Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, jésuite et paléontologue, est surtout connu pour ses idées peu orthodoxes, au travers desquelles il tenta de concilier la science évolutionniste avec ses théories spirituelles personnelles. En dépit de la censure de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques, Teilhard essaya d’élaborer cette conciliation et de la disséminer dans les milieux intellectuels catholiques. Pour mener à bien ces deux projets, il trouva du soutien dans les cercles évolutionnistes de l’Université Catholique de Louvain et la maison jésuite de (...) la même ville belge. Le réseau louvaniste de Teilhard agit comme un amplificateur important de ses idées et lui offrit une aide concrète pour répandre celles-ci et pour éviter la censure. Malgré leur influence mutuelle significative, des divergences d’ordre philosophique entre Teilhard et ses amis louvanistes demeurèrent pourtant, et finirent par les séparer. Pendant les années 1930, le réseau louvaniste de Teilhard fut dissous en grande partie. Ses actions ne restèrent pourtant pas sans résultat. Ce petit groupe d’intellectuels fit sans aucun doute évoluer le climat en faveur de l’évolutionnisme au sein des milieux catholiques, et prépara, de cette manière, le succès des idées teilhardiennes à la suite de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. The Jesuit and palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is basically known for his not always orthodox conceptions by which he tried to reconcile evolutionist science with his personal spiritual ideas. In spite of censorship from the ecclesiastical authorities, Teilhard attempted to elaborate this conciliation and to spread it among catholic intellectuals. For both of these projects he found crucial support in evolutionist circles at the Catholic University of Louvain and the Jesuit house in the same Belgian town. Teilhard’s Louvain network proved to be an important sounding board and it offered concrete help in spreading his ideas and in bypassing the censorship. Despite significant mutual influences, philosophical divergences between Teilhard and his Louvain friends remained, and would eventually drive them apart. Therefore, in the 1930s, Teilhard’s Louvain network largely dissolved. However, its actions had not been without result. This small group of intellectuals definitely changed the climate among Catholics in favour of evolutionism and thus prepared the success that Teilhardian ideas would have in the aftermath of the Second World War. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit und Paläontologe, ist vor allem wegen seiner nicht immer orthodoxen Ideen bekannt, mit denen er versuchte, die Evolutionstheorien mit seinen persönlichen spirituellen Überzeugungen zu vereinbaren. Ungeachtet der Zensur durch die kirchlichen Autoritäten bemühte sich Teilhard um die Ausarbeitung dieser Versöhnung und um ihre Verbreitung in den katholischen Intellektuellenmilieus. Bei der Verwirklichung dieser beiden Projekte fand er Hilfe in den evolutionistischen Kreisen der Katholischen Universität Löwen und bei der Jesuitengemeinschaft derselben Stadt. Das Löwener Netzwerk half ihm dabei, seine Ideen einem größeren Publikum zugänglich zu machen, und lieferte konkrete Unterstützung bei der Verbreitung der Thesen und bei der Umgehung der Zensur. Trotz ihrer bedeutenden gegenseitigen Beeinflussung bestanden jedoch auch weiterhin philosophische Divergenzen zwischen Teilhard und seinen Löwener Freunden, die schließlich zur Trennung führten. In den 30er Jahren wurde der Löwener Kreis um Teilhard größtenteils aufgelöst. Sein Handeln blieb jedoch nicht ohne Resultat. Diese kleine Gruppe Intellektueller hat mit Sicherheit dazu beigetragen, das Klima zugunsten der Evolutionstheorien innerhalb der katholischen Kreise zu verbessern und bereitete auf diese Weise den Weg für den Erfolg der teilhardschen Ideen nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. (shrink)

Bruno Latour reconnaît l’influence de Gilbert Simondon sur son oeuvre, en particulier quant à sa compréhension de la technique. Latour semble ainsi réaliser en grande partie le programme de « non-anthropologie » de Simondon. Mais une apparente contradiction existe dans le traitement de l’énonciation par Latour : sa compréhension de la matérialité et des modes d’existence semble prendre le détour de la sémiotique. Cela a mené certains critiques à mettre en doute son approche de la matérialité. Toutefois, vue à travers (...) la lentille de l’influence que Simondon a eue sur Latour, il est possible de relire la théorie latourienne de l’énonciation en comprenant la communication comme passage de l’action d’un être à l’autre, et la signification de cette action comme résultat de sa participation à un processus de constitution des êtres. Latour est donc résolument un penseur du décentrement de l’humain.Bruno Latour recognizes the influence of Gilbert Simondon on his work, especially with respect to his understanding of technique. Latour appears, in that sense, to actualize a large proportion of Simondon’s “non-anthropology”. Yet, what appears to be a contradiction remains in his treatment of enunciation: indeed, his understanding of materiality seems to take the detour of semiotics. This has led some critics to question his approach to materiality. However, seen through the lens of Simondon’s influence on him, it is possible to revisit Latour’s theory of enunciation and to understand communication as the passage of action from one being to the next, and signification as the outcome of action’s participation to the constitution process of a being. This way, Latour is a thinker resolutely committed to de-centering the focus of research away from human beings. (shrink)

Théologien, historien, philosophe, sociologue et homme politique libéral, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) fait partie du groupe des théologiens protestants allemands appelé " Ecole de l'histoire des religions ". Revendiquant l'héritage de Kant et de Schleiermacher, proche de Max Weber et du néo-kantisme de l'Ecole de Bade, Troeltsch est le théoricien classique du néo-protestantisme. Surtout connu en France comme sociologue de la religion, il est redécouvert aujourd'hui comme philosophe et théologien, éclipsé un temps par Barth, l'existentialisme et Heidegger. Les huit essais rassemblés (...) ici sont écrits à l'horizon d'une réflexion sur le religieux marquée par les sciences humaines et sociales et par une conscience accusée de la pluralité des formes de la religion. Troeltsch y dessine un programme qui inscrit délibérément la théologie dans une perspective historique, tout en s'efforçant d'articuler approche empirique et interrogation touchant les jugements de valeur. Il récuse ainsi toute tentative pour faire valoir un domaine théologique réservé : non seulement le christianisme n'est pas la religion dans sa forme achevée ou " absolue ", mais les tentatives pour déterminer une " essence " du christianisme par-delà ses inscriptions socioculturelles diverses devront également être refusées. En désenclavant la réflexion théologique, Troeltsch oblige à redéfinir son objet et son statut : elle ne sera plus explicitation du croire, mais devra esquisser une théorie du christianisme précisant le statut, la fonction et les limites du religieux dans une modernité marquée par la diversification des instances de rationalisation et de légitimité. Ce faisant, son propos tranche avec les discours théologiques dominants dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, tant en protestantisme qu'en catholicisme. Et il ouvre à nouveau la question d'une pertinence sociale et culturelle du religieux et du théologique. A l'heure où les paradigmes modernes se trouvent en profonde interrogation sur eux-mêmes et où la question religieuse fait retour - peut-être pour le meilleur mais souvent pour le pire -, la lecture de Troeltsch peut apporter une contribution bienvenue à un ensemble de questions parmi les plus centrales de notre temps. Publiés pour la première fois en français, les textes présentés ici sont accompagnés d'un important appareil de commentaires historiques aidant le lecteur à reconstituer le contexte et la genèse des débats en cause. (shrink)

À partir de l’analyse des réseaux sociaux qui sous-tendent les réseaux industriels de la Silicon Valley, cette recherche montre que la nature des biens échangés et le degré d’interdépendance des acteurs économiques font de l’échange par le don le principe dominant d’échange dans les réseaux. Dans la Silicon Valley, les échanges d’information entre les capital-risqueurs, les juristes, les entrepreneurs, les dirigeants d’entreprises, les journalistes, les professeurs d’université... se font pour l’essentiel au sein de réseaux d’acteurs interdépendants et complémentaires qui respectent (...) implicitement les principes du don dans leurs échanges.From the analysis of the social networks underlying the industrial networks of Silicon Valley, this search points out that because of the nature of the exchanged goods and the degree of interdependence between the economic actors, the exchange by the gift is the principle rule of exchange in networks. In Silicon Valley, the exchanges of information between venture capitalists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, managers of large companies, journalists, professors... are done essentially within networks of interdependent and complementary actors who implicitly respect the rules of the gift exchange theory. (shrink)

Malgré l’avènement de la figure de l’acteur créateur au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, les procédés de copie, d’imitation et de réactivation constituent une part non négligeable des outils convoqués dans les exercices spécifiques au jeu. Cette persistance, qui trouve son origine dans le Paradoxe sur le comédien de Diderot, se lit et se décline tout au long de l’histoire des théories du jeu, dans le recours fréquent à un modèle, dont le type varie. C’est cette double continuité, (...) celle des procédés de copie et du modèle dans les théories du jeu auxquelles s’adossent des pratiques et dont découlent des modes de fabrication, qui a nourri une expérimentation pédagogique pratique au sein de La Manufacture – Haute École des Arts de la Scène de Lausanne. Les ateliers élaborés pour les étudiant.e.s consistant à mettre en œuvre ces trois opérations, à leur proposer une histoire sensible, c’est-à-dire éprouvée, du jeu de l’acteur, et à leur faire percevoir l’importance des procédés de copie, d’imitation et de réactivation dans la pensée et dans la pratique du jeu. (shrink)

This paper contends that the identification of a pro-competitive agenda in the process of regulatory reform undertaken in many developing countries ultimately rests on the vision held by the authority about the sources of market failures. Conventional IO theory rests on the assumption that the exercise of market power by incumbent firms limits the access of potential competitive entrants, and therefore, regulation should curb such power. However, the existence of market power is an inference from conventional thinking on markets and (...) competition. Professor Kirzner overturned this thinking, by introducing a realistic process perspective of markets, instead of the traditional structural view. Beyond the philosophical question of “realism,” the market process view sustains practical policy making advantages, mostly due to the lack of knowledge requirements placed upon the regulatory agencies to allocate resources more efficiently. The process view suggests the need of creating a proper institutional setting for firms to freely interact, rather than on impinging in the allocation of resources itself according to unreliable contrived views of market efficiency. Based on Kirzner´s process view, this paper outlines an alternative network competition perspective, focused on the integration of complementary capabilities, as a regulatory yardstick. This view balances the rights of incumbent firms to exploit their rights, and the possibilities of third parties to integrate into the network concerned on a non-discriminatory basis, thereby preserving the investments of incumbents on a more equitable basis.Cet article affirme que l’agenda proconcurrentiel de réforme réglementaire entrepris dans plusieurs pays en développement repose en fin de compte sur la vision qu’a l’autorité concernant les échecs de marché. La théorie conventionnelle d’organisation industrielle suppose que l’exercice du pouvoir marchand par les firmes existantes limite l’accès de concurrents potentiels et, qu’en conséque- nce, la réglementation devrait brider ces pouvoirs. Cependant, l’idée qu’il existe un pouvoir marchand est une émanation de la pensée conventionnelle à propos des marchés et de la concurrence. En opposant une vision réaliste du processus marchand à la vision structurelle traditionnelle, le Professeur Kirzner a réduit à néant ce mode de pensée conventionnelle. Audelà de la question philosophique du “réalisme”, la vision procédurale de marché affirme que la politique de réglementation est un échec car les agences de réglementation ne disposent pas des connaissances nécessaires requises pour affecter les ressources de manière efficace. La vision procédurale suggère le besoin de créer un environnement institutionnel dans lequel les entreprises peuvent interagir entre elles plutôt que d’empiéter sur l’affectation des ressources en ellemême comme le suggère la perspective artificielle et peu fiable de l’efficacité marchande. Se fondant en cela sur la vision procédurale de Kirzner, cet article ébauche une perspective différente du réseau concurrentiel dont l’étalon est l’intégration des capacités complémentaires. Dans cette vision, les droits des firmes existantes à exploiter leurs droits ont comme contrepoids les possibilités de tierces parties à s’intégrer dans le réseau concerné sur une base nondiscriminatoire, préservant ainsi les investissements des entreprises existantes suivant une base plus équitable. (shrink)

Malgré l’avènement de la figure de l’acteur créateur au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, les procédés de copie, d’imitation et de réactivation constituent une part non négligeable des outils convoqués dans les exercices spécifiques au jeu. Cette persistance, qui trouve son origine dans le _Paradoxe sur le comédien_ de Diderot, se lit et se décline tout au long de l’histoire des théories du jeu, dans le recours fréquent à un modèle, dont le type varie. C’est cette double continuité, (...) celle des procédés de copie et du modèle dans les théories du jeu auxquelles s’adossent des pratiques et dont découlent des modes de fabrication, qui a nourri une expérimentation pédagogique pratique au sein de La Manufacture – Haute École des Arts de la Scène de Lausanne. Les ateliers élaborés pour les étudiant.e.s consistant à mettre en œuvre ces trois opérations, à leur proposer une histoire sensible, c’est-à-dire éprouvée, du jeu de l’... (shrink)

Until recently, the notions of function and multiple realization were supposed to save the autonomy of psychological explanations. Furthermore, the concept of supervenience presumably allows both dependence of mind on brain and non-reducibility of mind to brain, reconciling materialism with an independent explanatory role for mental and functional concepts and explanations. Eliminativism is often seen as the main or only alternative to such autonomy. It gladly accepts abandoning or thoroughly reconstructing the psychological level, and considers reduction if successful as equivalent (...) with elimination. In comparison with the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of biology has developed more subtle and complex ideas about functions, laws, and reductive explanation than the stark dichotomy of autonomy or elimination. It has been argued that biology is a patchwork of local laws, each with different explanatory interests and more or less limited scope. This points to a pluralistic, domain-specific and multi-level view of explanations in biology. Explanatory pluralism has been proposed as an alternative to eliminativism on the one hand and methodological dualism on the other hand. It holds that theories at different levels of description, like psychology and neuroscience, can co-evolve, and mutually influence each other, without the higher-level theory being replaced by, or reduced to, the lower-level one. Such ideas seem to tally with the pluralistic character of biological explanation. In biological psychology, explanatory pluralism would lead us to expect many local and non-reductive interactions between biological, neurophysiological, psychological and evolutionary explanations of mind and behavior. This idea is illustrated by an example from behavioral genetics, where genetics, physiology and psychology constitute distinct but interrelated levels of explanation. Accounting for such a complex patchwork of related explanations seems to require a more sophisticated and precise way of looking at levels than the existing ideas on (reductive and non-reductive) explanation in the philosophy of mind. (shrink)

On applique ici la méthode de l’analyse de réseau pour comprendre les temporalités de la construction de l’imprimerie, comme activité économique associant des hommes de lettres et des acteurs économiques. À partir des informations contenues dans l’Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, deux types de réseaux sont construits pour les éditions imprimées à Venise entre 1469 et 1500. Le premier permet d’observer le vivier des noms d’auteurs présents dans les éditions. Le second permet d’aller plus loin dans les notions de centralité (...) et d’autorité dans le réseau. Les presses vénitiennes se sont construites par l’utilisation réciproque des ateliers et des grands noms lettrés, dont le prestige légitimait les grandes entreprises typographiques. Avec le développement de l’imprimerie, les noms d’auteurs contemporains se font plus nombreux. Pour l’ensemble des lettrés impliqués dans l’imprimerie, cela se traduit par un rapport de force en leur défaveur. Les imprimeurs organisent eux-mêmes leurs collaborations en choisissant dans un vivier qui ne fait que s’accroître. Le prestige des auteurs est plus diffus et se nourrit de l’association de plusieurs noms dans une édition. Mais certains ont su particulièrement bien en jouer, comme le montre l’exemple d’Antonio Mancinelli. Ces réseaux éditoriaux, analysés dans leur épaisseur chronologique, permettent ainsi de redonner une vraie dimension temporelle à la construction d’une nouvelle industrie culturelle. (shrink)

Recent policy developments in the area of livestock husbandry have suggested that, from the perspective of optimizing animal welfare, new animal husbandry systems should be developed that provide opportunities for livestock animals to be raised in environments where they are permitted to engage in “natural behavior.” It is not known whether consumers regard animal husbandry issues as important, and whether they differentiate between animal husbandry and other animal welfare issues. The responsibility for the development of such systems is allocated jointly (...) between farmers, regulators, different actors in the food chain, and consumers. This research focuses on understanding consumer attitudes and preferences regarding the development and introduction of such systems, to ensure that they are acceptable to consumers as well as producers, regulators, and scientists. Consumer perceptions of animal welfare and animal husbandry practices were evaluated using quantitative consumer survey, which focused on two animal husbandry issues – farmed pigs and farmed fish. Following pilot work, 1000 representative Dutch consumers were sampled about their attitudes to either pig or fish husbandry. The results indicated that consumers think about animal welfare in terms of two broad categories related to their health and living environment, but do not think about welfare issues at a more detailed level. Greater concern was expressed about the welfare of pigs compared to fish. Consumer trust in labeling also emerged as an important issue, since consumers need to trust different food chain actors with responsibility for promoting animal welfare, and are reluctant to consider the details of animal husbandry systems. As a consequence, a transparent, enforceable, and traceable monitoring system for animal welfare friendly products is likely to be important for consumers. (shrink)

Much literature surrounding medical technology and adherence posits that technology is a mechanism for social control. This assumes that the medical establishment can take away patients' agency. Although power relationships and social control can play a key role, medical technology can also serve as an agentive tool to be utilized. We (1) offer the alternative framework of Actor Network Theory to view medical technology, (2) discuss the literature on medication adherence and technology, (3) delve into the ramifications of looking at (...) adherence as a network and (4) use Digital Pills as a case study of dispersed agency. (shrink)

We formulate from first principles a theory of stochastic processes in configuration space. The fundamental equations of the theory are an equation of motion which generalizes Newton's second law and an equation which expresses the condition of conservation of matter. Two types of stochastic motion are possible, both described by the same general equations, but leading in one case to classical Brownian motion behavior and in the other to quantum mechanical behavior. The Schrödinger equation, which is derived here with no (...) further assumption, is thus shown to describe a specific stochastic process. It is explicitly shown that only in the quantum mechanical process does the superposition of probability amplitudes give rise to interference phenomena; moreover, the presence of dissipative forces in the Brownian motion equations invalidates the superposition principle. At no point are any special assumptions made concerning the physical nature of the underlying stochastic medium, although some suggestions are discussed in the last section. (shrink)

We discuss the main results of Linear Stochastic Electrodynamics, starting from a reformulation of its basic assumptions. This theory shares with Stochastic Electrodynamics the core assumption that quantization comes about from the permanent interaction between matter and the vacuum radiation field, but it departs from it when it comes to considering the effect that this interaction has on the statistical properties of the nearby field. In the transition to the quantum regime, correlations between field modes of well-defined characteristic frequencies arise, (...) which coincide with the transition frequencies of quantum mechanics and are therefore directly related with the energy quantization. The Heisenberg equations of motion of (non-relativistic) quantum electrodynamics are thus obtained. After a detailed consideration of the significance of the approximations made, we present a discussion on some of the most delicate or controversial features of quantum mechanics from the perspective provided by the present theory. (shrink)

Arriving at a moral judgment is not a straightforward or linear process in which ethical theories are simply applied to cases. Instead it is a process in which the formulation of the moral problem, the formulation of possible “solutions”, and the ethical judging of these solutions go hand in hand. This messy character of moral problems, however, does not rule out a systematic approach. In this article, we describe a systematic approach to problem solving that does justice to the complex (...) nature of moral problems and ethical judgment: the ethical cycle. Our goal is to provide a structured and disciplined method of addressing moral problems, which helps to guide a sound analysis of these problems. We will illustrate the usefulness of this cycle with an example. Further, we will discuss two general issues in applied ethics in relation to the proposed ethical cycle: the role of ethical theories and the place of individual judgment versus collective deliberation. (shrink)

We explore the developmental paradox of false belief understanding. This paradox follows from the claim that young infants already have an understanding of false belief, despite the fact that they consistently fail the elicited-response false belief task. First, we argue that recent proposals to solve this paradox are unsatisfactory because they (i) try to give a full explanation of false belief understanding in terms of a single system, (ii) fail to provide psychological concepts that are sufficiently fine-grained to capture the (...) cognitive requirements for the various manifestations of false belief understanding, and (iii) ignore questions about system interaction. Second, we present a dual-system solution to the developmental paradox of false belief understanding that combines a layered model of perspective taking with an inhibition-selection-representation mechanism that operates on different levels. We discuss recent experimental findings that shed light on the interaction between these two systems, and suggest a number of directions for future research. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est une critique de la philosophie politique de M. Eric Weil. Par opposition à M. Weil, l'auteur définit la „politique" ici comme l'art du réalisable, à préciser comme : l'art d'arriver à court terme à une organisation de la société qu'on estime meilleure, et cela en employant tous les moyens permis. L'homme politique n'est pas, ainsi que l'affirme M. Weil, un „saint de Vtmiversel”, qui, en ce qui concerne l'emploi de la violence, se trouve au-dessus (...) de la loi. Ce „politicien-éducateur” est en vérité l'appui des régimes totalitaires et est d'ailleurs inconcevable en dehors de ceux-ci. En outre la théorie de M. Weil contient un certain nombre de contradictions internes et, si on la mesure à la pratique, elle se trouve être déficiente à beaucoup d'égards. Contre la conception platonicienne de M. Weil l'auteur défend la thèse que la politique n'est pas une infraction, regrettable mais inévitable, à „la morale”. C'est la tâche de l'homme politique de supprimer toutes les absurdités, inconséquences et injustices qui entachent les structures de la société. Ce qui, concrètement, est absurde, inconséquent ou injuste n'est pas déterminé par „la morale”, mais par la conscience du droit et par le sentiment moral d'une époque donnée. Les „certitudes” d'où part l'homme politique ne sont pas des Idées platoniciennes, mais des hypothèses de travail, qui dérivent leur contenu non pas de la contemplation des Idées, mais d'une notion de ce qui est juste et désirable, notion qui est déterminée par les conditions matérielles et spirituelles et qui se trouve dans un changement continuel. (shrink)

People maintain a positive identity in at least two ways: They evaluate themselves more favorably than other people, and they judge themselves to be better now than they were in the past. Both strategies rely on autobiographical memories. The authors investigate the role of autobiographical memories of lying and emotional harm in maintaining a positive identity. For memories of lying to or emotionally harming others, participants judge their own actions as less morally wrong and less negative than those in which (...) other people lied to or emotionally harmed them. Furthermore, people judge those actions that happened further in the past to be more morally wrong than those that happened more recently. Finally, for periods of the past when they believed that they were very different people than they are now, participants judge their actions to be more morally wrong and more negative than those actions from periods of their pasts when they believed that they were very similar to who they are now. The authors discuss these findings in relation to theories about the function of autobiographical memory and moral cognition in constructing and perceiving the self over time. (shrink)

People frequently entertain counterfactual thoughts, or mental simulations about alternative ways the world could have been. But the perceived plausibility of those counterfactual thoughts varies widely. The current article interfaces research in the philosophy and semantics of counterfactual statements with the psychology of mental simulations, and it explores the role of perceived similarity in judgments of counterfactual plausibility. We report results from seven studies (N = 6405) jointly supporting three interconnected claims. First, the perceived plausibility of a counterfactual event is (...) predicted by the perceived similarity between the possible world in which the imagined situation is thought to occur and the actual world. Second, when people attend to differences between imagined possible worlds and the actual world, they think of the imagined possible worlds as less similar to the actual world and tend to judge counterfactuals in such worlds as less plausible. Lastly, when people attend to what is identical between imagined possible worlds and the actual world, they think of the imagined possible worlds as more similar to the actual world and tend to judge counterfactuals in such worlds as more plausible. We discuss these results in light of philosophical, semantic, and psychological theories of counterfactual thinking. (shrink)

This volume not only provides the first critical edition with an English translation of the famous correspondence of Nicholas of Autrecourt , but also an assessment of his views and the views of those to whom the letters were addressed.

Aim: Understanding the effects of psychotherapy is a crucial concern for both research and clinical practice, especially when outcome tends to be negative. Yet, while outcome is predominantly evaluated by means of quantitative pre-post outcome questionnaires, it remains unclear what this actually means for patients in their daily lives. To explore this meaning, it is imperative to combine treatment evaluation with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. This study investigates the phenomenon of non-improvement in psychotherapy, by complementing quantitative pre-post outcome scores (...) that indicate no reliable change in depression symptoms with a qualitative inquiry of patients’ perspectives. Methods: The study took place in the context of a Randomized Controlled Trial evaluating time-limited psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapy for major depression. A mixed methods study was conducted including patients’ pre-post outcome scores on the BDI-II-NL and post treatment Client Change Interviews. Nineteen patients whose data showed no reliable change in depression symptoms were selected. A grounded theory analysis was conducted on the transcripts of patients’ interviews. Findings: From the patients’ perspective, non-improvement can be understood as being stuck between knowing versus doing, resulting in a stalemate. Positive changes (mental stability, personal strength and insight) were stimulated by therapy offering moments of self-reflection and guidance, the benevolent therapist approach and the context as important motivations. Remaining issues (ambition to change but inability to do so) were attributed to the therapy hitting its limits, patients’ resistance and impossibility and the context as a source of distress. “No change” in outcome scores therefore seems to involve a “partial change” when considering the patients’ perspectives. Conclusion: The study shows the value of integrating qualitative first-person analyses into standard quantitative outcome evaluation and particularly for understanding the phenomenon of non-improvement. It argues for more multi-method and multi-perspective research to gain a better understanding of (negative) outcome and treatment effects. Implications for both research and practice are discussed. (shrink)

Le développement de l'interconnexion électrique en Europe et aux États-Unis depuis la fin du XIX siècle jusqu'à nos jours a constitué une véritable mutuelle de territorialisation de l'innovation. Son économie s'inscrit dans l'articulation de différentes formes de proximité qui permettent aux acteurs d'agir simultanément. L'interconnexion est devenue clairement aujourd'hui une question de communication politique, incarnant les enjeux et les ambiguïtés de la démocratie participative. Dans un domaine où l'innovation technologique proprement dite n'a pas fait de saut décisif depuis trois décennies, (...) avec une grappe complète d'innovations, contrairement par exemple aux télécommunications, l'enjeu fondamental réside dans la recherche des articulations spatiales les plus pertinentes, au nom d'un intérêt général de plus en plus fragile.The development of the electrical interconnection in Europe and the United States since the late nineteenth century until today has been a real mutual territorialisation of innovation. Its economy is in the articulation of different forms of proximity that allow players act simultaneously. The interconnection has become clear today a matter of political communication, embodying the challenges and ambiguities of participatory democracy. In a field where technological innovation itself did not jump decisive three decades, complete with a bunch of innovations, unlike, for example telecommunications, the fundamental challenge lies in finding the most relevant spatial articulations on behalf of the general interest of more fragile. (shrink)

Counterfactual thinking involves imagining hypothetical alternatives to reality. Philosopher David Lewis argued that people estimate the subjective plausibility that a counterfactual event might have occurred by comparing an imagined possible world in which the counterfactual statement is true against the current, actual world in which the counterfactual statement is false. Accordingly, counterfactuals considered to be true in possible worlds comparatively more similar to ours are judged as more plausible than counterfactuals deemed true in possible worlds comparatively less similar. Although Lewis (...) did not originally develop his notion of comparative similarity to be investigated as a psychological construct, this study builds upon his idea to empirically investigate comparative similarity as a possible psychological strategy for evaluating the perceived plausibility of counterfactual events. More specifically, we evaluate judgments of comparative similarity between episodic memories and episodic counterfactual events as a factor influencing people's judgments of plausibility in counterfactual simulations, and we also compare it against other factors thought to influence judgments of counterfactual plausibility, such as ease of simulation and prior simulation. Our results suggest that the greater the perceived similarity between the original memory and the episodic counterfactual event, the greater the perceived plausibility that the counterfactual event might have occurred. While similarity between actual and counterfactual events, ease of imagining, and prior simulation of the counterfactual event were all significantly related to counterfactual plausibility, comparative similarity best captured the variance in ratings of counterfactual plausibility. Implications for existing theories on the determinants of counterfactual plausibility are discussed. (shrink)

A definition is given for formulae $A_1,\ldots,A_n$ in some theory $T$ which is formalized in a propositional calculus $S$ to be (in)dependent with respect to $S$. It is shown that, for intuitionistic propositional logic $\mathbf{IPC}$, dependency (with respect to $\mathbf{IPC}$ itself) is decidable. This is an almost immediate consequence of Pitts' uniform interpolation theorem for $\mathbf{IPC}$. A reasonably simple infinite sequence of $\mathbf{IPC}$-formulae $F_n(p, q)$ is given such that $\mathbf{IPC}$-formulae $A$ and $B$ are dependent if and only if at least (...) on the $F_n(A, B)$ is provable. (shrink)

On page 1 of his classic text, Millsap states, “Measurement invariance is built on the notion that a measuring device should function the same way across varied conditions, so long as those varied conditions are irrelevant [emphasis added] to the attribute being measured.” By construction, measurement invariance techniques require not only detecting varied conditions but also ruling out that these conditions inform our understanding of measured domains. In fact, measurement invariance techniques possess great utility when theory and research inform their (...) application to specific, varied conditions that, if not detected, introduce measurement biases, and, thus, depress measurement validity. Yet, we see emerging bodies of work where scholars have “put the cart before the horse” when it comes to measurement invariance, and they apply these techniques to varied conditions that, in fact, may reflect domain-relevant information. These bodies of work highlight a larger problem in measurement that likely cuts across many areas of scholarship. In one such area, youth mental health, researchers commonly encounter a set of conditions that nullify the use of measurement invariance, namely discrepancies between survey reports completed by multiple informants, such as parents, teachers, and youth themselves. In this paper, we provide an overview of conceptual, methodological, and measurement factors that should prevent researchers from applying measurement invariance techniques to detect informant discrepancies. Along the way, we cite evidence from the last 15 years indicating that informant discrepancies reflect domain-relevant information. We also apply this evidence to recent uses of measurement invariance techniques in youth mental health. Based on prior evidence, we highlight the implications of applying these techniques to multi-informant data, when the informant discrepancies observed within these data might reflect domain-relevant information. We close by calling for a moratorium on applying measurement invariance techniques to detect informant discrepancies in youth mental health assessments. In doing so, we describe how the state of the science would need to fundamentally “flip” to justify applying these techniques to detect informant discrepancies in this area of work. (shrink)

An analysis is briefly presented of the possible causes of the failure of stochastic electrodynamics (SED) when applied to systems with nonlinear forces, on the basis that the main principles of the theory are correct. In light of this analysis, an alternative approach to the theory is discussed, whose postulates allow to establish contact with quantum mechanics in a natural way. The ensuing theory, linear SED, confirms the essential role of the vacuum–particle interaction as the source of quantum phenomena.

Quelle différence y a-t-il entre des règles de droit et des ordres appuyés de menaces? Qu'est-ce qu'une obligation juridique et en quoi se trouve-t-elle apparentée à une obligation morale? Quelle est la nature des règles et dans quelle mesure le droit consiste-t-il en des règles? Qu'est-ce que la justice et en quoi diffère-t-elle du reste de la morale?Au cours d'une discussion approfondie et séparée de ces problèmes récurrents, l'auteur relève une série d'éléments d'une importance essentielle pour la compréhension du droit, (...) et réalise un nouveau départ dans la théorie du droit. L'ouvrage comporte une nouvelle analyse des notions de validité juridique, de souveraineté, et de fondement d'un système juridique, un nouvel examen du droit naturel et du positivisme juridique, une discussion originale des limites du formalisme dans l'élaboration de la décision judiciaire, et un examen de la nature du droit international.Le texte est complété par des notes bibliographiques détaillées et la discussion de thèses émises par des auteurs contemporains et plus anciens. Cette deuxième édition s'accompagne en outre d'une postface posthume, publiée sous la responsabilité de P.A. Bulloch et J. Raz. (shrink)

In four studies, we investigated the role of remembering, reflecting on, and mutating personal past moral transgressions to learn from those moral mistakes and to form intentions for moral improvement. Participants reported having ruminated on their past wrongdoings, particularly their more severe transgressions, and they reported having frequently thought about morally better ways in which they could have acted instead (i.e., morally upward counterfactuals; Studies 1–3). The more that participants reported having mentally simulated morally better ways in which they could (...) have acted, the stronger their intentions were to improve in the future (Studies 2 and 3). Implementing an experimental manipulation, we then found that making accessible a morally upward counterfactual after committing a moral transgression strengthened reported intentions for moral improvement—relative to resimulating the remembered event and considering morally worse ways in which they could have acted instead (Study 4). We discuss the implications of these results for competing theoretical views on the relationship between memory and morality and for functional theories of counterfactual thinking. (shrink)

Having positive moral traits is central to one’s sense of self, and people generally are motivated to maintain a positive view of the self in the present. But it remains unclear how people foster a positive, morally good view of the self in the present. We suggest that recollecting and reflecting on moral and immoral actions from the personal past jointly help to construct a morally good view of the current self in complementary ways. More specifically, across four studies we (...) investigated the extent to which people believe they have changed over time after recollecting their own moral or immoral behaviors from the personal past. Our results indicate that recollecting past immoral actions is associated with stronger impressions of dissimilarity and change in the sense of self over time than recollecting past moral actions. These effects held for diverse domains of morality (i.e., honesty/dishonesty, helping/harming, fairness/unfairness, and loyalty/disloyalty), and they remained even after accounting for objective, calendar time. Further supporting a motivational explanation, these effects held when people recollected their own past actions but not when they recollected the actions of other people. (shrink)

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from (...) social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar was found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-negligible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic. (shrink)

Classical neo-Darwinian explanations do not fully account for changes in biological forms, and new theories have emerged, primarily in maths and physics, that offer new approaches to the problem of the origin of life and phenomena of order in evolution. This volume focuses on the role of closure at various hierarchical levels as the catalyst between self-organization and selection. Participants addressed special areas of the closure problem such as autopoiesis and autocatalysis and function and selection, and semiosis. Presentations on physical (...) and mathematical modelling are included. The book seeks to clarify the role closure plays in explaining the emergence, development and evolution of structurally stable systems at the thermodynamic, chemical and biochemical, biological, psychological and cultural levels. (shrink)

The connection between stochastic electrodynamics (SED) and the quantum theory of matter is further explored. The main result is that the Fokker-Planck-like equation of SED can be recast into the form of a Schrödinger equation with radiative corrections, when the system is close to a state of equilibrium. The phase-space distribution can be written as Wigner's pseudo-distribution plus corrections due to the nonlinearity of the external force and to radiative effects. The radiative corrections predicted by the theory, namely the Lamb (...) shift and the decay of excited atomic states, coincide with those predicted by QED. Moreover, the theory offers a clear physical interpretation of these phenomena as due to the coupling of the electric dipole of the system with the zero-point radiation field and to radiation reaction, respectively. (shrink)

Any theory of information needs to comply with what we call the implementation, formalization, and representation constraints. These constraints are justified by basic considerations concerning scientific modelling and methodology. In the first part of this paper, we argue that the implementation and formalization constraints cannot be satisfied because the relation between Shannon information and IIT must be clarified. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the representation constraint. We argue that IIT cannot succeed in satisfying this constraint (...) for semantic contents without offering models for concepts, conceptual roles, and context sensitivity. In the final part of the paper, further complications are raised with respect to the distinction between consciousness and attention, which apply more specifically to the representation constraint. We conclude with some recommendations as to how IIT may succeed in solving these problems, highlighting the advantages and enormous potential of IIT as a scientific theory. (shrink)

Résumé L’ambition de cet article est de proposer une lecture de l’œuvre de B. Latour en l’inscrivant dans un héritage que nous qualifierons de « néomonadologique ». La caractéristique principale d’une telle approche est qu’elle tente de dégager simultanément la question du sujet de toute anthropologie et la question de la nature de toute substantialité propre. C’est à une conception pluraliste de la nature, faite de niveaux de subjectivités – humaines et non-humaines –, qu’une telle philosophie en appelle.

Le but de cet article est une critique de la philosophie politique de M. Eric Weil. Par opposition à M. Weil, l'auteur définit la „politique" ici comme l'art du réalisable, à préciser comme : l'art d'arriver à court terme à une organisation de la société qu'on estime meilleure, et cela en employant tous les moyens permis. L'homme politique n'est pas, ainsi que l'affirme M. Weil, un „saint de Vtmiversel”, qui, en ce qui concerne l'emploi de la violence, se trouve au-dessus (...) de la loi. Ce „politicien-éducateur” est en vérité l'appui des régimes totalitaires et est d'ailleurs inconcevable en dehors de ceux-ci. En outre la théorie de M. Weil contient un certain nombre de contradictions internes et, si on la mesure à la pratique, elle se trouve être déficiente à beaucoup d'égards. Contre la conception platonicienne de M. Weil l'auteur défend la thèse que la politique n'est pas une infraction, regrettable mais inévitable, à „la morale”. C'est la tâche de l'homme politique de supprimer toutes les absurdités, inconséquences et injustices qui entachent les structures de la société. Ce qui, concrètement, est absurde, inconséquent ou injuste n'est pas déterminé par „la morale”, mais par la conscience du droit et par le sentiment moral d'une époque donnée. Les „certitudes” d'où part l'homme politique ne sont pas des Idées platoniciennes, mais des hypothèses de travail, qui dérivent leur contenu non pas de la contemplation des Idées, mais d'une notion de ce qui est juste et désirable, notion qui est déterminée par les conditions matérielles et spirituelles et qui se trouve dans un changement continuel. (shrink)

Arguments are given in favor of a stochastic theory of quantum mechanics, clearly distinguishable from Brownian motion theory. A brief exposition of the phenomenological theory of stochastic quantum mechanics is presented, followed by a list of its main results and perspectives. A possible answer to the question about the origin of stochasticity is given in stochastic electrodynamics by assigning a real character to the vacuum radiation field. This theory is shown to reproduce important quantum mechanical results, some of which are (...) presented explicitly to illustrate its potentialities. Finally the main problems and some perspectives of research within stochastic electrodynamics are discussed. (shrink)

The origin of the wave properties of matter is discussed from the point of view of stochastic electrodynamics. A nonrelativistic model of a charged particle with an effective structure embedded in the random zeropoint radiation field reveals that the field induces a high-frequency vibration on the particle; internal consistency of the theory fixes the frequency of this jittering at mc2/ħ. The particle is therefore assumed to interact intensely with stationary zeropoint waves of this frequency as seen from its proper frame (...) of reference; such waves, identified here as de Broglie's phase waves, give rise to a modulated wave in the laboratory frame, with de Broglie's wavelength and phase velocity equal to the particle velocity. The time-independent equation that describes this modulated wave is shown to be the stationary Schrödinger equation (or the Klein-Gordon equation in the relativistic version). In a heuristic analysis appled to simple periodic cases, the quantization rules are recovered from the assumption that for a particle in a stationary state there must correspond a stationary modulation.Along an independent and complementary line of reasoning, an equation for the probability amplitude in configuration space for a particle under a general potential V(x) is constructed, and it is shown that under conditions derived from stochastic electrodynamics it reduces to Schrödinger's equation. This equation reflects therefore the dual nature of the quantum particles, by describing simultaneously the corresponding modulated waveand the ensemble of particles. (shrink)

O’Loughlin and Thagard (2000) present a specific computational implementation of the idea that the problems encountered by a child with autism in classic False Belief tasks derive from a failure to maintain coherence among multiple propositions. They argue that this failure can be explained as a structural feature of a connectionist network attempting to maintain coherence. The current paper criticizes this implementation because it falsely predicts that the same children will have a parallel problem with the False Photographs task. The (...) fact that the content of representations makes a difference while the structure remains constant casts doubt upon their claim. (shrink)

Gene drive technologies (GDTs) have been proposed as a potential new way to alleviate the burden of malaria, yet have also raised ethical questions. A central ethical question regarding GDTs relates to whether it is morally permissible to intentionally modify or eradicate mosquitoes in this way and how the inherent worth of humans and non-human organisms should be factored into determining this. Existing analyses of this matter have thus far generally relied on anthropocentric and zoocentric perspectives and rejected an individualist (...) biocentric outlook in which all living organisms are taken to matter morally for their own sake. In this paper, we reconsider the implications of taking a biocentric approach and highlight nuances that may not be evident at first glance. First, we shortly discuss biocentric perspectives in general, and then outline Paul Taylor’s biocentric theory of respect for nature. Second, we explore how conflicting claims towards different organisms should be prioritised from this perspective and subsequently apply this to the context of malaria control using GDTs. Our ethical analysis shows that this context invokes the principle of self-defence, which could override the pro tanto concerns that a biocentrist would have against modifying malaria mosquitoes in this way if certain conditions are met. At the same time, the case study of GDTs underlines the relevance of previously posed questions and criticism regarding the internal consistency of Taylor’s egalitarian biocentrism. (shrink)

An analysis of the extension of the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem to Riemann-Cartan U4 space-times with torsion and spin density is undertaken. The minimal coupling principle in U4 is used to formulate a new expression for the convergence condition autoparallels in Einstein-Cartan theory. The Gödel model with torsion is given as an example.

This paper aims to assess medieval terminism, particularly supposition theory, in the development of Aristotelian thought in the Latin West. The focus is on what the present author considers the gist of Aristotle’s strategy of argument, to wit conceptual focalization and categorization. This argumentative strategy is more interesting as it can be compared to the modern tool known as ‘scope distinction’.