The basic principles of scientific research from the great French physiologist whose contributions in the 19th century included the discovery of vasomotor nerves; nature of curare and other poisons in human body; more.

The latest news from our planet is threatening: climate change, pollution, forest loss, species extinctions. All these words are frightening and there is no sign of improvement. Simple logic leads to the conclusion that humanity has to react, for its own survival. But at the scale of a human being, it is less obvious. Organizing one’s daily life in order to preserve the environment implies self-questioning, changing habits, sacrificing some comfort. In one word, it is an effort. Then, what justifies (...) such an effort? The personal choice to act in order to preserve our environment is often made by simple altruism. This choice is based on our love for other human beings: our love for the others grounds our effort. Our moral values, our ethical reflections and our religious beliefs are the deep core of these choices. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15.12 NRSV). This Charter shows the moral and religious values that can help us react regarding the current environmental crisis and it should empower us to transcend the ideas of effort and sacrifice in order to consider the respect of the shared house, in a prophetic fulfillment of the being. (shrink)

Claude Romano seeks to change all that, to describe precisely what sort of phenomenon an event is and to establish how it can be grasped via a phenomenology.

ArgumentAfter having measured the velocity of the nervous impulse in the 1850s, Helmholtz began doing research on the temporal dimensions of visual perception. Experiments dealing with the velocity of propagation in nerves were carried out occasionally for some fifteen years until their final publication in 1871. Although the temporal dimension of perception seems to have interested Helmholtz less than problems of geometry and space, his experiments on the time of perception were technically rather subtle and seminal, especially compared with experiments (...) performed by his contemporaries, such as Sigmund Exner, William James, Rudolf Hermann Lotze, Ernst Mach, Wilhelm Volkmann, and Wilhelm Wundt. Helmholtz’s conception of the temporal aspects of perception reflects the continuity that holds between psychophysiological research and the Kantian philosophical background. (shrink)

In the latest years of the 6th/12th century, two chains of affiliation of a distinctive kind make their appearance in the Muslim world, in the East on one hand, and in the West on the other: the first is referred to in the sources as silsilat al-muṣāfaḥa, the second as silsilat al-mushābaka. These ‘chains’, mentioned mostly in works pertaining to the genre of prosopographic literature in the largest sense, experienced a broad and rapid expansion throughout the dār al-islām. They are (...) linked to a specific ritual aimed at perpetuating, across generations, a physical contact with the Prophet. Widespread among the ʿulamāʾ, they become conflated with the musalsalāt ḥadīths, or ‘chained traditions’, during the Ottoman era. (shrink)

Dans les Communia salmantins -- la plus vaste compilation didactique latine médiévale connue à ce jour et que l'on peut nommer ainsi, d'après la localisation du manuscrit depuis le XVe siècle, même si ces Points communs tirent vraisemblablement leur origine de la Faculté des arts de l'Université de Paris --, ces sections sur les philosophies morale et naturelle sont encadrées par celles, en cours d'édition et de traduction, sur la logique (Nova Logica, Vetus Logica) et sur la grammaire (de Priscien, (...) Institutiones grammaticae, XVII-XVIII, I-XVI). Ce livre -- qui présente commodément les éditions et les traductions en colonnes parallèles, tout en étant complété par une liste des tableaux et illustrations de meme qu'un index des noms -- fait donc partie d'un ensemble dont la publication est destinée à enrichir significativement notre connaissance de l'exégèse des corpus aristotélicien, boécien et priscianien, ainsi que celle de l'enseignement dialectique, par questions et réponses, des disciplines philosophiques dans l'institution universitaire du siècle d'or de la scolastique, au meme titre que le célèbre Guide de l'étudiant (parisien) du manuscrit Ripoll 109 auquel il s'apparente."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2017 Heft: 214 Seiten: 249-257.

William of Ockham (c.1287-1347) is known to be one of the major figures of the late Middle Ages. The scope and significance of his doctrine of human thought, however, has been a controversial issue among scholars in the last decade, and this book presents a full discussion of recent developments. Claude Panaccio proposes a richly documented and entirely original reinterpretation of Ockham's theory of concepts as a coherent blend of representationalism, conceptual atomism, and non reductionist nominalism, stressing in the (...) process its special interest for current discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences. (shrink)

In this introductory paper, I try to give an overview of the concept of normativity in its philosophical history and its contemporary interpretations and uses in different fields. From philosophy of logic and mathematics to philosophy of language and mind, and to philosophy of medicine and care, normativity is found as a key concept pointing at the possibility of scientific and technical progress and improvement of human life in the interaction between the individual and his environment.

This article examines whether and how the participation of women in the firm’s board of directors and senior management enhances financial performance. We use the Fama and French (1992, 1993) valuation framework to take the level of risk into consideration, when comparing firm performances, whereas previous studies used either raw stock returns or accounting ratios. Our results indicate that firms operating in complex environments do generate positive and significant abnormal returns when they have a high proportion of women officers. Although (...) the participation of women as directors does not seem to make a difference in this regard, firms with a high proportion of women in both their management and governance systems generate enough value to keep up with normal stock-market returns. These findings tend to support the policies currently being discussed or implemented in some countries and organizations to foster the advancement of women in business. (shrink)

Le développement est devenu une préoccupation majeure depuis un demi-siècle. L'idée dominante - confiant à l'État l'impulsion décisive et à la nation une souveraineté ombrageuse - a basculé au profit de la loi du marché et de l'ouverture internationale. Néo-keynésienne ou néo-classique, l'analyse du développement a reçu quatre critiques majeures tenant à la causalité, au processus, à la rationalité et au fonctionnement. Les limites d'une action qui laisse les deux tiers de l'humanité en marge du processus, suscitent l'émergence de nouveaux (...) critères d'équité, de gouvernance, d'éthique ou d'écologie. Les atouts de la communauté francophone s'inscrivent dans une connaissance empirique de cette diversité, elle transparaît dans ses approches universitaites, mais elle manque encore d'un ancrage suffisant pour donner à l'ensemble une vigueur économique de référence et une solidarité effective.Development has been a major topic for the last fifty years. The dominant idea – letting the State provide the decisive impulse for progress and the Nation a prickly form of sovereignty – has shifted in favour of market forces and the international context. Both neo-Keynesian and neo-classical forms of analysis were criticized on four levels : causality, process, rationality and functioning. The limits of a policy which excludes two thirds of humanity have led to new criteria of equity, ethics, governance and ecology arising. The French speaking community has the advantage of possessing good empirical knowledge of diversity which can be seen in the rich and varied approaches of researchers. However this knowledge is not sufficiently anchored to foster strong economic development and effective solidarity in the whole community. (shrink)