Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two associations at genome-wide significance identified and replicated at PRSS1-PRSS2 and X-linked CLDN2 through a two-stage genome-wide study. The PRSS1 variant likely affects disease susceptibility by altering expression of the primary trypsinogen gene. The CLDN2 risk allele is (...) associated with atypical localization of claudin-2 in pancreatic acinar cells. The homozygous CLDN2 genotype confers the greatest risk, and its alleles interact with alcohol consumption to amplify risk. These results could partially explain the high frequency of alcohol-related pancreatitis in men. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

En deux livraisons successives, la revue Anuario filosófico publie un ensemble d’études sur les Topiques d’Aristote, rassemblées par José M. Gambra, Professeur à l’Université Complutense de Madrid. Trente-cinq ans se sont écoulés depuis qu’un des premiers Symposia Aristotelica fut consacré aux Topiques. Depuis cette date, la nature et le statut de la dialectique aristotélicienne ont fait couler beaucoup d’encre, mais c’est sans doute la première fois que les Topiques font l’objet d’un ensembl...

Depuis une vingtaine d'annees, on assiste un peu partout a un regain d'interet pour les ecrits socratiques de Xenophon. Que Xenophon ne nous donne pas davantage que Platon un portrait historiquement fiable de Socrate peut etre considere comme un acquis de la critique du XXe siecle. Laissant transparaitre dans son temoignage des options profondement differentes de celles de Platon, Xenophon temoigne par la meme, cependant, des tensions, voire des oppositions qui traversaient le milieu socratique autour du souvenir et de la (...) comprehension de la personne de Socrate: cette seule consideration suffit a faire de Xenophon une source essentielle pour notre connaissance de l'immediat apres Socrate et, par dela, pour notre intelligence de l'histoire de la reception de Socrate dans les siecles ulterieurs. Le colloque dont sont issues les etudes rassemblees dans ce volume, organise a l'Universite de Provence (Aix-Marseille I) du 6 au 9 novembre 2003, s'inscrit dans cette perspective. Plus qu'un bilan de la nouvelle orientation des etudes xenophontiennes, qu'il est encore trop tot pour etablir, on y verra l'illustration de la diversite d'approches dont est susceptible le temoignage de Xenophon sur Socrate. Due a Louis-Andre Dorion, une bibliographie des etudes sur les ecrits socratiques de Xenophon publiees dans le dernier quart de siecle temoigne de la vitalite retrouvee de ce domaine de recherche. (shrink)

No final do Lísis. Sócrates emprega o termo “demônios” (daímones), no momento em que se constata a aporia a que chega a investigação sobre a amizade. A propósito de uma recente tradução brasileira do diálogo, que, alinhando-se a uma interpretação tradicional, entende o termo no sentido negativo de “divindades maléficas”, este estudo procura defender tese bem diferente: apesar das aparências, lembremo-nos do célebre “demônio socrático” e veremos aqui o anúncio do fim da discussão sem qualquer coação externa à própria investigação, (...) e sim em virtude de necessidades que são internas a esta. Daí se seguirá que, apesar do final aporético, esse diálogo apresenta certo ensinamento positivo que o distingue dos outros diálogos platônicos de juventude. (shrink)

Dépositaire d’une partie des textes écrits par S. Weil à propos de la pensée grecque,son ami le P. J.-M. Perrin les publia sous le titre « Intuitions pré-chrétiennes ». Ce titre inscrit l’approche de la pensée grecque par S. Weil dans une perspective téléologique conformeà une apologétique héritée des Pères de l’Église, mais étrangère à la pensée de S. Weil.Pour elle, bien loin que la révélation chrétienne vienne accomplir ce qui n’était présentqu’en germe chez les Grecs, la vérité en était (...) déjà pleinement connue de ces derniers, commede bien d’autres civilisations disparues. (shrink)

’Socratic irony’ is often understood in modern scholarship, for instance by Gregory Vlastos, as having a rather favourable sense. It is understood as implying something different from what one says and doing so part of a programme of moral education that consisted in challenging the intellectual powers of his interlocutors. However, this sense of eironeia is not found in Plato or in Aristotle in the texts where he discusses Socratic irony. The term ’irony’ occurs in those texts in a consistently (...) negative sense, associated with contemptuous or arrogant treatment of others . In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ’Socratic irony’ may appear to have a more favourable sense; but close attention to the relevant passages, taken in the context of Aristotle’s ethical framework, shows that it signifies a kind of wilful disdain of convention, and is no more favourably understood than the other extreme of alazoneia. If we go back to the Platonic uses of the term, for instance, Thrasymachus in Republic 337a or Callicles in Gorgias 489e, we find again a negative connotation. Here, the relevant sense is that of evading one’s share in the discussion by pretending to have no answer to the questions one poses. In fact, ’evasion’ is, probably, what eironeia, means, understood as a deliberate tactic to get the better of one’s opponents. The more favourable sense of ’Socratic irony’ is, thus, a modern invention, partly based on the more positive usage of the term in Latin, in Cicero and Quintilian. (shrink)

2001, l’année de naissance de Philosophie antique, fut aussi celle du vingt-quatrième centenaire de la mort de Socrate. André Laks et moi fûmes trop heureux de pouvoir lier notre numéro inaugural aux diverses célébrations qui marquèrent cette année-là, dont la plus considérable se déroula comme il se devait à Delphes, le lieu même où l’Athénien fut déclaré par l’oracle le plus sage des hommes. Que pareil oracle ait jamais été rendu, à vrai dire, c’est ce dont il est permis et (...) dont on ne se pr... (shrink)

English summary: This commentary of Plato's Euthydemus demonstrates its place as the clearest text for understanding the relationship between Platonism and Sophism. French description: De tous les dialogues de Platon, l'Euthydeme est peut-etre le plus exclusivement consacre a l'elucidation de la relation du platonisme avec la sophistique. Ce qu'on a pris pour indigence de son contenu, c'est l'acuite avec laquelle la forme y est consideree. Formalisme moral de Socrate, formalisme eristique des sophistes: dans la lecon d'eristique donnee a Socrate apparait, (...) plus clairement peut-etre que dans aucun texte antique, la logique propre au discours sophistique, celle-la meme a laquelle a affaire dans sa totalite le texte platonicien. La sophistique, et Platon avec elle, relevent d'un regime de discours pre-aristotelicien, et c'est dans la pratique de ce discours que demande a etre reinscrite la tant galvaudee ironie socratique. (shrink)

This collection addresses a post-WWII shift in the hierarchy of scientific explanations, where the highest goal moves from reductionism towards some ...

In much of the current academic and public discussion, conspiracy theories are portrayed as a negative phenomenon, linked to misinformation, mistrust in experts and institutions, and political propaganda. Rather surprisingly, however, philosophers working on this topic have been reluctant to incorporate a negatively evaluative aspect when either analyzing or engineering the concept conspiracy theory. In this paper, we present empirical data on the nature of the concept conspiracy theory from five studies designed to test the existence, prevalence and exact form (...) of an evaluative dimension to the ordinary concept conspiracy theory. These results reveal that, while there is a descriptive concept of conspiracy theory, the predominant use of conspiracy theory is deeply evaluative, encoding information about epistemic deficiency and often also derogatory and disparaging information. On the basis of these results, we present a new strategy for engineering conspiracy theory to promote theoretical investigations and institutional discussions of this phenomenon. We argue for engineering conspiracy theory to encode an epistemic evaluation, and to introduce a descriptive expression—such as ‘conspiratorial explanation’—to refer to the purely descriptive concept conspiracy theory. (shrink)

In this text Cassin and Narcy begin their reassessment of the mode of thought that is sophistry, which has historically functioned as the (negative) “other” of classical philosophy. To this end, the authors first present a close reading of Book Gamma of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, understood as a concerted “strategy against sophism” that, in establishing a logical basis for metaphysics, seeks to relegate the former to the sidelines once and for all. What proves ineliminable in this operation, however, and which (...) “resurfaces beyond metaphysics,” is discourse itself. Cassin and Narcy then set about exploring the contemporary resurgences of sophistry, first through the discourse of (novelistic) fiction, then, more rigorously, in the work of Jacques Lacan, whose own thought poses radical challenges to the relation of language to meaning. (shrink)

Contingency is the presence of non-actualized possibility in the world. Fatalism is a view of reality on which there is no contingency. Since it is contingency that permits agency, there has traditionally been much interest in contingency. This interest has long been embarrassed by the contention that simple and plausible assumptions about the world lead to fatalism. I begin with an Aristotelian argument as presented by Richard Taylor. Appreciation of this argument has been stultified by a question pertaining to the (...) source of necessity and possibility and a closely related one regarding the nature of metaphysics itself. Answering these questions reveals the crucial issue here, to wit, necessity and possibility in a temporal world. This issue is investigated through an important later criticism of Taylor by David Foster Wallace. Wallace’s critique is significant because it brings to the fore the pivotal notion for understanding contingency in a temporal world, that of synchronic possibility, the idea that incompatible states of affairs are possible at a single moment. This notion provides the basis of distinguishing two systematic accounts of truth, modality and time: two metaphysics of contingency. On one account, Taylor’s Aristotelian argument is straightforwardly valid and compelling; on the other, it is fallacious. In closing, I present reasons why the former account, supporting the Aristotelian views of time and truth, is correct and make some comments to ameliorate this conclusion. (shrink)

Utilisant de nouveaux outils d'analyse, les études platoniciennes contemporaines cherchent dans tout ce qui accompagne le contenu explicite d'une œuvre - tout ce qui est suggéré de façon oblique, les situations, l'atmosphère, les digressions, les réticences... - des indications sur ce que l'auteur, soit veut communiquer, soit communique réellement. Ce fait si simple et en même temps énigmatique, connu de tout temps, à savoir que la philosophie de Platon ne nous est accessible que par ses dialogues, constitue l'un de ces (...) traits par lesquels tout énoncé philosophique émis par Platon se trouve inévitablement modalisé. L'attention à la forme dialogue, telle qu'elle est thématisée ici, c'est donc la prise en compte, pour mieux entendre Platon, de tous les aspects " para-énonciatifs " de ses dialogues ; de tout ce qui fait le sens, non seulement des énoncés théoriques prêtés à tel ou tel personnage, mais de leur ensemble, de l'échange en tant que tel (entre les personnages, entre l'auteur et le lecteur), et de la stratégie platonicienne pour faire de la réception de son œuvre une expérience (y compris émotive) pour son lecteur. (shrink)

La revue publie des numéros thématiques, mais telle n'est pas son unique destination. Son ambition est en effet d'être l'écho des recherches en cours, aussi bien de celles de chercheurs confirmés que de jeunes chercheurs.

Nous n'avons pas choisi d'etre aristoteliciens. Nous ne le sommes pas moins que les autres. Le livre Gamma de la Metaphysique accomplit la relegation de la sophistique qui n'a jamais ete achevee par Platon, en instaurant un regime de discours qui fera loi pour toute l'histoire de la metaphysique. Regime que nous appelons semantique, en reference au geste decisif d'Aristote qui fait equivaloir dire et signifier quelque chose. Il faut et il suffit qu'un sophiste lui dise Bonjour! pour qu'Aristote demontre, (...) que bon gre mal gre, il se place sous la juridiction de ce qu'on appelle depuis lors le principe de non-contradiction. La mise en demeure de parler fait office d'arme absolue, et la decision du sens est le foyer de la science de l'etre en tant qu'etre. Pas d'instauration du principe sans adversaire, donc sans stategie: cela suffit pour jeter le soupcon sur l'impression que donne Gamma d'une evidence definitive. (shrink)

The X-ray and bulk densities of PdIn alloys have been determined at ambient temperature on samples annealed at 1273 and 1373 K and quenched in water-ice mixtures. From these measurements the vacancy concentrations in this intermetallic phase have been obtained as a function of In concentration at these two temperatures. In addition, a generalized thermodynamic model is presented which considers the existence of antisite and vacancy defects on both sublattices without any dilute solution approximations. This model uses three energy parameters, (...) whose values have been obtained for PdIn using the measured vacancy concentrations and the chemical potentials of In. This model is able to describe all the available vacancy data and is suitable for calculating these values at compositions and temperatures when such data are not available. In addition, the model permits the calculation of the concentrations of the minority point defects. It is shown that dilute-solution approximations, which have invariably been used in this kind of modelling, are unsatisfactory. The present results and their analysis confirm that PdIn is a near-triple-defect type of intermetallic and not a near-Schottky type, as has been claimed recently. (shrink)

For the theorists of crisis, the revolutionary state comes into existence through violence, and due to its inability to provide an authoritative katechon (restrainer) against internal and external violence, it perpetuates violence until it self-destructs. Writing during extreme economic depression and growing social and political violence, the crisis theorists––Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés, and Carl Schmitt––each sought to blame the chaos of their time upon the Janus-faced postrevolutionary ideals of liberalism and socialism by urging a return to pre-revolutionary moral (...) and religious values. They are united by three counterrevolutionary principles, all of which are purported to remedy revolutionary violence: traditional constitutional fidelity, the philosophy of the decision, and opposition to bourgeois liberalism. This essay is followed by the first complete English translation and publication of Donoso’s letter of October 24, 1851, which contains Donoso’s only reference to the “discussing class,” a political entity later popularized by Schmitt in his 1922 work Political Theology. (shrink)

SOCRATICA IV est la quatrième, tenue à Buenos Aires en 2018, d’une série de conférences inaugurée en 2005 par Livio Rossetti à Senigallia (Italie) et dont les deux autres éditions eurent lieu à Naples en 2008 et à Trento en 2012. Cette quatrième édition a vu la création de l’International Society for Socratic Studies (ISSS), dont le premier Président est Donald R. Morrison (Rice University). De quatorze en 2005, le nombre d’intervenants est passé à quatre-vingt-deux en 2018. Le revers de (...) ce s... (shrink)

This paper consists in three case studies of modern French philosophers who drew their inspiration from Plato : Emile Chartier, known under his nom de plume Alain, famous as a teacher in the twenties of the last century, and two of his pupils, Simone Petrement and Simone Weil. Great admirer of Plato, Alain taught the survival of his main thoughts through all the philosophical tradition and their agreement with the rationalistic mood of 19th‑20th century philosophy. This implied that these thoughts (...) were stripped of the allegorical or mythological way in which Plato often expresses them. In particular, Plato’s allegory of the cave, one of his core images, turned out in Alain’s interpretation to be a metaphoric description of the difficult ascent of the mind up to scientific or at least rational knowledge. Consequently in this interpretation it was no longer question of any transcendency of the idea of the Good.Petrement and Weil remained faithful to their teacher and therefore to Platonic inspiration. Nevertheless, both of them, although in different ways, have reacted against this exhaustion of transcendence and come into conflict with modern interpretation of Plato. Petrement, even before specialising in the history of Gnosticism, worked out a dualistic system in which truth is absolutely transcendent because, as universal, it is unattainable for any particular mind inasmuch it is a subject’s mind. Truth, therefore, is unattainable throughout this life. On Weil’s part, the interest in Plato took place after a period of left wing militancy, following her discovery of Christianity and some personal experiences of mysticism. Platonism was for her a means of combining her new faith with a properly philosophical, i.e. rationalistic, way of thinking. Of course in this view transcendency was crucial to the idea of Good as much as to that of God. Whether this transcendency is more a matter of faith than of reason is at least uncertain. (shrink)

L’hypothèse développée ici est que la « meilleure amie » évoquée par Socrate à la fin du chapitre n’est autre que son âme. L’exemple ainsi donné par Socrate de sa maîtrise de soi face à l’attrait exercé par une femme à la beauté « plus forte que les paroles»s’adresse non à cette dernière, mais aux assistants. On comprend ainsi pourquoi ce chapitre prend place dans une série d’entretiens où Socrate prodigue ses conseils à ceux qui « désirent les belles choses (...) ». Cette interprétation plaide en faveur de l’unité du livre III des Mémorables.The hypothesis exposed here is that the « better friend » called up by Socrates in the last sentence of the chapter is just his own soul. By giving a such example of self-control in face of an appealing woman whose beauty was « stronger than words », Socrates is not addressing this woman but his audience. We thus understand why this chapter is located in a series of conversations in which Socrates is giving advices to people who « desire beautiful things ». The thesis of the unity of Book III of Memorabilia is supported by this interpretation. (shrink)

L’hypothèse développée ici est que la « meilleure amie » évoquée par Socrate à la fin du chapitre n’est autre que son âme. L’exemple ainsi donné par Socrate de sa maîtrise de soi face à l’attrait exercé par une femme à la beauté « plus forte que les paroles » s’adresse non à cette dernière, mais aux assistants. On comprend ainsi pourquoi ce chapitre prend place dans une série d’entretiens où Socrate prodigue ses conseils à ceux qui « désirent les (...) belles choses » . Cette interprétation plaide en faveur de l’unité du livre III des Mémorables.The hypothesis exposed here is that the « better friend » called up by Socrates in the last sentence of the chapter is just his own soul. By giving a such example of self-control in face of an appealing woman whose beauty was « stronger than words », Socrates is not addressing this woman but his audience. We thus understand why this chapter is located in a series of conversations in which Socrates is giving advices to people who « desire beautiful things » . The thesis of the unity of Book III of Memorabilia is supported by this interpretation. (shrink)