Fitness is a central but notoriously vexing concept in evolutionary biology. The propensity interpretation of fitness is often regarded as the least problematic account for fitness. It ties an individual's fitness to a probabilistic capacity to produce offspring. Fitness has a clear causal role in evolutionary dynamics under this account. Nevertheless, the propensity interpretation faces its share of problems. We discuss three of these. We first show that a single scalar value is an incomplete summary of a propensity. Second, we (...) argue that the widespread method of “abstracting away” environmental idiosyncrasies by averaging over reproductive output in different environments is not a valid approach when environmental changes are irreversible. Third, we point out that expanding the range of applicability for fitness measures by averaging over more environments or longer time scales (so as to ensure environmental reversibility) reduces one's ability to distinguish selectively relevant differences among individuals because of mutation and eco‐evolutionary feedbacks. This series of problems leads us to conclude that a general value of fitness that is both explanatory and predictive cannot be attained. We advocate for the use of propensity‐compatible methods, such as adaptive dynamics, which can accommodate these difficulties. (shrink)

Dans la crise mondiale, écologique et économique, sociale et politique que nous traversons, la coexistence juste et pacifique des hommes devient un enjeu crucial. L'ampleur des crimes commis au XXe siècle pourrait laisser sceptique quant à notre capacité à relever un tel défi. Pourtant, ce même siècle a vu surgir un recours nouveau : le pardon. Jusque-là privilège de la conscience religieuse individuelle, il s'est invité au plan politique, avec succès. Depuis 1950 en effet, de nombreux pays ont recouru au (...) pardon pour constituer un espace politique durable là où des violences destructrices avaient dominé. Trois cas attirent l'attention : l'Europe, les Commissions vérité et réconciliation et les instances juridiques internationales. Les contours d'un pardon politique se dessinent. En retour se pose la question de sa réception par chacun. La phénoménologie est convoquée : elle conduit à une distinction radicale entre coupables et victimes, privilégiant parmi elles les plus fragiles. L'herméneutique prend alors le relai d'une anthropologie devenue aporétique, esquissant avec le pardon, le geste par lequel l'homme advient. Dans ce parcours, Paul Ricoeur, interlocuteur privilégié, sera rejoint par d'autres : Jean Monnet, Maïti Girtanner, Hannah Arendt ou Simon Wiesenthal. (shrink)

L'avènement des théories modernes de la physique au XXe siècle a suscité des discussions acharnées autour de la causalité dans la nature. Les ruptures avec les conceptions classiques de la physique du me siècle, alors rendues nécessaires, et les nouvelles synthèses opérées, attestent du caractère problématique de cette notion telle que l'appréhende la science physique. Le présent travail analyse de près les conceptions de la causalité qui se dégagent de deux théories majeures, la théorie de la relativité (sous ses deux (...) formes) et la théorie quantique, en se centrant sur les écrits de leurs principaux fondateurs : Albert Einstein et Hermann Minkowski d'une part, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg et Erwin Schrödinger, de l'autre. Ceci sans négliger les aperçus indispensables donnés par les versions plus récentes de ces théories. Son but philosophique est de déterminer quelles sont les conceptions et les formes de la causalité qui sont engagées dans ces théories, quelle fonction exacte leur est conférée, et enfin jusqu'à quel point ces théorisations de la causalité se montrent capables de mettre à jour l'intelligibilité du monde. Il en ressort que le caractère idéal des catégorisations de la science physique empêche d'en faire une lecture directement réaliste. Ce qui invite à continuer d'interroger le discours scientifique afin de déterminer quelle connaissance effective il nous donne du monde."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This paper discusses the validity of nudges to tackle time-inconsistent behaviours. I show that libertarian paternalism is grounded on a peculiar model of personal identity, and that the argument according to which nudges may improve one’s self-assessed well-being can be seriously questioned. I show that time inconsistencies do not necessarily reveal that the decision maker is irrational: they can also be the result of discounting over the degree of psychological connectedness between our successive selves rather than over time. Time inconsistency (...) can call for paternalism if and only if we accept that an individual is characterised by stable “true” preferences over time-dependent outcomes, and that she is rationally required to make time-consistent choices. This model is descriptively and normatively questionable. I then argue that behavioural findings may still justify paternalistic interventions, but on a non-welfarist basis. (shrink)

Neoclassical economics assumes that individuals have stable and context-independent preferences, and uses preference satisfaction as a normative criterion. By calling this assumption into question, behavioural findings cause fundamental problems for normative economics. A common response to these problems is to treat deviations from conventional rational choice theory as mistakes, and to try to reconstruct the preferences that individuals would have acted on, had they reasoned correctly. We argue that this preference purification approach implicitly uses a dualistic model of the human (...) being, in which an inner rational agent is trapped in an outer psychological shell. This model is psychologically and philosophically problematic. (shrink)

Dans L’Homme faillible, Ricœur découvre, au cœur de l’homme, une faille. À cause d’elle, l’homme est fragile: il est fragile médiation de lui-même et du monde, médiation à faire et à refaire, au risque permanent de se défaire. C’est ainsi que l’homme fragile est aussi faillible. Dans Soi-même comme un autre, Ricœur revient sur cette faille qui passe au cœur de soi, entre l’idem et l’ipse, livrant accès à l’alter. Cette image, la faille, guide Ricœur dans chacun de ces deux (...) textes: elle nous donne accès à leur continuité mais aussi à l’écart qui les sépare. D’autre part, si cette image a inspiré l’œuvre de Ricœur, elle donne aussi de la critiquer: relisant la Symbolique du mal, nous mettrons en lumière une dimension de l’homme peu explorée par Ricœur et que notre actualité nous pousse à retrouver: le corps et le geste. (shrink)

The transmission of the craft and the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder have in common that they involve a relationship of act to act between the master and the apprentice on the one hand, and between the therapist and the patient on the other. Phenomenology has from the outset considered movement as inherent to the flesh: Hardy thus hypothesises that the origin of the flesh is a gesture. For all that, his description remains largely dependent on a flesh that is (...) primarily perceptive: this gesture can thus be qualified as an aesthetic gesture. But if the flesh is as much mobile as it is perceptive, would there not be another gesture that generates the flesh in movement that is not linked to perception? Housset takes a step in this direction and allows us to hypothesize the kinesic gesture which, alone, allows us to account for the two experiences mentioned above. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This study is an ethical reflection on the formulation and application of public policies regarding reproductive health in Brazil. The Integral Assistance Program for Women's Health (PAISM) can be considered advanced for a country in development. Universal access for family planning is foreseen in the Brazilian legislation, but the services do not offer contraceptive methods for the population in a regular and consistent manner. Abortion is restricted by law to two cases: risk to the woman's life and rape. This (...) reality favors the practice of unsafe abortion, which is the third largest cause of maternal death in Brazil. Legal abortion is regulated by the State and the procedure is performed in public health centers. However, there is resistance on the part of professionals to attend these women. Prenatal care is a priority strategy for promoting the quality of life of these women and of future generations. Nonetheless, it is still difficult for these women to access the prenatal care services and to have the required number of consultations. Moreover, managers and health professionals need to be made aware of the importance of implementing the actions indicated by the public policies in the area of sexual and reproductive health, favoring respect for autonomy in a context of personal freedom. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the debate about the utilization of new reproductive technologies in Brazil, and the paths taken in the Brazilian National Congress in an attempt to draw up legislation to regulate the clinical practice of human assisted reproduction. British documents, such as the Warnock Report and Human Fertilization and Embriology Authority (HFEA) are used for thorough reference. The analysis of the Law Projects in the National Congress, the Resolution by the Federal Medicine Council, Resolution 196/96 and documents by (...) the Ministério Público (Public Prosecution Office), suppled the bases for the discussion. The principal question involved is the observation of different technical and moral prientations that influence the conduct of the issue in the legislative process. It is possible to observe that the main focus of the projects relates to the rights and interests of the children, to those possibly benefited by the technique and to embryo reduction. Very little attention has been directed to the issues of sexual and reproductive rights and to the health of the women submitted to the new reproductive techologies. (shrink)

Neste livro, novos desafios da ética em pesquisa com seres humanos são explorados pelos autores - da pesquisa com populações vulneráveis às pesquisas em Ciências Sociais. Dentre os destaques da obra está o caso do Sangue Yanomami e a pesquisa antropológica e genética conduzida nos anos 1970.

We propose a methodology for normative evaluation when preferences are context-dependent. We offer a precise definition of context-dependence and formulate a normative criterion of self-determination, according to which one situation is better than another if individuals are aware of more potential contexts of a choice problem. We provide two interpretations of our normative approach: an extension of Sugden’s opportunity criterion and an application of Sen’s positional views in his theory of justice. Our proposition is consistent with Muldoon’s and Gaus’ approaches (...) of public reason in social contract theory, which account for the diversity of perspectives in non-ideal worlds. (shrink)

This study is an ethical reflection on the formulation and application of public policies regarding reproductive health in Brazil. The Integral Assistance Program for Women's Health (PAISM) can be considered advanced for a country in development. Universal access for family planning is foreseen in the Brazilian legislation, but the services do not offer contraceptive methods for the population in a regular and consistent manner. Abortion is restricted by law to two cases: risk to the woman's life and rape. This reality (...) favors the practice of unsafe abortion, which is the third largest cause of maternal death in Brazil. Legal abortion is regulated by the State and the procedure is performed in public health centers. However, there is resistance on the part of professionals to attend these women. Prenatal care is a priority strategy for promoting the quality of life of these women and of future generations. Nonetheless, it is still difficult for these women to access the prenatal care services and to have the required number of consultations. Moreover, managers and health professionals need to be made aware of the importance of implementing the actions indicated by the public policies in the area of sexual and reproductive health, favoring respect for autonomy in a context of personal freedom. (shrink)

Reproductive division of labor has been proposed to play a key role for evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs). This chapter provides a guide to a theoretical model that addresses the role of a tradeoff between life-history traits in selecting for a reproductive division of labor during the transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms. In particular, it focuses on the five key assumptions of the model, namely (1) fitness is viability times fecundity; (2) collective traits are linear functions of their cellular (...) counterparts; (3) there is a tradeoff between cell viability and fecundity; (4) cell contribution to the collective is optimal; and (5) there is an initial reproductive cost in large collectives. Thereafter the chapter contrasts two interpretations of the model in the context of ETIs. Originally, the model was interpreted as showing that during the transition to multicellularity the fitness of the lower-level (the cells) is “transferred” to the higher level (the collective). Despite its apparent intuitiveness, fitness transfer may obscure actual mechanisms in metaphorical language. Thus, an alternative and more conservative interpretation of the model that focuses on cell traits and the evolutionary constraints that link them is advocated. In addition, it allows for pursuing subsequent questions, such as the evolution of development. (shrink)

A common narrative among some behavioural economists and policy makers is that experimental psychology highlights that individuals are more like Homer Simpson than the Mr Spock imagined by neoclassical economics, and that this justifies policies aiming to ‘correct’ individual behaviours. This narrative is central to nudging policies and suggests that a better understanding of individual cognition will lead to better policy prescriptions. I argue that this Homer economicus narrative is methodologically flawed, and that its emphasis on cognition advances a distorted (...) view of public policies consisting in fixing malfunctioning individuals, while ignoring the characteristics of the socio-economic environment that influence individuals’ behaviours. (shrink)

This note replies to a comment by Daniel Hausman on our paper ‘Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics’. We clarify our characterisation of behavioural welfare economics and acknowledge that Hausman does fully endorse this approach. However, we argue that Hausman’s response to our critique, like behavioural welfare economics itself, implicitly uses a model of an inner rational agent.

Introduction The Brazilian national curriculum guidelines for undergraduate medicine courses inspired and influenced the groundwork for knowledge acquisition, skills development and the perception of ethical values in the context of professional conduct. Objective The evaluation of ethics education in research involving human beings in undergraduate medicine curriculum in Brazil, both in courses with active learning processes and in those with traditional lecture learning methodologies. Methods Curricula and teaching projects of 175 Brazilian medical schools were analyzed using a retrospective historical and (...) descriptive exploratory cohort study. Thirty one medical schools were excluded from the study because of incomplete information or a refusal to participate. Active research for information from institutional sites and documents was guided by terms based on 69 DeCS/MeSH descriptors. Curriculum information was correlated with educational models of learning such as active learning methodologies, tutorial discussions with integrated curriculum into core modules, and traditional lecture learning methodologies for large classes organized by disciplines and reviewed by occurrence frequency of ethical themes and average hourly load per semester. Results Ninety-five medical schools used traditional learning methodologies. The ten most frequent ethical themes were: 1 – ethics in research (26); 2 – ethical procedures and advanced technology (46); 3 – ethic-professional conduct (413). Over 80% of schools using active learning methodologies had between 50 and 100 hours of scheduled curriculum time devoted to ethical themes whereas more than 60% of traditional learning methodology schools devoted less than 50 hours in curriculum time to ethical themes. Conclusion The data indicates that medical schools that employ more active learning methodologies provide more attention and time to ethical themes than schools with traditional discipline-based methodologies. Given the importance of ethical issues in contemporary medical education, these findings are significant for curriculum change and modification plans in the future of Brazilian medical education. (shrink)

As a form of functional diversity, spinal cord injury expressed by tetraplegia is one of the most serious events that can impact people, affecting their family and socioeconomic life. The type of care relationship established in these cases will be essential for preserving autonomy. The objective of this study was to understand how care relationships influence the autonomy of people with tetraplegia and the dynamics that trigger practices of autonomy violation, maintenance and promotion. This research is inspired by problematization as (...) a methodology using the Arch of Maguerez as an analytical approach strategy that enables an engagement between empirical and theoretical data. Some models of care relationships identified in this study either promote or violate autonomy: the protectionist model, based on the biomedical interpretation model of disability and the bodily impediments caused by spinal cord injury; the participatory model, involving the patient's interest in adapting to their new condition of family and community life, seeking to understand the practical aspects of daily life; the sharing model, in which the complicity and understanding of new forms of bodily expression allow the caregiver to be almost an extension of the tetraplegic person's body; the delegate model, which occurs in relationships with professional caregivers; and the emancipatory model, which seeks to empower the patient, highlight potentialities, and encourage autonomy. The key components of these conceptual care models guided the elaboration of hypotheses for intervention with the objective of maintaining and promoting the autonomy of people with tetraplegia through supported care. (shrink)

Ethics in research became a central theme regarding globalization of the scientific development, particularly when related to the socioeconomic conditions of the countries involved as partners in research protocols, production of inputs and of knowledge. The objective of this paper is to analyze the sources of information about ethics in research present at Scientific Electronic Library Online. Methodologically, this is an exploratory study was carried out by the systematic analysis of the literature available. The search engines retrieved 885 summaries, from (...) which 170 were analyzed. The first publication was dated from 1996 and it could be identified the mention to international documents about research in humans. Since 2002 there has been an increase of publications related to the gain of legitimacy of the topic in academy. As a conclusion, although the amount is not huge, the manuscripts presented great impact as they stimulated debates and produced scientific knowledge on the topic. It can be observed that ethics in research has outcome the biomedical field, being inserted in other fields of knowledge. (shrink)

À travers l'analyse d'exemples ethnographiques, la question posée fut de savoir si la séduction a besoin d'un rituel pour se réaliser. Défini comme des modèles de conduite, le rituel engendre une codification et une répétitivité des comportements des acteurs sociaux. Le rituel comporte une transmission d'informations codifiées selon des normes, qui s'applique à la séduction. La séduction se construit sur une invention de l'individu par lui-même, dans l'image qu'il choisit d'endosser afin de susciter un lien avec l'autre sexe. Mode spécifique (...) de communication, la séduction s'élabore sur un acte de parole et une attitude gestuelle prise dans le sens d'un positionnement particulier du corps. Pour créer une mise en scène de soi, l'individu se sert durant l'interaction sociale d'attitudes rituelles et de représentations normatives. Elle a besoin du rituel pour pouvoir être performative et déchiffrée par le récepteur; sans le rituel, elle serait incompréhensible ou mal interprétée par le destinataire du message. Dans la séduction, on peut conclure que le rituel mis en oeuvre relève à la fois de l'auto-séduction, de la théâtralisation et de la mimesis.Through the analysis of ethnographic examples, the question was whether the seduction needed to perform a ritual. Defined as behavior patterns, ritual creates a codification and repetitive behaviors of social actors. The ritual involves the transmission of information coded according to standards which apply to seduction. Seduction is built on an invention by the individual himself in the image he chooses to endorse in order to create a link with the other sex. Specific mode of communication, seduction is developed on an act of speech and gestural attitude taken in the sense of a particular position of the body. To create a staging itself, the individual uses during social interaction ritual attitudes and normative representations. She needs to be performative ritual and decrypted by the receiver without the ritual, it would be incomprehensible or misinterpreted by the recipient. In seduction, we can conclude that the ritual is implemented both self-seduction, and theatrical mimesis. (shrink)

We argue that a Bayesian explanation of strategic choices in games requires introducing a psychological theory of belief formation. We highlight that beliefs in epistemic game theory are derived from the actual choice of the players, and cannot therefore explain why Bayesian rational players should play the strategy they actually chose. We introduce the players’ capacity of mindreading in a game theoretical framework with the simulation theory, and characterise the beliefs that Bayes rational players could endogenously form in games. We (...) show in particular that those beliefs need not be ratifiable, and therefore that rational players can form action-dependent beliefs. (shrink)

In this article the authors briefly sketch the nature of Brazilian bioethics. Bioethics emerged in Brazil later than in other Western countries and the 1990’s were the most important period for the spread of the discipline in the country. It is in this period that some structural elements of bioethics were established, such as research groups, regulation of Local Research Ethics Committees (Comitês Locais de Ética em Pesquisa – CEP), the creation of the National Commission of Ethics in Research with (...) Human Beings (Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa com Seres Humanos – CONEP) and the Brazilian Bioethics Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Bioética – SBB). With regard to theoretical work, Brazilian bioethics is clearly an importer of theories from countries central to the studies of bioethics, or, in another words, countries where bioethics first emerged and was established. The most commonly used theory among Brazilian researchers is principlism. (shrink)

The evolution of complex life forms, such as multicellular organisms, is the result of a number of evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs). Several attempts have been made to explain their origins, many of which have been internalist (i.e., based largely on internal properties of these life form's ancestors). Here, we show how an externalist perspective, via the ecological scaffolding model in which properties of complex life forms arise from an external scaffold, can shed new light on the question of ETIs. (...) Ultimately, we anticipate progress in the field will occur by recognizing the importance of both the internalist and externalist modes of explanation for ETIs. We illustrate this by considering an extension of the ecological scaffolding model by niche construction in which particles modify the environment which later becomes the scaffold giving rise to collective-level individuality. (shrink)

El Foro Global de Bioética en Investigación (GFBR por sus siglas en inglés) se reunió el 3 y 4 de noviembre en Buenos Aires, Argentina, con el objetivo de discutir la ética de la investigación con mujeres embarazadas. El GFBR es una plataforma mundial que congrega a actores clave con el objetivo de promover la investigación realizada de manera ética, fortalecer la ética de la investigación en salud, particularmente en países de ingresos bajos y medios, y promover colaboración entre países (...) del norte y del sur.a Los participantes en el GFBR provenientes de Latinoamérica incluyeron a eticistas, investigadores, miembros de comités de ética y representantes de autoridades sanitarias provenientes de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Perú, Nicaragua y la República Dominicana. Una legítima preocupación por la protección de las mujeres embarazadas y sus embriones o fetos ha llevado a la mayoría de los países de la Región de las Américas a limitar la realización de estudios con mujeres embarazadas exclusivamente a aquellos estudios específicos sobre el embarazo, y a requerir la exclusión sistemática de las mujeres embarazadas o de las mujeres que quedan embarazadas en el curso del estudio. Ciertamente, a lo largo de la historia de la ética de la investigación, se ha creído erróneamente que proteger a una población es sinónimo de excluirla de los estudios. Se sabe ahora que proceder así implica exponer a riesgos mucho mayores a la población que se busca proteger. El embarazo implica cambios fisiológicos sustantivos e impacta profundamente la manera como el cuerpo metaboliza los medicamentos. Sin embargo, por evitar hacer investigación con mujeres embarazadas, no se ha producido la evidencia científica necesaria para tomar decisiones sobre tratamientos e intervenciones preventivas con dosis eficaces y seguras para ellas y sus embriones o fetos. A manera de ilustración, en el 2001 había en los Estados Unidos apenas más de una docena de medicamentos aprobados para uso en el embarazo (1) y en el 2011 la Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aprobó por primera vez en 15 años un medicamento para su uso en el embarazo (2). Como consecuencia de no haber producido la evidencia necesaria, se pone en riesgo la salud de las mujeres embarazadas cada vez que se les da atención médica. Las mujeres embarazadas se enferman y las mujeres enfermas se embarazan, y no se sabe si los medicamentos que se les da son eficaces o siquiera seguros para ellas y sus embriones o fetos. (shrink)

Doctors Pratt and de Vries propose a well-structured and courageous approach to analyse and repair an insufficiently recognised discussion about epistemologies and knowledge production in bioethics.1 The authors invite researchers, scholars, public health experts and bioethicists from the global North to reflect about their lack of imagination regarding different sources of narratives produced by the global South. There is a critical analysis of injustices and an urgent call for global bioethicists to reorient their field and focus on the analysis and (...) development of ethical interventions to achieve a comprehensive epistemic justice for global health ethics. Feminist bioethicists from the global South already argued about the importance of the voices and biographies of the people and groups in the communities to reframe the bioethical reasoning regarding the meaning of individual’s needs during public health and humanitarian emergencies.2 Over a decade ago, Diniz and Guilhem described the role and goal of feminist bioethics in Latin America, shaped in an oppressive context promoted and created by …. (shrink)

Jusqu’à récemment, les deux textes écrits par Georges Canguilhem sur l’écologie restaient peu connus. Aujourd’hui, ils sont réunis dans le tome V des Œuvres complètes. Chez Can-guilhem, le sujet de l’écologie est intrinsèquement lié aux concepts de technique et de milieu, dont la généalogie théorique remonte à ses premiers ouvrages des années 1930. Ce qui éclaire ces questions : l’être humain doit-il renoncer aux techniques pour restaurer un équilibre supposé avec la nature, ne serait-il pas plutôt nécessaire de rendre (...) à ses besoins leur priorité sur les intérêts économiques? (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Journal of Aesthetic Education 39.1 (2005) 77-92 [Access article in PDF] Art and the Teaching of Love Didier Maleuvre Art is rightly thought to be the domain of expression and illusion. It is expression because every work of art, however stone-faced or impersonal in aspect, is the product of human intention. And it is illusion because, however concrete, vivid, or raw, it holds up only images. These two (...) points — that art is expression and fiction — are deeply entrenched in the modern understanding of art. They are the twin pillars of our aesthetics.In the following I wish to argue that this focus on the expressive and the representative eclipse the most important dynamic of art — what I propose to call the communicative and the iconoclastic. By the former, I mean that art is primarily, not a subjectivity giving shape to a private vision, but a form of sanctifying the human conversation, that is, the encounter between subjectivities; by the latter, I mean to suggest that art is an image that paradoxically strives to go beyond the realm of images. On this account we will see that an image is artistic to the extent that it breaks through representation.Briefly put, art has a destination beyond itself. One should not imagine, as postmodernism ruled ex officio, that the essence of art is formal or social self-reflectivity. Certainly, self-mirroring occurs in art, but no more or less than in any act of intelligence. Moreover, it is not enough to affix tokens of self-consciousness onto an object to turn it into art. The aim of art is not art. Its destination is elsewhere; its aim is reality encountered and lived with.And the vehicle by which art travels into reality is not just skill, insight, knowledge, or intelligence. It is love. To defend these two propositions will be the gist of the following essay.The aim of education is rightly thought to be knowledge of the world. Knowledge, however, is of two kinds: one is concerned with storage of facts, the other with modes of relating to the world. The first is a technical pursuit; the second, moral practice. The sort of education fostered by art clearly belongs with the second sort. Art is less concerned with delivering [End Page 77] information about the world than teaching us about how to stand in relation to it, how to find our place in it, and live with it: through art we do not seek to master the world so much as become its denizens. It is a teaching of love. Art, Mind, and Reality Now, the idea that art is religious embrace of reality runs against a powerful philosophic doctrine: the idea, known as subjectivism — that the human mind is kept from reality by its own knowledge of reality. We perceive reality only through mental representations. I see a tree, I hear laughter, I taste tea. When my mind alights on these objects, they have already been retouched and recomposed by my senses. By the time I am aware of them, I have reordered the perceptual datum into the concepts of "tree," "laugher," "tea." So we really deal with conceptual images of things, even when those things fall on our head like rain, or trip us like an untied shoelace.Subjectivism takes art to be proof of its doctrine. No two artists have transposed the same landscape or object in exactly the same hues and forms. Monet may have wanted to put in his paintings only what the retina mirrored; still, in the end he painted like no other before him and an indisputable infusion of the Monet personality stamps his paintings. Likewise there is a Titian "take" on reality that is not Rubens's, a Constable way of painting gray watery skies that is not Corot's, or again a Twombly way of rendering the four seasons that is nothing like Vivaldi's. This, then, should be where art's commitment to reality expires — on the evidence that no two artworks have ever been able to... (shrink)

This article studies Paul Valéry's personal reflection on photography, as it appears in his essay ?Le Discours du Centenaire de la Photographie,? based on a speech given at the Sorbonne in 1939 to members of the French Academy. It stresses the relationship between this essay and the French poet's writings on painting and aesthetics, in particular his work on Corot. Moreover, it analyzes the synthetic character of Valéry's critical approach, which attempts to bring together the language of poetry, philosophy (...) and science when dealing with this utterly modern visual language. Photography is celebrated here as a unique art form that can at the same time imitate and reproduce nature perfectly, while allowing mankind to create a cosmological vision of life and the universe. In other words, the poet underlines in this text the utmost modernity of photography, at a time when many in France were still reluctant to acknowledge its artistic identity. (shrink)