Two hundred and twenty-six state employees completed a structured questionnaire that investigated their ethical values and training needs. Top management were more likely to have attitudes against cronyism and giving advantage to others. Individuals higher in the organizational hierarchy, and female employees were more likely to believe that discriminatory practices were an ethical concern. In addition, employees with a larger number of clients outside of the organization were more supportive of the need to maintain strict confidentiality in business dealings. Employees'' (...) awareness and use of the organization''s code of conduct generally proved to be poor predictors of ethical values. Other analyses revealed that a variety of sociodemographic factors, job characteristics and ethical values predicted specific areas of training needs in ethics. (shrink)

This book explores three worlds shared by the humans in their collective experiences. It identifies and explores the world of commonsense, the world of religion, and the world of science as three essential dimensions of human experience. The book helps understand that humans can gain comfort and pleasure in commonsense, achieve meaning and purpose from religion, and attain truth and rationality through science. It actively applies theories to and develops theoretical explanations from different domains or situations of human existence. This (...) book is of interest to theorists, researchers, instructors, and students across major academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)

Un certain nombre de critiques ont affirmé que dans la doctrine de Descartes il n’y a aucune possibilité d’une esthétique. La plupart des autres ont pensé qu’il y avait, dans cette doctrine, tout au moins une esthétique implicite et que cette esthétique, dont ils empruntaient les traits, non à Descartes lui-même, mais à des critiques comme Boileau, d’Aubignae, Bosse, de Chambray, etc., était rigoureusement rationaliste, Descartes ayant « confondu le Beau dans le Vrai ».J’ai essayé de montrer qu’il y a (...) une esthétique cartésienne explicite : que 1° cette esthétique est moins pauvre qu’on ne Ta dit, si Ton tient compte de tout ce qui dans les Lettres du philosophe est relatif à l’art ; que 2° le Compendium musicæ est plus riche en théorie qu’on ne l’a cru et que les vues qu’y développe Descartes ne valent pas seulement pour la musique ; que 3° ces vues ne sont pas rigoureusement intellectualistes, mais que la part qui y est faite à la sensation et à l’association est au moins égale à celle revendiquée pour la raison ; que 4° s’étant posé la question de savoir ce qu’est le Beau en général, Descartes a conclu qu’il est impossible de le déterminer, qu’il n’y a pas d’évidence esthétique et que, en dernière analyse, « ce qui plaira à plus de gens pourra être nommé simplement le plus beau ». (shrink)

In the light of partial (mis)understanding, we examine the thesis that concepts are individuated in terms of possession conditions and show that adherents face a fatal dilemma: Either concept‐individuating possession conditions include cases of partially (mis)understood concepts or not. If yes, possession conditions do not individuate concepts. If no, the thesis is too restricted and lacks a minimally satisfactory level of generalization.

This article is about reductionism; as a tendency of thought, reductionism tells us that the hole can be explained as the sum of its parts. From this principle, one can deduce that the properties and laws of complex systems can be explained by the laws and properties of simple systems. On the other ..

The dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of the dismantling effects postmodern discourses have within the humanities. Postmodernism's anti-foundationalism, I argue, can only take shape around questions of ultimacy and sacrality in human existence. The dissertation explores the emergence, persistence and metamorphosis of the ultimate and the sacred in art history, modern literature, continental philosophy, and religion. Central figures studied in the work include Mircea Eliade, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Andre Malraux, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The story is frequently told about how with the publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) in 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus (d. 1543) looked beyond the vanity of human self-centeredness and perceived that Earth was just one of several planets revolving around the sun. In doing so, he triggered the modern scientific revolution as people began to look at themselves and their place in the universe in a more objective light.

Since the beginning of the scientific revolution, believers have had to reconcile their beliefs with science. This has always proved difficult. If an all-perfect God created the universe and its physical laws, why would he have to step in to perform miracles and answer prayers? If, as all the evidence indicates, the universe, including humans and their brains, is matter and nothing more, how can we possibly live forever? Theologians try hard, but never come up with satisfactory answers.

By comparing the interpretations of the inconceivable in the two teachings of two different cultures, the author is trying to understand the prerequisites of one of the most mysterious and incomprehensible phenomenon of human culture: the ability of a human consciousness to extend beyond its own boundaries basingon the inconceivable as something absolutely incomprehensible in principle. This paradox constitutes the basis to the majority of total acts of rethinking the whole conceptual field, the world all-at-once. Realizing that everything can be (...) comprehended except for the very act of comprehension that is happening here-and-now, the author is comparing the two methods in order to understand not “what” but “how” this can be accomplished. (shrink)

This article introduces the notion of multiple glocalizations as a means of analysing Christianity’s historical record and argues that multiple glocalizations are constitutive of the intertwining between religion and historical globalization. It proposes that four concrete forms of glocalization can be observed: vernacularization, indigenization, nationalization and transnationalization. Each of these offers different combinations of universal religiosity and local particularism. The salience of this interpretation is demonstrated through a cursory analysis of the historical record of Christianity’s fragmentation. It is argued that (...) the very construction of distinct religious traditions (Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism) is an expression of this broader process. Finally, the historical record of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is examined in order to provide for additional historical instances of these forms of glocalization. (shrink)