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)

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)

In her 2006 book ‘‘My Stroke of Insight” Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor relates her experience of suffering from a left hemispheric stroke caused by a congenital arteriovenous malformation which led to a loss of inner speech. Her phenomenological account strongly suggests that this impairment produced a global self-awareness deficit as well as more specific dysfunctions related to corporeal awareness, sense of individuality, retrieval of autobiographical memories, and self-conscious emotions. These are examined in details and corroborated by numerous excerpts from Taylor’s (...) book. Ó 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

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

In this commentaryI evaluate the claim made byKeenan, Nelson, OÕConnor, and Pascual-Leone (2001) that since self-recognition results from right hemispheric activity, self-awareness too is likely to be produced by the activity of the same hemisphere. This reasoning is based on the assumption that self-recognition represents a valid operationalization of self-awareness; I present two views that challenge this rationale. Keenan et al. also support their claim with published evidence relating brain activityand self-awareness; I closelyexamine their analysis of one specific review of (...) literature and conclude that it appears to be biased. Finally, recent research suggests that inner speech (which is associated with left hemispheric activity) is linked to self-awareness—an observation that further casts doubt on the existence of a right hemispheric self-awareness. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. (shrink)

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.

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)

La question de la relégation à travers la musique rap.

We investigate a system of two species exploiting a common resource. We consider both abiotic and biotic resources. We are interested in the asymmetric competition where a given consumer is the locally superior resource exploiter and the other is the locally inferior resource exploiter. They also interact directly via interference competition in the sense that LIE individuals can use two opposite strategies to compete with LSE individuals: we assume, in the first case, that LIE uses an avoiding strategy, i.e. LIE (...) individuals go to a non-competition patch to avoids competition with LSE individuals, and in the second one, LIE uses an aggressive strategy, i.e. being very aggressive so that LSE individuals have to go to a non-competition patch. We further assume that there is no resource in the non-competition patch so that individuals have to come back to the competition patch for their maintenance, and the migration process acts on a fast time scale in comparison with demography and competition processes. The models show that being aggressive is efficient for LIE’s survival and even provoke global extinction of the LSE and this result does not depend on the nature of resource. (shrink)

This work presents a mathematical model describing the interactions between the cross-shore structure of small pelagic fish population an their exploitation by coastal and offshore fisheries. The complete model is a system of seven ODE’s governing three stocks of small pelagic fish population moving and growing between three zones. Two types of fishing fleets are inter-acting with the fish population, industrial boats, constrained to offshore area, and artisanal boats, operating from the shore. Two time scales were considered and we use (...) aggregation methods that allow us to reduce the dimension of the model and to obtain an aggregated model, which is a four dimension one. The analysis of the aggregated model is performed. We discuss the possible equilibriums and their meaning in terms of fishery management. An interesting equilibrium state can be obtained for which we can expect coexistence and a stable equilibrium state between fish stocks and fishing efforts. Some identification parameters are also given in the discussion part of the model. (shrink)

Blood coagulation is regulated through a complex network of biochemical reactions of blood factors. The main acting enzyme is thrombin whose propagation in blood plasma leads to fibrin clot formation. Spontaneous clot formation is normally controlled through the action of different plasma inhibitors, in particular, through the thrombin binding by antithrombin. In the current study we develop a mathematical model of clot formation both in quiescent plasma and in blood flow and determine the analytical conditions on the antithrombin concentration corresponding (...) to different regimes of blood coagulation. (shrink)

Comment vivre quand guérir est un vœu illusoire? Interroger les représentations de la maladie doit nous permettre de penser autrement son expérience, en réinscrivant le soin dans son horizon de vie.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Le philosophe Alain Milon propose ici une réflexion sur les notions de « déférence » et de « trans-hospitalité métropolitaine » dans les lieux par définition hospitaliers de la ville (hôpitaux, hospices, hôtels ou pensions), et analyse tout particulièrement les formes qu’elles prennent dans les pratiques quotidiennes associées aux transports en commun urbains et notamment, le métro parisien.

Les comportements dans l’entreprise : dilemmes sociaux et climats éthiques.

L'ethique des affaires semble prise dans une tension entre deux ambitions: d'une part, la recherche d'un cadre normatif sur-mesure, adapte aux specificites de la vie des affaires et respectueux de principes ethiques fondamentaux; d'autre part la formulation d'une nouvelle maniere de penser le role de l'entreprise dans la societe qui, tout en restant coherente avec le liberalisme economique, depasserait l'hypothese sous-jacente d'individualisme et reconcilierait la morale des affaires et la morale ordinaire. Dans certaines de ses versions, comme celle defendue dans (...) l'un des textes commentes (Edward Freeman et alii), la theorie des parties prenantes pretend faire la synthese de ces ambitions. Si elle se heurte a des resistances theoriques et pratiques, comme celle, classique, exposee par Milton Friedman dans le premier texte, elle renforce le poids des considerations politiques dans l'ethique des affaires et contribue a rapprocher cette branche de l'ethique appliquee de l'ethique economique et sociale. (shrink)

Comme les autres branches de l'ethique appliquee, l'ethique des affaires (business ethics) suscite de nombreuses questions epistemologiques et pratiques. Les premieres ont trait notamment aux rapports qu'entretiennent ses dimensions normative et empirique. Les secondes concernent surtout sa supposee incapacite a apporter un reel progres moral dans les pratiques des acteurs et dans le fonctionnement du systeme economique. Cette inefficacite est souvent mise sur le compte d'une allegeance inconditionnelle de la discipline au liberalisme. L'ethique des affaires s'est constituee sur ce fond (...) de scepticisme, et elle s'est efforcee d'y repondre de facon imaginative et constructive. C'est ainsi que certaines de ses theories ont une ambition considerable. Car si elles etaient effectivement mises en pratique, elles conduiraient a un changement radical du systeme economique actuel. Les textes qui composent cet ouvrage temoignent non seulement de la richesse des contributions de l'ethique des affaires sur ces deux types de questions, mais aussi de sa pretention a modifier profondement les pratiques de la vie economique. (shrink)

Max 150 words. If possible, please submit your abstract in both English and French.When writing an assignment, most students start by searching for information online, which they integrate in their writing and conclude by producing a bibliography for the sources used. They use their informational, writing and referencing skills to do this as well as refer to their plagiarism knowledge to make sure their text is exempt from plagiarism. In this paper, we examined which skills and knowledge students feel the (...) need to further develop in university to prevent plagiarism in their assignments. Professors were also questioned as to their perceptions of their students’ skills development during their pre-university studies. Questionnaires were administered in six Quebec Universities to students (n = 1170) and professors (n = 279). Results show that students feel the need for more training while professors expect students to have already mastered the skills and knowledge to prevent plagiarism. Recommendations are made on how to implement better training for students through a program approach.Lors de la rédaction d’un devoir, la plupart des étudiants universitaires commencent par chercher des informations en ligne, qu’ils intègrent dans leur rédaction et terminent en produisant une bibliographie des sources utilisées. Ils utilisent leurs compétences informationnelles, rédactionnelles, et de référencement documentaire et se réfèrent à leurs connaissances en matière de plagiat pour s’assurer que leur texte en soit exempt. Dans cet article, nous avons examiné les compétences et les connaissances que les étudiants ressentent le besoin de développer davantage à l’université pour prévenir le plagiat dans leurs travaux. Les professeurs ont également été interrogés sur leur perception du développement des compétences de leurs étudiants durant leurs études pré-universitaires. Des questionnaires ont été administrés dans six universités québécoises à des étudiants (n = 1170) et à des professeurs (n = 279). Les résultats montrent que les étudiants ressentent le besoin d’une formation plus poussée alors que les professeurs s’attendent à ce que les étudiants maîtrisent déjà les compétences et les connaissances nécessaires pour prévenir le plagiat. Des recommandations sont formulées sur la façon de mettre en œuvre une meilleure formation pour les étudiants par le biais d’une approche-programme. (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)

Pour donner une nouvelle crédibilité philosophique aux concepts de Dieu et de Royaume de Dieu, la démarche qui est proposée ici prend appui sur la manière dont la mathématique définit les notions d'infini, d'ensemble et de limite. En effet, la mathématique du XXe siècle (celle de Cantor et de Gödel en particulier) donne des outils qui permettent de renouveler la métaphysique, l'apologétique et même la théologie. Alain Houziaux tente donc de montrer non seulement la légitimité mais aussi la nécessité (...) du discours théologique pour rendre compte de la vérité de notre monde. Puis il développe une théologie cohérente de Dieu et de son Royaume après en avoir légitimé les concepts. Cette recherche nouvelle démontre sa fécondité en recoupant la perspective kantienne d'une science qui, limitée, fait place à la foi en correspondant à la revendication réformée d'une théologie de la Croix. Une ample préface de Jean Ladrière, qui a écrit l'ouvrage faisant autorité sur les théorèmes d'incomplétude de Gödel, situe bien la légitimité de cette approche dans une authentique démarche théologique. " La perspective originale d'Alain Houziaux " écrit-il, " est sans doute de nature à mettre en évidence certains aspects devenus implicites dans les épistémologies mises en œuvre par les différents courants " classiques " de la théologie fondamentale. ". (shrink)