While a growing number of firms are being evaluated on environment, social and governance criteria by sustainability rating agencies, comparatively little is known about companies’ responses. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with companies operating in Italy, the present paper seeks to narrow this gap in current understanding by examining how firms react to ESG ratings, and the factors influencing their response. Unique to the literature, we show that firms may react very differently to being rated, with our analysis yielding a fourfold (...) typology of corporate responses. The typology captures conformity and resistance to ratings across two dimensions of firm behaviour. We furthermore show that corporate responses depend on managers’ beliefs regarding the material benefits of adjusting to and scoring well on ESG ratings and their alignment with corporate strategy. In doing so, we challenge the idea that organisational ratings homogenise organisations and draw attention to the agency underlying corporate responses. Our findings also contribute to debates about the impact of ESG ratings, calling into question claims about their positive influence on companies’ sustainability performance. We conclude by discussing the wider empirical, theoretical and ethical implications of our paper. (shrink)

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social justice? Pablo Gilabert offers a systematic defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of justice. In Human Dignity and Human Rights (OUP 2019), he advanced an account of human dignity for the context of human rights discourse, which (...) covers the most urgent, basic claims of dignity. This book extends the dignitarian approach to more ambitious claims of maximal dignity of the kind encoded in democratic socialist conceptions of social justice. In particular, this book focuses on the just organization of working practices. It recasts in a dignitarian format the critique of capitalist society as involving exploitation, alienation, and domination of workers, and revamps a neglected but inspiring socialist principle. In its dignitarian interpretation, the Abilities/Needs Principle (‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!’) yields reasonable and feasible requirements on social cooperation geared to empowering each human being to lead a flourishing life. While Human Dignity and Human Rights offered the first systematic philosophical account of human dignity in human rights discourse, Human Dignity and Social Justice presents the first systematic application of the dignitarian framework to the core ideals of democratic socialism. (shrink)

El presente trabajo parte, de un lado, de los planteamiento acerca del populismo de Ernesto Laclau y, de otro, de ciertas nociones derIvadas de la filosofía de Martin Heidegger. El populismo laclausiano reclama una horizontalidad política a partir de las demandas ciudadanas, que configuran la identidad de un pueblo, sin una expresión ideológica tras ellas. Estas demandas se engloban en una demanda ulterior (demanda democrática). La demanda democrática se articula por un lider carismático. Heidegger aparentemente no hace una filosofía política, (...) a pesar de adherirse al nazismo. Pero si hallamos en su planteamiento una articulación del Volk (pueblo) como Mit-sein (ser-con-los-demás), que propicia una ontología del colectivo; así como un entendimiento del ser como fundamento tempóreo y, por tanto, cambiante y no inmutable. Ello daría lugar a una falta de principio (Arché), a una an-archía. Nuestra propuesta consiste en la posibilidad de aunar las tesis de ambos exponiendo una concepción de pueblo sin líder, ya que consideramos que la instauración del mismo se torna como un fundamento asentado e inmutable, lo cual implica no una demanda democrática, sino más bien la implementación de un sistema que contradice las siempres cambiantes demandas ciudadanas. ---- This paper is based, on the one hand, on Ernesto Laclau's approach to populism and, on the other, on certain notions derived from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Laclausian populism claims a political horizontality based on citizens' demands, which shape the identity of a people, without an ideological expression behind them. These demands are encompassed in a further demand (democratic demand). The democratic demand is articulated by a charismatic leader. Heidegger apparently does not make a political philosophy, despite his adherence to Nazism. But we do find in his approach an articulation of the Volk (people) as Mit-sein (being-with-others), which favours an ontology of the collective; as well as an understanding of being as a tempestuous and therefore changeable and not immutable foundation. This would give rise to a lack of principle (Arché), to an an-archy. Our proposal consists in the possibility of combining the theses of both by exposing a conception of a people without a leader, since we consider that the establishment of a leader becomes a settled and immutable foundation, which implies not a democratic demand, but rather the implementation of a system that contradicts the ever-changing demands of the citizens. (shrink)

Este trabajo pretende cuestionar la concepción del tiempo que la contemporaneidad postmoderna mantiene como herencia De la tradición moderna. Tal cuestionamiento se debe sobre todo a que la noción hegemónica del tiempo, desde la aparición del racionalismo, no corresponde al sentir del tiempo mismo dado en una época global e intercultural, sino que se representa mediante una linealidad fagocitadora unificante que deja en la cuneta aquello que no pasa por el filtro "moderno". Frente a eso, se propone un concepto de (...) la temporalidad circular, sirviendo de apoyo los planteamientos de Nietzsche, Heidegger y Vattimo. ---- This paper aims to question the conception of time that postmodern contemporaneity maintains as an inheritance of the modern tradition. This questioning is mainly due to the fact that the hegemonic notion of time, since the appearance of rationalism, does not correspond to the feeling of time itself given in a global and intercultural epoch, but is represented by a unifying phagocytic linearity that leaves in the gutter that which does not pass through the "modern" filter. Against this, a concept of circular temporality is proposed, with the approaches of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Vattimo as support. (shrink)

La diffusione del libro nel Medioevo potrebbe essere riletta alla luce di una metafora attuale sebbene non scevra di aspetti dialettici: quella della “rete”. All’ubicazione spazio-temporale del libro nei monasteri medievali, contraddistinta da fisicità e permanenza, si sotituisce oggi un formato digitale e virtuale, che porta ad una sorta di decontestualizzazione e alla continuità del flusso di informazioni, contribuendo alla diffusione capillare del sapere. L’ottica di universalità e globalità accomuna tuttavia entrambe le epoche. Alcuni concetti-chiave dell’informatica potrebbero infatti declinarsi in (...) ambito medievale: Server-Client per la raccolta, la conservazione e la trasmissione delle conoscenze da parte dei monasteri, quali centri del sapere in Europa, agli uomini di cultura; Firewall , per alludere alla necessità di tutelare i manoscritti, mediante la copiatura e la diffusione dei codici; Community , ad indicare non solo la comunità religiosa o monastica in senso stretto, bensì l’apertura ad una costruzione del sapere mediante un’azione partecipativa . I problemi dell’autenticità delle fonti, dell’acriticità delle informazioni e la pratica delle citazioni trovano un precedente significativo nelle Sententiae di Pietro Lombardo: una sorta di “biblioteca virtuale” grazie alla collezione di passi dalla Sacra Scrittura e da fonti latine e greche, paragonabile a un moderno modello enciclopedico di sapere. The diffusion of the book in the Middle Ages could be critically read through a modern metaphor: the “net”. The space-temporal coordinates of the book shift from being physical and permanent in the Medieval monasteries, to being de-contextualized and continue in the flow of information of digital and virtual format. However the universal and global perspective is common to the contemporary and the Medieval periods. In fact some key-words of computer science could be applied to the Medieval context: Server-Client , for the collection, the preservation and the transmission of knowledge from monasteries, as cultural centers in Medieval Europe, to men of culture; Firewall , for the necessary protection of manuscripts, through copying and diffusing codes; Community , referred not only to the monastic and religious groups, but also to an open sharing of the building of knowledge. Problems like the authenticity of the sources, the lack of criticality in the reception of data, and the practice of quotations are well represented in Peter Lombard’s Sententiae : this work can be compared to a modern encyclopedia thanks to the collection of passages from the Holy Scripture and from Latin and Greek sources, as well as a “virtual library”. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the ways in which national identities are staged in recent film and theatre productions in Estonia. We want to complement the prevalent approaches to nationality (Anderson 1983; Gellner 1983; Bhabha 1990), where the role of theatre and film as modellers of national identity are undervalued. National identity is a complex term that presupposes some clarification, which we gave by describing its dynamics today; its relation to ethnic identity, a thread between the lived and declared national identities, (...) and the relevance of culture-based national identity. Herein we consider the concept of staging to have two implications: (1) as an aesthetic term it incorporates an artistic process, comprising several devices and levels; (2) as a concept in cultural theory it describes cultural processes in which something is set on stage for public reflection. Accordingly, in our analysis we considered national identities in theatre and film stagings in both senses. The results of our analyses demonstrated that our hypothesis about emerging new national identities in Estonia was valid, though deconstructed and hybrid national identities are not exactly and absolutely new types of identities but rather strategies of creating space for new identities to develop. A deconstructed national identity refers to the state of high self-reflexivity in which the existing elements of national identity are re-examined, recontextualised and re-evaluated. Further, a hybrid national identity demonstrates the diversity and coexistence of the components of national identity. Both strategies of staging are characteristic of the transformation of national identities, confirming that a single homogenous staging of national identity seems to be replaced by bringing multiple new self-models on stage. (shrink)

This paper offers an exploration of the socialist principle “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.” The Abilities/Needs Principle is arguably the ethical heart of socialism but, surprisingly, has received almost no attention by political philosophers. I propose an interpretation of the principle and argue that it involves appealing ideas of solidarity, fair reciprocity, recognition of individual differences, and meaningful work. The paper proceeds as follows. First, I analyze Marx’s formulation of the Abilities/Needs Principle. Second, (...) I identify the principle’s initial plausibility, but show that it faces serious problems that cannot be addressed without developing a fresh interpretation of it. Third, I provide an interpretation of the principle that highlights demands concerning opportunities for self-realization in work, positive duties of solidarity, sensitivity to individual differences, and mechanisms of fair reciprocity. Fourth, I discuss a possible institutional implementation of the Abilities/Needs Principle. Finally, I identify some normative puzzles about the transition from capitalism to socialism, and suggest how the Abilities/Needs Principle might gain motivational traction by mobilizing the powerful idea of human dignity. (shrink)

Legal interpreting and translation are some of the oldest and most frequently practised bilingual activities in Hong Kong. The principles and operation of the bilingual legal system actually impinge on the legal interpreting services and the practices of legal interpreting services also in ways impact on the system itself. This study adopts a historical approach to analyse the jurisprudence and administration of legal interpreting in Hong Kong courts from 1966 to 2016, across the 1997 dividing line between British colonial rule (...) and the return of Hong Kong to the government of mainland China. It focuses on the opinions of judges and other participants in courtroom proceedings as recorded in Hong Kong case reports. It is discovered that the jurisprudence of having an interpreter to interpret for participants who do not speak the language of the court is clearly indicated and well versed in the precedents. However, there is a gap between the jurisprudence and the actual interpreting services, mainly caused by the malpractices of the concerned administration department and some of the law enforcement agents working in the frontline. (shrink)

Metaphorical analogies have been popular in different forms of reasoning, theatre and drama analogy among them. From the semiotic perspective, theatre is arepresentation of reality. Characteristic to theatrical representation is the fact that for creating representations of reality it uses, to a great extent, the materiality andcultural codes that also constitute our everyday life; sometimes the means of representation are even iconically identical to the latter. This likeness has inspirednumerous writers, philosophers and, later, social scientists to look for particular similarities (...) between social life, drama and theatre. In this paper I chose twoparticular approaches from the social sciences that make use of the metaphorical analogy of theatre in quite different, yet, to certain extent, also overlapping ways — Victor Turner’s concept of “social dramas” from anthropology and Erving Goffman’s “dramaturgy” of social interactions from sociology. The former bases hisanalogy more on the structure of the dramatic text and on a key resemblance in the (dramatic) conflict, whereas the latter builds his analogy on the principles ofperforming used in theatre, and regards characters and roles as major resemblances between action on stage and in social space. This paper examines these key resemblances and sheds light on what kind of interpretations of culture and society emerge when theatre analogies are put into action. In the concluding section some general problems, related to extended metaphors and analogical explanations the researcher needs to face with, are discussed. (shrink)

This paper reports a European Forum for Good Clinical Practice workshop held in 2011 to consider a research ethics committee training syllabus, subsequent training needs and resources. The syllabus that was developed was divided into four competencies: committee working; scientific method; ethical analysis and the regulatory framework. Appropriate training needs for each, with possible resources, were discussed. Lack of funding for training was reported as a major problem but affordable alternatives were debated. Strengths and weaknesses of this approach were discussed (...) and the resultant proposal will be disseminated through the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice and the research ethics committees of member states. (shrink)

ISBN 9042002980 (paperback) NLG 45.00 From the contents: Musikwissenschaft in den Niederlanden bis 1960 (Eduard Reeser).- Ueber Helene Nolthenius (Etty Mulder).- Im Banne des Ringes: ideologische Ingredienzen im Werk Wagners (Joost Langeveld).- Adorno und die Musik (Etty Mulder).- Paul Klee zwischen Klang und Farbe: von einem Musiker, der Maler wurde (Hannedea van Nederveen Meerkerk).

In the last decades the concept of objectivity has been criticized by the "new epistemologies". These criticisms favour the consolidation of relativist and subjective positions, which condition the objectivity of scientific knowledge to such an extent that it seems to be a goal impossible to achieve.

O artigo aborda a diáspora forçada de africanos ao Brasil por fatores econômicos, políticos, sócio cultural e psíquico, desencadeado por ações do FMI e Banco Mundial. O tratamento desumano que recebem, o crescente número de crianças e adolescentes invisibilizados que sonham com um imaginário de vida melhor no Brasil, como o “pais do futebol”, e/ou uma passagem provisória para chegar ao primeiro mundo em países considerados de colonização europeia como EUA ou Canada. O artigo provoca reflexões sobre a força da (...) historia sobre o psiquismo e saúde mental humana a partir do ideário de uma pedagogia colonialista que sustenta a hegemonia do mundo capitalista. (shrink)

: O objetivo principal do presente artigo é indicar as principais características da obra tardia de G. Lukács, em especial, Para uma Ontologia do Ser Social. Pretende-se ainda tecer alguns comentários sobre sua trajetória intelectual.

Metaphorical analogies have been popular in different forms of reasoning, theatre and drama analogy among them. From the semiotic perspective, theatre is a representation of reality. Characteristic to theatrical representation is the fact that for creating representations of reality it uses, to a great extent, the materiality and cultural codes that also constitute our everyday life; sometimes the means of representation are even iconically identical to the latter. This likeness has inspired numerous writers, philosophers and, later, social scientists to look (...) for particular similarities between social life, drama and theatre. In this paper I chose two particular approaches from the social sciences that make use of the metaphorical analogy of theatre in quite different, yet, to certain extent, also overlapping ways — Victor Turner’s concept of “social dramas” from anthropology and Erving Goffman’s “dramaturgy” of social interactions from sociology. The former bases his analogy more on the structure of the dramatic text and on a key resemblance in the conflict, whereas the latter builds his analogy on the principles of performing used in theatre, and regards characters and roles as major resemblances between action on stage and in social space. This paper examines these key resemblances and sheds light on what kind of interpretations of culture and society emerge when theatre analogies are put into action. In the concluding section some general problems, related to extended metaphors and analogical explanations the researcher needs to face with, are discussed. (shrink)

What is a duty of justice? And how is it different from a duty of beneficence? We need a clear account of the contrast. Unfortunately, there is no consensus in the philosophical literature as to how to characterize it. Different articulations of it have been provided, but it is hard to identify a common core that is invariant across them. In this paper, I propose an account of how to understand duties of justice, explain how it contrasts with several proposals (...) as to how to distinguish justice and beneficence, respond to some objections and suggest further elaborations of it. The conceptual exploration pursued in this paper has practical stakes. A central aim is to propose and defend a capacious concept of justice that makes a direct discussion of important demands of justice (domestic and global) possible. Duties of justice can be positive besides negative, they can be imperfect as well as perfect, they can range over personal besides institutional contexts, they can include multiple associative reasons such us non-domination, non-exploitation and reciprocity, and they can even go beyond existing national, political, and economic associative frameworks to embrace strictly universal humanist concerns. We should reject ideological abridgments of the concept of justice that render these possibilities, and the important human interests and claims they may foster, invisible. (shrink)

Ainda que a autora tenha se debruçado, em várias ocasiões desde 1984, sobre o problema da ideologia na obra postumamente publicada por Lukács, o objetivo geral do presente artigo é trazer comentários adicionais sobre o tema, decorrência de pesquisa mais profunda não só da Ontologia do ser social, mas também do próprio itinerário intelectual do filósofo húngaro. Autores que abordaram o tema são revisitados, configurando-se assim um quadro geral mais complexo da questão em tela.

Could a robot be a good actor? Could it build an effective relationship of understanding and empathy with other actors or spectators? This paper offers just a glimpse, a first trace of research of a now important phenomenon that affects the Performing Arts, namely the integration of artificial agents both in the creative process and in the theatrical performance. It will be treated for this purpose by the example of the android Geminoid F, protagonist of the play Sayonara (2010) by (...) Japanese director Oriza Hirata, created by Osaka University’s robotics expert Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, whose gestures have been learned by imitating those of a real professional actress. Watching this android act is an alienating aesthetic experience: from the position of the audience, the boundary between human and robot is unclear. Geminoid F was chosen as co-star in the film of the same name, shot in 2015 by the internationally acclaimed Japanese director Koji Fukada, precisely because of her expressive qualities, as effective as those of a human actor, capable of arousing an empathic reaction in the viewer. (shrink)

The conditional analysis of ability faces familiar counterexamples involving cases of volitional incapacity. An interesting response to the problem of volitional incapacity is to try to explain away the responses elicited by such counterexamples by distinguishing between what we are able to do and what we are able to bring ourselves to do. We argue that this error-theoretic response fails. Either it succeeds in solving the problem of volitional incapacity at the cost of making the conditional analysis vulnerable to obvious (...) counterexamples to its necessity. Or, it avoids the counterexamples to its necessity but fails to solve the problem of volitional incapacity. (shrink)

Keller & Miller (K&M) briefly mention and promptly dismiss the idea that genes for harmful mental disorders may confer certain advantages to affected individuals. However, the authors fail to consider that the same genes (in low doses or reduced penetrance) may be adaptive for relatives, and that this may in part explain why they are retained in the gene pool. (Published Online November 9 2006).

Este artigo considera a marcante instabilidade da Filosofia nos currículos da Educação brasileira, assim como seu desaparecimento como disciplina, na versão aprovada da Base Nacional Comum Curricular. Apresenta as prováveis alterações que esse documento promoverá na Educação, referente à formação de professores, ao impacto político e à autonomia docente na criação de aulas, para, então, dedicar-se aos espólios filosóficos restantes na Base, sobretudo àqueles relativos à ética. Mostra que a dimensão ética atravessa o documento e está presente nas “Competências Gerais” (...) a serem desenvolvidas ao longo da Educação Básica, sendo, portanto, uma preocupação de todas as áreas do conhecimento, sobretudo no que se refere às Tecnologias Digitais de Informação e Comunicação e à sustentabilidade ambiental. Volta à definição de ética no documento e às suas bases, a saber, justiça, solidariedade e livre-arbítrio; problematiza seus sentidos e marca algumas incoerências. Evidencia que o documento, apesar de incentivar que a Educação dos jovens esteja, de um lado, voltada àquilo que fizemos e sabemos do mundo, por outro, para o aberto e indeterminado; dá ênfase excessiva à busca de soluções e ao aprendizado de respostas, dando prioridade, no que respeita à Filosofia, à resposta socrática para a questão “O que é o ser humano?” Destaca a ideia apresentada no documento de que o nosso tempo requer uma “nova mentalidade”, regida por uma “ética diferente”, e defende que é por meio do contato com modos de pensar filosóficos, presentes nos textos primários de Filosofia, trabalhados por professores habilitados para isso, que os estudantes tornar-se-ão competentes e hábeis nos dois principais sentidos éticos da Base – 1) da nossa relação com a natureza, com o Planeta e seus bens finitos; e 2) da relação consigo mesmo, o modo de ser. Afirma, por fim, que, apesar da espoliação sofrida pela Filosofia na Base, nenhum projeto de Educação pode ser sustentado sem ela. Palavras-chave: BNCC. Filosofia. Ética. Ensino de Filosofia. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por propósito expor as análises realizadas pelo filósofo J. Chasin em relação ao tema da política no âmbito da formação social brasileira, cuja determinação central, nos seus termos, é ter-se constituído pela via colonial. Intentamos, inicialmente, mostrar a interrelação entre as pesquisas chasinianas sobre o pensamento de K. Marx especialmente a crítica à política (consubstanciada na expressão determinação ontonegativa da politicidade), e suas descobertas sobre a sociabilidade nacional. No interior dessa relação de potencialização recíproca, destacamos o debate (...) chasiniano sobre o politicismo, modo de proceder típico da burguesia atrófica brasileira, para o qual esta conseguiu arrastar, em momentos decisivos, muitos agrupamentos e individualidades que se arvoram de esquerda. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo principal caracterizar o legado de J. Chasin sobre o estatuto ontológico marxiano e a sua respectiva resolução metodológica. Para tanto, serão analisados os temas específicos que compõem a proposta inovadora do autor. São eles: a análise imanente; o significado do estatuto ontológico marxiano propriamente dito, que inclui a afamada tese das “três fontes”, como modo tradicional de atribuir às origens do pensamento de Marx; o caráter metodológico aí decorrente; as possíveis consequências da proposta chasiniana, (...) sobretudo, no que diz respeito à “metapolítica”, a formação da individualidade e, por fim, a denúncia dos limites teóricos de Lukács, principalmente em relação à “dialética do universal do articular e do singular”, que somados a outros percalços, sustenta o “vínculo lógico entre para Marx e Hegel” presente em determinas obras do filósofo húngaro. (shrink)