Several times, when faced with a difficult passage of scripture in Sermones ad populum, Augustine implores his audience, “knock and it shall be opened” (Matt. 7:7c; par. Luke 11:9c). Augustine uses this phrase to stress humility and the human need for God’s activity when interpreting scripture. Studying the archeological record of domestic architecture of locked doors in Roman North Africa elucidates Augustine’s message. Knowledge of the material culture shows that Augustine calls upon Christians to “knock” upon scripture as if it (...) were a door, locked and barred in such a way that it could only be opened from inside. Thus, a reader of scripture is like a petitioner calling from outside a locked door, needing God to open its meaning. Augustine’s use of “knocking” contrasts with the metaphor of “keys” to scripture, which was favored by Tyconius and other early Christian writers. In De doctrina Christiana, Augustine expresses concern that “keys” could lead a person into overconfidence, expecting to unlock obscure passages of the Bible by his or her own power. Augustine’s frequent use of Matt. 7:7c is a call for exegetes to approach scripture with humility. All members of the totus Christus, great and small, must humbly knock. The image of “knocking” provides a versatile theological message: human effort is important, but the meaning of the Bible is ultimately unlocked by God’s activity. (shrink)

Deep learning and other black-box models are becoming more and more popular today. Despite their high performance, they may not be accepted ethically or legally because of their lack of explainability. This paper presents the increasing number of legal requirements on machine learning model interpretability and explainability in the context of private and public decision making. It then explains how those legal requirements can be implemented into machine-learning models and concludes with a call for more inter-disciplinary research on explainability.

Ce texte a déjà paru sur Techno-science.net. Des chercheurs découvrent la formule mathématique du rythme et avancent que notre cerveau pourrait être câblé pour y répondre. Une nouvelle étude montre que tout compositeur, de Bach à Brubeck, répète des motifs rythmiques, de sorte que la partie reproduit le tout. Une équipe de recherche dirigée par les neuroscientifiques Daniel Levitin et Vinod Menon, respectivement des universités McGill et Stanford, a analysé les partitions de quelque 2 000 compositions - Mathématiques – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

This study assesses the impact had by institutional isomorphic pressures in the organisational fields of 185 businesses operating within the United Kingdom. The emphasis throughout is on how external institutions affect the socially and environmentally responsible aspects of an organization’s purchasing practice. Factor analyses and a linear regression model are employed to test the influence of these pressures. Initial findings suggest that what other industry participants are doing in this area is not as important in affecting the procurement practice of (...) the focal organisation as is the managers’ perception of how legitimacy is awarded by stakeholders and, indeed, if competitors with well-developed social and environmental supply chain management programs are perceived favourably in the industry. (shrink)

Il existe deux types d'ignorance que Maurice Blondel, philosophe, sociologue et théologien français, invite tout homme à combattre énergiquement pour éviter la disparition prématurée de l'espèce humaine, mais également celle de la planète Terre. Il y a, d'une part, l'ignorance de soi-même, de son être en perpétuel devenir et, d'autre part, celle de ses semblables, de son environnement, du monde physique et de l'Unique nécessaire. Ce livre s'assigne comme objectif de vulgariser les armes pour combattre ces deux fléaux, armes présentées (...) dans sa thèse de doctorat qui l'a rendu célèbre : L'Action (1893). (shrink)

Pour son projet d'une "union européenne", suite à des guerres récurrentes entre frères du même continent, Maurice Blondel a élaboré une méthode sociologique qui permet de rassembler les membres d'une même société autour des mêmes idéaux, de les aider à s'accepter les uns les autres, malgré leurs différences, de les pousser à atteindre un excellent niveau d'organisation sociale, économique, politique et culturelle, mais surtout d'intégrer efficacement les délinquants déclarés perdus à jamais, donc bons à être guillotinés comme autrefois en France. (...) Ce petit livre s'assigne comme objectif de présenter cette méthode et de faire connaître Maurice Blondel comme sociologue de l'action et d'une Europe de la paix perpétuelle. (shrink)

ABSTRACTResearch that dissociates different types of processes within a given task using a processing tree approach suggests that attitudes may be acquired through evaluative conditioning in the absence of explicit encoding of CS-US pairings in memory. This research distinguishes explicit memory for the CS-US pairings from CS-liking acquired without encoding of CS-US pairs in explicit memory. It has been suggested that the latter effect may be due to an implicit misattribution process that is assumed to operate when US evocativeness is (...) low. In the present research, the latter assumption was supported neither by two high-powered experiments nor by complementary meta-analytic evidence, whereas evocativeness exerted an influence on explicit memory. This pattern of findings is inconsistent with the view that CS-liking acquired without encoding of CS-US pairs in explicit memory reflects an implicit misattribution process at learning. Hence, the underlying learning process is awaiting further empirical scrutiny. (shrink)

Local theories of consciousness state that one is conscious of a feature if it is adequately represented and processed in sensory brain areas, given some background conditions. We challenge the core prediction of local theories based on long-lasting postdictive effects demonstrating that features can be represented for hundreds of milliseconds in perceptual areas without being consciously perceived. Unlike previous empirical data aimed against local theories, localists cannot explain these effects away by conjecturing that subjects are phenomenally conscious of features that (...) they cannot report. We also discuss alternative explanations that localists could offer. (shrink)

The paper reports two studies exploring the relationship between scholars’ self-reported publication pressure and their self-reported scientific misconduct in research. In Study 1 the participants...

ABSTRACTTwo high-powered experiments examined the role of evaluative response production in the extinction of evaluative conditioning by positioning EC in the procedural and conceptual framewo...

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?

The conclusions of Barbey & Sloman (B&S) crucially depend on evidence for different representations of statistical information. Unfortunately, a muddled distinction made among these representations calls into question the authors' conclusions. We clarify some notions of statistical representations which are often confused in the literature. These clarifications, combined with new empirical evidence, do not support a dual-process model of judgment.

We classify actions of groups of finite Morley rank on abelian groups of Morley rank 2: there are essentially two, namely the natural actions of SL(V) and GL(V) with V a vector space of dimension 2. We also prove an identification theorem for the natural module of SL₂ in the finite Morley rank category.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ImagesAdrien BugariAdrien Bugari is a graduate of the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design (ESAD, Reims, France). In 2007, his work was exhibited at the Salon du Meuble de Paris and the Salon d’Art et de Design Contemporain de Montrouge (France). In 2008, he worked with the Italian designer Martino Gamper and continued his studies at the École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL, Switzerland), receiving a degree in 2009. (...) His work, Round Box, appeared at the Milan Salon du Design in 2008. While his early work focuses almost exclusively on objects and their functionality, Bugari’s practice engages with contemporary art in general and design in particular. His drawings—most often done with felt tip marker or pencil—are concerned with space and matter. Bugari lives and works in Paris.www.adrienbugari.comCristalThe series, Cristal—comprising fifteen drawings on recycled paper—was completed during a stay in Ithaca, New York, in 2011.Cristal is a specimen study inspired by a reading of A Field Guide and Introduction to the Geology and Chemistry of Rocks and Minerals by Charles Sorrell. Minimally sketched, the structures are set off by white oil pastel. The substance of each drawing is produced by the contrast between the rigid outlines of each facet and the brilliance of the white pastel. The light materiality of the sketches creates a delicate effect: the transparency covers the drawn lines without minimizing their imperfections. The structure—as nothing more than the relation between parts—naturally implies a point of view. It calls into question the necessity of form and the way that differences and similarities are established. It plays with resemblances, or, les airs de famille. It asks what in the drawing is regular or continuous and what is not. And it wonders where to begin. The series, Cristal, is also a magnetic proximity, a minimalist rhythm: it creates the possibility of successive metamorphoses, until there is nothing left to say.It is no doubt possible to interpret Cristal as a geometric abstraction. I prefer to define it as a moment rather than a concept. Viewed in that light, Cristal can be said to have endured for the season of one Ithaca winter. [End Page 1] Click for larger view View full resolutionIMAGE: Adrien Bugari, CRISTAL 14Felt tip marker and oil pastel on recycled paper, 65 × 48 cm.Courtesy the artist[End Page 2]Copyright © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press... (shrink)

Yenidoğanlara ve hayvanlara dair herhangi bir soru sorduğumuzda ve soruyu cevaplamaya çalıştığımızda çoğu örtük olan birtakım varsayımlarımız vardır. Bunlardan en önemlisi, insanı insan yapan ve diğer canlılardan ayıran temel unsurlar hakkındadır. Yani, “insanı insan yapan nedir?” sorusuna keskin sınırları olan bir cevabımız varsa, bu cevabımız, aynı zamanda yenidoğanlara ve hayvanlara dair birtakım soruların da cevabı haline gelir. Örneğin “insanı insan yapan veya en azından onu diğer canlılardan ayırt eden unsurların en önemlilerinden biri dildir ve dil öğrenebilmesidir” dersek, bu ifade, en (...) temelde, dünyaya henüz gelen bebeğin ve örneğin bir kedinin yalnızca “gelişmemiş” değil, aynı zamanda “aynı zeminde gelişmemiş” olduğu yönünde bir varsayıma bizi götürür, zira dil öğrenmek veya öğrenebilmek ve bu süreç neticesinde alışageldiğimiz, bildiğimiz anlamda diller aracılığıyla iletişim kurabilmek ve düşünebilmek “gelişmek”tir. Bu yazının amacı, yenidoğanlara ve hayvanlara dair özellikle bilinç çalışmalarının, bu eksende yürütülen dil ve en genel anlamda felsefe ve psikoloji araştırmalarının (yukarıdaki örnekteki gibi) temel varsayımlarını ve hareket noktalarını sorgulamak ve son dönemde Yalçın Koç’un geliştirdiği aşkınlık tasavvuru çerçevesinde eleştiriler ve öneriler sunmaktır. Son olarak, bir tecrübe sahibi olmak ile en geniş anlamıyla tecrübe sahibi olmaya dair bir fikriyat inşa etmek ve -mümkünse- bilimini yapmak arasındaki ilişkiye değineceğiz. (shrink)

L’homme qui médite est un animal dépravé.J.-J. Rouseau Seul l’homme peut être bête de bêtise.J. Derrida Me voici seul sur la terre, n’ayant plus de frere, de prochain, d’ami, de société que moi-même. Le plus sociable et le plus aimant des humains en a été proscrit par un accord unanime. Bien que notre siècle n’ait pas encore débrouillé les paradoxes nouant la solitude superlative du « plus sociable et aimant » des promeneurs resté solitaire, les longs extraits qui suivent voudraient, (...) en cette.. (shrink)

The following text seeks to identify the origins of what has come to be called the Sokal hoax. It appears that these origins remain problematic insofar as they cannot be thought without engaging into intrinsically duplicitous thinking. Thus, « originally », the gesture of the hoax is indeed « productive and conflictive, and no self-identity, no unity, and no inherent simplicity can possibly precede it », as « he » said, but « he » was disseminating, as we say. But (...) that is precisely the « strength » of the « form » of the Sokal hoax. With the delicate question of origins as its stumbling block—a stumbling block which may also be the question of irony—, the present text takes its cue from an passage from La Barbarie à visage humain and proposes to reveal the constructive consequences of the affair triggered by the hoax, while constantly paying tribute to its performance. Whether my argument will make it possible to distinguish the consequences from the origins remains moot : post hoc ergo propter hoc. One must remember that this is a sophism. (shrink)

Résumé Le texte qui suit s’efforce d’identifier l’origine de ce qu’il convient d’appeler « l’affaire Sokal ». Il appert que celle-ci reste problématique dans la mesure où elle n’est pas pensable sans engager, centralement, une duplicité. À « l’origine », le mouvement du canular sokalien est donc bien « productif et conflictuel et aucune identité, aucune unité, aucune simplicité originaire ne saurait [le] précéder », comme disait l’autre, mais il disséminait, paraît-il. C’est pourtant là la « force » de la (...) « forme » du canular sokalien. Achoppant sur la délicate question de l’origine (qui est probablement aussi celle de l’ironie), mais saluant sans cesse le travail du canular, à partir d’un extrait de La Barbarie à visage humain, cet article entend révéler les conséquences constructives de cette affaire. Il n’est pourtant pas sûr que son argumentation permette de distinguer la conséquence de l’origine : post hoc ergo propter hoc. Il s’agit d’un sophisme, rappelons-le. (shrink)

Among ethicists and engineers within robotics there is an ongoing discussion as to whether ethical robots are possible or even desirable. We answer both of these questions in the positive, based on an extensive literature study of existing arguments. Our contribution consists in bringing together and reinterpreting pieces of information from a variety of sources. One of the conclusions drawn is that artifactual morality must come in degrees and depend on the level of agency, autonomy and intelligence of the machine. (...) Moral concerns for agents such as intelligent search machines are relatively simple, while highly intelligent and autonomous artifacts with significant impact and complex modes of agency must be equipped with more advanced ethical capabilities. Systems like cognitive robots are being developed that are expected to become part of our everyday lives in future decades. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that their behaviour is adequate. In an analogy with artificial intelligence, which is the ability of a machine to perform activities that would require intelligence in humans, artificial morality is considered to be the ability of a machine to perform activities that would require morality in humans. The capacity for artificial (artifactual) morality, such as artifactual agency, artifactual responsibility, artificial intentions, artificial (synthetic) emotions, etc., come in varying degrees and depend on the type of agent. As an illustration, we address the assurance of safety in modern High Reliability Organizations through responsibility distribution. In the same way that the concept of agency is generalized in the case of artificial agents, the concept of moral agency, including responsibility, is generalized too. We propose to look at artificial moral agents as having functional responsibilities within a network of distributed responsibilities in a socio-technological system. This does not take away the responsibilities of the other stakeholders in the system, but facilitates an understanding and regulation of such networks. It should be pointed out that the process of development must assume an evolutionary form with a number of iterations because the emergent properties of artifacts must be tested in real world situations with agents of increasing intelligence and moral competence. We see this paper as a contribution to the macro-level Requirement Engineering through discussion and analysis of general requirements for design of ethical robots. (shrink)

Le genre épigrammatique est connu pour son potentiel comique mais également pour la dimension ludique qu’il peut mettre en place. Cette étude s’intéresse précisément à ces deux aspects et à leur mise en relation au sein des épigrammes à caractère sexuel d’Ausone et de Claudien afin d’observer les interactions entre ces trois dimensions (comique, ludique, sexualité) mais également pour délimiter les moyens et les bornes du comique et du ludique.

THE PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION. The need for a quantum theory Classical mechanics has been developed continuously from the time of Newton and applied to an ...

Apollon Sarpédonios, le grand dieu de Séleucie-du-Kalykadnos en Cilicie, fait l’objet d’un culte oraculaire renommé dans le monde antique aux époques hellénistique et romaine. L’analyse historique sur le temps long de cette divinité évoquant le héros Sarpédon fait apparaître une personnalité divine complexe quelque peu éloignée des conceptions « canoniques » de l’Apollon grec. Étudié dans son contexte régional, le cas d’Apollon Sarpédonios est un exemple particulièrement révélateur des mécanismes culturels et religieux qui opèrent à Séleucie et plus généralement dans (...) une Cilicie située au carrefour des cultures et soumises à de multiples influences culturelles tout au long de son histoire. Apparaissent alors les différentes strates culturelles qui se sont superposées en Cilicie où à l’ancien fond anatolien sont venues se mêler des influences louvite, hourrite, syro-phénicienne, perse, grecque puis romaine. (shrink)

Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa sobre a religiosidade em Mazagão Velho, expressa por meio das festas devocionais que ali ocorrem, buscando compreendê-las como um elemento histórico de coesão social. Para tanto, parte-se do estudo da mentalidade formada no Brasil colônia com sua ideologia de expansão da fé cristã. É nesse contexto que toma forma o catolicismo popular. A localidade escolhida como base para este estudo apresenta especificidades que a tornam um caso único. Ela traz a memória das antigas lutas entre (...) cristãos e mouros ainda no Marrocos, onde foi primeiramente fundada, sendo posteriormente transferida para o Brasil no século XVIII. Além disso, apresenta um rico processo de interação com os indígenas e africanos, caracterizando-a como uma sociedade multicultural. Essa história ainda é marcada pela degradação social ocorrida no final do século XVIII. Contudo, mesmo passando por diversos reveses, a comunidade subsistiu e mantém-se viva até os dias atuais. Como principal prática social, destacam-se as festas devocionais, que são eventos coletivos que congregam elementos, como as crenças e os rituais que expressam a vida em sociedade. Também fazem parte dessas festas as manifestações culturais surgidas a partir do encontro das culturas ali presentes. Para entender essa longa história, a ideia de coesão social foi essencial. Neste sentido, a pesquisa buscou mostrar que essa comunidade manteve sua existência graças à coesão social ali formada e sustentada pela religiosidade que se manifesta, de maneira mais efetiva, por meio das festas em devoção aos santos católicos em um ciclo que se renova a cada ano. Para tanto, o trabalho foi realizado por meio de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, com uma análise que compreende tanto uma perspectiva histórica quanto uma abordagem sociológica. Para isso, houve a observação de algumas festas in loco, a pesquisa documental e a pesquisa bibliográfica. Conclui-se que as festas devocionais são eventos sociais fortemente marcados pela tradição histórica do local. Ademais, a continuidade histórica dos acontecimentos mostra que, diante dos problemas passados pela localidade, a sociedade encontrou forças na união de seus moradores, nas tradições e na memória de seus antepassados, fortalecendo-se por meio da realização das festas devocionais. (shrink)

Dans le Traité de la réforme de l’entendement, le jeune Spinoza réconcilie sans les confondre les deux principales composantes de la vera Methodus et, dans une certaine mesure, unifie Méthode réflexive et Philosophie. Or, ces deux démarches apportent un éclairage sur la Méthode d’interprétation de l’Écriture conçue au chapitre VII du Traité théologico-politique. En effet, il existe une cohérence trop négligée dans les études spinozistes entre la vera Methodus et ce qu’est devenue la Philosophie ultérieure de Spinoza lorsqu’il formule les (...) règles de l’interprétation de l’Écriture. Cette cohérence s’exprime sur deux plans. Primo, l’interprétation spinozienne des Lettres sacrées implique dans un autre registre l’histoire de l’entendement fondée par le jeune Spinoza sur la connaissance réflexive de l’idée vraie donnée et l’expérimentation. Secundo, l’impossibilité d’une « science vraie » de l’Écriture et l'emploi d'outils intellectuels innés placent le Traité théologico-politique et le Traité de la réforme de l’entendement dans un horizon commun : celui d’un usage spécifique de l’entendement et d’une alternative à la connaissance causale déployée dans l’Éthique. (shrink)

To shield stakeholders from exploitation, society increasingly expects organizations to engage with stakeholders. While exploitation of stakeholders is of great concern, economic literature points to the costly nature of stakeholder engagement vis-à-vis alternative mechanisms that protect stakeholders, such as competitive markets. When the costs of stakeholder engagement outweigh the benefits, why would organizations engage with stakeholders? Through an analysis of the cooperative enterprise and a comparison with its capitalist counterpart, we theorize two additional reasons why stakeholder engagement is beneficial. First, (...) we explain how stakeholder engagement facilitates long-term organizational resilience and protection of stakeholders in times of crisis, and second, we show how engagement is a decisive ingredient in answering non-economic value requirements of stakeholders. To conclude, we contribute to the broader stakeholder engagement and cooperative literature by stressing that engagement practices, and particularly democratic governance arrangements, are subject to design principles that sometimes favor stakeholders in capitalist firms. (shrink)

Maintes études ont été consacrées à René Descartes mais, curieusement, son existence vagabonde est très peu connue. La seule biographie qui fasse autorité reste celle du Père Baillet. Cette réédition abrégée s'imposait. On y découvre un gentilhomme qui ne craint pas de tirer l'épée, aime le voyage et les filles, s'ingénie à feinter la censure des jésuites - en se repliant en Hollande, dans ses fameux poêles, d'où il entretient une correspondance avec tous les lettrés et les savants de son (...) temps. L'épilogue est des plus romanesques : Stockholm, la cour de l'étrange Christine de Suède qui se piquait de philosophie, le froid, la mort en solitaire, l'immense gloire posthume. (shrink)

For centuries, women involved in armed operations, wearing uniforms and supporting the army in other ways are among the guarantors of freedom of societies, nations, cultures and generations. Their attitudes towards war, as well as the ways in which they perceive and describe it, make an important contribution to studying this issue. When describing female soldiers, the author analyses their attitudes, motives, the specificity of their stories, as well as their significance for the war narrative.