Lucrèce adopte résolument les principes de l’épistémologie d’Épicure mais il n’en explicite guère les procédures et le vocabulaire qu’il emploie pour en traduire les termes spécifiques n’est pas toujours cohérent, ce qui entraîne quelques difficultés et des innovations. Après cette présentation générale, on étudiera certaines analogies dans lesquelles Lucrèce infléchit la méthode d’inférence épicurienne. L’usage spécial des analogies à des fins scientifiques semble même la marque de la créativité méthodologique du poète latin. On tentera donc finalement d’évaluer l’intérêt que présente (...) cette méthode pour la compréhension de la doctrine d’Épicure, en particulier dans ses aspects les plus complexes. (shrink)

José Kany-Turpin est depuis longtemps une des meilleures spécialistes françaises du latin philosophique classique ; sa traduction du De Rerum Natura de Lucrèce, en 1993, fit date ; ses récentes traductions de textes philosophiques de Sénèque (2005) et Cicéron (le De Divinatione en 2004, les Académiques en 2010) ont souligné sa parfaite maîtrise de ce corpus et de ses problématiques propres. S’attaquant au De Finibus du même Cicéron, elle relève un défi majeur. On possédait déjà en français la...

Twenty two treatises on Islamic ethics by eminent personalities in early Islam.

Pork producers in Western Europe moreand more encounter a variety of societalconcerns about pork and pork production. Sofar, however, producers predominantly focusedon low consumer prices, therewith addressingjust one concern. This resulted in an intensiveand large-scale production system, decreasinglyrelated to the area of farm land, andaccompanied with increasing concerns aboutsafety and healthiness of pork, animal welfare,environmental pollution, and others.An overview was given of possible concernsabout West-European pork production with theconsumers, citizens, and producers, and thoseconcerns are traced back to the pork productionsystem. (...) The various kinds and qualities ofinformation about the pork production system onwhich possible concerns are based have beenworked out extensively in this paper. Knowledgeabout the aspects of pork production that cangive rise to concerns can be used in two ways.First, the communication about those aspectstowards consumers and citizens can be adjustedor extended to give them better possibilitiesto make food choices or to develop their ownopinions about pork production. Second,producers could change the pork productionsystem such that it better satisfies consumersand citizens. Such adaptations are wellpossible, as three pork quality schemes, whichhave been evaluated, illustrate. However, mostof these adaptations can only be carried out atthe cost of the present low consumer prices andwill not occur spontaneously on a large scale.Therefore, accounting for the type andrelevance of the concerns, legislation isnecessary to address societal concerns in abalanced way such that pork production systemsbecome acceptable for the majority of oursociety. (shrink)

Recent studies indicate that mammalian chromosomes contain discretecis‐acting loci that control replication timing, mitotic condensation, and stability of entire chromosomes. Disruption of the large non‐coding RNA gene ASAR6 results in late replication, an under‐condensed appearance during mitosis, and structural instability of human chromosome 6. Similarly, disruption of the mouse Xist gene in adult somatic cells results in a late replication and instability phenotype on the X chromosome. ASAR6 shares many characteristics with Xist, including random mono‐allelic expression and asynchronous replication timing. (...) Additional “chromosome engineering” studies indicate that certain chromosome rearrangements affecting many different chromosomes display this abnormal replication and instability phenotype. These observations suggest that all mammalian chromosomes contain “inactivation/stability centers” that control proper replication, condensation, and stability of individual chromosomes. Therefore, mammalian chromosomes contain four types ofcis‐acting elements, origins, telomeres, centromeres, and “inactivation/stability centers”, all functioning to ensure proper replication, condensation, segregation, and stability of individual chromosomes. (shrink)

Tacitus' claim that history should inspire good deeds and deter bad ones should be taken seriously: his exempla are supposed to help his readers think through their own moral difficulties. This approach to history is found in historians with clear connections to Stoicism, and in Stoic philosophers like Seneca. It is no coincidence that Tacitus is particularly interested in the behavior of Stoics like Thrasea Paetus, Barea Soranus, and Seneca himself. They, and even non-Stoic characters like Epicharis and Petronius, exemplify (...) the behavior necessary if Roman freedom was to survive the monarchy. (shrink)

1-3. Ō Yōmei gakuha no bu -- 4-6. Kogakuha no bu -- 7-8. Shushi gakuha no bu -- 9. Setchū gakuha no bu -- l0. Dokuritsu gakuha no bu, tsuketari Rō-Sō gakuha.

A historical investigation of the exclusion of Africa and Asia from modern histories of philosophy.

This paper addresses the question of how feelings are expressed in Kaytetye, a Central Australian language of the Pama-Nyugan family. It identifies three different formal constructions for expressing feelings, and explores the extent to which specific body part terms are associated with types of feelings, based on linguistic evidence in the form of lexical compounds, collocations and the way people talk about feelings. It is suggested that particular body part terms collocate with different feeling expressions for different reasons: either because (...) the body part is the perceived locus of the feeling, or because of a lexicalised polysemy of a body part term, or because of a metonymic association between a body part, a behaviour and a feeling. (shrink)

La figure de l’animal apparaît de façon surprenante au sein de la spiritualité monastique du xi e siècle de l’Occident médiéval. Le moine est invité à « imiter la bête » dans sa simplicité et dans sa bravoure au combat. Saint Pierre Damien d’une part, et Othlon de Saint-Emmeran d’autre part, invitent tous deux leurs frères à prendre exemple sur les animaux pour accéder à l’état de componction qui unit à Dieu. Les deux spirituels exhortent à une conversion de la (...) raison discursive à « l’intelligence naturelle », faculté qu’il s’agit, si ce n’est de retrouver, du moins d’apprendre à exercer. On assiste à une promotion toute singulière de l’instinct, accompagnée d’une destitution de la raison dans la voie du salut. C’est à l’examen de cette thèse, qui ne laisse pas d’étonner en ce qu’elle désigne l’absence de rationalité comme chemin sûr qui mène à Dieu, que cet article est consacré. (shrink)

Le mépris du corps propre à Pierre Damien ne peut se comprendre adéquatement que s’il est resitué au sein de la conception plus générale qu’il se fait de la nature. L’examen attentif de la position anthropologique et sotériologique de Pierre Damien permet de déployer la thèse selon laquelle il existe un lien intrinsèque entre sa conception du monde et sa conception eucharistique. L’insistance de Pierre Damien sur la toute-puissance divine s’assortit d’une conception du monde sans densité et d’une interprétation sacrificielle (...) de l’eucharistie. (shrink)

Augustus' account of the events of 28 and 27 b.c. is maddeningly vague. In part the problem is simply that his individual phrases are ambiguous, but a more fundamental difficulty is the very nature of the Res Gestae itself. The idea of publishing such a self-satisfied account of one's own doings is so alien to our modern sensibilities that we tend to read the Res Gestae as though Augustus were capable of saying almost anything. We have concluded too easily, therefore, (...) that at R.G. 34.1 Augustus is telling an outrageous lie, or at least an outrageous half-truth. After saying that he ended the civil wars, and acquired supreme power, Augustus claims to have handed over the state to the senate and the people of Rome. On the traditional reading this last claim is seriously misleading; Augustus may have handed over the state, but he fails to mention that the senate handed it back. (shrink)

Le terme « totalitaire » est issu d’un réseau discursif indissociable d’actes meurtriers. D’où le sens donné à l’expression de « langage totalitaire » : un langage de coercition, lié à la violence, au meurtre et à la terreur. Les communications présentées à Cerisy-la-Salle tentent de caractériser un tel langage. Chercheurs en communication, en sciences du langage, en sociologie ou en littérature, philosophes et psychanalystes s’interrogent sur la tyrannie logique du discours de la terreur et les manipulations mortifères mises en (...) œuvre d’hier à aujourd’hui. Les analyses de Victor Klemperer sur le discours nazi et ses observations scrupuleuses sur les signes de ce régime sont une référence primordiale. Les diverses études montrent comment se met en place une logique d’assujettissement à partir du matériau signifiant et de sa mise en scène. L’interrogation porte enfin sur les formes de résistance à opposer à ce langage.The term « totalitarian » is a product of a discursive system that is inseparable from acts of murder, hence the meaning given to the expression « totalitarian language » as a language of coercion linked to violence, murder and terror. The papers given in Cerisy-la-Salle attempt to characterise this language, through the reflections of researchers in communication, language sciences, sociology and literature on the logical tyranny of the discourse of terror and its murderous manipulations, both past and present. Victor Klemperer’s analyses of Nazi discourse and his scrupulous observations on signifiers in the Nazi regime are references of paramount importance. The different studies show how the logic of subjection takes hold as it spreads from a body of signifying material and the representations given to it. Finally, the question is raised of forms of resistance to language of this kind. (shrink)

Vaesen infers unique properties of mind from the appearance of specific cultural innovation – a correlation without causal direction. Shifts in habitat, population density, and group dynamics are the only independently verifiable incentives for changes in cultural practices. The transition from Acheulean to Late Stone Age technologies requires that we consider how population and social dynamics affect cultural innovation and mental function.

The first English translation of Fichte’s second set of 1804 lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre.

Orthologic is defined by weakening the axioms and rules of inference of the classical propositional calculus. The resulting Lindenbaum-Tarski quotient algebra is an orthoimplication algebra which generalizes the author's implication algebra. The associated order structure is a semi-orthomodular lattice. The theory of orthomodular lattices is obtained by adjoining a falsity symbol to the underlying orthologic or a least element to the orthoimplication algebra.

Providing an original and systematic treatment of foundational issues in philosophy of religion, J. L. Schellenberg's new book addresses the structure of..

According to realist structuralism, mathematical objects are places in abstract structures. We argue that in spite of its many attractions, realist structuralism must be rejected. For, first, mathematical structures typically contain intra-structurally indiscernible places. Second, any account of place-identity available to the realist structuralist entails that intra-structurally indiscernible places are identical. Since for her mathematical singular terms denote places in structures, she would have to say, for example, that 1 = − 1 in the group (Z, +). We call this (...) the identity problem and conclude that nominalism is presently the safest route for the structuralist. (shrink)

Ned Block argues that the higher-order (HO) approach to explaining consciousness is ‘defunct’ because a prominent objection (the ‘misrepresentation objection’) exposes the view as ‘incoherent’. What’s more, a response to this objection that I’ve offered elsewhere (Weisberg 2010) fails because it ‘amounts to abusing the notion of what-it’s-like-ness’ (xxx).1 In this response, I wish to plead guilty as charged. Indeed, I will continue herein to abuse Block’s notion of what-it’s-like-ness. After doing so, I will argue that the HO approach accounts (...) for the sense of what-it’s-like-ness that matters in a theory of consciousness. I will also argue that the only incoherence present in the HO theory is that generated by embracing Block’s controversial notion of what-it’s-like-ness, something no theorist of any stripe ought to do. Block is famous for (among other things) having introduced the notion of ‘phenomenal consciousness’ into contemporary philosophy of mind (Block 1995). This term is widely employed in the philosophical literature and it even appears in the empirical literature. But wide-speared usage has brought about divergent interpretations of the term. We can distinguish a ‘moderate’ and a ‘zealous’ reading of ‘phenomenal consciousness’. On the moderate reading, ‘phenomenal consciousness’ just means ‘experience’. Many people have embraced this sense of the term and use it to roughly pick out conscious experience involving sensory quality (states like conscious visual experiences or conscious pains, for example).2 On the zealous reading, however, phenomenal consciousness is held to be ‘distinct from any cognitive, intentional, or functional property’ (Block 1995: 234). That is, any explanation of phenomenal consciousness in exclusively cognitive, intentional, or functional terms will fail to capture, without remainder, what is really distinctive about phenomenal consciousness. Block, of course, is fully clear about embracing the zealous reading; indeed, his initial introduction of the notion is in those terms. The same ambiguity occurs with the much-used (and abused) idea of ‘what-it’s-like-ness’.. (shrink)

Scientists and laypeople alike use the sense of understanding that an explanation conveys as a cue to good or correct explanation. Although the occurrence of this sense or feeling of understanding is neither necessary nor sufficient for good explanation, it does drive judgments of the plausibility and, ultimately, the acceptability, of an explanation. This paper presents evidence that the sense of understanding is in part the routine consequence of two well-documented biases in cognitive psychology: overconfidence and hindsight. In light of (...) the prevalence of counterfeit understanding in the history of science, I argue that many forms of cognitive achievement do not involve a sense of understanding, and that only the truth or accuracy of an explanation make the sense of understanding a valid cue to genuine understanding. (shrink)