Daniel Marcelle, Aron Gurwitsch, The Collected Works of Aron Gurwitsch, Volume I: Constitutive Phenomenology in Historical Perspective, Dordrecht: Springer, 2009; Volume II: Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology, Dordrecht: Springer, 2010; Volume III: The Field of Consciousness: Theme, Thematic Field, and Margin, Dordrecht: Springer, 2010; Claudia Șerban, Jean-Luc Marion, Certitudes negatives, Paris: Grasset, 2010; Christian Rössner, Hans-Dieter Gondek, László Tengelyi, Neue Phanomenologie in Frankreich, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2011; Daniel Dwyer, Hans-Helmuth Gander, Husserl-Lexikon, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2010; Délia Popa, Jean-François Lavigne, Acceder au (...) transcendantal? Reduction et idealisme transcendantal dans les Idées directrices pour une phénoménologie pure et une philosophie phénoménologique de Husserl, Paris: Vrin, 2009; Mădălina Diaconu, Lambert Wiesing, Das Mich der Wahrnehmung. Eine Autopsie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2009; Mădălina Diaconu, Sam B. Girgus, Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption. Time, Ethics, and the Feminine, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010; Rolf Kühn, Frédéric Seyler, ≪ Barbarie ou culture ≫ : L’ethique de l’affectivitedans la phenomenologie de Michel Henry, Paris: Kimé, 2010; Stephan Steiner, Mette Lebech, On the Problem of Human Dignity. A Hermeneutical and henomenological Investigation, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2009. (shrink)

As theorists, developers, and practitioners of the anticipatory governance of emerging technologies, we applaud Ankeny et al.’s...

Empirical bioethics is commonly understood as integrating empirical research with normative-ethical research in order to address an ethical issue. Methodological analyses in empirical bioethics mainly focus on the integration of socio-empirical sciences and normative ethics. But while there are numerous multidisciplinary research projects combining life sciences and normative ethics, there is few explicit methodological reflection on how to integrate both fields, or about the goals and rationales of such interdisciplinary cooperation. In this paper we will review some drivers for the (...) tendency of empirical bioethics methodologies to focus on the collaboration of normative ethics with particularly social sciences. Subsequently, we argue that the ends of empirical bioethics, not the empirical methods, are decisive for the question of which empirical disciplines can contribute to empirical bioethics in a meaningful way. Using already existing types of research integration as a springboard, five possible types of research which encompass life sciences and normative analysis will illustrate how such cooperation can be conceptualized from a methodological perspective within empirical bioethics. We will conclude with a reflection on the limitations and challenges of empirical bioethics research that integrates life sciences. (shrink)

The present study addressed two related problems: The status of the concept of the soul in folk psychological conceptualizations across cultures, and the nature of mind-body dualism within Chinese folk psychology. We compared folk intuitions about three concepts – mind, body, and soul – among adults from China and Poland. The questionnaire study comprised of questions about the functional and ontological nature of the three entities. The results show that the mind and soul are conceptualized differently in the two countries: (...) The Chinese appear to think of the soul similarly to how they view the mind, while Poles differentiate it both in ontological and functional respects. The study provides important insights into cross-cultural differences in conceptualizing the soul as well as into the nature of Chinese mind-body dualism. (shrink)

Contents include Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication (1853; 2 vols) by Claude Marcel; The Mastery of Languages, or the Art of Speaking Foreign Tongues Idiomatically (1864) by Thomas Prendergast; Introduction to the Teaching of Living Languages without Grammar or Dictionary (1874) by Lambert Sauveur; and The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages (1880; English translation 1892) by Francois Goiun.

In the social sciences we hardly can create laboratory conditions, we only can try to find out which kinds of experiments Nature has carried out. Knowledge about Nature's designs can be used to infer conditions for reliable predictions. This problem was explicitly dealt with in Haavelmo's (1944) discussion of autonomous relationships, Friedman's (1953) as-if methodology, and Simon's (1961) discussions of nearly-decomposable systems. All three accounts take Marshallian partitioning as starting point, however not with a sharp ceteris paribus razor but with (...) the blunt knife of negligibility assumptions. As will be shown, in each account reflection on which influences are negligible, for what phenomena and for how long, played a central role. (shrink)

Glenn Harrison [Journal of Economic Methodology, 2013, 20, 103–117] discusses four related forms of methodological intolerance with respect to field experiments: field experiments should rely on some form of randomization, should be disconnected from theory, the concept of causality should only be defined in terms of observables, and the role of laboratory experiments is dismissed. As is often the case, the cause of intolerance is ignorance, as it is here. To acquire knowledge about potential influences, which we need for both (...) the evaluation of internal and external validity of experimental results, we cannot do without theory. A purely empiricist methodology will be unable to give us sufficient understanding of the validity of these results. An account of causality only based on directly observed things, is an account based on factual influences only. This account will be too restricted, because it will not deal with the unobserved potential influences, which we need – again – for the evaluat... (shrink)

Based on the fact that military establishments have historically played a major role in the transformation of societies, this paper argues that the Nigerian Armed Forces need to be credible and modernized in order to be able to fulfil their constitutional responsibilities. They can do this by providing the necessary support, in terms of professional expertise and administrative efficiency, for the successful implementation of Nigeria’s Vision 2020 and its strategic Seven-Point Agenda. By supporting the democratic institutions in the successful implementation (...) of Vision 2020, the armed forces would have quickened the transformation of Nigeria intoan industrialized democratic nation that could compete favourably with its counterparts in the Americas, Europe and Asia. (shrink)

This article seeks to show the interaction between cultural and anatomic evolution in the birth and differentiation of cultures and languages. The diversity which characterizes our world does not preclude logical regularities due to the coherence of the human mind, which evolved slowly through the paleontological phases of its emergence over millions of years. The anatomical retroaction of the hominids is analyzed to show that, in the long run, anatomy reflected ‘cultural selection’. With the anatomic evolution of man, culture became (...) a crucial component for all human beings and their anatomy simply adapted progressively to this fact. (shrink)

Il est une actualité de la syllogistique aristotélicienne qui impose encore aujourd'hui les règles de l'argumentation logique dans la production du savoir scientifique. Le moyen terme y régule la structure et la forme du raisonnement — cet ensemble de jugements — élaboré de telle sorte que la conclusion découle nécessairement des prémisses. Chez Aristote, le jugement requiert ainsi une multitude de procédures d'application à la réalité. Or, Boole trouve en cela un problème méthodologique largement négligé par les logiciens et certains (...) historiens des sciences modernes : le problème d'Aristote sur le moyen terme, le moyen terme étant à la fois cause, matière et forme du syllogisme catégorique. Les deux penseurs visent pourtant l'infaillibilité du raisonnement par l'élimination du moyen terme dans les procédures de la recherche de la vérité. Ce qui les divise est à la fois d'ordre méthodologique et de degré. Car, Aristote élimine le moyen terme de la conclusion et selon les lois ultimes de l'objet. Boole, en revanche, élimine le moyen terme du raisonnement symbolique sur la base des lois ultimes de la pensée pure en lui reniant le statut que lui conférait Aristote. Cet article vise à montrer, à la lumière de cette éclipse du moyen terme pour Aristote que, pour Boole, la solution nécessaire au problème d'Aristote est la « théorie générale des signes » qui, elle, consacre l'élimination du moyen terme du raisonnement symbolique. C'est une exigence de la pensée connaissante en ce qu'elle constitue son caractère méta-méthodologique. La théorie générale des signes rendrait ainsi l'actualité de l'aristotélisme plus persistante si tant est qu'il est admis que Boole ne s'en est lui-même pas encore démarqué. (shrink)

Il est une actualité de la syllogistique aristotélicienne qui impose encore aujourd'hui les règles de l'argumentation logique dans la production du savoir scientifique. Le moyen terme y régule la structure et la forme du raisonnement — cet ensemble de jugements — élaboré de telle sorte que la conclusion découle nécessairement des prémisses. Chez Aristote, le jugement requiert ainsi une multitude de procédures d'application à la réalité. Or, Boole trouve en cela un problème méthodologique largement négligé par les logiciens et certains (...) historiens des sciences modernes : le problème d'Aristote sur le moyen terme, le moyen terme étant à la fois cause, matière et forme du syllogisme catégorique. Les deux penseurs visent pourtant l'infaillibilité du raisonnement par l'élimination du moyen terme dans les procédures de la recherche de la vérité. Ce qui les divise est à la fois d'ordre méthodologique et de degré. Car, Aristote élimine le moyen terme de la conclusion et selon les lois ultimes de l'objet. Boole, en revanche, élimine le moyen terme du raisonnement symbolique sur la base des lois ultimes de la pensée pure en lui reniant le statut que lui conférait Aristote. Cet article vise à montrer, à la lumière de cette éclipse du moyen terme pour Aristote que, pour Boole, la solution nécessaire au problème d'Aristote est la « théorie générale des signes » qui, elle, consacre l'élimination du moyen terme du raisonnement symbolique. C'est une exigence de la pensée connaissante en ce qu'elle constitue son caractère méta-méthodologique. La théorie générale des signes rendrait ainsi l'actualité de l'aristotélisme plus persistante si tant est qu'il est admis que Boole ne s'en est lui-même pas encore démarqué. (shrink)

Generally, rational decision-making is conceived as arriving at a decision by a correct application of the rules of logic and statistics. If not, the conclusions are called biased. After an impressive series of experiments and tests carried out in the last few decades, the view arose that rationality is tough for all, skilled field experts not excluded. A new type of planner's counsellor is called for: the normative statistician, the expert in reasoning with uncertainty par excellence. To unravel this view, (...) the paper explores a specific practice of clinical decision-making, namely Evidence-Based Medicine. This practice is chosen, because it is very explicit about how to rationalize practice. The paper shows that whether a decision-making process is rational cannot be assessed without taking into account the environment in which the decisions have to be taken. To be more specific, the decision to call for new evidence should be rational too. This decision and the way in which this evidence is obtained are crucial to validate the base rates. Rationality should be model-based, which means that not only the isolated decision-making process should take a Bayesian updating process as its norm, but should also model the acquisition of evidence (priors and tests results) as a rational process. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage reprend l'essentiel des discours prononces et des communications presentees lors du colloque qui s'est tenu le 16 novembre 2001 a l'Institut Superieur de Philosophie en l'honneur des 80 ans de Jean Ladriere. On y trouve, outre les discours de Marcel Crochet, Gilbert Gerard et Michel Molitor, une contribution importante de Jean Ladriere et des communications de Stanislas Breton, Bernard d'Espagnat, Dominique Lambert, Jean-Francois Malherbe, James Pembrun, Andre Van de Putte et Philippe Van Parijs. Toutes les interventions (...) portent sur la problematique de la rationalite - un theme central et unificateur de l'oeuvre philosophique de Jean Ladriere - dans les domaines de l'histoire de la philosophie, la philosophie sociale et politique, la philosophie du langage, la philosophie des sciences et la theologie. L'ouvrage se termine par une interview de Jean Ladriere par Philippe Van Parijs.". (shrink)