Purpose of the paper is to establish the emergence and evolution of a gender problematics from the foundations of classical philosophy, namely, from the phenomenon of will-to-truth as the spontaneous desire of man to understand the life. To achieve this purpose, the following tasks are solved: 1) to investigate the way in which philosophy constitutes itself; 2) to establish how the category of "sex" manifests, both in the natural and in the social contexts; 3) to determine the correlation of gender (...) studies and philosophy. Theoretical basis. If for the methodology of gender studies it is inherent to proceed from the contextuality and value foundations of knowledge, then in this paper gender is considered directly from the being-in-world, human presence. Originality. The distinction between will-to-truth and will-to-knowledge, conducted for the first time by Michel Foucault, is used as a method by which the ontological demand of sex is revealed. Conclusions. As a result of the study, it was found that scientific developments in the field of gender issues in their subject matter are not mainly descended from subject sphere of classical philosophy. Sex is not substantiated metaphysically, and it is ontical, not ontological attribute of the human kind; its presentation as the determining factor of the cultural history in context of femininity/masculinity dichotomy is biased. This quality is similar to Nietzsche’s will to power, i.e., determination of definite knowledge that is later used in legal, socio-political discourse, corrects language practice, determines scientific researches making them dependant on axiological component of culture. As the social justice problem is solved, gender as the subject of social study loses its actuality. (shrink)

The public accounting industry’s voluntary code of conduct in the United States is the American Institute of CPA’s Code of Professional Conduct. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the accounting industry’s current code is limited in its ability to serve the public interest in three respects. Specifically, the code is input-based, requires no third-party attestation of compliance with the code, and contains no public reporting process of code compliance/noncompliance at the accounting firm level. We propose that the accounting profession (...) should reorient its largely input-based Code of Professional Conduct to include output-based performance measurements. We also conclude that third-party attestation of compliance with the profession’s code would help to promote compliance. Finally, we maintain that the accounting industry should initiate a public reporting process at the individual accounting firm level. Such a requirement would add a degree of public accountability as to whether a firm complies or fails to comply with the industry’s voluntary code of conduct. (shrink)

This little book contains lectures given by Vlastos in the summer of 1972 in the Danz Lectures series of the University of Washington. His theme relates to that often rather paternalistic exercise of plotting out the extent to which Science was Revealed to the Greeks. In his view, "it was not given to them... to grasp the essential genius of the scientific method." However, they did discover "the conception of the cosmos that is presupposed by the idea of natural science (...) and by its practice". This discovery, an intellectual "revolution," was of the view, upheld by the Presocratic physiologoi, that the world is characterized by "unbreachable regularities" which make the world a "cosmos," which "constitute the order of nature and, if known, would yield the ultimate explanation of every natural phenomenon". This was revolutionary since it rejected the traditional belief in an unlimited area of possible divine supernatural intervention in the world, a belief which made perception of the universe a perception of an "irrational universe". Thus, "for the first time in history", man achieved, with Presocratic physiologia, "a perception of a rational universe". In the remaining two chapters of the book, Vlastos examines Plato, represented as a "fierce opponent" of the revolution who appropriated the newly discovered cosmos, refashioning it "on the pattern of his own idealistic and theistic metaphysics". This interpretation of Plato is developed mainly through a study of the Timaeus and especially of the "Theory of Celestial Motions" and of the "Theory of the Structure of Matter". Plato appears as opposed to the "impiety" of the physiologoi, proposing himself in the Timaeus a transcendent god as his primary cosmological principle. At the same time, the Timaeus reflects, as Vlastos shows in a brief survey of earlier and contemporary Greek astronomy, an awareness of the "empirical facts" established by the astronomers and Plato’s desire to reconcile these facts with his metaphysical, theological, a priori convictions. This reconciliation involved postulating a system of celestial circular motions, a theory whose "scientific value" Vlastos does not doubt, despite its dependence on a "metaphysical scheme". Vlastos concludes that although Plato fully acknowledged a supernatural power in the universe, he guaranteed the regularities of nature against divine intervention. There is an unfailing natural law. However, its ground for Plato is not natural but supernatural. In examining the "Theory of the Structure of Matter", Vlastos again finds that Plato’s world-order resembles very much that of the physiologoi and, like theirs, is "safe from supernatural interference". The "elementarism" of the Timaeus is shown to be indebted to the Atomists, but also to innovate by opening the way to the intertransformability of elementary corpuscules. What "scientific value" does this theory of the transformation of elements have? It is neither entailed nor contradicted by observation. Vlastos suggests rather that its grounds are "aesthetic". At any rate, Vlastos concludes that although Plato opposed the physiologoi in reintroducing supernatural agency, he annexed their conception of cosmos. In his "perversely original way," he thus "sustained the faith that our world is cosmos. He gave rational men a pious faith to live by in two millennia all through which science was more prophecy than reality". Some of Vlastos’ more extensive footnotes are collected in an Appendix, which is followed by a Bibliography and Indices. (shrink)

As the third volume of a trilogy which also comprises The Insect Societies and Sociobiology, On Human Nature sets out to identify and to solve certain contemporary spiritual "dilemmas." According to Wilson, we have now clearly recognized that the intersection of the causality of natural selection with that of environmental necessity explains human nature. This awareness, he suggests, has brought us today to experience these three dilemmas: first, that the human species "lacks any goal external to its own biological nature"; (...) second, that "morality evolved as instinct"; and finally, that we will soon be able to control our own evolution through molecular engineering and cloning. For Wilson, human life has no transcendent source of meaning, of moral values, or of guidance for its own future evolution. Having offered this diagnosis of the human condition, Wilson prescribes replacing the old humanistic, religious, and Marxist mythologies with wholehearted assent to "the mythology of scientific materialism." Wilson's sociobiological version of scientific materialism has, he claims, the added power of being able to explain the old mythologies themselves as products of natural selection and cultural determinism. The minimum claims of the "evolutionary epic" are these. (shrink)

Mathematical Essays in Honor of Gian-Carlo Rota, Boston, Basel, Berlin, ... Crapo, H. (1993), On the Anick-Rota Representation of the Bracket Ring of the ...

Para Eugenio d’Ors, la vida humana no se define por su relación con la muerte, sino como principio creador de formas que se afirma a sí mismo. En cambio, la muerte sí se define como lo radicalmente opuesto a la vida, un principio de negación y destrucción, de fatalidad y resistencia. De este modo se establece entre ambos principios una relación dialéctica, una tensión de antagonistas que hace que la vida sea una permanente lucha contra la muerte. Por ello el (...) planteamiento de d’Ors acerca de la muerte adquiere un fuerte sentido ético y beligerante, afirmando la necesidad de vivir en actitud alerta y combativa. (shrink)

Resenha de Leão, D.; Guerrier, O. (eds.). Figures de sages, figures de philosophes dans l'oeuvre de Plutarque (2019).

Resumen: El presente trabajo busca reflexionar, desde la perspectiva de los estudios interartísticos, acerca de la práctica narrativa de Adolfo Couve, escritor y pintor chileno que tematiza el mundo plástico en toda su producción narrativa. A partir de una concepción desprejuiciada respecto de lo marginal, de la fealdad y la miseria, el autor despliega una mirada alterna en los espacios de borde en busca de la reivindicación de la miseria, a la vez que relativizar el canon estético que prestigia temas (...) y motivos lejanos al campo de referencia de quienes habitan el borde. La exhibición de aquellos espacios, los personajes y los paisajes minoritarios, su composición plástica y narrativa, sin embargo, dialogan permanentemente con la tradición pictórica de elite.: The present work seeks to reflect, from the perspective of interartistic studies, on the narrative practice of Adolfo Couve, Chilean writer and painter who thematizes the plastic world in all his narrative production. Starting from an unprejudiced conception regarding the marginal, the ugliness and the misery, our author displays an alternate look on the edge spaces in search of the vindication of the misery, at the same time that relativizes the aesthetic canon that prestige subjects and reasons far from the reference field of those who inhabit the edge. The exhibition of those spaces, the characters and the minority landscapes, their plastic and narrative composition, nevertheless, permanently dialogue with the pictorial tradition of elite. (shrink)

Random simulation of complex dynamical systems is generally used in order to obtain information about their asymptotic behaviour (i.e., when time or size of the system tends towards infinity). A fortunate and welcome circumstance in most of the systems studied by physicists, biologists, and economists is the existence of an invariant measure in the state space allowing determination of the frequency with which observation of asymptotic states is possible. Regions found between contour lines of the surface density of this invariant (...) measure are called confiners. An example of such confiners is given for a formal neural network capable of learning. Finally, an application of this methodology is proposed in studying dependency of the network's invariant measure with regard to: 1) the mode of neurone updating (parallel or sequential), and 2) boundary conditions of the network (searching for phase transitions). (shrink)

Ruth M Jonathan; Two Concepts of Education? A reply to D. J. O’Connor, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 16, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 147–154, https.

In this paper, we examine whether ethics officers are able to perform their assigned duties independently of organizational management. Specifically, we investigate whether inherent conflicts of interest with company management potentially hinder the ability of ethics officers to serve as an effective monitor and deterrent of unethical activity throughout the organization. As part of our analysis, we conducted 10 detailed phone interviews with current and retired ethics officers in order to determine whether practicing ethics officers feel the need for additional (...) independence protection from management. We propose that the current system in which ethics officers report to management must be changed in order for ethics officers to effectively perform their jobs. Specifically, we maintain that ethics officers should (1) be hired by, (2) be fired by, and (3) report directly to the corporate board of directors rather than company management. Such a change in the reporting environment would greatly enhance the independence of ethics officers. (shrink)