Le 9e siècle marque un tournant dans l'hagiographie byzantine qui devient de plus en plus sécularisée à la fois dans sa forme et dans son contenu. Deux Vitae datant de la fin du 9e siècle, la vie d'Antoine le jeune et la vie de l'impératrice Theodora jouent un rôle pivot dans ce processus de sécularisation. Elles offrent les modèles d'une piété masculine et d'une piété féminine en témoignant de deux formes antithétiques de l'expérience religieuse : celle monastique et celle séculaire. (...) Cette tension trouve ses racines dans l'iconoclasme et reste vivante dans la période post-iconoclaste dans le conflit qui oppose le patriarche Ignace à Photios. (shrink)

Complementarity is not only a feature of quantum mechanical systems but occurs also in the context of finite automata.

Après la publication de nos deux articles intitulés « Nouveaux dialogues entre Hylas et Philonous » et « Suite aux Nouveaux dialogues entre Hylas et Philonous » (in L’Enseignement philosophique, 65 e année, n° 2, décembre 2014-février 2015, p. 3-22, et 67 e année, n° 4, juin 2017-août 2017, p. 27-48), on trouvera dans ce nouvel article (qui met un terme à une aventure intellectuelle que nous n’imaginions pas durer si longtemps) un approfondissement de notre thèse sur la perception, mise (...) en rapport avec des analyses portant d’abord sur le temps (septième dialogue), puis sur le langage ou sur l’absence de langage (huitième dialogue). Enfin, revenant sur nos pas, nous chercherons à définir (neuvième et dernier dialogue) quelle fut notre méthode et, d’une façon plus générale, quelle idée nous nous faisons de la philosophie. (shrink)

À l’instar de Diderot qui, après sa Lettre sur les aveugles à l’usage de ceux qui voient, a écrit ses Additions à la Lettre sur les aveugles, nous proposons une suite à nos « Nouveaux dialogues entre Hylas et Philonous » (publiés dans L’Enseignement philosophique, 65 e année, n° 2, décembre 2014- février 2015, p. 3-22). Reprenant l’examen du sujet principal (la perception) qu’ils avaient naguère abordé dans ces dialogues (qui étaient au nombre de trois, comme les tout premiers conçus (...) autrefois par Berkeley et dont les nôtres étaient le contre-pied), puis le prolongeant (cet examen) dans d’autres directions, Hylas, interprète de nos pensées, et Philonous, interprète des objections que nous ne cessons de formuler contre elles, réfléchissent, dans le quatrième dialogue, sur la prétendue capacité que nous aurions de penser nos sensations ; dans le cinquième dialogue, sur l’opposition entre être et être un être ; enfin, dans le sixième dialogue, sur les raisons que l’on a de se réjouir non seulement de voir que tout est éphémère, mais également de vieillir et de mourir. (shrink)

The first research report of the APDA project. Findings include that "gender is a significant predictor of type of placement (i.e. permanent versus temporary). The intercept tells us that the odds for male participants to have a permanent academic placement within the first two years after graduation are statistically significant at .37, p < 0.001 when year of graduation is held constant. The odds for female participants to have a permanent academic placement are 1.85, p < 0.001 when graduation year (...) is held constant. In terms of differences, the odds of having a permanent (versus temporary) academic placement are 85% greater for females as compared to males.". (shrink)

Aron Gurwitsch’s theory of the structure and dynamics of consciousness has much to offer contemporary theorizing about consciousness and its basis in the embodied brain. On Gurwitsch’s account, as we develop it, the field of consciousness has a variable sized focus or "theme" of attention surrounded by a structured periphery of inattentional contents. As the field evolves, its contents change their status, sometimes smoothly, sometimes abruptly. Inner thoughts, a sense of one’s body, and the physical environment are dominant field contents. (...) These ideas can be linked with (and help unify) contemporary theories about the neural correlates of consciousness, inattention, the small world structure of the brain, meta-stable dynamics, embodied cognition, and predictive coding in the brain. (shrink)

Successful face‐to‐face communication involves multiple channels, notably hand gestures in addition to speech for spoken language, and mouth patterns in addition to manual signs for sign language. In four experiments, we assess the extent to which comprehenders of British Sign Language (BSL) and English rely, respectively, on cues from the hands and the mouth in accessing meaning. We created congruent and incongruent combinations of BSL manual signs and mouthings and English speech and gesture by video manipulation and asked participants to (...) carry out a picture‐matching task. When participants were instructed to pay attention only to the primary channel, incongruent “secondary” cues still affected performance, showing that these are reliably used for comprehension. When both cues were relevant, the languages diverged: Hand gestures continued to be used in English, but mouth movements did not in BSL. Moreover, non‐fluent speakers and signers varied in the use of these cues: Gestures were found to be more important for non‐native than native speakers; mouth movements were found to be less important for non‐fluent signers. We discuss the results in terms of the information provided by different communicative channels, which combine to provide meaningful information. (shrink)

The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least roughly accurate descriptions of otherwise inaccessible parts of the world like genes, atoms, and the big bang. In Exceeding Our Grasp, Stanford argues that careful attention to the history of scientific investigation invites a challenge to this view that is not well represented in contemporary debates about the nature of the scientific enterprise. The historical record (...) of scientific inquiry, Stanford suggests, is characterized by what he calls the problem of unconceived alternatives. Past scientists have routinely failed even to conceive of alternatives to their own theories and lines of theoretical investigation, alternatives that were both well-confirmed by the evidence available at the time and sufficiently serious as to be ultimately accepted by later scientific communities. Stanford supports this claim with a detailed investigation of the mid-to-late 19th century theories of inheritance and generation proposed in turn by Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, and August Weismann. He goes on to argue that this historical pattern strongly suggests that there are equally well-confirmed and scientifically serious alternatives to our own best theories that remain currently unconceived. Moreover, this challenge is more serious than those rooted in either the so-called pessimistic induction or the underdetermination of theories by evidence, in part because existing realist responses to these latter challenges offer no relief from the problem of unconceived alternatives itself. Stanford concludes by investigating what positive account of the spectacularly successful edifice of modern theoretical science remains open to us if we accept that our best scientific theories are powerful conceptual tools for accomplishing our practical goals, but abandon the view that the descriptions of the world around us that they offer are therefore even probably or approximately true. (shrink)

The place of the emotions among the passions -- The analytic of the emotions I -- The analytic of the emotions II -- The dialectic of the emotions -- Pride, arrogance, and humility -- Shame, embarrassment, and guilt -- Envy -- Jealousy -- Anger -- Love -- Friendship -- Sympathy and empathy.

Some scientific categories seem to correspond to genuine features of the world and are indispensable for successful science in some domain; in short, they are natural kinds. This book gives a general account of what it is to be a natural kind and puts the account to work illuminating numerous specific examples.

By the time of his death in 2006, Sir Peter Strawson was regarded as one of the world's most distinguished philosophers. Unavailable for many years,_ Scepticism and Naturalism_ is a profound reflection on two classic philosophical problems by a philosopher at the pinnacle of his career. Based on his acclaimed Woodbridge lectures delivered at Columbia University in 1983, Strawson begins with a discussion of scepticism, which he defines as questioning the adequacy of our grounds for holding various beliefs. He then (...) draws deftly on Hume and Wittgenstein to argue that we must distinguish between 'hard', scientific naturalism; or 'soft', humanistic naturalism. In the remaining chapters the author takes up several issues in which sceptical doubts play an important role, in particular the nature of transcendental arguments and including the objectivity of moral philosophy, the mental and the physical, and the existence of abstract entities. _Scepticism and Naturalism_ is essential reading for those seeking an introduction to the work of one of the twentieth century’s most important and original philosophers. This reissue includes a substantial new foreword by Quassim Cassam and a fascinating intellectual autobiography by Strawson, which together form an excellent introduction to his life and work. (shrink)

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)

La beauté d’un corps qui nous attire ne saurait être atteinte par nos étreintes et nos caresses. Autrement dit, la fascination devant la beauté ne ressortit, en aucune façon, à une pulsion érotique. « Le beau – dit Simone Weil – est ce qu’on désire sans vouloir le manger. Nous désirons que cela soit. » C’est dire que pour jouir de la beauté, dont Platon considère que, par rapport à d’autres entités, elle est celle qui « se manifeste avec le (...) plus d’éclat », il ne faut pas s’en approcher ni vouloir se l’approprier. (shrink)

By the time of his death in 2006, Sir Peter Strawson was regarded as one of the world's most distinguished philosophers. Unavailable for many years,_ Scepticism and Naturalism_ is a profound reflection on two classic philosophical problems by a philosopher at the pinnacle of his career. Based on his acclaimed Woodbridge lectures delivered at Columbia University in 1983, Strawson begins with a discussion of scepticism, which he defines as questioning the adequacy of our grounds for holding various beliefs. He then (...) draws deftly on Hume and Wittgenstein to argue that we must distinguish between 'hard', scientific naturalism; or 'soft', humanistic naturalism. In the remaining chapters the author takes up several issues in which sceptical doubts play an important role, in particular the nature of transcendental arguments and including the objectivity of moral philosophy, the mental and the physical, and the existence of abstract entities. _Scepticism and Naturalism_ is essential reading for those seeking an introduction to the work of one of the twentieth century’s most important and original philosophers. This reissue includes a substantial new foreword by Quassim Cassam and a fascinating intellectual autobiography by Strawson, which together form an excellent introduction to his life and work. (shrink)

Previous studies show that reading sentences about actions leads to specific motor activity associated with actually performing those actions. We investigate how sign language input may modulate motor activation, using British Sign Language sentences, some of which explicitly encode direction of motion, versus written English, where motion is only implied. We find no evidence of action simulation in BSL comprehension, but we find effects of action simulation in comprehension of written English sentences by deaf native BSL signers. These results provide (...) constraints on the nature of mental simulations involved in comprehending action sentences referring to transfer events, suggesting that the richer contextual information provided by BSL sentences versus written or spoken English may reduce the need for action simulation in comprehension, at least when the event described does not map completely onto the signer's own body. (shrink)

Le passé comme le futur n’ayant pas la moindre existence, l’itinéraire que nous proposons est celui qui va de la croyance à ce qui en nous et autour de nous serait pure répétition, éternel retour, à la reconnaissance de chaque moment présent comme absolument nouveau, comme inespéré et surprenant.

L'homélie 15 intitulée Sur les Maccabées de Grégoire de Nazianze constitue un document précieux pour l'étude des relations entre païens, chrétiens et juifs sous le règne de Julien l'Apostat. Contrairement à son contemporain, Ephrem le Syrien, Grégoire de Nazianze présente le christianisme comme une synthèse du passé judaïque et helléniste. En entremêlant l'Iliade au livre IV des Maccabées, Grégoire montre que la bible des Grecs et celle des Hébreux sont non seulement compatibles l'une avec l'autre mais aussi bien avec le (...) christianisme orthodoxe. (shrink)

Si l’activité de nos organes des sens est différente de celle de notre cerveau, sans pour autant en être distincte, puisqu’elle est, comme elle, de nature corporelle, en revanche, ce que nous sentons, sans pour autant être différent de nos sensations, en est tout à fait distinct. De plus, si ce qui par nous est senti n’est ni différent ni distinct de nous qui sentons, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’il n’y a pas une seule de nos sensations, toutes indivisibles, (...) qui ne soit un mixte d’activité et de passivité. Enfin, nos organes des sens, qui nous servent à sentir, ont beau être tout à la fois sentants et sentis, nous ne les sentons jamais en tant que sentants. (shrink)

Sont successivement examinés : la correction des copies, la prise de notes, l’exposé oral, la tenue d’un journal, la lecture, l’écriture et ce que j’appelle la pause critique.

Réduire nos sensations à n’être que de simples supports ou que de simples relais ne peut que nous conduire à bâtir des savoirs illusoires et à n’être jamais satisfait de ce qui s’offre à nous. C’est ce que nous montrons à propos de la prétendue expressivité de la musique, du langage, de la beauté et de la Nature elle-même.

Le premier contresens (véritable erreur conceptuelle et non simple faute d’orthographe) consiste à écrire, en se référant au début de 1’article premier de la Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen du 26 août 1789, que les hommes sont égaux « en droit » (au singulier), alors que c’est « en droits » (au pluriel) qu’ils sont censés l’être ; le deuxième contresens, à vouloir rattacher, dans l’adage latin « Cujus regio, ejus religio », regio, -onis (frontière, région, pays) (...) à rex, -regis (roi, souverain, monarque) ; le troisième contresens, à croire que « le beau risque » dont parle Platon dans le Phédon est lié à une sorte de pari sur l’immortalité de l’âme ; enfin (toujours à propos d’un texte de Platon, mais cette fois dans la République ), le quatrième contresens, à interpréter comme une obligation morale le retour dans la caverne de ceux qui d’abord y avaient été prisonniers. (shrink)