This paper provides an exploratory comparative assessment of the institutional pressures influencing corporate social responsibility in a developed country, UK, vs. a developing country, Brazil, based on a survey of different actors. Information on sustainability concerns, organizational strategies and mechanisms of pressure was collected through interviews with environmental regulatory agencies, financial institutions, media and non-governmental organizations. Our results confirm that the more advanced awareness and CSR responsiveness in the UK is a consequence of a predominance of coercive and normative forces (...) on the organizational field. The institutional forces tend to build a Brazilian organizational field that is relational based and risk intensive. The findings lend support to the view that CSR responses are unlikely to be easily transformed into uniform standardized practices across the globe. This paper contributes to a collective understanding of the organizational field and a common template for CSR in the context of developed and developing countries. (shrink)

According to standard assumptions in semantics, ordinary users of a language have implicit beliefs about the truth-conditions of sentences in that language, and they often agree on those beliefs. For example, it is assumed that if Anna and John are both competent users of English and the former utters ‘grass is green’ in conversation with the latter, they will both believe that that sentence is true if and only if grass is green. These assumptions play an important role in an (...) intuitively compelling picture of communication, according to which successful communication through literal assertoric utterances is normally effected thanks to our shared beliefs about the truth-conditions of the sentences uttered in the course of the conversation. Against these standard assumptions, this paper argues that the participants in a conversation rarely have the same beliefs about the truth-conditions of the sentences involved in a linguistic interaction. More precisely, it argues for Variance, the thesis that nearly every utterance is such that there is no proposition which more than one language user believes to be that utterance’s truth-conditional content. If Variance is true, we must reject the standard picture of communication. Towards the end of the paper I identify three ways in which ordinary conversations can be communication-like despite the truth of Variance and argue that the most natural amendments to the standard picture fail to explain them. (shrink)

Indirect speech reports can be true even if they attribute to the speaker the saying of something weaker than what she in fact expressed, yet not all weakenings of what the speaker expressed yield true reports. For example, if Anna utters ‘Bob and Carla passed the exam’, we can accurately report her as having said that Carla passed the exam, but we can not accurately report her as having said that either it rains or it does not, or that either (...) Carla passed the exam or pandas are cute. This paper offers an analysis of speech reports that distinguishes weakenings of what the speaker expressed that yield true reports from weakenings that do not. According to this analysis, speech reports are not only sensitive to the informational content of what the speaker expressed, but also to the possibilities a speaker raises in making an utterance. As I argue, this analysis has significant advantages over its most promising competitors, including views based on work by Barwise and Perry : 668–691, 1981), views appealing to recent work on the notion of content parthood by Fine :199–226, 2016) and Yablo, and Richard’s : 605–616, 1998) proposal appealing to structured propositions. (shrink)

The propositional view of communication states that every literal assertoric utterance of an indicative sentence expresses a proposition, and the audience understands those utterances only if she entertains the proposition(s) the speaker expressed. According to an important objection due to Ray Buchanan, the propositional view is ill‐equipped to handle meaning underdeterminacy. Using resources from situation semantics and MacFarlane's nonindexical contextualism, this article develops a view of literal communication close to the propositional view which overcomes Buchanan's underdeterminacy considerations while accounting for (...) the kind of indifference that typically characterizes speakers' intentions. (shrink)

This paper analyses the role of foreign and local companies in shaping Brazilian positions on global sustainability. It deals with an empirical investigation of CSR practices of firms from the electronics, food, and personal care sectors in response to pressures of 'market' and 'non-market' stakeholders. The results demonstrate that CSR decisions by foreign and local firms are triggered by organisational considerations and anticipated economic gains. The degree of implementation of CSR activities by foreign firms is more advanced than that of (...) local firms. The survey also confirms the hypothesis that market stakeholders exert pressure on companies and positively influence CSR. Non-market stakeholders seem to have a minor effect on corporate social responsibility decisions. We conclude that the institutional environment is a critical determinant of the extent to which the dialogue between stakeholders and companies leads to the attainment of sustainable development. (shrink)

This paper develops a puzzle about non-merely-verbal disputes. At first sight, it would seem that a dispute over the truth of an utterance is not merely verbal only if there is a proposition that the parties to the dispute take the utterance under dispute to express, which one of the parties accepts and the other rejects. Yet, as I argue, it is extremely rare for ordinary disputes over an utterance’s truth to satisfy this condition, in which case non-merely verbal disputes (...) are extremely rare. After examining various responses to the puzzle, I outline a solution using the framework of truthmaker semantics. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una reconstrucción de la teoría de los grupos dereferencia. La teoría, desarrollada por Robert K. Merton, ha sido largamente utilizada enlos más variados campos de las ciencias sociales, aunque con escasa o nula consideraciónmetateórica hasta ahora. La reconstrucción atenderá a la presentación que de la misma serecoge en sendos artículos de su libro Social Theory and Social Structure, de 1968, a saber:“Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior” y “Continuities in the theory (...) ofreference groups and social structure”. Para presentar esta reconstrucción me apoyaré en elinstrumental de la Metateoría Estructuralista. Después de una consideración informal de lateoría, serán presentados sus modelos potenciales, modelos, modelos potenciales parciales,sus aplicaciones intencionales y algunos comentarios acerca de la noción de “grupo de referencia”en lo que respeta su carácter relacional y disposicional. (shrink)

This paper raises a new form of speaker error objection to the analysis of disputes as metalinguistic negotiations in cases in which disputants reject that analysis. It focuses on an obvious but underexplored form of speaker error: speakers’ misattribution of contents both to others and to themselves. It argues that the analyses of disputes that posit this type of speaker error are uncharitable in three different ways: first, by portraying speakers as mistaken interpreters of their interlocutors; second, by portraying speakers (...) as uncharitable interpreters of their interlocutors; third, by portraying speakers who retract their claims as mistaken interpreters of their own prior utterances. Taken together, these unfavorable consequences weigh significantly against the plausibility of this type of analysis for the cases in question. (shrink)

The article Disagreement lost, written by Martín Abreu Zavaleta, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 16 September 2020 without open access. The copyright of the article changed on 18 September 2020 to © The Author 2020 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution.

Cluster randomized controlled trials (cluster RCTs) randomize whole clusters of individuals in testing two or more competing interventions. Here we will present the ethical problems raised by cluster RCTs concerning their effect on inequality. We argue that some inequalities generated by cluster RCTs are larger in scope than those generated from individual RCTs. We also argue that any cluster RCT-generated inequalities, which divide groups rather than individuals, are more problematic in type than the inequalities created in individual RCTs. These concerns (...) should be taken into consideration when designing research at the cluster level, and those conducting the research should consider modified research design strategies in cases where they believe the risk of generating inequalities is large. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo pensar as figurações feministas e o devir-mulher a partir da arte para refletir sobre subjetividades inventivas. Em seu conteúdo, aborda-se o contexto do lugar da mulher na arte, desde o apagamento das mulheres até a reapropriação desse espaço pelos movimentos feministas. Para refletir sobre a arte, são apresentados os conceitos de devir e de figuração, bem como artistas que dialogam com esses conceitos. Sob o aporte teórico feminista, o trabalho aponta a arte como um meio (...) de resistência na produção de novas narrativas pelas figurações, além de um estado de devir como resistência, desconstrução e reconstrução, e um modo de viver mais libertário por parte das mulheres.Palavras-chave: Estética feminista. Arte. Devir-mulher. Subjetivação. AbstractThis article aims to think over the feminist figurations and the becoming-woman through art, in order to reflect on inventive subjectivities. In its content, women's place in art's context is addressed, from their erasure until their reappropriation by feminist movements. The concepts of becoming and figurations are presented to think over art, as well as artists that dialogue with those concepts. Under the feminist theoretical contribution, the present work features art as a way of resistance in the production of new narratives through figurations, while also recognizing the state of becoming as a means of resistance, a deconstruction and reconstruction process, and ultimately a more liberating way of life by women.Keywords: Feminist Aesthetics. Art. Becoming-woman. Subjectification. (shrink)

Este relato apresenta brevemente a experiência de uma atividade realizada com alunos de ensino médio, no Subprojeto de Filosofia do PIBID UFFS Campus Chapecó, na qual foram abordados os conceitos de Eros e Philia em Platão e Aristóteles. A atividade foi pensada juntamente com o coordenador e o supervisor do subprojeto e aplicada aos alunos do 2º ano do Ensino Médio noturno da Escola Coronel Lara Ribas, onde são desenvolvidas as atividades do Subprojeto de Filosofia da UFFS, sendo realizada durante (...) o segundo semestre de 2012. A atividade envolveu todas as etapas fundamentais de uma atividade de docência, a saber: escolha do tema, planejamento, pesquisa dos conteúdos, definição da metodologia, aplicação na sala de aula e avaliação. A temática utilizada nas aulas, envolvendo os conceitos de Eros e Philia, foi fundamentada nas obras de Platão e Aristóteles, que foram lidos e debatidos pelos alunos em sala de aula. O objetivo central da atividade foi possibilitar compreensão desses dois conceitos, Eros e Philia, no pensamento de Platão e Aristóteles, por parte dos alunos do ensino médio. Metodologicamente, foram desenvolvidas várias atividades, como a leitura dos textos clássicos, apresentação de material audiovisual, análise de letras de música e debates. Esta prática contribuiu para a formação docente do bolsista, exigindo uma compreensão maior dos textos clássicos, domínio dos conteúdos, planejamento e reflexão sobre metodologias para o desenvolvimento dos temas. Esta experiência contribuiu ainda para que o acadêmico percebesse a sala de aula como um espaço de atuação/formação inicial e permanente, no qual é necessário sempre refletir sobre a qualidade do ensino, bem como a promoção da articulação entre a teoria e a prática dos saberes acadêmicos que promovem uma formação integral do aluno de licenciatura. (shrink)

Estudos sobre a abordagem da história da filosofia por Deleuze ainda serão bem vindos: pesquisas sobre a sua maneira de remontar dos conceitos aos problemas que lhes dão sentido, de indissociar-se dos pensadores que estuda de modo a produzir um campo de intensidades, uma região de indiscernibilidades, lá onde ele próprio, Deleuze, pode criar com eles, retomando, prologando e renovando o pensamento. O objetivo desse texto define-se como a incursão por essa zona de indiscernibilidades e tem em vista um problema (...) e um conceito: o problema da seleção ética como melhor problema do que o julgamento como uma solução moral, e o conceito de "eterno retorno", tal como circunscrito pela interpretação que Deleuze faz da filosofia de Nietzsche. (shrink)

If Amelia utters ‘Brad ate a salad in 2005’ assertorically, and she is speaking literally and sincerely, then I can infer that Amelia believes that Brad ate a salad in 2005. This paper discusses what makes this kind of inference truth-preserving. According to the baseline picture, my inference is truth-preserving because, if Amelia is a competent speaker, she believes that the sentence she uttered means that Brad ate a salad in 2005; thus, if Amelia believes that that sentence is true, (...) then she must believe that Brad ate a salad in 2005. I argue that this view is not correct; on pain of irrationality, normal speakers can’t have specific beliefs about the meaning of the sentences they utter. I propose a new account, relying on the view that epistemically responsible speakers utter sentences assertorically only if they believe all the propositions which they think those sentences might mean. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to examine whether informational manipulation, used intentionally by the researcher to increase recruitment in the research study, can be morally acceptable. We argue that this question is better answered by following a non-normative account, according to which the ethical justifiability of informational manipulation should not be relevant to its definition. The most appropriate criterion by which informational manipulation should be considered as morally acceptable or not is the researcher’s special moral duties towards their subjects. (...) We also propose that a broader definition of manipulation of information should be adopted (than that already existing in the literature) since informational manipulation can affect not only a person’s beliefs but also their desires in decision-making. We conclude that manipulation of information can either be used to protect the potential subject and facilitate the informed consent process or be used to exploit and merely use a person for scientific goals. (shrink)