Postural instability and balance impairment are disabling symptoms in patients with acute unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction. Vestibular rehabilitation is known to improve the vestibular compensation process, but its effect on posture recovery remains poorly understood, little is known about when VR must be done, and whether the degree of vestibular loss matters is uncertain. We analyzed posture control under static and dynamic postural tasks performed in different visual conditions [eye open ; eyes closed ; and optokinetic stimulation] using dynamic posturography. (...) Non-linear analyses of the postural performance were performed in two groups of patients with UVH subjected to the same VR program based on the unidirectional rotation paradigm and performed either early or later after vertigo attack. Distribution of the angular horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex gain values recorded on the hypofunction side before rehabilitation differentiated two distinct sub-groups with aVOR gains below or above 0.20. The postural performance of the four sub-groups of patients with UVH tested before VR showed significantly altered postural parameters compared with healthy controls. Greater instability, higher energy to control posture, larger sway without feedback corrections, and lower time of automatic control of posture were observed in static conditions. The four sub-groups recovered near-normal postural performance after VR in the EO and EC conditions, but still exhibited altered postural performance with optokinetic stimulation. In dynamic posturography conditions and before VR, the percentage of patients able to perform the postural tasks with EC and optokinetic stimulation was significantly lower in the two sub-groups with aVOR gain <0.20. After VR, the improvement of the postural parameters depended on the stage of rehabilitation and the degree of vestibular hypofunction. The best balance function recovery was found in the sub-group with early VR and pre-rehabilitation aVOR gain above 0.20, the worst in the sub-group with late rehabilitation and aVOR gain below 0.20. These differences were seen when the vestibular input remains the main sensory cue to control balance, that is, on unstable support without vision or altered visual motion cues. These findings extend to dynamic balance recovery the crucial roles of early rehabilitation and degree of vestibular hypofunction which we have already highlighted for vestibulo-ocular reflex recovery. (shrink)

It is considerably easier to say that modern philosophy began with Descartes than it is to define the modernity and philosophy to which Descartes gave rise. In _Lines of Thought_, Claudia Brodsky Lacour describes the double origin of modern philosophy in Descartes’s _Discours de la méthode_ and _Géométrie_, works whose interrelation, she argues, reveals the specific nature of the modern in his thought. Her study examines the roles of discourse and writing in Cartesian method and intuition, and the significance (...) of graphic architectonic form in the genealogy of modern philosophy. While Cartesianism has long served as a synonym for rationalism, the contents of Descartes’s method and _cogito_ have remained infamously resistant to rational analysis. Similarly, although modern phenomenological analyses descend from Descartes’s notion of intuition, the “things” Cartesian intuitions represent bear no resemblance to phenomena. By returning to what Descartes calls the construction of his “foundation” in the _Discours_, Brodsky Lacour identifies the conceptual problems at the root of Descartes’s literary and aesthetic theory as well as epistemology. If, for Descartes, linear extension and “I” are the only “things” we can know exist, the Cartesian subject of thought, she shows, derives first from the intersection of discourse and drawing, representation and matter. The crux of that intersection, Brodsky Lacour concludes, is and must be the _cogito_, Descartes’s theoretical extension of thinking into material being. Describable in accordance with the _Géométrie_ as a freely constructed line of thought, the _cogito_, she argues, extends historically to link philosophy with theories of discursive representation and graphic delineation after Descartes. In conclusion, Brodsky Lacour analyzes such a link in the writings of Claude Perrault, the architectural theorist whose reflections on beauty helped shape the seventeenth-century dispute between “the ancients and the moderns.” Part of a growing body of literary and interdisciplinary considerations of philosophical texts, _Lines of Thought_ will appeal to theorists and historians of literature, architecture, art, and philosophy, and those concerned with the origin and identity of the modern. (shrink)

Résumé Dans le paysage littéraire chrétien, il est un lieu particulier, fruit d’une triple activité, spirituelle, artistique et cognitive : la parole mystique, parole à la fois esthétique, théologique et éthique. Cette brève étude se propose de revisiter ce site et de tenter de montrer comment la manière poétique y recentre la matière théologique ; comment aussi, dans une étonnante dynamique d’échange, l’acte poétique trouve, dans la matière théologique, un accomplissement inattendu. Le dire et le dit mystiques, pratiquement exclus depuis (...) sept siècles du savoir théologique, se révèlent alors comme lieux possibles d’inspiration pour redécouvrir et ré-envisager l’acte théologique, épuisé par des siècles d’inféodation aux rationalités modernes.The mystical discourse, indebted to the spiritual, cognitive, and artistic spheres, occupies a distinct place within Christian literature, being simultaneously an esthetic, theological and ethical writing. This brief paper proposes a re-examination of this sort of discourse and attempts to show how the poetic style works to reorient the theological material. It also shows how, in a striking dynamic of exchange, poetic activity finds its unexpected fulfillment in the theological material. Mystical speech and sayings, almost completely excluded from theology for the last seven centuries, are shown as possible sources of inspiration for the rediscovery and reinvigoration of theological activity, exhausted by centuries of sterile modern rationalism. (shrink)

A União Europeia está morta, mesmo que ela ainda não o saiba. Vários autores expressaram efetivamente ideias parecidas em relação ao esgotamento desse projeto político original. Crise econômica de 2007, crise migratória, crise política nas instituições, Brexit, crescimento das extremas-direitas... Há inúmeros indícios de um enfraquecimento do edifício. Enquanto alguns agentes pensam “fundar” novamente o projeto, o ceticismo está crescendo do lado dos povos, particularmente, no Sul da Europa. O momento, então, é perfeito para estabelecer um diagnóstico vital sobre essa (...) dinâmica de integração política inédita, entender porque ela não foi bem-sucedida e, mais radicalmente, o que esse fracasso significa para o futuro da Europa como continente. (shrink)

There is a tendency to take mounted dinosaur skeletons at face value, as the raw data on which the science of paleontology is founded. But the truth is that mounted dinosaur skeletons are substantially intention-dependent—they are artifacts. More importantly, I argue, they are also substantially imagination-dependent: their production is substantially causally reliant on preparators’ creative imaginations, and their proper reception is predicated on audiences’ recreative imaginations. My main goal here is to show that dinosaur skeletal mounts are plausible candidates for (...) art-status. But, what is more, I think they are artworks—specifically, sculptures. (shrink)

Philosophical suspicions about the place of shame in the psychology of the mature moral agent are in tension with the commonplace assumption that to call a person shameless purports to mark a fault, arguably a moral fault. I shift philosophical suspicions away from shame and toward its absence in the shameless by focusing attention on phenomena of shamelessness. In redirecting our attention, I clarify the nature of the failing to which ascriptions of shamelessness might refer and defend the thought that, (...) as an evasion of moral self-censure, shamelessness can be morally pernicious. Far from foregoing shame, I conclude, we should be mindful of its moral importance and unapologetic in its defense. (shrink)

This paper provides an overview of the history of the notion of essence in 20th century analytic philosophy, focusing on views held by influential analytic philosophers who discussed, or relied on essence or cognate notions in their works. It in particular covers Russell and Moore’s different approaches to essence before and after breaking with British idealism, the (pre- and post-)logical positivists’ critique of metaphysics and rejection of essence (Wittgenstein, Carnap, Schlick, Stebbing), the tendency to loosen the notion of logical necessity (...) to accommodate certain metaphysical truths in Wittgenstein and others, Quine’s logical rehabilitation of metaphysics and criticism of de re modality, the modal view of essence promoted by the development of quantified modal logic (C. I. Lewis, Barcan Marcus, Kripke) and direct reference theory (Barcan Marcus, Kripke, Putnam), and the emergence of the notion of metaphysical necessity (Kneale, Kripke), and finally Fine’s re-establishment of a Neo-Aristotelian, hyperintensional notion of essence in contemporary metaphysics. (shrink)

Ce livre de Michel Freitag interpelle "tous ceux qui s'interrogent sur la place qu'ils tiennent ou le rôle qu'ils jouent dans l'aventure de l'Université contemporaine." (Georges Leroux, Spirale) Une des constantes des écrits contenus dans ce livre "réside dans la comparaison systématique que Michel Freitag établit entre les caractéristiques de la modernité et celles de la postmodernité et les conséquences de celle-ci sur le traitement des enjeux et des problèmes actuels." (Louis Guay, Anthropologie et société) "Dans une société (...) réduite au bavardage, à l'insignifiance, à la poursuite de petits bonheurs mesquins, le tout sous contrôle bureaucratique de plus en plus envahissant, une telle réflexion est devenue essentielle. Voici un livre de bonne foi qui n'attend que ses lecteurs, qu'on souhaite nombreux." (Robert Major, Voix et images). (shrink)

Philosophers disagree about what the folk concept of pain is. This paper criticises existing theories of the folk concept of pain, i.e. the mental view, the bodily view, and the recently proposed polyeidic view. It puts forward an alternative proposal – the polysemy view – according to which pain terms like “sore,” “ache” and “hurt” are polysemous, where one sense refers to a mental state and another a bodily state, and the type of polysemy at issue reflects two distinct but (...) related concepts of pain. Implications with respect to issues in philosophy of pain are also drawn. (shrink)

« Qu’est-ce que la philosophie et quel est son rôle aujourd’hui? Entre juillet et octobre 1966, quelques mois après la parution des Mots et les Choses, Michel Foucault, dans un manuscrit très soigneusement rédigé mais qu’il ne publiera pas, apporte sa réponse à cette question tant débattue.À la différence de ceux qui, à l’époque, s’attachent à dévoiler l’essence de la philosophie ou à en prononcer la mort, Foucault l’appréhende, dans sa matérialité, comme un discours dont il convient de dégager (...) l’économie eu égard aux autres discours (scientifique, fictif, ordinaire, religieux) qui circulent dans un contexte donné.Le Discours philosophique propose ainsi une nouvelle manière de faire l’histoire de la philosophie, qui la décentre du commentaire des grands philosophes. Nietzsche y occupe toutefois une place particulière car il inaugure une conjoncture où la philosophie devient une entreprise de diagnostic du présent. Il revient en effet désormais à la philosophie de dire, à partir de l’« archive intégrale » d’une culture, ce qui en fait l’actualité.Si L’Archéologie du savoir, consacré aux enjeux méthodologiques d’un tel projet, s’y annonce, nulle part autant que dans Le Discours philosophique Michel Foucault n’aura explicité les ambitions de son programme intellectuel.»--. (shrink)

This essay draws some consequences affecting juridical rationality, particularly its normative theory, from the discussion of Ricoeur’s philosophy of law by Alain Papaux and François Ost. It emphasizes in particular the ambiguities of Papaux’s position regarding the notion of abduction and stresses the irreducibility of the hermeneutic dimension of legal argument.

Because of their range, brilliance, and singularity, the ideas of the philosopher-critic-historian Michel Foucault have gained extraordinary currency throughout the Western intellectual community. This book offers a selection of seven of Foucault's most important published essays, translated from the French, with an introductory essay and notes by Donald F. Bouchard. Also included are a summary of a course given by Foucault at College de France; the transcript of a conversation between Foucault and Gilles Deleuze; and an interview with Foucault (...) that appeared in the journal Actuel. Professor Bouchard has divided the book into three closely related sections. The four essays in Part One examine language as a "perilous limit" of what we know and what we are. The essays in the second part suggest the methodological guidelines to which Foucault subscribes, and they record, in the editor's words, "the penetration of the language of literature into the domain of discursive thought." The material in the last section is more obviously political than the essays. It treats language in use, language attempting to impart knowledge and power. Translated by the editor and Sherry Simon into fluent and lucid English, these essays will appeal primarily to students of literature, especially those interested in contemporary continental structuralist criticism. But because of the breadth of Foucault's interests, they should also prove valuable to anthropologists, linguists, sociologists, and psychologists. (shrink)

The first collection of twentieth-century French philosopher Michel Henry's work in English, this book provides an excellent introduction to his thought.

This chapter contains section titled: From “Truth and Power”.

This paper addresses a largely neglected question in ongoing debates over disagreement: what is the relation, if any, between disagreements involving credences and disagreements involving outright beliefs? The first part of the paper offers some desiderata for an adequate account of credal and full disagreement. The second part of the paper argues that both phenomena can be subsumed under a schematic definition which goes as follows: A and B disagree if and only if the accuracy conditions of A's doxastic attitude (...) are such that, if they were fulfilled, this would ipso facto make B's doxastic attitude inaccurate, or vice-versa. (shrink)

Si l’on connaît aujourd’hui le dialogue fructueux que Paul Ricœur a noué avec les penseurs structuralistes, on ignore largement son positionnement face à la mouvance poststructuraliste. Faut-il opposer la philosophie de Ricœur au poststructuralisme à la française ou au contraire doit-on montrer qu’elle en est une variante singulière? C’est la seconde option qui est ici défendue. Certes, le poststructuralisme ne doit pas être considéré comme une école de pensée mais comme une reconstruction qui relève de l’histoire de la philosophie. Dans (...) la mesure où les horizons de dépassement du structuralisme ont été posés de manière chaque fois particulière, il est préférable de parler de poststructuralismes au pluriel. C’est la raison pour laquelle J. Michel propose des confrontations dyadiques entre Ricœur et certains de ses contemporains que l’on regroupe habituellement dans cette mouvance. (shrink)

First published: 2010; Previous edition: 2012..

Les entretiens ici réunis portent sur les conséquences de cette révolution méthodologique qui permet la compréhension des grands aspects de l'existence, thème de nombreux essais de Michel Henry à partir des années 80 : action, ...

As part of recent epistemic challenges to democracy, some have endorsed the implementation of epistemic constraints on voting, institutional mechanisms that bar incompetent voters from participating in public decision-making procedures. This proposal is often considered incompatible with a commitment to political equality. In this paper, I aim to dispute the strength of this latter claim by offering a theoretical justification for epistemic constraints on voting that does not rest on antiegalitarian commitments. Call this the civic accountability justification for epistemic constraints (...) on voting. On this view, voters stand to one another in a normative relation of reciprocal accountability that requires them to uphold an epistemically responsible conduct. Modest epistemic constraints on voting are justifiable because they secure that participation in voting is conforming to this normative requirement. Thanks to its distinctive features, the civic accountability justification can overcome two problems that egalitarians commonly associate with the idea of epistemic constraints on voting: the disrespect problem and the hierarchy problem. (shrink)

In this article, I try to reconstitute the inchoative debate that took place between Ricœur and Grünbaum concerning the epistemology of Freudian psychoanalysis. The debate was more inchoative than effective because of its asymmetry. First, I will underline the originality of Ricœur’s theory of motivation and causality. Then, I will examine the rest of Grünbaum’s objections: the overvaluation of clinical relationship and language, the ontological specificity of psychical reality, the narrative originality of the psychoanalytical explanation and the status of symbol. (...) I finally conclude by underlining the added value of the debate concerning the specificity o. (shrink)

A União Europeia está morta, mesmo que ela ainda não o saiba. Vários autores expressaram efetivamente ideias parecidas em relação ao esgotamento desse projeto político original. Crise econômica de 2007, crise migratória, crise política nas instituições, Brexit, crescimento das extremas-direitas... Há inúmeros indícios de um enfraquecimento do edifício. Enquanto alguns agentes pensam “fundar” novamente o projeto, o ceticismo está crescendo do lado dos povos, particularmente, no Sul da Europa. O momento, então, é perfeito para estabelecer um diagnóstico vital sobre essa (...) dinâmica de integração política inédita, entender porque ela não foi bem-sucedida e, mais radicalmente, o que esse fracasso significa para o futuro da Europa como continente. (shrink)

The very existence of explicit techno-scientific controversies in the “nano” arena is often denied on behalf of a conception of science, risks, public engagement and responsibility which borders on a disembodied idealism and merits at least serious discussion. The recurrence of this view prompted us to clarify our position regarding our common field of research, in order to avoid being trapped in the seemingly clear divide between the universal and neutral pursuit of pure science, on the one hand, and on (...) the other hand the infinite variety of values and opinions that lead to the horrors throes of pure relativism. We therefore launched an internal trans-disciplinary project, in order to overhaul the premises underpinning both this idealistic standpoint and our own work, and to find a better definition of our approach to the exploration of the real policy implications of NST research initiatives. Indeed, the debates surrounding NST clearly have wider implications for the examination of issues of Science, Technology and Society as a whole. A first step in this clarification process was taken in Paris, at the conference which has now been published in this issue of Foundations of Chemistry. We further develop it in this paper, in the hope that it will contribute to the joint construction of a better nano-future. (shrink)

Introduction (version française) du numéro ERRS 2020 11 1, “Paul Ricœur: Penser au risque du langage / Paul Ricœur: The Challenges of The Language”.

Introduction (english version) of ERRS 2020 11 1, “Paul Ricœur: Penser au risque du langage / Paul Ricœur: The Challenges of The Language”.

Dans cet article, je souligne le lien profond qui relie la philosophie pratique de Ricœur à la question du langage. J’insiste sur le fait que celle-ci donne son unité à celle-là, parce qu’elle en constitue l’axe privilégié, pour des raisons méthodologiques. Je rappelle la définition que Ricœur donne du discours et explique ses différentes dimensions transphrastiques. Je montre ensuite que cette philosophie du langage est soigneusement réinvestie dans une logique du jugement très cohérente, qui sous-tend ses développements épistémologiques touchant les (...) disciplines normatives. J’insiste tout particulièrement sur la logique du jugement judiciaire. (shrink)

In this article, I underline the profound link existing between Ricœur’s practical philosophy and language. Indeed, the latter bestows unity upon the former, because it constitutes its main axis, for methodological reasons. First of all, I recall Ricœur’s definition of discourse and explain its various transphrastic dimensions. I then show how this philosophy of language is carefully used to build a very coherent logic of judgment, which underlies all Ricœur’s epistemological reflections about normative disciplines. I particularly insist on the logic (...) of legal judgment. (shrink)

Note introductive au numéro thématique de ERRS 2020 11 1.

Cet article montre comment Ricœur a constitué une théorie de la causalité adaptée à sa philosophie pratique. D’abord, on étudie la définition alternative de la causalité qu’élabore Ricœur pour les sciences historiques, caractérisée par la conditionnalité, la processualité et la singularité. Ensuite, on souligne l’effort de justification objective de cette nouvelle catégorie causale par une démarche logico-transcendantale, qui lie les conditions de possibilité d’une connaissance objective de l’action non pas à une subjectivité fondatrice, mais à des dimensions du discours. D’un (...) point de vue épistémologique, la causalité fait l’objet d’un jugement d’imputation singulier, qui joue un rôle intermédiaire entre l’explication structurale et l’explication narrative. D’un point de vue métaphysique, elle permet d’établir un gradient d’abstraction dans l’événementialité, puisqu’elle sert tout particulièrement à expliquer non pas des événement génériques ou virtuels, mais singuliers et propres, qui sont, de ce fait, inscrits dans un contexte riche ; elle dessine ainsi la forme d’un monde d’événements non impersonnels et non atomiques. (shrink)

Cet article montre comment Ricœur a constitué une théorie de la causalité adaptée à sa philosophie pratique. D’abord, on étudie la définition alternative de la causalité qu’élabore Ricœur pour les sciences historiques, caractérisée par la conditionnalité, la processualité et la singularité. Ensuite, on souligne l’effort de justification objective de cette nouvelle catégorie causale par une démarche logico-transcendantale, qui lie les conditions de possibilité d’une connaissance objective de l’action non pas à une subjectivité fondatrice, mais à des dimensions du discours. D’un (...) point de vue épistémologique, la causalité fait l’objet d’un jugement d’imputation singulier, qui joue un rôle intermédiaire entre l’explication structurale et l’explication narrative. D’un point de vue métaphysique, elle permet d’établir un gradient d’abstraction dans l’événementialité, puisqu’elle sert tout particulièrement à expliquer non pas des événement génériques ou virtuels, mais singuliers et propres, qui sont, de ce fait, inscrits dans un contexte riche ; elle dessine ainsi la forme d’un monde d’événements non impersonnels et non atomiques. (shrink)

Cet article montre comment Ricœur a constitué une théorie de la causalité adaptée à sa philosophie pratique. D’abord, on étudie la définition alternative (« non-humienne ») de la causalité qu’élabore Ricœur pour les sciences historiques, caractérisée par la conditionnalité, la processualité et la singularité. Ensuite, on souligne l’effort de justification objective de cette nouvelle catégorie causale par une démarche logico-transcendantale, qui lie les conditions de possibilité d’une connaissance objective de l’action non pas à une subjectivité fondatrice, mais à des dimensions (...) (sémantique, pragmatique, narrative) du discours. D’un point de vue épistémologique, la causalité fait l’objet d’un jugement d’imputation singulier, qui joue un rôle intermédiaire entre l’explication structurale (ou « nomologique ») et l’explication narrative. D’un point de vue métaphysique, elle permet d’établir un gradient d’abstraction dans l’événementialité, puisqu’elle sert tout particulièrement à expliquer non pas des événement génériques ou virtuels, mais singuliers et propres, qui sont, de ce fait, inscrits dans un contexte riche ; elle dessine ainsi la forme d’un monde d’événements non impersonnels et non atomiques. (shrink)

Que fait la justice numérique à la théorie et à la pratique du droit? Qu’induit-elle pour la vocation de justice de l’institution judiciaire? Comment en bouleverse-t-elle les différents métiers? Jean Lassègue et Antoine Garapon mènent une enquête approfondie pour différencier soigneusement les deux formes symboliques du numérique et du droit. Ils s’efforcent ainsi de ménager ainsi une troisième voie qui sache éviter tout autant la fascination dogmatique des juristes pour la tendance « loi et mathématique » (la tentation de fonder (...) la rationalité juridique sur la formalisation) que l’ambition légale démesurée de l’informatique contemporaine (la prétention actuelle des algorithmes à empiéter sur tous les domaines, y compris le droit). Il doit être possible de résister à l’automatisation pour inventer une justice, certes, assistée par ordinateur, mais sachant rester humaine. Reste à savoir comment. (shrink)