In France, some institutions seem to call for the engineer’s sense of social responsibility. However, this call is scarcely heard. Still, engineering students have been given the opportunity to gain a general education through courses in literature, law, economics, since the nineteenth century. But, such courses have long been offered only in the top ranked engineering schools. In this paper, we intend to show that the wish to increase engineering students’ social responsibility is an old concern. We also aim at (...) highlighting some macro social factors which shaped the answer to the call for social responsibility in the French engineering “Grandes Ecoles”. In the first part, we provide an overview of the scarce attention given to the engineering curriculum in the scholarly literature in France. In the second part, we analyse one century of discourses about the definition of the “complete engineer” and the consequent role of non technical education. In the third part, we focus on the characteristics of the corpus which has been institutionalized. Our main finding is that despite the many changes which occurred in engineering education during one century, the “other formation” remains grounded on a non academic “way of knowing”, and aims at increasing the reputation of the schools, more than enhancing engineering students’ social awareness. (shrink)

This article presents the ethical issues of the professional practice of engineers.

This inclusive cross-cultural study rethinks the nexus between engineering education and context. In so doing the book offers a reflection on contextual boundaries with an overall boundary crossing ambition and juxtaposes important cases of critical participation within engineering education with sophisticated scholarly reflection on both opportunities and discontents. Whether, and in what way engineering education is or ought to be contextualized or de-contextualized is an object of heated debate among engineering educators. The uniqueness of this study is that this debate (...) is given comprehensive coverage - presenting both instrumentally inclined as well as radical positions on transforming engineering education. In contextualizing engineering education, this book offers diverse commentary from a range of disciplinary, meta- and interdisciplinary perspectives on how cultural, professional, institutional, and educational systems contexts shape histories, structural dynamics, ideologies and challenges as well as new pathways in engineering education. Topics addressed include examining engineering education in countries ranging from India to America, to racial and gender equity in engineering education and incorporating social awareness into the area. Using context as "bridge" this book confronts engineering education head on. Contending engineering ideologies and corresponding views on context are juxtaposed with contending discourses of reform. The uniqueness of the book is that it brings together scholars from the humanities, the social sciences and engineering from Europe - both East and West - with the United States, China, Brazil, India and Australia. (shrink)

Fascinating and compelling in equal measure this volume presents a critical examination of the multilayered relationships between engineering and business. In so doing the study also stimulates ethical reflection on how these relationships either enhance or inhibit strategies to address vital issues of our time. In the context of geopolitical, economic, and environmental tendencies the authors explore the world that we should want to create and the role of the engineer and the business manager in this endeavor. Throughout this volume (...) the authors identify periods of alignment and periods of tension between engineering and business. They look at focal points of the engineering-business nexus related to the development of capitalism. The book explores past and present movements to reshape, reform, or reject this nexus. The volume is informed by questions of importance for industry as well as for higher education. These are: What kinds of conflict arise for engineers in their attempts to straddle both professional and organizational commitments? How should professionals be managed to avoid a clash of managerial and professional cultures? How do engineers create value in firms and corporations? What kinds of tension exist between higher education and industry? What challenges does the neoliberal entrepreneurial university pose for management, faculty, students, society, and industry? Should engineering graduates be ready for work, and can they possibly be? What kinds of business issues are reflected in engineering education curricula, and for what purpose? Is there a limit to the degree of business hybridization in engineering degree programs, and if so, what would be the criterion for its definition? Is there a place in engineering education curricula for reflective critique of assumptions related to business and economic thinking? One ideal of management and control comes to the fore as the Anthropocene - the world transformed into an engineered artefact which includes human existence. The volume raises the question as to how engineering and business together should be considered, given the fact that the current engineering-business nexus remains embedded within an economic model of continual growth. By addressing macro-level issues such as energy policy, sustainable development, globalization, and social justice this study will both help create awareness and stimulate development of self-knowledge among practitioners, educators, and students thereby ultimately addressing the need for better informed citizens to safeguard planet Earth as a human life supporting system. (shrink)

This inclusive cross-cultural study rethinks the nexus between engineering education and context. In so doing the book offers a reflection on contextual boundaries with an overall boundary crossing ambition and juxtaposes important cases of critical participation within engineering education with sophisticated scholarly reflection on both opportunities and discontents. -/- Whether and in what way engineering education is or ought to be contextualized or de-contextualized is an object of heated debate among engineering educators. The uniqueness of this study is that this (...) debate is given comprehensive coverage – presenting both instrumentally inclined as well as radical positions on transforming engineering education. -/- In contextualizing engineering education, this book offers diverse commentary from a range of disciplinary, meta- and interdisciplinary perspectives on how cultural, professional, institutional and educational systems contexts shape histories, structural dynamics, ideologies and challenges as well as new pathways in engineering education. Topics addressed include examining engineering education in countries ranging from India to America, to racial and gender equity in engineering education and incorporating social awareness into the area. -/- Using context as “bridge” this book confronts engineering education head on. Contending engineering ideologies and corresponding views on context are juxtaposed with contending discourses of reform. The uniqueness of the book is that it brings together scholars from the humanities, the social sciences and engineering from Europe – both East and West – with the United States, China, Brazil, India and Australia. (shrink)

This second companion volume on engineering studies considers engineering practice including contextual analyses of engineering identity, epistemologies and values. Key overlapping questions examine such issues as an engineering identity, engineering self-understandings enacted in the professional world, distinctive characters of engineering knowledge and how engineering science and engineering design interact in practice. -/- Authors bring with them perspectives from their institutional homes in Europe, North America, Australia\ and Asia. The volume includes 24 contributions by more than 30 authors from engineering, the (...) social sciences and the humanities. Additional issues the chapters scrutinize include prominent norms of engineering, how they interact with the values of efficiency or environmental sustainability. A concluding set of articles considers the meaning of context more generally by asking if engineers create their own contexts or are they created by contexts. -/- Taken as a whole, this collection of original scholarly work is unique in its broad, multidisciplinary consideration of the changing character of engineering practice. (shrink)

This co-edited volume compares Chinese and Western experiences of engineering, technology, and development. In doing so, it builds a bridge between the East and West and advances a dialogue in the philosophy of engineering. Divided into three parts, the book starts with studies on epistemological and ontological issues, with a special focus on engineering design, creativity, management, feasibility, and sustainability. Part II considers relationships between the history and philosophy of engineering, and includes a general argument for the necessity of dialogue (...) between history and philosophy. It continues with a general introduction to traditional Chinese attitudes toward engineering and technology, and philosophical case studies of the Chinese steel industry, railroads, and cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Part III focuses on engineering, ethics, and society, with chapters on engineering education and practice in China and the West. The book’s analyses of the interactions of science, engineering, ethics, politics, and policy in different societal contexts are of special interest. The volume as a whole marks a new stage in the emergence of the philosophy of engineering as a new regionalization of philosophy. This carefully edited interdisciplinary volume grew out of an international conference on the philosophy of engineering hosted by the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. It includes 30 contributions by leading philosophers, social scientists, and engineers from Australia, China, Europe, and the United States. (shrink)

The pervasiveness of domestic employment in the South African context gives rise to the question as to why women not only enter into, but remain in, such an undervalued work situation, and whether they are ultimately able to exit this sector. Contextualising the sectoral engagement of domestic workers as a transitional work-life cycle characterised by impoverishment, limited alternatives, acceptance of the work context, and future directedness, with individual transition through these phases determined by a unique set of circumstances, female domestic (...) workers’ lived experience of their work-life cycle was explored within the framework of an interpretivist research design. Non-probability respondent-driven self-sampling was employed to select 20 participants, most of whom were representative of families with a long history of sectoral involvement, particularly along the female line. Dense, non-numerical data was generated through in-depth interviewing. Inductive data explication was conducted with the aid of MAXQDA. The findings confirmed the existence of an institutionalised culture of engagement within the sector perpetuated from one generation to the next. Hardship and an urgent need for survival leave many with little option but to enter and remain within the sector. Despite negative societal perceptions of the sector, those within it take pride in their work and view their engagement as an enabling tool to better their future prospects and those of their families. Attempts to exit the sector are unsuccessful due, in part, to a limited formal education and skills repertoire. Domestic workers are thus entrapped within a never-ending cycle of sectoral engagement, with the possibility of exiting the sector remaining merely a dream for many. (shrink)

Meteorology is not one of the most discussed topics in Paracelsus studies, although it is closely linked to both Paracelsus’ medicine and cosmology. Furthermore, it appears to be at the very core of Paracelsus’ famous matter theory of three chymical principles, mercury, sulphur and salt, known as the tria prima. By discussing prominent examples of Paracelsus’ explanations on how the tria prima operate within the stars, this article shows how the Swiss physician conceived meteorology within his own body of knowledge, (...) obviously constructed in opposition to the Aristotelian-scholastic tradition, how he based it on a peculiar interpretation of the Biblical creation story, and made it the proper laboratory of his chymical matter theory, applying it first systematically to the field of natural philosophy, especially to celestial phenomena, even before using it for his medical theory in his later writings. (shrink)

This chapter presents a short biography of Immanuel Kant. It then reviews his particular thoughts on musical philosophy. Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Königsberg. He never married and died in his house on February 12, 1804. He placed the theory of cognition at the beginning of his critical transcendental philosophy, in Critique of Pure Reason. His theory of art was pointed toward identifying the place that the judgment of beautiful objects in nature and art occupies in his (...) system of transcendental philosophy. Kant accorded to music the status of a fine art, whose works engage the cognitive powers in a state of free play. Critique of Judgment occupied a unique position in regard to the reception of Kantian transcendental philosophy. The basis for an understanding of the semiotic character of absolute music was provided by Kant's transcendental philosophy and his cognitivist aesthetics. (shrink)

Labor unions are key stakeholders in the field of corporate social responsibility but researchers have paid surprisingly little attention to their CSR strategies. This article extends stakeholder theory by treating unions as having stakeholders that influence their CSR strategies. Drawing on qualitative data from a longitudinal study on selected unions in France between 2006 and 2013, this paper analyzes the underlying reasons for the differences in their approaches. It finds connections between the unions’ CSR strategy, and the perception of and (...) cooperation with stakeholders. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to revisit the proposal made by Dag Westerståhl a decade ago when he provided a modern reading of the traditional square of opposition and of related structures. We propose a formalization of this modern view and contrast it with the classical one. We discuss what may be a modern hexagon of opposition and a modern cube, and show their interest in particular for relating quantitative expressions.

In A Time for Critique, Didier Fassin, Bernard E. Harcourt, and a group of eminent political theorists, anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, literary and legal scholars reflect on the multiplying contexts and forms of critical discourses and on the social actors and social movements engaged in them.

In recent years, social scientists have turned their critical lens on the historical roots and contours of their disciplines, including their politics and practices, epistemologies and methods, institutionalization and professionalization, national development and colonial expansion, globalization and local contestations, and their public presence and role in society. The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass offers current social scientific perspectives on this reflexive moment in the social sciences. Examining sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, legal theory, and religious studies, the volume's contributors (...) outline the present transformations of the social sciences, explore their connections with critical humanities, analyze the challenges of alternate paradigms, and interrogate recent endeavors to move beyond the human. Throughout, the authors, who belong to half a dozen disciplines, trace how the social sciences are thoroughly entangled in the social facts they analyze, and are key to helping us understand the conditions of our world. Contributors. Chitralekha, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Didier Fassin, Johan Heilbron, Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, Kristoffer Kropp, Nicolas Langlitz, John Lardas Modern, Álvaro Morcillo Laiz, Amín Pérez, Carel Smith, George Steinmetz, Peter D. Thomas, Bregje van Eekelen, Agata Zysiak. (shrink)

From the resurrection of body to eternal recurrence -- The shadow of God -- The guiding thread -- The logic of the body -- The system of identical cases -- From eternal recurrence to the resurrection of body.

Philosophy in nature strips away the pomp of institutions and the ideal of athleticism while creating an opportunity for a basic human exchange that is all too rare – it sets people side by side on the land to talk things over and think things through. Like any endeavor, operating philosophy tours has distinctive challenges and rewards. Doing philosophy in nature is a tour of the land and of ideas. Taking this into account might make the idea of a “philosophy (...) tour guide” sound more plausible and less bizarre. These tours usually happen on public lands, and so it is grounded in the political realities in which we live. Doing philosophy in nature is a unique opportunity to allow the amazing natural environment to facilitate personal growth and insight. (shrink)

This paper describes the emergence of a controversy concerning pollution and environmental and health risks in two southern French towns, Viviez and Salindres, which are both known for their long industrial history. It explores some of the reasons why the majority of the local populations resented the fact that the; issues raised were addressed publicly. It also examines some of the coping strategies residents may have developed to avoid talking about risks and to distance themselves from them. It goes on (...) to discuss the differences and similarities in the development of concerns for environmental inequalities in the North American and French contexts, asking, in the manner of Werner Sombart on socialism in the USA at the end of the nineteenth century, why environmental justice is not a strong concern (either as a social movement or frame of analysis) this side of the Atlantic. (shrink)

This article attempts to clarify and critically to discuss some variants of the sociological Interpretation of regularities in social action. The widely held view that the concept of norm yields the decisive approach to a specifically sociological understanding of behavioural regularities is placed in opposition to Weber’s reflections on the basic concepts of sociology. Weber from the start reserves room for an utility - and interestoriented component of explanation, apart from the concept of norm and in principle not less important. (...) In this connection the article also works out and criticises Parsons' attempt to ‘integrate’ Weber's sociology into a normativistic conception of the discipline. As o consequence of this criticism the author stresses the value of using the concept of norm - and also tho of rule - in o more differentiated fashion. In particular we should distinguish clearly between on the one hand norms, or rules with obligatory components, and on the other utility- or means -ends-oriented rules, followed in the process of furthering one’s own interests. If we neglect this distinction and, like Parsons, subsume o conflation of these concepts under the notion of norm, we run the risk of perceiving any moderately polished and strategically prudent pursuit of an agent’s own interests as a case of norm-governed action. (shrink)

Avant même d'être condamné pour "contestation de crime contre l'humanité" au tournant du siècle, Roger Garaudy était déjà marginalisé dans les champs intellectuel et politique français. Après avoir incarné la résistance au néostalinisme dans le Parti communiste, le philosophe qui fut longtemps l'interlocuteur privilégié de Jean-Paul Sartre au sein du PCF en fut spectaculairement exclu en 1970 pour s'être opposé aux Soviétiques qui venaient d'écraser le Printemps de Prague. Celui que l'historiographie du communisme retient plus volontiers comme le "stalinien modèle", (...) qu'il fut en effet dans l'après-guerre, était pourtant devenu, malgré sa proximité avec Thorez, un critique de plus en plus affirmé du stalinisme après les révélations du XXe Congrès du Parti communiste de l'Union soviétique (PCUS) en 1956 et un acteur majeur de l'aggiornamento du PCF. Son combat pour rénover le communisme français et son goût précoce pour l'écologie et le dialogue des civilisations en firent quelque temps une figure respectée du progressisme français, mais celui qui répétait que le Socialisme était condamné s'il refusait de s'ouvrir à la "transcendance" vit son étoile pâlir après 1970 au point qu'il devint un intellectuel illégitime, celui que l'on condamne sans l'avoir lu. Ce livre explique ce parcours singulier et les raisons de cette "descente aux enfers" de l'ancien philosophe du Bureau politique, avant sa condamnation ultime."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This paper presents a review of studies that were aimed at determining which brain regions are recruited during visual self-recognition, with a particular focus on self-face recognition. A complex bilateral network, involving frontal, parietal and occipital areas, appears to be associated with self-face recognition, with a particularly high implication of the right hemisphere. Results indicate that it remains difficult to determine which specific cognitive operation is reflected by each recruited brain area, in part due to the variability of used control (...) stimuli and experimental tasks. A synthesis of the interpretations provided by previous studies is presented. The relevance of using self-recognition as an indicator of self-awareness is discussed. We argue that a major aim of future research in the field should be to identify more clearly the cognitive operations induced by the perception of the self-face, and search for dissociations between neural correlates and cognitive components. (shrink)

Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (1493–1541), colloquially known as Paracelsus, emerges as a pivotal figure in the transition from medieval to early modern scientific paradigms. Within the realm...

Tout au long du XXe siècle, une série de théoriciens, plus ou moins minoritaires, introduisent un nouveau genre de questions, faisant directement communiquer la philosophie avec les sciences sociales, la psychologie et l'esthétique. Comment un individu se constitue-t-il par des activités possessives? Avec quelle intensité un être en possède-t-il un autre? Quelle est l'étendue spatiale et temporelle de ces possessions? Et quelles en sont les techniques? Ce livre tente, à partir d'une série des portraits – G. Tarde, W. James, A. (...) N. Whitehead, J. Dewey, C. Péguy, E. Souriau et G. Simondon –, de donner une nouvelle actualité à la question de la possession et, par là même, de mettre en évidence une autre scène de la philosophie contemporaine. (shrink)

I will demonstrate how religious change repeatedly confronts the sociology of religion with new problems of interpretation and explanation. In the first part (I), I will take a closer look at these problems at a macro sociological level. In doing so, I will provide a brief historical outline and link this to the respective problems of interpretation and explanation. This historical development allows us to discuss the various explanatory models. In the second part (II), I will take a different perspective (...) and switch to the micro sociological level. I will show how responding to the question of meaning is still possible in secular societies, where the answers handed down by religious traditions are no longer accepted as a matter of course. In this part, I will take up the problems of explanation previously outlined and trace in particular the transformation of church-based religion into subjective forms of religiosity. My paper focuses on the following questions: How are social developments and religious change interwoven? How do theories in the sociology of religion explain religious change? What does social modernization and functional differentiation mean for the individual? What effects does modernity have on religion and in particular on the religiosity of individuals? (shrink)

volume 2. Le stoïcisme intermédiaire (Diogène de Babylonie, Panétius de Rhodes, Posidonius d'Apamée).

Contemporary political theory (CPT) has approached questions of plurality and diversity by drawing rather implicitly on anthropological accounts of difference. This was the case with the ‘cultural turn’, which significantly shaped theories of multiculturalism. Similarly, the current ‘ontological turn’ is gaining influence and leaving a marked impact on CPT. I examine the recent turn and assess both the possibilities it offers and the challenges it poses for decentering CPT and opening radical, decolonial avenues for thinking difference otherwise. I take Paul (...) Nadasdy's critique of the ontological turn as an invitation to reflect on the methodological precepts that inform how the field frames the scope and limits of comparison. In pursuit of this, I examine the Zapatistas’ notion of a ‘world of many worlds’, which provides a way of approaching difference that captures the generative aspects of the ontological turn while avoiding the pitfalls of relativism and political inertia. I argue that the Zapatistas’ insights offer ethical guidance towards social and ecological thriving. Ultimately, my goal is to move CPT towards a more capacious form of making sense of what is out there in the world, and thus make room for better ways of inhabiting the Earth. (shrink)

Il faut saluer d’emblée l’ambition et la réussite du dernier livre d’Anna Jaubert, professeure émérite à l’université de Nice-Côte d’Azur et stylisticienne reconnue, qui parvient à proposer sous une forme relativement concise une élégante synthèse d’un itinéraire personnel de recherche et de pensée, prolongeant et approfondissant ainsi les perspectives théoriques énoncées dans La Lecture pragmatique (Hachette, 1990). Un défi d’ailleurs rarement relevé, l’idée même de style demeurant un impens...

This paper provides a summary of the symposium on the institutional and social construction of Responsible Investment (RI), held at the 22nd IABS conference. In the context of the symposium, we propose to move beyond the dominant focus on the financial impact of RI to consider the potential of emergent institutional and sociological perspectives to explain the practices and concepts related to RI. In doing so, our aim is to explore in greater detail the current changes in the RI infrastructure (...) and the impact of these changes on wider issues of corporate sustainability and social responsibility. (shrink)

Les questions morales pénètrent nos représentations, nos pratiques, nos politiques. Qu'il s'agisse, dans le monde privé, d'interpréter les conduites des autres et de discipliner les siennes propres, ou bien, dans l'espace public, de sanctionner des déviances et de réguler des populations, nos sociétés mobilisent des normes, des valeurs et des affects, qu'illustrent notamment les tensions entre la raison humanitaire et l'ordre sécuritaire. Redonnant toute sa force critique au concept d'économies morales, les auteurs réunis ici par Didier Fassin et Jean-Sébastien (...) Eideliman en explorent les multiples facettes à travers une série d'enquêtes conduites sur quatre continents. Des lieux d'enfermement des étrangers en France aux prisons de haute sécurité aux Etats-Unis, de la stigmatisation des familles roms en Italie à la marginalisation des enfants de migrants en Chine, de la condamnation du tourisme sexuel en Thaïlande à l'évaluation des transactions amoureuses au Mali, des pratiques de charité en Inde aux politiques contre la pauvreté au Chili, les auteurs s'attachent à comprendre comment on gouverne et on juge, comment on assiste et on exclut. Mais ils montrent aussi que les professionnels et leurs publics n'adoptent pas de manière passive et uniforme ces modèles moraux : ils déploient des subjectivités éthiques pour résister ou " faire avec ", autour du handicap et de la toxicomanie, de l'asile et de la naturalisation, de la violence et de la finance. Cet ouvrage nous propose ainsi de penser la vie sociale et politique de la morale. (shrink)

The preparation of teachers in higher education is increasingly valued in institutions around the world. On the other hand, training models are not standardized and valorization varies. Considering that the initial or professional development of teachers passes, at least in part, by the development of a reflective practice supported on basis of scientific literature, we propose to the on think on one hand about a model of reflective practice, that of Kelchtermans, through four dimensions (instrumental, moral, political, and emotional), and (...) on the other hand about training of teachers in higher education from the perspective of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This article, which is meant to be an open discussion on the development of reflective practice in Higher education Training, is based on a review of the scientific literature on the topic, but also in large part on our teaching practice. (shrink)

To take into account the growing importance of this extraterritoriality paradigm reassessing the idea of territory in literature, culture and languages, this book offers an interdisciplinary and plurilingual journey through four centuries, four continents and a dozen languages.