Cet article est une version révisée d’un texte prononcé le 26 novembre 2018 à l’occasion de la journée organisée par l’université de Caen Normandie en hommage à Robert Legros, autour de son nouvel ouvrage intitulé Levinas. Une philosophie de l’altérité. Il mène une lecture critique de l’ouvrage guidée par une question essentielle : l’éthique de Levinas peut-elle prétendre au statut de phénoménologie, ou est-elle irrémédiablement liée à une théologie? En parcourant les chapitres du livre sur le temps, la relation à (...) autrui, le propre de l’homme et la politique, l’article examine la façon dont Robert Legros démontre le caractère universel des descriptions de l’humanité par Levinas – et ce en dépit de la référence nécessaire au langage de la Bible pour dire la responsabilité envers le visage. (shrink)

Cet article mène une lecture raisonnée des œuvres de Levinas allant de 1930 à 1961, dans le but d’expliquer la genèse et la logique de l’usage éthique de Descartes jusqu’à Totalité et infini où il se cristallise. Levinas, dans ses premiers textes sur la phénoménologie, confronte les pensées nouvelles de Husserl et Heidegger à l’idéalisme cartésien au détriment de celui-ci. Mais il met peu à peu en lumière la pertinence descriptive du cogito et de l’idée de l’infini, qu’il reprend dans (...) ses propres recherches philosophiques. En reprenant l’ordre cartésien formant le mouvement général des trois premières Méditations métaphysiques, Totalité et infini dessine le cadre définitif de l’interprétation de Descartes : l’usage de Descartes est la reprise dans l’éthique de l’intrigue liant le cogito à l’infini. (shrink)

The interventionist account of causation offers a criterion to distinguish causes from non-causes. It also aims at defining various desirable properties of causal relationships, such as specificity, proportionality and stability. Here we apply an information-theoretic approach to these properties. We show that the interventionist criterion of causation is formally equivalent to non-zero specificity, and that there are natural, information-theoretic ways to explicate the distinction between potential and actual causal influence. We explicate the idea that the description of causes should be (...) proportional to that of their effects. Then we draw a distinction between two ideas in the existing literature, the range of invariance of a causal relationship and its stability. The range of invariance is related to specificity and range of causal values. Stability concerns the effect of additional variables on the relationship between some focal pair of cause and effect variables. We show how to distinguish and measure the direct influence of background variables on the effect variable, and their influence on the relationship between the focal cause and the effect variable. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the information-theoretic approach, and offer prospects for complementary approaches. (shrink)

En expliquant comment les forces de l’ordre se dotent d’uniformes spécifiques au cours du xixe siècle, il s’agit de comprendre la signification de cet objet. Au-delà de l’utilité pratique du costume, qui peut faire débat, policiers et gendarmes affichent une prestance militaire qui renforce leur prestige. Mais ils montrent aussi qu’ils travaillent en toute transparence, en assumant leurs actes et en se plaçant au service du public. Ils prouvent enfin leur valeur en engageant des dépenses vestimentaires qui deviennent un gage (...) de respectabilité. S’il constitue un enjeu symbolique fort, l’uniforme évolue dans le sens d’une plus grande simplicité fonctionnelle au cours du xixe siècle, s’adaptant dans une certaine mesure à la mode masculine. (shrink)

In this paper, we point out that explainability is useful but not sufficient to ensure the legitimacy of algorithmic decision systems. We argue that the key requirements for high-stakes decision systems should be justifiability and contestability. We highlight the conceptual differences between explanations and justifications, provide dual definitions of justifications and contestations, and suggest different ways to operationalize justifiability and contestability.

In this article, the authors, as researchers, are part of a clinical approach to psychoanalytic orientation in education sciences, questioning their research approach during an investigation on the expulsion from classrooms in secondary school in France. Trying to compare themselves to different types of collaborative research, they analyse the modalities of relationship they tried to implement during this research ‘with’ subjects, including teenagers students they have interviewed.

In recent years, scholars have shown the fruitfulness of linking Peirce’s speculative rhetoric with the rhetorical tradition—which can be broadly construed as the art, time and again rediscovered and refined, of rendering discourses eloquent and persuasive. They have suggested many ways in which the historical development of rhetoric sheds light on the third branch of Peirce’s semiotic and further pointed out many contributions Peirce makes in turn to the field of rhetoric. However, with the notable exception of Colapietro, these authors (...) have focused almost exclusively on questions of method and discovery. They have... (shrink)

A pioneering work in the philosophy of mind, Content and Consciousness brings together the approaches of philosophers and scientists to the mind--a connection that must occur if genuine analysis of the mind is to be made. This unified approach permits the most forbiddingly mysterious mental phenomenon--consciousness--to be broken down into several distinct phenomena, and these are each given a foundation in the physical activity of the brain. This paperback edition contains a preface placing the book in the context of recent (...) work in the area. (shrink)

Arnaud Martin Le 29 août 2018, le président du gouvernement espagnol Pedro Sánchez annonça la création d’une commission de la vérité sur les crimes commis durant la guerre civile et la dictature franquiste. Ainsi devait prendre officiellement fin la politique d’impunité et d’amnésie politique imposée au peuple espagnol au lendemain de la mort du général Franco par la loi du 15 octobre 1977, confirmée trente ans plus tard par la loi du 26 décembre 2007, comme contrepartie des mesures d’amnistie (...) prises en faveur des condamnés politiques et comme prix à payer pour assurer la réussite du processus consensuel de transition démocratique. La mémoire historique qui avait été refusée aux Espagnols allait pouvoir devenir réalité. La commission s’inscrit de façon originale dans la logique de la justice transitionnelle. En effet, l’élaboration de la vérité historique annoncée par Pedro Sánchez a pour but, non pas d’assurer la transition démocratique et la pacification d’une société postconflictuelle, mais de prévenir la « déconsolidation » démocratique à laquelle pourraient conduire la non-reconnaissance des torts subis par les victimes du franquisme et l’impossibilité de l’Espagne – notamment de la droite – à tourner la page du franquisme. (shrink)

Yoga et spiritualité est le témoignage émerveillé mais lucide d'un voyageur en quête des valeurs essentielles. Bien avant que ne déferle sur l'Occident désorienté la mode de la route et du périple oriental, Arnaud Desjardins a voulu délaisser les voies touristiques afin d'écouter battre le coeur de l'Inde. C'est cette pulsation qu'il tente ici de nous livrer, la face cachée d'une Inde encore fervente, enracinée dans les millénaires de tradition. L'auteur procède du même coup à une mise au point (...) et aide ses lecteurs à se frayer un chemin à travers le fatras d'idées reçues, de contresens et de présupposés à propos du "Yoga" et des "mystiques orientales". Carnet de bord essentiel pour comprendre le cheminement intérieur d'Arnaud Desjardins, cet ouvrage donne quelques clefs fondamentales et constitue un document limpide sur une société bien mal connue de nous, et aujourd'hui plus que jamais menacée. (shrink)

Anaxagoras brought to Athens the hope that becoming, despite the tradition of the Eleatic school, might still be intelligible, not only because he sees it as the effect of an order crafted by a divine mind, but also because he opposes the Parmenidean claim that there is no point in trying to know the ϕύσις (i.e. essence) of things that need to grow (ϕύεσθαι). Anaxagoras finds in the growth (ϕύεσθαι) of vegetais a principle of identity that makes becoming intelligible. Using (...) parts of animals to which ancient Greek also applies the same verb (we grow flesh, nails and hair), Anaxagoras extends the consistency of vegetal becoming to all beings, all of them now coming from seeds. The essence (ϕύσις) of things, can now be explained through its origins -that from which it grows (ϕύεσθαι). The new philosophical fifth century meaning of ϕύσις, as origin, could have stemmed from such a new impulse to inquire about the seeds of all things. (shrink)

Le présent article est le fruit d’une recherche qualitative auprès de l’ensemble des acteurs concernés par le dispositif « Espace de rencontre » ( er ) en France. Ce dispositif tant judiciaire que répondant aux nouvelles aspirations sociales autour de la famille vient soutenir le lien parent-enfant dans le cadre de séparations conflictuelles ou en cas d’incapacité de l’un des parents d’accueillir son ou ses enfants. Cette recherche, conduite entre 2017 et 2020 au sein de douze structures, visait à mieux (...) appréhender les pratiques en er, à identifier tant l’intérêt que les limites du dispositif et à faire émerger de nouveaux questionnements sur le maintien des liens filiaux dans des situations complexes. Le vécu des parents, enfants et professionnels concernés y a été recueilli par des chercheurs issus des sciences humaines et sociales. Si cette mesure socio-judiciaire est bien admise par une majorité des usagers, la manière dont les enfants, eux, vivent les rencontres reste questionnante. (shrink)

This paper argues that the definition of food justice must be defined in more participatory terms. Current accounts of food justice tend to emphasize distributional inequalities. However, there is broad recognition that these distributional inequalities are the result of participative inequalities and that the participation of marginalized groups in advocacy plays an important role in creating just food systems. In addition, thinking of food justice in more participative terms also suggests a more well-rounded and comprehensive approach to dealing with inequalities (...) within the food system. One manner in which the concept of food justice can be redefined to better capture the importance of participative justice is by considering what is required for informed consent. (shrink)

This wide-ranging book examines the new dynamics of corporate social responsibility and the impact they have had on the transformation of business corporations. Written by an international group of distinguished experts in management and organization studies, economics and sociology, the book leads one to theoretically and practically rethink CSR, a movement that has developed into a strong and rich institutional domain since the mid 1990s. Through 14 chapters, the book shows the complexity, diversity and progression of the institutional work performed (...) by a large number of individual and organizational actors in specialized networks to develop this strategic field. Central to this book are: the core issues associated with the field of CSR; recent advances in the development, dissemination and implementation of public and private standards of social responsibility; the pressing challenges of developing sustainable strategies of value creation in the face of global warming and underdevelopment; and finally, examples of how CSR has been implemented and institutionalized within business organizations with special attention to the role played by a variety of social actors in organizational change. Conceived as a movement, corporate social responsibility spearheads a transformation project challenging traditional and outmoded forms of corporate governance that frequently pose troublesome ethical issues. From this standpoint, Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Change will serve as a reference point for academics, researchers, managers and practitioners. (shrink)

Cet article documente la pratique du plan dans les relations entre hommes, à savoir ces rencontres rapides, à but sexuel principalement et en général non répétées. Le matériel mobilisé résulte de trente entretiens semi-directifs. Le plan correspond souvent à une dissociation marquée entre le courant sensuel et le courant tendre, au sens freudien, et présente donc un intérêt pour approfondir la compréhension de cette dualité. L’article observe les prises de contact virtuelles, les lieux des plans et la possibilité de penser, (...) ou de ne pas penser, le plan, d’en refouler le souvenir. Les affects éprouvés dans la rencontre de l’autre comme l’absence d’affect ( désaffectation ) sont alors analysés aux côtés de la question de la sociabilité et des impressions d’inquiétante étrangeté. (shrink)

Cet article explore plusieurs moutures de la philosophie historique de Nietzsche, depuis ses réflexions d’adolescent, où les réflexions génétiques sont encore inscrites dans une méditation d’ordre éthico-théologique, à la généalogie proprement dite, où l’étude de la provenance des valeurs prétend congédier toutes les autres formes d’histoire de la morale, que ce soit la microhistoire psychologique des moralistes français (La Rochefoucauld), l’histoire conjecturale des utilitaristes (Mandeville) ou l’histoire évolutionniste qui déduit la morale de l’adaptation (Spencer). Ainsi, en vertu de l’activité d’autodépassement (...) perpétuel et d’antagonisme incessant qui caractérise la volonté de puissance, Nietzsche s’emploie à faire la critique des autres formes de philosophies de l’histoire pour imposer sa « morphologie de la volonté de puissance », et il s’efforce en outre, tout au long de son propre itinéraire intellectuel, de lutter aussi contre lui-même, dans la mesure où les alliances qu’il avait contractées auparavant le retenaient d’être pleinement original. (shrink)

Ce volume réunit 10 articles en italien, à une exception française près, issus pour la plupart d’un colloque de 2015 et paraissant dans une série philosophique. Il y a fort peu de coquilles dans cet ouvrage soigné (68 : *ἱδιότητος, 226 : *Alres, 228 : *εἴληκεν, 244 : *Oppenraay, 267 : *aniumalium). Il se signale par son orientation pédagogique, conforme au cadre de la rencontre, qui était une journée de formation : la plupart des articles sont des synthèses, proposées par (...) des spécialistes qui... (shrink)

Psychologists have emphasized children's acquisition of information through firsthand observation. However, many beliefs are acquired from others' testimony. In two experiments, most 4yearolds displayed sceptical trust in testimony. Having heard informants' accurate or inaccurate testimony, they anticipated that informants would continue to display such differential accuracy and they trusted the hitherto reliable informant. Yet they ignored the testimony of the reliable informant if it conflicted with what they themselves had seen. By contrast, threeyearolds were less selective in trusting a reliable (...) informant. Thus, young children check testimony against their own experience and increasingly recognise that some informants are more trustworthy than others. (shrink)

Several authors have argued that causes differ in the degree to which they are ‘specific’ to their effects. Woodward has used this idea to enrich his influential interventionist theory of causal explanation. Here we propose a way to measure causal specificity using tools from information theory. We show that the specificity of a causal variable is not well-defined without a probability distribution over the states of that variable. We demonstrate the tractability and interest of our proposed measure by measuring the (...) specificity of coding DNA and other factors in a simple model of the production of mRNA. (shrink)

Running head: Implicit sequence learning ABSTRACT Can we learn without awareness? Although this issue has been extensively explored through studies of implicit learning, there is currently no agreement about the extent to which knowledge can be acquired and projected onto performance in an unconscious way. The controversy, like that surrounding implicit memory, seems to be at least in part attributable to unquestioned acceptance of the unrealistic assumption that tasks are process-pure, that is, that a given task exclusively involves either implicit (...) or explicit knowledge. (shrink)

Philosophy lacks criteria to evaluate its philosophical theories. To fill this gap, this essay introduces nine criteria to compare worldviews, classified in three broad categories: objective criteria (objective consistency, scientificity, scope), subjective criteria (subjective consistency, personal utility, emotionality), and intersubjective criteria (intersubjective consistency, collective utility, narrativity). The essay first defines what a worldview is and exposes the heuristic used in the quest for criteria. After describing each criterion individually, it shows what happens when each of them is violated. From the (...) criteria, it derives assessment tests to compare and improve different worldviews. These include the is-ought, ought-act, and is-act first-order tests; the critical and dialectical second-order tests; the mixed-questions and first-second-order third-order tests; and the we-I, we-it, and it-I tests. The essay then applies these criteria and tests to a concrete example, comparing the Flying Spaghetti Monster deity with Intelligent Design. For another application, it draws more general fruitful suggestions for the dialogue between science and religion. (shrink)

New Blackfriars, Volume 103, Issue 1106, Page 536-553, July 2022.

In this philosophical paper, we explore computational and biological analogies to address the fine-tuning problem in cosmology. We first clarify what it means for physical constants or initial conditions to be fine-tuned. We review important distinctions such as the dimensionless and dimensional physical constants, and the classification of constants proposed by Lévy-Leblond. Then we explore how two great analogies, computational and biological, can give new insights into our problem. This paper includes a preliminary study to examine the two analogies. Importantly, (...) analogies are both useful and fundamental cognitive tools, but can also be misused or misinterpreted. The idea that our universe might be modelled as a computational entity is analysed, and we discuss the distinction between physical laws and initial conditions using algorithmic information theory. Smolin introduced the theory of "cosmological natural selection" with a biological analogy in mind. We examine an extension of. (shrink)

Arnaud Milanese | : La philosophie pratique de Hobbes est problématique parce que son déterminisme ne semble pas permettre une théorie de l’action : comment penser l’imputation des actes, si l’on soutient que le libre-arbitre n’existe pas ? 1) Son analyse se construit à travers la critique de la théorie scolastique du libre arbitre (dans la controverse avec Bramhall), et, à cette fin, Hobbes semble puiser dans l’analyse d’Aristote pour y reprendre sa distinction entre actions volontaires et involontaires. 2) (...) Mais il ne peut penser cependant la spécificité des actions humaines, comme d’Aristote, par la contingence. 3) Il ne lui reste alors, pour penser l’imputation dans une ontologie déterministe, qu’à constituer une conception de l’individualité de l’agent qui repense le motif aristotélicien de la détermination intérieure à agir, mais sans libre-arbitre ni contingence. 4) Si les difficultés théologiques subsistent, c’est parce que, pour Hobbes, aucune philosophie ne peut résoudre les mystères de la foi. | : The hobbesian philosophy of action is problematical because his determinism seems unable to frame a theory of action : how could it be possible to conceive imputation of actions, if free will does not exist ? 1) This analysis is built on a criticism of scholastic theory of free will (in controversy with Bramhall), and, to this end, Hobbes seems to draw in the aristotelian analysis and makes use of his distinction between voluntary and involuntary actions. 2) But however, he cannot conceive the specificity of human actions the same way Aristotle did, that is, by the concept of contingency. 3) So, the only remaining way of thinking imputation in his determinist ontology seems to suppose a certain conception of the individuality of agents, and to rethink this way the aristotelian concept of inner determination to act, but without free will nor contingency. 4) Theological difficulties remains, of course, but only because, according to Hobbes, philosophy cannot solve the mysteries of faith. (shrink)

This paper aims at bridging a gap between the history of American animal behavior studies and the history of sociobiology. In the post-war period, ecology, comparative psychology and ethology were all investigating animal societies, using different approaches ranging from fieldwork to laboratory studies. We argue that this disunity in “practices of place” explains the attempts of dialogue between those three fields and early calls for unity through “sociobiology” by J. Paul Scott. In turn, tensions between the naturalist tradition and the (...) rising reductionist approach in biology provide an original background for a history of Edward Wilson’s own version of sociobiology, much beyond the William Hamilton’s papers usually considered as its key antecedent. Naturalists were in a defensive position in the geography of the fields studying animal behavior, and in reaction were a driving force behind the various projects of synthesis called “sociobiology”. (shrink)

The aim of this communication is to consider morphological processes in sociology, mainly through the study of the stability of forms of sociality. At the same time, it aims to study the regulation of constraints, related to an increasingly conflictual environment, through political organization. We use a specific theoretical framework: the catastrophe theory developed by René Thom in topology, further developed by Claude Bruter from a physics point of view, and reworked by Jacques Viret in biology. The idea is to (...) show the existence of archetypal processes organizing social forms. (shrink)

This article argues that Brentano’s classification of mental phenomena is best understood against the background of the theories of natural classification held by Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill. Section 1 offers a reconstruction of Brentano’s two-premise argument for his tripartite classification. Section 2 gives a brief overview of the reception and historical background of the classification project. Section 3 addresses the question as to why a classification of mental phenomena is needed at all and traces the answer back to (...) Mill’s view that psychological laws are class-specific. Section 4 and 5 connect the second premise of Brentano’s argument to Comte’s principle of comparative likeness and Mill’s insistance that class membership is determined by the possession of common characteristics. And section 6 briefly discusses the evidence Brentano provides for the first premise. (shrink)

Slavery and slave trade gave birth to racism and society has been struggling towards its prevention and possible elimination with little success. Martin Luther King Jr wrote in his letter from the Birmingham jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Until this undeniable fact is understood and emphasized our contemporary society is heading towards a state of an uncontrollable wildfire of anarchy. It (...) is obvious that all fingers are not equal but that does not negate the fact that all men irrespective of colour or race are created equal—configured with brain, flesh, water, and blood. Racial discrimination is a moral and systemic sin that must be confronted and vehemently condemned. The main thrust of this paper is to expose various forms of racial discrimination ravaging the contemporary society with a view to postulating ideas geared towards its prevention and possible elimination. Relying on observational and historical methods, relevant data required will be elicited. The paper identified among other things that racism is resurging in the 21st century to a threatening dimension that if a coordinated action is not urgently taken, it will result into an uncontrollable wildfire of anarchy. The researcher therefore recommends the need to reemphasize respect and tolerance for all humanity. (shrink)