The concept of normal is so familiar that it can be hard to imagine contemporary life without it. Yet the term entered everyday speech only in the mid-twentieth century. Before that, it was solely a scientific term used primarily in medicine to refer to a general state of health and the orderly function of organs. But beginning in the middle of the twentieth century, normal broke out of scientific usage, becoming less precise and coming to mean a balanced condition to (...) be maintained and an ideal to be achieved. In Normality, Peter Cryle and Elizabeth Stephens offer an intellectual and cultural history of what it means to be normal. They explore the history of how communities settle on any one definition of the norm, along the way analyzing a fascinating series of case studies in fields as remote as anatomy, statistics, criminal anthropology, sociology, and eugenics. Cryle and Stephens argue that since the idea of normality is so central to contemporary disability, gender, race, and sexuality studies, scholars in these fields must first have a better understanding of the context for normality. This pioneering book moves beyond binaries to explore for the first time what it does—and doesn’t—mean to be normal. (shrink)

Writing from a scientifically and philosophically informed perspective, the authors provide a critical overview of the conceptual difficulties encountered in many current neuroscientific and psychological theories.

This major new study by one of the most penetrating and persistent critics of philosophical and scientific orthodoxy, returns to Aristotle in order to examine the salient categories in terms of which we think about ourselves and our nature, and the distinctive forms of explanation we invoke to render ourselves intelligible to ourselves. The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author (...) of the monumental 4 volume _Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations_ Uses broad categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters. (shrink)

Writing from a scientifically and philosophically informed perspective, the authors provide a critical overview of the conceptual difficulties encountered in many current neuroscientific and psychological theories.

... 243-) INTRODUCTION §§243- constitute the eighth 'chapter' of the book. Its point of departure is a natural query with respect to the conclusion of the ...

This major study examines the most fundamental categories in terms of which we conceive of ourselves, critically surveying the concepts of substance, causation, agency, teleology, rationality, mind, body and person, and elaborating the conceptual fields in which they are embedded. The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author of the monumental 4 volume _Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations_ Uses broad (...) categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters. (shrink)

This major new study by one of the most penetrating and persistent critics of philosophical and scientific orthodoxy, returns to Aristotle in order to examine the salient categories in terms of which we think about ourselves and our nature, and the distinctive forms of explanation we invoke to render ourselves intelligible to ourselves. The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author (...) of the monumental 4 volume _Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations_ Uses broad categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters. (shrink)

The book "Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience" is an engaging criticism of cognitive neuroscience from the perspective of a Wittgensteinian philosophy of ordinary language. The authors' main claim is that assertions like "the brain sees" and "the left hemisphere thinks" are integral to cognitive neuroscience but that they are meaningless because they commit the mereological fallacy—ascribing to parts of humans, properties that make sense to predicate only of whole humans. The authors claim that this fallacy is at the heart of Cartesian (...) dualism, implying that current cognitive neuroscientists are Cartesian dualists. Against this claim, we argue that the fallacy cannot be committed within Cartesian dualism either, for this doctrine does not allow for an intelligible way of asserting that a soul is part of a human being. Also, the authors' Aristotelian essentialistic outlook is at odds with their Wittgensteinian stance, and we were unconvinced by their case against explanatory reductionism. Finally, although their Wittgensteinian stance is congenial with radical behaviorism, their separation between philosophy and science seems less so because it is based on a view of philosophy as a priori. The authors' emphasis on the a priori, however, does not necessarily commit them to rationalism if it is restricted to conceptual or analytical truths. (shrink)

This fourth and final volume of the monumental commentary on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations covers pp 428-693 of the book. Like the previous volumes, it consists of philosophical essays and exegesis.

Incorporating significant editorial changes from earlier editions, the fourth edition of Ludwig Wittgenstein's _Philosophical Investigations_ is the definitive _en face_ German-English version of the most important work of 20th-century philosophy The extensively revised English translation incorporates many hundreds of changes to Anscombe’s original translation Footnoted remarks in the earlier editions have now been relocated in the text What was previously referred to as ‘Part 2’ is now republished as _Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment_, and all the remarks in it (...) are numbered for ease of reference New detailed editorial endnotes explain decisions of translators and identify references and allusions in Wittgenstein's original text Now features new essays on the history of the _Philosophical Investigations_, and the problems of translating Wittgenstein’s text. (shrink)

For all his peculiarities, man is not the only animal who knows. But he is, as far as it is possible to judge, the only animal who knows that he knows, and who seeks to understand the nature and meaning of the act of knowing itself. Michael Polanyi has been engaged in this search for more than twenty years, and the book here under review is an ‘interim report’ on the development of his thought since the publication of Personal Knowledge (...) and The Study of Man just ten years ago. Its three short chapters are substantially the Terry Lectures which he delivered at Yale University in 1962. This review will attempt no more than to summarise the central theme of Polanyi’s argument. A detailed, critical analysis of its philosophical significance is beyond the competence of a biologist. (shrink)

The United States District Court of Kansas, in Gudenkauf v. Stauffer, Znc., granted the defendants motion for summary judgment for the plaintiff's claims of pregnancy-related discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, but the court denied a similar motion for the plaintiff's claim under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The court found summary judgment to be appropriate for the ADA claim based on its finding that the plaintiff's pregnancy did not constitute an (...) impairment as required by the statute; as for the FMLA claim, it determined that the defendants failure to grant the plaintiff's leave request did not violate the statute. However, the court determined that summary judgment was inappropriate for the PDA claim because of material questions of fact about whether the defendant had acted with discriminatory intent.In considering the motions for summary judgment, the court accepted the following facts as incontrovertible. Plaintiff Michaela Gudenkauf worked for the defendant Stauffer, Inc. (shrink)

L'ouvrage de I. Finkelstein et N.A. Silberman, intitulé Bible and Archeology et traduit en français sous le titre La Bible dévoilée, vise un large public. Il fait connaître les conclusions des recherches et découvertes récentes en matière d'archéologie et constate les désaccords fréquents entre l'histoire selon la Bible et l'histoire selon l'archéologie. La présente note reconnaît la valeur de l'information archéologique de l'ouvrage, tout en rappelant que bien des points demeurent discutés ; elle regrette cependant de n'y trouver ni une (...) véritable réflexion sur l'historiographie et ni une information exégétique équilibrée. L'archéologie ne doit pas davantage prouver que la Bible a dit vrai que l'inverse, mais elle peut aider à comprendre ce qu'elle dit. (shrink)

Les livres deutérocanoniques constituent un «intertestament» entre les écrits de la Bible rabbinique et ceux du Nouveau Testament chrétien. Ils sont sur une frontière, un fossé ou un pont entre le christianisme naissant et le judaïsme renaissant après 135. Ils font aussi le lien entre la Gola araméenne et la Diaspora hellénistique. Les écrits intertestamentaires – et spécifiquement les deutérocanoniques qui sont comme un «intertestament» canonique – sont vraiment nécessaires à la compréhension de la Bible.

L’identité juive de Jésus est un fait avéré. Dans le christianisme cependant, l’ignorance de la variété des courants d’idée dans le judaïsme au début de notre ère a conduit certains à placer l’enseignement de Jésus entièrement en marge ou même en dehors du judaïsme et à tirer argument de l’originalité de son message contre son origine juive. De même, certains courants de type monophysite ont sous-estimé, voire nié l’enracinement humain de Jésus et sa « racination » juive . Au sein (...) de milieux « post-chrétiens », à l’antisémitisme latent ou affiché, l’identité juive de Jésus fait scandale. Dans le judaïsme, parler de Jésus reste difficile, et tout messianisme fait peur. Depuis la deuxième moitié du XIXe s., toutefois, des savants juifs ont beaucoup fait pour réintroduire Jésus dans l’histoire du judaïsme. Les autorités de l’Église catholique et d’autres Églises ont rappelé sans détour la judéité de Jésus. L’humanité de Jésus et son enracinement historique ont retrouvé leur place dans la théologie, sans préjudice pour l’intégrité de la foi chrétienne. Il faut mentionner également les recherches sur les origines juives du christianisme. L’affirmation de l’identité juive de Jésus par les chrétiens et par les juifs est l’une des pierres de touche de la vérité des relations et du dialogue entre eux aujourd’hui. (shrink)

L'examen des diverses combinaisons des ordres des évangiles et des ordres bibliques des Quatre Vivants permet de montrer que l'identification des évangélistes avec les Vivants a visé d'abord à exprimer l'unité de l'Évangile un et quatre avant de caractériser leurs différences. Trois systèmes ont prévalu dans l'antiquité. Dans le plus ancien, Marc est identifié à l'Aigle ; dans un autre système, Marc est identifié à l'Homme ; dans le système reçu, finalement Marc est identifié au Lion . A l'origine, l'Apocalypse (...) est le lieu biblique fondamental, mais en Orient puis en Occident, Ézéchiel supplante l'Apocalypse. La conjonction de l'ordre reçu des évangiles et de la séquence des Vivants en Ez 1,10 a donné le système habituel depuis S. Jérôme: Mt = Homme; Mc = Lion; Lc = Taureau; Jn = Aigle. (shrink)

Retinoic acid is a good candidate for a morphogen in chick limb bud development. The challenge now is to determine how retinoic acid interacts with limb bud cells and how the retinoic acid signal is integrated with other signals to mould and pattern the developing limb.