Sustainable development is often framed as a social issue to which corporations should pay attention because it offers both opportunities and challenges. Through the use of institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we shed some light on why, more than 20 years after sustainable development was first introduced, we see neither the adoption of this business model as dominant nor its converse, that is the total abandonment of the model as unworkable and unprofitable. We focus on multinational (...) corporations (MNCs) because they were among the organizations first called to take action. In order to illustrate the institutional pressures MNCs face and their strategic response to these pressures, we analysed four major oil and gas multinationals subject to similar sustainable development pressures – climate change, biodiversity, renewable energy development and social investment. We argue that normative and coercive isomorphism does not occur at the global level because sustainable development is largely a stakeholder-driven rather than a broad social pressure. That is, host country interpretation of sustainable development pressures varies across an MNC’s subsidiary network. Based on the analysis of the four major MNCs’ annual reports from 2000 to 2005, we argue that mimetic isomorphism may occur, but since it implies the use of complex and intangible resources, mimetic processes are slow, rare and discretionary. (shrink)

SINGULARIDAD: 12 Preceptos para la Vida Trascendental | © 2023 Cromwell Black Publishing House | Obra original por Luis Herrera. -/- Vivir trascendentalmente no es lo mismo que 'tener las respuestas a la vida.' La intención con la que se ha escrito este libro es ayudarte a identificar a Dios dentro de ti. La religión es una señal, pero no es la respuesta. La filosofía es una señal, pero no es la respuesta. Las personas que se identifican en exceso con (...) un grupo o tribu por razones ideológicas, inevitablemente se encuentran con la decepción porque siempre habrá algunos principios con los que internamente se opongan y estén en desacuerdo. Aun así, ignoran su voz interior para 'encajar con los demás.' El hombre es un animal social y la excomunión de la tribu ha sido equivalente a la extinción de nuestra línea desde nuestros días como cazadores y recolectores. Al vivir trascendentalmente, he aprendido a reconocer, acoger y aceptar el espacio entre mí y mi tribu. Te invito a hacer lo mismo. -/- Aprendiendo a escuchar al Dios que está dentro, puedo confiar más en mi voz interior porque hay un mensaje hablado allí, único para mí, que nunca será impreso en las páginas de la Biblia, el Corán, el Tao Te Ching o cualquier otro libro. Solo hay un TÚ. Otros pueden tener tu nombre, pero no tu identidad. Pueden compartir tu fecha de nacimiento y hospital, pero no tus padres. Pueden compartir tus padres, pero no tu nombre. ¿Ves a lo que me refiero aquí? Por lo tanto, ¿cómo puede una religión, educación o filosofía 'talla única' responder a la pregunta sobre el significado de la vida? No hay un significado de la vida, porque no hay una vida. Hay vidas infinitas, para las cuales deben proporcionarse significados infinitos. De ahí la importancia de aprender a confiar en ti mismo, tu voz interior, tu conciencia, el Dios que está dentro de ti. (shrink)

SINGULARITY: 12 Precepts for Transcendental Living | © 2022 Cromwell Black Publishing House | Original work by Luis Herrera. -/- Living transcendentally is not the same as ‘having the answers to life.’ The intention with which this book is written is to help you identify the God within yourself. Religion is a guidepost, but not the answer. Philosophy is a guidepost, not the answer. People that over-identify with one group or tribe for ideological reasons invariably meet with disappointment because there (...) will always be some tenets they internally oppose and disagree with. Yet they ignore their inner voice in order to ‘fit in with the rest.’ Man is a social animal and excommunication from the tribe has been tantamount to extinction of our lineage since our days as hunters and gatherers. By living transcendentally I have learned to acknowledge, welcome and accept the space between myself and my tribe. I invite you to do the same. -/- Learning to listen to the God within, I can trust my inner voice more because there is a message spoken there, uniquely for me, that will never be printed on the pages of the Bible, or the Koran, or the Tao Te Ching, or any other book for that matter. There’s only one YOU. Others may have your name, but not your identity. They may share your birth date and hospital, but not your parents. They may share your parents, but not your name. Do you see what I’m getting at here? Therefore how can a ‘one-size fits all’ religion, education or philosophy possibly answer the question to your meaning of life? There is no the meaning of life, because there is no the life. There are infinite lives, for which infinite meanings must be furnished. Hence the importance of learning to trust yourself, your inner voice, conscience – the God within. (shrink)

The travelling salesman problem (TSP) belongs to the class of NP-hard problems, in which an optimal solution to the problem cannot be obtained within a reasonable computational time for large-sized problems. To address TSP, we propose a hybrid algorithm, called GA-TCTIA-LBSA, in which a genetic algorithm (GA), tour construction and tour improvement algorithms (TCTIAs) and a list-based simulated annealing (LBSA) algorithm are used. The TCTIAs are introduced to generate a first population, and after that, a search is continued with the (...) GA. The problem of premature convergence of the GA to local optimum is tackled by a method called social disaster technique. Afterwards, the LBSA is applied to generate a new population based on one of two proposed operators called packing and judgement day. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the MATLAB environment, and its two variants, called GA-TCTIA-LBSA packing and GA-TCTIA-LBSA judgement day, are tested on symmetric and asymmetric instances from TSPLIB. The overall results demonstrate that the proposed GA-TCTIA-LBSAs offer promising results, particularly for small-sized instances. (shrink)

La formule de Ga 3,28 « ...Il y a ni esclave ni libre, il n’y a pas l’homme et la femme... » est souvent citée pour justifier une vision égalitaire de la communauté chrétienne, notamment par des théologien(ne)s féministes. La majorité des exégètes limite pourtant l’effet de ces paroles de Paul au domaine spirituel ou eschatologique ; s’agirait-il, au fond, d’une simple utopie ? Pour tenter de répondre à cette interrogation, Ga 3,28 est resitué dans le contexte de l’épître, puis (...) dans celui d’une éventuelle formule de foi pré-paulinienne. Les résultats sont ensuite comparés au texte de Mc 10,6-8 qui comporte lui aussi l’expression « l’homme et la femme », dans le contexte du divorce. L’ensemble de ce dossier permettra d’esquisser quelques modestes repères pour une interprétation de Ga 3,28, qui ne se cantonne pas uniquement au constat de l’utopie. (shrink)

Comprehensive study of post-Śaṅkarācārya main traditions of Vedanta in Indic philosophy.

A Metafísica de Verney propõe-se sobretudo analisar, numa perspetiva empirista, certos conceitos da metafísica tradicional. Aquela perspetiva está presente, por exemplo, na conceção da essência real: esta não é o conjunto de notas fixas manifestadas pela definição, mas o conjunto de todos os atributos concretos dos entes, pelo que a essência real nos é desconhecida; apenas podemos ter conhecimento da essência nominal ou metafísica, ou da que percebemos pela palavra com que significamos uma coisa. Mas as palavras possuem para nós (...) uma significação que é dependente das nossas possibilidades de conhecer. Deste modo, a essência nominal inclui apenas um conjunto de ideias mais conhecidas que supomos constituírem a essência real, conjunto esse que as palavras nos dão a conhecer em função da nossa experiência; mas, sendo esta experiência variável, o conjunto de ideias que ela nos possibilita pode “diminuir ou aumentar”, podendo, por isso, variar a essência metafísica. Esta doutrina de cariz empirista de Verney aparece associada na sua obra a uma crítica contundente da metafísica escolástica e, por outro lado, a uma exaltação das propostas filosóficas dos “modernos”, em particular no domínio da filosofia natural. E isso é realizado através de uma expressão latina muitas vezes elegante, o que significa que o nosso autor se propôs imitar os bons modelos da Antiguidade. (shrink)

Using Reidenbach and Robin's Multidimensional Ethics Scale, this study investigated the relationships between background variables and students' ethical evaluations, judgments, and behavioral intentions using 3 scenarios involving dilemmas related to academic dishonesty. The sample included 436 master's students and 142 doctoral students. The study found that the participants used a combination of ethical philosophies to make ethical decisions. The respondents judged improper citations more harshly than acts of inappropriate authorship or the falsification of data. The doctoral students generally considered behaviors (...) related to plagiarism and falsification to be more unethical than the master's students did, though no gender differences were found. (shrink)

The prominent Russian intellectual, Nikolai Berdyaev, is renowned for his metaphysics of creativity, which he founded on a unique concept of freedom. His unorthodox interpretation of human freedom and the reality of the Spirit became a kind of manifesto for religious existentialism. This article analyzes the social and metaphysical significance of Berdyaev's philosophy of creativity in the context of the European and Russian philosophical traditions.

What are the benefits of liberating museum objects from their colonial frames of reference to reincorporate them into Indigenous ways of knowing? As curators working together with Torres Strait Islanders to interpret museum objects, the authors focus on collected items relating to centipedes acquired during the experimental era of scientific investigation by a zoologist and an ethnographer in eastern Zenadth Kes, the Torres Strait waters between northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. In the scientific sphere, the centipede Scolopendra existed for (...) a time as an insect before “becoming” a myriapod. In Zenadth Kes it has always existed as isi. (shrink)

On various principles of economics in an Islamic society.

The artworks in 'Synthetic Times' explore a trajectory of uncanny visions ranging from the desire to transcend the corporal to the construction of synthetic worlds.

This paper discusses literacy as a socio-political phenomenon from the perspective of several relatively independent educational discourses. The first is critical education theory and research revealing the hidden mechanisms by which education policies act in the interests of a global market economy. The second is the perspective of critical pedagogy scholars on contemporary educational challenges, who offer responses similar to those discussed in current discourse on informal civic education. The third is the heated discussion of high-stakes literacy testing (related to (...) OECD literacy studies such as PISA, IALS, etc.) the results of which are used as a source of argumentation for diverse attitudes and educational consequences. Based on an analysis of literacy theory, research on active citizenship and civic education, the term “civic literacy” is proposed and argued as a relevant conceptual frame for conceptualizing school as an institution which can be involved in resistance to all forms of power politics or ideological indoctrination and manipulation, while at the same time, respecting the traditional values and aims of general education. (shrink)

On nomme ici « un sexe » une manière singulière d’envisager une pratique sexuelle et de s’y engager. Michel Leiris est exemplaire dans sa manière d’exposer une pratique que l’on pourrait qualifier, en usant d’un de ses propres termes de « timoré ». Loin d’être naturelle ou immédiatement exaltante, l’acte sexuel se présente plutôt pour lui comme une épreuve, certes sans violence ni dimension sacrale, mais qui peut néanmoins être comparée, comme l’écriture elle-même, à une sorte de corrida intime.

Moral issues have been included in the studies of consumer misbehavior research, but little is known about the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. This study aims to understand the consumer’s use intention of pirated software in Taiwan based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposed by Ajzen (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179, 1991). In addition, moral intensity and moral judgment are adopted as a joint (...) moderator to examine their combined influence on the proposed research framework. The results obtained from this Taiwan case reveal that the antecedent constructs proposed in the TPB model–an individual’s attitude and subjective norms toward using pirated software, and perceived behavioral control to use pirated software–indeed have positive impacts on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. In addition, the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment is manifested in the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. The results of this study not only could substantiate the results of consumer misbehavior research, but also could provide some managerial suggestions for Taiwanese government authorities concerned and the related software industries devoted to fighting pirated software. (shrink)

This study examined academic dishonesty (AD) of 586 Taiwanese graduate students, the relationship between students' AD and their perceptions of AD of their peers, and their judgments regarding the seriousness of AD. Results showed that female students were more critical of AD than their male counterparts were in the areas of fraudulence, plagiarism, and falsification. Male students demonstrated more awareness of peer involvement in AD in the area of falsification than did female students. Master's students confessed to greater involvement in (...) AD compared with the PhD students. Doctoral students were more judgmental with respect to unethical acts of fraudulence, plagiarism, and falsification. (shrink)

Cicero is increasingly recognised as a highly intelligent contributor to the ongoing ethical debates between Epicureans, Stoics and other schools. In this work on the fundamentals of ethics his learning as a scholar, his skill as a lawyer and his own passion for the truth result in a work which dazzles us in its presentation of the debates and at the same time exhibits the detachment of the ancient sceptic. Many kinds of reader will find themselves engaged with Cicero as (...) well as with the ethical theories he presents. This collection takes the reader further into the debates, opening up new avenues for exploring this fascinating work. (shrink)

In an interview setting, 21 6th‐graders from four public schools in south Taiwan were asked a series of questions, related to whole and decimal numbers, designed to assess their number sense. Eight students were randomly selected from both low and middle performance levels, and five were selected from a high‐performance level, according to their mathematical capabilities. Results indicated that, regardless of performance level, very few number sense strategies were used. The evidence also revealed that Taiwanese students tended to apply rule‐based (...) methods and standard written algorithms to explain their reasoning. Their inclination to use paper‐and‐pencil procedures narrowed their thinking and reasoning powers: this heavy reliance on written algorithms seemed to be a major impediment to the development of number sense. (shrink)

Twenty classes in ten schools with 627 sixth?grade students in five cities in Taiwan participated in this study. The research provides information on the performance differences among written computation, pictorial representation, symbolic representation and number sense. The results of One?way ANOVA analysis indicate that significant difference was found among WCT, PRT, SRT and NST tests, with F=536.327, p=0.000. The a posteriori comparisons show for each pair (WCT vs PRT, WCT vs SRT, WCT vs NST, PRT vs SRT and SRT vs (...) NST) significant difference at the 0.001 level (p=0.000), except for the pair comparison between PRT and NST. This implies that these Taiwanese students were highly skilled in written computation but their written skills were not equally transferred to use of non?computational paths that depended on symbolic representation, pictorial representation and number sense to solve similar problems. (shrink)

In welchen gesellschaftlichen Räumen können sich zeitgenössische literarische Werke entwickeln, in welchen wirksam werden? Auf welche Weise sind sie gesellschaftlich noch verankert? Gesellschaftlich im weitesten Sinn: in literarischen, künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen, kulturkritischen, sozialen, politischen Räumen. Diese Fragen bildeten den Ausgangspunkt von einer von der Wiener Alten Schmiede angezettelten Veranstaltung, die zur zentralen Fragestellung nach der Zukunft des Romans führte. Wobei Leopold Federmair und Olga Martynova, den Hauptakteur: innen dieses als Briefwechsel angelegten Dialogs, die doppelte Stossrichtung des Begriffs Zukunft wichtig war: Welche (...) Zukunft hat das Genre Roman? Und: Welche Rolle wird die Zukunft (auch im Sinne von Utopie) in dieser literarischen Gattung künftig spielen?Ausgehend von einem Memo-Zettel Italo Calvinos mit Vorschlägen für eine Literatur des 21. Jahrhunderts entwickelte sich ein spannender Gedankenaustausch durchaus entlang der grossen Themen und grossen Namen der Literaturgeschichte, ohne jedoch in ein Namedropping zu verfallen und ohne die zentrale Frage der Formsuche und -findung aus den Augen zu verlieren. Wenn hier einer Weltliteratur das Wort geredet wird, dann im Sinne von welthaltig. Dieser von Martynova und Federmair in Gang gesetzte Briefroman wurde in einer zweiten Phase des Projekts von Peter Henisch und zwei jüngeren Autor:innen kommentierend fortgeführt: Anna Weidenholzer und Robert Stripling. In einer dritten und letzten Phase trafen sich die Protagonisten mit dem Dichter Ferdinand Schmatz unter der Diskussionsleitung von Kurt Neumann, um diese Expedition in die Zukunft - nein, nicht abzuschliessen, sondern - in ihrer Mehrstimmigkeit offen zu halten. (shrink)

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the number sense performance of 3rd?graders in Taiwan, and to diagnose areas of weakness or deficiency in number sense development. A total of 808 3rd?graders participated in this study. The results indicated that these students did not perform well on each of the five number sense components (correct rates approx. 34%), and they appeared worst on the performance of ?Judging the reasonableness of computational results?. Boys and girls did not show any (...) appreciable difference in their ability to solve number sense problems. The importance of number sense should be highlighted both by teachers and in textbooks and more time and opportunity provided for students to work on this type of exercise at lower grade levels. This would require that ?drill and practice? exercises in mathematics should not indeed be over? taught, and the teaching of number sense to children should begin as early as possible. (shrink)

Study on the works of M. N. Roy, 1887-1954, and, S. Radhakrishnan, 1888-1975, Indic philosophers.

Study of Yogaratnāvalī, work on the fundamentals of Yoga philosophy by Ṭhakkana Jhā Śarmā, 1884-1948; includes complete text.

L'Angleterre est la première destination des Français au XVIIIe siècle, mais le voyage d'Angleterre reste peu étudié. Avec ce livre, Gábor Gelléri comble un vide historiographique, au moyen d'un corpus de plus de soixante-dix sources et d'une étude chronologique s'étendant sur cent-trente ans. Il dresse la liste des implications philosophiques, politiques, religieuses, sociales et littéraires que ce voyage comporte. Contestant l'idée que Voltaire aurait 'découvert' l'Angleterre, il remet au premier plan le rôle qu'a joué la Suisse protestante comme intermédiaire dans (...) la découverte de ce pays par les Français, en analysant notamment la polémique suscitée par le récit de Béat de Muralt, qui voyagea avant Voltaire. Le voyage outre-Manche, et les récits qui en sont faits, sont cruciaux dans les interactions entre la France et l'Angleterre. L'Angleterre est l'un des miroirs dans lesquels la France se regarde. Comparant les discours aux pratiques avérées, l'auteur réévalue certaines catégories majeures, notamment l'opposition souvent mal interprétée entre anglomanie et anglophobie. Il interroge les motivations des voyageurs, à une époque où la pratique du voyage commence à se démocratiser, ce qui conduira à la naissance du tourisme. Dépassant la simple étude des discours, il met en lumière les usages du voyage, en rappelant qu'avant de devenir l'objet d'un acte d'écriture le voyage constitue une pratique sociale. Qu'il soit philosophique, anti-philosophique, scientifique, pittoresque ou de plaisance, le voyage d'Angleterre est un champ d'exploration permettant aux voyageurs de mettre à l'épreuve toutes les idées importantes du siècle et cristallisant les polémiques du temps. Gábor Gelléri démontre que ce voyage est un phénomène majeur: un laboratoire d'idées et un portrait vivant de la complexité intellectuelle et idéologique du XVIIIe siècle européen. L'ouvrage a été publié avec le soutien du Department of Modern Languages de Aberystwyth University. (shrink)