The present study on al-Dīn Suhrawardī's Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, develops some preliminary explorations on his logic under the background of his remarkable epistemology of pis some witness of d resence. The paper paves the way for responding to the challenges of Tony Street on the compatibility of Suhrawardī's critique of Ibn Sīnā with the development of a temporal and modal syllogism that at first sight seems quite close to that of Ibn Sīnā. In fact, Suhrawardī's modalities are to be understood as (...) the different ways a predicate relates to its subject rather than as propositional operators. Accordingly, necessarily necessary modality relates actual instances (presences) of the Subject-Term with actual (presences) of the Predicate-Term; in contrast, necessarily contingent modality relates these terms conditionally, notably involving states of the Subject-Term within time intervals. Suhrawardī's main innovation, so we claim, is the explicit dialectical role presences or actual instances have in his modal-temporal logic, and particularly so in shaping his notion of contingency that admits both a generic and an individual or de re form of plenitude. (shrink)

Despite the fact that it has been more than 40 years since Henry Corbin and Hossein Ziai pointed out that the work of Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (549/1155, 587/1191) has not yet been systematically studied, a thorough investigation of his work is still in its infancy. The present brief study, which aims to contribute to filling such a gap by further developing some of the points contained in Rahman & Seck's (2022) paper, articulates some remarks on the relevance of Suhrawardī's (...) epistemology of presence for contemporary studies on temporal logic. More specifically, we will focus our brief presentation on the fruitfulness of his postulate of the priority of experience of immediate knowledge discussed in the Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq and how this postulate is related to the concept of self-consciousness (وعي الذاتي).Thus the particularity of this study is that Suhrawardī's epistemology of presence, unlike contemporary temporal logic developed for example by Prior, emphasizes the temporalization of the instantiation of an event or the performance of an act rather than of the propositions that express that event or act. Moreover, in Suhrawardī's modal syllogistic, there is an analysis of contingency that differs from most contemporary authors and that also involves several dimensions of time. More generally, Suhrawardī's notion of direct knowledge offers new insights into the logical and ontological status of the now. (shrink)

Le but de cet ouvrage est de questionner les perceptions et les représentations théoriques dominantes de l'islam en Europe. Le cadre temporel qu'elle investit est celui de l'époque moderne, c'est-à-dire depuis la fin de l'influence arabe en Espagne et le début de la présence territoriale des Turcs en Europe jusqu'à notre époque ponctuée de revendications laïques. Elle cherche surtout à comprendre les différentes courbes marquant l'évolution de la représentation de l'islam en les solidarisant avec les enjeux théologiques et politiques dont (...) la prégnance caractérise les analyses socio-historiques, philosophiques et anthropologiques. L'orientation de la recherche a consisté à mettre l'accent sur les querelles théologico-politiques qui traversent l'Europe et à évaluer l'influence des Turcs dans la géopolitique européenne à partir du XVIe siècle. D'un point de vue théologique, les éludes révèlent que le sujet islamique est bien présent dans les oppositions entre humanistes et réformistes, mais également entre ceux-ci et les catholiques. La vision apologétique chrétienne se développe en ce sens aussi bien en théologique qu'en philosophie et introduit dans l'analyse religieuse la question des droits naturels et par conséquent celle de la religion naturelle. Nos investigations ont permis de découvrir un ensemble de jugements relativisant l'islam dans la philosophie des Lumières et dans la philosophie allemande. Aussi, le lien de l'islam avec la modernité ne fait pas l'économie des questions de la laïcité et plus globalement de la sécularisation. Si les préoccupations politiques en milieu islamique montrent une pratique différente, la promotion de l'individu et de la raison sont partout mise en valeur. Le contexte actuel de la mondialisation suscite beaucoup de questions sur le vivre ensemble, l'altérité et cristallise la réflexion vers la reviviscence de l'éthique de la responsabilité en invitant l'individu à se décentrer de son univers de référence pour entrer en dialogue constructif avec autrui. (shrink)

Si les voies du droit sont complexes, ses objets divers et ses champs multiples, il est par essence "en commerce" avec d'autres disciplines des sciences sociales et humaines, qui interfèrent dans son élaboration et affectent son contenu comme la portée de sa fonction normative. Au carrefour des régimes politiques, des systèmes juridiques et des sociétés en mutation, il a dû, au fil du temps, diversifier ses instruments pour répondre à des problématiques écartelées entre nationalismes et mondialisation. Ces rencontres et croisements (...) interpellent les juristes de tous horizons autant que les chercheurs de toutes disciplines. Des droits africains au droit français, du droit de l'urbanisme au droit et à la sociologie de l'environnement comme du tourisme, des droit constitutionnel et international aux droits de l'Homme, ce recueil présente des études et des témoignages rassemblés en l'honneur du Professeur Jean-Marie Breton, dont le parcours, un demi-siècle durant, l'a conduit à explorer, dans divers universités et continents, les itinéraires du droit dans sa quête de connaissance des terres des hommes. (shrink)

We provide an economic interpretation of the practice consisting in incorporating risk measures as constraints in an expected prospect maximization problem. For what we call the infimum of expectations class of risk measures, we show that if the decision maker (DM) maximizes the expectation of a random prospect under constraint that the risk measure is bounded above, he then behaves as a “generalized expected utility maximizer” in the following sense. The DM exhibits ambiguity with respect to a family of utility (...) functions defined on a larger set of decisions than the original one; he adopts pessimism and performs first a minimization of expected utility over this family, then performs a maximization over a new decisions set. This economic behaviour is called “maxmin under risk” and studied by Maccheroni (Econ Theory 19:823–831, 2002). As an application, we make the link between an expected prospect maximization problem, subject to conditional value-at-risk being less than a threshold value, and a non-expected utility economic formulation involving “loss aversion”-type utility functions. (shrink)

We are all familiar with the old adage that hard cases make for bad law. This symposium riffs off that idea to inquire whether soft law can make for ethical lawyering? To interrogate this q...

We present a distributed control modeling approach for an automated manufacturing system based on the dynamics of one-dimensional cellular automata. This is inspired by the fact that both cellular automata and manufacturing systems are discrete dynamical systems where local interactions given among their elements can lead to complex dynamics, despite the simple rules governing such interactions. The cellular automaton model developed in this study focuses on two states of the resources of a manufacturing system, namely, busy or idle. However, the (...) interaction among the resources such as whether they are shared at different stages of the manufacturing process determines the global dynamics of the system. A procedure is shown to obtain the local evolution rule of the automaton based on the relationships among the resources and the material flow through the manufacturing process. The resulting distributed control of the manufacturing system appears to be heterarchical, and the evolution of the cellular automaton exhibits a Class II behavior for some given disordered initial conditions. (shrink)

This paper combines naturalized metaphysics and a philosophical reflection on a recently evolving interdisciplinary branch of quantum chemistry, ab initio molecular dynamics. Bridging the gaps among chemistry, physics, and computer science, this cutting-edge research field explores the structure and dynamics of complex molecular many-body systems through computer simulations. These simulations are allegedly crafted solely by the laws of fundamental physics, and are explicitly designed to capture nature as closely as possible. The models and algorithms employed, however, involve many approximations and (...) significant degrees of idealization of their target systems. Therefore, for philosophers of science the pivotal question of whether relying only on the fundamental laws of physics supports a reductionist or realist stance arises. One conceivable answer to this question is that the irreducible approximations and idealizations support rather anti-realist positions. After reviewing an influential attitude in the philosophy of computer simulations and the debate concerning scientific realism, I offer a fair interpretation of such ab initio modelling in quantum chemistry within a naturalistic metaphysical framework that gives rise to a specific type of ontic structural realism. (shrink)

Over the past decade artists have increasingly turned to science in order to investigate technology’s effect. The move from hardware-based technologies to live organisms as media, raises ethical issues that the broader art community is addressing. This paper tracks the history of instrumental disengagement to determine when and how the gradual codification of life contributed to the eventual use of live organisms in art practice.

The involvement of developing countries in international clinical trials is necessary for the development of appropriate medicines for local populations. However, the absence of appropriate structures for ethical review represents a barrier for certain countries. Currently there is very little information available on existing structures dedicated to ethics in western and central Africa. This article briefly describes historical milestones in the development of networks dedicated to capacity building in ethical review in these regions and outlines the major conclusions of two (...) workshops on this issue, which were held in September and October 2002 in Libreville, Gabon, and Paris, France. The workshops were the culmination of collaboration between the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET) and the Pan African Bioethics Initiative (PABIN). They produced an update on ethics organizations with regard to mission, function, activities, members, and contact people, in eight countries within the regions discussed. As a result of the commitment of mandated delegates, a further prominent outcome followed these workshops: the creation of national structures, where none existed before, dedicated to the ethical review of clinical trials. (shrink)

The involvement of developing countries in international clinical trials is necessary for the development of appropriate medicines fo.

El artículo propone un diálogo Sur-Sur acerca de los desafíos que plantea el campo político en la actualidad. Además de las coordinadoras Joice Barbosa y Moira Pérez, participan Silvina Tapia Tapia de Ecuador, Abdourahmane Seck de Senegal y Verónica Figueroa Huencho de Wellmapu, quienes se desempeñan tanto en el ámbito académico como en el campo social mediante el activismo político y/o comunitario, desde el cual producen conocimientos colectivos de carácter situado. A lo largo de la conversación se analizan temas (...) tales como la expresión de formas contemporáneas de neoconservadurismo y autoritarismo, las disputas de los movimientos sociales con la institucionalidad, sus tensiones con un Estado que tiende a la cooptación pero también mantiene profundas lealtades capitalistas y coloniales, y las posibilidades y experiencias de formas alternativas de organización colectiva y comunitaria. Además, se explora cuál es y cuál puede ser en este escenario el rol de la academia y de quienes trabajan en ella, en la tensión entre los compromisos institucionales y la política radical. (shrink)

Mongameli Anthony Mabona (1929) is a singular South African scholar with an exceptional life path. The history of British imperialism and apartheid shaped the world into which he was born. To a large extent, these powers had his destiny carved out for him. Nevertheless, a curious set of coincidences enabled him to obtain a tertiary education as a priest, to pursue his doctoral studies in Italy and to befriend Alioune Diop. He is one of the first published philosophers of (...) Anglophone Africa and holds doctorates in theology and anthropology. His opposition to institutionalised racism - including co-authoring the 1970 'Black Priests' Manifesto' - eventually led to his exile. This book documents his life and offers a synoptic reading of his scholarly and poetic work"-- Back cover. (shrink)

Sartre's writing on colonialism and anti-colonial critique is diverse, protean and frequently self-contradictory, and for this reason has generated a good deal of controversy. His celebrated and notorious 'Orphée noir', written as the preface to Senghor's Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française, has been read as both veneration and critique of the negritude movement, and he has been named both spokesman and traitor of anti-colonial resistance in Africa. Explicating the dynamics of an assertion of black (...) identity in contradistinction to colonial influence, Sartre introduced revolutionary black poetry to the European audience it was directed against, only to be condemned by some of the other negritude thinkers, such as Alioune Diop, as eurocentric and blinded by his own position as a metropolitan, and therefore colonial, intellectual. The version of negritude promoted in 'Orphée noir' was criticised by such thinkers for being too rigid and essentialist, yet conversely, Fanon objected that Sartre's stress on the movement as transitory and provisional meant that was insufficiently immersed in 'authentic black experience'. In addition, Sartre's more journalistic writing, which called for the withdrawal of the French presence in Algeria during the war of independence, aptly served to draw attention to dissension about the Algerian question within French society, but, as Robert Young points out, the Marxist approach underpinning many of these pieces has also been seen as universalising. (shrink)