Although the recent push toward sustainability is certainly generally a positive development in business and society, we can see many problems in the execution of the theory of sustainability. Where the triple bottom line calls on companies to weigh effects on stakeholders and the environment alongside profit, in practice in many cases, sustainability has been perverted to represent sustainable profits. In these cases, environmental impact and effects on people are only important insofar as they positively contribute to a firm‘s future (...) profits. It is not only practitioners who have often espoused this misappropriated view of sustainability but also academics have lent credibility to this view. In this work, we start by criticizing the often espoused current view of sustainability and remind academics of their responsibility to adapt a more critical view of this narrow focus. We provide examples that show how the current system of capitalism has resulted in outcomes for people and the environment that are patently unacceptable. Reasons are given as to why there is much hesitation to change the status quo. We then call on academics to reexamine what the role of businesses should be within society, what obligations business and corporations should have in society, and how we can encourage meaningful change that results in a better world for future generations. (shrink)

Anna Ribera Carbó es investigadora titular de tiempo completo en la Dirección de Estudios Históricos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) desde 1992. Licenciada, Maestra y Doctora en Historia por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores. Imparte clases de Historia de México e Historia de las Culturas en preparatoria desde 1987. Se ha especializado en la historia política y social mexicana de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Ha publicado artículos en revistas (...) nacionales y extranjeras, así como capítulos en libros colectivos. Editora de los apuntes personales del general Francisco J. Múgica, publicados en la colección “Memorias Mexicanas” del Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes y autora de los libros La patria ha podido ser flor. Francisco J. Múgica, una biografía política (1999) y La Casa del Obrero Mundial. Anarcosindicalismo y revolución en México (2010) publicados por el INAH. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

Jerry Fodor is one of the leading philosophers of mind and language in the world today. He is best known for his work developing two theses which give theirnames to his books The Modularity of Mind and The Language of Thought. He teaches philosophy at Rutgers and at the CUNY Graduate Center.

In recent years, and in close connection with a number of well-known financial malpractice cases, public debate on business ethics has intensified worldwide, and particularly in ethics-unfriendly environments, such as Spain, with many recent fraud and corruption scandals. In the context of growing consensus on the need of balancing social prosperity and business profits, concern is increasing for introducing business ethics in higher education curricula. The purpose is to improve ethical behaviour of future business people, and of accounting professionals in (...) particular. In this study, from a sample of 551 business students at a Spanish university, the importance of accounting ethics is investigated. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we attempt to examine students’ overall perceptions of business ethics in unfriendly environments and, specifically, their views on the importance and goals of accounting ethics education. Second, we intend to investigate whether potential differences in such perceptions depend on previous business ethics courses taken, gender, and age of students. Our results show that those students who have previously taken an ethics course are especially prone to considering that accounting education should include ethical considerations, and show greater interest in further introducing this subject in their curricula. These facts should encourage universities offering business degrees in ethics-unfriendly environments to extend the implementation of ethics courses in their curricula. Besides, significant differences in students’ perceptions on the importance of accounting ethics are found depending on their gender and age. In line with previous research findings, female and older students show more ethical inclinations than, respectively, male and younger students. Thus, ethics-unfriendly environments can be treated as contexts where general trends on students’ ethical attitudes are also clearly visible. This fact, together with the evidenced impact of ethics courses on students’ ethical inclinations, places ethics-unfriendly environments as crucial research settings for further inquiring into the nuances that help explain students’ attitudes towards accounting ethics and the role of ethics courses in business degree curricula. (shrink)

Merleau-Ponty decía que nuestra relación con el mundo se sitúa en el orden del «misterio insoluble». Es la invisibilidad de los dioses lo que garantiza la visibilidad del mundo. Este verso invisible –«le Dieu caché», «Dieu insondable», «Être muet», «arrière-silence», «membrure cachée», en términos merleau-pontianos– es la textura misma del recto visible. En el cine extremo o visionario este lenguaje aparentemente antitético no está menos presente para expresar eso que excede a toda visibilidad. Voyance (Merleau-Ponty) que emerge de los légamos (...) de lo invisible pero que no es lo contrario de la vista: «vision [est] ek-stase...», una visión en la que el mudo Ser revela su propio sentido. Así pues, lo invisible no es lo opuesto absoluto de lo visible sino más bien, como dice Merleau-Ponty, su «contrapartida secreta» sin la cual no podría existir la visibilidad. Asimismo, según Derrida, la imagen cinematográfica tiene una estructura fantasmática, está suspendida entre la presencia y la ausencia, pues la invisibilidad determina la lógica de las imágenes. El cine es un ojo, pero sólo ve bien cuando también se relaciona con ese ojo interior que es el de la «visión» de los visionarios. Igualmente, para Jean-Luc Godard, uno de los cineastas más relevantes del cine contemporáneo, la imagen real es la que no vemos. Lo que se ve en el filme tiene menos importancia que lo invisible. Violencia del mirar, desvelamiento de otra luz, que restituye la imagen de lo sagrado. (shrink)

Intelligent Transportation Systems are expected to automate how parking slots are booked by trucks. The intrinsic dynamic nature of this problem, the need of explanations and the inclusion of private data justify an agent-based solution. Agents solving this problem act with a Believe Desire Intentions reasoning, and are implemented with JASON. Privacy of trucks becomes protected sharing a list of parkings ordered by preference. Furthermore, the process of assigning parking slots takes into account legal requirements on breaks and driving time (...) limits. Finally, the agent simulations use the distances, the number of trucks and parkings corresponding to the proportions of the current European Union data. The performance of the proposed solution is tested in these simulations with three different distances against an alternative with complete knowledge. The difference in efficiency, the number of illegal breaks and the traveled distances are measured in them. Comparing the results, we can conclude that the nonprivate alternative is slightly better in performance while both alternatives do not produce illegal breaks. In this way the simulations show that the proposed privacy protection does not impose a relevant handicap in efficiency. (shrink)

Ethical conflicts (ECs), dilemmas auditors face when personal values or professional obligations clash with their actions, pose significant challenges to the auditing profession, potentially influencing turnover intention (TI). This study addresses a knowledge gap in the related research by focusing on two critical EC triggers: workload (WL) and perceived auditor ethical failure (PAEF: ethical sensitivity), which refers to auditors’ perceptions of ethical violations within their profession. Grounded in role theory and ethical climate theory, our study investigates the impact of WL (...) and PAEF on ECs and explores how these conflicts mediate the relationship between PAEF/WL and TI. Additionally, we examine the moderating role of organisational ethical climate (EtC) in these relationships. Using a survey of auditors and employing partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), our results reveal that both WL and PAEF increase ECs, thus escalating TI. The findings suggest that a firm’s perceived EtC can negatively moderate the relationship between PAEF and ECs. The study underlines the importance of fostering a strong EtC to manage ECs effectively and provides valuable implications for professionals, regulators, and academics seeking to improve ethical practices within auditing firms and to reduce auditor turnover. (shrink)

CHAPTER I THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SARTOR RESARTUS He is writing a book on metaphysics, and is really cut out for it; the clearness with which he thinks ...

Ernie Lepore and Jerry Fodor have published a series of original and controversial essays on issues relating to compositionality in language and mind; they have...

Few would disagree with the notion that it would be a wonderful thing if we could more quickly learn how to treat, or better yet cure, diseases afflicting millions of people. Alex John London argue...

This book dares to challenge natural selection--not in the name of religion but in the name of good science. Most scientists are so terrified of religious attacks on the theory of evolution that it is never examined critically. There are significant scientific and philosophical problems with the theory of natural selection. Darwin claimed the factors that determine the course of evolution are very largely environmental. Empirical results in biology are increasingly calling this thesis into question. The authors show that Darwinism (...) is committed to inferring, from the premise that a kind of creature with a certain trait was selected, the conclusion that that kind of creature was selected for having that trait. Though such inferences are fallacious, they are nevertheless unavoidable within the Darwinist framework. Ultimately, Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini level a devastating critique against Darwinist orthodoxy and suggest new ways of thinking about evolution.--From publisher description. (shrink)

The Competitive Buddha is about mastery, leadership, and spirituality. Learn what you need to keep, what you need to discard, and what you need to add to your mental, emotional, and spiritual skill set as an athlete, coach, leader, parent, CEO, or any other performer in life. Understand how Buddhism can help you to be better prepared for sports and life, and how sports and life can teach you about Buddhism. Discover how people from all parts of the world have (...) brought together the Buddha and athletics for greater fun, enjoyment, and pleasure during their performances. Dr. Lynch is an avid runner and biker and he has coached athletes at the high school and AAU level. He earned his doctorate in psychology at Penn State University and has done extensive post-doctoral work in the area of philosophy, Taoist and Buddhist thought, comparative religions, leadership development, and performance enhancement. Dr. Jerry Lynch demonstrates how certain timeless core Buddha values inspire you to embrace and navigate unchartered waters and understand the Buddha-mind and the Kobe Bryant Mamba Mentality. (shrink)

El viaje espiritual al «espacio verde» es un recorrido por el significado simbólico del color verde, el color litúrgico y espiritual del Islam, tomando como punto de partida la obra de dos artistas iraníes contemporáneos: Suhrâb Sepehrî y Shirin Neshat. Desde las antiguas religiones del Oriente Próximo hasta el Islam, el verde es el color del firmamento espiritual, el de los vergeles del Paraíso, la tierra del más allá. El jardín verdeante que alcanza el alma difunta (dên) en el mazdeísmo, (...) el verdor de la tierra de Xvarnah en el zoroastrismo, o el ascenso del alma (gryw) al Paraíso de Luz en el maniqueísmo, son ideas que retoman los grandes poetas persas (Nizâmî, Rûmî, Hâfiz) para hablar de la resurrección y de la entrada en el mundo del alma. En el sufismo la luz verde tipifica la cumbre del crecimiento espiritual, el jardín eterno (al-Kubrà, al-Simnânî); es el «Mar Verde» que constituye el indicio del resplandor de la vida eterna (Ibn al-‘Arabî); es el color de la perfección absoluta (‘Irâqî) y de la resurrección (al-Tirmidhî), el color del prado donde brota la Fuente de la Vida eterna (Suhrawardî, Ibn al-‘Arabî, Rûmî), etc. Es, en definitiva, lo que Nizâmî llama «el precioso jardín esmeralda», Rûmî el verdadero «vergel» y Hâfiz el «jardín de la visión». (shrink)

Jerry Fodor argues against the widely held view that mental processes are largely computations, that the architecture of cognition is massively modular, and...

The renowned philosopher Jerry Fodor, a leading figure in the study of the mind for more than twenty years, presents a strikingly original theory on the basic constituents of thought. He suggests that the heart of cognitive science is its theory of concepts, and that cognitive scientists have gone badly wrong in many areas because their assumptions about concepts have been mistaken. Fodor argues compellingly for an atomistic theory of concepts, deals out witty and pugnacious demolitions of rival theories, (...) and suggests that future work on human cognition should build upon new foundations. This lively, conversational, and superbly accessible book is the first volume in the Oxford Cognitive Science Series, where the best original work in this field will be presented to a broad readership. Concepts will fascinate anyone interested in contemporary work on mind and language. Cognitive science will never be the same again. (shrink)

Jerry Fodor presents a new development of his famous Language of Thought hypothesis, which has since the 1970s been at the centre of interdisciplinary debate about how the mind works. Fodor defends and extends the groundbreaking idea that thinking is couched in a symbolic system realized in the brain. This idea is central to the representational theory of mind which Fodor has established as a key reference point in modern philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. The foundation stone of our (...) present cognitive science is Turing's suggestion that cognitive processes are not associations but computations; and computation requires a language of thought. So the latest on the Language of Thought hypothesis, from its progenitor, promises to be a landmark in the study of the mind. LOT 2 offers a more cogent presentation and a fuller explication of Fodor 's distinctive account of the mind, with various intriguing new features. The central role of compositionality in the representational theory of mind is revealed: most of what we know about concepts follows from the compositionality of thoughts. Fodor shows the necessity of a referentialist account of the content of intentional states, and of an atomistic account of the individuation of concepts. Not least among the new developments is Fodor 's identification and persecution of pragmatism as the leading source of error in the study of the mind today. LOT 2 sees Fodor advance undaunted towards the ultimate goal of a theory of the cognitive mind, and in particular a theory of the intentionality of cognition. No one who works on the mind can ignore Fodor 's views, expressed in the coruscating and provocative style which has delighted and disconcerted countless readers over the years. (shrink)

In this paper, planning models developed in artificial intelligence are applied to the kind of planning that must be carried out by participants in a conversation. A planning mechanism is defined, and a short fragment of a free‐flowing videotaped conversation is described. The bulk of the paper is then devoted to an attempt to understand the conversation in terms of the planning mechanism. This microanalysis suggests ways in which the planning mechanism must be augmented, and reveals several important conversational phenomena (...) that deserve further investigation. (shrink)

_Revisioning Europe_ is among the few existing English language discussions of the films made by British novelist John Berger and Swiss film director Alain Tanner. It brings to light a political cinema that was both unsentimental about the possibilities of revolutionary struggle and unsparing in its critique of the European left, and at the same time optimistic about the ability of radicalism — while radical art — to transform the world. Jerry White argues that Berger and Tanner's work is (...) preoccupied with ideas that were at the same time central to the Enlightenment and characteristically Swiss. Translations of previously unpublished essays by both Berger and Tanner are included as appendices. (shrink)

The former California governor offers a collection of personal conversations--exploratory, thoughtful, passionate, and richly anecdotal--between himself and 22 of the men and women whose ideas and work have shaped his vision. Exploring such issues as political reform, globalization, the environment, and the arts and spirituality, this is a book to "wake people up" to conditions that are destroying our society and our world.

An Example of Teaching of Chemistry Before and After Mendeleev’s 1869 Periodic Table of Elements is presented. Prior to Mendeleev’s publication in 1869, only 63 elements were known. The ensuing discovery of the electron and the correspondence of the number of electrons to equivalent weight and atomic number is of singular importance to the impact of the Periodic Table of Elements and the way modern chemistry is taught. Without the identity of the electron and its alliance to atomic number, modern (...) teaching of chemistry would be very different. Without it concepts of electronic configuration, oxidation and reduction, polarization, intermolecular interactions, types of bonding, Lewis acid/base definition, etc. would disappear in our vernacular. Thus, we trace the origin of the electron. (shrink)

The translocation of proteins across membranes is a central problem in biology. Regardless of the system in question, delivering proteins across a given membrane relies on many of the same basic themes. At the same time, however, each membrane translocation system, beit signal‐gated or signal‐assembled, makes use of components unique to that system. The latest findings on protein translocation across a variety of biological membranes have been presented in a recent review article.1 BioEssays 25:1154–1157, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Jerry L. Walls aims to demonstrate in his book Hell: The Logic of Damnation that some traditional views of hell are still defensible and can be believed with intellectual and moral integrity. Focusing on the issues from the standpoint of philosophical theology, Walls explores the doctrine of hell in relation to both the divine nature and human nature. He argues, with respect to the divine nature, that some traditional versions of the doctrine are compatible not only with God's omnipotence (...) and omniscience, but also with a strong account of His perfect goodness. The concept of divine goodness receives special attention since the doctrine of hell is most often rejected on moral grounds. (shrink)

Jerry H. Gill provides a fresh angle of interpretation for the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein by exploring his use of metaphor, as well as the implications of this use for new insights into his view of language in particular and philosophy in general. The first part of the work catalogs the major metaphors in the Tractatus, the Philosophical Investigations, and On Certainty. The second part explores what these metaphors mean in the context of a broader interpretation of Wittgenstein—an approach (...) that has not been developed by other interpreters. (shrink)