En identifiant l’âme du monde avec le feu et celui-ci avec Dieu, la représentation stoïcienne du monde comme grand animal doué d’intelligence et de sensibilité pose de graves problèmes à un chrétien, comme le souligne l’interlocuteur du dialogue de la Physiologia Stoicorum de Juste Lipse. Quelle est la position de Lipse par rapport à la question, largement débattue au xvie siècle, de l’animation des astres? On évoque les conceptions de Scaliger, Patrizi et Kepler, et on montre que c’est très vraisemblablement (...) Giordano Bruno que Lipse indique sous la forme anonyme « quidam nostro aevo », pour se démarquer de ses positions. Même si la cosmologie de Lipse n’est pas héliocentrique, elle a l’avantage d’expliquer le mouvement des astres sans référence à leur âme et sur la base de considérations purement physiques.By identifying the soul of the world with fire and the latter with God, the Stoic representation of the world as a great animal blessed with intelligence and sensitivity raises serious problems for a Christian, as emphasized by the interlocutor of the dialogue Physiologia Stoicorum of Justus Lipsius. What position does Lipsius take regarding the question of the life of the stars? After having called to mind the concepts of Scaliger, Patrizi and Kepler, we will see that it is quite likely Giordano Bruno to whom Lipsius refers anonymously as « quidam nostro aevo » to distance himself from his positions. Even if the cosmology of Lipsus is not heliocentric, it has the advantage of explaining the movement of the stars without reference to their soul and on the basis of purely physical considerations. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to focus on the reception of Plotinus’ concept of matter in the Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno and his early Italian dialogue De la causa, principio et uno. I argue that Bruno’s concept of materia in De la causa, principio et uno reflects Plotinus’ theory of intelligible matter in Ennead ii 4 [12] 2–5 as well as Plotinus’ positive view of the perceptible world in Enneads ii 9 [33] and iv 8 [6]. It (...) is suggested that Bruno interprets Plotinus as an ancient philosopher who supported the unity and homogeneity of matter. Giordano Bruno’s reception of Plotinus in De la Causa, principio et uno could enlighten contemporary discussions in Neoplatonic studies concerning the question of matter in the Enneads. (shrink)

This book provides a thoroughly worked out and systematic presentation of an interpretivist position in the philosophy of mind, of the view that having mental properties is a matter of interpretation. Bruno Mölder elaborates and defends a particular version of interpretivism, the ascription theory, which explicates the possession of mental states with contents in terms of their canonical ascribability, and shows how it can withstand various philosophical challenges. Apart from a defence of the ascription theory from the objections commonly (...) directed against interpretivism, the book provides a critical analysis of major alternative accounts of mental state possession as well as the interpretivist ideas originating from Donald Davidson and Daniel Dennett. The viability of the approach is demonstrated by showing how one can treat mental causation as well as the faculties closely connected with consciousness -- perception and the awareness of one’s own mental states -- in the interpretivist framework. (shrink)

Technology is always limited to the realm of means, while morality is supposed to deal with ends. In this theoretical article about comparing those two regimes of enunciation, it is argued that technology is on the contrary characterized by the `ends of means' that is the impossibility of being limited to tools; technical artefacts are never tools if what is meant by this is a transmission of function in a mastered way. Once this modification of the meaning of technology is (...) accepted, then it is possible to relate technology, in a totally different way, to morality which is not about values, but about the exploration of ends. (shrink)

Eye movements during mental imagery are not epiphenomenal but assist the process of image generation. Commands to the eyes for each fixation are stored along with the visual representation and are used as spatial index in a motor‐based coordinate system for the proper arrangement of parts of an image. In two experiments, subjects viewed an irregular checkerboard or color pictures of fish and were subsequently asked to form mental images of these stimuli while keeping their eyes open. During the perceptual (...) phase, a group of subjects was requested to maintain fixation onto the screen's center, whereas another group was free to inspect the stimuli. During the imagery phase, all of these subjects were free to move their eyes. A third group of subjects (in Experiment 2) was free to explore the pattern but was requested to maintain central fixation during imagery. For subjects free to explore the pattern, the percentage of time spent fixating a specific location during perception was highly correlated with the time spent on the same (empty) locations during imagery. The order of scanning of these locations during imagery was correlated to the original order during perception. The strength of relatedness of these scanpaths and the vividness of each image predicted performance accuracy. Subjects who fixed their gaze centrally during perception did the same spontaneously during imagery. Subjects free to explore during perception, but maintaining central fixation during imagery, showed decreased ability to recall the pattern. We conclude that the eye scanpaths during visual imagery reenact those of perception of the same visual scene and that they play a functional role. (shrink)

In his 1841-2 Berlin lectures, Schelling critiques German idealism’s negative method of regressing from existence to its first principle, which is supposed to be intelligible without remainder. He sees existence as precisely its remainder since there could be nothing that exists. To solve this, Schelling enlists the positive method of progressing from the fact of existence to a proof of this principle’s reality. Since this proof faces the absurdity that there is anything rather than nothing, he concludes that this fact’s (...) constitution and this principle’s proof are mutually dependent, non-dischargeable tasks. I trace this reciprocal relation to one Kant establishes between the constitutive categories of experience and the experience that proves their applicability and argue that it adheres to Kant’s threefold criterion of proof. I do so by uncovering the Maimonian skeptical motivation—specifically, the need to answer what I call the question quid indicii—behind the qualified return to Kant on which Schelling’s critique of idealism relies. (shrink)

In the last few years, researchers have begun to investigate the emergence of novel forms of human communication in the laboratory. I survey this growing line of research, which may be called experimental semiotics, from three distinct angles. First, I situate the new approach in its theoretical and historical context. Second, I review a sample of studies that exemplify experimental semiotics. Third, I present an empirical study that illustrates how the new approach can help us understand the socio‐cognitive underpinnings of (...) human communication. The main conclusion of the paper will be that, by reproducing micro samples of historical processes in the laboratory, experimental semiotics offers new powerful tools for investigating human communication as a form of joint action. (shrink)

Cette communication s'interroge sur l'évaluation des dispositifs d'accompagnement à la scolarité et, plus largement, sur l'évaluation des projets qui gravitent autour de la notion de réussite éducative. Après avoir défini l'accompagnement à la scolarité et les principes de l'évaluation externe, quelques résultats sur l'efficacité des actions sont rappelés. Pour conclure, les enjeux actuels de l'évaluation des politiques de réussite éducative sont exposés ainsi que des propositions sur l'adaptation de la méthodologie de l'évaluation.

The author of the present paper argues that while trying to explain the institutional success of the science and its broad social impact, it is worth throwing aside the arguments concerning the universal traits of human nature, changes in the human mentality, or transformation of the culture and civilization, such as the development of capitalism or bureaucratic power. In the 16th century no new man emerged, and no mutants with overgrown brains work in modern laboratories. So one must also reject (...) the Great Divide between the cultures of the scientific and pre-scientific and replace it with multiple, uncertain and unexpected ‘not-so-great divides’, which can be described in meticulous anthropological studies. Although the achievements of science are certainly spectacular, and the gap between scientific practice and other areas of activity is so obvious, this does not mean that one must look for the \"great\" reasons behind this situation. One should rather focus on quite down-to-earth practices and tools used by scientists. A significant part of their activities can be described by referring to the craft of writing, reading and transforming of various types of inscriptions (records), and broadly understood visualization – their combining, performing, interpreting, confronting, comparing, shifting, shuffling etc. The important role of these tools and methods is especially visible in situations of scientific controversy. It is so because scientific controversies are won by the one able to muster on the spot the largest number of well aligned and faithful allies, and the technology of writing, printing and visualizing play a special role in mobilizing them. These are necessary to ensure that certain factors can be mobile – easy to move from place to place, and yet, immutable – not undergoing deformation as a result of the movement. This way, scientists are able to not only diffuse different types of factors relevant to the dispute and the process of constituting science, but also concentrate them in the centers of calculation, where, through accumulation, one can take actions not available elsewhere. (shrink)

When formulating the concept of the impulse-image, Deleuze never tires of asserting that these images are saturated with death and obsessed by degradation. They stand at a curious intersection in the taxonomy of images, a constitutively in-between space: they are formally inserted between affection-image and action-image in The Movement-Image, but produce a direct passage to the time-image. However, they do not reach the time-image due to obsession by the negative effects of time. This article introduces the concept of the impulse-image (...) in Deleuze's work on the impulse and death instinct, in his fundamental texts of the 1960s and 1970s, including his collaboration with Félix Guattari. The death instinct in the late 1960s was a transcendental principle that acquired the form of the groundless or crack-up essential for the production of difference. It is at this time that Deleuze publishes Zola and the Crack-up, an embryonic essay for what would later become the impulse-image. In the 1970s, Deleuze, along with Guattari, fought the need to include a groundless force in the mould of the death instinct. Speaking of cinema in the 1980s, which is when he returns to the impulse theme, one finds characteristics of both preceding periods, especially the structure conceived in the 1960s, associated with the criticism of the 1970s. However, Deleuze now stands apart, recognising a naturalistic image and admiring a practice of symptomatology, but pointing out that his own understanding of the world does not lie in it. With the impulse-images, Deleuze also plays a relevant role in studies of film naturalism, shaping a powerful concept for studies of contemporary naturalistic symptomatologies that emerge in situations of misery of civilisation. (shrink)

L'origine dell'anima umana secondo Dante.--La dottrina d'Alberto Magno sull'Inchoatio formae.--Alberto Magno e san Tommaso.--La posizione di Alberto Magno di fronte all'averroismo.--L'anima umana secondo Sigieri.--Anima e corpo nel pensiero di san Tommaso.--L'aristotelismo della scolastica e i francescani.--Individualità e immortalità nell'averroismo e nel tomismo.

La mission du juge est de trancher les litiges. Or, avant de d’appliquer une règle juridique, il est nécessaire de connaître précisément les faits de la cause. « Da mihi factum, dabo tibi jus ». L’expert est le spécialiste de l’analyse des faits dont le juge a besoin. Dans le domaine de la santé, l’expert est incontournable tant pour étudier la santé corporelle que la santé mentale. On note toutefois une évolution considérable qui tend à demander à l’expert, non plus (...) seulement d’observer une situation passée ou présente mais de prévenir l’avenir. (shrink)

Bernard Mandeville's poem "The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves turn'd Honest" explores the subtle interplay between morality and business practices, particularly through the lens of the term "knave". This article examines Mandeville's use of "knave" in juxtaposition with the value of honesty portrayed in the poem's title. In contrast to the spiritual transformation depicted in the poem, in which all the bees in the hive become honest through divine intervention, Mandeville suggests a different kind of change in moral practice, one that (...) incorporates previously unacceptable behavior into the social fabric. Through a varied historical reconstruction of the uses and understandings of the term in question, the study explores Mandeville's concerns about the acceptance and normalization of dishonesty in various segments of society, as illustrated by the anecdote in Observation B, which shows how dishonesty permeates all aspects of commerce, involving buyers, sellers, merchants, traders, and dealers. By analyzing Mandeville's portrayal of dishonesty and its integration into social dynamics, this study aims to elucidate the underlying tensions between ethical standards and the pursuit of self-interest. (shrink)

An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination.G.B. Shaw, John Bull’s other Island 1. Il primo principio della conoscenza e la riflessione estetica Secondo il primo principio della conoscenza, esse est percipi, l’essere delle cose è il loro essere percepite. Anche quando nessun soggetto percepisce l’oggetto, questo continua a esistere perché Dio, causa unica della realtà, percependo tutte le idee, dalla creazione in poi, le mantiene in essere. In questo modo il processo percettivo si stru...

How are ideas about education and democracy configured and reconfigured as they travel? Democracy and the Intersection of Religion looks at the work of John Dewey, the renowned philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, and the ways in which his educational ideas and democratic ideals have been configured and reconfigured, adopted, and interpreted in different historical and cultural spaces.

Drawing from field theory, Gestalt therapy conceives psychological suffering and psychotherapy as two intentional field phenomena, where unprocessed and chaotic experiences seek the opportunity to emerge and be assimilated through the contact between the patient and the therapist (i.e., the intentionality of contacting). This therapeutic approach is based on the therapist’s aesthetic experience of his/her embodied presence in the flow of the healing process because (1) the perception of beauty can provide the therapist with feedback on the assimilation of unprocessed (...) experiences; (2) the therapist’s attentional focus on intrinsic aesthetic diagnostic criteria can facilitate the modification of rigid psychopathological fields by supporting the openness to novel experiences. The aim of the present manuscript is to review recent evidence from psychophysiology, neuroaesthetic research, and neurocomputational models of cognition, such as the free energy principle (FEP), which support the notion of the therapeutic potential of aesthetic sensibility in Gestalt psychotherapy. Drawing from neuroimaging data, psychophysiology and recent neurocognitive accounts of aesthetic perception, we propose a novel interpretation of the sense of beauty as a self-generated reward motivating us to assimilate an ever-greater spectrum of sensory and affective states in our predictive representation of ourselves and the world and supporting the intentionality of contact. Expecting beauty, in the psychotherapeutic encounter, can help therapists tolerate uncertainty avoiding impulsive behaviours and to stay tuned to the process of change. (shrink)

Cet essai analyse le sens que donne Leo Strauss à l’argument de l’élection des juifs, et tente à partir de là de comprendre sa position à l’égard des différentes options qui s’offrent aux juifs modernes (le retour à la tradition, l’assimilation, le sionisme politique). Le sens politique que Strauss confère à l’élection dans son diagnostic de la modernité et de la place que les juifs y occupent n’exclut pas, mais au contraire éclaire d’une manière nouvelle l’acception théologique du terme. Ce (...) sens s’éclaire par la reprise de la formule talmudique « Si je ne me bats pas pour moi, que suis-je? ». La question finale est alors de savoir quelle signification peut revêtir cette formule dès lors que le juif moderne se voue à la philosophie. (shrink)