What Emmanuel Falque seems to achieve in this book is to make the "out of phenomenon" synonymous with the "tragic". Certainly, we see the heuristic interest in creating and cultivating the concept of "out of phenomenon". In Aeschylus' Agamemnon (a reference that runs throughout this book), the atrocious rubs shoulders with the filthy and can only test us, traumatize us, and, therefore, can only "modify" us in some way. If it is also true that the tragic, according to Kierkegaard in (...) particular, can lead to despair, another attitude seems to be dodged and no less sketched by Falque, namely, under the influence of Nietzsche this time, the amor fati: "Learned in the War School of life: what does not kill me strengthens me." Falque does not refer to it explicitly, while the approach that consists in looking the trauma in the face, in having no fear of fixing it, of penetrating it, of inhabiting it, appears to stem from this love of fatum, of destiny "that falls on us", enough in any case for us to be modified in a sense as unexpected as irreparable. But isn't it also the definition and very role of tragic and/or catastrophic feelings? (shrink)

This essay examines the relationship between traditional, or aesthetic, modernism and modernity as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of race and gender as these have been addresse...

Pathologizing ugliness refers to the use of disease language and medical processes to foster and support the claim that undesirable features are pathological conditions requiring medical or surgical intervention. Primarily situated in cosmetic surgery, the practice appeals to the concept of “aesthetic pathology”, which is a medical designation for features that deviate from some designated aesthetic norms. This article offers a two-pronged conceptual analysis of aesthetic pathology. First, I argue that three sets of claims, derived from normativist and naturalistic accounts (...) of disease, inform the framing of ugliness as a disease. These claims concern: (1) aesthetic harms, (2) aesthetic dysfunction, and (3) aesthetic deviation. Second, I introduce the notion of a hybridization loop in medicine, which merges the naturalist and normative understanding of the disease that potentially enables pathologizing practices. In the context of cosmetic surgery, the loop simultaneously promotes the framing of beauty ideals as normal biological attributes and the framing of normal appearance as an aesthetic ideal to legitimize the need for cosmetic interventions. The article thus offers an original discussion of the conceptual problems arising from a specific practice in cosmetic surgery that depicts ugliness as the disease. (shrink)

Pathologizing ugliness refers to the framing of unattractive features as a type of disease or deformity. By framing ugliness as pathology, cosmetic procedures are reframed as therapy rather than enhancement, thereby potentially avoiding ethical critiques regularly levelled against cosmetic surgery. As such, the practice of pathologizing ugliness and the ensuing therapeuticalization of cosmetic procedures require an ethical analysis that goes beyond that offered by current enhancement critiques. In this article, I propose using a thick description of the goals of medicine (...) as an ethical framework for evaluating problematic medical practices. I first describe the goals of medicine based on Daniel Callahan's account. I then propose that the goals work best in conjunction with ancillary ethical concepts, namely medical knowledge and skills, standards of practice and medical duties and virtues. Next, I apply the thick description of the goals of medicine in critiquing the practice of framing ugliness as disease. Here, I demonstrate ethical conflicts between aesthetic judgments that underpin the practice of pathologizing ugliness and medical judgments that inform ethical medical practices. In particular, the thick description of the goals of medicine helps reveal ethical conflicts in at least three key domains common to clinical practices, which include (a) disease determination, (b) diagnostic evaluation and (c) establishing clinical indications. My analysis offers a novel way of critiquing the practice of pathologizing ugliness in cosmetic surgery, which tends to be neglected by enhancement critiques. (shrink)

Présence, est-ce effectivité ou présence du possible? « Possible » suppose la réalité du « rien ». Comment la penser? Un positivisme tentant dénie toute réalité au néant et au pur possible. Plus mesuré, le bon sens les admet relativement, mais son côté positif empêche de les penser. Changeons de mesure. La voie de la radicalité rejoint la pensée heideggerienne qu’au plan de l’être, l’étant se possibilise sur fond de présence absente du néant et que « plus haut que l’effectivité (...) se tient la possibilité ». En voulant outrepasser la modération du bon sens, cette visée radicale du rien paraît encore sous sa dépendance. Méditons alors l’expérience de la limite interne à chaque étant, là où la béance en lui du rien le détermine comme possible et envisageons la présence comme présence du possible. (shrink)

L’article propose une compréhension de l’art, directement inspirée d’une lecture du deuxième chœur d’ Antigone de Sophocle, compréhension « pré-philosophique », partant non subordonnée à l’idée de la science et indépendante de l’attitude théorétique. On voudrait montrer que « posséder l’art », c’est-à-dire avant tout voir que c’est par où les choses font obstacle qu’elles se laissent tourner en ressources, implique pour les humains un avenir en confrontation directe, sans échappatoire, avec la mort.

Cette « petite note » a été composée en marge d’un travail de plus grande ampleur (sur la présence du possible) et dans son ambiance, elle met en œuvre certains de ses résultats en les appliquant à la question de la modernité. De là sa part sans doute excessive d’implicite, de là aussi son ton plus apparemment péremptoire que démonstratif. L’auteur a toutefois pensé que ce bref développement formait un tout à peu près suffisant pour être lu.

« L'expression la plus adéquate que j'ai trouvée pour désigner les trois expériences hors du commun qu'il m'a été donné de vivre est celle utilisée par Romain Rolland dans sa correspondance avec Freud : le sentiment océanique. Romain Rolland aurait emprunté le magnifique et mystérieux terme « océanique » à la mystique indienne, notamment à Ramakrishna. Ce dernier parlait de son extase comme d'un « océan de joie ineffable ». Alors, qu'est-ce donc que ce sentiment océanique? Ce serait l'expérience rare, (...) fulgurante et généralement brève d'être Un avec le Tout. Comme si les frontières entre le Moi et le monde s'évanouissaient au profit d'un sentiment d'unité, de compréhension et de conscience élargie. » (Yves Vaillancourt) Rassemblant les morceaux épars de la littérature, de la psychanalyse et de la musique, l'auteur retrouve les pierres d'un chemin à la fois singulier et universel. (shrink)

Ce ne sont pas les poètes qui deviennent fous Ce sont les joueurs d’échecs Chesterton Quelle est la quête symbolisée par le jeu d’échecs? Quels liens pouvons-nous établir entre Beth Harmon de la récente série télévisée The Queen’s Gambit et des personnages littéraires comme Loujine ou Monsieur B., de Nabokov ou Stefan Zweig? Les joueurs d’échecs sont-ils des fous de Dieu, des mystiques de l’absolu? Veulent-ils s’affranchir des limites imparties à la condition humaine et s’élever à un niveau de calcul (...) surhumain, comme s’ils étaient dotés de l’omniscience? Dans cet essai, l’auteur se propose de revisiter un certain nombre d’œuvres littéraires et artistiques qui mettent en scène le jeu d’échecs. Il part de l’hypothèse chère à Borgès selon laquelle les échecs sont un petit théâtre reproduisant le drame cosmique, où l’être humain, même surdoué, se brûle les ailes dans son désir de perfection. (shrink)

Comment interpréter le regain d'intérêt pour les réflexions sur la transcendance, la quête de sens, la morale et l'éthique dans nos sociétés contemporaines? C'est ce sur quoi Lawrence Olivier et Yves Boisvert se sont penchés dans cet ouvrage ; le premier accuse les théoriciens de la postmodernité d'être de grands fabulateurs qui font la promotion de la reconfiguration des systèmes moraux, tandis que le second reproche aux nihilistes d'être de grands nostalgiques de la Vérité qui ont sombré dans un (...) fatalisme total et un individualisme radical face à l'échec du projet de la modernité. Leur désaccord portant principalement sur l'interprétation à donner à ce retour des grands questionnements sur les valeurs et le sens de la vie, l'hypothèse de base est que les individus ont besoin de croire à une certaine forme de transcendance et qu'ils ressentent un profond besoin de donner un sens à leur vie. Invités à se prononcer sur cette question, anthropologues, philosophes, politicologues, sociologues et théologiens livrent ici leurs propres analyses de cette problématique par un riche panorama des réflexions sur la sexualité, la mort, la mode, l'art, les jeunes de la rue, les activités extrêmes, la religion et la pop psycho. Sans épuiser la problématique de la transcendance contemporaine, cet ouvrage stimulera la curiosité de tous les lecteurs intéressés aux nouvelles valeurs culturelles ou aux nouveaux comportements sociétaux. (shrink)

From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed. This classic series tells the story of the world's most beloved nanny, who brings enchantment and excitement with her everywhere she goes. Featuring the charming original cover art by Mary Shepard, these new editions are sure to delight readers of all ages. Mary Poppins reappears just in time! According to her tape measure, Jane and Michael have grown "Worse and Worse" (...) since she went away. But the children won't have time to be naughty with all that Mary has planned for them. A visit to Mr. Twigley’s music box-filled attic, an encounter with the Marble Boy, and a ride on Miss Calico’s enchanted candy canes are all part of an average day out with everyone's favorite nanny. (shrink)

This chapter presents the different purposes of observation and experiment in physics using examples that allow us to grasp the historical transformations linked to the development of instrumentation. We cover both the observational and experimental aspects of this discipline, which range from astronomy and astrophysics to nuclear and particle physics, including optics and solid-state physics.

Scheinerman (2023) proposes that at the Human Genome Editing Initiative international summit (held in March 2023) there should have been a parallel, separate Citizens’ Jury, and that the Human Geno...

This review aims to identify (1) sources of knowledge and (2) important themes of the ethical debate related to surgical alteration of facial features in East Asians. This article integrates narrative and systematic review methods. In March 2014, we searched databases including PubMed, Philosopher’s Index, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, and Communication Abstracts using key terms “cosmetic surgery,” “ethnic*,” “ethics,” “Asia*,” and “Western*.” The study included all types of papers written in English that discuss the debate on rhinoplasty and blepharoplasty (...) in East Asians. No limit was put on date of publication. Combining both narrative and systematic review methods, a total of 31 articles were critically appraised on their contribution to ethical reflection founded on the debates regarding the surgical alteration of Asian features. Sources of knowledge were drawn from four main disciplines, including the humanities, medicine or surgery, communications, and economics. Focusing on cosmetic surgery perceived as a westernising practice, the key debate themes included authenticity of identity, interpersonal relationships and socio-economic utility in the context of Asian culture. The study shows how cosmetic surgery of ethnic features plays an important role in understanding female identity in the Asian context. Based on the debate themes authenticity of identity, interpersonal relationships, and socio-economic utility, this article argues that identity should be understood as less individualistic and more as relational and transformational in the Asian context. In addition, this article also proposes to consider cosmetic surgery of Asian features as an interplay of cultural imperialism and cultural nationalism, which can both be a source of social pressure to modify one’s appearance. (shrink)

The popularity of surgical modifications of race-typical features among Asian women has generated debates on the ethical implications of the practice. Focusing on blepharoplasty as a representative racial surgery, this article frames the ethical discussion by viewing Asian cosmetic surgery as an example of medicalization, which can be interpreted in two forms: treatment versus enhancement. In the treatment form, medicalization occurs by considering cosmetic surgery as remedy for pathologized Asian features; the pathologization usually occurs in reference to western features as (...) the norm. In the enhancement form, medicalization occurs by using medical means to improve physical features to achieve a certain type of beauty or physical appearance. Each type of medicalization raises slightly different ethical concerns. The problem with treatment medicalization lies in the pathologization of Asian features, which is oppressive as it continues to reinforce racial norms of appearance and negative stereotypes. Enhancement medicalization is ethically problematic because cosmetic surgery tends to conflate beauty and health as medical goals of surgery, overemphasizing the value of appearance that can further displace women’s control over their own bodies. I conclude that in both forms of medicalization, cosmetic surgery seems to narrowly frame a complex psychosocial issue involving physical appearance as a matter that can be simply solved through surgical means. (shrink)

a classification of educational theories with authors.

Niccolò Machiavelli is the most prominent and notorious theorist of violence in the history of European political thought - prominent, because he is the first to candidly discuss the role of violence in politics; and notorious, because he treats violence as virtue rather than as vice. In this original interpretation, Yves Winter reconstructs Machiavelli's theory of violence and shows how it challenges moral and metaphysical ideas. Winter attributes two central theses to Machiavelli: first, violence is not a generic technology (...) of government but a strategy that tends to correlate with inequality and class conflict; and second, violence is best understood not in terms of conventional notions of law enforcement, coercion, or the proverbial 'last resort', but as performance. Most political violence is effective not because it physically compels another agent who is thus coerced; rather, it produces political effects by appealing to an audience. As such, this book shows how in Machiavelli's world, violence is designed to be perceived, experienced, remembered, and narrated. (shrink)

This article provides a critical comparative analysis of the substantive and procedural values and ethical concepts articulated in guidelines for allocating scarce resources in the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified 21 local and national guidelines written in English, Spanish, German and French; applicable to specific and identifiable jurisdictions; and providing guidance to clinicians for decision making when allocating critical care resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. US guidelines were not included, as these had recently been reviewed elsewhere. Information was extracted from each (...) guideline on: 1) the development process; 2) the presence and nature of ethical, medical and social criteria for allocating critical care resources; and 3) the membership of and decision-making procedure of any triage committees. Results of our analysis show the majority appealed primarily to consequentialist reasoning in making allocation decisions, tempered by a largely pluralistic approach to other substantive and procedural values and ethical concepts. Medical and social criteria included medical need, co-morbidities, prognosis, age, disability and other factors, with a focus on seemingly objective medical criteria. There was little or no guidance on how to reconcile competing criteria, and little attention to internal contradictions within individual guidelines. Our analysis reveals the challenges in developing sound ethical guidance for allocating scarce medical resources, highlighting problems in operationalising ethical concepts and principles, divergence between guidelines, unresolved contradictions within the same guideline, and use of naïve objectivism in employing widely used medical criteria for allocating ICU resources. (shrink)

Depuis les années 1960, Gilbert Durand a fondé et développé une méthodologie et une épistémologie novatrices de l'étude des imaginaires individuels et culturels qui ont inspiré une Ecole de Grenoble, qui n'a cessé d'essaimer à travers un grand nombre de centres de recherches en France et dans le monde. Sa pensée, connue à travers la mythocritique et la mythanalyse, enrichie par une vaste culture historique et pluriculturelle, a été appliquée dans les domaines les plus divers des sciences humaines et sociales. (...) Loin d'être un système clos, son oeuvre a inspiré une épistémologie ouverte qui a permis, sur la base des acquis fondamentaux, de se préciser, de s'adapter à des champs nouveaux, de recevoir les apports d'autres écoles, courants ou traditions culturelles. Les contributions ici rassemblées permettront de mieux situer l'émergence de la problématique de l'imaginaire dans différentes disciplines ou champs d'études, de présenter les innovations théoriques apportées par l'anthropologie de l'imaginaire de G Durand, d'illustrer les innovations qu'elles auront permises, d'amorcer des éléments de prospective pour les chantiers actuellement en cours d'exploration. (shrink)

Les hommes ont toujours agi sur eux-mêmes, et pris en charge leur propre évolution. Avec aujourd'hui deux traits absolument nouveaux. D'une part, les capacités d'action de l'espèce humaine sur elle-même sont incomparablement plus puissantes que par le passé, notamment dans le domaine des technologies de la vie. D'autre part, nous contrôlons si bien notre milieu et l'avons si parfaitement aménagé pour notre survie que nous avons mis en danger notre environnement. Le philosophe Peter Sloterdijk conduit une réflexion peu conventionnelle sur (...) ce double déséquilibre, déséquilibre de la domestication de l'homme par lui-même, déséquilibre de l'environnement par la mobilisation infinie des ressources. En prolongeant ses réflexions, il s'agit ici de réfléchir à cette situation. Faut-il poursuivre et même accélérer sur la voie de la mutation, en inventant le nouvel homme, c'est-à-dire le surhomme? Ou faut-il à nouveau penser la nature humaine dans sa finitude et, contre la mobilisation infinie, en appeler à la dé-mobilisation et à la voie du Tao, mais au risque de l'étouffement dans la mesure, la sagesse et l'ennui? (shrink)

L'objectif est ici de déterminer la mesure dans laquelle nous serions aujourd'hui sortis des catégories conceptuelles sur lesquelles la pensée politique moderne s'est construite.

Résumé Ce texte est la transposition d’un exposé de l’auteur à l’IRCAM dans le cadre du séminaire MaMuPhi où dialoguent mathématiciens, musiciens (compositeurs, interprètes, théoriciens) et philosophes. Ni glose sur les théories du style en mathématique, ni prolégomènes à une stylistique future, encore moins galerie de portraits d’auteurs, il s’agit d’un essai plutôt que d’une étude : un court essai, catalysé en partie par les caustiques « décalogues » de Gian-Carlo Rota, où l’on évalue la place de l’auteur et essaie (...) de dégager les enjeux, essentiels plutôt que décoratifs, des questions d’écriture et de style dans la mathématique d’aujourd’hui. (shrink)

In his Florentine Histories, Machiavelli offers an ambivalent portrayal of the revolt of the textile workers in late fourteenth-century Florence, known as the tumult of the Ciompi. On the face of it, Machiavelli's depiction of the insurgent workers is not exactly flattering. Yet this picture is undermined by a firebrand speech, which Machiavelli invents and attributes to an unnamed leader of the plebeian revolt. I interpret this speech as a radical and egalitarian vector of thought opened up by Machiavelli's text. (...) The revolutionary address reveals an untimely and not entirely self-conscious political radicalism, a plebeian politics that repudiates the logic of oligarchic privilege and is simultaneously not available for subsumption under the mantle of civic republicanism. (shrink)

Pathologizing ugliness refers to the use of disease language and medical processes to foster and support the claim that undesirable features are pathological conditions requiring medical or surgical intervention. Primarily situated in cosmetic surgery, the practice appeals to the concept of "aesthetic pathology", which is a medical designation for features that deviate from some designated aesthetic norms. This article offers a two-pronged conceptual analysis of aesthetic pathology. First, I argue that three sets of claims, derived from normativist and naturalistic accounts (...) of disease, inform the framing of ugliness as a disease. These claims concern: (1) aesthetic harms, (2) aesthetic dysfunction, and (3) aesthetic deviation. Second, I introduce the notion of a hybridization loop in medicine, which merges the naturalist and normative understanding of the disease that potentially enables pathologizing practices. In the context of cosmetic surgery, the loop simultaneously promotes the framing of beauty ideals as normal biological attributes and the framing of normal appearance as an aesthetic ideal to legitimize the need for cosmetic interventions. The article thus offers an original discussion of the conceptual problems arising from a specific practice in cosmetic surgery that depicts ugliness as the disease. (shrink)

The concept of general equilibrium, one of the central components of economic theory, explains the behavior of supply, demand, and prices by showing that supply and demand exist in balance through pricing mechanisms. The mathematical tools and properties for this theory have developed over time to accommodate and incorporate developments in economic theory, from multiple markets and economic agents to theories of production.Yves Balasko offers an extensive, up-to-date look at the standard theory of general equilibrium, to which he has (...) been a major contributor. This book explains how the equilibrium manifold approach can be usefully applied to the general equilibrium model, from basic consumer theory and exchange economies to models with private ownership of production. Balasko examines properties of the standard general equilibrium model that are beyond traditional existence and optimality. He applies the theory of smooth manifolds and mappings to the multiplicity of equilibrium solutions and related discontinuities of market prices. The economic concepts and differential topology methods presented in this book are accessible, clear, and relevant, and no prior knowledge of economic theory is necessary.General Equilibrium Theory of Value offers a comprehensive foundation for the most current models of economic theory and is ideally suited for graduate economics students, advanced undergraduates in mathematics, and researchers in the field. (shrink)

Les violations des droits de la personne sont de plus en plus fréquentes et de plus en plus graves dans les sociétés occidentales. C’est la conséquence de « l’entreprisation » de notre monde. Devenue l’organisation domi­nante dans nos sociétés, l’entreprise constitue dans son principe même une menace pour la dignité de la personne, dans la mesure où elle est fondée sur l’ins­trumentalisation des êtres humains. Quiconque veut protéger l’homme de l’ex­ploi­tation et de l’aliénation ne peut donc que souhaiter l’abolition de (...) l’entreprise. Mais, dans ce cas, il faut supprimer les conditions qui la rendent possible. Or, paradoxalement, certains droits fondamentaux font partie de ces conditions. D’où la nécessité de les repenser. (shrink)

L’intérêt majeur de la thèse d’Olha Mykytyn-Gazziero, dont ce livre est issu, est de donner la parole aux femmes sur un sujet généralement abordé sans elles. En effet, la question de l’abandon d’enfant(s) est le plus souvent traité avec pour préoccupation les effets de l’abandon sur les enfants concernés et non ceux qui touchent leurs mères. En allant au-devant d’elles, en recueillant leurs témoignages et en les analysant, l’auteure déplace la focale et propose une approche inédite d’un phéno...

The popularity of the stakeholder model has been achieved thanks to its powerful visual scheme and its very simplicity. Stakeholder management has become an important tool to transfer ethics to management practice and strategy. Nevertheless, legitimate criticism continues to insist on clarification and emphasises on the perfectible nature of the model. Here, rather than building on the discussion from a philosophical or theoretical point of view, a different and innovative approach has been chosen: the analysis will return to the origin (...) of stakeholder theory and will keep the graphical framework firmly in perspective. It will confront the stakeholder model’s graphical representation to the discussion on stakeholder definition, stakeholder identification and categorisation, to re-centre the debate to the strategic origin of the stakeholder model. The ambiguity and the vagueness of the stakeholder concept are discussed from managerial and legal approaches. The impacts of two major shortcomings of the popular stakeholder framework are examined: the boundaries and the level of the firm’s environment, and the ambivalent position of pressure groups and regulators. Working pragmatically, with a focus on the managerial and organisational perspective, an attempt is made to clarify the categorisations and classifications by introducing new terminology with a distinction between stakeholders, stakewatchers and stakekeepers. The analysis will finally lead to a proposed upgraded and refined version of the stakeholder model, with incremental ameliorations close to Freeman’s original model and a return of focus to its essence, the managerial implications in a strategic approach. (shrink)

This research explores the relationship between work context and professional ethics. Specifically, we analyze through an online survey of professional accountants the degree to which changing work conditions have altered individual accountants ’ commitment to the core professional value of auditor independence. We argue that certain changes in the condition of work have made some categories of accountants more susceptible to the logic of commercialism rather than the logic of professionalism. We find general support for this argument. We observe that (...) accountants working outside of public accounting have a higher commitment to independence than do accountants working in the context of public accounting firms. We further observe that accountants in large international accounting firms report lower commitment to auditor independence than do others in public accounting. And we observe that older accountants report stronger commitment to auditor independence. One finding, however, contradicts our general thesis. We find that commitment to one’s client does not necessarily result in a loss of commitment to the core professional value of independence. We conclude that changes in the context of work have contributed to the demise of ethics among professional accountants and suggest that further research be done to elaborate the relationship between client commitment and independence commitment. (shrink)

In The Equilibrium Manifold, noted economic scholar and major contributor to the theory of general equilibrium Yves Balasko argues that, contrary to what many textbooks want readers to believe, the study of the general equilibrium model did not end with the existence and welfare theorems of the 1950s. These developments, which characterize the modern phase of the theory of general equilibrium, led to what Balasko calls the postmodern phase, marked by the reintroduction of differentiability assumptions and the application of (...) the methods of differential topology to the study of the equilibrium equation. Balasko's rigorous study demonstrates the central role played by the equilibrium manifold in understanding the properties of the Arrow-Debreu model and its extensions. Balasko argues that the tools of differential topology articulated around the concept of equilibrium manifold offer powerful methods for studying economically important issues, from existence and uniqueness to business cycles and economic fluctuations. After an examination of the theory of general equilibrium's evolution in the hundred years between Walras and Arrow-Debreu, Balasko discusses the properties of the equilibrium manifold and the natural projection. He highlights the important role of the set of no-trade equilibria, the structure of which is applied to the global structure of the equilibrium manifold. He also develops a geometric approach to the study of the equilibrium manifold. Applications include stability issues of adjustment dynamics for out-of-equilibrium prices, the introduction of price-dependent preferences, and aspects of time and uncertainty in extensions of the general equilibrium model that account for various forms of market frictions and imperfections. Special effort has been made at reducing the mathematical technicalities without compromising rigor. The Equilibrium Manifold makes clear the ways in which the postmodern" developments of the Arrow-Debreu model improve our understanding of modern market economies. (shrink)

L'humanisme n'est pas le propre des esprits passéistes. Faute de savoir prédire quels humains nous serons suite au déferlement technologique et scientifique en cours, l'humanisme vise à réinscrire l'homme dans son histoire. Longue quête en faveur de la nécessaire rénovation de la pensée humaniste pour s'adapter au nouveau monde en train de se structurer sous nos yeux, tout en s'opposant à la « chosification » en cours de l'humain. En réponse à ce travail d'analyse et de compréhension d'un quotidien en (...) rapide évolution, le Professeur Escande recommande dans sa préface : « à ceux qui se sentiraient une âme d'humanistes en voie de recomposition que de travailler ce qu'Yves Bannel leur a concocté de profond et précis pour remettre leurs réflexions dans le sillon du monde neuf ». Après "Les Nouvelles voies de l'Ethique"(2013) qui décode le monde contemporain à travers le prisme de l'éthique, puis "La crise Identitaire (2014) qui suit les méandres du ressenti identitaire et "La construction du sens" (2015), recherche personnelle et responsable du sens des choses, ce nouvel essai pose une question de pleine actualité : « L'Humanisme reste-t-il un concept d'actualité? » question à laquelle il essaye de répondre avec lucidité et sans excessive illusion. (shrink)

Subsidiarity is a key term in the development of the European Union. The word itself was unknown in the English language until recently when it was first used and immediately became a key concept in the European political discussion. Since then, everyone is using it according to their own interpretation and purpose. From the extreme left to the extreme right, from the Euro-sceptics to the Euro-enthusiasts, the term is used to justify contradictory points of view.Is it because its meaning is (...) so vague that anyone can use it at will? Is it because this concept, which seems at first hand to be so clear, does not mean anything and is useless in rethinking the renewal of social organization? The European purpose in introducing the subsidiarity principle was to give a place to intermediary communities, but the whole ambiguity of the concept is related to the comprehension of what is called a community. This in its turn is related to the view one has of what a human being is, and of the importance of his relationship with others for the constitution of his identity.If a community is part of the human identity, this has a deep influence on the understanding of what a community is, and the consequences of the principle of subsidiarity point towards much more than a mere principle of political federalism. (shrink)

BackgroundThere is a growing concern about artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare that can disadvantage already under-represented and marginalised groups (eg, based on gender or race).ObjectivesOur objectives are to canvas the range of strategies stakeholders endorse in attempting to mitigate algorithmic bias, and to consider the ethical question of responsibility for algorithmic bias.MethodologyThe study involves in-depth, semistructured interviews with healthcare workers, screening programme managers, consumer health representatives, regulators, data scientists and developers.ResultsFindings reveal considerable divergent views on three key issues. First, (...) views on whether bias is a problem in healthcare AI varied, with most participants agreeing bias is a problem (which we call the bias-critical view), a small number believing the opposite (the bias-denial view), and some arguing that the benefits of AI outweigh any harms or wrongs arising from the bias problem (the bias-apologist view). Second, there was a disagreement on the strategies to mitigate bias, and who is responsible for such strategies. Finally, there were divergent views on whether to include or exclude sociocultural identifiers (eg, race, ethnicity or gender-diverse identities) in the development of AI as a way to mitigate bias.Conclusion/significanceBased on the views of participants, we set out responses that stakeholders might pursue, including greater interdisciplinary collaboration, tailored stakeholder engagement activities, empirical studies to understand algorithmic bias and strategies to modify dominant approaches in AI development such as the use of participatory methods, and increased diversity and inclusion in research teams and research participant recruitment and selection. (shrink)

La question du sens est une question essentielle, qui revient et reviendra aussi longtemps que l'homme s'interrogera sur lui-même, et que l'individu réalisera qu'il ne peut se suffire à lui-même. À un moment ou un autre de son existence, chacun s'interroge sur le sens de la vie, de ses actes, de ses engagements. La quête du sens répond ainsi à un besoin de justification, car rares sont ceux qui ont le courage d'un Nietzsche reconnaissant la mort du sens avec la (...) mort de Dieu. La recherche du sens est donc une construction spirituelle ou philosophique en réponse à une inquiétude pour quelque chose (valeur, idéal, action) ou quelqu'un, et s'accompagne d'un besoin d'agir, de créer, de se responsabiliser. Au-delà d'une justification de nos vies, la construction du sens tend ainsi à une forme de pacification de l'esprit, à une paix de l'âme. Nous aspirons tous à une forme d'absolu que nul n'atteint. Mais qu'importe, car ce qui compte n'est pas le but mais le chemin. Comme l'indique Guy Arcizet dans la préface, l'important c'est « de construire et dérober à l'irrationnel et à l'inconnaissable installés une part du royaume de la connaissance ». Guy Arcizet, l'auteur de la préface, a été Grand Maître du Grand Orient de France de 2010 à 2012. Gilbert Abergel, psychanalyste, auteur de la postface, a été Grand Maître du Grand Orient de France de 1992 à 1994. (shrink)

Le monde qui nous est commun et connu disparaît face à l'accélération technologique et à l'immensité de ce qui reste à découvrir. Le présent quant à lui est devenu envahissant et s'abîme à chaque instant dans l'immédiateté. La société contemporaine cesse d'être un projet identifié et identifiable. Nous en sommes réduits à essayer d'apprendre le monde plutôt que d'imaginer demain. L'éthique est l'un des outils à notre disposition pour regarder et comprendre le monde nouveau, celui d'une modernité consciente. Malmené par (...) la crise, les angoisses, les références à un passé définitivement révolu, les discours à la mode et la pensée unique, le concept éthique requiert d'être dépoussiéré, repensé, actualisé. Cet essai est un appel à réfléchir et travailler pour, pierre après pierre, reconstruire un principe d'espérance pour demain. (shrink)

Recent academic articles point to an increased vagueness and overlap in concepts related to business ethics and corporate responsibility. Further, the perception of these notions can differ in the smallbusiness world from the original academic definitions. This article focuses on the cognition of small-business owner-managers. Given the impact of small-business owner-managers on their ventures, corporate responsibility and ethical issues can take a different route in SMEs. The small-business owner-manager is able to shape the corporate culture and to enact values other (...) than profit. Adopting a cognitive perspective, we have identified how the small-business owner-manager makes sense of notions linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. The concept of sensemaking has recently been applied to CSR (Basu and Pallazzo, 2008; Cramer et al., 2006). Applying a cognitive perspective to small-business owners may help in explaining specific phenomena found within smallbusiness ownership. For this research, the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) is used, a method that has not previously been widely applied in the business and society field. Our findings to an extent invalidate the confusion in terminology found in the academic literature. Smallbusiness owner-managers, pragmatically and rather clearly, differentiate among the various concepts related to corporate responsibility and business ethics but, at the same time, they recognise the interrelationships and interdependencies of these concepts. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how small-business owners think and integrate corporate responsibility and ethical issues into their decisionmaking. (shrink)

Stakeholder theory advocates that firms bear responsibility for the implications of their actions. However, while a firm affects or can affect stakeholders, stakeholders can also affect the corporation. Previous stakeholder theorising has neglected the reciprocal nature of responsibility. The question can be asked whether—in a spirit of reciprocity, loyalty and fairness—stakeholders should treat the corporation in a fair and responsible way. This study based on different definitions of stakeholders argues that various stakeholder attributes differ for different categories of stakeholders. This (...) analysis presumes that the attribute of stakeholder reciprocity can probably be restricted to real stakeholders, labelled stakeowners: genuine stakeholders with a legitimate stake, the loyal partners who strive for mutual benefits. Stakeowners own and deserve a stake in the firm. Stakeholder reciprocity could be an innovative criterion in the corporate governance debate as to who should be accorded representation on the board. Corporate social responsibility should imply corporate stakeholder responsibility. (shrink)

This article discusses plant-closing decisions by multinational enterprises applying a stakeholder theory approach. In particular, we focus on the emergence of “intra-stakeholder alliances,” that is, alliances among the various stakeholder groups of a specific corporation. We analyze the emergence of stakeholder alliances in reaction to MNEs' decisions to terminate production locally and discuss their influence on the outcomes of such decisions. Our research is inspired by two exceptional case studies of two multinational breweries that announced their decisions to close niche (...) breweries in small towns in Italy and Belgium. In both cases, the initial decision was ultimately reversed through the actions of intra-stakeholder alliances. We combine insights from stakeholder theory and the social movement literature to analyze the action and influence of intra-stakeholder alliances in seven cases of plant-closing decisions. We conclude by formulating four general propositions that can provide guidance to MNE management in plant-closing decisions. Our findings extend managerial stakeholder theory, show how this approach can improve strategic management analysis, emphasize the importance of the relationships among stakeholders in the value-creation process, and shed light on the collective action and influence of intra-stakeholder alliances. (shrink)