Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to (...) explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed. (shrink)

On knowledge and practices: a manifesto -- The web of practices -- Agents and frameworks -- Complementarity in mathematics -- Ancient Greek mathematics: a role for diagrams -- Advanced math: the hypothetical conception -- Arithmetic certainty -- Mathematics developed: the case of the reals -- Objectivity in mathematical knowledge -- The problem of conceptual understanding.

Decision Theory and Rationality offers a challenging new interpretation of a key theoretical tool in the human and social sciences. This accessible book argues, contrary to orthodoxy in politics, economics, and management science, that decision theory cannot provide a theory of rationality.

Reliabilist accounts of knowledge are widely seen as having the resources for blocking sceptical arguments, since these arguments appear to rely on assumptions about the nature of knowledge that are rendered illegitimate by reliabilist accounts. The goal of this book is to assess the main arguments against the possibility of knowledge, and its conclusions challenge this consensus. The book articulates and defends a theory of knowledge that belongs firmly in the truth-tracking tradition, and argues that although the theory has the (...) resources for blocking the main standard lines of sceptical reasoning, there is a sceptical argument against which the theory offers no defence, as it doesn’t rely on any assumptions that the theory would render illegitimate. The book ends with the suggestion that the problem might have a metaphysical solution—that although the sceptical argument may make no illegitimate epistemological assumptions, it does rest on a questionable account of the nature of cognition. (shrink)

Jeffrey King has famously argued that there are several prima facie problems with the direct reference theory of the semantics of complex demonstratives, three of which apparently resist solution. King concludes by observing that, if these outstanding problems cannot be solved, then the prospects for a direct reference semantics for complex demonstratives will be poor. I shall focus on just one of these outstanding problems—the objection from belief attributions—and suggest that it, at least, can be answered.

For this issue of JBE, Zyphur and Pierides :1–16, 2017) have written a paper on a concept that they have labeled relational validity. The purpose of the paper and of their advocacy for the concept of relational validity is to improve the way that quantitative research is done by expanding our understanding of its ethics-laden aspects. I agree entirely with the authors that every decision regarding QR is an ethics-laden one and that our research as a whole would be improved (...) by recognition of this fact. I disagree with the authors regarding some of the ways that this improvement might be brought about. (shrink)

In this paper we study collective identity functions that deal with formation of clubs. Usually the choice offered to individuals is to cast a vote in favor of qualification or not, and the final outcome is qualification or non-qualification. In this context we show that independent collective identity functions are naturally characterized by voting rules, and in particular, consent rules can be represented by one single collection of weighted majorities. In addition, we consider the extended model where voters are allowed (...) to abstain and we distinguish between disqualification and a neutral outcome. We show that this environment allows agents to act in different capacities that cannot be distinguished in the original formulation of the problem. (shrink)

o amor e 0 6dio, dois sentimentos fundamentais do ser humano, estao ligados as fases evolutivas do desenvolvimento sexual infantil, as quais, por sua vez, sao sobredeterminadas pelas relacees intersubjetivas que a crianc;:a experimenta. Tentando precisar 0 significado do amor como 0 sentimento de unidade entre dois seres diferentes, no qual 0 amado assume uma importancia vital para 0 amante, somos levados a definir 0 6dio como 0 sentimento de oposicao entre diferentes seres que estao afetivamente ligados, onde 0 ser (...) odiado representa aquilo que deve ser eliminado, expulso, destruido. Se 0 amor liga-se a fase oral, ao 6dio compulsivo parace ligar-se em determinadas pessoas a uma certa consfituicao da fase anal, onde 0 comportamento transgressor surge como uma forma<;ao de compromisso entre a repeticao de uma viol!ncia sofrida e a tentativa de libertar-se dela. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: amor, 6dio, libido. (shrink)

In this work three recent proposal of analysis of the concept of ‘religion’ are discussed. There is a strong convergence between these three proposals in several points: all of them maintain that a religion should be the belief of something –a set of propositions, the object of a propositional attitude like a belief–, all of them maintain that the object of the belief should be a theory about the good, and all of them maintain that a religion should have important (...) normative and practical consequences. It is argued here that there are at least two problems with the general conception that results from these analyses. In the first place, attributing to a religion the conditions of identity of an act of belief leads to absurd consequences. In the second place, it seems much better to analyze a religion as a theory about God or some gods. (shrink)

Understanding compositional practices is a major goal of musicology and music theory. Compositional practices have been traditionally viewed as disembodied and idiosyncratic. This view makes it hard to integrate musical creativity into our understanding of the general cognitive processes underlying meaning construction. To overcome this unnecessary isolation of musical composition from cognitive science, in this conceptual analysis, we approach compositional processes with the analytic tools of blending theory, material anchoring, and enaction. Our case study is Iannis Xenakis’ use of sieves (...) for distributing rhythmic patterns inPsappha. Though disregarded in previous accounts, the timeline and the gearwheel provide crucial conceptual templates for anchoring Xenakis’ idea of time for this score. This case study of conceptual integration templates for temporal representation seeks to gain insight into musical creativity, embodiment, and blending, especially into how virtual interactions with material structures facilitate the construction of complex meanings. (shrink)

O texto trata de entender a relação entre linguagem e realidade a partir de uma ótica particular, a que chamo de prático-poiética, a do nosso emaranhamento prático-material, social, produtivo, com o mundo, com práticas e com artefatos. Foca principalmente na crítica do que se pode chamar de uma posição wittgensteiniana a respeito do assunto. Mas também registra, brevemente, algo de uma posição peirciana, centrada na noção de mediação, e de uma posição antiessencialista sobre a mente, voltada para a linguagem ordinária. (...) Sempre tendo em vista a superação de uma perspectiva “linguocêntrica” por uma posição materialista prática, da qual fazem parte, como pressupostos, entre outros, as ideias de ação humana como poiesis, de crença como hábito de ação e da noção de uma coisa como constituída essencialmente por seus efeitos sensíveis. O que envolveria ainda um realismo prático e em um perspectivismo material, com consequências para nossos modos de entender linguagem e realidade, mas também, junto com isso, significação, conhecimento, ação, etc. O que inclui, reinterpretados, elementos do pragmatismo tanto quanto do chamado materialismo histórico, a partir dos quais a noção de forma de vida fica associada à de cultura material e à de práticas de produção material-espiritual, envolvida com objetos, objetivações – e linguagem. (shrink)

This paper explores the relation between two ways of thinking about the sources of self-consciousness. We can think about the sources of self-consciousness either in genetic terms (as the origins or precursors of self-conscious thoughts) or in epistemic terms (as the grounds of self-conscious judgements). Using Christopher Peacocke's account of self-conscious judgements in Being Known as a foil, this paper brings out some important ways in which we need to draw upon the sources of self-consciousness in the genetic sense for (...) a proper understanding of the sources of self-consciousness in the epistemic sense. (shrink)

Can one reject copyright law and be a qualified observer of its dispositives? This question was taken up by Bertolt Brecht in an intriguing essay concerning the litigation surrounding the film adaptation ofThe Threepenny Opera(1928). Brecht here develops an experimental observation around the nature of film adaptation and cultural production in copyright. While an experimental approach to law was in itself a subversive gesture, the specific legal process enabled him to expose the paradoxical ways in which the copyright system worked.

El artículo se propone mostrar, en primer lugar, que el enfoque trascendental a la base de las concepciones de la política deliberativa y hegemónica de Habermas y Laclau-Mouffe, respectivamente, tiene como consecuencia neutralizar el pluralismo de las prácticas políticas, asumiendo una concepción historicista en el sentido que Dipesh Chakravarty ha dado al término, como un proceso unificado destinado a reproducirse en todas partes del mismo modo, en último término eurocentrista. Enseguida, sostener que hay en el modo en que Emil Lask (...) piensa las categorías, una manera de evitar el historicismo. Estas están determinadas temporal e históricamente, y no cabe un reino de la validez autónomo o subsistente por sí mismo, y en el que conocer es tener delante una categoría en una perspectiva, en una disposición o un sesgo, en un giro o aspecto. Esto implica que verdad y diversidad, o verdad y pluralismo, así como verdad, poder y contenidos culturales dejen de ser incompatibles. (shrink)

According to Hempel, all scientific explanations and predictions which are produced exclusively with deterministic laws must be deductive, in the sense that the explanandum or the prediction must be a logical consequence of the laws and the initial conditions in the explanans. This deducibility thesis has been attacked from several quarters. Some time ago Canfield and Lehrer presented a “refutation” of DT as applied to predictions, in which they tried to prove that “if the deductive reconstruction [DT for predictions] were (...) an adequate reconstruction, then scientific prediction would be impossible”. Their argument seems to have been uncontested except for an inconclusive rejoinder by Beard. Moreover, Stegmüller has recently argued that “it may turn out that all or at least most of the so-called deductive-nomological explanations are in truth inductive and not deductive arguments, in view of the difficulty which has been pointed out by Canfield and Lehrer”. It seems it would be worth investigating whether Canfield and Lehrer's argument is, indeed, correct. (shrink)

En este artículo comenzamos exponiendo los problemas éticos que pueden surgir en los xenotrasplantes desde distintas perspectivas normativas. Tras esto, elaboramos una breve retrospectiva histórica acerca de los xenotrasplantes. Después, recogemos los principales datos científicos, algunos estudios sobre la opinión pública, el marco legal y las respuestas de diferentes comités éticos acerca de los xenotrasplantes. Finalmente, defenderemos la impermisibilidad de los xenotrasplantes desde una perspectiva principialista que incluye a animales no humanos.

Este trabajo discute qué razones tenemos para pensar que existe un espacio ontológico modal y por qué debemos pensar que este espacio está constituido por una pluralidad de mundos posibles. Después se presentan tres teorías metafísicas sobre la naturaleza de los mundos posibles: la concepción realista extrema de David Lewis, la concepción realista moderada de Alvin Plantinga y la concepción de los mundos posibles como universales estructurales máximos. Un breve examen comparativo tratará de mostrar por qué la tercea opción es (...) la más prometedora o, al menos, parece serlo. El trabajo finalmente considera el panorama que tiene por delante una defensa plenamente desarrollada de la teoría modal basada en universales. (shrink)

Entendemos el concepto de “negación mínima” en el sentido clásico definido por Johansson. El propósito de este artículo es definir la lógica positiva mínima Bp+, y probar que la negación mínima puede introducirse en ella. Además, comentaremos algunas de las múltiples extensiones negativas de Bp+.“Minimal negation” is classically understood in a Johansson sense. The aim of this paper is to define the minimal positive logic Bp+ and prove that a minimal negation can be inroduced in it. In addition, some of (...) the many possible negation extensions of Bp+ are commented. (shrink)

In this paper we intend to offer a first approach to the incorporation of certain formal tools in the elucidation of some issues discussed in epistemological contexts. The aim is not to offer an exhaustive resolution of these problems but merely to point out the usefulness of modal semantics when applied to different fields. Here we will show how a series of skeptical arguments eventually involve a modal structure, which we will try to generalise into a useful scheme.

La teoría generativa y la teoría sistémico-funcional pueden concebirse como teorías científicas: Han confirmado hipótesis, proveen explicaciones y, a partir de estas últimas, efectúan predicciones. Sin embargo, ambas teorías manejan supuestos incompatibles sobre el mismo objeto: el lenguaje. Después de analizar el problema de las confirmaciones y las explicaciones en lingüística, se intentará demostrar que esa incompatibilidad puede resolverse mediante un “principio de complementariedad”: El lenguaje es, al mismo tiempo, una “facultad de la mente” y un “producto de la cultura”, (...) aunque los dos aspectos no puedan captarse en el ámbito de una sola teoría.Palabras llave: Lingüística; incompatibilidad; mente; cultura; complementariedad.Generative and systemic-functional theories may be conceived as scientific theories: they have confirmed hypotheses, they provide explanations, and based on these explanations, they make predictions. Nevertheless, both theories use incompatible assumptions about the same object: language. After analyzing the problem of confirmations and explanations in linguistics, this incompatibility will be treated in terms of “a principle of complementarity”: Language is, simultaneously, a “faculty of the mind” and a “product of culture,” but both aspects cannot be captured by any single theory.Palabras llave: Linguistics; incompatibility; mind; culture; complementarity. (shrink)