The objective of this paper is to investigate, through a qualitative study based on 38 semi-structured interviews with agents who provide assurance of sustainability reports, how they perceive and manage ethical issues underlying the verification of sustainability reports. Most of the ethical issues observed involve four interconnected aspects: the commercialism underlying sustainability assurance, the symbolic nature of the verification process, interdependency between auditing and consulting activities, and familiarity with the audited companies. The findings shed light on the reflexivity of assurance (...) providers on these issues and the legitimation strategies used to explain how they reconcile the independence and impartiality required for auditing activities with commercial aspects related to client–provider relationships. The study also shows the role of contextual variables in the ethics of assurance services. The paper contributes to the literature on the legitimacy of sustainability assurance and commercialism of the audit function. Practical implications and avenues for future research are also developed. (shrink)

This book investigates Hermann Weyl’s work on the problem of space from the early 1920s onwards. It presents new material and opens the philosophical problem of space anew, crossing the disciplines of mathematics, history of science and philosophy. With a Kantian starting point Weyl asks: among all the infinitely many conceivable metrical spaces, which one applies to the physical world? In agreement with general relativity, Weyl acknowledges that the metric can quantitatively vary with the physical situation. Despite this freedom, Weyl (...) “deduces”, with group-theoretical technicalities, that there is only one “kind” of legitimate metric. This construction was then decisive for the development of gauge theories. Nevertheless, the question of the foundations of the metric of physical theories is only a piece of a wider epistemological problem. Contributing authors mark out the double trajectory that goes through Weyl’s texts, from natural science to philosophy and conversely, always through the mediation of mathematics. Readers may trace the philosophical tradition to which Weyl refers and by which he is inspired, and explore the mathematical tradition that permitted Weyl to elaborate and solve his mathematical problem of space. Furthermore, this volume analyzes the role of the interlocutors with whom Weyl discussed the nature of physical space. This volume features the work of top specialists and will appeal to postgraduates and scholars in philosophy, the history of science, mathematics, or physics. (shrink)

Dans le Continu, Hermann Weyl donne une nouvelle assise aux notions d’ensemble et de fonction, pour assurer aux mathématiques leur applicabilité à la physique, et résoudre ainsi le problème du continu. Les notions introduites, éloignées de la théorie des ensembles, prêtent à confusion et à multiples interprétations.Nous nous proposons d’éclairer le sens du déplacement que Weyl opère dans ces notions. Nous présentons une synthèse des thèses épistémologiques soutenues dans Le Continu et résolvons certains problèmes interprétatifs. Par une approche comparative, nous (...) soulignons l’écart entre les principes logico-mathématiques du Continu et ceux de la théorie des ensembles. Nous nous centrons sur la distinction entre intension et extension, et sur la place attribuée aux entiers naturels pour le fondement des mathématiques. (shrink)

Dans le Continu, Hermann Weyl donne une nouvelle assise aux notions d’ensemble et de fonction, pour assurer aux mathématiques leur applicabilité à la physique, et résoudre ainsi le problème du continu. Les notions introduites, éloignées de la théorie des ensembles, prêtent à confusion et à multiples interprétations.Nous nous proposons d’éclairer le sens du déplacement que Weyl opère dans ces notions. Nous présentons une synthèse des thèses épistémologiques soutenues dans Le Continu et résolvons certains problèmes interprétatifs. Par une approche comparative, nous (...) soulignons l’écart entre les principes logico-mathématiques du Continu et ceux de la théorie des ensembles. Nous nous centrons sur la distinction entre intension et extension, et sur la place attribuée aux entiers naturels pour le fondement des mathématiques. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the analysis of the remarks of Gödel's Maxims and Philosophical remarks (Max Phil) that present a solution to the paradoxes of set theory, and to the analysis of the context. It is divided in two parts. The first part contains two remarks from the notebook IX, (pp. 48b, 51) on the question of the strategies for the solution of paradoxes. They clearly show Gödel’s preference for the strategy of limited ranges of significance. The reasons why (...) Gödel was also interested in the other strategies suggested by Russell is explained through two remarks of Max Phil IX (pp.69 and 72b) The second part presents a remark from Max Phil X (p. 28-29), and explains it from the perspective of Gödel analysis of concepts in the early 1943. (shrink)