The Indian philosopher Acarya Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) was the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism and arguably the most influential Buddhist thinker after Buddha himself. Indeed, in the Tibetan and East Asian traditions, Nagarjuna is often referred to as the "second Buddha." This book presents a survey of the whole of Nagarjuna's philosophy based on his key philosophical writings. His primary contribution to Buddhist thought lies in the further development of the concept of sunyata or (...) "emptiness." For Nagarjuna, all phenomena are without any svabhava, literally "own-nature" or "self-nature," and thus without any underlying substance. Particular emphasis is put on discussing Nagarjuna's thinking as philosophy. The present discussion shows how his thoughts on metaphysics, epistemology, the self, language, and truth present a unified theory of reality with considerable systematic appeal. The book offers a systematic account of Nagarjuna's philosophical position. It reads Nagarjuna in his own philosophical context, but also shows that the issues of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy have at least family resemblances to issues in European philosophy. (shrink)

The dichotomy made by Jankélévitch between excusing the ignorant and forgiving the wicked serves first as a key to analyzing Derrida's logic of forgiving the unforgivable. Fiasse shows Jankélévitch's influence on Derrida in spite of their opposite conclusions. The author highlights several limits in the literature on forgiveness caused by knowledge and wickedness being too strongly opposed to ignorance and excusing. She turns to Aristotle in order to emphasize the forgiveness of voluntary actions that are not necessarily ill-intended. She (...) insists on the role of apologies, the degree of personal commitment in the disapproval of the action, the harm done to the victim, the distinction between matters of slight and strong importance, the different kinds of ignorance and responsibility, and the crucial role of regret. (shrink)

Why is a red face not really red? How do we decide that this book is a textbook or not? Conceptual spaces provide the medium on which these computations are performed, but an additional operation is needed: Contrast. By contrasting a reddish face with a prototypical face, one gets a prototypical ‘red’. By contrasting this book with a prototypical textbook, the lack of exercises may pop out. Dynamic contrasting is an essential operation for converting perceptions into predicates. The existence of (...) dynamic contrasting may contribute to explaining why lexical meanings correspond to convex regions of conceptual spaces. But it also explains why predication is most of the time opportunistic, depending on context. While off-line conceptual similarity is a holistic operation, the contrast operation provides a context-dependent distance that creates ephemeral predicative judgments that are essential for interfacing conceptual spaces with natural language and with reasoning. (shrink)

In this paper, we perform theoretical analysis and experiments on the Simplex Crossover (SPX), which we have proposed. Real-coded GAs are expected to be a powerful function optimization technique for real-world applications where it is often hard to formulate the objective function. However, we believe there are two problems which will make such applications difficult; 1) performance of real-coded GAs depends on the coordinate system used to express the objective function, and 2) it costs much labor to adjust parameters so (...) that the GAs always find an optimum point efficiently. The result of our theoretical analysis and experiments shows that a performance of SPX is independent of linear coordinate transformation and that SPX always optimizes various test function efficiently when theoretical value for expansion rate, which is a parameter of SPX, is applied. We also show that BLX-α is equivalent to degenerate form of SPX. Experiments show that we have something misunderstood effect of epistasis on performance degradation of real-coded GAs. (shrink)

The article focuses on the in-between of the voluntary and the involuntary in Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the self. From the triad of passivity, through the intentional act, the author analyzes the empty place in Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of voluntary actions that can appear to be involuntary, such as actions motivated by passions but which nonetheless remain in the self’s responsibility and in the domain of forgiveness. In Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, character belongs to the realm of sameness and the absolute involuntary. The author (...) thus emphasizes the possible ways in which we may work on our character and the problems of equating narrative identity with the self and identity. The story of our life cannot be reduced to our lived story nor to our narrative identity, since it also involves involuntary events that do not necessarily say much about who the self is. (shrink)

On trouve dans le stoïcisme plusieurs définitions contradictoires de l'amour-éros. l'amour-éros comme propension à se créer des amis à cause de leur beauté est tantôt attribué au sage, tantôt tout à fait condamné. M. Schofield et M. Nussbaum ont essayé de résoudre cette aporie. Après avoir soulevé certaines difficultés qu'engendraient leurs interprétations, l'A. montre que l'éros a deux acceptions différentes. Il est premièrement la passion, le désir charnel, que les stoïciens excluent absolument. Mais l'éros signifie aussi une tendance naturelle à (...) se faire des amis de ceux dont la beauté manifeste une aptitude à la vertu. Un tel éros occupe une place dans la vie morale du stoïcien. À la suite de Platon, les stoïciens reprennent le vocabulaire pédérastique grec pour le sublimer et lui donner un sens nouveau. Cette forme d 'éros bannit toute passion amoureuse et toute relation sexuelle. Il est un amour d'amitié. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- A number of contradictory definitions of love-eros occur in Stoicism. Love-eros as the propensity to make friends because of their beauty is at times attributed to the sage, and at times utterly condemned. M. Schofield and M. Nussbaum have attempted to resolve this aporia. Having raised certain difficulties involved in their interpretations, the A. has attempted to show that eros had two different meanings. It is firstly passion, carnal desire, that the Stoics reject absolutely. But eros also means a natural tendency to make friends of those whose beauty manifests an aptitude for virtue. An eros of this type holds a place in the moral life of the Stoic. Following Plato, the Stoics make use of the Greek pédérastie vocabulary in order to sublimate it and give it a new meaning. This form of eros banishes any amorous passion and any sexual relationship. It is a love of friendship. (shrink)

— Étant donné que le stoïcisme prône un total détachement à l’égard des êtres qui leur sont chers, l’auteur s’est interrogé sur les fondements de la philanthropie dans le nouveau stoïcisme. La philanthropie stoïcienne trouve en premier lieu sa source dans l’amour de la nature qui s’illustre par un souci de soi exclusif et une socialité naturelle. Le deuxième fondement découle d’un point de vue théologique. Les hommes sont parents entre eux grâce à la relation qu’ils ont avec Dieu par (...) le logos divin. Le troisième fondement est d’origine politique. L’individu est respecté en tant que partie du tout universel. Il ne s’agit jamais d’un amour de l’autre pour sa bonté personnelle. Cette ambivalence de la philanthropie stoïcienne s’illustre par rapport à l’esclavage et à la gladiature. Les stoïciens ne s’opposent pas à l’esclavage en tant que tel, mais aux entraves de la liberté intérieure. De même, ils ne souhaitent pas l’abolition de la gladiature. L’essentiel est de se vaincre soi-même et de se soumettre à la Fortune selon le sort qu’elle nous a assigné.— The author investigates the foundations of philanthropy in late Stoicism, granted the Stoic sanction of total detachment from the objects of love. Stoic philanthropy is primarily grounded in a love of nature which expresses itself in an exclusive concern for oneself and a natural sociality. It finds its second source in a theological perspective. Human beings are related because of the relationship that they have with God by the divine logos. Its third source is political in origin. The individual is respected as a part of the universal whole. Love of another for his own goodness never comes into play. As a result, Stoic philosophy appears ambivalent in the case of slaves and gladiators. Stoics are not opposed to slavery as such, but to interference with interior freedom. Likewise, late Stoicism doesn’t advocate the abolition of the gladiatorial system. Victory over oneself and submission to Fortune and one’s lot are what counts. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the act of forgiveness understood as an act which involves the recognition of injustice. Its goal is to answer to Arendt, who equates the realm of forgiveness with the possibility of punishment, to Derrida, who limits forgiveness to the unforgivable actions in order to highlight its unconditionality, and to Jankélévitch, who insists that the culprit’s repentance is an indispensable condition to forgiveness. By contrasting forgiveness, retaliation, and resignation, I emphasize that forgiveness implies attributing blame for injustice, (...) but I distinguish this from the sphere of punishment. Secondly, by showing how self-esteem is necessary for the victim and the offender, I underline the significance of the culprit’s avowal. These two elements lead to the distinction between inner forgiveness, which entails a superabundant act and an element of unconditionality, and integral forgiveness, which requires the culprit’s repentance in order to be exchanged by two people. (shrink)

L’auteur montre comment la notion de pardon chez Paul Ricoeur peut être comprise comme un au-delà de l’action. Trois pistes interprétatives sont mises en avant. La première fait appel à plusieurs notions centrales de l’anthropologie ricoeurienne qui ont trait au lien entre l’agent et son acte, le concept de déliement - hérité de l’analyse de Hannah Arendt -, la notion de capacité, et celle de prédisposition au bien. La deuxième piste de recherche montre comment l’au-delà de l’action doit se lire (...) à la lumière de l’économie du don. La troisième considère la dimension pratique de l’au-delà de l’action dans le domaine judiciaire. (shrink)

This article tells the story of the oil and gas origins of the Gaia hypothesis, the theory that the Earth is a homeostatic system. It shows how Gaia’s key assumption—that the climate is a fundamentally stable system, able to withstand perturbations—emerged as a result of a collaboration between the theory’s progenitor, James Lovelock, and Royal Dutch Shell in response to Shell’s concerns about the effects of its products on the climate. The article explains how Lovelock elaborated the Gaia hypothesis and (...) gave it evidential depth through a series of Royal Dutch Shell-funded research projects meant to identify organisms whose biological activities might double as climate-regulating mechanisms. The article goes on to show how this research subsequently laid the foundation for a distinct genre of climate change denialism, in which corporations sowed doubt not by denying the phenomenon of global warming but by naturalizing it. (shrink)

In this article I scrutinise a crucial tension in understanding the debate over shale gas production in Europe. On the one hand, analyses predominantly grasp the debate in terms of pro-and-con dialectics, as if the pro-shale gas camp faced the anti-shale gas camp in a dyadic clash of opposing voices. On the other hand, it is commonly recognised that this debate is driven by multi-party and multi-position argumentative dynamics. In this broader context, I focus on one pivotal contribution to the (...) debate – Gazprom’s press release from October 2013 outlining Russia’s energy giant’s strategy of dealing with unconventional gas production. I employ concepts and methods of argumentative discourse analysis to contend that an arguer to a multi-party debate – argumentative polylogue – faces a number of constraints and opportunities that cannot be adequately grasped in terms of dyadic pro-and-con dialectics. The analysis reveals how Gazprom needs to simultaneously design its discourse to address a number of other parties who might also disagree among themselves: from Greenpeace to European Union governments to shale gas companies. I show why and how a stakeholder analysis used in organisational communication might lead to a better understanding of this form of multi-party public argumentation. (shrink)

S’inspirant de deux penseurs de la tradition spirituelle ayant voué leur vie au dialogue existentiel entre chrétiens et musulmans, Pierre Claverie et Christian de Chergé, l’auteur met en lumière des points fondamentaux du dialogue existentiel. Alors que le dialogue a souvent été pensé à la lumière d’une éthique de la discussion où le but avoué ou non est de convaincre l’autre par des arguments intellectuels, il s’agit ici davantage d’un dialogue communicatif qui vise à rencontrer autrui et l’accueillir dans sa (...) différence. Un tel dialogue existentiel requiert une attitude de réceptivité et une non-suffisance à soi. Toutefois, il n’implique pas de renoncer à sa propre identité, à ses convictions dans la mesure où la finalité n’est pas de les imposer à autrui. L’auteur met en exergue l’idée de convictions non contraignantes. Le dialogue implique également une attention à autrui dans sa corporéité et sa gestuelle. D’un point de vue épistémologique, il se base sur un jugement d’humanité. Il implique un impératif éthique et un travail d’imagination et de connaissance pour rencontrer autrui et le respecter, à la fois dans son humanité et son altérité essentielles. Enfin, les conditionnements humains, l’histoire narrative, l’univers socio-culturel et politique sont aussi des éléments qui peuvent nourrir ou affecter le dialogue. (shrink)

Paul Ricoeur, dans «Soi-même comme un autre», porte une attention particulière à l'éthique de l'amitié chez Aristote. Gaëlle Fiasse expose dans son livre quels sont les enjeux éthiques et métaphysiques d'une telle lecture du philosophie grec. Elle montre comment Ricoeur s'approprie et se sépare des différents sens de l'être, puisque il rejette la substance au bénéfice de l'être selon la puissance et l'acte. Elle revient ensuite aux textes d'Aristote pour répondre aux objections de Paul Ricoeur tout en dialoguant avec (...) lui. Ce livre offre donc à la fois une nouvelle lecture d'Aristote et de Paul Ricoeur et une analyse du statut éthique et ontologique de l'autre à la lumière de l'amitié. (shrink)

Modernist Objects is a unique mix of cultural studies, literature, and visual arts applied to the discrete materiality of modernist objects. Contributors explore the many tensions surrounding the modernist relationship to objects, things, products and artIfacts through the prism of poetry, prose, visual arts, culture and crafts.

Konfucije, kao tipičan „akozmički” mislitelj, odbija govoriti o kozmološkim temama, kao što su „Put neba”. Ipak, čini se da neka njegova učenja, osobito ona koja se tiču praktične filozofije, imaju određenu kozmološku pozadinu. Ovdje se otvara pitanje: uključuje li Konfucije u svoje učenje kozmološke koncepcije, iako o njima nikada nije otvoreno raspravljao? Postoje li kozmološke pretpostavke/utemeljenje Konfucijeve praktične mudrosti? Slijedeći ta pitanja ovaj rad, analizirajući zbirku Konfucijevih izreka Analekti, razmatra kozmološku dimenziju Konfucijeve praktične filozofije. -/- Confucius, as a typical "acosmic" (...) thinker, refuses to talk about cosmological topics, such as "The Way of Heaven". Nevertheless, some of his teachings, especially those concerning practical philosophy, seem to have a certain cosmological background. This raises the question: Does Confucius include cosmological conceptions in his teaching, although he never openly discussed them? Are there cosmological assumptions/foundation of Confucius' practical wisdom? Following these questions, this paper, analyzing the collection of Confucius' sayings, the Analects, examines the cosmological dimension of Confucius' practical philosophy. -/- . (shrink)

Reinforcement Learning (RL) handles policy search problems: searching a mapping from state space to action space. However RL is based on gradient methods and as such, cannot deal with problems with multimodal landscape. In contrast, though Genetic Algorithm (GA) is promising to deal with them, it seems to be unsuitable for policy search problems from the viewpoint of the cost of evaluation. Minimal Generation Gap (MGG), used as a generation-alternation model in GA, generates many offspring from two or more parents (...) selected from a population. Therefore, evaluating policies of generated offspring requires much trial and error (i.e. interaction between an agent and an environment). In this paper, we incorporate importance sampling into the framework of MGG in order to reduce the cost of evaluation on policy search. The proposed techniques are applied to Markov Decision Process (MDP) with multimodal landscape. The experimental results show that these techniques can reduce the number of interaction between an agent and an environment, and also mean that MGG and importance sampling are good for each other. (shrink)

This essay examines the risks of racialized science as revealed in the American mustard gas experiments of World War II. In a climate of contested beliefs over the existence and meanings of racial differences, medical researchers examined the bodies of Japanese American, African American, and Puerto Rican soldiers for evidence of how they differed from whites.

Quelles sont nos fragilités ? Comment les distinguer ? Nous aident-elles à aimer ou, au contraire, sont-elles un obstacle à la rencontre d'autrui ? La philosophe répond à ces questions en situant les fragilités qui nous habitent et qui forment notre être profond. Elle s'arrête aussi aux fragilités plus subtiles, qui restent parfois cachées, mais qui nous font bien souvent souffrir. Elle nous guide enfin vers celles qui mettent en jeu nos désirs de réciprocité, nos langages de l'amour et nos (...) défensives psychologiques. -/- Dans la dernière partie du livre, l’auteure va à la rencontre de personnes fragilisées par le handicap ou la maladie. Qui n'a pas accompagné un être cher à l'hôpital jusqu'au moment de la séparation ultime ? À partir d'exemples concrets, de principes philosophiques de l'Antiquité et de la philosophie contemporaine, Gaëlle Fiasse nous livre une analyse capable de rejoindre tous ceux et celles qui portent une attention particulière à la fragilité de l'être humain. (shrink)

Quelles sont nos fragilités ? Comment les distinguer ? Nous aident-elles à aimer ou, au contraire, sont-elles un obstacle à la rencontre d'autrui ? La philosophe répond à ces questions en situant les fragilités qui nous habitent et qui forment notre être profond. Elle s'arrête aussi aux fragilités plus subtiles, qui restent parfois cachées, mais qui nous font bien souvent souffrir. Elle nous guide enfin vers celles qui mettent en jeu nos désirs de réciprocité, nos langages de l'amour et nos (...) défensives psychologiques. -/- Dans la dernière partie du livre, l’auteure va à la rencontre de personnes fragilisées par le handicap ou la maladie. Qui n'a pas accompagné un être cher à l'hôpital jusqu'au moment de la séparation ultime ? À partir d'exemples concrets, de principes philosophiques de l'Antiquité et de la philosophie contemporaine, Gaëlle Fiasse nous livre une analyse capable de rejoindre tous ceux et celles qui portent une attention particulière à la fragilité de l'être humain. (shrink)

For genetic algorithms, it is important to maintain the population diversity. Some genetic algorithms have been proposed, which have an ability to control the diversity. But these algorithms use the distance between two individuals to control the diversity. Therefore, these performances become worse on ill-scaled functions. In this paper, we propose a new genetic algorithm, DIDC(a genetic algorithm with Distance Independent Diversity Control), that does not use a distance to control the population diversity. For controlling the diversity, DIDC uses two (...) GAs that have different natures. For realizing different natures, one GA uses a crossover operator as a search operator, and the other GA uses a mutation operator in DIDC. By applying DIDC to several benchmark problems, we show that DIDC has a good performance on high dimensional, multimodal, non-separable and ill-scaled problems. Finally, we show that the control parameter of DIDC has the same effect on the search with the number of generating children n c. (shrink)

In this paper two models for movement of respiratory gases in the insect trachea are presented. One model considers the tracheal system as a single flexible compartment while the other model considers the trachea as a single flexible compartment with gas exchange. This work represents an extension of Ben-Tal’s work on compartmental gas exchange in human lungs and is applied to the insect tracheal system. The purpose of the work is to study nonlinear phenomena seen in the insect respiratory system. (...) It is assumed that the flow inside the trachea is laminar, and that the air inside the chamber behaves as an ideal gas. Further, with the isothermal assumption, the expressions for the tracheal partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide, rate of volume change, and the rates of change of oxygen concentration and carbon dioxide concentration are derived. The effects of some flow parameters such as diffusion capacities, reaction rates and air concentrations on net flow are studied. Numerical simulations of the tracheal flow characteristics are performed. The models developed provide a mathematical framework to further investigate gas exchange in insects. (shrink)

Comparative study on Hindu philosophical thoughts of Nāgārjuna, 1911-1998, Hindi and Maithili poet and Śaṅkarācārya, Hindu philosopher.