BackgroundThe ageing of the population and the increased number of chronic diseases are associated with an increased frequency of end of life care in hospital settings. Residents rotating in hospital wards play a major part in their care, regardless of their specialty. General practitioner (GP) residents are confronted to such activities in hospital settings during their training. Our aim was to know how they feel about taking care of dying patients, as end-of-life care are very different from the clinical activity (...) they are trained to.MethodsWe surveyed all GP trainees of “Ile de France”. The survey was made of 41 questions regarding advanced directives divided in 7 sections about patients’ care, communication, mentoring and repercussion on personal life. The survey was done one time, during two pre-specified days.Results525 residents (53.8%) accepted to fulfill the survey. 74.1% of the residents thought that palliative care could have been better. Possible ways of improvements were: a reduction of unreasonable obstinacy (or therapeutic overkill, two terms defined in French law as curative treatment without reasonable hope of efficiency) (59.6%), patient’s (210 answers, 40%) and relative’s communication (information of patients and relatives about the severity of the disease and risk of death) (199 answers 37.9%). Residents also reported a lack of knowledge regarding end-of-life care specific treatments (411 answers, 79.3%) and 298 (47.2%) wished for better mentoring. Those difficulties were associated with repercussion on their private life (353 answers, 67.2%), particularly with their close relatives (55.4%). Finally, 56.2% of trainees thought that a systematic psychologic follow up should be instituted for those working in “at risk” hospital settings.ConclusionSelf-perception management of dying patients by GP resident emphasize their lack of training and supervision. The feeling of suboptimal care is associated with consequences on personal life. (shrink)

This is the result of a two year theological reflection on the religious and social activities of Catholic women’s organisations. The organisations are found to be active in the area of human rights and particularly women’s rights, as expressed in a critique of society and the Church, and in campaigning or working in the field of social concern. The background to their work is a view of the image of God in all people, which I have compared with the feminist (...) principle of Imago Dei. I find in the activities of these women’s organisations, which are inclined to be marginalized as they deal with day to day issues, Norvene West’s principle of ‘tender competence’ which describes their importance for a theological agenda and helps make them visible to theological reflection. (shrink)

Disregarding trends of secularization, the Virgin Mary still plays an important role in religious devotions all over the world, even in the West. This does not diminish the controversies, debates and theo-political struggles that surround Mary and a Marian theology, as will be shown in this article. Western feminist theologies mostly choose, in general accordance with the Second Vatican Council, for a liberating, biblical, human Mary contra a more cosmological Mary, object of devotional piety. This contribution gives a critical sketch (...) of the background of these developments in Mariology and argues for a closer look at Marian devotional practices in order to find some inspiring elements for rethinking divine presence, Mary and perhaps a new Mariology. Can feminists find inspiration in this approach without forfeiting critical power and without denying the paradoxical and dangerous dimensions of Mary? (shrink)

A l'instar d'un Alain Badiou, Jean-Claude Michéa est devenu culte de son vivant. Près de trente ans après son premier livre, le philosophe montpelliérain, désormais dévoué à l'apprentissage de la permacutlture, a lancé malgré lui une véritable " génération Michéa ". Son plus haut fait d'armes? Avoir rompu avec la gauche sans jamais donner de gages à la droite. Sa ligne de conduite, revenir à un socialisme des origines, a pourtant été l'objet de nombreux contresens, d'interprétations confuses ou de récupérations (...) opportunistes. Entre décroissance, socialisme libertaire, conservatisme, comment percer à jour le mystère Michéa? Son biographe Kévin Boucaud-Victoire a mené l'enquête et décrypte avec clarté, rigueur et humour les travaux du plus anarchiste des conservateurs. (shrink)

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), psychiatre d'origine martiniquaise, bâtit en quelques livres une œuvre révolutionnaire dans laquelle il s'applique à décrire le système colonial et ses conséquences inévitables : le racisme et l'aliénation qu'il engendre. Mais il va aussi s'engager très concrètement, en Algérie. Rejetant toute forme d'obscurantisme, il entend défendre une Afrique libre, socialiste, démocratique et laïque. Son ambition? Ni plus ni moins que forger un nouvel humanisme, assumant les traditions locales comme la boussole universaliste, récusant tout impérialisme et permettant à (...) tous de s'épanouir librement. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's Habilitationsschrift--Mèunster, 1985.

Bachtin’s concept of personality is considered in light of Kierkegaard’s philosophy of human existence. Unlike Kierkegaard, who sees the aesthetic concept of the person moving over into an ethical one, Bachtin takes art to be the highest form of the realization of individuality that brings together the opposing tendencies within the ethical sphere (between what is and what must be).

Bachtin's concept of personality is considered in light of Kierkegaard's philosophy of human existence. Unlike Kierkegaard, who sees the aesthetic concept of the person moving over into an ethical one, Bachtin takes art to be the highest form of the realization of individuality that brings together the opposing tendencies within the ethical sphere (between what is and what must be).

From an interdisciplinary perspective the authors of this book, scholars in theology and religious studies, give an account of the problematic and promising aspects of biblically based monotheism, considered as a formative religious idea, belief, and practice in Western history and culture.

From an interdisciplinary perspective the authors of this book, scholars in theology and religious studies, give an account of the problematic and promising aspects of biblically based monotheism, considered as a formative religious idea, belief, and practice in Western history and culture.

Passive Brain-Computer interfaces (pBCIs) are a human-computer communication tool where the computer can detect from neurophysiological signals the current mental or emotional state of the user. The system can then adjust itself to guide the user towards a desired state. One challenge facing developers of pBCIs is that the system's parameters are generally set at the onset of the interaction and remain stable throughout, not adapting to potential changes over time such as fatigue. The goal of this paper is to (...) investigate the improvement of pBCIs with settings adjusted according to the information provided by a second neurophysiological signal. With the use of a second signal, making the system a hybrid pBCI, those parameters can be continuously adjusted with dynamic thresholding to respond to variations such as fatigue or learning. In this experiment, we hypothesize that the adaptive system with dynamic thresholding will improve perceived game experience and objective game performance compared to two other conditions: an adaptive system with single primary signal biocybernetic loop and a control non-adaptive game. A within-subject experiment was conducted with 16 participants using three versions of the game Tetris. Each participant plays 15 minutes of Tetris under three experimental conditions. The control condition is the traditional game of Tetris with a progressive increase in speed. The second condition is a cognitive load only biocybernetic loop with the parameters presented in Ewing et al. (2016). The third condition is our proposed biocybernetic loop using dynamic threshold selection. Electroencephalography was used as the primary signal and automatic facial expression analysis as the secondary signal. Our results show that, contrary to our expectations, the adaptive systems did not improve the participants' experience as participants had more negative affect from the BCI conditions than in the control condition. We endeavored to develop a system that improved upon the authentic version of the Tetris game, however, our proposed adaptive system neither improved players’ perceived experience, nor their objective performance. Nevertheless, this experience can inform developers of hybrid passive BCIs on a novel way to employ various neurophysiological features simultaneously. (shrink)

On pourrait pointer la difficulté rencontrée face aux archives de Benjamin et aux différentes interprétations de ses fragments simplement en intervertissant certains termes du titre et du sous-titre de ce texte. On aurait ainsi : les figures du « Messie » et du « messianisme » doivent conduire à la victoire. Le mot « victoire » pourra toujours être prioritaire parce qu’il détermine le caractère révolutionnaire du « Messie » chez Benjamin, et inversement, l’emploi du mot « messianisme (...) » impliq... (shrink)

L’intérêt et l’originalité de l’humanisme merleau-pontien consiste à mes yeux dans sa mise en lumière du dévoilement de l’origine refoulée de l’homme dans le registre de l’art et de l’expression du corps en général. Merleau-Ponty a su percevoir exemplairement ce mouvement de récursion vers l’inhumain dans l’oeuvre de Cézanne. « Je vous dois la vérité en peinture disait Cézanne ». Cézanne nous donne en effet la vérité de l’hominisation en peinture. Nul mieux que Merleau-Ponty nous permet d’entendre encore aujourd’hui la (...) voix de Cézanne. Il nous permet de fonder sur l’écho de cette voix un nouvel humanisme, un humanisme qui garde en mémoire l’inhumain, qui lève le refoulement mais sans le supprimer, tout comme l’artiste présente l’invisible du visible et tout comme le philosophe décrit la profondeur de l’être. Cet humanisme de la surrection est celui de l’apparition de l’homme à lui-même dans la constellation hasardeuse des signes et dans l’adversité du non-sens, à égale distance de l’humanisme sans vergogne des aînés de Merleau-Ponty et de l’antihumanisme postmoderne de ses cadets.The interest and originality of Merleau-Ponty’s humanism lie, in my view, in the unveiling of the repressed origin of humanity in the domain of art and the expression of the body more generally. Merleau-Ponty was able to perceive an example of this recursive movement toward the inhuman in Cézanne’s works. “I owe you the truth in painting,” said Cézanne. In effect, Cézanne gives us the truth of humanization in painting. None better than Merleau-Ponty allows us to hear Cézanne’s voice today. Through the echo of this voice, he allows us to found a new humanism, a humanism that bears the memory of the inhuman, that lifts up the repressed but without effacing it, all while presenting us with the invisible in the visible and exposing the profundity of the human being. This humanism of upheaval is that of the appearance of humanity to itself in a hazardous constellation of signs and in the adversity of non-sense set in equal distance from the shameless humanism of Merleau-Ponty’s predecessors and the postmodern antihumanism of those who came after him.L’interesse e l’originalità dell’umanismo merleau-pontyano consiste ai nostri occhi nella sua capacità di disvelare l’origine rimossa dell’uomo nella dimensione dell’arte e dell’espressione corporea in generale. Merleau-Ponty ha saputo percepire esemplarmente questo movimento di ritorno e di ricorso all’inumano nell’opera di Cézanne. “Je vous dois la vérité en peinture”, affermava Cézanne. Egli ci restituisce, in pittura, la verità dell’ominazione. Ancor oggi nessuno meglio di Merleau-Ponty ci consente di intendere la voce di Cézanne. Merleau-Ponty ci consente di fondare sull’eco di quella voce un nuovo umanismo, un umanismo che conserva memoria dell’inumano, che innalza il rimosso senza sopprimerlo, proprio come l’artista presenta l’invisibile del visibile, e il filosofo descrive la profondità dell’essere. Quest’umanismo della “surrezione” è l’umanismo dell’apparizione dell’uomo a se stesso nella costellazione aleatoria dei segni e nell’avversità del non-senso come rimosso, un umanismo che si pone a uguale distanza dall’umanismo senza vergogna dei predecessori di Merleau-Ponty e dell’anti-umanismo postmoderno dei suoi successori. (shrink)

Abstract:This article draws on the later work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to develop an onto-phenomenological approach to landscape aesthetics. Specifically, by closely examining the natural, cultural, and artistic history of the French mountain, Mont. Sainte-Victoire, I explicate Merleau-Ponty's critique of the anthropocentric bias in modern landscape aesthetics that something has aesthetic significance only where a higher-order subject (i.e. human) reflects on and appreciates it. By contrast, I argue that Merleau-Ponty retrieves the ancient Greek notion of aisthesis as the coming-into-appearance of (...) the sensible world. In this move from a subjective ground to an ontological ground, I argue that landscape aesthetics might better be understood as the generative creation of the sensible world, a creation that is co-constituted by natural, cultural, and artistic forces. (shrink)

From the National Revolution to the Victory of Evo Morales. A Review of a Half Century of Struggles in Popular Bolivia (1952-2007) The « Bolivian democratic and cultural revolution », often presented as a symbol of the leftward turn of Latin America, and which is led by Evo Morales, is without doubt part of the country’s nationalist and anti-oligarchic tradition, fruit of the revolution of 1952. The current revolutionary phase cannot however be entirely reduced to this tradition, insofar as it (...) illustrates the profound upheavals which the popular movement has undergone since the 1980s, during a period marked by the brutality of neo-liberal reforms and by the emergence of the “native American peasant” as the exemplary agent of “Insurgent Bolivia”. Bolstered by the support of a rural and plebeian base, the Morales “revolution” differs from previous revolutionary experiences by way of the resolutely anti-imperialist nature of its politics. The current nationalist cycle thus takes on an innovative, unprecedented perspective of social emancipation. (shrink)

Ce livre [...] semble être écrit dans le langage d'un vent de dégel : on y trouve de la pétulance, de l'inquiétude, des contractions et un temps d'avril, ce qui fait songer sans cesse au voisinage de l'hiver, tout autant qu'à la victoire sur l'hiver, à la victoire qui arrive, qui doit arriver, qui est peut-être déjà arrivée... La reconnaissance rayonne sans cesse, comme si la chose la plus inattendue, ce fut la guérison. " Gai savoir " : (...) qu'est-ce sinon les saturnales d'un esprit qui a résisté patiemment, sévèrement, froidement,, sans se soumettre, mais sans espoir, - et qui maintenant, tout à coup, est assailli par l'espoir de guérison, par l'ivresse de la guérison? [...] " Incipit tragaedia " - est-il dit à la fin de ce livre d'une simplicité inquiétante : que l'on soit sur ses gardes! Quelque chose d'essentiellement malicieux et méchant se prépare : incipit parodia, cela ne laisse aucun doute... Friedrich Nietzsche Ecrit entre 1881 et 1887, publié une première fois en 1882, dans une version incomplète, repris et parachevé ensuite. Le Gai Savoir confirme et conforte le radicalisme nietzschéen. Les grands thèmes de sa réflexion sont désormais parvenus à leur pleine maturité. L'idéal, la nécessité de l'héroïsme en philosophie, l'analyse de la décadence, mais aussi le principe de l'éternel retour, le mythe de Zarathoustra, la connaissance, la religion c'est un véritable bréviaire du " nietzschéisme " qui apparaît au fil des pages. (shrink)

This book offers insights relevant to modern history and epistemology of physics, mathematics and, indeed, to all the sciences and engineering disciplines emerging of 19th century. This research volume is the first of a set of three Springer books on Lazare Nicolas Marguérite Carnot’s (1753–1823) remarkable work: Essay on Machines in General (Essai sur les machines en général [1783] 1786). The other two forthcoming volumes are: Principes fondamentaux de l’équilibre et du mouvement (1803) and Géométrie de position (1803). Lazare Carnot (...) – l'organisateur de la victoire – in Essai sur le machine en général (1786) assumed that the generalization of machines was a necessity for society and its economic development. Subsequently, his new coming science applied to machines attracted considerable interest for technician, as well, already in the 1780’s. With no lack in rigour, Carnot used geometric and trigonometric rather than algebraic arguments, and usually went on to explain in words what the formulae contained. His main physical– mathematical concepts were the Geometric motion and Moment of activity–concept of Work . In particular, he found the invariants of the transmission of motion (by stating the principle of the moment of the quantity of motion) and theorized the condition of the maximum efficiency of mechanical machines (i.e., principle of continuity in the transmission of power). While the core theme remains the theories and historical studies of the text, the book contains an extensive Introduction and an accurate critical English Translation – including the parallel text edition and substantive critical/explicative notes – of Essai sur les machines en général (1786). The authors offer much-needed insight into the relation between mechanics, mathematics and engineering from a conceptual, empirical and methodological, and universalis point of view. As a cutting–edge writing by leading authorities on the history of physics and mathematics, and epistemological aspects, it appeals to historians, epistemologist–philosophers and scientists (physicists, mathematicians and applied sciences and technology). (shrink)

The honours awarded by Teos to Antiochos III and Laodike present one of the best examples of the establishment of isotheoi timai for a Hellenistic monarch by a polis . The particular interest of the Teian decree consists in the fact that it explains the symbolical significance of the ritual actions it introduced. These rituals aimed at symbolically associating Antiochos with Dionysos, with the personifications of Memory , Gratitude and Favour , with the annual cycle , and with victory. The (...) bouleuterion, where Antiochos announced his measures in favour of Teos, became a place of memory and of a continual homage to the king. The worship of the royal couple was connected with the most important public and private rituals of the Teians: the new year festival; the inauguration ceremony for the new magistrates; the introduction of the ephebes into the citizen body; the periodical first-fruit offerings; the purification rituals; and the rites of passage of women. These rituals, in part inspired by pre-existing practices , symbolically established the continual presence of the royal couple in Teos and a reciprocal relationship of gratitude and benefaction.Les honneurs rendus par Téos à Antiochos III et Laodikè offrent l’un des meilleurs exemples de la mise en place d’isotheoi timai pour un roi hellénistique de la part d’une polis . L’intérêt particulier du décret de Téos vient du fait qu’il explique la portée symbolique des actes rituels qu’il introduit. Ces rituels entendent associer symboli­quement Antiochos à Dionysos, aux personnifications de Mémoire , de Grâce et Bienveillance , au cycle de l’année , et à la victoire. Le bouleutêrion, où Antiochos a annoncé ses mesures en faveur de Téos, est devenu un lieu de mémoire et d’hommage perpétuel au roi. Le culte du couple royal était associé aux rituels publics et privés les plus importants pour les Téiens : la fête du Nouvel an, la cérémonie d’entrée en charge des nouveaux magistrats, l’entrée des éphèbes dans le corps civique, les prémices périodiques, les rites de purification et les rites de passage pour les femmes. Ces rituels, en partie inspirés de pratiques antérieures , assuraient symboli­quement la présence permanente du couple royal à Téos et une relation réciproque de gratitude et de bienveillance. (shrink)