Meaning Diminished

Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Taylor

This book examines the dialectical role of semantic analysis within metaphysical inquiry. It argues that semantic analysis ought to be modest in its metaphysical pretensions in the sense that linguistic and conceptual analysis should not be expected to yield deep insight into either what exists or the nature of what exists. The argument turns on distinctions among narrowly linguistic semantics in the generative tradition and two varieties of broadly philosophical semantics which correspond to broad approaches to semantically infused metaphysical inquiry. In particular it distinguishes ideational semantics and metaphysical inquiry via the way of ideas, on the one hand, from referential semantics and metaphysical inquiry via the way of reference, on the other. It is argued that foundational assumptions of the generative framework are insufficient on their own to support the drawing of metaphysically immodest conclusions from the narrowly semantic premises. But it is shown that if we are determined to bridge the gap between narrowly semantic premise and metaphysical conclusion, we must augment our semantics with additional metasemantic premises. Such additional premises may come either from ideationalist or referentialist metasemantics. A number of arguments for preferring referential metasemantics over ideational metasemantics are offered. It is argued pursuing referentialist metasemantics as opposed to ideationalist metasemantics yields a semantics that is metaphysically modest. Finally it is argued that metaphysically modest should regarded as a feature rather than a bug of a semantic theory, one that serves to bring semantics into closer alignment with the special sciences generally.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabi Reinmann

Bardone and Bauters suggest a re-conceptualization of design-based research using the classical term "phronesis" and question some methodological developments referring to the role of intervention and theory in design-based research. This discussion article is a comment on the text of Bardone and Bauters and pursues two aims: On the one hand the term “phronesis” is connected to the traditional concept of “pädagogischer Takt” (literally: “pedagogical tact”) to stimulate a joint discourse of both traditions. On the other hand, two main suggestions of Bardone und Bauters are critically examined, namely their proposal to conceptualize intervention in design-based research exclusively as an action, and their call for deriving generalizations via experiences instead of theories. The discussion article finally argues for maintaining the integrative power of design-based research by avoiding one-sided interpretations.  


Author(s):  
Teerink Han

This chapter offers insight into a typical initial public offering (IPO) process, highlighting key practical and legal considerations around disclosure, through the IPO prospectus and otherwise. The prospectus plays a key role in the preparations for, and execution of, an IPO. As an IPO prospectus typically constitutes a company's first public dissemination of financial and business information, the company and other parties involved in the IPO process must carefully consider the right balance between, on the one hand, drafting the IPO prospectus as a marketing document introducing the company and its business to potential investors, whilst, on the other hand, being able to use the prospectus as a disclosure document that protects the company against liability arising from claims from investors or others after the IPO. Here, the chapter summarizes the different phases in an IPO process and the most important documents and parties involved, focusing on the central role of the IPO prospectus. In addition, a number of changes resulting from the enactment of the Prospectus Regulation are likely to be of particular relevance to IPO processes. The expected impact of these changes is therefore also discussed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kruger

Business ethics in business training: Oratory or the actuality. This article is the culmination of an in-depth literature study. On the one hand an attempt is made to incorporate the views of different authors, while on the other hand an attempt is made to take part in the debate which is initiated by the current renewal of interest in the subject Business Ethics. Within this framework attention is paid to the question of whether business ethics can be taught and if so, to what extent it's influence will be felt. Secondly, an insight into the teaching of business ethics in the future is provided. Within this context the approach to the teaching, the content, the role of the student and the responsibility of the educator in particular are addressed. Opsomming Hierdie artikel is die resultaat van 'n indringende literatuurstudie. Daar word gepoog om enersyds verskillende skrywers se standpunte saam te vat, maar andersyds ook kritiese kommentaar te lower en deel te neem aan die debat wat deur die huidige opiewing in die belangstelling in Bestuursetiek bestaan. Binne die raamwerk sal aandag aan die volgende geskenk word: Die beantwoording van die vraag of Bestuursetiek onderrig kan word en indien wel die trefwydte daarvan. Tweedens 'n toekomsblik op die onderrig van Bestuursetiek. Binne die konteks word die benadering tot die onderrig/ die inhoud en die rol van die student en die verantwoordelikheid van die dosent bekvk.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans

Abstract This article offers an analysis of Videograms of a Revolution (1992) by Harun Farocki and Andrej Ujica and The Pixelated Revolution (2011) by Rabih Mroue, which both reflect on the role of amateur recordings in a revolution. While the first deals with the abundant footage of the mass protests in 1989 Romania, revealing how images became operative in the unfolding of the revolution, the second shows that mobile phone videos disseminated by the Syrian protesters in 2011 respond to the desire of immediacy with the blurry, fragmentary images taken in the heart of the events. One of the most significant results of this new situation is the way image production steers the comportment of people involved in the events. Ordinary participants become actors performing certain roles, while the events themselves are being seen as cinematic. This increased theatricality of mass protests can thus be seen as an instance of blurring the lines between video and photography on the one hand and performance, theatre and cinema on the other.


Temida ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic ◽  
Sanja Copic

In the paper, the authors deal with the victim"s position in the criminal procedure, on the one hand side, and the possibilities of implementing restorative justice and its importance for the improvement of victim"s position in Serbia, on the other one. In the first part of the paper, the authors point out victim"s position within the criminal procedure and the noticed gaps, which are particularly reflected in insufficient paying attention to the victim and neglecting of his/her rights and needs. This is opposite to the strengthening of the rights of the accused party that characterizes societies, which are, as our society, on the way of democratization and improvement of human rights. In the second part of the paper, the authors analyze some solutions that introduce elements of restorative justice into our system of criminal response to crime, but from the victim"s point of view. Finally, the authors also point out some further steps that should be undertaken in order to improve the victim"s position, particularly emphasizing the place and role of victim support service, witness service and special facilities in the courts for victims/witnesses, possibilities of using victim-offender mediation before reporting the crime, or staring the prosecution, or as a part of the treatment in the prison etc.


Pneuma ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Antipas L. Harris

Abstract This essay advances hermeneutical insights for emerging black pentecostal scholars to consider. The salient question is, “What distinguishes black Pentecostalism?” This study revisits James H. Cone’s sources for black theology for insight into the role of blackness in shaping black Pentecostalism. On the one hand, the study dispels the myth that black Pentecostalism is inherently a spiritual alternative to the fight for social justice. On the other hand, it calls for critical dialogue between Cone’s sources for black theology and black Pentecostalism to advance scholarship on the formation of black pentecostal hermeneutics. This essay explains that blackness is more than a cultural and experiential reality. Blackness is a theological source that correlates with other sources in shaping black Pentecostalism. Blackness, moreover, legitimates black pentecostal proclivities for the integration of the faith, spirituality, and social advocacy. Theological blackness in Pentecostalism has historically distinguished black Pentecostalism from subsequent white Pentecostalism.


2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit Glas

This article is devoted to the conceptual analysis of two texts of leading scholars in cognitive neuroscience and its philosophy, Patricia Churchland and Eric Kandel. After a short introduction about the notion of reduction, I give a detailed account of the way both scientists view the relationship between theories about brain functioning on the one hand and consciousness and psychopathology, respectively, on the other hand. The analysis not only reveals underlying philosophical mind/brain conceptions and their inner tensions, but also the conceptual relevance of distinctions that are fundamental in the work of Dooyeweerd, such as the distinction between modes and entities, between law and subject and between subject function and object function. After a brief clarification of the way these distinctions function in Dooyeweerd’s theory of the body as an ‘enkaptic structural whole’, I try to explain how the conceptual framework, developed here, could be applied to brain functioning and leads to greater clarity in neuroscientific theorizing.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dany Badran

One of the most intriguing questions in both stylistic and rhetorical analyses relates to determining textual effect on readers, aesthetic or otherwise. Whether the power of the text is directly associated with the role of the text producer and his or her intentions, the linguistic, paralinguistic, extralinguistic and situational context of the text, the background and socio-cognitive expectations of the reader, or a combination of some or all of these factors (or other factors) is a question that is still the subject of stylistic and rhetorical analysis today. This article is a further step in this direction. It attempts to investigate one dimension of textual effect, namely uniformity in reader reaction to an argumentative poem entitled Dinner with the Cannibal, by focusing on the roles that genre and metaphor play in ideologically positioning readers. It argues, on the one hand, that literature is the dominant genre in this hybrid literary-argumentative poem, channelling the readers’ initial interpretations almost exclusively in the interest of more traditional literary interpretative approaches. On the other hand, and more importantly, it focuses on the role that metaphor, as a cognitive link between text producer and reader, plays in the construction of an extremely controlled, uniform interpretation of the argumentative dimension to the poem. The overall effect of the way genre and metaphor function in this argumentative poem, it is concluded, is highly ideological.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 2130034
Author(s):  
Y. Geng ◽  
M. Katsanikas ◽  
M. Agaoglou ◽  
S. Wiggins

In this work, we continue the study of the bifurcations of the critical points in a symmetric Caldera potential energy surface. In particular, we study the influence of the depth of the potential on the trajectory behavior before and after the bifurcation of the critical points. We observe two different types of trajectory behavior: dynamical matching and the nonexistence of dynamical matching. Dynamical matching is a phenomenon that limits the way in which a trajectory can exit the Caldera based solely on how it enters the Caldera. Furthermore, we discuss two different types of symmetric Caldera potential energy surface and the transition from the one type to the other through the bifurcations of the critical points.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-254
Author(s):  
Michael Bermejo-Wenzel ◽  
Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger

Abstract The essay explores the role of gemstone merchants, jewelers and goldsmiths in the expropriation of diamonds, jewellery and precious stones from the Jewish population of Germany as well as German-occupied countries in the Nazi era. Their participation along with the possibility for them to profit from these efforts will be highlighted, and it will be shown in how far there is proof for the involvement of specific persons. Due to their changeable nature, many of the stolen pieces of jewellery are nigh impossible to trace. For this reason, the essay narrows its focus on individual gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths to gain insight into their involvement in the robbery. Structures and regulations that were exploited to this end can be observed on an administrative level, in responsible administrative bodies and in the administration of occupied territories. In addition, implementation methods can also be reconstructed, i. e. which middlemen the National Socialists made use of within the circle of gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths. It shows that all three levels – trade, handicrafts, and sales – benefited from the robbery. On the one hand, jewellers and goldsmiths were used as henchmen for the procurement and evaluation of gemstones, on the other hand, some of these goldsmiths took advantage of the sales orders placed by the National Socialists and obtained the necessary gems and precious stones and metals via the established networks. A scheme in which all participants systematically benefited from the robbery of Jewish property can be identified. Within the framework of foreign currency supply, military raw diamond demand and satisfaction of the Nazi art needs, the participation in the robbery seems limited to an elitist group of gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths, who were also closely linked to the Nazi elite. In how far the remaining, much larger group of jewellers were actively involved in the robbery of Jewish property remains a question to be answered by further research.


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