In this paper, we show that it is not a conceptual truth about laws of nature that they are immutable (though we are happy to leave it as an open empirical question whether they do actually change once in a while). In order to do so, we survey three popular accounts of lawhood—(Armstrong-style) necessitarianism, (Bird-style) dispositionalism and (Lewis-style) ‘best system analysis’—and expose the extent, as well as the philosophical cost, of the amendments that should be enforced in order to leave (...) room for the possibility of changing laws. (shrink)

Nous proposons une logique épistémique quadrivalente AR4.

Pierre-Alexandre Fradet | : L’ambition de cet article est de tirer au clair le versant spéculatif de l’oeuvre de Charles De Koninck en la mettant en dialogue avec la pensée spéculative contemporaine. Pour ce faire, nous nous efforçons d’abord de synthétiser la manière dont Quentin Meillassoux et Iain Hamilton Grant réhabilitent la connaissance du réel lui-même, après quoi nous relevons différents points d’accord ou de désaccord entre ces auteurs et Charles De Koninck. Parmi les thèmes abordés en l’occurrence et (...) qui recoupent tous la question du réel, figurent la différence entre l’en-soi et le pour-nous, le finalisme, l’indéterminisme et les alternatives que propose l’ontologie aux concepts de devenir et de substance. | : The aim of this article is to illuminate the speculative side of the work of Charles De Koninck by creating a dialogue with contemporary speculative thought. In order to do so we first try to sum up the way in which Quentin Meillassoux and Iain Hamilton Grant rehabilitate knowing what is real itself, after which we point to similarities and differences regarding the viewpoints of these authors and Charles De Koninck. Included in the themes discussed, which all concern the issue of what is real, are the difference between “being-in-itself” and “being-for-itself”, finalism, indeterminism and alternatives that ontology offers for the concepts of becoming and of substance. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por finalidade ensaiar uma reflexão sobre a aporia imposta pela catástrofe. Para isso, inicialmente, apresenta-se alguns dados de catástrofes a serem tomadas como exemplares: a cheia no Vale do Taquari (RS) e a seca nos rios da bacia amazônica (AM). A seguir, busca-se pensar a questão da catástrofe desde seu índice temporal, e para isso, se recorrerá a duas propostas: de Jean-Pierre Dupuy e de Alain Brossat. Intentou-se outra alternativa, ainda que não exclusiva: a de enfatizar (...) a espacialidade da catástrofe, sem necessariamente perder de vista sua temporalidade, mas de algum modo subordinando-a àquela do espaço, do local da catástrofe, evidenciando como a catástrofe pode ser tomada como questão biopolítica. Por fim, apoiando-se nessa correlação espaço-temporal da catástrofe, e tomando por apoio o terremoto no Haiti em 2010, ensaia-se algum pensamento que busca realocar a relação entre local e global/universal e, assim, subvertendo a lógica biopolítica de sua governamentalidade. (shrink)

Nous reformulons la question du naturalisme sur le terrain de la pratique scientifique en privilégiant une analyse épistémologique fine des méthodes, procédures et concepts employés en psychologie. L’enjeu devient alors opérationnel: celui de la mise en place d’un cadre exact et expérimental permettant de rendre compte de la phénoménologie de l’expérience.

This explorative study contributes to the theoretical debate on political incivility beyond the domination of Western-centric approaches while connecting the bodies of literature in political philosophy and media research. It offers empirical evidence of Bolsonaro’s delegitimizing criticisms and uncivil expressions toward the press, some specific news outlets, and individual journalists during the first two years of his presidential mandate in Brazil. It concludes that Bolsonaro displayed the complete repertoire of the defining elements of political incivility in liberal democracies vis à (...) vis the delegitimization of the press. He also unprecedently pushed the limits of civility in political discourse by employing the entire arsenal of verbal manifestations of impoliteness. (shrink)

L’article analyse la grève des camionneurs au Brésil, à partir de la centralité de la logistique en tant que terrain de lutte et d’accumulation dans le capitalisme contemporain. Dans le cas du Brésil, l’interruption complète de la provision d’intrants de base et l’occupation de routes dans tout le pays signifiaient la fin d’un cycle politico-économique basé sur la fausse alternative entre le néolibéralisme et le développementisme progressiste. La lutte des camionneurs, bien que ambiguë et contradictoire, révèle l’urgence pour nouvelles formes (...) de protection sociale et concrète, de valorisation des revenus et de la vie dans le cadre des luttes de la logistique. (shrink)

Supported by easier and cheaper access to tools and expanding communities, maker cultures are pointing towards the ideas of everyone designing, creating, producing and distributing renewed, new and improved products, machines, things or artefacts. A careful analysis of the assumptions and challenges of maker cultures emphasizes the relevance of what may be called technological action, that is, active and critical interventions regarding the purposes and applications of technologies within ordinary lives, thus countering the deterministic trends of current directions of technology. (...) In such transformative potential, we will explore a set of elements what is and could be technological action through snapshots of maker cultures based on the empirical research conducted in three particular contexts: the Fab Lab Network, Maker Media core outputs and initiatives such as Maker Faires, and the Open Source Hardware Association. Elements such as control and empowerment through material engagement, openness and sharing, and social, cultural, political and ethical values of the common good in topics such as diversity, sustainability and transparency, are critically analysed. (shrink)

Luciano Rocha Pinto é professor e pesquisador, doutor em História pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em História da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (PPGH-UERJ), com Pós-doutorado em História, pela Universidade Federal Fluminense (PPGH-UFF) e pós-doutorado em Teologia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Atua na área de história política, poder pastoral no ocidente e perspectivas do espaço sagrado. Além de exercer o ministério diaconal na Arquidiocese de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, realizando pesquisa também sobre (...) o Diaconato Permanente. Com o livro o autor apresenta o Ministério Diaconal na perspectiva histórica e teológica. Durante cerca de mil anos o diaconado foi vivido, no Ocidente, apenas como uma etapa para aqueles que se preparavam para o presbiterato. Com o advento do Concilio Vaticano II o ministério foi restaurado, sendo recolocado como parte integrante do corpo clerical da Igreja Latina. O diácono permanente é o servo da caridade, da liturgia e da palavra. No Brasil cresce o número de candidatos e ordenados, hoje a realidade nacional conta com quase 4 mil diáconos, segundo a Comissão Nacional dos Diáconos do Brasil (CND). Assim, tal obra tem como o objetivo sinalizar os caminhos e apresentar algumas reflexões sobre o diaconado em sua formação histórica e identidade teológica. Para o autor o diácono emerge como ponte e mediação da esperança àqueles que agonizam no individualismo e no materialismo. E para compreender e bem viver este ministério abarcar sua teologia, a mistagogia, é fundamental e igualmente primaz conhecer o passado, para bem viver o presente. (shrink)

O artigo empreende uma discussão sobre o conceito de Formação Cultural (Bildung) em G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), buscando apreender como o filósofo aborda a educação em suas obras. Para tal, analiso a perspectiva hegeliana de solução ao problema pedagógico, a saber, “Qual a melhor forma de educar o homem?”, imposto a todo e qualquer projeto educacional. Através de uma leitura de textos da Fenomenologia do Espírito (1807), dos Discursos sobre Educação (1808-1816), e da Filosofia do Direito (1821), viso apreender (...) o conceito de Formação Cultural em seu sistema filosófico. (shrink)

Nosso intento aqui é o de expor os limites da filosofia especulativa a partir da análise crítica de Feuerbach nos Princípios de Filosofia do Futuro. Nesta obra Feuerbach apresenta-nos os fundamentos da filosofia especulativa, a fim de levar-nos a compreendê-la como uma verdadeira teologia racional. Tal afirmação feuerbachiana funda-se na latente submissão dos filósofos especulativos a temas sugeridos na reflexão teológica, surgidos no período que vai desde a filosofia mosaica aos primórdios do cristianismo, precisamente na filosofia neoplatônica. Analisamos emnosso trabalho (...) o argumento do filósofo alemão para desmascarar a inversão realizada pela filosofia especulativa, precisamente na herança neoplatônica assumida na modernidade pela filosofia de Hegel. (shrink)

Neste artigo procuramos apresentar os elementos que possibilitam a constituição das identidades coletivas a partir de quatro conceitos fundamentais: a demanda, o significante vazio, a identificação e o gozo. Primeiro, revisitamos Freud trazendo a noção de identificação pensada em sua determinação política. Em seguida, buscamos justificar a especificidade da noção lacaniana de significante vazio, repensado por Ernesto Laclau enquanto um conceito político fundamental implicado na constituição e formação das identidades coletivas. Avançamos na lógica do significante e das demandas insatisfeitas que (...) se organizam basilarmente na composição das identidades coletivas a partir de casos específicos e formalizações. Com este trabalho, temos como objetivo contribuir com a reflexão e debate psicanalítico, filosófico e político acerca das identidades políticas, sociais, de gênero, de diversidade sexual, étnicas e culturais em suas mais variadas formas. (shrink)

Pretende-se abordar a problemática da filosofia como prática formativa, tendo como paradigma a experiência estética enquanto via para uma formação ética que inclua as dimensões emocional, afetiva e criativa do ser humano (e não apenas a formação intelectual ou técnico-profissional), retomando assim as tradições filosóficas formativas da Paideia antiga, assim como as da autonomia e da Bildung modernas.

O presente trabalho reflete sobre a significativa e desigual morte de jovens negros no País. Para tanto, a produção traz uma discussão sobre o teórico martinicano Frantz Fanon que, com suas ideias sobre racismo e colonialismo, nos ajuda a reconhecer o racismo brasileiro e a condição em que vivem os jovens negros do Brasil. Apesar de Fanon afirmar que suas considerações se referem apenas ao momento histórico em que escreve e aos estudos de colonialismo, acreditamos ser fácil fazer um paralelo (...) entre sua obra e o momento histórico brasileiro quanto à morte de jovens negros. Analisamos as três formas de violência trazidas pelo teórico: psicológica, estrutural, e física, dentro das quais vivem e morrem tais jovens. Buscamos, ainda, refletir sobre a construção das identidades e juventudes negras para compreender, onde e de que forma, estão inseridas na sociedade brasileira. Para tanto, acreditamos ser necessário analisar de que modo se dá o racismo brasileiro e conhecer o que denominamos de falso mito da igualdade racial, contra o qual lutamos constantemente, em busca de reconhecimento do problema, para que possamos buscar soluções. O trabalho aborda a Lei n. 10.639/2003 que versa sobre a obrigatoriedade de se trabalhar na escola a cultura africana e afro-brasileira. Consideramos a lei uma importante política pública na promoção de igualdade racial, através da valorização da cultura vinda do continente africano. Acreditamos que a implementação efetiva dessa lei apoia a construção de identidades negro-positivas tanto para negros quanto para não negros e que essa valorização das identidades serve como importante ferramenta na luta contra a significativa morte de jovens negros no País. (shrink)

If European metropolises witnessed the development, throughout the 19th century, of various forms of concentrationary assistance and radical isolation through penal colonies, colonial space was the site of an even more explicit formulation and experimentation with the creation and the exclusion of of an undesirable human surplus, notably in South Asia, where the social system of castes could provide powerful ideological foundations for the colonial thinking on exclusion. This article seeks to illustrate this by examining the creation of the category (...) of « criminal tribes » in India, during the last third of the 19th century. (shrink)

Previous studies have demonstrated that double phosphorylation of a protein can lead to bistability if some conditions are fulfilled. It was also shown that the signaling behavior of a covalent modification cycle can be quantitatively and, more importantly, qualitatively modified when this cycle is coupled to a signaling pathway as opposed to being isolated. This property was named retroactivity. These two results are studied together in this paper showing the existence of interesting phenomena—oscillations and bistability—in signaling cascades possessing at least (...) one stage with a double-phosphorylation cycle as in MAPK cascades. (shrink)

“Poder sem solidariedade” tem como objetivo abordar um texto emblemático do Novo Testamento, isto é, Marcos 10,32-45 com as ferramentas teóricas da teologia bíblica e da teoria foucaultiana a respeito do poder. A metodologia utilizada é de ordem bibliográfica, a partir do diálogo com textos específicos que exploram o texto de Marcos, a sociedade mediterrânea do primeiro século e textos específicos de Foucault sobre o poder. Percebe-se conclusivamente que ao mesmo tempo em que os discípulos de Jesus procuram reproduzir as (...) relações de poder, Jesus propõe um contra-discurso a fim de vislumbrar o poder como solidariedade a favor da comunidade. A intervenção de Jesus introduzirá um discurso de renúncia à aspiração ao poder assim como uma opção fundamental pelo serviço e pela solidariedade. Diante de dois modelos de concepção e prática do poder veremos uma proposta de inversão dos valores que vigoravam em uma sociedade marcada visceralmente pelas ambições. O jogo do poder também estava presente na comunidade de Jesus e seus discípulos procuravam reproduzir aquilo que já era comum ao tecido social. Palavras-chave : Poder. Autoridade. Cristianismo. Sociedade. Domínio.“Powers without solidarity” aims to address an emblematic text of the New Testament - Mark 10.32-45 - by using the theoretical tools of biblical theology and Foucault's theory about power. The methodology used is bibliographic out of a dialogue with specific texts that explore the text of Mark, the first-century Mediterranean society and specific texts by Foucault on power. It can be conclusively seen that while the disciples of Jesus seek to reproduce power relations, Jesus proposes a counter-discourse in order to view the power as solidarity in benefit of his community. Jesus´ intervention will introduce a speech that disclaims the aspiration to power and offers a fundamental option for service and solidarity. Given these two models of conception and practice of power, we can see a proposal that reverses the values ​​that prevailed in a society viscerally marked by ambition. The power game was also present in Jesus´ community and his disciples tried to reproduce what was already common to the social culture. Keywords : Power. Authority. Christianity. Society. Domain. (shrink)

Among them are essays by French philosophers Louis Bourdeau and Victor Espinas, which founded the ideas in the 1880s and 1890s.

This chapter introduces the main issues and themes of the volume. Approaches to individuality from metaphysics and philosophy of science are contrasted. Recent philosophical developments regarding concepts of biological and physical individuality are exposed. These research trends show how philosophy of physics and philosophy of biology address differently the question of what an individual is. Five main divergences are identified: the centrality of part-whole questions, the issue of identical individuals, the importance of the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles and, (...) finally, the importance of structuralist concerns. At the end of the chapter, the structure of the book is explained in detail. (shrink)

Depersonalization consists in a deep modification of the way things appear to a subject, leading him to feel estranged from his body, his actions, his thoughts, and his mind, and even from himself. Even though, when it was discovered at the end of the 19th century, this psychiatric condition was widely used to probe certain aspects of bodily awareness, and more specifically the sense of bodily ownership (SBO), it has been strangely neglected in contemporary debates. In this chapter, I argue (...) that because of three specific features, depersonalization raises some important challenges for current theories of the SBO. The first feature — call it “generality” — is that depersonalization does not only affect the sense of bodily ownership but also, typically, the sense of ``mental ownership’’ (SMO), the sense of agency or ``action ownership’’ (SOA), and the subject’s core sense of herself (CSS), that is, her awareness of herself as an I. The second feature is that except for the symptoms of depersonalization, depersonalized patients are hard to distinguish, psychologically, from normal subjects. This makes it hard to find psychological features that might explain their condition. The last feature, call it “fundamentality” is that the psychological features that do seem abnormal among depersonalized patients seem more likely to be explained by depersonalization than to explain it. These three features raise three challenges — the centrality challenge, the dissociation challenge, and the grounding challenge. Taken together, I will argue, these challenges suggest that the SBO depends on a form of phenomenal “mineness” that would mark my mental states as mine and that cannot be accounted for in sensorimotor, cognitive, or even affective terms. A phenomenal mineness that indeed seems to be psychologically primitive, and only accountable in neurophysiological terms. (shrink)

Recueil des commentaires de Michel Alexandre sur la "Critique de la raison pure" d'après des notes de cours, comme la première édition de 1961. Cependant, on y a ajouté un quatrième chapitre, intitulé "L'ordre", avec des notes sur les deux dernières critiques, "Critique de la raison pratique" et "Critique du jugement". L'ensemble couvre les vingt dernières années d'enseignement de M. Alexandre (1932-1952), dont le commentaire relève du genre "Auslegung" (qu'on pourrait traduire par "exposition") comme celui que firent de (...) Kant un Hegel ou un Heidegger, et qui se caractérise par une certaine manière de questionner les textes. Ce volume est donc aussi un hommage rendu à un maître d'u. (shrink)

Spinoza, according to common opinion, could only have written lamentable platitudes on sexual love, narrowly inspired by the prejudices of his time and without serious philosophical foundation: that for which, in the past, he has been congratulated,1 he is now reproached; or, at best, excused. He would even have, some believe to be able to add, increased the pervading puritanism: sexuality, as such, would give rise in him to a deep repulsion and women would horrify him. The second of these (...) two assertions, if one sticks to the manifest content of the texts, actually rests on nothing; if one calls upon their latent content, it would require, to be established with a minimum of rigor, a study of which we will not dispute the theoretical possibility, but which, in fact, has not yet been undertaken. The first, on the other hand, has all the appearance of the obvious: that men love women for their beauty and do not support their attachment to someone else,2 that they desire them more the more admirers they have,3 that the jealousy of the male is exacerbated by the representation of the pudenda and of the excrementa of his rival,4 that sensual attachment is unstable and conflictual,5 that it often turns to obsession,6 that Adam loved Eve because of their similarity of nature,7 that he who remains insensitive to the generosity of a courtesan does not offend by ingratitude,8 that only free men and free women can marry one another and only if they want children,9 well, it seems, that isn’t anything sensational; now these eight passages, if the two definitions of the libido are added to them,10 are the only, if I’m not mistaken, that Spinoza expressly devoted to the question! He would therefore, apparently, only have drawn up a report of deficiency. (shrink)

The work of Henri Bergson, the foremost French philosopher of the early twentieth century, is not usually explored for its political dimensions. Indeed, Bergson is best known for his writings on time, evolution, and creativity. This book concentrates instead on his political philosophy—and especially on his late masterpiece, _The Two Sources of Morality and Religion_—from which Alexandre Lefebvre develops an original approach to human rights. We tend to think of human rights as the urgent international project of protecting all (...) people everywhere from harm. Bergson shows us that human rights can also serve as a medium of personal transformation and self-care. For Bergson, the main purpose of human rights is to initiate all human beings into love. Forging connections between human rights scholarship and philosophy as self-care, Lefebvre uses human rights to channel the whole of Bergson's philosophy. (shrink)

Alexandre Koyré. of the fixed stars is infinite commit a contradiction in adjecto. In truth, an infinite body cannot be comprehended by thought. For the concepts of the mind concerning the infinite are either about the meaning oftheterm "infinite,"  ...

Among the very architects of the recent re-emergence of emergentism in the physical sciences, Robert B. Laughlin certainly occupies a prominent place. Through a series of works beginning as early as his Nobel lecture in 1998, a lecture given after having been awarded, together with Störmer and Tsui, the Nobel prize in physics for its contribution in the elucidation of the fractional quantum Hall effect, Laughlin openly and relentlessly advocated a strongly anti-reductionistic view of physics – and, more particularly, of (...) the interface between condensed matter and particles physics – which culminated in what can be considered his emergentist manifesto: A Different Universe. Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down (2005). In spite of this prominent role in the vindication of emergentism, rare are the philosophers, among whom even those sympathetic to the idea of emergence, who have paid serious attention to Laughlin’s insights. The subtleties of his view – it is true, often concealed in many technicalities – have accordingly, and somewhat unfortunately, mainly passed unnoticed. (shrink)

Henri Bergson is primarily known for his work on time, memory, and creativity. His equally innovative interventions into politics and religion have, however, been neglected or dismissed until now. In the first book in English dedicated to Bergson as a political thinker, leading Bergson scholars illuminate his positions on core concerns within political philosophy: the significance of emotion in moral judgment, the relationship between biology and society, and the entanglement of politics and religion. Ranging across Bergson's writings but drawing mainly (...) on his last book, _The Two Sources of Morality and Religion_, the contributors consider Bergson's relevance to contemporary discussions of human rights, democratic pluralism, and environmental ethics. _Contributors._ Keith Ansell-Pearson, G. William Barnard, Claire Colebrook, Hisashi Fujita, Suzanne Guerlac, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Frédéric Keck, Leonard Lawlor, Alexandre Lefebvre, Paola Marrati, John Mullarkey, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, Carl Power, Philippe Soulez, Jim Urpeth, Melanie White, Frédéric Worms. (shrink)

The realisation of justice in the real world requires moral principles and political action. This book offers a roadmap for these two notions to connect.

Using emotional film clips is one of the most popular and effective methods of emotion elicitation. The main goal of the present study was to develop and test the effectiveness of a new and comprehensive set of emotional film excerpts. Fifty film experts were asked to remember specific film scenes that elicited fear, anger, sadness, disgust, amusement, tenderness, as well as emotionally neutral scenes. For each emotion, the 10 most frequently mentioned scenes were selected and cut into film clips. Next, (...) 364 participants viewed the film clips in individual laboratory sessions and rated each film on multiple dimensions. Results showed that the film clips were effective with regard to several criteria such as emotional discreteness, arousal, positive and negative affect. Finally, ranking scores were computed for 24 classification criteria: Subjective arousal, positive and negative affect (derived from the PANAS; Watson & Tellegen, 1988), a positive and a negative affect scores derived from the Differential Emotions Scale (DES; Izard et al., 1974), six emotional discreteness scores (for anger, disgust, sadness, fear, amusement and tenderness), and 15 “mixed feelings” scores assessing the effectiveness of each film excerpt to produce blends of specific emotions. In addition, a number of emotionally neutral film clips were also validated. The database and editing instructions to construct the film clips have been made freely available in a website. (shrink)

Book review: SENNA, Ronaldo de Salles; AGUIAR, Itamar Pereira de. Remanso: uma comunidade mágico-religiosa. O fantástico apoiado em uma mundividência afrodescendente – aspectos das ambivalências sociais, geográficas e históricas. Feira de Santa: UEFS Editora, 2016.

O objetivo deste artigo é propor, de modo simples e saudável, uma releitura transformadora na relação entre os ministérios ordenados e a missão leiga, sobretudo no tocante à espiritualidade laical como colaboração eclesial. Com efeito, desde o tempo de Jesus, o protagonismo leigo, como cooperador à evangelização sempre foi ressaltado e muito bem aproveitado pelo Mestre; dessa forma, nota-se o quanto a Igreja carece hoje dessa ajuda primordial. Não por menos, o Concilio Vaticano II, no decreto Apostolicam Actuositatem, diz que (...) o fiel leigo é indispensável á missão da Igreja. Assim, entre tantas orientações, o mesmo decreto convoca a renovar e valorizar o ardor missionário com o apostolado leigo no interior da Igreja. Nesse sentido, é urgente a aplicação do pedido solicitado no Concílio Vaticano II para os tempos atuais, visando à sua concretização e não ficar somente em uma longínqua teoria. É nesta óptica, que a V CELAM, realizada em Aparecida, enfatiza mais uma vez a indispensabilidade do leigo como colaborador profícuo na missão eclesial. Por fim, vemos em muito a realização exemplar de muitos fiéis leigos batizados em seu exercício de ministros não-ordenados que oferecem subsídios riquíssimos para santificar a vida na Igreja. (shrink)

Este trabajo pretende examinar las coincidencias y divergencias que, en el modo de analizar lógicamente la oración, presentan las teorías de Frege y Zadeh. Este estudio previo proporcionará algunas razones para responder a la pregunta de si la teoría de Zadeh representa una ruptura o una evolución respecto al modo de análisis clásico fregeano.

A radical new interpretation of liberalism, viewing it not merely as a political philosophy or set of political precepts, but as a personal orientation and way of living.

The singularity arising from the violation of the Lipschitz condition in the simple Newtonian system proposed recently by Norton (2003) is so fragile as to be completely and irreparably destroyed by slightly relaxing certain (infinite) idealizations pertaining to elastic phenomena in this model. I demonstrate that this is also true for several other Lipschitz-indeterministic systems, which, unlike Norton's example, have no surface curvature singularities. As a result, indeterminism in these systems should rather be viewed as an artefact of certain infinite (...) idealizations essential for these models, depriving them of much of their intended metaphysical import. (shrink)

Les travaux d'Alexandre Matheron sur Spinoza et sur la philosophie de l'âge classique représentent un des points forts de l'école française d'histoire de la philosophie. Après Individu et Communauté chez Spinoza et Le Christ et le salut des ignorants, ces études complètent la vision du spinozisme et de son contexte, de ses racines et de sa signification historique. Elles traitent de tous les domaines du rationalisme classique : métaphysique, théorie de la connaissance, analyse des passions, éthique, politique et religion. (...) La méthode qui anime ces textes est celle d'une analyse structurale de la pensée philosophique : il s'agit de prendre au sérieux le caractère conceptuel des doctrines, leurs enchaînements argumentatifs, la rigueur et la cohérence de leurs catégories. Mais la considération de l'architecture d'un monument théorique ne se conçoit pas sans la biographie non de l'auteur mais de l'oeuvre : comment Spinoza est devenu Spinoza ; en d'autres termes, comment il a forgé sa pensée en traversant les arguments et les concepts de Machiavel, de Hobbes ou de Descartes pour arriver à des formulations de plus en plus spinozistes de son ontologie de la puissance. Le rationalisme absolu apparaît ainsi non seulement comme contenu des pensées étudiées mais aussi comme méthode d'histoire de la philosophie. Une démarche qui a donné des outils intellectuels à plusieurs générations de chercheurs et qui indique aujourd'hui le chemin pour pénétrer dans l'univers de la pensée classique. La seule façon rigoureuse de nous demander ce qui pour nous, de ces philosophies, est vrai. (shrink)

The neural correlates of two hypothesized emotional processing modes, i.e., schematic and propositional modes, were investigated with positron emission tomography. Nineteen subjects performed an emotional mental imagery task while mentally repeating sentences linked to the meaning of the imagery script. In the schematic conditions, participants repeated metaphoric sentences, whereas in the propositional conditions, the sentences were explicit questions about specific emotional appraisals of the imagery scenario. Five types of emotional scripts were proposed to the subjects (happiness, anger, affection, sadness, and (...) a neutral scenario). The results supported the hypothesized distinction between schematic and propositional emotional processing modes. Specifically, schematic mode was associated with increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex whereas propositional mode was associated with activation of the anterolateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, interaction analyses showed that schematic versus propositional processing of happiness (compared with the neutral scenario) was associated with increased activity in the ventral striatum whereas “schematic anger” was tentatively associated with activation of the ventral pallidum. © 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. (shrink)

Alexandre Jollien poursuit sa quête philosophique d’une sagesse qui nous apporte la paix intérieure. Si la joie est le but, la voie royale pour la vivre, thème directeur de ces Pensées, est l’abandon ou, en termes bouddhistes, la « non-fixation ». Ne pas « fixer », c’est se débarrasser des représentations, étiquettes qui figent les autres, le monde en des identités immuables, et par là même laisser la vie être ce qu’elle est, ne rien vouloir changer, ne pas s’obstiner (...) contre, être ouvert au changement. Cela rend la perte vivable. Cela rend ouvert à l’autre, au monde. C’est aussi un chemin déterminant pour s’accepter, soi, tel que l’on est, même handicapé, travail permanent d’Alexandre Jollien, et source de ses livres. Chacune des 20 pensées réunies dans celui-ci est à la fois un remède et une méditation vivante sur les obstacles qui nous écartent de la joie, et les chemins qui nous y conduisent. L’abandon, l’amitié, la détermination, la fragilité, la gratuité, etc. : autant de voies qu’Alexandre Jollien s’efforce d’expérimenter au quotidien, puisant dans les petits événements, heureux ou malheureux, qui ponctuent sa vie (une rencontre, une réflexion de ses enfants, une querelle, une impatience, une angoisse...), les ressources pour les accueillir sans souffrance. Il esquisse ainsi « un art de vivre qui nous dépouille du trop et nous aide à trouver l’audace de danser joyeusement dans la ronde de l’existence ». (shrink)

Le risque comme l’expertise sont des sujets d’une rare richesse, comme le confirme la vaste littérature sur ces questions. Lorsqu’ils sont croisés, les difficultés que chacun d’entre eux soulève s’en trouvent renforcées. Le présent ouvrage est le produit des sixièmes conférences Pierre Duhem qui avaient pour thème : risque et expertise. Il rassemble les textes originaux de l’économiste Marc Fleurbaey et du philosophe Sven Ove Hansson, ainsi que les échanges qu’ils ont eu avec les commentateurs Mikaël Cozic, Minh Ha-Duong et (...) Emmanuel Henry. Un essai introductif, d’Alexandre Guay, complète le tout. (shrink)

This chapter addresses the claim that, as new types of neurointervention get developed allowing us to enhance various aspects of our mental functioning, we should work to prevent the use of such interventions from ever becoming the “new normal,” that is, a practice expected—even if not directly required—by employers. The author’s response to that claim is that, unlike compulsion or most cases of direct coercion, indirect coercion to use such neurointerventions is, per se, no more problematic than the pressure people (...) all find themselves under to use modern technological devices like computers or mobile phones. Few people seem to believe that special protections should be introduced to protect contemporary Neo-Luddites from such pressures. That being said, the author acknowledges that separate factors, when present, can indeed render indirect coercion to enhance problematic. The factors in question include lack of safety, fostering adaptation to oppressive circumstances, and having negative side effects that go beyond health. Nonetheless, the chapter stresses that these factors do not seem to be necessary correlates of neuroenhancement. (shrink)