Godenschemering van Daniël de Waele is een theologische cultuurgeschiedenis die de evolutie van het geloof in God uitdiept in de loop der tijd. Israël ontdekte in een polytheïstische wereld de Ene God, die door de tijd heen steeds humaner werd en dichterbij kwam. Hoe is het geloof na die grote stap geëvolueerd? Hoe past het verdampen van het geloof, dat uiteindelijk eindigde in de dood van God, in deze evolutie? En welke rol heeft het bestormen van de godenbeelden gespeeld? (...) De Waele ontwaart naast deze geloofsevolutie een andere geschiedenis: een blijvende zoektocht naar de ene God. (shrink)

Presumed catholic or christian influence inside the french speaking green party of Belgium is a very strong stereotype since 1981. Nevertheless no scientific work has ever proved that supposition. Starting from a large survey among the 2 500 Ecolo's members, the authors examine and analyze the inventory of fixtures. They present the main features of the members and distinguish the outlines of catholic and non-catholic's members.

The comprehension of living organisms in all their complexity poses a major challenge to the biological sciences. Recently, systems biology has been proposed as a new candidate in the development of such a comprehension. The main objective of this paper is to address what systems biology is and how it is practised. To this end, the basic tools of a systems biological approach are explored and illustrated. In addition, it is questioned whether systems biology ‘revolutionizes’ molecular biology and ‘transcends’ its (...) assumed reductionism. The strength of this claim appears to depend on how molecular and systems biology are characterised and on how reductionism is interpreted. Doing credit to molecular biology and to methodological reductionism, it is argued that the distinction between molecular and systems biology is gradual rather than sharp. As such, the classical challenge in biology to manage, interpret and integrate biological data into functional wholes is further intensified by systems biology’s use of modelling and bioinformatics, and by its scale enlargement. (shrink)

Via a historical reconstruction, this paper primarily demonstrates how the societal debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) gradually extended in terms of actors involved and concerns reflected. It is argued that the implementation of recombinant DNA technology out of the laboratory and into civil society entailed a “complex of concerns.” In this complex, distinctions between environmental, agricultural, socio-economic, and ethical issues proved to be blurred. This fueled the confusion between the wider debate on genetic modification and the risk assessment of (...) transgenic crops in the European Union. In this paper, the lasting skeptical and/or ambivalent attitude of Europeans towards agro-food biotechnology is interpreted as signaling an ongoing social request – and even a quest – for an evaluation of biotechnology with Sense and Sensibility. In this (re)quest, a broader-than-scientific dimension is sought for that allows addressing the GMO debate in a more “sensible” way, whilst making “sense” of the different stances taken in it. Here, the restyling of the European regulatory frame on transgenic agro-food products and of science communication models are discussed and taken to be indicative of the (re)quest to move from a merely scientific evaluation and risk-based policy towards a socially more robust evaluation that takes the “non-scientific” concerns at stake in the GMO debate seriously. (shrink)

This paper analyses the actual meaning of a transcendental philosophy of biology, and does so by exploring and actualising the epistemological and metaphysical value of Kant's viewpoint on living systems. It finds inspiration in the Kantian idea of living systems intrinsically resisting objectification, but critically departs from Kant's philosophical solution in as far as it is based in a subjectivist dogmatism. It attempts to overcome this dogmatism, on the one hand by explicitly taking into account the conditions of possibility at (...) the side of the subject, and on the other hand by embedding both the living and the knowing system into an ontology of complexly organized dynamical systems. This paper fits into the transcendental perspective in acknowledging the need to analyse the conditions of knowability, prior to the contents of what is known. But it also contributes to an expansion and an actualisation of the issue of transcendentality itself by considering the conditions of possibility at the side of the object as intrinsically linked to the conditions of possibility at the side of the subject. (shrink)

Report of the symposium 'Towards a Philosophy of Systems Biology' held at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (VUA), the Netherlands, from 2 to 3 June 2005.

El estudio de dos formularios notariales del siglo vii/xiii, uno sirio y el otro andalusí, muestra que el discurso sobre las modalidades de comunicación escrita preceptuadas para los jueces refleja una estrecha relación entre la doctrina y la realidad de la práctica legal. Uno de los aspectos de esta relación es el cambio que tuvo que experimentar la doctrina discursiva bajo la presión de las prácticas judiciales cotidianas.

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 64 Heft: 6 Seiten: 894-924.

Analyse van historische, juridische en filosofische aspecten van de terdoodveroordeling van de Griekse wijsgeer.

En collaboration avec Marie-France Bazzo, Maka Kotto et plusieurs autres, voici un ouvrage qui traite de la liberté d’expression (que ce soit à propos du mot en n, ou de la pièce de théâtre SLAV), des débats sur le genre, ainsi que d’autres questions sociales fortement médiatisées qui ont provoqué un certain malaise dans la société.

During May-October 2007, soil and root samples from 539 fields were collected from 11 monsoon rice varieties in 12 regions in Myanmar. All regions surveyed and 90% of fields sampled were infested with the rice root nematode Hirschmanniella oryzae. The average H. oryzae population was 10/100 mL soil and 419/20 g roots respectively. In 6.9% of the fields sampled 50 H. oryzae/g root were found. The average root population densities were the highest (640/20 g roots) in Taungpyan variety and the (...) lowest (155/20 g roots) in Immayebaw variety. The lowest soil and the second-lowest root populations of H. oryzae were observed in Shwethweyin which may indicate that this rice variety is less susceptible to H. oryzae. Among three cropping sequences, the highest frequency of occurrence (94%) was found in the rice-rice cropping sequence. Based on the prominence value (a combination of the frequency of occurrence and abundance) of H. oryzae, Hlaingtharyar was the most infested region where susceptible rice varieties are grown and rice-rice cropping sequence is practiced. The rice production in this region may be the most at risk of suffering important yield losses due to H. oryzae. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se propone crear un margen conceptual para la construcción de una criminología fenomenológica que aborde el conocimiento de cómo se interpretan las conductas de las personas a través de las percepciones de otros, enfocado a la constitución de la conducta criminal, delincuencial, violenta o antisocial, que, siendo estos provenientes de la naturaleza de variadas ciencias, provoca tener horizontes amplios en el entendimiento que en la misma esencia lo vuelven complejo, la criminología actual, tiene en sí, varios (...) objetos de estudio que ha tomado de aquellas ciencias que tienen en su qué hacer lo relacionado con el crimen, de tal modo, desde el derecho, se estudia el delito y sus elementos, desde la psiquiatría y psicología, la conducta antisocial y su desarrollo, de la sociología, la conducta desviada patológica y su formación, el trabajo social, aporta otras interpretaciones, lo mismo, cuando corresponde a la antropología de la violencia, su historia, percepciones, cambios culturales, entre muchas otras. En ello radica la complejidad en la armonización de objetos de estudio que encuentran reunión en la criminología en una integración interdisciplinaria, pero esta se agota ante la abrumante realidad criminal que afecta a la aldea global, donde poco tiempo permite a la reflexión, necesitando con urgencia la intervención. El caso abordado aquí, es dar esa aproximación a una criminología fenomenológica, que pasará previo a su desarrollo, por el proceso de especialización de la criminología, soltando por momentos el paradigma clásico, para avanzar al futuro en la sistematización de teorías de otras ciencias, para generar un banco de conocimientos, que permitirán a posteriori, desarrollar sus propias concepciones e interpretaciones. No hay algo malo en la especialización, es parte de la evolución y maduración. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This study analyses the impact of Oswald Spengler’s work in Spain during the interwar period. It proceeds with three steps as follows: The first part investigates the reception of Spengler’s historic morphology of cultures in the so-called circle of the Revista de Occidente. The second part delves into the early echo of Spengler’s work among the Spanish left up to the Second Spanish Republic. The third part focuses on the impact of Spengler’s historic morphology among conservative traditionalists and members (...) of the radical right prior to the Spanish Civil War. This analysis point towards broad, transideological debate on Spengler in Spain that the Spanish right then usurped and radicalised during the 1930s. (shrink)