In spite of the growing interest witnessed in the study of the relationship between emotion and language, the determination of the emotional valence of sentences, paragraphs or texts has so far attracted little attention. To bridge this gap, a technique based on the emotional aspect of words is presented. In this preliminary study, we have compared the affective tones of the sentences of four texts as perceived by readers, to the values generated by the words that compose the texts. The (...) results support the psychological reality of the affective tones of linguistic units larger than a word, and the possibility of their evaluation through the lexical information. Such information should be. useful for studying the role of emotional interest on text processing and for the analysis of the natural stories produced by people in reaction to stressful events. (shrink)

Recent academic articles point to an increased vagueness and overlap in concepts related to business ethics and corporate responsibility. Further, the perception of these notions can differ in the smallbusiness world from the original academic definitions. This article focuses on the cognition of small-business owner-managers. Given the impact of small-business owner-managers on their ventures, corporate responsibility and ethical issues can take a different route in SMEs. The small-business owner-manager is able to shape the corporate culture and to enact values other (...) than profit. Adopting a cognitive perspective, we have identified how the small-business owner-manager makes sense of notions linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. The concept of sensemaking has recently been applied to CSR (Basu and Pallazzo, 2008; Cramer et al., 2006). Applying a cognitive perspective to small-business owners may help in explaining specific phenomena found within smallbusiness ownership. For this research, the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) is used, a method that has not previously been widely applied in the business and society field. Our findings to an extent invalidate the confusion in terminology found in the academic literature. Smallbusiness owner-managers, pragmatically and rather clearly, differentiate among the various concepts related to corporate responsibility and business ethics but, at the same time, they recognise the interrelationships and interdependencies of these concepts. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how small-business owners think and integrate corporate responsibility and ethical issues into their decisionmaking. (shrink)

En parallèle avec le dossier d’œuvres que Warren Neidich a préparé pour la rubrique Icônes, cet article pose les bases théoriques d’analyses conceptuelles et d’expérimentations politiques faisant du « cerveau sans organes » un principe de résistance aux dangers posés par le « cerveau câblé ». La multiplication d’interfaces promettant d’assurer une communication directe entre nos systèmes nerveux et nos appareils de computation est ici envisagée à travers la mutation du cognitariat du capitalisme cognitif en un « précariat surordonné » (...) du capitalisme neuronal, c’est-à-dire d’une force de travail disponible 24/7 dont les capacités cognitives, affectives, mémorielles et imaginatives seraient techniquement modulables selon les besoins de l’appareil productif. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je propose une analyse des débats récents sur la « justice climati­que », c’est-à-dire les enjeux de justice distributive liés aux phénomènes des changements climatiques. Je me propose d’y faire trois choses : premièrement, je propose une série de distinctions conceptuelles permettant de faire la cartographie des enjeux normatifs en cause et des taches que doivent réaliser nos théories en éthique environnementale. Deuxiè­mement, je tente d’attirer l’attention sur un problème de taille, mais quelque peu négligé dans la (...) littérature : le problème de la distribution des responsabilités. Troisiè­mement, je défends la désirabilité d’un passage des éthiques environnementales vers les philosophies politiques de l’environnement. (shrink)

The relations of Frederic Bastiat with Faith are complex. He often speaks of God in his works, but his conversion, or rather his return, to the Catholicism was progressive and ended at the time of his death in 1850 in Rome. According to Bastiat, there is no opposition between science and Faith and, above all, economic and social harmonies express and reflect the wisdom of God.Moreover, Bastiat was to join the Catholics of his time, especially in the struggles for the (...) freedom of eductaion, and he was to propose some reforms that the French Catholics adopted only later, such as the separation of the Church and the State; in this way, when he disagreed with the nineteenth century’s Catholics, he anticipated in fact the positions of the twentieth century’s Catholics, being in this instance, as in economic thought, ahead of his time.Les rapports de Frédéric Bastiat et de la foi sont complexes. Il parle souvent de Dieu dans ses oeuvres, mais sa conversion, ou plutôt son retour, au catholicisme a été lente et ne s’est achevée qu’au moment de sa mort à Rome en 1850. Pour Bastiat, il n’y a pas d’opposition entre science et Foi et, surtout, les harmonies sociales expriment et reflètent la sagesse de Dieu.Par ailleurs, Bastiat rejoindra les catholiques de son époque, en particulier dans les combats en faveur de la liberté de l’enseignement, et il proposera des réformes que les catholiques français n’accepteront que plus tard, comme la séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat ; en ce sens, lorsqu’il est en désaccord avec les catholiques du XIXème siècle, il anticipe en fait sur les positions des catholiques du XXème siècle, étant là aussi, comme en économie, en avance sur son temps. (shrink)

Plutôt que d’abandonner ou d’écraser l’idée de la liberté de la presse – en la considérant comme naïve ou anachronique – mon but est de la faire revivre et de la redéployer pour plaider en faveur d’une valeur normative particulière : le droit du public à entendre. Je prétends que l’image dominante, historique et professionnalisée de la liberté de la presse – généralement définie comme toutes les libertés dont doivent bénéficier les journalistes pour poursuivre un intérêt public évident – privilégie (...) le droit individuel à la parole sur le droit du public à entendre, alors que ce dernier mérite d’être remis au cœur de nos débats. (shrink)

Autonomous lifelong development and learning are fundamental capabilities of humans, differentiating them from current deep learning systems. However, other branches of artificial intelligence have designed crucial ingredients towards autonomous learning: curiosity and intrinsic motivation, social learning and natural interaction with peers, and embodiment. These mechanisms guide exploration and autonomous choice of goals, and integrating them with deep learning opens stimulating perspectives.

This is a volume containing papers honoring Patrick Suppes (1922-2014). All contributors have worked directly with Suppes or/and with his ideas. The book also contains one of the last papers by Suppes (co-authored by two of his collaborators). -/- The work of Suppes touches many different areas, ranging from meteorology to physics, through logic, mathematics, psychology, neuroscience, education, painting, but he was first of all and above all a philosopher, always questioning, but not in vain. There are not many philosophers (...) who can be proud of having written influential math textbooks, contributed decisively to the philosophical foundations of science, helped to develop research in real labs, promoted new forms o education (computer-assisted learning and the EGPY – Education Program for Gifted Youth). -/- Since the range of interest of Suppes was very broad, so is the variety of topics dealt with in this volume. The work of a researcher is certainly not limited to his own writings, but also has to be appreciated through the work of the people he has been working with and influenced. From this point of view the work of Suppes is very impressive, and the present book contributes to show that. -/- This is a follow up of a special issue of the journal Synthese, New Directions in the Foundations of Science, edited by Béziau and Krause, after a meeting they organized with Suppes in Florianópolis (Brazil) in 2002 for his 80th birthday. -/- Jean-Yves Béziau worked with Suppes at Stanford University for two years (2000 and 2001) and has been continuously working in the Suppes tradition of logic, methodology and philosophy of science, which emphasizes structures and models. -/- Décio Krause has used Suppes’ approach to the axiomatization of scientific theories in many fields. With J.C.M. Magalhães, he presented a ``Suppes predicate” for genetics and natural selection and with S. French he developed a Suppes predicate for quantum field theories via Fock spaces. (shrink)

This commentary addresses the neural implementation of emulation, mostly using findings from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Furthermore, both empirical and theoretical suggestions are discussed that render two aspects of emulation theory redundant: independent modal emulators and extra measurement of amodal emulation. This modified emulation theory can conceptually integrate simulation theory and also get rid of some problematic philosophical implications.

Biodiversity sciences witness a double dynamic. Whereas the need for interdisciplinary approaches is increasingly appreciated, most disciplinary studies are still confined to developing operational, discipline-specific indices. We show that a reassessment of the general notion of biodiversity is needed to clarify this situation. We advocate a new approach, according to which the main usefulness of this notion is not to capture quantitatively biological objects or processes, but to organize meaningful and coherent interdisciplinary interactions by constructively criticizing disciplinary studies. We apply (...) this approach to ecological-economic models, in the hope of launching more fruitful critical dialogs between economists and biologists. (shrink)

Recent communication and discussion concerning corporate governance, CSR, codes of conduct and other ethical policies have restored the tarnished reputation of the business world which followed a spate of financial scandals. However, one also notices an increased dissonance between the attractive messages emanating from business leaders and the reality. This disconnection between the ‘CSR rhetoric and corporate governance ethics’ and the practical reality experienced within companies leads to hypocrisy. The reality seems too often in contradiction with the idealistic character of (...) corporate communication.In our paper, we analyse the impact of communication and perception on the image and reputation of the company. We survey the characteristics of the media, which include lack of nuance and the tendency to generalization, amplification and reduction. We confront the hypocrisy in the contradiction between words and deeds, and briefly analyse the reasons for this disconnection between message and reality. The continuum from idealism to hypocrisy to position a company in function of the degree of congruence or dissonance between communication and reality forms the basis for a sincerity index. (shrink)

L’autorévélation de Dieu, entendue selon la foi chrétienne, peut être dite fiable, crédible et intelligible, communicable, enfin conceptualisable. On parle alors d’une quadruple rationalité de la révélation: critique, herméneutique, dialogique, spéculative. La fiabilité s’appuie sur les conditions et dispositions du témoignage rendu à la résurrection de Jésus. La crédibilité et l’intelligibilité réunissent une interprétation droite et une compréhension dialectique. La communicabilité suppose de consentir aux normes communes du dialogue mais aussi à une différenciation de ses visées de connaissance. La conceptualité (...) engage une anamnèse systématique de l’économie du salut par la mise en oeuvre d’un espace de compréhension qui transgresse les premières interprétations. Cette dernière forme de la rationalité ne présente cependant aucune nécessité pour la rationalité de la révélation. (shrink)

Stakeholder theory advocates that firms bear responsibility for the implications of their actions. However, while a firm affects or can affect stakeholders, stakeholders can also affect the corporation. Previous stakeholder theorising has neglected the reciprocal nature of responsibility. The question can be asked whether—in a spirit of reciprocity, loyalty and fairness—stakeholders should treat the corporation in a fair and responsible way. This study based on different definitions of stakeholders argues that various stakeholder attributes differ for different categories of stakeholders. This (...) analysis presumes that the attribute of stakeholder reciprocity can probably be restricted to real stakeholders, labelled stakeowners: genuine stakeholders with a legitimate stake, the loyal partners who strive for mutual benefits. Stakeowners own and deserve a stake in the firm. Stakeholder reciprocity could be an innovative criterion in the corporate governance debate as to who should be accorded representation on the board. Corporate social responsibility should imply corporate stakeholder responsibility. (shrink)

Despite the recent increase in interest in corporate social responsibility and the propagation of corporate governance in both business and academic literature, from observations of actual practice, the author has seen at all company levels, in everyday operations, instances of non-ethical behaviour vis-à-vis the whole gamut of stakeholders. This state of affairs is linked with: pressure from stakeholders, short-term tactics, hegemony of financial considerations, ‘juridisation’ of business, the tyranny of communications and the media and the difficulties in translating strategy into (...) practical implementation. The paper scrutinises the motivation and the psychology of entrepreneurs and business people, and their behaviour is compared to other professional groups and confronted with the decline in ethics in society as described by some important observers. The conclusion drawn is that the recent positive evolutions do not provide sufficient ethical guidelines for the day-to-day activities of middle managers and entrepreneurs in the present competitive environment. Managers will always be confronted by difficult choices with ethical dilemmas. There will always be a tension between theory and pragmatism, but progress can be made with the effective implementation of the ethical discourse in companies. To achieve this, ethical management should not be confined to the large strategic issues but also applied to the small practical matters of everyday business life. Ethics in business and entrepreneurship requires more than corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR). (shrink)

Yves R. Simon explores moral virtue in this piece through identifying three moral positions common in modernity that attempt to substitute the traditional concept of virtue, as well as discussing the distinction between nature and use of sources of good or evil. He also discusses the distinctions between habits and opinions, as well as the virtue and science. He gives clear examples that make this book enjoyable for readers of all levels to understand moral virtue.

This article defends four claims. The first is that in the last few decades, two waves of democratic innovation based on random selection must be differentiated by their partly different concrete devices, embodying different social dynamics and pointing toward different kinds of democracy. The second claim is that the rationale of the first wave, based on randomly selected minipublics, largely differs from the dynamic of political sortition in Athens, as it points toward deliberative democracy rather than radical democracy. Conversely, empowered (...) sortition processes that have emerged during the second wave capture better the spirit of radical Athenian democratic traditions. The third claim is normative: these empowered sortition processes are more promising for a real democratization of democracy. The last claim is that any proposal of a legislature by lot must rely on this lesson when trying to defend a normatively convincing and politically realistic perspective. (shrink)

Pathologizing ugliness refers to the use of disease language and medical processes to foster and support the claim that undesirable features are pathological conditions requiring medical or surgical intervention. Primarily situated in cosmetic surgery, the practice appeals to the concept of “aesthetic pathology”, which is a medical designation for features that deviate from some designated aesthetic norms. This article offers a two-pronged conceptual analysis of aesthetic pathology. First, I argue that three sets of claims, derived from normativist and naturalistic accounts (...) of disease, inform the framing of ugliness as a disease. These claims concern: (1) aesthetic harms, (2) aesthetic dysfunction, and (3) aesthetic deviation. Second, I introduce the notion of a hybridization loop in medicine, which merges the naturalist and normative understanding of the disease that potentially enables pathologizing practices. In the context of cosmetic surgery, the loop simultaneously promotes the framing of beauty ideals as normal biological attributes and the framing of normal appearance as an aesthetic ideal to legitimize the need for cosmetic interventions. The article thus offers an original discussion of the conceptual problems arising from a specific practice in cosmetic surgery that depicts ugliness as the disease. (shrink)

Scheinerman (2023) proposes that at the Human Genome Editing Initiative international summit (held in March 2023) there should have been a parallel, separate Citizens’ Jury, and that the Human Geno...

For Yves R. Simon, philosophy has an affinity to science, not in the sense that philosophy is a mere metascience, a commentary on the sciences, but rather because it shares the same aim as science: the search for explanation. The philosophy Simon espouses is philosophical realism which, following Jacques Maritain, he prefers to call critical realism. Against the prejudice that only some version of philosophical idealism, be it critical or absolute, is capable of understanding positive science. Simon, in Foresight (...) and Knowledge, develops a philosophy of science form a realistic perspective. Philosophy of science or the critique of science, as it was known in France, is according to Simon, metahphysics in the exercise of its critical function. Simon selects as the central focus of the treatise the problem of determinism, causality, and chance. Simon shows that the concept “determinism” must be understood in different conceptual systems, such as a philosophy of nature and physics; in the latter, determinism is conceived as a possibility of certain and exact prediction. (shrink)

First published in 1962, this classic study examines the relationship between authority and justice, life, truth, and order. Simon, himself a passionate proponent of liberty, defends authority as an essential concomitant of liberty.

Presents essays describing the author's impressions of art and architectural works.

Marie Durand n’est pas très connue en dehors du monde protestant. Elle a passé 38 ans emprisonnée dans la Tour de Constance à Aigues-Mortes parce que son frère était un pasteur clandestin du xviiie siècle. Elle est surtout connue depuis le livre de Benoît en 1884. Mais c’est au début du xxe siècle qu’elle devient une personnification de la résistance pacifique au nom des droits de la conscience et de la tolérance et qu'elle accède à un statut d'héroïne. Cela permet (...) aussi à la Réforme un renouveau moral et spirituel. La référence à Marie Durand s'accentue en 1945 et culmine lors des cérémonies de 1968. Elle symbolise ainsi le protestantisme toujours persécuté, mais luttant de manière non-violente pour maintenir la foi. (shrink)

This is a book that is stimulating, provocative, as well as very enjoyable reading.--Modern Age.

The success of the stakeholder theory in management literature as well as in current business practices is largely due to the inherent simplicity of the stakeholder model-and to the clarity of Freeman's powerful synthesised visual conceptualisation. However, over the years, critics have attacked the vagueness and ambiguity of stakeholder theory. In this article, rather than building on the discussion from a theoretical point of view, a radically different and innovative approach is chosen: the graphical framework is used as the central (...) perspective. The major shortcomings of the popular stakeholder framework are systematically confronted with the graphical scheme to illustrate their visual impact. The graphical illustrations of the imperfections help explain the sometimes-oversimplified generalisation inherent to every graphical model. They also make some interrelationships easier to understand. The analysis demonstrates that, with the tacit but implicit acceptance of simplification of the discussed explanatory elements, Freeman's framework remains a rather good approximation of reality. Only a few minor changes to the stakeholder model are consequently proposed. (shrink)

A collection of essays in French or English on the reception of Cartesian philosphy.

This paper seeks, based on examples, to make work psychology questionable by philosophers. With Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist who died in 1934, we support a position that borrowed a lot from Spinoza, particularly on the question of the affect. With regard to work, the link between ethics, psychology and politics is explored.