With the six volumes of the Writings edited by the Peirce Edition Project at Indiana University since 1982, the monumental work of Charles S. Peirce has finally received the care, respect, and love that it deserves. The sixth volume, object of attention of this review, represents a thorough selection and edition of Peirce's writings from 1886 to 1890.

Teoria e práticas semióticas -- Literatura e ideologia -- Apontamentos para a questão do ícone -- Arquitetura como processo de linguagem -- Por uma classificação da linguagem escrita.

Following Peirce's broad concept of semiosis as a foundation of a field ofsrudy, the semiotics ofphysical nanrre, it is argued that we have to explore the interconnections of Peirce's semiotics with metaphysics. These interconnections will be analyzed in five steps: (I) Peirce's radical antidualism and evolutionism, implied in his synechistic ideas, (2) Peirce's semiotic statement that "all this universe is perfused with signs if it is not composed exclusively of signs" (CP 5.448, n.l), (3) Peirce's bold statement that "matter is (...) effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws" (CP 6.24), (4) his theory of final causation, which can only be properly understood in the light of semiosis, (5) his metaphysics and his methodeutics in relation to semiotics. The laws of nature are discovered by abductive inference revealing an affinity between the human mind and the designs of nature. Hence, the formal laws of thought are not simply laws of our minds but laws of the intelligibility of things. (shrink)

The study of the influence of the religious factor on the life of modern society is currently one of the most relevant areas of research activity. This is due to the fact that in the modern world the religious component of social life is becoming increasingly important. The role of religious organizations, especially the traditional majority religions, in solving many of the pressing problems of our time, related to the preservation and strengthening of peace, from social support to vulnerable groups (...) of the population, from the formation of spiritual and moral values, is becoming noticeable. (shrink)

Les premiers Séminaires de Jacques Lacan (1953-1959) offrent une élaboration systématique des notions de l’Imaginaire et du Symbolique, mais font référence de façon seulement sporadique à la notion du Réel. Malgré la rareté des références, la conception du Réel que l’on peut en déduire est précise et cohérente, et confirmée par les séminaires successifs – au moins jusqu’au Séminaire XI (1964). Le Réel est à comprendre comme une matière indéterminée qui, tout en pâtissant du signifiant, lui résiste. Ceci constitue une (...) innovation, de la part de Lacan, par rapport au concept philosophique classique de la matière (du moins tel qu’on le trouve chez Aristote, pour qui la matière n’offre aucune résistance à sa propre mise en forme) et prépare la base pour la théorie de l’objet a en tant que signifiant de la castration du sujet opérée par le langage, telle qu’elle est élaborée à la fin du Séminaire VI (1958-1959) et dans le Séminaire X (1962-1963). (shrink)

Avec l’essor et le succès croissant de la littérature de voyages, nourrie par les grandes explorations et découvertes, les utopistes de l’Âge classique ont commencé à s’intéresser plus au sujet épique qu’à l’encadrement rhétorique de la relation utopique. Avec comme résultat des utopies réalistes dans lesquelles les narrateurs, en imitant le schéma de la littérature de voyages et d’exploration, prétendent avoir découvert des civilisations exotiques idéales, crédibles et applicables, qu’ils offrent en modèle à leurs contemporains. Les principaux procédés de construction (...) des « utopies réalistes » sont la sélection et l’extrapolation utopique. Travaillant sur l’image de son monde historique, l’utopiste fait un choix des traits négatifs et positifs et les regroupe dans deux espaces complémentaires. Les caractéristiques jugées mauvaises sont rassemblées et isolées dans la description de « notre » civilisation, celles bénéfiques sont regroupées et extrapolées dans la configuration de la civilisation exotique. L’exclusion des éléments désagréables, nuisibles et funestes soumet la fiction utopique à une « réduction au positif », ce qui fait d’elle un univers fictionnel eudémonique, capable de susciter l’adhésion rationnelle, morale et affective des personnages, ainsi que des lecteurs. Nurtured by the great explorations of the period, the emergence of voyage literature in early modern Europe led classical utopian writers to shift from the dialogical form of Renaissance utopias to voyage narratives. A great many of the classical utopias worked in a realistic code, mimicking the voyage epic, in which fictional voyagers discovered exotic ideal civilizations that were offered as a contrastive example to the European countries. The main construction procedures of these “realistic utopias” were utopian selection and extrapolation. The utopian writer started from the “neutral” image of his contemporary world and operated a separation between its positive and negative features. He regrouped the negative features into the image of “our” civilization and the positive features into the image of the antipodal civilization. By excluding the bad and harmful elements, the utopian writer submitted his ideal society to a “reduction to the positive” and transformed it into a eudemonic fictional world, meant to prompt a rational, moral and emotional adhesion response in the characters, as well as in the readers. (shrink)

Cet article aborde les contributions de Heidegger à la notion de pratique clinique élargie en santé. À cette fin, il passe en revue le processus historique de considération des conditions de santé, aborde le concept de clinique élargie et sauve deux dimensions conceptuelles de l'œuvre de Heidegger: la discussion de la question de la technique et le concept d'être-au-monde. Sur la question de la technique, il examine comment la restriction de la technologie moderne aux possibilités globales des entités peut également (...) restreindre la compréhension des phénomènes de santé et de maladie. Concernant la notion d'être-au-monde, il discute de ses apports à la compréhension des exigences de santé à partir des multiples dimensions de l'existence. (shrink)

This paper comparatively presents three notions related to the concept of creative fantasy. These three terms (”imagination”, ”imaginaire”, ”imaginal”) have been developed by the French school of research on the imagination (“recherches sur l’imaginaire”), which is little known in the Anglo-Saxon academic field. As such, the terms don’t even have convenient translations and linguistic equivalents. Briefly, imagination is fantasy conceived as a combinatory faculty of the psyche. French rationalistic “philosophes” saw it as a misleading and rather weakly creative ability. ”L’imaginaire” (...) is the resourceful and inventive aspect of fantasy, as conceived by the Romantics and then theorized by psychoanalysis and contemporary French philosophers. ”L’imaginal”, or ”mundus imaginalis” is a concept defined by Henry Corbin in order to designate fantasies as self-sustained, ontological beings. (shrink)

Dans ses romans « historiques », Umberto Eco revisite, de manière postmoderne, le grand bassin sémantique des « merveilles » de la littérature médiévale et de la Renaissance. Plus spécifiquement, dans L’Île du jour d’avant, il travaille sur la toile de fond de l’imaginaire cosmographique de l’âge des grandes « reconnaissances ». Les aventures du protagoniste suivent un trajet initiatique vers un « centre sacré » de la mappemonde, le méridien zéro. En même temps, les péripéties extérieures sont le corrélatif (...) d’une évolution intérieure, que nous analysons avec les instruments de la psychologie analytique jungienne. La colombe orange qui jaillit de l’île au moment culminant du roman, ayant les caractéristiques d’un Phénix — oiseau de la rédemption et la renaissance — est un symbole de l’accomplissement du personnage, de l’atteinte de son soi mystique. In his “historical” novels, Umberto Eco revisits, in a postmodern manner, the great “semantic basin” of the marvels from medieval and Renaissance literature. In his Island of the Day Before, he makes use of the cosmographic representations of the world from the “Age of Reconnaissance”. The adventures of the character are organized as an initiation journey towards a sacred center of the mappaemundi of the epoch, the Meridian 0. These objective events are the correlative of an internal evolution, which we analyze using concepts from Jungian psychology. The orange dove that springs from the island at the climax of the novel, resembling a classical Phoenix, is a symbol for the character’s realization of the mystique Self. (shrink)

Este trabalho procura mapear, a partir de um estudo bibliográfico, a genealogia enquanto referencial teórico metodológico pós-estruturalista. Como resultado, observa-se que a genealogia aparece de forma contínua e com muitas similaridades em Nietzsche, Foucault e Deleuze, contudo, na educação trata-se ainda de uma perspectiva teórica metodológica pouco explorada. São elementos da genealogia: questionar o conhecimento, o saber e as verdades; questionar quem as produzem e em que condições, fazendo emergir as relações de poder que as tornam possíveis; por fim, entrar (...) no campo da genealogia é colocar em foco saberes antes não considerados, é trazer à tona o marginal e o impensado. Ce travail a comme objectif de cartographier, à partir d’une étude bibliographique, la généalogie en tant que référence théorico-méthodologique poststructuraliste. L’on a par conséquent observé que la généalogie apparaît de façon continue et avec nombre de similitudes chez Nietzsche, Foucault et Deleuze. Toutefois, en éducation, il s’agit encore d’une perspective théorique peu exploitée. Font partie de la généalogie les éléments suivants : remettre en question la connaissance, le savoir et les vérités ; s’intéresser à ceux qui les produisent et dans quelles conditions, mettant ainsi en lumière les rapports de pouvoir qui les rendent possibles ; et, enfin, mettre en relief des savoirs auparavant non pris en compte, faire émerger le marginal et l’impensé. (shrink)

Peirce's statement that "all this universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs" has puzzled semioticians as much as his dictum of matter being "effete mind" has bewildered physicists and metaphysicians. Based on Peirce's broad concept of mind and on the presupposition that no pure, absolute secondness or brute reality can be found, neither in nature nor in thought, this paper discusses a possible way to overcome the semioticians' puzzlement and the metaphysicians' bewilderment. In the (...) metaphysical context of synechism, mind is synonymous with continuity; in the logical context of semiotics it is synonymous with semiosis. Mind is continuity and semiosis. In the light of synechism, human mind and physical matter are the two extremes of a very subtle and complex range of differentiations along the continuous time-arrow that constitutes nature. If mind, the one kind of stuff in the universe, is conceived of as semiosis, then semiotics supplies us with concepts to guide the conjunction between semiosis and the synechistic postulate of continuity between mind and matter. (shrink)

Resumo: Depois de 1900, Peirce esteve empenhado no desenvolvimento de sua teoria dos signos, particularmente na teoria dos interpretantes, e, ainda mais especificamente, na teoria dos interpretantes lógicos, pois nestes estaria a pedra de toque para a unificação do pragmatismo com a teoria dos signos. Em 1907, ele declarou que o problema do significado de um conceito intelectual só poderia ser resolvido com o estudo dos interpretantes, ou efeitos propriamente significados dos signos. Foi nesse contexto que Peirce elaborou sua famosa (...) subdivisão dos interpretantes em emocional, energético e lógico. Em 1968, Peirce havia afirmado que o interpretante de um pensamento é outro pensamento e que esse processo é teoricamente infinito. Muitos autores impressionados com essa afirmação, sem se darem ao trabalho de seguir o desenvolvimento desse conceito ao longo da obra de Peirce, concluíram pela tão citada semiose infinita. Umberto Eco, por exemplo, foi um dos autores a tirar partido dessa noção de infinitude. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a transformação por que esse conceito de interpretante passou na obra peirceana, especialmente depois de 1907, quando Peirce introduziu sua noção de interpretante lógico. Essa noção mudaria a idéia - que infelizmente continua sendo tão propalada - de que a semiose é um processo infinito abstrato, sem conexão com o agir humano. Se assim fosse, a semiose não teria conexão com o pragmatismo. Quando descobriu o papel do interpretante lógico no hábito e do interpretante último na mudança de hábito, Peirce aliou a natureza processual da semiose com o pragmatismo. Dessa síntese resultou o caráter evolucionista do seu pragmatismo.Palavras-chave: Interpretante lógico. Semiose. Hábito. Pragmatismo.: After 1900, Peirce engaged himself in the development of his theory of signs, particularly in the theory of interpretants and even more specifically in the theory of the logical interpretants, since the latter represented the touchstone for linking pragmatism to the theory of signs. In 1907, he declared that the problem of what the "meaning" of an intellectual concept is could only be solved by the study of the interpretants, or the proper significate effects of signs. It was within this concept that Peirce developed his famous subdivision of interpretants in emotional, energetic and logical. Peirce stated in 1968 that the interpretant of a thought is another thought, and that this process, theoretically, is infinite. Many authors impressed with this assertion, and without bothering to follow the progress of this concept throughout Peirce's works, favored that infinite semiosis, so often referred to. Umberto Eco, for instance, was one author who made extensive use of this notion of infinitude. The aim of this paper is to discuss the transformation that this concept of interpretant has undergone in Peircean works, particularly after 1907, when Peirce introduced his notion of the logical interpretant. This notion would come to change the idea - which unfortunately continues widespread - that semiosis is an abstract infinite process, unconnected with human action. Were it so, semiosis would bear no relation with pragmatism. When Peirce discovered the role of the logical interpretant in habit, and of the ultimate interpretant in the change of habit, he combined the processual nature of semiosis with pragmatism. From this synthesis derived the evolutionist character of his pragmatism.Key-words: Logical interpretant. Semiosis. Habit. Pragmatism. (shrink)

Resumo: O sinequismo é o pensamento que insiste na idéia da importância primordial da continuidade na filosofia. No seu aspecto metodológico, o sinequismo aponta para a necessidade de se levantar hipóteses que envolvam uma verdadeira continuidade. O principal motivo para isso é evitar hipóteses de que isto ou aquilo seja inexplicável, pois o sinequista defende que a única justificativa para uma hipótese é a de que ela forneça uma explicação para os fenômenos. O objetivo deste trabalho é explorar o aspecto (...) metodológico do sinequismo. É a concepção do sinequismo como um princípio regulativo da lógica, prescrevendo que espécie de hipótese deve ser mantida e examinada, que nos revela o significado pragmático do sinequismo que, segundo Peirce, apresenta uma correspondência muito próxima com o significado pragmático da mente.Palavras-chave: pragmatismo, Peirce, mente, sinequismo, hipótese.: Synechism is the kind of thought that insists on the idea of the primordial relevance of continuity in Philosophy. In its methodological aspect, synechism points to the need of raising hypotheses involving true continuity. The main reason for that is to avoid hypotheses that this or that is inexplicable, since the synechist claims that the only justification for a hypothesis is that it provides an explanation to phenomena. The aim of the present paper is to explore the methodological aspect of synechism. It is the conception of synechism as a regulative principle of Logic, prescribing the kind of hypothesis to be entertained and examined, that reveals to us the pragmatic meaning of synechism; a meaning that, for Peirce, presents a very close correspondence to the pragmatic meaning of Mind.Key-words: pragmatism, Peirce, mind, synechism, hypothesis. (shrink)

In this era of terabytes and big data, the field of digital culture and art is witnessing an emergence of dystopian lines of criticism denouncing new forms of programmed governmentality and ubiquitous surveillance, placing societies, lifestyles and the human psyche under the control of algorithms. These criticisms are so negative because they start from a belief of human autonomy from technology. To examine the other side of this argument, this article aims to discuss the coevolution of humans and technology. To (...) accomplish this aim, the article is based on the writings and practice of the artist and theorist Roy Ascott, in whose work can be found the most original and significant conceptual sources for the defence of this thesis. (shrink)

My training in the field of languages - musical, visual, and verbal - was always marked by attention to the materiality of languages themselves and to the means how they are transmitted to allow their communicative functions. Since the phonatory system, installed in the body itself, these means constitute technologies that have evolved over the centuries, bringing with them new forms of languages, such as the different forms of writing, the Gutenberg galaxy and, from the 19th century onwards, the industrial, (...) electronic, and digital revolutions, each introducing technologies of their own. When language issues are placed in the focus of attention, what matters, since the industrial revolution, is the advent of cognitive technologies, such as photography, cinema, followed by electronic technologies - radio and television -, and, finally, the explosion of the digital revolution with all its new language forms and consequently of cognition, which today are distributed across the most different applications and platforms. The study of this evolution led me to postulate, based on the inspiration gathered from some authors, that human cognition is, since the first forms of writing, growing outside the human skull. Therefore, this is a proposal that concerns the exosomatization of human intelligence and cognition with all the contradictions that this brings. This article is dedicated to explaining this proposal with attention to the way it was developed in my work along the years. (shrink)

Desde meados do século 20, quando as ciências cognitivas desabrocharam e continuaram até hoje o seu caminho de avanços ininterruptos, os temas relativos à noção da consciência, a par das buscas de definição para os conceitos da mente, pensamento, inteligência etc. têm ocupado posição central nessas ciências e mesmo para além delas. Recentemente, a preocupação com esses conceitos cresceu com bastante ênfase a partir da explosão até agora bem-sucedida da inteligência artificial. O que é inteligência? Como a cognição humana se (...) distingue da cognição maquínica? Essas e outras interrogações similares se constituem em questões candentes. Diante disso, este artigo propõe desenvolver o conceito peirciano da mente com a convicção de que sua explanação cuidadosa pode trazer uma grande contribuição para as ciências cognitivas em geral e para os estudos sobre inteligência artificial em particular. (shrink)

The thesis defended in Giovanni Maddalena’s book, The Philosophy of Gesture. Completing Pragmatists’ Incomplete Revolution, is that the pragmatist project represents a sound way to face the Kantian dilemmas. However, this project was incomplete and to overcome this gap, the author builds the concept of “complete gesture,” based more particularly on the phenomenology and semiotics of C. S. Peirce. In addition to being well-built, the concept is inspiring, and this is clearly demonstrated in it...

Resumo: Este artigo tem por objetivo inserir a discussão do segundo pragmatismo de Peirce, por ele chamado de pragmaticismo, no contexto das ciências normativas, a saber, a estética, a ética e a lógica ou semiótica. Tendo por finalidade estudar os fins e ideais que guiam os sentimentos, a conduta e o pensamento humanos, as ciências normativas funcionam como chaves para a compreensão do ideal último do pragmaticismo que está no crescimento da razoabilidade concreta do mundo.: The aim of this article (...) is to discuss Peirce's second pragmatism, witch he called pragmaticism, within the framework of his normative sciences, i. e. aesthetics, ethics, and logic or semiotic. The scope of these sciences is the study of the aims and ideals that guide human feeling, behavior, and thought. The normative sciences function as a key to the understanding of the ultimate ideal of pragmatism, i. e., the grouth of concrete reasonableness in the world. (shrink)

A vida de Peirce teve um período de ascensão, seguido por um crescente declínio até o ponto de ter sobrevivido, na idade madura, na dependência cada vez mais necessária da generosidade de seu amigo William James. Este artigo acompanha as dificuldades, tortuosidades e vicissitudes, uma verdadeira saga vivida pela organização e publicação das 12.000 páginas que publicou em vida e das 100 mil páginas que deixou em manuscritos. As expectativas de uma publicação à altura do valor dessa obra e as (...) dificuldades para que isso se realize geram um desconcertante paralelismo entre os destinos da vida de Peirce e os de sua obra. (shrink)

1. The First Seeds A number of scholars of international reputation visited Brazil at the end of the 1960s to give lectures and seminars. Among them were: Nicolas Ruwet, Abraham Moles, Max Bense, Roman Jakobson, Umberto Eco, and Tzvetan Todorov. More than any others, Jakobson’s lectures had deep and widespread effect on university circles and on the intellectual and artistic milieu. A while after his visit, a volume containing a series of Jakobson’s articles was translated and published in S...

O autor analisa a posição de Antero de Quental perante o movimento iberista do século XIX, destacando a origem peninsular deste e a sua tradição, com raízes no liberalismo. Aponta a influência nesse movimento de um proudhonismo ingénuo, e destaca o papel de José Félix Henriques Nogueira como transmissor de um ideal federativo com base na concepção de uma "pátria espanhola comum", em que a federação tende no limite paraa fusão.A propósito conclui que a formulação dada por Antero a este (...) pensamento, em Portugal perante a Revolução de Espanha não é mais radical que a de Nogueira, antes é uma consequência contida no pensamento deste precursor do republicanismo. Por outro lado, Teófilo Braga, além de partilhar do ideal liberalista, advogou a separação dos Açores do continente português, contrariamente a Antero de Quental, que pensava que os açorianos só podiam ser portugueses, devendo entrar, federados com o Continente, num estado ibérico. /// L'auteur analyse la position de Antero de Quental devant le mouvement ibériste du XlX.e siècle, en mettant en relief son origine péninsulaire et sa tradition enracinée dans le libéralisme portugais. Il remarque l'influence sur ce mouvement d'un proudhonisme naïf et met en relief l'importance de José Félix Henriques Nogueira en tant que diffuseur d'un idéal fédératif basé sur la conception d'une "patrie espagnole commune", dans laquelle la fédération, à la limite, tend vers la fusion. À ce propos il remarque que la formulation donnée à cette pensée par Antero dans Portugal perante a Revolução de Espanha n'est pas plus radicale que celle de Nogueira; elle est plutôt une conclusion contenue dans la pensée de ce précurseur du républicanisme portugais. Par ailleurs, Teófilo Braga non seulement partagea l'idéal ibériste, mais il a été partisant de la séparation des Açores du Portugal continental, contrairement à Antero de Quental, qui jugeait que les Açoréens ne pourraient être que Portugais, et devraient entrer en fédération avec le Portugal ibérique dans un état péninsulaire. /// The author analises the position of Antero de Quental within the Iberist movement of the XlXth century and emphazises its Peninsular origin and its tradition with roots in the Portuguese Liberalism. He points to the influence in this movement of a certain naive proudhonism and the rêle of José Félix Henriques Nogueira as a transmitter of a federative ideal based on the conception of a "common Spanish fatherland" in which the federation tends at the limit towards fusion. In this context he concludes that the formulation given by Antero in the opuscule Portugal perante a Revolução de Espanha is no more radical than that of Nogueira; it is rather a consequence of the thought of that forerunner of the republicanism in Portugal. On the other hand Teófilo Braga not only shared the Iberist ideal, but also defended the separation of the Azores from the Portuguese homeland, contrarily to Antero de Quental, who thought that the Azoreans could only be Portuguese and that they should accede to an Iberian state federated with the mainland. (shrink)

This article discusses the significance of historical research in normative political philosophy. Methodologically ahistoricist philosophers argue that historical research has limited relevance to political philosophy as it only serves to validate if a theory is sufficiently historically fact-sensitive. However, this perspective allows for minimal engagement with intellectual history. In contrast, I advocate for a more substantial role of historical research, suggesting that it not only provides evidence to refute political philosophical views but also serves as a source of imaginative resources. (...) I show that thinkers from across the humanities, like R.J. Collingwood, Quentin Skinner, Michel Foucault, Raymond Geuss, David Graeber, and Bernard Williams, have recognised the importance of these imaginative resources in shaping methodological reflections. These thinkers are concerned that limiting the relevance of history to normative theorising exposes ahistoricist thinkers to imaginative failures. I argue that this is best construed as a concern about the epistemic reliability of their evaluative judgments. Imaginative failures can introduce biases that unjustifiably restrict the range of solutions to practical collective problems they contemplate. Historical research serves a normative function that is unavailable to the methodologically ahistoricist approach by preventing such failures. (shrink)

Joaquim Braga deals with the role of sound in multimodal environments and multimodal surfaces. He argues that imagination not only bridges sensory dimensions that are absent from perception but also is central to “the relationship of presence,” that is, the connection between presently perceived sensory input. This involves assessing both the individuating dimension and the relational disposition of sound, which allows sound—through the activation of imagination—to develop sensory relations. Central to his discussion of the function and contribution of sound (...) in different media is the process of “sonic individuation”—a process of individuation of different modalities—that is presented as a precondition for the creation of relations between these modalities. (shrink)

The central thesis of this paper is that in digital media the operations and representations of the human body reveal close somatic and aesthetic links with each other, the latter often working as forms of mitigation of the effects of the former. I will argue, therefore, that, in the digital domain, the modes and contents of representation should not be understood without the embodied relations inherent to the use of devices. For this to be feasible, it is essential to formulate (...) a new conception of the materiality of digital interfaces. Instead of being conceived according to traditional epistemological models—entirely detached from the agent’s performance—such materiality will be thought of in close connection with the nature of embodied relations and the interfaces’ technological structures and functions. (shrink)

This book provides new theoretical approaches to the subject of virtuality. All chapters reflect the importance of extending the analysis of the concept of “the virtual” to areas of knowledge that, until today, have not been fully included in its philosophical foundations. The respective chapters share new insights on art, media, psychic systems and technology, while also presenting new ways of articulating the concept of the virtual with regard to the main premises of Western thought. Given its thematic scope, this (...) book is intended not only for a philosophical audience, but also for all scientists who have turned to the humanities in search of answers to their questions. (shrink)

The impact of contextual influences on human resource management and management more generally has been the focus of much scholarly interest. However, we still know very little about how context impacts on the practice of ethical HRM specifically. Therefore, drawing on 59 in-depth interviews with HR practitioners in Brazil, Colombia and the UK, this paper theorizes how they perceive the ethical dimensions of their roles within their respective national contexts and how the way they act in relation to them is (...) informed, shaped and directed by the institutional context. In doing so it provides an important insight into three key themes: first, the views of HRM practitioners and managers about ethical HRM and how they articulate what it means to be ethical; second, how they respond to perceived ethical dilemmas; and third, how their responses are influenced by institutional forces and associated beliefs, values and scripts. In addition to providing an ‘emic’ perspective of this increasingly important topic and theorizing the experience and practice of ethical HRM, the paper answers calls for more international comparisons of ethical HRM practice in contemporary organizations. (shrink)

As much as it is rooted in empirical facts, the concept of truth in natural sciences and technology has core dimensions marked by the sphere of the possible. As can be inferred from Cassirer’s symbol theory, this is, in both cultural forms, a structuring mode of their symbolic constitution and differentiation. But when the coupling of the two increases (as currently happens with the new pictorial forms of scientific prediction), it is necessary to know the major repercussions imposed on the (...) way of conceiving phenomena—among these, mainly those that concern the formation of our idea of nature. In addition to this theoretical imperative, it will be the purpose of this paper to show how Cassirer’s thought helps us to recognize and reconstruct the relationships between experimental scientific knowledge and technological mediation. Keeping this in mind, a narrow articulation of truth’s functional profile with the idea of the future that permeates both science (especially natural sciences) and technology will be conceived to see how the two symbolic forms reveal the prospective complexion of human thought and human action. (shrink)