This paper advances a historical and philosophical explanation of the dynamics of irregular migration and the EU-external border policy in Africa. The refugee crisis in Europe has led to tougher security measures, including the EU’s externalization of its boundaries to transit countries with serious implication for human security and regional stability in Africa. In re-assessing the foundation of international migration policies through historical and philosophical lenses, this work brings to the fore the internal contradictions in EU-external border policy in Africa. (...) Whereas migration studies have drawn insights from political and applied moral philosophy, this approach is rare in the debate on irregular migration and informal transborder flows between the EU and Africa. The article particularly unveils the inter-relational complexity between globalization, migration, human rights and development. The approach is qualitative based on the critical analysis of ethnographic survey, government documents, mass media reports and existing literature. Underpinned by the philosophical tenets of the Hobbesian “collective right” and Lockean concept of “inalienable” human rights, as well as the discourse on the “priority thesis”, it concludes that the resolution of the migration dilemma lies in the ethical modification of the immigration laws in line with the universal notion of democratic values, the rule of law, human rights and the reality of global inter-connectivity. Keywords: Africa, External Border Control, European Union, Development, Human Rights, Irregular Migration; Priority Thesis. (shrink)

As corporate managers interact with nonshareholder stakeholders, potential tradeoffs emerge and questions arise as to how these interactions impact shareholder value. We argue that this shareholder—stakeholder debate is an important issue within the overall corporate governance and corporate policy domain and examine one such stakeholder group - employees - by studying labor-friendly corporate practices. We find that announcements of labor-friendly policies are associated with positive abnormal stock returns. Labor-friendly firms also outperform otherwise similar firms, both in terms of long-run stock (...) market returns and operating results. In addition, we find that the probability and benefits of labor-friendliness increase with the demand for highly skilled labor. Our analysis of excess executive compensation suggests that top management derives no pecuniary benefits from labor-friendly practices. We interpret our results as consistent with a genuine concern for employees translating into higher productivity and profitability, which in turn facilitate value creation. It appears that the benefits of labor-friendly practices significantly outweigh the costs and that what is good for employees is good for shareholders. (shrink)

Existing social disparities in the United States are inconsistent with the promise of democracy; therefore, there was a need for critical conceptualization of the first principles that undergird American democracy and the genesis of democratic social change in America. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed to construct a grounded theory that provides an understanding of the process of American democratic social change as it emerged from the nation’s founding documents. A post hoc polytheoretical framework including Foucault’s, Bourdieu’s, and Marx and (...) Engels’s theories of power was used to understand power dynamics. The research question focused on understanding the process of democratic social change in America. The sample comprised the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and the U.S. Constitution. The documents were retrieved from the National Archives and Library of Congress. The data analysis plan incorporated successive comparison, situational and dramaturgical analysis, deconstruction, and perspective taking as strategies. The result was the construction of a democratic social change process theory preceded by five grounded theories: (a) first principles of democracy, (b) first principles of democracy conceptual framework, (c) socio-ethical principles of democracy, (d) demoralizing process, and (e) either-or approach to democracy. Positive social change implications include applying a democratic social change process to future social change endeavors across domains and levels of analysis, a normative framework for a republican form of government, and a tool to analyze and minimize the latent consequences of social justice policies. (shrink)

A bioethics of biotechnology -- Biotechnology and bioethics -- The global regulatory pathways of biologies -- Biotechnology in the court of law -- Bioengineering and the idea of precision medicine -- Policy, bioethics and bioengineering.

Although populism is an ideologically fluid political vehicle, it is not one that is intrinsically anti-business. Indeed, different varieties of populist parties may encourage business activity for utilitarian ends, but with their own ideas on what businesses should be doing. This reality implies that initiatives not related to national greatness or priorities as defined by the populist leadership may be viewed as redundant. Key among such initiatives would be corporate social responsibility (CSR). In a populist environment, it is possible that (...) firms may divert resources away from broad-based CSR under pressure from populist governments. This article explores the relationship between populist governance and CSR with an econometric examination of over a thousand firms in 13 countries under both pro- and anti-business populist governments at varying times from 2012 to 2020. Using dynamic panel data methods, we find strong evidence that firms substitute away significantly from CSR under populism. This effect grows significantly larger under anti-business populists. (shrink)

This is a sketch of the basis and role of consciousness and the minimally required elements and constraints of any setting that may produce consciousness. It proposes that consciousness (as we know it) is a biologically-mediated product of evolved recursive and hierarchically nested representational systems that obey information theoretic principles and Bayesian (probabilistic) feedback and feedforward predictive modeling processes.

This is a conjecture about the conditions and operating structures that are required for the phenomenality of certain mental states. Specifically, full-blown phenomenality is assumed, as contrasted with constrained examples of phenomenal experience such as sensations of color and pain. Propositional attitudes and content, while not phenomenal per se, are standardly concurrent and may condition phenomenal states (e.g., when tied to false beliefs). It is conjectured that full phenomenality natively arises in coherent processes of situated sensory synthesis and representation (with (...) conceptual content) that are looped, mereologically whole and multi-dimensional. And that phenomenal states are typically phase-states within a parameterized conjoint structure of world and experiencer processes that are causally modulated across Markov blankets (which are conditionally independent and may be nested: cf. M. Kirchoff, et. al., 2017, 2018; and T. Burge, 2010, re: anti-individualism). Though they may, it is not accepted that phenomenally conscious states must be targets of higher-order representations (cf. A. Byrne, 2004). (shrink)

In 1956, a few writings of Wittgenstein that he didn't publish in his lifetime were revealed to the public. These writings were gathered in the book Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (1956). There, we can see that Wittgenstein had some discontentment with the way philosophers, logicians, and mathematicians were thinking about paradoxes, and he even registered a few polemic reasons to not accept Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.

The American philosophical tradition is often portrayed as a genteel tradition that is committed to democracy and the incremental expansion of democracy through suasionist means. In an attempt to complicate this narrative, the author articulates the basic features of Leonard Harris’s insurrectionist ethics, then attempts to locate this insurrectionist ethics in the work of Henry D. Thoreau. It is argued that this insurrectionist ethos is a fecund addition to the American philosophical tradition and that insurrectionist character traits and modes of (...) comportment offer appealing resources to those faced with oppression and hegemony. (shrink)

El hombre crea su moral tomando en cuenta las aportaciones más íntimas de su espíritu. Así como la historia de la humanidad presenta una serie gradual y emocional de conquistas espirituales, así también la moral se ha logrado a través de la historia, pero siempre sobre el fundamento de la esencia humana, pues no cabe duda de que la jerarquía de los valores depende de cada ser humano. Ella orienta toda su conducta y señala sus grandes metas. El espíritu religioso (...) coloca, en primer término, a los valores de la religión, el moralista a los éticos, el pragmático a los útiles; el estético a las bellas artes, dando preferencia cada una a su valor favorito. (shrink)

v. 1. La tópica horaciana en Europa -- v. 2. Teoría poética del Siglo de Oro.

"Al igual que otras manifestaciones de la cultura occidental, la filosofía del derecho aparece en las más antiguas reflexiones de los filósofos griegos. Ello se patentiza sobre todo en el estudio de los textos de los grandes clásicos. La justicia, que es uno de los temas que con más persistencia se presentan en el desarrollo histórico de la filosofía jurídica, es objeto de un tratamiento especial en los autores de esta época. Ahora bien, el conocimiento de lo que estos filósofos (...) pensaron, no tiene un mero valor histórico, sino que muchas veces encierra una actualidad sorprendente, por la forma como han condicionado, y condicionan todavía la meditación jusfilosófica. De ahí su actualidad e importancia. No obstante, el reconocimiento de este hecho, los filósofos del derecho no han prestado la debida atención a la reflexión que surge de esta época germinal, que abarca un período relativamente breve (siglo VI a IV a. C.). Y son pocos, muy pocos, los jusfilósofos que abordan sin intermediarios, el tratamiento y estudio de este período. Ello explica nuestro interés en analizarlo a través de las fuentes mismas. A fin de precisar el objeto de este trabajo, creemos conveniente hacer algunas delimitaciones. Así, en cuanto a su extensión, intenta cubrir las primeras manifestaciones (desde Tales de Mileto, y aún antes) hasta Aristóteles de Estagira, que cierra el período clásico. La evolución posterior, aun siendo rica en desarrollos, es dejada para otra oportunidad. En cuanto a su alcance, este trabajo no pretende ser una exégesis detallada de la filosofía griega en su conjunto, ni tampoco un análisis de carácter histórico, económico, sociológico o político. No es incluso la obra de un helenista o un filólogo, sino de un interesado en los problemas de la filosofía del derecho, aunque el autor ha cuidado de premunirse de los mejores elementos de trabajo que utiliza la crítica para dar un mayor respaldo a sus afirmaciones. Se trata, si se quiere, de un estudio de carácter teórico sobre la Justicia —de lo que ella es en sí misma— de lo cual, sin embargo, pueden desprenderse enormes consecuencias en el mundo de la práctica". (shrink)

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care, now in its seventh edition, is a frequently cited, internationally recognized, evidence-based document that details a comprehensive framework for gender-related care of trans people. However, the WPATH SOC still relies heavily in some cases on gatekeeping practices, dubbed “triadic therapy,” or a process where a trans patient is encouraged to seek out psychotherapy, and hormone therapy, and only then be able to engage in surgical options for transitioning. I use G. (...) Alan Marlatt’s harm reduction framework to argue that the triadic process creates its own set of harms that trans people have to contend with, especially insofar as it focuses on resolving gender dysphoria in a demanding, moralizing, and top-down way as opposed to enriching trans lives by reducing harms that prevent us from flourishing. Using Marlatt’s criterion that harm reduction ought to be bottom-up, low threshold, and not moralizing, I develop a list of suggestions for what ought to be centrally considered in treating trans patients. (shrink)

Historical dynamics around feminism, race, and rape discouraged extensive early Black involvement in anti-rape work in the United States. In Los Angeles, concern among women of color in the movement and a state initiative to fund poorly served areas converged to produce two new Black rape crisis centers in the mid-1980s. Ironically, state funding, an otherwise conservative influence on the anti-rape movement, has facilitated the progressive goal of expanding racial and ethnic diversity in the Los Angeles anti-rape movement. Racially homogeneous (...) organizations contributed more to diversifying the movement than integration within organizations. Despite differences in political perspective, women from older feminist groups and the new community-oriented centers now successfully work in coalition. (shrink)

God (Islam); Islam; doctrines; apologetic work.