An accessible yet rigorous introduction to the influential French philosopher Gilbert Simondon's philosophy of individuation. Gilbert Simondon, one of the most influential contemporary French philosophers, published only three works: L'individu et sa genèse physico-biologique and L'individuation psychique et collective, both drawn from his doctoral thesis, and Du mode d'existence des objets techniques. It is this last work that brought Simondon into the public eye; as a consequence, he has been considered a “thinker of technics” and cited often in pedagogical reports (...) on teaching technology. Yet Simondon was a philosopher whose ambitions lay in an in-depth renewal of ontology as a process of individuation—that is, how individuals come into being, persist, and transform. In this accessible yet rigorous introduction to Simondon's work, Muriel Combes helps to bridge the gap between Simondon's account of technics and his philosophy of individuation. Some thinkers have found inspiration in Simondon's philosophy of individuation, notably Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Combes's account, first published in French in 1999, is one of the only studies of Simondon to appear in English. Combes breaks new ground, exploring an ethics and politics adequate to Simondon's hypothesis of preindividual being, considering through the lens of transindividual philosophy what form a nonservile relation to technology might take today. Her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Simondon's work. (shrink)

An historical review of authorship definitions and publication practices that are embedded in directions to authors and in the codes of ethics in the fields of psychology, sociology, and education illuminates reasonable agreement and consistency across the fields with regard to (a) originality of the work submitted, (b) data sharing, (c) human participants’ protection, and (d) conflict of interest disclosure. However, the role of the professional association in addressing violations of research or publication practices varies among these fields. Psychology and (...) sociology provide active oversight with sanction authority. In education, the association assumes a more limited role: to develop and communicate standards to evoke voluntary compliance. With respect to authorship credit, each association’s standards focus on criteria for inclusion as an author, other than on the author’s ability to defend and willingness to take responsibility for the entire work. Discussions across a broad range of research disciplines beyond the social sciences would likely be beneficial. Whether improved standards will reduce either misattribution or perceptions of inappropriate attribution of credit within social science disciplines will likely depend on how well authorship issues are addressed in responsible conduct of research education (RCR), in research practice, and in each association’s ongoing efforts to influence normative practice by specifying and clarifying best practices. (shrink)

The potential of memory modification techniques (MMTs) has raised concerns and sparked a debate in neuroethics, particularly in the context of identity and authenticity. This paper addresses the question whether and how MMTs influence authenticity. I proceed by drawing two distinctions within the received views on authenticity. From this, I conclude that an analysis of MMTs based on a dual-basis, process view of authenticity is warranted, which implies that the influence of MMTs on authenticity crucially depends on the specifics of (...) how memory modification would eventually work. Therefore, I continue with a systematic analysis of possible properties of MMTs in which I distinguish between the dimensions of memories and the kinds of experiences that can be modified as well as the properties of the process of memory modification. The impact of MMTs on authenticity is analyzed regarding the possible properties of MMTs and based on a narrative approach to authenticity which fulfills the requirements of a dual-basis, process view of authenticity. Lastly, I explore the potential of MMTs to shift the balance between self-discovery and self-creation within authenticity and thereby alter the concept itself as well as the value of authenticity. (shrink)

The profound changes in personality, mood, and other features of the self that neural interventions can induce can be disconcerting to patients, their families, and caregivers. In the neuroethical debate, these concerns are often addressed in the context of possible threats to the narrative self. In this paper, I argue that it is necessary to consider a dimension of impacts on the narrative self which has so far been neglected: neural interventions can lead to a loss of meaning of actions, (...) feelings, beliefs, and other intentional elements of our self-narratives. To uphold the coherence of the self-narrative, the changes induced by neural interventions need to be accounted for through explanations in intentional or biochemical terms. However, only an explanation including intentional states delivers the content to directly ascribe personal meaning, i.e., subjective value to events. Neural interventions can deprive events of meaning because they may favor a predominantly biochemical account. A loss of meaning is not inherently negative but it can be problematic, particularly if events are affected one was not prepared or willing to have stripped of meaning. The paper further examines what it is about neural interventions that impacts meaning by analyzing different methods. To which degree the pull towards a biochemical view occurs depends on the characteristics of the neural intervention. By comparing Deep Brain Stimulation, Prozac, Ritalin, psychedelics, and psychotherapy, the paper identifies some main factors: the rate of change, the transparency of the causal chain, the involvement of the patient, and the presence of an acute phenomenological experience. (shrink)

Le récit du siège et de la prise d'Amid, place-forte de Mésopotamie, en 502, constitue un exemple intéressant de la manière dont se transmet un récit historique de la tradition grecque au domaine syriaque et au-delà. Présent dans l'historiographie grecque (Évagre, Procope, Malalas, Théophane) comme un épisode de la brève période d'affrontement entre Perses et Romains dans les années 502–507, ce récit connaît un succès particulier dans les textes syriaques où il passe du domaine de l'histoire à celui de la (...) légende. Cet épisode apparaît dans l'Histoire d'Édesse de 506 du pseudo-Josué, dans l'Histoire ecclésiastique du pseudo-Zacharie et dans toutes les chronographies importantes: celle de Zuqnin, du pseudo-Denys, dans celle d'Édesse de 1234 et dans celle de Michel le Syrien. Il est par ailleurs mentionné dans toutes les petites chroniques, qui indiquent la date, la durée, le nombre de victimes du siège. La similitude entre la version de Procope et celle du pseudo-Zacharie a déjà été relevée mais n'a jamais fait l'objet d'une enquête qui permette d'élucider les liens qui les unissent et d'établir par quelle voie ce texte est passé du grec au syriaque où il a été retravaillé pour répondre à des besoins apologétiques. La chute de la ville aux mains des Perses est en effet présentée à partir de l'Histoire ecclésiastique du pseudo-Zacharie comme une punition pour les chrétiens infidèles, livrés au roi perse Kavadh à qui le Christ serait apparu et aurait donné la victoire. Le récit est dès lors utilisé pour exhorter les communautés chrétiennes à persévérer dans la foi « orthodoxe ». Cette version du siège est ensuite traduite de manière inattendue en arabe puis en géorgien, dans ce qui semble être le reste d'une chronique. (shrink)

Linguistic invention is a key feature of Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves. An exploration of its innovative verbal and syntactic procedures can add to an understanding of Woolf's importance for the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze (and his sometime collaborator Félix Guattari). In A Thousand Plateaus, The Waves is used to exemplify an ontology of becoming. However, in their reference to The Waves, Deleuze and Guattari only draw attention to what they term the ‘vibrations, shifting borderlines’ between and across characters (...) in the novel. Given Deleuze's considerations of style, it is perhaps surprising that he never took up this idea in terms of how these movements also take place at the level of language in the novel, as the explorations in this essay of four different linguistic procedures from The Waves show. When Woolf completed writing The Waves, she wrote in her diary that she had ‘netted that fin in the waste of water’. By investigating the multiple, and often discordant, associations of this image of netting a fin, various connections between Woolf's linguistic procedures and Deleuze's philosophy can be configured, particularly in terms of the approach to language put forward in A Thousand Plateaus. Reading Woolf alongside Deleuze in this way reveals how ontology becomes intimately bound up with a problem of language. (shrink)

Novel technological devices, applications, and algorithms can provide us with a vast amount of personal information about ourselves. Given that we have ethical and practical reasons to pursue self-knowledge, should we use technology to increase our self-knowledge? And which ethical issues arise from the pursuit of technologically sourced self-knowledge? In this paper, I explore these questions in relation to bioinformation technologies (health and activity trackers, DTC genetic testing, and DTC neurotechnologies) and algorithmic profiling used for recommender systems, targeted advertising, and (...) technologically supported decision-making. First, I distinguish between impersonal, critical, and relational self-knowledge. Relational self-knowledge is a so far neglected dimension of self-knowledge which is introduced in this paper. Next, I investigate the contribution of these technologies to the three types of self-knowledge and uncover the connected ethical concerns. Technology can provide a lot of impersonal self-knowledge, but we should focus on the quality of the information which tends to be particularly insufficient for marginalized groups. In terms of critical self-knowledge, the nature of technologically sourced personal information typically impedes critical engagement. The value of relational self-knowledge speaks in favour of transparency of information technology, notably for algorithms that are involved in decision-making about individuals. Moreover, bioinformation technologies and digital profiling shape the concepts and norms that define us. We should ensure they not only serve commercial interests but our identity and self-knowledge interests. (shrink)

This paper presents a functional genealogy of essentialist authenticity. The essentialist account maintains that authenticity is the result of discovering and realizing one’s ‘true self’. The genealogy shows that essentialist authenticity can serve the function of supporting continuity in one’s individual characteristics. A genealogy of essentialist authenticity is not only methodologically interesting as the first functional genealogy of a contingent concept. It can also deepen the functional understanding of authenticity used in neuroethics, provide a possible explanation for the prevalence of (...) the idea of an essentialist true self and justify the use of the ideal of authenticity. First, essentialist authenticity is defined and explained through the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Second, a general need to have steady characteristics is derived from basic human practices. Third, circumstances that make it more challenging to steady oneself are identified and shown to have become more prevalent in the age of modernity when the ideal of authenticity emerged. Finally, it is shown how essentialist authenticity helps to steady the self. (shrink)

La obra del poeta Alberto Caeiro, “maestro” heterónimo de Fernando Pessoa, es una filosofía sin filosofía que pone en tela de juicio la tradición cultural que “viste” el pensamiento: filosofía, oesía, mística, religión. Lo hace ejerciendo un retorno a la Naturaleza en el que se implican la ausencia de significación, de conceptos, de estructuras de conocimiento y de prejuicios que tergiversan la mirada de las cosas, la vivencia de la Naturaleza y la sensación de la Realidad. Por tratarse de un (...) desaprendizaje, Caeiro torna a lo simple, a lo tautológico, al no-pensamiento, casi a la ausencia de la palabra. (shrink)

With the passage by virtually every state legislature of healthcare proxy laws, the medical profession increasingly can expect to rely on the participation of surrogates in making decisions on behalf of incompetent patients. Several concerns about the legitimacy of proxy decision making have been discussed in the ethical and general medical literature: the lack of concordance between the views of patients and their surrogates have been documented on multiple occasions, and cases of abuse by proxies or potential conflict of interest (...) have been reported. Another dilemma that deserves discussion arises when proxies demand withdrawal of treatment that physicians and nurses regard as essential to the wellbeing of the patient. The following case highlights this dilemma. (shrink)

Résumé Les auteurs distinguent classiquement topologie et ontologie temporelles et entreprennent de montrer que le choix d’une ontologie temporelle, mais aussi d’une ontologie générale, a des conséquences sur les propriétés de la topologie temporelle. Ils choisissent comme point de départ de cette démonstration l’application du principe d’indépendance d’Armstrong à l’ontologie temporelle et plus spécialement à la transitivité. Leur conclusion est que le choix de ce principe pose des problèmes très difficiles pour l’ontologie temporelle, autant que pour la topologie temporelle.

Admirador da metafísica de Schopenhauer, Richard Wagner expressou em sua obra, de modo congenial ao filósofo, sua própria visão pessimista de mundo. O presente ensaio busca apontar - na obra O Anel dos Nibelungos - este parentesco e nele as diferenças essenciais que enlaçam de modo poderoso e fascinante os dois autores.

Authenticity has been recognized as a central concept in the ethics of human enhancement. In the last decade, a plethora of novel distinctions, specifications, and definitions of authenticity have been added to the debate. This chapter takes a step back and maps the different accounts of authenticity to provide a nuanced taxonomy of authenticity and reveal the emerging underlying structures of this concept. I identify three kinds of conditions for authentic creation and change of the true self (coherence, endorsement, and (...) relations) as well as ways how the true self should be expressed (in one’s self-conception, self-presentation, and one’s body, emotions, and actions). Based on this analysis, I discuss the hopes and concerns human enhancement raises for authenticity. Enhancement technologies do not threaten or foster authenticity across the board but affect different dimensions of authenticity individually. Finally, I turn to the value of authenticity and argue that the debate on authenticity in the ethics of human enhancement would profit from a more extended discussion on the comparative value of the individual dimensions of authenticity. (shrink)

Les Images parlantes : l'étrangeté habite ce titre! Les détournements de l'image vers quelque langage codé, les contrebandes de l'image au gré de textes particulièrement transgresseurs, les transports sur la langue sont multiples. Une évidence s'impose donc : l'image ne parle pas, mais elle doit être parlée. Dès lors s'ouvre le domaine des fables et des fictions émanant de l'image elle-même, aptes toutefois à la spécifier comme à la sonder. Exhiber une fonction inédite et captatrice de l'image en tant qu'elle (...) est parlée, c'est se prononcer pour son capital créateur, son ingénieuse inventivité. Bref, le registre de l'iconique pourrait, au terme de ce livre, se laisser argumenter en ces mots : " Voir, c'est faire parler "! (shrink)

Can associative learning take place without awareness? We explore this issue in a sequence learning paradigm with amnesic and control participants, who were simply asked to react to one of four possible stimuli on each trial. Unknown to them, successive stimuli occurred in a sequence. We manipulated the extent to which stimuli followed the sequence in a deterministic manner (noiseless condition) or only probabilistically so (noisy condition). Through this paradigm, we aimed at addressing two central issues: first, we asked whether (...) sequence learning takes place in either condition with amnesic patients. Second, we asked whether this learning takes place without awareness. To answer this second question, participants were asked to perform a subsequent sequence generation task under inclusion and exclusion conditions, as well as a recognition task. Reaction times results show that amnesic patients learned the sequence only in the deterministic condition. However, they failed to be able to reproduce the sequence in the generation task. In contrast, we found learning for both sequence structures in control participants, but only control participants exposed to a deterministic sequence were successful in performing the generation task, thus suggesting that the acquired knowledge can be used consciously in this condition. Neither amnesic nor control participants showed correct old/new judgments in the recognition task. The results strengthen the claim that implicit learning is at least partly spared in amnesia, and the role of contextual information available for learning is discussed. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Prendre la décision de déménager en France ou à l’étranger après un divorce ou une séparation, c’est accepter de prendre le risque de voir la résidence de son enfant fixée au domicile de l’autre parent. Les décisions rendues par les juridictions françaises illustrent en effet une idée sous-jacente de sanction à l’encontre du parent qui extrait l’enfant du lieu de résidence habituelle de la famille. Celui qui, en s’éloignant, fait obstacle à la poursuite de la résidence alternée ou à l’exercice (...) du droit de visite et d’hébergement de l’autre parent prend le risque de perdre le bénéfice des droits qui lui ont été conférés sur la résidence de l’enfant. Par une comparaison des décisions rendues en la matière, l’auteure, avocate spécialiste en droit de la famille et du patrimoine, propose d’établir une matrice de réflexion permettant à un parent divorcé ou séparé d’anticiper les questions inhérentes à un projet de déménagement et d’établir les étapes à suivre pour conserver la résidence de son enfant. (shrink)

After a brief survey of the speculative sequence « individuation-transduction-transindividuality » which structures Simondon ’s thought, the authors focus their attention on one of its paradoxical limits: the isolation of a writer who devoted his life to thinking in terms of relations. They suggest that the type of action towards which Simondon directed his efforts could not fit with the way he characterized transindividual experiences. By pursuing the path of a speculative thinking incapable of constituting a collective form of transindividuality, (...) Simondon became caught in a logic which he himself described as that of « the act of folly. ». (shrink)

A partir de la divergencia de M. Foucault con Th. Hobbes con respecto a la guerra como principio y fundamento del poder, se muestra la importancia de esa diferencia conceptual para los análisis políticos contemporáneos. Foucault sostiene que, en las sociedades modernas de Occidente, la comunidad política, y más precisamente la política misma, ha sido el terreno de la guerra librada por otros medios. Por extensión, esta tesis significa invertir el principio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que la guerra es (...) la continuación de la política por otros medios. On the basis of the difference between M. Foucault and Th. Hobbes regarding war as a principle and foundation of power, the article shows the importance of this conceptual difference for contemporary political analyses. Foucault argues that in modern Western societies, the political community and, more specifically, politics itself, has been the space of a war waged by other means. By extension, this thesis entails the inversion of von Clausewitz's principle, namely, that war is the continuation of politics by other means. A partir da divergência de M. Foucault com Th. Hobbes sobre a guerra como princípio e fundamento do poder, mostra-se a importância dessa diferença conceitual para as análises políticas contemporâneas. Foucault sustenta que, nas sociedades modernas do Ocidente, a comunidade política, e mais precisamente a política em si, tem sido o terreno da guerra travada por outros meios. Por extensão, esta tese significa inverter o princípio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que a guerra é a continuação da política por outros meios. (shrink)

Nombreux couples arrivent en thérapie avec une demande d’amélioration de leur communication. Or les mots semblent dangereux, investis d’un pouvoir sur l’autre. Quel danger représente le fait de dire? L’exposition de la situation d’un couple recomposé permet d’évoquer différentes dimensions de la thérapie psychanalytique en couple dont celle du discours. Contradictions et paradoxes mettent en lumière les conflits identitaires d’appartenance constitutifs du lien du couple. L’usage du verbe et ses effets fâcheux montrent combien au nom du discours s’organisent les résistances (...) en groupe. C’est au thérapeute que revient la tâche de rendre possible le passage par le verbe, en travaillant les interactions et projections inconscientes dans l’interrelation, de cette difficulté à dire pour chacun. (shrink)

Nombreux couples arrivent en thérapie avec une demande d’amélioration de leur communication. Or les mots semblent dangereux, investis d’un pouvoir sur l’autre. Quel danger représente le fait de dire? L’exposition de la situation d’un couple recomposé permet d’évoquer différentes dimensions de la thérapie psychanalytique en couple dont celle du discours. Contradictions et paradoxes mettent en lumière les conflits identitaires d’appartenance constitutifs du lien du couple. L’usage du verbe et ses effets fâcheux montrent combien au nom du discours s’organisent les résistances (...) en groupe. C’est au thérapeute que revient la tâche de rendre possible le passage par le verbe, en travaillant les interactions et projections inconscientes dans l’interrelation, de cette difficulté à dire pour chacun. (shrink)

L’auteure présente une thérapie en couple de personnes sourdes. Les spécificités inhérentes à leur langue dont les modalités sont visuelles, où signifiant et signifié sont si proches, génèrent un sentiment d’appartenance groupale à une culture. Comment s’articule la problématique du couple avec les divers modes de communication à l’œuvre, les identités et identifications au sein de ce néo-groupe? Les aspects transférentiels et contretransférentiels serviront de fil rouge dans le déroulement de cette thérapie particulière. Le recours à la métaphore constitue pour (...) le thérapeute un point d’appui vers l’interfantasmatisation. Il contribue à créer une enveloppe, une pensée métaphorique, celle-ci permettant de surmonter les représentations inhibantes qui faisaient obstacle au travail d’élaboration. (shrink)

Muriel Briançon | : Afin d’éclairer le sens de la religiosité de la philosophie de Lévinas et d’écarter le soupçon d’une soumission de celle-ci à des dogmes ou à des croyances incompatibles avec un principe de laïcité, notre contribution vise à clarifier le sens de son projet général. L’intention lévinassienne, ambitieuse et visionnaire, consiste en l’explicitation philosophique, métaéthique et phénoménologique, de l’idée cartésienne de l’Infini, transcendance non idolâtrique surgissant de la relation humaine. Cette quête philosophique de l’extrême conscience suppose (...) un athéisme ou du moins une mise en question de l’idolâtrie, du sacré et des dogmes. Cette spiritualité laïque universelle réalisée dans un judaïsme repensé conduit à des questions philosophiques essentielles et à un changement paradigmatique. | : To enlighten the sense of the religiosity of the Lévinas’ philosophy and rule out the suspicion of a submission of this one in dogmae or in incompatible faiths with a principle of secularism, our contribution aims at clarifying the sense of its general project. The Lévinas’ intention, ambitious and visionary, consists of the philosophic explicitation, métaéthique and phenomenological, of the Cartesian idea of Infinity, the not idolatrous transcendence appearing from the human relation. This philosophic quest of the extreme consciousness supposes an atheism or at least a questioning of the idolization, the sacred and the dogmae. This universal laic spirituality realized in a rethought Judaism leads to essential philosophic questions and to paradigmatic change. (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify the status of capability in Sen’s idea of justice. Sen’s name is so widely associated with the concept of capability that commentators often assume that his contribution to the study of justice amounts to a capability theory, albeit underdeveloped. We argue that such a reading is misleading. Taking Sen’s reticence about operationalization seriously, we show that his contribution is inconsistent with a capability theory. Instead, we defend the idea that the capability approach plays a heuristic (...) role: capability is a step in his argument against alternative materials, but is not meant as a definitive end. Sen defends a critical perspective primarily to encourage public reasoning and respect for agency as regards the definition of what should count in the evaluation of social states. (shrink)