Cet article analyse la contribution des études des sciences et des techniques à la compréhension de la fabrique de l’expertise. L’originalité des STS tient à un postulat central : l’autonomie et la pureté de la science ne sont pas des propriétés intrinsèques de cette activité mais le résultat d’un travail de démarcation inscrit dans les pratiques des acteurs et dans les dispositifs institutionnels. Partant, les STS sont particulièrement bien positionnées pour analyser l’expertise comme « technologie de pouvoir », ce qui (...) correspond à un premier volet de leur contribution. L’article aborde aussi la contribution des STS à la thématique de la démocratisation de l’expertise et vise à clarifier un débat qui a été souvent abordé de façon trop caricaturale.This article analyses the contribution of Science and Technology Studies to our understanding of the way expert knowledge is produced. The originality of STS lies in its central assumption that independence and integrity are not intrinsic properties of scientific activity but the result of a process of delimitation which is inherent to scientific practice and its institutional systems, and which therefore makes STS particularly well placed to analyse expertise as a “technology of power”. This is their first contribution, but the article also addresses the contribution of STS to the democratisation of expert knowledge, and attempts to shed light on a debate that is often raised in terms that are overcaricatured. (shrink)

Participatory Technology Assessment initiatives have usually been analyzed as if they existed in a social and political vacuum. This article analyzes the linkages that occur, in both directions, between the microcosm set up by a pTA exercise and the real world outside. This dual-dynamics perspective leads to a new way of understanding the function and significance of pTA initiatives. Rather than viewing them as a means to create the ideal conditions for real public debate, they are viewed here as an (...) additional public arena in which sociotechnical controversies are played out. This perspective is developed from the analysis of an interactive technology assessment exercise conducted by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, on the topic of genetically modified vines. (shrink)

The paper investigates how field experimentation of genetically modified crops became central to the French controversy on genetically modified organisms in recent years. Initially constructed in the 1980s as a cognitive endeavor to be preserved from lay interference, field trials of genetically modified crops were reconceived as “an intrusion in the social space,” which had to be negotiated with actors from that space. In order to analyze this transformation, the authors suggest that it is necessary to develop an interpretive framework (...) that combines theoretical perspectives from science and technology studies and the sociology of social problems, and emphasizes the importance of the way in which actors compete in a heterogeneous public space, to put forward alternative framings of problems. The authors present a detailed analysis of the interactions and conflicts between actors in diverse social arenas in order to better understand the dynamics of this sociotechnical controversy. (shrink)

CpG islands (CGIs) are regions enriched in the dinucleotide CpG; they constitute the promoter of about 60% of mammalian genes. In cancer cells, some promoter‐associated CGIs become heavily methylated on cytosines, and the corresponding genes undergo stable transcriptional silencing. Hypermethylated CGIs attract methyl‐CpG‐binding proteins (MBPs), which have been shown to recruit chromatin modifiers and cause transcriptional repression. These observations have led to the prevalent model that methyl‐CpG‐binding proteins are promoter‐proximal transcriptional repressors. Recent discoveries challenge this idea and raise a number (...) of questions. Here we discuss the following issues: what are other possible roles for the known MBPs? Why are these proteins not essential in mammals? Are there other MBPs left to discover? Could CpG methylation be nonessential? (shrink)

Is thinking necessarily linguistic? Do we think with words, to use Bermudez’s (2003) phrase? Or does thinking occur in some other, yet to be determined, representational format? Or again do we think in various formats, switching from one to the other as tasks demand? In virtue perhaps of the ambiguous na- ture of first-person introspective data on the matter, philosophers have tradition- ally disagreed on this question, some thinking that thought had to be pictorial, other insisting that it could not (...) be but linguistic. When any problem divides a community of otherwise intelligent rational thinkers, one suspects some deep conceptual confusion is at play. Indeed, we believe that the conceptual cate- gories used to frame these and related questions are so hopelessly muddled that one could honestly answer “both simultaneously”, or “neither”, depending one what is meant by the alternatives. But let’s get our priorities straight. This paper first and foremost aims at defending what we believe to be a step in that direc- tion of the proper view of thinking, a view we call the spatial-motor view. In order to do so, however, we have found it essential to start by addressing the conceptual confusion just alluded to. Accordingly, the paper proceeds in two steps. First a conceptual step, in which we reconsider some of the traditional categories brought into play when thinking about thinking. Then an empirical step, in which we offer empirical evidence for one of the views conceptually isolated during the first part of the work. Future version of this collaborative work will include a speculative step in which we spin out an evolutionary and developmental scenario whose function it is justify the spatial-motor view by showing how it fits into current evolutionary and developmental theories. (shrink)

Written by four recognized experts with senior experience in research and government, this text is the first comprehensive survival kit for students and practitioners of economic policy. It is set to become an indispensable resource for everyone involved or interested in modern economic policy. Academic scholars willing to engage in policy discussions and students at graduate or advanced undergraduate levels will find it an essential bridge to the policy world. What makes the book unique is that it combines like no (...) other, facts-based analysis, state-of-the art theories and models, and insights from first-hand policy experience at national and international levels. The book has grown out of ten years of experience teaching economic policy at the graduate level. It provides an intellectually coherent framework to understand the potentialities and limits of economic policy. It addresses positive dimensions, normative dimensions and political-economy constraints. It fills an important gap by reconciling in each major policy area stylized facts of recent economic history, key questions faced by contemporary policymakers, and essential lessons from theory which are captured and explained in a clear, concise, and self-contained way. All major areas of domestic and international policymaking are covered: fiscal policy, monetary policy, international finance and exchange-rate policy, tax policy, and long-term growth policies. The book concludes with a special chapter on the lessons of the financial crisis. The authors are intellectually non-partisan and they draw examples from various countries and experiences; from emerging markets to developing economies, shedding light when necessary on local specificities such as European Union rules and instruments. Economic Policy: Theory and Practice is the essential guide to economic policy in the new post-crisis context. (shrink)

Le laboratoire alchimique, qui passe volontiers pour le lieu privilégié de l’élaboration de la chimie ancienne, symbolisait à la fois le caractère privé, si ce n’est secret, de cette science et la nécessaire articulation de ses théories avec une pratique qui lui donnait son sens : il ne s’agissait pas seulement de trouver la pierre philosophale, mais aussi de fabriquer des médicaments et des substances chimiques répondant aux demandes sociales. Lieu privé, réservé à des disciples choisis, il...

Dans la théologie contemporaine, la notion d’hospitalité dépend, en premier lieu, de la réception que le thème, compris en sens divers, a connue dans la société et la culture (1. Polysémie, plasticité, tensions). Son actualité est due à une réalité géopolitique du début du xxi e siècle qui concerne Europe et Amérique du nord, à savoir la crise migratoire, en même temps qu’au flot de réflexions et de prises de position que cette crise a généré (2. Actualité politique). À propos (...) des migrations, on doit se demander si la théologie contemporaine apporte une réponse à la mesure des enjeux (3. Contribution théologique). Enfin il paraît utile d’indiquer deux réflexions originales ayant trait à l’hospitalité, dues à Jean-Yves Lacoste et Jean-Louis Chrétien, que la théologie contemporaine peut à bon droit regarder comme des promesses (4. Pierres d’attente). (shrink)

« Trouble dans la matière » : cette formule, à première vue énigmatique, prend sens une fois mise en résonance avec celle que Judith Butler avait utilisée pour intituler son ouvrage, Trouble dans le genre : la démarche d’Audrey Benoit adopte la même perspective critique, signalée par la référence à un « trouble » ou remise en question d’un certain nombre d’idées reçues ; simultanément, elle décale le point d’application de cette critique du problème spécifique du « genre », (...) dont les incidence... (shrink)

« Trouble dans la matière » : cette formule, à première vue énigmatique, prend sens une fois mise en résonance avec celle que Judith Butler avait utilisée pour intituler son ouvrage, _Trouble dans le genre__ _: la démarche d’Audrey Benoit adopte la même perspective critique, signalée par la référence à un « trouble » ou remise en question d’un certain nombre d’idées reçues ; simultanément, elle décale le point d’application de cette critique du problème spécifique du « genre », (...) dont les incidences comme on dit sociétales sont manifestes, au problème philosophique à portée plus générale de la « matière », qui en restitue l’arrière-plan ontologique et épistémologique. Cela amène à s’interroger sur la nature et les enjeux de cette tentative d’approfondissement ou d’élargissement qui va dans le sens de l’élaboration d’un nouveau matérialisme, à savoir un matérialisme critique. _Trouble dans la matière_ comporte sept chapitres dont le premier et le dernier sont expressément consacrés à la maniè... (shrink)

Le laboratoire alchimique, qui passe volontiers pour le lieu privilégié de l’élaboration de la chimie ancienne, symbolisait à la fois le caractère privé, si ce n’est secret, de cette science et la nécessaire articulation de ses théories avec une pratique qui lui donnait son sens : il ne s’agissait pas seulement de trouver la pierre philosophale, mais aussi de fabriquer des médicaments et des substances chimiques répondant aux demandes sociales. Lieu privé, réservé à des disciples choisis, il .

« J'espère que le lecteur verra clairement que ce livre n'est pas écrit contre l'exégèse moderne » : l'étude de l'Avant-propos de son livre, désormais fameux, sur Jésus de Nazareth, pose la question du rapport personnel de Benoît XVI à ce qu'il appelle le plus souvent la « méthode historico-critique » tout en traitant des apports et limites de cette « méthode ». Par delà quatre siècles d'histoire de l'exégèse critique, qu'en est-il de ces rapports ? Les évangiles et surtout (...) la personne historique du Christ ont-ils bénéficié ou souffert de l'exégèse moderne ? Benoît XVI soulève ici un problème grave qu'il ne convient pas d'écarter une fois de plus, exégètes et théologiens campant sur leurs positions, et le lecteur des évangiles risquant l'incertitude par rapport aux difficultés que les évangiles lui présentent. Cet article s'efforce de montrer les attendus des positions complexes de Benoît XVI par rapport à l'exégèse, tout en rappelant les fondements du projet critique pour le service des croyants. “I hope that the reader will clearly see that this book is not written against modern exegesis”: study of the Preface to his now famous book on Jesus of Nazareth raises the question of Benedict XVI's personal relationship to what he most often calls the “historical-critical method”, all the while examining the contributions and limits of this “method”. After four centuries of the history of this critical exegesis, how do things now stand? Have the gospels and above all the historical person of Christ benefited or suffered from modern exegesis? Benedict XVI raises a serious problem here that should not be simply set aside once again, with exegesists and theologians holding steadfast to their positions, and the reader of the gospels left prey to uncertainty in regard to the difficulties that those gospels present for him or her. This article will endeavor to show the motives behind the complex positions of Benedict XVI in relation to exegesis, while recalling the foundations of its critical project in the service of believers. (shrink)

Dans cette longue lettre à Benoît Peeters, Jean-Pierre Faye revient sur les péripéties de la fondation du Collège international de philosophie, sous l’égide de Jean-Pierre Chevènement alors ministre de la recherche, dans les années 1981-1982. Il laisse entendre quel rôle ambigu – et relativement peu élégant - a joué Derrida dans cette affaire de fondation. Mais la lettre pousse plus loin. Ces circonstances relatives à la création du Collège international de philosophie ne sont qu’un cadre narratif. Il s’agit (...) en fait de questionner l’origine des fameux concepts derridiens de « déconstruction » et de « logocentrisme ». En ce qui concerne « déconstruction », qui traduit l’usage du mot « Abbau » chez Heidegger, Jean-Pierre Faye en montre le contexte inquiétant : la pensée féroce de la « race » sous le Reich nazi. Quant au « logocentrisme », le nom et l’idée d’un combat à mener contre les prétentions de la raison (« logos ») naissent dans les feuilles d’un certain Ludwig Klages, psychiatre désigné par Goering lui-même comme « Reichsführer der Psychotherapie ». Führer de la psychothérapie... (shrink)

Tandis que j’écrivais mon article sous le titre ‘L’utilitarisme est-il une éthique acceptable?’paru dans ce numéro de la Revue d’Etudes benthamiennes, j’ai eu la chance d’avoir accès, dans le cadre de mon travail au CHU de Rouen, à un ensemble d’entretiens avec des médecins au sujet de la connaissance qu’ils avaient de la loi Léonetti. Les entretiens ont été numérotés de I à XXVI; ils ne sont pas tous cités ici, d’autant que quelques-uns, prévus, n’ont pas eu lieu. Le propos (...) qui suit se trouve à la confluence de trois apports: celui de la thèse soutenue dans le n° 9 de la REB, celui de mon enseignement d’éthique à l’hôpital auprès de soignants et de philosophes, celui enfin de l’existence de ce précieux dossier réuni par les soins du Docteur Clémence Joly. Je livre ici des réflexions que j’ai assemblées et articulées. Il convient de préciser, pour la compréhension du texte suivant, que les entretiens ont eu cours auprès de médecins qui répondaient, au cours des derniers mois, aux mêmes questions liées à leur connaissance de la loi Léonetti de 2005. Quand ils ne la connaissaient pas –ce qui fut l’aveu du plus grand nombre-, l’entretien ne cessait pas pour autant et il était alors possible aux interviewés de découvrir cette loi; ainsi, article par article, ils donnaient, guidés par les questions de l’interrogatrice, leur avis de praticiens sur le détail d’une loi qu’ils connaissaient beaucoup mieuxqu’ilsle croyaient au départ. (shrink)

In a well-known story constructed by Saul Kripke , Pierre, a rational but monolingual Frenchman who has never visited England, acquires, on the evidence of many magazine pictures of London, the belief that London is beautiful. He is happy to declare ‘Londres est jolie’. Pierre eventually moves to England and settles in one of the seedier areas of London, travelling only to comparably shabby neighbourhoods. He learns English by immersion, though he does not realize that ‘London’ and ‘Londres’ (...) are co-referential. Naturally enough, given his current circumstances, he acquires a belief that he is only too willing to express by uttering ‘It is not the case that London is beautiful’. So apparently he now holds contradictory beliefs. But rational people do not hold contradictory beliefs ….One popular response to Kripke's puzzle is that people …. (shrink)

Investment Management makes heavy ethical demands which are not an optional add‐on, but part of the job of being a financial agent and fiduciary. The author is founder and President of Skandia Fonds, the Norwegian mutual funds management company affiliated with Skandia Group which pioneered the concept of green mutual funds in Norway. This paper was delivered at the Sixth Annual Conference of the European Business Ethics Network, held in Oslo last month. Its views are those of the author, and (...) do not necessarily represent his company's policy. (shrink)

The author examines the functional explanation that G. A. Cohen employs in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense in light of its recent republication. In recent years, Roy Bhaskar has provided a convincing critique of the empiricist philosophy of social science that Cohen employs, and this article tries to provide an assessment of his method from a Bhaskarian perspective. It begins with an exposition of functional explanation, followed by the Bhaskarian critique by demonstrating that functionalism is unworkable (...) because it is dependent on an empiricist account of causation. (shrink)

Les recompositions familiales touchent l’ensemble des liens familiaux et des liens intergénérationnels. Or, si l’on observe, tant sur le plan juridique que dans les pratiques des familles conjugales, une acception plus complexe et plus riche de la parentalité, les grands-parents restent souvent méconnus. Comment construisent-ils leurs rapports à leurs « beaux-petits-enfants »? Nous avons examiné la littérature et interrogé des « belles-grands-mères » pour tenter d’y voir plus clair. Quelles représentations le champ social offre-t-il des beaux-grands-parents? Et quelles sont concrètement (...) les conditions et les étapes qui rendent possible une identité « beau-grand-parentale »? (shrink)

Cet ouvrage n'est ni un commentaire ni une explication d'obedience historiciste ou deterministe. Par questionnement, lecture et interpretation, l'auteur a voulu produire une semantique philosophique. La doctrine des idees est ainsi reexaminee a la convergence des problemes du langage, de la science et de la cite (logos, episteme, polis). Elle ne peut plus des lors etre interpretee sous l'hypothese de l' idealisme. Elle se manifeste comme une serie de questions de sens ou s'indique une philosophie de la raison. Partout ou (...) le logos nous porte, c'est la qu'il faut aller, tel en serait le mot d'ordre, mais avec la precision qu'a l'articulation du mythique et du theorique, du tragique et du philosohique, et plus profondement de la deraison et du logos, le rationalisme platonicien n'est fait que de raison. (shrink)

Theories of knowledge as credit for true belief, or as cognitive achievement, have to face the following objection: in the famous Barn façades case, it seems that the truth of Barney's belief that he is in front of a barn is to be explained by the correct functioning of his cognitive capacities, although we are reluctant to say that he knows he is in front of a barn. Duncan Pritchard concludes from this that a safety clause, irreducible to the conditions (...) a true belief must satisfy in order to be credited to the believer, constitutes a necessary condition of knowledge. Because those who define knowledge as a cognitive achievement have not convincingly answered this objection, I intend, in the first section of this paper, to refute it by showing how practical and doxastic achievements differ. Then I defend the idea that we should also distinguish two kinds of environmental epistemic luck, and, correlatively, two kinds of safety, that are not equally incompatible with knowledge. Finally, I argue that this distinction is inevitably vague and I indicate some consequences of this vagueness for our knowledge‐intuitions. (shrink)

Cohen employs in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense in light of its recent republication. In recent years, Roy Bhaskar has provided a convincing critique of the empiricist philosophy of social science that Cohen employs, and this article tries to provide an assessment of his method from a Bhaskarian perspective. It begins with an exposition of functional explanation, followed by the Bhaskarian critique by demonstrating that functionalism is unworkable because it is dependent on an empiricist account of (...) causation. (shrink)

Bien des difficultés que nous éprouvons à comprendre les oeuvres philosophiques des Anciens proviennent souvent du fait que nous commmettons en les interprétant un double anachronisme: nous croyons que, comme beaucoup d'oeuvres modernes, elles sont destinées à communiquer des informations concernant un contenu conceptuel donné et que nous pouvons aussi en tirer directement des renseignements clairs sur la pensée et la psychologie de leur auteur. Mais en fait, elles sont très souvent des exercices spirituels que l'auteur pratique lui-même et fait (...) pratiquer à son lecteur. Elles sont destinées à former les âmes. Elles ont une valeur psychagogique. (shrink)

My main intention in this article is to settle the question whether having the ability to \ is, as Ryleans think, necessary for knowing how to \, and to determine the kind of role played by procedural knowledge in knowing how to \ and in acquiring and possessing the ability to \. I shall argue, in a seemingly anti-Rylean fashion, that when it comes to know-hows that are ordinarily categorised as physical skills, or—to be, for the moment, philosophically neutral—as enabling (...) one to possess such skills, it is necessary to have procedural knowledge of how to \ in order to possess those know-hows. However, I shall contend that this knowledge cannot be acquired without acquiring the kind of ability to \ in which having the skill to \ consists. And that having acquired the ability to \ is not only necessary but also sufficient for having acquired procedural knowledge of how to succeed in \-ing. (shrink)

This article aims to contribute to the elucidation of the nature of inquiry. I start with some common desiderata for any theory of inquiry. I then categorize inquiry as a structured process. By focusing on its essential components, I advance a new characterization of inquiry as a combination of questioning attitudes guiding actions. Finally, I turn to the recent objection that questioning attitudes are not necessary for inquiry. I argue that inquiry is a structured process essentially constituted by questioning attitudes (...) having two precise functional roles, initiating and guiding the deployment of cognitive capacities towards an epistemic goal. (shrink)

Are there any advantages to thinking and speaking about ethical business in the language of citizenship? We will address this question in part by looking at the possible relevance of a vast literature on individual citizenship that has been produced by political philosophers over the last fifteen years. Some of the central elements of citizenship do not seem to apply straightforwardly to corporations. E.g., “citizenship” typically implies membership in a state and an identity akin to national identity; but this connotation (...) of citizenship is obviously problematic for multinational corporations. However, the language of citizenship does help to focus our attention on various legal and political virtues (or vices) for corporations—topics that have been largely neglected by discussions under other rubrics, such as CSR or sustainability. We finish with an evaluation of the potential benefits and costs of conceptualizing and talking about ethical business practices in the language of citizenship. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage n'est ni un commentaire ni une explication d'obedience historiciste ou deterministe. Par questionnement, lecture et interpretation, l'auteur a voulu produire une semantique philosophique. La doctrine des idees est ainsi reexaminee a la convergence des problemes du langage, de la science et de la cite (logos, episteme, polis). Elle ne peut plus des lors etre interpretee sous l'hypothese de l' idealisme. Elle se manifeste comme une serie de questions de sens ou s'indique une philosophie de la raison. Partout ou (...) le logos nous porte, c'est la qu'il faut aller, tel en serait le mot d'ordre, mais avec la precision qu'a l'articulation du mythique et du theorique, du tragique et du philosohique, et plus profondement de la deraison et du logos, le rationalisme platonicien n'est fait que de raison. (shrink)

Are there any advantages to thinking and speaking about ethical business in the language of citizenship? We will address this question in part by looking at the possible relevance of a vast literature on individual citizenship that has been produced by political philosophers over the last fifteen years. Some of the central elements of citizenship do not seem to apply straightforwardly to corporations. E.g., “citizenship” typically implies membership in a state and an identity akin to national identity; but this connotation (...) of citizenship is obviously problematic for multinational corporations. However, the language of citizenship does help to focus our attention on various legal and political virtues (or vices) for corporations—topics that have been largely neglected by discussions under other rubrics, such as CSR or sustainability. We finish with an evaluation of the potential benefits and costs of conceptualizing and talking about ethical business practices in the language of citizenship. (shrink)

In traditional epistemology, psychological self-knowledge is taken to be the paradigm of privleged a priori knowledge. According to an influential incompatibilist line of thought, traditional epistemic features attributed to psychological self-knowledge are supposed to be inconsistent with content externalism. In this paper, I examine one prominent compatibilist response by an advocate of content externalism, i.e., Fred Dretske's answer tot he incompatibilist argument, based on the model of displaced perceptual knowledge. I discuss the costs and benefits of his answer.

"Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu" de Maurice Joly. Journaliste et écrivain français (1829-1878).

When one tries to determine what the iconic dimension of thought consists in for Peirce and what its range is, one might have the impression that his remarks on this matter are inconsistent. For instance, on the one hand he writes the following: Remember it is by icons only that we really reason, and abstract statements are valueless in reasoning except so far as they aid us to construct diagrams. The sectaries of the opinion I am combating seem, on the (...) contrary, to suppose that reasoning is performed with abstract "judgments," and that an icon is of use only as enabling me to frame abstract statements as premisses. In an apparently similar fashion, Peirce argues that the predicate of a... (shrink)