Following Meinong, many philosophers have been attracted by the view that emotions have intrinsically evaluative correctness conditions. On one version of this view, emotions have evaluative contents. On another version, emotions are evaluative attitudes; they are evaluative at the level of intentional mode rather than content. We raise objections against the latter version, showing that the only two ways of implementing it are hopeless. Either emotions are manifestly evaluative or they are not. In the former case, the Attitudinal View threatens (...) to collapse into the Perception View or any other view according to which emotions are evaluative at the level of content. In the latter case, the Attitudinal View does not stand up to an obvious alternative, namely that emotions can only be assessed with respect to extrinsic norms or conditions of correctness. (shrink)

In this paper the author examines the main features of Jürgen Habermas's cosmopolitan view of the global political order. He specifically examines the importance Habermas accords respectively to individual rights and the nationstate in such an order. After demonstrating that a global political order founded on the defence of individual human rights rather than the nation-state is an assumption that should be taken seriously, the author maintains that it would be undesirable to attribute only a secondary role to the nation-sate. (...) In the second part of the paper, he demonstrates that the nation-state has a positive role to play in the global era, and that those who predict its imminent demise will have to revisit their positions. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to assess the coherence of the metaethical positions on which discourse ethics as developed by Habermas and Apel rests. After showing that one is faced here with a non-descriptivist, anti-realist but cognitivist moral theory, I examine whether a non-descriptivist cognitivism, on the one hand, and an anti-realist cognitivism, on the other hand, can consistently be held. I maintain that the problem of the relation between cognitivism and non-descriptivism is adequately solved by the two authors, (...) but that the problem of the relation between cognitivism and anti-realism is still waiting for an appropriate answer, which I put forth in my article. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: The general aim of this paper is to question the idea that hermeneutic and critical social sciences have to be conceived as specific embodiments of the scientific enterprise. This idea is rather implicit in Habermas’s work, but has its grounds in his thesis about the argumentative unity of all sciences, upheld for the first time in 1973. Such a point of view turns out to be untenable for two reasons. First, the indiscriminating inclusion of the hermeneutic and critical social (...) sciences in scientific enterprise raises problems of consistency with regard to the systematic guidelines of The Theory of Communicative Action. Moreover, the thesis of argumentative unity of the sciences itself is incompatible with Habermas’s methodological conception of the role of Verstehen in the social sciences developed in section 1.4 of the book. Finally, the author argues that this conception calls for another understanding of the status and role of the hermeneutic and critical disciplines, which is outlined in some detail. (shrink)

Il faut saluer, je pense, et avec bonheur, la parution récente de l’ouvrage Patriotisme constitutionnel et nationalisme. Sur Jürgen Habermas de Frédérick-Guillaume Dufour, un jeune auteur québécois qui semble plein de promesses. L’ouvrage s’inscrit à l’intérieur d’une vague de fond observable depuis quelques années déjà chez les chercheurs universitaires, tant au Canada qu’au Québec, qui s’intéressent de plus en plus aux travaux récents du philosophe allemand sur le droit et la démocratie délibérative, et tentent d’en tirer les implications pour l’analyse, (...) la compréhension, voire la mise en question, aussi bien du nationalisme québécois que du nationalisme canadienLe livre est d’autant plus pertinent qu’il n’existe pas, dans la littérature produite jusqu’ici, d’ouvrage systématique en langue française consacré à l’application des réflexions politiques de Habermas à la situation canadienne et québécoise. Il s’agit là, sauf erreur, du premier ouvrage d’une certaine ampleur consacré à la question. (shrink)

This paper proposes an essentially theoretical reflection on initial training, a reflection based on four fundamental concepts: professional development, professional identity, well-being and strengths of character. More specifically, recognizing the complexity of the teaching profession, the authors argue that the teacher training in Quebec gives too little room for self-reflection. According to them, this reflection should be based on a search for meaning in terms of a vision of well-being. Positive psychology research on strengths of character may provide useful avenues (...) for rethinking teacher education. (shrink)

Foucault’s Forgotten Marxism. This article tries to point out several methodological issues concerning Foucault’s Surveiller et punir, such as the equivocal status of some of Foucault’s main concepts, or the assumed homogeneity of the various disciplinary institutions analyzed in this book. And it aims at suggesting that such issues might find a solution, should one consider the Marxist background on which, as the Lectures at the Collège de France of the year 1973 clearly show, Foucault’s theories were dependant. In the (...) opinion of the author, only in as much as this heritage is accepted and seriously taken into account, shall Foucault’s concepts and theses regain their political and critical pertinence. (shrink)

In Walter Benjamin. Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend Stéphane Symons offers an innovative reading of the work of German philosopher, essayist and literary critic Walter Benjamin that characterizes his writings as "neither a-theological, nor immediately theological.".

In this paper, I propose a reductive account of intentions which I call a gate-based reductive account. In contrast with other reductive accounts, however, the reductive basis of this account is not limited to desires, beliefs and judgments. I suggest that an intention is a complex state in which a predominant desire toward a plan is not inhibited by a gate mechanism whose function is to assess the comparison of our desires given the stakes at hand. To vindicate this account, (...) I rely on several considerations: the similarity between epistemic feelings and the feeling of being decided that tells us that we have an intention, the necessity of postulating a gate mechanism to explain our hesitating behavior, and the tight link that exists between the realization of our actions and our desires. In agreement with non-reductivists, I nevertheless acknowledge that intentions encompass plans, although I emphasize that the planning capacity must also be dependent on our motivational life and the general evaluative mechanisms that explains our emotions. (shrink)

Cet article aborde les formes de contrôle des biens communs par des entreprises commerciales en étudiant le cas des logiciels libres. Les logiciels libres sont des logiciels dont le code source est librement accessible, et peut être modifié et partagé. Cette éthique de partage a permis l’émergence d’un modèle collaboratif souvent présenté comme l’exemple type des « communs numériques ». Cependant, de plus en plus d’entreprises participent aujourd’hui au développement des logiciels libres. Si plusieurs analystes voient d’un bon œil cette (...) contribution commerciale, d’autres font ressortir les formes de contrôle que ces entreprises mettent en place pour tirer profit des communs en logiciels libres. En recensant différentes études sur ces questions et en analysant plus précisément les cas de Symfony et de Redhat, deux logiciels libres fortement développés par des entreprises commerciales, le présent article s’attarde sur ces formes de contrôle des communs numériques et en fait ressortir les conséquences éthiques. (shrink)

In this paper a unified framework for dealing with a broad family of propositional multimodal logics is developed. The key tools for presentation of the logics are the notions of closure relation operation and monotonous relation operation. The two classes of logics: FiRe-logics (finitely reducible logics) and LaFiRe-logics (FiRe-logics with local agreement of accessibility relations) are introduced within the proposed framework. Further classes of logics can be handled indirectly by means of suitable translations. It is shown that the logics from (...) these classes have the finite model property with respect to the class of ♦-formulae, i.e. each ♦-formula has a ℒ-model iff it has a finite ℒ-model. Roughly speaking, a ♦-formula is logically equivalent to a formula in negative normal form without occurrences of modal operators with necessity force. In the proof we introduce a substantial modification of Claudio Cerrato's filtration technique that has been originally designed for graded modal logics. The main core of the proof consists in building adequate restrictions of models while preserving the semantics of the operators used to build terms indexing the modal operators. (shrink)

Will streaming have a “feedback effect” on musical creation, comparable to the one enforced by the precedent distribution modes of musical contents? In other words, could it be compared to the one generated by the invention of 45rpm vinyl record or 33rpm LP linked to the “concept albums” from the seventies, or even CD and DVD? I will use the description of “Apple Music”, the new Apple streaming site, to demonstrate that the innovations brought along with this site clearly evince (...) that this new mode of distribution has achieved its own end and will exert, if my predictions are true, an important effect on musical creation in the upcoming years. Since those optimistic conclusions far from being shared by all musicians, I will have to discuss their points of view in this article as well. (shrink)

We study the computational content of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem in the Weihrauch lattice. Connected choice is the operation that finds a point in a non-empty connected closed set given by negative information. One of our main results is that for any fixed dimension the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem of that dimension is computably equivalent to connected choice of the Euclidean unit cube of the same dimension. Another main result is that connected choice is complete for dimension greater than (...) or equal to two in the sense that it is computably equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. While we can present two independent proofs for dimension three and upward that are either based on a simple geometric construction or a combinatorial argument, the proof for dimension two is based on a more involved inverse limit construction. The connected choice operation in dimension one is known to be equivalent to the Intermediate Value Theorem; we prove that this problem is not idempotent in contrast to the case of dimension two and upward. We also prove that Lipschitz continuity with Lipschitz constants strictly larger than one does not simplify finding fixed points. Finally, we prove that finding a connectedness component of a closed subset of the Euclidean unit cube of any dimension greater than or equal to one is equivalent to Weak Kőnig’s Lemma. In order to describe these results, we introduce a representation of closed subsets of the unit cube by trees of rational complexes. (shrink)

The basic premise of the host‐defense theory is that genomic imprinting, the parent‐of‐origin expression of a subset of mammalian genes, derives from mechanisms originally dedicated to silencing repeated and retroviral‐like sequences that deeply colonized mammalian genomes. We propose that large clusters of tandemly‐repeated C/D‐box small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) or microRNAs represent a novel category of sequences recognized as “genomic parasites”, contributing to the emergence of genomic imprinting in a subset of chromosomal regions that contain them. Such a view is supported (...) by evidence derived from studies of the imprinted snoRNA‐ and/or miRNA‐encoding Dlk1‐Dio3, Snurf‐Snrpn, Sfbmt2, and C19MC domains. While adding a new piece to the challenging puzzle of mammalian genome history, this hypothesis also reinforces the notion that dissecting the features and molecular mechanisms that discriminate between “foreign” and “endogenous” sequences is of crucial importance in the field of mammalian epigenetics. (shrink)

The 2005 Avignon Theatre Festival sparked a vast controversy about the insistent presence of bodies (whether wounded, broken, or humiliated) on stage. Without subscribing to the reactionary critical response to the Festival, it is legitimate to return to the debate in order to question the ubiquity of the “victim body” in contemporary theatre. Such representations, far from being heterodox, are in fact part of the massive ideology of “the ethical”, as diagnosed by Alain Badiou. The oppressed body thus tends to (...) be assimilated to the body of the victim. The result is the obliteration of the resistance of subjects to their oppression, or of their active response to it, theatre being reduced to the maxims of a democratic materialism: “there are only bodies and languages”. (shrink)

In this paper, I defend the view that our knowledge of our desires is inferential and based on the consciousness we have of our emotions, and on our experiences of pain and pleasure.

Dans cette étude, nous examinons l'influence de quelques éléments caractéristiques des doctrines psychologique et eschatologique de Porphyre, dont certains correspondent à des idées de Plotin, sur l'analyse qu'Augustin propose des différentes sortes de visiones dans le De Trinitate et le De Genesi ad litteram.This study focuses on the influence of Porphyry's psychology and eschatology on Augustine's account of the different kinds of visiones, as it is set out in the treatises De Trinitate and De Genesi ad litteram.

Cette étude vise à montrer comment Synésios de Cyrène, ayant adopté deux doctrines vraisemblablement porphyriennes (touchant l’enkuklios paideia et le pneuma en tant qu’organe de l’imagination), les articule en fonction d’une double préoccupation: celle d’un progrès intérieur de l’âme qui soit une progression ordonnée via les logoi, et celle d’une communication intime avec la divinité (voire de salut personnel), via une phantasia purifiée. Ce double souci de conversion intérieure, manifesté dans le diptyque littéraire constitué par le Dion: ou du genre (...) de vie conforme à son modèle et le traité Des songes (publiés tous deux en 405), le conduit à concevoir une forme d’écriture intime qui serait une écriture philosophiquement adéquate au mode de vie auquel, idéalement, cet homme public et ce styliste hors pair envisage alors de se consacrer. Mais dans la réalité de son existence d’homme de lettres, et donc dans la pratique de son écriture, cette conversion à l’intime ne correspond qu’à un assez bref moment d’anachorèse vouée à l’étude et donc à soi-même – ultime refuge, plus rêvé que réalisé, de l’ethos platonicien, tel qu’il se le représentait. (shrink)

Les récents débats autour du délit de manipulation mentale amènent à s'interroger sur la notion d'influence et sur l'impact des recherches faites dans ce domaine. Ce délit repose sur l'idée que des techniques de manipulation efficaces existent et que par leur utilisation, on pourrait manipuler autrui. Suivant cette conception asymétrique de l'influence, la cible devient l'instrument du désir de la source et dans ce cas, il est nécessaire de se protéger de ces influences qui peuvent être néfastes. Si des travaux (...) expérimentaux de psychologie sociale montrent l'efficacité de certaines techniques d'influence et de manipulation, ils doivent cependant être mis en perspective. Nombre d'expériences et de théories montrent que l'influence n'est fondamentalement pas un rapport asymétrique. Mais hélas, ces travaux sont négligés tant ils ne cadrent pas avec ce prototype de l'influence qui domine à la fois en psychologie sociale et dans le sens commun.Recent debate on the abuse of mental manipulation has raised questions about the concept of influence and the impact of the research in this field. This abuse is based on the idea that with effective techniques of manipulation can be used to mentally control others. According to this asymmetrical model of influence, the target becomes the instrument of the desire of the source and therefore must be protected from such dangerous and negative influences. If certain experiments in social psychology show the effectiveness of certain techniques of influence and manipulation, such effects must be analyzed with due care. Many experiments and theories show that influence is not essentially asymmetrical. Unfortunately, such studies tend to be ignored because they differ from the accepted model of influence which dominates both in social psychology and in common sense. (shrink)

We have two goals in this paper: first, to provide a diagnosis of global health and underline some of its blockages; second, to offer an alternative interpretation of what the demands for those in global health may be. The assumption that health is a good that requires no further explanation, and that per se it can serve as an actual modus operandi, lays the foundations of the problem. Related blockages ensue and are described using HIV prevention with a focus on (...) vaginal microbicides as a case study. Taking health as a self-evident, and self-explanatory “good” limits other possible goods; and prevents inquiry into the actual practices of creating good. We propose that to create conditions under which global health could be reconstructed, problematization be taken up as a practice, around a series of questions asked in conjunction with those ever-urgent ones of how to ameliorate the condition of living beings. (shrink)