This three-volume set is a collection of key critical responses by leading scholars to the philosophical and theoretical writings of this late postmodern philosopher. Organized thematically, the collection includes commentaries on Lyotard's life and early philosophical writings, as well as on ethics, aesthetics, and politics. With a new introduction by the editor providing a comprehensive overview of Jean-François Lyotards life and works, this impressive collection provides students and scholars with a valuable resource for studying this important philosophical figure.

This book presents a collection of contemporary discourses that reconsider the relationship of democracy as a political ideology and American ideal and education as the foundation of preparing democratic citizens in America.

Since ancient times the practices and ethics of bankers and banking in general have undergone a great deal of criticism. While lending is motivated by profit, and while households are not explicitly coerced into borrowing money, the justice of a system which exploits workers and at the same time encourages them to borrow money in order to maintain a certain standard of living can be viewed as sometimes unfair and perhaps immoral. The value of goods, according to St. Thomas Aquinas (...) and Karl Marx, should mostly reflect the value of labor embodied in them, and for that reason, labor should be compensated fully for its work. For these reasons, Aquinas and Marxian economists offer somewhat similar and at the same time different views on both the labor theory of value as well as on the morality of certain banking practices. If credit and the banking system also bring about crisis and the greater concentration and centralization of capital, then the morality of these outcomes also needs to be examined. (shrink)

Propose l'idée directrice suivante : les trois monothéismes méditerranéens forment système comme les polythéismes indo-européens. Au prix d'une critique girardienne du modèle dumézilien, qui a l'effet de compliquer les deux approches ainsi privées de leur tentation englobante, l'analyse procède à une exégèse véritablement anthropologique.

Four studies measured or manipulated beliefs in free will to illuminate how such beliefs are linked to other aspects of personality. Study 1 showed that stronger belief in free will was correlated with more gratitude, greater life satisfaction, lower levels of perceived life stress, a greater sense of self-efficacy, greater perceived meaning in life, higher commitment in relationships, and more willingness to forgive relationship partners. Study 2 showed that the belief in free will was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction, (...) meaning in life, gratitude, and self-efficacy than either locus of control or implicit person theory. Study 3 showed that experimentally manipulating disbelief in free will caused a reduction in the perceived meaningfulness of life. Study 4 found that inducing a stronger belief in free will caused people to set more meaningful goals for themselves. The possible concern that believers in free will simply claim all manner of positive traits was contradicted by predicted null finding.. (shrink)

The article gives a review of inedited sources dealing with the Belgian contribution to European integration in the years 1945-1955. Such sources are kept in the Algemeen Rijksarchief, in the Parliament, various ministerial departments, the Navorsings- en Studiecentrum voor de Geschiedenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog, study centres of the major political parties, a number of non-governmental organizations as well as the private archives of a number of politicians.

Li Zehou’s work can be understood as an account of a Chinese modernity, a vision for Chinese society that seeks to integrate three distinct philosophical approaches. These are Chinese history and culture, which Li understands as largely Confucian; Marxism, which has exerted such influence on a modernizing China; and Western learning more generally, as expressed by figures such as Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud. Li also frequently expresses the hope that a Chinese modernity will be one in which the importance (...) of the individual is recognized, and rights and freedoms upheld (e.g., 2006, p. 182). But this stance raises an important question: how are individuality and freedom understood in Li’s philosophical system? In this paper, I want to examine what resources Li offers to help us conceptualize their place in a modernity with Chinese characteristics. Confucian culture is often regarded as authoritarian and hierarchical, less interested than more liberal traditions in an ideal such as freedom. So how does freedom relate to the Confucian root of Chinese culture, as construed by Li? In this paper I explore how Li Zehou’s study of Confucian aesthetics can deliver a novel conception of freedom, one grounded in Confucian thinking about personal cultivation, and aimed at the free creation of delight (樂). (shrink)

Do philosophic views affect job performance? The authors found that possessing a belief in free will predicted better career attitudes and actual job performance. The effect of free will beliefs on job performance indicators were over and above well-established predictors such as conscientiousness, locus of control, and Protestant work ethic. In Study 1, stronger belief in free will corresponded to more positive attitudes about expected career success. In Study 2, job performance was evaluated objectively and independently by a supervisor. Results (...) indicated that employees who espoused free will beliefs were given better work performance evaluations than those who disbelieve in free will, presumably because belief in free will facilitates exerting control over one’s actions. (shrink)

Li Zehou’s work can be understood as an account of a Chinese modernity, a vision for Chinese society that seeks to integrate three distinct philosophical approaches. These are Chinese history and culture, which Li understands as largely Confucian; Marxism, which has exerted such influence on a modernizing China; and Western learning more generally, as expressed by figures such as Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud. Li also frequently expresses the hope that a Chinese modernity will be one in which the importance (...) of the individual is recognized, and rights and freedoms upheld (e.g., Li and Cauvel 2006, p. 182). But this stance raises an important question: how are individuality and freedom understood in Li’s philosophical system? In this paper, I want to examine what resources Li offers to help us conceptualize their place in a modernity with Chinese characteristics. Confucian culture is often regarded as authoritarian and hierarchical, less interested than more liberal traditions in an ideal such as freedom. So how does freedom relate to the Confucian root of Chinese culture, as construed by Li? In this paper I explore how Li Zehou’s study of Confucian aesthetics can deliver a novel conception of freedom, one grounded in Confucian thinking about personal cultivation, and aimed at the free creation of delight (樂). (shrink)

The article tries to defend three theses: First the opinion that in fact philosophical and empirical aesthetics can be clearly distinguished and as well juxtaposed, but the term experimental aesthetics should not only be reserved for aesthetics, which can be found outside of philosophy. Because notably phenomenological aesthetics, so the second thesis, are in a certain way experimental aesthetics – namely if and only if the method of Eidetic Variation is used and insofar this method can be understood as a (...) form of a mental self-experiment. Since this method is not only used in phenomenological philosophy, thirdly the opinion should be defended that there is a long tradition of experimental aesthetics in philosophy taken as a whole and e.g. Kant’s transcendental aesthetic is an epitome of such kind, because it bases its claim for knowledge neither inductively nor deductively, but using the experiment of an Eidetic Variation. (shrink)

The commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the canonization of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) as well as the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) present an opportunity to re-examine the neo-Thomism of the contemporary French philosopher. Our aim here will be to set out the philosophical argument from which Maritain establishes an inseparable link between human rights (i.e., the dignity of the human person) and natural law. We will thus seek to expose how Maritain supports democracy from the (...) horizon of Christian philosophy. In doing so, the Thomistic democracy that Maritain proposes will appear to be distant from both totalitarian collectivism and anarchistic individualism, two current threats to the establishment of an authentic and mature democracy. (shrink)

Darwin's “mystery of mysteries,” the origin of species, is caused by the evolution of speciation phenotypes, i.e. phenotypic differences that depress gene flow between daughter species during speciation. Postmating, prezygotic (PMPZ) differentiation characterizes many closely related species causing conspecific sperm precedence (CSP), wherein a female preferentially utilizes conspecific over heterospecific sperm in fertilization. Until recently, the components of CSP have been difficult to observe and study in internally fertilizing organisms. Research into the mechanisms of CSP is now progressing rapidly with (...) the help of new innovative research tools. With the recent development of a sperm labeling system enabling distinct labels for different males, direct observations of competing male sperm within the female reproductive tract are possible, revealing multiple PMPZ phenotypes that combine to cause CSP. The discovery of mechanisms underlying CSP predicts an exciting future for studies of PMPZ speciation phenotypes and possible general principles underlying the origin of species. (shrink)

It is an historical fact that one of Russell's greatest philosophical contributions was to highlight the role that premises about logical form play in ontological arguments. A pair of quotations will introduce his point that great metaphysical systems are often not only based on, but are debased by, the belief that certain statements of philosophical discourse are logically subject-predicate in form.Speaking of Hegel's Absolute Idealism, Russell wrote in Our Knowledge of The Extemal World:Mr. Bradley has worked out a theory according (...) to which, in all judgment, we are ascribing a predicate to Reality as a whole; and this theory is derived from Hegel. Now the traditional logic holds that every proposition ascribes a predicate to a subject, and from this it easily follows that there can be only one subject, the Absolute, for if there were two, the proposition that there were two would not ascribe a predicate to either. Thus Hegel's doctrine, that philosophical propositions must be of the form, “the Absolute is such and such,” depends on the traditional belief in the universality of the subject-predicate form. This belief, being traditionaL scarcely self-conscious, and not supposed to be important, operates underground, and is assumed in arguments which, like the refutation of relations, appear at first sight to e;tablish its truth. (shrink)

C'est sur le chemin étonnant et sinueux du célèbre Phénomène Humain que nous entraîne cet ouvrage, nous invitant à la table de l'Histoire : contexte ecclésial, oppositions intellectuelles notoires sur la marche de l'Univers, dédale des allers-retours entre Pierre Teilhard de Chardin et ses supérieurs à la recherche d'un nihil obstat" jamais décroché, et enfin, une publication post-mortem, au succès et au retentissement foudroyants. Se basant sur les archives privées de la Compagnie de Jésus et des documents inédits ou peu (...) connus, les auteurs reconstituent patiemment le fil et, au-delà des aspects historiques, offrent une analyse philosophique et théologique qui permet de prendre conscience de la richesse, mais aussi des limites de la pensée du célèbre jésuite, et, in fine, de sa fécondité pour la pensée actuelle"-- Back cover. (shrink)

À l'heure où tant de discours prônent des sociétés dites 'inclusives,' dans nos vies quotidiennes, la vulnérabilité est encore trop souvent perçue comme le versant négatif de l'autonomie, un moment de l'existence qu'il faut impérativement dépasser pour pouvoir construire l'identité d'un sujet libre et autonome. Et si, à l'inverse, la construction d'une identité forte ne pouvait advenir que grâce à l'articulation entre vulnérabilité, comme condition normale de l'existence, et autonomie? Fruit d'un travail collectif, cet ouvrage souhaite prouver, à l'aide de (...) la pensée de philosophes comme Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Michel Henry, Martha Nussbaum ou encore Platon et Aristote, comment le déni de la vulnérabilité, bien que compréhensible, peut devenir "toxique" lorsqu'il n'est pas démasqué. Cela aussi bien pour l'individu que pour la société. Un livre qui croise de multiples regards, la philosophie, le droit, les sciences de la santé, la politique, pour éclairer la façon dont nos modes de vie et l'organisation de nos sociétés pourraient changer, y compris d'un point de vue pratique, si vulnérabilité et autonomie étaient considérées comme des moments indispensables et complémentaires du développement de l'identité du sujet."--Back cover. (shrink)

El artículo se centra en la doctrina metafísica esbozada por Max Scheler en el opúsculo El puesto delhombre en el cosmos (1928). El enfoque del autor sostiene que el ser humano se entiende a sí mismoen el mismo momento en que se hace consciente de un Ser absoluto. Pero este Ser absoluto nopuede ser definido como un Dios todopoderoso, pues tiene dos atributos contrarios, a saber, espíritue impulso, los que en un comienzo no se hallan en armonía, de modo tal (...) que es necesario eldespliegue del mundo y, dentro de él, del ser humano. En y a través de los seres humanos acontece,como meta del mundo y de la historia, la penetración recíproca de espíritu e impulso. Un conceptoclave en esta doctrina es que los seres humanos pueden colaborar con la Deitas y hacer posible queDios, en sentido pleno, llegue a ser Dios. (shrink)

Social cognition refers to a discipline in which researchers seek to understand social phenomena in terms of models which emphasize the role of cognitive processes (e.g., attention, encoding, cognitive organization, storage, memory) in mediating social thought and action. Although social cognition is a relatively new field, it is important to note that social psychologists have long been concerned with many of the same issues that are central to cognitive science, such as how people store and retrieve information about their environment (...) in memory. Thus, it would be inaccurate to portray the emergence of social cognition as the first time that social psychologists have focused on the role of cognition in mediating social behavior. Nevertheless, it is true that in the mid‐to‐late 1970s, a branch of social psychology emerged which was unique in the extent to which it overlapped with the theoretical orientation of, and the methodological tools employed by, cognitive psychologists. It is this time period that most scholars peg as the era in which social cognition grew and matured as a discipline in its own right. (shrink)

Exercer le métier d’assistant(e) maternel(le) dans le cadre spécifique d’une crèche familiale préventive à gestion associative requiert, outre des compétences « techniques » avérées, une disponibilité et un « savoir-être » bien particuliers, sur lesquels repose une large part de la qualité du service personnalisé rendu aux familles qui s’y adressent. L’ensemble de ces aptitudes se manifeste aux niveaux certes de l’accueil des enfants, mais aussi des relations intenses et complexes établies avec les parents et de l’organisation, nécessairement très minutieuse, (...) du travail en équipe. Il importe aujourd’hui de consolider et de diffuser les expériences acquises dans ce contexte par les assistant(e)s maternel(le)s de façon à en enrichir les pratiques déployées dans le champ de l’action socio-éducative et des politiques familiales. (shrink)

People enroll in medical research for many reasons ranging from decisions regarding their own or family members' health situation to broader considerations including access to health and financial resources. In socially vulnerable communities the choice to participate is often based on a risk‐benefit assessment that goes beyond the medical aspects of the research, and considers the benefits received. In this qualitative study, we examined the motivations of Rwandan women to participate in a non‐commercial collaborative research study examining the safety, acceptability, (...) and adherence of a contraceptive vaginal ring in Rwanda juxtaposed with the perceptions of the research within the community. 351 women attended the screening visit, four were excluded because they were not able to complete the assessment of understanding. The remaining participants' ages ranged from 17 to 38 and 80% had primary level of education or below. 120 were enrolled. Findings highlighted motivations for joining the study that were relayed both formally by the clinic (e.g. testing and treatment) and informally by the community including the positive aspects of the ring. There were also some negative rumors circulating regarding the research site, likely from excluded participants who faced potential stigma based on that exclusion. It was understood by most participants that they were enrolled in a research study and participants actively sought out enrollment in the research for a variety of reasons. The experiences demonstrate that although inequalities in access to health care may create conflicting situations around the study, it is possible to form partnerships between a research center and participants/their partners, for research about reproductive health. (shrink)

A análise da correspondência entre Espinosa e L. van Velthuysen pode ser bastante útil para aperfeiçoar nossa compreensão do Tractatus theologico-politicus e da filosofia de Espinosa em geral. Em sua correspondência, Espinosa é freqüentemente evasivo e lento para ver (ou, ao menos, para reconhecer) um ponto. É uma questão interessante como deveríamos dar conta destas deficiências em suas respostas, e sua correspondência com Velthuysen seria uma boa oportunidade para provar a perspectiva de Bennett. O artigo está dividido em três partes: (...) 1) Velthuysen antes de Espinosa e o contexto de suas críticas; 2) um exame das Cartas 42 e 43; e 3) o debate em torno do deísmo e do ateísmo. (shrink)