The question of postures is a relatively recent concern for the actors involved in teacher education. It is important for the teacher educator to identify the postures he adopts so that the student teacher can learn to practice his profession independently and develop his professional singularity. In the same way, the mentor during the induction period, by adopting certain postures, plays a major role in the professional development of the beginning teacher. These aspects have been the subject of a doctoral (...) research conducted through a qualitative multiple-case study in a context of teacher induction. From the conversations between the mentors and the beginning teachers, several postures were identified. In addition, semi-structured interviews with the mentors revealed their conceptions relating to the accompaniment, which gave an orientation to the postures adopted. Once the theoretical framework of the accompaniment postures exposed, this paper states the link between these and the ethical principles underlying their practice, the vision of their role and their position towards the beginner. (shrink)

In this theoretical contribution, we interpret the notion of professional development in the light of concepts coming from cognitive development. This brings us to consider teacher training as not only having to allow the elaboration of skills, but also as having to encourage the development of new cognitive structures. We explore the theoretical concepts in relation with certain processes revealed by the reflexive texts of the students. Finally, we propose ways that could foster certain dimensions of global professional development in (...) learners, among which self-regulated learning, the focus on certain concerns and taking into account certain types of information. (shrink)

L’accompagnement de fin de vie est devenu une pratique usuelle, conseillée, en France, dans les établissements d’hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes. Il fait l’objet de formation continue et est inscrit dans les recommandations des sociétés de soins palliatifs. Mais l’accompagnement de fin de vie est-il un concept ? Une pratique ? Une fonction ? Qui sont les acteurs de cet accompagnement ? Est-ce une attribution des professionnels de santé ou de tout un chacun dans la société ? Nous tenterons, d’abord, (...) de cerner le concept d’accompagnement dans le champ des pratiques sociales. Nous verrons qu’il s’agit bien d’une pratique qui s’appuie sur des fondements théoriques du souci de l’autre, de la bienveillance, de l’être-avec. Puis la description sociohistorique de l’accompagnement et du soin palliatif nous montrera l’idéal humain qu’il recouvre. Cependant les valeurs communes à l’un et l’autre tendent à la confusion entre accompagnement de fin de vie et soin palliatif. C’est pourquoi certains auteurs nous invitent à une réflexion éthique sur l’accompagnement. Ils nous proposent de préciser la fonction et la posture professionnelle qu’il requiert. Enfin, nous verrons l’importance de délimiter le contexte dans lequel s’insère cette pratique. (shrink)

This article presents the experimentation of a device for trainees focusing on strengths, in the context of initial university training. Based on a theoretical corpus and self-analysis of the practices of a supervisor, this device was implemented with a dozen trainees. The concepts of psychopedagogy of well-being, positive professional identity, as well as the postures of supervisors will explore how a force-based approach to coaching trainees can help them develop their professional skills. but also to a positive identity development in (...) order to face the multiple challenges of the profession. (shrink)

This article focuses on the ethics of education and training, from an interdisciplinary perspective that is itself structurally embedded in the multi-referential nature of the education and training sciences. We draw on Daniel Sibony's conceptualization of the in-between as a professional position in education and training to consider ways of reconciling educational and training support and proximity with the realities of physical distance in digital interventions, all in an ethical way. We discuss the conditions under which support can be successfully (...) incorporated into distance learning (1), dialecticize presence and digital technology in education and training (2), and finally lay some groundwork for an ethics of benevolent digital support, based on the concept of authority and its mutations in hypermodern democracies (3). (shrink)

Over the course of a lifetime, the risk of professional disruption is considerable. The most frequent causes of disruption are linked to illness or accidents, which leads many employees or self-employed people to change their professional status by obtaining recognition as disabled workers from Maisons Departmentale des Personnes Handicapées (MDPHs) (Departmental Centres for Disabled People). This situation concerns a significant proportion of the population. This research study, which was carried out using a qualitative methodology based on ten interviews and eighty (...) questionnaires, sheds new light on the support provided during skills assessments. It re-examines the support provided to jobseekers who have been recognized as disabled workers by examining the in-between positions of employment support professionals, the in-between nature of the challenges they face, and the in-between nature of the timeframes required to get people forced to change career path back into the workplace. (shrink)

Résumé La tradition occidentale a toujours été foncièrement anthropocentrique. A travers l’esprit scientifique, l’homme moderne parvient à une sorte de colonisation du reste de la nature, dans laquelle seul son propre bénéfice fait sens. Cette conception est entrée dans une période de crise depuis la seconde moitié du xx e siècle, particulièrement dans le dernier tiers, et l’on assiste au bouleversement de quelques-uns des principes ontologiques constitutifs de l’homme occidental. La philosophie grecque, la tradition judéo-chrétienne, la Renaissance, voilà les trois (...) grands moments de cet anthropocentrisme ; le quatrième étant l’homme comme dominateur de la nature et du cosmos. Depuis la seconde moitié du xx e siècle, cette situation produit une contre-conscience, la conscience d’ hybris de l’anthropocentrisme occidental, la conscience d’avoir transgressé toute limite et toute frontière avec l’autodestruction par le biais de la bombe atomique. La double posture d’orgueil et de chute dans l’ hybris constitue le grand fond philosophique des débats éthiques, politiques, idéologiques qui accompagnent actuellement le domaine de la biologie et de la génétique dans ses évolutions. Cela étant, est-il possible à l’homme, en termes philosophiques, intellectuels et artistiques, de dépasser l’anthropocentrisme? Oui, par l’auto-contention, l’antique sofrosyne, qui réclamait la mesure face à l’ hybris. Mais l’homme occidental craint le dépassement de l’anthropocentrisme, l’idée que l’homme n’est rien lui faisant peur (le froid pancosmique). Une voie intermédiaire est souhaitable : il faudrait récupérer la conscience d’un certain animisme, récupérer l’âme du monde. (shrink)

In the following article, starting from a progressive understanding of his own subjectivity, a determining factor in developing his capacity to listen to adolescents, the author puts forward the hypothesis that a professional position he describes as "in-between" requires rigor and flexibility, enabling professionals to remain permeable to the unconscious mobilizations of the adolescent-subjects as well as to his own. The author will draw on the results of a longitudinal, partnership-based study that he conducted with ten adolescents, from 2015 to (...) 2020, involving a team of specialized prevention educators. More specifically, the author will retrospectively analyze some excerpts from his encounter with one of the teenagers to reveal possible ways in which a "professional of the social bond" might adopt a rigorous in-between position. (shrink)

Against a backdrop of transformations in the employment market, career changes are on the rise. This paper explores the subject’s experience of this transition, seen as an « in-between » situation. It highlights the need for support during this transition. The professional position adopted by support workers who use the biographical narrative is presented here as that of a craftsman, working alongside the person receiving support to construct the meaning of their life story.

This text examines the socio-professional guidance of Comorian migrants residing on La Réunion Island. It mainly questions the process whereby guidance is constructed as a professional situation. To apprehend the complexity of the process, we have drawn on an ethnographical procedure (Woods, 1990) based on a dual source of data—that of the guide and that of the guided—as well as a micro-sociological approach (Thomas, 1923 ; Goffman, 1993 ; Lapassade, 1997) allowing us to link the concepts of situation definition and (...) conflict in situation definition. Finally, the article mobilizes an intercultural approach (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003 ; Clanet, 1990 ; Camilleri, 1993) which, in reference to a threefold subjectivist, interactionist and situational perspective, aims to shed light on the dimensions of guidance that are otherness and heterogeneity. Ce texte traite de l’accompagnement socioprofessionnel des migrants comoriens résidant dans l’île de La Réunion. Il questionne principalement le processus de construction de l’accompagnement en tant que situation professionnelle. Pour appréhender la complexité de ce processus, nous avons convoqué une démarche ethnographique (Woods, 1990) privilégiant une double entrée : celle de l’accompagnateur et celle de l’accompagné, une approche microsociologique (Thomas, 1923 ; Goffman, 1993 ; Lapassade, 1997) permettant d’articuler les concepts de définition de la situation et de conflit de définition de la situation et enfin une approche interculturelle (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003 ; Clanet, 1990 ; Camilleri, 1993) visant à élucider, en référence à une triple perspective : subjectiviste, interactionniste et situationnelle, les dimensions altéritaire et hétérogène de l’accompagnement. (shrink)

Jean-Marc Barreau Cet article considère l’accompagnement spirituel à l’égard de ce que la littérature consacrée appelle le pré-deuil. Un accompagnement qui regarde le proche-aidant vivant ce pré-deuil. Pour conduire cette analyse, l’article regarde la manière dont les concepts de sollicitude (Ricoeur) et de visage (Lévinas) viennent répondre à la souffrance que le proche-aidant vit en de telles circonstances. Mettant en avant un type d’accompagnement spirituel dont le soubassement anthropologique est spécifiquement philosophique, il offre à ce type d’accompagnement une dimension profondément (...) humaine et de surplus avec une portée universelle. Un accompagnement qui ose offrir aux milieux des soins une praxie dont la sollicitude et la spiritualité assurent la pertinence. (shrink)

This article explores a training need common to every stage of a teacher’s career : the need to be accompanied. It takes an integrative perspective on the process of the situated learning of teaching, throughout the career, from the pre-service practicums to the period of entrance in the profession then to the in-service training. Providing a reflexive accompaniment of the teachers’ practical experiences is here presented as a central factor for linking the training and the work environments. The first part (...) of the article exposes our conception of a reflexive accompaniment and justifies its importance for the evolution of the teaching practices. Then, we describe how we were convinced of that importance through our role as directors of two teacher training devices, one in Switzerland, one in Quebec. Finally, the third part of the article is devoted to the training of the persons that practice such an accompaniment. (shrink)

This article traces the way autonomy has become a recognised value in health care in France. In a country that based its social fundamentals on the very idea of solidarity for many years, autonomy has long been considered a foreign ‘Anglo-American principle’. Taking the example of the end-of-life debate, the article shows, however, how the use of the French term ‘accompagnement’ allowed autonomy to be redefined and to be associated with the concept of solidarity. Exploring the arguments used over the (...) past 25 years in professional guidelines, parliamentary reports, ethics committee reports, and legal texts, the authors describe the shift that took place in public and legal discourses on end-of-life care. The analysis demonstrates how the scope of autonomy has been limited by other social values, such as the protection of the dying person, in order to become an accepted social value in its own right. The example of the French end-of-life debate shows that depending on how the concept of autonomy is adapted and applied in a specific context, it can be compatible with the idea of solidarity. Such compatibility has been challenged previously in the international bioethics debate. By demonstrating the possibility of combining autonomy and solidarity, this article makes an important contribution to the international bioethics debate and to the dialogue between countries that are often perceived as significantly different. (shrink)

Based on our empirical research on global meaning in people with spinal cord injury and people with stroke, we formulated ‘inner posture’ as a concept in rehabilitation. Inner posture, as we concluded from our empirical data, refers to the way in which people bear what cannot be changed. It helps them to live with their injury. Considering that much has already been written about meaning from a variety of disciplines, the question arises whether the concept of inner posture adds something (...) new to the existing literature, or is just another name for a phenomenon that has already been described before in different terms. In this paper, we aim to investigate this and to clarify our conceptualization, by comparing the concept of inner posture with influential concepts in healthcare literature which seem to be more or less related. In the work of Puchalski regarding spirituality, Pargament regarding religion, Eliott regarding hope and Frankl regarding attitude, we found definitions and descriptions that seemed to come close to the phenomenon we refer to as inner posture. Because these concepts have various theoretical backgrounds, the comparison can help to better understand our concept of inner posture, through a process of dialogue between traditions, following Gadamer’s notion of dialogue as fusion of horizons of understanding. We conclude that inner posture differs from the other concepts in several ways. Some of these differences are more fundamental, other are partial. This suggests that we identified a new perspective on a phenomenon partially described earlier. The comparison also inspired us to slightly adjust our definition and to formulate new research questions. (shrink)

The question of the professionalisation of the actors often makes debate because it could imply that an actor who professionalises is not a good professional even that he is not qualified. This position is all the more reinforced when these actors live moments of professional transition, where the doubts and the uncertainties come to push aside their professional identity. How consequently as well as possible to accompany them at best in these moments which re-questioning? This article aims at showing how (...) by a reflexive plan of training- action an approach of professionalisation can be, a process of construction of the subjects which allows them to become aware of their luggage of experiment, their professionality and, on the other hand which contributes to the construction of their posture of apprenance. It is about a process in movement which joins in the philosophy of the training and the orientation throughout the life, in which the subject has to recognize itself as an actor in the work, as an author of its work and as a subject in work on its constructive activity supporting its development thus. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore links between the phenomenology-inspired philosophy of emotion, especially discussions of affective intentionality and situated affectivity, and those strands of work in the field of cultural affect studies that take their inspiration fromSpinoza and Deleuze. As bridges between these fields, I propose the concepts ‘disclosive posture’ and ‘affective arrangement’. ‘Disclosive posture’ condenses insights from phenomenological work on affectivity, especially those pertaining to what Heidegger calls Befindlichkeit. ‘Affective arrangement’ is a descendant of Deleuze and Guattari’s term agencement. (...) It refers to heterogeneous ensembles of elements coalescing into a sphere of heightened affective intensity in a local setting. I develop this notion into a tool for analyzing situated affectivity. As it does not yet figure prominently within debates in the philosophy of emotion, I will outline what is meant by ‘affective arrangement’ in some detail. Throughout, I discuss a productive tension between these two conceptual strands. (shrink)

In psychological research, ressentiment is alluded to as a negative emotional response directed at social groups that are mostly marked as ‘inferior others’. However, conceptual work on this notion is sorely missing. In our conceptual proposal, we use the notion of ‘moral emotions’ as a starting point: typically referred to as “other-condemning” moral emotions (Haidt), psychologists have loosely conceptualised anger, contempt and disgust as a set of negative emotions that have distinct elicitors and involve affective responses to sanction moral misconduct (...) of ‘others’. Though this conglomerate of different other-condemning emotions might describe emotions of ressentiment, we argue that the phenomenon itself is a more complex sentiment. Therefore, we apply Withy’s concept of ‘disclosive posture’ to account for the different psychological processes underlying ressentiment. Disclosing refers to a specific openness to the world, which in the case of ressentiment implies a specific awareness of and sensibility for instances of inequality, grudge, or disfavour. Ressentiment thus becomes a perceptual tool in morally relevant everyday situations. The term ‘posture’ refers to a habitualised, embodied comportment or action tendency that leads to the adoption of a negative attitude and stance towards others. Drawing on Withy, we discuss ressentiment’s similarities (and differences) to the closely related concept of hatred (Szanto, Vendrell Ferran) to embed the analysis of ressentiment in a broader social framework. (shrink)

At Symposium No. 14, which took place as part of the 7th International Symposium on Education, a round table discussion was held with five speakers from the field of education at different levels of teaching. This round table was an opportunity to discuss the issues associated with the link between beliefs and pedagogical practices among teachers at different levels of teaching, as identified by the various papers, and to review experiences or training systems implemented to help support teachers in this (...) regard. The participants shared their experience of accompaniment future and beginning teachers, highlighting the discomforts felt by future and beginning teachers that corresponds to elements often raised in the literature. There were also processes put in place, depending on the different situations, to promote professional integration and integration into a school team, both through co-development processes and group or individual reflections on the knowledge and conceptions of these teachers who were coached. The analysis of their professional practice is a focal point reported by all the participants. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Dmitry Khanin THE POSTMODERN POSTURE Postmodernists—the sectarians ofour day—proclaim that the old kingdom of historical narrative and historical subject has perished, and is now being replaced by a new one of ahistorical discourses and ahistorical characters. According to these prophets, "history" is anyway just changes in ways of talking about history. Anyone who does not agree with the ahistoricity of the postmodern world oudook may be accused—and tried on (...) the spot—of defending the cause of the totalitarian Reason against the most liberating movement of today. This postmodernist abuse of history is paradoxical, since the very notion of history coming to its end and giving way to the ahistorical kingdom of freedom and merry debauchery is itself a very old idea, even a mythological one. The description ofhistory as marching toward its own demise relies on a whole tradition which portrays history as a drama. Aristode's conception of tragedy as a sequence of actions culminating in a dénouement has no doubt shaped this view of historical process. Christian and other religious millenarians have announced the end of history already many times. Yet another notorious instance of such eschatological daydreaming is the futurology of Karl Marx, who envisaged the kingdom of communism as occupying this same ahistorical space. A rather obsolete idea, perhaps, but it seems still to attract postmodernists, though they give it a characteristic twist, since they sincerely believe theory, discourse, écriture (i.e., theoretico-symbolical activity) are much more important than any actual historical contentprocesses and events. One of the most notable spokesmen for this approach is Arthur Danto, who insists that world history evolved in a good Hegelian manner until the theorists came to understand that history depends on their Philosophy and Literature, © 1990, 14: 239-247 240Philosophy and Literature texts much more than theorists themselves depend on historical processes and events.1 Many theoreticians working in an otherwise Marxist tradition similarly are glad to assert with FredricJameson that we must say farewell to Marx's positivistic illusion that history is driven by laws disguised as economic forces.2 In the epoch of "late capitalism," says Jameson, consumption gains the upper hand over production and becomes the mainspring of history. Of course, in light of recent doings in Europe I am tempted to ask if we owe it to postmodernists—and their ahistorical, inconsistent, and generally confounding claims about history lying in ruins—that the Berlin Wall actually is in ruins and Vaclav Havel is president of Czechoslovakia. Even more daring theorists may now declare an era of "very late capitalism." Here it will not be merely the mass media that act transformatively on society (as McLuhan claimed), but rather consumer goods themselves, like state-of-the-art washing machines or French perfumes, which create a new aura of intellectual discourse. TL· Postmodern Scene: Excremental Culture and Hyper-AesÜietics, a book by two Canadian authors, Arthur Kroker and David Cook, promotes such a sea change in the theoretical landscape and along the way presents a joyous recapitulation ofthe latest fads in postmodern thinking. The new apostolic generation ofpostmodern critics seems to enjoy the beautiful new things that can be bought for bucks, worrying at the same time that bucks may be losing some of their purchasing power. Like Hari-Krishnas dancing in the street they luckily possess a sort of happy consciousness which also recalls their puritanical great grandfathers who regarded profligacy as the greatest sin and much preferred saving to spending. In what follows I want to draw a portrait of this new postmodern posture. A few main assumptions underlie Kroker's and Cook's wake for postmodernism, which, in its peculiar genre of philosophic obituary, epitomizes and thus prepares for future oblivion views which were exceedingly popular in the preceding decade. First of all, the authors adopt Baudrillard's equation of Marx and Nietzsche: "Marx and Nietzsche shared a deep and common affinity in meditating upon historical (Christian) and materialistic (capitalist) expressions ofthewill ofpower."3 From Baudrillard's perspective Marx appears as a pathetic romantic who tried to defend the "referential illusion" by renaturalizing concrete labor even though its entirely abstract character was brilliandy revealed in Das Kapital. Baudrillard... (shrink)

Is it possible to develop a discourse that describes human experience but avoids theoretical concepts such as consciousness and qualia, and do so in such a way that the difficult problems are resolved? It strikes me that Gordon Globus is attempting to do something like this. It seems an honorable project from the perspectives of both the analytic philosophy of mind and the postmodern celebration of multiple discourses. I want to suggest, however, that in his account the problems of qualia (...) and consciousness are not really dissipated, but simply dressed up in different garb. (shrink)

Maker education mainly involves “hands-on” as the core concept and combines various educational theories to redefine interactions between learners and teachers in a learning environment. Identification of meaningful “hands-on” behaviors is crucial to evaluate students’ learning performance, although an instructor’s observation of every student is not feasible. However, such observation is possible with the aid of the artificial intelligence image processing technique; the AI learning behavior recognition system can serve as the second eyes of teachers, thus accounting for individual differences. (...) However, in previous studies, learning behavior recognition was applied to the traditional or static classroom. A behavior recognition system for identifying “hands-on” actions in the learning context has still not been developed. Therefore, this study designed a human posture evaluation system, obtained human articulation node information from learning field images, and built a learning behavior recognition model suitable for maker education based on the AI convolutional neural network. A learning behavior model was defined, along with a number of student behavior indexes. Subsequently, the effectiveness of the model and behavior indexes was verified through practical learning activities. The model evaluation results indicated that the proposed model achieved a training accuracy of 0.99 and a model accuracy of 0.83. Thus, the model can be applied to dynamic maker activity learning environments. (shrink)

As kendo continues to gain in international popularity, there are hopes for its adoption in the Olympic Games as an international competitive event, even while moves to further this aim have not necessarily occurred in Japan or elsewhere. One reason for the efforts to achieve a form of globalization of kendo different from Judo is the attempt to adhere to and preserve the unique concepts kendo, the sport embodies by remaining true to the forms of traditional Japanese culture. This is (...) epitomized by the importance given to zanshin (the combination of posture and fighting spirit after striking), one of the key concepts that constitute yuko-datotsu in kendo. Our purpose in this study is to discuss the intersubjective nature of the decisions regarding the conditions for point-scoring in competitive sports. In particular, we will focus on the aesthetics required for zanshin in kendo, focusing on the theory behind yuko-datotsu (point score), which will also considerably influence its international dissemination. Kendo is characterized from the perspective of western rationalism as an appreciation of form and rules of behavior referred to as formalism and, in this respect, it has unique characteristics differing from those of modern sports that are disseminated internationally. In martial arts, besides refinement and proficiency in the rules of behavior by rigidly adhering to form and rules of behavior and repetition, the aim is to transcend said form and the rules of behavior and embody the spiritual nature dwelling in the background. Kendo should remain traditional path and keep zanshin in the value of point (yuko-datotsu) for its virtue. Kendo has not yet developed into an international competitive sport, but it is in the process of traversing that Geido path as a Do for the purpose of character building through it. Throughout life, one should try to devote oneself to kendo with thought for the value of transcending form and the rules of behaviour, and embodying the spiritual nature of the sport that inheres in its background. That is why one may perceive an evident hesitation or indeed negativity regarding the possible internationalization or development as an Olympic event. (shrink)

The study presents partial results from a larger project aimed at supporting the professional development of beginning teachers with respect to their personal epistemology. Based on a thematic analysis of data from explanatory interviews, the article focuses on the articulation between beliefs (epistemological and pedagogical) and stated practices of ten beginning teachers of social sciences and humanities (SHS) in secondary schools. The results highlight the high degree of sophistication of the participants’ epistemological beliefs and the constructivist tendency of their (...) class='Hi'>conceptions of teaching and learning. However, the analyses carried out show certain inconsistencies between the beliefs and practices of these teachers, from which a significant proportion of rather transmissive teaching approaches emerge. Finally, these results lead to the formulation of ways to support beginning SHS teachers in-service training around these issues. (shrink)

Goldstein’s conceptions of pathological states as specific relationships to the milieu, based on his clinical work and observations with First World War soldiers with brain injuries, pay unprecedented attention to chronicity as a particular form of the pathological, capable of stabilizing in forms of health. From this stems a concept of holistic care which pays attention to the person as a whole and to the possibilities for restructuring his or her relationship with the milieu. While the directions he took (...) in his clinical approach of brain-injured patients make him a pioneer of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, his reflection on norms and normality, and on the limits of medical action, rooted in a conception of health as “latitude de vie”, nevertheless distinguish him from the rehabilitation paradigm as it is sometimes described and criticized. In this respect, Goldstein’s conceptions seem to be fruitfully extended to the care and support of chronic illnesses and certain situations of disability today. (shrink)

One way to characterize the special relation that one has to one's own body is to say that only one's body appears to one from the inside. Although widely accepted, the nature of this specific experiential mode of presentation of the body is rarely spelled out. Most definitions amount to little more than lists of the various body senses (including senses of posture, movement, heat, pressure, and balance). It is true that body senses provide a kind of informational access to (...) one's own body, which one has to no other bodies, by contrast to external senses like vision, which can take many bodies as their object. But a theory of bodily awareness needs to take into account recent empirical evidence that indicates that bodily awareness is infected by a plague of multisensory effects, regardless of any dichotomy between body senses and external senses. Here I will argue in favour of a multimodal conception of bodily awareness. I will show that the body senses fail to fully account for the content of bodily experiences. I will then propose that vision helps compensate for the insufficiencies of the body senses in people who can see. I will finally argue that the multimodality of bodily experiences does not prevent privileged access to one's body. (shrink)

In this paper, I critique two conceptions of mechanisms, namely those put forth by Stuart Glennan (Erkenntnis 44:49–71, 1996; Philosophy of Science 69:S342–S353, 2002) and Machamer et al. (Philosophy of Science 67:1–25, 2000). Glennan’s conception, I argue, cannot account for mechanisms involving negative causation because of its interactionist posture. MDC’s view encounters the same problem due to its reificatory conception of activities—this conception, I argue, entails an onerous commitment to ontological dualism. In the place of Glennan and MDC, I (...) propose a “modified conception” of mechanisms, which (a) obviates the problem of negative causation by reinterpreting MDC’s activities according to a “descriptivist” account, and (b) avoids MDC’s problem by postulating a monistic ontology of entities. Thus, by solving these problems, my modified conception offers a cogent, more adequate alternative to Glennan’s and MDC’s conceptions of mechanisms. (shrink)

La Science de la logique est le développement, "dans toute son ampleur", du résultat auquel parvient la Phénoménologie de l'esprit : le savoir pur comme l'unité de la certitude de soi-même et de la vérité - les deux a la fois inséparables et différents. Et parce qu'ils "se trouvent sus en même temps comme différents", leur unité se révèle non plus abstraite mais "concrète". Scindé en lui-même, le concept répond de cette différence dans l'unité. Le présent ouvrage a tenté d'en (...) rechercher et d'en accompagner les implications, depuis le rapport de l'être pur et du néant pur, jusqu'à la déprise de soi de l'Idée pure comme Nature. Cela, en ayant pour témoin la méthode absolue, elle qui "prend de son ob-jet lui-même le déterminé, puisqu'elle est elle-même son principe et [son] âme". Cette réflexion est sous-tendue par l'inlassable exploration des ressources du négatif. (shrink)

Chapter 1 First Person Access to Mental States. Mind Science and Subjective Qualities -/- Abstract. The philosophy of mind as we know it today starts with Ryle. What defines and at the same time differentiates it from the previous tradition of study on mind is the persuasion that any rigorous approach to mental phenomena must conform to the criteria of scientificity applied by the natural sciences, i.e. its investigations and results must be intersubjectively and publicly controllable. In Ryle’s view, philosophy (...) of mind needs to adopt an antimentalist stance to achieve this aim. Antimentalism not only definitively rejects the idea that mind is a substance separated from the body, it also denies that mental phenomena radically differ from physical phenomena by virtue of several unique features. Most problematically, mental phenomena have a conscious character (mental states are related to specific qualitative feelings) and are accessible only to the first-person (only the subject knows directly what s/he is experiencing inside his/her mind). Ryle takes a strong stance on antimentalism going so far as to maintain that an approach to mind which aims to meet the criteria of scientificity set by the natural sciences must avoid any reference to internal, unobservable mental states. In his view (which is considered a specifically philosophical version of psychological behaviorism and also addresses questions put forward in psychological research), mental states can be redescribed in terms of behavioral dispositions. In this chapter, we address the historical roots of the antimentalist view and analyze its relation to the later tradition of research on mind. We show that, compared to the antimentalist stance, functionalism and cognitivism take a step back when they maintain that direct reference to mental states is necessary since mental states cause and therefore explain human behavior. This step backwards is often interpreted as a return to mentalism. However, this is only partially true. Indeed, we suggest that these later traditions retain one important element of Ryle’s antimentalism, i.e. the idea that mental states must be uniquely identified using external and publicly observable criteria, while excluding any reference to introspection and those qualitative dimensions of a mental state, which are accessible only to the first-person. According to the perspective we put forward, this epistemological stance has continued to influence contemporary research on mind and current philosophical and psychological theories which both tend to exclude the subjective qualities of human experience from their accounts of how the mind works. The issue we raise here is whether this is legitimate or whether subjective qualities do play a role with respect to the way our mind works. The conclusion of this chapter anticipates the argument the book makes in in favor of this latter position, starting from a particular angle, i.e. the problem of how we categorize concepts related to our internal states. -/- Chapter 2 The Misleading Aspects of the Mind/Computer Analogy. The Grounding Problem and the Thorny Issue of Propriosensitive Information -/- Abstract. After the crisis of behaviorism, cognitivism and functionalism became the predominant models in the field of psychology and of philosophy, respectively. Their success is mainly due to the new key they use for interpreting mental processes: the mind/computer analogy. On the basis of this analogy, mental operations are seen as cognitive processes based on computations, i.e. on manipulations of abstract symbols which are in turn understood as informational unities (representations). This chapter identifies two main problems with this model. The first is how these symbols can relate to and communicate with perception and thus allow us to identify and classify what we perceive through the senses. Here we limit ourselves to presenting this issue in relation to the classical symbol grounding problem originally put forward by Harnad on the basis of Searle’s Chinese room argument. An attempt to address the problem raised here will be made in chap. 3. The second point we discuss in relation to the mind/computer analogy concerns the idea of information it fosters. Indeed, following this analogy, information is something available in the external world which can be captured by the senses and transmitted to the central system without being influenced or modified by the procedures of transmission. This perspective does not take into account that – unlike computers – in living beings information is acquired by means of the body. As Ulric Neisser has already pointed out, the body is itself an informational source that provides us with additional sensory experience that influences (modifies or complements) the information extracted from the external world by the senses. To develop this line of analysis and to determine exactly what information is provided by the body and how this might influence cognition, we examine Sherrington’s and Gibson’s positions. Moving on from their views, we qualify bodily information in terms of ‘proprioception’. We use ‘proprioception’ in a broad sense to describe any kind of experience we have of our internal states (including postural information as well as sensations related to the general state of the body and its parts). Following Damasio’s and Craig’s studies, we further elaborate this position, arguing that living beings are equipped with an internal propriosensitive monitoring system which maps all the changes that constantly occur in our body and that give us perceptual (‘proprioceptive’ or propriosensitive) information about what happens inside us. Moreover, relying on Goldie’s and Ratcliffe’s view, we show that emotional information can also be considered as a form of ‘proprioception’ which contributes to determining everything we perceive. This analysis leads us to the second main thesis of this book: ‘proprioception’ is a form of internal perception and it is an essential component of the sensory information we can access and use for all cognitive purposes. -/- Chapter 3 Semantic Competence from the Inside: Conceptual Architecture and Composition -/- Abstract. Concepts are essential constituents of thought: they are the instruments we use to categorize our experience, i.e. to classify things and group them together in homogeneous sets. Here we define concepts as the internal mental information (representations) that allows us, among other things, to master words in natural language. By analyzing the way in which individuals master word meanings we explore a number of hypotheses regarding the nature of concepts. Following Diego Marconi’s research, we differentiate between two kind of abilities that underpin lexical competence – so-called ‘referential’ and ‘inferential competence’ – and we suggest that, in order to support these abilities, concepts must also include two corresponding kinds of information, i.e. inferential and referential information. We point out that the most widely used and acknowledged theories of concepts do not make this distinction, instead broadly characterizing the information used for categorization in terms of propositionally described feature lists. However, we show that while feature lists can explain inferential competence, they do not account for referential competence. To address the issue of referential competence we examine Ray Jackendoff’s hypothesis that to account for the possibility of linking perceptual and conceptual information we need to assume the existence of a (visual) representation that encodes the geometric and topological properties of objects and bridges the gap between the percept and the concept. Furthermore, we analyze the extension of this work by Jesse Prinz who introduced the notion of a proxytype, a perceptual representation of a class of objects that incorporates structural and parametric information related to their appearance. However, as we point out, proxytypes can only explain the relationship between perception and concepts with respect to instances that can be perceived through the senses and that belong to the same class by virtue of their physical similarity. We suggest that this notion be extended to include larger conceptual classes. To accomplish this, we further develop Mark Johnson, George Lakoff and Jean Mandler’s idea of a schematic image and argue that conceptual representations include a perceptual schema. Perceptual schemata are non-linguistic, structured experiential gestalts (patterns or maps) that make use of information taken from all sensory modalities, including body perception. They accomplish a quasi-conceptual function: they allow us to recognize and to classify different instances. In this work, we hypothesize that perceptual schemata are an essential component of concepts, but not identical to them. Instead, we suggest that concepts include both perceptual and propositional information with perceptual schemata providing the ‘perceptual core concept’ that grounds related propositional information. -/- Chapter 4 In the Beginning There Were Categories. The Bodily Origin of Prelinguistic Categorical Organization: The Example of Folkbiological Taxonomies -/- Abstract. Studies of categorization in psychology and the cognitive sciences have made use of the notions of ‘category’ and ‘concept’ without precisely defining what is meant by either; in fact, often these terms have been used as synonyms, making it difficult to address specific issues related to conceptual development. This chapter begins by discussing the definitions of, as well as the distinctions between, ‘categories’ and ‘concepts’ in the classical philosophical tradition (Aristotle, Kant and Husserl). We introduce our view of categories with reference to Husserl. Categorization is defined as the way in which our experience is originally (pre-linguistically) organized in a passive and fully unconscious manner on the basis of universal structuring principles. Conceptualization is explained as a later process in which the earlier categorical macro-classes are further subdivided into more specific and detailed sets; this later process also relies on linguistic learning and exposure to culture. On the basis of Ray Jackendoff, Jean Mandler, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s work, we hypothesize that categorization is a two-step process that begins with the formation of homogeneous sets of entities partitioned into regions that describe the ontological boundaries of the objects that humans perceive (categories) and continues at a later stage with the development of more specific classifications (concepts). In this chapter, we mainly address three related issues: Why should we assume that there is categorical organization which precedes the development of a conceptual system? How do categories and concepts relate to each other? Shall we hypothesize that categories are innate or that they are formed before concepts on the basis of information and organizational structure available at a very early developmental stage? We show that categorical partitions are necessary for categorization and, following Mandler, that the general categories we form at an early age do not match our adult superordinate concepts. As for the third issue, we argue that there might be no need to assume that categories are innately present in the human mind, since their formation can be explained – at least in certain cases – by basic mechanisms that work on body (propriosensitive) information. This hypothesis will not be discussed in general, but in relation to a particularly relevant example of categorical partition, i.e. the folk-biological dichotomy between ANIMATE/INANIMATE. This is compared with other dichotomies that derive from it, but are not directly categorical such as LIVING/NON-LIVING and BIOLOGICAL/NON-BIOLOGICAL. -/- Chapter 5 Internal States: From Headache to Anger. Conceptualization and Semantic Mastery -/- Abstract. Here we ask if we can also apply the distinction between referential and inferential competence we introduced in Chapter 3 to words that do not refer to things that are perceived using the external senses, especially to words/concepts that denote bodily experiences (such as pain, thirst, hunger, etc.) or emotions. We introduce and discuss the hypothesis that – even though such words/concepts do not refer to intersubjectively identifiable entities in the external world – they do have a kind of referent that can be accessed via direct perception, more specifically ‘proprioception’, as we have defined it in terms of all propriosensitive information we can consciously access. In the first part of the chapter, we specifically consider terms denoting bodily experiences such as ‘pain’ or ‘hunger’ and argue that their referents are identified and classified from a first-personal point of view on the basis of four main characteristics: their specific intensity, their localization in the body, their co-occurrence with other signals and above all their specific qualitative sensations. Emotions are addressed in the second part of the chapter. We suggest that there is a continuity between bodily experiences and emotions. In particular, we argue for a perceptual theory of emotions in line with that proposed by James and Lange at the end of the 19th century and developed more recently by authors such as Damasio (see also chap. 2§5, §6). The hypothesis we put forward is that the referential information that supports the categorization of emotions and therefore also our mastery of terms referring to emotions consists in the perception (i.e. the ‘proprioception’) of those bodily states and changes in bodily states which constitute our emotional experience. In the context of this discussion we examine some objections to this line of reasoning that arise from a cognitivist perspective and following authors such as Oatley, Johnson-Laird and Frijda, we distinguish between basic emotions that can be identified and classified solely on the basis on how they feel and complex emotions whose identification and classification additionally depends on cognitive factors. To describe how emotions are identified and classified on the basis of how they feel, we rely on Marcel and Lambie’s distinction between an ‘emotion state’ and an ‘emotion experience’. Both notions indicate kinds of feelings that we consciously experience. However, they describe first-order and second order emotion awareness respectively. The emotion state is the feeling we have of the bodily states and changes that occur when we are experiencing an emotion, while the emotion experience is the fully developed and integrated emotion we both experience and are, with reflection, aware of experiencing. On the basis of this differentiation, we also show that the same characteristics that aid in the identification and classification of bodily experiences (specific qualitative sensations; somatic localization; specific intensity; presence/absence of specific concomitant sensations) can also be used for the identification and classification of emotions – at least basic emotions. In the last two sections of the chapter we present some clinical evidence on the semantic competence of people who suffer from Alexithymia and Autism Spectrum Disorder which supports the conclusions of our preceding analyses. -/- Chapter 6 The ‘Proprioceptive’ Component of Abstract Concepts -/- Abstract. In this chapter, we address the issue of whether the mastery of abstract words requires only inferential knowledge and thus, if the concepts that support the mastery of abstract words include only linguistic information. We start by differentiating the notions of ‘abstract’ and ‘general’ which are often erroneously confused. We then identify a strict definition of abstract, as contrasted with ‘concrete’, that applies to words or concepts whose referent cannot be experienced by the senses. We argue that abstract words/concepts would be better described as theoretical, because they are usually conceived as structured sets of inferential knowledge expressed linguistically; that is, as small theories. Pointing out parallels with Carnap’s analysis of this issue in philosophy of science, we hypothesize that words/concepts denoting non-observable entities are not all ‘equally theoretical’, because their link to sensory experience can be stronger or weaker. We revive the distinction, inspired by Quine, between theoretical and intertheoretical concepts/words. This distinction relies on the fact that the former – unlike the latter – retains a strong, although indirect, connection with perception. In Quine’s discussion, perception is understood uniquely in terms of observability, i.e. of external sensory experience. Here we argue, however, that bodily, ‘proprioceptive’ (i.e. propriosensitive) experience can also serve to referentially ground theoretical (i.e. abstract) concepts/words. We frame this issue using the example of the theoretical concept ‘freedom’ and Lakoff’s hypothesis that this concept is developed on the basis of bodily information. We contrast this with the example of ‘democracy’ which more closely resembles an intertheoretical concept/word. Furthermore, we show that one of the classical views put forward in psycholinguistic research to explain how abstract concepts are mentally represented – i.e. Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory – points in the same direction as our analysis. The same is true of Barsalou’s work suggesting that we use internal information to understand at least some abstract words. To sustain this position, we put forward two lines of evidence: the first comes from psycholinguistic studies while the second examines deficits of semantic competence exhibited by people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. On the basis of our analysis, we put forward a classification that distinguishes between different kinds of concreteness and different degrees of abstraction: concepts/words referring to body experiences and basic emotions are described as analogous to concrete concepts/words because they are grounded in perceptual (i.e. propriosensitive) experience, while abstract concepts/words are considered more or less abstract depending on whether they are intratheoretical (and rely entirely on inferential information) or theoretical (and are partially grounded in perceptual – or more often in propriosensitive perceptual – information). In the last section of the chapter we consider two scales that have been used in psycholinguistic research to measure the degree of concreteness vs. abstractness of words and we show that – used conjointly – they can provide a measure of the internal vs. external grounding of specific words. (shrink)

This essay examines the concept of criticism in the early works of Walter Benjamin. Critique is for Benjamin an attitude toward objectivity that treats it as a medium of reflection, and embodies a politics of ‘sobriety.’ This critical posture provides the early Benjamin with an original method of critiquing capitalism as a form of religion. Capitalist religion is characterized by the proliferation of ‘debt’ that robs the subject of the capacity for critical experience. Art critique and the critique of capitalism (...) are two valences of the concept of critique: positive critique, and negative critique. (shrink)

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)

concepts are defined as concepts that cannot be experienced directly through the sensorimotor modalities. Explaining our understanding of such concepts poses a challenge to neurocognitive models of knowledge. One account of how these concepts come to be represented is that sensorimotor representations of grounded experiences are reactivated in a way that is constitutive of the abstract concept. In the present experiment, we investigated how sensorimotor information might constitute GOD-related concepts, and whether a person’s self-reported religiosity modulated this grounding. To do (...) so, we manipulated both the state of the body and the state of stimuli in two tasks that required conceptual categorization of abstract words. Linear Mixed Effects model fitting procedures were used to determine which manipulated factors best predicted response latency and accuracy in both tasks. We successfully replicated previous research demonstrating faster categorization of GOD-related words when they were presented at the top of the screen. Importantly, results demonstrated that the kneeling posture manipulation enhanced this effect, as did religiosity, as participants who scored higher in religiosity showed a greater effect of the posture manipulation on the speed with which word categorization occurred when those words were presented in the higher visuospatial presentation condition. Overall, we interpreted our findings to suggest that directly manipulating sensorimotor information can facilitate the categorization of abstract concepts, supporting the notion that this information in part constitutes the representation of abstract concepts. (shrink)

This study clarifies the need for a renewed account of the body in physiotherapy to fill sizable gaps between physiotherapeutical theory and practice. Physiotherapists are trained to approach bodily functioning from an objectivist perspective; however, their therapeutic interactions with patients are not limited to the provision of natural-scientific explanations. Physiotherapists’ practice corresponds well to theorisation of the body as the bearer of original bodily intentionality, as outlined by Merleau-Ponty and elaborated upon by enactivists. We clarify how physiotherapeutical practice corroborates Merleau-Ponty’s (...) critical arguments against objectivist interpretations of the body; particularly, his analyses demonstrate that norms of optimal corporeal functioning are highly individual and variable in time and thus do not directly depend on generic physiological structures. In practice, objectively measurable physical deviations rarely correspond to specific subjective difficulties and, similarly, patients’ reflective insights into their own motor deficiencies do not necessarily produce meaningful motor improvements. Physiotherapeutical procedures can be understood neither as mechanical manipulations of patients’ machine-like bodies by experts nor as a process of such manipulation by way of instructing patients’ explicit conscious awareness. Rather, physiotherapeutical practice and theory can benefit from the philosophical interpretation of motor disorders as modifications of bodily intentionality. Consequently, motor performances addressed in physiotherapy are interpreted as relational features of a living organism coupled with its environment, and motor disorders are approached as failures to optimally manage the motor requirements of a given situation owing to a relative loss of the capacity to structure one’s relation with their environment through motor action. Building on this, we argue that the process of physiotherapy is most effective when understood as a bodily interaction to guide patients towards discovering better ways of grasping a situation as meaningful through bodily postures and movements. (shrink)

This article debunks Bruno Latour’s seemingly pro-scientific and well-intentioned posture. I briefly summarize Latour’s constructivist, relativist, hybridist, and mystic philosophy, insisting on his radicalization in his last two books. I show that Latour’s conception is akin to “pseudo-profound bullshit”, inasmuch as he tries to hide his mysticism behind the invocation of scientific facts. I then concentrate on Latour’s politicization of climate science, showing that it is: self-contradictory from an epistemological point of view, since it presupposes scientifically established facts while at (...) the same time undermining their objectivity; counterproductive, and even dangerous, from the political point of view, since it recommends a full politicization of climate science and ignores its harmful effects. I conclude by advocating a distinction between science and politics, and by showing that Latour’s philosophy fosters our current post-truth predicament. (shrink)

Résumé Jacques Serrano conçoit un système d’échange économique structurellement de même nature que sa production artistique non-matérialisée, qui permet de repenser la fonction et le statut de collectionneur. Cette réflexion s’accompagne d’un exemple de mise en application. Marc Halévy éclaire les enjeux économiques de cette proposition, et Ghislain Mollet-Viéville en analyse l’originalité en termes de collection.

As a result of this case study, additional questions arise. These can be cast into at least three groups. The first concerns the development of critical empiricism in the ancient world: a topic of much interest in our own century, expecially with regard to the work of the logical empiricists. Many of the same arguments are present in the ancient world and were hotly debated from the Hippocratic writers through and beyond Galen. Some of the ways in which Galen reacts (...) to Hippocratic and Aristotelian influences may, in part, be explained by Galen's own posture as a so-called Dogmatist. Both the Empirics and the Methodists offered alternative viewpoints on the place, role, and limits of observation in biomedical research. Though I have written on this relationship in the Hippocratic writers and Aristotle,44 it remains to be discussed in detailed fashion just how critical empiricism acted in Galen's evaluation of biomedical problems (aporiai). Contrasts between Galen and his predecessors might further clarify this issue both as a historical question and as it affects the construction of biological theory.The second area explores the question of how one develops comprehensive theories. In this respect Galen follows Aristotle's methodology rather closely. Both look at what theories are available to them and then systematically review the problems raised, at the same time refuting what they find inadequate. This is an effective strategy, for it permits utilizing the best features of earlier work to fashion a new whole. Indeed, Galen himself seems to attribute his use of such a methodology to his “ecletic” medical and philosophical training. Both Aristotle and Galen endeavor to employ techniques of theory integration. That is, they use aspects of theories they have already espoused to deal with new problems. This suggests the emergence of formal, logical coherence as an element in theory evaluation. The obvious drawback is that it can cause mistakes in one area to be repeated and ingrained in other areas. Such errors, because they are at the very core of an explanatory framework, may take centuries to correct. Future studies may shed light on how theory integration acts both in a positive and in a negative way.Finally, this case study offers a glimpse of how science progresses. Even though the advances in medical technology were comparatively minor, there is a great deal more sophistication in the conception theoreis of Aristotle and Galen than was present in the Hippocratic writers. Some of this (in Galen's case) had to do with increased anatomic and physiological knowledge, but most, I believe, is due to the evolution of scientific knowledge. If further work were done specifically on this question, it might document more completely how scientific knowledge on a specific topic evolves. The mode of advancement is primarily through gradual refinement of the types of questions being asked by these ancient authors, and the ramifications of their answers.Ancient theories of conception offer a fine case study in the history and philosophy of how a theory begins the develops. I have tried to suggest some interrelationships among the more important theories, as they focused upon Aristotle's own conception theory. There has been renewed interest in such cases in recent years. It is my hope that future specialized studies will increase our knowledge of method and practice in these important case studies and thereby augment our understanding of the genesis and application of biological theories. (shrink)

La philosophie analytique a repris le flambeau de la théologie naturelle que l’on croyait éteint depuis Pascal, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Schleiermacher. Il s’est produit un curieux chassé-croisé : la philosophie analytique a fini par se réconcilier avec l’enquête métaphysique, alors que la théologie continentale a pour une bonne part accompagné voire encouragé la déconstruction de la métaphysique théiste. On présente ici en particulier comment la philosophie analytique permet de renouveler l’approche du concept de création ex nihilo.

Philosophical and theological treatments of difference and relation are often limited to traditional discursive boundaries of substance metaphysics and transcendent causality. Eschewing the historic desire to categorize substance and doctrinal investments in cosmological mechanism, multiplicity theory experiments with immanent and relational ontologies that are materially attentive and immersed in difference. Tracing the emergence of multiplicity and its theorizing across philosophical and theological registers, I begin with Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead’s conceptually significant turn of the century work. Noting both (...) Bergson and Whitehead’s profound influence on Gilles Deleuze, I examine the appearance and development of multiplicity in Deleuze’s individual writings and his collaborative work with Felix Guattari. Seeking resonances in the more recently theological theorizations of multiplicity, I find that Whitehead and Deleuze surface as vital interlocutors for the relational and incarnational theologies put forth, respectively, by Catherine Keller and Laurel Schneider. Each concerned with theological formulations of embodied difference and divine relation, I suggest that both Keller and Schneider draw on theories of multiplicity to explore immanence and interdependence as ontological postures. I conclude that across philosophical and theological discourse diverse conceptions of multiplicity offer resources for alternative theorizations of complex difference and relation. (shrink)

Haṭhayoga texts, influential in the development of modern posture-based yoga, offer a conceptual framework intertwining physical cultivation, health, and soteriological aims. This article explores two interconnected inquiries regarding early Haṭhayoga texts: How do they conceptualize health, and how do they perceive the relationship between health and soteriology? These investigations illuminate the place of health in early yoga texts within Hindu traditions prior to its global recognition. This article reveals that early _haṭha_ texts present a holistic approach to health, highlighting the (...) interconnectedness of curing the mind and healing the body. This process entails not only eradicating physical diseases but also the transcendence of all forms of suffering. The transformative process of eliminating the misleading self-identity (_ahaṁkāra_) is pivotal, leading directly to health. This relationship extends beyond metaphorical comparisons of healing ignorance and suffering. This ontological framework proposes a harmonious integration between the material and soteriological realms, viewing the healthy body as a physical manifestation of the divine essence. Thus, the emergence of the biomedical discourse surrounding yoga in modern times did not occur autonomously. Haṭhayoga, with its roots dating back to the beginning of the second millennium CE, played a crucial role in shaping this historical transformation. (shrink)

The article explores examples of theoretical endeavor to think the political in “accordance with the Real” that can be found in the works of François Laruelle, Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek. The task this article sets for itself is to establish an insight into – or rather, arrive to a certain vision and knowledge of – the possibilities of interrogating the modes of participation of the Real in the production of a Political Truth. I will claim the latter is not (...) the product of Discourse exclusively, but of the inter-action between the Discursive and the Real. In the deployment of this argument I resort to the epistemic posture of thought proposed by François Laruelle’s non-philosophy as "thinking in correlation with the Real." It is a stance of theorizing which is unilateral, non-thetic and does not attempt to reflect or mirror the Real. It merely correlates with it by way of acknowledging it to be the decisive instance of legitimization of the produced truth. (shrink)

La Résistance aux régimes fascistes instaurés à partir des années 1930 tout autant que les combats contre l’occupation allemande d’une grande partie de l’Europe durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, a longtemps été assimilée à une affaire d’hommes, même si ceux-ci n’ont pas manqué de rendre hommage aux femmes qui les avaient accompagnés. Cette conception, portée par les acteurs comme par les historiens, a dominé récits et études de 1945 à la fin des années 1970. L’essor de l’histoire des femmes...

Cet ouvrage collectif naît d'abord d'un contexte. À une époque où les crises s'enchaînent au point de paraître permanentes, les législations d'urgence et les mesures dérogatoires connaissent une expansion telle que l'exception semble devenir la règle. Pourtant, le concept même d'état d'exception ne va pas de soi et alimente, dans le champ académique, de nombreux débats. Ne masque-t-il pas, derrière le sentiment partagé de quitter un monde politique et constitutionnel stabilisé, des situations juridiques très différentes? Ce faisant, ne nous rend-il (...) pas, paradoxalement, impuissants à penser le monde qui vient?00Les textes rassemblés ici proposent d'élargir ces réflexions en les réinscrivant dans une perspective historique longue. Ils présentent un vaste répertoire des formes historiques de ± l'exceptionnalité?, depuis l'institution romaine de la dictature jusqu'à l'état d'urgence contemporain, en tenant compte des normes et des pratiques juridico-politiques, mais aussi des concepts qui leur ont été associés.00Au fil d'un dialogue entre histoire et philosophie, l'ouvrage s'ouvre à d'autres disciplines et aux réflexions transversales qui ont accompagné ces concepts. Il interroge la manière dont des termes ± dictature? ou ± état d'exception? circulent et se modifient, en laissant émerger des questions récurrentes, notamment autour du rapport du droit et du politique à l'histoire et au temps. (shrink)

The concept of a conservative control strategy minimizing the number of degrees of freedom used is criticised with reference to 3-D simple reaching and grasping experiments. The vector error in a redundant system would not be the prime controlled variable, but rather the posture for reaching, as exemplified by nearly straight displacements in joint space as opposed to curved ones in task space.

In the lesson study approach, researchers and teachers work together to solve teaching and learning problems identified by practitioners. This paper presents three examples of lesson study conducted with different audiences (primary and secondary) in mathematics and physics. The authors analyze the different postures built and adopted by researchers in each of these situations and try to identify some conditions and constraints more or less favorable to building a partnership between researchers and practitioners. The lesson study’s approaches seem to be (...) part of collaborative research, under certain conditions, especially in connection to researchers postures that accompany these research groups. These conditions meet the idea of the double likelihood that characterizes collaborative research. (shrink)

Overview of the concept of the sovereign individual -- Personal sovereignty as a natural psychological state in human development -- Human development theories -- Philosophical basis of the right to individual sovereignty -- The philosophy of Jose Ingenieros in Argentina, 1913 -- Recognizing that society, church, government, and corporations are mostly fraudulent, coercive, and corrupt -- Our avoidant-defensive posture : a moral or practical decision? -- The desire to live life as we wish : the need to be genuine -- (...) Summary of my theory on individual sovereignty. (shrink)

The concept of totalitarianism was particularly prevalent in intellectual and political debate in Germany in the 1970s, and was motivated largely by anti-totalitarian convictions. Although it did not enter everyday language, it persists in political rhetoric, where it is used today as a political football in speeches and constitutional reports. In response to historical approaches to the concept of totalitarianism, which generally contextualise the term and put forward alternative terms, this article probes the meaning of this term as it is (...) actually used and misused in political and educational contexts in contemporary Germany. It concludes by highlighting the fictitious (figurative, semantic and epistemological) dimensions of the rhetoric of anti-totalitarianism, and calls for a more genuinely liberal, non-totalitarian, posture. (shrink)

Le concept de modernité et des notions qui lui sont apparentées - sécularisation, laïcité, libéralisme, séparation de l'Église et de l'État, discours sur les droits et libertés - souffrent d'une imprécision définitionnelle à la source de nombreuses incompréhensions. La distinction entre deux paradigmes historiques de référence, soit une modernité américaine attachée à son héritage judéo-chrétien et une modernité française fermée à la transcendance et historiquement hostile à l'Église, offre une grille d'analyse susceptible de clarifier les débats transatlantiques et la posture (...) philosophique des uns et des autres. Ces deux modèles rivaux résultent de lectures fondatrices antagoniques des droits de l'homme et de la laïcité. Partisans des deux modernités s'opposent, souvent avec âpreté, dans l'ensemble des diverses cultures nationales de la Civilisation occidentale. Discréditée par les grands totalitarismes athées et les hécatombes du XXe siècle, la modernité comprise comme auto-nomie ne saura se relever qu'en se réconciliant avec ses sources originelles chrétiennes. Garant de la dignité de la personne humaine, l'imago Dei - l'anthropologie biblique - constitue le fondement ultime et le cadre interprétatif nécessaire aux droits fondamentaux de la personne. (shrink)

The concept of the world occupies a significant place in the phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl. Unfortunately, however, Husserl's teaching concerning the world can be as problematic to his readers as it is central to his work, and this for two reasons. First, in reading Husserl one encounters the ever-present difficulty of knowing when Husserl's analyses take place within what Husserl calls the "natural" attitude and when they are being philosophically or "transcendentally" executed. As a consequence, Husserl's reader is often (...) faced with texts which seem more contradictory and perplexing than clarifying. Secondly, there does appear to be significant disparity between what Husserl says about the world from within the natural attitude, and what he says about the world from within the transcendental posture of thinking.Within the natural attitude, the world is spoken of as the whole or matrix of all that is, including the human person. Within the transcendental attitude, on the other hand, it is human subjectivity which shows up as the whole, and the world comes to be understood as dependent upon human consciousness. ;This dissertation is a critical examination of Husserl's teaching concerning the world, especially as this teaching is displayed in three of Husserl's major works. By analyzing key sections of Ideas I , Erste Philosophie and The Crisis , our study yields a twofold conclusion. In the first place, it shows that Husserl does have a single conceptualization of the world within his phenomenological philosophy. In other words, despite the presence of apparently contradictory theses concerning the world within Husserl's work, there is a core teaching concerning the world which is identifiable and which, when understood correctly, dissolves the apparent contradictions in his thinking. Secondly, our study shows that this single conceptualization of the world remains consistent throughout the whole of Husserl's phenomenological philosophy. Though there are indeed moments of development to be seen and noted in Husserl's understanding and articulation of the world, the description of the world which is found in The Crisis is remarkably consistent with the description found in Volume One of Ideas. (shrink)

La posture hégélienne vis-à-vis du langage philosophique ne doit pas être assimilée d’emblée à la métacritique herderienne ni être comprise en termes d’opposition entre langage «absolu» et langage «fini». La métacritique hégélienne doit plutôt être comprise en termes d’une différence entre langage abstrait et langage concret. Le mode opératoire du langage concret de la philosophie se saisit en ayant recours à une fonction organique de la mémoire et en acceptant, au niveau pratique, une différence entre le langage quotidien et le (...) langage philosophique. Je vais montrer que Hegel peut justifier cette posture en adoptant une perspective humboldtienne. (shrink)

Noting that one may hear without listening, the article probes the phenomenological and epistemic distinction between hearing and listening. To listen is to be attuned to voices muffled by silence or camouflaged by a defensive rhetoric resonant with a voice inflected by festering wounds, existential and political. In exploring how one is to listen to these voices of silence, I draw upon Martin Buber’s concept of dialogical “inclusion” of others’ stories, to listen without interpretation to allow the voice behind his (...) – or her or their – story, be it merely etched viscerally in the language of silence, to dwell aside one’s own story in a dialogue unencumbered by perceptions of the Other forged by cultural, social, political constructs, and perhaps most insidiously one’s own defensive postures. (shrink)