This paper describes intellectual property legislation in the European Union, the US and the Draft Treaty on the legal protection of unoriginal databases, usually available in the Internet. I argue that this type of legislation, if enforced upon developing countries and countries in transition through international ‘agreements’, could in effect deprive them of their own information commons, their own public domain. With examples from China, India, Africa and Iceland, I argue that this deprivation in the case of developing countries is, (...) morally, equal to a virtual war against them by the West, wholly unjustified and dangerous-an example of virtual imperialism. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the debate on Composition as Identity—the thesis that any composite object is identical to its parts—is deadlocked because both the defenders and the detractors of the claim have so far failed to take its philosophical core at face value and have, as a result, defended and criticized respectively something that is not Composition as Identity. After establishing how Composition as Identity should properly be understood and proposing for it a new interpretation centered around the (...) novel notion of metaphysical information, I set forth a strategy to defend it that crucially rests on the indefinite extensibility of the domain of quantification. I eventually suggest that “Composition as Analysis” is a name that better reflects the content and theoretical proposal of the thesis that Composition as Identity is supposed to be. (shrink)

On interprète assez souvent le succès actuel des médecines parallèles comme une réaction à une double insatisfaction que la médecine scientifique laisse au patient dans nos sociétés occidentales. D'une part, la difficulté d'être entendu comme sujet dans sa maladie, comme une personne globale affectée dans la totalité de son être, dans le sens qu'elle donne à sa vie, à ses relations, etc. Et d'autre part, la difficulté d'être appréhendé d'une manière unitaire par le médecin, corps et esprit réunis. Les différents (...) auteurs de cet ouvrage, qu'ils soient théologiens, philosophes, médecins ou historiens de la médecine, ont tous pris au sérieux ces appels à dépasser ce que l'on peut appeler les impasses de la biomédecine en proposant, selon différentes inspirations, une anthropologie renouvelée du corps humain. En particulier, s'il s'agit de faire droit aux convictions du patient et du professionnel de santé, à quelles conditions - épistémologiques mais aussi politiques - un dialogue entre l'Eglise et la science peut-il s'avérer légitime et fécond? Que peuvent nous apprendre les écrits hippocratiques et les textes bibliques pour construire une autre représentation du corps humain et de la maladie? Le modèle des soins palliatifs ne pourrait-il pas fournir à la biomédecine un nouveau paradigme de prise en charge du patient où celui-ci reste un sujet, capable de relation, une personne jusqu'au bout? (shrink)

The Swiss philosopher Anton Marty (Schwyz, 1847 - Prague, 1914) belongs, with Carl Stumpf, to the first circle of Brentano’s pupils. Within Brentano’s school (and, to some extent, in the secondary literature), Marty has often been considered (in particular by Meinong) a kind of would-be epigone of his master (Fisette & Fréchette 2007: 61-2). There is no doubt that Brentano’s doctrine often provides Marty with his philosophical starting points. But Marty often arrives at original conclusions which are diametrically opposed to (...) Brentano’s views. This is true of his views about space and time and about judgment, emotions and intentionality. In the latter case, for example, Marty develops Brentano’s view and its implications in great detail (Mulligan 1989; Rollinger 2004), but uses them to formulate a very unBrentanian account of intentionality as a relation of ideal assimilation (Chrudzimski 1999; Cesalli & Taieb 2013). Marty’s philosophy of language, on the other hand, is one of the first philosophies worthy of the name. In what follows, we contrast briefly their accounts of (i) judgment and states of affairs and of (ii) emotings and value (two topics of foremost significance, for Brentano and Marty’s theoretical and practical philosophies respectively) (§1), and their philosophies of language (§2). Brentano’s view of language is based on his philosophy of mind. Marty takes over the latter and turns a couple of claims by Brentano about language into a sophisticated philosophy of language of a kind made familiar much later by Grice. Marty’s philosophy of states of affairs and value and of the mind’s relations to these also takes off from views sketched by the early Brentano, views forcefully rejected by the later Brentano. (shrink)

This is the first volume of a two-volume project whose aim is to publish all the known Middle English manuscript translations of the French Somme le mi, a thirteenth-century manual of religious instruction offering teaching on the Decalogue, the seven deadly sins and their remedies, compiled by the Dominican friar Laurent of Orleans. The project extends and deepens our knowledge of the influence of this popular French text, known today only from the versions entitled The Ayen bite of Inwit (...) and The Book of Vices and Virtues, published in 1866 and 1942, respectively. This volume presents the versions extant in BL MSS Royal 18. A. x and Add. 37677; the second will cover the versions in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 494, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1286, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS e Musaeo 23. The texts of both volumes have been prepared with the help of the recently-published edition of the French text, a circumstance from which the earlier English editions were unable to benefit. It is likely that the versions edited here for the first time will make a considerable contribution to our understanding of the processes of textual transmission and to that of translation itself in English literary circles of the fifteenth century. (shrink)

The present article reviews the state of public debate and legal provisions concerning end‐of‐life decision‐making in Italy and offers an evaluation of the moral and legal issues involved. The article further examines the content of a recent law concerning informed consent and advance treatment directives, the main court pronouncements that formed the basis for the law, and developments in the public debate and important jurisprudential acts subsequent to its approval. The moral and legal grounds for a positive evaluation of this (...) law, which attests that the patient may withhold or withdraw from life‐prolonging treatment, will be offered with reference to liberal approaches and particularly to the frameworks of care and virtue ethics; but reasons will also be offered in order to consider not only the latter but also broader range of end‐of‐life treatment decisions as morally apt options. In this light, we argue in favour of a further development of the Italian legislation to encompass forms of assisted suicide and active euthanasia. (shrink)

This article sheds light on John Rawls’s views on John Dewey’s philosophical temperament by investigating unpublished papers and lectures that Rawls wrote and delivered across the late 1940s, the 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s. Moreover, the article shows that Rawls’s rejection of Kant’s dualisms predates by at least three decades the “Dewey Lectures” (1980) and that Dewey’s notion of deliberation as “dramatic rehearsal in imagination” might have had an impact on Rawls’s development of the notion of “reflective equilibrium” (...) as a state of affairs that we strive to reach in ethical reflection. (shrink)

This chapter provides a brief overview of the increasing importance of experimentation in the life sciences from the seventeenth century to the present day. In the wake of the Scientific Revolution initiated in physics, numerous scientists have regularly attempted to introduce experimentation and the quantification of phenomena into the life sciences. These attempts have been difficult and have systematically come up against the fact that living organisms are individuals, i.e. both totalities that are difficult to decompose and transient results of (...) an evolutionary process that gives them specific characteristics. Experimentation has thus only been possible in biology thanks to the adaptation of a mechanistic perspective to such particularities of living bodies. (shrink)

We propose a formal framework to examine the relationship between models and observations. To make our analysis precise,models are reduced to first-order theories that represent both terminological knowledge – e.g., the laws that are supposed to regulate the domain under analysis and that allow for explanations, predictions, and simulations – and assertional knowledge – e.g., information about specific entities in the domain of interest. Observations are introduced into the domain of quantification of a distinct first-order theory that describes their nature (...) and their organization and takes track of the way they are experimentally acquired or intentionally elaborated. A model mainly represents the theoretical knowledge or hypotheses on a domain, while the theory of observations mainly represents the empirical knowledge and the given experimental practices. We propose a precise identity criterion for observations and we explore different links between models and observations by assuming a degree of independence between them. By exploiting some techniques developed in the field of social choice theory and judgment aggregation, we sketch some strategies to solve inconsistencies between a given set of observations and the assumed theoretical hypotheses. The solutions of these inconsistencies can impact both the observations – e.g., the theoretical knowledge and the analysis of the way observations are collected or produced may highlight some unreliable sources – and the models – e.g. empirical evidences may invalidate some theoretical laws. (shrink)

Le liberalisme est une pensee de nature philosophique avant d'etre economique ou politique. C'est une philosophie morale de la responsabilite individuelle et des justes droits dans l'egale liberte individuelle de tous - et non pas une plate exaltation de la tolerance molle ou du tout-marche. La disjonction entre liberalisme politique et economique est arbitraire. Ce qu'on appelle neo-liberalisme n'a rien de theoriquement nouveau et le pretendu ultra-liberalisme ne fait qu'appliquer les principes formules par les grandes figures du liberalisme classique... Invalidant (...) caricatures et idees recues, ces assertions procedent d'une reference exhaustive et inedite aux textes fondateurs ou negliges d'une tradition intellectuelle elargie ici a des auteurs peu attendus, comme aux apports contemporains des libertariens ou des liberaux de gauche. Le liberalisme s'en trouve recentre sur un volontarisme juridique servi par l'Etat limite, tandis qu'est renouvelee la conception de ce qui doit etre qualifie de liberal, illiberal ou ultra-liberal.Cette enquete nourrie d'histoire des idees s'engage finalement dans une reflexion critique sur les actuelles pratiques de liberalisation - et l'exploration de ce que pourraient etre un liberalisme... republicain et une vraie societe ouverte.Essayiste, directeur de la collection Iconoclastes aux Belles Lettres, Alain Laurent a enseigne la philosophie pendant plus de trente ans. Il a notamment publie Du bon usage de Descartes, Turgot. Laissez faire, Les Grands Courants du liberalisme et l'anthologie Theories contre l'impot. (shrink)

L'ordre juridique qui se met en place, en France, aux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge a encore tout récemment été l'objet de riches débats : l'auto-développement des coutumes, l'autorité des droits savants et l'interventionnisme du roi de France ont notamment été au cœur de vives controverses historiographiques. La lecture des sources est à l'origine de querelles interprétatives, auxquelles s'ajoutent des difficultés méthodologiques que rencontrent les historiens du droit. Tandis que l'historien n'a accès qu'à une proportion infime du concret, celui-ci s'efforce (...) de combler ces lacunes, parfois même à l'aide d'une projection des catégories juridiques contemporaines. Cet anachronisme des concepts – parfois couplé à un anachronisme des faits – ne constitue-t-il pas l'un des vices rédhibitoires de la discipline? Cette méthode ne présente-t-elle pas, à l'inverse, une indéniable vertu heuristique et disciplinaire? Certains estiment alors que la théorie du droit est anhistorique, quand d'autres critiquent l'emploi par les historiens des concepts contemporains, comme la hiérarchie des normes, la souveraineté ou encore l'État. Outre de telles projections, c'est le sens donné à certains signifiants médiévaux ou modernes qui peut être relativisé, comme c'est le cas notamment pour les notions de droit positif, de droit commun ou encore de loi. Ces difficultés révèlent aussi à certains égards l'ambivalence de l'histoire du droit, écartelée entre science historique et dogmatique juridique. Ce livre propose alors une réflexion épistémologique sur l'un des grands enjeux de l'historiographie juridique contemporaine : peut-on penser l'ordre juridique médiéval et moderne à partir des catégories juridiques contemporaines? (shrink)

This article argues that many situations in social life can be analyzed by their requirement for the justification of action. It is in particular in situations of dispute that a need arises to explicate the grounds on which responsibility for errors is distributed and on which new agreement can be reached. Since a plurality of mutually incompatible modes of justification exists, disputes can be understood as disagreements either about whether the accepted rule of justification has not been violated or about (...) which mode of justification to apply at all. The article develops a grammar of such modes of justification, called orders of worth (grandeur), and argues that the human capacity for criticism becomes visible in the daily occurrence of disputes over criteria for justification. At the same time, it is underlined that not all social situations can be interpreted with the help of such a sense of justice, which resides on a notion of equivalence. Regimes of love, of violence or of familiarity are systematically distinct from regimes of justification. (shrink)

Qu'est-ce qu'être Vivant? - S'agit-il de " se conserver " et de " croître "? de " sélectionner " des " mutations utiles "? Si Vivre implique la recherche et l'obtention de conditions favorables, n'y a-t-il de vie qu'à distance de la mort? Cependant et non sans suivre certains philosophes tels Nietzsche ou Bataille, la biologie cellulaire ne nous enseigne-t-elle pas que Vivre implique de ne précisément pas cesser de " correspondre " avec la Mort? Le " dialogue " entre (...) la tendance de toute cellule à se laisser disparaître & la suspension de cette tendance chez toute cellule qui reste en Vie ne réfute-t-il pas l'antique suprématie - de Platon au néodarwinisme - de la vie sur la mort? Les recherches contemporaines sur l'auto-effacement cellulaire - sur l'" apoptose " et la Mort cellulaire " programmée " - permettent d'aborder ces questions en détail. Elles supposent, avec l'équivocité des phénomènes Vitaux, une dialectique Vie-Mort dont l'issue n'est nullement acquise d'avance. Elles nous invitent à repenser le sens même de la conservation, incorporant y compris en ses forces les plus Vives quelque chose comme l'a-Mort. En définitive, les concepts issus de la recherche en biologie cellulaire et l'interprétation épistémologique et philosophique qu'il est possible d'en donner ne concernent pas exclusivement des processus et des entités cellulaires. Notre Vie déployée dans la connaissance, dans l'art ou dans l'amour de la Vie jusque dans la Mort, répond, elle aussi, d'une telle équivocité. (shrink)

"Leo Strauss: une bibliographie / Jean-Pierre Delange"--P. [279]-316.

L'homme ne se rapporte droitement a lui-meme qu'en se rapportant a la totalite du monde qui l'entoure. Ce monde qui est unique selon Platon, sans qu'il soit double par le monde intelligible dont parlera le neoplatonisme, est rendu possible par la rencontre de l'intelligible et du sensible. Ainsi, le logos, par quoi l'homme a acces aux Formes, est ce qui permet d'operer la deliaison proprement philosophique du corps et de l'ame, selon les termes du Phedon, sans qu'il faille poser un (...) dualisme cosmique qui se retrouverait dans l'homme. De meme que le sensible s'intelligibilise par la Participation et ainsi se maintient comme phenomene stable, de meme l'homme peut avoir un usage harmonieux de son corps et de ses sensations. Deliaison n'est pas rupture. L'enfance, la sexuation, le sommeil, les reves, la mort et la parole, ici interroges, montrent que l'anthropologie de Platon ne condamne ni le plaisir, ni le corps. La vie de la pensee ne s'absente pas des mouvements corporels qu'elle accompagne. C'est pourquoi le corps est le signe de l'ame. (shrink)

Retrace l'histoire du néant en Occident en étudiant ses étapes décisives et ses principales désignations.

Toutes les democraties egalitaires, detribalisees et secularisees d'Occident sont confrontees aux memes defis du communautarisme et de la reislamisation d'une partie de l'immigration - accrus par un continuel afflux de clandestins : le probleme de l'integration se pose donc moins en termes franco-francais de Republique que plus globalement de societe ouverte. Dans la perspective de Karl Popper et en usant de la liberte d'esprit et de parole chere a Jean-Francois Revel, il s'agit ici, a partir des faits, de montrer que (...) cette situation critique resulte d'abord de la forfaiture morale et parfois juridique de politiques qui n'ont pas voulu faire respecter ledroit commun democratique. Mais, surtout et en amont, de l'emprise d'une ideologie pretendument antiraciste, sans-frontieriste et acquise au relativisme multiculturel qui a perverti les valeurs de tolerance et d'ouverture: en elle se retrouvent les veritables et paradoxaux nouveaux ennemis de la societe ouverte. Faisant grand cas de l'emergence d'une resistance intellectuelle de tradition anti-totalitaire a cette bien-pensance et du combat emancipateur des musulmans libres, cette reflexion pointe le pathos masochiste qui fait oeuvrer les societes ouvertes contre elles-memes. Sans oublier d'explorer les conditions d'une ouverture raisonnee a l'alterite. (shrink)

This book addresses current practices in customary law. It includes contributions by scholars from various legal systems (the USA, France, Israel, Canada et cetera), who examine the current impacts of customary law on various aspects of private law, constitutional law, business law, international law and criminal law. In addition, the book expands the traditional concept of the rule of law, and argues that lawyers should not narrowly focus on statutory law, but should instead pay more attention to the impact of (...) practices on "real legal life." It states that the observation of practices calls for a stronger focus on usage, customs and traditions in our legal systems - the idea being not to replace statutory law, but to complement it with customary observations. (shrink)

Heidegger est le penseur de la "détresse", parce qu'il est à la fois le philosophe de la technique et de la science modernes, et l'interprète de l'architecture onto-théologique de la métaphysique. Penser la jointure actuelle de la détresse, de la technique et de la métaphysique comme infrastructure de notre monde est ce que tâche d'engager cet essai, via le concept de système, tel qu'il fut construit à partir de Kant et de l'idéalisme allemand...

Pour Plotin, toutes les formes de vie procedent de l'activite spirituelle rendue possible par l'ineffable perfection de l'Un. Tous les vivants, les vegetaux, les animaux et les astres, n'agissent que grace a une contemplation qui vise a se remplir d'un contenu intelligible. La nature sublunaire ou les hommes se trouvent etablis est donc doublement fondee: par la Participation aux idees et par la Procession des differentes modalites psychiques. Le monde sensible est la plus belle image de la beaute de l'intelligence, (...) c'est-a-dire de l'etre lui-meme. La pensee de Plotin, notamment par une doctrine originale de la Providence, montre que la Nature est une traduction de l'Esprit. (shrink)

On a souvent résumé la présence importante des avocats dans la vie politique française sous la III e République à travers l’expression de « République des avocats. » De manière plus complexe, il s’agit de montrer comment les avocats sont au cœur, dans les premières décennies de la République, de la construction d’un champ politique marquée par la codification des règles électorales et une certaine démocratisation du personnel politique. Dans les décennies qui suivent, on note une diversification des formes d’investissement (...) du barreau en politique, moins marqué par l’investissement dans le champ politique proprement dit que par l’engagement à travers la défense judiciaire de causes. (shrink)

Segundo Shaftesbury e seus sucessore (James Harris, Adam Smith, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing), uma obra de arte imitativa, corretamente produzida, exprime um conteúdo moral no sentido geral do termo (mental, intelectual, bem como ético). O que esses autores têm no espírito é a expressão não somente enquanto função geral da arte, mas também e sobretudo enquato estrutura particular de cada obra. A expressão não é somente o objetivo de uma obra de arte, mas também a maneira segundo a qual ela funciona. (...) Este artigo mostra como as reflexões de Shaftesbury em A Notion of the Historical Draught or Tablature of the Judgement of Hercules abrem a via para uma nova maneira de considerar cada obra de arte individual como uma solução para um problema da expressão que não depende do meio empregado. No artigo se estuda também o contexto histórico desse escrito de Shaftesbury bem como de sua posteridade em Harris, Smith, e Lessing. (shrink)

resumo Esse artigo investiga a leitura que Shaftesbury fez de Marco Aurélio, a fim de comparar a visão estóica da individual ida de e da ide nt ida de pessoal com o conceito lockia no de “self” e, de ma ne i ra mais ge ral, com os mo dos pelos quais a filosofia mo de rna entendeu o si-me s mo. A ênfase recai sobre a conexão int r í nseca ent re sistema e s u b j e (...) t i v ida de no estoicismo imperial. Discute-se a re s i s t ê nc ia de autores cont e m p o r âneos em aceitar a descrição da alma ra c io nal dos estóicos como um “self”. Também se discute a aplicação que Mic hel Foucault fez do seu conceito de “subjetivação” à id é ia estóica de “si-me s mo ”. palavras-chave Estoicismo; self; identidade pessoal; Shaftesbury; Marco Aurélio; Foucault. (shrink)

O texto pretende fazer uma exposição panorâmica das principais concepções de história do espírito dos filósofos britânicos, desde Locke até os autores do final do século XVIII. A partir daí pretende-se mostrar que a unidade entre esses filósofos é apenas aparente. Pois, apesar das semelhanças, as diferenças que há entre as concepções e orientações metodológicas destes autores são suficientes para atestar que estamos diante projetos filosóficos muito distintos. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive outlook of the (...) conceptions of history of mind proposed by the british philosophers from Locke to the end of the XVIII century. It aims to show that, despite the seeming resemblances, the differences among those conceptions are sufficient to enable us to identify different philosophical projects. (shrink)

O texto pretende fazer uma exposição panorâmica das principais concepções de história do espírito dos filósofos britânicos, desde Locke até os autores do final do século XVIII. A partir daí pretende-se mostrar que a unidade entre esses filósofos é apenas aparente. Pois, apesar das semelhanças, as diferenças que há entre as concepções e orientações metodológicas destes autores são suficientes para atestar que estamos diante projetos filosóficos muito distintos. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive outlook of the (...) conceptions of history of mind proposed by the british philosophers from Locke to the end of the XVIII century. It aims to show that, despite the seeming resemblances, the differences among those conceptions are sufficient to enable us to identify different philosophical projects. (shrink)

_An original and insightful account of nature and our place in it from one of France's preeminent historians of philosophy._.

En 1797, le jeune Friedrich von Hardenberg, plus connu sous le nom de plume Novalis, décide de s'engager dans des études scientifiques à la célèbre Académie des Mines de Freiberg fondée dans le dernier quart du XVIIIe siècle. Jusqu'à sa mort précoce en 1801, Novalis ne cessera d'étudier les sciences de la terre en ayant à l'esprit une possible harmonisation des différents champs du savoir, à l'image de la réalité tellurique, tout à la fois mêlée et organisée.

O presente artigo lança luz sobre as flutuações semânticas do termo “liberdade” na obra de Leonardo Bruni, buscando nuançar sua apreensão por parte da tradição anglófona de pensamento político conhecida como neorrepublicanismo. A partir da análise conceitual e estilística de diversas passagens centrais da obra do autor florentino, o artigo visa retornar aos usos e significados da palavra “liberdade” em Bruni, colocando a questão da relação entre um âmbito de utilização “teórica” e um âmbito de utilização histórica ou narrativa.

Nuclear pre‐mRNAs must be precisely processed to give rise to mature cytoplasmic mRNAs. This maturation process, known as splicing, involves excision of intron sequences and ligation of the exon sequences. One of the major problems in understanding this process is how splice sites, the sequences which form the boundaries between introns and exons, can be accurately selected. A number of studies have defined conserved sequences within introns which were later shown to interact with small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs). However, due to (...) the simplicity of these conserved sequences it has become clear that other elements must be involved and a number of studies have indicated the importance of secondary structures within pre‐mRNAs. Using various examples, we shall show that such structures can help to specify splice sites by modifying physical distances within introns or by being involved in the definition of exons and, lastly, that they can be part of the regulation of alternative splicing. (shrink)

For the first time in print, this article reports passages from John Rawls’s graduate papers and annotations on books and manuscripts from his personal library. The analysis of this material shows the historical inaccuracy of the widespread assumption that Rawls’s philosophy owes very little to American pragmatism. Peirce’s notion of truth, as well as the holistic critique of pragmatism thatMortonWhite began in the late 1940s, prove significant at the very beginning of Rawls’s philosophical enterprise. In the light of this material, (...) it might be argued that Rawls’s elaboration of ‘reflective equilibrium’ started at least in part as an attempt to overcome the pending problems of pragmatism. (shrink)

Cognitive forms vary considerably as a human being detaches herself from what is closest and most personal and moves to communicate — in the broad sense of taking part in a common matter — across increasing relational distances. The article proposes to deal with the variety of cognitive formats which cannot `commonize' cognition to an equal degree, relating them to a set of regimes of engagement with the world that are identified in terms of the dependency between the human agent (...) and her environment. The good that engagement aims to guarantee orients how reality is grasped and specifies the format of what constitutes relevant information. This analysis offers new insight into the composition of communities as well as persons who have to cope with the plurality of cognitive formats and engagements from the very familiar to the most public. (shrink)