Pregnancy and motherhood bring enormous change to one’s life. As a student of philosophy, I have struggled to find a place for myself, as a new mother, in academic life. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness examines human consciousness -- it places human experience as the starting point of philosophical inquiry. This approaches the sort of place I think human experience should rest in philosophy. If I am to claim that motherhood is academically significant, surely, this examination must begin with an (...) examination of human experience. This paper tries to root my experience of pregnancy as something that I think is academically interesting. It was through writing this paper that I found myself hopeful that my becoming a mother was not the end of my academic career, but rather presents an interesting and important new path in my philosophical journey. (shrink)

The present text comments on Steel 2005 , in which the author claims to extend from the deterministic to the general case, the result according to which the causal Markov condition is satisfied by systems with jointly independent exogenous variables. I show that Steel’s claim cannot be accepted unless one is prepared to abandon standard causal modeling terminology. Correlatively, I argue that the most fruitful aspect of Steel 2005 consists in a realist conception of error terms, and I show how (...) this conception sheds new light on the relationship between determinism and the causal Markov condition. †To contact the author, please write to: Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place du Cardinal Mercier 14, 1348 Louvain la Neuve, Belgium; e‐mail: isabelle[email protected]. (shrink)

In this paper, I engage with the motif of “the pluriverse” such as it has increasingly been used in the past few years in several strands of critical humanities pertaining to the so-called “ontological turn”: science and technology studies (Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers), critical geography and political ontology (Mario Blaser), cultural anthropology (Marisol de la Cadena, Arturo Escobar, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro), decolonial thought (Walter Mignolo), or posthuman feminism (Donna Haraway). These various iterations of the figure of the pluriverse (...) constitute a loose network of textual traces, a supposedly new scene for ‘humanities’, organized around what is understood as a pluralistic ontology. In political terms, the discourse of the pluriverse presents itself as a strategic response to the violence of universalism. It advocates for a multiversal ethics, a pluriversal cosmopolitics based on interspecies and multi-natural kinships, and more aware of the multiplicity of worlds and world-making practices that make up the post-globalization scene. Based on readings of Bruno Latour, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Arturo Escobar and Marisol de la Cadena among others, I argue that the notion of pluriversality remains self-contradictory and self-defeating as long as it relies on an ontological representation of world/worlds in the form of copresence. Drawing on Derrida’s deconstruction of the concept of world (cosmos, mundus) in his late writings, I propose to think an exorbitant plurality, before the pluriverse and before being. Beyond ontological pluralism, Derrida’s “infinity of untranslatable worlds” also signifies an irreducible interruption, the end of the world, of any “world-in-common”, thus raising the stakes for the ethical demand towards the other. (shrink)

Things metaphysics can learn from physics Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9515-z Authors Isabelle Drouet, Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place du cardinal Mercier 14, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

The theoretical framework of this research is the vocational pedagogy theory (Pastré, 2011) in a comparative perspective (Sensevy, Mercier & Schubauer-Leoni, 2000). This paper aims to describe some results of a qualitative research. The subject is one student of a Teacher Training University in Switzerland. The focus is the analysis of work activity of this student during his training in a primary school in order to understand the relationship between the different contracts (didactic and training). The results of this (...) research showed a gap between what the student wants to teach and what he knows about this knowledge. It results an activity centered more on doing than on learning. (shrink)

Based on an extensive review of the literature and field surveys, the paper proposes a conceptualization and operationalization of corporate citizenship meaningful in two countries: the United States and France. A survey of 210 American and 120 French managers provides support for the proposed definition of corporate citizenship as a construct including the four correlated factors of economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary citizenship. The managerial implications of the research and directions for future research are discussed.

This article examines how the Kashmiri non-dualistic Śaiva philosophers Utpaladeva (tenth century) and Abhinavagupta (10th–11th centuries) present and criticize a theory expounded by certain Buddhist philosophers, identified by the two Śaiva authors as Sautrāntikas. According to this theory, no entity external to consciousness can ever be perceived since perceived objects are nothing but internal aspects (ākāra) of consciousness. Nonetheless we must infer the existence of external entities so as to account for the fact that consciousness is aware of a variety (...) of objects: just as a mirror takes on a variegated appearance only by reflecting a multiplicity of objects that remain external to it, in the same way, phenomenal variety can be explained only by assuming the existence of various objects external to consciousness. In Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikās I, 5, 8–9 and their commentaries, Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta endeavour to criticize this theory, which challenges their own idealistic principles: according to them, the Sautrāntikas’ inference is neither legitimate nor even possible. The passage is particularly telling as regards the strategy developed by Pratyabhijñā philosophers with respect to their Buddhist opponents: they make use of certain arguments propounded by Dharmakīrti in defense of Vijñānavāda in order to criticize the Sautrāntikas’ inference, but they also exploit this discussion to underline the superiority of their idealism over that of the Vijñānavādins. (shrink)

Cet article présente le dispositif de formation et ses objectifs ainsi que l’analyse d’écrits réflexifs produits dans le cadre des travaux certificatifs et dans lesquels les participantes décrivent quelques-uns des effets de la formation sur leurs pratiques professionnelles.

Dans le cadre d’une ouverture des frontières à l’échelle internationale, la question de la résidence à prévoir au sens légal est d’une importance cruciale. En effet, le statut juridique est devenu un incontournable dans les discussions sur la liberté de circulation, avec le système migratoire que nous connaissons aujourd’hui, gouverné par un contrôle strict et stratifié selon le type de migrant. Le présent article vise à examiner les manifestations contemporaines de ce contrôle et à formuler des pistes de solution sur (...) le type de droit de résidence à prévoir advenant une ouverture des frontières. Nous explorerons tout d’abord les fondements de la liberté de circulation et des protections juridiques pour les migrants, pour ensuite passer en revue le traitement des résidents non citoyens dans l’expérience canadienne et américaine, dans celle de l’Union européenne et dans le cadre des phénomènes de migrations Sud-Sud afin de faire un compte-rendu pour résoudre la question portée en titre. En conclusion, une synthèse des observations sera effectuée pour tenter de réconcilier la notion de résidence avec le droit à la libre circulation. (shrink)

Bien que l’évolution du droit se soit traduite pour l’essentiel par une libéralisation des règles d’organisation de la famille, une analyse en terme de contractualisation de la famille est excessive. Certes, les couples peuvent se former et se défaire relativement librement, mais le pouvoir de la volonté reste limité, qu’il s’agisse des couples mais aussi et surtout des enfants. En effet, la volonté ne permet pas de dépasser certaines normes communes (conditions de validité du mariage). Elle est par ailleurs impuissante (...) pour suppléer l’absence de règles adaptées à certaines formes d’organisation familiale (familles recomposées). Son rôle a même reculé, au nom de l’égalité, lorsqu’il s’agit de donner une place aux enfants dans la famille (filiation). (shrink)

According to Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, a subject who has freed himself from the bondage of individuality is necessarily compassionate, and his action, necessarily altruistic. This article explores the paradoxical aspects of this statement; for not only does it seem contradictory with the Pratyabhijñā’s non-dualism (how can compassion and altruism have any meaning if the various subjects are in fact a single, all-encompassing Self?)—it also implies a subtle shift in meaning as regards the very notion of compassion ( karuṇā, kr̥pā ), (...) since according to the two Śaivas, compassion does not result from the awareness of the others’ pain ( duḥkha )—as in Buddhism—but from the awareness of one’s own bliss ( ānanda ). The article thus shows that in spite of their radical criticism of traditional ethical categories such as merit ( dharma ) and demerit ( adharma ), the two Śaiva philosophers still make use of ethical categories, but not without pro- foundly transforming them. (shrink)

The question of universalism and relativism is often taken to be a matter of critical reflexivity. This article attempts to present the question instead as a matter of practical, political, and always-situated concern. The attempt starts from the consideration of modern experimental sciences. These sciences usually serve as the stronghold for universalist claims and as such are a target of relativism. It is argued that the specificity of these sciences is not a method but a concern. To be able to (...) claim that they have not unilaterally imposed their definitions on the phenomena they study is the leading concern of experimenters and should be understood in terms of the following achievement: the creation of a very particular “rapport” that authorizes claiming that what is operationally defined “lends itself” to this correlation. Linking knowledge production with a creation of rapports entails a pluralization of sciences along with the pluralization of modes of concern associated with the rapport. However, resisting unilaterally imposed definitions is not enough, since with the coming “knowledge economy” the questions that this article raises will soon be part of a romantic past. Thus it concludes with a speculative touch, which may be a requiem, relating the creation of rapports with an ecology of practices akin to William James's always-under-construction pluriverse. (shrink)

The Īśvarapratyabhijñā treatise—an important philosophical text composed in Kashmir in the 10th century CE by the Śaiva nondualist Utpaladeva—remains partly unavailable to date: a crucial component of this work, namely the detailed commentary (Vivṛti or Ṭīkā) in which Utpaladeva explained his own verses, is considered as almost entirely lost, since only a small part of it has been preserved in a single, very incomplete manuscript remarkably edited and translated by Raffaele Torella. However, our knowledge of the Vivṛti is quickly expanding: (...) many additional fragments have recently come to light. The article gives an overview of these new findings while highlighting the most interesting of them, i.e. the discovery of the lengthiest Vivṛti fragment known to date in the margins of a manuscript containing Abhinavagupta’s Vivṛtivimarśinī. It also provides an edition and translation of the beginning of this fragment. (shrink)

En los años 1976 y 1977, la literatura parece tener una nueva función para Michel Foucault. Después de haberla considerado como un «pensamiento del fuera» en su análisis de Blanchot, que permitía huir del discurso, como línea de escape, Foucault, mientras afirma ya no interesarse por la literatura, sigue trabajando con ella de manera implícita y define otra manera de hacer con ella. Primero cambia la definición que le atribuía, con Roland Barthes: lo literario se hace «escritura» y alcanza lo (...) ético; por otra parte se presenta como una «forma de vivir», y en particular con el ejemplo de la escritura de sí mismo de Mauriac, que aparece como una práctica de subjetivación. Así, este artículo se propone estudiar esos años, para poner de relieve la inflexión que se trama en el pensamiento de Foucault a propósito de lo literario, al mismo tiempo que analiza las prácticas de sí de la Antigüedad. (shrink)

Nous proposons dans le cadre de cet article de penser à nouveaux frais la notion de témoignage à partir des travaux de Michel Foucault sur les pratiques de soi, en particulier dans les derniers cours au Collège de France. L’analyse du témoignage, dans ce cadre ne relève plus alors uniquement des études littéraires et remet en question la catégorie de « genre littéraire » affectée au témoignage. Il procède davantage d’un processus de subjectivation éthique qu’il s’agit d’appréhender à la lisière (...) de la philosophie et de la littérature. À partir d’un corpus de témoignages rendant compte de l’expérience concentrationnaire, il s’agira de mettre en évidence comment les derniers travaux de Michel Foucault fournissent des éléments pour penser cette notion transversale et déplacent le cadre épistémologique sur un terrain éthopoiétique. (shrink)

Advances in commercialism, materialism, and especially the exponential growth of telecommunication and social media, have dramatically altered the way human beings relate to one another and their environment. New means for providing access to education have arisen including online courses and programs thereby enhancing opportunities for participation in educational offerings and collaborative exchanges across the globe. This paper proposes to examine the online learning and its connection to the ultimate principle governing the values—integrity.

New paradigms in the psychology of reasoning have included a consideration for general contextual factors that may impact on the reasoning process, including individuals’ goals and motivations. We suggest that emotions are one such important contextual factor that influences reasoning. The classic literature on thinking and reasoning has typically ignored the possible influence of emotion, except to consider it a source of disruption. We review findings from studies where participants were asked to reason about personally relevant emotional experiences such as (...) sexual abuse, war, and terrorist attacks. While some findings are consistent with the view that incidental emotions have a deleterious effect on reasoning, a number of findings also suggest a beneficial impact of emotion. For instance, veterans reasoned more logically about combat-related syllogisms than structurally identical syllogisms with neutral contents; victims of sexual abuse reporting more negative emotions following the events also reasoned more logically on abuse-related contents, relative to neutral contents. This may be associated with integral emotions, when the affective reaction is relevant to the semantic contents reasoned about. We propose that the positive impact of integral emotions on reasoning can be explained by increased utility of problem content and increased utility of reasoning. (shrink)

"The Invention of Modern Science proposes a fruitful way of going beyond the apparently irreconcilable positions, that science is either "objective" or "socially constructed." Instead, suggests Isabelle Stengers, one of the most important and influential philosophers of science in Europe, we might understand the tension between scientific objectivity and belief as a necessary part of science, central to the practices invented and reinvented by scientists."--pub. desc.

Name der Zeitschrift: Das Mittelalter Jahrgang: 19 Heft: 1 Seiten: 1-4.

Name der Zeitschrift: Das Mittelalter Jahrgang: 23 Heft: 1 Seiten: 1-6.

In the history of metaphysics the position of John Duns Scotus is of major significance. Scotus argues that a univocal concept of being qua being serves as the subject of metaphysics. But the question remains whether this ought to be a concept of being which is so common that it even includes both real and mental being. Scotus himself opts for metaphysics as a real science by excluding the ens rationis from it. How did his pupils receive this doctrine? Do (...) they conform with the interpretation of metaphysics as a real science or do they consider being to be «supertranscendental», i.e., as being common to real as well as mental being and even transcending the transcendentals in the sense of a mere something? For these questions, the position of the Franciscan Nicolaus Bonetus , probably a pupil of Scotus’, is of great importance because he indeed defends the innovative position — almost completely unknown today — that ‘being’ is univocal to real and mental being. Here I present and interpret this metaphysical thesis of Bonetus, his sources and consequences. For this purpose I also draw on by John P. Doyle’s studies on the supertranscendental, which are dedicated to finding the missing link between medieval and Kantian conceptions of metaphysics. (shrink)

BackgroundInnovations in technology have contributed to rapid changes in the way that modern biomedical research is carried out. Researchers are increasingly required to endorse adaptive and flexible approaches to accommodate these innovations and comply with ethical, legal and regulatory requirements. This paper explores how Dynamic Consent may provide solutions to address challenges encountered when researchers invite individuals to participate in research and follow them up over time in a continuously changing environment.MethodsAn interdisciplinary workshop jointly organised by the University of Oxford (...) and the COST Action CHIP ME gathered clinicians, researchers, ethicists, lawyers, research participants and patient representatives to discuss experiences of using Dynamic Consent, and how such use may facilitate the conduct of specific research tasks. The data collected during the workshop were analysed using a content analysis approach.ResultsDynamic Consent can provide practical, sustainable and future-proof solutions to challenges related to participant recruitment, the attainment of informed consent, participant retention and consent management, and may bring economic efficiencies.ConclusionsDynamic Consent offers opportunities for ongoing communication between researchers and research participants that can positively impact research. Dynamic Consent supports inter-sector, cross-border approaches and large scale data-sharing. Whilst it is relatively easy to set up and maintain, its implementation will require that researchers re-consider their relationship with research participants and adopt new procedures. (shrink)

EDUCATION ON AFFECTIVE AND SEXUAL LIFE AT SCHOOL The French education system circular 2003 recomends three yearly sessions of education on affective and sex life in schools. While such sessions are increasingly being organised in response to a media buzz, now is perhaps the time to look back at their original justification and see how nowadays they can have meaning for young people. The author, who is a marital and family guidance counsellor responsible for this type of intervention, shows, with (...) a few supporting examples, the significance of the background, the time devoted and the ability to listen for dialogue and joint thinking on this issue to be initiated. (shrink)

L’objectif de cet article est de faire le point sur le programme de recherche PFC (« Phonologie du français contemporain : usages, variétés et structure »), plus de quinze ans après son lancement et d’illustrer le travail mené dans ce cadre par la question du schwa, phénomène bien connu dans le domaine de la variation phonologique et central à la phonologie du français. Après avoir brièvement présenté le programme, nous abordons la question du schwa en français et expliquons son traitement (...) dans PFC. Nous illustrons ensuite le travail effectué en nous penchant tout d’abord sur les variétés méridionales, que nous opposons aux variétés septentrionales, avant d’aborder la question du schwa dans les variétés suisses romandes. (shrink)

Abhinavagupta is undoubtedly the most famous Kashmirian medieval intellectual: his decisive contributions to Indian aesthetics, Saiva theology, and metaphysics, and to the philosophy of the subtle and original Pratyabhijna system, are well known. Yet so far his works have often been studied without fully taking into account the specific historical, social, artistic, religious, and philosophical context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this book is to show that this intellectual background is no less exceptional than Abhinavagupta himself. (Series: (...) Leipzig Studies on the Culture and History of South and Central Asia / Leipziger Studien zu Kultur und Geschichte Sud- und Zentralasiens, Vol. 6) [Subject: History, Abhinavagupta, India Studies, Religious Studies]. (shrink)

Les travaux de Régine Le Jan sur la société du haut Moyen Âge ont, par leurs thématiques et leurs approches souvent novatrices, fortement marqué la recherche française et internationale depuis une trentaine d’années. Pour rendre hommage à l’importance de son œuvre, ses élèves, collègues et amis chercheurs lui ont consacré, non pas un, mais deux ouvrages collectifs afin de couvrir l’ensemble de ses thèmes de recherche. Le présent volume constitue le 2e volet de ces Mélanges et comprend trente...

La citation récurrente de Sg 9, 15 : « Le corps qui se corrompt appesantit l’âme et sa demeure de terre accable l’esprit aux multiples pensées », dans le corpus augustinien, semble être l’indice d’un mépris du corps, hérité de la tradition platonicienne du corps-prison. De fait, dans ses premières œuvres, Augustin cite Sg 9, 15 pour affirmer que le corps est un obstacle à la contemplation de la vérité. Mais, dans ses œuvres ultérieures, il utilise Sg 9, 15 pour (...) établir, contre les platoni­ciens, que le corps n’est pas la prison de l’âme et que le poids du corps est à imputer, non au corps lui-même, mais à sa corruptibilité : il n’y a donc pas à « fuir tout corps », comme le veut Porphyre. Face à Julien d’Éclane, enfin, il souligne, en citant Sg 9, 15, que la condition peineuse de l’homme aujourd’hui n’est pas le propre de la nature primitive de l’homme, mais la peine du péché qui a vicié la nature. (shrink)