Voici le premier livre, non seulement d'un fils de libraire, mais le premier livre fils des livres. Le De antiquissima sapientia italorum (1710) élève en effet soudainement à la hauteur métaphysique ce qui se préparait depuis dix ans dans les Discours inauguraux, et en particulier dans le dernier de ceux-ci, De la méthode des études de notre temps : L'union de la philologie et de la philosophie pour mener LE combat avec Descartes. On sait qu'il durera quinze ans pour Vico (...) (jusqu'à l'assaut final de la Scienza nuova en 1725). On sait aussi (au moins depuis l'essai de B. Croce de 1910, relayé en Allemagne par Windelband à partir de la 5e édition de sa Geschichte der neueren Philosophie, Leipzig, 1911, qui sortirent le Napolitain d'un oubli dont le "rayonnement" français était la cause principale) que ce combat ne s'arrêtera plus : venue de Platon et d'Aristote, mais aussi de tous les Latins (de Plaute, entre autres, dont le Cogito apparaît littéralement le "Sosie"), à travers les écoles scottiste et ockhamienne, passant ensuite par Marsile Ficin et Cardan, la pensée vichienne puise dans le trésor des langues la force de libérer la pensée moderne de ses limites cartésiennes, inaugurant une sorte de deuxième tradition (qui pourrait bien être la reprise de la modernité au sein de LA tradition, tout simplement). Reprise critique et extension en même temps, puisque, du centre métaphysique que constitue la pensée du VERUM IPSUM FACTUM, la pensée philologue s'étend, avant Rousseau, avant Nodier, avant Hegel, sur les langues, sur le droit, sur l'histoire. Non sans préfigurer (ce qui n'a pas été montré encore, malgré certaines prémonitions de Croce) la critique kantienne elle-même. Autant dire que notre temps appartient à ce livre et que Vico est bien, comme le nommait Gœthe, "der Altvater". (shrink)

This paper offers a new concept of the firm that aims at balancing the corporate economic, social, and environmental responsibilities and goes beyond the stakeholder approach. It intends to provide a conceptual and operationalizable basis to fairly assess corporate conduct from both inside and outside the companies. To a large extent these different responsibilities may overlap and reinforce each other. However, if they conflict, they should be clearly evaluated for their own sake and in terms of wealth creation. Only then (...) can a balanced approach be realized. Section 1 briefly discusses some general aspects of the relationship between concepts and measurement. In Section 2, a concept of the firm is developed that is based on the notion of responsibility and balances economic, social and environmental responsibilities. According to these concepts, different ways of measuring corporate planning and performance are examined in Section 3, followed up by a summary and conclusions. (shrink)

This unique collection of reports encompasses a wide range of challenges and activities of business ethics in most parts of the world. In the introduction, after a brief explanation of the sixfold questionnaire and its assumptions, I try to highlight a number of striking features contained in these reports, which may help to delineate the state-of-the-art of business ethics at national and regional levels. As a result of this international comparison, the following features deserve particular attention: the relevance of semantics, (...) corruption, leadership, corporate responsibilities, the need for case studies, business ethics as a social institution, and the question as to how important international issues really are. (shrink)

The article examines the state of research on Michael of Ephesus as a probable author of the Commentaries on Metaphysics E–N, mainly the works of Leonardo Tarán and Concetta Luna. In spite of their opposed views, they both agree on the mediocrity of the Byzantine author. The article questions the criteria for this negative appraisal and offers some material for reconsidering Michael of Ephesus’ idea of philo­sophical culture.

I. L’unité fonctionnelle se définit par une synergie s’étendant à des corrélations de plus en plus complexes : elle dépend soit des mécanismes du système nerveux, soit des sécrétions internes, soit de la corrélation des organes.II. L’unité mentale est la systématisation consciente et réfléchie des représentations ; ‘dans bien des cas, elle dépend de processus sensori-moteurs ; dans le cas des idées, elle en est indépendante, et elle se manifeste par le langage conceptuel.III. Les structures sensori-motrices et mnémiques opèrent le (...) lien entre unité fonctionnelle et unité mentale. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction A Conceptual Framework for Business Ethics Charting the Emerging Field of Business Ethics Theoretical Approaches to Business Ethics Concluding Remarks.

In her recent (2009) book, The Origins of Concepts, Susan Carey argues that what she calls ‘Quinean Bootstrapping’ and processes of analogy in children show that the expressive power of a mind can be increased in ways that refute Jerry Fodor's (1975, 2008) ‘Mad Dog’ view that all concepts are innate. I argue that it is doubtful any evidence about the manifestation of concepts in children will bear upon the logico-semantic issues of expressive power. Analogy and bootstrapping may be ways (...) to bring about the former, but only by presupposing the very expressive powers Carey is claiming they explain. Analogies must be understood, and bootstrapping involves confirmation of hypotheses already expressible; otherwise they can't select among an infinitude of hypotheses compatible with the finite data the child has encountered, a fact rendered vivid by Goodman's ‘grue’ paradox and Chomsky's poverty of stimulus argument. The problems have special application to minds, since there is no reason to expect a child's concepts to be ‘projectible’ or to correspond to mind-independent natural kinds. I conclude with an ecumenical view that concepts are reasonably regarded as both innate and often learned, and that what is learned can in fact increase what really concerns Carey, the functioning psychological expressive power of the child, even if it leaves untouched what concerns Fodor, the semantic expressive power. Less ecumenically: maybe Fodor (2008) miscast the debate, and the real issue that bothers people concerns not nativism, but an issue on which Carey and Fodor surprisingly agree, his conceptual Atomism, or the view that all mono-morphemic concepts are primitive and unanalyzable. The issue deserves further discussion independently of Mad-doggery. (shrink)

The organizational justice literature and the family business literature have developed independently, which limits our understanding of fairness and justice in the family business workplace. So far, the concepts of justice and fairness have been used interchangeably in the family business literature, as if objective measures that aim to increase justice in the workplace will automatically translate into fairness perceptions among family business employees. By integrating the organizational justice literature and the family business literature, we first differentiate between the two (...) concepts of justice and fairness and argue that a utilitarian conceptualization of justice may come into direct conflict with fairness perceptions in the family business workplace. Second, we shed light on the importance of incorporating socioemotional goals, particularly those that reveal a bright side of socioemotional wealth, into rules and regulations designed to increase justice in the workplace, which, we argue, contributes to increasing fairness perceptions among employees and to building and maintaining an ethical family business workplace. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed at the end of the paper. (shrink)

This monograph deals with Leo Strauss's reception of the medieval Islamic Philosophy in the context of his reaction towards the problems of modernity. Using reconstructed material, the book introduces a different approach to Strauss developing a new perspective on the Islamic political philosophy.

Quel statut sémio-linguistique conférer à une réalité admise comme un allant de sol? Plusieurs disciplines sont concernées par cette recherche. Au premier chef, les sciences du langage, à partir de leurs différentes théorisations : l'herméneutique et la sémantique des textes, la linguistique textuelle, l'analyse du discours, les pragmatiques, la sémiotique narrative, la socio-sémiotique, ainsi que l'ensemble des disciplines qui rencontrent la problématique discursive du sens commun, comme un niveau d'analyse le plus souvent sous-estimé : l'histoire, la sociologie - fonctionnelle ou (...) compréhensive -, la praxéologie, la psychologie sociale, les sciences de l'éducation, ainsi que les sciences cognitives, etc. La compréhension et la modélisation des formations du sens commun intéressent encore l'ensemble des référentiels thérapeutiques - depuis la psychanalyse qui est leur source commune - puisqu'il y est toujours question de la manière dont le sujet se rapporte au monde commun, à partir de la problématisation de ses propres évidences. Un ouvrage au coeur de l'histoire de la philosophie. (shrink)