Over the past two decades, a growing number of large multinational corporations have come to view philanthropy as an important part of their business operations. This has stimulated research on the many different strategies that are pursued by these corporations in their attempts to become more philanthropic while remaining economically responsible. In this situation, some researchers have argued, corporations run the risk of being caught out as hypocrites. Through an analysis of the corporate social responsibility reports of the biggest multinational (...) corporations, this article shows how the risk of hypocrisy is managed communicatively through the use of euphemisms. The article argues that the use of euphemisms makes it possible to communicate both economically and philanthropically without manifest contradictions. Euphemisms, however, are also risky in their own right. (shrink)

Over the past two decades, a growing number of large multinational corporations have come to view philanthropy as an important part of their business operations. This has stimulated research on the many different strategies that are pursued by these corporations in their attempts to become more philanthropic while remaining economically responsible. In this situation, some researchers have argued, corporations run the risk of being caught out as hypocrites. Through an analysis of the corporate social responsibility reports of the biggest multinational (...) corporations, this article shows how the risk of hypocrisy is managed communicatively through the use of euphemisms. The article argues that the use of euphemisms makes it possible to communicate both economically and philanthropically without manifest contradictions. Euphemisms, however, are also risky in their own right. (shrink)

Paper-based stool records are used in public and private residential homes throughout Denmark. Although they represent a simple technology, they are an important tool in ensuring proper personal hygiene for residents. This article shows how the use of stool records involves both scientific and everyday forms of knowledge. While the activity of keeping stool records derives its legitimation from the scientific study of feces, those who work with the stool records on a daily basis have found some very different applications (...) for the technology. These applications foster a variety of understandings of stool records in residential homes. Is it their aim to help satisfy biological needs? Is it to ensure control? Is it to ensure individual freedom? Is it to ensure efficiency? Is it to display professionalism? Is it to maintain order in the everyday operation of the residential home? To explore the answers to these questions, the article introduces insight from the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann that bear upon how a mundane technology like stool records can function as a mediator between theory and practice, the body and the social, and between different care tasks in residential homes. (shrink)

Spirituality is a growing research theme, especially in relation to health issues. The term is often poorly defined and one’s understanding is often so broad that it becomes a mere frame word devoid of meaning. In this study, we asked 514 adult Danes about their understanding of the word ‘spirituality’. Factor analysis of the answers resulted in six different understandings of spirituality: positive dimensions in human life and well-being; New Age ideology; an integrated part of established religious life; a vague (...) striving, opposed to religion; selfishness; and ordinary inspiration in human activities. It is concluded that a common understanding of the term spirituality does not exist, at least in a modern secular setting. Suggestion for future research is that the term spirituality is not used without an indication, notions or keywords of what is meant by the term in a specific context. (shrink)

This paper describes a simple, causally deterministic model of quantum measurement based on an amplitude threshold detection scheme. Surprisingly, it is found to reproduce many phenomena normally thought to be uniquely quantum in nature. To model an \(N\) -dimensional pure state, the model uses \(N\) complex random variables given by a scaled version of the wave vector with additive complex noise. Measurements are defined by threshold crossings of the individual components, conditioned on single-component threshold crossings. The resulting detection probabilities match (...) or approximate those predicted by quantum mechanics according to the Born rule. Nevertheless, quantum phenomena such as entanglement, contextuality, and violations of Bell’s inequality under local measurements are all shown to be exhibited by the model, thereby demonstrating that such phenomena are not without classical analogs. (shrink)

A growing body of work approaches the current environmental devastation from the perspective of a “crisis of sensitivity”: our inability to care for the living around us is said to be a failure of perception and feeling. The article explores several versions of the narrative of modern insensitivity through a study of Günther Anders and Jane Bennett, highlighting the limitations of such approaches. I suggest the notion of a desensitization apparatus to specify and politicize the diagnosis of a “crisis (...) of sensitivity”. (shrink)

Validated self-report measures of post-stroke fatigue are lacking. The Dutch Multifactor Fatigue Scale (DMFS) was translated into Danish, and response process evidence of validity was evaluated. DMFS consists of 38 Likert-rated items distributed on five subscales: Impact of fatigue (11 items), Signs and direct consequences of fatigue (9), Mental fatigue (7), Physical fatigue (6), and Coping with fatigue (5). Response processes to DMFS were investigated using a Three-Step Test-Interview (TSTI) protocol, and data were analyzed using Framework Analysis. Response processes were (...) indexed on the following categories: (i) “congruent,” response processes were related to the subscale construct; (ii) “incongruent,” response processes were not related to the subscale construct; (iii) “ambiguous,” response processes were both congruent and incongruent or insufficient to evaluate congruency; and (iv) “confused,” participants did not understand the item. Nine adults were recruited consecutively 10–34 months post-stroke (median = 26.5) at an outpatient brain injury rehabilitation center in 2019 [five females, mean age = 55 years (SD= 6.3)]. Problematic items were defined as <50% of response processes being congruent with the intended construct. Of the 38 items, five problematic items were identified, including four items of Physical fatigue and one of Mental fatigue. In addition, seven items posed various response difficulties to some participants due to syntactic complexity, vague terms, a presupposition, and a double-barrelled statement. In conclusion, findings elucidate the interpretative processes involved in responding to DMFS post-stroke, strengthen the evidence base of validity, and guide revisions to mitigate potential problems in item performance. (shrink)

Author continues the publication which appeared in the Acta Biotheoretica I, p. 113–132, regarding his results obtained in course of research work on superior plants:Picea excelsa trees, and furthermore on unicellular living beings, namely yeast cells . Author made a pure culture with the unicellular culture method, and by occasional inoculation produced successors therefrom. He established the progress in development by measuring, according to weight, the CO2 which arose in course of life. The ontogenetic course of development of the original (...) culture as well as that of the successors took the form ofS but theseS curves were not equally precipitous . When he drew theS-formed development curves in the measure of their time of inoculation in a rectangular co-ordinate system, he received a wave-surface . When he intersected the wave-surface with the abscissa and the plane parallel with the vertical axis, wave-like lines were the result, which resembled vibratory motion evolving around an axis producing a regular picture . Research has ascertained that the axis follows the laws of aperiodic vibratory motion, the undulating curve corresponds with the phenomenon of periodic vibratory motion, both of which are derived from the common differential equationd 2 s/dt 2 + 2r ds/dt +w 2 s=o. Any point of thes h axis following the aperiodic vibratory motion is given by the following equation: sh=a1e−r1t⋅e+tr21−w21√−e−tr21−w21√2⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅while the wave-curve showing thes h periodic movement is given by the following equation: sp=a2e−r2tcos⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅The completey movement is made up of the total of the two vibratory movementsy=s h +s p . The research for the time being refers merely to the aperiodic axis. Calculations show that with thes h equation, the aperiodic axes belonging to all the sections can be followed exactly, as the time function oft, and moreover, the change according to time in the size of the w1, r1, a1 coefficients also shows definite regularity .Author deals separately with the calculation of the axis maximal time =t max and the maximal value = s h max of the wave-curve, and establishes that the development speed of every cell and every organism built up from cells has a maximal point of time and a maximal value. Thet maximum point of time: tmax=Ir12−w12−−−−−−−√logelogr+r12−w12−−−−−−−√r−r12−w12−−−−−−−√−−−−−−−−−−−√⋅⋅⋅⋅If we put thet max value in the place of the original equation of the axis we get the numeric value of thet max .Author finally establishes that the recognition of the fact that a harmonic vibratory motion plays a part in the evolution of living beings and that the axis of this complicated vibration follows the equation of aperiodic vibratory motion is a fundamental result in the theoretic study of the phenomena of life, which, besides, has also a great practical importance in the sphere of the study of improvement, inheritance and the biology of the species.L'auteur continue la publication des résultats de ses recherches faites sur des êtres vivants unicellulaires, notamment desSaccharomyces. Cette publication fut communiquée dans les Acta Biotheoretica I, p. 113–132. Par la méthode de la culture unicellulaire, l'auteur a créé une culture pure et, de celli-ci, au moyen d'inoculations périodiques, il a créé des descendants. Il a mesuré la marche du développement en pesant le CO2 produit au cours de la vie. La courbe d'évolution ontogénétique, tant de la culture-mère que des descendants, a présenté une ligne enS, mais chacun de cesS ne montait pas de la même façon . En représentant ces courbes d'évolution enS en fonction du temps et à l'échelle des périodes d'inoculation sur des coordonnées rectilignes, il obtenait une surface d'ondes . En coupant cette surface par un plan parallèle à l'abscisse et à l'axe vertical, il obtenait des lignes ondoyantes qui ressemblaient à un mouvement oscillatoire se formant autour d'un axe à l'image régulière . Les examens ont révélé que l'axe suit les lois du mouvement vibratoire harmonique apériodique et que la courbe ondoyante répond au phénomène du mouvement vibratoire harmonique périodique. L'un et l'autre provenant de l'équation différentielle communed 2 s/dt 2 + 2r ds/dt +w 2 s=o. N'importe quel point de l'axes h qui suit un mouvement vibratoire harmonique apériodique est déterminé par l'équation suivante: sh=a1e−r1t⋅e+tr21−w21√−e−tr21−w21√2⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅cependant que la courbe ondoyante s p qui montre un mouvement vibratoire harmonique périodique est exprimée par l'équation suivante sp=a2e−r2tcos⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅Le mouvement complety se compose de la somme des deux mouvements oscillatoires,y =s h +s p .Pour le moment, les examens n'ont trait qu'à l'axe apériodique. Les calculs prouvent que par l'équation sh les axes apériodiques appartenant à toutes les coupes peuvent être suivis avec exactitude comme fonctions du tempst, et que même le changement de la valeur des coefficientsw 1 ,r 1 ,a 1, présente aussi une régularité nette .L'auteur examine ensuite le calcul du temps maximum=t max et, en outre, la valeur maximum =s hmax de l'axe de la courbe vibratoire et il énonce que toute cellule et tout organisme composé de cellules ont dans le cours de leur développement un temps maximum et une valeur maximum. Le tempst maximum sera: tmax=Ir12−w12−−−−−−−√logelogr+r12−w12−−−−−−−√r−r12−w12−−−−−−−√−−−−−−−−−−−√⋅⋅⋅⋅En substituant la valeur dut max dans l'équation originale de l'axe , on obtient la valeur numérique dut max .Finalement, après avoir déterminé le fait que dans le développement des êtres vivants, on est en présence d'un mouvement vibratoire harmonique périodique et que l'axe de cette oscillation complexe suit l'équation du mouvement vibratoire harmonique apériodique, l'auteur constate que cette détermination constitue un résultat fondamental pour l'étude théoritique des phénomènes vitaux et ce résultat possède en même temps une grande importance pratique pour l'étude de l'amélioration, du sélectionnement, de l'hérédité et de la biologie de la race. (shrink)

miembro del Future of Humanity Institute de la Universidad de Oxford y experto en mejoramiento humano y transhumanismo, sobre cuestiones centrales de su labor investigadora.PALABRAS CLAVETRANSHUMANISMO, MEJORAMIENTO HUMANO, ANDERS SANDBERG, BIOTECNOLOGÍAABSTRACTInterview with Anders Sandberg, member of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University and expert in human enhancement and transhumanism, about central topics in his works.KEYWORDSTRANSHUMANISM, HUMAN ENHANCEMENT, ANDERS SANDBERG,BIOTECHNOLOGY.

Interview with Anders Sandberg, member of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University and expert in human enhancement and transhumanism, about central topics in his works.

Cet article soutient que les voitures autonomes sont des robots sociaux qui doivent agir comme des tenants-lieux de leurs propriétaires humains. Pour ne pas esquiver les choix moraux incombant aux utilisateurs humains de ces technologies, on pourrait programmer les véhicules de façon à ce qu’ils puissent se comporter selon différentes théories morales, en permettant aux propriétaires de choisir celle qui a leur préférence. L’article envisage également les implications éthiques d’autres problèmes pratiques liés à la technologie des voitures autonomes.

Cet article se concentre sur le jeu de danse d’une petite fille de neuf ans, filmé par elle-même dans la cour d’une école primaire écossaise, en 2018. Olivia incorpore dans son jeu des objets numériques, non numériques, et son environnement, passant de la sélection de chansons sur un téléphone à la danse avec la caméra, au jeu avec le vent, et à la manipulation d’un cône de signalisation. Elle créé un espace de jeu personnel au milieu de l’espace commun, (...) marqué par la musique, le mouvement, les objets et elle-même. Cet article examine comment, à travers ce processus de danse ludique, Olivia met en scène son enfance genrée au féminin, dans sa façon d’interagir avec les gens, l’espace et les objets. Olivia s’inscrit ainsi dans la tradition du jeu dansé des filles. Mais dans la cour post-numérique, les objets numériques deviennent une partie de son jeu, suivant une autre tradition enfantine du jeu, le “bricolage”, dans lequel les enfants utilisent le monde qui les entoure, à travers le temps et l’espace. (shrink)

In 'The Reference Book' (2012), Hawthorne and Manley observe the following contrast between (1) and (2): -/- (1) In every race John won. (2) In every race, the colt won. -/- The name 'John' in (1) must intuitively refer to the same single individual for each race. However, the description 'the colt' in (2) has a co-varying reading, i.e. a reading where for each race it refers to a different colt. This observation is a prima facie problem for proponents of (...) so-called The-Predicativism which is the view that the name in (1) is really a covert definite description, viz. 'the John'. If the The-Predicativism is correct, (1) and (2) are therefore syntactically equivalent, but this makes it mysterious why only (2) would have a co-varying reading. In a recent paper, Fara (2015) argues that there is a simple and elegant way for proponents of The-Predicativism to explain this contrast. This explanation relies on discerning some subtle syntactic differences between (1) and (2) which in turn are based on assumptions about nominal restrictions a la Stanley and Szabó (2000). In this short paper, I demonstrate that Fara's proposed explanation has a variety of serious shortcomings and hence that the contrast between (1) and (2) remains a significant problem for Predicativism. (shrink)

This Derridean reading of Freud asks the question of how we should read Freud with respect to sexual difference and what Derrida considers a radicalized concept of trace, a "scene of writing" of differance ---that is, how we should read Freud with respect to phallogocentrism. Throughout I consider the possible relationships between the "mainstyles" of various psychoanalyses, deconstructions, and feminisms. By analyzing what is most original for Freud---the cause of hysteria, the navel of the dream, the perceptual identity, the primal (...) phantasies, for example---I find that Freud consistently seeks a single origin, a "caput Nili," on which to base a grand narrative. At first this narrative is an etiology of hysteria, but it evolves into a masterplot of sexual development and later into one of humanity. The establishment of an oedipal origin and telos, and the masterplot based on them, moves psychoanalysis toward a totalizing theory, and therefore its openness to chance and something beyond what that theory can master is greatly reduced. ;I approach these topics in terms of a question of the ethics of psychoanalysis. This appropriative or reductive process of Freud's masterplotting is based on what Derrida calls "castration-truth" in his reading of Lacan, "Le facteur de la verite." In contrast to some theorists who appeal to the radical spirit of Freudian theory as a basis for their radicalization of psychoanalysis---specifically Barnaby B. Barratt's Psychoanalysis and the Postmodern Impulse---I argue that Lacan's phallogocentric "return to Freud" is actually a more faithful one since I find both "mainstyles" of these psychoanalyses based on a logic of lack or "castration-truth." I argue throughout that the radical spirit of Freud is at times overemphasized or exaggerated by Derridean theorists---and even Derrida himself, though rarely---and that the dominant specter of Freud is an "establishment" or appropriative one, rather than one which is radical or "other-wise." I connect this trend of Derridean thinkers claiming too much debt to psychoanalysis to these thinkers not taking seriously Freud's commitment and interest in an idealized phylogenetics: "phylo-'genetics.'" Since my establishment of this establishment specter of Freud as the "mainstyle" of Freudian theory itself risks reproducing exactly the kind of appropriative discourse I hope to problematize, I attempt to avoid such a reproduction by considering what remains of the radical spirit of Freudian theory in what might be called a deconstructive "technology of iterability;" a "cyborg-analysis;" or what I call "post-psychoanalysis.". (shrink)

La doctrine de droit international privé a tendance à organiser le rapport entre le droit de l’Union européenne et les réglementations nationales de droit international privé par le biais des principes de hiérarchie normative et d’attribution de compétence, de sorte que l’on s’interroge principalement sur le contenu et les limites de la nécessaire adaptation du droit national à la construction européenne. Le droit international privé est ainsi soumis à l’épreuve du droit européen. À l’inverse, à partir d’une conception alternative du (...) rapport entre les deux, comme un conflit entre visions du droit différentes, nous proposons de soumettre le droit de l’Union européenne, en particulier l’application des libertés de circulation par la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne, aux outils analytiques de droit international privé. En particulier, les notions de droit applicable, lois de police et exception d’ordre public vont nous permettre de mieux comprendre l’originalité et particularité de la « cosmologie juridique » qui anime cette jurisprudence. (shrink)

La représentation devant la Cour de cassation ne peut être assurée que par certains avocats, qui ont reçu une formation spécifique et dont le nombre est volontairement limité. Ce régime particulier, dont l’origine est très ancienne, s’explique par la technicité du pourvoi en cassation et le caractère extraordinaire de cette voie de recours. Mais ses effets ne se réduisent pas à cet aspect. En rendant possibles des échanges réguliers et fluides entre la Cour et « ses » avocats, (...) tous dépositaires d’une culture commune, il permet à la première de s’appuyer sur les seconds pour mettre en œuvre les réformes qu’elle juge nécessaires, dans l’intérêt de l’ensemble de l’institution judiciaire. (shrink)

Résumé Depuis longtemps déjà, nous sommes entrés, dit-on, dans une conjoncture nouvelle caractérisée par la « guerre des mémoires » et les luttes « communautaristes » qu’elle favorise, et dont elle serait aussi l’expression. L’objet de cet article est d’analyser ce qui passe aujourd’hui pour des constats de bon sens lors même que prospèrent, le plus souvent, préjugés et stigmatisations destinés à disqualifier les combats mémoriels aujourd’hui engagées, et à maintenir l’ordre au sein de l’espace public en refoulant dans ses (...) marges les problèmes soulevés par ceux qui n’acceptent plus l’oubli et l’occultation des crimes coloniaux. (shrink)

Essai sur l'évolution de la pensée du philosophe, et de son approche du concept d'égalité, égalité intellectuelle, égalité politique et égalité sensible. Electre 2018.

Villeneuve d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2018, 404 p. Cette collection d’essais commence avec une question provocatrice : d’autres cours d’Europe offrent-elles une place « aussi éminente » aux femmes que la cour de France à l’époque moderne? Les études réunies ici montrent de façon évidente l’importance et la centralité des femmes à la cour de France, des reines et princesses au sommet du pouvoir jusqu’aux demoiselles de musique, nourrices, femmes d’officiels et autres. Cet...

En esta introducción, enunciamos algunas de las preguntas principales que surgen de la reflexión sobre los lugares del conflicto en la filosofía política. Apoyándonos en los artículos del dossier, nos centramos, por un lado, en las interrogaciones referidas al topos de la política, en particular, en los rasgos distintivos de los espacios de conflictividad, sus condiciones, configuraciones y riesgos. Por otro lado, en los desafíos que imponen al pensamiento filosófico la elección de ciertos lugares concretos del conflicto o la preferencia (...) por determinadas escenas de antagonismo. (shrink)

I discuss how the scientificity characterizing Adam Smith’s political economy has to exteriorize social conflict in order to sustain its objectivation of social interaction in terms of regulative laws. I claim that this exteriorization constitutes an internal point of subversion, not only because it resists economic objectivation, but first and foremost because it forces Smith to employ political strategies that both contradict and guarantee the scientificity of his theory. I show how the place of conflict in modern economy, according to (...) Smith, can actually be determined in three different ways: as a concrete place when it comes to the confrontations between workers and capitalists; as a theoretical place in the sense of being an arbitrary disturbance of the spontaneous organization of the market; and as a place that, as being the intersection between economic naturalization and social contingency, problematizes the scientificity of Smith’s political economy. In this sense, I develop three cases where Smith invokes an argumentative circularity that reveals the paradoxical politics of his economic scientificity, beyond its official laissez-faire politics: State coercion, monetary power and capitalist competition. (shrink)

I discuss how the scientificity characterizing Adam Smith’s political economy has to exteriorize social conflict in order to sustain its objectivation of social interaction in terms of regulative laws. I claim that this exteriorization constitutes an internal point of subversion, not only because it resists economic objectivation, but first and foremost because it forces Smith to employ political strategies that both contradict and guarantee the scientificity of his theory. I show how the place of conflict in modern economy, according to (...) Smith, can actually be determined in three different ways: as a concrete place when it comes to the confrontations between workers and capitalists; as a theoretical place in the sense of being an arbitrary disturbance of the spontaneous organization of the market; and as a place that, as being the intersection between economic naturalization and social contingency, problematizes the scientificity of Smith’s political economy. In this sense, I develop three cases where Smith invokes an argumentative circularity that reveals the paradoxical politics of his economic scientificity, beyond its official laissez-faire politics: State coercion, monetary power and capitalist competition. (shrink)