Si la phénoménologie a pour principe fondamental d?exprimer la chose même, son objet ne peut être le phénomène mais la phénoménalité, à savoir la façon dont les phénomènes se montrent à nous, c?est-à-dire leur apparaître et ce, parce que c?est précisément cette phénoménalité qui nous livre accès aux phénomènes. Par conséquent la méthode phénoménologique doit en tout point coïncider avec la phénoménalité en tant que c?est elle qui opère la révélation : « L?objet de la phénoménologie constitue identiquement sa méthode (...) et son langage » 1 . Cela conduit Henry à souligner un premier problème inhérent à la démarche phénoménologique : la méthode phénomé­nologique, et le projet qu?elle entreprend de dévoiler la chose même, pré­suppose déjà, comme sa propre possibilité « cette illumination première hors de laquelle aucune chose n?existe » 2 . En ce sens nous ne pouvons définir la méthode phénoménologique comme originelle puisque l?objet dévoilé par elle n?est autre que sa possibilité. Voilà en quoi la réduction est d?ores et déjà falsifiée puisque l?apparaître auquel elle ouvre n?est autre que sa condition propre déjà présupposée. Autrement dit, ce que la phénoménologie nous donne juste­ment, c?est la condition de son faire voir et rien d?autre. En ce sens : La méthode phénoménologique n?est rien d?autre que la mise en ?uvre systématique d?un procès. (shrink)

J?aimerais interroger ici le problème de la négation de la vie à partir de certains textes de Michel Henry consacrés à Friedrich Nietzsche dans Généalogie de la psychanalyse . Par négation de la vie, Michel Henry désigne l?ensemble des modes de vie que nous pouvons ramener sous le projet de rompre avec la vie. Il emprunte à Friedrich Nietzsche des exemples tels que le doute à l?égard de soi, l?objectivisme, le scientisme, la critique de soi, la mauvaise conscience et une (...) figure devenue l?archétype de la négation, celle du prêtre. Le prêtre est l?homme qui tourne le dos à la vie, qui l?infirme et qui la nie pour aspirer à un au-delà, un ailleurs, une autre vie. Naïvement, le problème de la négation se formule de la manière suivante : l?individu peut-il se tourner contre la vie et la nier ? Pour répondre à cette première question, il me faut reprendre sommairement les principaux aspects de l?articulation de la vie et de la conscience telle qu?elle ressort des analyses des textes de Nietzsche par Michel Henry. Premièrement, la conceptualisation henryenne de l?articulation de la vie et de la conscience repose sur une idée fondamentale : « La vie, en tant que se supportant soi-même », en tant que s?éprouvant soi-même dans tout ce que l?individu est amené à vivre est un « a priori insupportable 1 . » Dans Du communisme au capitalisme , Henry revient sur cet être-rivé à soi de la vie : pure présence à. (shrink)

In this book the author considers data from both early and later schools of Buddhism in an attempt to provide an overall characterization of the structure of Buddhist ethics. The importance of ethics in the Buddha's teachings is widely acknowledged, but the pursuit of ethical ideals has up to now been widely held to be secondary to the attainment of knowledge. Drawing on the Aristotelian tradition of ethics the author argues against this intellectualization of Buddhism and in favour of a (...) new understanding of the tradition in terms of which ethics plays an absolutely central role. In the course of this reassessment many basic concepts such as karma, nirvana, and the Eightfold Path, are reviewed and presented in a fresh light. The book will be of interest to readers with a background in either Buddhist studies or comparative religious ethics. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss the translation of a line in Plato's description of the ‘greatest accusation’ against imitative poetry, Republic 606a3–b5. This line is pivotal in Plato's account of how poetry corrupts its audience and is one of the Republic's most complex and interesting applications of his partite psychology, but it is misconstrued in most recent translations, including the most widely used. I argue that an examination of the text and reflections on Platonic psychology settle the translation decisively.

In book 10 of the Republic we find a new argument for the division of the soul. The argument’s structure is similar to the arguments in book 4 but, unlike those arguments, it centres on a purely cognitive conflict: believing and disbelieving the same thing, at the same time. The argument presents two interpretive difficulties. First, it assumes that a conflict between a belief and an appearance—e.g. disbelieving that a stick partially immersed in water is, as it appears, bent—entails a (...) conflict between beliefs. Prima facie, there is only one belief, the belief that contradicts the appearance. Second, it is unclear what parts of the soul Plato intends to divide between: some argue that it is, as in book 4, a partition between a rational and a non-rational part; others argue that it is a new partition between a higher and a lower subdivision of the rational part. This paper offers solutions to both difficulties through an analysis of what Plato means by φαινόμενα, ‘appearances’, and δόξαι, ‘beliefs’. It is argued, first, that the relevant appearances are entirely sensory but nonetheless sufficiently belief-like to (a) warrant being called δόξαι and (b) oppose, by themselves, our beliefs; there is no need for a third mental state, a belief that assents to the appearance. A second claim concerns a central line in the argument, 602e4–6, that has served as the primary evidence that the partition is within the rational part of the soul. Those who wish to avoid this conclusion generally resort to alternative, and less natural, translations of 602e4–6. It is argued that this is unnecessary: once we have correctly understood sensory appearances, we see that the standard translation of 602e4–6 in fact entails a division between a rational and a non-rational part of the soul. (shrink)

Women are cited less frequently than men in a variety of scientific fields. Drawing theoretical resources from Fricker and Hookway, I argue that these gendered citation practices constitute a form of participatory epistemic injustice insofar as they prevent female scientists from fully engaging in the epistemic practices of science. Furthermore, Longino’s notion of “uptake” gives us a way of understanding gendered citation practices as an epistemic harm accrued not simply by individuals but by scientific communities as a whole. Finally, I (...) discuss the cumulative harms of this kind of participatory epistemic injustice for individuals and for marginalized groups. (shrink)

This paper examines the soul-turning metaphor in Book 7 of Plato’s Republic. It argues that the failure to find a consistent reading of how the metaphor is used has contributed to a number of long-standing disagreements, especially concerning the more famous metaphor with which it is intertwined, the Cave allegory. A full reading of the metaphor, as it occurs throughout Book 7, is offered, with particularly close attention to what is one of the most difficult and stubbornly divisive passages in (...) Book 7, 532b6–d1. (shrink)

This paper defends a reading of eikasia—the lowest kind of cognition in the Divided Line—as a kind of empirical cognition that Plato appeals to when explaining, among other things, the origin of ethical error. The paper has two central claims. First, eikasia with respect to, for example, goodness or justice is not different in kind to eikasia with respect to purely sensory images like shadows and reflections: the only difference is that in the first case the sensory images include representations (...) of value properties. Second, eikasia is not the bare awareness of images or simply a label for an error (mistaking image for original) but a kind of empirical, image-confined cognition, and one that has an important part to play in characterising the cognitive abilities of the non-rational parts of the soul. (shrink)

Abstract:Political ecology is an epistemologically plural field of social scientific research. This article seeks to contribute to mapping out the terrain, with emphasis on contributions from Latin America. This is done by sketching out two prototypical forms of political ecology: materialist and poststructuralist, and by exploring the degree to which they can be reconciled in a third form which seeks to avoid the extremes of structural determinism and absolute relativism, by taking recourse to either eclecticism or dialectics. The underlying argument (...) is that, on the basis of ontological materialism and dialectical reasoning, a third form of political ecology can provide the epistemological foundation for illuminating research on why social environmental movements and conflicts emerge at certain historical conjunctures and in specific geographical and cultural contexts, and of how resistance movements against dispossession and the destruction of natural resources are organized and sustained. (shrink)

Karma is a central feature of Buddhist ethics, but the question of its classification in terms of ethical theory has so far received little attention. Granting that karma is foundational to Buddhist ethics and arguing that what is fundamental to the Buddhist understanding of karma is the samsk?ric modification of the agent, this article relates the doctrine of karma as understood in Therav?da Buddhism to Western ethical concepts and challenges the casual consensus that treats Buddhist ethics as a variety of (...) consequentialism. The contrary argument, that Buddhist ethics is best understood in terms of virtue-mediated character transformation, is made dialectically through a critique of recent discussions of karma by Roy Perrett and Bruce Reichenbach and through an assessment of the plausibility of Philip Ivanhoe's concept of "character consequentialism.". (shrink)

We demonstrate in this article how critical realism can be used to explain indeterminacy in role behaviour systematically. In so doing, we both rebut various criticisms of critical realism made recently by Kemp and Holmwood and attempt to illustrate the weaknesses and absences of approaches that concentrate unduly on the collection of expectations of actors concerning roles and the behaviour of incumbents. Within a framework that recognises that structure and agency are ontologically distinct but necessarily empirically related entities, we argue (...) that structures should be seen as sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour for at least four reasons: the co-determination of roles through the intersection of structures; conflicting role expectations caused by contradictions inhering within structures; asymmetries of power within social relations; and asymmetric repetition within structural reproduction/transformation. In light of this discussion of structural sources of indeterminacy, we then go on to demonstrate how critical realism is also able to analyse systematically the agential sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour and expectations through theories of psychobiography and reflexivity. We thus conclude that critical realism contains the conceptual tools required to illuminate the point of intersection between structure, culture and agency which is central to understanding both role behaviour and the plurality of expectations concerning such behaviour. (shrink)

Tourism has received relatively scant attention in feminist analysis of women's work under economic restructuring. The industry creates a sector without a shop floor based on the provision of authenticity, leisure, and price-sensitive services. Migrant women from the First World and the Third World labor with national workers in a highly informalized and stratified employment setting. This article examines how structural conditions shape tourism employment in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Drawing from data including observation, interviews, and a longitudinal business survey, (...) I offer several findings. The tourism industry segments possibilities for women who vary in their ability to produce and interpret/translate authentic cultural experiences. As a result, women working in tourism constitute a nationally and ethnically more diverse workforce compared with other global industry sectors. The particular demands of tourism create an important case to further understand how social location shapes women's working lives in the global economy. (shrink)

RésuméLa théorie avicenienne du mouvement des orbes célestes représente un aspect important de sa cosmologie qui n'a cependant pas encore été l'objet d'une étude approfondie. Cet article compte combler ce manque en fournissant une analyse des différents principes à l'origine du mouvement céleste, ainsi qu'une réflexion sur le rôle des disciplines astronomique, physique, et métaphysique dans les explications que fournit Ibn Sīnā à ce sujet. L'accent est mis sur le rapport des intelligences aux orbes et sur la problématique du passage (...) de l'intellectif au physique, un moment charnière dans la cinématique avicenienne. En outre, l'étude remet en question l'adhésion d'Ibn Sīnā à la théorie farabienne des dix intelligences et entreprend une reconstitution de son modèle cosmologique. (shrink)

The article starts by offering a definition of fake kindness focused on the dissociation between the behavioural components of kindness and the intent to sincerely pay some heed to the needs of others. Using the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, this definition is then used to articulate how fake kindness can be conceptualized as a specific form of symbolic violence. Such a view allows explanations as to how and why the prevalence and effectiveness of fake kindness vary according to microsociological (...) norms and values. The generic definition and conceptualization of fake kindness as a form of symbolic violence are then used to discuss how nursing’s enthrallment with the concept of caring and its operationalization as a moral compass likely fosters the growth of fake kindness within the profession. In this view, the institutional enforcement of propriety and well-behaved professionalism is more likely to lead to toxic environments than to healthy workplaces. We hope that being able to understand how professional norms and institutional rules are sometimes turned into social tools to enforce obedience and existing hierarchies can empower victims of those phenomena to resist them more effectively. It might also contribute to increasing the awareness of well-meaning nurses or people in position of authority who have been socialized in environments where fake kindness is normalized. (shrink)

Thinking and acting in favor of sustainable development is internationally recognized; it is necessary but societies and individuals are slow to adopt an appropriate behavior. International organizations such as World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology recommend to opt for frugality, a principle emphasized to avoid over-consumption and consequently the depletion of natural resources. This article thus examines the principle of frugality by proving that it is not necessarily related to consumption as it is understood since the (...) Enlightenment: we have to take into account the Asian perspective that changes the relationship between humankind and nature, first taking into consideration the good of the whole community. I argue that frugality is not necessarily in conflict with economy but certainly challenging it as expressed by the Indian terms Jugaad or Gandhian: a way of thinking and creating new projects that lead to fruitful solutions for the majority. Therefore I intend to provide a positive definition of frugality as a way of creating new projects that lead to fruitful solutions for the majority. (shrink)

This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The rhetoric of expertise about the nature of expertise in digital contexts. I argue that digital media introduce a scale of communication—many-to-many—that reshapes how the invention of knowledge occurs. By examining how knowledge production on Wikipedia occurs, I illustrate how many-to-many communication introduces a new model of “participatory expertise.” This model of participatory expertise challenges traditional information routines by elevating procedural expertise over subject matter expertise and opening up knowledge production (...) to the many. Additionally, by hosting multiperspectival conversations on Wikipedia, the participatory model of expertise introduces epistemic turbulence into traditionally tranquil encyclopedia culture. (shrink)

This paper takes a detailed look at the Republic’s Divided Line analogy and considers how we should respond to its most contentious implication: that pistis and dianoia have the same degree of ‘clarity’ (σαφήνεια). It argues that we must take this implication at face value and that doing so allows us to better understand both the analogy and the nature of dianoia.

'Teoria geral do Estado' trata de temas da ciência política e do Estado em seus variados aspectos. O livro é um tratado geral sobre o Estado, começando por sua noção e suas origens e percorrendo todas as demais informações relacionadas ao tema (soberania, poder político, nação, território, formas de governo), assim como as relações entre Estado, política e direito constitucional.

This study analyzes key concepts in al-Fārābī’s cosmology and provides a new interpretation of his philosophical development through an analysis of the Greco-Arabic sources and a contextualization of his life and thought in the cultural and intellectual milieu of his time.

The purpose of the present two studies was to investigate whether in framing messages that target salient beliefs of youth, the type of goal framed matter to promote physical activity participation among low-active adolescents. More specifically, the main trial compared the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic-goal framing messages alongside planning to a control condition on low-active adolescents’ physical activity, intention, attitude, and exercise goals, and examined the potential meditational effect of these variables between condition and PA. Low-active students from fifteen (...) classes were assigned to one of these three conditions. PA was assessed using an accelerometer, and the socio-cognitive mediators were measured at baseline and post-test, and the intention was measured again at follow-up. Results showed that compared to adolescents in the CC group, those in the experimental conditions did not do more moderate PA, but carried out more light PA, and yielded an increase in attitude and intention. Mediational analysis revealed no significant effect of the potential mediators. (shrink)

Part 1 What Do Teachers Need to Know? Part 2 What Makes a Good Teacher? Part 3 Being a Teacher?

Harmony is a generally agreed-upon idea in international and diplomatic discourse. A common theme in multiple traditions of thought, Platonist and Confucian among others, it underlies today’s significant investments in musical activism, cultural diplomacy, conflict resolution and peace building. Yet despite this wide currency and long history, the idea of harmony seldom receives more than liminal attention in political theory. In the context of Western thought, an essay written in the 1830s by the French philosopher Jean Reynaud offers a striking (...) point of departure: Reynaud defines diplomacy as ‘the science of harmony among states’. This article, drawing from Reynaud’s text as well from the wider history of music, art and political thought, maps a series of conceptual fault lines that touch on the concept’s function in international thought; the inscription of difference, dissonance, conflict and even war within the idea of harmony; the hegemonic and imperial temptations harmony encompasses and legitimizes; and the theoretical sources of harmony in nature and artifice. In effect, the concept of harmony offers less a blueprint than a forum for imagining peace. (shrink)

This paper discusses ethical issues related to social work practice in the area of mental health. It does so via the use of a case study taken from my practice whilst I was on placement. Ethical issues are explored within a practice context that is becoming increasingly proceduralised and risk averse, and where protectionist responses contribute to undermining the rights of service users to self-determination. The paper explores the relationship between utilitarian and Kantian ethical theory and ethical decision-making as well (...) as commenting on the usefulness of an anti-oppressive ethical perspective. (shrink)

Summary‘Among the fine arts, I clearly see something to say only about architecture, sculpture, painting. As for music, dance […], I see nothing’. Tocqueville's observation in the Rubish for the second volume of Democracy in America is not only startling, but theoretically important: it ratifies the liberal (and nowadays oft-assumed) separation between musical life and political constitution. This, however, should give us cause to wonder. While in America, Tocqueville and Beaumont had multiple occasions to hear music in public festivals and (...) private spaces. Though other European and highbrow observers also declared American music to be ‘in its infancy’, music nonetheless played a significant part in antebellum social and political life. Nor was Tocqueville insensitive to sound in his relation to others. Indeed, Tocqueville perhaps saw in the demise of music as the art of ‘making harmony’ a symptom of the democratic era. However, like Montesquieu, Tocqueville refused to consider music a constitutive principle of democratic regimes—including in the context of Ancient Greek political theory. In doing so, Tocqueville sharply dissociated himself from republican political theory, but failed to raise the question of music's contribution to the culture and exercise of freedom in the modern era. (shrink)

Crocodile starts with Rob and Mia having a night out that ends tragically with Rob hitting and killing a cyclist. In a panic, they hide the body and don't report the accident. Years later, racked with guilt, Rob contacts Mia to tell her he's decided to anonymously report the accident so the cyclist's family can get closure. Mia panics, worried that the consequences would be dire for her, her family, and her reputation. In the rest of the episode, Mia takes (...) a series of actions to protect the life she's built. This chapter utilizes the ethical theories of Utilitarianism, Kant, Feminist Ethics of Care, and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics to determine whether Mia's actions are justifiable forms of self‐defense. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Defensible Taping The Public Appeal Sexual Appeal The Allure of Taping Motivations for Release The Complications of Releasing a Sex Tape When Trust Fails A Failed Career Move Why We Still Tape Notes.

This case study applies Integral Ecology to analyze the broad range of strategies environmentalists have undertaken to create protected areas and change forest practices in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. Rainforest conservation efforts in the region promoted holistic, trans-disciplinary solutions and fostered agreement among diverse stakeholders, modeling an Integral Ecology approach. Environmentalists worked locally and globally, engaging with economic, cultural, political, and scientific systems to create change. The campaign involved transformations at personal and cultural levels that have enabled (...) negotiated solutions involving over twenty million acres of rainforest on British Columbia's coast. (shrink)

Dans la galerie des monstres que l’histoire tératologique de la politique développera, une dimension constamment rémane : la sursexualisation du Prince, la déification de et par la puissance virile. Le membre dressé du Prince devient la métaphore euphorique de l’érection d’un pouvoir, son porte-bonheur. Symbole de sa toute-puissance, lieu privilégié de son affirmation, le sexe..

I offer a reading of the two conceptions of the good found in Plato’s Protagoras: the popular conception—‘the many’s’ conception—and Socrates’ conception. I pay particular attention to the three kinds of goods Socrates introduces: (a) bodily pleasures like food, drink, and sex; (b) instrumental goods like wealth, health, or power; and (c) virtuous actions like courageously going to war. My reading revises existing views about these goods in two ways. First, I argue that the many are only ‘hedonists’ in a (...) very attenuated sense. They do not value goods of kind (b) simply as means to pleasures of kind (a); rather, they have fundamentally different attitudes to (a) and (b). Second, the hedonism that Socrates’ defends includes a distinction between kinds of pleasures: (a) bodily pleasures and (c) the pleasures of virtuous actions. This distinction between kinds of pleasures—some that do and some that do not exert the ‘power of appearance’—allows Socrates to address one of the central beliefs in the popular conception of akrasia, namely that it involves a special kind of unruly desire: non-rational appetites for pleasures like food, drink, or sex. Socrates replaces the motivational push of non-rational appetites with the epistemic pull of the appearance of immediate pleasures like food, drink, and sex. (shrink)

Existing predominant approaches within virtue ethics (VE) assume humans as the typical agent and virtues as dispositions that pertain primarily to human–human interpersonal relationships. Similarly, the main accounts in the more specific area of environmental virtue ethics (EVE) tend to support weak anthropocentric positions, in which virtues are understood as excellent dispositions of human agents. In addition, however, several EVE authors have also considered virtues that benefit non-human beings and entities (e.g., environmental or ecological virtues). The latter correspond to excellent (...) character dispositions that would extend moral consideration and care for the benefit of non-human beings, entities, or entire ecosystems. In this direction, a few authors have argued that EVE could be considered non-anthropocentric insofar as it could: (a) promote non-human ends, well-being, and the flourishing of non-human beings and entities; (b) involve significant relations to non-humans. Drawing from different traditions, including ecofeminism and care ethics, we argue for a broader notion of self and a decentered notion of virtues. The broader notion of selfhood corresponds to the “ecological self”, one that can be enacted by both human and non-human beings, is embedded in a network of relations, and recognizes the more-than-human world as fundamental and yet indispensable otherness. We suggest that this broader notion of agency allows for an expansive understanding of virtues that includes a-moral functional ecological virtues, which can be exercised not only by humans but also by certain non-human beings. This alternative understanding of selfhood and ecological virtues within EVE could have several theoretical and practical implications, some of which may enable different types of agencies and transform collective action. (shrink)

Harmony is a generally agreed-upon idea in international and diplomatic discourse. A common theme in multiple traditions of thought, Platonist and Confucian among others, it underlies today’s significant investments in musical activism, cultural diplomacy, conflict resolution and peace building. Yet despite this wide currency and long history, the idea of harmony seldom receives more than liminal attention in political theory. In the context of Western thought, an essay written in the 1830s by the French philosopher Jean Reynaud offers a striking (...) point of departure: Reynaud defines diplomacy as ‘the science of harmony among states’. This article, drawing from Reynaud’s text as well from the wider history of music, art and political thought, maps a series of conceptual fault lines that touch on the concept’s function in international thought; the inscription of difference, dissonance, conflict and even war within the idea of harmony; the hegemonic and imperial temptations harmony encompasses and legitimizes; and the theoretical sources of harmony in nature and artifice. In effect, the concept of harmony offers less a blueprint than a forum for imagining peace. (shrink)