This paper aims to contribute to the present debate about business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that the Journal of Business Ethics is hosting. Numerous contributions argued theoretical frameworks and taxonomies of CSR practices. The authors want to ground in this knowledge and provide further evidence about how companies adopt CSR practices to address stakeholders’ claims and consolidate their trust. Evidence was provided by a longitudinal case study about an Italian food company that is one of the largest producers (...) of baby food. This company reshaped its corporate strategy along three decades through the adoption of CSR practices in order to win stakeholders’ trust about food safety and supply chain behaviour. The empirical exercise was informed by a literature review of the relevant contributions in terms of CSR business practices and levels of efforts to adopt them. In light of this review, the authors adopted for the research framework the taxonomy of business practices proposed by Spiller (2000, “Ethical Business and Investment: A Model for Business and Society”, Journal of Business Ethics 27, 149-160) and the levels of commitment towards CSR proposed by Stahl and Grigsby (1997, Strategic Management; Total Quality & Global Competition (Blackwell, Oxford)). The main findings are discussed in order to argue theoretical implications and identify further areas of research and debate. (shrink)

The paper responds to the recent calls for further evidence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the extant literature, the authors identify four characteristics contended by academicians as peculiarities of SMEs’ approach to CSR: the intrinsic relationship between CSR and corporate strategy motivated by the need to continuously dialogue with stakeholders; the centrality of the entrepreneur's ethos in CSR decisions; the coexistence and the cross-effect of economically instrumental and ethically motivated CSR policies; and (...) the finalization of CSR initiatives to specific firm growth objectives. These four peculiarities are explored in the case of an Italian medium-sized company operating in the furniture industry. The outcomes show how the four peculiarities are salient in analyzing the CSR approach by the company and suggest areas for further research aimed at developing a thorough theory of CSR in SMEs. In particular, we deepen the analysis of the nature of the uniqueness of medium-sized companies’ approach to CSR, providing possible interpretations of the reasons making medium-sized companies’ approach to CSR different from both small and large companies. (shrink)

The paper responds to the recent calls for further evidence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the extant literature, the authors identify four characteristics contended by academicians as peculiarities of SMEs’ approach to CSR: the intrinsic relationship between CSR and corporate strategy motivated by the need to continuously dialogue with stakeholders; the centrality of the entrepreneur's ethos in CSR decisions; the coexistence and the cross‐effect of economically instrumental and ethically motivated CSR policies; and (...) the finalization of CSR initiatives to specific firm growth objectives. These four peculiarities are explored in the case of an Italian medium‐sized company operating in the furniture industry. The outcomes show how the four peculiarities are salient in analyzing the CSR approach by the company and suggest areas for further research aimed at developing a thorough theory of CSR in SMEs. In particular, we deepen the analysis of the nature of the uniqueness of medium‐sized companies’ approach to CSR, providing possible interpretations of the reasons making medium‐sized companies’ approach to CSR different from both small and large companies. (shrink)

The paper responds to the recent calls for further evidence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the extant literature, the authors identify four characteristics contended by academicians as peculiarities of SMEs’ approach to CSR: the intrinsic relationship between CSR and corporate strategy motivated by the need to continuously dialogue with stakeholders; the centrality of the entrepreneur's ethos in CSR decisions; the coexistence and the cross‐effect of economically instrumental and ethically motivated CSR policies; and (...) the finalization of CSR initiatives to specific firm growth objectives. These four peculiarities are explored in the case of an Italian medium‐sized company operating in the furniture industry. The outcomes show how the four peculiarities are salient in analyzing the CSR approach by the company and suggest areas for further research aimed at developing a thorough theory of CSR in SMEs. In particular, we deepen the analysis of the nature of the uniqueness of medium‐sized companies’ approach to CSR, providing possible interpretations of the reasons making medium‐sized companies’ approach to CSR different from both small and large companies. (shrink)

The interpretation of Hegel has been a focal point of philosophical controversy ever since the beginning of the twentieth century, both among Marxists and in the major European philosophical schools. Yet despite wide differences of emphasis most interpretations of Hegel share important similarities. They link his idea of Reason to the revolutionary and rationalist tradition which led to the French Revolution, and they interpret his dialectic as implying a latently atheist and even materialist world outlook. Lucio Colletti directly challenges (...) this picture of Hegel. He argues that Hegel was an essentially Christian philosopher, and that his dialectic was explicitly anti-materialist in both intention and effect. In contrast to earlier views, Colletti maintains that there is no contradiction between Hegel’s method and his system, once it is accepted that his thought is an exercise in Absolute Idealism stemming from a long Christian humanist tradition. He claims, on the contrary, that intellectual inconsistency is rather to be found in the works of Engels, Lenin, Lukás, Kojève and others, who have attempted to adapt Hegel to their own philosophical priorities. Colletti places his argument in the context of a broad re-examination of the whole relationship between Marxism and the Enlightenment, giving novel emphasis to the relationship between Marxism and Kant. He concludes by re-asserting the importance in Marxism of empirical science against the claim of “infinite reason,” while at the same time showing how Marx did transform key ideas in Hegelian thought to construct a consistently materialist dialectic. (shrink)

The essay deals with the subject of the curriculum as it was elaborated by the philosopher Jaques Maritain during the period of his stay in the United States and condensed above all in the 1943 text Education at the Crossroads. Maritain, above all a political philosopher, intends to present a line of personal and social education to the generations emerging from the Second World War. It was necessary to rethink education not only in the theoretical field but also in the (...) operational one, in particular in the main formative structure of the community: School and University. The design that comes out is very structured: aimed at proposing a new order of studies both with regard to the School and the University. (shrink)

La dimensione finzionale e testuale può essere considerata come un laboratorio di osservazione sulla rappresentazione del futuro. Impiegare modelli e prototipi costruiti su modelli di narrazione fantascientifica rappresenta, del resto, una prassi accreditata nel campo dei future studies.L’articolo passa brevemente in rassegna alcune definizioni relative alla fantascienza, per poi concentrarsi sull’ ambito della fantascienza audiovisiva dedicato al near future: una immaginaria dimensione futura simile a quella attuale e per questo densa di elementi di inquietudine. Come casi rappresentativi vengono prese in (...) esame due analisi testuali: il film Ex Machina e la serie tv Black Mirror. Le analisi vengono affiancate da alcune proposte teoriche classiche - dal costruzionismo di Nelson Goodman alla trattazione di Paul Ricoeur sulla temporalità – sullo sfondo di una metodologia semiotica. Viene affrontata in breve la questione dei limiti concettuali nella descrivibilità del tempo, mentre alla dimensione spaziale nell’audiovisivo viene infine dedicato un ampio approfondimento che ne illustra il ruolo essenziale nella costruzione di un universo narrativo, nonché l’utilità nel costruire effetti di senso specifici per una efficace rappresentazione del futuro. (shrink)

The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) represents a set of life-long disorders. In particular, subjects with ASD can display momentary behaviors of acute agitation and aggressiveness called crisis behaviors. These events are problematic for the subject and care providers but little is known about their occurrence, namely, possible relations among intensity, frequency, and duration. A group of ASD subjects (n=33) has been observed for 12 months reporting data on each crisis ( n = 1137 crises). Statistical analysis did not find significant (...) results, while the relation between crisis duration and frequency showed a good fit to a “power law” curve, suggesting the application of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC) model. The SOC is used to describe natural phenomena as earthquakes, bank failures of rivers, mass extinctions, and other systems where a type of “catastrophic events” is necessary to maintain a critical equilibrium. In a sense, subjects at risk of crisis behavior seem to fit the same model as seismic zones at risk of earthquakes. The employment of the same strategies, as those successfully developed for known SOC systems, could lead to important insights for ASD management. Moreover, the SOC model offers possible interpretations of crisis behavior dynamics suggesting that they are unpredictable and, in a sense, necessary. (shrink)

O artigo busca discutir a filosofia do Brasil, seus desafios e possíveis soluções, a partir de uma abordagem interdisciplinar e histórica. O texto apresenta a análise da filosofia universitária brasileira, sua origem e atuação no século XXI, ressaltando que grande parte da produção acadêmica é pouco autêntica por ser uma exegese estrangeira. Além disso, é discutida a condição dos povos originários e dos negros escravizados, expondo como foram desumanizados pela colonização e suas condições de vida precárias e sua relação com (...) a maneira que nos enxergamos. A partir disso, o artigo propõe a reflexão sobre a necessidade de pensar a filosofia brasileira a partir de sua situacionalidade e historicidade, superando o complexo de vira-lata e criando uma produção acadêmica autêntica e original, que reflita nossa identidade e individualidade, sem deixar de dialogar com outras tradições filosóficas. (shrink)

By comparing developments in two southern Italian factories, this article contrasts “aggregative” and “deliberative” procedures in trade unions. In one of the plants, the preferences of some of the workers appear to have been changed by deliberation. The process of rational persuasion seems to have required, however, more than sheer circulation of information. Based on this evidence, the article argues that when a potential conflict of interests is involved, speakers need to provide evidence that they are animated by a “communicative” (...) rather than “strategic” intent. This implies validating their implicit claim to sincerity of communication. (shrink)

Nos Ensaios de Montaigne, encontramos um dos mais célebres textos filosóficos sobre a morte voluntária, o capítulo 3 do livro II. Muitos comentadores qualificam o posicionamento de Montaigne como sendo o mesmo de Sêneca e de alguns autores antigos, qual seja, uma defesa da moralidade do ato de se matar. Outros estudiosos detectam no ensaio uma oscilação inconclusa do autor francês sobre o tema. Procuro, em contrapartida, apresentar argumentos que evidenciam que a opinião final de Montaigne é irrestritamente contrária ao (...) suicídio. Para tanto, é feito um mapeamento das várias ocorrências do problema do suicídio no livro que vão além do citado capítulo. Além disso, é ressaltada a distinção entre as camadas de escrita do texto em suas várias edições, contrapondo as inovações de Montaigne aos modelos argumentativos de suas influências clássicas. In Montaigne's Essays, we find one of the most famous philosophical texts on voluntary death, the third chapter of Book II. Many commentators assess Montaigne's position as similar to Seneca's and to some other ancient authors', that is, a defense of the morality of killing oneself. Other scholars detect an unsolved oscillation of the French author on the subject. However, I try to present arguments showing that Montaigne's final opinion is against suicide. Therefore, it is undertaken a mapping of the multiple occurrences of the issue in the book, which go beyond the said chapter. Moreover, the distinction between the writing layers of the Essais in its various editions is stressed, putting in contrast the novelty of Montaigne's argumentative models to his classical influences. (shrink)

Le MST a connu de grands succès dans les années 1980 – 450 000 familles dans assentamentos (propriétaires) ou acampamentos (occupants) – et a servi d’exemple à de nombreuses mobilisations et occupations de terres dans le monde. Pendant l’ère Bolsonaro, le mouvement a connu diverses adaptations. Il a adopté le récit de l’entrepreneur agricole, influencé en cela par les évangélistes – de la « théologie de la libération » communautaire à la théologie individualiste de la réussite. Il a, par obligation (...) et répression, délaissé l’action d’occupation des terres pour le développement de l’agriculture biologique et la production d’aliments « sains », largement à destination des villes. Ainsi, il resserre les liens entre le rural et l’urbain et se rapproche stratégiquement du Mouvement des Sans Toit. (shrink)

Come si può intuire dalle parole contenute nel titolo e nel sottotitolo del volume di Giovanni Durbiano, la pertinenza del lavoro con questioni di ordine filosofico è qui dichiarata. Il tema del libro muove da una ricognizione di carattere storiografico dell’architettura italiana, ma più in specifico tratta del ruolo e dello statuto sociale, politico ed epistemico che il sapere e il fare dell’architetto hanno rivestito nella storia recente. Si tratta di un lavoro che possiede un carattere qua...

Our fellows furnish us the constantly needed supplement to our own fragmentary meanings. That is, they help is find out what our own true meaning is.Very little has been written on Royce’s reception and mentions of Nietzsche that engage the issues of the early dissemination of Nietzsche’s texts in the United States, Royce’s study and knowledge of the range of Nietzsche’s texts, or the mentions of Nietzsche in Royce’s texts from 1906, and up to the posthumously published article “Nietzsche”. This (...) leaves one on a jetty between purely speculative approaches to Nietzsche’s presence in the philosophical works of whoever might strike the fancy of the moment, or... (shrink)

The seminal contribution of Sen (1976) led to a new way to conceptualize and measure absolute poverty, by arguing for the need to ‘take note of the inequality among the poor’ (Sen 1976: 227). Since then, the ‘Inequality’ of poverty has become the third ‘I’ of poverty, which together with the ‘Incidence’ and the ‘Intensity’ of it constitute the dimensions deemed relevant for poverty evaluation. In this paper, we first argue that the interest in the third ‘I’ of poverty actually (...) originates from aprioritarian(Parfit 1995) rather than an egalitarian attitude. Further, we illustrate the inability of the three ‘I's to fully comprise the criteria for the assessment of poverty which are de facto adopted by existing poverty indices. Some of them resolve distributional conflicts by following leximin, hence assigning a pivotal role to the worst off. We question the desirability of leximin, and conclude that giving absolute priority to the worst off is plausible only in cases where the latter has been identified by an exogenous threshold demarcating a significant difference in human suffering. Finally, we explore to what extent prioritarianism and the sufficiency argument of Frankfurt (1987), Crisp (2003) and Casal (2007) can help conceptualize giving absolute priority to individuals or groups indentified by exogenous (poverty and ultra-poverty) thresholds. (shrink)

An educational philosophy that appeals to the immutable element in things, to their eternal properties, to the truths that hold in any age, and simply urges that empirical methods are not the only methods, really is defending a negative position.

Se é difícil pensar em um significado para a expressão “filosofia brasileira”, pensar o que possa signficar uma “filosofia colonial brasileira” torna-se ainda mais desafiador. Para isso, necessário será justificar tanto o significado quanto o alcance da questão no período. Neste artigo o faremos em três passos: o primeiro situa a relação entre filosofia e colonialidade na constituição da América Portuguesa, considerando as escolas e o alcance do ensino na colônia, e traz um breve estado da arte da pesquisa; o (...) segundo elenca os corpora philosophica provenientes dos colégios do Maranhão, Pará, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais e Mato Grosso; o terceiro caracteriza as formas dos escritos, os níveis de ensino dos colégios e professores-autores e, por fim, as principais matrizes filosóficas reconhecíveis nos escritos coloniais. Enfim, não obstante a dificuldade geral da questão, propomo-nos a afrontar diretamente a hipótese: o que significa uma filosofia colonial brasileira? (shrink)

O artigo apresenta brevemente as principais teses referentes à relação mente e cérebro no contexto dos emergentismos forte e fraco. Especificam-se ainda as principais consequências da discussão de uma possível neuroteologia para a compreensão dos processos de hominização, liberdade, limites do conhecimento cerebral e conhecimento do cérebro, relação entre mente-cérebro-mundo e “necessidade” do mistério gerada pela dinâmica cerebral.

This paper presents arguments in defense of the hypothesis that general proprer names are impossible in the context of Stuart Mill's philosophy of language. My thesis is contrary to John Skorupski's position to this subject. I offer two arguments related, respectively, to two different perspectives: the pragmatic and the systematic. In the first one I analyze the problem of general proper names in the context of natural language. In the second one I discuss this problem in the inner context of (...) Mill's System of logic.O presente artigo apresenta argumentos em defesa da hipótese de que nomes próprios gerais são impossíveis no contexto da filosofia geral de Stuart Mill. Minha tese é contrária à posição de John Skorupski sobre esta questão. Ofereço dois argumentos que representam, respectivamente, duas diferentes perspectivas: pragmático e sistemático. No primeiro, analiso o problema dos nomes próprios gerais no contexto da linguagem natural. No segundo, discuto o problema no contexto interno do Sistema de Lógica de Mill. (shrink)

The power, depth, and humanity of the work and life of Josiah Royce gains in richness by following his reflections on the problems of philosophical pedagogy. While engaged as a professor of philosophy, author, advisor, and administrator, Royce developed and refined guidelines for the philosophy of education, and the art of philosophical pedagogy. Except for a few personal recollections from his students and colleagues, an article by Frank M. Oppenheim that appeared thirty-five years ago, and the annotated bibliography to his (...) writings, Royce's works on pedagogy have not been collected, nor have they received critical attention. The scope of this study is to follow Royce's pedagogical reflections from 1883 to 1913, providing contextual support and critical receptions so that the student of the philosophy of Royce may profit from his studies on the embodiment of ideals as the philosophical engagement of the art of education. (shrink)

In “The Aesthetic Dimension” (Eros and Civilization), Marcuse envisions an aesthetic pedagogy as a crucible of the potentialities of human existence. A review of Marcuse’s use of Schiller and Otto Rank highlights Marcuse’s middle-period reflections on aesthetics—signaling the call for an aesthetic ethos where “technique would... tend to become art, and art would tend to form reality” (An Essay on Liberation). A reexamination of various interpretations of Marcuse’s insights on aesthetic education precedes the proposal of a critical pedagogy of aesthetic (...) dimensions that would enhance “creative receptivity” and foster a “third way” in teaching Marcuse’s “The Aesthetic Dimension.”. (shrink)

RESUMO O texto propõe, inicialmente, uma aproximação entre as visões de Aristóteles e Montaigne sobre a virtude da coragem, com especial atenção ao problema da morte heroica. Então, são apresentados alguns pontos de diferenciação do filósofo francês em relação ao legado aristotélico para, enfim, mostrar que uma das restrições especificamente montaignianas sobre a legitimidade de um ato de coragem acarreta uma limitação à ação do próprio Estado, o que deve ser julgado um elemento essencial à formação do pensamento político moderno. (...) ABSTRACT At first, the article proposes an approximation between Aristotle's and Montaigne's views on the virtue of courage, with special attention to the problem of heroic death. Then, some distinguishing points of the French philosopher from the Aristotelian legacy are presented, in order to show, finally, that one of the specifically Montaignean restrictions on the legitimacy of an act of courage entails a limitation to the action of the State itself; which must be considered an essential element to the shaping of Modern political thought. (shrink)

Based on field research at both the national and local levels, this article reconstructs the emergence of negotiated policy making in Italy in the 1990s. It argues that standard corporatist theory is totally incapable of accounting for the particular organizational mechanisms through which, at critical moments, that is, the moments in which policy change had to be introduced, consensus was mobilized among both middle-level union structures and rank-and-file workers in Italy. In fact, absent centralized organizational capacities, the Italian unions relied (...) heavily on democratic decision-making procedures. These procedures strengthened the unions' capacity to hold to their side of the bargaining in national negotiations through essentially two types of mechanisms, aggregative and deliberative. (shrink)