Comme l’indique le sous-titre, ce livre n’est pas une biographie, mais une enquête sur la disparition dans la mémoire collective d’une grande résistante, une des six femmes Compagnons de la Libération, Laure Diebold-Mutschler. Engagée dès 1940 dans la Résistance, à l’âge de vingt-cinq ans, elle est notamment agent de liaison du réseau Mithridate avant d’entrer à Lyon dans les Forces Françaises libres et de devenir la secrétaire de Jean Moulin. Elle sera arrêtée le 24 septembre 1943 à Paris, a...

En publiant en 1965 Le Péché et la durée de l’ange, le P. Guérard des Lauriers, o. p. (1898-1989) offrait une contribution majeure à un débat qui divisait les thomistes. En 1946 en effet, la parution de Surnaturel du P. de Lubac avait remis en cause, textes de Thomas d’Aquin à l’appui, la thèse de l’impeccabilité naturelle de l’ange, jusqu’alors (presque) unanimement reçue dans l’École thomiste. Deux interprétations de Thomas d’Aquin polarisèrent alors le débat : la raison de la peccabilité (...) de l’ange est à rechercher ou bien dans son élévation à l’ordre surnaturel ( De malo, q. 16, a. 4), ou bien dans la structure même de la créature angélique ( Summa theologiae I a Pars, q. 63, a. 1). Servi par une herméneutique renouvelée des textes de Thomas sur la peccabilité de l’ange, et fort d’un redéploiement d’une doctrine thomiste de la liberté, articulée dans sa double dimension de spécification et d’exercice, Guérard établit que le fondement de la liberté des créatures spirituelles – et donc leur peccabilité – se situe au cœur de leur constitution métaphysique, dans la distinction réelle entre nature et personne, sans qu’intervienne nécessairement la distinction des ordres naturel et surnaturel. Son analyse pénétrante et novatrice le conduit à mettre au jour une structure du libre arbitre, laquelle intègre et unit sans confusion les deux ordres de réalité engagés dans l’acte libre : le métaphysique et le moral. Il offre ainsi une contribution de premier plan à l’élaboration d’une philosophie contemporaine de la liberté, attestant par-là la fécondité de la tradition thomiste. (shrink)

Céline Pérol nous offre un parcours quasiment initiatique pour comprendre dans la longue durée le destin si singulier de Marthe, la sœur de Marie-Madeleine et de Lazare. Marthe est longtemps restée dans l’ombre de sa glorieuse fratrie et son culte ne s’est que rarement individualisé. Dans les Évangiles, elle est l’hôtesse du Christ à Béthanie (Lc 10, 38-42), qu’elle accueille activement dans sa maison alors que Marie ne se préoccupe que de rester aux pieds du Christ. Elle est (...) celle qui a tant... (shrink)

Si le XXe siècle a entériné la « mort de Dieu » clamée haut et fort depuis le siècle précédent, il n’en a pas moins réinvesti aussi, et comme en contrepoint, de manière oblique ou frontalement, la dimension du sacré. Cela peut étonner, et, à vrai dire, cela étonne, ce qui signifie qu’il y a ici matière à philosopher. C’est ainsi qu’avec Rudolph Otto et Mircea Eliade, l’anthropologie s’est mise à étudier savamment les distinctions entre profane et sacré (...) mises en place par « l’homo religiosus »... (shrink)

Si le cynisme a toujours eu mauvaise presse sur la scene philosophique, c'est en partie a cause des traits scandaleux que l'Antiquite, s'appuyant sur la Politeia et les tragedies de Diogene, lui a pretes. Mais ces traits se retrouvent dans la Politeia de Zenon et chez des Stoiciens aussi importants que Cleanthe et Chrysippe. Comment expliquer que des philosophes dont la reputation de serieux est bien connue aient pu accepter et meme louer des principes aussi scandaleux que l'anthrophagie, la liberte (...) sexuelle totale, l'indifference a la sepulture, l'egalite hommes/femmes, la negation du sacre, la remise en cause de la cite et de ses lois? Un Appendice sur Apollodore de Seleucie (IIe s. av. J.-C.), entend rendre justice a ce philosophe au role meconnu. (Franz Steiner 2003). (shrink)

Les femmes romaines sont exclues de tout pouvoir et confinées dans un rôle de subordination et de dépendance en matière religieuse comme dans les domaines de la vie privée et de la vie politique. Toutefois, en des moments essentiels de l’histoire de Rome (période primitive, deuxième guerre punique, guerres civiles), l’activité religieuse de certaines d’entre elles, parfois exercée de façon marginale ou suspecte, montre l’étendue de leurs capacités comme porteuses du sacré. Au coeur de la tradition civique et religieuse (...) de Rome, les Vestales apparaissent ainsi à la fois exceptionnelles et exemplaires. (shrink)

Essays that put noted political thinkers of the past—including Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Wollstonecraft, Marx, and Confucius—in dialogue with current environmental political theory. Contemporary environmental political theory considers the implications of the environmental crisis for such political concepts as rights, citizenship, justice, democracy, the state, race, class, and gender. As the field has matured, scholars have begun to explore connections between Green Theory and such canonical political thinkers as Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, and Marx. The essays in this volume put important figures (...) from the political theory canon in dialogue with current environmental political theory. It is the first comprehensive volume to bring the insights of Green Theory to bear in reinterpreting these canonical theorists. Individual essays cover such classical figures in Western thought as Aristotle, Hume, Rousseau, Mill, and Burke, but they also depart from the traditional canon to consider Mary Wollstonecraft, W. E. B. Du Bois, Hannah Arendt, and Confucius. Engaging and accessible, the essays also offer original and innovative interpretations that often challenge standard readings of these thinkers. In examining and explicating how these great thinkers of the past viewed the natural world and our relationship with nature, the essays also illuminate our current environmental predicament. Essays on Plato • Aristotle • Niccolò Machiavelli • Thomas Hobbes • John Locke • David Hume • Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Edmund Burke • Mary Wollstonecraft • John Stuart Mill • Karl Marx • W. E. B. Du Bois • Martin Heidegger • Hannah Arendt • Confucius Contributors Sheryl D. Breen, W. Scott Cameron, Peter F. Cannavò, Joel Jay Kassiola, Joseph H. Lane Jr. Timothy W. Luke, John M. Meyer, Özgüç Orhan, Barbara K. Seeber, Francisco Seijo, Kimberly K. Smith, Piers H. G. Stephens, Zev Trachtenberg, Andrew Valls, Harlan Wilson. (shrink)

Les femmes romaines sont exclues de tout pouvoir et confinées dans un rôle de subordination et de dépendance en matière religieuse comme dans les domaines de la vie privée et de la vie politique. Toutefois, en des moments essentiels de l’histoire de Rome (période primitive, deuxième guerre punique, guerres civiles), l’activité religieuse de certaines d’entre elles, parfois exercée de façon marginale ou suspecte, montre l’étendue de leurs capacités comme porteuses du sacré. Au coeur de la tradition civique et religieuse (...) de Rome, les Vestales apparaissent ainsi à la fois exceptionnelles et exemplaires. (shrink)

Le témoignage de Sœur Marie-André du Sacré-Cœur s'inscrit parfaitement dans la dénonciation du travail forcé féminin développée par les missionnaires catholiques de Haute-Volta dans la première moitié du XXe siècle. Les missions se présentent volontiers comme les seuls lieux de protection de la population africaine contre l'exploitation abusive du travail forcé. Parfois, elles recourent à l'opinion publique métropolitaine, en dénonçant, dans la presse catholique, la mauvaise gestion ad...

Le témoignage de Sœur Marie-André du Sacré-Cœur s'inscrit parfaitement dans la dénonciation du travail forcé féminin développée par les missionnaires catholiques de Haute-Volta dans la première moitié du XXe siècle. Les missions se présentent volontiers comme les seuls lieux de protection de la population africaine contre l'exploitation abusive du travail forcé. Parfois, elles recourent à l'opinion publique métropolitaine, en dénonçant, dans la presse catholique, la mauvaise gestion ad...

The visual attention (VA) span is defined as the amount of distinct visual elements which can be processed in parallel in a multi-element array. Both recent empirical data and theoretical accounts suggest that a VA span deficit might contribute to developmental dyslexia, independently of a phonological disorder. In this study, this hypothesis was assessed in two large samples of French and British dyslexic children whose performance was compared to that of chronological-age matched control children. Results of the French study show (...) that the VA span capacities account for a substantial amount of unique variance in reading, as do phonological skills. The British study replicates this finding and further reveals that the contribution of the VA span to reading performance remains even after controlling IQ, verbal fluency, vocabulary and single letter identification skills, in addition to phoneme awareness. In both studies, most dyslexic children exhibit a selective phonological or VA span disorder. Overall, these findings support a multi-factorial view of developmental dyslexia. In many cases, developmental reading disorders do not seem to be due to phonological disorders. We propose that a VA span deficit is a likely alternative underlying cognitive deficit in dyslexia. (shrink)

Respect and dignity are central to moral life, and have a particular importance in health care settings such as the intensive care unit (ICU). We conducted 15 semistructured interviews with 21 participants during an ICU admission to explore the definition of, and specific behaviors that demonstrate, respect and dignity during treatment in the ICU. We transcribed interviews and conducted thematic qualitative analysis. Seven themes emerged that focused on what it means to be treated with respect and/or dignity: treated as a (...) person; Golden Rule; acknowledgement; treated as family/friend; treated as an individual; treated as important/valuable; and treated as equal. Participants described particular behaviors or actions that were considered related to demonstrating treatment with respect and dignity: listening; honesty/giving information; attention to body/modesty/appearance; caring/bedside manner; patient and family as an information source; attention to pain; and responsiveness. These behaviors provide a framework for improving experiences with care in the ICU. (shrink)

There is a need for empirically based research on social and ethical challenges related to informed consent processes, particularly in studies focusing on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. In a pilot study of a school-based pregnancy prevention intervention in rural Zambia, the majority of the guardians who were asked to consent to their daughters’ participation, refused. In this paper we explore the reasons behind the low participation in the pilot with particular attention to challenges related to the community engagement and (...) informed consent process. The pilot was implemented in two schools and examined the acceptability of a package of interventions including economic support to families to keep their girls in school, pocket money for girls, youth club meetings on reproductive health, and community meetings to sensitize the community. Focus group discussions were conducted with girls who participated in the pilot, boys in their class and with parents. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers, peer educators and community health workers involved in the coordination of the intervention as well as with religious and traditional leaders. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings indicate that inadequate use of recognized community communication channels during the community engagement process and dissemination of information about the pilot resulted in limited understanding of the pilot concept by the community. This surfaced through uncertainty and fear that the intervention may result in loss of control over daughters, worries about why money was provided unconditionally to girls, and suspicion of links to satanism. The sense of insecurity appeared to be exacerbated by low literacy levels, poverty, fear of loss of bride wealth, perceived disregard for local perceptions of social status, and scanty trust in the actors implementing the pilot. Inadequate use of locally appropriate channels in the dissemination of information created room for interpretation and facilitated development of mistrust, undermining the conditions for community engagement and actual informed consent. A key lesson learnt is the importance of taking seriously the complexity of local values and structures that may impact people’s capability to consent or not consent to a study in an informed manner. (shrink)

Respected Catholic ethicists have recently defended the use of salpingostomy and methotrexate in the management of ectopic pregnancies.This article examines the arguments for the revised assessments to determine whether there are sound reasons to believe that these two methods do not constitute the direct and immediate killing of innocent human beings. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 11.1 (Spring 2011): 65–82.

Although clinical ethics consultation is a high-stakes endeavor with an increasing prominence in health care systems, progress in developing standards for quality is challenging. In this article, we describe the results of a pilot project utilizing portfolios as an evaluation tool. We found that this approach is feasible and resulted in a reasonably wide distribution of scores among the 23 submitted portfolios that we evaluated. We discuss limitations and implications of these results, and suggest that this is a significant step (...) on the pathway to an eventual certification process for clinical ethics consultants. (shrink)

In 1941 Simone Weil was introduced to Father Jean-Marie Perrin, a priest of the Dominican order whose friendship became one of the most significant influences on her spiritual development. It was for Father Perrin that she wrote her 'spiritual autobiography', contained in Waiting for God, and to him that she later wrote 'Letter to a Priest'. When Weil requested work as a field hand, Perrin sent her to Gustave Thibon, a farmer and Christian philosopher. From 1941-2, Weil stayed with (...) the Thibon family, working in the fields by day while writing by night the notebooks which posthumously became Gravity and Grace and other seminal works. Perrin and Thibon met Weil at a time when her interior life and her creative genius were at the height of their glowing maturity. During the short but deep period of their acquaintance with her, they came to know her as she actually was. Their accounts of this time reveal her to us in the bare parlour of the Dominican convent at Marseilles where, after waiting her turn among a stream of refugees, she discussed her personal problems with Father Perrin. They show her to us in the vineyards of Ardèche, and on the stone seat by the fountain overlooking the Rhone valley where she read Plato to Thibon, her host. First published in 1953, and now newly introduced by Patricia Little, this unique portrait depicts Weil through the eyes of her friends, not as a strange and unaccountable genius but as an ardent and very human young person in search of truth and knowledge. (shrink)

I. Bernard Cohen (1914–2003), the first American to receive a Ph.D. in history of science, was a Harvard undergraduate ('37) and then a Ph.D. student and protégé of George Sarton, founder of Isis and the History of Science Society. He went on to succeed Sarton as editor of Isis (1952–1958) and, later, president of the Society (1961–1962); he was also a president of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. Cohen was an internationally recognized Newton scholar; his (...) interests were encyclopedic, ranging from science and public policy to the history of computers, with several decades as a special consultant for history of computing with IBM. Among his hundreds of publications were such major books as Franklin and Newton (1956), The Birth of a New Physics (1959; rpt., 1985), The Newtonian Revolution (1980), Revolution in Science (1985), Science and the Founding Fathers (1995), Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer (1999), and his last book, The Triumph of Numbers (2005), not to mention two jointly authored contributions, the variorum edition and new English translation of Newton's Principia, which will surely still be read a century from now. (shrink)

Treating patients and their family members with respect and dignity is a broadly accepted goal of health care. The work presented in this article is part of a larger project aimed at better understanding what constitutes treatment with respect and dignity in the ICU to improve the care that patients and family members receive in this regard. Direct observation was selected as one of the methods to facilitate this understanding because it provides the opportunity to see and document what actually (...) occurs during encounters among patients, their families, and clinicians. This article reports seven major thematic domains and many subthemes that together create a detailed account of the interpersonal and environmental components of treatment with respect and dignity. Attention to these components might enhance the experience and treatment of patients and family members. (shrink)

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was a ground-breaking work of literature which still resonates in feminism and human rights movements of today.

When the COVID-19 surge hit New York City hospitals, the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, and our affiliated ethics consultation services, faced waves of ethical issues sweeping forward with intensity and urgency. In this article, we describe our experience over an eight-week period (16 March through 10 May 2020), and describe three types of services: clinical ethics consultation (CEC); service practice communications/interventions (SPCI); and organizational ethics advisement (OEA). We tell this narrative through the prism of time, (...) describing the evolution of ethical issues and trends as the pandemic unfolded. We delineate three phases: anticipation and preparation, crisis management, and reflection and adjustment. The first phase focused predominantly on ways to address impending resource shortages and to plan for remote ethics consultation, and CECs focused on code status discussions with surrogates. The second phase was characterized by the dramatic convergence of a rapid increase in the number of critically ill patients, a growing scarcity of resources, and the reassignment/ redeployment of staff outside their specialty areas. The third phase was characterized by the recognition that while the worst of the crisis was waning, its medium- and long-term consequences continued to pose immense challenges. We note that there were times during the crisis that serving in the role of clinical ethics consultant created a sense of dis-ease as novel as the coronavirus itself. In retrospect we learned that our activities far exceeded the familiar terrain of clinical ethics consultation and extended into other spheres of organizational life in novel ways that were unanticipated before this pandemic. To that end, we defined and categorized a middle level of ethics consultation, which we have termed service practice communication intervention (SPCI). This is an underappreciated dimension of the work that ethics consult services are capable of in times of crisis. We believe that the pandemic has revealed the many enduring ways that ethics consultation services can more robustly contribute to the ethical life of their institutions moving forward. (shrink)

Prostate cancer has become a major health concern of male Americans. It is now the most common nondermatologic cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men. The incidence of detected prostate cancer rose rapidly in recent years, partly because of prostate-specific antigen testing; it is only now tapering off. Screening for prostate cancer with PSA is widespread in the United States, yet controversial: the American Urological Association recommends PSA screening and the American Cancer Society recommends offering screening; (...) however, the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the American College of Physicians recommend against routine screening; and the American Academy of Family Physicians believes that the decision to screen should be left to the patient. (shrink)