Among the intellectuals who have significantly contributed to the discussion of Africa's place in the concert and/or shock of civilizations, Kwane Nkrumah, Cheikh Anta Diop, Samir Amin, Ali Mazrui, Amilcar Cabral could be found in a pertinent sampling. These different personalities indicate the linguistic and geographic diversity of a multidisciplinary and critical production.

This book explores feminine archetypes and mythological figures in African and European traditions with an underlying goal of describing the foundations of social status for women. The author provides a rich corpus of mythology and tales to illustrate aspects of female and mother-daughter relationships. Diop analyzes the symbolic aspects of maternity and femininity, describing the social meaning of the matrix, breasts, and breastfeeding. A retrospective of female characters in African literature brings an interesting approach to explore the figures of (...) femininity and maternity in society. After an extensive analysis of African mythology and tales, the author proposes a way to integrate them in the clinical psychotherapy as a projective material. The analysis of clinical cases offers an example of how this material can be used in therapy with women from African descent. (shrink)

The robustness of a system indicates its ability to withstand disturbances while maintaining its properties, performance, and efficiency. There are plenty of studies on the robustness of air transport networks in the literature. However, few works consider its mesoscopic organization. Building on the recently introduced component structure, we explore the impact of targeted attacks on the weighted world air transportation network on its components. Indeed, it contains five local components covering different regions and one global component linking these regions. We (...) investigate targeted attacks based on influential weighted centrality measures. Results show that the local components gradually separate from the world air transportation network as the fraction of removed airports grows. The weighted betweenness attack removes fewer top airports to isolate the regions compared to its alternatives. Furthermore, it is still convenient to travel locally in the separate areas. In contrast, strength and PageRank attacks need to target more airports to split the network. However, they are more disruptive. Indeed, the size of the isolated local components reduces drastically, so it becomes more challenging to travel locally. Looking at the world air transportation network through its component structure reveals a new viewpoint on its resilence. It opens new perspectives to design more efficient attacks. (shrink)

Alors que des voyageurs comme Cook et Bougainville avaient déjà fait le tour des océans et des terres, que pouvaient encore dire les Allemands sur le reste du monde? Comment Kant, auteur de l'Impératif catégorique qui n'a jamais quitté sa ville de Königsberg, a-t-il pu servir de référence pour étudier la construction de l'altérité d'un continent qui lui fut, comme du reste pour beaucoup de ses compatriotes, un continent inconnu? En s'appuyant sur l'exemplarité du mouvement circulatoire des idées des Lumières, (...) françaises et anglaises en particulier, et à travers des textes d'une très grande diversité, les anthropologues et philosophes de la «Aufklärung» résument un débat européen sur le continent africain. C'est en cela que le choix de ce pays est significatif pour la présente recherche qui veut interroger le sens de cette altérité, elle-même construite sur un projet d'universel fort discutable. Ce projet, qui a précédé et formaté celui de la Ruse de la raison de Hegel, a de particulier pour notre modernité en cours le fait qu'il est bien loin d'avoir épuisé la construction d'un autre universel possible. (shrink)

Universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Chad was officially declared in December 2006. This presidential initiative was and is still funded 100% by the country’s budget and external donors’ financial support. Many factors have triggered the spread of AIDS. Some of these factors include the existence of norms and beliefs that create or increase exposure, the low-level education that precludes access to health information, social unrest, and population migration to areas of high economic opportunities and gender-based discrimination. Social forces (...) that influence the distribution of dimensions of well-being and shape risks for infection also determine the persistence of access barriers to ART. The universal access policy is quite revolutionary but should be informed by the systemic barriers to access so as to promote equity. It is not enough to distribute ARVs and provide health services when health systems are poorly organized and managed. Comprehensive access to ART raises many organizational, ethical and policy problems that need to be solved to achieve equity in access. This paper argues that the persistence of access barriers is due to weak health systems and a poor public health leadership. AIDS has challenged health systems in a manner that is essentially different from other health problems. (shrink)

In the present paper, we propose and analyze a harvested predator–prey model that incorporates the dynamics of tourists in the Djoudj National Park of Birds, Senegal. The model describes the impact of migration of waterbirds and seasonal fishing on the global coexistence of species in the site of the Djoudj. By the Mahwin continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory, we investigate the existence of a positive periodic solution. The global asymptotic stability is discussed by constructing a suitable Lyapunov functional. Some (...) computational results are also addressed. (shrink)

We investigate whether religion acts as a deterrent to the types of mortgage misrepresentation that played a significant role in the recent housing boom and bust. Using a large sample of mortgages originated from 2000 to 2007, we provide evidence that local religious adherence is associated with a lower likelihood of home appraisal overstatement and owner occupancy misreporting. The evidence on borrower income misrepresentation is mixed. Religiosity does not appear to reduce the incidence of income misrepresentation; however, it seems to (...) restrain the degree to which income is misrepresented. Our results are generally consistent with the hypothesis that religion, as a set of social norms, fosters ethical behavior, and possibly risk aversion, in the mortgage market. (shrink)

The publication aims to make suggestions for a 'decolonisation of aesthetics' within an Afro-European framework. The texts (whose authors come from different cultural contexts between Germany, France, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria and Tunesia) do not only refer to heterogenous aesthetic practices understood as subversive and decolonial strategies, but also discuss philosophical questions of a renewed (non-in)dividual humanism. The artistic practices analyzed include artistic installations and ensembles as well as actions in urban and rural space, deceptive manœuvres at the borders and their (...) photographic documentation, and many more. (shrink)

Study of a classical critic of Avicenna's views on the existence and nature of God.

Avicenna; 980-1037; criticism and interpretation; liberty; philosophy; Islamic philosophy.

How do speakers design what they say in order to communicate effectively with groups of addressees who vary in their background knowledge of the topic at hand? Prior findings indicate that when a speaker addresses a pair of listeners with discrepant knowledge, that speakers Aim Low, designing their utterances for the least knowledgeable of the two addressees. Here, we test the hypothesis that speakers will depart from an Aim Low approach in order to efficiently communicate with larger groups of interacting (...) partners. Further, we ask whether the cognitive demands of tracking multiple conversational partners' perspectives places limitations on successful audience design. We find that speakers can successfully track information about what up to four of their partners do and do not know in conversation. When addressing groups of 3–4 addressees at once, speakers design language based on the combined knowledge of the group. These findings point to an audience design process that simultaneously represents the perspectives of multiple other individuals and combines these representations in order to design utterances that strike a balance between the different needs of the individuals within the group. (shrink)

Amid the many food safety scandals that have erupted in recent years, Chinese food activists and consumers are turning to the creation of alternative food networks to ensure better control over their food. These Chinese AFNs have not been documented in the growing literature on food studies. Based on in-depth interviews and case studies, this paper documents and develops a typology of AFNs in China, including community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, buying clubs, and recreational garden plot rentals. We unpacked the (...) four standard dimensions of alternativeness of AFNs into eight elements and used these to examine the alternativeness of AFNs in China. We argue first that the landscape of alternativeness varies among different networks but the healthfulness of food is the most prominent element. Second, there is an inconsistency in values between AFN initiators and customers, which contributes to the uneven alternativeness of Chinese AFNs. Third, Chinese AFNs are strongly consumer driven, a factor that constrains their alternativeness at present. The inclusion of “real” peasants in the construction of AFNs in China is minimal. This paper adds to the existing literature on AFNs with an analysis of recent initiatives in China that have not been well documented before. By unpacking the dimensions of alternativeness into specific elements, this paper also provides an analytical framework for examining the alternativeness of AFNs especially nascent ones that have not developed a full spectrum of alternativeness. (shrink)

Islamic fundamentalism; Islam and politics; history.

Philosophy - Textbooks ; Theology -- Book reviews ; Sufism -- Book reviews -- Religions -- Book reviews.

Yi-He is universal symbol of Chinese philosophy, it contains two thoughts of “Yi” and “He”. Thought of “Yi” represents idea of change in Chinese philosophy，thought of “He” represents idea of harmony in Chinese philosophy. “Philosophy of Yi-He” is dialectical synthesis of thought of “Yi” and thought of “He”, as well as the unique nature of Chinese philosophy thought. It embodies the deep structure of Chinese cultural spirit and the innovative pattern of Chinese philosophy thought. At present, “philosophy of Yi-He” conforms (...) to the topic of the age, i.e. developing in all-round and coordinating way and constructing harmonious society. It constitutes Chinese philosophy idea which reflects and criticizes modern civilization and creating viewpoint on harmonious development. “Philosophy of Yi-He” calls on harmonious world and constructs harmonious development idea in the relationship between human being and nature, human being and society, human being and themselves, human being and civilization. The viewpoint on harmonious development of Chinese philosophy aims at creating an ideal of harmonious world. (shrink)

“The Strong Programme” is put forward as a metaphysical theory of sociology by the Edinburgh School (SSK) to study the social causes of knowledge. Barry Barnes and David Bloor are the proponents of the School. They call their programme “the Relativist View of Knowledge” and argue against rationalism in the philosophy of science. Does their relativist account of knowledge present a serious challenge to rationalism, which has dominated 20th century philosophy of science? I attempt to answer this question by criticizing (...) the main ideas of SSK and defending rationalism theories in modern philosophy of science. (shrink)