The Valdez Principles have been formulated to guide and evaluate corporate conduct towards the environment. While at first glance the code appears to impose enormous new responsibilities on firms, a closer analysis indicates that existing regulations and business practices already require businesses to meet many of the environmental goals sought by its proponents. Likely corporate response to the code is examined against this background and with reference to the experience with other voluntary codes of conduct. It would appear that compliance (...) with the code will yield minimal benefits and non-compliance will impose minimum costs for the environmentally-responsible firm. (shrink)

This essay aims to examine how Thomas Mann reinterprets, in the novel “The Magic Mountain”, Nietzsche’s view of the world expressed in “The Birth of Tragedy”. The Olympic world becomes in the novel of Mann, a sanatorium where the death drive controls everything. Several interpretations for this ironic reading of the magic mountain symbol are offered, in particular the idea that death must not hypnotise us, a major theme of “Snow scene” of the novel.

O artigo investiga a noção de corporeidade apresentada por Merleau-Ponty em O olho e o espírito. Na crítica aos modelos filosóficos constituídos pela filosofia reflexivas e seu modo de compreensão do corpo, Merleau-Ponty evidencia, ao longo de O olho e o espírito, a reflexividade corporal a partir da noção de estesiologia e suas consequências filosóficas. Enfatiza, no contexto de sua nova ontologia, o enigma do corpo e o delírio da visão, a partir da duplicidade do sentir. Aproximando-se da arte e (...) do gesto do pintor, o filósofo compreende o corpo no quiasma sensível e senciente e a visão como interrogação das coisas sensíveis do mundo. (shrink)

Ortega y Gasset enriqueceu os seus estudos na Alemanha entre 1905 e 1908, nas cidades de Leipzig, Berlim e Marburgo, tendo sido aqui discípulo do neokantiano HermannCohen. Tomando essa circunstância como ponto de partida, propõe-se, neste artigo,levar a cabo uma indagação sobre as ideias estéticas de Ortega, contrastando com os fundamentos das fontes kantianas ou neokantianas da sua formação universitária alemã,traçar uma linha que permita demarcar claramente até onde Ortega segue Kant e onde,pelo contrário, o filósofo espanhol trilha o seu (...) solitário e original caminho. Tomam-se como baluartes desta análise os quatro momentos do juízo de gosto inerentes à terceira crítica kantiana e a questão da genialidade. (shrink)

Cultural diversity is an inescapable reality and a concern in many businesses where it can often raise ethical questions and dilemmas. This paper aims to offer suggestions to certain problems facing managers in dealing with cultural diversity through the inspiration of Thomas Aquinas. Although he may be perceived as a voice from the distant past, we can still find in his writings helpful and original ideas and criteria. He welcomes cultural differences as a part of the perfection of the universe. (...) His systemic approach leads one to place the problem in its proper context, and to reflect on it from the perspective of virtue ethics, with a central role for practical wisdom and giving primacy to neighborly love and natural moral law. Rather than a set of rigid standards with no consideration of diversity Aquinas focuses on the common human ground, which allows for the indispensable dialogue between different positions. When dealing with practical questions, the problem is one of finding the right balance between general principle and cultural specifics, tolerance, and dialogue, always guided by practical wisdom. In this way, Aquinas’ approach is neither rigid ethical universalism with no consideration for diversity nor moral relativism with no place for any transcultural and absolute morals. (shrink)

This article analyzes the issue of organizational transparency through the lens of Thomas Aquinas’ ethics. It provides moral justification for current claims about corporate transparency and sheds light on the ethical values and virtues affecting information disclosure decisions. Transparency is conceptualized as an informational mechanism necessary for performing the virtues of truthfulness, justice, and prudence. This article extends the organizational transparency and corporate social responsibility literatures by providing an alternative moral justification grounded in virtue-based theory, which extends our understanding of (...) the information disclosure decisions made by management. (shrink)

em Origens do totalitarismo , publicada em 1951, Arendt pensa o grande mal do século XX: o fenômeno totalitário como destruição da pluralidade humana, negação da semelhança dos homens e da sua pertença a uma mesma humanidade. Esse mal, para ela, reduz-se a dois regimes: o nazismo de Hitler e o comunismo de Stalin. A proposta deste artigo é analisar as características comuns entre esses dois regimes como descritas por Arendt.

A partir da obra Origens do totalitarismo de Arendt, este estudo apresenta a ideia totalitária do “tudo é possível” e a sua colocação em prática no século XX, em nome de um projeto político de dominação total que considerou o homem como um ser supérfluo com o qual se poderia fazer qualquer coisa, inclusive transformá-lo em um indivíduo capaz de obedecer cegamente os princípios ideológicos do governo totalitário encarnados na pessoa do “chefe”. Mas, por outro lado também, este estudo apresenta (...) o posicionamento de Arendt que inverte a ideia totalitária do “tudo é possível” para pensar uma nova política que seja o inverso radical do totalitarismo, uma política na qual todos possam manifestar a sua liberdade através de ação e do discurso na presença de seus pares; para isso, a nossa autora aposta na capacidade humana de “começar algo novo” com seus próprios recursos. (shrink)

Se uma certa es ilidade do texto ético e uma certeza suficiente acerca do conhecimento humano dependem da configuração mais ou menos padronizada das acções humanas e do funcionamento mental, assumem especial relevância cognitiva e ética os casos e fenómen.

O conceito de pluralidade humana presente, de acordo com Arendt, na filosofia de Sócrates e essencial à política, foi negado radicalmente por Platão dando inicio, assim, a tradição hostil á política. Assim, a proposta deste artigo é apresentar os argumentos utilizados por Arendt para descrever como se deu essa negação.

The present study aimed at describing the research activities executed by researchers on organizational and work psychology in the state of Santa Catarina. The considered aspects were the psychological phenomena investigated by researchers, the types of procedures and instruments employed with great..

Para Arendt, a autoridade desapareceu do mundo moderno. Para entendermos esse posicionamento radical é necessário compreendermos o sentido atribuído pela pensadora ao termo autoridade. Este é o objetivo fundamental deste artigo.

O século XX não foi apenas uma época de grandes conquistas da humanidade; foi, também, o século de novidade assustadora no campo da política: o surgimento dos regimes totalitários. Assim, este texto, a partir da análise da obra Origens do totalitarismo , apresenta o modo como Arendt procedeu na compreensão e caracterização desse fenômeno denominado por ela de inédito e sem precedentes na história da humanidade.

Classificado pelo pensamento político contemporâneo como novidade singular na história da humanidade e considerado como exemplo emblemático da erosão do político, o fenômeno totalitário provocou polêmicas em relação aos termos utilizados no processo da sua compreensão. Por exemplo, quando se afirmou que o seu objetivo supremo era “transformar a natureza humana”, essa expressão causou ruído desconfortável aos ouvidos daqueles que, sintonizados à tradição metafísica, sempre definiram a natureza humana como uma essência imutável. Este artigo discute e aponta o significado e (...) o alcance dessa expressão no pensamento político contemporâneo, desmistificando-a da sua origem metafísica. (shrink)

A República de Platão não é um tratado sobre a educação, mas a educação tem uma função fundamental na realização da cidade ideal ou justa. A proposta deste artigo é discutir essa função.

Quando o tema em questão é o pensamento político contemporâneo, os estudos de Arendt são indispensáveis. Ela se tornou uma referência nesse assunto, desde a publicação da sua obra Origens do totalitarismo. Neste artigo, no entanto, o objetivo não é discutir ou analisar o conceito de política dessa autora e nem relacioná-lo necessariamente a uma determinada teoria ou forma de governo, mas sim apresentar de modo introdutório e elementar, alguns aspectos das suas considerações e dos seus posicionamentos sobre o sentimento (...) de compaixão na política como entendida por ela, especialmente como aparecem em sua obra Da revolução. (shrink)

A proposta deste artigo é refletir sobre os termos “ente e essência” como aparecem no texto de Tomás de Aquino e explicar o sentido da afirmação “o ente e a essência são o que é concebido primeiro pelo intelecto”.

In spite of successful tests, the standard cosmological model, the $$\varLambda$$ CDM model, possesses the most problematic concept: the initial singularity, also known as the big bang. In this paper—by adopting the Kantian difference between to think of an object and to cognize an object—it is proposed a degree of scientificity using fuzzy sets. Thus, the notion of initial singularity will not be conceived of as a scientific issue because it does not belong to the fuzzy set of what is (...) known. Indeed, the problematic concept of singularity is some sort of what Kant called the noumenon, but science, on the other hand, is constructed in the phenomenon. By applying the fuzzy degree of scientificity in cosmological models, one concludes that cosmologies with a contraction phase before the current expansion phase are potentially more scientific than the standard model. At the end of this article, it is shown that Kant’s first antinomy of pure reason indicates a limit to our cosmological models. (shrink)

L’un des philosophes les plus importants de l’histoire, Friedrich Nietzsche, est presque ignoré par les physiciens. L’auteur qui a déclaré la mort de Dieu au xixe siècle était enthousiasmé par la science, principalement durant la deuxième partie de son œuvre. À l’aide de la notion physique de force, Nietzsche a créé son concept de volonté de puissance. En pensant à la conservation de l’énergie, le philosophe allemand a eu une certaine inspiration pour créer son concept de l’éternel retour. Dans cet (...) article, on souligne certaines influences de la physique sur Nietzsche et on discute de l’actualité de sa position épistémologique—le perspectivisme. À partir du concept de volonté de puissance, je propose que le perspectivisme conduise à l’interprétation où la physique et la science en général sont considérées comme un jeu. (shrink)

It is shown that a notion of natural place is possible within modern physics. For Aristotle, the elements—the primary components of the world—follow to their natural places in the absence of forces. On the other hand, in general relativity, the so-called Carter–Penrose diagrams offer a notion of end for objects along the geodesics. Then, the notion of natural place in Aristotelian physics has an analog in the notion of conformal infinities in general relativity.

Nietzsche colocou-se como um antípoda a Platão. Mas em questões cosmológicas, o eterno retorno nietzschiano tem também alguns pontos em comum à cosmologia platônica descrita no Timeu. A finitude espacial, a ciclicidade cósmica e a ética cosmológica dizem respeito às semelhanças, já a infinitude temporal, a teleologia e a necessidade afastam os filósofos. Então, neste trabalho, aponto proximidades e afastamentos entre os dois filósofos em questões cosmológicas, além de sugerir alguma atualidade de suas concepções em relação à nossa ciência. Como (...) veremos, a relação entre ética e cosmologia ainda se mostra atual. (shrink)

O objetivo desta publicação é incentivar a produção filosófica de excelência por parte de pesquisadores notadamente influenciados pela filosofia de Wittgenstein e cujos temas possam suscitar um debate aprofundado. Além de desafiar o empreendimento filosófico contemporâneo, os temas aqui apresentados abordam questões que muitas vezes estão além daquelas consideradas por Wittgenstein em seu tempo. O leitor encontrará neste volume questões relacionadas ao ceticismo semântico e epistêmico, ao relativismo ético, às leituras literárias de Wittgenstein, ao problema das outras mentes e percepção (...) de aspectos, a intersubjetividade e o caráter contrassensual do Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, e, também, relacionadas ao Paradoxo de Moore. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzsche-Studien Jahrgang: 43 Heft: 1 Seiten: 298-305.

We re-examine Peres' statement “opposite momenta lead to opposite directions”. It will be shown that Peres' statement is only valid in the large distance or large time limit. In the short distance or short time limit an additional deviation from perfect alignment occurs due to the uncertainty of the location of the source. This error contribution plays a major role in Popper's orginal experimental proposal. Peres' statement applies rather to the phenomenon of optical imaging, which was regarded by him as (...) a verification of his statement. This is because this experiment can in a certain sense be seen as occurring in the large distance limit. We will also reconsider both experiments from the viewpoint of Bohmian mechanics. In Bohmian mechanics particles with perfectly opposite momenta will move in opposite directions. In addition it will prove particularly useful to use Bohmian mechanics because the Bohmian trajectories coincide with the conceptual trajectories drawn by Pittman et al. In this way Bohmian mechanics provides a theoretical basis for these conceptual trajectories. (shrink)

As reflexões metodológicas de Poincaré sobre a modelação mecânica dos fenômenos, as teorias físicas, a hierarquização das leis e a evolução do seu estatuto e sistema são susceptíveis de uma leitura kantiana que exibe a função constitutiva das matemáticas e a função reguladora dos princípios de conveniência e dos princípios da física, correspondendo estes a uma importante etapa na evolução das teorias físicas. The methodological reflections of Poincaré on the mechanical modeling of phenomena, physical theories, the hierarchy of laws and (...) the evolution of their status and system are illuminated by a Kantian reading that displays the constitutive function of mathematics and the regulative function of principles of convenience and of the principles of physics, these corresponding to an important step in the evolution of physical theories. (shrink)

At the end of his life, Hume neglected his first work, and declared that he wished his readers to take into account only the later versions of his theories of the understanding, the passions and morals. This poses a special problem of interpretation: is there a difference between a "young Hume" and a "mature Hume", as in the case of Hegel, and several other thinkers? Is there in Hume's work anything comparable with the shift from the pre-critical to the critical (...) Kant? I believe that Hume's case does not fall in any of these categories, but that it still poses problems analogous at least to the first, that is, Hegel’s. This is the hypothesis this essay aims to investigate in the particular case of Hume’s epistemology. I defend the view that a correct interpretation of Hume's epistemology only becomes possible after a careful reading of his more mature works. I illustrate this by discussing Hume’s distinction between association by causation, on the one hand, and causal inference on the other, as well as his concept of experience. (shrink)

The Second Vatican Council was built within a solidly constituted tradition in the Catholic Church. All councils were held within the traditional and legal parameters of the Church. The question about the condition of possibility of a renewal Council under this tradition shows relevant. The Vatican II is the result of a negotiation between renewal and preservation. Pope John XXIII personally coordinated the construction of the legitimacy of the new event, following steps which may be rescued during the preparatory stages (...) of the great assembly. The reading of this process from sociological parameters may elucidate its plausibility within the tradition and the Church's bureaucratic organization. Pope John started ably a church renewal process, opening a new phase in the long Catholic tradition. Under his Pope condition, he knew how to seed the idea of a revamping event in the name of a divine inspiration and with the set of bishops’ participation of the Church. (shrink)

In a review of Frege's Puzzle1, Graeme Forbes makes the claim that Salmon's account of belief might be seen, under certain conditions, as a mere notational variant of a neo-Fregean theory; and thus that such an account might be reduced to a neo-Fregean one simply by rewriting it in terms of Fregean terminology. With a view to supporting his claim, Forbes offers an outline of an account of belief which, according to him, would satisfy the following conditions: (i) it could (...) be directly obtained from Salmon's own analysis by means of a certain set of substitutions, which presumably would not affect the essential features of Salmon's view; (ii) it could naturally be described as Fregean, in the sense that it would preserve, (at least) the spirit of Frege's doctrines, especially his fundamental intuitions about belief. Of course, the upshot of Forbes's argument is that Salmon's theory would not, at bottom, constitute a genuine alternative to a Fregean semantics for belief ascriptions. In this paper I argue to the effect that Forbes's claim is not in general sound. It seems to me that the sort of indirect argument used by Forbes - that of trying to undermine Salmon's theory by showing that it is just a version of a neo-Fregean account - does not provide someone working within a Fregean framework with an adequate strategy to counter Salmon's neo-Russellian views. It would perhaps be better to concentrate a Fregean attack on certain apparently dubious and highly controversial theses and results which are constitutive of Salmon's view, e.g. the counterintuitive character of a substantial set of consequences which follow from his theory of belief, as well as the associated revisionist stand he is forced to take towards our current patterns of speaking about belief. (shrink)

The importance of an author can be evaluated by the extent to which his theoretical contribution transforms a certain area of knowledge: major researchers create new vistas. This certainly applies to Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), one of the most brilliant authors of contemporary psychology. His work, owing to its originality, is of epistemological interest to several areas of knowledge. In fact, Vygotsky was at the center of a historical time of change in twentieth-century Russia, in which Mikhail Bakhtin, Roman Jakobson, Serguei (...) Eisenstein, Alexander Luria, and Yuri Lotman took part. Their theoretical proposals had repercussions in several areas of knowledge: in literature, semiotics, film, and .. (shrink)

In this paper, we intend to discuss how, according to Peirce’s semiotics, gestures can be conceptualized and described as diagrams. We are not concerned with answering when, why or how gestures emerged as semiotic motor activities. As a prerequisite for the very formulation of these problems, we are rather interested in discussing the theoretical conditions which should be fulflled for gestures to be characterized as iconic processes - and more specifcally as diagrammatic processes. The frst step is to summarize a (...) systematic analysis of the variety of iconic signs, elaborated by Peirce, followed by his typology of hypoicons in order to describe the hypoiconic class of diagrams. After that, we present some tentative answers to the question of how to describe gestures as diagrammatic signs. (shrink)

The main goals of this study were, to test the motivational determinants of athletes perceived effort in football considering the four-stage motivational sequence at the contextual level proposed by Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: task-involving, basic psychological needs, self-determined motivation and perceived effort. The multi-group analysis across different age-groups (U15, U17, U19, U21 years) and mediation role of basic psychological needs and self-determined motivation on the task-involving climate and the perceived effort were also analysed. Two independent samples of (...) male football athletes (N= 403, N= 403), aged 13-20 were enrolled in this study. The results demonstrated that structural model provided a good fit to data for all samples under analysis, and was invariant across U17, U19, and U21. However, it was not invariant across U15 and U17, U19 and U21. Additionally, in the results from the mediation analysis, there were significant indirect effects in all samples, supporting theoretical by self-determination theory assumptions, reinforcing the importance of basic psychological needs satisfaction and behavioral regulation in the relation in analysis. The results allow concluding that when coaches promote a task-involving climate, the basic psychological needs satisfaction of athletes improves. This climate will facilitate the regulation of their behaviors towards more autonomous forms of motivation, with positive results in the perceived effort of the athletes. (shrink)

Nietzsche's metaphor of the spider that spins its cobweb expresses his critique of the metaphysical use of language - but it also suggests that ‟we, spiders‟, are able to spin different, life-affirming, healthier, non-metaphysical cobwebs. This book is a collection of 12 essays that focus not only on Nietzsche's critique of the metaphysical assumptions of language, but also on his effort to use language in a different way, i.e., to create a ‟new language‟. It is from this viewpoint that the (...) book considers such themes as consciousness, the self, metaphor, instinct, affectivity, style, morality, truth, and knowledge. The authors invited to contribute to this volume are Nietzsche scholars who belong to some of the most important research centers of the European Nietzsche-Research: Centro Colli-Montinari (Italy), GIRN (Europhilosphie), SEDEN (Spain), Greifswald Research Group (Germany), NIL (Portugal). In 2011 João Constâncio and Maria João Mayer Branco edited Nietzsche on Instinct and Language, also published by Walter de Gruyter. The two books complement each other. (shrink)