This article examines Grotius’ lifelong support for Dutch expansion overseas. As noted in other publications of mine, Grotius cooperated closely with the directors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the years 1604–1615. Right up to his arrest for high treason in August 1618, he contributed towards Dutch government discussions about the establishment of a West India Company (WIC). Three years of imprisonment at Loevestein Castle and, following his escape, long years of exile could not weaken his dedication to (...) the cause. His relatives in Holland, in particular his brother Willem de Groot and his brother-in-law Nicolaas van Reigersberch, kept him up-to-date on the fortunes of the VOC and WIC. His expertise on maritime affairs was in high demand. For example, Cardinal Richelieu invited him in November 1626 to become actively involved in the establishment of a French East India Company. As itinerant ideologue of empire, Grotius sought to further his own career and those of his nearest family members, without damaging the interests of the United Provinces. Through Willem de Groot and Nicolaas van Reigersberch, he provided informal advice on Dutch imperial policy to the VOC directors and government officials in The Hague. He was rewarded with the appointment of his brother and his second son, Pieter de Groot, as VOC lawyers (ordinaris advocaten) in 1639 and 1644, respectively. They served as his proxies in diplomatic disputes involving the VOC, the States General and the Portuguese ambassador in autumn 1644, when Pieter and Willem de Groot wrote a defense of VOC claims to the cinnamon-producing areas of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), liberally citing De Jure Belli ac Pacis. Grotius’ vision of empire hardly changed in the course of 40 years. In his view, the Dutch had gone to the Indies as merchants, not conquerors, and should regulate themselves according to natural law and the law of nations. Thus he contributed to the creation of two political orders, one for Europe and one for the Indies. European diplomatic relations counted for little beyond the Line. VOC and WIC officials could act as judges and executioners in their own cause, without reference to indigenous rulers, other colonial powers, or even the political authorities back home. (shrink)

In the last two decades, Ralph Cudworth has been acknowledged as one of the paramount figures in the history of theories of consciousness. This paper discusses the interpretation defended by Udo Thiel and Vili Lähteenmäki. Both contend that, for Cudworth, the reflexivity defining consciousness does not constitute self-consciousness, which, they say, requires self-determination for practical ends. On the contrary, I argue that for Cudworth any degree of consciousness implies a species of self-perception that must be considered a degree of self-consciousness. (...) To do justice to Cudworth’s full position, I claim, we must take into account a kind of consciousness that I call ‘to-oneself ’ consciousness. Furthermore, I argue, the problem of the ethical self-formation of every human soul as one personality should be seen as going beyond the mere consideration of practical rationality. (shrink)

In ethics, the use of empirical data has become more and more popular, leading to a distinct form of applied ethics, namely empirical ethics. This ‘empirical turn’ is especially visible in bioethics. There are various ways of combining empirical research and ethical reflection. In this paper we discuss the use of empirical data in a special form of Reflective Equilibrium (RE), namely the Network Model with Third Person Moral Experiences. In this model, the empirical data consist of the moral experiences (...) of people in a practice. Although inclusion of these moral experiences in this specific model of RE can be well defended, their use in the application of the model still raises important questions. What precisely are moral experiences? How to determine relevance of experiences, in other words: should there be a selection of the moral experiences that are eventually used in the RE? How much weight should the empirical data have in the RE? And the key question: can the use of RE by empirical ethicists really produce answers to practical moral questions?In this paper we start to answer the above questions by giving examples taken from our research project on understanding the norm of informed consent in the field of pediatric oncology. We especially emphasize that incorporation of empirical data in a network model can reduce the risk of self‐justification and bias and can increase the credibility of the RE reached. (shrink)

« Notre monde recèle autant de possibilités immenses que de gigantesques échecs. »La gauche détient les clefs pour redonner un avenir à la France et à l’Europe. Plus de solidarité, plus d’égalité, plus de règles, plus de respect de l’autre et le retour du sens de l’intérêt général face à l’argent roi sont les talismans du progrès retrouvé. Le combat politique avec..

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

Kenelm Digby’s Two Treatises, of the Nature of Bodies and of the Nature of Mans Soule defends quite an idiosyncratic approach to mind-body dualism. In his use of the divisibility argument to prove that the human soul cannot be a material substance, Digby takes an uncompromising stand for merely potential material parts. In his Treatise of Bodies the present article focuses on the mode of construction of the definition of quantity as divisibility and on its links to two distinct fundamental (...) arguments against the actual material parts doctrine. The first, positive, argument consists of a semantic reason drawn from Digby’s general doctrine of meaning, whereas the second, negative, argument, addresses the traditional question of the composition of the continuum. The latter, the author contends, does not build on the medieval controversy itself, but on Digby’s opposition to Galileo’s claim of indivisibilism in his Dialogues Concerning Two Sciences. (shrink)

We appreciate that the theme “ethics of ethics conferences” that we introduced in 2023 (Van der Graaf et al. 2023) was echoed by the previous and current presidents of the International Association...

Continuing the investigation in his earlier Individuals and individuality, Martine (philosophy, U. of Alabama) demonstrates that indeterminacy in our experience is logically bound to the determinate dimensions of thought and practice.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology. It needs no ambient light, nor the guidance of the human eye to capture and reproduce a likeness of the world around us. Although LiDAR generates a constant stream of technical literature, LiDAR images, once envisaged for their aesthetic and expressive value, seem to call for alternative modes of analysis. How do we approach the fast-expanding archive of scanner images? How do we adequately describe the intriguing, spectral visualizations that its (...) blind process of recording produces? Following a general introduction, I look at Anouk De Clerk’s filmThing(2013), a work entirely comprised of LiDAR images. De Clerk encourages us to envisage LiDAR counterintuitively, not as the product of technological novelty, but as part of an interdisciplinary history of the arts. (shrink)

Après la révolution d’Octobre 1917, la transformation des rapports sociaux entre les sexes a été placée au cœur du projet bolchevik de construction du socialisme en Russie. De nouvelles formes d’organisation de la vie domestique, du travail et de la société transformeraient les relations entre les hommes et les femmes. Afin que les femmes puissent participer à égalité avec les hommes aux activités de production et de la sphère publique, il était indispensable de libérer les femmes des tâches domestiques en (...) transférant celles-ci dans la sphère des services collectifs. Qu’en fut-il dans la réalité? Les enquêtes sur les emplois du temps des familles, appelées enquêtes de budget temps, qui ont été réalisées en URSS au début des années 1920 puis à la fin des années 1960 et au début des années 1970, permettent de juger de la réalité de l’évolution des rôles sociaux derrière les discours dans la Russie soviétique. (shrink)

Being able to self-regulate one’s learning is essential for academic success but is also very difficult for students. Especially first year students can be overwhelmed with the high study load and autonomy in higher education. To face this challenge, students’ monitoring and self-regulated learning processes are crucial. Yet, often students are not aware of effective SRL strategies or how to use them. In this study, the use of a mobile application with gamification elements to support first-year university students’ SRL processes (...) was investigated. In Study 1a, the Ace your self-study app was implemented in a first-year psychology course, and students’ SRL skills, motivation, self-efficacy, app use and satisfaction, and performance were measured. The results showed a significant increase in autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and metacognitive self-regulation skills across the 5-week course. Moreover, students who used the mobile application with gamified elements showed higher autonomous motivation. Nevertheless, most students used the app only for a limited number of self-study sessions. In Study 1b, students’ self-study experiences were captured using focus group interviews to shed some more light on why students did or did not use the app. The results show that if students feel they do not need support for their SRL processes during self-study, they are less inclined to use the app. Specifically, regarding using study strategies, it was found that only if students’ strategies do not work well in their perception, they feel the need to change their way of studying and choose another strategy. These results are discussed in the context of theory on SRL and how to support it. (shrink)

In the free-will discussion between Hobbes and Bramhall, Hobbes’s principle that actions are necessary is not immediately action-theoretic. The fundamental theoretical context of Hobbes’s explanation of action lies in an understanding of causation more generally. However, Hobbes’s action theory is not simply modeled after the account of cause and effect in his First Philosophy. It introduces a temporal qualification which ranks necessitarianism higher than First Philosophy does: not only a voluntary action, but also the determinate moment when the mental act (...) of volition is formed, is necessitated. My paper argues that this strengthening of causal necessity is due to the Hobbesian scheme of deliberation, which must be analyzed in terms of one distinctive kind of ‘mental discourse’ and practical reasoning, not merely in terms of a series of passions. For Hobbes, the impossibility of a direct representation of the future requires the mediation of a mental construction. (shrink)

Les syndicats libres féminins s'inspirent du catholicisme social, et ils reprennent à leur compte les idées développées par Léon XIII dans l'encyclique Rerum novarum. Par exemple, la recherche d'une collaboration de classe se concrétise dans la participation d'ouvrières et de bourgeoises à la vie syndicale, les premières étant sollicitées et encadrées par les secondes. Si ces organisations se donnent pour but de défendre les intérêts spécifiques des salariées, présence et action syndicales ne trouvent en fait leur plénitude et leur sens (...) qu'en s'inscrivant dans une dimension éthique et morale. L'ouvrière est prise en charge dans l'usine, mais aussi au-dehors. Son mode de vie, ses relations sociales et familiales, son avenir personnel sont l'objet d'attentions et deviennent le support d'un projet politique plus vaste. (shrink)

The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the conference Mapping Parameters of Meaning, an event organized by the GReG (Groupe de Rèflexion sur les Grammaires) linguistics research group in the Language Department of the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre on November 19-20, 2010. The book addresses the description of meaning construction processes, and the necessity for new linguistic interface-tools to analyze it in its dynamic and multi-dimensional aspect. Syntax, grammar, prosody, discourse organization, subjective and situational filters are (...) not considered as autonomous systems; on the contrary, they are shown to systematically converge in the process of meaning construction and interpretation. The notion of context is discussed throughout the volume, a major concern being to try and define the precise nature of the link between variable contextual parameters and stable linguistic systems. The book will be of value to anyone interested in the interaction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics in the gradual construction and interpretation of meaning in natural languages, including researchers, students and scholars of formal linguistics, cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis. (shrink)

In this article I share some of my experiences of practising Korean Zen meditation and how, without ever mentioning the word ‘mindfulness,’ this practice helps us to become mindful. This leads me to suggest that the main ingredients of Buddhist meditation are samatha (which I will translate here as ‘concentration’) and vipassanā (which I will call ‘experiential enquiry’). No matter which Buddhist tradition one follows, the practice of samatha and vipassanā will lead to the cultivation of mindfulness. I also intend (...) to show how the traditional doctrine of the ‘four great efforts’ is very close to therapeutic methods advocated in MBCT. I will also propose that the Buddha's five methods of dealing with difficult thoughts as presented in the Vitakkhasa hāna Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 20) are examples of an early Buddhist cognitive behavioural strategy. (shrink)

La tradition manuscrite de la lyrique occitane nous a transmis quatre recueils, tous réalisés en Vénétie à la fin du xiiie siècle, qui sont décorés de miniatures évoquant chaque troubadour en tête des poèmes qui lui sont attribués. Parmi eux se sont glissées quelques femmes trobairitz. Huit d’entre elles sont ainsi représentées en train de chanter, mais dénuées de tout caractère individuel. À défaut de pouvoir révéler qui ont été ces poétesses-musiciennes dont l’identité souvent incertaine laisse planer un doute quant (...) à leur existence réelle, ces images témoignent d’abord de la célébrité dont elles bénéficiaient plusieurs décennies après leur disparition dans les milieux lettrés italiens. Images stéréotypées, rehaussées par l’éclat des fonds d’or et le chatoiement des couleurs, elles relèvent avant tout d’une fiction destinée à mettre en évidence la « noblesse », tant morale que sociale, des personnages. De telles représentations ne pouvaient mieux répondre à l’idéal même de la fin’amor, l’amour courtois : en elles se cristallise une vision idéale de la dame inaccessible et parfaite, la domna, chantée par les troubadours. (shrink)

L’irruption de l’image animée dans l’espace de la scène, pour n’être pas récente, réactualise pourtant un vieux débat qui opposerait ceux qui comme Goethe plaident pour de strictes frontières à ceux qui, après Hegel, derrière Wagner et le chapitre V d’ Opéra et Drame (1851), constatent que chaque art, puisqu’il « tend à une extension indéfinie de sa puissance », est commandé par une sorte de loi du « passage à la limite ». La mise en scène de l’avenir est-elle (...) désormais tributaire d’une alliance avec les autres formes artistiques dont le cinéma et la vidéo, ou la vérité du théâtre ne saurait-elle outrepasser les limites de la scénographie « traditionnelle »? Quelques expériences récentes alimentent un débat qui opposait déjà au xviii e siècle les contempteurs de l’opéra face au théâtre : la parole proférée par l’acteur est-elle nécessaire et suffisante ou faut-il y ajouter le « merveilleux » spectaculaire? (shrink)

Based on an analysis of 44 cases in Canada, Tunisia, and Cameroon, this research attempts to determine the fundaments of sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in an international perspective and to shed the light on the potential impact of economic, institutional, and cultural dimensions upon diverse levels of sustainability in smalland medium-size firms (SMEs). Neo-institutional and entrepreneurship theories were combined in an integrative conceptual model to fully embrace the meanings and practices of SE and to question the "culture free" argument of some (...) prescriptions as well as some international programs. The analysis of the rationale behind entrepreneurs committed to sustainability in the three countries compared to less engaged firms shows that entrepreneurs' individual values are crucial in all cases. Socio-cultural specificities and institutional realities can, however, be more or less inductive to the adoption of sustainable practices in SMEs. This study also demonstrates that external stimuli are needed in Tunisia and Cameroon to reach the same environmental involvement as found in Canada. Moreover, support programs to assist SMEs with the adoption of sustainable practices and communication about the issue have to be tailored to the entrepreneur's motives, the firms' levels of openness to sustainability, the socio-cultural practices already embedded, and the countries' priorities. Implications for policy, management, and research are also discussed. (shrink)

Fille de l’Encyclopédie (1751-1772, 28 vol.) de Diderot et d’Alembert, l’Encyclopédie méthodique (1782-1832, 212 vol.) de Panckoucke conserve la palme du gigantisme. Est-ce cette raison qui l’a fait passer dans l’oubli ou a-t-elle été elle-même dépassée tant par les événements historiques que par les développements scientifiques fulgurants? Pourtant, cette encyclopédie « par ordre de matières » revêt un intérêt considérable. En synthétisant ce moment particulier des savoirs liant mots et choses, elle représente un chaînon incontournable entre l’épistémè des Lumières et (...) celle du xixè siècle. La Méthodique met en évidence le circuit étendu de chaque science et son utilité sociale. Par ailleurs Panckoucke choisit les directeurs de Dictionnaires pour leur qualité d’expert et ils font autorité. Il faut aussi prendre en compte qu’entre Diderot et Wikipédia, il y a eu la Révolution française qui, dans le domaine de la pensée n’a rien changé ni aboli, mais qui « a changé les conditions d’exercice » au cœur desquelles travaille Naigeon, auteur des trois tomes du Dictionnaire de Philosophie ancienne et moderne présentés, sous forme d’extraits, dans ce Vol. IV de nos Anthologies. Malgré les tragédies individuelles de la Terreur, la voie vers la démocratie a été ouverte. Dans la conception de son Dictionnaire, Naigeon ne cache pas son militantisme athée qui fait qu’à la discussion de la dimension politique du religieux s’ajoute le point de vue de l’historien des sciences. L’éditrice, Claire Fauvergue, montre comment à travers le Discours préliminaire et les 14 articles recueillis qui vont de d’Alembert à Religieux-Irréligieux en passant par Condillac, Hobbes ou Diderot et Fréret, Naigeon renouvelle non seulement les sources de l’histoire de la philosophie mais aussi leur usage et leur analyse. Attentive à l’efficacité de son travail original d’auteur, veillant à la diversité de ses choix éditoriaux, privilégiant ce qui est représentatif du genre encyclopédique et de son évolution, Fauvergue illustre avec précision comment la figure de l’éditeur se mêle indissolublement à celle de l’auteur. (shrink)

Le projet de l'Encyclopédic de Diderot et d'Alembert constitue un tournant dans l'histoire de la philosophic dans la mesure où d'Alembert a procédé à une pluralisation de la métaphysique. À la métaphysique traditionnelle et singulière se sont ajoutées des métaphysiques. Examinons plus particulièrement les trois métaphysiques que sont la métaphysique des corps, la métaphysique des propositions et la métaphysique des sciences exposées dans l'Encyclopédie : on s'aperçoit alors que la nouveauté est moins le progrès des sciences que le processus philosophique (...) comme herméneutique du génie de l'invention, dans les sciences comme dans les arts. Ce processus remplace désormais la méaphysique traditionnelle et ouvre la voie aux théories de la connaissance. The project of Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie constitutes a turning point in the history of philosophy to the extent that d'Alembert achieved a pluralization of metaphysics. To traditional metaphysics, he added various other metaphysics. This paper focuses more specifically on the three following metaphysics, that of bodies, that of propositions and that of the sciences, as they were developed in the Encyclope'die. It thus appears that novelty does not so much lie in the advancement of the sciences than in the philosophical process understood as a hermeneutics of the genius of invention, both in the sciences and the arts. This process supersedes traditional metaphysics and paves the way for theories of knowledge. (shrink)

The possible Stoic origins of the natural rights and natural law theories of the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) has been a subject of scholarly debate in recent years. Yet discussions about Grotian sociability tend to focus exclusively on the meaning of appetitus societatis in De Jure Praedae (written in 1604–1608) and De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625), with little reference to the historical context. Insufficient consideration has been given to the intended audience(s) of these works, Grotius’ purpose in writing (...) them, and the possible correlation between his overarching argument and his working methods. This article examines Grotius’ use and abuse of Seneca's philosophical works in De Jure Praedae, commissioned by the directors of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC) in autumn 1604. The brutal murder of Sebald de Weert on the island of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) in June 1603 is analyzed from a Stoic perspective in Chapter 15 of De Jure Praedae. Following his refusal to hand over Portuguese prisoners, De Weert and his crew were butchered on the beach of Batticaloa by Wilama Dharma Suriya, the ruler of the island's interior. Grotius blamed the victim. VOC commanders in monsoon Asia should suppress any residual loyalty which they might feel towards Christendom. It was imperative to conclude alliances with native rulers against the Iberian colonial powers, regardless of the rulers’ (lack of) faith or their horrific treatment of prisoners. As Grotius noted in Chapter 8 of De Jure Praedae, Seneca distinguished between “two kinds of commonwealth, the world state and the city state.” Spanish and Portuguese violations of the natural law – freedom of trade and navigation in particular – deserved condign punishment for the sake of both the fellowship of mankind and, naturally, the VOC and Dutch Republic. In assessing the uses of Stoicism in De Jure Praedae, much can be learned from the physical characteristics of Ms. BPL 917 in Leiden University Library, its sole surviving manuscript copy. Seneca's philosophical works are not cited at all in the original text of Ms. BPL 917, which Grotius copied out in 1604–1605. Instead, quotations from De Ira, De Clementia and De Beneficiis appear in the top and bottom margins of folio-pages or on inserted sheets of paper, which can be dated to 1607–1608. These quotations serve to flesh out an existing argument about the VOC's just war(s) in the East Indies. A case in point is the heavily rewritten Chapter 2. Grotius added quotations from De Clementia at the same time as he reformulated two natural laws on f. 8–9, a folio sheet inserted in or after January 1607. This was no coincidence. Revenging the past misdeeds of the Portuguese, which Grotius had described in great detail in Chapter 11, could no longer be considered the main or only priority of the VOC. Instead, Grotius contended on f. 8–9 that “evil deeds must be corrected” so as to achieve, in Seneca's words, “universal security.” Acting as a kind of global police force, the VOC should punish transgressors of the natural law on account of “that world community” envisioned by the Stoics. The practical consequences were felt during the Twelve Years Truce (1609–1621). Despite a cessation of arms in Europe, the VOC continued to engage in hostilities in the East Indies. The author of De Jure Praedae supported the Company on this. Like Cicero before him, he had successfully harnessed the Stoa to the cause of empire. (shrink)

E. Yakira voit dans l’ Éthique le fondement et l’aboutissement de l’entreprise iconoclaste de Spinoza en ce qu’elle fait du corps le pivot de l’existence humaine. C’est dans ce hic et nunc que résiderait le sérieux de l’existence humaine. Spinoza va penser le corps, dont l’âme est l’intelligibilité, comme source de l’évaluation éthique. L’existence humaine, loin de toute transcendance et de tout arrière-monde, trouve son sens et son sérieux en elle-même. S’est-on jamais approché de la formulation d’une éthique totalement sécularisée (...) qui prône la valeur, l’importance et la gravité du hic et nunc? (shrink)

Peut-on mieux caractériser autrement Hannah Arendt que par la passion de comprendre, par cette large appétence à saisir l'inédit du monde dans toute sa complexité? Introduite en France depuis une vingtaine d'années seulement, la philosophe, qui a toujours entretenu un rapport tumultueux avec la philosophie, y est considérée aujourd'hui comme un auteur majeur grâce à des ouvrages comme Les Origines du totalitarisme, La Crise de la culture ou La Condition de l'homme moderne. On ne cesse de la citer, de la (...) lire ou de s'y référer, tant dans le domaine philosophique que dans les sciences politiques ou sociales. Mais comment connaître davantage son itinéraire Intellectuel et l'articulation d'une pensée forte, qui touche à des domaines aussi divers? Comment percevoir les intuitions clés d'Hannah Arendt au-delà d'une seule approche événementielle? Philosophe de formation, elle aussi, Martine Leibovici invite ici à mieux découvrir ou redécouvrir la cohérence et l'originalité d'une réflexion qui marque en profondeur le XXe siècle. (shrink)