acción comunicativa como el discurso int ercultural de Habermas basa do en este common s ense, son apropiados o no, para pensar las patologías de exclusión social presentes hoy en América Latina. (shrink)

Et si on appliquait à la philosophie la méthodologie du physicien? L'inexplicable constat des limitations inhérentes à toute réalité expérimentée inciterait à poser en théorie l'hypothèse d'un modèle exempt de ces limitations d'où pourrait procéder la réalité limitée telle que nous la vivons. Et si par déduction on en arrivait à des résultats scientifiquement plausibles, l'aventure à laquelle nous serions alors conviés serait de décoder l'univers comme une anamorphose. Sous la forme d'un dialogue, ce livre met en débat la pensée (...) originale de Pierre Malifaud qui ouvre ensuite à des problématiques plus englobantes. (shrink)

El siglo XXI ha estado marcado por innumerables protestas callejeras en diferentes regiones del mundo desatadas a su vez por disímiles coyunturas políticas. El artículo tiene dos objetivos: primero, proponer las emociones políticas de la rabia, el resentimiento y el deseo de reconocimiento como categorías interpretativas de las expresiones de inconformidad ciudadanas frente a la política contemporánea. Segundo, advertir que la incapacidad de las democracias liberales para domesticar la violencia constituye uno de los mayores fracasos de la modernidad política. Así, (...) a partir de la lectura crítica de los filósofos políticos contemporáneos más relevantes en el ámbito occidental, ambos objetivos mostrarán que la crisis de las democracias liberales y del capitalismo tiene raíces estructurales y que demandan la reinvención del paradigma triunfante en 1989 conocido como el Fin de la Historia. (shrink)

El artículo presenta las críticas más importantes a la forma como la filosofía política liberal de John Rawls aborda el problema del carácter público de los argumentos filosóficos y religiosos en la sociedad pluralista contemporánea, en el entendido que tales críticas manifiestan los dilemas que tiene el planteamiento rawlsiano para ser implementado prácticamente. Se sugiere también que el autor le otorga a dichos argumentos un carácter semipúblico en el debate político, toda vez que mantiene cierta sospecha sobre su potencial para (...) desestabilizar una sociedad democrática. De este modo se pone en evidencia la seria dificultad de establecer una propuesta liberal de la justicia que eluda totalmente la cuestión del bien. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the Protestant Reformation in increasing the education of European society in the XVI-XVII centuries. The article discusses the reasons for the flourishing of education and science in this era. Scientific novelty is manifested in a comprehensive study of the consequences of the Reformation, which, mutually influencing each other, eventually led to an increase in the level of education in Europe. As a result, it was established that the Reformation democratized (...) the spiritual, political and socio-economic aspects of life, introduced the principles of freedom of conscience, faith without mediation, encouragement of entrepreneurship, universality of education, the need for each person to study the Scriptures independently, personal responsibility to God and others, which contributed to the development of science and education, as well as the formation of a new public consciousness. (shrink)

Philosophers often focus on topics such as death and old age, and much less on other stages of life. The British-American philosopher Kienan Setiya (2017) has recently taken on the topic of middle age from a philosophical perspective and offered suggestions for dealing with the angst often associated with mid-age. His suggestions are based on both his own experiences and practical thoughts based on his readings of other philosophers during their mid-life periods. My own contribution is to describe his thoughts (...) and add a few observations of my own. (shrink)

Matija Vlačić Ilirik was one of the pillars of Luther’s Reformation. In a special way, he dedicated himself to one of its most important issues – the understanding of the Scriptures, and can, therefore, be considered a significant instigator of the founding of modern hermeneutics. As an excellent connoisseur of classical languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin) he recognized the importance and dealt with many issues of language, grammar, logic, and dialectic, as essential prerequisites for understanding everything which exists, and hence (...) of the written text also. In this connection, his skepticism towards philosophy is apparent, since the main source of theological cognition, for him, is revelation, and not the human reason, which was principally destroyed by Original Sin. He found the confirmation of his ideas in the current debates with both proponents and opponents of the Reformation, as well as in his research into church history, wherein he incessantly tried to find the witnesses of the truth, as he perceived it. (shrink)

Because research involving human subjects exposes people to risk not always for their own potential benefit, the question arises as to how best ensure that: research participants are protected and benefited according to the highest ethical standards, while, on the other hand, researchers are protected and free to do research that will produce clinical advances for both research participants and society as a whole.The balancing of the risk to research participants versus the benefits derived from the research is performed in (...) many counrries by a system for the protection of human research participants that is laid out in national laws and regulations. In the United States, this system is based on principles emanating from the Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki,and the report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (shrink)

In the contemporary literature, the most authoritative on the definition of art is the institutional theory that emerged as a response to the radicalizations in modern art associated with ready-made, pop art, conceptualism and other movements. In familiar versions of institutional theory, the participants in the so-called “artworld” (Arthur Danto's term) are enumerated “rhapsodically”, to use Kant's famous expression. In this context, the article is an attempt to “deduce the categories” by which art is defined, using the categorizing positions of (...) the participants in this “artworld”. In order to justify the approach and to relate the problematic to traditional philosophical issues, a brief overview of the “doctrine of categories” (Kategorienlehre) is given. (shrink)

This paper attempts to compare the positions of Jan Patočka and Pavel Kouba concerning Friedrich Nietzsche and thus to show the role of his philosophy in the Czech phenomenology. The difference between Patočka and Kouba is that Patočka (in a similar way as Heidegger) understands Nietzsche still as a representative of traditional metaphysics (although brought to the utmost frontier), whereas Kouba succeeds to incorporate Nietzsche in the corpus of phenomenological thought and adopt his basic ideas for the specific understanding of (...) the world and of the position of Man in the world. In Kouba’s concept, Nietzsche is not just a figure from the history of philosophy, but an interesting focus around which phenomenological self-reflection can gravitate. (shrink)

Because research involving human subjects exposes people to risk not always for their own potential benefit, the question arises as to how best ensure that: research participants are protected and benefited according to the highest ethical standards, while, on the other hand, researchers are protected and free to do research that will produce clinical advances for both research participants and society as a whole.The balancing of the risk to research participants versus the benefits derived from the research is performed in (...) many counrries by a system for the protection of human research participants that is laid out in national laws and regulations. In the United States, this system is based on principles emanating from the Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki,and the report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (shrink)

The article tries to show, from the phenomenological posi­tion, that it must be possible to reflect on so called pre-linguistic experience. The argumenta­tion is based on a disputation with a symptomatic example used by Wittgen-stein to substan­tiate his language games theory. The analysis of the example at­tempts to indicate that the language games theory, which has to justify the rejection of the existence of pre-linguistic experience, meets with discre-pancies and difficulties which limit the range of this theory to a certain (...) extent. Because it presupposes the existence of „private“, experiential sphere in which – even before language and verbali­zation enter the game – the struc­turing of the world, identifi­cation of things and an elementary under-stan­ding of these processes must be realized. It seems that the dis-cussion on this topic is not only a spe­cific polemic over one problem that can be found in Wittgenstein, but has wider implications because the language games concept in the form of various „discourses“, „vocabularies“ or „cultures“ has found great favour in contemporary postmo­dern philo­sophy. On its basis postmodern philosophy very radi­cally crosses out the world, profanes its rational, objec­tive description and calls for free variation of different interpretations – their legitimacy is authenti­cated only by a consensus of their users. In this dispute, phe­nome­nology does not declare that there is a single true description of the world and that it is possible to find a reliable criterion for its definite legiti­mization. It does, however, draw on the fact that so called pre-linguistic expe­rience does not succumb to the variability of langu­age games and the interests of its users, but that it more and more cle­arly reflects the unitary and scru­table style of showing the real, ob­jectively given world even though this al­ways happens in se­emingly impalpable subjective acts. (shrink)

This essay follows the strategy of Kant’s »Copernican Turn« bearing pragmatic features. It tries to show that this strategy is unjustified, that it forms theses about the character of reality and that it cannot provide the basis for »antirealism« developed – following Kant – by Richard Rorty. These problems indicate deficiencies of nominalist empiricism which Kant hasn’t managed to refute, and which today calls for further critical analyses of experience. Phenomenology in this context proves to be of particular importance.

This paper attempts to compare the positions of Jan Patočka and Pavel Kouba concerning Friedrich Nietzsche and thus to show the role of his philosophy in the Czech phenomenology. The difference between Patočka and Kouba is that Patočka (in a similar way as Heidegger) understands Nietzsche still as a representative of traditional metaphysics (although brought to the utmost frontier), whereas Kouba succeeds to incorporate Nietzsche in the corpus of phenomenological thought and adopt his basic ideas for the specific understanding of (...) the world and of the position of Man in the world. In Kouba’s concept, Nietzsche is not just a figure from the history of philosophy, but an interesting focus around which phenomenological self-reflection can gravitate. (shrink)

This paper attempts to compare the positions of Jan Patočka and Pavel Kouba concerning Friedrich Nietzsche and thus to show the role of his philosophy in the Czech phenomenology. The difference between Patočka and Kouba is that Patočka (in a similar way as Heidegger) understands Nietzsche still as a representative of traditional metaphysics (although brought to the utmost frontier), whereas Kouba succeeds to incorporate Nietzsche in the corpus of phenomenological thought and adopt his basic ideas for the specific understanding of (...) the world and of the position of Man in the world. In Kouba’s concept, Nietzsche is not just a figure from the history of philosophy, but an interesting focus around which phenomenological self-reflection can gravitate. (shrink)

The present-day viewing of poverty in a predominantly economic perspective is neither “natural”, nor self-evident, nor the only possible viewpoint. The perception of poverty is always part of an integral worldview. This article aims to shed more light on some elements of a somewhat unconscious construction of the world, which predetermine various views on poverty in different societies and civilizations. Here the codes are thought of as the most general ways and modes of perception of social reality, and general strategies (...) of behavior within that reality. These codes characterize the specific stances of practical subjects, stances that represent an alloy of perception and action. Two types of codes are distinguished: structural and formative. The structural codes are only two in number: the dual and the hierarchic, while the formative specifically characterize an individual culture or civilization. The different types are reconstructed with reference to a number of historical studies. Among the formative codes, special attention is devoted to those specific for the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic civilizations. (shrink)

Consideration of the property of action is proposed to provide a more meaningful definition of efficient energy use and sustainable production in ecosystems. Action has physical dimensions similar to angular momentum, its magnitude varying with mass, spatial configuration and relative motion. In this article, the relationship of action to thermodynamic processes such as the spontaneous increase in entropy of the second law is explained and the utility of action for measuring changes in energy and material distribution is promoted. In particular, (...) the view that increases in entropy and action are equivalent to disorder is challenged. Given that the development of action states may be assigned an economic value and the various sources of free energy assigned a price, action theory may provide a novel mechanism for the economic allocation of resources. The importance of the diversity and redundancy of energy resources and work processes to optimize action is highlighted. (shrink)

Euromaidan and dignity revolution, which further continues, clearly show that without change in the national policy of culture change the country will be very difficult. It's tactics and strategy formation space of life for the citizens of Ukraine, information about Ukrainian and country in the world, formed throughout history and established in today's harmful and humiliating stereotypes, myths. Obviously the official state culture has long been not satisfied an active, creative part of society. Outside the official data analysis of cultural (...) policy meet in publications, cultural in content, authored by writers, critics, scholars and public figures. Balance cultural processes, that attitude to culture as an important tool strengthening state sovereignty on the political, spiritual, economic and other levels and other levels within Ukraine and abroad ensured civil society. They monitor cultural processes. Among the most notable, sharp and accurate assessments of cultural policy is advisable to allocate positions L. Kostenko, I. Dziuba, O. Zabuzhko, M. Riabchuk and other lesser-known experts. These persons is difficult to accuse of bias. In the article was put goal disclose the relationship to the national cultural policy of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and civil society experts, that are recognized in Ukraine and the world. (shrink)