Dieser Quick Guide gibt einen Überblick über Compliance, ESG und Investigations in Emerging Markets im Kontext wachsender Anforderungen wie des deutschen Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetzes und EU-Verordnungen. Deutsche Unternehmen sind durch neue Regelungen, besonders in Emerging Markets, mit verstärkten Sorgfalts-, Dokumentations- und Berichterstattungspflichten konfrontiert. Dieser Leitfaden beleuchtet diese Herausforderungen und zeigt, wie On-Site Audits effizient durchgeführt werden können. Der Inhalt: Einführung Anknüpfungspunkte: Due Diligence, Supply Chain Compliance, Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung, Korruptionsvermeidung Betroffene Kreise: Unternehmen, Tochtergesellschaften, Zulieferer, Dritte Organisation von On-Site Audits Zusammenfassung und Ausblick Die Zielgruppen (...) CEOs, CFOs, Rechtsabteilungsleiter, Compliance-Beauftragte, Beschaffungsmitarbeiter, Rechtsanwälte Die Autoren: RA Dr. Constantin Frank-Fahle, LL.M., Gründungspartner (emltc), spezialisiert auf rechtliche und steuerliche Strukturierung von Auslandsinvestitionen. RA Roland Falder, Counsel (emltc), spezialisiert auf Arbeitsrecht und Compliance Untersuchungen. RA'in Dr. Anna-Luisa Lemmerz, Counsel (emltc), spezialisiert auf Handels- und Gesellschaftsrecht sowie Compliance. (shrink)

Au Centre Pompidou-Metz, faisant écho à l'exposition inaugurale, un colloque international a étudié de manière pluridisciplinaire et transversale la question du chef-d'œuvre. Loin de se focaliser sur le débat esthétique, les diverses approches ont assigné le droit, l'histoire, la sociologie, l'économie et les sciences exactes, pour mieux soumettre cet "objet" à un véritable examen clinique. Cette question ne serait-elle plus d'actualité? Loin s'en faut! Entre cœur et raison, la sacralisation des œuvres d'art produit toujours autant de savoirs, de savoir-faire et (...) de savoirs sur le faire. Mettant en avant le patrimoine, restaurant les objets de l'art, les reconstituant, favorisant le tourisme culturel, exhumant le vrai, condamnant le faux : à sa mesure, le "chef-œuvre" dynamise encore et toujours les divers moments de l'art. (shrink)

This article compares the material pollution of life's elementary resources, i.e., water, soil, and air, with the semiotic pollution of the elementary resources of sign-processes, i.e., channel, sign-matter, and message; code, signifier, and signified; as well as context, sender, and recipient. It is claimed that semiotic pollution interferes with sign-processes as much as material pollution interferes with the fundamental processes of life; both types of pollution are similar in that they produce stress for human beings in current societies. It is (...) argued that semiotics is able to provide the conceptual tools necessary to develop policies that can reduce semiotic pollution. As is shown, however, additional research is required to operationalize and metricize generalized concepts of semiotic pollutionsuch as "channel-related", "semiosis-related", and "situation-related noise". (shrink)

Do human beings share a common morality? Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal presents engaging essays from contemporary Lutheran scholars, teachers, and pastors, each offering a fresh reappraisal of natural law within the context of historic Lutheran teaching and practice. Thought provoking questions following each essay will help readers apply key Bible texts associated with natural law to their daily lives.

We investigate strong versions of enumeration reducibility, the most important one being s-reducibility. We prove that every countable distributive lattice is embeddable into the local structure $L(\mathfrak D_s)$ of the s-degrees. However, $L(\mathfrak D_s)$ is not distributive. We show that on $\Delta^{0}_{2}$ sets s-reducibility coincides with its finite branch version; the same holds of e-reducibility. We prove some density results for $L(\mathfrak D_s)$ . In particular $L(\mathfrak D_s)$ is upwards dense. Among the results about reducibilities that are stronger than s-reducibility, (...) we show that the structure of the $\Delta^{0}_{2}$ bs-degrees is dense. Many of these results on s-reducibility yield interesting corollaries for Q-reducibility as well. (shrink)

"Erst in diesem Jahr gestartet, ist bereits abzusehen, dass die Reihe der Sozialgeographischen Bibliothek im Franz Steiner Verlag fur die deutschsprachige Geographie Massstabe setzen wird [a] Lippuner, der mithin eine der besten ...

The concept of hope—as used in ordinary language in assertions of (for example) the form ›Person S hopes that p‹—can be analysed in terms of belief, desire, and, as I claim, affective quality. According to my analysis, one feature of hope is that what S hopes for has some subjective probability for S. Hope thus has an epistemic component on which demands of rationality can be (and, as a matter of fact, are) placed. Ordinary language distinguishes various types of deficient (...) hoping. On the basis of my explication of ›hope‹, it can be shown that types of deficient hope differ in the way in which they violate rationality. A particularly interesting type of deficient hoping is self-deceptive hope. Self-deception centrally involves the formation or retention of beliefs under the influence of biasing motivational factors. And hope, through its conative component, contains just such a motivation for self-deception. Hope is thus closely, if only contingently, connected with self-deception: not all hope is self-deceptive, but it is natural and presumably rather common for hopes to involve self-deception. Hope’s susceptibility to self-deception is one of the primary reasons why hope has been the subject of ambivalent or even negative valuation, the main conflict being the one between (important) benefits of hoping and the value of truth. (shrink)

The Lorentz transformation of space and time between two reference frames is one of the pillars of the special relativity theory. As a result of the Lorentz transformation, space and time are only relative and are entangled, while the Minkowski metric is Lorentz invariant. For this reason, the Lorentz transformation is one of the major obstructions in the development of physical theories with quantized space and time. Here is described the Lorentz transformation of a physical system with a discrete dynamical (...) time and a continuous space that fulfills Lorentz invariance while approximating the Lorentz transformation at the time continuous limit and the Galilei transformation at the classical limit. Furthermore, the discreteness of time is not mixed with the continuous nature of space, making time distinct from space. (shrink)

If martin and rosenberg were right, It ought to have been possible for higher animals to evolve neural mechanisms that evoke complex avoidance-Of-Tissue-Damage behavior "without" their experiencing pain. The alleged identity of mental event types like pain with unspecified brain state types thus can have no evolutionary explanation. It will not do to say that these brain state types may be discovered some day to have a distinguishing property x, Since x would still be a physical property and one could (...) always ask why pain-Experience necessarily accompanies x-Propertied brain states, This being causally gratuitous to the behavior they would evoke without it "if" physicalism is true. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Commentary on “Spiritual Experience and Psychopathology”Roland Littlewood (bio)Keywordsreligion, innovation, psychosis, culture, diagnosisThis is an ambiguous though clinically valuable paper. Jackson and Fulford suggest that the distinction between their two categories, spiritual experience and mental illness, is conventional, yet their emphasis on issues of correct practice from the medical perspective threatens to return both into distinct ontological categories, albeit with a shared phenomenology. I do not understand why any (...) single instance must either be pathological or spiritual, except through clinical and clerical demands for clarity and order.Mental illness and spirituality are not two distinct natural phenomena “out there,” existing independently of human volition. They are both social—cultural if one prefers—ascriptions. Neither has some substantive core whose elucidation through psychophysiological, phenomenological or ultrahuman procedures could enable us to define its essence and thus differentiate it from the other. Neither experience is a self-evident datum. Both are easily susceptible to critiques, either that they do not exist as natural categories, or else that they should more properly be described as something else—as the workings out of social exclusion in the case of mental illness, as cosmological understanding or mass hysteria in the case of spirituality. Neither, I would suggest, can be specified by physiology or ultrahuman interventions respectively, but rather through shared cultural meanings which in turn are experientially validated by the biosocial phenomena themselves. It is not that we need to exclude the possibility of concurrences in brain states, but rather that these cannot specify the meaning and experience of the phenomena.Note that I emphasize “experienced through cultural meanings,” not “influenced by” culture: I do not accept that psychophysiology can have any existence independent of the social world through which it occurs. The psychiatrists’ form/content distinction, an optimistic proxy for nature/culture (Birnbaum 1923; Schneider 1928) may remain a convenient heuristic device, but it has a curious, perhaps doubtful, intellectual history (see the Endnote following).Cross-cultural comparisons argue that local idioms which we might approximate to current Western notions of mental illness and religion are quite varied. And the validity of particular instances of both “spiritual experience” and “psychopathology” may be contested in any society. While the social consequences of a pattern may determine the approbation accorded to a pattern such that patterns recalling chronic schizophrenia [End Page 67] are regarded as a deficit (and here I agree with James [1902] and the two authors), they are not necessarily aligned to categories of physical illness, but may be seen as a spiritual failure or obstruction. Unsuccessful or inappropriate shamanic practice among Amerindian and circumpolar societies is the classic instance (Eliade 1964). Within Western societies, demonic possession may be read by doctors as mental illness. (It is just as much a “spiritual experience”: why introduce the religionist’s distinctions between different types of ultrahuman agency? Compare Maslow on “peak” experiences. The terms “spiritual” and “religious world view” are naturalized idioms of late Christianity rather than cross-culturally valid terms [Tambiah 1990].) But also the converse (Koch 1972). And this depends on our professional interests. Clearly, psychiatrists prefer to perceive the world in a psychopathological idiom, while religious enthusiasts and clergy may favor divine intercession or demonic possession; and a Christian psychiatry not surprisingly may claim to act as arbiter (Sims 1991). Any specific instance may be perceived differently by individuals in accordance with their interests and affiliations.The paper’s terminology—“spiritual psychotic experience,” “genuine spiritual experience”—is confusing in that it does imply realist, not conventional claims (cf. Endnote 1, Jackson and Fulford). It is not necessary. A less laden idiom—such as “statistically or normatively unusual brain states and their experiential correlates” (Littlewood 1993, 257)—may be just too unwieldy for repetition, but I would propose that at this level of detail we need rather four categories depending or not on concordance with (i) something close to psychiatry’s recognition of a major mental illness, and (ii) something like an anthropological notion of religious or spiritual experience (cf. Littlewood 1991):[Table 1]PsychosisReligious ExperiencePresentAbsentPresentABAbsentCDSo Jackson and Fulford’s three cases fall into group “A” if the PSE was scored... (shrink)

The conceptualization of human agency is one of the oldest and most debated challenges in political theory. This essay defends the continuous relevance of this endeavour against a proliferating theoretical pessimism. Instead of engaging the much rehearsed structure-agency debate, the author conceptualizes agency in relation to discourses. However, such an approach inevitably elicits suspicion. Is discourse not merely a faddish term, destined to wax and wane with fleeting intellectual trends of the postmodern and poststructural kind? Does the concept of discourse, (...) as many fear, suck us into a nihilistic vortex and deprive us of the stable foundations that are necessary to ground our thoughts and actions? Not so, argues this essay, and defends an anti-essentialist stance as the most viable chance for retaining an adequate understanding of how people situate themselves as agents and influence their socio-political environment. The ensuing analysis, which focuses on everyday forms of resistance, demonstrates how the very acceptance of ambiguity, often misrepresented as relativism, is a crucial precondition not only for the conceptualization of human agency, but also for its actual application in practice. (shrink)

The possibility of consistency between the basic quantum principles of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse is reexamined. A specific interpretation of environment is proposed for this aim and is applied to decoherence. When the organization of a measuring apparatus is taken into account, this approach leads also to an interpretation of wave function collapse, which would result in principle from the same interactions with environment as decoherence. This proposal is shown consistent with the non-separable character of quantum mechanics.

This book not only explicates Stalin's thoughts, but thinks with and especially through Stalin. It argues that Stalin often thought at the intersections between theology and Marxist political philosophy - especially regarding key issues of socialism in power. Careful and sustained attention to Stalin's written texts is the primary approach used. The result is a series of arresting efforts to develop the Marxist tradition in unexpected ways. Starting from a sympathetic attitude toward socialism in power, this book provides us with (...) an extremely insightful interpretation of Stalin's philosophy of socialism. It is not only a successful academic effort to re-articulate Stalin's philosophy, but also a creative effort to understand socialism in power in the context of both the former Soviet Union and contemporary China. ------- Zhang Shuangli, Professor of Marxist philosophy, Fudan University Boer's book, far from both "veneration" and "demonization" of Stalin, throws new light on the classic themes of Marxism and the Communist Movement: language, nation, state, and the stages of constructing post-capitalist society. It is an original book that also pays great attention to the People's Republic of China, arising from the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, and which is valuable to those who, beyond the twentieth century, want to understand the time and the world in which we live. -------Domenico Losurdo, University of Urbino, Italy, author of Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend. (shrink)

Paradigms of unity and plurality -- Unity or plurality of religions? -- The healing and poisonous fruits of the unity of religions -- The synthesis and aporia of religious pluralism -- The promise of mysticism -- Polyphilic pluralism -- Negotiations of multiplicity -- Convergences and divergences: juncture or bifurcation? -- Pluralism of pluralisms? -- Horizontal and vertical pluralism -- An experiment in incompatibilities: green acre -- The mystery of distinction and unity -- Transreligious horizons -- The transreligious discourse -- Other (...) religions: from coinherence to coinhabitation -- The earth and other worlds: a story of cosmic magnitude -- The future of religions -- One with all religions. (shrink)

Das Buch etabliert, vor dem Hintergrund einer Darstellung der herkömmlichen Begriffe und Vorstellungen, eine - als phänomenologisch bezeichnete - Konzeption des Lebens als Erleben und des Todes als Nichterleben und entwickelt und exemplifiziert auf dieser Grundlage eine Erweiterung einerseits des Konzepts des Lebens und andererseits des Konzepts des Todes, des letzteren in Form von phänomenologischem Tod innerhalb des biologischen Lebens und des ersteren in Form von - allerdings nur sekundärem - phänomenologischem Leben vor dem biologischen. Flucht- und Zielpunkt des Buches (...) aber ist die Entwicklung einer - auf die Erkenntnis der Janusköpfigkeit von Leben und Tod gegründeten - Konzeption von biologischem Leben nach dem biologischen Tod, einer Konzeption von Wiedergeburt und Folgeleben unter Beibehaltung nur des innersten Kerns unseres Ichbewußtseins. (shrink)

I aim to articulate and develop a consolidated model of Axel Honneth’s Recognition Theory. This paper aims at investigating the relationship of asymmetries of identities and social struggles as a progressive process of recognition in Honneth’s works. My paper is divided into three parts. The first part provides a consolidated outlook on Honneth’s Recognition Theory from the Struggle for Recognition to his more recent work Freedom’s Right. The second part covers the relationship between social struggles, social solidarity, and their effects (...) on regenerating the necessary normative resources for individual selfactualization. The last part is my take on Honneth’s Recognition Theory in the form of understanding social pathologies in the context of investigating deficits of normative resources for self-actualization. (shrink)

Blood service organizations employ various ways to ensure transfusion blood safety, including the testing of all donations for transfusion-transmissible infections (TTI) and the exclusion of donors who are at increased risk of a recent infection. As some TTIs are more common among men who have sex with men (MSM), many jurisdictions (temporarily) defer the donation of blood by sexually active MSM. This boils down to a categorical exclusion of a large group solely on the basis of their sexual orientation, which (...) is seen as unduly discriminatory and stigmatizing. Blood service organizations in the U.K. and the Netherlands have recently changed their deferral policies for MSM. The problem of the MSM deferral involves a conflict between fundamental rights: the right of MSM to equal treatment and the right to health of the recipients of blood and blood products. We distinguish and discuss three broad alternative options to the current categorical deferral of MSM donations: (1) completely abandoning donor selection on the basis of sexual behavior, (2) individual risk assessment of the sexual activities of each potential donor, and (3) individual risk assessment of the sexual activities of MSM only. The new U.K. policy falls within the second category, and the new Dutch policy is in the third category. We argue that each approach comes with moral costs but that the most reasonable option is different from the policies of both the U.K. and the Netherlands. (shrink)

Physiologists have long proposed that correlated input activity is important in normal sensory development. Here it is postulated that the visual system is sensitive to the correlation in image intensity across the visual field, and that these correlations are used to help calibrate spatial representations. Since measurements made near to each other in the visual field are more correlated than measurements made at a distance, the degree of correlation can be used as an estimate of the distance between two measurements (...) and can therefore be used to calibrate a roughly organized spatial representation. We therefore explored the hypothesis that low level spatial representations are calibrated using a signal based on image intensity correlation. If the visual system uses input statistics to calibrate its spatial representation, then any distortions and anisotropies in these input statistics should be mirrored by distortions in the representation of space. To test the psychological implications of this hypothesis, a collection of 81 images of open and urban landscapes were used to estimate the degree of correlation between image intensity measurement pairs as a function of both distance and orientation. Doing this we show that a system that used the statistics measured to calibrate its representation would show: (1) a horizontal‐vertical illusion;(2) the magnitude of this illusion would depend on the amount of open and urban landscapes in the environment;(3) there would be a nontrivial relationship between line orientation and judged length. Analogues of all these distortions and regularities can be found in the psychophysical literature on distance estimation. This gives strength to the proposal that spatial representations are calibrated using input statistics. (shrink)

This is a survey of some possible extensions of ZF to a larger universe, closer to the “naive set theory” (the universes discussed here concern, roughly speaking : stratified sets, partial sets, positive sets, paradoxical sets and double sets).