Based on the institutional theory, this article attempts to examine two consecutive questions regarding the impact of various factors on corporate decision in environmental information disclosure (EID): (1) whether or not to disclose; and (2) the level of disclosure. The relevance of these factors is empirically tested using data collected from publicly listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. Some interesting findings appear. We find that firms that are state-owned, those that operate in environmentally sensitive industries, those having (...) more industrial peers engaged in EID, and those with better reputation are more likely to disclose environmental information. When it comes to the content of EID, variables that attempt to capture external institutional pressures exhibit either no or weak explanatory power. Only the variable of organizational image and reputation is demonstrated to have a significant impact on both the act and the content of EID. This study provides a snapshot of the dialogues between constituencies in the organizational field and EID development. (shrink)

We have empirically examined the relationship between top executives’ turnover and the corporate environmental responsibility by identifying the influence of ten specific turnover reasons resulting in the chairman’s departure and two important types of chairman’s succession. Using a sample of 782 manufacturing listed companies across 3 years in China, we find that the corporate environmental responsibility is negatively associated with the involuntary and negative turnover (i.e., dismissal, health and death, and forced resignation) and positively associated with improving corporate governance, and (...) not associated with the normal turnover (i.e., retirement and contract expiration) and the types of chairman’s succession (i.e., independence, and internal or external promotion). Our study significantly contributes to research in environmental disclosure by revealing the relationship between chairman’s turnover and the corporate environmental responsibility. A feasible way is suggested to regulators and other stakeholders in monitoring or assessing the possible abnormality of environmental responsibility when firms experience involuntary and negative chairman’s turnover in the emerging economies. (shrink)

This article examines whether economic performance could affect EID and how the relationship is determined by the form of ownership from voluntarism to regulation under the current Chinese context. In this study, our empirical results show that the relationship between firms’ performance and EID is complex and the interactive impact of ownership and economic performance on EID significantly varies from voluntary disclosure to mandatory disclosure. This study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the motivations in corporate EID. The performance–impression theory (...) can be used to explain the disclosure behaviors during the period of voluntary disclosure, while the pressure–legitimacy theory can be used during the period of mandatory disclosure. The finding suggests that when evaluating corporate EID associated with economic performance in emerging economies such as China, it needs to be cautious, as which tends to vary with the form of ownership and whether there is any mandatory regulation in place. (shrink)

The stock market’s reaction to information disclosure of environmental violation events (EVEs) is investigated multi-dimensionally for Chinese listed companies, including variables such as pollution types, information disclosure sources, information disclosure levels, modernization levels of the region where the company locates, ultimate ownership of the company, and ownership held by the largest shareholder. Using the method of event study, daily abnormal return (AR) and accumulative abnormal return (CAR) are calculated under different event window for examining the extent to which the stock (...) market responds to the EVEs. Furthermore, statistical significance of the difference in stock market reaction is compared between event firms with different characteristics. The relationship between CAR and its impact factors is examined by multivariate analysis. The findings reveal that the average reduction in market value is estimated to be much lower than the estimated changes in market value for similar events in other countries, demonstrating that the negative environmental events of Chinese listed companies currently have weak impact on the stock market. (shrink)

Mark Coeckelbergh (Int J Soc Robot 1:217–221, 2009) argues that robot ethics should investigate what interaction with robots can do to humans rather than focusing on the robot’s moral status. We should ask what robots do to our sociality and whether human–robot interaction can contribute to the human good and human flourishing. This paper extends Coeckelbergh’s call and investigate what it means to live with disembodied AI-powered agents. We address the following question: Can the human–AI interaction contribute to our moral (...) development? We present an empirically informed philosophical analysis of how the AI personal assistant Siri changes its users’ way of life, based on the responses obtained from 20 semi-directive individual interviews with Siri users. We identify changes in the users’ social interaction associated with the adoption of Siri. These changes include: (1) the indirect effect of reducing opportunities of human interaction, (2) the second-order effect of diminished expectations toward each other in a community, and (3) the acquired preference to obtain hassle-free interaction with Siri over human interaction. We examine them in relation to concerns that are voiced in the current debates over the rise of AI, namely the suspicion that humans could become overly reliant on AI (Danaher 2019) and the worry that social AI could impede on moral development (Fröding and Peterson, Ethics Inf Technol 23:207–214, 2012; Li, Ethics Inf Technol 23:543–550, 2021). We analyze the ethical costs that come from these changes in light of virtue ethics and address potential objections along the way. We end by offering directions for thinking about how to live with AI personal assistant while preserving favorable conditions for moral development. (shrink)

Bazzocchi disposes the text of the Tractatus in a user-friendly manner, exactly as Wittgenstein's decimals advise. This discloses the logical form of the book by distinct reading units, linked into a fashioned hierarchical tree. The text becomes much clearer and every reader can enjoy, finally, its formal and literary qualities.

Unamuno’nun Sis adlı romanı gerçekliğin doğasına ilişkin felsefi bir sorgulama edimini bir aşk hikâyesi etrafında sembolize ederek dolaylı bir biçimde okuyucuya sunmaktadır. Eserin kahramanı Augusto Pérez’in varoluşsal krizinin kurgu ve gerçeklik arasındaki ilişkiyle birlikte farklı bir boyuta taşındığı bu roman, hayatın anlamı, ölümsüzlük arzusu ve bireyin tanrıyla olan ilişkisi gibi temaları varoluş ve kimlik arayışı ekseni etrafında şekillendirerek tartışmaya açmaktadır. Nesnel gerçeklik ve öznel hakikat arasında gidip gelen bu tartışma, Unamuno’nun varoluşçuluğu hakkında önemli ipuçları taşımakta ve kavramsal kişilikler aracılığıyla ustaca (...) ortaya koyduğu diyalog yöntemini dâhiyane edebi üslubuyla birleştirmektedir. Hayatın muğlaklıklarla dolu belirsiz bir yapısı olduğunu ifade eden Unamuno için yaşamın kendisi bir sistir. Dahası, yaşamın tüm canlılığının ve dinamikliğinin taşıyıcısı olan bu sisi aklın ve mantığın ışığında dağıtmaya ve berraklaştırmaya çalışmanın kendisinin komik olduğunu belirten Unamuno, yaşamın anlamının tam da bu trajik anlamı içinde ortaya çıktığını iddia eder. Aklın bildikleri ile kalbin inandıkları arasında insan absürt ve paradoksal olana adeta Kierkegaardcı bir iman sıçramasıyla bağlanmalıdır. Unamuno’nun varoluşçuluğunu gerçeklik problemi bağlamında değerlendirmeye çalışan bu makalenin amacı, varoluşun kurgu ve gerçeklik arasındaki özel yerini öznel bir iç hesaplaşmaya dönüştürme gerekliliğine dikkat çekmektir. (shrink)

Most of the traditions about Stesichorus place him in Italy and Sicily. He was said to have been born at Mataurus and to have lived and died at Himera. Only two small and disputed pieces of evidence connect him with the Peloponnese. Suidas s.v. Στηχορος says that he went to Catana when banished from Pallantium in Arcadia, and the Marmor Parium records that in the archonship of Philocrates the poet Stesichorus came to Greece. Both testimonies are embarrassing and both have (...) been subjected to sceptical criticism. Stesichorus' connection with Pallantium has been reduced to a misunderstanding of his mention of it in his Γηρυονσ, and the entry in the Marmor Parium is so flatly in contradiction of the other evidence for his date that it has with some justice been regarded as a mere blunder. And yet it is possible that behind these two disputed testimonies there lies a genuine tradition based on the actual sojourn of Stesichorus in the Peloponnese. Some evidence for this may be found in what we know of his λνη and ρεστεα. (shrink)

Theories of truth and vagueness are closely connected; in this article, I draw another connection between these areas of research. Gupta and Belnap’s Revision Theory of Truth is converted into an approach to vagueness. I show how revision sequences from a general theory of definitions can be used to understand the nature of vague predicates. The revision sequences show how the meaning of vague predicates are interconnected with each other. The approach is contrasted with the similar supervaluationist approach.

The revival of interest in Greek metre cannot be without an influence on the text of Pindar. In some ways this influence may have been for the good, but in one respect a theory based on insufficient evidence seems in danger of corrupting the text. The theory is briefly that in his dactylo-epitrite poems Pindar occasionally equated a choriamb — — with an epitrite — — — or — — —. This theory has been stated explicitly by two leading Pindaric (...) scholars, Otto Schröder and U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf. In the Prolegomena to his Editio Maior, p. 13, Schröder briefly states his case for what he calls ‘metathesis metrica.’ Moved by the fact that in iambic and Ionic metres a short syllable may be substituted for a long, and vice versa, he is convinced that the same applies to the metres of Pindar. (shrink)

In his choice of quotations concerning fate and the good ordering of events Stobaeus gives in succession three passages which the manuscripts ascribe to the Peleus of Euripides and the Phaedra of Sophocles, but as Wilamowitz and Nauck saw, all three form a single piece, and the ascriptions to Euripides and Sophocles do not concern them. The text so recovered may be presented as follows.

Palladas can hardly be credited with either a religious creed or a philosophical system, but he held some powerful convictions which were not necessarily consistent but certainly reflected his emotional responses to a life embittered by poverty, a nagging wife, and a profession which he detested. In so far as he believed that a single power controls circumstances, it was Tyche, to whom he refers with frequent comments, usually hostile. By the latter part of the fourth century A.D. the ancient (...) belief in Tyche had become intellectually respectable in certain Pagan circles. There were of course those who followed the Cynics in denying any importance to her, and their rejection of her can be seen, in different forms and at different levels, in a Hermetic text which regards her as, in an anonymous couplet,1 which looks as if it came from the last years of Paganism. (shrink)

Background If trials of therapeutic interventions are to serve society's interests, they must be of high methodological quality and must satisfy moral commitments to human subjects. The authors set out to develop a clinical - trials compendium in which standards for the ethical treatment of human subjects are integrated with standards for research methods. Methods The authors rank-ordered the world's nations and chose the 31 with >700 active trials as of 24 July 2008. Governmental and other authoritative entities of the (...) 31 countries were searched, and 1004 English-language documents containing ethical and/or methodological standards for clinical trials were identified. The authors extracted standards from 144 of those: 50 designated as ‘core’, 39 addressing trials of invasive procedures and a 5% sample of the remainder. As the integrating framework for the standards we developed a coherent taxonomy encompassing all elements of a trial's stages. Findings Review of the 144 documents yielded nearly 15 000 discrete standards. After duplicates were removed, 5903 substantive standards remained, distributed in the taxonomy as follows: initiation, 1401 standards, 8 divisions; design, 1869 standards, 16 divisions; conduct, 1473 standards, 8 divisions; analysing and reporting results, 997 standards, four divisions; and post-trial standards, 168 standards, 5 divisions. Conclusions The overwhelming number of source documents and standards uncovered in this study was not anticipated beforehand and confirms the extraordinary complexity of the clinical trials enterprise. This taxonomy of multinational ethical and methodological standards may help trialists and overseers improve the quality of clinical trials, particularly given the globalisation of clinical research. (shrink)

In this paper I present a range of substructural logics for a conditional connective ↦. This connective was original introduced semantically via restriction on the ternary accessibility relation R for a relevant conditional. I give sound and complete proof systems for a number of variations of this semantic definition. The completeness result in this paper proceeds by step-by-step improvements of models, rather than by the one-step canonical model method. This gradual technique allows for the additional control, lacking in the canonical (...) model method, that is required. (shrink)

Since the BBS article in which Premack and Woodruff (1978) asked “Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?,” it has been repeatedly claimed that there is observational and experimental evidence that apes have mental state concepts, such as “want” and “know.” Unlike research on the development of theory of mind in childhood, however, no substantial progress has been made through this work with nonhuman primates. A survey of empirical studies of imitation, self-recognition, social relationships, deception, role-taking, and perspective-taking suggests (...) that in every case where nonhuman primate behavior has been interpreted as a sign of theory of mind, it could instead have occurred by chance or as a product of nonmentalistic processes such as associative learning or inferences based on nonmental categories. Arguments to the effect that, in spite of this, the theory of mind hypothesis should be accepted because it is more parsimonious than alternatives or because it is supported by convergent evidence are not compelling. Such arguments are based on unsupportable assumptions about the role of parsimony in science and either ignore the requirement that convergent evidence proceed from independent assumptions, or fail to show that it supports the theory of mind hypothesis over nonmentalist alternatives. Progress in research on theory of mind requires experimental procedures that can distinguish the theory of mind hypothesis from nonmentalist alternatives. A procedure that may have this potential is proposed. It uses conditional discrimination training and transfer tests to determine whether chimpanzees have the concept “see.” Commentators are invited to identify flaws in the procedure and to suggest alternatives. Key Words: apes; associative learning; concepts; convergence; deception; evolution of intelligence; folk psychology; imitation; mental state attribution; monkeys; parsimony; perspective-taking; primates; role-taking; self-recognition; social cognition; social intelligence; theory of mind. (shrink)

Sleep onset is associated with marked changes in behavioral, physiological, and subjective phenomena. In daily life though subjective experience is the main criterion in terms of which we identify it. But very few studies have focused on these experiences. This study seeks to identify the subjective variables that reflect sleep onset. Twenty young subjects took an afternoon nap in the laboratory while polysomnographic recordings were made. They were awakened four times in order to assess subjective experiences that correlate with the (...) (1) appearance of slow eye movement, (2) initiation of stage 1 sleep, (3) initiation of stage 2 sleep, and (4) 5 min after the start of stage 2 sleep. A logistic regression identified control over and logic of thought as the two variables that predict the perception of having fallen asleep. For sleep perception, these two variables accurately classified 91.7% of the cases; for the waking state, 84.1%. (shrink)

Among the scanty remains of poetry attributed to Eumelus of Corinth two lines 2 stand out as different from the rest, first because they are concerned not with the legendary past but with an actual, present occasion, and secondly because they are composed not for Corinthians but for Messenians. Our evidence comes from Pausanias and may be set out at the start.

Features include a comprehensive review of existing material, combined with new perspectives to equip students for the challenges in the work environment; chapter overviews and student learning objectives offer a solid and useful framework in which to organise study; diagrams and charts present overviews and contexts for the subject to act as useful revision aids; effective pedagogy including a review of the arguments considered, a menu of seminar topics, and questions in every chapter, serving as an ideal basis for seminar (...) study; and additional open-ended simulations to allow students to work through unfolding scenarios. (shrink)

The elegiac poem of eight lines discovered in the Ceramicus and published by by W. Peek is of considerable interest for the historian. Peek is surely right in maintaining that it was composed for the Athenians who fell under Tolmides at Coronea in 447 B.C., and his general exposition of the poem's meaning is convincing. The aim of this paper is to make some comments and supplements to his interpretation and then to consider some peculiarities in the thought and technique (...) of the poem. We may first set out a text and a translation:λμονες ℎοῖον γṑνα μχες ελσανες λπ[ο]φσχς δαιμονṐς ṑλσα' μ πολμοισὐν κακι χσετλελεσσε βροοῖσι δ πσι λοιπνφρζεσθαι λογṐν πιοσν ἔθκε λος. (shrink)

Vergil's plagiarism has been a theme for critics ever since Perellius Faustus made an anthology of his ‘furta’ and Quintus Octavius Avitus com-piled eight volumes of Оμоιóτησ, giving both the original passages and Vergil's adaptations of them . Much of this literature has survived in the commentary of Servius and in Book VI. of the Saturnalia of Macrobius. The study of his imitations and plagiarisms throws much light on Vergil's methods and aims of composition, and has frequently been attempted in (...) editions of his works. But one class of his plagiarisms differs considerably from the rest. Often in the Aenèid he incorporates phrases, either intact or slightly altered, from the Annales of Ennius. These differ from where he imitates Homer, because in them he does not have to translate from Greek into Latin and so remake the original into something new, and they differ, too, from his adaptations of some other earlier Latin poets, because Ennius was his only important forerunner who had written on the same heroic themes of war and the growth of Rome. (shrink)

Fractal time fluctuations of the spectral “1/f” form are universal in natural self-organizing systems. Neurobiology is uniquely infused with fractal fluctuations in the form of statistically self-similar clusters or bursts on all levels of description from molecular events such as protein chain fluctuations, ion channel currents and synaptic processes to the behaviors of neural ensembles or the collective behavior of Internet users. It is the thesis of this essay that the brain self-organizes via a vertical collation of these spontaneous events (...) in order to perceive the world and generate adaptive behaviors. REM sleep, which coalesces from self-similar clusters of burst-within-burst behavior during ontogeny, is essential to cognitive-emotional function, and has recurrent fractal organization. Empirical fMRI observations further support the association of fractal fluctuations in the temporal lobes, brainstem and cerebellum during the expression of emotional memory, spontaneous fluctuations of thought and meditative practice. Cognitive-emotional integration arises as amygdaloid-brainstem-cerebellar systems harmonize the vertical “1/f” symphony of coupled isochronous cortical oscillations in the pursuit of mindfulness. (shrink)

It has been known for many years that inscriptions in the Arcadian dialect contain a considerable number of words which occur commonly in the Homeric poems and rarely, if at all, elsewhere. The first attempt at a complete list was made by Otto Hoffmann in Die grieckischen Dialekte, I. pp. 276–278. He gives as Homeric ασα, βóλομαι νυ πυέσΘω, ρτύω σκηΘές, δεάτοι, δμα, 'Eκατόνβοια and 'Eκατόμβοια, hίκοντα, κελεύθω, μέστ', πληθύς, and πλός. Buck, in Greek Dialects, p. 132, added εùΧωλά and (...) ἆμαρ and we might with as much justification add ρπειν λεύσοντες and λεύσοντες. In each case a Homeric word, unusual in later Greek except in verse, is used in ordinary Arcadian epigraphic prose. (shrink)

The story of Orestes in Pindar's Pythian XI presents two problems. First, there is the manner of its introduction; as Wilamowitz says, ‘ganz ausserlich ist die Verbindung mit dem Mythos.’ After praising the victory of the Theban Thrasydaeus in the Pythian Games Pindar moves with astonishing abruptness to the story of Agamemnon's death and the vengeance of Orestes. At first sight nothing could be more superficial than the way in which Pindar passes to the myth. Thrasydaeus has glorified his home (...) ν φνεας ραισι πυλδ νικν ξνου Λκωνος 'ο;ρστα, τν δ φονευομνου πατρς κτλ. (shrink)

Oxidative damage to DNA has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Developmental exposure to lead has been shown to elevate the Alzheimer's disease related beta-amyloid peptide , which is known to generate reactive oxygen species in the aging brain. This study measures the lifetime cerebral 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels and the activity of the DNA repair enzyme 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase in rats developmentally exposed to Pb. Oxo8dG was transiently modulated early in life , but was later elevated 20 months after exposure to Pb (...) had ceased, while Ogg1 activity was not altered. Furthermore, an age-dependent loss in the inverse correlation between Ogg1 activity and oxo8dG accumulation was observed. The effect of Pb on oxo8dG levels did not occur if animals were exposed to Pb in old age. These increases in DNA damage occurred in the absence of any Pb-induced changes in copper/zinc-superoxide dismutase , manganese-SOD , and reduced-form glutathion . These data suggest that oxidative damage and neurodegeneration in the aging brain could be impacted by the developmental disturbances. (shrink)

The revival of interest in Greek metre cannot be without an influence on the text of Pindar. In some ways this influence may have been for the good, but in one respect a theory based on insufficient evidence seems in danger of corrupting the text. The theory is briefly that in his dactylo-epitrite poems Pindar occasionally equated a choriamb — — with an epitrite — — — or — — —. This theory has been stated explicitly by two leading Pindaric (...) scholars, Otto Schröder and U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf. In the Prolegomena to his Editio Maior, p. 13, Schröder briefly states his case for what he calls ‘metathesis metrica.’ Moved by the fact that in iambic and Ionic metres a short syllable may be substituted for a long, and vice versa, he is convinced that the same applies to the metres of Pindar. (shrink)

In his Works of Pindar, Vol. II, p. xxiii, Dr. L. R. Farnell discusses the admission of metrical licences into Pindar's text, and pronounces that ‘the “Responsion-law” should not be pressed with over-strained severity.’ In general he agrees with Wilamowitz and Schroeder and disagrees with the stricter school of P. Maas. But none of these scholars have formulated the principles by which long syllables may be equated with short in Pindar's text, or even those by which two short syllables may (...) take the place of one long and vice versa. Such attempts were made by great scholars of the past, notably by Erasmus Schmid, Hermann and Boeckh, but recent developments in metric and textual criticism have created a new attitude towards metrical problems and provided a new vocabulary. It is time that Pindar's practice was re-examined. Only from it can we deduce what his rules of composition were and find out what licences he allowed and what not. The question is important both for the textual critic and for the student of Greek metric. If we can discover the principles on which Pindar used such metrical licences, we shall be more qualified to consider emendations which involve them and to understand the rules which he set before himself when composing an ode. (shrink)