Certains écrivains contemporains choisissent de raconter leur vie ou un épisode de leur vie de manière originale, délaissant ainsi l’autobiographie traditionnelle ainsi que la plus récente autofiction. Cette originalité peut résider dans des choix énonciatifs déconcertants (Annie Ernaux, Les Années, Michel Rostain, Le Fils, Régis Jauffret, Lacrimosa, Daniel Pennac, Le Journal d’un corps) et/ou dans l’inscription même de la démarche d’écriture dans le texte : l’auteur raconte sa vie passée et l’écriture du récit que nous lisons (Les Années, Delphine de (...) Vigan, Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit). Cette narration inattendue a pour conséquence de refléter un lien particulier entre le passé raconté et le présent de l’écriture, car là où l’autobiographie traditionnelle permettait un clair départ entre le temps raconté et le temps de la narration, on mesure ici combien le passé s’écrit à l’aune du présent de l’écriture. Cette mise en abîme de l’écriture montre comment elle participe de la quête identitaire qui est au cœur de tout récit autobiographique. Les écrivains sont à la recherche d’une forme qui leur permettra d’approcher au plus près leur vérité ou au moins de tenter de l’approcher, et ils rendent compte de cette recherche. (shrink)

Geistlose Selbstsorge -- Der zerebrale Zirkel -- Der Weg nach draussen -- Das Hinzutretende -- Zerstreuung des Geistes -- Möchtegernhirne -- Archaik des Gehirns -- Vergeistigung vs. Verblödung.

The intellectual origins of molecular biology are usually traced back to the 1930s. By contrast, molecular biology acquired a social reality only around 1960. To understand how it came to designate a community of researchers and a professional identity, I examine the creation of the first institutes of molecular biology, which took place around 1960, in four European countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland. This paper shows how the creation of these institutes was linked to the results of (...) post-war economic reconstruction. Then, it compares how the promoters of these different institutional projects delimited the goals of their discipline, reflected on its history, and suggested how research should be organised. I show how they carefully positioned their new discipline within the emerging national science policy discourse of the 1950s, and aligned it with the current vision of scientific modernity. In particular, I discuss how they articulated the meaning of molecular biology with respect to five common themes: the role of physics in the atomic age, the relations between fundamental research and medical applications, the ‘Americanisation’ of scientific research, the value of science in the reconstruction of national identities, and the drive towards interdisciplinary research. This paper thus demonstrates that beyond the local and national accounts there is a European history of molecular biology. (shrink)

Peter Strassers neues Buch hat eine zentrale These, um welche die teilweise persönlich gehaltenen Reflexionen kreisen: Erst das Weltfremde in uns ermöglicht uns Beheimatung in der Welt. Wer nicht schon einmal selbst so dachte, wird auf die große Idioten-Literatur des Abendlandes verwiesen. Der moderne Idiot ist ein Weltfremder. Aber eben darin wurzelt seine Gabe, die Welt als einen Ort zu erfahren, wo es gerade die sich nahenden, sich der Anschauung öffnenden Phänomene sind, in denen eine letztmögliche Nähe zur Welt aufscheint. (...) Dieses Aufscheinen transzendiert das Faktische, wie es uns die Wissenschaft vermitte. (shrink)

In many cases, the ascription of self-consciousness is uncontroversial. For example, the ability to use the first person pronoun ‘I’ in the right way is obviously related to self-consciousness, although this is not true in all cases. The ascription of self-consciousness to infants, to persons with psychopathological syndromes, or to animals is controversial. In this paper, I will focus on the question of how ascribing self-consciousness to infants can be justified. There are two main subjects relevant to this debate. Firstly, (...) the conceptual question: What notion of self-consciousness should be under discussion regarding infants? In other words: how minimal can a feasible notion of selfconsciousness be? Positions in this debate vary from presuming innate abilities such as the postulation of pre-reflexive self-consciousness (cp. Frank 1991) and the claim that language has to be developed and the right use of the personal pronoun ‘I’ has to be proven (cp. Castaneda 1966). Claiming that self-ascription abilities are an essential condition for all notions of self-consciousness, I begin by analyzing self-ascription abilities using the terminology of the sense of ownership, the sense of agency, and the sense of authorship. Equipped with this clarification, I suggest a minimal notion of self-consciousness that may serve as a foundation of a broader notion of self-consciousness. Secondly, the epistemological question: How can we know when ascribing self-consciousness is justified? This question is combined with an additional problem concerning the ascription of self-consciousness to infants. Infants show impressive behavior that seems to be tied to self-consciousness, but in some cases there are convincing alternative explanations for such behavior. Such alternatives do not refer to self-consciousness and still provide satisfying explanations. Finally, I will discuss several paradigmatic cases regarding the question of whether the ascription of self-consciousness is justified in such cases. (shrink)

Professor H. L. Van Breda had hoped to write this preface, but his recent, unexpected and untimely death has left that task in my hands. Although my remarks will not be as eloquent and insightful as his surely would have been, some few words are clearly in order here; for the phenomenological community has not only lost the leadership of Fr. Van Breda these last years, but also the scholarship and leadership of Aron Gurwitsch and Alden Fisher - both contributors (...) to this volume - as well as that of Dorion Cairns and John Wild. Our leaders are fewer now but Herbert Spiegelberg is still very obviously one of them. This volume thus presents the work of some of the past and presently recognized leaders in phenomenology - e. g. Gurwitsch, Straus, and Fisher - but, more important perhaps, it also presents the work of some of those who are sure to be future leaders of our community of phenomenological philosophers, if in fact they have not already achieved this status. Most, if not all, of the contribu tors to this volume are in some way or another indebted to Herbert Spiegelberg and his work in phenomenology. (shrink)

In 1957, Francis Crick outlined a startling vision of life in which the great diversity of forms and shapes of macromolecules was encoded in the one-dimensional sequence of nucleic acids. This paper situates Crick's new vision in the debates of the 1950s about protein synthesis and gene action. After exploring the reception of Crick's ideas, it shows how they differed radically from a different model of protein synthesis which enjoyed wide currency in that decade. In this alternative model, advocated by (...) Linus Pauling and other luminaries, three-dimensional templates directed the folding of proteins. Even though it was always considered somewhat speculative, this theory was supported by a number of empirical results originating in different experimental systems. It was eventually replaced by a model in which the forms and shapes of macromolecules resulted solely from their amino acid sequence, dramatically simplifying the problem of protein synthesis which Crick was attempting to solve in 1957. (shrink)

Le 27 avril 1938, Edmund HUSSERL, l'initiateur et principal representant du courant phenomenologique dans la philosophie contemporaine, mourut a Fribourg en Brisgau, age de pres de quatre-vingts ans. Depuis la parution de ses Logische Untersuchungen en 190~ 1901, le monde philosophique international avait suivi, avec UD interet toujours croissant, les exposes successifs et de plus en plus approfondis, que le maUre fribourgeois publiait sur les prin~ cipes de sa methode, dite pMnomenologique, sur les applications concretes de celle-ci aux problemes philosophiques (...) les plus divers, ainsi que sur la phenomenologie comme systeme philo­ sophique autonome et pour ainsi dire "autarchique". Ces publi­ cations, relativement peu nombreuses, mais fort remarquees des leur parution, furent etudiees avec le plus grand soin par les representants les plus autorises des differents courants de la pensee contemporaine. Les critiques, il va sans dire, ne manquerent point. On attira l'attention sur le caractere plutöt programmatique de ces etudes, sur la terminologie fort neuve, quelque peu arbitraire, parfois meme deroutante, dont se servait l'auteur, sur son pen­ chant prononce pour des distinctions subtiles et pour des defini­ tions minutieuses a l'exces, sur la difficulte de son style et les complications parfois inutiles de son expose, enfin et surtout -­ au moins depuis 1913 - sur le caractere audacieux de sa theorie de la reduction, presentee par lui avec une insistance toute par­ ticuliere comme le fondement dernier et indispensable de toute phenomenologie presente ou future. (shrink)

Beim Wort 'Aufklarung' denken wir zunachst und zumeist an Immanuel Kant und sein beruhmtes Diktum vom 'Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmundigkeit'. Doch die europaische Aufklarungsbewegung war vieldimensional und bewegte sich nicht nur in einer Richtung. Der bohmische Philosoph Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848) steht fur einen ganz anderen Pfad in der Geschichte der Aufklarung. Er war ein Philosoph der mitteleuropaischen Denkstromung, der eine Welt jenseits des Kapitalismus und der Ausbeutung des Planeten dachte. Er sah in der Aufklarung einen konkreten Auftrag (...) an jeden einzelnen Menschen, 'stets kluger, (moralisch) besser und damit glucklicher zu werden': Nicht die Welt zu beherrschen, sondern sie zu verstehen, das sei der Auftrag auf diesem Weg zum allgemeinen Gluck. Die Monographie stellt Leben und Werk dieses zu Unrecht vergessenen katholischen Denkers umfassend und quellengesattigt vor. (shrink)

Dondeyne, A. Pluriformiteit en eenheid van de filosofie.--Peperzak, A. Wegwijzers naar een dialogiek?--Boer, T. de. De eindigheid van de mens en de oneindigheid van de waarheid.--Hollak, J. Wijsgerige reflecties over de scheppingsidee : St. Thomas, Hegel en de Grieken.--Plat, J. Kants kritiek op de rationele psychologie.--Melsen, A. van. Wijsgerige antropologie en de ontwikkeling van natuurwetenschap en techniek.--Buytendijk, F. Het pathisch aspect van de eindigheid.--Struyker Boudier, H. 's Bergbeklimmers einder.

Sont réexaminées plusieurs inscriptions agonistiques d’Athènes. 1. Le texte IG II3 4, 624 pour un héraut périodonique doit certainement être attribué à Valerius Eklektos de Sinope, déjà connu par un long texte d’Athènes, une base à Olympie et un piédestal retrouvé à Delphes resté inédit et publié ici. L’ensemble permet de reconstituer le parcours d’un artiste hors norme connu par quatre textes gravés à des moments différents de sa carrière. 2. Les fragments IG II3 4, 616 et 617 appartiennent au (...) même palmarès du second tiers du IIIe s. et peuvent vraisemblablement être reliés l’un à l’autre. Si IG II3 4, 618 ne provient pas du même monument, il pourrait lui être en revanche contemporain. 3. La base SEG 58, 185 honore non un agonothète mais un épistate, dont sont vantés les succès lors d’une longue carrière. 4. IG II² 2772 est une dédicace funéraire faite par un boxeur et xystarque pour un parent ou un ami. (shrink)

Can large language models produce expert‐quality philosophical texts? To investigate this, we fine‐tuned GPT‐3 with the works of philosopher Daniel Dennett. To evaluate the model, we asked the real Dennett 10 philosophical questions and then posed the same questions to the language model, collecting four responses for each question without cherry‐picking. Experts on Dennett's work succeeded at distinguishing the Dennett‐generated and machine‐generated answers above chance but substantially short of our expectations. Philosophy blog readers performed similarly to the experts, while ordinary (...) research participants were near chance distinguishing GPT‐3's responses from those of an “actual human philosopher”. (shrink)

Unter den knappen Gütern, um deren Ersetzbarkeit die Menschheit des 21. Jahrhunderts ringt, gehört der Trost zu den unersetzlichen. Darin gründet die Schwäche unserer Kultur, deren Technik, Humanität und Moral doch unübertroffen zu sein scheinen. Strassers Essay spannt den Problembogen vom klassischen "Trost der Philosophie" des Boethius bis zu Ian Flemings James Bond-Erzählung "Quantum of Solace". Von der Metaphysik bis zur Psychologie reichen die rationalen Versuche, Tröstung zu "organisieren" im finsteren Tal, das wir alle durchwandern. Strasser zeigt, warum das (...) psychologische Modell zu schwach ist. Es verharrt im Subjektiven. Und das Modell der Metaphysik? Dieses verblasst vor den Wissenschaften, die es selbst inthronisierte. Daher sucht der Essay nach Spuren einer "Geborgenheit im Schlechten" - einer objektiven Quelle des Trostes und der ihm eigenen Glückseligkeit. (shrink)

Die Welt als Schöpfung zu betrachten, heißt, sie in all ihrer Schönheit, ihrem Schrecken und ihrer Banalität als etwas zuinnerst Lebendiges - Durchgeistigtes - "anzuschauen". Heißt dies aber nicht, so die reflexartige Frage, hinter den Stand des heutigen Wissens zurückzufallen? Nein, das heißt es nicht! Kein Mensch, der sein In-der-Welt-Sein wachen Sinnes erlebt, kann das Geheimnis der eigenen Existenz im aktuellen Standardmodell des Wissens, vom Urknall bis zum Genom, wiederfinden. Die Tatsachen des Bewusstseins bleiben diesem Modell fremd. Wir werden zu (...) Gefangenen unserer Hirnhöhle; und was immer der Reduktion auf Lebloses, "Materielles", widersteht, wird zu bloßem Schein. Wollen wir uns nicht selbst verlieren, dann ist es Zeit für eine Weltbetrachtung gegen den Zeitgeist. Um der Hirnhöhlengefangenschaft zu entgehen und unser Wesen jenseits szientifischer Verengungen zu wahren, bedarf es einer stillen Subversion: Es bedarf, ungeachtet allen neoreligiösen Getümmels, einer Anschauung der Dinge, wonach sich Geistiges als schöpferische Macht entfaltet. (shrink)

Im Diabolischen, das die Welt durchherrscht, wird ein Bedeutungsüberschuss spürbar, dem durch keine wissenschaftliche Betrachtung beizukommen ist. Diese leugnet die Existenz eines objektiv Bösen. Hingegen kann keine Ethik, die nicht blind-naiver Aufklärung anhängt, einer Ontologie des "Teufels" entbehren. Dabei bildet akkurat die "unschuldige" Natur mit ihren Orgien des Fressens und Gefressen-Werdens, denen die harmlosesten, freundlichsten Geschöpfe zum Opfer fallen, ein satanisches Tableau. Dessen Entzauberung durch die Theorie der Evolution verstärkt bloß den Zauber des Bösen.Die Präsenz des Dämonischen zeigt sich in (...) der Stimmung, die den modernen Menschen heimsucht. Er fühlt sich abgeschnitten von der wahren Realität, fürchtet, als ein Wesen existieren zu müssen, das seiner Seele verlustig ging. Unsere Zombie-Angst vermittelt eine Ahnung vom Radikalbösen. (shrink)

Can opium's tendency to induce sleep be explained by appeal to a "dormitive virtue"? If the label merely references the tendency being explained, the explanation seems vacuous. Yet the presence of a label could signal genuinely explanatory content concerning the (causal) basis for the property being explained. In Experiments 1 and 2, we find that explanations for a person's behavior that appeal to a named tendency or condition are indeed judged to be more satisfying than equivalent explanations that differ only (...) in omitting the name. In Experiment 3, we find support for one proposal concerning what it is about a name that drives a boost in explanatory satisfaction: named categories lead people to draw an inference to the existence of a cause underlying the category, a cause that is responsible for the behavior being explained. Our findings have implications for theories of explanation and point to the central role of causation in explaining behavior. (shrink)

An actor's mental states—whether she acted knowingly and with bad intentions—typically play an important role in evaluating the extent to which an action is wrong and in determining appropriate levels of punishment. In four experiments, we find that this role for knowledge and intent is significantly weaker when evaluating transgressions of conventional rules as opposed to moral rules. We also find that this attenuated role for knowledge and intent is partly due to the fact that conventional rules are judged to (...) be more arbitrary than moral rules; whereas moral transgressions are associated with actions that are intrinsically wrong, conventional transgressions are associated with actions that are only contingently wrong. Finally, we find that it is the perpetrator's belief about the arbitrary or non-arbitrary basis of the rule—not the reality—that drives this differential effect of knowledge and intent across types of transgressions. (shrink)

BackgroundAs a number of commentators have noted, SARS exposed the vulnerabilities of our health care systems and governance structures. Health care professionals (HCPs) and hospital systems that bore the brunt of the SARS outbreak continue to struggle with the aftermath of the crisis. Indeed, HCPs – both in clinical care and in public health – were severely tested by SARS. Unprecedented demands were placed on their skills and expertise, and their personal commitment to their profession was severely tried. Many were (...) exposed to serious risk of morbidity and mortality, as evidenced by the World Health Organization figures showing that approximately 30% of reported cases were among HCPs, some of whom died from the infection. Despite this challenge, professional codes of ethics are silent on the issue of duty to care during communicable disease outbreaks, thus providing no guidance on what is expected of HCPs or how they ought to approach their duty to care in the face of risk.DiscussionIn the aftermath of SARS and with the spectre of a pandemic avian influenza, it is imperative that we (re)consider the obligations of HCPs for patients with severe infectious diseases, particularly diseases that pose risks to those providing care. It is of pressing importance that organizations representing HCPs give clear indication of what standard of care is expected of their members in the event of a pandemic. In this paper, we address the issue of special obligations of HCPs during an infectious disease outbreak. We argue that there is a pressing need to clarify the rights and responsibilities of HCPs in the current context of pandemic flu preparedness, and that these rights and responsibilities ought to be codified in professional codes of ethics. Finally, we present a brief historical accounting of the treatment of the duty to care in professional health care codes of ethics.SummaryAn honest and critical examination of the role of HCPs during communicable disease outbreaks is needed in order to provide guidelines regarding professional rights and responsibilities, as well as ethical duties and obligations. With this paper, we hope to open the social dialogue and advance the public debate on this increasingly urgent issue. (shrink)

Developmental psychologists have long recognized the extraordinary influence of action on learning (Held & Hein, 1963; Piaget, 1952). Action experiences begin to shape our perception of the world during infancy (e.g., as infants gain an understanding of others’ goal-directed actions; Woodward, 2009) and these effects persist into adulthood (e.g., as adults learn about complex concepts in the physical sciences; Kontra, Lyons, Fischer, & Beilock, 2012). Theories of embodied cognition provide a structure within which we can investigate the mechanisms underlying action’s (...) impact on thinking and reasoning. We argue that theories of embodiment can shed light on the role of action experience in early learning contexts, and further that these theories hold promise for using action to scaffold learning in more formal educational settings later in development. (shrink)