The growth of the vein system of the leaf ofTropaeolum peltophorum was studied (i) at the vein level (analysis of the growth kinetics and of the growth field of the 7 primary veins) and (ii) at the limb level (comparison of the growth of the veins).The vein growth kinetics depend on the position of the vein on the leaf: there is a proximal/distal gradient and a bilateral gradient of the growth parameters (=variation of the temporal organization of the kinetics). The (...) growth field of the veins (=local growth pattern) is also dependent on time and on vein position. (shrink)

이 글은 찰스 테일러가 말하고자 하는 인정이 어떠한 것인지를 밝히기 위한 목적으로 쓰여졌다. 테일러는 근대 세계의 문제들을 진단하고, 근대적 인간 주체가 의미가 거세된 얄팍한 삶을 살고 있음을 비판하며, 그 지점을 극복하기 위해서 “본래성의 윤리”가 필요함을 역설한다. 본래성의 윤리에 따르면, 인간 주체는 의미 있는 것, 중요한 것, 소중한 것, 가치 있는 것, 그러니까 선을 선택하고 지평으로 삼아서, 그 지평으로부터 삶의 의미를 부여해나가며 자신의 정체성을 획득해나간다. 그렇지만 이러한 선택의 범위는 제한되는데, 왜냐하면 인간의 삶이 이미 주어진 지평, 맥락에서 펼쳐지기 때문이다. 그런 점에서 인간의 (...) 삶 그리고 인간의 주체성 혹은 정체성은 타자들, 혹은 공동체와 무관하지 않다. 그리하여 인정의 중요성이 대두된다. 인정 없이 주체의 정체성은 형성될 수 없다. 다만 이러한 인정은 현대 사회가 한편으로는 평등을 추구한다는 점에서 다른 한편으로는 개성과 차이를 부각한다는 점에서 문제에 부딪친다. 인정은 평등한 인정과 차이의 인정 사이에서 어느 한쪽으로 기울어질 수 없고 그 사이에서 균형을 잡아야 한다. 그러한 균형을 생각해보려면, 테일러가 인정을 사유하며 어떻게 인간들 사이의 차이 혹은 비대칭성을 생각하고 있는지를 살펴볼 필요가 제기된다. 그러기 위해서 이 글은 리쾨르가 『인정의 여정』에서 제안한 “비대칭성의 망각의 발견”을 참조하려고 한다. “비대칭성의 망각의 발견”을 통해서, 테일러가 어떻게 차이와 비대칭적 관계에 대한 사유를 인정에 녹여내는지를 보여주려고 한다. (shrink)

This essay is concerned with an initial mapping out of a model of intersubjectivity that, viewed within the context of education, breaks with the hegemonic dialogics of current pedagogies. Intent on rethinking the (so-called)problem of solipsism for phenomenology in terms of a pedagogy that situates itself within solitude and the alterity of self and other, Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas will here speak as the voices of this other mode of teaching. Beginning with the problematization of intersubjectivity in romantic aesthetics (...) and hermeneutics, I introduce the concept of irony as a crucial element in the conceptualization of this other pedagogical model, one that requires, initially, a discussion of Husserl''s response to the charge of solipsism in the 5th Cartesian Meditation. As a starting point I introduce his symmetrical notion of bodily pairing into a consideration of rhetoric, understood here as an integral part of teaching, thus forging links with phenomenology via the work of Merleau-Ponty. The above provides a context for an extended discussion of pedagogy as it appears in the work of Blanchot and Levinas. Although similar in many respects, on closer inspection it will emerge that important differences are evident in the dissymmetrical and asymmetrical models suggested by the two thinkers respectively. These differences, I will argue, begin to open up a critical perspective on Levinas'' height model of teaching in the name of the more radical configuration of phenomenology and rhetoric to be found in Blanchot. (shrink)

This is an attempt to work the ground in the philosophy of nature by trying to articulate in a clear and rigorous philosophical sense what Nature is. This will involve pressing the question of nature to the point of essential distinctions in the hope of disclosing conditions that mark Nature as a distinct conception and general mode of being. Drawing and building upon Peirce’s account of “facts,” time and space, and the “dissymmetry” of nature, I will suggest some ways (...) in which the essential distinctness of Nature can be framed. I will end by offering a parting glance at some of the implications that might follow from the distinctions constructed. (shrink)

This is an attempt to work the ground in the philosophy of nature by trying to articulate in a clear and rigorous philosophical sense what Nature is. This will involve pressing the question of nature to the point of essential distinctions in the hope of disclosing conditions that mark Nature as a distinct conception and general mode of being. Drawing and building upon Peirce’s account of “facts,” time and space, and the “dissymmetry” of nature, I will suggest some ways (...) in which the essential distinctness of Nature can be framed. I will end by offering a parting glance at some of the implications that might follow from the distinctions constructed. (shrink)

We are pleased to offer our readers an unpublished article by Roger Caillois, a posthumous text which takes its place alongside his other studies on the myth and the imaginary. The octopus, the praying mantis and the fulgora in the real world led Roger Caillois to reflections similar to those which he exposes here relative to the narwhal and the imaginary unicorn. The importance of the unicorn in the author's work comes from the relationship established by the narwhal's tusk between (...) two squares on Roger Caillois’ chess board: myth and dissymmetry. (Editor's note). (shrink)

This article reads Levinas’s “And God Created Woman” in light of its socio-political context, Mai soixante-huit. It explores themes from his “Judaism and Revolution,” in which he reframed concepts of revolution, exegesis, the revolutionary, and human alienation. Following these themes, which run subtly through his Talmudic remarks on women and indirectly on feminism, I examine his arguments about a “signification beyond universality” and the fraught relationship between formal equity in gender relations and the practice of justice, as embodied by the (...) Antigone-like Rizpah bath Aiah and analyzed in Levinas’s Talmudic reading “Toward the Other.” I summarize the Rabbinic debate about the meaning of an extra yod in the term often translated as “to create” in Genesis, turning to the significance of dissymmetry between the Hebrew names of “man” and “woman,” Ish and Isha. In light of this, Biblicist and psychoanalyst Daniel Sibony opens further insights into gender, naming, and identity. (shrink)

This article reads Levinas’s “And God Created Woman” in light of its socio-political context, Mai soixante-huit. It explores themes from his “Judaism and Revolution,” in which he reframed concepts of revolution, exegesis, the revolutionary, and human alienation. Following these themes, which run subtly through his Talmudic remarks on women and indirectly on feminism, I examine his arguments about a “signification beyond universality” and the fraught relationship between formal equity in gender relations and the practice of justice, as embodied by the (...) Antigone-like Rizpah bath Aiah and analyzed in Levinas’s Talmudic reading “Toward the Other.” I summarize the Rabbinic debate about the meaning of an extra yod in the term often translated as “to create” in Genesis, turning to the significance of dissymmetry between the Hebrew names of “man” and “woman,” Ish and Isha. In light of this, Biblicist and psychoanalyst Daniel Sibony opens further insights into gender, naming, and identity. (shrink)

Das Problem der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas bedarf einer kritischen Besprechung, die der Formulierung einer Reihe grundlegender Fragen, die in erster Linie einer weiteren experimentellen Bearbeitung bedürfen, förderlich sein kann. Vor allem muss hier mit der Terminologie begonnen werden. Man muss unterscheiden: die Dissymmetrie, als Eigenschaft des individuellen Moleküls ein sich mit dem Urbild nicht deckendes Spiegelbild zu besitzen, welche Eigenschaft bei einem bestimmten Niveau der Kompliziertheit der räumlichen Architektur des Moleküls eintritt, und, andererseits, die Asymmetrie als Eigenschaft der Gesamtheit der (...) Moleküle, die in der Abwesenheit der Gleichheit der rechten und linken dissymmetrischen Formen in diesen Gesamtheiten besteht. Für den Biologen bietet die Asymmetrie der molekulären Gesamtheiten insofern Interesse, als sie eine spezifische Eigenschaft des Protoplasmas ist und bei allen dissymmetrischen Stoffen fehlt, die in den irdischen Prozessen unabhängig von der Tätigkeit lebender Wesen entstehen. Hier können folgende grundlegende Fragen gestellt werden: 1. Welcher Art ist der deskriptive Aspekt der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas? Für welche Komponenten des Protoplasmas ist die Asymmetrie der molekularen Gesamtheiten bei den verschiedenen Vertretern des Tier- und Pflanzenreiches obligatorisch und für welche nicht? 2. Welcher Art ist die physiologische Bedeutung der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas, und auf welche Weise wird dieser spezifische Zustand aufrechterhalten? 3. Wie kann man sich im Lichte aller dieser Daten die Entstehung der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas vorstellen?Die asymmetrische Architektur des Protoplasmas läuft im Grunde darauf hinaus, dass das Protoplasma aus Vertretern einer bestimmten Reihe „natürlicher” Antipoden aufgebaut ist. Hierdurch findet eine genaue Fixiertheit des die räumlichen Eigenschaften des Stoffes charakterisierenden Parameters statt. Diese Fixiertheit ist eine wichtige Bedingung für die Verwirklichung der feinen protoplasmatischen Koordinationen. Von allgemeinerem Standpunkt aus ist die Fixiertheit des räumlichen Parameters ein Spezialfall des bekanntenClaude Bernard'schen Gesetzes: „La fixité du milieu intérieur est la condition de la vie libre”.Im Artikel werden zahlreiche Angaben eingehend besprochen, die es gestatten zu behaupten, dass eine Reihe spezieller und tiefer Anpassungen in der physiologischen Organisation der Zelle die vom thermodynamischen Standpunkt unvermeidliche Razemisation des Protoplasmas verhindern, und den spezifischen Zustand der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas aufrechterhalten. Im Lichte dieser Angaben kann die Entstehung der Asymmetrie des Protoplasmas mit Hilfe der Theorie der natürlichen Zuchtwahl erklärt werden. Der asymmetrische Zustand des Protoplasmasystems verleiht seinem Besitzer eine Reihe biologischer Vorzüge im Vergleich mit dem razemischen Zustand.Le problème de l'asymétrie du protoplasma mérite un examen critique. Cela pourrait aider à formuler une série de questions fondamentales exigeant en premier lieu une étude expérimentale ultérieure. À commencer par la terminologie, on doit distinguer d'une part la dissymétrie, propriété de la molécule individuelle de posséder une image non superposable, qui apparaît à un niveau déterminé de complexité dans l'architecture spatiale de la molécule, et d'autre part, l'asymétrie comme une propriété des ensembles de molécules, représentant le manque dans ces ensembles de l'égalité de forme dissymétriques de droite et de gauche. Pour le biologiste, l'asymétrie des ensembles moléculaires est d'un intérêt particulier, en ce qu'elle présente une propriété spécifique du protoplasma, et qu'elle manque dans toutes les substances dissymétriques, qui se forment au cours des processus terrestres, indépendamment de l'activité des êtres vivants. On peut poser ici trois questions principales: 1. Quel est l'aspect descriptif de l'asymétrie du protoplasma? Quels sont les composants protoplasmiques pour lesquels l'asymétrie des ensembles moléculaires est obligatoire, et ceux pour lesquels elle ne l'est point, chez les divers représentants du règne animal et du règne végétal? 2. Quelle est la valeur physiologique de l'asymétrie protoplasmique, et de quelle manière cet état spécifique se maintient-il? 3. Comment, à la lumière de ces données, peut on se figurer l'origine de l'asymétrie du protoplasma?Dans l'essentiel, l'architecture asymétrique du protoplasma se ramène au fait que celui-ci est construit avec les représentants d'une série déterminée d'antipodes „naturels”. Par cela même il y a là un état de fixité précise du paramètre, qui caractérise les propriétés spatiales de la matière. Cet état de fixité est une condition importante pour la réalisation des délicates coordinations protoplasmiques. Á un point de vue plus général, l'état de fixité du paramètre spatial constitue un cas particulier de la proposition bien connue deClaude Bernard: „La fixité du milieu intérieur est la condition de la vie libre”.Dans le présent article on discute en détail les faits nombreux qui permettent d'affirmer que dans l'organisation physiologique de la cellule, une série d'adaptations spéciales profondes empêchent la racémisation du protoplasma, inévitable au point de vue thermodynamique, et maintenant l'état asymétrique spécifique du protoplasma. Éclairée ainsi par les faits, l'origine du protoplasma asymétrique peut s'expliquer à l'aide de la théorie de la sélection naturelle. L'état asymétrique du système protoplasmique, par comparaison avec l'état racémique, accorde à son possesseur nombre d'avantages biologiques. (shrink)

Plants are considered as archetypes of the ramification phenomenon but numerous elementary processes occur in the elaboration of the shaping of each species. This paper aims to identify the part ascribed to different mechanisms in the morphogenesis of a Thallophyte, the red alga Antihamnion plumula.Agonistic-antagonistic models (Bernard-Weil, 1988) can be applied to this alga whose thallus includes two different kinds of whorls, pleuridian and cladomian. In each whorl the agonistic and antagonistic effects are expressed by the full development (S) of (...) the two branches and by their symmetry rate (R) respectively. Variations in S and R show the existence of particular pleuridian whorls having an intermediary dissymmetry and a rhythmic arrangement similarly to that of the cladomian whorls. A unilateral change of the system (removal of a lateral cladome) induces a transitory destabilisation mainly manifested by the stimulating ascendant flow throughout the thallus. (shrink)

The main objective of this paper is to introduce the space-time concept of V. I. Vernadsky and to show the importance of this concept for understanding the biosphere theory of Vernadsky. A central issue is the principle of dissymmetry, which was proposed by Louis Pasteur and further developed by Pierre Curie and Vernadsky. The dissymmetry principle, applied both to the spatial and temporal properties of living matter, makes it possible to demonstrate the unified nature of space and time. (...) At the same time, this principle shows the difference between the spatial-temporal properties of living matter and those of the inert environment. Living matter as opposed to the inert environment is an important part of the Weltanschauung of Vernadsky and is connected with all basic statements of his theoretical system. (shrink)

In contemporary political theory, democracy embodies the ideals of the Aristotelian state, the one that is most able to realize the ideal life of the political community. Nevertheless, fledgling democracies are confronted with economic and political problems which Paul Ricœur thinks are due to the essential dissymmetry between the governing authority and the governed, culminating in the violence of the powerful agent. The enjoyment of the good life in a democracy presupposes what Ricœur calls an ethics of politics, which (...) consists in nothing other than the creation of spaces of freedom which confer on the governed a structure that enables its members to pursue the aim of enduring indefinitely in the future. When the governing authority buries into oblivion the desire of the historical community to live well with and for others in just institutions, the governed are expected to act in concert in order to ascertain their enjoyment of the good life because they feel particularly responsible for the horizontal bond that is constitutive of their will to live together. Thus, Paul Ricœur explains that the balancing of power in common and domination is an endless task of democracy that seeks to place domination under the control of power-in-common. (shrink)

The growth activity of an organ (variable y) is defined simultaneously by the instantaneous absolute ratedy/dt and its variationd 2y/dt2. The use of these two descriptors allows a sigmoidal (i.e. continuous and non periodical, as observed for the logistic function) growth curve to be discretized into a series of 5 growth states or phases which are delimited by the following singular values: max, Vmax (=0), max, adult stage. The (V, ) plot, termedgrowth trajectory, visualizes, e.g. in the case of Richards-Nelder's (...) generalized logistics, the unequal duration of these phases and allows the dissymmetry property of the growth function to be characterized precisely.At a more integrated organization level, such anorganic series (e. g. the set of the leaves borne by a same branch), the above concepts allow two kinds of analyses to be carried out: (i) in thekinetic approach, the growth trajectory of the series can characterizes, under certain conditions, the emergence of a new property: theoccurrence of growth activity rhythms which are independent of meristem dormancy processes; (ii) thedemographic approach shows thegrowth structure of the phytomer population (a particular form of age structure) and the associated dimensional structure (plant partition into zones or regions in relation to the growth state of the various phytomers). (shrink)

We have measured the change of lung mechanical parameters on isolated rabbit lungs exposed to chlorine gas (Cl{in2}). Experimental results show parallel increase in elastance and resistance of impaired lungs. We tried to determine whether this may be explained by a reduction of the ventilated areas in the lung, consecutive to closure of some airways. We have then tried to simulate these experimental results by studying the effects of various airways occlusions imposed on two concurrent models (symmetrical and dissymmetrical) of (...) the tracheo-bronchial tree. For each model, we successively evaluated the resistance of the normal lung, simulated a partial peripheral airways occlusion and estimated the induced changes in total resistance. Analytical expressions of the "occluded lung" elastance and resistance have been found for the symmetrical model but not for the dissymmetrical model (a graphical approach is proposed). With the symmetrical model, simulated results are comparable to experimental ones when the occlusion level is proximal. Whatever the dissymmetry level (δ) of the fractal tree model, we could not simulate the expected increase in resistance with the observed increase in elastance. We conclude that either the occlusion is non homogeneous or the lung impairment is not only a reduction in ventilated areas. (shrink)

In this essay I will explore a mode of reading I call “reading for the text.” A text is what we make of a work when reading it: roughly, a meaningful, well-structured whole with a beginning and an end. But as a mode of reading, textuality allows for constant activity, a continual shaping nd reshaping of sign-events. I will argue that reading for a sense of textuality, and for the wholeness this simple textuality entails, does not necessarily preclude awareness of (...) a fundamental lack of unity, while reading for the effect of the real, in spite of the promotion of the “realistic detail,” tends to do so. The two modes of reading are fundamentally different; yet the conflict between them is not necessarily obvious, nor should such conflict be avoided, ignored, or smoothed out.The goal of this confrontation is not to promote textual reading at the expense of realistic reading. It is the conflict between them I wish to promote. The two modes of reading can be brought to bear on the same work, although they are incompatible. As a result, activating both modes is in itself a critical endeavor: their very combination helps one to avoid the unifying fallacy. Textual and realist readings are a problematic and thereby productive combination. Mieke Bal is professor of comparative literature and Susan B. Anthony Professor of women’s studies at the University of Rochester. The author of Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges, her forthcoming book is Reading “Rembrandt”: Beyond the Word-Image Opposition. (shrink)

The growth of the vein system of the leaf ofTropaeolum peltophorum was studied at the vein level and at the limb level.The vein growth kinetics depend on the position of the vein on the leaf: there is a proximal/distal gradient and a bilateral gradient of the growth parameters. The growth field of the veins is also dependent on time and on vein position.Specific correspondences exist between singular points of the global growth curves, the variations of the growth field and the (...) vein position. The spatio-temporal organization of the vein system growth is then characterized by positional variations of kinetic order which show the existence of areal morphogenetic dissymmetry. (shrink)

Paul Ricœur’s recourse to the metahistorical categories, space of experience and horizon of expectation, invites an inquiry into geography’s role as the guarantor of history. The ontology of the flesh provides the first indication of how one’s body is implicated in the sense of one’s place in the world. In turn, narrative inscriptions of events on the landscape transform the physical topography of a place into an array of sites where memories of ancestral wisdom and historical traumas endure. By anchoring (...) historians’ representations of the past in the places and locales in which events took place, geography constructs a third space analogous to the third time of history. The aporias engendered by the phenomenology of time, however, have no equivalent in the phenomenology of space. The dissymmetry between the dialectic that informs the discourse of space and the one that informs the discourse of time thus keeps in place the reciprocal relation between geography and historiography. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution of the fundamental guidelines according to René Girard’s interpretation of the Oedipus myth. After close examination, it appears Girard’s methodology is based on four complementary levels: (1) the common-sense tracking of sacrificial substitutions; (2) the careful analysis of symmetries and dissymmetries in mythical texts; (3) the identification of cross-cultural and historical persecution stereotypes; (4) the application of the common standard of evidence (i.e. guilty beyond a reasonable doubt) for criminal conviction. (...) Throughout the paper, we will show that Girard’s approach bears strong resemblance with William Whewell’s method of consilience as well as Charles Sanders Peirce’s views of the historical sciences. (shrink)

Since Sarah Kofman's death in 1994, many critics have investigated her friendship with Jacques Derrida, and have tried to make sense of its striking dissymmetry. Contrary to those merely deeming Ko...

In recent decades in Korea, many significant changes in political, social and cultural dimensions have been held by the citizen’s initiative, where the revitalization of citizenship and strong civic unity have played a role. Yet, in regard to the characteristic of Korean citizenship, it seems that the aspect of individual subject has not been fully matured or issued; that is, there is a dissymmetry between the strong civic unity and a weak individual subject. This paper attempts to explore a (...) possible historical account of why this has been the case by examining the historical development of the concept of enlightenment in modern Korea and Japan. ‘Enlightenment’, as a modern concept in Korea, was imported via Japan in the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century as in many other new concepts such as ‘democracy’ or ‘nation’. However, by comparison to the Western idea of the Enlightenment, its modern concept, Korean or Japanese, developed a different meaning in each own context, while lacking its original meaning essential to the creation of the ‘modern individual subject’ as a ‘citizen’. Hence, in modern Korea and Japan, the word ‘enlightenment’ is regarded as a historical concept with no contemporary relevance. (shrink)

This work contributes to recent transdisciplinary efforts to view the Haitian slave revolt (1791–1804) as the historical inspiration for Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. Reconstructions offered by contemporary postcolonial scholars argue that the Haitian revolt was chronicled in Minerva as Hegel raced to finish his Phenomenology. Benhabib recently recognized the Hegel-Haiti thesis as entailing the sort of inclusive dialogical learning process necessary to validate subaltern experiences. The thesis has also drawn its share of sceptical scrutiny as Badiou claims that it risks forcing (...) an unnecessary moral dissymmetry, neglects objectionable features of enslavement and imposes a mismatch between apolitical subject and revolutionary. In reply, we appeal to the pioneering work of Tavares to show that the asymmetrical construction of classification schemes for persons of mixed-racial statuses accords with decades of documented literary exchanges between Hegel and Gregoire. We then turn to the work of James on the role of mixed-race merchants in the testimonial accounts of late 18th century French historians to show that European literate publics were well aware of the extremely coercive forms of commodified labour found in Saint-Domingue. We then invoke the archival work of Du Bois on French, British and American parliamentary proceedings that show the provisional colonial identities ascribed to Caribbean subjects did not hinder their self-conscious exercise of political agency. Viewing Hegel in terms of the historiographic records of the racial ontologies of early modern transatlantic literary exchanges helps explain how he adapted these tropes concerning mixed-race subjects in a manner that better explains many of the anomalous features of the dialectic. However, conferring the Haitian revolution its proper world-historical warrant as inspiration for his infamous master-slave dialectic need not lead us to overlook Hegel’s complicity with many of the epistemic and ontological flaws of colonial tropes held in early modern transatlantic print. (shrink)

El articulo quiere demostrar las razones por las cuales se precisa de la complementariedad dialectica entre las dos formas de reconocimiento reciproco, la reciprocidad y la mutualidad, si se apunta al telos, nunca completamente alcanzado y siempre esperado, de llevar una vida buena y feliz en comunidad, dado el rol insustituible del conflicto en el seno de la condicion humana y la vida en sociedad. Se centra en las diferencias de matiz, pero importantes entre reconocimiento reciproco y mutuo con el (...) fin de mostrar la potencia de estos conceptos en la comprension del intrincado camino del ser humano para realizar la historia de la vida en comun. La lucha por el reconocimiento es expresion de la tendencia ambigua y ambivalente de la condicion humana que hace de los hombres seres fragiles y desproporcionados, tan capaces del bien como del mal, de la disimetria como de la reciprocidad y de la inclinacion al impulso agresivo, como a las bondades del amor. La capacidad del incremento de sentido del amor, de la autocritica a la mala conciencia y de los esfuerzos generosos de la voluntad por una vida buena en comun, propios del reconocimiento mutuo, resultan ser ingredientes necesarios que deben tenerse en cuenta en las iniciativas de las luchas pacificas por el reconocimiento. Finalmente, estas ideas van a ser aplicadas a algunos rasgos de la experiencia de paz en Colombia para demostrar la necesidad de los gestos de reconocimiento mutuo para vislumbrar un horizonte de configuracion de situaciones duraderas de paz. (shrink)