First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

An examination of the relation between war and politics, by one of the twentieth century’s most influential thinkers From 1971 until 1984 at the College de France, Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures ranging freely and conversationally over the range of his research. In Society Must Be Defended , Foucault deals with the emergence in the early seventeenth century of a new understanding of war as the permanent basis of all institutions of power, a hidden presence within society (...) that could be deciphered by an historical analysis. Tracing this development, Foucault outlines the genealogy of power and knowledge that had become his dominant concern. (shrink)

... PREFACE Paul Gochet (Liege) "[...] une entite physique ne peut etre envisagee que comme une sorte de concretisation, de consolidation locale dans un ...

Schopenhauer’s invective is legendary among philosophers, and is unmatched in the historical canon. But these complaints are themselves worthy of careful consideration: they are rooted in Schopenhauer’s philosophy of language, which itself reflects the structure of his metaphysics. This short chapter argues that Schopenhauer’s vitriol rewards philosophical attention; not because it expresses his critical take on Fichte, Hegel, Herbart, Schelling, and Schleiermacher, but because it neatly illustrates his philosophy of language. Schopenhauer’s epithets are not merely spiteful slurs; instead, they reflect (...) deep-seated theoretical and methodological commitments to transparency of exposition. (shrink)

‘Philosophical dialogue’ indicates both a form of philosophical inquiry and its corresponding literary genre. In its written form, it typically features two or more characters who engage in a discussion concerning morals, knowledge, as well as a variety of topics that can be widely labelled as ‘philosophical’. Our philosophical dialogue takes place in Krakow, Poland. It is a rainy morning and two strangers are waiting at a tram stop. One of them is dressed neatly, and cannot stop fidgeting with his (...) closed umbrella. The other was caught unprepared by the morning downpour and water is dripping from his worn, soaked jacket. (shrink)

Michel Weber, Éléments de routine ayurvédique. Autonomie, rituel et ascèse, Les Éditions Chromatika, 2021. (978-2-930517-82-7 ; pdf 978-2-930517-83-4 ; 104 pp., 14€) -/- L’Ayurvéda propose une philosophie de vie qui articule un vaste système métaphysique (une cosmologie théorique) avec une visée thérapeutique profonde (une anthropologie pratique). -/- À la croisée de la théorie et de la pratique, on trouve la routine (« dinacharya ») dont le but est de susciter l’individuation et la solidarité, c’est-à-dire l’autonomie (de chacun) respectueuse de (...) la communauté (de tous). Ce faisant, elle constitue une ascèse dont l’efficacité a été longuement éprouvée et rarement égalée. (shrink)

Por Laura Fraga de Almeida Sampaio, tradutora do livro A aula inaugural, que Foucault pronunciou ao assumir a cátedra vacante no Collège de France pela morte de Hyppolite, pode ser considerada um texto de ligação entre suas obras, datadas dos anos 60, como História da loucura, As palavras e as coisas, A arqueologia do saber, centradas predominantemente na análise das condições de possibilidade das ciências humanas, e as que se seguiram a maio de 68, como Vigiar e punir, voltados ao (...) exame da microfisica do poder. Foucault desvenda a relação entre as práticas discursivas e os poderes que as permeiam. Ao perceber os diversos procedimentos que cerceiam e controlam os discursos da sociedade, o autor comprova que "o discurso não é simplesmente aquilo que traduz as lutas ou os sistemas de dominação, mas aquilo pelo que se luta, o poder de queremos nos apoderar". Na segunda parte do texto, Foucault anuncia a direção em que prosseguirá suas investigações no decorrer dos cursos no Collège de France, apontando para o que denomina o "conjunto crítico" e o "conjunto genealógico" e lança o projeto de estudo das interdições que atingem o discurso da sexualidade. A este trabalho dedicará muitos anos, após a publicação do primeiro volume da História da sexualidade, em 1976: A vontade de saber (uso dos prazeres, vol.2, O cuidado de si, vol, 3, ambos de 1984). (shrink)

This conversational opinion article between two parties – Kate, a disability performance scholar and Sarah, an interdisciplinary artist-scholar with lived experience of disability – considers the dancing body as redeemer in the specific case of a dancer experiencing ‘chemo fog’, or Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Impairment (CRCI) after undergoing oncological treatments for Hodgkin Lymphoma. This work draws on Pini’s own lived experience of illness (Pini & Pini, 2019) in dialogue with Maguire-Rosier’s study of dancers with hidden impairments (Gibson & Maguire-Rosier, (...) 2020). In an exploratory account based on an interview with one another, the authors ask: when our senses and perceptions of ourselves and the world we become are obfuscated, what is the nature of the new relationship between the performing self and its absent body/mind/world? How can we shape our narrative and articulate who we are, what we are doing or where we are going, if we are moving in the ‘fog’? Our discussion reveals how Pini’s dancing body elucidates healing, while recovering an agentic perspective in her experience of alienation and frustration tied to chemo fog and related impairments. With this work we offer an original perspective on how a dancing body can resist theoretical diagnosis. (shrink)

Roger Bacon is a remarkable figure for his theory of the sign. According to the new reading hypothesis presented in this article, the whole theory is grounded on the relational nature of the sign. Every sign is involved in two relations: one to the interpreter, the other to the significate, the first being “more essential” than the second. The hypothesis allows for a better understanding of Bacon’s central claim that speakers constantly re-impose words in colloquial practice, as well as of (...) its main technical developments. In his whole semantics, Bacon’s focus is not so much on entities as on relations holding between entities. From a comparative point of view, the paper offers considerations on the theological background of Bacon’s ideas. (shrink)

The massive increase of data generated by heterogeneous sources requires the development of computer tools enabling their semantic interoperability. Applied ontologies aim at fulfilling such needs. We will show in this article the central role that philosophical ontology can play for applied ontology, with a focus on biomedical ontologies; and reciprocally, how applied ontology can enlighten some classical issues in philosophical ontology, by considering the following question: Is disease a natural kind?

Priscian's _Institutiones Grammaticae_, which rely on Stoic and Neoplatonic sources, constituted an important, although quite neglected, link in the chain of transmission of ancient philosophy in the Middle Ages. There is, in particular, a passage where Priscian discusses the vexed claim that common names can be proper names of the universal species and where he talks about the ideas existing in the divine mind. At the beginning of the 12th century, the anonymous _Glosulae super Priscianum_ and the _Notae Dunelmenses_, which (...) heavily quote William of Champeaux, interpret the passage in the context of a growing interest in the problem of universals, raising semantic as well as ontological questions, and introducing a Platonic view on universals in the discussions on the signification of the noun. Moreover, this same passage will be used by Abelard to elaborate one of his opinions about the signification of universal or common names—that they signify "mental conceptions". (shrink)

In the De cognitione angelorum and then in the Ordinatio, Gilles of Rome dedicates long chapters to angelic language. His starting point is a question from Thomas Aquinas about the “secrets of hearts” : they can only be known through corporeal signs, which unwillingly manifest them. Gilles uses Thomas’s postulate that the acts of will are not visible to others, to reject his definition of speaking as a thought voluntarily conveyed to others, and generalizes from his answer: thoughts need to (...) be made manifest through a sign. He develops a theory describing the different types of signs according to their addressees, and analyses them according to several criteria. In particular, from a careful analysis of the signs used by men, Gilles wonders whether the different types of signs used both by men and angels are natural or voluntary, from the point of view of both their composition and their meaning, basing his questioning on the reflections on language and signs in his earlier philosophical commentaries. This insistence on the need for signs will lead Gilles to give different answers to the classic questions about the difference between thought and language, the possibility of addressing a particular angel, and lying. (shrink)

Roger Bacon’s De signis is a major contribution to the history of semantics. However, we know from the author's summary given in the Opus tertium that it has come down to us in an incomplete form. It belongs to the third part of Bacon’s Opus maius, devoted to the “knowledge of languages”. The three sections of the summary in the Opus tertium enable us to understand its organization. The first section presents various arguments in favor of knowledge of languages. The (...) major part of the second section of the summary is related to the “power of words”, which was originally present in the section on mathematics and magic. The third section is not present is the edition of Opus maius III: it was devoted to the study of signs and signification, which corresponds to the De signis, and circulated independently, and to its application to theology, a section that has not been found. Just as the late Compendium studii theologiae, the De signis offers an original treatment of semantic and linguistic questions which are fully embedded in the sophisticated debates that took place in the faculties of arts in Paris and Oxford during the second half of the 13th century. Bacon’s linguistic analysis can be equally relevant for the study of the Bible and theology. (shrink)

I shall defend in this paper the thesis that, if there are irreducible powers such as the power to produce a certain object (generative powers), then there are objects that do not exist and they are part of the fundamental level of the universe. Thus, generative powers come together with Meinongianism. After having clarified my argument, I shall examine and criticize Armstrong (1997)’s attempt to reduce powers to other sorts of entities. Finally, I shall deal with five accounts of generative (...) powers that are somehow alternative to Meinongianism and with some (more general) miscellaneous concerns about the truth of this doctrine. (shrink)

This volume is a wonderful introduction to Foucault and a testimony to the deep humanity of the man himself.

First published: 2010; Previous edition: 2012..

Il y a des questions concernant le droit auxquelles il n'est pas possible de répondre par la simple analyse du droit en vigueur et que pourtant ni les juristes, ni les philosophes ne peuvent éviter. Ce sont celles qui font l'objet de la philosophie du droit. Elles concernent notamment la définition du droit et d'abord celle du droit en vigueur lui-même, des rapports que le droit entretien avec d'autres phénomènes, comme le pouvoir, la force ou la morale, la possibilité d'une (...) science du droit, la structure du système juridique ou encore la spécificité du raisonnement juridique et des concepts employés par les juristes. (shrink)

Evoquees par Augustin, les Categories d'Aristote, accompagnees de l'introduction de Porphyre, sont traduites et commentees par Boece. Deja exposee dans le monde arabo-musulman, cette oeuvre devait faire l'objet de nombreux commentaires dans le monde latin, sans interruption, du temps d'Abelard jusqu'a la fin du Moyen Age. De l'etude du langage a la theorie de l'etre, ouvrant sur la philosophie naturelle et la theologie, les interrogations que suscitent les Categories sont multiformes. Elles concernent le statut des categories, leur nombre, les differents (...) types de predication, ou la nature particuliere de certaines categories comme la relation ou la quantite. Le premier chapitre du traite, avec sa distinction entre equivoques, univoques et paronymes, suscite des reflexions sur les variations semantiques, les transferts de sens, et donne en meme temps naissance a la theorie de l'analogie de l'etant, aux implications metaphysiques et theologiques majeures. Les vingt deux essais de ce receuil explorent, a travers l'etude d'auteurs connus ou moins connus, les multiples facettes de cette riche tradition medievale de commentaires sur les Categories d'Aristote. (shrink)

Quelle place est faite au droit des hommes dans une société chrétienne? On étudiera d'abord l'entrée du droit dans l'exégèse, avec Hugues de Saint-Cher, puis le cas, privilégié, du serment et du mensonge, ici analysé dans l'oeuvre de Pierre de Jean Olivi (ca 1280). On verra émerger les notions d'engagement et d'obligation - envers le prochain et envers Dieu. L'obligation est réalisée par la prononciation de paroles, qui prime sur tout autre circonstance de l'acte. Elle repose sur la reconnaissance d'une (...) norme qui renvoie non seulement à des propositions exprimées, mais aussi à des implicites tacitement admis dans une communauté. (shrink)

L'enseignement universitaire du XIIIe siecle se fonde sur le commentaire et la dispute. La Sophistria de Robertus Anglicus (1260-70), dont est proposee ici l'edition critique accompagnee d'une etude historique et doctrinale detaillee, est un temoin exceptionnel de cette pratique de l'enseignement des arts par mode de sophisme, surtout developpe pour la logique et la grammaire. Il s'agit d'une collection d'une trentaine de sophismes, organisee de facon systematique, et preservee dans huit manuscrits. On y voit ainsi, en partant du sophisme, enonce (...) problematique, le maitre avancer des arguments, avec ou contre ses bacheliers, a propos de toutes les difficultes qu'il contient, les arguments et solutions fournissant au bout du compte un expose general de la syntaxe latine. La Sophistria s'insere dans une tradition de la grammaire speculative, qui, contrairement aux grands traites posterieurs sur les Modes de signifier, met l'accent sur la semanticite plus que sur la grammaticalite: un enonce incorrect peut etre admis si l'on comprend la raison (ratio) qui rend compte de sa deviation. Cette approche, comme l'application tres caracteristique de la Physique d'Aristote a la grammaire, permet de rapprocher la Sophistria de l'enseignement parisien des maitres anglais de la generation precedente, Robert Kilwardby et Roger Bacon, l'appartenance au milieu parisien se confirmant par sa proximite avec le Tractatus de Gosvin de Marbais. (shrink)

La nature catégorielle de la « voix », substance, quantité ou qualité, fait débat chez les grammairiens et logiciens du début du xii e siècle. Les discussions grammaticales se lisent dans les commentaires sur Priscien, aux chapitres initiaux du De uoce et du De littera, dont on édite ici plusieurs témoins majeurs, trois versions des Glosulae super Priscianum et les Notae Dunelmenses qui en dérivent, témoins anonymes où se lit l’influence de Guillaume de Champeaux. Les arguments tirés de ces textes (...) sont repris dans les commentaires sur les Catégories, faisant apparaître les enjeux physique, logique, ontologique et sémantique des débats sur la voix. (shrink)