This introductory article first gives a brief overview of the articles in the remainder of this special issue. It then considers what we can learn about the comprehensive ideal, and what questions still remain about it, from the treatment it receives in these articles. After an initial discussion of the nature of the common school, two dimensions are identified in which interpretations of the comprehensive ideal often differ: how fully the content of such schooling is filled in, and what its (...) scope is considered to be. Six categories of values are identified to which arguments both for and against the comprehensive ideal may appeal: educational values; values of community; justice and equality; respect; freedom; and non-discrimination. It is suggested that in a context of value-pluralism there can be no canonical interpretation of the comprehensive ideal. (shrink)

Given the problems in the business world, it might be time to rethink business from a perspective that is not (neo)Marxist or capitalist. This article does just that by rethinking the ideology of human freedom in business. This article argues that corporations are freer than humans under capitalism. Moreover, corporations, more so than humans, engage in free action, as Arendt defines action. To return to the place where human freedom is an actuality not ideology, we must understand the nature of (...) freedom and how the present situation arose. From that we can then develop solutions. One solution posited here is that managers must treat employees as worthy of empowerment. This solution gives organizational behavior theory the ethical status that it has not had earlier. Even if the solution set out in this review is not functional, the view of business developed in this article is new and merits further examination in order that business can functional more ethically, including the treatment of people. (shrink)

There are at least a few plausible grounds for our use of the term Beta in our title, notwithstanding that there is a key departure, in our framework, from classical Beta Existential Graphs. The situation, in brief, is as follows.The reader accustomed to Peirce’s graphical development of quantificational logic may, if desired, continue to think of formulas being written on a “sheet of assertion.” We retain the “cut” notation for negation and continue to represent conjunction simply by juxtaposition of diagrams. (...) However, on the side of departure, we dispense with the sometimes problematic “lines of identity” of classical Beta and instead represent a quantification by a.. (shrink)

The aim is to defend the starting?point of Marx's theory of class, which is located in a definition of the working class in the Communist Manifesto. It is a definition solely in terms of separation from productive resources and a need to sell one's labour power, and it is closely connected with Marx's thesis that the population in capitalism has a tendency to polarize. That thesis conflicts with the widely?held belief in the growth of a large middle class, unaccounted for (...) by Marx. Moreover, recent critics such as Elster, Roemer, and Cohen have argued that this definition fails even in its own terms. The definition is refurbished so as to withstand these objections. But is there any point in using it? Does it serve to pick out the exploited producers as Marx intended? It does, once due attention is given to the idea of the collective worker, which is central in the volume of Capital which Marx himself published. That idea makes plain that it is an irreducibly corporate entity which is productive and subject to exploitation. The structural conditions for membership of that entity remove Marx's view from any simple identification of working?class membership with manual or lowly labour. (shrink)

The IoT (Internet of Things) can transform businesses by automating processes ranging from inventory management to robotics to automation, saving time, and money. However, can small businesses benefit from the IoT? This article explores the emerging role of the IoT in small businesses, the impact on their ability to compete in a rapidly changing digital environment, and their awareness, attitudes, perceptions, and willingness to adopt it. The research utilizes an initial exploratory approach based on a review of case studies in (...) the literature, interviews with several economic development personnel and a few small and medium-size business managers. Benefits from the use of the IoT include increased efficiency in operations and reduced costs in businesses. The medium-size businesses interviewed have verified these benefits. However, the majority of economic development personnel and small businesses interviewed did not have much or any awareness of what IoT technologies were or their potential benefits. (shrink)

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