Dr Sydney Brenner has played a major, and unique, role in biology during the past 40 years. His contributions have ranged from key work on the structure of the genetic code and the existence of mRNA through the development of Caenorhabditis elegans as a key model system in developmental biology to genomic analysis and function in vertebrates. BioEssays went to interview Dr Brenner at his home in the cathedral city of Ely, England, on the significance of the genome (...) projects for human biology, in particular, and for biology, in general. (shrink)

Quelle conception de la science proposer aujourd'hui? Les grandes doctrines du XXe siècle se sont heurtées successivement à des difficultés, que ce soit le positivisme du Cercle de Vienne ou le rationalisme critique de Popper. Même la perspective historique inspirée par Bachelard et par Kuhn a donné lieu à des versions disparates. Pourtant, toutes ces tentatives partent d'un même constat : l'échec de la vision classique de la science et la nécessité d'un nouveau discours. On peut en retracer l'histoire. Face (...) à la pluralité des hypothèses possibles au sujet de l'espace, du temps et de la matière, Poincaré pose l'existence de conventions, ou mieux de libres décisions, au cœur de la science. Ainsi, dès la fin du XIXe siècle, il coupe court aux projets traditionnels de fondation : ni le synthétique a priori de Kant, ni les faits généraux de Comte ne sauraient expliquer la nature de l'activité scientifique. C'est la naissance d'un mouvement d'idées, le conventionnalisme, quia eu un impact décisif sur la philosophie viennoise et, à travers elle, sur la philosophie mondiale. Voilà un fil conducteur pour évaluer un siècle de débats. Que signifie donc libre décision en matière scientifique? On affirme la dimension historique irréductible de notre savoir ; on reconnaît la créativité et la responsabilité inhérentes à la science en tant qu'aventure humaine. (shrink)

I present new counterexamples to the asymmetry of grounding: we have prima facie reason to think that some conditional probabilities partially ground their inverse conditional probabilities, and vice versa. These new counterexamples may require that we reject the asymmetry of grounding, or alternatively may require that we reject one or more of the assumptions which enable the counterexamples. Either way, by reflecting on these purported counterexamples to grounding asymmetry we learn something important, either about the formal properties of grounding, or (...) about the nature of probability. (shrink)

The mediatization concept rests on the increasing centrality of media in everyday spheres. Within academia, mediatization is explored in various ways, such as through the use of social media, news media, and researchers’ adoption of certain media logic(s). While many studies focus on media logic(s) as an explanatory device, it can also be seen as a contextual relationship between actors enacted for various purposes. This paper explores how academics enact media logic(s) in climate communication and for what purpose. By drawing (...) on interviews with initiators of open letters on climate change, this paper illustrates that media logic(s) is evoked as a publishing strategy and a way to demarcate academics from news media journalists. The study thus suggests a conceptual shift from debates about what media logic(s) is to what it does in specific communication contexts. (shrink)

The book Mozi , named after master Mo, was compiled in the course of the fifth-third centuries BCE. The seven studies included in the The Mozi as an Evolving Text analyse the Core Chapters, Dialogues, and Opening Chapters of the Mozi as an evolving text.

In the beginning was the night. All light, shapes, language, and subjective consciousness, as well as the world and art depicting them, emerged from this formless chaos. In fantasy, we seek to return to this original darkness. Particularly in literature, visual representations, and film, the night resiliently resurfaces from the margins of the knowable, acting as a stage and state of mind in which exceptional perceptions, discoveries, and decisions play out. Elisabeth Bronfen investigates the nocturnal spaces in which extraordinary events (...) unfold, and casts a critical eye into the darkness that enables the irrational exploration of desire, transformation, ecstasy, transgression, spiritual illumination, and moral choice. She begins with an analysis of classical myths depicting the creation of the world and then moves through night scenes in Shakespeare and Milton, Gothic novels and novellas, Hegel's romantic philosophy, and Freud's psychoanalysis. Bronfen also demonstrates how modern works of literature and film, particularly film noir, can convey that piece of night the modern subject carries within. From Mozart's "Queen of the Night" to Virginia Woolf 's oscillation between day and night, life and death, and chaos and aesthetic form, Bronfen renders something visible, conceivable, and comprehensible from the dark realms of the unknown. (shrink)

Cet article comporte deux parties liées entre elles : l’une étudie le « manger cru » dans le régime alimentaire des Grecs, l’autre le rituel ômophagique dionysiaque. De l’étude conjointe des sources littéraires et épigraphiques, il apparaît que ce dernier pourrait consister en une séquence de gestes révélant l’ambiguïté du dieu, entre animalité, humanité et divinité, et s’accordant avec la pratique alimentaire des Grecs.

This paper contributes to the Business Ethics literature by unpacking the multimodal construction of moral narratives in popular culture and its portrayals of organizations and organizational roles. Understanding such portrayals and their construction is crucial to Business Ethics scholarship because they shape organizational imaginaries, influencing understandings and expectations of the ethical/moral responsibilities of organizations and the actors within them. In particular, we study the construction of moral narratives within a reality TV show that focuses on immigration and border control at (...) an airport. We find that the immigration officers are depicted as rational and heroic figures whilst the travellers are presented as emotional and potentially dangerous characters. Our analysis highlights how this is achieved via five multimodal editing dimensions—the structure of interactional scenes, the ability to address the camera, the narrator’s comments, the visual and music effects—that are key in constructing clearly defined personae. We show how, through the intersubjective construction of clear-cut characters, the show downplays the moral complexity of its content. Portraying immigration officers as heroic, while presenting travellers as potentially dangerous, allows for a silencing of any ethical questioning of immigration officers’ organizational practices. (shrink)

All organizations have ethics programs which consist of both explicit and implicit parts. This paper defines corporate ethics programs and identifies a number of their components. Corporate ethics programs'' structural and behavioral dimensions are proposed which may allow further examination of such program components and their impacts. Finally, fifteen propositions are suggested which describe the influence of founder values, competitive pressures, leadership, and organizational problems on corporate ethics programs and the manageability of such programs.

The question of whether or not there is such a thing as "Chinese philosophy" is seldom explicitly raised, but the implicit answers to this question--although different in China and the West--dominate institutional and academic decisions. This article not only constructs a typology to recognize, differentiate, and evaluate various answers to this question, but it also takes the sensitivity of this matter seriously by comparing it with one's attachment to something as sensitive, arbitrary, and meaningless as a family name.

Mereological nihilism is the thesis that composite objects—objects with proper parts—do not exist. Nihilists generally paraphrase talk of composite objects F into talk of there being “xs arranged F-wise” . Recently several philosophers have argued that nihilism is defective insofar as nihilists are either unable to say what they mean by such phrases as “there are xs arranged F-wise,” or that nihilists are unable to employ such phrases without incurring significant costs, perhaps even undermining one of the chief motivations for (...) nihilism. In this paper I defend nihilism against these objections. A key theme of the paper is this: if nihilists need to employ such phrases as “there are xs arranged F-wise,” non-nihilists will need to do so as well. Accordingly, any costs incurred by the nihilist when she employs such phrases will be shared by everyone else. What’s more, such phrases are intelligible when employed by the nihilist, as well as when they are employed by the non-nihilist, insofar as analyses of such phrases will not essentially involve mereological concepts incompatible with nihilism. (shrink)

Metaphysicians often claim that some metaphysical theory should (or shouldn’t) be believed because it exhibits (or fails to exhibit) theoretical virtues such as simplicity. Metaphysicians also sometimes claim that the legitimacy of these sorts of appeals to theoretical virtues are vindicated by the similar appeals to theoretical virtues which scientists make in scientific theory choice. One objection to this methodological move is to claim that the metaphysician misdescribes the role that theoretical virtues play within science. In this paper I defend (...) the metaphysician’s use of theoretical virtues against this objection. (shrink)

In the debate over the existence of composite objects, it is sometimes suggested that perceptual evidence justifies belief in composite objects. But it is almost never suggested that we are perceptually justified in believing in composite objects on the basis of the fact that the phenomenology of our perceptual experiences enables us to discriminate between situations where there are composite objects and situations where there are merely simples arranged composite object-wise. But while the thought that the phenomenology of our perceptual (...) experiences cannot enable us to discriminate between situations where there are composite objects and situations where there are merely simples arranged composite object-wise is commonly taken for granted, it requires some defence, both in light of its importance in shaping the debate and in light of its recently coming under attack by a prominent philosopher of perception. In this paper, I offer such a defence. (shrink)

La crise qui affecte actuellement l’économie mondiale est la plus dévastatrice depuis la Grande Dépression, et elle pourrait bien s’avérer tout aussi grave. Elle est en effet le symptôme à la fois d’immenses problèmes non résolus dans l’économie réelle, dissimulés pendant des décennies par la dette, et d’une crise financière d’une profondeur inédite pour la période d’après guerre. C’est l’effet de renforcement mutuel du déclin de l’accumulation du capital et de la désintégration du secteur financier qui fait que ce glissement (...) échappe totalement aux responsables politiques et qui rend son potentiel de catastrophe si manifeste.Les analystes de la crise ont naturellement pris comme point de départ l’effondrement du secteur bancaire et des marchés boursiers. Mais à de rares exceptions près, tous ont aussi nié les problèmes profonds et chroniques de l’économie réelle. (shrink)

During recent decades China has been visited by various "heats": the "Culture Heat" in the mid-1980s, the "Cultural Criticism Heat" in the late 1980s, the "Mao Zedong Heat" in the early 1990s, the "Chinese Traditional Studies Heat" in the late 1990s, and the "Old Three Classes Culture Heat" also in this decade, to name only the most prevalent. It is not always clear when and how a hot topic turns into a "heat," precisely what is burning, and how to handle (...) it. "Heats" are cultural movements, difficult to grasp and controversial among intellectuals: To some they are a hearth to turn to, to others a disaster to flee. (shrink)

Philosophy of being Filipino, in reference with languages, practices, and politics.

Allow me first to congratulate the speaker for his most interesting talk. His strategy is well taken and convincing: Look at a Zhuangzi chapter that has been largely neglected by philosophers, identify its concerns, and read other Zhuangzi chapters through these concerns, rather than as mere variants of Western "philosophy." The concerns of the chapter "The Human World" lie, first of all, with staying alive when giving political advice or being sent on a diplomatic mission. The art of staying alive (...) in such circumstances is identified as shu "techniques," and confirms the political framework in which the writings of Masters originated. But the speaker avoids reducing the Chinese Masters to mere politics—a branch that did not exist separately in China—by stressing the importance of a more fundamental value, namely dao: a "way of life" that can be trained as a firm background for the "art of survival." That way of life entails a calmness, alertness, broad vision, and an open mind. The expression "daoshu," which combines this fundamental attitude with concrete strategies, might be a good candidate to replace the expression "Chinese philosophy." Most of my reflections concern this suggestion in light of the central topic of the whole conference: What is "Chinese philosophy?" I conclude with a question on the chapter "The Human World.". (shrink)

Following the standard view, scientific theories are formal systems, which receive empirical content by way of certain correspondence rules. The task of philosophy of science is then to make explicit the structure of such systems. In contrast to this view, one can point to the French tradition in philosophy of science. What characterizes this tradition is recourse to historical study, which has evolved from an attempt to bridge the fields of philosophy of science and history of science by a closer (...) integration of conceptual and historical methods. My aim in this paper is to explore the emergence of historical epistemology in France and its later revival at an international level. Attention is directed at the presuppositions and motivations underlying such an approach. (shrink)

Various authors advocate consideration of stakeholder value concerns in organizational decision making. Brenner and Cochran (1990, 1991) propose a stakeholder theory of the firm which contains several propositions and a stakeholder value matrix. In order to begin any stakeholder rnodel validation, an approach is needed to measure stakeholder value and influence weights. We propose a multicriteria decision modeling approach, utilizing the analytic hierarchy process, to estimate stakeholder value matrix weights. This approach is illustrated using a simplified example and suggestions (...) are made regarding the process needed to begin to validate the stakeholder theory of the firm. (shrink)

What are we? Are we, for example, souls, organisms, brains, or something else? In this book, Andrew Brenner argues that there are principled obstacles to our discovering the answer to this fundamental metaphysical question. The main competing accounts of personal ontology hold that we are either souls (or composites of soul and body), or we are composite physical objects of some sort, but, as Brenner shows, arguments for either of these options can be parodied and transformed into their (...) opposites. Brenner also examines arguments for and against the existence of the self, offers a detailed discussion of the metaphysics of several afterlife scenarios - resurrection, reincarnation, and mind uploading -- and considers whether agnosticism with respect to personal ontology should lead us to agnosticism with respect to the possibility of life after death. (shrink)

This paper investigates the impact of changing science policy doctrines on the development of an academic field, working life research. Working life research is an interdisciplinary field of study in which researchers and stakeholders collaborated to produce relevant knowledge. The development of the field, we argue, was both facilitated and justified by the, at the time dominant, science policy orthodoxy in Sweden, sector research. Sector research science policy doctrine favoured stakeholder-driven research agendas in the fields relevant to the sector. This (...) approach to agenda setting was highly contested by Swedish universities and left scientists vulnerable to the fallout from any conflicts arising among the stakeholder groupings that were part of the governance arrangement. Our case shows that working life research was in part a victim of the struggle between science and policy over who sets the agenda for science in Sweden. In this struggle, each side chose to use ‘scientific quality’ as a proxy for furth ing its respective interests and visions for how science should be governed. The paper argues that this case is of interest to the continued elaboration of the Mode 2 thesis and the debate about ‘relevant science’. We find that the close association with stakeholders and the concomitant dependence it created left working life research unable to defend itself against its critics and that this state of affairs was particularly problematic for social science research on working life. (shrink)

Gambling and Speculation takes the long, historic perspective of its controversial subject. The book offers not only a better understanding of the recent "gambling craze," but also a fundamental inquiry into human nature and the structure of societies. The Brenners argue that the negative image of gamblers and of speculators stems from prejudice, whose roots are in the distant, forgotten past. Legal scholars have frequently confused gambling with speculation and the anti-gambling laws were, at times, erroneously interpreted as implying the (...) prohibitions of contracts in futures and insurance markets. One consequence of all this confusion was that during this century both in the United States and England, the legislation and law on betting and gambling became ambiguous. The authors touch on this issue and make policy recommendations: to abolish restrictions on the industry, diminish the states' role in selling lotteries, and, at the same time, make legal distinctions capable of helping the tiny percentage of players who might be "addicted.". (shrink)

Critical reflections on the work of Angus Charles Graham, renowned Western scholar of Chinese philosophy and sinology.

Charles Bell’s Bridgewater Treatise on the hand should be read as elaborating philosophies of pedagogy and the senses, and as fitting with Bell’s work on the nervous system. In The Hand, Bell argues that sensory reception must be coupled with muscular action to establish true knowledge, elevating the ‘doing’ hand to epistemological parity with the long-superior ‘seeing’ eye. Knowledge in anatomy was typically couched in terms to do with sight and depiction; but according to Bell, anatomy simply could not teach (...) the sort of feeling that one would encounter inside a living body. Instead, anatomy taught students to map the parts so that their fingers, moving through a surgical field, could ‘see’ and therefore could know and could act. This elevation of the status of the hand also had social implications that fit with Bell’s reformist politics. (shrink)

An imaginative and exciting exposition of major themes from Wittgenstein's mature philosophy.

Alain Badiou offers a distinctive interpretation of time, anchored in his unique metaphysics and philosophy of the event. For Badiou, time is interventional, demarcating a disjunction between two incommensurable sequences of rupture in human history. The concept of disjunction occupies a pivotal role in Badiou’s philosophy of both love and time. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the temporality of love within the context of Badiou's philosophy. We argue that, when viewed through Badiou’s philosophical lens, love provides an invaluable (...) vantage point for understanding the very creation and transformation of time. As this chapter progresses, a concise exposition of Badiou's metaphysics and his theory of truth procedure is furnished, emphasizing facets that resonate with his philosophy of love. Time is explored from three vantage points: time between worlds, time within a world, and time as difference-as-such. These distinct conceptions of time, when examined in light of love, provide a fertile ground for further developing his concept of time. (shrink)

La démocratie en Grèce ancienne est souvent blâmée par les modernes : on admire le modèle, mais il semble inachevé pourquoi néglige-t-on de se demander en quoi elle est déjà trop démocratique? La politique est en crise, la cité est divisée, et pourtant, la démocratie antique, généreusement idéalisée, peut servir de modèle, par ses dérives, ses défaillances et ses crises, si l'on veut mieux comprendre le politique d'aujourd'hui. La pratique abusive de l'accusation publique volontaire, inhérente à la démocratie grecque, a (...) largement participé à la corruption du système. La délation met en évidence la corruption de l'idéal d'une société de confiance qui est celle de la cité d'Athènes, que l'on pourrait retrouver dans l'idéal de transparence qui caractérise les démocraties contemporaines. Pages de début Préface Avant-propos Introduction I. Sycophantes et délation II. La corruption institutionnaliséeIII. Les rouages de la démocratie Conclusion Bibliographie Pages de fin. (shrink)