On sait peu de choses d’Edme Mariotte, membre de l’Académie royale des sciences de 1668 à 1684. Une analyse de son Essai de logique montre cependant que, pour défendre ses pratiques expérimentales, il s’appropria des bribes venues de différentes traditions intellectuelles. Ainsi, ce livre examine ce qu’on entendait par « méthode » à la fin du XVIIe siècle, les épistémologies de la physique qui s’affrontaient alors, quelques débats ouverts par la gestion de l’héritage cartésien. Mais l’essentiel sera peut-être la question (...) suivante : comment reconstituer les idées d’un savant ordinaire, qui n’a ni bouleversé l’ordre des sciences, ni montré une perspicacité épistémologique exceptionnelle ? (shrink)

Festa, E., Roux, S. (2008). The Enigma of the Inclined Plane from Heron to Galileo. In: Laird, W.R., Roux, S. (eds) Mechanics and Natural Philosophy Before the Scientific Revolution. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 254. Springer, Dordrecht.

It has been pointed out that Gettier case scenarios have deviant realizations and that deviant realizations raise a difficulty for the logical analysis of thought experiments. Grundmann and Horvath have shown that it is possible to rule out deviant realizations by suitably modifying the scenario of a Gettier-style thought experiment. They hypothesize further that the enriched scenario corresponds to the way expert epistemologists implicitly interpret the original one. However, no precise account of this implicit enrichment is offered, which makes the (...) proposal somewhat ad hoc. Drawing on pragmatic theory, I argue that the content of Grundmann and Horvath’s modified scenario corresponds to the default interpretation of the original scenario and that epistemological expertise is not required to access the deviance-proof interpretation. This Default Interpretation proposal offers thus a more general and independently motivated solution to the Problem of Deviant Realizations. (shrink)

This is the first volume of a two-volume project whose aim is to publish all the known Middle English manuscript translations of the French Somme le mi, a thirteenth-century manual of religious instruction offering teaching on the Decalogue, the seven deadly sins and their remedies, compiled by the Dominican friar Laurent of Orleans. The project extends and deepens our knowledge of the influence of this popular French text, known today only from the versions entitled The Ayen bite of Inwit and (...) The Book of Vices and Virtues, published in 1866 and 1942, respectively. This volume presents the versions extant in BL MSS Royal 18. A. x and Add. 37677; the second will cover the versions in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 494, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1286, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS e Musaeo 23. The texts of both volumes have been prepared with the help of the recently-published edition of the French text, a circumstance from which the earlier English editions were unable to benefit. It is likely that the versions edited here for the first time will make a considerable contribution to our understanding of the processes of textual transmission and to that of translation itself in English literary circles of the fifteenth century. (shrink)

On appelle « Affaire Sokal » l’ensemble de controverses que suscitèrent la publication en 1996 d’une parodie écrite par un physicien américain, Alan Sokal, puis, en 1997, de l’ouvrage Impostures intellectuelles, qu’il co-signa avec un physicien belge, Jean Bricmont. Dans Retours sur l’Affaire Sokal¸ des historiens des sciences reviennent sur cette affaire. Ils montrent qu’elle recouvre différentes controverses et qu’il faut distinguer ces dernières non seulement selon la nature des écrits qui les ont occasionnées, mais aussi en fonction des questions (...) abordées, et peut-être surtout des manières de concevoir et pratiquer les échanges intellectuels. Les auteurs analysent en particulier ces controverses en France, aux États-Unis et au Royaume-Uni ; ils examinent aussi la façon dont ont été traités la relation entre le domaine scientifique et le domaine littéraire ou l’usage des métaphores en sciences. (shrink)

I intend to share my thoughts in three parts: to recall some of the great contemporary philosophers of religion and culture; to indicate a new vision of the culture that was born at the Second Vatican Council; focus on some issues in the field of faith and culture on our common path to the third millennium.

Addressing the mind-body problem in light of the difficulties raised by Cartesianism, this work traces a route leading from Descartes to contemporary philosophy of mind along with an evaluation of positions that focuses on certain facts and asks whether these positions do or do not make it possible to explain them.

According to a grand narrative that long ago ceased to be told, there was a seventeenth century Scientific Revolution, during which a few heroes conquered nature thanks to mathematics. This grand narrative began with the exhibition of quantitative laws that these heroes, Galileo and Newton for example, had disclosed: the law of falling bodies, according to which the speed of a falling body is proportional to the square of the time that has elapsed since the beginning of its fall; the (...) law of gravitation, according to which two bodies are attracted to one another in proportion to the sum of their masses and in inverse proportion to the square of the distance separating them -- according to his own preferences, each narrator added one or two quantitative laws of this kind. The essential feature was not so much the examples that were chosen, but, rather, the more or less explicit theses that accompanied them. First, mathematization would be taken as the criterion for distinguishing between a qualitative Aristotelian philosophy and the new quantitative physics. Secondly, mathematization was founded on the metaphysical conviction that the world was created pondere, numero et mensura, or that the ultimate components of natural things are triangles, circles, and other geometrical objects. This metaphysical conviction had two immediate consequences: that all the phenomena of nature can be in principle submitted to mathematics and that mathematical language is transparent; it is the language of nature itself and has simply to be picked up at the surface of phenomena. Finally, it goes without saying that, from a social point of view, the evolution of the sciences was apprehended through what has been aptly called the "relay runner model," according to which science progresses as a result of individual discoveries. Grand narratives such as this are perhaps simply fictions doomed to ruin as soon as they are clearly expressed. In any case, the very assumption on which this grand narrative relies can be brought into question: even in the canonical domain of mechanics, the relevant epistemological units crucial to understanding the dynamics of the Scientific Revolution are perhaps not a few laws of motion, but a complex set of problems embodied in mundane objects. Moreover, each of the theses just mentioned was actually challenged during the long period of historiographical reappraisal, out of which we have probably not yet stepped. Against the sharp distinction between a qualitative Aristotelian philosophy and the new quantitative physics, numerous studies insist that Rome wasn't built in a day, so to speak. Since Antiquity, there have always been mixed sciences; the emergence of pre-classical mechanics depends on both medieval treatises and the practical challenges met by Renaissance engineers. It is indeed true that, for Aristotle, mathematics merely captures the superficial properties of things, but the Aristotelianisms were many during the Renaissance and the Early Modern period, with some of them being compatible with the introduction of mathematics in natural philosophy. In addition, the gap between the alleged program of mathematizing nature and its effective realization was underlined as most natural phenomena actually escaped mathematization; at best they were enrolled in what Thomas Kuhn began to rehabilitate under the appellation of the "Baconian sciences," i.e., empirical investigations aiming at establishing isolated facts, without relating them to any overarching theory. Hence, mathematization of nature cannot pretend to capture a historical fact: at most, it expresses an indeterminate task for generations to come. On top of these first two considerations, and against the thesis of the neutrality of the mathematical language, it was urged that mathematics is not "only a language" and that, exactly as other symbolic means or cognitive tools, it has its own constraints. For example, it has been thoroughly explained that the Euclidean theory of proportions both guides and frustrates the Galilean analysis of motion; its shortages were particularly clear with respect to the expression of continuity, which is crucial in the case of motion. Consequently, when calculus was invented and applied to the analysis of motion, it was not a transposition that left things as they stood. Even more clearly than in the case of a translation from one natural language to another, the shift from one symbolic language to another entails that certain possibilities are opened while others are closed. The cognitive constraints imposed by established mathematical theories, as seen in the theory of proportions or calculus, were not the only ones to be studied in relation to mathematization. Certain schemes dependent on the grammar of natural languages, e.g., the scheme of contrariety, or certain symbolic means of representation, e.g. geometrical diagrams and numerical tables, were also subject to such scrutiny. Lastly, it was insisted that, even if we concede the existence of scientific geniuses, mathematics is largely produced by intellectual communities and embedded within social practices. More attention was consequently paid to the forms of communication in given mathematical networks, or to the teaching of the discipline in, for example, Jesuit colleges and universities. The set of mathematical practices specific to specialized craftsmen, highly-qualified experts and engineers began to be studied in its own right. All these reflections may have helped us change our perspectives on the question of mathematization. It seems, however, that they were instead set aside, both because of a general distrust towards sweeping narratives that are always subject to the suspicion that they overlook the unyielding complexity of real history, and because of a shift in our interests. The more obscure and idiosyncratic they are, an alchemist, a patron of the sciences or a lunatic collector is nowadays honored in journals of the history of sciences. As for the general issues involved in the question of mathematization, they are rejected as obsolete, or reserved for specialized journals in the history of mathematics. Consequently, before presenting the essays of this fascicle, I would like to say a few words in favor of a renewed study of the forms of mathematization in the history of the early sciences. (shrink)

This book is the first complete study of the translations of Machiavelli's Prince made in Europe and the Mediterranean countries during the period from the sixteenth to the first half of the nineteenth century: the first, unpublished French translation by Jacques de Vintimille (1546), the first Latin translation by Silvestro Tegli (1560), as well as the first translations in Dutch (1615), German (1692), Swedish (1757) and Arabic (1824). The first translation produced in Spain - dated somewhere between the end of (...) the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century - remained in manuscript form, while there was a second vernacular Spanish version around 1680. The situation in Great Britain was different from the rest of Europe, as it could boast four manuscript translations by the end of the sixteenth century. (shrink)

Cette contribution revient sur le dialogue qui s’est développé depuis dix ans entre des chercheurs en Études théâtrales et des chercheurs en Sound Studies dans le cadre de deux projets successifs. Après avoir rappelé le contexte dans lequel a été élaborée la présente réflexion, précisé ce que j’entends ici par Sound Studies et donné quelques informations sur les Études théâtrales, je montrerai comment la relation intense que les secondes ont entretenue avec les premières a contribué à l’élaboration d’une véritable réécriture (...) de l’histoire du théâtre et comment les théâtrologues ont pu, en s’appuyant sur leur bases disciplinaires propres, opposer des approches critiques au modèle des Sound Students. (shrink)

Cette contribution revient sur le dialogue qui s’est développé depuis dix ans entre des chercheurs en Études théâtrales et des chercheurs en Sound Studies dans le cadre de deux projets successifs. Après avoir rappelé le contexte dans lequel a été élaborée la présente réflexion, précisé ce que j’entends ici par Sound Studies et donné quelques informations sur les Études théâtrales, je montrerai comment la relation intense que les secondes ont entretenue avec les premières a contribué à l’élaboration d’une véritable réécriture (...) de l’histoire du théâtre et comment les théâtrologues ont pu, en s’appuyant sur leur bases disciplinaires propres, opposer des approches critiques au modèle des Sound Students. (shrink)

Balanceren. Dat is waar sociale ondernemers onderlegd moeten in zijn: balanceren tussen sociale en economische doelstellingen, tussen empathie en zakelijkheid, tussen bedrijfsstabiliteit en sociale meerwaarde, tussen flexibiliteit en rigiditeit, tussen idealisme en realiteitszin. Sociaal ondernemen is dan ook een complexe uitdaging. Dat mag alvast een conclusie zijn van dit boek en het onderzoek waarop het gebaseerd is. Een andere vaststelling is dat sociale ondernemers, ook in moeilijke omstandigheden, bijzonder gedreven blijven om hun sociale missie waar te maken.0Er bestaat onmiskenbaar een (...) groeiende interesse in sociale en maatschappelijk verantwoorde bedrijfsvoering, die zich vertaalt in aandacht voor het welzijn en de ontwikkeling van de medewerkers, milieubewustzijn, duurzame productieketens, en dergelijke. Dit boek tracht inzicht te geven in welke vlag de lading ‘sociaal ondernemerschap’ dekt, zonder in zwart-witdenken te vervallen.0Het boek bouwt voort op wetenschappelijk onderzoek van de Hogeschool Gent, een samenwerkingsproject tussen de Faculteit Bedrijf & Organisatie en de onderzoeksgroep Sociale innovatie en Ondernemerschap van de Geassocieerde Faculteit Handelswetenschappen en Bestuurskunde. (shrink)

L'évangélisation des Indiens du Mexique fut entreprise dans une perspective messianique et eschatologique, notamment par les missionnaires franciscains formés aux idéaux des 'spirituels' et influencés par les prophéties millénaristes de Joachim de Flore. Dans leur esprit, l'Église, en voie de dépérissement dans le 'Vieux Monde' corrompu, allait 'renaître' dans ce monde 'nouveau', dont les populations semblaient vivre en état d'innocence et qui se laissaient convertir avec tant de docilité. Il fallut bientôt déchanter : l'idolâtrie persistait, les Indiens se revoltaient, ils (...) étaient massacrés, et bientôt décimés par des épidémies de caractère 'apocalyptique'. Alors on s'interrogeait : la violence peut-elle être acceptée comme une nécessité pour extirper le culte des démons, hâter l'évangélisation, consolider la conversion de ces peuples? (shrink)

Lexical semantics has become a major research area within computational linguistics, drawing from psycholinguistics, knowledge representation, computer algorithms and architecture. Research programmes whose goal is the definition of large lexicons are asking what the appropriate representation structure is for different facets of lexical information. Among these facets, semantic information is probably the most complex and the least explored.Computational Lexical Semantics is one of the first volumes to provide models for the creation of various kinds of computerised lexicons for the automatic (...) treatment of natural language, with applications to machine translation, automatic indexing, and database front-ends, knowledge extraction, among other things. It focuses on semantic issues, as seen by linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. Besides describing academic research, it also covers ongoing industrial projects. (shrink)

The De Malo represents some of Aquinas' most mature thinking on goodness, badness, and human agency. In it he examines the full range of questions associated with evil: its origin, its nature, its relation to good, and its compatability with the existence of an omnipotent, benevolent God. This edition offers Richard Regan's new, clear readable English translation, based on the Leonine Commission's authoritative edition of the Latin text. Brian Davies has provided an extensive introduction and notes. (Please note: this edition (...) does not include the Latin text). (shrink)

La contribution s’intéresse aux transitions institutionnelles dans la formation en travail social et aux effets de ces évolutions dans le rapport au travail des formateurs. Elle a pour objet de repérer les mouvements mais aussi les tensions, les difficultés, les transactions nécessaires pour (re) donner du sens à l’activité et construire de nouveaux repères professionnels entre travail prescrit, travail rêvé/idéalisé et réel du travail de formation. Des entretiens ont été conduits dans quatre établissements de formation d’une même région. L’analyse du (...) corpus a permis de mettre à jour quelques grandes problématiques qui traversent le monde des formateurs en travail social, en prise avec les évolutions du secteur. Les résultats donnent à comprendre les remaniements identitaires et les formes d’implication des acteurs. Ils montrent la nécessite de « faire collectif », de retrouver des marges d’action et assurer sa mission de façon plus éclairée et mieux soutenue. (shrink)

The study focuses on the driving instructors of the French Horse and Riding Institute who are confronted with a restructuring of the sector and a reengineering of the training. It addresses professional transitions and their effects in terms of identity dynamics, work and/or training relationships. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results reveal transactions between acquired skills and the change expected by the institution, as well as strong tensions between feelings of legitimacy and forms of recognition by others. Misunderstandings about (...) restructuring blurred the reading of work situations for all the actors. (shrink)

Root, branch, and blossom, attention is intertwined with epistemology. It is essential to our capacity to learn and decisive of the evidence we obtain, it influences the intellectual connections we forge and those we remember, and it is the cognitive tool whereby we enact decisions about inquiry. Moreover, because it is both an epistemic practice and a site of agency, attention is a natural locus for questions about epistemic morality. This article surveys the emerging epistemology of attention, reviewing the existing (...) literature and sketching avenues for future investigation. It also argues for a reorientation of epistemology itself. This argument is the focus of Section 1. Section 2 briefly reviews philosophical accounts of attention, Section 3 focuses on issues in traditional, individualistic epistemology, and Section 4 turns to social epistemology. (shrink)

" Montre-moi comment tu marches, je te dirai comment tu penses!... " II suffit de déambuler avec les philosophes en compagnie de Roger-Pol Droit — de la Grèce antique à nos jours, de Copenhague au Tibet —, pour comprendre à quel point marcher debout définit notre humanité. Et pour saisir comment marcher, parler et penser ne forment qu'un seul et même mouvement : être sur le point de tomber, se rattraper et recommencer sans fin. Aristote arpentant le gymmase du Lycée (...) avec ses disciples, Kant faisant sa promenade quotidienne dans Kônigsberg, Rousseau traversant la France à pied, Nietzsche cheminant sur les crêtes de Sils-Maria... chacun connaît ces silhouettes de philosophes en mouvement. Mais bien d'autres sont à découvrir qui, en changeant de continent ou de langue, ont élaboré leur pensée en marchant. En 27 récits allègres et virtuoses, Roger-Pol Droit dessine autour de la marche une petite histoire de la philosophie. Une randonnée littéraire inattendue et accessible à tous. (shrink)

We report an experimental test of the influence of ambiguity on behaviour in a coordination game. We study the behaviour of subjects in the presence of ambiguity and attempt to determine whether they prefer to choose an ambiguity-safe option. We find that this strategy, which is not played in either Nash equilibrium or iterated dominance equilibrium, is indeed chosen quite frequently. This provides evidence that ambiguity-aversion influences behaviour in games. While the behaviour of the Row Player is consistent with randomising (...) between her strategies, the Column Player shows a marked preference for avoiding ambiguity and choosing his ambiguity-safe strategy. (shrink)

This volume explores the relationship between physics and metaphysics in Descartes' philosophy. According to the standard account, Descartes modified the objects of metaphysics and physics and inverted the order in which these two disciplines were traditionally studied. This book challenges the standard account in which Descartes prioritizes metaphysics over physics. It does so by taking into consideration the historical reception of Descartes and the ways in which Descartes himself reacted to these receptions in his own lifetime. The book stresses the (...) diversity of these receptions by taking into account not only Cartesianisms but also anti-Cartesianisms, and by showing how they retroactively highlighted different aspects of Descartes' works and theoretical choices. The historical aspect of the volume is unique in that it not only analyzes different constructions of Descartes that emerged in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, but also reflects on how his work was first read by philosophers across Europe. Taken together, the essays in this volume offer a fresh and up-to-date contribution to this important debate in early modern philosophy. (shrink)

Eleven years after Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, Spain’s position vis-à-vis Kosovo has not only not varied, but it has become stronger, turning Madrid into the leader of the Kosovo non recognizers club within the EU. This paper analyses Kosovo-Spain relations in the last eleven years. More specifically, the paper examines the reasons behind the non-recognition of Kosovo and the approach of the Spanish governments toward Kosovo’s statehood. This is followed by a thorough analysis on how Kosovo’s path for self-determination (...) played a major role in Catalonia’s quest for independence in 2017. The empirical research demonstrates that Spain’s main reason not to recognise Kosovo is based on the country’s internal dynamics; namely, Catalonia and the Basque country. Likewise, the paper argues that the Spanish governments throughout the last eleven years have created an analogy between Kosovo and Catalonia; not in their political statements, but in their political decisions, by worsening the almost inexistent diplomatic relations with Kosovo, when the Catalan path for independence was at its highest peak. By the same token, the paper reveals that this position was enhanced and driven by Catalan separatism, that continuously used Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence as a model to further their own path for self-determination. The data provided and analysed in this paper as well as the statements made are based on desk research and seven semi-structured interviews conducted in Prishtina, Brussels, Madrid and Barcelona in 2018. (shrink)

Many contemporary thinkers of the Anthropocene, who attempt to articulate a non-modern and relational ontology, all too readily dismiss critical theory inherited from the Frankfurt School for being anthropocentric, failing to acknowledge certain basic similarities. Instead, this article argues that the scaffolding of Anthropocene thinking—the recognition of the origins of the contemporary condition of ‘loss of world’ and the hope of ‘living on in the ruins’—share much with earlier critical theorists’ recognition that the Holocaust necessitated a fundamental break with the (...) past. In reading these two sets of literatures together, we suggest we can get a better grasp of the stakes involved in the contemporary crisis of critique, and in the speculative framings enabling alternative futures to come into being. (shrink)

We conducted a set of experiments to compare the effect of ambiguity in single-person decisions and games. Our results suggest that ambiguity has a bigger impact in games than in ball and urn problems. We find that ambiguity has the opposite effect in games of strategic substitutes and complements. This confirms a theoretical prediction made by Eichberger and Kelsey. In addition, we note that subjects’ ambiguity attitudes appear to be context dependent: ambiguity loving in single-person decisions and ambiguity averse in (...) games. This is consistent with the findings of Kelsey and le Roux. (shrink)

We study the computational content of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem in the Weihrauch lattice. Connected choice is the operation that finds a point in a non-empty connected closed set given by negative information. One of our main results is that for any fixed dimension the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem of that dimension is computably equivalent to connected choice of the Euclidean unit cube of the same dimension. Another main result is that connected choice is complete for dimension greater than (...) or equal to two in the sense that it is computably equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. While we can present two independent proofs for dimension three and upward that are either based on a simple geometric construction or a combinatorial argument, the proof for dimension two is based on a more involved inverse limit construction. The connected choice operation in dimension one is known to be equivalent to the Intermediate Value Theorem; we prove that this problem is not idempotent in contrast to the case of dimension two and upward. We also prove that Lipschitz continuity with Lipschitz constants strictly larger than one does not simplify finding fixed points. Finally, we prove that finding a connectedness component of a closed subset of the Euclidean unit cube of any dimension greater than or equal to one is equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. In order to describe these results, we introduce a representation of closed subsets of the unit cube by trees of rational complexes. (shrink)

Thought experiments being central to contemporary philosophy and science, the following questions were asked in recent literature. What is their definition? Are they heuristic devices, arguments, paradoxes? Are they comparable to real experiments? Do intuition and conceivability intervene? Equally imaginative thought experiments are found in ancient, medieval, and Renaissance texts. Paying attention to prime historical examples of thought experiments, we show that historical perspectives help answer these general questions.