In a world surrounded by smart objects from sensors to automated medical devices, the ubiquity of ‘smart’ seems matched only by its lack of clarity. In this article, we use our discussions with expert stakeholders working in areas of implantable medical devices such as cochlear implants, implantable cardiac defibrillators, deep brain stimulators and in vivo biosensors to interrogate the difference facets of smart in ‘implantable smart technologies’, considering also whether regulation needs to respond to the autonomy that such artefacts carry (...) within them. We discover that when smart technology is deconstructed it is a slippery and multi-layered concept. A device’s ability to sense and transmit data and automate medicine can be associated with the ‘sting’ of autonomy being disassociated from human control as well as affecting individual, group, and social environments. (shrink)

In a world surrounded by smart objects from sensors to automated medical devices, the ubiquity of ‘smart’ seems matched only by its lack of clarity. In this article, we use our discussions with expert stakeholders working in areas of implantable medical devices such as cochlear implants, implantable cardiac defibrillators, deep brain stimulators and in vivo biosensors to interrogate the difference facets of smart in ‘implantable smart technologies’, considering also whether regulation needs to respond to the autonomy that such artefacts carry (...) within them. We discover that when smart technology is deconstructed it is a slippery and multi-layered concept. A device’s ability to sense and transmit data and automate medicine can be associated with the ‘sting’ of autonomy being disassociated from human control as well as affecting individual, group, and social environments. (shrink)

In the UK, the legal processes underpinning the procurement system for cadaveric organs for transplantation and research after death are under review. The review originated after media reports of hospitals, such as Alder Hey and Bristol, retaining organs after death without the full, informed consent of relatives. The organ procurement systems for research and transplantation are separate and distinct, but given that legal change will be applicable to both, some have argued now is the time to introduce alternative organ transplant (...) procurement systems such as presumed consent or incentive based schemes . Findings are reported in this paper from qualitative and quantitative research undertaken in Scotland in order to ascertain the public acceptability of different procurement systems. Nineteen in depth interviews carried out with donor families about their experiences of donating the organs of the deceased covered their views of organ retention, presumed consent, and financial incentives. This led onto a representative interview survey of 1009 members of the Scottish public. The originality of the triangulated qualitative and quantitative study offers exploration of alternative organ procurement systems from different “sides of the fence”. The findings suggest that the legal changes taking place are appropriate in clarifying the role of the family but can go further in strengthening the choice of the individual to donate. (shrink)

Suggests an open system of psychological exploration to cut through accepted norms of morality, language, and politics.

"Le projet le plus général de Nietzsche consiste en ceci : introduire en philosophie les concepts de sens et de valeur. Nietzsche n'a jamais caché que la philosophie du sens et des valeurs dut être une critique. Que Kant n'ait pas mené la vraie critique, parce qu'il n'a pas su en poser le problème en termes de valeurs, tel est même un des mobiles principaux de l'oeuvre de Nietzsche". Cette analyse rigoureuse et critique de la philosophie de Nietzsche est une (...) lumineuse introduction à l'oeuvre d'un philosophe trop souvent réduit au nihilisme, à la volonté de puissance et l'image du surhomme. Gilles Deleuze remarque que "la philosophie moderne présente des amalgames, qui témoignent de sa vigueur et de sa vivacité, mais qui comportent aussi des dangers pour l'esprit" et que la force du projet philosophique de Nietzsche dans le "dépassement" de la métaphysique est "de dénoncer toutes les mystifications qui trouvent dans la dialectique un dernier refuge. La philosophie de Nietzsche a une grande portée polémique". (shrink)

"Gill's and Ryan's Parmenides is, simply, superb: the Introduction, more than a hundred pages long, is transparently clear, takes the reader meticulously through the arguments, avoids perverseness, and still manages to make sense of the dialogue as a whole; there is a fine selective bibliography; and those parts of the translation I have looked at in detail suggest that it too is very good indeed." --Christopher Rowe, _Phronesis_.

Machine generated contents note: -- Preface to the English edition \ Translators' Introduction \Preface to the French Edition \ 1. Theses on Movement: First Commentary onBergson \ 2. Frame and Short, Framing and Cutting \ 3. Montage \ 4. TheMovement-Image and its Three Varieties: Second Commentary on Bergson \ 5. ThePerception-Image \ 6. The Affection-Image Face and Close-Up \ 7. TheAffection-Image: Qualities, Powers, Any-Space-Whatevers \ 8. From Affect toAction: The Impulse Image \ 9. The Action-Image: The Large Form \ 10. (...) The Action-Image:The Small Form \ 11. Figures, or the Transformation of Forms \ 12. The Crisisof the Action-Image \ Glossary \ Notes \ Index. (shrink)

Praised for its rare combination of scholarly rigor and imaginative interpretation, _Nietzsche and Philosophy_ has long been recognized as one of the most important analyses of Nietzsche. It is also one of the best introductions to Deleuze's thought, establishing many of his central philosophical positions. In _Nietzsche and Philosophy_, Deleuze identifies and explores three crucial concepts in Nietzschean thought-multiplicity, becoming, and affirmation-and clarifies Nietzsche's views regarding the will to power, eternal return, nihilism, and difference. For Deleuze, Nietzsche challenged conventional philosophical (...) ideas and provided a means of escape from Hegel's dialectical thinking, which had come to dominate French philosophy. He also offered a path toward a politics of difference. In this new edition, Michael Hardt's foreword examines the profound influence of Deleuze's provocative interpretations on the study of Nietzsche, which opened a whole new avenue in postwar thought. (shrink)

This paper addresses the criticism recently directed at Internet companies who have chosen to do business in China. Currently, in order to conduct business in China, companies must agree to the Chinese government’s rule of self-censoring any information the government deems inappropriate. We start by explaining how some of these companies have violated the human rights of Chinese citizens to freely trade information. We then analyze whether the justifications and excuses offered by these companies are sufficient to absolve them of (...) moral responsibility. We argue that both justifications and excuses offered are insufficient. Wilfully abiding by unjust laws, albeit necessary to do business in China, should not trump moral actions that protect rights. (shrink)

This paper addresses the criticism recently directed at Internet companies who have chosen to do business in China. Currently, in order to conduct business in China, companies must agree to the Chinese government's rule of self-censoring any information the government deems inappropriate. We start by explaining how some of these companies have violated the human rights of Chinese citizens to freely trade information. We then analyze whether the justifications and excuses offered by these companies are sufficient to absolve them of (...) moral responsibility. We argue that both justifications and excuses offered are insufficient. Wilfully abiding by unjust laws, albeit necessary to do business in China, should not trump moral actions that protect rights. (shrink)

‘A rare and remarkable book.’ Times Literary SupplementGilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. He is a key figure in poststructuralism, and one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century.F\’elix Guattari (1930-1992) was a psychoanalyst at the la Borde Clinic, as well as being a major social theorist and radical activist. A Thousand Plateaus is part of Deleuze and Guattari’s landmark philosophical project, Capitalism and Schizophrenia - a project that still sets the (...) terms of contemporary philosophical debate. A Thousand Plateaus provides a compelling analysis of social phenomena and offers fresh alternatives for thinking about philosophy and culture. Its radical perspective provides a toolbox for ‘nomadic thought’ and has had a galvanizing influence on today’s anti-capitalist movement.Translated by Brian Massumi>. (shrink)

This article proposes an interpretation of the chapters of theNicomachean Ethicsconcerning exchange and friendship. Rejecting approaches where Aristotle anticipates modern labour or need-based theories of value, the article claims that those notions of labour and need are required for a satisfactory interpretation of the most obscure passages of Book V. Finally, Aristotle's texts on exchange and friendship are related in such a way that the latter, since it is free from any political considerations, allows us to better understand the philosopher's (...) view on exchange. (shrink)

La philosophie théorique de Spinoza est une des tentatives les plus radicales pour constituer une ontologie pure : une seule substance absolument infinie, avec tous les attributs, les êtres n'étant que des manières d'être de cette substance. Mais pourquoi une telle ontologie s'appelle-t-elle Ethique? Quel rapport y a-t-il entre la grande proposition spéculative et les propositions pratiques qui ont fait le scandale du spinozisme? L'éthique est la science pratique des manières d'être. C'est une éthologie, non pas une morale. L'opposition de (...) l'éthique avec la morale, le lien des propositions éthiques avec la proposition ontologique, sont l'objet de ce livre qui présente, de ce point de vue, un dictionnaire des principales notions de Spinoza. D'où vient la place très particulière de Spinoza, la façon dont il concerne immédiatement le non-philosophe autant que le philosophe? (shrink)

Until recently, cognitive science focused on such mental functions as problem solving, grammar, and pattern-the functions in which the human mind most closely resembles a computer. But humans are more than computers: we invent new meanings, imagine wildly, and even have ideas that have never existed before. Today the cutting edge of cognitive science addresses precisely these mysterious, creative aspects of the mind.The Way We Think is a landmark analysis of the imaginative nature of the mind. Conceptual blending is already (...) widely known in research laboratories throughout the world; this book, written to be accessible to both lay readers and interested scientists, is its definitive statement. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner show that conceptual blending is the root of the cognitively modern human mind, and that conceptual blends themselves are continually combined and reblended to create the rich mental fabric in which we live.The Way We Think shows how this blending operates; how it is affected by (and gives rise to) language, identity, culture, and invention; and how we imagine what could be and what might have been. The result is a bold and exciting new view of how the mind works. (shrink)

Many terminally ill patients perceive themselves to be a burden to loved ones who care for them. The self-perception of being a burden can play a significant role in terminal patients’ decisions to take courses of action, such as ceasing life-sustaining treatment or requesting physician-assisted suicide, that hasten death. I will use the term ‘burden-based decision’ as a shorthand for cases in which a terminal patient’s perception that she is a burden to her loved ones influences her decision to hasten (...) death. When should we view a terminal patient’s inclination to make a burden-based decision to be an ethical problem or a failure of treatment? And when should we view it to be an acceptable response rather than a problem or failure? I argue here that such decisions are acceptable more often than many who write on this topic imply. (shrink)

Avec Hume, l'empirisme ne se définit plus essentiellement par l'origine sensible des idées. Il développe trois problèmes, les relations, les cas, les illusions. D'une part, les relations sont toujours extérieures à leurs termes, et dépendent de principes d'association qui en déterminent l'établissement et l'exercice (croyance). D'autre part, ces principes d'association n'agissent qu'en fonction des passions, pour indiquer des "cas" dans un monde de la culture ou du droit : c'est tout l'associationnisme qui est au service d'une pratique du droit, de (...) la politique et de l'économie (suffit-il, pour devenir propriétaire d'une cité abandonnée, de lancer un javelot sur la porte, ou faut-il toucher la porte du doigt?). Enfin, de telles règles de légitimité des relations peuvent-elles être séparées des fictions, des croyances illégitimes qui les accompagnent ou les doublent? Si bien que la philosophie est moins critique des erreurs que dénonciation des illusions inévitables. Dans tous ces domaines, l'empirisme opère la substitution de la croyance pratique au savoir, dans une entreprise athée qui consiste à naturaliser la croyance. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Functives and Concepts.

A posthumous collection of writings by Deleuze, including letters, youthful essays, and an interview, many previously unpublished. Letters and Other Texts is the third and final volume of the posthumous texts of Gilles Deleuze, collected for publication in French on the twentieth anniversary of his death. It contains several letters addressed to his contemporaries (Michel Foucault, Pierre Klossowski, François Châtelet, and Clément Rosset, among others). Of particular importance are the letters addressed to Félix Guattari, which offer an irreplaceable account of (...) their work as a duo from Anti-Oedipus to What is Philosophy? Later letters provide a new perspective on Deleuze's work as he responds to students' questions. his volume also offers a set of unpublished or hard-to-find texts, including some essays from Deleuze's youth, a few unusual drawings, and a long interview from 1973 on Anti-Oedipus with Guattari. (shrink)

The flames of Alexandria continue to rage. After twenty centuries, they still dazzle us, as though the Mouseion were the only massacred library. One would believe that Julius Caesar, Theophilus of Antioch and Omar (the three pyromaniacs, the pagan, the Christian and the Moslem) had had no predecessors or imitators. But the race of incendiaries is as numerous as the waves of the sea. It is monotonous, it is indestructible, it is equal to that of the ants. It was born (...) at the same time as the first Babylonian tablets. In 1988, it continues its work. All over the world and in all times, the incendiaries were there with their torches. They burned parchments, wood or clay tablets, leather manuscripts, papyrus or folios. The same warriors who profaned temples set fire to incunabula. The same ones who slaughtered the Aztecs threw their firebrands into the collection of codices. What is it, this unleashed fury of prince and priest, judge and soldier against these small monuments of clay or paper, against these sepulchres in which the dead say that they have lived and loved, suffered and hoped? (shrink)

Examines the philosophy of Henri Bergson, explains his concepts of duration, memory, and elan vital, and discusses the influence of science on Bergson.

Dans cet essai, Gilles Deleuze entreprend une analyse de la méthode philosophique employée par Kant dans ses trois grands livres, Critique de la raison pure, Critique de la raison pratique, Critique du jugement. " Il nous suffit de retenir le principe d'une thèse essentielle de la Critique en général : il y a des intérêts de la raison qui diffèrent en nature. Ces intérêts forment un système organique et hiérarchisé qui est celui des fins de l'être raisonnable. " Mais, précise (...) Gilles Deleuze, " une faculté législatrice ne supprime pas tout emploi des autres facultés... Suivant chaque Critique, l'entendement, la raison, l'imagination entreront clans des rapports divers sous la présidence d'une de ces facultés. ". (shrink)

Introduction. Exister, c'est être seul -- 1. Conformisme et aristocratisme -- 2. Penser et lire -- 3. Communauté et économie -- 4. De la politique à l'enseignement -- 5. Des degrés de communauté -- 6. L'épreuve du collectif -- 7. Du "je" au "nous" -- 8. Une communauté à deux? -- 9. Le collectif en conflit -- 10. Ennemis et adversaires -- Conclusion. Quelques-uns.

Of fundamental importance to literary critics and philosophers, Difference and Repetition develops two central concepts -- pure difference and complex ...

A critical examination of the figure of Oedipus in psychoanalysis and Western culture as it relates to the history of society and capitalism.

Pour un artiste ou un chercheur, s'emparer du problème de l'extériorité revient à se confronter à une relation aporétique au monde, aux choses, aux êtres et à son oeuvre. Poser la question de l'extériorité est irréductible à toute tentative de définition et contradictoire avec le désir d'en délimiter les contours, car ces tentatives dévitaliseraient l'idée même d'extériorité. Entrer dans le sillage de l'extériorité ou se lancer sur sa piste c'est alors accepter l'épreuve de l'autre. Cette expérience réintroduit à l'égard du (...) monde et des hommes une possibilité d'ouverture à l'imprévisible, à l'innommable et à l'inconnaissable. Elle expose la temporalité à l'accueil de l'inattendu et de la surprise. Cette épreuve de l'autre ne réduit pas l'autre moi-même à l'anonymat, elle lie le chercheur, l'artiste et tout homme à un autre dont il est impossible d'être quitte. (shrink)

Deleuze and Guattari differentiate between philosophy, science, and the arts - seeing each as a means of confronting chaos - and challenge the common view that philosophy is an extension of logic. The authors also discuss the similarities and distinctions between creative and philosophical writing. Fresh anecdotes from the history of philosophy illuminate this book, along with engaging discussions of composers, painters, writers, and architects.

Les textes de Benny Lévy restent méconnus, car l'image que l'on a de lui fait obstacle à leur lecture. Ecartant cette image, nous nous en tiendrons à sa manière si singulière de lire les textes, quels qu'ils fussent, de leur donner vie. Qu'un texte puisse, grâce à la voix qui le porte et le déplie, grâce au travail, acharné et patient, de la lecture qui en explore les articulations les plus manifestes mais aussi les plus secrètes, parler à chacun en (...) propre, l'atteindre en son point sensible : telle est la vie dont nous parlons, plus forte que la mort qui menace tous les textes. Car la voix risque de disparaître dans l'épaisseur même des lettres ; les textes réifiés de perdre leur pouvoir de dire. Re-susciter la voix au coeur de la lettre, faire retentir son grain, son souffle, son amplitude et ses nuances : telle doit être l'ambition d'une véritable lecture. Pour Benny Lévy, la pensée fut indissociable d'un tel travail de lecture, l'amenant à reprendre à neuf les textes, à en renouveler la compréhension. Cette puissance de lecture produisit dans son geste de pensée cinq exigences qui guideront notre réflexion : réformer la pensée, sortir du politique, penser l'universel autrement, faire retour au Nom, produire, enfin, des événements de lecture. (shrink)

Mental Spaces is the classic introduction to the study of mental spaces and conceptual projection, as revealed through the structure and use of language. It examines in detail the dynamic construction of connected domains as discourse unfolds. The discovery of mental space organization has modified our conception of language and thought: powerful and uniform accounts of superficially disparate phenomena have become available in the areas of reference, presupposition projection, counterfactual and analogical reasoning, metaphor and metonymy, and time and aspect in (...) discourse. The present work lays the foundation for this research. It uncovers simple and general principles that lie behind the awesome complexity of everyday logic. (shrink)