This paper examines the effectiveness of the use of executive compensation linked to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals across US firms. Empirical analysis of a cross-industry sample of 746 listed companies for the period 2002–2013 showed that the use of CSR-linked compensation contracts for Named Executive Officers (NEOs) promotes CSR performance. More specifically, we found that linking NEOs’ compensation to CSR goals produces positive effects in the 3rd year after adoption. As firms accumulate experience and learn how to use the (...) system over the following eight periods, CSR performance increases monotonically. Furthermore, experience accumulated over time affects the different specifications of CSR performance asymmetrically, by reducing both environmental and social CSR concerns and increasing only environmental CSR strengths. Interestingly, we also found that the simultaneous use of other CSR-focused governance systems moderates the effect of a firm’s accumulated experience in using CSR-linked executive compensation on CSR performance: the existence of a CSR committee at the board level and the public release of a CSR report are likely to have a positive moderating effect, while the purchase of a CSR audit has no moderating effect. (shrink)

Giovanni Battista Armenio & Rocco Monti – Who is Carlo Sini? Carlo Sini – As Giovanni Gentile would say, we die to others. Hence, I will answer this question by recalling a sentence by Charles Sanders Peirce: we cannot say who we are, who we have been, what we have done, what the meaning of our life has been. It is others who will outline our identity posthumously, as long as it will remain in personal and public (...) memory. And after all, what would I be without the memory of Peirce, of his life... (shrink)

The paper deals with the notions of consistency, completeness, and coherence within the normative domain. It investigates their mutual relations by singling out relative and absolute consistency, weak, strong and trivial completeness, and three different functions of coherence. The main upshot of the inquiry is that coherence may be regarded as a complex combination of weak completeness and possible absence of consistency and strong completeness of a system of rules regarding a non-trivially complete/non-absolutely inconsistent system of underlying principles.

L’intento di questo articolo è di porre in luce come, all’interno della Critica della ragione dialettica temi quali Prassi, Materia e Destino siano in un necessario ed essenziale rapporto. Per fare emergere tale cooriginarietà, ci siamo serviti della parola “costituzione”, intendendo con questa non una qualche descrizione statica, quanto piuttosto il senso dinamico della Storia secondo una motilità particolare, l’errare.

v. 1. Morale generale. -- v. 2. L'uomo e i beni. -- v. 3. L'Uomo e gli altri uomini. -- v. 4. Matrimonio, famiglia, verginità. -- 5. L'Uomo di fronte a dio.

This work aims to scrutiny the concept of “taste” as developed by David Hume. Firstly, it will be highlighted the impossibility of thinking taste neither as a sub- jectivist nor objectivist aesthetic theory; on the contrary, it will be shown, through Agamben’s work, its underlying radical dialectical structure that seeks to unite subject and object. Furthermore, thanks to Deleuze’s enquiry in Hume’s thought, it will be possible to argue that Hume’s theory of art, rather than being a simple consequence of (...) his theory of mind, plays a fundamental role in the whole Humean system, especially in the accounts on history, civilization, and the role of philosophy. (shrink)

In the present work Berkeley's theory of vision is considered in its historical origins, in its relation to Berkeley's general philosophical conceptions, and in its early reception. Berkeley's theory replaces an account of vision according to which distance and other spatial properties are deduced from elementary data through an unconscious geometric inference. This account of vision in terms of "natural geometry" was first introduced by Descartes and Malebranche. Among Berkeley's immediate sources of knowledge of the geometric theory of perception, a (...) key role was played by the treatise of dioptrics of William Molyneux, Dioptrica Nova. Berkeley's understanding of "natural geometry" relies closely on Molyneux's description of the mechanism of vision which avoids the complexities of the accounts of Descartes and Malebranche. In the first chapter Berkeley's theory is presented by way of contrast with Molyneux's theory. In the second chapter I consider the relation between the theory of vision and immaterialism. In the final chapter I examine one of the first criticisms of Berkeley's theory, that which is found in William Porterfield's Treatise on the Eye. Dept. of Philosophy. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997.G72. Source: Masterss International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0076. Adviser: John P. Wright. Thesis --University of Windsor, 1997. (shrink)

According to Daniel Flage, Berkeley thinks that all necessary truths are founded on acts of will that assign meanings to words. After briefly commenting on the air of paradox contained in the title of Flage’s paper, and on the historical accuracy of Berkeley’s understanding of the abstractionist tradition, I make some remarks on two points made by Flage. Firstly, I discuss Flage’s distinction between the ontological ground of a necessary truth and our knowledge of a necessary truth. Secondly, I discuss (...) Flage’s attempt to show that, according to Berkeley, the resemblance relation does not constitute a necessary connection. (shrink)

Law and Economics deals with the economic analysis of legal relations, legal provisions, laws and regulations and is a research field which has a long tradition in economics. It was lost after the expulsion of some of the leading economists from Germany during 1933 to 1938, but then revived in Chicago. Both the subject of Law of Economics and the need for a concise Encyclopedia is particularly relevant in Europe today. Currently in the European Union there are several different legal (...) cultures: the Anglo-Saxon legal framework, the German legal framework, which for example also includes Greece, and the Roman legal family—three jurisdictions which have to be covered with one and the same theory. In the EU, the task of the European Commission to interact with the various European jurisdictions means different legal cultures collaborating and some degree of harmonization is necessary. The result is an immediate need, if only for the science, to show how a given problem is solved in each legal tradition and jurisdiction. This Encyclopedia provides both a common language and precise definitions in the field, which will be useful in the future to avoid misunderstandings during harmonization of EU Law. (shrink)

Since the end of the 16th century, when the perfectly preserved remains of an ancient early Christian underground cemetery were discovered accidentally along the Via Salaria in Rome, Christian antiquities were studied mainly for apologetic propaganda purposes, i.e. to defend the primacy of the Church of Rome, which was faltering under the blows of the Protestant reformers. Everything changed, however, around the middle of the 19th century, thanks to Giovanni Battista de Rossi, a famous archaeologist whose 200th (...) birthday falls this year. This essay sets in the context of his biography the main coordinates of his training, his numerous and fundamental discoveries and his main publications, which brought him recognition in international cultural circles of the time as the “founder of Christian archaeology”, a science that was finally recognised as such, and no longer seen as just a learned pastime for amateur antiquarians. (shrink)

The paper contributes to the reflection on how the 19th-century national events of wider appeal such as the Art and Industrial Exhibitions fostered the dissemination and enhancement of archaeological discoveries. The specific case of the ‘Exhibition of the City of Rome’, held during the Turin Exhibition in 1884, is examined as a paradigmatic example of the archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi’s commitment to promoting Rome in united Italy, using archive and press documents of the time. The Roman (...) pavilion at Turin in 1884, for which de Rossi was responsible for the medieval section, is presented as a key event in the dissemination of Roman archaeological discoveries after 1870 and as a major event in the promotion of studies of Roman topography strongly desired by de Rossi, and which can be read as the starting point for the setting up of the Museum of the City of Rome. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Explication or Explanation?Giovanni Stanghellini (bio) and Mario Rossi Monti (bio)Keywordsexplanation, explication, interpretation, phenomenology, psychopathologyMike Martin's paper raises questions about the process and the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the case of an Iraq war veteran, Colin, described by Dr. Bailey in his essay “A Painful Lack of Wounds”: does psychotherapy succeed? If so, why does it succeed? How far is and should psychotherapy be value free? The clinical (...) phenomenon discussed in this paper is defined as a serious but not severe depression occurring upon returning from the Iraq war. The impression, from the vantage point of a psychotherapist, is that too many details are lacking from the account that is provided and that the case is hurriedly explained away invoking a naturalistic evolutionary model.The psychotherapeutic, as well as the clinical (Stanghellini 2007) and the research (Stanghellini and Ballerini 2008) interview is a quest for meaning. Its first concern is an accurate unfolding of subjective experiences and the organization of these experiences according to a pattern of sense that is immanent to the experiences themselves; the interpretation or the explanation of these experiences according to a model that is not immanent in the clinical material itself may come as a later step.The first step may be called the explication of case material. It consists in bringing out the raw feelings of the patient's experiences and the personal meanings that the patient attributes to his experiences. Here is a list a questions that a clinician would (tactfully) address to Dr. Bailey's patient to enrich the clinical explication of this case (a great deal of questions, of course, can be found also in Martin's [2009] commentary): What are the phenomenal features of Colin's “depression”? Which thoughts and emotions are involved? Anxiety? Anguish? Fear? Frustration? Anger? Irritability? Sadness? Apathy? Guilt? Shame? Which other experiences are involved, for example, physical pains or somatic symptoms? What is it like for Colin not to have proven his “manhood” in Iraq? What does it mean for him to be a “man”? Why does he want to be a man? How does it look like his “ideal” man? How does he exactly feel and what does he mean by “being a wimp”?We also need to illuminate the internal relations of dependence between these experiences: are these phenomena each one independent form the others, or can we find a meaning organizer among them (Rossi Monti and Stanghellini 1996), for instance a core emotion that let us understand the manifold of symptoms as a unitary structure? Does Colin feel angry for not being assigned to a combat duty? Or guilty because he did not object to this? Or does he feel ashamed because he was judged not suitable for a combat duty? Apparently, there is a “basic” wound here, maybe a narcissistic one—the epicenter of a story that reminds us of Ajax's “madness” when the Greek generals did not offer [End Page 237] him Achilles’ weapons. Looking for this wound with Colin and through Colin's words is much different from endorsing an armchair theory of his “depression.” The latter reminds us of someone who feels full after reading the restaurant menu.We need to look for the relations between these clinical phenomena and the situation (event) in which they take place: what do we know about the pathogenetic situation? We know that the same person in different situations can behave and be valued in opposite ways. As Kretschmer pointed out, persons that in times of peace psychiatrists would label as psychopathic personalities in troubled times become celebrated heroes. In the same manner, a boy with an antisocial personality disorder can become a hero if he put his “qualities” to the service of military special forces. In particular, what did Colin expect from enrolling in the army? His expectations were his own or someone else's hopes? What happened exactly in Iraq? What does “Iraq” mean for the patient? What did he do and what did he not do to become a “man” or a hero there? Is Iraq the only place where someone can demonstrate to be a man? Is being a hero the only valuable way... (shrink)

Does the law contain implicit exceptions to its own rules? If so, what consequence does that have for understanding the relationship between law and morality? This collection gathers leading legal philosophers to analyse the logical structure of legal norms, advancing the understanding of the general philosophy of law.

Nella sua straordinaria opera scientifica, Franco Selleri si è sempre opposto alla rinuncia alla comprensione della struttura della realtà e della natura degli oggetti fisici, che egli considera come l’elemento caratterizzante delle principali teorie della fisica del Novecento e che è stata stigmatizzata da Karl Popper come tesi della “fine della strada in fisica”. Sin dalla fine degli anni ’60, egli ha sviluppato quella riflessione critica nei confronti delle teorie fondamentali della fisica moderna, in particolar modo della teoria delle particelle (...) elementari e della meccanica quantistica, e in un secondo tempo delle teorie relativistiche, che contraddistingue il suo programma di ricerca. Nel corso della sua intensa e infaticabile attività scientifica, Selleri è entrato in proficuo contatto con molti grandi fisici e filosofi della scienza, instaurando un intenso dialogo critico con Louis de Broglie, John Bell e Karl Popper. Le sue originali e non convenzionali ricerche lo hanno portato a risultati significativi non solo nell’ambito dei fondamenti della fisica, ma anche della storia e della filosofia della fisica. Per questo abbiamo voluto dedicare un numero speciale di Isonomia al nostro impareggiabile amico e collega, sia per la sua passione instancabile e la sua profonda conoscenza dei fondamenti formali, concettuali e filosofici delle teorie della fisica contemporanea, sia e forse ancor più come maestro di una prospettiva perennemente critica che egli ha sempre seguito e proposto con particolare rigore ed estrema determinazione. (shrink)

To what extent does perceptual language reflect universals of experience and cognition, and to what extent is it shaped by particular cultural preoccupations? This paper investigates the universality~relativity of perceptual language by examining the use of basic perception terms in spontaneous conversation across 13 diverse languages and cultures. We analyze the frequency of perception words to test two universalist hypotheses: that sight is always a dominant sense, and that the relative ranking of the senses will be the same across different (...) cultures. We find that references to sight outstrip references to the other senses, suggesting a pan-human preoccupation with visual phenomena. However, the relative frequency of the other senses was found to vary cross-linguistically. Cultural relativity was conspicuous as exemplified by the high ranking of smell in Semai, an Aslian language. Together these results suggest a place for both universal constraints and cultural shaping of the language of perception. (shrink)

Lo studio presenta la vicenda filosofica del giornalista calabrese Giuseppe Gangale , un protestante che operò in Italia tra il 1922 e il 1934 dirigendo dapprima il settimanale «Conscientia», edito dalla Scuola Teologica Battista di Roma, e in un secondo tempo la casa editrice Doxa, alla quale collaborarono personaggi come Adriano Tilgher, Antonio Banfi, Giovanni Miegge e Carlo Antoni. Gangale sostenne dapprima un’interpretazione teologica del sistema hegeliano in polemica con le coeve interpretazioni di Croce e Gentile; in seguito, (...) aperto agli stimoli provenienti da Barth, Troeltsch, Spengler, ecc., Gangale tentò la formulazione di una teologia sostanzialmente irrazionalistica che ebbe la sua espressione più rilevante in Il Dio straniero . Le altre sue più importanti opere furono: Rivoluzione protestante , Apocalissi della cultura e Revival . Nel 1934, Gangale lasciò l’Italia e il lavoro filosofico per dedicarsi a studi di carattere linguistico. (shrink)

A partire dalla produzione saggistica e letteraria di Umberto Eco, l’articolo analizzerà l’immaginario del Medioevo inteso come culla di ogni genere di millenarismo. La trattazione prenderà avvio dal suo saggio Palinsesto su Beato ; tenendo conto dell’originalità della prospettiva strutturalista di Eco, si confronterà l’ultima riedizione di questo scritto con un quadro bibliografico sul ruolo dell’Apocalisse di San Giovanni in seno alla tradizione occidentale. Il primo riferimento sarà la tesi genealogica di Karl Löwith, il quale nel suo Significato e (...) fine della storia affermò che le moderne filosofie della storia rispondono alla stessa ispirazione millenarista della cultura cristiana. Il secondo confronto sarà con uno dei ritratti dell’eresiarca Fra Dolcino; nella fattispecie, sarà considerata la prospettiva del filosofo socialista Antonio Labriola, elaborata a fine Ottocento per distinguere le applicazioni scientifiche del materialismo storico dai suoi fraintendimenti escatologici. Questi due opposti interlocutori condurranno a problematizzare l’interpretazione del millenarismo per come rappresentato da Umberto Eco ne Il nome della rosa. Il romanzo intende infatti l’apocalittica dolciniana come la prefigurazione del terrorismo degli Anni di Piombo? O si tratta di una mera strizzata d’occhio, un gioco con il lettore, il quale è chiamato a non confidare troppo nella potenza simbolica delle analogie? Considering Umberto Eco’s articles and novels, the paper will examine the imaginary of the Middle Age as the cradle of every kind of millenarianism. The analysis will start from Eco’s essay Palinsesto su Beato. Looking at the originality of his structuralist view, I will compare the last editing of this text with a bibliographical framework about the role of the Apocalypse of St. John in the Western tradition. The first reference will be the genealogical thesis of Karl Löwith, who in Meaning in History affirmed that the modern philosophies of history have the same eschatological aim of the Christian culture. The second comparison will be with a portrait of the medieval heresiarch Fra Dolcino. In this case, I will consider the perspective of the socialist philosopher Antonio Labriola, who elaborated it at the end of the XIX Century to distinguish the scientific applications of historical materialism from his eschatological misinterpretations. These two opposite references will drive me to problematize the representation of millenarianism as it was depicted by Umberto Eco in his The Name of the Rose. Indeed, is Dulcinian millenarianism intended by the novel as a prefiguration of the political terrorism in Italy during the Years of Lead? Or is this only a wink, a joking interaction with the reader, who should be careful to rely not on the symbolic strength of analogies? (shrink)

This book examines the life and work of mathematician Giovanni Battista Guccia, founder of the Circolo Matematico di Palermo and its renowned journal, the Rendiconti del Circolo matematico di Palermo. The authors describe how Guccia, an Italian geometer, was able to establish a mathematical society in Sicily in the late nineteenth century, which by 1914 would grow to become the largest and most international in the world, with one of the most influential journals of the time. The book (...) highlights the challenges faced by Guccia in creating an international society in isolated Palermo, and places Guccia’s activities in the wider European context through comparisons with the formation of the London Mathematical Society and the creation of Mittag-Leffler’s Acta Mathematica in Stockholm. Based on extensive searches in European archives, this scholarly work follows both historical and scientific treads, and will appeal to those interested in the history of mathematics and science in general. (shrink)

Ratti has attacked principles theory in two respects. The first is that it is impossible to distinguish between rules and principles. The second is that the main thesis of principles theory, which says that balancing is the specific way of applying principles, is wrong. The result of Ratti's critique is his thesis that principles theory founders on a contradiction or, as Ratti calls it, an antinomy. All of this is based on two arguments: Ratti's disapplication argument and his law of (...) concretization. I attempt to reject this analysis, for it is incomplete. It claims to be an analysis of balancing, but it misses the decisive point of balancing. Informed by this background, I defend the distinction between rules and principles as a distinction of the real and the ideal “ought.”. (shrink)