RESUMO Este artigo apresenta uma investigação sobre narrativas de gênero produzidas por um grupo de acadêmicas cabo-verdianas, focando nas suas perspectivas acerca dos discursos recentes sobre feminismo. Ao nível analítico lexical, a análise das narrativas teve como suporte o Sistema de Avaliatividade. Ao nível analítico interpretativo, as representações das narradoras foram analisadas e acordo com a abordagem de Fairclough em conjuntos de conceitos de Estudos feministas. Os resultados apontam que o termo gênero foi usado como sinônimo de equilíbrio entre os (...) sexos. Esta perspectiva permitiu que as narradoras se posicionassem no sentido de que as relações desiguais de gênero afetam ambos os gêneros, mesmo tendo conhecimento que historicamente as condições de vida mulheres foram construídas em de desvantagem em relação aos homens. O pouco uso dos termos feminista/feminismo foi atrelado a significados atributivos e avaliativos que os representavam como ‘muito fortes’. Neste sentido, estes termos parecem se referir a uma agenda excludente que diz respeito apenas às necessidades das mulheres. Em conclusão, as avaliações das participantes sobre as categorias gênero e feminismo expressam a complexidade de suas experiências locais, que algumas vezes são representadas como contraditórias. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo apresenta uma investigação sobre narrativas de gênero produzidas por um grupo de acadêmicas cabo-verdianas, focando nas suas perspectivas acerca dos discursos recentes sobre feminismo. Ao nível analítico lexical, a análise das narrativas teve como suporte o Sistema de Avaliatividade. Ao nível analítico interpretativo, as representações das narradoras foram analisadas e acordo com a abordagem de Fairclough em conjuntos de conceitos de Estudos feministas. Os resultados apontam que o termo gênero foi usado como sinônimo de equilíbrio entre os (...) sexos. Esta perspectiva permitiu que as narradoras se posicionassem no sentido de que as relações desiguais de gênero afetam ambos os gêneros, mesmo tendo conhecimento que historicamente as condições de vida mulheres foram construídas em de desvantagem em relação aos homens. O pouco uso dos termos feminista/feminismo foi atrelado a significados atributivos e avaliativos que os representavam como ‘muito fortes’. Neste sentido, estes termos parecem se referir a uma agenda excludente que diz respeito apenas às necessidades das mulheres. Em conclusão, as avaliações das participantes sobre as categorias gênero e feminismo expressam a complexidade de suas experiências locais, que algumas vezes são representadas como contraditórias. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Literature, as the art of words, presents its text in different forms and languages. Whether through its humanizing potential or, still, through its narrative quality, it reaches readers and offers them a plurality of tools to create texts, using established works as arguments. After all, literature holds within its scope narratives that are true treasures arranged as a testament for all of humanity. Thus, in this article, our goal is to analyze the literary work A verdadeira história de Chapeuzinho (...) Vermelho [The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood] (2020)1 by Agnese Baruzzi and Sandro Natalini, presented as a book-object with a keen materiality. We will seek to understand the characteristics of the work that promote literary aesthetic enjoyment, moving the work away from a didactic and moralizing perspective. To do so, we will comprehend the specificities of the verbal text, the imagery, and the materiality characteristics that pervade the work, understand the techniques, tools, and proposed interactions, as well as recognize the book’s multimodal capacity. (shrink)

El artículo propone un diálogo Sur-Sur acerca de los desafíos que plantea el campo político en la actualidad. Además de las coordinadoras Joice Barbosa y Moira Pérez, participan Silvina Tapia Tapia de Ecuador, Abdourahmane Seck de Senegal y Verónica Figueroa Huencho de Wellmapu, quienes se desempeñan tanto en el ámbito académico como en el campo social mediante el activismo político y/o comunitario, desde el cual producen conocimientos colectivos de carácter situado. A lo largo de la conversación se analizan temas (...) tales como la expresión de formas contemporáneas de neoconservadurismo y autoritarismo, las disputas de los movimientos sociales con la institucionalidad, sus tensiones con un Estado que tiende a la cooptación pero también mantiene profundas lealtades capitalistas y coloniales, y las posibilidades y experiencias de formas alternativas de organización colectiva y comunitaria. Además, se explora cuál es y cuál puede ser en este escenario el rol de la academia y de quienes trabajan en ella, en la tensión entre los compromisos institucionales y la política radical. (shrink)

O presente artigo apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa que enfocou a avaliação de desempenho (AD) como um instrumento de poder utilizado na gestão de pessoas. Realizou-se um estudo de caso que utilizou entrevistas individuais com 14 participantes, sendo 4 diretores e gerentes e 10 trabalhadores da área administrativa e operacional. Para análise dos dados, utilizou-se a análise gráfica do discurso de Lane (1985). A análise dos dados indicou que os participantes (diretoria) percebiam as políticas de gestão de pessoas permeadas pela (...) ideologia dominante como uma forma de garantir a competitividade da empresa no mercado. Já os trabalhadores a percebiam como a possibilidade para o desenvolvimento profissional e a promoção. Os dados sugerem que os resultados da AD eram utilizados na gestão de pessoas apenas quando sustentavam/confirmavam as práticas e decisões da diretoria relacionadas às políticas de pessoal. Assim, a AD pode ser considerada um instrumento de poder na gestão de pessoas, porém tendo seu uso limitado a fatores externos à técnica quando subsidia as ações dos diretores. (shrink)

Meiner nichtreduktionistischen Lesart Gadamers, derzufolge eine wechselseitige konstitutive Relation zwischen "Sprache" und "Erfahrung" besteht, ist es gestattet, den Vorwurf, die Sprachphilosophie Gadamers führe in den Relativismus, den man häufig gegenüber sprachphilosophischen Positionen erhebt, abzuweisen. Manchen Denkern zufolge haben die Philosophen der Postmoderne, zu denen auch Gadamer gezählt wurde, eine einfache Umkehrung der beiden Pole des modernen Verhältnisses "Sprache"--"Erfahrung" vollzogen: Während die Sprache in der Moderne in ihrer Bedingtheit zur Erfahrung und als bloßes Ausdrucksmittel verstanden wurde, wurde dieses Verhältnis in der (...) neueren Philosophie nur umgekehrt, insofern die Philosophie in der Sprache das Fundament für die Erfahrung sehe, wonach die Erfahrung als ein Ausdruck der Sprache erscheine. Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt sich mit diesem Relativismusvorwurf auseinander und beabsichtigt, eine wechselseitige Abhängigkeit zwischen Sprache und Erfahrung ausgehend von Hans-Georg Gadamers Werk zu entwickeln. Um das zu erreichen, wurden zunächst eine doppelte negative-positive Erfahrungsstruktur und dann einige phänomenologische und transzendentale Merkmale der Erfahrung auf dem historischen Hintergrund für Gadamers Erfahrungsbegriff herausgearbeitet. Somit machte sich die konstitutive Sprachlichkeit der Erfahrung erkennbar. In einer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Sprachbegriff auf der anderen Seite wurde sein dialogischer und welterschließender Charakter veranschaulicht, so dass auch seine Angewiesenheit auf die Welterfahrung offenkundig wurde. (shrink)

Estilos parentais e práticas educativas têm sido considerados preditores para o desenvolvimento infantil. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo realizar um estudo piloto ao investigar e comparar os estilos parentais e as práticas educativas de pais de crianças com TDAH do tipo combinado e desatento. Part..

Este artículo analiza el lugar del exilio de la última dictadura militar en el campo de estudios sobre el pasado reciente argentino e intenta tanto dar cuenta de las líneas más transitadas y que permiten plantear que estamos frente a un territorio historiográfico en expansión, como descubrir cuáles son las actuales áreas de vacancia y las de mayor potencial para la investigación académica futura. Lejos de pretender hacer un examen exhaustivo de la producción que viene acumulándose desde la contemporaneidad del (...) fenómeno hasta hoy, estas páginas constituyen más bien un intento de revisar críticamente una parcela de la Historia Reciente desde el examen de la propia práctica investigativa y de cara a sacar a la luz los dilemas y desafíos que la atraviesan. (shrink)

Diese Untersuchung behandelt die Auseinandersetzung aus systematisch-theologischer Perspektive mit einem «unsystematischen» Denker, Emil Cioran. Sie versucht im Sinne einer dialogischen Kulturtheologie einen Dialog zwischen der christlichen Theologie orthodoxer Prägung und Cioran zu führen. Dieser Versuch soll von Toleranz als Anerkennung der Legitimität des Anderen und dem Respekt des Fremden als Fremden geprägt sein. Methodologisch untersucht die Arbeit drei Hauptcharakteristika von Ciorans Denken: den Dualismus, die Skepsis und die Mystik. Sie versucht diese mit Hilfe von zwei Strukturierungsprinzipien - dem hermeneutische Dreieck (...) Gott-Mensch-Welt und den sieben Leitebenen zu systematisieren. (shrink)

The paper offers a critical discursive and pragmatic analysis of a corpus of hateful Facebook and Twitters status updates of politicians, political activists and voters in the 2016 pre-and-post election period, in Macedonia. Aiming to determine how power is exerted on social media, the paper focuses on identifying the stance social media users take when posting messages with political content. The analysis first attempted to unveil what speech acts the hateful posts are predominantly composed of, what roles the authors of (...) the posts normally assume, who the hateful political discourse in the given socio-political context is directed to, as well as what are some of the predominant linguistic strategies underlying the analysed hateful comments. The results show that, by using mostly assertive and expressive speech acts, social media users assume mainly the roles of analysts and judges and only subsequently the one of activists, they mostly address politicians directly and they use a lot of negative lexis, rhetorical figures and boosters as interpersonal metadiscourse markers to express their negative stance and exert power and dominance. (shrink)

Stephen Macedo; Multiculturalism for the Religious Right? Defending Liberal Civic Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 2, 30 May 2006.

This article analyses the evolutionist discourses on the senses that emerged in the late 19th century, when theories on the evolution of species were in full sway. Drawing on newspapers, essays and medical literature, this article aims to set face to face the two currents of thought that I have identified regarding sensory evolution: the one that stressed the value of the progressive specialisation of the senses as evidence for human evolution mainly supported by Max Nordau, and the one which (...) regarded the sensory regrouping, exemplified by the phenomenon of synaesthesia, as the true symptom of evolution, strongly supported by Victor Segalen. A close examination of their arguments will provide clues concerning their relative position vis-à-vis the theory that stressed the exceptional nature of humankind among all living beings. Based on newspapers, essays and medical literature, this paper, which straddles several fields (history of science, philosophy, cultural history and aesthetics) aims to set both positions face to face, examining their arguments in detail and establishing their genealogies. This will lead to a better understanding of the scope and range of evolutionist discourses in the fin de siècle culture and on their impact upon artistic practices. (shrink)

Electoral debates are a win-lose game in which the stakes for the political contenders are extremely high. The antagonistic nature of these encounters very frequently results in impoliteness or face aggravating moves with which the debaters aim to hurt the opponent’s positive or negative face.The aim of this research is to investigate the impoliteness strategies employed by politicians during electoral debates. Garcia-Pastor’s (2008) positive-face and negative-face impoliteness strategies are taken as a starting point in the analysis at hand. The final (...) electoral debate of the 2019 presidential elections in the Republic of North Macedonia is used as a data source for this research, which is based on several different hypotheses and is both qualitatively and quantitative oriented. The findings of the research are in line with the insights gained from previous studies, which, more or less, suggests that Macedonian politicians follow the mainstream “rules” when it comes to using impoliteness in political debates. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la novela Dos veces junio (2002) de Martín Kohan desde la teoría de los afectos. El narrador de Dos veces junio se caracteriza por la ausencia, la suspensión, la vacilación o la supresión de afectos. Asumiendo que las respuestas afectivas corresponden necesariamente al momento histórico y a la esfera de la cual emergen, el artículo explora esta desafección como un componente esencial del funcionamiento del régimen autoritario que la novela retrata. Así, se sostiene que el afecto es (...) no solo esencial para iluminar una época histórica sino la manera en que el pasado pervive en el presente ya que las inscripciones afectivas son las depositarias del sentido más oculto –y más original– de la memoria. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta uma análise das concepções do papel da escola e do conhecimento presentes nos textos oficiais de sete redes municipais de ensino brasileiras que adotam os Ciclos de Aprendizagem. A análise evidenciou que os textos das redes pesquisadas apresentavam concepções explícitas sobre o papel da escola e do conhecimento. Os autores argumentam que a) a análise de textos oficiais de políticas ocupa um lugar importante, uma vez que neles estão contidas as declarações de valores, as intenções, os objetivos, (...) bem como os princípios e fundamentos das políticas; b) a explicitação da concepção sobre o papel da escola e do conhecimento é um aspecto essencial, pois poderá balizar as definições relacionadas ao currículo, avaliação, metodologia, formação continuada de professores, etc; c) a explicitação de tais aspectos emerge como altamente necessária para a escola atual , uma vez que as avaliações em larga escala e diversas pesquisas evidenciam que uma parcela significativa de alunos das escolas públicas do Ensino Fundamental apresenta domínio insatisfatório dos conhecimentos básicos; e d) a explicitação do papel da escola e do conhecimento é fundamental pois o contexto educacional atual caracteriza-se pela dispersão do conhecimento escolar, diante de materiais didáticos e orientações metodológicas de projetos diversos, os quais nem sempre estão fundamentados em concepções convergentes sobre o papel da escola e do conhecimento. (shrink)

When and why do we need the indexical ‘I’? Perry (1979) thinks that ‘I’ is an essential ingredient to the explanation and prediction of action. We need ‘I’ to classify the kind of belief that causes an agent to produce a new action. In his view, classifying the agent’s belief in terms of ‘I’ makes sense because, when asked to explain her behavior, the agent will be disposed to say ‘I’. Here, we argue that this dispositional assumption is problematic. The (...) disposition to act according to an essential indexical and the disposition to make a speech act that contains ‘I’ are two very different things that are not always related. The most common circumstances in which we need to say ‘I’ to explain ourselves involve other agents: when we coordinate in joint actions or when we engage in self-talk to save face before the eyes of potential witnesses. Finally, we revisit Perry’s famous messy shopper anecdote to offer a better story about why its main character is disposed to say ‘I’. (shrink)

Silvana Greco propone, per la prima volta, un’analisi approfondita della Philosophie sociale, pubblicata a Parigi alla fine del giugno 1793 da Moses Dobruska (1753- 1794), uomo d’affari, letterato e filosofo sociale. Nato in Moravia da una famiglia ebraica, affiliata alla setta ereticale dei sabbatiani, Dobruska si convertì in giovane età al cattolicesimo, compì una notevole ascesa sociale alla corte asburgica di Vienna ed emigrò poi in Francia, per aderire alla Rivoluzione. Durante il soggiorno parigino prese il nome di Junius (...) Frey, fu assai attivo tra le fila dei giacobini ma riuscì a sopravvivere solo di poco alla propria Philosophie. Accusato di cospirare per conto di potenze straniere, fu ghigliottinato il 5 aprile 1794, al culmine del Terrore, nello stesso giorno in cui anche Georges Jacques Danton saliva sulla forca. Quando apparve, la Philosophie sociale suscitò un notevole interesse, tanto da venir apprezzata nientemeno che da Immanuel Kant. Greco mostra come il lavoro di Dobruska abbia avuto anche altri lettori celebri, che per vari motivi omisero di menzionare, tra le loro fonti, un outsider di dubbia reputazione, su cui pesava una condanna tanto ingiusta quanto infamante. Dalla Philosophie sociale derivano alcuni concetti chiave delle discipline sociali, come le conosciamo oggi. Iniziatore entusiasta e sfortunato, talvolta brillante teorico, Moses Dobruska merita un ruolo a sé nella storia del pensiero sociologico. (shrink)

Moses Dobruska, born as a Jew in Brno, Moravia in 1753, died on the guillotine in Paris in 1794. His life was adventurous, but the biography is not enough to understand the creative force of this atypical intellectual. Silvana Greco, sociologist of.

La nota es una presentación, que no pretende ser exhaustiva, de los principales momentos de la tradición doxográfica sobre los términos "filósofo"y "filosofía" mostrando sus variaciones de significado. Se discute la atribución a Pitágoras de la creación de esos términos a partir de la importancia decisiva de Platón y Aristóteles en el establecimiento y configuración de la doxografía.

Resumen En esta investigación se presentan los resultados del estudio de las funciones pragmático-discursivas desempeñadas por oraciones escindidas del tipo “lo que pasa es que” en narraciones conversacionales de experiencia personal generadas por hablantes chilenos. Se analizan 54 narraciones conversacionales con dos propósitos: clasificar las oraciones escindidas según la parte de la estructura narrativa que introducen y ofrecer una taxonomía de funciones pragmático-discursivas que desempeñan dichas construcciones. Entre las principales conclusiones se destaca que las oraciones escindidas desempeñan tres macro-funciones: focalizadora (...) –aparentemente la más relevante para la cadena narrativa–, introductora de atenuaciones justificantes y orientadora, cada una con diferentes posibilidades de realización. (shrink)

O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar um diálogo entre as abordagens da interseccionalidade e da hermenêutica reconstrutiva no contexto das pesquisas em educação. A universalização discursiva e a abertura ao “outro”, inerentes à hermenêutica reconstrutiva, aproximam-se do propósito de desmarginalizar o “outro”, próprio da interseccionalidade, partindo das margens para o centro. A hermenêutica reconstrutiva, articulada à interseccionalidade, pressupõe considerar que as relações são constituídas mutuamente a partir de acertos comunicativos. Trata-se de abordagens que reconfiguram o olhar individualista, característico dos métodos (...) científicos tradicionais, oferecendo à pesquisa em educação possibilidades investigativas mais dialogadas, argumentadas e horizontalizadas. A compreensão é de que a abertura crítica diante do “outro”, de ambas as abordagens, pode viabilizar a construção e reconstrução continuada dos saberes da área diante das demandas da pluralidade e de seu mundo da vida. Palavras-chave: Interseccionalidade; Hermenêutica reconstrutiva; Pesquisa em educação. Intellectual solidarity: Approaching intersectionality and reconstructive hermeneutics in education research Abstract: The article aims to present a dialogue between the approaches of intersectionality and reconstructive hermeneutics in the context of research in education. The discursive universalization and openness to the “other”, inherent to reconstructive hermeneutics, approach the purpose of demarginalizing the “other”, characteristic of intersectionality, starting from the margins towards the center. Reconstructive hermeneutics, articulated with intersectionality, presupposes considering that relationships are mutually constituted from communicative successes. These are approaches that reconfigure the individualistic view, characteristic of traditional scientific methods, offering research in education possibilities that are more dialogued, argued and horizontalized. The understanding is that the critical opening towards the “other”, of both approaches, can enable the continued construction and reconstruction of knowledge in the area in light of the demands of plurality and its world of life. Keywords: Intersectionality; Reconstructive hermeneutics; Education research. Solidaridad intelectual: Aproximación a la interseccionalidad y a la hermenéutica reconstructiva en la investigación en educación Resumen: El artículo pretende presentar un diálogo entre los enfoques de la interseccionalidad y la hermenéutica reconstructiva en el contexto de la investigación en educación. La universalización discursiva y la apertura al "otro", inherentes a la hermenéutica reconstructiva, se acercan al propósito de desmarginalizar al "otro", propio de la interseccionalidad, partiendo de los márgenes hacia el centro. La hermenéutica reconstructiva, articulada con la interseccionalidad, presupone la consideración de que las relaciones se constituyen mutuamente a partir de acuerdos comunicativos. Se trata de enfoques que reconfiguran la mirada individualista, característica de los métodos científicos tradicionales, ofreciendo posibilidades de investigación en educación más dialogantes, argumentativas y horizontales. Se entiende que la apertura crítica ante el "otro", desde ambos enfoques, puede permitir la construcción y reconstrucción continua del conocimiento en el área frente a las exigencias de la pluralidad y su mundo de vida. Palabras clave: Interseccionalidad; Hermenéutica reconstructiva; Investigación en Educación. Data de registro: 07/01/2022 Data de aceite: 15/03/2022. (shrink)

This paper suggests an approach to the various possibilities of reading as a practice responsible for generating thought. It might be said that it is an approach to the dismissal of reading as the origin of other paths of thought. Utopia, understood as anticipation, yields its place to the figure of redemption (in Benjamin’s sense of the word) as imminence of the absolutely other, expectation and extreme attention. The text invites the reader to try other routes in the practice of (...) reading (other than solitary silent reading), in which the body and the senses play a part, and - especially - the other, to allow the advent of a thinking that welcomes justice. In an act of memory, reading - as heteronomy - opens onto the future. (shrink)

Over the last few years, there has been an exaggeratedly widespread and frequently confused use of the concepts of 'stakeholder' and 'corporate social responsibility'. However, some interesting insights of both these notions can be found in traditional European business administration studies. In this article, the Italian view will be examined. In particular, this paper investigates the teachings of some of the historical masters of the Italian "Economia Aziendale" (EA), with particular attention to the concept of the azienda, its finalism and (...) its essential characteristics, in order to verify some consistencies with the more recent Stakeholder Management Theory (SMT). Principles and considerations seem to emerge from EA scholars' seminal works that unequivocally connect ethics with business decisions. EA fits in with SMT in many ways, and the former (EA) seems, moreover, to suggest a specific normative point of view from which the role of ethics in business activities can be approached. (shrink)

The paper builds on the stakeholder salience framework and applies a social identity approach to explain family firm dynamics and how these could impact on family firm governance and ethics. In particular, we consider the family as the main stakeholder for family firms and we refer to the recent approaches to stakeholder theory based on ‘names-and-faces’ and on social identity to focus on family members at the individual and organizational level. Family businesses offer an opportunity to study stakeholder salience in (...) settings with multiple logics. Our paper acknowledges how the attributes of legitimacy, power and status, for family business members, can derive from three different institutional settings (family, business and local community) and how these attributes are assigned and gained by family members on the basis of the stakes they put (or could put) on the business. From the analysis of these dynamics specific ethical considerations emerge. (shrink)

In Brazil, every study involving human beings is required to produce an informed consent form that must be signed by study participants: this is stated in Resolution 196/96. 1 Consent must be obtained through a specific structured process. Objective: To present the opinions of women regarding how the process of obtaining informed consent should be conducted when women are invited to participate in studies on contraceptive methods. Subjects and Methods: Eight focus groups were conducted, involving a total of 51 women (...) living in the metropolitan region of Campinas. The women involved in the study were either participating in a clinical trial in the area of women's health or had participated in such a trial in the previous 12 months. A thematic guide was used to conduct the focus group discussions; the discussions were recorded, transcribed and a thematic analysis performed. Results: In general, the person who invites a woman to participate in a study should be a member of the research team but not the principal investigator. Information relating to the study should be given orally and in writing, both individually and in the group setting. Study volunteers should be informed about, among other things, the risks, possible side effects and discomforts, including long-term effects. The use of audiovisual aids to provide information was suggested. Conclusion: The process for obtaining informed consent was seen as a means of establishing a relationship between the volunteers and the investigator/research team. The information that the study participants expected to be given coincides with the requirements established under Resolution 196/96. The use of audiovisual aids would improve understanding of the information provided. (shrink)

The article describes the historical-critical method within the field of philosophy and the issues to which it is related, such as the role of the history of philosophy in the development of theoretical philosophy and thedistinction between historiography and history. First, it highlights the relevance of the historical-critical method for philosophy, which is based on the knowledge philosophers should have about the genesis of thinking. Then it analyzes the original sense of the method, understood as a search for historical, cultural, (...) external, and internal factors that influence philosophical works. It, also, addresses history of philosophy as a rational reconstruction of previous doctrines. Finally, it considers the distinction between Historie and Geschichte, which comes from biblical studies, to evaluate the limitations to applying the historical-critical method. To sum up, the article goes from mere documentarism, as a primary form of preserving and recovering information about the progression of philosophical doctrines, through historiography, as a systematic undertaking for chronological ordering with the assistance of specific instruments, to history, as rational and critical reconstruction of thinking, and what in theology -but also in philosophy- is known as Geschichte, that is, the profound happening that provides the fabric of thinking with real meaning. (shrink)

Drawing upon the disciplines of bioethics, anthropology and politics, Linda F Hogle examines the use of human body parts for transplantation and research in modern Germany. She focuses on German attitudes to organ transplantation and the fears expressed by doctors and the public regarding utilitarian justification of the use of body parts taken from the vulnerable to benefit others. In modern Germany, argues Hogle, organ transplantation and practices relating to the use of human body parts have developed under the shadow (...) of the history of medicine during National Socialism. This can be seen in the recent controversy over brain death, where the spectre of “lives not worth living” has been invoked in the context of decisions to declare death and authorise removal of body parts. Ethical tensions were …. (shrink)

The Western construction of subjectivity, as Michel Foucault indicated in his hermeneutics of the subject, has been marked since what he called the “Cartesian moment” by its relation to truth. It is important, therefore, to uncover possible relations between subjectivity and experience that express alternative constructions of the two terms. Walter Benjamin´s work offers two principal figures that encourage us to allow us to rethink the subject. One is the flâneur, or frequenter of the streets of 19th century Paris, and (...) the other is the child. Both of them are counterpoints to the modern subject. This paper presents images of childhood that are found in some of Benjamin’s texts—in particular “Experience and narration,” “About language in general and human language in particular,” “The mimetic faculty,” “Childhood in Berlin around 1900,” “One way street,” “Writings,” “Childhood literature,” “Children and youth.” On the one hand, these images make it possible to think childhood as a human condition both philosophically and anthropologically. On the other hand, childhood as a concept allows us to outline a form of subjectivity that is constituted by experience, thus displacing it from the modern conceptualization that understands subjectivity only in its relations to truth. This paper takes a philosophical stroll among a framework of concepts like childhood, experience, language and play. It identifies experience as the given capacity to perceive or the capacity to produce similarities and to recognize difference. It takes as examples language as an “immaterial similarity” and children’s games, then moves to the experience of “playing at being one other” that the mimetic faculty makes possible, and which allows us both to find the border crossing with the other, and to experience transformation as subjects. Finally, we wonder if classroom pedagogy is capable of responding to a subjectivity that is constituted, not just from a relation with knowledge, but with experience as well. (shrink)

Over the last few years, there has been an exaggeratedly widespread and frequently confused use of the concepts of 'stakeholder' and 'corporate social responsibility'. However, some interesting insights of both these notions can be found in traditional European business administration studies. In this article, the Italian view will be examined. In particular, this paper investigates the teachings of some of the historical masters of the Italian "Economia Aziendale", with particular attention to the concept of the azienda, its finalism and its (...) essential characteristics, in order to verify some consistencies with the more recent Stakeholder Management Theory. Principles and considerations seem to emerge from EA scholars' seminal works that unequivocally connect ethics with business decisions. EA fits in with SMT in many ways, and the former seems, moreover, to suggest a specific normative point of view from which the role of ethics in business activities can be approached. (shrink)

Ideas about heredity and evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. New findings in molecular biology challenge the gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution in Four Dimensions, Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb argue that there is more to heredity than genes. They trace four "dimensions" in evolution -- four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic. These systems, they argue, can (...) all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Evolution in Four Dimensions offers a richer, more complex view of evolution than the gene-based, one-dimensional view held by many today. The new synthesis advanced by Jablonka and Lamb makes clear that induced and acquired changes also play a role in evolution.After discussing each of the four inheritance systems in detail, Jablonka and Lamb "put Humpty Dumpty together again" by showing how all of these systems interact. They consider how each may have originated and guided evolutionary history and they discuss the social and philosophical implications of the four-dimensional view of evolution. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors engage the contrarieties of the fictional "I.M.," or Ifcha Mistabra -- Aramaic for "the opposite conjecture" -- refining their arguments against I.M.'s vigorous counterarguments. The lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points. (shrink)

In the past few years, investors from different European countries have become increasingly interested in the new opportunities that socially responsible investing (SRI) can offer. Empirical research into this subject has often assumed as 'given' the meaning attributed to the terms 'ethical' or 'socially responsible', thus concentrating more on other elements (particularly financial performance). This paper, through the analysis of the characteristics of ethical funds traded in Italy, investigates the possible contents that the terms 'ethical' and/or 'socially responsible' can assume (...) in practice, with particular attention to the underlying values and to how these values are integrated into the selection process. This analysis brings to light the impressive variety of ethical funds traded in Italy. In particular, it reveals the 'Italian model', whose distinguishing characteristics seem to be the following: recentness of issue, options for charitable donations, almost exclusive use of screening strategies, use of 'best in class' and 'minimum tolerance quota' indications, preference for ethical indices, application of commissions no higher than the national average, presence of ethical committees and the utilization of consulting or rating agencies. (shrink)