Cet article constitue la présentation des recherches effectuées par une équipe franco-grecque sur le tell de Kirrha en Phocide entre 2008 et 2015, et représente la publication préliminaire des structures archéologiques mises au jour. Deux secteurs distants l’un de l’autre ont été fouillés, révélant une dense occupation de l’Helladique Moyen, ainsi que des niveaux s’étageant jusqu’à l’Helladique Récent III. Notamment, une nécropole de la période transitionnelle (Helladique Moyen III – Helladique Récent I/II) a été fouillée dans la partie occidentale du (...) site, tandis que des niveaux mycéniens ont été reconnus à proximité du sommet. (shrink)

Many authors claim that being conscious constitutively involves being self-conscious, or conscious of oneself. This claim appears to be threatened by reports of `selfless' episodes, or conscious episodes lacking self-consciousness, recently described in a number of pathological and nonpathological conditions. However, the credibility of these reports has in turn been challenged on the following grounds: remembering and reporting a past conscious episode as an episode that one went through is only possible if one was conscious of oneself while undergoing it. (...) Call this the Memory Challenge. This paper argues that the Memory Challenge fails to undermine the credibility to reports of selfless episodes, because it rests on problematic assumptions about episodic memory. The paper further argues that we should distinguish between several kinds of self-representation that may be involved in the process of episodic remembering, and that once we do so, it is no longer mysterious how one could accurately remember and report a selfless episode as an episode that one went through. Thus, we should take reports of this kind seriously, and view them as credible counter-examples to the claim that consciousness constitutively involves self-consciousness. (shrink)

Many authors argue that conscious experience involves a sense of self or self-consciousness. According to the strongest version of this claim, there can be no selfless states of consciousness, namely states of consciousness that lack self-consciousness altogether. Disagreements about this claim are likely to remain merely verbal as long as the target notion of self-consciousness is not adequately specified. After distinguishing six notions of self-consciousness commonly discussed in the literature, I argue that none of the corresponding features is necessary for (...) consciousness, because there are states of consciousness in which each of them is plausibly missing. Such states can be said to be at least partially selfless, since they lack at least one of the ways in which one could be self-conscious. Furthermore, I argue that there is also preliminary empirical evidence that some states of consciousness lack all of these six putative forms of self-consciousness. Such states might be totally selfless, insofar as they lack all the ways in which one could be self-conscious. I conclude by addressing four objections to the possibility and reportability of totally selfless states of consciousness. (shrink)

Comment la notion aristotelicienne de puissance s'est-elle constituee? Comment Aristote peut-il designer du meme nom de dynamis a la fois le principe du changement et l'etre en puissance en tant qu'il est distingue de l'etre en acte? L'histoire de la dynamis correspond-elle a l'effacement d'un sens primitivement intensif, qui serait celui de la force, au profit du sens aristotelicien de potentialite? Plutot que d'aborder ces questions dans les limites d'une lecture interne du Livre Theta de la Metaphysique sur la puissance (...) et l'acte, ou meme du corpus aristotelicien, la presente recherche plonge d'abord la notion de puissance dans son histoire pre-aristotelicienne, philosophique et non-philosophique. Si les termes d'energeia et d'entelekheia, par lesquels Aristote designe ce qui est en acte, sont des neologismes qui possedent la precision du vocabulaire technique, le mot dynamis appartient au grec courant et comporte une polysemie qui complique la comprehension de son usage. Ce livre veut articuler les sens philosophiques de cette notion chez Aristote a partir de son histoire depuis Homere et Hesiode, a travers Democrite, Xenophon ou encore le corpus hippocratique. Mais l'etude des principaux textes (poetiques, politiques, medicaux, mathematiques, philosophiques) est conduite selon un fil conducteur precis, dicte par l'emploi dominant de ce terme dans la clause restrictive kata dynamin (autant que je le peux). Les significations et l'histoire de la dynamis sont reevaluees a partir de ce nouveau point de depart. L'heritage platonicien est aussi pris en compte pour degager finalement le sens de la critique aristotelicienne de la puissance, qui met en lumiere son indetermination axiologique et ontologique, sans renoncer aux sens de capacite et de force. Nous ne cherchons pas a proposer une etude lexicographique, mais a situer la pensee aristotelicienne de la puissance et de l'acte dans une histoire conceptuelle, en esperant qu'elle gagnera ainsi en coherence et en clarte. (shrink)

Henri Bergson is primarily known for his work on time, memory, and creativity. His equally innovative interventions into politics and religion have, however, been neglected or dismissed until now. In the first book in English dedicated to Bergson as a political thinker, leading Bergson scholars illuminate his positions on core concerns within political philosophy: the significance of emotion in moral judgment, the relationship between biology and society, and the entanglement of politics and religion. Ranging across Bergson's writings but drawing mainly (...) on his last book, _The Two Sources of Morality and Religion_, the contributors consider Bergson's relevance to contemporary discussions of human rights, democratic pluralism, and environmental ethics. _Contributors._ Keith Ansell-Pearson, G. William Barnard, Claire Colebrook, Hisashi Fujita, Suzanne Guerlac, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Frédéric Keck, Leonard Lawlor, Alexandre Lefebvre, Paola Marrati, John Mullarkey, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, Carl Power, Philippe Soulez, Jim Urpeth, Melanie White, Frédéric Worms. (shrink)

1. Hobbes-Gay.--2. Hume-Bentham and Index.

Kyle Stanford has recently given substance to the problem of unconceived alternatives, which challenges the reliability of inference to the best explanation (IBE) in remote domains of nature. Conjoined with the view that IBE is the central inferential tool at our disposal in investigating these domains, the problem of unconceived alternatives leads to scientific anti-realism. We argue that, at least within the biological community, scientists are now and have long been aware of the dangers of IBE. We re-analyse the nineteenth-century (...) study of inheritance and development (Stanford’s case study) and extend it into the twentieth century, focusing in particular on both classical Mendelian genetics and the studies by Avery et al. on the chemical nature of the hereditary substance. Our extended case studies show the preference of the biological community for a different methodological standard: the vera causa ideal, which requires that purported causes be shown on non-explanatory grounds to exist and be competent to produce their effects. On this basis, we defend a prospective realism about the biological sciences. 1 Introduction2 Stanford on Unconceived Alternatives3 Pangenesis: A Re-analysis4 The Vera Causa Ideal I: Negative Aspect5 Rendering Heredity Accessible6 The Vera Causa Ideal II: Positive Aspect7 Implications for Scientific Realism8 Conclusion. (shrink)

The great French Marxist philosopher weighs up the contributions of the three major critics of modernity With the translation of Lefebvre's philosophical writings, his stature in the English-speaking world continues to grow. Though certainly within the Marxist tradition, he consistently saw Marx as an 'unavoidable, necessary, but insufficient starting point'. Unsurprisingly, Lefebvre always insisted on the importance of Hegel to understanding Marx. But the imposing Metaphilosophy also suggested the significance he ascribed to Nietzsche, in the 'realm of shadows' (...) through which philosophy seeks to think the world. Lefebvre proposes here that the modern world is at the same time Hegelian in terms of the state; Marxist in terms of the social and society; and Nietzschean in terms of civilization and its values. As early as 1939, Lefebvre pioneered a French reading of Nietzsche that rejected the philosopher's appropriation by fascism, bringing out the tragic implications of Nietzsche's proclamation that 'God is dead' long before this approach was followed by such later writers as Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze. Forty years later, in the last of his philosophical writings, Lefebvre juxtaposes the contributions of the three great thinkers, in a text whose themes remain surprisingly relevant today. (shrink)

John Rawls was what we might call a “frenemy” to Stanley Cavell. Time and again, Cavell states his admiration for Rawls's political philosophy but criticizes it for two reasons. First, he believes that Rawls too hastily dismisses a perfectionist tradition that is essential for a flourishing liberal democracy. Second, he attacks certain aspects of Rawls's theory of justice as moralistic and legalistic. The first half of this article examines Cavell's critique of Rawls and argues that the two authors are more (...) closely aligned than suspected. It begins by reconstructing Cavell's critique of Rawls, and using archival materials from Harvard University, presents for the first time Rawls's interpretation of this critique. The second half of the article highlights perfectionist themes in Rawls's A Theory of Justice. The contribution of this article is to reevaluate the relationship between two of the most important moral philosophers of the twentieth century and also to provide a more expansive theory of liberalism that incorporates the psychological depth, moral subtlety and political hopefulness of moral perfectionism. (shrink)

Philosophical and empirical research on bodily awareness has mostly focused so far on bodily disorders – such as anorexia nervosa, somatoparaphrenia, or xenomelia (body integrity dysphoria) – and bodily illusions induced in an experimental setting – such as the rubber hand illusion, or the thermal grid illusion. Studying these conditions can be illuminating to investigate a broad range of issues about the nature, function, and etiology of bodily experience. However, a number of psychoactive compounds can also induce a remarkably wide (...) variety of bodily effects that have received little attention despite their relevance to these issues. Some of these effects are similar to those associated with bodily disorders or experimental bodily illusions, while others appear to be unique. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of these lesser known bodily effects of psychoactive compounds, and outline some ways in which they can bear on recent debates regarding bodily awareness and bodily ownership. (shrink)

Leading French thinker with his key work on philosophical thought In Metaphilosophy, Henri Lefebvre works through the implications of Marx’s revolutionary thought to consider philosophy’s engagement with the world. Lefebvre takes Marx’s notion of the “world becoming philosophical and philosophy becoming worldly” as a leitmotif, examining the relation between Hegelian–Marxist supersession and Nietzschean overcoming. Metaphilosophy is conceived of as a transformation of philosophy, developing it into a programme of radical worldwide change. The book demonstrates Lefebvre’s threefold debt (...) to Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, but it also brings a number of other figures into the conversation, including Sartre, Heidegger and Axelos. A key text in Lefebvre’s oeuvre, Metaphilosophy is also a milestone in contemporary thinking about philosophy’s relation to the world. (shrink)

Many authors claim that being conscious constitutively involves being self-conscious, or conscious of oneself. This claim appears to be threatened by reports of ‘selfless’ episodes, or conscious episodes lacking self-consciousness, recently described in a number of pathological and nonpathological conditions. However, the credibility of these reports has in turn been challenged on the following grounds: remembering and reporting a past conscious episode as an episode that one went through is only possible if one was conscious of oneself while undergoing it. (...) Call this the Memory Challenge. This paper argues that the Memory Challenge fails to undermine the credibility to reports of selfless episodes, because it rests on problematic assumptions about episodic memory. The paper further argues that we should distinguish between several kinds of self-representation that may be involved in the process of episodic remembering, and that once we do so, it is no longer mysterious how one could accurately remember and report a selfless episode as an episode that one went through. Thus, we should take reports of this kind seriously, and view them as credible counter-examples to the claim that consciousness constitutively involves self-consciousness. (shrink)

In recent years, the scientific study of meditation and psychedelic drugs has seen remarkable developments. The increased focus on meditation in cognitive neuroscience has led to a cross-cultural classification of standard meditation styles validated by functional and structural neuroanatomical data. Meanwhile, the renaissance of psychedelic research has shed light on the neurophysiology of altered states of consciousness induced by classical psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, whose effects are mainly mediated by agonism of serotonin receptors. Few attempts have been made (...) at bridging these two domains of inquiry, despite intriguing evidence of overlap between the phenomenology and neurophysiology of meditation practice and psychedelic states. In particular, many contemplative traditions explicitly aim at dissolving the sense of self by eliciting altered states of consciousness through meditation, while classical psychedelics are known to produce significant disruptions of self-consciousness, a phenomenon known as drug-induced ego dissolution. In this article, we discuss available evidence regarding convergences and differences between phenomenological and neurophysiological data on meditation practice and psychedelic drug-induced states, with a particular emphasis on alterations of self-experience. While both meditation and psychedelics may disrupt self-consciousness and underlying neural processes, we emphasize that neither meditation nor psychedelic states can be conceived as simple, uniform categories. Moreover, we suggest that there are important phenomenological differences even between conscious states described as experiences of self-loss. As a result, we propose that self-consciousness may be best construed as a multidimensional construct, and that “self-loss,” far from being an unequivocal phenomenon, can take several forms. Indeed, various aspects of self-consciousness, including narrative aspects linked to autobiographical memory, self-related thoughts and mental time travel, and embodied aspects rooted in multisensory processes, may be differently affected by psychedelics and meditation practices. Finally, we consider long-term outcomes of experiences of self-loss induced by meditation and psychedelics on individual traits and prosocial behavior. We call for caution regarding the problematic conflation of temporary states of self-loss with “selflessness” as a behavioral or social trait, although there is preliminary evidence that correlations between short-term experiences of self-loss and long-term trait alterations may exist. (shrink)

There is converging evidence that high doses of hallucinogenic drugs can produce significant alterations of self-experience, described as the dissolution of the sense of self and the loss of boundaries between self and world. This article discusses the relevance of this phenomenon, known as “drug-induced ego dissolution (DIED)”, for cognitive neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of mind. Data from self-report questionnaires suggest that three neuropharmacological classes of drugs can induce ego dissolution: classical psychedelics, dissociative anesthetics and agonists of the kappa opioid (...) receptor (KOR). While these substances act on different neurotransmitter receptors, they all produce strong subjective effects that can be compared to the symptoms of acute psychosis, including ego dissolution. It has been suggested that neuroimaging of DIED can indirectly shed light on the neural correlates of the self. While this line of inquiry is promising, its results must be interpreted with caution. First, neural correlates of ego dissolution might reveal the necessary neurophysiological conditions for the maintenance of the sense of self, but it is more doubtful that this method can reveal its minimally sufficient conditions. Second, it is necessary to define the relevant notion of self at play in the phenomenon of DIED. This article suggests that DIED consists in the disruption of subpersonal processes underlying the “minimal” or “embodied” self, i.e., the basic experience of being a self rooted in multimodal integration of self-related stimuli. This hypothesis is consistent with Bayesian models of phenomenal selfhood, according to which the subjective structure of conscious experience ultimately results from the optimization of predictions in perception and action. Finally, it is argued that DIED is also of particular interest for philosophy of mind. On the one hand, it challenges theories according to which consciousness always involves self-awareness. On the other hand, it suggests that ordinary conscious experience might involve a minimal kind of self-awareness rooted in multisensory processing, which is what appears to fade away during DIED. (shrink)

Abundant research exists on the restructuring operations of large, publicly listed firms. However, little is known about the antecedents of layoffs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the stakeholder salience theory and arguments on social proximity, this study posits that SMEs are less likely to dismiss employees than large firms. We argue that the existence of strong interpersonal ties between employees and managers makes it hard for SME owners and managers to dismiss employees. Empirically analyzing a large sample (...) of European Union firms, the results confirm that the likelihood of layoffs is lower in SMEs than in large firms, even when performance declines. (shrink)

Mit dem Begriff des Subjekts soll ein logisch nicht hintergehbares Erkenntnissubjekt bezeichnet werden. Der Sinn dieses Unternehmens liegt darin, ein Emanzipationspotential für eine Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie auszuweisen. Dazu muss freilich gezeigt werden können, dass das Subjekt mehr ist als reine Theorie. Es muss über einen Gesellschaftsbezug verfügen können. "Die Politik des Subjekts“ versucht diesen Bezug auszuweisen und gleichzeitig auszuloten, welche normativen Grundlagen eine Theorie des Politischen für eine Kritische Theorie anbieten kann.

Chacun parle couramment d’art ou de pensée moderne, de techniques modernes, d’amour moderne, etc. Malgré l’usage et les abus, le mot n’a pas perdu son prestige. Il sert dans la publicité, dans les propagandes et dans l’expression de tout ce qui est ou paraît nouveau. Mais que signifie-t-il exactement? Ambigu, ce mot révèle à l’analyse deux sens et recouvre deux réalités : tantôt il désigne une exaltation plus ou moins factice et soumise à la mode, tantôt il indique un certain (...) nombre de problèmes et de possibilités (ou d’impossibilités). La première acceptation peut se nommer « modernisme », la seconde « modernit頻. Le modernisme est un phénomène sociologique : l’acte d’une conscience sociale qui peut avoir ses lois. La modernité est une motion liée à une critique naissante et à une problématique définissable. Les douze préludes que contient ce volume s’efforcent de distinguer modernisme et modernité, pour saisir leurs rapports dialectiques. Ils cherchent à préciser les contours de la notion de « modernit頻, en formulant les questions qu’elle pose ou plutôt qu’elle enveloppe. Ce qui ne va pas sans une contestation radicale des réalités et des idées qui semblent établies dans notre société dite moderne. (shrink)

A radical new interpretation of liberalism, viewing it not merely as a political philosophy or set of political precepts, but as a personal orientation and way of living.

All quantum-physical and cosmological causal/non-causal dilemmas have superluminally causal solutions if existents are processual by extension-change impact-transfer. Fixing the extent of applicability of mathematics to physics demonstrates Universal Causality for cosmogenetic theories. Whether the cosmos is of finite or infinite content, the Gravitational Coalescence Paradox in cosmogenetic theories yields a philosophical cosmology of infinite-eternal continuous creation: specifically, the Gravitational Coalescence Cosmology.

Sextus Empiricus (IIe-IIIe s. ap. J.-C.) est le dernier philosophe sceptique de l'Antiquite et le seul dont l'uvre soit en grande partie conservee. Son Contre les dogmatiques prend pour cible la connaissance philosophique. Cet ensemble de traites tres argumente est articule suivant la distinction, d'epoque hellenistique, entre trois parties de la philosophie, la logique, la physique et l'ethique. On donne ici la premiere traduction francaise de la premiere et plus importante partie de cet ouvrage, le Contre les logiciens, qui conteste (...) la possibilite meme de connaitre. Prenant appui sur la distinction entre " choses apparentes " et " choses cachees ", Sextus Empiricus traite en premier lieu du " critere de la verite " ou des voies d'acces a la connaissance des choses apparentes. Un long developpement doxographique qui conduit des philosophes presocratiques aux Stoiciens, aux Epicuriens et aux Academiciens precede l'expose des arguments qui plaident en faveur de l'inexistence d'un tel critere. Au livre II, Sextus Empiricus met en question, a propos des choses cachees, le " vrai " lui-meme, avant de faire ressortir la faiblesse de l'inference semiotique et celle de la demonstration. L'ouvrage porte ainsi a notre connaissance tout a la fois des doctrines dogmatiques - comme la logique stoicienne - auxquelles nous aurions moins acces sans son temoignage, et une bonne partie de l'argumentaire sceptique deploye depuis la renaissance du pyrrhonisme, a l'epoque d'Enesideme, qui serait autrement perdue. (shrink)

Dans la biologie d'Aristote, on voit volontiers, après Balme, une biologie sans espèces, la reproduction apparaissant alors comme une transmission de ressemblances individuelles. La prise en compte des diverses références à la ressemblance dans la théorie de la génération, montre cependant que pour Aristote, il existe des types; s'il y a plus d'une façon de garantir la perpétuation de ceuxci, la place des ressemblances individuelles est en tous cas mineure. It is now often thought with Balme that Aristotle's zoology is (...) a zoology without species, in which reproduction is but the transmission of individual resemblances. If one takes into account all the references to individual, sexual and specific resemblances in the theory of generation, one can see that, according to Aristotle, types exist; there is more than one way of perpetuating a type, but individual resemblances always remain a question of minor interest. (shrink)

" Il ne s'agit pas d'une réédition mais d'une véritable résurrection ", écrit Michel Trebitsch, préfacier de ce livre. Achevé d'imprimer le 18 mai 1939, la diffusion de cet ouvrage est d'abord bloqué dés l'automne et la drôle de guerre par les mesures pris à l'encontre du Parti communiste, puis saisi et pilonné, début 1940, à la suite de la suppression des éditions communistes par le gouvernement Daladier. Cet ouvrage si peu lu connaît, paradoxalement, une " fortune critique ", puisqu'il (...) figure en bonne place dans la liste imposante des études d'après-guerre sur la réception de Nietzsche en France. A la veille de la guerre, l'objectif éminemment politique de Lefebvre est d'arracher Nietzsche aux fascistes. Il se retrouve dans ce combat en compagnie de Georges Bataille, mais aussi, hors de France, de Karl Löwith et Karl Jaspers. Cependant, si Lefebvre combat les interprétations nazies de Nietzsche, il ne cache pas pour autant les ambiguïtés du discours nietzschéen, notamment la définition du " mythe " que ces derniers cherchent à utiliser. (shrink)

In recent years, a debate has emerged on whether bodily sensations are typically accompanied by a sense of body ownership, namely a distinctive experience of one's body or body part as one's own. Realists about the sense of body ownership heavily rely on evidence from experimentally-induced bodily illusions (e.g., the rubber hand illusion) and pathological disownership syndromes (e.g. somatoparaphrenia). In this chapter, I will introduce novel evidence regarding body disownership syndromes induced by psychoactive drugs rather than pathological conditions, and discuss (...) its relevance to the debate on the sense of body ownership. (shrink)

« Notre science nous vient de l’ineffable qui vit en nous et qui nous donne la parole juste au sujet de l’Homme et de Dieu. Ce livre nous invite à le reconnaître en dessinant des noces heureuses et créatrices entre l’inconscient tel que les hommes le pensent et cet inconscient de l’inconscient qu’est le feu divin. » Bertrand Vergely Les chrétiens se retrouvent tiraillés entre les arguments scientistes ou psychologisants du monde matérialiste dans lequel ils vivent et l’intuition profonde qui (...) les attache à leur foi. Les arguments de la psychanalyse ne peuvent être balayés d’un trait. Si la foi traverse le miroir de l’inconscient telle l Alice de Lewis Carroll, elle va découvrir bien des aspects qui l obligeront à se dépouiller de ses traces psychiques infantiles ou névrotiques. Deux conceptions du monde et deux vécus s interpellent. Leur rencontre, loin d’annuler l’une au profit de l’autre, peut conduire le lecteur à un approfondissement vivant qui modifiera ses représentations de la foi et de la psychanalyse et plus encore leur vécu. La foi décapée par la psychanalyse se vit alors comme écoute du vivant merveilleux, retrouvant ses antiques racines comme la modernité de certaines des thèses du philosophe Bertrand Vergely, qui a écrit la préface de cet ouvrage. (shrink)

The status of indirect discrimination is ambiguous in the current literature. This paper addresses two contemporary and related debates. First, for some, indirect discrimination is not truly a distinct kind of discrimination, but it is simply a legal construct designed to address distributive inequalities between groups. Second, even if one accepts that indirect discrimination is a distinct type of discrimination, the connection between the two kinds of discrimination, direct and indirect, is debated. For some, they are distinct act-types, while for (...) others, indirect discrimination should be conceived as a side effect of prior cases of direct discrimination. In this paper, I argue that indirect discrimination is a distinct act-type that can take place without being connected to prior instances of direct discrimination. (shrink)

This book offers a unique perspective on Zionism. The author, a geneticist by training, focuses on science, rather than history. He looks at the claims that Jews constitute a people with common biological roots. An argument that helps provide justification for the aspirations of this political movement dedicated to the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. His study explores two issues. The first considers the assertion that there is a biology of the Jews. The second deals with attempts (...) to integrate this idea into a consistent history. Both issues unfolded against the background of a romantic national culture of Western Europe in the 19th century: Jews, primarily from Eastern Europe, began to believe these notions and soon they took the lead in the re-formulation of Jewish and Zionist existence. The author does not intend to present a comprehensive picture of the biological literature of the origins of a people and the blood relations between them. He also recognizes that the subject is emotionally-loaded. The book does, however, present a profound mediation on three overlapping questions: What is special or unique to the Jews? Who were the genuine Jews? And how can one identify Jews? This volume is a revised and edited English version of Tzionut Vehabiologia shel Hayehudim, published in 2006. (shrink)

This special issue is about something most of us might find very hard to conceive: states of consciousness in which self-consciousness is radically disrupted or altogether missing.