We all know that doctors accept gifts from drug companies, ranging from pens and coffee mugs to free vacations at luxurious resorts. But as the former Editor-in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine reveals in this shocking expose, these innocuous-seeming gifts are just the tip of an iceberg that is distorting the practice of medicine and jeopardizing the health of millions of Americans today. In On the Take, Dr. Jerome Kassirer offers an unsettling look at the pervasive payoffs that (...) physicians take from big drug companies and other medical suppliers, arguing that the billion-dollar onslaught of industry money has deflected many physicians' moral compasses and directly impacted the everyday care we receive from the doctors and institutions we trust most. Underscored by countless chilling untold stories, the book illuminates the financial connections between the wealthy companies that make drugs and the doctors who prescribe them. Kassirer details the shocking extent of these financial enticements and explains how they encourage bias, promote dangerously misleading medical information, raise the cost of medical care, and breed distrust. Among the questionable practices he describes are: the disturbing number of senior academic physicians who have financial arrangements with drug companies; the unregulated "front" organizations that advocate certain drugs; the creation of biased medical education materials by the drug companies themselves; and the use of financially conflicted physicians to write clinical practice guidelines or to testify before the FDA in support of a particular drug. A brilliant diagnosis of an epidemic of greed, On the Take offers insight into how we can cure the medical profession and restore our trust in doctors and hospitals. (shrink)

In 1959 C. P. Snow delivered his now-famous Rede Lecture, 'The Two Cultures,' a reflection on the academy based on the premise that intellectual life was divided into two cultures: the arts and humanities on one side and science on the other. Since then, a third culture, generally termed 'social science' and comprised of fields such as sociology, political science, economics, and psychology, has emerged. Jerome Kagan's book describes the assumptions, vocabulary, and contributions of each of these cultures and argues (...) that the meanings of many of the concepts used by each culture are unique to it and do not apply to the others because the source of evidence for the term is special. The text summarizes the contributions of the social sciences and humanities to our understanding of human nature and questions the popular belief that biological processes are the main determinant of variation in human behavior. (shrink)

This article summarizes the main themes in the book What is Emotion? by Jerome Kagan (Yale University Press, 2007). The issues considered include: (1) the advantage of studying each phase of the cascade that begins with a brain reaction to an incentive and ends with an appraisal of a feeling state and/or a behavioral reaction; (2) distinguishing among appraisals with different origins; (3) replacing the current concern with consequences with more attention to the features of the brain and feeling states; (...) (4) a recognition of the weak relation between the language used to describe a feeling and both the underlying brain profile and a response; and (5) the reasons for variation in the feelings evoked by an incentive and for the appraisals of the feelings. (shrink)

Recently, "Religious Studies" published an article by Richard Gale and Alexander Pruss, arguing that there exists a necessary being who is a creator of the world. Building on their argument, I argue that, assuming that there is exactly one creator, that creator is essentially omnipotent.

There exists a diversity of "evidence-free" religions, contradicting one an- other. There will be an epistemic problem for a religious devotee either because evidence-free belief is in general not epistemically justified in the face of diversity, or because of a special problem in the religious case. I argue that in general evidence-free belief is epistemically justified in the face of diversity. Then I argue that recent arguments of Wykstra and Basinger fail to show that there is a special problem in (...) the religious case. Finally, I give reasons why religious belief is epistemically justified in the face of diversity. (shrink)

In this chapter, I put aside typical arguments from experienced evil to the belief that God does not exist. Instead, in the first section, my focus is on how experiences of evil provide epistemic support for atheism by analogy with the ways philosophers have claimed experiences allegedly of God provide support for theistic belief. In the second section, I will sketch other ways in which atheism gets support when a person experiences evil, ways not analogous to how philosophers have thought (...) of theistic experience but yet not arguments from experience of evil. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 9.2 (2002) 159-160 [Access article in PDF] The Nine Lives of the Dynamic Unconscious Jerome Kroll IN THEIR PROVOCATIVE ARTICLE "Dispensing with the Dynamic Unconscious," O'Brien and Jureidini offer two basic arguments against the existence or, more accurately, because we are dealing here with constructs, the plausibility, of the dynamic unconscious. First, they assert, in contradistinction to the psychoanalytic claim that evidence of a cognitive (...) unconscious supports the claim for a dynamic unconscious, that the notion of a cognitive unconscious is incompatible with that of a dynamic unconscious. Second, they argue on the grounds of parsimony that the phenomena explained by a dynamic unconscious can be better explained (accounted for) by other mechanisms.I would argue that neither of their contentions is correct. O'Brien and Jureidini have essentially taken data and evidence from cognitive science, issued a new vocabulary, and then asserted that their vocabulary is superior and constitutes better explanations for the phenomena and observations under question. They have failed to show any incompatibility between the two explanatory constructs. O'Brien and Jureidini agree with the basic Freudian tenet that most mental activity is unconscious, that is, out of consciousness, and that much of what is out of consciousness can be brought into consciousness with proper cueing. No problem so far.The problem with the dynamic unconscious, as O'Brien and Jureidini see it, is that the cognitive unconscious is modular, best described as a series of subpersonal systems akin to a set of narrowly focused computational specialists, whereas the dynamic unconscious contains fully formed repressed memories. What O'Brien and Jureidini have now given us are multiple homunculi rather than just one CEO or executive homunculus. How literally do we want to take these subpersons? Are subpersonal mental states more satisfactory scientifically than personal-level mental states? Second, O'Brien and Jureidini unfairly attribute to the psychoanalytic position the claim that the dynamic unconscious "is presumed to contain fully formed repressed memories." With the compelling evidence from psychology and neuroscience that all memory is a reconstruction, I do not think that any contemporary psychodynamicist makes a case for fully formed repressed memories, nor is this notion essential to a theory of a dynamic unconscious. O'Brien and Jureidini invoke Occam's razor by invoking a straw horse argument. Their description of the action of subpersonal parts doing sufficient specific cuing sounds suspiciously like the work done in the dynamic unconscious. In the next section, an emotional response is described as pushing images out of mind before they can be reported on (assumedly, before they become conscious). What is doing the pushing here? Upon what principles or priorities are images pushed out of mind?The authors explain that mental "representations are inaccessible to consciousness by virtue [End Page 159] of architectural constraints rather than the operation of a repressive force." But architectural constraints sounds like another way of describing neural facilitation and inhibition. Certainly most neural activity, perhaps all, involves facilitation and inhibition of signals at multiple synapses. Repression is just a psychological construct to describe what the processes of facilitation and inhibition bring about in terms of meaningful mental activity. While we are on the topic of choice of words, the repeated description of the dynamic unconscious as subterranean is an inflammatory locution designed to rally opposition to the notion. The cognitive unconscious is equally subterranean.To look further into the supposed superiority of explanation via the cognitive unconscious, we see that O'Brien and Jureidini attribute the following processes to the cognitive unconscious: evaluation, decision making, editing out, filling in, reconstruction, and reconfiguration. But what are the bases of these processes? What guides or influences the way ideas, images, and emotions are reconstructed and reconfigured? It does not appear to be done randomly. When the reconstructive narrative becomes "significantly distorted" because the memory to be retrieved is fraught with distress, what accounts for the shape of the distortion and what (dare we say who?) recognizes that a memory is about to be distressing? We may all be unhappy with the notion of a dynamic unconscious... (shrink)

Les Annales ont tracé, depuis leurs débuts dans les années 1930, des frontières avec la sociologie. L’étude de trois moments majeurs (l’ère des fondateurs, le moment Braudel et la décennie 1980) permet de saisir le travail d ‘horographie comme un enjeu sans cesse actualisé dans les rapports de force institutionnels et épistémologiques. L’identité collective des Annales, émergeant dans ces débats de délimitation avec la sociologie, s’appuie sur un réseau de valeurs et de références continuellement ajusté.

L’homme est un animal extraordinaire selon Platon, mais il est bien un animal. Il faut donc maîtriser et domestiquer l’animalité de l’homme. Le cas de l’alimentation montre l’importance des pulsions animales en l’homme. L’animal n’est pas l’autre de l’homme, mais l’une de ses possibilités.

RésuméLes observatoires occidentaux se transforment en véritable usine scientifique à partir du milieu du 19e siècle. L'astrométrie symbolise ce passage à une économie industrieuse des pratiques scientifiques. Le chronographe imprimant, qui permet de réduire les équations personnelles des observateurs, s'impose, d'abord aux Etats-Unis, puis en Angleterre, en instrument-emblème de cette transformation profonde. En France, les initiatives de l'astronome Liais restent prototypiques. Ce n'est qu'au début du 20e siècle, par les voies détournées de l'observatoire d'Hendaye et de l'abbé Verschaffel, que le (...) chronographe imprimant fait son retour et conquiert les espaces savants. La centralisation excessive de l'astronomie française, l'autoritarisme du directeur de l'Observatoire de Paris Urbain Le Verrier, et la faiblesse du marché des instruments expliquent pourquoi le chronographe imprimant n'a fait souche que très tardivement en France. (shrink)

This paper addresses two disciplinary expansion trends in social sciences: in sociology, by denying the distinction between human and non-human; in archaeology, relying on the objet-mémoire concept, which associates the ideas of social interaction and memory processes. We discuss them from an ethnographic study of the ordinary containers in a biology laboratory. The signs, drawn or engraved on their surface, are a proxy for a joint analysis of artifacts, textuality, institutionalization processes, and social stratification. Rather than such disciplinary expansions, we (...) argue in favor of an ethnography based on the “cultural technology” trend. ---------------------- Cet article identifie deux programmes d’extension disciplinaire en sciences sociales, fondés sur une redéfinition du statut accordé aux objets : en sociologie, en niant la distinction entre humain et non‑humain ; en archéologie, en introduisant le concept d’« objet‑mémoire », qui intègre l’interaction sociale et les processus mémoriels. Leur discussion est menée à partir d’une ethnographie des contenants usuels d’un laboratoire de biologie. Les marques apposées à leurs surfaces permettent l’analyse conjointe des ensembles d’artefacts, de leur textualité, des processus d’institutionnalisation et de la stratification sociale du laboratoire. Aux ambitions expansionnistes, on oppose une ethnographie des techniques fondée sur la technologie culturelle. (shrink)

This article explores the plurivocality of temporalities that is at work in contemporary management. The aim is to understand the relationship that a century-old industrial company has with temporality. Based on a longitudinal case study and a series of interviews conducted within the family business Fleury Michon, the article identifies the discursive mobilizations of different temporalities specific to contemporary capitalism. The logics of the long term are required as constitutive elements of the company. In a presentist regime, these temporalities interact, (...) clash and sometimes oppose each other. One of the challenges of management is to produce both a possible conciliation of these temporalities and an euphemization of the power relations that they cannot conceal. (shrink)

L’œuvre de Michel Leiris est autobiographique de part en part. Pour interroger les spécificités de se dire-soi continu, l’article entreprend de saisir les deux formes qui sous-tendent l’écriture leirisienne dans les ouvrages et les journaux de l’ethnologue. C’est d’abord la strate qui émerge, comme principe de l’accumulation faisant des écrits successifs des sédiments dans lesquels Leiris vient saisir les lignes de force d’un sens qui ne se donne qu’après coup pour comprendre sa propre existence. Ensuite, c’est le cercle, ce retour (...) à soi dans un temps toujours recommencé par le désir d’épuiser l’écriture. Finalement, la strate et le cercle s’enchâsse dans la structure homérique de la chaîne et doit à voir ce qui construit l’œuvre de Leiris en récit épique. (shrink)

ArgumentSpace projects represent, after World War II, the archetype of large-scale organization of scientific practices that are flexible, temporary, and oriented towards specific goals. A new form of activity, the project, emerged through the management of technical means, allocation of skills, and coordination of various players. Project management emerged as the synthesis of a set of social practices designed to subordinate as well as synchronize the initiatives of researchers, engineers, and technicians who had temporarily joined forces. This article presents the (...) genesis and deployment of the Franco-Soviet space program ARCAD 3 whose purpose was to study the magnetosphere with a satellite. This study is situated at the junction of three historiographical dimensions: scientific writings, links between action and graphic forms, and Big Science. The diagrams, organization charts and schedules produced by the French space agency throughout the entire project form the documentary substrata of this analysis. These graphic management tools define the role of each player, designate fields of competence, and specify the temporality of actions. A self-monitoring system as well as surveillance instrument, diagrams, organization charts and schedules are linked to form a certain vision of authority along the lines of the “neoliberal governmentality” defined by Michel Foucault. By defining in advance and in writing all the possible (or impossible) relationships, the chronological order of activities as well as the actions to be performed, graphic project management tools contribute to the transfer of coercive panoptic mechanisms towards a minimal organization of relationships between individuals. (shrink)

Cet entretien réalisé avec une personne transsexuelle Male to Female témoigne de l’impact que la transformation physique du corps peut avoir sur la perception de Soi. Si les catégories de sexe et de genre paraissent, aux observateurs que nous sommes, bien distinctes, naturalisées et, de ce fait, « allant de soi », l’itinéraire d’un androgyne montre, au contraire, qu’elles s’imposent à un certain moment de la vie – ici après la trentaine – après avoir été tenues pour insignifiantes. Il montre (...) aussi combien leurs chevauchements sont complexes et s’articulent, souvent mal, avec des pratiques sexuelles présumées féminines ou masculines. Avec sa dimension intimiste, le témoignage proposé pose directement la question du rapport à l’autre : pour qui change-t-on de sexe? Le poids du regard d’autrui parait primordial, davantage que le sentiment de Soi qui, semble-t-il, s’accommode très facilement des discordances entre genre, sexe et sexualité. Le témoignage de Sandrine montre également comment une construction identitaire subjective de « femme », y compris en termes de sexualité, peut entièrement s’appuyer sur une expérience de vie en tant qu’« homme », fût-il androgyne. (shrink)

Cet entretien réalisé avec une personne transsexuelle Male to Female témoigne de l’impact que la transformation physique du corps peut avoir sur la perception de Soi. Si les catégories de sexe et de genre paraissent, aux observateurs que nous sommes, bien distinctes, naturalisées et, de ce fait, « allant de soi », l’itinéraire d’un androgyne montre, au contraire, qu’elles s’imposent à un certain moment de la vie – ici après la trentaine – après avoir été tenues pour insignifiantes. Il montre (...) aussi combien leurs chevauchements sont complexes et s’articulent, souvent mal, avec des pratiques sexuelles présumées féminines ou masculines. Avec sa dimension intimiste, le témoignage proposé pose directement la question du rapport à l’autre : pour qui change-t-on de sexe? Le poids du regard d’autrui parait primordial, davantage que le sentiment de Soi qui, semble-t-il, s’accommode très facilement des discordances entre genre, sexe et sexualité. Le témoignage de Sandrine montre également comment une construction identitaire subjective de « femme », y compris en termes de sexualité, peut entièrement s’appuyer sur une expérience de vie en tant qu’« homme », fût-il androgyne. (shrink)

Est « ego » qui dit « ego »É. Benveniste Si la philosophie est un discours sur la totalité qui en cherche la rationalité, les modalités d’existence et, parfois, la justification ou le fondement, le « je » empirique du philosophe qui écrit et qui signe l’un des mille et un textes formant « la » philosophie dans son histoire et sa variété est en tension entre l’affirmation pleine et entière d’un ego qui assume ses propos et s’y investit pl...

Platon, dans les Lois, renonce au vocabulaire des « parties de l’âme » et souligne l’unité de l’activité psychique humaine: nous sommes mus de l’extérieur, comme une marionnette par des fils (I, 644c-645a). Comment comprendre la mollesse de l’or et la dureté du fer dont il est alors question? Y a-t-il nécessairement conflit entre ces différentes impulsions?

L’univers de Lucrèce (la summarum summa) est fragile. Hormis les agrégats divins dans les inter-mondes, tout y est mortel : l’âme humaine, le corps, le monde et les étoiles. Le sage cherche cependant une stabilité qu’il ne peut fonder sur un Principe unique, Bien, Premier moteur ou Providence de Zeus : il cherche donc des fondations pour que le bonheur soit possible au sein des moenia mundi, des « murailles du monde ». Comment comprendre cette image et plus généralement la (...) place de l’architecture dans le De natura rerum? sur quoi repose l’ataraxie du sage? (shrink)