L’article interroge la radicalité de la pensée décoloniale, en la mettant en perspective avec les figures du Blanc, de l’Africain paradigmatique, du Noir idéologique, du continent noir qui ressortissent d’une configuration idéologique organisée selon le principe de la violence de l’imaginaire onirique de la valeur, le sujet automate du capitalisme et de l’Argent, son représentant, c’est-à-dire son fétiche. Aussi, à la question de savoir si la radicalité de la pensée décoloniale est en mesure de décolonialiser le rêve de la (...) valeur en Afrodystopie, la réponse suggérée à partir des exemples de terrain est négative, et s’explique par le fait que le système de la valeur, système du Blanc, système de l’Africain paradigmatique est profondément ancré dans la vie psychique des sociétés dites noires, africaines ou afrodescendantes, créations du rêve d’Autrui, rêve de la valeur. (shrink)

Theories of discourse bring to realism new ideas about how knowledge develops and how representations of reality are influenced. We gain an understanding of the conceptual aspect of social life and the processes by which meaning is produced. This collection reflects the growing interest realist critics have shown towards forms of discourse theory and deconstruction. The diverse range of contributions address such issues as the work of Derrida and deconstruction, discourse theory, Eurocentrism and poststructuralism. What unites all of the contributions (...) is a sense that it is essential to provide a realist alternative to the hitherto dominance of social constructionism, hermeneutics and postmodernism, over many of the issues discussed. By developing a realist perspective the different authors attempt to embed discourse within the structured nature of the reality of the world. Realism can situate language, discourse and ideology within context specific, or 'causally efficacious' circumstances. Realism can help to uncover issues of power, representation, and subjectivity and how discursive and other social practices produce real effects. This can help us understand the manner in which social structures are reproduced through various forms of ideology and discourse. And by knowing this, we can start to address questions concerning human emancipation and how the world is to be transformed. (shrink)

Topics covered in Discrete Mathematics have become essential tools in many areas of studies in recent years. This is primarily due to the revolution in technology, communications, and cyber security. The book treats major themes in a typical introductory modern Discrete Mathematics course: Propositional and predicate logic, proof techniques, set theory (including Boolean algebra, functions and relations), introduction to number theory, combinatorics and graph theory. An accessible, precise, and comprehensive approach is adopted in the treatment of each topic. The ability (...) of abstract thinking and the art of writing valid arguments are emphasized through detailed proof of (almost) every result. Developing the ability to think abstractly and roguishly is key in any areas of science, information technology and engineering. Every result presented in the book is followed by examples and applications to consolidate its comprehension. The hope is that the reader ends up developing both the abstract reasoning as well as acquiring practical skills. All efforts are made to write the book at a level accessible to first-year students and to present each topic in a way that facilitates self-directed learning. Each chapter starts with basic concepts of the subject at hand and progresses gradually to cover more ground on the subject. Chapters are divided into sections and subsections to facilitate readings. Each section ends with its own carefully chosen set of practice exercises to reenforce comprehension and to challenge and stimulate readers. As an introduction to Discrete Mathematics, the book is written with the smallest set of prerequisites possible. Familiarity with basic mathematical concepts (usually acquired in high school) is sufficient for most chapters. However, some mathematical maturity comes in handy to grasp some harder concepts presented in the book. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:This paper re-examines the import of Rawls’s theory of justice for private sector institutions in the face of the decline of the welfare state. The argument is based on a Rawlsian conception of justice as the establishment of a basic structure of society that guarantees a fair distribution of primary goods. We propose that the decline of the welfare state witnessed in Western countries over the past forty years prompts a reassessment of the boundaries of the basic structure in order (...) to include additional corporate institutions. A discussion centered on the primary good of self-respect, but extensible to power and prerogatives as well as income and wealth, examines how the legislator should intervene in private sector institutions to counterbalance any unfairness that results from the decline of the welfare state. (shrink)

In the current study, we examine the changes in disclosure practices on compliance and the fight against corruption at Siemens AG, a large German multinational corporation, over the period 2000–2011 during which a major corruption scandal was revealed. More specifically, we conduct a content analysis of the company’s annual reports and sustainability reports during that period to investigate the changes of Siemens’ corruption and compliance disclosure using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Through the lens of legitimacy theory, stakeholder analysis, and (...) organizational façades, we find evidence that Siemens changed its compliance and corruption disclosure practices to repair its legitimacy in the wake of the 2006 corruption scandal. We analyze these strategies more closely by using the rational, progressive, and reputation façades framework. Our primary findings suggest that the annual reports show peaks of disclosure amounts on corruption and compliance disclosures earlier than sustainability reports, which can be partly explained by analyzing the disclosures made about—and to—the different stakeholder groups. We find that the annual report focuses more on internal stakeholders such as employees, while the sustainability report focuses more on external stakeholders such as suppliers. We also find that the company uses the façades differently depending on which report is being analyzed. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:Singer has recently argued that questions related to corporate governance are beyond the reach of Rawls’s political conception of justice. This is because justice applies to the basic structure of society, understood as society’s legally coercive structures, and because corporate governance cannot be considered part of this structure in political liberalism. This commentary challenges the second part of the argument. First, it suggests that the criterion used to exclude corporate governance from the basic structure—whether employees can exit economic organizations—is not (...) conclusive for corporate governance, notably as institutionalized in corporate law. Second, even if the focus were on corporate governance, it would still be possible to argue that it legally coerces citizens, if not employees, in a relevant way. Thus, the argument is not successful in demonstrating that political liberalism goes beyond its legitimate boundaries when considering that aspects of corporate governance may be matters of justice. (shrink)

Committees multiply in firms, whether stakeholder boards or committees, multi-stakeholder initiatives, ethics committees, or oversight boards. These arrangements aim to organise and legitimise the social and political activities of corporations. This article raises the question of the appropriate form of such governance structures. The examples above illustrate three possible ways of legitimising corporate quasi-public social and political activities: deliberation within the company, deliberation outside, and an approach we label _corporate constitutionalism_. While the first two models have been tested in practice (...) and assessed in theory, the third one is comparatively more recent, both in practice and in theory. This article focuses on the latter model and asks whether corporate constitutionalism offers a suitable addition, or alternative, to deliberation (with or within firms) for legitimising corporate quasi-public social and political activities. It examines the respective merits of the three models and argues that a corporate constitutional court may mitigate some of the limits of deliberative practices alone. It argues the court is needed in weak regulatory environments, whether they are failing or inherently limited. (shrink)

Le mot « héroïne » en grec apparaît assez tardivement dans la littérature comme dans les inscriptions (début du ve s. av. J.-C). Il s’agit de réévaluer l’apport des épopées homériques à la question de la définition d’un héros au féminin. Jusqu’ici, la problématique historique s’était orientée autour de la question de l’attestation chez Homère de cultes héroïques, phénomène particulièrement florissants au viiie s. av. J.-C., souvent associé à la diffusion des poèmes épiques. Une autre approche consistait à chercher dans (...) l’Iliade et l’Odyssée des traces de cultes rendus à des héros morts ou des preuves de l’existence chez Homère de la catégorie religieuse des demi-dieux. Le problème est ici renversé : partant des caractéristiques du héros homérique, l’objectif est de vérifier l’existence d’un héroïsme au féminin et de souligner les liens entre héroïnes et héros dans les épopées. (shrink)

Le mot « héroïne » en grec apparaît assez tardivement dans la littérature comme dans les inscriptions. Il s’agit de réévaluer l’apport des épopées homériques à la question de la définition d’un héros au féminin. Jusqu’ici, la problématique historique s’était orientée autour de la question de l’attestation chez Homère de cultes héroïques, phénomène particulièrement florissants au viiie s. av. J.-C., souvent associé à la diffusion des poèmes épiques. Une autre approche consistait à chercher dans l’Iliade et l’Odyssée des traces de (...) cultes rendus à des héros morts ou des preuves de l’existence chez Homère de la catégorie religieuse des demi-dieux. Le problème est ici renversé : partant des caractéristiques du héros homérique, l’objectif est de vérifier l’existence d’un héroïsme au féminin et de souligner les liens entre héroïnes et héros dans les épopées. (shrink)

Cet article clarifie le statut de l’entreprise par rapport à la structure de base rawlsienne. Ce statut est ambigu, du fait d’incertitudes liées à la conception rawlsienne de l’entreprise ainsi qu’à sa définition de la structure de base. L’article identifie deux représentations principales de l’entreprise chez Rawls : l’une inclusiviste, qui définit l’entreprise comme une entité ontologiquement distincte de la structure de base ; l’autre constitutiviste, qui l’appréhende comme une institution susceptible d’appartenir à la structure de base. L’article recense ensuite (...) différentes interprétations de la structure de base avant d’en proposer une plus large, y intégrant notamment certaines structures informelles. Articulée à la conception institutionnaliste de l’entreprise, cette définition large de la structure de base débouche sur une représentation constitutiviste étendue de l’entreprise, permettant ainsi au libéralisme égalitaire de considérer cette dernière d’un œil plus critique. (shrink)

This paper assesses employees’ moral agency within corporate capitalism from a politically liberal standpoint. While political liberalism has spelt out its key institutional implications at state level, it has neglected moral agency at work, assuming that a rights-based state that secures freedom of contract, free choice of occupation and a free labour market within a fair context would protect it sufficiently. Yet two features of corporate capitalism constrain employees’ moral agency: the relation of authority that forms part of the work (...) contract and organisations’ fragmented decision-making processes. Both seem at odds with the liberal ideal of allowing people to live by their own conception of the good. Consequently, this paper examines whether political liberalism should recommend greater safeguards for protecting workers’ moral agency. It proposes a criterion for assessing corporate capitalism: the ‘moral space’ defined as the socially shaped opportunities for action that can be enacted or endorsed from a comprehensive perspective. It argues that liberals should favour arrangements that widen workers’ moral space and suggests institutional designs that may achieve this while remaining within liberal boundaries. (shrink)

This article asks whether firms should exempt employees when they object to elements of their work that go against their conscience. Fairness requires that we follow the rules of an organization we have joined voluntarily only if these rules express mutual advantage. In corporations, I argue that subordination and exemption provides for mutual advantage better than subordination plus right of exit. This is because agents want to protect their conscientious convictions, even in hierarchical organizations geared towards efficient preference satisfaction. Thus (...) exemptions should be granted in unforeseeable circumstances, provided the costs are limited. (shrink)

Em texto bem conhecido. interpreta Heidegger a "Ciência da Lógica" de Hegel como o expoente e a expressão mais acabada do modo de pensar onto-teo-lógico. caracteristico da metafisica. porquanto faz reenviar uma à outra as questões ontológica e teológica numa relação de determinação recíproca. Assim. nào só o que é primeiro - o ser na sua imediatez e universalidade — funda à sua maneira o que é último, a saber, a Ideia (Idee), que é o apelativo hegeliano para o Divino. (...) como o que é último funda à sua maneira o que é primeiro. fazendo-o existir. totalizando-o e unificando-o. Não é eerto. porém. que a leitura de Heidegger faça jus ao sentido mais profundo do pensamento hegeliano. Na verdade. embora iniludivel. parece-nos que a relação de determinagao recíproca entre ser e fundamento que ali se apresenta em termos de causa sui. aponta para um pensar já excedentário relativamente ao espaço antinómico da metafisica, antecipando-se á contemporaneidade pela valoração da imanêneia. a que o Absoluto acaba por se exaurir no seu processo de auto-constituição. Tal é, pelo menos. o que nos propomos mostrar atraves de uma apresentação sucinta dos grandes tópicos da Lógica de Hegel, presentes na versão abreviada da sua "Enciclopédia das Ciencias Filosóticas em Epitome". /// In a well known text, Heidegger interprets Hegel's "Science of Logic" as the greatest expression of the onto-teo-logical way of thinking, characteristics of metaphysics, because of his understanding of the ontological and theological questions in an interconnected way. In fact, not only what is first - being in his immediacy and universality - grounds in his own way what is last - the Idea (Idee), which the hegelian term that stands for the Divine - but also what is last explains in his own way what is first, giving it existence. totalizing and unifying it. It is not clear whther Heidegger's reading is correct in what the most profound meaning of the hegelian thought concerns. It seems to us. in fact, that the relation of mutual dependence between being and ground, there formulated in terms of Causa sui. points to a way of thinking that exceeds tha antonomical space of metaphysics, thus anticipating contemporary thought by the valoration of immanence, to which the Absolute confines in his process of realization. In any way. this is what we intend to show through a concise presentation of the main topics of Hegel' Logic, as they are exposed in his "Enciclopedy of Philosophical Sciences". (shrink)

Texte écrit sous la Ve dynastie chinoise, celle des Han (202 av. J.-C.-220 apr. J.-C.), qui présente sous un angle nouveau des connaissances déjà anciennes, montre que tout savoir se place sous le signe du tao et que l'interrogation sur le tao est préalable à tout autre. Les différents savoirs sont donc utilisés dans le cadre de cette démonstration, et non comme une fin en soi.

This article asks whether firms should contribute to the costs of procreation and parenthood. We explore two sets of arguments. First, we ask what the principle of fair play – central in parental justice debates – implies. We argue that if one defends a pro-sharing view, firms are required to shoulder part of the costs of procreation and parenthood. Second, we turn to the principle of fair equality of opportunity. We argue that compensating firms for costs they incur because their (...) employees decide to procreate or parent may undermine some of the incentives leading to (statistical) discrimination in the workplace. (shrink)

Rather than distinguish a phenomenological moment from an ontological moment in Merleau- Ponty’s work, this article aims to recapture its unity by questioning a metaphor that traverses it: that of the writing, the text or the trace. Ontography is the name of a problem and a paradox that Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy bears and assumes: what good is it to say the Being, if it is already written, if every word breaks the silent contact it demands of us? To write is to (...) prolong and reveal a captive meaning in things. (shrink)

This text addresses some difficulties encountered reading Deleuze and Guattari “in situation”, in order to suggest a “symptomal reading” of their historico-conceptual moment. It first reexamines the distinction between a “history of revolutions” and “revolutionary-becoming”, in order to explain the meaning of the latter in connection with the Deleuzian concept of event and in the context of the historical sequence which demanded this new concept. The concept of event involves a foreclosed reference to the problem of the revolutionary situation in (...) Marxism; it acknowledges the theoretical difficulties of elaborating a materialist notion of revolutionary situation, but also the political impasses which, in the post-war decades, had brought about a crisis in the representation of the revolutionary subject which Marxism believed it could guarantee. In the light of this double crisis, theoretical and political, the article concludes with an examination of the contemporary reflections of Althusser and Guattari concerning the connection between revolutionary circumstances and political subjectivation. (shrink)

Belief storage is often modeled as having the structure of a single, unified web. This model of belief storage is attractive and widely assumed because it appears to provide an explanation of the flexibility of cognition and the complicated dynamics of belief revision. However, when one scrutinizes human cognition, one finds strong evidence against a unified web of belief and for a fragmented model of belief storage. Using the best available evidence from cognitive science, we develop this fragmented model into (...) a nascent theory of the cognitive architecture of belief storage. (shrink)

Part One. Archi-violence: presupposition of the state -- Historical materialism and schizoanalysis of the form-state -- Capture: for a concept of primitive accumulation of state power -- Part Two. Exo-violence: hypothesis of the war machine -- Nomadology: hypothesis of the war machine -- The formula and the hypothesis: state appropriation and genealogy of war power -- Part Three. Endo-violence: the capitalist axiomatic -- The axiomatic of capital: states and accumulation on a global scale -- Becoming minorities: becoming revolutionary -- Conclusion. (...) Micropolitics did not take place. (shrink)

Les théories féministes de la reproduction ont été soumises à trois types d’objections : elles seraient soit fonctionnalistes, soit économicistes, ou biologisantes. Ces objections reposent sur un contresens concernant les notions marxistes de production et reproduction ainsi que sur une conception réifiée de la nature des sociétés capitalistes. De plus, ces objections ne sont pas capables de proposer une alternative convaincante et débouchent sur des impasses comme celles qui sont propres aux théories des systèmes double ou triple. Au contraire, le (...) concept de reproduction sociale permet de sortir de ces impasses en même temps qu’il rend possible une conception non-réductionniste du mode de production capitaliste dans laquelle le capital n’est pas conçu comme le sujet d’un processus strictement « économique ». (shrink)

Este artículo retoma la cuestión del espacio en Gilles Deleuze. Examinamos al respecto tres motivos: un concepto original de cartografía, una teoría de las geografías afectivas, y un análisis de los vectores «territorializantes» y «desterritorializantes» que determinan las transformaciones de las identidades colectivas. A través de estos tres momentos, la espacialidad deviene en los trabajos de Gilles Deleuze la piedra angular de una renovación de la vocación crítica de la filosofía. Dejando de ser un objeto de reflexión entre otros, la (...) espacialidad se vuelve un esquema de pensamiento, una manera de plantear problemas y de construir conceptos, donde ya no se trata de construir una filosofía de la geografía, sino una «geofilosofía». (shrink)

The present study emphasizes Chapter Six of Huai-nan Tzu in expounding the theory of kan-ying STIMULUS-RESPONSE; RESONANCE, which postulates that all things in the universe are interrelated and influence each other according to pre-set patterns.

From 1919 to 1929, the great Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács was one of the leaders of the Hungarian Communist Party, immersed not simply in theorising but also in significant practical-political work. Along with labour leader Jenö Landler, he led a faction opposing an ultra-left sectarian orientation represented by Béla Kun. If seen in connection with this factional struggle, key works of Lukács in this period – History and Class Consciousness, Lenin: A Study in the Unity of His Thought, Tailism (...) and the Dialectic and ‘The Blum Theses’ – can be seen as forming a consistent, coherent, sophisticated variant of Leninism. Influential readings of these works interpret them as being ultra-leftist or proto-Stalinist. Such readings distort the reality. Lukács’s orientation and outlook of 1923–9 are, rather, more consistent with the orientation advanced by Lenin and Trotsky in the Third and Fourth Congresses of the Communist International. After his decisive political defeat, Lukács concluded that it was necessary to renounce his distinctive political orientation, and completely abandon the terrain of practical revolutionary politics, if he hoped to remain inside the Communist movement. This he did, adapting to Stalinism and shifting his efforts to literary criticism and philosophy. But the theorisations connected to his revolutionary politics of the 1920s continue to have relevance for revolutionary activists of the twenty-first century. (shrink)

One of the greatest revolutions in mathematics occurred when Georg Cantor (1845-1918) promulgated his theory of transfinite sets.

Our hypothesis is that ecological transformation involves socio-environmental communities formed through joint action on a material environment, which can be set as a conjonction of practices between senses and meanings — giving birth to landscapes, life environments and matter of all kinds — analyzed in the context of solidarities — as well as conflicts of territoriality, in which human collectives associate with living matter and the environment to fight against other uses of space or to implement new ways of seeing (...) nature. The environment as a collective work then becomes a self-sustaining call to action, which enhances the skills and legitimacy of the actors (citizens, formal and informal collectives) and their role in socio-ecological transition. We thus witness emerging environmental citizenships of a new kind that deviate from political militancy and testify to civic engagement in ordinary practices, a collective environmentalism that contributes to public action and democracy. What we call ordinary environmentalism includes environmental alliances and socio-environmental communities (with cats and cockroaches, mushrooms and noise interpretation, narrating, creating music, etc.) that have hitherto been considered negligible and we emphasize their value in democratizing the co-production of everyday and ordinary environments. One way to do this is to admit – as many scholars in the field of biosemiotics have done – that nature is made up of « signs, interpretations and meanings » (Wheeler 2014: 375) and to increase our knowledge of an aesthetic experience related to nature. We will deploy these issues on a theoretical level through the conceptual expression of environmental forms and the concept of immunity. Based on an interdisciplinary research, the related fieldwork includes a hundred non-directive interviews and observations conducted in several French cities (Paris, Rennes, Lyon), in specific neighborhoods such as the public housing district of Blosne in Rennes and the Croix-Rousse district in Lyon, or with specific associations to reflect the role of public institutions in the socio-natural arrangements of groups of inhabitants in the cities of France. (shrink)

Nous voulons montrer que les théories générales de la dépiction et les théories de la photographie diffèrent dans la manière dont elles ont jusqu’à présent mobilisé (ou non) la notion de ressemblance. En insistant sur la différence entre peinture et photographie, et sur la photographie en tant qu’ensemble de produits (les images photographiques) plutôt que sur la photographie en tant que technologie de production d’images, la plupart des théories existantes de la photographie se sont empêchées de comprendre quel est le (...) rôle exact de la ressemblance dans la dépiction photographique. Nous soulignons ce fait et suggérons qu’une distinction entre détection et dépiction est essentielle pour permettre le renouvellement de la philosophie de la photographie. (shrink)

The work is divided into five chapters. The first, “Neglect of Everyday Aesthetics,” speaks of the fact that although the question of aesthetics has been enriched and enlarged by objects long ignored, with notable design, aesthetics is essentially a discourse on art. This is problematic in the sense that many implications of our aesthetic judgment escape all problematic reflexion if we stay centered on art. The aesthetic activity brings ethic choices (to prefer this or that type of environment) that are (...) not included in the artistic appreciation; the problematic of artistic creation does not take into consideration the ordinary creation, such as arranging a garden, a space, or a living space. The second chapter is .. (shrink)