Este artículo busca reflexionar sobre el problema de la identidad latinoamericana mediante la exploración de la propuesta del estudioso brasileño de literatura comparada João Cezar de Castro Rocha y su fecundo diálogo con la teoría mimética del deseo, desarrollada por el pensador francés René Girard. Rocha viene proponiendo una revisión de la historia cultural de América Latina como instancia de comprensión de la propia identidad, e invita a generar conciencia, con el fin de fortalecerla, de la que él (...) considera la estrategia de producción cultural por excelencia de nuestros pueblos, emanada de su circunstancia no hegemónica: la “poética de la emulación”. El examen de esta historia permite acuñar una tipología característica para nuestras culturas como “shakespearianas”; permite trazar líneas de transmisión simbólica, inusitadas y complejas, entre nuestras mentes más destacadas; y visibiliza la presencia de un vocabulario o campo semántico especialmente sensible frente a problemáticas propias de la construcción de “interdividualidades colectivas”. Además se convierte en un caso ejemplar de cómo el diálogo con tradiciones aparentemente ajenas puede mostrarse fructífero, relativizando precisamente la engañosa “pureza” de la dicotomía entre lo “propio” y lo “ajeno” y entre lo “original” y lo “copiado”. (shrink)

O lugar da mulher na cultura e nas tradições africanas, especialmente dos povos bantu tem sido um desafio, uma vez que por um lado temos a ancestralidade que se manifesta pela cultura e por outro a modernidade trazida pelo ocidente por meio da colonização ou da interação com outros povos. Esta pesquisa tem como objeto o estudo do livro “No Fundo do Canto” de Odete Semedo, com a finalidade de analisar a representação do feminino e do místico como identidade cultural (...) da Guiné- Bissau. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa, com objetivo descritivo-exploratório e procedimento documental. Quanto aos procedimentos metodológicos identificamos trechos de nove poemas da obra “No Fundo do Canto” que remete ao feminino e ao místico como marcas da identidade da Guiné-Bissau através dos significados construídos por meio da língua crioula, em especial. O corpus foi analisado à luz dos teóricos do porte de Augel, Hall, Semedo, Bâ, Cá e Timbane e Manuel e Timbane. Concluiu-se que a presença feminina está atrelada ao místico e remete ao poder feminino, como também demonstra características culturais de Guiné-Bissau, tendo a língua como propiciadora de formações léxico-semânticos que remetem as culturas do país. (shrink)

BIOGRAFIAS NÃO AUTORIZADAS: UMA DISCUSSÃO INÓCUA NO BRASIL?

This schedule, provided as a companion to my “Teaching Firefly” article, was used for a sophomore level philosophy course that was populated mostly by non-majors. The original idea for the course was to develop a popular culture philosophy course that would attract students from all over campus, which was meant to both introduce them to multiple philosophical ideas and theories and hopefully convince some of them to major or minor in philosophy. The course was quite successful at drawing Whedon fans (...) from across the university (after a certain amount of advertising through posters and social media). Students were very engaged with both discussions of episodes and the readings. (shrink)

Este trabajo pretende colaborar a facilitar la tarea docente del profesorado, que debe desarrollar a través de sus decisiones de departamento, la enseñanza del hecho religioso como alternativa a unas enseñanzas de las religiones confesionales, en los dos últimos cursos de la ESO y en el primer curso del Bachillerato. Este aspecto nos orienta a desarrollar el currículo de esta nueva materia, preferentemente, hacia el vector cultural y social del hecho religioso, reservado a las enseñanzas comprometidas con una determinada crrencia (...) religiosa -voluntariamente elegida por el alumnado- la preferencia en el desarrollo de los contenidos confesionales de la religión. (shrink)

In this paper we prove that the free algebras in a subvariety equation image of the variety equation image of semi-Heyting algebras are directly decomposable if and only if equation image satisfies the Stone identity.

ATIVIDADE CURRICULAR EM COMUNIDADE E SOCIEDADE E OS POVOS TRADICIONAIS: EXPERIÊNCIA DE CAMPO DO CURSO DE DIREITO DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA.

La siempre fascínate escritura rulfiana continúa dialogando con el mundo. El así conocido “escritor de las letras mexicanas”, nos sigue ofreciendo un mar de posibilidades de acercamiento a otras áreas humanísticas entre las cuáles incluimos a la filosofía. Coincidentes en la época y en la geografía mexicana, Juan Rulfo y María Zambrano se encontraron en 1939. Exponentes ejemplares y creadores de nuevos caminos en la escritura literaria y filosófica, los exponemos como paralelos a través de dos piezas claves de sus (...) obras: Pedro Páramo y Los sueños y el tiempo. La antropología zambraniana viene propuesta como uno de estos senderos creativos y creadores de la búsqueda del propio ser y del sentido mismo del existir. Dicho pronunciamiento antropológico lo exponemos como perspectiva de lectura del viaje no sólo de Juan preciado, ansioso buscador de su padre, sino de todos los lectores de Rulfo que hemos tejido con sus letras —extractoras de sueños y productoras de anhelos— la frágil cuerda que sostiene la aventura del descubrir nuestro lugar en el oscuro pozo del mundo. Realismo mágico y Razón poética en armonía propositiva que revela el origen de ambos proveniente de la misma semilla del ser. Rulfo y Zambrano nos enseñan que hay encuentros más profundos y reales que aquellos sólo históricos. (shrink)

Philosophers unknowingly subscribe to two competing conceptions of philosophy. On the inclusive conception, teaching philosophy provides a valuable social good that should be distributed as much as possible. On the traditionalist conception, certain materials and techniques constitute the way philosophy should be taught, which must be conserved. Unfortunately, the traditionalist conception clings to methods that have repeatedly produced an elitist, hierarchal version of philosophy that inhibits diverse engagement. Given the value of philosophy, philosophers have a duty to distribute philosophy to (...) a greater number of people, which requires embracing the inclusive conception. Acting towards this duty can be done by working beyond the classroom, spreading philosophy through service, and improving our teaching both to reach a more diverse audience and to follow pedagogical research, such as with experiential learning techniques. Philosophers should also ensure that the duty’s burden falls more on privileged philosophers who can take on the necessary sacrifices. (shrink)

While virtually everyone recognizes the moral permissibility of whistleblowing under certain circumstances, most theorists offer relatively conservative accounts of when it is allowed, and are reluctant to offer a full recommendation of the practice as an important tool towards addressing ethical failures in the workplace. We think that accounts such as these tend to overestimate the importance of professional or personal obligations, and underestimate the moral obligation to shine light on severe professional malfeasance. Of course, a whistleblower, even an anonymous (...) one, often faces serious threats of retaliation and harm to their professional livelihoods and well-being. To address these challenges we argue in favor of a practice that we will call Preemptive Anonymous Whistleblowing (PAW). Such whistleblowing is preemptive in that a whistleblower provides information about malfeasance to a party in a position to do something about it without first raising the worry to one’s immediate superiors. At first blush, such preemption may seem unsettling, and PAW admittedly raises a number of worrisome issues. We defend PAW, however, as part of a larger argument that whistleblowing is morally required more often than is commonly thought. The availability of PAW as an option provides a method for allaying the concern that whistleblowing can be overly burdensome due to the risks of job and career. Insofar as that concern can be allayed, it is feasible for there to be substantial moral requirements to engage in whistleblowing in cases where severe harms can be prevented. With high enough stakes, there is a moral requirement for whistleblowing. (shrink)

The central aim of the present investigation is to shed light on Nietzsche’s understanding of happiness and a good life, starting from Nietzsche’s appropriation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s doctrine of a hierarchy of human beings and forms of life.

The rise of foundational dualism and the eclipse of the body -- "Body am I entirely, and nothing else": non-reductive materialism and the struggle against dualism -- Toward a materialist phenomenology of religion -- The phenomenology of embodiment and the study of religion -- Religious bodies as social artifacts -- Holding social constructionism in check: the recovery of the active, lived body -- A cultural neurophenomenology of religion: enter the embodied mind -- The eclipse of practice: textualism at large -- (...) "Ceci n'est pas un texte": from textualism to practice -- Expanding the conversation on emplaced religion -- Mobility, networks, and ecology. (shrink)

The question whether compulsory schooling is justifiable or not has been treated at considerable length by critics, defenders, and positions in-between. What these treatments—about paternalism and autonomy and institutionalization and more—have not directly analyzed is a question that precedes the issue of overall justification: the preliminary question of time. Does it matter when compulsion takes place? Furthermore, does the timing of compulsion matter to the question of overall justification? I will argue that it does matter, but for reasons not directly (...) related to the question of overall justification. (shrink)

Deep beneath the Jack the Ripper story, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell use From Hell to argue for a philosophical thesis: Although physical violence and structural violence are quite different, they are also interconnected as each causes the other to worsen. William Gull claims that through the Ripper murders, he has “delivered” the twentieth century, as seen in his premonition of the mundane office place. In other words, Gull believes that the Ripper murders somehow played a foundational role in creating (...) twentieth-century life. This premonition suggests that horrific murders like those of the Ripper make structural violence, such as that found in the contemporary office place through wrongs such as sexual harassment, recede into the background of society where it becomes invisible and taken for granted. As Gull sees his violence as particularly connected to his misogynist worldview, From Hell makes the clearest case for the connection between physical violence and structural violence through the problem of patriarchy. (shrink)

Is there room for philosophy in educational research? Is there phenomenology before and beyond its uses and abuses in the applied and social sciences? How are phenomenology and philosophy of education related? What are the methods for phenomenology within the field of philosophy of education? These talks to educational scholars and researchers responds to these questions and appeals for place of philosophy within educational research and the tradition of phenomenology within philosophy of education. Across a genealogy of thought and frequent (...) autobiographical confessions, this book of lectures works from the simple insight that philosophy and education are not so different. (shrink)

La pena natural es una situación paradójica que se puede presentar cuando el autor de un delito, al cometerlo o a causa de éste, ha sufrido un daño igual o mayor al que padecería si el juez de la causa le aplicara la pena estatal prevista para tal conducta. Se da con frecuencia al juzgar ciertos accidentes viales, cuando el acusado ya carga el peso de ser quien, por imprudencia, mató a su pareja o familiar cercano, por ejemplo. Pero ¿en (...) qué situaciones y cómo cabe recurrir a la pena natural? En esta investigación, Manuel Serrano explora las diversas aristas y posturas en pugna que atraviesan este tema, donde se cruzan cuestiones como la idea de la “culpa compensada”, la prohibición de aplicar castigo doble por un mismo hecho (non bis in idem) y la clemencia judicial. El autor desmonta la estructura conceptual de la pena natural, estudia jurisprudencia argentina y recorre producciones teóricas de juristas que se han preocupado por este asunto complejo, profundo y poco abordado del derecho penal. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to the study of some subvarieties of the variety Q of Q-Heyting algebras, that is, Heyting algebras with a quantifier. In particular, a deeper investigation is carried out in the variety Q subscript 3 of three-valued Q-Heyting algebras to show that the structure of the lattice of subvarieties of Q is far more complicated that the lattice of subvarieties of Heyting algebras. We determine the simple and subdirectly irreducible algebras in Q subscript 3 and we construct (...) the lattice of subvarieties lambda (Q subscript 3) of the variety Q subscript 3. (shrink)

This paper discusses the logical space of alternative conceptual engineering projects, with a specific focus on (1) the processes, (2) the targets and goals, and (3) the methods of such projects. We present an overview of how these three aspects interact in the contemporary literature and discuss those alternative projects that have yet to be explored based on our suggested typology. We show how choices about each element in a conceptual engineering project constrain the possibilities for the others, thereby giving (...) rise to distinct groupings of possible projects under the banner of conceptual engineering. We conclude with a critical reflection on the potential ethical issues that arise as a result of effectively putting conceptual engineering into practice. (shrink)

A satisfactory construal of the subject matter of free will debates must allow for disagreements along two axes. First, it must allow for the possibility of higher order disagreements, or disagreements about what concepts, phenomena, or practices an account of free will is supposed to capture or explain. Second, it must allow for the fact of variation in the extent to which theories are bound by antecedent pre-philosophical thought, talk, and practices. A promising way of accommodating these two thoughts is (...) to treat free will in broadly functionalist terms. On the account proposed here, free will is a power that makes sense of everyday responsibility practices. This construal is not widely shared, but it allows for the possibility that we might have false beliefs about the nature of free will, while still making sense of central philosophical debates about free will. (shrink)

The variety O2 of double Ockham algebras consists of the algebras (A ∨, ∧, f,g 0,1) of type (2,2,1,1,0,0) where (A; ∨, ∧,f, 0,1) and (A; ∨, ∧,g 0,1) are Ockham algebras. In [16], M. Sequeira introduced several subvarieties of O2. In this paper we give a construction of free double Ockham algebras on a partially ordered set. We also describe free objects for the subvarieties of O2 considered in [16].

I analyze the deimopolitical functioning of cisgender-straight-bolsonarist masculinity as a norm of recognition characterized not only by the fear of penetrating the anus, but essentially marked by the fear of having an anus. I seek to analyze the production of fear of the existence of the anus as an intrinsic element in the fabrication of supposed social threats in cisgender-straight-bolsonarism. Through a topographic metaphorization that locates/means the excluded as the anus of the social, the “enemy” appears as a mark of (...) the anal memory, reminding that the anus exists. If it exists, it can be penetrated. In this way, the existence of the anus organizes the differential distribution of humanity in this regime, as the minimum condition of being a human being is that of being a man, that is, not having an anus. This condition is reaffirmed by other markers of absence: not having a vagina, not having black skin, not belonging to ethnic and religious minorities... Cisgender-straight-bolsonarism behaves like an anatomical engineering in which the anus works as a catalyst for a masculinist reaction. The dermal tube is then reformatted in this regime. With this, I try to show that the fear of the existence of the anus is a central element of subjective enunciation and fascist recognition in this community. (shrink)

Firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) because they consider that some kind of competitive advantage accrues to them. We contend that resource-based perspectives (RBP) are useful to understand why firms engage in CSR activities and disclosure. From a resource-based perspective CSR is seen as providing internal or external benefits, or both. Investments in socially responsible activities may have internal benefits by helping a firm to develop new resources and capabilities which are related namely to know-how and corporate culture. In (...) effect, investing in social responsibility activities and disclosure has important consequences on the creation or depletion of fundamental intangible resources, namely those associated with employees. The external benefits of CSR are related to its effect on corporate reputation. Corporate reputation can be understood as a fundamental intangible resource which can be created or depleted as a consequence of the decisions to engage or not in social responsibility activities and disclosure. Firms with good social responsibility reputation may improve relations with external actors. They may also attract better employees or increase current employees’ motivation, morale, commitment and loyalty to the firm. This article contributes to the understanding of why CSR may be seen as having strategic value for firms and how RBP can be used in such endeavour. (shrink)

The Luck Problem has existed in one form or another since David Hume, at least. It is perhaps as old as Stoic objections to the Epicurean swerve. Although the general issue admits of different formulations with subtly different emphases, the characterization of it that will serve as my target focuses on “cross-worlds” luck, a kind of luck that arises when the decision-making of agents is indeterministic.

This work presents a post-positivist research framework for explaining any surprising or anomalous fact in the evolutionary path of a complex, dynamic, and contingent social process. Firstly, it elaborates on the reconciliation betweenthe ontological and epistemological assumptions of Critical Realism with the principles of American Pragmatism. Next, the research method is presented: theoretical propositions about a social structure are translated into a set of grammar rules that acknowledge patterns of sequences of events, either involving individual action or interaction between actors (...) within a real social system. The result is a discrete mathematical model for a concrete category of social process based on these rules. Finally, data-grounded refinement of the theory is possible through comparison between cases belonging to the same category, but differing in some contingent pattern of sequences of event outcomes. Consequently, their grammars differ in some pairs of context-sensitive rules that explain this surprising fact, and the derivation of this alternative historical trajectory of event outcomes becomes an extension to the early category of social process. In this sense, the proposed framework suggests a hierarchy of classes of grammars for middle-range explanations based on the ontological assumption of the generative nature of social reality. (shrink)

Reflexões sobre Professoralidade, Profissionalização, Profissionalidade, Profissionalismo e sua relação com o Desenvolvimento Profissional Docente Resumo: Várias são as categorias teóricas que guardam relação com o tema desenvolvimento profissional docente. Professoralidade, profissionalização, profissionalismo são algumas delas, mas geralmente não aparecem conjuntamente nem em relação do DPD. Por isto, este trabalho visa a analisar estes conceitos em relação ao DPD. A investigação foi desenvolvida a partir de metodologia baseada na pesquisa bibliográfica. Os argumentos evidenciaram que o DPD, na atualidade, perpassa questões da (...) professoralidade, da profissionalização, da profissionalidade e do profissionalismo, mesmo que em intensidades diferentes. Profissionalidade e professoralidade são aqueles que mais dizem respeito a uma estreita vinculação com o desenvolvimento profissional docente por se relacionarem de forma imbricada sem que se possa separar um do outro, ao passo que no profissionalismo e na profissionalização não existe uma relação de complementariedade ou espontânea, mas sem dúvida ambos os lados da relação podem se beneficiar um do outro.Palavras-chave: Desenvolvimento Profissional Docente, Professoralidade, Profissionalização, Profissionalidade, Profissionalismo. Reflections on professorality, professionalization, professionality, professionalism and its relationship with the teacher professional development: There are several theoretical categories that are related to the theme of teacher professional development. Professionality, professionalism, professorship, professionalization are some of them, but generally do not appear together in relation to the TPD. For this reason, this work aims to analyze these concepts in relation to the TPD. The investigation was developed based on a bibliographic research methodology. The arguments showed that the TPD, at present, runs through issues of teaching, professionalism, professionalism and professionalization, even if at different intensities. Professorship and professionality are those that most relate to a close link with the professional development of teachers because they relate in an interconnected way without being able to separate from each other, whereas in professionalism and professionalization there is no complementary or spontaneous relationship, but no doubt both sides of the relationship can benefit from each other.Keywords: Teacher Professional Development, Professorship, Professionalization, Professionality, Professionalism. Reflexiones sobre Profesoralidad, profesionalización, profesionalidad, profesionalismo y su relación con el desarrollo profesional de los docentes. Resumen: Existen varias categorías teóricas relacionadas con el tema del desarrollo profesional docente. Profesoralidad, profesionalización, profesionalidad, profesionalismo son algunos de ellos, pero generalmente no aparecen juntos o en relación con el DPD. Por esta razón, este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar estos conceptos en relación con el DPD. La investigación se desarrolló en base a una metodología basada en la investigación bibliográfica. Los argumentos mostraron que el DPD, en la actualidad, atraviesa problemas de enseñanza, profesionalización, profesionalismo y profesionalismo, incluso a diferentes intensidades. La profesionalidad y la enseñanza son las que más se relacionan con un vínculo cercano con el desarrollo profesional de los docentes porque se relacionan de manera interconectada sin poder separarse entre sí, mientras que en el profesionalismo y la profesionalización no existe una relación complementaria o espontánea. Pero sin duda ambos lados de la relación pueden beneficiarse el uno del otro.Palabras clave: Desarrollo profesional docente, profesoralidad, profesionalización, profesionalidad, profesionalismo. Data de registro: 04/02/2020Data de aceite: 28/08/2020. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering means to provide a method to assess and improve our concepts working as cognitive devices. But conceptual engineering still lacks an account of what concepts are (as cognitive devices) and of what engineering is (in the case of cognition). And without such prior understanding of its subject matter, or so it is claimed here, conceptual engineering is bound to remain useless, merely operating as a piecemeal approach, with no overall grip on its target domain. The purpose of this (...) programmatic paper is to overcome this knowledge gap by providing some guidelines for developing the theories of concepts and of cognition that will ground the systematic unified framework needed to effectively implement conceptual engineering as a widely applicable method for the cognitive optimization of our conceptual devices. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. However, little has been written about how best to conceive of concepts for the purposes of conceptual engineering. In this paper, I aim to fill this foundational gap, proceeding in three main steps: First, I propose a methodological framework for evaluating the conduciveness of a given concept of concept for conceptual engineering. Then, I develop a typology that contrasts two competing concepts of concept that can be used in conceptual (...) engineering — namely, the philosophical and psychological ones. Finally, I evaluate these two concepts of concept using the proposed methodological framework and I show that, when it comes to making conceptual engineering an actionable method, the psychological concept of concept outclasses its philosophical counterpart on all counts. This provides a baseline from which the concept of concept can be further improved for the purposes of conceptual engineering. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more (...) favourable to research in a post‐genomic context. (shrink)

Apresento e desenvolvo neste artigo o problema da prova sortuda, analisando duas soluções para ele presentes na literatura. A primeira delas consistira em alegar que mostrar que o predicado está contido no sujeito não basta como demonstração da verdade de uma proposição, sendo preciso que se prove ainda que a noção relativa ao sujeito é logicamente consistente. A segunda repousaria em uma hierarquização modal, por assim dizer, dos pre- dicados integrantes de uma noção individual. Após exibir as razões que me (...) levam a rejeitar essas duas soluções, apresento os traços fundamentais de uma interpretação que me parece resolver o problema de maneira satisfatória. Minha posição envolve conceder ao Princípio da Razão Suficiente um papel central na compreensão do que significa, para Leibniz, provar que um determinado predicado está contido na noção relativa a um certo indivíduo. (shrink)

The debate surrounding ‘big tech’ and antitrust has dominated public policy discourses over the past few years in many parts of the world. Noteworthy is that several countries and regions, including China, the European Union, and the United States, have launched investigations into the allegedly anticompetitive and exclusionary business practices of companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google and their Chinese counterparts, Alibaba and Tencent. This paper builds on the renewed interest in the topic and discusses in detail – (...) and from an ordoliberal perspective – the key characteristics of the digital economy, the business conduct of tech platforms, and the corresponding antitrust concerns, as well as possible reform steps which could help to strengthen modern-day competition law and policy (and antitrust enforcement). (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar as implicações críticas da imunização biopolítica da vida humana a partir das reflexões de Roberto Esposito, problematizando a seguinte questão: em tempos de pandemia viral e, consequentemente, de Estados emergenciais, de que maneira o paradigma imunitário atua sobre a vida humana? A hipótese que gostaríamos de desenvolver parte do relevo de que, em crises agudas, o paradigma imunitário é tensionado ao seu limite, convergindo para a produção de Estados de emergência segundo os quais (...) são responsáveis por introduzir políticas nefastas de produção tanto da vida quanto da morte. Para validar nossa hipótese e desenvolver o objetivo e a problemática da pesquisa, o presente texto se organiza em dois momentos: primeiramente, nosso intuito consiste em apresentar brevemente a reflexão de Esposito acerca do paradigma imunitário; em seguida, temos como fito analisar criticamente o estado de pandemia viral à luz do paradigma imunitário, buscando encontrar vestígios de como tal ferramenta conceitual nos permite desenvolver uma interpretação para o tempo presente. (shrink)

Understanding what motivates employees is essential to the success of organizational objectives. Therefore, properly capturing and explaining the full range of such motivations are important. However, the classical and most popular theories describing employee motives have neglected, if not omitted entirely, the importance of the ethical and spiritual dimensions of motivation. This has led to a model of a person as self-interested, amoral, and non-spiritual. In this paper, we attempt to expose this omission and offer a more complete taxonomy of (...) motivations which include these dimensions. Although more work will need to be done to fully develop the ethical and spiritual dimensions of motivation, the expanded taxonomy will provide the foundations and serve as a guide for such further research. Furthermore, this new categorization of motivations brings out the full dimensions of being human, which promises to lead to improved management practices with regard to employees and foster greater human flourishing in the workplace. (shrink)

This work adopts H. Kelsen’s concept of legal system, proposes a formal definition for such notion, and introduces an operational semantical framework for legal systems that are situated in agent societies. Agent societies are defined. Relevant formal properties of situated legal systems are discussed; the way they are exposed in the operational semantical framework is explained, and their truth formally proved. Also, for the sake of a better understanding of the legal-theoretic assumptions of the paper, recurring issues regarding Kelsen’s theory (...) of law are briefly reviewed. They are put in confrontation with the points of view of R. Dworkin, H. Hart, and J. Raz, and an attempt is made to clarify them from the perspective of the provided formalization. A brief case study in agent-based modeling and simulation of public policy processes is presented, as an illustration of the way of using situated legal systems, and the proposed operational semantical framework, in a practical application. (shrink)

While Nietzsche's rejection of metaphysical free will and moral desert has been widely recognised, the sense in which Nietzsche continues to use the term freedom affirmatively remains largely unnoticed. The aim of this article is to show that freedom and agency are among Nietzsche’s central concerns, that his much-discussed interest in power in fact originates in a first-person account of freedom, and that his understanding of the phenomenology of freedom informs his theory of agency. He develops a non-reductive drive-psychological motivational (...) theory: reflective judgement and reasons can motivate by means of affective orientations agents have due to their drives. In particular, due to a standing desire or 'instinct for freedom' agents can generate, in mental simulations, the necessary motivational affects to unify their drives in view of certain long-term goals. (shrink)

The paper presents a renewed Habermasian view on transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) and assesses the institutional characteristics of the Equator Principles Association (EPA) from a deliberative democracy perspective. Habermas’ work has been widely adopted in the academic literature on the political responsibilities of (multinational) corporations (i.e., political corporate social responsibility), and also in assessing the democratic qualities of MSIs. Commentators, however, have noted that Habermas’ approach relies very much on ‘nation-state democracy’ and may not be applicable to democracy in MSIs—in (...) which nation-states are virtually absent. We argue that Habermas’ detailed conceptualization of the institutionalization of deliberative democracy can be applied to transnational MSIs if these initiatives can be said to have their own ‘dèmoi’ that can be represented in associational decision-making. Therefore, we develop a definition of the dèmos of an MSI based on the notion of collective agency. Subsequently, we explain how Habermas’ approach to democracy can be applied to MSIs and show that it has more to offer than hitherto has been uncovered. Our illustrative analysis of the EPA confirms the criticisms regarding this MSI which have recently been articulated by researchers and practitioners, but also yields new findings and possible avenues for the further development of the EPA: That is, although our assessment suggests that the EPA in its current state is still far from being a democratic MSI, the possibility of a sensible analysis of its democratic character indicates that transnational MSIs can, in principle, help to fill governance gaps in a democratic way. (shrink)