Amidst the many brain events evoked by a visual stimulus, which are specifically associated with conscious perception, and which merely reflect non-conscious processing? Several recent neuroimaging studies have contrasted conscious and non-conscious visual processing, but their results appear inconsistent. Some support a correlation of conscious perception with early occipital events, others with late parieto-frontal activity. Here we attempt to make sense of those dissenting results. On the basis of a minimal neuro-computational model, the global neuronal workspace hypothesis, we propose a (...) taxonomy which distinguishes between vigilance and access to conscious report, as well as between subliminal, preconscious and conscious processing. We suggest that these distinctions map onto different neural mechanisms, and that conscious perception is systematically associated with a sudden surge of parieto-frontal activity causing top-down amplification. (shrink)

In this paper, the problem of purifying an assumption-based theory KB, i.e., identifying the right extension of KB using knowledge-gathering actions (tests), is addressed. Assumptions are just normal defaults without prerequisite. Each assumption represents all the information conveyed by an agent, and every agent is associated with a (possibly empty) set of tests. Through the execution of tests, the epistemic status of assumptions can change from "plausible" to "certainly true", "certainly false" or "irrelevant", and the KB must be revised so (...) as to incorporate such a change. Because removing all the extensions of an assumption-based theory except one enables both identifying a larger set of plausible pieces of information and renders inference computationally easier, we are specifically interested in finding out sets of tests allowing to purify a KB (whatever their outcomes). We address this problem especially from the point of view of computational complexity. (shrink)

BackgroundInternational guidelines recommend ethical and scientific quality standards for managing and reporting adverse events occurring during clinical trials to competent research ethics committees and regulatory authorities. The purpose of this study was to determine whether clinical trial protocols in Cameroon are developed in line with national requirements and international guidelines as far as detecting, reporting and investigating of adverse events is concerned.MethodsIt was a documentary review of all approved clinical trial protocols that were submitted at the Cameroon National Ethics Committee (...) for evaluation from 1997 through 2012. Data were extracted using a preconceived and validated grid. Protocol review process targeted the title, abstract, objectives, methodology, resources, and the chapter on safety.ResultsIn total, 106 clinical trial protocols were identified from 2173 protocols seen in the archive and 104 included for review. Seventy six trials did not include the surveillance of adverse events as part of their objective. A total of 91 protocols did not budget for adverse event surveillance, 76 did not have a data safety management board, 11 included insurance for participants, 47 did not include a case definition for serious adverse events, 33 described procedures to detect adverse events, 33 described procedure for reporting and 22 described procedure for investigating adverse events.DiscussionsMost clinical trial protocols in Cameroon are developed to focus on benefits and pay little attention to harms. The development of national guidelines can improve the surveillance of adverse events in clinical trial research conducted in Cameroon. Adverse events surveillance tools and a budget are critical for an adequate planning for adverse event surveillance when developing trial protocols.ConclusionClinical trial protocols submitted in the Cameroon National Ethics Committee do not adequately plan to assess adverse events in clinical trial protocols. In order to improve on the safety of participants and marketed drug, there is a need to develop national guidelines for clinical trials by the government, and to improve evaluation procedures and monitoring of ongoing trials by the ethics committee. (shrink)

El libro E-physicalism - A Physicalist Theory of PhenomenalConsciousness presenta una teoría en el área de la metafísica de laconciencia fenomenal. Está basada en las convicciones de que la experienciasubjetiva -en el sentido de Nagel - es un fenómeno real,y de que alguna variante del fisicalismo debe ser verdadera.

El libro "E-physicalism - A Physicalist Theory of Phenomenal Consciousness" presenta una teoría en el área de la metafísica de la conciencia fenomenal. Está basada en las convicciones de que la experiencia subjetiva -en el sentido de Nagel - es un fenómeno real, y de que alguna variante del fisicalismo debe ser verdadera.

We model the forgetting of propositional variables in a modal logical context where agents become ignorant and are aware of each others’ or their own resulting ignorance. The resulting logic is sound and complete. It can be compared to variable-forgetting as abstraction from information, wherein agents become unaware of certain variables: by employing elementary results for bisimulation, it follows that beliefs not involving the forgotten atom(s) remain true.

Cancers rely on multiple, heterogeneous processes at different scales, pertaining to many biomedical fields. Therefore, understanding cancer is necessarily an interdisciplinary task that requires placing specialised experimental and clinical research into a broader conceptual, theoretical, and methodological framework. Without such a framework, oncology will collect piecemeal results, with scant dialogue between the different scientific communities studying cancer. We argue that one important way forward in service of a more successful dialogue is through greater integration of applied sciences (experimental and clinical) (...) with conceptual and theoretical approaches, informed by philosophical methods. By way of illustration, we explore six central themes: (i) the role of mutations in cancer; (ii) the clonal evolution of cancer cells; (iii) the relationship between cancer and multicellularity; (iv) the tumour microenvironment; (v) the immune system; and (vi) stem cells. In each case, we examine open questions in the scientific literature through a philosophical methodology and show the benefit of such a synergy for the scientific and medical understanding of cancer. (shrink)

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role (...) of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM – whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part 1 of this article took up the first two questions. Part 2 took up the second two questions. Part 3 now deals with Questions 5 & 6. Question 5 confronts the issue of utility, whether the manual design of DSM-III and IV favors clinicians or researchers, and what that means for DSM-5. Our final question, Question 6, takes up a concluding issue, whether the acknowledged problems with the earlier DSMs warrants a significant overhaul of DSM-5 and future manuals. As in Parts 1 & 2 of this article, the general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances. (shrink)

A largely unknown commentary by Pierre Bourdieu on the poet Guillaume Apollinaire allows us to explore the non-theoretical, and even non-theorized, aspects of the relationship between the sociologist and literature. The present article begins by analysing Bourdieu's 1995 text as an example of close reading or explication de texte emerging, as it were, from a ‘scholastic unconscious’ dating from the 1950s. The article then proceeds to look at other ways in which Bourdieu has had recourse to literary references in (...) his work. The article argues that, over and beyond his sociological objectification of literature, Bourdieu entertained a range of other relations to literature. These cannot be subsumed under a single theoretical system, but emerge at different times and with different, sometimes apparently ‘anachronistic’, effects. (shrink)

Cet article se propose de situer le livre Situation de la France (2015) de Pierre Manent dans le débat contemporain sur la gestion de la diversité religieuse, et ce, à partir de deux principales thèses interprétatives. La première thèse est que le modèle de Manent s’appuie sur une forme de collectivisme méthodologique. La seconde thèse est que la place que Manent accorde au discours religieux dans la « conversation civique » est justifiée par une volonté de faire contrepoids à (...) la primauté qui est généralement accordée au discours des droits de la personne dans les sociétés libérales contemporaines. (shrink)

We model the forgetting of propositional variables in a modal logical context where agents become ignorant and are aware of each others’ or their own resulting ignorance. The resulting logic is sound and complete. It can be compared to variable-forgetting as abstraction from information, wherein agents become unaware of certain variables: by employing elementary results for bisimulation, it follows that beliefs not involving the forgotten atom(s) remain true.

Pierre-Henri Castel provides a short but richly argued precis of his recently published two-volume 1,000-page masterwork on the history of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Having not read the as-yet-untranslated books, I write this commentary from Plato’s cave, trying to infer the reality of Castel’s analysis from expository shadows. I am unlikely to be more successful than Plato’s poor troglodytes, so I apologize ahead of time for any misunderstandings. Moreover, I cannot assess Castel’s detailed evidential case for his substantive theses.1 I thus (...) focus on some key philosophical issues that impinge on an area of my concern, the concept of mental disorder. Castel is a rare breed of French.. (shrink)

In the conclusion to this multi-part article I first review the discussions carried out around the six essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis – the position taken by Allen Frances on each question, the commentaries on the respective question along with Frances’ responses to the commentaries, and my own view of the multiple discussions. In this review I emphasize that the core question is the first – what is the nature of psychiatric illness – and that in some manner all further (...) questions follow from the first. Following this review I attempt to move the discussion forward, addressing the first question from the perspectives of natural kind analysis and complexity analysis. This reflection leads toward a view of psychiatric disorders – and future nosologies – as far more complex and uncertain than we have imagined. (shrink)

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role (...) of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM - whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part I of this article will take up the first two questions. With the first question, invited commentators express a range of opinion regarding the nature of psychiatric disorders, loosely divided into a realist position that the diagnostic categories represent real diseases that we can accurately name and know with our perceptual abilities, a middle, nominalist position that psychiatric disorders do exist in the real world but that our diagnostic categories are constructs that may or may not accurately represent the disorders out there, and finally a purely constructivist position that the diagnostic categories are simply constructs with no evidence of psychiatric disorders in the real world. The second question again offers a range of opinion as to how we should define a mental or psychiatric disorder, including the possibility that we should not try to formulate a definition. The general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances. (shrink)

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role (...) of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM - whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part I of this article took up the first two questions. Part II will take up the second two questions. Question 3 deals with the question as to whether DSM-V should assume a conservative or assertive posture in making changes from DSM-IV. That question in turn breaks down into discussion of diagnoses that depend on, and aim toward, empirical, scientific validation, and diagnoses that are more value-laden and less amenable to scientific validation. Question 4 takes up the role of pragmatic consideration in a psychiatric nosology, whether the purely empirical considerations need to be tempered by considerations of practical consequence. As in Part 1 of this article, the general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances. (shrink)

By looking at the manner in which Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Pierre Bourdieu have sought to understand the political nature of their work and explained their interventions in political affairs, this article defines the action they saw as possible and necessary for intellectuals. As it can only involve others, this action can take the form of dialogue and explanation or of a collective intellectual. In the texts where they reflect on their political involvement outside of parties and government, both authors (...) assert the impossibility to evade politics. By comparing their positions, we begin to develop a critical phenomenology. (shrink)

Derrida n’entend pas simplement hériter de Hegel mais interrompre sa relève, précisant que l’enjeu est ici « énorme ». Pourquoi? Parce qu’il est question ici de la relation entre la vérité et sa transmission, entre l’enseignement et la pratique de la philosophie en Allemagne et en France, entre un système de pensée qui articule la politique, l’art, la religion et sa désarticulation contemporaine. Confronté à un texte « majeur » de la tradition philosophique, Derrida l’interrompt alors en recourant aux textes (...) mineurs, en particulier la correspondance de Hegel, qu’il détourne pour rendre possible une correspondance entre dialectique et déconstruction, mais aussi entre deux philosophes qui s’adressent toujours à un autre et sont hantés par ce tiers, fantôme ou pierre impossibles à relever. (shrink)

Imagine that in entering a café, you are struck by the absence of Pierre, with whom you have an appointment. Or imagine that you realize that your keys are missing because they are not hanging from the usual ring-holder. What is the nature of these absence experiences? In this article, we discuss a recent view defended by Farennikova (2012) according to which we literally perceive absences of things in much the same way as we perceive present things. We criticize (...) and reject the perceptual interpretation of absence experiences but we also reject the cognitive view which reduces them to beliefs. We propose an intermediary, metacognitive account according to which absence experiences belong to a specific kind of affective experience, involving the feeling of surprise. (shrink)

Jérôme Beauchez est sociologue, maître de conférences à l’université de Lyon/Saint-Étienne, et membre de l’équipe « Cultures publiques » du Centre Max Weber. Dans son premier livre, L’Empreinte du poing. La boxe, le gymnase et leurs hommes 1, il mène une enquête ethnographique au sein d’une salle de boxe anglaise d’une ville de l’Est de la France. Dans l’entretien qui suit, il revient sur les enjeux de l’ethnographie aujourd’hui, en situant son enquête à la convergence de la sociologie urbaine (...) américaine de Mitchell Duneier, de l’anthropologie de Clifford Geertz et de la sociologie culturelle de Jeffrey Alexander. Il prend clairement ses distances avec l’ethnographie inspirée par la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu. C’est l’occasion de constater que si l’ethnographie n’est pas tout à fait un sport de combat, elle constitue un champ de questions théoriques passionnées, et un instrument irremplaçable pour la découverte des mondes contemporains, de leurs drames, de leurs combats et des résistances qui s’y affirment. (shrink)

Augustin a découvert la Bible tardivement et progressivement, à Milan, puis en Afrique. Il ne l'a pas lue d'emblée entièrement. Il l'a utilisée sous des formes diverses, celle qu'il rapportait d'Italie, celles qu'il rencontrait en Afrique, dans les Églises catholiques et chez les donatistes, celles aussi que Jérôme venait de produire . En dépit de sa préférence pour la Septante, Augustin a toujours recherché le meilleur texte. Dans le prolongement de sa conversion et au contact de la Bible, son (...) herméneutique aussi s'est transformée. Des observations sont faites à propos de Ct 1,6-7 , Jr 10,2-9 et Ac 1,1-3. (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)

« Entre Deleuze et Guattari, Clastres et Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, il sera question dans cet article de l’échange fécond entre philosophie et anthropologie. En 1972, Pierre Clastres trouve chez Deleuze et Guattari la théorie du marquage qui sera déterminante dans l’élaboration de sa thèse de la société-contre-l’État. Huit ans plus tard, ces derniers développent une théorisation du nomadisme dans Mille plateaux où tient une place importante la thèse de l’anthropologue. Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, fin lecteur de Mille plateaux, (...) y puise pour sa part des outils conceptuels, notamment le concept de devenir, lui permettant de dépasser le clivage entre nature et culture en anthropologie et développer une interprétation du perspectivisme et du cannibalisme amazonien. Il relit en retour Clastres pour décentrer la thèse de la société-contre-l’État de son “sociocentrisme” et l’ouvrir à une cosmopolitique “par-delà nature et culture” qui se dessine clairement à l’horizon de Mille Plateaux. ». (shrink)

En 2006 a paru chez Jérôme Millon une nouvelle édition de l’ Histoire littéraire d’Henri Bremond. Elle comporte des inédits et contient plusieurs études importantes par des spécialistes. Cette publication a offert l’occasion d’une relecture de l’ensemble, en soulignant quelques points saillants de l’œuvre, des apports de la réédition, et aussi un certain nombre de remarques personnelles, voire de critiques faites dans la gratitude et l’admiration.

À travers l’analyse des articles « florentins » du Dictionnaire historique et critique (Machiavel, Guichardin, Savonarole) l’auteur essaie de voir comment Bayle a lu Le Prince et les Discours de Machiavel sur des sujets cruciaux pour sa pensée : le rapport religion-politique, mais aussi la réflexion sur la république et la démocratie, la relation entre morale et société, la figure du prophète « armé » ou « désarmé ». Avec son anti-conformisme intellectuel coutumier, Bayle se distingue tant de l’appréciation libertine (...) (Naudé est l’une de ses sources) que de la condamnation huguenote, représentée par Innocent Gentillet. Derrière la figure historique de Savonarole se profile l’ombre inquiétante d’un prophète contemporain de Bayle, Pierre Jurieu. (shrink)

This volume focuses on the role language plays at all levels of the argumentation process. It explores the effects that specific linguistic choices may have in the production and the reception of arguments and in doing so, it moves beyond the first, necessary, descriptive stance provided by current literature on the topic. Each chapter provides an original take illuminating one or more of the following three issues: the range of linguistic resources language users draw on as they argue; how cognitive (...) processes of meaning construction may influence argumentative practices; and which discursive devices can be used to fulfil a number of argumentative goals. The volume includes theoretical and empirical or applied stances, providing the reader both with state-of-the-art reflections on the relationship between argumentation and language, and with concrete examples of how this relationship plays out in naturally occurring argumentative practices, such as classroom interaction, and political, parliamentary or journalistic discourse. This is a very original, timely and welcome contribution to the study of argumentation conducted with the tools of the language sciences. The collection of papers relevantly tackles key linguistic, discursive and cognitive aspects of argumentative practices whose treatment is underrepresented in mainstream argumentation studies by offering new and exciting linguistically-grounded theoretical accounts. As such, the volume testifies both to the vigour of the linguistic current within the discipline and to the high standards of scholarly commitment and quality that the younger generation is pushing forward. Without question, this book marks an important milestone in the relationships between linguistics and argumentation theory. Christian Plantin, Professor Emeritus. (shrink)

Martin Heidegger's overt alliance with the Nazis and the specific relation between this alliance and his philosophical thought - the degree to which his concepts are linked to a thoroughly disreputable set of political beliefs - have been the topic of a storm of recent debate. Written ten years before this debate, this study by France's leading sociologist and cultural theorist is both a precursor of that debate and an analysis of the institutional mechanisms involved in the production of philosophical (...) discourse. Though Heidegger is aware of and acknowledges the legitimacy of purely philosophical issues (in his references to canonic authors, traditional problems, and respect for academic taboos), Bourdieu points out that the complexity and abstraction of Heidegger's philosophical discourse stems from its situation in the cultural field, where two social and intellentual dimensions - political thought and academic thought - intersect. Bourdieu concludes by suggesting that Heidegger should not be considered as a Nazi ideologist, that there is no place in Heidegger's philosophical ideas for a racist conception of the human being. Rather, he sees Heidegger's thought as a structural equivalent in the field of philosophy of the 'conservative revolution', of which nazism is but one manifestation. (shrink)

Turing's programme, the idea that intelligence can be modelled computationally, is set in the context of a parallel between certain elements from metamathematics and Popper's schema for the evolution of knowledge. The parallel is developed at both the formal level, where it hinges on the recursive structuring of Popper's schema, and at the contentual level, where a few key issues common to both epistemology and metamathematics are briefly discussed. In light of this connection Popper's principle of transference, akin to Turing's (...) belief in the relevance of the theory of computation for modelling psychological functions, is widened into the extended principle of transference. Thus Turing's programme gains a solid epistemological footing. *I am grateful to Claude Lamontagne and Jean-Pierre Delage for their comments on this paper. (shrink)