Elena Esposito’s interview is a great opportunity to ponder on the applications of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory to current social themes. Among these, I consider the meaning of a theory of ….

Beyond the eras a dialogue seems to have been established between Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) and Antonin Artaud (1896-1948). The poet’s wonder at the « painting of the North », both realistic and emblematic, reveals his deepest ideal as an artist : painting, a « magical » operation, deploys a power of expression based on signs and no longer on words, which the theatre is also called upon to seize. The juxtaposition of Bruegel’s Triumph of Death and a famous drawing (...) by Artaud, Le Théâtre de la cruauté [The Theatre of Cruelty], highlights the striking convergences between the two artists. Through their pictorial works, both of them renew over the centuries the funerary and mythical symbolism of death, inherited from the macabre scenes of medieval paintings, but also from ancient times. Studying the references to theatrical iconography in Bruegel’s painting, where carnival and crudity of death reinforce each other, allows us to deepen the meaning of these resonances. For the two artists, form and poetic momentum meet so that representation, as a structure common to painting and theatre, fixes a moment of the world, while animating that moment to infinity, thanks to signs conceived as « true hieroglyphs » (Artaud), a problem that Michel Foucault associated with the strongest truth that the experience of madness carries. (shrink)

This essay originated from a re-reading of Umberto Eco's Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994) and from discussions of Charles Darwin's illnesses. The question of historical truth arises whenever we seek to validate a scientific analysis of a fictional incident. Whereas Darwin may actually have suffered from several health conditions, Robinson Crusoe's illness is the product of Daniel Defoe's imagination. But the search for a medical diagnosis must follow the same methods in both cases. After eight months as sole (...) inhabitant of his island, Crusoe is taken ill. A detailed description of the symptoms is duly registered in his diary, along with his attempts at finding its possible nature and origin. The island, according to Crusoe, lies in the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, not far from the coast of Venezuela. From the standpoint of medical geography, his illness is a tropical disease that was prevalent in South and Central America in the seventeenth century. Five possible diseases are suggested and discussed. (shrink)

A definition of virtual or virtuality is not an easy task. Both words are of recent application in Philosophy, even if the concept of virtual comes from a respectable Latin tradition. Today’s meaning brings together the notions of potentiality, latency, imaginary representations, VR, and the forms of communication in digital media. This contagious, and spontaneous synonymy fails to identify a common vein and erases memory as a central notion. In the present essay, I’ll try to explain essential features of the (...) concept of virtual, taking the investigation of memory troubles in Pierre Janet’s work as an exemplification. Pierre Janet’s work represents a rare combination of medical observation and description of symptoms of mental illnesses, therapeutic guidance in hypnosis and philosophical writing about the main psychological themes of an epoch in transition from a Metaphysics of the Soul to the modern Experimental Psychology. Pierre Janet’s intellectual evolution since the 1880s until the end of his life is dominated by the philosophical project of a theory of the psychic system supported by three basic pillars: a concept of personality, a theory of memory and a sketch of a general theory of conduct. Such complex endeavour cannot be abstracted from the initial connections with Jean-Martin Charcot’s school at La Salpêtrière which meant a turning point in the tradition of the “animal magnetism” concerning the treatment of epileptic-hysterical symptoms along with the contributions of Hyppolite Bernheim’s “Nancy School” of hypnotism. J.-M. Charcot’s or H. Bernheim’s theorising about the organic and psychological aspects of the hypnotic treatment of the hysterical symptoms was already aware of the difficulty in dealing with the extent of the dissimulation of the patients regarding the symptoms of the illness, under hypnotic suggestion, even if Charcot insisted in the identification and cataloguing of the organic expressions, such as contractures or the posture of the body in arc during the attacks. The precise location of the “great hysteria” in the organic-psychic corridor was itself a riddle. If a symptom is a special type of sign, in the case of the “great hysteria” nobody knew for sure what it stood for. The clinical symptom of the attack stood for an organic trouble with cerebral causes, a psychological interruption of the normal sensorial and muscular movements or a disguise of the female desire? Pierre Janet described many hysterical patients, somnambulism and multiple personality since his articles in La Revue Philosophique de la France et l’ Étranger, a Journal founded by the philosopher, experimental psychologist and his intellectual predecessor Théodule-Armand Ribot. The description of the case of the “great hysterical” Lucie, treated by him, is an example of a theoretical hypothesising on multiple personality and discontinuity of memories fragments. There are more cases revealing the same relation between hysteria, somnambulism, personality dissociation and “alternating memory”. Decisively inspired by and corroborating P. Janet’s ideas, S. Freud conceived also the essential of the hysterical sicknesses as disorders of memory. The theme of memory came even more to the foreground in the dissertation L’Automatisme Psychologique. Here, the strange world of somnambulism was scrutinised along with hysterical contractures and convulsions, anaesthesia, the compulsion to repetition, obsessions, “automatic writing” in hysterical patients, multiple personality and “alternating memories”. In the depicted cases memory could not be taken as a homogenous series of remembrances or as a stock of disposable information but as a variable of the depth of the personalities’ inner formation. The so-called “seconde existence” of some somnambulists referred not only unconscious representations and unconscious thoughts but complete or inceptive latent personalities provided with multiple virtual existences and multiple memories. Hypnosis was the privileged technique to access to such multiple memories ignored by the official personality. Later and after the writing of his M.D. Dissertation, Contribution à l’ Étude des Accidents Mentaux chez les Hystériques, P. Janet addressed again the themes of memory and alternating memories in a series of lectures at the Collège de France but now according to the larger framework of a general theory of conduct which included a description of the social actions participating in the narrative construction of personal memories, and the role of social memory. (shrink)

Luxury entails a public differentiating use of objects and commodities, which is grounded on the overlapping of the spending with commodities and the ostentation of perceptible signs stimulating social imitation. In the eighteenth century, the debates on luxury emphasized the importance of the scrutiny of the power of imagination as intimately related to the contagious and mimetic character of the use of luxury objects. Thus, “luxury” represents a conceptual and, more generally, a semantic momentum in the evolution of the description (...) of the society grounded on the influence of imitation. The several textual testimonies of the luxury debates in the eighteenth century, including Bernard de Mandeville’s contribution, attest the epistemological perplexity regarding the status of the psychic side of the definition of commodities, or economic goods, as utilities responding to specific human needs: the escalade of the emulation in the acquisition of luxury objects seems to deny any relevant connection of luxury to basic needs. This justifies the reference to imagination as the psychic source of the needs connected to luxury consumption and the absence of a direct correspondence between luxury goods and needs. B. Mandeville’s views on the theme of luxury and overconsumption in his Fable of the Bees and other writings are a privileged starting point for the explanation of these aspects of the evolution of the modern commercial society. -/- Keywords Luxury • Commercial society • Imitation • Consumption • Utility. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “The Circular Conditions of Second-order Science Sporadically Illustrated with Agent-based Experiments at the Roots of Observation” by Manfred Füllsack. Upshot: I address Füllsack’s main conclusions in his article regarding the meaning of second-order observations. Especially envisaged are the epistemological and ontological difficulties raised by his scrutiny of the merging between systemic-internal conditions of second-order reflexivity and the thematic-theoretical accounts of selection, intentionality and purposiveness in evolutionary systems.

California is a landmark setting for studying produce recovery efforts and policy implications because of its global relevance in agricultural production, its complex network of food recovery organizations, and its environmental and public health regulations. Through a series of focus groups with organizations involved in produce recovery (gleaning organizations) and emergency food operations (food banks, food pantries), this study aimed to deepen our understanding of the current produce recovery system and determine the major challenges and opportunities related to the produce (...) recovery system. Operational and systematic barriers to produce recovery were highlighted by both gleaning and emergency food operations. Operational barriers, such as the lack of appropriate infrastructure and limited logistical support were found to be a challenge across groups and were directly tied to inadequate funding for these organizations. Systematic barriers, such as regulations related to food safety or reducing food loss and waste, were also found to impact both gleaning and emergency food organizations, but differences were observed in how each type of regulation impacted each stakeholder group. To support the expansion of food recovery efforts, participants expressed need for better coordination within and across food recovery networks and more positive and transparent engagement from regulators to increase understanding of the specifics of their unique operational constraints. The focus group participants also provided critiques on how emergency food assistance and food recovery are inscribed within the current food system and for longer term goals of reducing food insecurity and food loss and waste a systematic change will be required. (shrink)

This book integrates studies on the thought of Bernard de Mandeville and other philosophers and historians of Modern Thought. The chapters reflect a rethinking of Mandeville’s legacy and, together, present a comprehensive approach to Mandeville’s work. The book is published on the occasion of the 300 years that have passed since the publication of the Fable of the Bees. Bernard de Mandeville disassembled the dichotomies of traditional moral thinking to show that the outcomes of the social action emerge as new, (...) non-intentional effects from the combination of moral opposites, vice and virtue, in such a form that they lose their moral significance. The work of this great writer, philosopher and physician is interwoven with an awareness of the paradoxical nature of modern society and the challenges that this recognition brings to an adequate perspective on the historical world of modernity. (shrink)

« Dans cet article, nous tenterons d’interpréter la notion controversée de musique populaire brésilienne en tant que concept porteur d’un contenu à la fois utopique et idéologique, en nous appuyant sur le concept d’idéologie dans la pensée de Marx et d’Adorno, ainsi que sur une intuition du philosophe brésilien Vladimir Safatle. Notre hypothèse est la suivante : la musique populaire brésilienne, portée par un mouvement dialectique, a changé de paradigme tout au long du xx e siècle, avec la samba, la (...) bossa-nova et la musique populaire brésilienne ( mpb ) comme paradigmes successifs. Il s’agit alors d’identifier les changements du contenu utopique et idéologique de la musique brésilienne en fonction des mouvements de l’histoire du pays. Enfin, nous conclurons par une hypothèse sur notre époque actuelle, sur la crise de la musique populaire brésilienne et de son concept.». (shrink)

Machiavelli is known chiefly for The Prince, but his main considerations on politics are in his most profound and later work Discourses on Livy, the complexity, length and style of which have often discouraged new readers and interpreters of Machiavelli, despite its historical and theoretical importance. For this reason, the Discourses has not been given the attention it deserves. This volume of newly commissioned essays by some of the world's leading experts on Machiavelli overcomes this gap. It is the first (...) collective volume dedicated specifically to this work, ranging over topics such as Machiavelli's republicanism, the relation between liberty and tyranny, the role of religion, his conception of history, his writing style, his view of society as a plural and conflictive body, his suggestion of how a free state should be organized, or his notions of the people and virtù. Contributors include: Jérémie Barthas, Thomas Berns, Alessandro Campi, J. Patrick Coby, Marie Gaille, Marco Geuna, Mark Jurdjevic, Cary J. Nederman, Gabriele Pedullà, Diogo Pires Aurélio, Fabio Raimondi, Andre Santos Campos, Miguel Vatter, and Camila Vergara. (shrink)

Original scholarly essays by leading philosophers, which bring to life Machiavelli’s lengthiest and most challenging work.

Abelard is acknowledged as a dreaded arguer. In this paper we try to demonstrate how the refinement of his argumentative technique associate intimately and find a theoretical justification in his work. Thus, the resources that seem just to guarantee the success and survival of the itinerant master point to the philosophical defense of the independence of language; therefore, those resources not only denounce the philosopher's extreme insertion in his historical context and his concern about his specific public, but they also (...) condense elements of his intellectual autonomy and pioneering spirit.Abelardo é reconhecido como um argumentador temível. Neste texto, procuramos mostrar como o uso de expedientes retóricos e o refinamento de sua técnica argumentativa associam-se intimamente e encontram em sua obra uma justificação teórica. Assim, recursos , que parecem apenas garantir.o sucesso e sobrevivência do mestre itinerante, apontam para a defesa filosófica da independência da linguagem; deste modo, ao tempo em que denunciam a extrema inserção do filósofo em seu contexto histórico e sua preocupação com seu específico público, condensam elementos de sua autonomia intelectual e pioneirismo. (shrink)

RESUMO A empatia, em Edith Stein, é uma vivência que permite o conhecimento do outro, mas também do "sujeito empatizante". Pela teoria "do vivenciar completo", alcança-se não apenas um conhecimento da vivência do outro, mas também dos valores subjacentes à sua ação. Através desta teoria, pretende-se responder à proposta levinasiana de uma responsabilidade total, por um lado, e, por outro, de P. Ricœur, que apresenta a necessidade de uma relação que pense ao mesmo tempo a reflexividade do si mesmo. A (...) empatia permite um modo de constituição personalizadora para os dois sujeitos que mantém, de modo simultâneo, a unicidade e a alteridade de cada um. ABSTRACT According to Edith Stein, empathy is an experience that allows for knowledge of the other and of the "empathizing subject". The notion of "full experience" makes it possible to know the experience of the other, as well as the values underlying his/her actions. On the basis of this theory, the article seeks to respond to Levinas' proposal of total responsibility, on the one hand and to P. Ricœur, who argues in favor of a relation that, at the same time, takes into account the reflexivity of the self, on the other. Empathy allows for a personalized mode of constitution of the two subjects, which, simultaneously preserves the singularity and alterity of each. (shrink)

The pragmatist turn in Philosophy in the late XIX century and XX century was a serious attempt to refuse the privilege of the representational elements of the conscious- ness in the production of knowledge. Such privilege has its roots in Ancient Philosophy, in some consequences of the Platonic heritage, but was toughened by Modern philosophers of empiricist or aprioristic lineages within the modern concepts of Experience and Truth. With these last concepts of Experience and Truth I’m referring to the objectivising (...) tendency that leads to identify experience with the final object resulting from the judicative fixation of relations. Due to the fixation of some basic relations the object of experience was identified and conceived with such and such characteristics as something independent of the mental or judicative activity. Such method of fixation and objectivising of relations is also present in the common-sense ideas of Reality, Experience and Truth. In the field of the theory of signs the reputation of the modern concept of representation was so vast that despite the progress in the discovery of the differential character of the linguistic units, Saussure’s well-known notion of sign and the division between “signifiant” and “signifié” still kept the reference to the double across the body/mind polarity and to the “mental image” of the sign, Vorstellung, concept or “signifié,” as the core of meaning. If Peirce and James agree in the refusal of the classical theory of representation, their rejection came from different horizons and their critiques don’t mean the same. I’ll try to show that James’s and Peirce’s attempts are not disjunctive, although they are not members of a simple addition. In the writings of the Tartu School and in T. Sebeok’s reassessment to Peircean semeiosis one finds interesting tools to reconsider the relation to the World of the “field of consciousness” and semeiosic cycles, beyond representationalism, such as the concepts of environment and primary, secondary and tertiary modelling systems. Starting with these insights I’ll propose at the end of the essay the notion of a double environment between psychic systems and systems based on communication. (shrink)

RESUMO: O Pragmatismo, como proposto por Charles S. Peirce, deve ser considerado um método para a produção teórica de pensamento que visa à construção de conceitos, a qual assume a forma de uma máxima lógica orientadora da conduta científica. Se um conceito é uma relação sígnica e a sua compreensão, um processo sígnico, encontramos na semiótica peirceana uma estratégia para discriminar as etapas da compreensão conceitual e avaliar os significados de termos e conceitos abstratos. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é (...) explicar os princípios lógicos que governam os tipos de Signos que mais diretamente estão relacionados à construção de conceitos, a saber: o Símbolo-Remático, o Símbolo-Dicente e o Argumento. Tais signos correspondem à antiga divisão Termo, Proposição e Argumento, modificada de modo a ser aplicável aos signos em geral. ABSTRACT: Pragmatism, as proposed by Charles S. Peirce, should be considered a method for the theoretical production of thought that aims the construction of concepts, which takes the form of a logical maxim guiding scientific conduct. If a concept is a sign relationship and its understanding a sign process, we find in Peircean semiotics a strategy to discriminate the stages of conceptual understanding and to evaluate the meanings of abstract terms and concepts. Therefore, the aim of this work is to explain the logical principles that govern the types of Signs that more directly are related to the construction of concepts, namely: the Rhematic Symbol, the Dicent Symbol and the Argument. Such signs correspond to the old division between Term, Proposition and Argument, modified in order to be applicable to the signs in general. (shrink)

This paper describes Stein’s process for establishing the relationship between finite and temporal beings and infinite and eternal beings. Although she contextualized her research in the fields of phenomenology and ontology, Stein surpasses these domains. Following Aquinas, Stein uses the analogy to trace the ascension towards the sense of Being. However, this process ends up being closest to the position of St. Augustine. In fact, the author first draws up a temporal analogy and then a personal analogy starting from two (...) pieces of evidence: the certainty of “I am”, from Augustine, Descartes, and Husserl, and the divine “I am”, according to the name that God reveals of himself: “I am who I am”. Through personal analogy, the author goes beyond phenomenology and ontology, while the category “person” includes both being and an attributed fullness. (shrink)

This paper intends to redeem, even modestly, the temporality and the narrativity present in the Discourse on the Method, and thus, to situate them in relation to the Cartesian project of legitimizing its conception of science and philosophy – step that marks his metaphysical turn given the condemnation of Galileo in 1633. Complementing and deepening this key of reading of the small essay of Descartes, we will trace a brief analysis of the philosophical meaning of the figure of the Journey (...) – present in an important way in the body of the text. In this spirit, our proposal is to understand how the aesthetic dimension of this Descartes’s work dialogues with its philosophical dimension. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est double. Il s’agit d’abord d’introduire un nouveau corpus de français oral numérisé, accessible sans restriction sur le web. CFPP2000 (Corpus du français parlé parisien des années 2000), qui comporte actuellement 500 000 mots alignés à l’oral au tour de parole, est constitué par un ensemble d’interviews conversationnelles sur les quartiers de Paris d’une à deux heures qui ont été réalisées en dyades ou le plus souvent en triades. L’article envisage l’influence pour la constitution du (...) corpus du but que nous nous étions fixé au départ, faciliter l’étude de la variation à l’oral pour le français parisien « commun ». Il aborde le choix des informateurs qui découle de cet objectif, les conduites d’entretien qui ont été adoptées. Il envisage ce qu’apporte la transcription d’entretiens relativement longs qui permet d’atténuer l’opposition entre analyse quantitative et analyse qualitative, ainsi que les précautions à prendre dans l’interprétation des résultats. Dans un deuxième temps, l’article présente les métadonnées, les concordanciers et les outils statistiques qui viennent enrichir le corpus et mentionne quelques travaux qu’il a permis de mener, tantôt en syntaxe de l’oral, tantôt autour de problèmes de variation morphologique. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est double. Il s’agit d’abord d’introduire un nouveau corpus de français oral numérisé, accessible sans restriction sur le web. CFPP2000 (Corpus du français parlé parisien des années 2000), qui comporte actuellement 500 000 mots alignés à l’oral au tour de parole, est constitué par un ensemble d’interviews conversationnelles sur les quartiers de Paris d’une à deux heures qui ont été réalisées en dyades ou le plus souvent en triades. L’article envisage l’influence pour la constitution du (...) corpus du but que nous nous étions fixé au départ, faciliter l’étude de la variation à l’oral pour le français parisien « commun ». Il aborde le choix des informateurs qui découle de cet objectif, les conduites d’entretien qui ont été adoptées. Il envisage ce qu’apporte la transcription d’entretiens relativement longs qui permet d’atténuer l’opposition entre analyse quantitative et analyse qualitative, ainsi que les précautions à prendre dans l’interprétation des résultats. Dans un deuxième temps, l’article présente les métadonnées, les concordanciers et les outils statistiques qui viennent enrichir le corpus et mentionne quelques travaux qu’il a permis de mener, tantôt en syntaxe de l’oral, tantôt autour de problèmes de variation morphologique. (shrink)

University students from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, and Portugal were given a list of morally relevant behaviors, the Schwartz Value Survey and Tangney’s TOSCA, measuring empathic guilt, guilt over norm-breaking, and shame. A factor analysis of MRB yielded 4 dimensions: prosocial behaviors, interpersonal transgressions, antisocial behaviors and secret transgressions. Prosocial behaviors were predicted by self-transcendence–self-enhancement value contrast only while the three transgression categories were associated with both SET and openness to change–conservation contrast. Norm-breaking guilt was more strongly associated with behaviors than (...) were empathic guilt and shame. However, shame was associated with secret transgressions in three countries, after controlling for values. The associations were strongest in Bulgaria and Estonia while fewer associations were found in Finland and Portugal. The implications of the findings for the cross-cultural psychology of morality are discussed. (shrink)

Os pressupostos teóricos de Ilya Prigogine e a epistemologia crítica – um diálogo de convergências? Resumo: Ter clareza das raízes epistemológicas dos referenciais teóricos utilizados nas pesquisas científicas é primordial para que essas investigações tenham veracidade. Entretanto, alguns autores, por diversos motivos, não explicitam tais informações em suas obras. Surge então a necessidade de se saber onde Ilya Prigogine - físico-químico e filósofo que refletiu sobre a função do tempo, do conhecimento e das leis fundamentais que governam o universo - (...) está epistemologicamente posicionado. Desta forma, a presente investigação buscou analisar, comparar e conectar as perspectivas da epistemologia crítica, uma das mais importantes vertentes da filosofia contemporânea, com as proposições teóricas de Prigogine, buscando encontrar conexões entre elas. Desta pesquisa exploratória de cunho bibliográfico, emergiram da análise de conteúdo as seguintes categorias: conhecimento, história, natureza, utilização e ciências exatas x humanas. Subsidiados pelas discussões aqui construídas, conseguimos constatar que existem intensas convergências entre a epistemologia crítica e a obra de Prigogine. Com isso, confirmamos que o entrelaçamento entre Prigogine e a epistemologia crítica é forte o suficiente para posicioná-lo como epistemólogo com vertente crítica. O arcabouço teórico aqui desenvolvido pode ser utilizado para justificar a utilização das ideias prigoginianas em trabalhos de orientação progressista e também abre espaço para novas pesquisas sobre o posicionamento epistemológico de Prigogine. Palavras-chave: Progressismo; Teoria Crítica; Relações histórico-sociais; Ciência; Natureza. Ilya Prigogine's theoretical assumptions and critical epistemology - a convergence dialogue? Abstract: Having clarity on the epistemological roots of the theoretical frameworks used in scientific research is paramount for these investigations to be true. However, some authors, for various reasons, do not explain the information in their works. The need then arises to know where Ilya Prigogine - physicist-chemist and philosopher who reflected on a function of time, knowledge and the fundamental principles that govern the universe - is epistemologically positioned. In this way, the present research sought to analyze, compare and connect with the perspectives of critical epistemology, one of the most important aspects of contemporary philosophy, with Progogine's theoretical proposals, seeking to find connections between them. From this exploratory research of a bibliographic nature, content analysis emerged as the following categories: knowledge, history, nature, use and exact x human. Supported by the discussions built here, he was able to verify that there are intense convergences between a critical epistemology and a work by Prigogine. With this, we confirm that the intertwining between Prigogine and a critical epistemology is strong or sufficient to position him as an epistemologist with critical criticism. The theoretical framework developed here can be used to justify the use of Prigoginian ideas in works of progressive orientation and also opens space for new research on Prigogine's epistemological positioning. Key-words: Progressiveness; Critical Theory; Historical-Social Relations; Science; Nature. Los supuestos teóricos y la epistemología crítica de Ilya Prigogine: ¿un diálogo de convergência? Resumen: Tener claridad sobre las raíces epistemológicas de los marcos teóricos utilizados en la investigación científica es fundamental para que estas investigaciones sean ciertas. Sin embargo, algunos autores, por diversas razones, no hacen explícita esta información en sus trabajos. Entonces surge la necesidad de saber dónde está posicionado epistemológicamente Ilya Prigogine, físico-químico y filósofo que reflexionó sobre una función del tiempo, el conocimiento y los principios fundamentales que gobiernan el universo. De esta forma, la presente investigación buscó analizar, comparar y conectar con las perspectivas de la epistemología crítica, uno de los aspectos más importantes de la filosofía contemporánea, con las propuestas teóricas de Progogine, buscando encontrar conexiones entre ellas. En esta investigación exploratoria de naturaleza bibliográfica, surgieron las siguientes categorías del análisis de contenido: conocimiento, historia, naturaleza, uso y ciencias humanas exactas. Subsidiado por las discusiones construidas aquí, pudo verificar que hay intensas convergencias entre una epistemología crítica y un trabajo de Prigogine. Con eso, confirmamos que el entrelazamiento entre Prigogine y una epistemología crítica es fuerte o suficiente para posicionarlo como un epistemólogo con crítica crítica. El marco teórico desarrollado aquí puede usarse para justificar el uso de ideas de Prigoginian en trabajos de orientación progresiva y también abre espacio para nuevas investigaciones sobre el posicionamiento epistemológico de Prigogine. Mots-clés: Progresismo ; Teoría Crítica ; Relaciones históricas ; Ciencia ; Naturaleza. Data de registro: 13/04/2020 Data de aceite: 22/09/2021. (shrink)

The capacity-building strategy used by a US-based research organisation, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation , to strengthen the system for the protection of human research subjects and the infrastructure of its international collaborating partner, the University of Liberia, are discussed. To conduct the much-needed biomedical and social science-based research-related activities in the future, this partnership is expected by PIRE to gradually evolve over time to strengthen the capacity of the local investigators and administrators of the University of Liberia. (...) Accordingly, a unique opportunity to share technology and resources with a post-conflict, resource-constrained country is created by this partnership. This capacity-building model to strengthen the protection of human subjects in research can also be replicated in similar resource-constrained international settings and, accordingly, our experiences and limitations are shared in this paper. (shrink)

La quête de repères identificatoires est probablement l'une des plus vieilles entreprises que l'humanité s'est donnée pour asseoir son histoire et construire sa mémoire. Toutes les sociétés, toutes les civilisations, fussent les pires totalitarismes, ont besoin d'une genèse héroïque — et donc exemplaire — pour fonder leurs origines. Une geste destinée à justifier leur présent ; un point de départ qui fixe un "avant" et un "après" et qui fait qu'à partir d'un événement créateur, selon la formule maintes fois (...) annoncée, toujours contredite : "rien ne sera plus jamais comme avant". On a tous besoin d'un père, tous besoin d'un géniteur, individuel ou collectif. Cette qualité peut naturellement se décliner sous différentes formes : le "père fondateur" est, selon les cas, un homme, une femme, un événement, un discours, un livre... Cet ouvrage se propose donc d'explorer ce concept, en croisant différentes approches : la linguistique, l'histoire, la philosophie, la littérature et le droit. (shrink)

Il est assez rare qu’un concept philosophique s’échappe de l’arène académique. C’est pourtant le cas du concept de spécisme, qui a fait une entrée remarquée dans la sphère publique au cours de la dernière décennie. Il est désormais au cœur du débat de société sur nos devoirs envers les animaux non humains. Hélas, ce concept et les enjeux qu’il soulève sont souvent mal compris. Nombreux sont les auteurs qui contestent sa légitimité alors qu’ils le maitrisent mal. D’autres l’utilisent plus volontiers (...) sans toutefois mieux le comprendre. Les confusions qui entourent cette notion l’empêche de contribuer à la discussion autant qu’elle le pourrait. Le présent ouvrage entend remédier à cet état de faits en donnant de la notion de spécisme une présentation à la fois assez précise pour rendre justice aux discussions philosophiques dont elle fait l’objet et suffisamment claire pour être accessible à quiconque s’intéresse au statut moral des animaux. Il se divise en deux parties. La première aborde des questions ontologiques : Qu’est-ce exactement que le spécisme ? À quelles conditions existe-t-il ? Ces conditions sont-elles remplies dans les faits ? Quant à la seconde, elle porte sur des questions éthiques : Le spécisme peut-il être justifié ? Faut-il au contraire le condamner au même titre que le racisme et le sexisme ? (shrink)

La stèle porte deux versions successives d'une liste d'abats, dont la plus récente est précédée d'une inscription votive de l'agoranome du Pirée. On démontre qu'il s'agit d'une liste, la première de son espèce à Athènes, fixant les prix de vente maximums, et non d'un tableau de l'ἐπώνιον. On examine les renseignements fournis par cette liste concernant l'évolution des habitudes alimentaires et du coût de la vie au Ier s. av. J.-C. La nouvelle liste, avec des prix différents de ceux de (...) la première, fut publiée après la destruction du Pirée par Sylla. (shrink)

A l’opposé d’une philosophie ayant pour tâche de débrouiller le désordre apparent, de faire apparaître dans notre monde « des relations constantes et douées d’intelligibilité, se rendre maître des champs d’activité ouverts par la découverte de ces relations », il s’est trouvé, de loin en loin, des penseurs pour lesquels la philosophie se doit de dissoudre l’ordre apparent et d’affronter le chaos. « A de tels penseurs, cette tâche empoisonnée est apparue comme non seulement tâche unique mais encore tâche nécessaire (...) de la philosophie ». Réussir à penser le pire, tel est le but commun propre à ces philosophes et l’objet de ce livre est de s’interroger sur la nature de cette nécessité, sur la possibilité d’une philosophie tragique. (shrink)

Comment survivre à la vie? Car la vie finit mal, se passe mal aussi parfois, avec ruptures, chagrins, deuils, maladies, et mort. Comment traverser ces catastrophes? Avec l'aide de la foi, qui donne sens à ce qui n'est que souffrance? Mais qu'en est-il de l'athée? S'il veut être cohérent, il ne doit pas chercher à donner un sens à ces souffrances, à leur trouver une justification mais il ne peut faire fond que sur l'absurdité de la vie. Quelle fécondité trouver (...) aux vies abîmées? Comment penser la mort et la douleur? Comme ce qui est étranger à la vie, comme ce qui ne la concerne pas. Sans pour autant faire comme si cela n'était rien. Il faudrait donc tenir ensemble la réalité terrifiante du malheur et la valeur absolue de la vie, qui seule importe.Un essai de philosophie athée rigoureuse, qui pose la question essentielle : à quoi bon vivre? Introduction. Vivre au dehors. Idées pour la constitution d'une éthique athée Chapitre premier. Le pendule équivoque. Tomber malade, vivre debout Chapitre II. Expérience et misère de la mort Chapitre III. Vivre sans, vivre avec - après la mort Chapitre IV. Quelle tuile! Sur l'événement amoureux Chapitre V. Heureux qui comme David (Se faire son petit bonheur juif) Chapitre VI. Des petits et des grandsbouleversements La fin du pire? Remerciements. (shrink)

À partir d’une étude de cas issue de la clinique de la dépression postpartum parentale, l’article met en lumière les enjeux de « l’effet bébé » sur l’intrapsychique de la mère et du père mais aussi sur l’intersubjectivité active au sein du couple. La naissance de l’enfant réel et la « renaissance » de l’enfant en soi pour le père et la mère exposent le couple au surgissement de l’histoire infantile et bébé de chacun, avec le risque de la réactivation (...) d’événements traumatiques ou névrotiques. On observe alors dans la dynamique du couple une intersubjectivité qui s’organise à partir de mouvements d’intrication ou de mise en conflit, voire de désintrication, des subjectivités respectives, un peu à l’image de la rythmicité de l’intersubjectivité primaire, pour « le meilleur ou le pire » de leur parentalité ou/et de leur conjugalité. (shrink)

Face aux catastrophes annoncées, aux risques d'effondrements et aux désarrois qu'ils suscitent, est apparu en France depuis 2015 une « bataille des récits » où s'entremêlent études scientifiques, travaux de vulgarisation, mais également communautés et collectifs affinitaires. Les « grands récits » des XIXe et XXe siècles ayant fait faillite, il est courant d'entendre aujourd'hui que de nouveaux récits collectifs doivent émerger. Ils répondraient aux inquiétudes et redonneraient de l'espoir, leur conférant alors un potentiel quasi magique. Ce faisant, ils entraînent (...) alors des stratégies et des politiques différentes, voire opposées. Ce livre décode les fonctions et les puissances politiques du récit et ses enjeux, décrypte et compare les récits d'effondrements afin d'en comprendre les origines, les vertus, les crispations et les affects qu'ils brassent. Il rappelle également que la question des limites est un souci écologique essentiel et une responsabilité collective. (shrink)

The varied reception history of Victor Hugo's novel L'Homme qui rit (1869) is outlined in the context of exemplary historicisations of the "laughing face"-character. This reconstruction deals with the interplay of aesthetics and passion, on the one hand, and with the effects of intermedia encounters of literature, photography and film, on the other. Not only the traditional naturalisation of medieval penalty practices (by defacing) is investigated, but also the modern media history of celebrities.

Uma das principais discussões na correspondência Leibniz-Clarke tem que ver com o melhor modo de conceber a liberdade da vontade. A relação entre a vontade e os motivos é semelhante à que se verifica entre a balança e os pesos? A vontade tem a capacidade de contrariar a inclinação mais forte? A noção de motivos que inclinam sem necessitar basta para defender a liberdade? Estas e outras perguntas constituem o campo de batalha em que duas diferentes perspectivas acerca da liberdade (...) humana e divina se enfrentam. O nosso artigo foca a posição de Leibniz a respeito deste tema, tal como se desenha nas cartas tro­cadas com Clarke. Nele, sublinhamos as preocupações fundamentais de Leibniz na tarefa de conceptualização da vontade livre, oferecemos um brevíssimo resumo da sua argumentação e partilhamos algumas dificuldades relativas à interpretação das teses apresentadas pelo filósofo alemão. (shrink)

When preferences are such that there is no unique additive prior, the issue of which updating rule to use is of extreme importance. This paper presents an axiomatization of the rule which requires updating of all the priors by Bayes rule. The decision maker has conditional preferences over acts. It is assumed that preferences over acts conditional on event E happening, do not depend on lotteries received on Ec, obey axioms which lead to maxmin expected utility representation with multiple priors, (...) and have common induced preferences over lotteries. The paper shows that when all priors give positive probability to an event E, a certain coherence property between conditional and unconditional preferences is satisfied if and only if the set of subjective probability measures considered by the agent given E is obtained by updating all subjective prior probability measures using Bayes rule. (shrink)

Com este trabalho, buscamos verificar o quanto de poder o povo possui na forma de governo defendida no _Federalista_ em relação ao direcionamento do governo para os seus fins. Para isso, buscamos entender o papel dos conceitos de virtude e vontade na referida forma de governo e a relação de tais conceitos com o poder. Utilizamos como pano de fundo as ideias de Locke, Montesquieu e Rousseau sobre representação. Concluímos que o _Federalista_ se contrapõe a Rousseau e segue Montesquieu, trazendo (...) de volta a virtude como elemento principal de condução do governo aos seus fins, separando o povo dos governantes, que formariam agora uma classe profissional, e fazendo a substituição do cidadão para o homem ligado ao comércio e à vida privada. (shrink)

O conhecimento está limitado a representações de sistemas psíquicos e às suas contrapartes linguísticas? O significado deve ser restrito aos conteúdos proposicionais? "Sequencialidade doSentido e Formas Cognitivas" desafia os pressupostos tradicionais em redor das respostas a estas questões. No presente trabalho caracterizam-se os sistemas que recorrem a formas cognitivas, a partir dos seus elementos e dos tipos de operações que concretizam. Estes sistemas são Sistemas baseados no Sentido nos seus elementos e nas operações que articulam tais elementos. Trata-se de sistemas (...) psíquicos e sociais. Assim se restringe a noção de sentido às concretizações psíquicas e sociais do processamento interpretativo de sinais, apenas para o propósito de identificar o objeto teórico do presente trabalho. Há todo um processamento de sinais na realidade físico-biológica, e cognição correspondente, que não adquire valor interpretativo para sistemas psíquicos ou sociais. O conhecimento e as formas cognitivas são mais vastos que o processamento interpretativo de sinais, mesmo que se admita que é na consciência e nos atos comunicativos que a cognição adquire um estatuto proposicional pleno e se pode, assim, tornar um objeto para a avaliação lógica. O conhecimento foi entendido de dois modos: i) como um processo de que resulta a forma cognitiva, tradicionalmente chamada representação, devido a ter sido exemplificada e escrutinada em sistemas psíquicos formados por elementos da consciência (representações); ii) à luz de operações com múltipla instanciação, por isso não limitadas à consciência humana. (shrink)

O objetivo do artigo é discutir o pensamento político de Espinosa confrontando-o, por um lado, com o que poderíamos chamar a “ideologia dominante" da época, o pensamento cristão, aqui examinado a partir da correspondência com o dinamarquês N. Stensen, e, por outro lado, com o quadro teórico em que a questão política está então a ser recolocada, o pensamento de Hobbes. Além da conhecida explicitação do que o distingue em relação a Hobbes ( Carta L, a J. Jelles), é na (...) Correspondência que Espinosa expõe a articulação entre a política e os grandes temas de sua metafísica, como são a doutrina da causa imanente e o binômio liberdade/necessidade. Lugar privilegiado de auscultação da opinião dominante e, por isso, exercício em si mesmo exemplarmente político, as cartas são também o espaço textual em que a metafísica se expõe às suas consequências políticas e a teoria se confronta com a prática, oferecendo uma visão de Espinosa que, se está longe do "positivista" hobbesiano, não está menos longe do visionário afastado da realidade que o circunda e o condiciona. (shrink)

I critically examine developmental approaches to the notion of habituation in the Nicomachean Ethics. Such approaches conceive of habituation in terms of upbringing. I challenge this view. Developmental approaches provide a restrictive view of habituation. I argue that it is possible for the habituation of character to occur after upbringing. My interpretation avoids the charge that Aristotle only granted the possibility of virtue to those who have had a good upbringing.

Cet article présente un bref historique de la théorie de l’attachement, une définition des concepts, et les développements ultérieurs, tant sur le plan de la recherche que sur le plan plus actuel de la pratique, des liens avec la psychopathologie et des répercussions sur le cadre thérapeutique. Il s’agit de mettre en évidence les bases théoriques et de comprendre leur place dans le champ clinique.

Culture plays an important role in defining ethics standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behaviour. The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society (...) consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered. This paper reviews the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic groups and their relevance for marketing strategy within an economy where there is a dominant group and also significant minority ethnic groups. The ethical consequences for minority communities arising from the use of non-ethnic, mainstream marketing programs are examined. An alternative approach, ethnic marketing, is also examined and its ethical consequences in terms of other groups within the one country appraised. The ethical dilemma and tradeoffs facing marketers within advanced, culturally diverse countries are then considered. (shrink)

Devido à sua adoção no Inglês, as línguas nacionais divulgaram o termo de proveniência latina medium e o seu plural media para designar formas simbólicas e materiais de comunicação da sociedade moderna. O uso do termo no plural é recente e também a atenção teórica que despertou. É sob “Teoria dos Media”, “Filosofia dos Media”, “Filosofia dos novos Media”, etc. que a investigação empírica e teórica se tem desenvolvido nas últimas décadas em uma variedade de disciplinas e encruzilhadas disciplinares. O (...) termo inglês sobrepõe‑se ao latino e assim desperta antigos ecos. Nas outras línguas nacionais a potenciação destas ressonâncias interlinguísticas poderá não ser a mesma, como acontece no Inglês. No entanto, em media o cruzamento do Inglês e do Latim revela acerca do termo aquilo que teoricamente e do ponto de vista semântico é necessário ter em conta, a saber ‑a mediação. Os termos medium e media não definem objetos isoláveis nos seus predicados materiais, mas, antes, uma polimorfia material na mediação, que está aí, no mundo da perceção, enquanto forma e/ou reproduz comunicação. Ao mesmo tempo que parecem designar formas da perceção, os media não são corpos ou organismos nem estados psíquicos. O presente trabalho dá conta dos problemas suscitados pelos nexos entre comunicação, perceção e técnica nos media, identifica a herança clássica nas Filosofias da Técnica e as viragens modernas. É uma reflexão meta‑teórica sobre teoria dos media. (shrink)