Today, the earth is an interconnected globe humming with electronic transmissions-a chattering planet nestled in the provident silence of space. The ethical question is whether this is contributing to authentic human development and helping individuals and peoples to be true to their transcendent destiny. The new media are powerful tools for education, cultural enrichment, commercial activity, political participation, intercultural dialogue and understanding. They also can serve the cause of religion. Yet the new information technology needs to be informed and guided (...) by solidarity in the service of the common good bridging the digital divide within and among nations. The value-laden message of Western secular culture to people and traditional societies in many cases ill-prepared to evaluate it leads to widespread crisis, for example, in regard to marriage and family life. This technology can be a means for solving human problems, promoting the integral development of persons, creating a world governed by justice, peace, and love. It also can help men and women in their age-old search for self-understanding. Like today's world itself, the world of media, including the Internet, has been brought by Christ, inchoately yet truly, within the boundaries of the kingdom of God and placed in service to the word of salvation. (shrink)

The main goal of this study is to explore the drivers of meaningful sport consumption and its influence mechanism. In sports consumption, consumers not only seek hedonic value but also pursue to experience greater purpose and meaning in life, which is regarded as meaningful sports consumption. This study extends existing sports management literature by examining how social needs impact meaningful sports behavior with team affiliation, self-improvement, and self-esteem as mediators. Based on the questionnaire data collected from China, the empirical (...) analysis results show that social needs have a significant positive impact on meaningful sports consumption behavior through the mediating effect of team affiliation and self-esteem motivation. However, self-improvement motivation does not have a mediating effect on the relationship between social needs and meaningful sports consumption. This study enriches the research content of sports consumption, adds research object of social needs, and expands the research scope of meaningful consumption by introducing meaningful sports consumption into the above domain. (shrink)

This research examines whether and how firms can meet both business goals and social needs through their innovation activities. We examine antecedents and consequences of innovation that addresses social needs, in addition to business goals, using data collected from European for-profit firms. We find that innovation including social intent is more likely under conditions of high market turbulence, which represents an important form of demand-driven threats. Meanwhile, we find no relationship with competitive intensity, a form of pressure (...) driven threats. Together, these findings suggest that customers and other stakeholders are more likely to drive firms to focus on the social dimension than competitors. The findings also indicate that innovation including social intent is positively related with customer acceptance, which supports the notion that innovation can meet both business goals and social needs. This relationship is partially mediated by perceived market turbulence, which highlights the importance of customers and their demands for social responsibility. This research advances both theory and practice as we add to existing discourses on innovation by providing a broader than common perspective that includes the social dimension as a potential part of innovation conducted to meet business goals. Furthermore, we shed light on how and when firms are likely to include intended social outcomes in their innovation and when they are less likely to do so, which highlights a potential untapped opportunity. (shrink)

Este trabajo se centra en el papel de la gestisn de la superacisn de los directivos universitarios y el reto que significa para las universidades latinoamericanas. Desde una perspectiva ciencia- tecnologma y sociedad se pretende determinar las condiciones sociales en que se sustenta la necesidad de elaboracisn de un modelo de superacisn en la gestisn acadimica de los directivos para perfeccionar el proceso formativo de la Escuela Superior Politicnica de Manabm "Manuel Filix Lspez", en Ecuador. A partir de un diagnsstico (...) realizado previamente en esa universidad se identificaron limitaciones en el modelo de gestisn de superacisn actual, que demandan el diseqo e implementacisn de un modelo, ajustado a las necesidades sociales concretas de ese centro de educacisn superior. The role of negotiation in order to improve the level of the principal staff in higher education is the main objective of this research. This work was carried out through a scientific and technologic point of view based on a creative model which develop a formative process at Manuel Filix Lspez" polytechical school in Ecuador. A diagnosis revealed the necessity of implementing a model according to the real needs in higher education. (shrink)

Van de Vliert embraces a model of human needs, underplaying a model whereby individuals, motivated by psychological needs, develop coping strategies that help them meet their personal goals and collectively exert an influence on social and economic systems. Undesirable climates may inflate the value of financial capital, but they also boost the value of social capital.

The “gift exchange theory” articulated by Marcel Mauss, along with his core concept of a threefold obligation, is the dominant theoretical framework used to explain the majority of gift issues in marketing. This perspective assumes that some interest always lies behind gifts, such that a gift always implies a counterpart of receiving something in return. Despite the relevance of this approach in understanding the day-to-day consumer behavior, this paper presents empirical cases where the consumer is also able to give freely, (...) that is to say without implying a counterpart or even expecting it. To explain those empirical cases, we mobilize a key teaching of the Catholic Church: the “gratuitous gift” and then introduce the concept of the “need to give.” We show that gratuitousness is a relevant concept to understand most of gifts made by consumers, and we develop the normative aspect of gratuitous gift for ethical marketers. We also show that Catholic Social Teaching offers an appropriate anthropology to understand consumer behaviors motivated by this need for gratuitousness. To conclude, we propose further avenues of research. (shrink)

Critical aspects in the field of education are currently related to low levels of socioemotional competences and high rates of school dropouts. However, there are no standard practices or guidelines for helping countries to assess and train social and emotional competences. To overcome this limitation, the project Learning to be (L2B) aims to propose a comprehensive model of the assessment and development of social and emotional competences that bring together policymakers, researchers, teachers, school authorities and learners from different (...) participating countries: Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. The project attempts to create an international framework for regulating activities and supporting teachers working on the social and emotional competences of the students and to provide tools which can be used across countries. The aim of the paper is to describe how L2B has been developed in Spain by analyzing the contributions of the international framework and extracting the specific needs in the Spanish context. Specifically, we describe two products of the project: a) the process for creating a toolkit, a tool focused on creating activities and materials for helping teachers develop social and emotional competences of students and b) the results of an exploratory study in Spain in which social and emotional competences are assessed and compared to the international framework. First, we explain the definition of social and emotional competences used for creating the toolkit. Second, we analyze responses of Spanish students to questionnaires administered before applying the toolkit in the schools. The paper describes social and emotional competences in Spain and evaluates the overlap between relevant variables in Spain and those used for developing the toolkit, the international tool. Specific needs in Spain are discussed, as well as the contribution of the project for promoting the improved development of students’ social and emotional competences, improving learning outcomes and stronger social cohesion in schools and local communities, as well as the utility of the results for creating new educational policies. (shrink)

The link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitiveness has been examined mainly at the business level. The purpose of this paper is to improve conceptual understanding and provide empirical evidence on the link between CSR and competitiveness at the national level. We draw on an eclectic-synthetic framework of international economics, strategic management and CSR literatures to explore conceptually whether and how CSR can impact on the competitiveness of nations, and test our hypotheses empirically with a sample of 19 (...) developed countries over a 6-year period. Our evidence suggests that CSR can make a significant positive contribution to national competitiveness, as measured by national living standards. We also find that countries with a relatively low innovation record can benefit more, as compared to highly innovative countries, by implementing nationwide CSR-based positioning strategies. (shrink)

This research involves a review of the submissions to a 2005/06 Australian Government Inquiry into Corporate Social Responsibility. The Inquiry was established to investigate whether corporate social responsibilities and accountabilities should be regulated, or left to be determined by market forces. Our results show that the business community overwhelming favour an anti-regulation approach whereby corporations should be left with the flexibility to determine their social responsibilities and associated accountabilities and ‘enlightened self-interest’ should be retained as the guiding (...) mechanism for social responsibility initiatives. In stark contrast, the submissions from social and environmental organisations and individuals provided counter-arguments in favour of a pro-regulation view. Ultimately Government embraced the ‘free market perspective’ promoted by the business community and decided against the introduction of national legislation pertaining to corporate social responsibilities. (shrink)

The extent to which people identify with an organization is dependent on the attractiveness of the organizational identity, which helps individuals satisfy one or more important self-definitional needs. However, little is known about the antecedents of company identity attractiveness (IA) in a consumer–company context. Drawing on theories of social identity and organizational identification, a model of the antecedents of IA is developed and tested. The findings provide empirical validation of the relationship between IA and corporate associations perceived by consumers. (...) Our results demonstrate that the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contribution to company IA is much stronger than that of Corporate Ability (CA). This may be linked to increasing competition and of decreasing CA-based variation in the marketplace. (shrink)

According to both the traditional model of folk psychology and the social intelligence hypothesis, our folk psychological notions of belief and desire developed in order to make better predictions of behavior, and the fundamental role for our folk psychological notions of belief and desire are for making more accurate predictions of behavior (than predictions made without appeal to folk psychological notions). My strategy in this paper is to show that these claims are false. I argue that we need (...) not appeal to mental states to make predictions of many behaviors, and I will offer a positive account of how we might go about predicting intentional behavior. Finally, I suggest that taken together, the critique of traditional folk psychology along with the alternative account of our predictive practices leads to a new hypothesis. While it may be true that mental state concepts developed in response to social-environmental pressures, I suggest that this pressure was more likely the need to explain behavior, rather than the need to predict it. (shrink)

Introducción: Los docentes universitarios requieren nuevos saberes para enfrentar los diversos retos que plantea la educación superior; dichos desafíos se relacionan con el dominio de saberes disciplinarios, profesionales, laborales, pedagógicos y didácticos e incluso axiológicos. Lo que aquí se presenta son los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México en el periodo de enero de 2014 a abril de 2015. El objetivo: fue determinar los saberes específicos, métodos de enseñanza y valores sociales (...) que deben poseer los profesores universitarios desde la perspectiva de los estudiantes para la identificación de aquellos principios que deben orientar la formación y actualización docente. Método: consideró el cualitativo y la técnica de la encuesta; fueron aplicados 119 cuestionarios diseñados en Escala de Likert, a igual número de estudiantes; el instrumento de 48 reactivos fue construido con base en tres grandes "baterías" o ejes: "Saberes de un buen docente", "Métodos o estrategias de enseñanza", y "Actitudes y valores". Resultados: se resaltan los saberes pedagógicos y didácticos como aquéllos que los estudiantes visualizan que les hacen falta a sus docentes; de éstos, son los métodos de enseñanza eminentemente prácticos, y aquellos vivenciales o más cercanos a la realidad los que se consideran como importantes. En términos de las actitudes y valores sociales que deben tener y demostrar los profesores, se encuentran la actitud profesional, la actitud de servicio, así como la responsabilidad y la ética. Conclusiones: se discute aquello que se considera deben saber, y lo que necesitan mejorar los docentes universitarios. Introduction: Professors require new knowledge to face the different challenges that higher education has. Those challenges are related with the mastery of disciplinary, professional, pedagogic, work-related, didactic and even axiological knowledge. The results of a research that was carried out at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México from January, 2014 to April, 2015; are presented in this article. Objective: To determine specific knowledge, teaching methods and social values that professors must have from the perspective of the students for identifying the principles which should lead teaching formation and updating. Method: The qualitative method and the survey as a procedure were considered. One hundred nineteen questionnaires that were designed in Likert scale were also applied to the same number of students; the instrument of 48 reagents was based on 3 axes: 'Knowledge of a good professor', 'Teaching methods or strategies' and 'Attitudes and values'. Results: Pedagogic and didactic knowledge is emphasized, for instance the one students consider their professors should have. However, the professors consider those teaching methods essentially practical, based on past experiences or closer to the reality as the most important ones. There are some attitudes and social values that professors must have and demonstrate, as well as the professional attitude, the service attitude, responsibility and ethics. Conclusions: the ideas that must be known and improved by the professors are discussed here. (shrink)

Introducción: Los docentes universitarios requieren nuevos saberes para enfrentar los diversos retos que plantea la educación superior; dichos desafíos se relacionan con el dominio de saberes disciplinarios, profesionales, laborales, pedagógicos y didácticos e incluso axiológicos. Lo que aquí se presenta son los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México en el periodo de enero de 2014 a abril de 2015. El objetivo: fue determinar los saberes específicos, métodos de enseñanza y valores sociales (...) que deben poseer los profesores universitarios desde la perspectiva de los estudiantes para la identificación de aquellos principios que deben orientar la formación y actualización docente. Método: consideró el cualitativo y la técnica de la encuesta; fueron aplicados 119 cuestionarios diseñados en Escala de Likert, a igual número de estudiantes; el instrumento de 48 reactivos fue construido con base en tres grandes "baterías" o ejes: "Saberes de un buen docente", "Métodos o estrategias de enseñanza", y "Actitudes y valores". Resultados: se resaltan los saberes pedagógicos y didácticos como aquéllos que los estudiantes visualizan que les hacen falta a sus docentes; de éstos, son los métodos de enseñanza eminentemente prácticos, y aquellos vivenciales o más cercanos a la realidad los que se consideran como importantes. En términos de las actitudes y valores sociales que deben tener y demostrar los profesores, se encuentran la actitud profesional, la actitud de servicio, así como la responsabilidad y la ética. Conclusiones: se discute aquello que se considera deben saber, y lo que necesitan mejorar los docentes universitarios. Introduction: Professors require new knowledge to face the different challenges that higher education has. Those challenges are related with the mastery of disciplinary, professional, pedagogic, work-related, didactic and even axiological knowledge. The results of a research that was carried out at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México from January, 2014 to April, 2015; are presented in this article. Objective: To determine specific knowledge, teaching methods and social values that professors must have from the perspective of the students for identifying the principles which should lead teaching formation and updating. Method: The qualitative method and the survey as a procedure were considered. One hundred nineteen questionnaires that were designed in Likert scale were also applied to the same number of students; the instrument of 48 reagents was based on 3 axes: 'Knowledge of a good professor', 'Teaching methods or strategies' and 'Attitudes and values'. Results: Pedagogic and didactic knowledge is emphasized, for instance the one students consider their professors should have. However, the professors consider those teaching methods essentially practical, based on past experiences or closer to the reality as the most important ones. There are some attitudes and social values that professors must have and demonstrate, as well as the professional attitude, the service attitude, responsibility and ethics. Conclusions: the ideas that must be known and improved by the professors are discussed here. (shrink)

This study is based on the objective conditions of Islamic banking in Indonesia, which have not carried out their social functions optimally. Based on reports from the financial services authority, Indonesia bank and several related research, the efforts to optimise the social function of Islamic banking still encounters several problems related to the distribution of banking funds that are more focused on business interests, lack of real business run by Islamic banks, customer funds that are mostly deposited in (...) Indonesia bank and have not been distributed to the real sector effectively, to banking activities by referring to the capitalistic economic paradigm and not fully referring to sharia guidelines. The results of the study of documents, literature and actual phenomena using descriptive and holistic analysis methods indicate that the degradation of the social function of Islamic banking appears as a result of a lack of understanding of the concept of Islamic economics based on the construction of Islamic social theology. The lack of understanding of banking management towards Islamic social theology has created a gap between the practical and conceptual sides of Islamic social theology, which in turn has an impact on the lack of social commitment from related parties in the implementation of Islamic banking activities. Strengthening the practical side of Islamic social theology is a necessity to overcome the existing problems.Contribution: The article contributes to the discourse on the application of Islamic social theology to Islamic banking practices. It aims to contribute to theological thought in Islam in order to strengthen the social function of Islamic banking, by focusing on the main objective of Islamic economics: al-falah or the achievement of spiritual and material prosperity. (shrink)

Bringing together some of the most eminent thinkers in the field, this book celebrates the seminal contribution of Ted Benton to such pressing themes as: realism, naturalism and the philosophy of the social sciences, the continuing relevance of Marxism, philosophical anthropology and human needs, and ecology, society and natural limits.

From its early origins to the present, the development of mainstream economic theory has taken a direction which has excluded the analysis of human needs as a basis for social policy. The problems associated with this orientation are increasingly recognized both by economists and non-economists. As Sen points out, it is indeed strange for a discipline concerned with the well-being of people to neglect the question of needs. Currently, some writers such as Doyal and Gough, post-Keynesian economists such as (...) Lavoie, and those such as Davis and O'Boyle who work in the newly emerging school of social economics have begun to address the question of human needs, especially in relation to problems of policy assessment and evaluation. The approaches of some development economists who have dealt with similar issues were also instrumental in drawing attention to the significance of the long-neglected concept of needs. (shrink)

Although some authors claim that deception requires intention, we argue that there can be deception in social robotics, whether or not it is intended. By focusing on the deceived rather than the deceiver, we propose that false beliefs can be created in the absence of intention. Supporting evidence is found in both human and animal examples. Instead of assuming that deception is wrong only when carried out to benefit the deceiver, we propose that deception in social robotics is (...) wrong when it leads to harmful impacts on individuals and society. The appearance and behaviour of a robot can lead to an overestimation of its functionality or to an illusion of sentience or cognition that can promote misplaced trust and inappropriate uses such as care and companionship of the vulnerable. We consider the allocation of responsibility for harmful deception. Finally, we make the suggestion that harmful impacts could be prevented by legislation, and by the development of an assessment framework for sensitive robot applications. (shrink)

Recent research indicates that social networking site addiction is positively associated with materialism. However, little attention has been paid to the potential mechanisms in this relationship. This study tested the mediating role of depression and the moderating role of need to belong in the relationships between SNS addiction and adolescents’ materialism. This research model was tested among 733 adolescents in China. The findings indicated that both SNS addiction and NTB were positively related to adolescents’ materialism. Mediation analyses showed (...) that depression mediated the association between SNS addiction and adolescents’ materialism. Moderated mediation indicated that the effect of SNS addiction on materialism and the effect of SNS addiction on depression were exacerbated by NTB. This study can advance our understanding of how SNS could contribute to adolescents’ materialism in this digital society. (shrink)

Pierre Bourdieu famously dismissed phenomenology as offering anything useful to a critical science of society – even as he drew heavily upon its themes in his own work. This paper makes a case for why Bourdieu’s judgement should not be the last word on phenomenology. To do so it first reanimates phenomenology’s evocative language and concepts to illustrate their continuing centrality to social scientists’ ambitions to apprehend human engagement with the world. Part II shows how two crucial insights of (...) phenomenology, its discovery of both the natural attitude and of the phenomenological epoche, allow an account of perception properly responsive to its intertwined personal and collective aspects. Contra Bourdieu, the paper’s third section asserts that phenomenology’s substantive socio-cultural analysis simultaneously entails methodological consequences for the social scientist, reversing their suspension of disbelief vis-à-vis the life-worlds of interlocutors and inaugurating the suspension of belief vis-à-vis their own natural attitudes. (shrink)

Professionals in environmental fields engage with complex problems that involve stakeholders with different values, different forms of knowledge, and contentious decisions. There is increasing recognition of the need to train graduate students in interdisciplinary environmental science programs in these issues, which we refer to as “social ethics.” A literature review revealed topics and skills that should be included in such training, as well as potential challenges and barriers. From this review, we developed an online survey, which we administered (...) to faculty from 81 United States colleges and universities offering IESPs. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that IESPs should address values in applying science to policy and management decisions. They also agreed that programs should engage students with issues related to norms of scientific practice. Agreement was slightly less strong that IESPs should train students in skills related to managing value conflicts among different stakeholders. The primary challenges to incorporating social ethics into the curriculum were related to the lack of materials and expertise for delivery, though challenges such as ethics being marginalized in relation to environmental science content were also prominent. Challenges related to students’ interest in ethics were considered less problematic. Respondents believed that social ethics are most effectively delivered when incorporated into existing courses, and they preferred case studies or problem-based learning for delivery. Student competence is generally not assessed, and respondents recognized a need for both curricular materials and assessment tools. (shrink)

Some years ago a Belfast funeral undertaker was on holiday in County Down. One sunny evening he climbed to the highest point in the Ards Peninsula. The visibility was good and the view magnificent. On one side lay Strangford Lough with Slieve Croob and the Mourne Mountains in the background. On the other was the Irish Sea with the Isle of Man, the Cumberland Hills and the southern Scottish uplands in the distance.

Nature, Social Relations and Human Needs Content Type Journal Article Category Review Pages 510-514 DOI 10.1558/jcr.v11i4.510 Authors Raymond Murphy, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa, 120 University, Ottawa ON K1N6N5 Canada Journal Journal of Critical Realism Online ISSN 1572-5138 Print ISSN 1476-7430 Journal Volume Volume 11 Journal Issue Volume 11, Number 4 / 2012.

Professionals in environmental fields engage with complex problems that involve stakeholders with different values, different forms of knowledge, and contentious decisions. There is increasing recognition of the need to train graduate students in interdisciplinary environmental science programs in these issues, which we refer to as “social ethics.” A literature review revealed topics and skills that should be included in such training, as well as potential challenges and barriers. From this review, we developed an online survey, which we administered (...) to faculty from 81 United States colleges and universities offering IESPs. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that IESPs should address values in applying science to policy and management decisions. They also agreed that programs should engage students with issues related to norms of scientific practice. Agreement was slightly less strong that IESPs should train students in skills related to managing value conflicts among different stakeholders. The primary challenges to incorporating social ethics into the curriculum were related to the lack of materials and expertise for delivery, though challenges such as ethics being marginalized in relation to environmental science content were also prominent. Challenges related to students’ interest in ethics were considered less problematic. Respondents believed that social ethics are most effectively delivered when incorporated into existing courses, and they preferred case studies or problem-based learning for delivery. Student competence is generally not assessed, and respondents recognized a need for both curricular materials and assessment tools. (shrink)

The Family Planning Association Northern Ireland (F.P.A.N.I.) has recently been successful in holding the state accountable for its duty to safeguard women’s reproductive health and welfare, and clarify the circumstances in which abortion is lawful. By demanding that the Minister for Health investigate abortion provision and produce abortion guidance, F.P.A.N.I. hope to improve the quality of abortion services and alleviate the situation of those women who are legally entitled to abortion in Northern Ireland but cannot access it there. This action (...) has challenged a public failure which impacts most negatively on those women who cannot easily escape its effects. Although the case succeeded in shaming the state for such a failure, the judicial review strategy could not challenge the legal ethos which denies women a say over their reproductive lives. This case commentary argues that pro-choice strategic litigation needs to positively and generally assert women’s reproductive rights at the same time as it seeks to accommodate the needs of the most vulnerable. (shrink)

There has been significant work done in contemporary African philosophy on what it means to be a person. Moreover, there is significant consensus that a traditional African conception of person not only emphasises the social aspects but also entails that in political reasoning higher premium is placed on the duties individuals have to others and the community at large, as opposed to whatever rights they may have. In contrast, not much work has been done to unpack the precise relationship (...) between that conception of social person and the normativity of needs in political thought, although such a relationship is often assumed. I want to explore the idea of person behind the experience and practice of communalism in traditional African communities and by so doing suggest how the resulting understanding of person in traditional thought, particularly in the work of Ifeanyi Menkiti and Kwasi Wiredu, might offer theoretical grounding for an African political philosophy that foregrounds needs. Beyond all these, however, I offer some perspective on the nature and normativity of needs. I finish off by suggesting how grounding needs in this traditional African idea of person provides us with ways of responding to some doubts about the normativity of needs in general. (shrink)

In my dissertation, I argue that the enterprise of corrective justice requires answering questions about what is unjust and how we ought to set and pursue corrective justice goals. To answer these questions in a way that will allow us to correct for the persistent and entrenched injustices which result from processes of stratification in our society, I’ll put forward a two-tiered social contract theory, which will allow us to approach these questions in a way that will capture the (...) agreement we can have and allow us to structure the persistent disagreement that we cannot and ought not avoid. In the first tier—the cooperative position—the parties know only that they’re in what I’m calling the ten circumstances of cooperation—the circumstances in which modern cooperation takes place. These circumstances includes the social complexity and opacity inherent in complex cooperative arrangements which have epistemic effects on our social cognition in ways that make our view of our social arrangements at best partial, and work to obscure important features of our social reality, especially those affecting those at the bottom of our stratified social relations. This tier generates four cooperative ideals—proficient rationality, democratic equality, social understanding, and dignity—that function as a theory of justice which can gain an overlapping consensus in society but still allow for meaningful disagreement to take place. In the second tier—the corrective position—the parties have access to the circumstances of cooperation, four cooperative ideals, and a general and specific domination contract. These domination contracts model how stratified social relations operate to constrain people within social systems, including the ways that people think about those systems. I argue that the parties would affirm a principle of corrective justice as involving coalitions of differently-situated actors working together over time to dismantle unjust mechanisms, and five desiderata for applying that principle to circumstances as we confront them. They would do so because that is the only way to overcome the practical and epistemic barriers put in place by the domination contracts. (shrink)

Using interpretative case study methods, the researchers examined the beliefs and practices of 10 preservice social studies teachers with self-described preferences to teach for justice. While all...

For most philosophers of psychology and cognitive science, inquiry into human cognitive activity begins at the level of intrapersonal processes. A central question is whether these processes are sufficiently autonomous from more basic neurophysiological processes to be investigated in their own terms, or whether all explanations must be in neurophysiological terms. Some philosophers have insisted on the relative autonomy of the cognitive level. One currently quite popular view, eliminative materialism, however, holds that the explanations that have been advanced at the (...) intrapersonal cognitive level are misguided, and must be replaced by accounts developed from an understanding of the underlying neurophysiological processes. (shrink)

REVIEW ESSAY The minimal self needs a social update Self and other: Exploring subjectivity, empathy, and shame, by Dan Zahavi, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015, 304 pp.

A recent movement in the social sciences and philosophy of the social sciences focuses on mechanisms as a central analytical unit. Starting from a pluralist perspective on the aims of the social sciences, I argue that there are a number of important aims to which knowledge about mechanisms—whatever their virtues relative to other aims—contributes very little at best and that investigating mechanisms is therefore a methodological strategy with fairly limited applicability. Key Words: social science • mechanisms (...) • explanation • critical realism • methodology. (shrink)

Abstract.The United States today is faced with a crisis of the liberal system stemming from a shortage of resources and ideas. Liberalism assumes that there will always be enough resources to meet all needs and that politics consists of the struggle of interest groups for resources to meet their particular needs. Liberalism is wrong on both counts: there are not enough resources and there is a common good which includes all particular needs properly understood. We must now revise our ideas (...) and institutions in order to make the common good attainable. Various changes in ideas and institutions toward that end are suggested. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “The Autopoiesis of Social Systems and its Criticisms” by Hugo Cadenas & Marcelo Arnold. Upshot: The authors claim that it is justified to extend the concept of autopoiesis from its biological origin to other disciplines, predominately those that have a social character. However, the authors do not lay strong enough conceptual grounds to justify this extension of autopoiesis because it is unclear what concept of autopoiesis it is that would achieve this objective, (...) or why the concept of autopoiesis itself should be crucial to this endeavor. (shrink)

Almaatouq et al.'s prescription for more integrative experimental designs is welcome but does not address an equally important problem: Lack of adequate theories. We highlight two features theories ought to satisfy: “Well-specified” and “grounded.” We discuss the importance of these features, some positive exemplars, and the complementarity between the target article's prescriptions and improved theorizing.

Bloom's eloquent and comprehensive treatment of early word learning holds that social intention is foundational for language development. While we generally support his thesis, we call into question two of his proposals: (1) that attention to social information in the environment implies social intent, and (2) that infants are sensitive to social intent at the very beginnings of word learning.

In this contribution we will briefly discuss the shareholders' need for social, ethical and environmental information and the efforts of corporations to address this need. Looking at three cases, we will raise some doubt with regard to the adequacy of corporate SEE reporting to meet the needs of shareholders. We will discuss the following three cases: BP's investments in Azerbaijan, Nike's management of its labour conditions, of child labour and security issues, and Monsanto's production of genetically modified (...) seeds. (shrink)

This thought provoking book uncovers a crisis in the political imagination, a wide-spread failure to provide the passionate sense of community "in which our need for belonging can be met." Seeking the answers to fundamental questions, Michael Ignatieff writes vividly both about ideas and about the people who tried to live by them—from Augustine to Bosch, from Rosseau to Simone Weil. Incisive and moving, The Needs of Strangers returns philosophy to its proper place, as a guide to the art (...) of being human. (shrink)

I argue here that the existence of hermeneutical injustice as a pervasive feature of our collective linguistic and conceptual resources undermines the originalist task at two levels: one procedural, one substantive. First, large portions of society were (and continue to be) systematically excluded from the process of meaning creation when the Constitution and its Amendments were adopted, so originalism relies on enforcement of a meaning that was generated through an undemocratic process. Second, the original meaning of some words in those (...) texts may be substantively objectionable as a result because they fail to capture the relevant experiences of affected people at the time even if they accurately capture the conceptual understanding of reasonable people at the time, and this substantive failing may infect the text’s democratic legitimacy. To the extent that it can be overcome, overcoming this epistemic problem will require originalists to take seriously the insights of critical theory, understood in this Note as a normative inquiry into the historical context of the language and meaning of statutory text. Because originalists are already committed to a nominally descriptive inquiry into this context, and because this nominally descriptive inquiry masks the inherently normative aspects of the hermeneutical landscape, the switch to an explicitly normative inquiry may prove quite painless. (shrink)

In the context of the recent ascendancy of CSR, the spotlight has been primarily focused on the business sector, with sharp escalations in expectations of socialinvolvement and contributions throughout both the industrialized and developing world. These rising expectations can be reasonably understood and framed in the context of the expanded global reach and influence of the private sector, and acute market failures and governance gaps in developing countries for which the corporate sector is able to compensate. This paper argues however (...) that a narrow focus on the private sector in the pursuit of CSR is potentially short-sighted. To scale-up the beneficial impact of individual CSR activities, a more systemic approach to CSR is required, capitalizing on the joint effort and creative interactions between four key actors, including a) business and industry; b) institutions of governance; c) the non-governmental; sector and d) the scientific and research community. The paper also presents an exploratory survey of the perceptions of the different actors of their respective roles, responsibilities, strengths andweaknesses in the pursuit of CSR based on a qualitative empirical study conducted in the Lebanese context. (shrink)