When someone hosts a party, when governments choose an aid program, or when assistive robots decide what meal to serve to a family, decision‐makers must determine how to help even when their recipients have very different preferences. Which combination of people’s desires should a decision‐maker serve? To provide a potential answer, we turned to psychology: What do people think is best when multiple people have different utilities over options? We developed a quantitative model of what people consider desirable behavior, characterizing (...) participants’ preferences by inferring which combination of “metrics” (maximax, maxsum, maximin, or inequality aversion [IA]) best explained participants’ decisions in a drink‐choosing task. We found that participants’ behavior was best described by the maximin metric, describing the desire to maximize the happiness of the worst‐off person, though participant behavior was also consistent with maximizing group utility (the maxsum metric) and the IA metric to a lesser extent. Participant behavior was consistent across variation in the agents involved and tended to become more maxsum‐oriented when participants were told they were players in the task (Experiment 1). In later experiments, participants maintained maximin behavior across multi‐step tasks rather than shortsightedly focusing on the individual steps therein (Experiment 2, Experiment 3). By repeatedly asking participants what choices they would hope for in an optimal, just decision‐maker, and carefully disambiguating which quantitative metrics describe these nuanced choices, we help constrain the space of what behavior we desire in leaders, artificial intelligence systems helping decision‐makers, and the assistive robots and decision‐makers of the future. (shrink)

Optimization, in general, is regarded as the process of finding optimal values for the variables of a given problem in order to minimize or maximize one or more objective function(s). Brain storm optimization (BSO) algorithm solves a complex optimization problem by mimicking the human idea generating process, in which a group of people solves a problem together. The aim of this paper is to present hybrid BSO algorithm solutions in the past 5 years. This study could be divided into two (...) parts: strategies and applications. In the first part, different strategies for the hybrid BSO algorithms intended to improve the various ability of the original BSO algorithm are displayed. In the second part, the real-world applications in the past five years in optimization, prediction and feature selection processes are presented. (shrink)

Food is intimately associated with the body, and what a person chooses to consume can easily be used to craft one's identity. Food brings people together, in much the same way as culinary preferences can divide. As veganism is gaining traction around the world, this article examines its origins in religious practices, philosophy, literature, and economic trade within the Middle Ages, elucidating how contemporary decisions to abstain from animal consumption mirror medieval ones and further how similar obstacles to this lifestyle (...) exist today. (shrink)

The skin, uniquely positioned at the interface between the human body and the external world, plays a multifaceted immunologic role in human life. In medical practice, early accurate detection of all types of skin tumours is essential to guide appropriate management and improve patients’ survival. The most important issue is to differentiate between malignant skin tumours and benign lesions. The aim of this research is the classification of skin tumours by analysing medical skin tumour dermoscopy images. This paper is focused (...) on a new strategy based on deep convolutional neural networks which have recently shown a state-of-the-art performance to define strategy to automatic classification for skin tumour images. The proposed system is tested on well-known HAM10000 data set. For experimental results, verification is performed and the results are compared with similar researches. (shrink)

The travelling salesman problem (TSP) belongs to the class of NP-hard problems, in which an optimal solution to the problem cannot be obtained within a reasonable computational time for large-sized problems. To address TSP, we propose a hybrid algorithm, called GA-TCTIA-LBSA, in which a genetic algorithm (GA), tour construction and tour improvement algorithms (TCTIAs) and a list-based simulated annealing (LBSA) algorithm are used. The TCTIAs are introduced to generate a first population, and after that, a search is continued with the (...) GA. The problem of premature convergence of the GA to local optimum is tackled by a method called social disaster technique. Afterwards, the LBSA is applied to generate a new population based on one of two proposed operators called packing and judgement day. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the MATLAB environment, and its two variants, called GA-TCTIA-LBSA packing and GA-TCTIA-LBSA judgement day, are tested on symmetric and asymmetric instances from TSPLIB. The overall results demonstrate that the proposed GA-TCTIA-LBSAs offer promising results, particularly for small-sized instances. (shrink)

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from (...) social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar was found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-negligible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic. (shrink)

New trends in the economic systems management in the context of modern global challenges: collective monograph / scientific edited by M. Bezpartochnyi, in 2 Vol. // VUZF University of Finance, Business and Entrepreneurship. – Sofia: VUZF Publishing House “St. Grigorii Bogoslov”, 2020. – Vol. 1. – 309 p.

In the past 50 years nurse scheduling has received considerable attention in the research community. There are two cases regarding the nurse scheduling problem : the static and dynamic. Dynamic NSP, is often called nurse rerostering problem, which presents reconstruction or modification of the predetermined roster for the current scheduling horizon. The aim of this paper is to present new hybrid strategy for nurse NRRP problem. The proposed methodology is based on efficient cooperation between fuzzy logic, ordered weighted averaging and (...) variable neighbourhood descent search. Complete system is tested, and experimental results are based on real-world dataset obtained from the Oncology Institute of Vojvodina in Serbia. (shrink)

Clustering is one of the most fundamental and essential data analysis tasks with broad applications. It has been studied in various research fields: data mining, machine learning, pattern recognition and in engineering, economics and biomedical data analysis. Headache is not a disease that typically shortens one’s life, but it can be a serious social as well as a health problem. Approximately 27 billion euros per year are lost through reduced work productivity in the European community. This paper is focused on (...) a new strategy based on a hybrid model for combining fuzzy partition method and maximum likelihood estimation clustering algorithm for diagnosing primary headache disorder. The proposed hybrid system is tested on two data sets for diagnosing headache disorder collected from Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in Serbia. (shrink)

Headache disorders can be considered as the predominant neurological condition. In the field of neurological diseases, migraine was estimated to cost a total of €27 billion per year for the loss through reduced work productivity in the European Community. Medical data and information in turn provide knowledge based on which physicians make scientific decisions for diagnosis and treatments. It is, therefore, very useful to create diagnostic tools to help physicians make better decisions. This paper is focused on a new hybrid (...) clustering system combining analytic hierarchy process and weighted fuzzy c-means clustering method for diagnosing children with primary headache disorder. The proposed three-stage hybrid diagnosing system is tested on data set collected from hospitalized children in the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia. (shrink)

Une dizaine d’années après la publication du travail de référence écrit par Gail Kligman (The politics of duplicity. Controlling reproduction in Ceauşescu’s Romania, 1998), l’ouvrage ci-dessus, paru en 2011, s’inscrit dans la suite du premier volume publié l’année précédente Politica pronatalistă a regimului Ceaușescu. O perpectivă comparativă (La politique pronataliste du régime Ceauşescu. Une approche comparative), coordonné par Corina Doboş, Luciana Jinga et Florin Soare. Tandis que le liv...

Intitulé Lectures de Jean-Luc Marion et composé d'une vingtaine d'articles, le volume assume l'équivocité d'une mise en abîme : lire Marion dans sa propre lecture de la philosophie. Montrer à l'oeuvre le dialogue du philosophe avec l'histoire de la philosophie constitue en effet le pari de ce livre, pari qui fait fond sur l'idée que tel est le chemin même de la philosophie et que ceci est en outre l'accès le plus respectueux que nous pouvons avoir à une oeuvre s'accomplissant (...) sous nos yeux. De Grégoire de Nysse et Denys l'Aréopagite à Derrida, en passant par Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, Husserl et Heidegger, la pensée de Marion embrasse, approfondit, reprend et réfute les thèmes fondateurs de la métaphysique et de la phénoménologie. L'oeuvre entière de Marion est traversée par sa lecture personnelle et novatrice de la philosophie. Elle se construit en dialogue avec les textes classiques et rend en même temps compte des grands débats théoriques de l'époque qu'elle traverse. Le dialogue est d'ailleurs privilégié aussi dans ce volume, Jean-Luc Marion répondant aux auteurs des études qui lui sont consacrées."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Un renversement topique et plusieurs retournements et contrepoints mythologiques définissent la structure du Phèdre. Régenté par Socrate, ce rythme syncopé de secousse et d’apaisement, propre à une initiation, traverse tout le dialogue. En cartographiant les redressements mythologiques et rhétoriques, les rétractations signifiées par le mouvement palinodique, les retournements de fond (vie/mort, virginité/fécondité) et les traversées de limites indiquées par des détails topographiques et des rituels, on arrive à saisir le tableau dynamique de l’âme que Platon ne définit pas mais met (...) en œuvre en y intégrant son lecteur. (shrink)

L’article tente de saisir le rapport entre exégèse, rhétorique et philosophie dans les textes de Philon à partir d’un angle particulier : l’usage philonien croisé des images bibliques et du rôle spécifique assigné à l’image dans la pensée hellénique. S’il y a chez l’Alexandrin une réflexion sur les vertus du langage déployée entre l’exégèse des textes bibliques et le recours constant aux modèles théoriques de la philosophie, cette réflexion vise explicitement à établir une science, la théologie rationnelle, légitimée par sa (...) fondation sur la lettre biblique et validée en même temps par une démarche et un lexique spécifiquement philosophiques. Or la pratique des images s’inscrit dans cette tentative philonienne de fonder la réflexion théologique sur les rapports de la langue avec les facultés sensibles et intellectives, depuis les figures et les concepts avec lesquels travaille le langage philosophique jusqu’à l’établissement d’un savoir à partir du paradigme des vertus épiphaniques dont la lettre biblique est pourvue. (shrink)

Consacrée à l’analyse de quelques passages du Phèdre, du Banquet et de l’Alcibiade, cette étude rappelle la définition platonicienne du rôle pédagogique de l’amour dans la théorie de la connaissance et dans la pratique du langage. Sa thèse est que le modèle anthropologique et le modèle épistémologique ne peuvent pas être séparés dans la philosophie platonicienne. « Parler » constitue à la fois une communication et une ostension, donc la transitivité du langage n’est pas exempte d’une nécessaire vérité de l’acte, (...) même si cette vérité est celle du phénomène, non celle de l’essence, de la forme ou du principe. Les conséquences de cette unité (présentée comme une rencontre entre la rhétorique et la dialectique) sont d’ordre éthique autant que d’ordre métaphysique. D’une part, l’autonomisation du langage pose comme préalable un rapport de vérité à l’égard de l’autre dans toute détermination d’identité du sujet. Ce rapport de vérité s’exprime ici sous la forme initiatique d’une « mise en présence » : l’accès à soi est conditionné par la transcendance du tout-autre. Acquise par la présence amoureuse à l’égard de l’autre, l’identité n’est donc pas close sur elle-même mais se définit comme relation. D’autre part, la maîtrise d’un langage adéquat au phénomène érotique suppose le dépassement de l’interprétation (« péché contre la mythologie ») et une sortie de l’opposition des contraires (corps‑âme) par la limite assumée (ici la « faiblesse des mots »), sans appeler nécessairement à l’harmonie universelle qui, traditionnellement, cache la domination, voire la suppression du sujet. (shrink)

Le Phèdre est considéré comme un dialogue portant sur le beau. Mais du beau il n’est question qu’à travers trois discours qui portent sur l’amour. La tradition des commentaires du Phèdre, telles les scholies d’Hermias, fait état d’une forme d’initiation qui permet de passer de la beauté singulière d’un corps à la beauté des logoi (éloges, discours amoureux), puis à la connaissance de la seule beauté vraie puisque parfaite, la beauté intelligible. C’est la leçon de Diotime, du Banquet, qui serait (...) ainsi appliquée par Socrate à Phèdre dans le dialogue éponyme afin de transformer la fascination pour la rhétorique en amour de la sagesse et passer de l’imitation des belles paroles à la perfection de l’identité avec le beau dans l’Un. Cependant, la beauté évoquée par Socrate est visible et ne correspond pas à cette perfection de l’identité dans l’intelligible à laquelle aspire l’amant de la sagesse, puisque l’âme l’atteint non par un nécessaire exercice sur elle-même mais par un acte de reconnaissance qui la transcende. À l’inverse de ce qui se produit dans le Banquet, dans le Phèdre ce n’ est pas le beau qui conduit à l’amour, mais l’amour qui prépare l’âme à reconnaître le beau. Parler du beau revient alors à confier à l’âme, et à elle seule dans ce cas, l’accès aux vertus épiphaniques du logos. Ces dialogues sont revisités par Plotin dans deux textes consacrés à la question du beau (Ennéades I, 6, «Sur le Beau» [T.1] et V, 8, «Sur la beauté intelligible» [T.31]). Le modèle du discours amoureux demeure toujours le moyen privilégié pour définir le beau en même temps que pour s’exercer au perfectionnement de soi. Pourquoi la réflexivité de l’éros est-elle appelée à jouer un rôle essentiel à l’égard du beau, cette catégorie appelée plus tard transcendantale? (shrink)

Le Phèdre est considéré comme un dialogue portant sur le beau. Mais du beau il n’est question qu’à travers trois discours qui portent sur l’amour. La tradition des commentaires du Phèdre, telles les scholies d’Hermias, fait état d’une forme d’initiation qui permet de passer de la beauté singulière d’un corps à la beauté des logoi (éloges, discours amoureux), puis à la connaissance de la seule beauté vraie puisque parfaite, la beauté intelligible. C’est la leçon de Diotime, du Banquet, qui serait (...) ainsi appliquée par Socrate à Phèdre dans le dialogue éponyme afin de transformer la fascination pour la rhétorique en amour de la sagesse et passer de l’imitation des belles paroles à la perfection de l’identité avec le beau dans l’Un. Cependant, la beauté évoquée par Socrate est visible et ne correspond pas à cette perfection de l’identité dans l’intelligible à laquelle aspire l’amant de la sagesse, puisque l’âme l’atteint non par un nécessaire exercice sur elle-même mais par un acte de reconnaissance qui la transcende. À l’inverse de ce qui se produit dans le Banquet, dans le Phèdre ce n’ est pas le beau qui conduit à l’amour, mais l’amour qui prépare l’âme à reconnaître le beau. Parler du beau revient alors à confier à l’âme, et à elle seule dans ce cas, l’accès aux vertus épiphaniques du logos. Ces dialogues sont revisités par Plotin dans deux textes consacrés à la question du beau (Ennéades I, 6, «Sur le Beau» [T.1] et V, 8, «Sur la beauté intelligible» [T.31]). Le modèle du discours amoureux demeure toujours le moyen privilégié pour définir le beau en même temps que pour s’exercer au perfectionnement de soi. Pourquoi la réflexivité de l’éros est-elle appelée à jouer un rôle essentiel à l’égard du beau, cette catégorie appelée plus tard transcendantale? (shrink)

Résumé L’image sert à la fois de preuve et d’ argument en faveur de l’unité substantielle entre Dieu, dont Victorinus affirme qu’il n’est pas substance, et le Fils qui a substance, forme et subsistance propres. L’image est ainsi une preuve d’existence pour ce qui ne peut pas être connu autrement. Victorinus y fait appel dans l’analyse de l’engendrement et dans la structure des relations trinitaires, en s’appuyant sur la visibilité des existants. La référence princeps pour l’image comme preuve d’existence se (...) trouve dans un passage du Timée. Mais l’image entre dans la démonstration de la consubstantialité aussi comme un argument qui associe l’acte et la substance, l’existant et l’essence, l’être et la species, sur le modèle dialectique de la puissance et de l’acte. Une application similaire se retrouve chez Plotin qui fait de l’image l’enveloppe de visibilité ou de luminosité des choses, comme une sorte de présence hypostatique participante au principe substantiel des choses. Ces deux fonctions de l’image vont ensemble et ne peuvent pas être séparées, bien qu’elles relèvent en réalité de deux genres d’image ( eikôn-imago et eidos-species ) aussi distincts que leurs fonctions sont différentes sur le plan ontologique et métaphysique. (shrink)

Si le traité Du sublime n’est pas un manuel de tropes, de quoi parle-t-il lorsqu’il cite différentes manières de produire une réalité de parole à même d’arracher le lecteur à sa réalité propre? La réponse la plus brève serait : de la condition même du langage, mais autrement qu’Aristote à travers la théorie de la catharsis. La perte des repères sensibles produite par une émotion suscitée sciemment s’associe avec le mouvement contraire qui vise à stabiliser l’effet en indiquant la source (...) et le but du pathos. Un changement soudain de registre a lieu à travers cet échange. L’émoi dévoile l’âme, tandis que la parole qui produit cet effet participe en même temps de la stabilité implicite à la nature supérieure de l’âme, dont elle montre le caractère universel et transcendant. Merveilleuse ou sublime est alors la parole qui à la fois réveille et éclaire. Plus qu’une question d’usage (et implicitement de style), il s’agit d’une conception selon laquelle le langage est intimement et inextricablement lié à l’âme, étant la plus secrète et la plus fidèle de ses manifestations. C’est donc une théorie de l’âme qui se dégage d’une analyse des liens entre les deux productions conjointes dont il est question dans le traité dit Du sublime – l’effet d’émoi (de stupeur) et celui de clarté (d’évidence hors de doute) –, les deux agissant sur le lecteur pour lui permettre d’atteindre le merveilleux ou le divin qui se tient en lui dès lors qu’il peut le découvrir, mais auquel il n’a accès qu’en suivant le sentier extérieur dessiné par les paroles d’autrui : un maître du logos que l’on entend ou lit. Ce processus est celui que décrit Platon dans le Phèdre. Le traité Du sublime s’appuie sur ce dernier de manière tantôt explicite et tantôt subtile, en recourant au pouvoir du langage de fabriquer et de montrer des images. Le but de notre étude est d’indiquer certaines traces du Phèdre dans le texte de la moitié du i er s. afin d’orienter la lecture vers la nature plutôt philosophique que stylistique du traité sur le sublime. En retour, ce dernier pourrait constituer un repère dans la compréhension du rôle assigné au Phèdre dans un moment charnière de l’héritage de l’Académie, celui qui inaugure l’époque dite du moyen platonisme. (shrink)

Le Phèdre est considéré comme un dialogue portant sur le beau. Mais du beau il n’est question qu’à travers trois discours qui portent sur l’amour. La tradition des commentaires du Phèdre, telles les scholies d’Hermias, fait état d’une forme d’initiation qui permet de passer de la beauté singulière d’un corps à la beauté des logoi (éloges, discours amoureux), puis à la connaissance de la seule beauté vraie puisque parfaite, la beauté intelligible. C’est la leçon de Diotime, du Banquet, qui serait (...) ainsi appliquée par Socrate à Phèdre dans le dialogue éponyme afin de transformer la fascination pour la rhétorique en amour de la sagesse et passer de l’imitation des belles paroles à la perfection de l’identité avec le beau dans l’Un. Cependant, la beauté évoquée par Socrate est visible et ne correspond pas à cette perfection de l’identité dans l’intelligible à laquelle aspire l’amant de la sagesse, puisque l’âme l’atteint non par un nécessaire exercice sur elle-même mais par un acte de reconnaissance qui la transcende. À l’inverse de ce qui se produit dans le Banquet, dans le Phèdre ce n’ est pas le beau qui conduit à l’amour, mais l’amour qui prépare l’âme à reconnaître le beau. Parler du beau revient alors à confier à l’âme, et à elle seule dans ce cas, l’accès aux vertus épiphaniques du logos. Ces dialogues sont revisités par Plotin dans deux textes consacrés à la question du beau (Ennéades I, 6, «Sur le Beau» [T.1] et V, 8, «Sur la beauté intelligible» [T.31]). Le modèle du discours amoureux demeure toujours le moyen privilégié pour définir le beau en même temps que pour s’exercer au perfectionnement de soi. Pourquoi la réflexivité de l’éros est-elle appelée à jouer un rôle essentiel à l’égard du beau, cette catégorie appelée plus tard transcendantale? (shrink)

Hans-Georg GADAMER, Hermeneutische Entwürfe. Vorträge und Aufsätze ; Pascal MICHON, Poétique d’une anti-anthropologie: l’herméneutique deGadamer ; Robert J. DOSTAL, The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer ; Denis SERON, Le problème de la métaphysique. Recherches sur l’interprétation heideggerienne de Platon et d’Aristote ; Henry MALDINEY, Ouvrir le rien. L’art nu ; Dominique JANICAUD, Heidegger en France, I. Récit; II. Entretiens ; Maurice MERLEAU-PONTY, Fenomenologia percepţiei ; Trish GLAZEBROOK, Heidegger’s Philosophy of Science ; Richard WOLIN, Heidegger’s Children. Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas (...) and Herbert Marcuse ; Ivo DEGENNARO, Logos – Heidegger liest Heraklit ; O. K. WIEGAND, R. J. DOSTAL, L. EMBREE, J. KOCKELMANS and J. N. MOHANTY, Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic ; James FAULCONER and Mark WRATHALL, Appropriating Heidegger. (shrink)

What would the institution of the family look like, if it were reformed according to republican desiderata? Would it even survive such re-shaping?

Childhood looms large in our understanding of human life as it is a phase through which all adults have passed. Childhood is foundational to the development of selfhood, the formation of interests, values and skills and to the lifespan as a whole. Understanding what it is like to be a child, and what differences childhood makes, are essential for any broader understanding of the human condition. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children is an outstanding reference source (...) to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into five parts: ¿ Being a child ¿ Childhood and moral status ¿ Parents and children ¿ Children in society ¿ Children and the state. Questions covered include: What is a child? Is childhood a uniquely valuable state, and if so why? Can we generalize about the goods of childhood? What rights do children have, and are they different from adults¿ rights? What gives people a right to parent? What role, if any, ought biology to play in determining who has the right to parent a particular child? What kind of rights can parents legitimately exercise over their children? What roles do relationships with siblings and friends play in the shaping of childhoods? How should we think about sexuality and disabilility in childhood, and about racialised children? How should society manage the education of children, and what values should inform such practices? What is a good school? How are children¿s lives affected by being taken into social care? The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Childhood and Children is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of childhood, political philosophy and ethics as well as those in related disciplines such as education, psychology, sociology, social policy, law, social work, youth work, neuroscience and anthropology. (shrink)

According to Brehm's intensity of emotion theory, if an emotion has motivational properties, its intensity should be non-monotonically affected by factors similar to those determining the intensity of motivational states. These factors are called deterrents. In the case of emotion, one category of deterrents consists of factors that can potentially interfere with feeling the emotion, such as reasons for not feeling the emotion. Two experiments were carried out to examine whether happiness is a motivational state and, thus, if its intensity (...) is non-monotonically determined by the importance of reasons for not feeling happy. We expected happiness to be reduced by a low importance reason for not feeling happy, to remain high in the presence of a moderately important reason, and to be reduced or eliminated by a very important reason. Both experiments supported the cubic function that results from these expectations, and when the results of the two studies were combined, each of the individual legs of the cubic function was found to be reliable along with the cubic function itself. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

The present article investigates how psychological theories of morality approach the relation between morality and religion, debating the role religion plays in human moral development in contemporary societies. Firstly, we critically discuss how the major approaches of morality in psychological theory and research view human moral conduct and moral reasoning. Secondly, we appraise cultural psychology conceptualizations of morality, depicting how they fit religion in a relativist approach on what is moral. Thirdly, capitalizing on the findings of cross-cultural research regarding the (...) relation between morality and religion, we debate and present a pilot study on directions in researching the relation between religion and a psychological approach of morality. (shrink)

Uncovering an archive of laughter, from the forbidden giggle to the explosive guffaw.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Professor’s DesireAnca Parvulescu (bio)Roland Barthes. THE NEUTRAL. Trans. Rosalind E. Krauss and Denis Hollier. New York: Columbia UP, 2005. Trans. of Le Neutre. Paris: Seuil, 2002.I add: a reflection on the Neutral, for me: a manner—a free manner—to be looking for my own style of being present to the struggles of my time.—Roland Barthes, The NeutralWhat I am looking for, during the preparation of this course, is an (...) introduction to living, a guide to life (ethical project): I want to live according to nuance.—Roland Barthes, The NeutralLe Neutre reaches us late. Like an echo, it needed time, and it took its time to come. The second of the three courses Roland Barthes gave at the Collège de France between 1977 and 1980, Le Neutre was published in 2002 by Éditions du Seuil, following the editorial work of Thomas Clerc, under the direction of Éric Marty.1 Rosalind E. Krauss and Denis Hollier’s translation as The Neutral brought it to life in English in 2005. After thirty years, Le Neutre comes indeed late, but perhaps its lateness, the time of the echo, is part of its very scene.Barthes did not conceive of Le Neutre as a book. It was a course, to happen as a onetime affair and then be put aside: “We’ll have to hold on to the unsustainable for thirteen weeks: after that, it will fade” [13]; “This course is made to die on the spot” [250]. As such, the course is not only an attempt to do justice to a “subject,” to which, Barthes insists, we should not hold on once the course is over, but also to meditate on the very situation of teaching.2 The course on the neutral offers the occasion to ask, What is it to teach? And teaching, we soon find out, is a matter of desire: the course should have been called The Desire for the Neutral. The teacher follows his desire and, in doing so—Barthes is reminded by a student—inflects and curbs the student’s desire. What is it, then, that one desires when one desires the neutral? The teacher is pressed to offer something by way of definition:I define the Neutral as that which outplays [déjoue] the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles the paradigm. For I am not trying to define a word; I am trying to name a thing: I gather under a name, which here is the Neutral.[6]The neutral is a “thing” (no qualifying adjective) that outplays, baffles, or dodges the “implacable binarism” of language as seen through Saussurian linguistics: in order to [End Page 32]produce meaning, one is in the same breath choosing A and refusing B. The search here is for a ”thing” that might suspend, thwart, or elude the paradigm, what Barthes calls its arrogance. Indeed, what would it mean to escape the necessity of choosing, say—this is Barthes’s first example—between je ris (I laugh) and je lis (I read)?A problem for the teaching theater unfolds: the moment one names the “thing,” one brings it into the paradigm, constructing an opposition between the neutral and arrogance. The scene of teaching performs an aporia: “Neutral = impossible; to speak it is to defeat it but not to speak it is to miss its ‘setting up’ [...] to speak this cacophony, I need a course” [29]. There is an obvious tension between teaching, its demands for clear and transparent meaning-making and inherent institutional arrogance, and the neutral. “Arrogance”: “the taking of too much upon oneself as one’s right; the assertion of unwarrantable claims in respect of one’s own importance; undue assumption of dignity, authority, or knowledge” [OED]. The teacher is inevitably occupying the place of arrogance. Indeed, foregrounding its righteousness and authority, arrogance is standing, a position Barthes associates with a certain kind of fascism. The neutral teacher struggles to dodge the arrogance inherent to the teaching scene. Sitting, he stammers, cacophonizes. One speaks, but one accompanies speaking with a continuous performance of an apology for speaking.3 The teacher does not offer an anchor in... (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the hermeneutical method of Theodoret of Cyrus, who was one of the most important Biblical commentators and an influential theologian of the School of Antioch. This paper attempts to point out the fact that in the person of the Blessed Theodoret we find the first attempt of synthesis between the Antioch and Alexandria hermeneutical schools. In his hermeneutical work Theodoret attempted to overcome the contradictions existing up to that point and to follow (...) a middle way, without discarding neither the literal nor the spiritual-allegorical interpretation. It could be argued that Theodoret rejected the extreme hermeneutical trends of both the Alexandrian and Antioch inspirations; he developed his unique methods and tactics, which were rooted in the previous patristic tradition of the Church Fathers. (shrink)

The Unconscious as Space explores the experience of being and the practice of psychoanalysis by thinking of the unconscious in mathematical terms. Anca Carrington introduces mathematical models of space, from dimension theory to algebraic topology and knot theory, and considers their immediate psychoanalytic relevance. The hypothesis that the unconscious is structured like a space marked by impossibility is then examined. Carrington considers the clinical implications, with particular focus on the interplay between language and the unconscious as related topological spaces (...) in which movement takes place along knot-like pathways. The Unconscious as Space will be of appeal to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and mental health professionals in practice and in training. (shrink)

Study in the period of coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown and the effect of different exercise training programs on the quality of life dimension are limited. This randomized control study as a part of which the impact of an 8-week neuromuscular training program on the 90 healthy young individuals’ QoL after COVID-19 lockdown was assessed using a short form of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire comprising of four domains. The intervention group took part in a neuromuscular training program consisting of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (...) and whole-body vibration training. In contrast, the control group did not participate in any programmed physical activity. From pre- to post-intervention test, the NT group significantly and substantially improved [mean change ] all the QoL domains, physical for 12.78 scores, psychological for 13.12 scores, social relationships for 20.57 scores, and environmental for 24.40 scores. These results suggest that the NT program could enhance QoL in young and healthy participants following COVID-19 lockdown. (shrink)

The evaluation of labour markets and of particular jobs ought to be sensitive to a plurality of benefits and burdens of work. We use the term 'the goods of work' to refer to those benefits of work that cannot be obtained in exchange for money and that can be enjoyed mostly or exclusively in the context of work. Drawing on empirical research and various philosophical traditions of thinking about work we identify four goods of work: 1) attaining various types of (...) excellence; 2) making a social contribution; 3) experiencing community; and 4) gaining social recognition. Our account of the goods of work can be read as unpacking the ways in which work can be meaningful. The distribution of the goods of work is a concern of justice for two conjoint reasons: First, they are part of the conception of the good of a large number of individuals. Second, in societies without an unconditional income and in which most people are not independently wealthy, paid work is non-optional and workers have few, if any, occasions to realize these goods outside their job. Taking into account the plurality of the goods of work and their importance for justice challenges the theoretical and political status quo, which focuses mostly on justice with regard to the distribution of income. We defend this account against the libertarian challenge that a free labour market gives individuals sufficient options to realise the goods of work important to them, and discuss the challenge from state neutrality. In the conclusion, we hint towards possible implications for today’s labour markets. (shrink)

Not so long ago, a well institutionalized predatory journal exposed itself by publishing a hoax article that blew the whistle for its devastating influence on the academic affairs of a small country. This paper puts that experiment in context, gives all the important details and analyzes the results. The experiment was inspired by well-known cases of scientific activism and is in line with recent efforts against predatory publishers. The paper presents the evidence in detail and uses it to analyze the (...) publishing practices of the offending journal, using established criteria for assessing predatory publications. That journal somehow acquired an impact factor and charged money to publish thousands of “scientific” papers without any peer review. Since the impact factor is the major official evaluation criteria for scientists in Serbia, these papers disturbed the whole academic evaluation process. Credentials acquired by those publications form a strong obstacle to institutionalized reasoned efforts against such practices. This case warns the whole community of the long lasting damage when journals with low publishing ethics are taken seriously. (shrink)

The paper attempts to situate the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky in the tradition of Russian existentialism, and to indicate his influence on the subsequent development of existentialism in its ontological or ethical guise. In fact, Dostoevsky may be seen as the originator of a tradition which will later on influence and be taken up, via Nietzsche and Shestov, by the figures like Emanuel Levinas, Albert Camus or Maurice Blanchot, all explicitly concerned with existentialist questions of debt, guilt or suicide. Dostoevsky's (...) writings are also interpreted in relation to Russian nationalism, and the sense of Russian Messianic election, which at the end of Crime and Punishment coalesce in another destination for Raskolnikov, launching him towards a Messianic future prior to the Abrahamic time and monotheistic sacrificiality. The end of Crime and Punishment imagines another existence for Raskolnikov, before the religious history, or the history tout court, has taken place or time. That time space is akin to something that Jacques Derrida formulated as an advent of an event to-come, a-venir. Dostoevsky is thus, in our interpretation, both a progenitor of the important strains of existentialism, but also a writer returning his hero's existence to an advent of a completely other, time before time, yet to come. (shrink)