The pandemic period has placed the organizations in a state of great tension. It has generated a situation of confusion, lack of rules, and production-related criticalities that have called into question the very existence of many productive realities. This article aims to highlight the dimensions of care and ethics put in place by HR managers in COVID-19. The objective that animated the authors have focused on the HRM level of medium and large companies in Italy to highlight the protective actions (...) toward people and the organization in the period COVID 19, highlighting what were the ethical values and actions of care put in place. In this article, we wanted to give voice to managers who had management tasks in their organizations by asking them to tell us how they dealt with the challenges imposed by the emergency. In the research, we start from a way of understanding workplaces understood as a “process of ongoing social relationship” within which the HR function is dedicated to the care of the quality of relationships. HR managers have to manage a complex role of mediating between the interests of people and employers by trying to find good mediations. (shrink)

This article analyses MNCs, worker identity and the ethical vulnerability caused by over-reliance on expatriate managers and under-reliance on local managers, who are often undervalued. It is argued that MNCs not only need but also have an obligation to assess local managers’ knowledge and contributions as having not only operational and market values, but also institutional value. Local managers both give access to and form part of local social capital and the treatment they receive is an element in the CSR (...) performance of the MNCs. Recognition of the value of equal treatment creates an ethical imperative that the barriers of cultural difference be overcome. We see such an approach towards local managers as more fully taking into account the human rights of these local managers. Such a holistic approach is increasingly relevant for MNCs in the 21st century, as MNCs increasing globalize into new large emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. (shrink)

En el marco del debate humanista del siglo XX, el pensamiento político de Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) se constituye como una de las voces críticas y testimoniales que buscaron reflexionar sobre lo acontecido en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. A partir de su propia experiencia como judía en la Alemania de las primeras décadas de su siglo y como intelectual exiliada, concentró sus esfuerzos en comprender el significado filosófico y político de lo ocurrido. Sin pretender afirmar o definir la naturaleza humana sin (...) más, de forma deshistorizada y significada desde una filosofía omnisciente de la historia, orientó su responsabilidad a soportar la carga del siglo, enfrentar los hechos y habilitar otros vínculos con el pasado, con la herencia, con las tradiciones, con lo aún no del futuro y los múltiples modos de proyectarlo en espacios políticos (nacionales e internacionales) cruzados por conflictos y contradicciones. En la lucha entre la omnipotencia y la impotencia humanas como experiencias vitales, la acción aparece como constitutiva de la condición humana y se inscribe en el tiempo como iniciativa, como posibilidad de un futuro diferente. El trabajo explora dimensiones éticas, políticas e históricas de un humanismo que pretende dialogar con su presente. In the debate of the twentieth century humanist, the political thought of Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was established as one of the critics and testimony that sought to reflect on what happened in the Second World War. From his own experience as a Jew in Germany in the early decades of the century and as an intellectual in exile, she concentrated his efforts on understanding the philosophical and political significance of what happened. Without attempting to confirm and to define the human nature without so dehistoricized and meaning from an omniscient philosophy of history, turned her responsibility to bear the burden of the century, face the facts and enable other links with the past, the inheritance, traditions, yet with the future and project it into multiple modes of political space (national and international) crossed by conflicts and contradictions. In the struggle between the omnipotence and the human powerlessness and life experiences, the action appears to constitute the human condition and fits the time and initiative, as the possibility of a different future. The paper explores ethical, political and historical humanism that seeks dialogue with its present. (shrink)

A partir de un texto de Arturo Andrés Roig, se propone un ejercicio reflexivo acerca de la dimensión antropológica del problema del ser y del tener. A través de la confrontación de dos relatos míticos pertenecientes a tradiciones diferentes, una de origen indoeuropeo y otra latinoamericana, se muestra la posibilidad de interpelar y replantear la pregunta por lo humano atendiendo a los principios de entidad y de tenencia que la atraviesan, de modo complejo, fáctica y axiológicamente. El artículo invita a (...) revisar los registros dualistas de los interrogantes antropológicos y abrir otras posibilidades desde los modos como los sujetos se objetivan y reconocen como tales a través de los diferentes discursos. Based on a text written by the philosopher Arturo Andrés Roig, we propose an exercise in order to analyze the anthropological dimension of the problem present in the essence of being and having. Taking into account the confrontation of two mythical tales belonging to different traditions, one from Indo-European origin, the other from Latin American origin, we suggest to reconsider and question the problem from a human point of view giving emphasis on the principles of being and having. The problem is studied in a factual and an axiological way. This article is an invitation to revise the dualist registers of anthropological questions and to open up to other possibilities as regards the ways in which subjects are objectified and recognized through different discourses. (shrink)

In this chapter, I examine the concept of vulnerability as a complex constitutive feature of human agency and argue that it is both a constraint on and a resource for practical reasoning. When discussed as an ontological feature of human agency, vulnerability is primarily understood as an aspect of embodiment, which is problematic in different respects. First, in relation to the situatedness of human agency, vulnerability indicates that human agents are subjected to contextual contingencies. Second, in relation to temporality, vulnerability (...) indicates that agents act in time and under the pressure of time. They are finite and produce finite and perishable actions, even though the longlasting effects of an action may survive the action itself. Third, in relation to corporal feature of agency, vulnerability is associated to suffering and frailty, insofar as bodily needs and desires represent both springs of and hindrances to rational action. Finally, in relation to the social nature of human animals, vulnerability indicates the susceptibility to be harmed, obstructed, undercut or manipulated by other agents These varieties of vulnerability are constituive features of human agency, which cannot be removed without removing what is peculiar and specific to human agency. Theories of practical reason are primarily concerned with constitutive vulnerability as a defect, and presume to offer normative guidance by adopting an idealized account of rational agency, which corrects or merely cancels the defective features of human agency. By contrast, theories of bounded rationality understand practical reasoning instrumentally, and thus are concerned with cognitive limitations of practical rationality, in particular with partial and perspectival information. However, the notion of “partial information” is inadequate to capture the complexities and significance of vulnerability, even in its restricted cognitive sense, which has to do with the agent’s situatedness. On the view I propose, instead, vulnerability is declined as a constitutive constraint on practical reasoning. Susceptibility to time constraints makes sense of the agents’ engagement in action and of their distinctive deliberative perspective. Susceptibility to bodily needs and desires tracks the normative relation between motivations and reasons for action, as well as the corporal roots of the agents’ efficacy in a perceived context. Susceptibility to others makes possible to broaden the scope and the modes of individual agency, by way of inter-action and shared agency. Rather than the source of problems and issues for rational agency, I take vulnerability to name the cluster of constitutive constraints that shape practical reasoning. According to the distinctive variety of Kantian constructivism I defend, practical reason is incomplete, rather than imperfect or defective. The completion of practical reason does not aim to correct or dissolve vulnerability, but deploys vulnerability as a resource to build up autonomy. This view accounts for autonomy as a normative relation among vulnerable agents, which develops in time. (shrink)

Dans cet article, après avoir souligné l’heureuse ambiguïté du terme d’utopie, dont nous avons de bonnes raisons de penser qu’elle a été remarquée par Thomas More, nous rendons d’abord compte de la large diffusion de l’utopisme au niveau historique et géographique. Nous examinons ensuite quelques-unes des critiques les plus importantes qui lui ont été adressées, soulevées notamment par Karl Popper et Hans Jonas. Examiner les différentes problématisations de l’utopisme permet de mettre en lumière ses différents aspects afin de différencier l’intentionnalité (...) utopique des configurations utopiques. Ce qui précède nous permet, en dernier lieu, d’esquisser quelques lignes directrices pour une “critique de la raison utopique”. (shrink)

Based on a non-cognitivist meta-ethical position and an anti-subjectivist concept of “reality”, Hägerström questioned the pretension of traditional legal theory, especially legal positivism, to be a science of law, because the entities to which it refers are not real. Olivecrona succeeded in pursuing such a thesis while he tempered it. Taking a socio-psychological approach, he offered a realistic theory of law which is able to emphasize psychical and linguistic phenomena lying at the root of our ideas of rights and duties, (...) which determine what functions they serve in society and how they affect our conduct. (shrink)

In early modern China, natural history and medicine were shifting along with the boundaries of the empire. Naturalists struggled to cope with a pharmacy's worth of new and unfamiliar substances, texts, and terms, as plants, animals, and the drugs made from them travelled into China across land and sea. One crucial aspect of this phenomenon was the early modern exchange between Islamic and Chinese medicine. The history of theriac illustrates the importance of the recipe for the naturalization of foreign objects (...) in early modern Chinese medicine. Theriac was a widely sought-after and hotly debated product in early modern European pharmacology, and arrived into the Chinese medical canon via Arabic and Persian texts. The dialogue between language and material objects was critical to the Silk Road drug trade, and transliteration was ultimately a crucial technology used to translate drugs and texts about them in the early modern world. (shrink)

El artículo propone un ejercicio de reflexión en torno de la cuestión de la diferencia en los contextos escolares. ¿Hay maneras de “escuchar” o “ver” la diferencia de otro modo, de interrumpir ese discurso de la diversidad que la encapsula como el núcleo duro de la pobreza y la desigualdad, dejando a la escuela y sus actores el papel de espectadores de una realidad inmodificable? A partir de una viñeta de Francesco Tonucci se exploran las categorías de respeto y solidaridad (...) para ensayar caminos que permitan pensar de otro modo las relaciones que se construyen en la práctica educativa. (shrink)

Riassunto: Nell’ultimo decennio il p -value è stato sottoposto a notevoli critiche soprattutto per l’uso che se ne fa per raggiungere una conclusione dicotomica circa la significatività del risultato sperimentale. Pertanto, da una parte il p -value è stato sostituito con approcci differenti, dall’altra è stato affiancato da alcune procedure diagnostiche, tra le quali figurano la fragilità e la credibilità, che hanno il compito di rafforzare o meno la conclusione. La fragilità e l’indice che la misura presentano aspetti di debolezza (...) metodologica. D’altro canto, l’indice di credibilità sembra idoneo per dare o meno supporto alla conclusione e per rafforzare o sostituire l’indice di fragilità, dato che misura la credibilità del risultato osservato quantificando l’informazione a priori necessaria per ribaltare il risultato stesso. Il particolare meccanismo delle due procedure, che si fonda su quanto dovrebbe accadere per cambiare la conclusione, suggerisce di inserire le medesime nella prospettiva controfattuale considerandole come nuovi strumenti per la sua misura quantitativa. In questo contributo si presenta questa prospettiva, con particolare riferimento al campo applicativo delle scienze psicologiche. Parole chiave: p- value; Indice di fragilità; Distribuzioni a priori; Indice di credibilità; Prospettiva controfattuale Fragility, credibility and counterfactuality: In the last decade, scientific reliance on p -values, especially when used to determine in a dichotomic manner whether a scientific result is significant or not, has been strongly criticized. As a consequence, p -values are sometimes replaced by other statistical tools, or supplemented by complementary procedures such as tests for fragility and credibility, which lend further support or challenge the conclusion. The fragility index presents some methodological weaknesses of its own. The credibility index proposed in the literature seems to provide a particularly useful supplement for p -values as well as for the fragility index, considering that it assesses the reliability of the result obtained by quantifying the a priori information needed to overturn the result. Both procedures rely on what would need to happen in order to modify the conclusion. This suggests that they can be considered as valuable new tools for quantitative measurement within a counterfactual framework. In our contribution we present this perspective, with reference to the psychological sciences. Keywords: p -value; Fragility Index; Priors/Posteriors; Credibility Index; Counterfactual Perspective. (shrink)

Proponemos analizar el alcance de las nociones roigeanas de "teoría y crítica" como categorías epistemológicas para un humanismo crítico latinoamericano desde una lectura alternativa de Teoría y crítica del pensamiento latinoamericano. Indagamos de qué forma estas categorías involucran la legitimidad del discurso filosófico, decisiones en torno del problema del sujeto y de la verdad y modos de entender la historia. Mostramos cómo Roig opera una ruptura, en el marco de lo que él denomina una ampliación metodológica en el campo del (...) quehacer filosófico, al imbricar conceptualizaciones epistemológicas con ejercicios reflexivos en los que el filosofar explora la experiencia vital, construye sus propias fuentes y se abre a una dimensión axiológica. En el marco de este desarrollo, Roig revisa el "legado", incorpora otras voces e interviene críticamente la estructura axiológica de los discursos y analiza sus formas de reconocimiento. Buscamos mostrar las herramientas teóricas y críticas que ofrece este libro en particular para discutir las condiciones y posibilidades del saber filosófico como saber práctico social, situado y liberador y los términos de los humanismos que supone o interpela. We propose to analyze the scope of Roig´s notions, "theory and criticism", as epistemological categories to reach a critical humanism of Latin America, based on the book Teoría y crítica del pensamiento latinoamericano, as an alternative reading. We evaluate how these categories involve the legitimacy of philosophical discourse, and the decisions taken on the subject´s problem, the truth and the possible ways to understand history. We also show how Roig, in the framework of what he identifies as methodological amplification within the field of philosophy´s task, fixes a rupture when interweaving epistemological concepts with reflective exercises in which the art of philosophy explores the vital experience, builds and rebuilds its own sources and opens up to an axiological dimension. In this framework, Roig revises the "legacy", adds other voices, handles critically the axiological structure of discourses and analyzes its ways of recognition. We aim to present the theoretical and critical tools of this book, especially to discuss the conditions and possibilities of the philosophical knowledge taken as practical, social, established and as liberator; and to discuss the terms of humanisms that the philosophical knowledge presents or interpellates. (shrink)

This paper explores how some Italian HR managers narrate the changes imposed by the COVID-19 threat in the workplace. Events since December 2019 have presented exceptional circumstances to which HR managers have reacted in very different ways. This study explored how HR managers came to introduce organizational changes aimed at coping with the emergency, as well as how employees were involved in those organizational changes. The article is based on a thematic analysis of some interviews with Italian HR managers whose (...) companies decided to switch working from home on a massive scale. We wanted to offer some reflections on the actions taken by a few HR managers and Italian companies to keep working at a time when most workers were forced to respect the lockdown. (shrink)

Philip Pettit is the most important contemporany advocate of the republican tradition in political philosophy. He advances a concept of freedom as non-domination, and constrasts it with the liberal conception of freedom as non-interference. He claims that two features distinguish domination from interference: The capacity of interference , and the fact that the interference is arbitrary. I shall argue that Pettit´s republicanism is not sufficiently differente from liberalism, certainly not from John Rawls´s liberalism. The only relevant difference between republicanism and (...) liberalism is related to : the notion of arbitrariness. Yet this difference makes republicanism an unattractive version of liberalism, insofar as it, paradoxically, allows for republicanism to legitimize a grave form of domination, paternalism, and, in general, domination coming from the state. This problem gets exacerbated by Pettit´s consequentialist framework. (shrink)

Against the standard reading of Isaiah Berlin's thought that drives a wedge between his early and subsequent work, this article suggests that his late normative anti-reductionism has roots in the early writings on meaning, semantics and truth. Berlin's anti-reductionist objection to logical positivists in the realm of semantics evince a sensitivity to reductionism, a recognition of the irreducibility of propositional meaning, a plea for the embededness of language in a temporal continuum, an anti-dualist call, and a celebration of the plural (...) and open-ended character of propositions, all of which keep broad affinity with his mature value pluralism in ethics and politics. The unity of concerns in Berlin's work brings about two implications. First, it sheds light on the fact that Berlin's ethical and political pluralism rests on views about semantics and ontology as well. Second, it offers a basis on which to deflect some current moral realist readings of his value pluralism, offering instead a history-laden understanding of his pluralism that provides more compelling grounds to understand the relationship between the latter and liberalism in Berlin's work. (shrink)

Constructivism in ethics is the view that insofar as there are normative truths, for example, truths about what we ought to do, they are in some sense determined by an idealized process of rational deliberation, choice, or agreement. As a “first-order moral account”--an account of which moral principles are correct-- constructivism is the view that the moral principles we ought to accept or follow are the ones that agents would agree to or endorse were they to engage in a hypothetical (...) or idealized process of rational deliberation. As a “metaethical account” – an account of whether there are any normative truths and, if so, what they are like – constructivism holds that there are normative truths. These truths are not fixed by facts that are independent of the practical standpoint, however characterized; rather, they are constituted by what agents would agree to under some specified conditions of choice. In working to provide a more precise definition of constructivism in metaethics, the focus of this entry, one faces two main difficulties. The first difficulty is that constructivism comes in several varieties, each of which claims a different niche within metaethics, and some claim no space at all. The second difficulty concerns where to place constructivism on the metaethical map in relation to realism and anti-realism. These are terms of art, and it is highly contested which views count as realist and which as antirealist. These two difficulties will be addressed in what follows by focusing on the distinctive questions that constructivist theories are designed to answer. Section §1 defines the scope of constructivism in ethics, in contrast to constructivism in political theory. Sections §§2-5 illustrate the main varieties of metaethical constructivism, which are designed to account for the nature of normative truths and practical reasons. Section §6 presents the main varieties of constructivist accounts of the justification of moral judgments of right and wrong. Section §7 discusses the metaethical status of constructivism, and its distinctive import. (shrink)

Besonders in politisch unruhigen Zeiten stellt sich in wiederkehrenden Abständen die Frage nach der Verantwortung für unterschiedliche Geschehnisse. Der französisch-jüdische Phänomenologe Emmanuel Lévinas eröffnet einen alternativen Horizont, welcher Verantwortung von einer neuen Seite beleuchtet. Sein Ausgangspunkt ist der Andere: Ein anderer Mensch, der durch seine Ansprache die subjektive Weltordnung aus den Angeln hebt, der fordert und zur Verantwortung ruft. Ein Ruf, dem auf ethischer Grundlage entsprochen werden muss. Es bleibt ein vergeblicher, der auf dem Mittelmeer verhallt. Die Ethik von Emmanuel (...) Lévinas ist heute so aktuell wie selten zuvor. Erweitert um die Theorien Jacques Derridas und Judith Butlers stellt Carla Schrievers Studie eine spannende Suche nach Anwendungsmöglichkeiten einer Ethik dar, die nicht Subjektivität, sondern Alterität ins Zentrum der Diskussion stellt. (shrink)

G. A. Cohen and J. Raz object that Constructivism is incoherent because it crucially deploys unconstructed elements in the structure of justification. This paper offers a response on behalf of constructivism, by reassessing the role of such unconstructed elements. First, it argues that a shared conception of rational agency works as a starting point for the justification, but it does not play a foundational role. Second, it accounts for the unconstructed norms that constrains the activity of construction as constitutive norms. (...) Finally, on this basis, it draws a contrast between constructivist and foundational methods of ethics, such as deontology and teleology. (shrink)

Capitolo I Il rispetto e l'ideale morale 1.1. Angeli, bruti e agenti 1.2. Il rispetto dell'altro 1.3. Il rispetto di sé 1.4. Auto−riflessione e auto−legislazione 1.5. Autonomia e individualità 1.6. Il rispetto e l'attenzione 1.7. Il rispetto e l'amore.

La genèse de l’œuvre de Levinas montre en acte comment cette pensée a pris sa forme, commençant par une sorte de renversement de la philosophie. Un renversement qui se dit au moins en deux sens, en tant que renversement thématique (donc une relecture renversante des thèmes philosophiques principaux) et un renversement proprement philosophique, visant cet envers que la philosophie n’a pas encore su atteindre, son « soi » mouvant incessamment la pensée. En ce renversement il y va du nouveau questionnement (...) des thèmes classiques de la philosophie, donc du moi et de l’être, de l’activité et de la passivité, de l’horizon et de la phénoménalité possible, renversés afin d’atteindre leur impensé. (shrink)

Feminist philosophers of biology bring the tools of feminist theory, and in particular the tools of feminist philosophy of science, to investigations of the life sciences. While the critical examination of the categories of sex and gender (which will be explained below) takes a central place, the methods, ontological assumptions, and foundational concepts of biology more generally have also enjoyed considerable feminist scrutiny. Through such investigations, feminist philosophers of biology reveal the extent to which the theory and practice of particular (...) scientific disciplines and research programs (and, indeed, their philosophical study) are intertwined with both value judgments and social hierarchies. (shrink)

On Kant's view, the feeling of respect is the mark of moral agency, and is peculiar to us, animals endowed with reason. Unlike any other feeling, respect originates in the contemplation of the moral law, that is, the idea of lawful activity. This idea works as a constraint on our deliberation by discounting the pretenses of our natural desires and demoting our selfish maxims. We experience its workings in the guise of respect. Respect shows that from the agent's subjective perspective, (...) morality is the experience of being bound and necessitated, but also of being free and emancipated from inclinations. (shrink)

According to a traditional account, moral cognition is an achievement gained over time by sharing a practice under the guidance and the example of the wise, in analogy with craft and apprenticeship. This model captures an important feature of practical reason, that is, its incompleteness, and highlights our dependence on others in obtaining moral knowledge, coherently with the socially extended mind agenda and recent findings in empirical psychology. Insofar as it accords to exemplars decisive authority to determine the standard of (...) correctness for moral cognition, however, the model does not offer protection against arbitrariness and discrimination. The article argues that to understand the socially distributed nature of practical knowledge, we have to discard the notion of exemplars and reconceive of others as peers, i.e. having equal normative standing. This claim allows us to revisit the conception of autonomy as key to distributed practical knowledge. While autonomy does not amount to self-sufficiency and self-reliance, it does demand independence of judgment and stands in contrast to servility, submission, and other sorts of defective ways of relying on others. The requirement of equal standing provides the basis or distinguishing between proper and improper reliance on others. (shrink)

Dissertação de Mestrado OLIVEIRA, Carla Bianca Costa de. Dioniso e o crucificado : estudo sobre o divino a partir das perspectivas trágica e ascética segundo Nietzsche. 2012. 142 folhas. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Belo Horizonte. Palavras-chave : Filosofia trágica. Ascetismo. Dionisíaco. Deus. Nietzsche. Religião e contemporaneidade. Keywords : Philosophy tragic. Asceticism. Dionysiac. God. Nietzsche. Religion and contemporaneity.

Considero, para entender a parresía de Orestes, a noção de leitura diagnóstica, numa perspectiva foucaultiana do discurso, neste caso, uma leitura da política no presente. Então, toda vez que se lê, se está de certa forma também pensando no presente e estabelecendo relações com esse tempo atual, acerca de várias questões que afetam a nossa constituição, enquanto sujeitos no mundo. As perguntas feitas acerca de que parresía fala Foucault, pressupõem que há outras possiblidades de pensá-la, para mostrar como essa parresía (...) insurge hoje no campo da grande polis brasileira. Então, defendo que cabe a nós não pensarmos que estamos fazendo uma leitura apenas desse mito Orestes e de uma discussão de um conceito que é feito por Foucault, mas que estamos trazendo essa discussão para o presente com o objetivo de ampliar a discussão e reflexão de nossa atualidade. Faz-se pertinente perguntar que relação existe entre parresía e democracia? Que sentidos produzo toda vez que eu digo a verdade? Pressuponho que o mesmo se possa perguntar com relação à democracia e vice versa, é exatamente assim que acontece ou existem nuances? Se toda parresía é garantia de um Estado democrático, de que parresía trata, então, a tragédia de Orestes? É possível falar de uma má parresía? Este conjunto de questões são exatamente o que fundamenta as discussões que Foucault vai trazer a partir de Orestes. Temos, a partir desta leitura de Orestes, o Michael Foucault em seu anúncio de uma genealogia da política, o que é muito relevante para um diagnóstico da política na atualidade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Parresía; Estado Democrático; Orestes. (shrink)

L'articolo esplora il concetto di essere figli e figlie da una prospettiva filosofica e antropologica, concentrandosi sul significato e sul segreto inerente alla nascita. Attraverso un'analisi approfondita, viene esaminato come l'atto di nascere non implichi solo un evento biologico, ma anche una dimensione esistenziale e spirituale. Si discute l'importanza del riconoscimento dell'altro come figlio o figlia e le implicazioni etiche e sociali di questa relazione fondamentale. Inoltre, viene analizzato come diverse tradizioni culturali e religiose affrontino il mistero della nascita e (...) della filiazione. (shrink)

This collection of essays is a response to a challenge that is undoubtedly paradoxical: to introduce in Italy an author who is already known and appreciated by scholars who have encountered his work, and, often, followed his teachings. While the transmission of knowledge has traditionally been through both exoteric and esoteric teachings (the former intended for the general public, and the latter for a small group of researchers), this divide is reproduced constantly through the distinction between ‘institutionalised’ knowledge found even (...) in ‘philosophy manuals’, and the knowledge that animates the research and discussions of researchers. If we keep in mind this distinction, we will undoubtedly better understand the influence and role of the work of Jean Greisch (born in 1942), within the Italian hermeneutical tradition from the second half of the last century. If on the one hand, the work of this philosopher is still not much known to the general public (owing to the lack of Italian translations), on the other hand it is difficult, if not impossible, to meet a scholar in the field of hermeneutical tradition who has not been engaged with at least some of Greisch’s works, and who has not suggested or not recommended their reading to junior researchers interested in acquiring hermeneutical reason. This gradual dissemination of Greisch’s work has led to the building of a growing community of scholars gathered around his work, a community that goes beyond all pretentious ‘Rubicon’ divide between German and French hermeneutics. (shrink)

The theory of evolution is supported by the theory of genetics, which provides a single causal mechanism to explain the activities of replicators and interactors. A common misrepresentation of the theory of evolution, however, is that interaction (involving interactors), and transmission (involving replicators), are distinct causal processes. Sandra Mitchell (1987) is misled by this. I discuss why only a single causal mechanism is working in evolution and why it is sufficient. Further, I argue that Mitchell's mistaken view of the causal (...) mechanism in evolution prevents her from resolving the conflict between Dawkins and Brandon. I conclude that the unit-of-selection question remains very much alive. (shrink)