The current paper explores the rationality and associated non-emotionality of the psychopathic mind. This was undertaken because psychopaths in the corporate sphere (corporate psychopaths) have been identified as possessing the ability to rise to senior leadership positions within organisations from where they can wield enormous power over their colleagues, organisation and society. When in leadership, the psychopathic create emotional turbulence among their colleagues and subordinates, resulting in an extreme workplace environment. Nonetheless, findings as to the rationality of the psychopathic, include (...) that psychopaths do embody the characteristics of economic rationality and may be the only rational human or ‘homo economicus’ that exists. Taken together with their total immorality and lack of all integrity this makes them the most serious threat to business ethics globally and a threat to the coherence of human society. These findings are important because such people care nothing for the future of humanity and their rationality is dedicated towards personal, short-term gratification. Potentially dire implications for humanity, organisations and society are drawn from this. (shrink)

Ontology tends to be held in deep suspicion by many currently engaged in the study of technology. The aim of this paper is to suggest an ontology of technology that will be both acceptable to ontology’s critics and useful for those engaged with technology. By drawing upon recent developments in social ontology and extending these into the technological realm it is possible to sustain a conception of technology that is not only irreducibly social but able to give due weight to (...) those features that distinguish technical objects from other artefacts. These distinctions, however, require talk of different kinds of causal powers and different types of activity aimed at harnessing such powers. Such discussions are largely absent in recent technological debates, but turn out to be significant both for ongoing technology research and for the recasting of some more traditional debates within the philosophy of technology. (shrink)

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers alike across the social sciences and particularly in philosophy, economics and sociology.

This short theoretical paper elucidates a plausible theory about the Global Financial Crisis and the role of senior financial corporate directors in that crisis. The paper presents a theory of the Global Financial Crisis which argues that psychopaths working in corporations and in financial corporations, in particular, have had a major part in causing the crisis. This paper is thus a very short theoretical paper but is one that may be very important to the future of capitalism because it discusses (...) significant ways in which Corporate Psychopaths may have acted recently, to the detriment of many. Further research into this theory is called for. (shrink)

Intro -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: "The best-laid plans of mice and men ..." -- Chapter 2: "Why won't you do what we think is best for you?" -- Chapter 3: How can I stop screwing up? -- Chapter 4: "Ouch!" -- Why did that backfire? -- Chapter 5: Scientific progress -- that's a good thing, right? -- Chapter 6: Surely trying to protect people can't be bad? -- Chapter 7: Can bad intentions turn out for the good? -- Chapter (...) 8: The upside -- unlooked for benefits -- Chapter 9: So -- how can we do good better? -- References. (shrink)

The public attitude towards the petrochemical industry tends to be one of ethical disapproval and suspicion. But how justified is it? A knowledgeable look at how the industry in general, and one major company in particular, addresses its ethical responsibilities provides a quite different picture. The author has long experience of the petrochemical industry and was most recently Public Affairs Director of ARCO Chemical Europe Inc. He now runs his own Corporate Affairs Consultancy at 82 St George’s Square, London SW1V (...) 3QX. (shrink)

The Anthropocene, in which humankind has become a geological force, is a major scientific proposal; but it also means that the conceptions of the natural and social worlds on which sociology, political science, history, law, economics and philosophy rest are called into question. The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis captures some of the radical new thinking prompted by the arrival of the Anthropocene and opens up the social sciences and humanities to the profound meaning of the new geological epoch, (...) the 'Age of Humans'. Drawing on the expertise of world-recognised scholars and thought-provoking intellectuals, the book explores the challenges and difficult questions posed by the convergence of geological and human history to the foundational ideas of modern social science. If in the Anthropocene humans have become a force of nature, changing the functioning of the Earth system as volcanism and glacial cycles do, then it means the end of the idea of nature as no more than the inert backdrop to the drama of human affairs. It means the end of the 'social-only' understanding of human history and agency. These pillars of modernity are now destabilised. The scale and pace of the shifts occurring on Earth are beyond human experience and expose the anachronisms of 'Holocene thinking'. The book explores what kinds of narratives are emerging around the scientific idea of the new geological epoch, and what it means for the 'politics of unsustainability'. (shrink)

This paper argues that the conditions of the Anthropocene render the four ontologies described by Philippe Descola obsolete, and begins the search for a fifth ontology that speaks to the meaning of...

The journal Environmental Values is thirty years old. In this retrospective, as the retiring Editor-in-Chief, I provide a set of personal reflections on the changing landscape of scholarship in the field. This historical overview traces developments from the journal's origins in debates between philosophers, sociologists, and economists in the UK to the conflicts over policy on climate change, biodiversity/non-humans and sustainability. Along the way various negative influences are mentioned, relating to how the values of Nature are considered in policy, including (...) mainstream environmental economics, naïve environmental pragmatism, the strategic role of corporations, neoliberalism and eco-modernism/techno-optimism. At the same time core value debates around intrinsic value in Nature and instrumentalism remain relevant, along with how plural environmental values can be articulated and acted upon. Naturalness, human relations to non-humans, and Nature as other, remain central considerations. The broadening of issues covered by the journal (e.g. covering social psychology, sociology and political science), reflect the need to address both human behaviour and the structure of social and economic systems to confront ongoing social-ecological crises. (shrink)

The history of the Allan Library is here told systematically for the first time. This antiquarian collection of substantially foreign-language books and some manuscripts was formed by barrister Thomas Robinson Allan during the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. His stated intention was to create a Methodist rival to Sion College Library and Dr Williamss Library. Allan donated it to the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1884, which funded the erection of purpose-built Allan Library premises opening in London in 1891. However, the Wesleyans (...) struggled to make a success of the enterprise as a subscription library, and the collection was in storage between 1899 and 1920, before being sold by Conference to the London Library. The Allan Library Trust was established with the proceeds of the sale. The reasons for the relative failure of Allans great library project are fully explored. (shrink)

Moving sustainability towards flourishing for all implies a care for all and for the future. However, in this commentary I note that many corporate and political leaders do not care for others or the future because, embodying egotistical, ruthless, remorseless, and dishonest (psychopathic) characteristics, their concern is only for themselves. This commentary argues that toxic leadership and governance, in the form of corporate psychopathy and corporate psychopaths, are important barriers to achieving sustainability. Notably, and of relevance to this argument, the (...) embodiment of psychopathic traits can give people the ability to brazenly push themselves to the top, unimpeded by emotional distractions and thereby attain leadership. However, due to their deep indifference to corporate social responsibility and a readiness to falsify environmental impact reports, engage in faking corporate social responsibility and illegally dump toxic waste materials; the influence of such psychopathic leadership may be detrimental to sustainability and to flourishing for all. Leaders high in psychopathy will ignore or dismiss scientific evidence of unsustainable practices because they do not care about the future or about dismissing scientific evidence of detriments to the prospects for humanity. Accordingly toxic leadership and governance are arguably the critical factors in achieving a flourishing sustainability. The future of all life thus depends on who we choose as our leaders. (shrink)

There has always been a sub-group of established economists trying to convey an environmental critique of the mainstream. This paper traces their thinking into the late 20th century via the development of associations and journals in the USA and Europe. There is clearly a divergence between the conformity to neo-classical economics favoured by resource and environmental economists and the acceptance of more radical critiques apparent in ecological economics. Thus, the progressive elements of ecological economics are increasingly incompatible with those practising (...) neo-classical environmental economics who try to reduce all concepts to fit within the confines of their models. A group of people can be identified who teach that ecological economics is nothing more than a name for the link between mainstream economics and ecology. A new movement and paradigm are unnecessary for such ends. This viewpoint is argued to be inconsistent with the roots and ideas of the ecological economics movement. Ecological economics is seen here to be synthesising various types of economics and moving back to explicit inclusion of ethical issues in the mode of classical political economy. This inevitably means rediscovering neglected past works and exploring new ways of thinking about socio- economics and the environment. (shrink)

This article explains who Corporate Psychopaths are, and some of the processes by which they stimulate counterproductive work behaviour among employees. The article hypothesizes that conflict and bullying will be higher, that employee affective well-being will be lower and that frequencies of counterproductive work behaviour will also be higher in the presence of Corporate Psychopaths. Research was conducted among 304 respondents in Britain in 2011, using a psychopathy scale embedded in a self-completion management survey. The article concludes that Corporate Psychopaths (...) have large and significant impacts on conflict and bullying and employee affective well-being; these have large and significant impacts on counterproductive work behaviour. There is no difference between male and female degrees of negative reaction to the presence of managers who are Corporate Psychopaths. (shrink)

The defining of 'image' as essentially that class of idea to which there is no object corresponding, springs from a commend able desire not to allow analysis to result in an incorrect conceptual multiplication of physical objects or situations. This result would be likely if the thinker succumbed to the temptation to consider that for every idea entertained there is somehow an objective physical situation corresponding. The simple calling of attention to the type of mental state signified by the word (...) 'imagining' is reckoned to be sufficient to guard against this danger. And so it is. But at the same time,- concentration upon this danger may easily lead to the consequent temptation to consider that there are some ideas which have no objects of reference whatever. This is just not the case. The true insight that some ideas have no objective physical situations corresponding to them does not imply that some ideas have no objects of reference unless it be assumed that all situations or states of affairs are physical. But then if this is true there can be no specific meaning at all for the word 'idea' since by it we imply at the very least some distinction from the physical as such; and in this case all attempts to distinguish 'idea' as over against 'object' break down. The presence of this dilemma is enough to demand a re-analysis of the original distinction. (shrink)

This bibliography of Alan Holland's work was compiled without his knowledge as part of this surprise special issue in his honour. As a result it may well be incomplete, especially with respect to earlier works and the very latest. I have done my best with the help of his ex-students and colleagues to track backwards and keep up on his more recent writings. C.L.S.

I write as a non-Jew about the brief correspondence sent to my father, shortly after the Second World War, from a gifted, young Jewish violinist, and briefly outline the background story-arc of her family’s aliyah, from the Pale a couple of generations earlier to her settlement in the new state of Israel. Her story is not bound up with the Holocaust, nor did she experience antisemitism: but this essay attempts to highlight the majesty and sparkle of a moment in the (...) mundane life of a Jewish woman, and its brief impact on a gentile. The focus is on her musical remarks about some of the leading performers of the day. I also outline some of the ways I secured source materials for this primarily biographical sketch, but this article is presented more as a ‘memoire’ than an academic study. It is offered in honour and memory of a Jewish lady whom, alas, I was a little too late to meet myself, and to celebrate my father’s hundredth birthday in May 2021. (shrink)

The prevailing view that there is significant cognitive continuity between humans and other animals is a result of misinterpretations of the role of evolution, combined with anthropomorphism. This combination has often resulted in an over-interpretation of data from animal experiments. Comparative psychology should do what the name indicates: study the cognitive capacities of different species empirically, without naive evolutionary presuppositions.

What if anyone in Hell could take a bus trip to Heaven and stay there forever if they wanted to? In The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The amazing opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heaven, can. This is the starting point for an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment. Lewis's revolutionary idea is (...) the discovery that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. In Lewis's own words, "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.". (shrink)

Within the context of fierce global economic competition, school diversification and specialist schools have been seen by governments as cornerstones of education policy to engineer school improvement in both England and Singapore for more than a decade. In both systems, the policy has manifested in different school types, school names and sometimes buildings-in England, specialist status schools, academies and most recently free schools; and in Singapore, specialist schools and niche schools. Diversification is promoted by each school emphasising distinctiveness in its (...) curriculum-often with implications for its funding and degree of autonomy-which differentiate it from others. There is normally the intention to scale-up curricular innovations school-wide. The paper addresses three aims in respect to both countries: first, it profiles the evolution of specialist schools' policies in both states in relation to school improvement and secondly, social justice; thirdly, it undertakes a comparative policy analysis in order to draw conclusions as to how the relationship between central government and schools has re-configured in both countries-arguing that the policy in England is radical, that in Singapore, conservative. (shrink)

Perceptions of human resource (HRM) management’s response to worker bullying were investigated through a netnographic analysis of written comments concerning an online ‘TEDx’ talk called “Bullying and Corporate Psychopaths at Work” to help determine whether HRM are seen as supportive of bullied workers. This research utilized a qualitative, ethnographic approach deemed to be highly valid in researching sensitive areas such as that of workplace bullying. Findings align with, deepen, and extend previous theory and knowledge in that a key finding that (...) emerges is that HRM is deemed by workers to be capable of, but unwilling to deal effectively with, bullying managers. HRM are seen as complacent in that they do little about psychopathic bullies, complicit in that they support managerial bullies and compounding in that they worsen outcomes from workers’ point of view. It appears that HRM has therefore lost the trust of this sample of bullied workers. The paper is a first to apply a netnographic analysis to the problem of workplace bullying and reveals HRM fails to deal with it to worker’s satisfaction. Implications include that the ubiquitous prevalence of workplace bullying around the world could continue unabated unless strict, clear codes of conduct are established and policed by HRM or non-HRM related forms of intervention are mobilized. (shrink)

The subjectivity or “purpose dependency” of measurement in biology is discussed using examples from high-dimensional medical genetic research. The human observer and study designer tacitly determine the numerical and graphical representation of biological simplicity or complexity via choice of ascertainment , numbers to measure, referential basis, statistical learning formalism and feature search, and also via the selection of display styles for all these quantifications.

This article evaluates various aspects of the selection interview in terms of the major principles of business ethics. It looks at both interviewer and interviewee behavior and examines the ethical questions that arise around five key themes: Preparation for the interview; Openness, disclosure and the invasion of privacy; Honesty and impression management; Power relationships in the interview; The use of interview information in decision making. It is argued that clear guidelines for ethical behavior in the interview are needed and would (...) actually serve to increase the effectiveness of the method. Various topics that require empirical investigation are identified, and some parallels drawn with research on other assessment methods. (shrink)

Professor Shannon Vallor’s theoretical framework of technomoral virtue ethics identifies character traits that can be cultivated to foster a future worth wanting in an environment of emerging technologies. Such technologies and increased citizen participation in the new digital environment have reconfigured what is possible in policing and intelligence-gathering more quickly, perhaps, than sober and sensible policy reflection and formulation can keep pace with. Sensational and dramatic, seismic and devastating, the Snowden disclosures represent a particular expression of dissent against American intelligence (...) community exploitation of emerging technologies in undertaking mass surveillance on a global scale. Responses to Snowden’s actions, and perceptions of the value of the disclosures he made, are polarized. Polar opposites equate to vices in the Aristotlean view that posits virtue as the middle way. Here, the theoretical framework of technomoral virtue ethics is used for objective evaluation of Snowden’s asserted motivations and documented actions against the benchmark of good cyber-citizenship that the framework describes. The fact that Snowden’s account is strongly disputed by the U.S. Government does not in and of itself invalidate a theoretical evaluation. It is not the probative value of Snowden’s account that is being tested, but how the narrative presented measures up to an ethical framework. (shrink)