The goal of sociology, and all social science, is to produce reliable knowledge about human behavioral and social phenomena. To reach that goal, we undertake three kinds of activities: theoretical work, empirical work, and, even more basic, we develop frameworks that assemble the fundamental questions together with the fundamental tools that will be used to address them. This article examines the three sets of activities and their interrelations. Both deductive and nondeductive theory are highlighted, as are three kinds of empirical (...) work—testing the predictions of deductive theories, testing the propositions produced by nondeductive theories, and extratheoretical measurement and estimation. Illustrations are drawn from the fields of status, justice, and migration. (shrink)

En este artículo, nos preguntamos si es pertinente un análisis del personaje de Medea de Eurípides, y más concretamente, de su filicidio, a la luz de la doctrina aristotélica de la acción. Resulta dudoso, y quizás equívoco, hablar de "responsabilidad" (en sentido aristotélico) en el caso de la heroína, ya que sus motivaciones, como las de todo héroe trágico, tienen un doble signo: enfrentado a una ἀνάγκη superior, también desea lo que está forzado a hacer. Además, Medea no es una (...) mujer común: es un personaje ontológicamente complejo que participa, más de lo que frecuentemente se ha enfatizado, del plano divino. In this article we wonder if it is pertinent to analyse the character of Euripides' Medea and, more precisely, her filicide, in the light of Aristotle's doctrine of action. With regard to the heroine, it is doubtful and perhaps confusing to talk about "responsibility" (in Aristotelian terms) because her motivations, as all tragic heroes', are two-sided: faced to a superior ἀνάγκη he wants what he is forced to do as well. In addition, Medea is not an ordinary woman: she is an ontologically complex character that has a share in the divine level, a share which is more crucial than what has usually been emphasized. (shrink)

Ethical conflicts (ECs), dilemmas auditors face when personal values or professional obligations clash with their actions, pose significant challenges to the auditing profession, potentially influencing turnover intention (TI). This study addresses a knowledge gap in the related research by focusing on two critical EC triggers: workload (WL) and perceived auditor ethical failure (PAEF: ethical sensitivity), which refers to auditors’ perceptions of ethical violations within their profession. Grounded in role theory and ethical climate theory, our study investigates the impact of WL (...) and PAEF on ECs and explores how these conflicts mediate the relationship between PAEF/WL and TI. Additionally, we examine the moderating role of organisational ethical climate (EtC) in these relationships. Using a survey of auditors and employing partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), our results reveal that both WL and PAEF increase ECs, thus escalating TI. The findings suggest that a firm’s perceived EtC can negatively moderate the relationship between PAEF and ECs. The study underlines the importance of fostering a strong EtC to manage ECs effectively and provides valuable implications for professionals, regulators, and academics seeking to improve ethical practices within auditing firms and to reduce auditor turnover. (shrink)

This article analyzes the digitization process and the difficulties encountered along the way, as a project that involved audiovisual technicians, academic researchers, and a famous Spanish dancer’s legacy: the audiovisual documents Guillermina Martínez Cabrejas, Mariemma, left to a museum located in her hometown. The specific criteria used to decide on the differences that arose in the process, provides great results and, also, a critical view on the limitations of the international preservation guidelines of digital objects.

Limited Aggregation is the view that when there are competing moral claims that demand our attention, we should sometimes satisfy the largest aggregate of claims, depending on the strength of the claims in question. In recent years, philosophers such as Patrick Tomlin and Alastair Norcross have argued that Limited Aggregation violates a number of rational choice principles such as Transitivity, Separability, and Contraction Consistency. Current versions of Limited Aggregation are what may be called Comparative Approaches because they involve assessing the (...) relative strengths of various claims. In this paper, we offer a non-comparative version of Limited Aggregation, what we call the Threshold Approach. It states that there is a non-relative threshold that separates various claims. We demonstrate that the Threshold Approach does not violate rational choice principles such as Transitivity, Separability, and Contraction Consistency, and we show that potential concerns regarding such a view are surmountable. (shrink)

There is an intrinsic connection between genocide and colonialism where both concepts are in close proximity and are based on the logic of elimination. The fact that an active genocide of the Palestinian people continues in 2024 is extremely disturbing. A plethora of human rights laws and principles complement and reinforce the protections afforded under international humanitarian law. These laws were developed in order to prevent historical atrocities from repeating themselves. As history is re-written, it is submitted that these laws, (...) while good on paper, are not being put into practice in the case of Palestine. This article reflects on the application of specific international humanitarian laws, namely protecting healthcare, preserving nutrition and safeguarding children during times of conflict, and analyses how these protections are being flouted in the case of Gaza. (shrink)

Religious life in Islam and on Islamic ethics.

يقدم المؤلف لنا قانونا اجتماعيًا لعلماء النفس والاجتماع السياسي صاغه كالآتي: (إذا زاد عدد الأفراد الذين يمارسون تصرّفًا يعدّ خزيًا، وتساهل القانون في محاسبة مرتكبيه، وعجز الناس عن إيقافه أو وجدوا له تبريرًا، تحوّل إلى ظاهرة ولم يعد خزيًا كما كان). و من هذه العبارة التقديمية يمكن أن نؤكد أن هذا الكتاب لا يمكن إيفاءه حقه بنبذة موجزة، فهو سفر فكري ممتع، حيث يتناول المؤلف فيه بشكل تحليلي وعلمي مقنع أهم الموضوعات التي تشغل العقل العربي، ما بين شخصيات سياسية كصدام (...) وسليماني، وما بين فكرة الموت والانتحار، والبغاء والجريمة، والالحاد والإيمان، واللاوعي الجمعي العربي وما يحمله من أمراض وانحرافات، والتحرش والكبت، والفساد والسلطة، واللغة العربية والحضارة. (shrink)

Workers in the garment manufacturing industry are often subjected to violations of their rights and are exposed to low wages and difficult working conditions. In response to the exposure of these violations in the media, major fashion brands and retailers subject their suppliers to labour codes of conduct. Despite these codes of conduct being largely ineffective, this comparative case study of garment manufacturers operating from Lesotho and Eswatini illustrates that such codes provide workers and trade unions with access to bargaining (...) leverage that they would otherwise not have. A framework with a synthesis of potential sources of workers’ power is developed and related to global production networks, collective mobilisation, the nature of the state, as well as national and transnational scales of organising. Based on historical case studies of the two countries, this paper illustrates how unions in the two countries followed different approaches to using this source of power in relation to other sources of power. These approaches were shaped by their contexts and strategic choices. Theoretically, it is argued that sources of workers’ power are analytically distinct, but are relational and operate best when seen as mutually reinforcing. The term ‘power resource nexus’ is used to frame this potential mutual reinforcement of sources of power. (shrink)

In their forthcoming article, ‘What makes a medical intervention invasive?’ De Marco, Simons, and colleagues explore the meaning and usage of the term ‘invasive’ in medical contexts. They describe a ‘Standard Account’, drawn from dictionary definitions, which defines invasiveness as ‘incision of the skin or insertion of an object into the body’. They then highlight cases wherein invasiveness is employed in a manner that is inconsistent with this account (eg, in describing psychotherapy) to argue that the term invasiveness is often (...) used to explicitly or implicitly reference interventions that do not fall under the standard account. The authors offer an alternative ‘schematic’ definition of invasiveness, whereby medical interventions entail an underlying context-independent property of ‘basic invasiveness’ and may be understood both relative to each other and to a context-specific threshold of what is ‘invasive’.1 We propose that the meaning of terms such as ‘invasiveness’ is necessarily heterogeneous, and that what is implied by its usage will certainly depend on context, particularly in medical settings. Hence, the creation of a unifying definition is less critical than clarification of the implied and intended meanings of each instance of the term’s use. We further argue that interpreting the use of terms like ‘invasiveness’ in medical practice is complicated by the embedding of each use of this term in a different ‘language game’, whereby words and their meanings are understood by an in-group familiar with …. (shrink)

A collection of writings on Buddhist philosophy.

The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term ‘premature death’ is vague with several, sometimes conflicting definitions. This ambiguity results in several conceptions with which not all will agree. Moreover, the normative rationale behind the goal of preventing premature deaths is masked by the operational definition of existing measures. In this article, we argue that ‘premature death’ should be recognized as a normative concept. We propose that normative theories should be used to justify measures of premature (...) death to provide them with normative validity and public legitimacy. (shrink)

We recently reported strong, replicable (i.e., replicated) evidence for lexically mediated compensation for coarticulation (LCfC; Luthra et al., 2021), whereby lexical knowledge influences a prelexical process. Critically, evidence for LCfC provides robust support for interactive models of cognition that include top‐down feedback and is inconsistent with autonomous models that allow only feedforward processing. McQueen, Jesse, and Mitterer (2023) offer five counter‐arguments against our interpretation; we respond to each of those arguments here and conclude that top‐down feedback provides the most parsimonious (...) explanation of extant data. (shrink)

Jecker, et al., argue against rejecting a location for an international bioethics conference based on a “litmus test” for several reasons, ranging from the practical to the theoretical. However, th...

In the book, basic principles of syncretic logic (sycretics) are expounded upon, with the help of which group relationships of a philosophical nature are treated. Classical philosophical laws are analyzed, new assertions are formulated, laying claim to the position of laws. Syncretic logic is used for constructing the axiomatic theory of carriers and the analysis of its consequences. The problem of the origins of life is considered, the connection between the course of existence and the laws of conservation in physics (...) is expounded upon, the universal scheme of logical operations is described, the components of the structure of a world view are specified. The work is intended for a wide circle of individuals with philosophical and general scientific interests. (shrink)

Quelle est la place de la psychologie dans l'esthétique et, inversement, quelle est la place de l'esthétique dans la psychologie? Quelles sont les réponses esthétiques élémentaires? Quels sont les attributs sémantiques des couleurs? Quelle est l'évolution génétique du goût et du jugement esthétiques? Voici quelques unes des questions auxquelles cet ouvrage de Robert Francès tente de répondre.