In medical research, the ethical principle of respect for persons is operationalized into the process of informed consent. The consent tools should be contextualized and adapted to the different socio-cultural environment, especially when research crosses the traditional boundaries and reaches poor communities. We look at the challenges experienced in the malaria Quinact trial, conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and describe some lessons learned, related to the definition of acceptable representative, the role of independent witness and the impact of (...) socio-economic vulnerability. To ensure children's protection, consent is required by the parents or, in their absence, by a legally mandated representative. In our setting, children's responsibility is often entrusted permanently or temporarily to relatives or friends without a tribunal mandate. Hence, a notion of ‘culturally acceptable representative’ under supervision of the local Ethics Committee may be more suitable. To ensure protection of illiterate subjects, an independent witness is required to confirm that the consent was freely given. However, in low-literacy contexts, potential witnesses often don't have any previous relationship with patient and there may be power-unbalance in their relationship, rather than genuine dialogue. In poor communities, trial participation may be seen as an opportunity to secure access to healthcare. Poverty may also lead to ‘competition’ to access the research-related benefits, with a risk of disturbance at societal or household level. Adjusting consent procedures to sociocultural and socioeconomic realities is essential for fulfilling the underlying ethical principles. This requires a collaborative dialogue between researchers, regulators and ethics committees. (shrink)

Previous chapter Michel Serres, who had made, in the 1960s, the acquaintance of Foucault at the Blaise-Pascal University in Clermont-Ferrand, briefly joined with him the post-1968 experimental Vincennes University, and was eventually appointed to a chair in the history of science at the Sorbonne. In 1977, he published La Naissance de la physique dans le texte de Lucrèce : fleuves et turbulences – The Birth of Physics in which he argued that the - Physique – Nouvel article.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) Blaise Pascal was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, inventor, and theologian. In mathematics, he was an early pioneer in the fields of game theory and probability theory. In philosophy he was an early pioneer in existentialism. As a writer on theology and religion he was a defender of Christianity. Despite chronic ill […].

Este estudo pretende pensar o problema do conhecimento em Blaise Pascal, atentando para sua concepção do método geométrico aplicado ao conhecimento da natureza e das técnicas e para seu esforço por uma outra forma de conhecimento que possa ser aplicada às realidades “sobrenaturais” (a fé, o homem, a moral, os costumes, a política). Para tanto, o presente estudo articula uma análise dos ensaios pascalianos Préface. Sur le Traité du vide, De l’e.

Der Philosoph und Mathematiker Pascal gehört zu jenen Denkern, die Tocqueville am tiefsten beeinflusst haben, und zwar nicht nur inhaltlich, sondern auch stilistisch. Sein Freund Louis de Kergorlay teilt ihm in einem Brief aus dem Jahr 1834 mit, dass er sich Montesquieu (s. Kap. 36), Rousseau (s. Kap. 39) und Pascal als „Meister“ und als stilistische Vorbilder nehmen sollte und weist ihn darauf hin, dass er deren Stil schon sporadisch annimmt (OC XIII, 1, 366). Zwei Jahre später schreibt ihm Tocqueville, (...) Pascal, Montesquieu und Rousseau seien die drei Menschen, mit denen er täglich ein wenig lebe (ebd., 418). (shrink)

Análisis de la interpretación de Blaise Pascal por parte de Miguel Unamuno, precisando lo que le unió al escritor francés en fondo y forma, y señalando asimismo lo que en realidad les separa. Después de resaltar el estilo compartido por los dos autores, se precisa el contenido de las referencias más importantes de Unamuno a Pascal en diferentes escritos. Todo ello muestra la interpretación de Pascal por parte de Unamuno como un espíritu «atormentado». Dicha interpretación se vio propiciada por (...) el estado de las ediciones de los Pensamientos de Pascal en vida de Unamuno, que no facilitaban distinguir el pensamiento propio de Pascal de su interlocutor, un escéptico al que quería incitar a buscar la fe en Dios. El artículo termina con una referencia a la presencia del argumento de la apuesta de Pascal en la novela San Manuel Bueno, mártir. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Pascal: The Life Afterlife of Pascal: His Influence.

L'oeuvre de Pascal livre un problème majeur : l'homme se sauvera-t-il à l'aide de ses seules forces, ou son salut se réalisera-t-il avec le secours de Dieu, à savoir la grâce? Dans ses ¤¤Ecrits sur la grâce¤¤, il se révèle être le penseur de la grâce qui, face au défi de la modernité, opppose à la conception anthropocentrique de l'homme la vision christocentrique, héritée de saint Augustin.

Der Philosoph und Mathematiker Pascal gehört zu jenen Denkern, die Tocqueville am tiefsten beeinflusst haben, und zwar nicht nur inhaltlich, sondern auch stilistisch. Sein Freund Louis de Kergorlay teilt ihm in einem Brief aus dem Jahr 1834 mit, dass er sich Montesquieu, Rousseau und Pascal als »Meister« und als stilistische Vorbilder nehmen sollte und weist ihn darauf hin, dass er deren Stil schon sporadisch annimmt. Zwei Jahre später schreibt ihm Tocqueville, Pascal, Montesquieu und Rousseau seien die drei Menschen, mit denen (...) er täglich ein wenig lebe. (shrink)

This work is a study of Blaise Pascal's Pensees. It proposes to show the way in which Pascal's philosophy of mind---his conception of order and the relation of reason, the emotions, and the will to the self---which emerges from his skepticism, can be used to draw out his views on morality, despite the fragmentary state of the work. The thesis begins with a consideration of the three major philosophical precursors to Pascal's project: Augustine, Montaigne, and Descartes. It continues with (...) an account of order in the Pensees, centering on the heart, the two minds, and the three discontinuous orders, connecting Pascal's views to those of a number of 20th century analytic philosophers. It goes on to consider the order of the body and the order of charity in specific detail, showing how Pascal discusses each of these through a dialectical process that begins in a pre-critical, unreflective state, moves through a first, rational and philosophical, criticism, and finally turns that criticism against philosophy itself. The thesis concludes by briefly considering three figures whose ideas, to some extent, carry on and expand those of Pascal: Rousseau, Maistre, Tocqueville. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage reprend dans une redaction nouvelle six articles anterieurs a 1962. On y trouve six etudes relativement independantes les unes des autres, mais mises bout a bout elles esquissent une histoire lacunaire de l'esprit de Pascal, et plus particulierement de son dessein apologetique. S'appuyant sur une erudition rigoureuse, ces six approches concretes rattachent les textes a leur support materiel et les situent dans leur contexte culturel, ce qui permet au lecteur de rencontrer un Pascal vivant au milieu des siens (...) et de son epoque. (shrink)

Dans cet ouvrage, où il s'agit d'appréhender l'univers pascalien sur le plan apologétique, on suit le cheminement de la foi de Pascal à partir de fragments retrouvés après sa mort, textes à l'origine des différentes éditions des Pensées. La structure antithétique et paradoxale de son génie l'a conduit à une quête religieuse sans concession à l'égard de la société de son temps. La fonction dualiste de son écriture aboutit à mettre en valeur la béance séparant le fini de la nature (...) humaine de l'infini de la grâce de Dieu. Seule la médiation christique dans l'histoire a pu combler ce vide de l'homme dans l'humilité de la foi. L'aspect novateur de la quête pascalienne expliquerait alors en grande partie le côté inachevé des papiers. Cinq appendices visent à mettre le texte pascalien face aux modes de pensée du XVIIe siècle. La richesse du texte pascalien demeure malgré tout inépuisable. (shrink)

Henri Gaston Gouhier. INTRODUCTION Un point de vue sur Pascal L' inépuisable bibliographie pascal ici me ne devrait-elle pas écarter toute tentation d'y ajouter un livre ? Ce serait oublier que le sujet est, lui-même, inépuisable. Quel lecteur ...

Pascal’s protean genius beggars description. Though most widely known today for his apologetic and/or polemical work in Christian theology, he was also a philosopher of enduring importance, a noted mathematician, and a physicist who undertook important experiments in support of Toricelli’s claim that nature exhibits no horror vacui. On a more practical level, he invented, patented and massproduced a calculator, helped establish public transit in Paris, etc.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa offers in this writing an exposition on the incidence of the French spiritual strength of seventeenth century, with an outline of the history and events in Port- Royal des Champs and the atmosphere created by the monastery as a center of French thought of this century. The lesson is complete with a tour by the biography and thought of Blaise Pascal, in which, as indicated by Lampedusa himself, Port-Royal found its best advocate and its maximum (...) expression. (shrink)

Havia sobre uma mesa folhas de papel em branco, tinta, uma pena. Ora, um dia, há sobre essas mesmas folhas o texto 'Discurso do método'. Aconteceu, então, alguma coisa, um texto que significa uma filosofia nova; apresenta-se então uma história dos acontecimentos da filosofia. Isto, sem dúvida, numa época em que as histórias tradicionalmente dos acontecimentos tentavam sê-lo o menos possível; mas por que não enxergar uma reação ao mesmo tempo análoga e de sentido contrário no caso de uma história (...) que tradicionalmente não era dos acontecimentos e que seria tentada a tornar-se uma? Nessas linhas publicadas em 1978, substituí-se 'Discurso do método' por alguns pensamentos do Sr. Pascal sobre a religião e apresenta-se em seguida uma história dos acontecimentos das idéias, pois o que acontece não é uma filosofia. O que acontece, de fato, é uma conversão que faz do convertido um conversor. Tal é o ponto de vista escolhido para olhar e tentar explicar o pensamento de Pascal, entendendo-se que ele não exclui outros pontos de vista. (shrink)

Blaise Pascal began as a mathematical prodigy, developed into a physicist and inventor, and had become by the end of his life in 1662 a profound religious thinker. As a philosopher, he was most convinced by the long tradition of scepticism, and so refused – like Kierkegaard – to build a philosophical or theological system. Instead, he argued that the human heart required other forms of discourse to come to terms with the basic existential questions – our nature, purpose (...) and relationship with God. This introduction to the life and philosophical thought of Pascal is intended for the general reader. Strikingly illustrated, it traces the antithetical tensions in Pascal’s life from his infancy, when he was said to have been placed under the spell of a sorceress, to his final years of extreme asceticism. Pascal stressed both the misery and greatness of humanity, our finitude and our comprehension of the infinite. The book shows how his life, philosophical thought and literary style can best be understood in the light of the paradoxical view of human nature. It covers the methods of argument and the central issues of the Provincial Letters and of the Pensées ; the Introduction places Pascal’s thought in the religious and political climate of seventeenth-century France, and a ‘Chronology of the Life of Pascal’ is also included. (shrink)