Background: The vascular depression hypothesis emphasizes the significance of vascular lesions in late-life depression. At present, no meta-analytic model has investigated whether a difference in hyperintensity burden compared to controls between late-life and late-onset depression is evident. By including a substantial number of studies, focusing on a meaningful outcome measure, and considering several moderating and control variables, the present meta-analysis investigates the severity of hyperintensity burden in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). A major focus of the present (...) meta-analysis refers to the role of age at illness onset. It is analyzed whether late-onset rather than late-life depression characterizes vascular depression. Method: In total, 68 studies were included in the meta-analysis and a multilevel random effects model was calculated using Hedges’ g as the effect size measure. Results: The severity of hyperintensity burden was significantly greater in the patient group compared to the control group. This effect was evident regarding the whole patient group (g = 0.229) as well as both depression subgroups, with a significantly greater effect in BD (g = 0.374) compared to MDD (g = 0.189). Hyperintensity burden was more pronounced in late-onset depression than in early-onset depression or late-life depression. A considerable heterogeneity between the included studies was observed, which is reflected by the large variability in effects sizes. Conclusion: In conclusion, the present meta-analysis underscores the association of hyperintensities with MDD and BD. Especially late-onset depression is associated with an increased hyperintensity burden, which is in line with the vascular depression hypothesis. The results suggest that it might be more feasible to confine the concept of vascular depression specifically to late-onset depression as opposed to late-life depression. Further research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms that might underlie the relation between hyperintensity burden and depression. (shrink)

Biobanks correspond to different situations: research and technological development, medical diagnosis or therapeutic activities. Their status is not clearly defined. We aimed to investigate human biobanking in Europe, particularly in relation to organisational, economic and ethical issues in various national contexts. Data from a survey in six EU countries were collected as part of a European Research Project examining human and non-human biobanking. A total of 147 institutions concerned with biobanking of human samples and data were investigated by questionnaires and (...) interviews. Most institutions surveyed belong to the public or private non-profit-making sectors, which have a key role in biobanking. This activity is increasing in all countries because few samples are discarded and genetic research is proliferating. Collections vary in size, many being small and only a few very large. Their purpose is often research, or research and healthcare, mostly in the context of disease studies. A specific budget is very rarely allocated to biobanking and costs are not often evaluated. Samples are usually provided free of charge and gifts and exchanges are the common rule. Good practice guidelines are generally followed and quality controls are performed but quality procedures are not always clearly explained. Associated data are usually computerised. Biobankers generally favour centralisation of data rather than of samples. Legal and ethical harmonisation within Europe is considered likely to facilitate international collaboration. We propose a series of recommendations and suggestions arising from the EUROGENBANK project. (shrink)

A lower tendency to influence and be influenced by their social environment seems almost self-evident in autism. However, a closer look at differences and similarities between autistic and non-autistic individuals suggests that some basic mechanisms involved in social influence might be intact in autism, whereas atypical responses point to differences in more sophisticated recursive social strategies, such as reputation management.

Psychologists and economists often ask similar questions about human behaviour. This volume brings together contributions from leaders in both disciplines.The editorial introduction discusses methodological differences between the two which have until now limited the development of mutually beneficial lines of research. Psychologists have objected to what they see as an excessive formalism in economic modelling and an unrealistic degree of sophistication in the behaviour of individuals, while economists criticize the absence of a general psychological framework into which most results can (...) be fitted and the lack of welfare implications in their theories. The editors encourage scholars to exploit the strengths of each discipline - the ability of psychologists to understand the feelings and motivation of individuals; and the experience of economists to develop normative frameworks.The editors then highlight the links between the contributions by grouping them according to central themes in the study of rationality and well-being:1. The causes and consequences of 'irrational behaviour';2. The role of anticipatory feelings and imperfect self-knowledge on decision-making; 3. The way in which memory of past events and cost of thinking affect current decisions;4. The interaction between anticipated and remembered utility and its effects on the welfare of individuals; 5. Experimental practice on how to perform controlled experiments to test hypotheses.This exciting volume provides an excellent point of entry for anyone interested in the interface between economics and psychology. (shrink)

Psychologists have a long tradition of studying human behavior, strengths and weaknesses, biases and limitations. Economists have constructed normative frameworks that capture the most important elements of human decision-making and developed powerful tools to determine individual and strategic choices in a variety of situations. Only recently have their strengths been combined and economic models enriched with key ingredients found in psychological studies.This volume covers four of the most important themes in this interdisciplinary field: feelings, inconsistencies, limitations and biases. Each chapter (...) contributes to a more comprehensive and accurate modelling and description of human behavior. Its four parts cover: the origins, formation, and evolution of beliefs; consistency, commitment, and intertemporal separability of dynamic choices; attention, preference formation, and risk evaluation in limited cognition; and affective behaviour, specifically the role of emotions in decision making. (shrink)

Psychologists have a long tradition of studying human behavior, strengths and weaknesses, biases and limitations. Economists have constructed normative frameworks that capture the most important elements of human decision-making and developed powerful tools to determine individual and strategic choices in a variety of situations. Only recently have their strengths been combined and economic models enriched with key ingredients found in psychological studies.This volume covers four of the most important themes in this interdisciplinary field: feelings, inconsistencies, limitations and biases. Each chapter (...) contributes to a more comprehensive and accurate modelling and description of human behavior. Its four parts cover: the origins, formation, and evolution of beliefs; consistency, commitment, and intertemporal separability of dynamic choices; attention, preference formation, and risk evaluation in limited cognition; and affective behaviour, specifically the role of emotions in decision making. (shrink)

IntroductionCognitive impairment is a highly prevalent non-motor feature of Parkinson’s disease. A better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology may help in identifying therapeutic targets to prevent or treat dementia. This study sought to identify metabolic alterations in the prefrontal cortex, a key region for cognitive functioning that has been implicated in cognitive dysfunction in PD.MethodsProton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy was used to investigate metabolic changes in the PFC of a cohort of cognitively normal individuals without PD, as well as PD participants (...) with either normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia. Ratios to Creatine resonance were obtained for glutamate, glutamine and glutamate combined, N-acetylaspartate, myoinositol, and total choline, and correlated with cognitive scores across multiple domains administered to the PD participants only.ResultsWhen individuals retain cognitive capabilities, the presence of Parkinson’s disease does not create metabolic disturbances in the PFC. However, when cognitive symptoms are present, PFC Glu/Cre ratios decrease with significant differences between the PD-NC and PPD groups. In addition, Glu/Cre ratios and memory scores were marginally associated, but not after Bonferroni correction.ConclusionThese preliminary findings indicate that fluctuations in prefrontal glutamate may constitute a biomarker for the progression of cognitive impairments in PD. We caution for larger MRS investigations of carefully defined PD groups. (shrink)

BackgroundInnovations in technology have contributed to rapid changes in the way that modern biomedical research is carried out. Researchers are increasingly required to endorse adaptive and flexible approaches to accommodate these innovations and comply with ethical, legal and regulatory requirements. This paper explores how Dynamic Consent may provide solutions to address challenges encountered when researchers invite individuals to participate in research and follow them up over time in a continuously changing environment.MethodsAn interdisciplinary workshop jointly organised by the University of Oxford (...) and the COST Action CHIP ME gathered clinicians, researchers, ethicists, lawyers, research participants and patient representatives to discuss experiences of using Dynamic Consent, and how such use may facilitate the conduct of specific research tasks. The data collected during the workshop were analysed using a content analysis approach.ResultsDynamic Consent can provide practical, sustainable and future-proof solutions to challenges related to participant recruitment, the attainment of informed consent, participant retention and consent management, and may bring economic efficiencies.ConclusionsDynamic Consent offers opportunities for ongoing communication between researchers and research participants that can positively impact research. Dynamic Consent supports inter-sector, cross-border approaches and large scale data-sharing. Whilst it is relatively easy to set up and maintain, its implementation will require that researchers re-consider their relationship with research participants and adopt new procedures. (shrink)

This research aims to identify the ethical issues perceived by intensive care nurses in their everyday practice. It also aims to understand why these situations were considered an ethical issue and what interventions/strategies have been or are expected to be developed so as to minimize them. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview with 15 nurses working at polyvalent intensive care units in 4 Portuguese hospitals, who were selected by the homogenization of multiple samples. The qualitative content analysis identified end-of-life (...) decisions, privacy, interaction, team work, and health-care access as emerging ethical issues. Personal, team, and institutional aspects emerge as reasons behind the experience of these issues. Personal and team resources are used in and for solving these issues. Moral development and training are the most significant strategies. (shrink)

BackgroundRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) are often complex and expensive to perform. Less than one third achieve planned recruitment targets, follow-up can be labor-intensive, and many have limited real-world generalizability. Designs for RCTs conducted using cohorts and routinely collected health data, including registries, electronic health records, and administrative databases, have been proposed to address these challenges and are being rapidly adopted. These designs, however, are relatively recent innovations, and published RCT reports often do not describe important aspects of their methodology in (...) a standardized way. Our objective is to extend the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement with a consensus-driven reporting guideline for RCTs using cohorts and routinely collected health data.MethodsThe development of this CONSORT extension will consist of five phases. Phase 1 (completed) consisted of the project launch, including fundraising, the establishment of a research team, and development of a conceptual framework. In phase 2, a systematic review will be performed to identify publications (1) that describe methods or reporting considerations for RCTs conducted using cohorts and routinely collected health data or (2) that are protocols or report results from such RCTs. An initial “long list” of possible modifications to CONSORT checklist items and possible new items for the reporting guideline will be generated based on the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) and The REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected health Data (RECORD) statements. Additional possible modifications and new items will be identified based on the results of the systematic review. Phase 3 will consist of a three-round Delphi exercise with methods and content experts to evaluate the “long list” and generate a “short list” of key items. In phase 4, these items will serve as the basis for an in-person consensus meeting to finalize a core set of items to be included in the reporting guideline and checklist. Phase 5 will involve drafting the checklist and elaboration-explanation documents, and dissemination and implementation of the guideline.DiscussionDevelopment of this CONSORT extension will contribute to more transparent reporting of RCTs conducted using cohorts and routinely collected health data. (shrink)

Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to (...) explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed. (shrink)

This introduction to the Common Knowledge symposium titled “Comparative Relativism” outlines a variety of intellectual contexts where placing the unlikely companion terms comparison and relativism in conjunction offers analytical purchase. If comparison, in the most general sense, involves the investigation of discrete contexts in order to elucidate their similarities and differences, then relativism, as a tendency, stance, or working method, usually involves the assumption that contexts exhibit, or may exhibit, radically different, incomparable, or incommensurable traits. Comparative studies are required to (...) treat their objects as alike, at least in some crucial respects; relativism indicates the limits of this practice. Jensen argues that this seeming paradox is productive, as he moves across contexts, from Lévi-Strauss's analysis of comparison as an anthropological method to Peter Galison's history of physics, and on to the anthropological, philosophical, and historical examples offered in symposium contributions by Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Marilyn Strathern, and Isabelle Stengers. Comparative relativism is understood by some to imply that relativism comes in various kinds and that these have multiple uses, functions, and effects, varying widely in different personal, historical, and institutional contexts that can be compared and contrasted. Comparative relativism is taken by others to encourage a “comparison of comparisons,” in order to relativize what different peoples—say, Western academics and Amerindian shamans—compare things “for.” Jensen concludes that what is compared and relativized in this symposium are the methods of comparison and relativization themselves. He ventures that the contributors all hope that treating these terms in juxtaposition may allow for new configurations of inquiry. (shrink)

Texte 1. Ce qui est admirable, c’est la rapidité du voyage de Paris à Alger. […] [En] prenant le train rapide à 7h15 du soir à Paris, on arrive à Marseille le lendemain à 10h40, mais il faut toujours compter sur cinq minutes de retard, sur dix minutes pour le transbordement et la visite des bagages, on n’a donc que le temps de courir aux bureaux de la transatlantique, où l’on vous fait observer plus ou moins grincheusement que vous devez (...) prendre votre passage, deux heures avant le départ du p... (shrink)

Augustine is a particularly interesting author for anyone who wishes to question the topic of dualism, because of the diverse and complex way this topic is adressed in his writings. After having been listening to the Manichean as an “auditor” for almost ten years, he raised many critics against the manichean thesis ; but in spite of this critical position, several of his later opponents, from the Donatist and mostly from the Pelagian heresy, often reproached him to have remained a (...) crypto‑Manichean. This paper focuses on working out the original image Augustine had about the manicheism, as providing a coherent answer to some ethical and metaphysical problems, then as being nothing more than a false response he had to break with. This task will then lead us to question his potential residual manicheism, considering his controversy with Julian of Eclanum, in order to identify the arguments by which Julian supports the accusation of augustinian Manicheism, and to assess the extent to which this accusation is or is not admissible. (shrink)

An innovative, multifaceted approach to scientific experiments as designed by and shaped through interaction with the modeling process The role of scientific modeling in mediation between theories and phenomena is a critical topic within the philosophy of science, touching on issues from climate modeling to synthetic models in biology, high energy particle physics, and cognitive sciences. Offering a radically new conception of the role of data in the scientific modeling process as well as a new awareness of the problematic aspects (...) of data, this cutting-edge volume offers a multifaceted view on experiments as designed and shaped in interaction with the modeling process. Contributors address such issues as the construction of models in conjunction with scientific experimentation; the status of measurement and the function of experiment in the identification of relevant parameters; how the phenomena under study are reconceived when accounted for by a model; and the interplay between experimenting, modeling, and simulation when results do not mesh. Highlighting the mediating role of models and the model-dependence of data measurement, this volume proposes a normative and conceptual innovation in scientific modeling--that the phenomena to be investigated and modeled must not be precisely identified at the start but specified during the course of the interactions arising between experimental and modeling activities. Contributors: Nancy D. Cartwright, U of California, San Diego; Anthony Chemero, U of Cincinnati; Ronald N. Giere, U of Minnesota; Jenann Ismael, U of Arizona; Tarja Knuuttila, U of South Carolina; Andrea Loettgers, U of Bern, Switzerland; Deborah Mayo, Virginia Tech; Joseph Rouse, Wesleyan U; Paul Teller, U of California, Davis; Michael Weisberg, U of Pennsylvania; Eric Winsberg, U of South Florida. (shrink)

Depuis qu'elles existent, les sciences dites exactes se prétendent différentes des autres savoirs. Comment comprendre cette prétention? Faut-il, à la manière des épistémologues anglo-saxons ou de Karl Popper, tenter d'identifier les critères qui la justifient? Peut-on, suivant le modèle nouveau des études sociales des sciences, y voir une simple croyance? Ce livre propose un dépassement fructueux de l'opposition, apparemment irréconciliable, entre ces deux approches des sciences. Et si la tension entre objectivité scientifique et croyance était justement constitutive des sciences, enjeu (...) des pratiques inventées et réinventées par les scientifiques? Réussir à parler des sciences avec humour, sans en faire un objet de vénération, ni de dénonciation, en restant au plus proche de la passion des scientifiques, tel est ici le pari d'Isabelle Stengers. Mais ce livre ne se limite pas à un discours sur les sciences. Il s'agit bien plutôt de prolonger l'histoire de leur invention. Comment comprendre les liens multiples entre la science et les pouvoirs qui la mobilisent aujourd'hui? Comment concevoir les rapports entre science, expertise et démocratie? La nouveauté de L'invention des sciences modernes est de faire de ces différents problèmes intellectuels, pratiques et politiques les enjeux du processus par où pourrait s'inventer et se renouveler l'identité même des sciences. (shrink)

Dans le De fato, Alexandre construit une théorie péripatéticienne du destin et réfute les Stoïciens, partisans dune conception dure du destin. Par là il offre un document majeur sur le déterminisme dans lAntiquité. Louvrage montre comment lexégèse dAristote lui permet de proposer une conception nouvelle de la responsabilité.

Infants show impressive speech decoding abilities and detect acoustic regularities that highlight the syntactic relations of a language, often coded via non-adjacent dependencies. It has been claimed that infants learn NADs implicitly and associatively through passive listening and that there is a shift from effortless associative learning to a more controlled learning of NADs after the age of 2 years, potentially driven by the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. To investigate if older children are able to learn NADs, Lammertink et (...) al. recently developed a word-monitoring serial reaction time task and could show that 6–11-year-old children learned the NADs, as their reaction times increased then they were presented with violated NADs. In the current study we adapted their experimental paradigm and tested NAD learning in a younger group of 52 children between the age of 4–8 years in a remote, web-based, game-like setting. Children were exposed to Italian phrases containing NADs and had to monitor the occurrence of a target syllable, which was the second element of the NAD. After exposure, children did a “Stem Completion” task in which they were presented with the first element of the NAD and had to choose the second element of the NAD to complete the stimuli. Our findings show that, despite large variability in the data, children aged 4–8 years are sensitive to NADs; they show the expected differences in r RTs in the SRT task and could transfer the NAD-rule in the Stem Completion task. We discuss these results with respect to the development of NAD dependency learning in childhood and the practical impact and limitations of collecting these data in a web-based setting. (shrink)

A survey of the works that can be attributed with certainty to Arnoldus Saxo (Arnoldus Luca), fl. 1230-1260. List of the manuscripts. With edition (provisionnal) of the prologues of his works.

L’approche contrefactuelle désigne, pour les historiens, une forme particulière que peut prendre le récit historique ou la pratique de l’histoire. Raisonner contrefactuellement, dans ce cadre, c’est se demander ce qui se serait passé si la réalité avait été différente. Le plus souvent, il s’agit de supprimer en pensée un événement ou une réalité historique et de s’interroger sur les conséquences de cette suppression. Que se serait-il passé si Hitler était mort pendant la Première Guerre mondi..

L’ouvrage qui réunit 17 contributions d’une grande richesse couvrant les XIXe et XXe siècles est issu du colloque international « Construire les sciences de l’homme : quels rôles pour les femmes? » qui s’est tenu à Paris en 2001 sous l’égide de l’European Science Foundation. Les directrices du projet ont souhaité avant tout « Poser la question des rôles des femmes dans l’histoire des sciences de l’homme (pour) interroger d’une autre manière le problème d’un accès différencié au savoir et à (...) s... (shrink)

Proximity and interpersonal contact are prominent components of social connection. Giving affective touch to others is fundamental for human bonding. This brief report presents preliminary results from a pilot study. It explores if exposure to bonding scenes impacts the activity of specific muscles related to physical interaction. Fingers flexion is a very important component when performing most actions of affectionate contact. We explored the visuo-motor affective interplay by priming participants with bonding scenes and assessing the electromyographic activity of the fingers (...) flexor muscle, in the absence of any overt movements. Photographs of dyads in social interaction and of the same dyads not interacting were employed. We examined the effects upon the electromyographical activity: during the passive exposure to pictures, and during picture offset and when expecting the signal to perform a fingers flexion task. Interacting dyads compared to matched non-interacting dyads increased electromyographic activity of the fingers flexor muscle in both contexts. Specific capture of visual bonding cues at the level of visual cortex had been described in the literature. Here we showed that the neural processing of visual bonding cues reaches the fingers flexor muscle. Besides, previous visualization of bonding cues enhanced background electromyographic activity during motor preparation to perform the fingers flexion task, which might reflect a sustained leakage of central motor activity downstream leading to increase in firing of the respective motor neurons. These data suggest, at the effector level, an implicit visuo-motor connection in which social interaction cues evoke intrinsic dispositions toward affectionate social behavior. (shrink)

Cette etude est une analyse des uvres de Nietzsche (1878-1885) ayant trait non seulement a sa critique du christianisme en general et a son interpretation de la Mort de Dieu en particulier, mais aussi a l'elaboration de ses anti-ideals.

Peut-on, comme l'a pensé Sartre, construire une philosophie concrète qui répudie les abstractions de la métaphysique en étendant la réduction phénoménologique au domaine entier de l'expérience humaine? Et peut-on fonder une telle démarche sur l'évidence de l'existence, promue au rang de certitude apodictique? Pour conduire cette enquête il a été nécessaire d'examiner la conscience, le monde, autrui, l'expérience morale et la vie politique, en suivant l'ordre d'apparition de ces thèmes dans l'œuvre philosophique sartrienne qui, depuis la Transcendance de l'ego jusqu'à (...) la Critique de la raison dialectique, forme un système cohérent mais foncièrement paradoxal et par là même, déroutant. Les paradoxes Sartriens solidarisent des propositions contradictoires, désarticulent les réalités considérées et les privent de toute consistance ontologique pour les soumettre au pouvoir de la conscience ou de la praxis, définies comme de pures puissances de désagrégation. Sartre étend ainsi à toute sa construction philosophique une matrice logique : le chiasme, dégagé par sa première œuvre d'envergure, l'imaginaire, qui tient l'objet perçu et l'objet en image pour deux corrélats de la conscience, contradictoires mais solidaires et mutuellement dépendants. A partir de ce point, on voit se déployer tout le drame de la néontologie sartrienne qui subordonne l'être au néant, la réalité à l'image, l'actuel au virtuel et reconnaît dans la destruction de ce qui demeure, l'ivresse dyonisiaque de la liberté. Cet effort grandiose pour tramer la fiction au tissu du réel est pourtant, de l'aveu même de son auteur, voué à l'échec. La conscience, en dissociant l'être, engendre la figure de l'Autre qui fait inlassablement retour, comme une puissance maléfique, et reverse à l'aliénation toutes les conquêtes de la liberté. La malédiction qui pèse sur la condition humaine décourage l'effort, annihile l'espoir et nous condamne à cultiver ce que Marx nommait, en la raillant, la critique critique, en d'autres termes, à nous complaire en un quiétisme inquiet, transposition assombrie du scepticisme satisfait que Sartre reprochait à la génération de ses grands parents. (shrink)

It is assumed that social bonds in humans have consequences for virtually all aspects of behavior. Social touch-based contact, particularly hand caressing, plays an important role in social bonding. Pre-programmed neural circuits likely support actions (or predispositions to act) towards caressing contacts. We searched for pre-set motor substrates towards caressing by exposing volunteers to bonding cues and having them gently stroke a very soft cloth, a caress-like movement. The bonding cues were pictures with interacting dyads and the control pictures presented (...) non-interacting dyads. We focused on the readiness potential, an electroencephalographic marker of motor preparation that precedes movement execution. The amplitude of the readiness potential preceding the grasping of pleasant emotional-laden stimuli was previously shown to be reduced compared with neutral ones. Fingers flexor electromyography measured action output. The rationale here is that stroking the soft cloth when previously exposed to bonding cues, a compatible context, would result in smaller amplitudes of readiness potentials, as compared to the context with no such cues. Exposure to the bonding pictures increased subjective feelings of sociability and decreased feelings of isolation. Participants who more frequently engage in mutual caress/groom a “significant other” in daily life initiated the motor preparation earlier, reinforcing the caress-like nature of the task. As hypothesized, readiness potentials preceding the caressing of the soft cloth were significantly reduced under exposure to bonding as compared to control pictures. Furthermore, an increased fingers flexor electromyographic activity was identified under exposure to the former as compared to the latter pictures. The facilitatory effects are likely due to the recruitment of pre-set cortical motor repertoires related to caress-like movements, emphasizing the distinctiveness of neural signatures for caress-like movements. (shrink)

Open-mindedness appears as a potential intellectual virtue from the beginning of the rise of the literature on intellectual virtues. It often takes up a special role, sometimes thought of as a meta-virtue rather than a first-order virtue: as an ingredient that makes other virtues virtuous. Jason Baehr has attempted to give a unified account of open-mindedness as an intellectual virtue. He argues that the conceptual core of open-mindedness lies in the fact that a person departs, moves beyond, or transcends a (...) certain default cognitive standpoint. Two of his main aims are to show that (1) one does not need to assume a doxastic conflict or disagreement to be at the heart of open-mindedness—that is, there are also instances where the virtue of open-mindedness is needed when there is no opposing view to be considered—and (2) that not all forms of open-mindedness include rational assessment—that is, sometimes being open-minded is not about weighing evidence for and against a claim. So, his main aim is to show that there are various situations that afford open-mindedness, in each of which a slightly different kind of open-mindedness is called for. To unify all these different kinds of open-mindedness is then the goal of his work. He arrives at the following definition of open-mindedness (OM): an open-minded person is characteristically (a) willing and (within limits) able (b) to transcend a default cognitive standpoint (c) in order to take up or take seriously the merits of (d) a distinct cognitive standpoint. In this article, I take seriously Baehr’s suggestion of how to understand open-mindedness as an intellectual virtue and argue that the crux lies in formulating how we can be able to transcend a default cognitive standpoint. This is not as obvious as it has been taken to be in the literature on open-mindedness. Biases, overconfidence, and wishful thinking are difficult exactly because we don’t know that we are engaging in them. That is, they are systematically hidden from our consciousness, otherwise they would not be a bias, overconfidence, or wishful thinking. Hence, the crux of making open-mindedness open-minded is to see how it is possible to make something of one’s own mind visible that is systematically hidden from oneself. I argue that this problem can be solved by looking at research on attention. I base my considerations in this article on Sebastian Watzl’s account of attention, which essentially holds that paying attention is an activity of foregrounding and backgrounding mental contents. That is, attention is the activity of structuring mental contents into a priority structure of foreground and background. If I pay attention to the scene in front of me, I foreground the black letters on my screen, and I background the coffee cup next to them. In this way, I create a priority structure between the letters (as they appear to me) and the coffee cup (as it appears to me). I argue that what allows us to make something of our own mind visible that is systematically hidden from us is a special way of paying attention, hence a special way of foregrounding and backgrounding the involved mental contents. That is, the crux of what enables us to transcend a default cognitive standpoint, the conceptual core of open-mindedness, is a special kind of attention, which I will call ‘open-minded attention’ (OMA). The claim of this article is not that open-minded attention fully describes the virtue of open-mindedness (OMA is not sufficient for open-mindedness). Rather, what I try to show is that in all cases of open-mindedness it turns out that open-minded attention is the necessary component that ensures that we can indeed get rid of prior biases, that is, transcend also those implicit beliefs and expectations that are systematically hidden from us (OMA is necessary for open-mindedness). (shrink)

Well into the 1940s, many French biologists rejected both Mendelian genetics and Darwinism in favour of neo-transformism, the claim that evolution proceeds by the inheritance of acquired characteristics. In 1931 the zoologist Maurice Caullery published Le Problème d’évolution, arguing that, while Lamarckian mechanisms could not be demonstrated in the present, they had nevertheless operated in the past. It was in this context that Raymond Aron expressed anxiety about the relationship between biology, history, and human autonomy in his 1938 Introduction à (...) la philosophie de l’histoire: essai sur les limites de l’objectivité historique, in which he rejected both neo-Kantian and biological accounts of human history. Aron aspired to a philosophy of history that could explain the dual nature of human existence as fundamentally rooted in the biological, and at the same time, as a radical transcendence of natural law. I argue that Aron’s encounter with evolutionary theory at this moment of epistemic crisis in evolutionary theory was crucial to the formation of his philosophy of history, and moreover that this case study demonstrates the importance of moving beyond the methodological divisions between intellectual history and history of science. (shrink)

This article examines a group of interconnected texts written in bilingual version by Jean Gerson between 1405 and 1408, as an example of the impact that the exercise of introspection had on late- medieval doctrinal expression. Although writing both in Latin and in the vernacular is not unusual during the Middle French period, Gerson is one of the rare authors of this period to render a bilingual version of one and the same work. The letter he addressed to Philippe de (...) Mézières shortly before the latter’s death along with a collection of treatises on ars moriendi offer a privileged framework to examine the way bilingualism operates and the reasons leading to it. That the use of the vernacular responds to pastoral preoccupations regarding the laity is well attested in the Middle Ages; less obvious within a context of clerical elitism is the hypothesis according to which the vernacular responds to a penitential approach freed from all logic of subordination. In this perspective, the choice of the vernacular would be dictated by a discipline of introspection seeking moral perfection. (shrink)

RésuméLes querelles constituent une activité « routinière » plutôt qu’extra ordinaire du monde lettré et savant. Nous montrons ici qu’elles ont un rôle à jouer dans le domaine de la critique historique. Notre apport est double. En nous intéressant aux enjeux épistémologiques de l’écriture baylienne de la querelle, nous transposons sur le terrain de l’historiographie l’apport des études récentes sur la productivité des querelles scientifiques. Nous présentons une perspective nouvelle de compréhension des querelles comme activité structurante de la république des (...) lettres, tant sur le plan social qu’intellectuel. Ce faisant, nous prenons position dans le débat sur le « pyrrhonisme » historique de Bayle en montrant que les querelles sont centrales dans une démarche historio graphique consciente de ses limites comme de ses pouvoirs d’investigation. (shrink)

Résumé Les querelles constituent une activité « routinière » plutôt qu’extra ordinaire du monde lettré et savant. Nous montrons ici qu’elles ont un rôle à jouer dans le domaine de la critique historique. Notre apport est double. En nous intéressant aux enjeux épistémologiques de l’écriture baylienne de la querelle, nous transposons sur le terrain de l’historiographie l’apport des études récentes sur la productivité des querelles scientifiques. Nous présentons une perspective nouvelle de compréhension des querelles comme activité structurante de la république (...) des lettres, tant sur le plan social qu’intellectuel. Ce faisant, nous prenons position dans le débat sur le « pyrrhonisme » historique de Bayle en montrant que les querelles sont centrales dans une démarche historio graphique consciente de ses limites comme de ses pouvoirs d’investigation. (shrink)

La technique et la civilisation qu'elle commande sont, à notre époque, un important sujet de réflexion. Depuis quelques années, les sections techniques de l'enseignement du second degré, et des études supérieures, ont, à leur programme, quelques notions de philosophie. Cette mesure répond à une nécessité culturelle. Plus encore, elle satisfait un besoin et un droit des jeunes techniciens. Nul n'échappe aux grandes interrogations concernant la vérité et la certitude, la valeur et le bien, le droit et la justice, l'homme et (...) sa destinée, que la philosophie pose et éclaire. Cet ouvrage se limite à l'essentiel, c'est-à-dire aux questions concernant la connaissance, l'activité de l'homme, l'homme en société et la religion. Un manuel d'initiation simple et accessible pour les élèves, les étudiants mais aussi tous ceux qui, déjà engagés dans la vie professionnelle, souhaitent compléter leur formation philosophique. (shrink)

La volonté s’exerce, selon Augustin, soit comme usage soit comme jouissance de ce qu’elle vise. Ces deux modalités sont constitutives de la moralité d’une vie : la vertu chrétienne repose sur un usus mundi qui réfère le créé à Dieu, tandis que le péché consiste à jouir du créé. Que signifie cet « usage du monde »? Faut-il le prendre dans une acception instrumentale? Ce n’est manifestement pas ce que choisit Augustin à propos du rapport droit avec soi-même ou autrui. (...) Cette réserve est souvent analysée comme un effet de la seule prise en considération du statut particulier des êtres rationnels. Ici, on cherchera plutôt à y lire la complexité d’une relation qui, jusque dans le rapport aux corps, ne se borne pas à instrumentaliser le monde en vue de Dieu. (shrink)

L’interprétation de l’Antiquité gréco-latine que Michel Foucault développe dans ses derniers ouvrages publiés et ses derniers cours au Collège de France fait peu de place au néoplatonisme. L’Herméneutique du sujet, seul texte où il en soit question avec quelque attention, le présente comme un simple prolon­gement de la philosophie de Platon, relevant du « modèle platonicien » du souci de soi, que Foucault confronte aux modèles hellénistico-romain et chrétien. Pour­tant, c’est chez les commentateurs néoplatoniciens de l’Alcibiade que Foucault trouve certaines (...) distinctions, en particulier entre « politique » et « cathartique », qui fondent la construction de ces trois modèles et leur articulation. Ce rôle archi­tectonique des néoplatoniciens tardifs, par ailleurs, va de pair avec l’absence quasi totale d’un autre néoplatonisme, celui de Plotin, qui pourtant semblerait à pre­mière vue mieux trouver sa place dans une approche placée sous le signe des « exercices spirituels ». Le traitement du néoplatonisme est par là symptomatique de la lecture foucaldienne de l’histoire de la philosophie antique, qui se construit tout autant par ses exclusions que par ses focalisations. (shrink)