"Gregorio Piaia si è formato presso l'Università di Padova, dove si laureò il 17 febbraio 1968 con una tesi coordinata da Carlo Giacon sul tema dell'averroismo politico nel pensiero di Marsilio da Padova. Tra i suoi maestri è da ricordare ancora Giovanni Santinello, del quale fu il principale collaboratore nel guidare il gruppo di lavoro formato da giovani studiosi impegnati nel progetto di una grande Storia delle storie generali della filosofia, uscita in prima edizione in lingua italiana tra il (...) 1979 e il 2004 ed ora in corso di traduzione e aggiornamento in lingua inglese. La vita "pubblica" di Piaia si è svolta essenzialmente nella sua funzione di professore universitario, all'inizio come docente in formazione presso l'Università di Padova, poi quale professore associato presso l'Università di Verona, infine dal 1987 di nuovo a Padova, dove in qualità di professore ordinario tenne per quasi trent'anni la cattedra di storia della filosofia. Padova, Verona, il Veneto: certamente questi sono stati i riferimenti territoriali entro i quali si è compiuta la carriera accademica del bellunese Piaia. Ma egli estese ben presto l'ambito della sua attività di docente oltre questi limiti geografici, in Europa e nelle Americhe. Lo stesso spirito di apertura ha animato l'attività scientifica di Gregorio Piaia, che non si è svolta in limiti territoriali o di scuola precisi ma all'interno di una vasta "repubblica delle lettere" dai contorni più internazionali che nazionali: ne è testimonianza il suo ruolo di direttore o redattore di importanti riviste e la sua presenza nelle più rilevanti società di promozione degli studi filosofici e storico-filosofici. Non meno degna di nota, infine, è la sua costante attenzione e disponibilità nei confronti dei giovani studiosi. Il presente volume intende essere modesto segno della stima di cui gode e dell'ampiezza dei suoi interessi di ricerca." --Contratapa. (shrink)

This article addresses the service of financial companies to society from the perspective of the Catholic Social Teaching (hereinafter CST), specifically regarding conflicts of interest between banks and their customers. The article begins with a case based on interviews with professionals in the financial sector, which provides the context for the CST’s contribution. The analysis of the aforementioned conflicts points to an apparent disconnect between service to society and service to customers. Thus, the bank would set aside the customer’s interests (...) in exchange for a better service to society through good results. This article presents the CST’s normative framework to analyze this matter through some of the CST’s principles: the centrality of the person, the respect for her dignity, and the orientation to the common good. These principles and the CST’s ethical concept of service provide guidance in assessing these conflicts of interest. From an ethical point of view and according to CST, there cannot be a true service to society if the dignity of the client is not respected. It is necessary to review the organization’s incentive policy and level of awareness about the importance of customer service. We end with recommendations related to conflicts of interest with clients. (shrink)

Le platonisme de Rousseau est un thème minoritaire dans l’histoire de la réception de Rousseau. Malgré cela, il s’agit d’une question débattue, encore ouverte et qui a une histoire. On tente ici de faire le point en commençant par une critique de l’historiographie et par une discussion préalable des difficultés que l’interprète rencontre, afin de situer la généalogie des lectures qui font de Rousseau un platonicien. Dans un second temps, on propose un portrait de Rousseau lecteur de Platon, avant de (...) tenter un portrait du platonisme politique de Rousseau. (shrink)

. The author analyses the concept of legal security from its historical evolution to its main structural aspects. In the first part he argues that legal security is a historical and cultural concept of the modern world. He considers a series of factors which lead from the general concept of security generated by an ideological monism and the social rigidity characterizing the Middle Ages to the concept of legal security protected by the legal monism of the modern state, where legal (...) security, understood as formal or procedural justice, has become a principle inspiring the entire legal system. Then he considers legal security in the social state as the expression of the relationship between man and his social needs. In the second part the author makes a structural analysis of the concept of legal security in a modern legal order, identifying the different spheres in which it can be found: state,—focusing on procedural guarantees as limits to power—, law—considering the internal functioning of the legal system—, society—stressing the effects of the action of the social state on the idea of legal security. (shrink)

We explore offshore outsourcing through the lenses of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). First, we review the outcomes of the 30-year debate in business ethics on issues related to offshore outsourcing. We then cluster authors into two groups—the justice-centered approach and the welfare-centered approach—corresponding to different perspectives on the ethical challenges of offshoring. In the second part, we present and apply the four fundamental principles of the CST (human dignity, subsidiarity, solidarity and the common good) to offshoring, in dialogue with the (...) previous debate. The unity and interconnection among the CST’s fundamental tenets provide a cohesive framework that integrates the points made by the justice-centered and welfare-centered approaches, while introducing the principle of solidarity, more focused on the worker as a person and their flourishing. CST also stresses the need to initiate processes oriented toward structural changes for the sake of human dignity and the common good. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

SÍNTESE - No Discurso sobre o método e em outros textos Descartes vê uma oposição entre verdade e história e, por isso, recusa metodologicamente qualquer relação com o passado filosófico. Nisto é seguido por muitos de sua época, sendo que Malebranche o supera nesta reivindicação. Entretanto, a "astúcia da razão" mostra que coube exatamente à filosofia anti-histórica de Descartes o mérito de haver dado uma nova fisionomia à história filosófica que se desenvolveu no século XVI como gênero literário, e que (...) se encontra na raiz da transformação da "história dos filósofos" em "história da filosofia". (shrink)

The article draws attention to two particularly significant examples of the problematic relationship between religious authority and secular power, which has characterized the history of the West: Marsilius of Padua and Paolo Sarpi. Both are supporters of the secular state and it is not excluded that the Sarpi was aware of the doctrines contained in the Defensor pacis. In any case, Marsilius’ position is much more radical than that sustained by the Republic of Venice in the dispute of the Interdict, (...) also due to the strictly ‘scientific’ approach that characterizes the first part of the Defensor pacis. The conflict between State and Church has traditionally been seen as an obstacle to the affirmation of the modern State, but today, in the post-modern, it can also be interpreted as a double guarantee: against the pretensions of theocracy, of course, but also against the temptations of totalitarianism. (shrink)

Comparando os textos não muito longos de Erasmo e de Tomás Morus a respeito da guerra, percebe-se que este possui influências daquele. Para ambos, há uma clara e radical oposição entre a guerra e o filósofo. Para a guerra, são precisos corpos rudes, que não pensam; para a Filosofia, cérebros interrogadores. Morus parece encontrar mais facilidade em aceitar alguma forma de guerra, enquanto Erasmo vitupera mais acertadamente a estupidez desta forma de violência.

Ernst Haeckel was convinced that the origin of language was the keyto understand human evolution. The distinguished slavist AugustSchleicher was his original inspiration on that matter but hiscousin Wilhelm Bleek was the deciisive source for his views of human language. Bleek lived in Southern Africa, studied Xhosa andZulu, and had the rare opportunity to learn the bushman languagewhich, with its characteristic clicks, suggested the form of theoriginal human language in its evolution from ape-like sounds.Haeckel's view of anthropology based on cultural (...) elements ratherthan physical characters alone was shared by other scholars includingthe Vienna-based Friedrich Mueller who applied Haeckel's approachin his studies during the voyage of the Habsburg ship ``Novara.'' Haeckel's anthropological views were heavily entangled with contemporaryconceps of race so that he and Mueller related different languages todifferent human groups both from a cultural and racial angle. Suchracialist attitude presented obvious political implications which allauthors mentioned denied vehemently. (shrink)

As relações entre homem e natureza,no pensamento medieval, podem ser examinadaspor diversos ângulos e por todos eles leva-se emconsideração a Deus, como criador. As posiçõesextremas do homem ante a natureza situam-seentre a contemplação e o domínio. Dois pensadoressão aqui examinados: Hugo de São Víctor ePetrarca.

No Dictionnaire historique et critique, Bayle compôs mais de cem verbetes sobre a Idade Média. A época é vista com os olhos calvinistas do autor, que se baseia mais na literatura histórica e polêmica que nas fontes medievais. Em diversos verbetes, 0 texto é mais romanesco que cientifico, e, em alguns casos, a fonte não declarada de referência são obras de escolásticos posteriores.

University research in the U.S.A. is based on a tight relationship between University and economic activity. In Europe and South America, although less commonly than in the U.S.A., there's already a large amount of experiences related to the creation of "on campus" or "spin off" companies based on the results and knowledge obtained from research in University departments and R&D centres financed with public funds. The virtual base of this results in communication technologies enables private use and the appropriation of (...) the benefits by their authors. European model, historically widely separated from private companies, has produced high quality basic research, but it has failed to obtain profit from technological development. Research funds happen to be basically public. Europe heads for economic, politic and military union. Common economic space and the growing up of the new markets, which we can foresee to be extended to other countries, will promote business opportunities and the relationship University-Industry. University institutions and faculties should think about their current ethic convictions to create a new Industry-University model in the context of a global economy. (shrink)

In 1870, the most important journal of Allan Kardec's spiritist school, the "Revue Spirite", ascribes a superlative role to France in the intellectual world and encourages soldiers to defend their fatherland. The defeat against Prussia is interpreted as a punishment for crimes of the Premier Empire. The journal recognizes the necessity of reforms, but it does not support the Commune in 1871.

How has the storage of information shaped human cognition? We bring together current advances in cognitive science, the neurobiology of memory, and archaeology to explore how storage of information affects consciousness. These fields strongly suggest that the increase in storage of information in the environment – which we call exosomatic storage of information – may have led to changes in human consciousness and human neurophysiology over time. To bring these findings together conceptually, we develop what we call a dialectical model (...) of the relationship between storage of information and the development of human consciousness. Using the system of dialectic philosophy, we put forward that (a) environmental changes, consciousness, and neurophysiology develop together, (b) these changes were irreversible, (c) quantitative increases in exosomatic storage of information may have led to qualitative changes in human consciousness and neurophysiology, (d) these changes in turn affected how we see ourselves. Indeed, our capacity to store information exosomatically distinguishes us from other animals, and may be a key attribute of our self-awareness and therefore self-consciousness. Because metaphors are central to human thought and can help structure scientific inquiry, we illustrate our model using a metaphor of drops of silver on the back of a glass, eventually making a mirror—where successive quantitative change leads to an irreversible qualitative development in human consciousness. The dialectic model can offer new insights into the co-evolution of material culture and human beings through its broader philosophical foundations and explanatory power. (shrink)

This article presents the ethical concept of service as a way of specifying higher ethical principles in business practice. We set out from the work of a number of scholars who have found some shared ethical principles for doing business in a context of cultural diversity. Love, benevolence, consideration, and other related concepts are considered to be important guiding concepts for business but it is not clear how they are to be operationalized. We argue that the ethical concept of service (...) can act as a bridge for bringing those higher principles into business practice. The article explains and refines the ethical concept of service, which has received little attention. In particular, we address the ethical ambiguity implicit in the common meaning of service, explain how service shows love in business, and offer an account of how service provides ethical growth through virtue. Finally, this work presents a variety of examples from business which illustrate how the ethical concept of service can be put into practice. To achieve the aim of this study we draw inspiration from Catholic social teaching. This source provides useful insights into service and can be understood and accepted without requiring that particular faith. (shrink)

La scommessa che anima il volume a c. di Sara Guindani e Alexis Nuselovici, come esplicitato nella prefazione, è la ricezione critica di un’eredità o – se così si può parafrasare – la messa in opera di un lascito. Notoriamente, “messa in opera” è espressione atta a evocare reminiscenze heideggeriane. Tuttavia, il più delle volte non si tiene in conto che Heidegger rende con “essere in lavorazione” – dunque in corso d’opera – l’ἐνέργεια aristotelica; v. il § 26 g dei (...) suoi Concetti fondamentali... (shrink)

The paper examines the connection between art and poiesis, moving from Aristotle’s Metaph. A 1 and Z 7-9. In particular, the analysis of those passages suggests dividing the genesis of artworks into noesis and poiesis. The noesis is the phase in which the artist plans in his mind the eidos (aspect) of the work that he is going to produce; the poiesis is the realization which actualizes – through its extrinsecation – the “aspect” mentally planned by the artist. After the (...) exposition of Aristotle’s theory, the related conceptual elements are developed, also having recourse to musical examples, in order to show the strict link between speculation and artistic praxis. The term enopé occurs in this part of the work as a metaphor which renders the peculiar form of presence of the work of art, whose essence emerges in the course of production. Moreover, a specific section is devoted to illustrating that ready-mades can be conciliated with the poietic nature of art. Finally, the paper focuses on performing (called «re-productive») arts, such as music; those forms of art include two poietic phases: the poiesis of the author (e. g., the composer) and the poiesis of the interpreter. The last paragraph considers the musical avant-gardes and explains that they confirm the poietic foundation of art, instead of denying it. (shrink)

Databases where different types of information from different sources can be integrated, cross‐referenced and interactively accessed are necessary for building a quantitative understanding of the molecular and cell biology intrinsic to the morphogenesis of an embryo. Tassy and colleagues1 recently reported the development of software tailor‐made to perform such a task, along with the generation and integration of three‐dimensional anatomical models of embryos. They convincingly illustrated the utility of their approach by applying it to the early ascidian embryo. BioEssays 28: (...) 874–879, 2006. © 2006 Wiley periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Klimovsky, G. Notas preliminares sobre convención y modalidad.--Orayen, R. Comentario del trabajo del profesor G. Klimovsky "Notas preliminares sobre convención y modalidad".--Klimovsky, G. Respuesta al Comentario del profesor Raúl Orayen.--Orayen, R. Acerca de la adecuación de los modelos formales de la explicación científica.--Klimovsky, G. Comentario del trabajo del profesor Raúl Orayen, "Acerca de la adecuación de los modelos formales de la explicación científica".--Orayen, R. Respuesta al Comentario del profesor G. Klimovsky.

Starting from the impossibility of understanding fundamental rights from the standpoint of natural law doctrine or positivism, the author tackles the issue of rights from a realistic point of view, that is to say from the perspective of law and politics on the one hand, and from the perspective of public morality, on the other. Thus the foundation of fundamental rights is the meeting point of conceptions of social morality that are current in the modern world and the political aspect (...) of the conception of pluralist democracy. Moreover, fundamental rights are considered an instrument to enable the social and moral development of human beings. (shrink)

Teoría del derecho / G.R.Morchon. - v.1.

This paper aims to map out the transformations in contemporary performance art during the current ‘age of extinction’. The first section extends Claire Bishop’s notion of “delegated performance” in order to categorize a turn towards the inclusion of other-than-human entities in the performance field. This operation leads to the concept of ‘performative animism’, referring to the strategies of re-animation of reality through artistic performance. The second section works out the idea of ‘planetarization’ of the performance field, which designates its opening (...) to spatial and temporal fluxes coming from a dimension that overcomes the scale of human experience, that is, the planetary dimension. The third and final section interprets the meaning of these two transformations by introducing the concepts of ‘exbodiment’ and ‘excarnation’, which tie closely to a new political task for performance art. (shrink)

Ciencia e ideología: reportaje a Gregorio Klimovsky.--Grupo de Estudio sobre Ciencia y Subdesarrollo. Ciencia dependiente en la Argentina.--Varsavsky, O. Ideología y verdad. Ciencia y estilos de desarrollo.--Simpson, T.M. Irracionalidad, ideología y objetividad.--García, R.V. Ciencia política y concepcíon del mundo.--Schvarzer, J. La ideología de un científico puro.

Recent developments in science and technology point to the need to unify, and extend, the definition of memory. On the one hand, molecular neurobiology has shown that memory is largely a chemical process, which includes conditioning and any form of stored experience. On the other hand, information technology has led many to claim that cognition is also extended, that is, memory may be stored outside of the brain. In this paper, we review these advances and describe the increasingly accepted extended (...) definition of memory. This definition is largely accepted in neuroscience but not explicitly stated. In the extended definition, memory is the capacity to store and/or retrieve information. Does this new definition of memory mean that everything is now a form of memory? We stress that memory still requires incorporation, that is, a corpore. It is a relationship -- where one biological or chemical process is incorporated into another, and changes both in a permanent way. Looking at natural and biological processes of incorporation can help us think of how incorporation of internal and external memory occurs in cognition. We further argue that, if we accept that there is such a thing as the storage of information outside the brain -- and that this organic, dynamic process can also be called “memory” -- then we open the door to a very different world. The mind is not static. The brain, and the memory it uses, is a work in progress; we are not now who we were then. (shrink)

Although work–family conflict is highly relevant for both families and businesses, scarce attention has received from business ethics perspective. This article focuses on the latter, presenting a set of relevant insights from Catholic Social Teaching (CST). After reviewing the foundations and principles presented by CST regarding work–family relationships, a set of normative propositions are presented to develop work–family policies and for a correct personal work–family balance. It is argued that business responsibility with employees’ family should be considered as a part (...) of Corporate Social Responsibility. In addition, the applications of these principles and propositions can lead to a mutual enrichment of both business and family. (shrink)

When organized into functional categories, the set of texts found in the Ugaritic archive in the “Maison du prêtre-magicien” manifests a clear raison d’être as a collection. Of the twelve main categories of texts from this deposit, the most significant serve to justify various forms of magical praxis and detail how to carry them out. Almost the entire collection of Ugaritic offering texts is found here, since all include a purification rite of the king, the responsibility of the magician priest (...) as mḥll, whose function is stated in KTU 1.119. This fact had been ignored up to now. In addition, the main texts setting out the royal ideology were entrusted to this magician priest, thus reflecting their magical-cultic nature. Additional texts belong to the realm of scribal training, another responsibility of this public official. The adjacent library with a wide variety of Akkadian texts was of fundamental value in this latter connection. (shrink)