The provision of informed consent is a prerequisite for inclusion of a patient in a clinical research project. In some countries, the legislation on clinical research authorizes a third person to provide informed consent if the patient is unable to do so directly . This is the case during acute stroke, when the symptoms may prevent the patient from providing informed consent and thus require a third party to be approached. Identification of factors associated with the medical team’s decision to (...) resort to surrogate consent may help the care team during the inclusion process and enable the patient’s family circle to be better informed about providing surrogate consent. (shrink)

Les études tentant de répondre à la question " Qu'est-ce que la justice? " et à cette autre, inséparable, " Qu'est-ce qu'une société juste? " sont assez nombreuses ces dernières années, mais elles ne sont pas toujours faciles d'accès, au contraire du livre d'Alain Durand. Par un discours systématique et structuré, il présente quelques réflexions occasionnées par des lectures ou par des événements et tendances de fond liés à l'actualité. L'auteur se confronte à de grands auteurs qui, depuis Aristote (...) jusqu'à John Rawls, sans oublier d'autres penseurs plus récents, ont substantiellement enrichi les approches de la justice sociale. Une attention particulière est accordée à l'apport du christianisme. La foi, en effet, ne cesse d'apparaître comme une force d'interrogations radicales pour l'élaboration d'une société plus juste. Et l'Eglise, qui doit être attentive aux priorités et aux dérives dans ce domaine, est ainsi conduite à des remises en question, tant en elle-même, que dans un monde devenu éthiquement pluraliste. La lecture de ce livre peut être faite assez librement, par les multiples portes d'entrée qu'il offre. (shrink)

Contra those proclaiming the end of philosophy, Badiou aims to restore philosophical thought to the complete space of the truths that condition it.

Infinite Thought brings together a representative selection of the range of Alain Badiou's work, illustrating the power and diversity of his thought.

Discusses Locke's life and views and their impact on American philosophy, as well as his role in the Harlem Renaissance.

Against "political philosophy" -- Politics as thought -- Althusser -- Politics unbound -- A speculative disquisition on the concept of democracy -- Truths and justice -- Rancière and the community of equals -- Rancière and apolitics -- What is a thermidorean? -- Politics as truth procedure.

Quite a few recent models are rapidly introducing new concepts describing different levels of consciousness. This situation is getting confusing because some theorists formulate their models without making reference to existing views, redundantly adding complexity to an already difficult problem. In this paper, I present and compare nine neurocognitive models to highlight points of convergence and divergence. Two aspects of consciousness seem especially important: perception of self in time and complexity of self-representations. To this I add frequency of self-focus, amount (...) of self-related information, and accuracy of self-knowledge. Overall, I conclude that many novel concepts (e.g., reflective, primary, core, extended, recursive, and minimal consciousness) are useful in helping us distinguish between delicate variations in consciousness and in clarifying theoretical issues that have been intensely debated in the scientific literature—e.g., consciousness in relation to mirror self-recognition and language. Ó 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Self-awareness represents the capacity of becoming the object of one’s own attention. In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. This paper surveys the self-awareness literature by emphasizing definition issues, measurement techniques, effects and functions of self-attention, and antecedents of self-awareness. Key self-related concepts (e.g., minimal, reflective consciousness) are distinguished from the central notion of self-awareness. Reviewed measures include questionnaires, implicit tasks, and self-recognition. Main effects and functions of self-attention consist in selfevaluation, escape from the (...) self, amplification of one's subjective experience, increased self-knowledge, self-regulation, and inferences about others' mental states (Theory-of-Mind). A neurocognitive and socioecological model of self-awareness is described in which the role of face-to-face interactions, reflected appraisals, mirrors, media, inner speech, imagery, autobiographical knowledge, and neurological structures is underlined. (shrink)

been recently proposed (Morin, 2003; 2004). The model takes into account most known mechanisms and processes leading to self-awareness, and examines their multiple and complex interactions. Inner speech is postulated to play a key-role in this model, as it establishes important connections between many of its ele- ments. This paper first reviews past and current references to a link between self-awareness and inner speech. It then presents an analysis of the nature of the relation between these two concepts. It is (...) suggested that inner speech can inter- nally reproduce and expand social and physical (ecological) sources of self- awareness. Inner speech can also create a psychological distance between the self and mental events it experiences (thus facilitating self-observation) it can act as a problem-solving device where the self represents the problem and self-information the solution, and can label aspects of one’s inner life that would otherwise be difficult to objectively perceive. Empirical evidence supporting the role of inner speech in self-awareness is also presented. (shrink)

In this groundbreaking work, French legal scholar Alain Supiot examines the relationship of society to legal discourse. He argues that the law is how justice is implmented in secular society, but it is not simply a technique to be manipulated at will: it is also an expression of the core beliefs of the West. We must recognize its universalizing, dogmatic nature and become receptive to other interpretations from non-Western cultures to help us avoid the clash of civilizations. In Homo (...) Juridicus, Supiot deconstructs the illusion of a world that has become flat and undifferentiated, regulated only by supposed "laws" of science and the economy, and peopled by contract-makers driven only by the calculation of their individual interests. Such a liberal perspective is nothing but the flipside of the notion of the withering away of law and the state, promoted this time not under the banner of the struggle between classes, but rather in the name of the free competition between sovereign individuals. Supiot's exploration of the development of the legal subject-the individual as formed through a dense web of contracts and laws-is set to become a classic work of social theory. (shrink)

À partir de leur expérience de psychologues dans le champ de la prévention de la radicalité, les auteurs formulent des hypothèses concernant les fonctions psychiques de la radicalisation pour des adolescentes en grande souffrance psychique ayant subi des traumatismes intra et intergénérationnels. Les auteurs évoquent tout particulièrement les cas de jeunes filles pour qui la radicalisation serait une tentative de résolution identitaire en lien avec des traumatismes touchant les liens mère/fille. Ces hypothèses théorico-cliniques et l’analyse des souffrances psychiques et des (...) troubles manifestés conduisent les auteurs à ouvrir sur des préconisations en matière d’aide à apporter. (shrink)

À partir de leur expérience de psychologues dans le champ de la prévention de la radicalité, les auteurs formulent des hypothèses concernant les fonctions psychiques de la radicalisation pour des adolescentes en grande souffrance psychique ayant subi des traumatismes intra et intergénérationnels. Les auteurs évoquent tout particulièrement les cas de jeunes filles pour qui la radicalisation serait une tentative de résolution identitaire en lien avec des traumatismes touchant les liens mère/fille. Ces hypothèses théorico-cliniques et l’analyse des souffrances psychiques et des (...) troubles manifestés conduisent les auteurs à ouvrir sur des préconisations en matière d’aide à apporter. (shrink)

Quite a few recent models are rapidly introducing new concepts describing different levels of consciousness. This situ- ation is getting confusing because some theorists formulate their models without making reference to existing views, redun- dantly adding complexity to an already difficult problem. In this paper, I present and compare nine neurocognitive models to highlight points of convergence and divergence. Two aspects of consciousness seem especially important: perception of self in time and complexity of self-representations. To this I add frequency of (...) self-focus, amount of self-related informa- tion, and accuracy of self-knowledge. Overall, I conclude that many novel concepts (e.g., reflective, primary, core, extend- ed, recursive, and minimal consciousness) are useful in helping us distinguish between delicate variations in consciousness and in clarifying theoretical issues that have been intensely debated in the scientific literature—e.g., consciousness in rela- tion to mirror self-recognition and language. (shrink)

Alain Badiou is arguably the most significant philosopher in Europe today. Badiou’s seminars, given annually on major conceptual and historical topics, constitute an enormously important part of his work. They served as laboratories for his thought and public illuminations of his complex ideas yet remain little known. This book, the transcript of Badiou’s year-long seminar on the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, is the first volume of his seminars to be published in English, opening up a new and vital (...) aspect of his thinking. In a highly original and compelling account of Lacan’s theory and therapeutic practice, Badiou considers the challenge that Lacan poses to fundamental philosophical topics such as being, the subject, and truth. Badiou argues that Lacan is a singular figure of the “anti-philosopher,” a series of thinkers stretching back to Saint Paul and including Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, with Lacan as the last great anti-philosopher of modernity. The book offers a forceful reading of an enigmatic yet foundational thinker and sheds light on the crucial role that Lacan plays in Badiou’s own thought. This seminar, more accessible than some of Badiou’s more difficult works, will be profoundly valuable for the many readers across academic disciplines, art and literature, and political activism who find his thought essential. (shrink)

Little is known with regard to the precise cognitive tools the self uses in acquiring and processing information about itself. In this article, we underline the possibility that inner speech might just represent one such cognitive process. Duval and Wicklund’s theory of self-awareness and the selfconsciousness, and self-knowledge body of work that was inspired by it are reviewed, and the suggestion is put forward that inner speech parallels the state of self-awareness, is more frequently used among highly self-conscious persons, and (...) represents an effective, if not indispensable, tool involved in the formation of the self-concept. The possibility is also raised that the extent to which one uses inner speech could partially explain individual differences in self-consciousness and self-knowledge. A selective review of the private and inner speech literature is presented, and some possible ways of testing the hypothesis by using pre-existing techniques are proposed in the hope of stimulating empirical investigations. Some implications are outlined in conclusion. (shrink)

In this book a noted physiologist and neuroscientist introduces the concept of simplexity, the set of solutions living organisms find that enable them to deal with information and situations, while taking into account past experiences and anticipating future ones. Such solutions are new ways of addressing problems so that actions may be taken more quickly, more elegantly, and more efficiently. In a sense, the history of living organisms may be summed up by their remarkable ability to find solutions that avoid (...) the world's complexity by imposing on it their own rules and functions. Evolution has resolved the problem of complexity not by simplifying but by finding solutions whose processes--though they can sometimes be complex--allow us to act in the midst of complexity and of uncertainty. Nature can inspire us by making us realize that simplification is never simple and requires instead that we choose, refuse, connect, and imagine, in order to act in the best possible manner. Such solutions are already being applied in design and engineering and are significant in biology, medicine, economics, and the behavioral sciences. (shrink)

Jérémie Duhamel | : Cet article explore l’une des modalités conceptuelles par lesquelles le rejet de la catégorie multiséculaire de vertu s’est imposé dans le champ de la pensée politique dès lors qu’il s’est agi de désigner les attributs du citoyen. Je défends l’hypothèse selon laquelle la critique du langage de la vertu est indissociable de l’élaboration préalable d’une conception intransigeante de la morale où l’abnégation tend à prévaloir. De façon concomitante à son refoulement, la vertu du citoyen en (...) vient ainsi à se réduire à une forme sacrificielle dans laquelle l’intérêt particulier et le bien commun sont mutuellement exclusifs. L’objectif de cet article est double : il s’agit, d’une part, de restituer la généalogie de cette opération en soulignant la contribution décisive de Montesquieu et, d’autre part, d’interroger les principales implications méthodologiques de cette configuration conceptuelle pour l’histoire des idées politiques. | : This paper examines how a certain conceptual framework led to the widespread rejection of the centuries-old category of virtue in the field of political thought, insofar as the attributes of the citizen are concerned. I hold that the critique of the language of virtue has been inextricably linked to the rise of a rigorist conception of morals where self-denial tends to prevail. Rejection of this language is concomitant with reducing civic virtue to its aspect of sacrifice, to a form in which private interest and the common good are mutually exclusive. The aim of this article is double: on the one hand, I intend to trace the genealogy of this process, focusing on the decisive contribution of Montesquieu; on the other hand, I strive to examine the main methodological implications of this configuration of concepts for the history of political ideas. (shrink)

Un empire - la domination exercee par la Bible et les autorites - fit naitre en retour le reve d'exercer un pouvoir par l'activite intellectuelle, fondee sur une maitrise du Livre et materialisee par les productions de textes. Ainsi s'etablit le savoir scolastique. Le present ouvrage propose une etude du sens et des moyens de l'activite de pensee lors d'un des beaux matins de l'Occident medieval. Alain Boureau montre d'abord comment se forma une communaute intellectuelle, qui etait aussi une (...) corporation sociale, source de promotion et d'exclusion, d'exaltation libre et de dures contraintes. L'institution s'etablit autour d'un texte d'enseignement et de debat, les Sentences de Pierre Lombard. Un savoir nouveau en terre chretienne impliquait de maitriser les elements de l'heritage religieux et ancestral: la Bible, les principes de la foi et la patristique. Apres avoir analyse les techniques textuelles mises en pratique, que sont l'abstraction intellectuelle et son complement, la casuistique, l'analyse universelle et l'elaboration des distinctions, Alain Boureau oppose la formation d'un langage rationnel dans la communaute scolastique au discours institutionnel qui se solidifia, et a la grande singularite d'une parole individuelle issue de la langue commune. L'Empire du livre constitue, apres La Religion de l'Etat, le deuxieme volume de la serie La Raison scolastique. Alain Boureau, directeur d'etudes a l'EHESS, est medieviste. Parmi ses derniers ouvrages: La Papesse Jeanne, La Religion de l'Etat. La construction de la Republique etatique dans le discours theologique de l'Occident medieval,,, De vagues individus. La condition humaine dans la pensee scolastique,,. Theologie, science et censure au XIIIe siecle. Le cas de Jean Peckham. (shrink)

Plato's _Republic_ is one of the best-known and most widely-discussed texts in the history of philosophy. But how might we get to the heart of this work today, 2,500 years after its original composition? Alain Badiou breathes life into Plato's landmark text and revives its universality. Rather than producing yet another critical commentary, he has instead worked closely on the original Greek and, through spectacular changes, adapted it to our times. In this innovative reimagining of Plato's work, Badiou has (...) removed all references specific to ancient Greek society--from lengthy exchanges about moral courage in archaic poetry to political considerations mainly of interest to the aristocratic elite--and has expanded the range of cultural references. Here, philosophy is firing on all cylinders: Socrates and his companions are joined by Beckett, Pessoa, Freud, and Hegel, among others. Together these thinkers demonstrate that true philosophy endures, ready to absorb new horizons without changing its essence. Moreover, Badiou--who is also a dramatist--has transformed the Socratic dialogue into a genuine oratorial contest. In his version of the _Republic_, the interlocutors do much more than simply agree with Socrates. They argue, stand up to him, put him on the spot, and show thought in motion. In this work of dramatic scholarship and philosophy, we encounter a modern version of Plato's text that is alive, stimulating, and directly relevant to our own world. (shrink)

L'art pour éduquer, à l'âge des sciences et des techniques ?

Connaissons-nous l'enfant? Au sortir du " siècle de l'enfant ", la différence de l'enfance ne cesse de nous interroger. Si l'exigence de penser l'enfance à nouveau est aujourd'hui partagée, les voies de cette entreprise, et plus précisément les problématiques au sein desquelles elle s'impose, sont diverses et mouvantes, à l'image du monde dont héritent ceux que Hannah Arendt appelait " les nouveaux-venus ". Emergent toutefois du foisonnement des pensées de l'enfance quelques paradigmes que l'ouvrage se propose de rendre visibles. Le (...) paradigme démocratique inscrit la question de l'enfance dans la dynamique égalitaire des sociétés démocratiques, et dans l'inéluctable effacement de la différence enfant/adulte auquel les conduit leur " passion de l'égalité ". Le développement de la " philosophie pour enfants " relève-t-il de cette passion de l'égalité? La figure de " l'enfant philosophe " participe-t-elle de cet effacement? Assurément son émergence au cours des vingt dernières années constitue l'un des faits marquants d'une histoire commune à l'enfance et à la philosophie. Que dire alors de la figure de l'enfant artiste, de l'enfance saisie dans sa proximité avec l'artiste? Elle participe d'une tentative de penser l'enfance autrement, d'une pensée esthétique de l'enfance alliant l'héritage schillérien des Lettres sur l'éducation esthétique de l'humanité aux tentations d'une pensée poétique de l'enfance. Que devient alors, dans cette pensée de l'enfance bousculée, cette autre figure qui ne cesse d'accompagner l'enfance, du moins depuis qu'on la pense comme éducable, la figure du pédagogue? Voilà peut-être l'un des points de résistance aux bouleversements postmodernes : l'impossibilité d'une connaissance de l'enfance qui n'en passe pas par l'éducation de l'enfance. Le point de vue paradigmatique n'épuise toutefois pas la question. Par-delà les paradigmes qui tentent de la saisir, quelque chose de l'enfance ne cesse de se dérober. (shrink)

This article raises the question of how we acquire self-information through self-talk, i.e., of how self-talk mediates self-awareness. It is first suggested that two social mechanisms leading to self-awareness could be reproduced by self-talk: engaging in dialogues with ourselves, in which we talk to fictive persons, would permit an internalization of others' perspectives; and addressing comments to ourselves about ourselves, as others do toward us, would allow an acquisition of self-information. Secondly, it is proposed that self-observation is possible only if (...) there exists a distance between the individual and any potentially observable self-aspect; self-talk, because it conveys self-information under a different form , would create a redundancy -- and with it, a wedge -- within the self. (shrink)

The notion of the ‘end’ has long occupied philosophical thought. In light of the horrors of the 20th century, some writers have gone so far as to declare the end of philosophy itself, emphasising the impossibility of thinking after Auschwitz. In this book the distinguished philosopher Alain Badiou, in dialogue with Giovanbattista Tusa, argues that we must renounce the ‘pathos of completion’ and continue to think philosophically. To accept the atrocities of the 20th century as marking the end of (...) philosophy is intolerable precisely because it buys into the totalising doctrines of the perpetrators. Badiou contends that philosophical thinking is needed now more than ever to counter the totalizing effects of globalised capitalism, which prescribes no objective for human life other than integration into its system, giving rise to a widespread sense of hopelessness and nihilism. To resist this degradation of human life, Badiou calls for a renewal of the idea of communism: the creation of new forms of collective organisation capable of challenging the logic of capitalism and enabling individuals to become self-determining subjects. This volume consolidates much of Badiou’s thinking over the years and will appeal to the many followers of his philosophical project, as well as all those interested in contemporary philosophy and radical political theory. (shrink)

Invited paper for the Oxford Companion to Consciousness, in press.

Dans toutes les langues occidentales, le mot " temps " recouvre deux notions différentes : le temps, collectif, de l'horloge, et celui, individuel, de l'âme. Husserl, Bergson et Heidegger ont cerné le temps individuel mais ne sont pas allés au bout des conséquences de leur introspection. Einstein, en relativisant le temps de l'horloge, n'en a pas développé les implications philosophiques. Cette étude propose d'explorer cette nouvelle approche dans laquelle le temps n'est plus " a priori ", mais est généré par (...) le " phénomène ", au sens large du terme. On bascule alors dans un monde nouveau où l'inexistence du temps " habituel " entraîne des modifications considérables dans la philosophie, la théologie et... la vie quotidienne. C'est au cours de ses explorations dans les solitudes désertiques de l'Alaska que l'auteur a eu l'idée de cette nouvelle approche du temps. (shrink)

Les nouvelles formes de terrorisme nous laissent souvent en panne de vocabulaire politique et philosophique. Cet embarras n’est pas une première, si on le compare à celui des penseurs qui, depuis la Réforme jusqu’à Hegel, ont tenté de comprendre les violences politico-religieuses de leur époque. Dans cet article, nous entreprendrons de restituer l’examen critique que ces philosophes ont fait du vocabulaire de la Schwärmerei, de l’enthousiasme, du fanatisme et de la terreur, d’une part, pour en marquer l’ancrage dans les conflits (...) sociaux de leur temps, d’autre part, pour en souligner l’évolution parfois paradoxale. Nous serons ainsi conduits à souligner la modernisation de ce vocabulaire par Luther, sa naturalisation et sécularisation sous les Lumières anglaises et Kant, et enfin sa repolitisation par Hegel dans son analyse de la Terreur dans la Phénoménologie de l’esprit. Les ressources hégéliennes permettent de penser la violence terroriste comme une liberté du vide et une domination de l’abstraction, moment négatif et destructeur du devenir de l’Esprit, et en tant que tels « antipolitiques ». Sa philosophie spéculative applique aussi ce diagnostic à l’Islam, et nous terminerons par quelques remarques critiques à cet égard. (shrink)

Cet exercice historiographique se propose de suivre le cheminement du thème des femmes - femmes nobles aux XIe et XIIe siècles : - dans l’œuvre de Georges Duby, plus précisément dans son cours, son séminaire et ses publications. Trois phases peuvent être identifiées entre 1953 (année de la parution de sa thèse sur le Mâconnais) et 1996 (année de la publication de la trilogie Dames du XIIe siècle, année de sa mort). 1) 1953-1973 : les questions liées à la condition (...) féminine ont d’abord existé à l’état de questions éparses formulées dans les écrits sur l’aristocratie. 2) 1973-1980 : elles se dessinent plus fermement, avec l’enquête sur les structures familiales et le mariage. 3) 1980-1996 : elles se dégagent du thème de la parenté pour occuper la place centrale, et sont étudiées dans deux directions : la condition des femmes et la sainteté féminine. (shrink)