This paper describes the approach of empirical ethics, a form of ethics that integrates non-positivist ethnographic empirical research and philosophy. Empirical ethics as it is discussed here builds on the ‘empirical turn’ in epistemology. It radicalizes the relational approach that care ethics introduced to think about care between people by drawing in relations between people and technologies as things people relate to. Empirical ethics studies care practices by analysing their intra-normativity, or the ways of living together the actors within these (...) practices strive for or bring about as good practices. Different from care ethics, what care is and if it is good is not defined beforehand. A care practice may be contested by comparing it to alternative practices with different notions of good care. By contrasting practices as different ways of living together that are normatively oriented, suggestions for the best possible care may be argued for. Whether these suggestions will actually be put to practice is, however, again a relational question; new actors need to re-localize suggestions, to make them work in new practices and fit them in with local intra-normativities with their particular routines, material infrastructures, know-how and strivings. (shrink)

Science and technology studies concerned with the study of lay influence on the sciences usually analyze either the political or the normative epistemological consequences of lay interference. Here I frame the relation between patients, knowledge, and the sciences by opening up the question: How can we articulate the knowledge that patients develop and use in their daily lives and make it transferable and useful to others, or, `turn it into science’? Elsewhere, patient knowledge is analyzed either as essentially different from (...) or similar to medical knowledge. The category of experiential knowledge is vague and is used to encompass many types of experience, whereas the knowledge of the `expert patient’ may be assumed to have the shape of up-to-date medical information. This paper shows through a case study of people with severe lung disease that patient knowledge can be understood as a form of practical knowledge that patients use to translate medical and technical knowledge into something useful to their daily life with disease. Patients coordinate this with homegrown know-how and advice from fellow patients, weighing different values - of which `taking good care of one’s body’ is but one - that may conflict in a specific situation. These practices result in sets of techniques that may be made useful to others. The paper argues for two alternatives to state-of-the-art medical research to turn patient knowledge into science: ethnographies of knowledge practices and the collection and making accessible of techniques. (shrink)

L’objet de cet article est de montrer comment au cours de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, du côté de la France libre et de la Résistance, s’est réalisée la mobilisation des femmes, ce qui a conduit des milliers de Françaises à investir la sphère combattante. Même si ce phénomène est resté minoritaire, et a été perçu par beaucoup comme une transgression, il est significatif des brouillages du genre favorisés par les guerres totales, et témoigne d’une étape significative, pour la France, de (...) la construction de la citoyenneté féminine. (shrink)

Many contemporary thinkers of the Anthropocene, who attempt to articulate a non-modern and relational ontology, all too readily dismiss critical theory inherited from the Frankfurt School for being anthropocentric, failing to acknowledge certain basic similarities. Instead, this article argues that the scaffolding of Anthropocene thinking—the recognition of the origins of the contemporary condition of ‘loss of world’ and the hope of ‘living on in the ruins’—share much with earlier critical theorists’ recognition that the Holocaust necessitated a fundamental break with the (...) past. In reading these two sets of literatures together, we suggest we can get a better grasp of the stakes involved in the contemporary crisis of critique, and in the speculative framings enabling alternative futures to come into being. (shrink)

The “active image” refers to the operative nature of images, thus capturing the vast array of “actions” that images perform. This volume features essays that present a new approach to image theory. It explores the many ways images become active in architecture and engineering design processes and how, in the age of computer-based modeling, images play an indispensable role. The contributors examine different types of images, be they pictures, sketches, renderings, maps, plans, and photographs; be they analog or digital, planar (...) or three-dimensional, ephemeral, realistic or imaginary. Their essays investigate how images serve as means of representing, as tools for thinking and reasoning, as ways of imagining the inexistent, as means of communicating and conveying information and how images may also perform functions and have an agency in their own. The essays discuss the role of images from the perspective of philosophy, theory and history of architecture, history of science, media theory, cognitive sciences, design studies, and visual studies, offering a multidisciplinary approach to imagery and showing the various methodologies and interpretations in current research. In addition, they offer valuable insight to better understand how images operate and function in the arts and sciences in general. (shrink)

Dignity is a fundamental concept, but its meaning is not clear. This paper attempts to clarify the term by analysing and reconnecting two meanings of dignity: humanitas and dignitas. Humanitas refers to citizen values that protect individuals as equal to one another. Dignitas refers to aesthetic values embedded in genres of sociality that relate to differences between people. The paper explores these values by way of an empirical ethical analysis of practices of washing psychiatric patients in nursing care. Nurses legitimate (...) the washing of reluctant patients with reference to dignity. The analysis shows the intertwinement of humanitas and dignitas that gives dignity its fundamental meaning. (shrink)

Les recherches consacrées à l’histoire des femmes et du genre dans les espaces colonisés se multiplient en français depuis une dizaine d’années. En 2008, la revue Sextant a consacré un numéro à ces problématiques en réunissant une douzaine d’enquêtes menées par des littéraires, des historiens et des politistes dans les contextes impériaux britannique, français, belge, néerlandais et portugais, de la fin du siècle aux années 1960/1970 voire au-delà. Les études interrogent autant les mondes col...

Quelles relations existent entre l’histoire de la sexualité et celle de la politique? Comment le genre construit-il le politique et en quoi le politique construit-il le genre? Sexisme et racisme sont-ils liés? Dans cet essai, Elsa Dorlin s’interroge sur le processus historique qui a conduit à nouer la construction culturelle de la différence entre les sexes avec l’élaboration d’une pensée hiérarchisant les groupes humains selon leur apparence physique et la formation de l’idéologie nationa...

Marsile de Padoue a été jugé comme un penseur médiéval ou un précurseur de la modernité en raison de sa défense de l’empire et de la thèse dite de la souveraineté populaire. Ces discussions négligent la dimension impériale de la modernité et séparent des thèses qui sont liées dans la pensée de l’auteur. L’argumentation de Marsile de Padoue permet d’analyser rétrospectivement les affinités de la logique des concepts d’empire et de souveraineté populaire en montrant la part d’imaginaire de leur objet. (...) Elle est une condition de leur existence et un argument pour la mettre en doute. (shrink)

Cette anthologie remarquable, de textes et documents pour une histoire européenne des femmes et du genre, est issue de la collaboration entre le « Groupe Genre & Europe » du Laboratoire d’excellence « Écrire une nouvelle histoire de l’Europe » (LabEx EHNE) et l’association Mnémosyne. Elle rassemble plus de soixante-dix textes originaires de l’Europe tout entière, publiés en langue originale (une quinzaine) et traduits en français, auquel s’ajoute un corpus iconographique diversifié (dessins,...

Marx or Tocqueville : Capitalism or Democracy Marx and Tocqueville were the conceptual icons and rallying-points of the two sides in the cold war.It is common today to consider that the outcome of this confrontation saw the victory of the latterover the former, to the extent that Tocqueville had shown greater prescience in the analysis of theevolution of western societies. However such an evaluation presumes that there is a substantial degreeof overlap between these two competing paradigms, whereas there is in (...) fact a fundamental oppositionbetween them regarding the point of view deemed to be pertinent for the task of the qualificationand conceptualisation of modern societies. Are these societies to be qualified as democratic societies,increasingly subject to the empire of equality, or as capitalist societies which are increasingly subject tothe empire of capital ? The article examines the theoretical consequences stemming form the differencein the problematic that is adopted. Tocqueville’s perspective involves a polemical appropriation of thevocabulary of democracy in order to interpret the “nature” of the latter in what is a liberal perspective.This enables us to understand that the task of examining the relation between Marx and democracydoes not simply mean the attempt to situate his position in relation to a stable and predefined object.It involves the critique of the polemical strategies for the appropriation of the term of democracy, astrategy from which Marx distances himself by way of the reference to communism. (shrink)

This article examines the philosophical issues that arise when preserving urban geological sites or urban geosites. These are preserved not only because of their geological value but also because of aesthetic, cultural, and economic reasons. To do so, it examines the geosite constituted by Olot and its surroundings, a city in Spain that extends amid four dormant volcanoes. It explores the metaphysical paradox that these geosites have become what they are due to the preservation of destruction: human-caused interventions, mostly extraction (...) of materials and exploitation of the land, are precisely what made these geosites visible as sites worth preserving and determining their metaphysical status. It further explores the preservation criteria and shows how they have determined the status of the geosite. Second, it shows how in such urban geosites the collapse of two diametrically opposed conceptions of time – the geological eon and the lived human time – occurs. Lastly, it discusses aesthetic aspects of such geosites by considering aesthetic experience as a primarily cognitive endeavor and shows how metaphysical, epistemological, and aesthetic issues of preservation of geosites are inextricably linked. (shrink)

Il arrive que la guerre froide soit pensée comme une victoire de Tocqueville sur Marx. Le dialogue imaginé dans ce livre montre que les idées de démocratie ou de mode de production capitaliste sont d’abord une alternative théorique pour penser la société contemporaine. La redéfinition possible de la démocratie sur le modèle de celle du communisme par Marx crée cependant un terrain où les positions théoriques et politiques peuvent s’affronter pour déterminer le cours de la révolution permanente de leur temps. (...) Tocqueville veut contrôler ce processus dans un sens libéral et Marx le révolutionner dans un sens communiste. D’un point de vue tocquevillien, la guerre froide est terminée parce que la démocratie est enfin séparée de la révolution. Elle est un ordre où règne la loi, et non un processus. La dialectique de la démocratie et du communisme, à la fois opposées et en continuité, montre cependant la fragilité théorique de cette thèse en faisant sentir la tendance de l’idée démocratique à s’idéologiser, que dénonçait aussi Tocqueville, et pose la question de sa capacité à maintenir sa puissance utopique. (shrink)

Eleven years after Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, Spain’s position vis-à-vis Kosovo has not only not varied, but it has become stronger, turning Madrid into the leader of the Kosovo non recognizers club within the EU. This paper analyses Kosovo-Spain relations in the last eleven years. More specifically, the paper examines the reasons behind the non-recognition of Kosovo and the approach of the Spanish governments toward Kosovo’s statehood. This is followed by a thorough analysis on how Kosovo’s path for self-determination (...) played a major role in Catalonia’s quest for independence in 2017. The empirical research demonstrates that Spain’s main reason not to recognise Kosovo is based on the country’s internal dynamics; namely, Catalonia and the Basque country. Likewise, the paper argues that the Spanish governments throughout the last eleven years have created an analogy between Kosovo and Catalonia; not in their political statements, but in their political decisions, by worsening the almost inexistent diplomatic relations with Kosovo, when the Catalan path for independence was at its highest peak. By the same token, the paper reveals that this position was enhanced and driven by Catalan separatism, that continuously used Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence as a model to further their own path for self-determination. The data provided and analysed in this paper as well as the statements made are based on desk research and seven semi-structured interviews conducted in Prishtina, Brussels, Madrid and Barcelona in 2018. (shrink)

We study a strengthening of the notion of a perfectly meager set. We say that a subset A of a perfect Polish space X is countably perfectly meager in X, if for every sequence of perfect subsets $\{P_n: n \in \mathbb N\}$ of X, there exists an $F_\sigma $ -set F in X such that $A \subseteq F$ and $F\cap P_n$ is meager in $P_n$ for each n. We give various characterizations and examples of countably perfectly meager sets. We prove (...) that not every universally meager set is countably perfectly meager correcting an earlier result of Bartoszyński. (shrink)

Depuis son invention par Destutt de Tracy et sa réinvention par Marx et Engels, le concept d'idéologie n'a cessé de faire problème. Passé dans le langage courant, largement utilisé par les sciences humaines, bien qu'en des significations souvent exclusives les unes des autres, il hante la philosophie comme une sorte de mauvais génie perturbateur qui lui rappellerait l'impureté de ses origines et de ses usages, et qu'il lui faudrait toujours s'employer à réduire ou à sublimer. Encore faudrait-il en produire une (...) définition cohérente. Mais comment y parvenir sans une enquête systématique, à la fois analytique et épistémologique, qui tienne compte de la multiplicité des usages et dégage une problématique générale, sans éluder pour autant la question du caractère polémique du concept? C'est ce qu'a entrepris Nestor Capdevila en déterminant le jeu de significations pertinentes, bien que potentiellement contradictoires, qui sont à l'œuvre dans les analyses historiques, anthropologiques ou théologiques contemporaines où l'on peut étudier son fonctionnement. Cette approche nouvelle conteste la thèse accréditée par la tradition sociologique d'une modernité de l'idéologie, totalitaire ou non. Elle montre la valeur d'un modèle religieux fondé sur le concept d'hérésie qui, tout en reconnaissant l'exemplarité idéologique de la religion, ne réduit pas l'idéologie à la religion. Elle critique également les définitions de l'idéologie qui par souci d'objectivité prétendent purifier le concept de son aspect intrinsèquement polémique. Celui-ci fait du concept d'idéologie une illustration exemplaire de la dimension politique des concepts de la politique. (shrink)

The problem of the time of a killing is often cited as providing grounds for rejecting the action identification thesis favoured by Anscombe and Davidson. In this paper I make three claims. First, I claim that this problem is a threat to the action identification thesis because of two assumptions the thesis makes: since the thesis takes actions to be a kind of doings, it has to assume that agents’ doings last as long as their actions and vice versa. Second, (...) I claim that not making both of these assumptions necessarily leads to another problem, the problem of the acting dead. This means that any theory of action has to choose its poison and face either one of these unresolved problems. Third, I claim that the solution to the problem of the time of a killing can be found by heeding linguistic arguments that ‘kill’ cannot mean ‘cause to die,’ as is commonly assumed, but instead has to have a more complex meaning. I discuss an alternative, more complex proposal and show how it allows us to keep the action identification thesis, fits colloquial usage of ‘kill’ and deals with the problem of the time of a killing. (shrink)

Following some remarks of Jacques Taminiaux on Gadamer, I examine the permeating presence of history and alterity in interpretation by contrasting Gadamer’s views with Davidson’s notion of “radical interpretation.” I start by examining the debate they held with each other on several occasions. I then analyze Gadamer’s understanding of interpretation as a “hermeneutic experience” and Davidson’s method of “triangulation.” They both agree that interpretation should be free from the psychological turmoil of either divining an author’s intent or projecting the reader’s (...) expectations. The fundamental difference is that, for Davidson, interpretation is an ahistorical process taking place in the synchrony of interpreter and observed subjects, whereas for Gadamer interpretation is a historical “event,” in which something “happens” and contributes to the making of history. (shrink)

As the popularity of the concept of ideology has waned, its ordinary or everyday usage has mirrored the plight of its scolarly usage, with the postulate of a “negative” and a “positive” sense of the term, and the opposition between an “ideological” and a “pragmatic” perspective, albeit with a recognition that ideology does involve a pragmatic dimension. The underlying anti-Marxism of this approach is evidence of a successful polemical strategy. This is an indication that its polemical thrust is an essential (...) aspect of the concept, and that one of the difficulties of “ideology” is that it is the site of the very struggles for whose analysis it provides a conceptual instrument. (shrink)

RESUMEN. Este artículo trata sobre la labor llevada a cabo por el iusfilósofo Luis Recaséns Siches de renovación de la Filosofía del Derecho en España mediante la introducción de los postulados neokantianos y kelsenianos. Lo que se puede denominar el proyecto Recasens fue, sin embargo, abruptamente interrumpido por el estallido de la Guerra Civil. Las críticas al neokantismo que contiene fueron incorporadas en trabajos posteriores de Recasens, así como en la obra del profesor Legaz y Lacambra, conservando de este modo (...) el proyecto algo de su impulso inicial. ABSTRACT. This article addresses the renovation effort conducted by the Law philosopher Luis Recaséns Siches, who aimed to update Philosophy of Law in Spain through the introduction of neokantian and kelsenian postulates. What can be denominated as “the Recaséns’ project” was, however, harshly interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The judgments targeting neokantism that can be found in such texts were included in Recaséns’ later publications, as well as in the work of the professor Legaz y Lacambra, hence yielding the project to maintain some of its original impulse. (shrink)

In this highly accessible book, a distinguished philosopher says current focus on the brain conceals the real powers of the mind. Edward Pols revisits one of the basic topics of philosophy: what is the distinction between mind and body and what is the relation between them? He disagrees fundamentally with the many contemporary philosophers who concentrate on the findings of neurophysiology and cognitive science and so look only to the brain for the causes and explanation of mind. Pols concedes the (...) importance of such scientific studies but maintains that they focus on the infrastructure of mind and ignore the momentous difference between the infrastructure and mind itself. Pols calls upon the reader to attend to mind itself as a concrete and experientially available reality. This kind of attention, he argues persuasively, reveals mind to be at once causally dependent on the brain and causally effective on the physical processes of the brain and the world. Pols also examines the hierarchical view of mind and causality first proposed by Plato and Aristotle, the supersession of that view by the received scientific doctrine of causality, and the mistaken denial of the power of the mind to know an independent reality—a denial that resulted from the philosophical doctrines about knowing developed in the era that began with Descartes and ended with Kant. (shrink)

This paper articulates dignity as relational engagement in concrete care situations. Dignity is often understood as an abstract principle that represents inherent worth of all human beings. In actual care practices, this principle has to be substantiated in order to gain meaning and inform care activities. We describe three exemplary substantiations of the principle of dignity in care: as a state or characteristic of a situation; as a way to differentiate between socio-cultural positions; or as personal meaning. We continue our (...) analysis by presenting cases on dignity in care related to us in focus groups with medical professionals. Our empirical ethical lens is in this paper is to analyse, not the meaning of dignity, but the way in which it emerges in practices where it is pursued, within relationships between people, technologies, places, regulations, and the values cherished by or embedded in them. We show that professional caregivers recognize in the dignity of the person they care for their own dignity; giving up on the one implies no less than giving up on the other. This ‘mirrored experience’ of dignity expresses itself in professional’s engagement with the situation. The value of this engagement, we argue, lies not primarily in realizing the particular content of the values at stake. We point to the importance of engagement itself, even if the values engaged with cannot be realized to the full, and even if competing versions of dignity are at stake simultaneously. In this way the caregivers provide us with interesting examples of moral actorship in situations of conflicting values. (shrink)

Resumen: En su libro Whose Body is it Anyway? Justice and the Integrity of the Person, Cécile Fabre defiende que, en nombre de la justicia, los recursos de una sociedad deben redistribuirse entre los necesitados y que, entre esos recursos, está incluida la sangre humana, para cuya provisión propone la creación de un servicio civil obligatorio de donación de sangre. Lo que se hace aquí es examinar si, a pesar de lo paradójica que pueda resultar, cabría desarrollar su propuesta en (...) nuestro país. Abstract: In her book Whose Body is it Anyway? Justice and the Integrity of the Person, Cécile Fabre argues that, on behalf of justice, resources of a society should be redistributed to the needy and that, among those resources, human blood is included. For the provision of this material, she proposes the creation of a mandatory civilian service of blood donation. What we propose here is to check if, despite the paradox of his proposal, it could be developed a civilian service of blood donation in our country. (shrink)

Le 20 janvier 2006 CLIO-HFS a fêté son dixième anniversaire. Dans l’amphithéâtre de l’EHESS, 105 boulevard Raspail, nous étions 250 environ venus écouter en cette circonstance deux femmes dont les relations à l’histoire sont différentes et complémentaires : Assia Djebar, Algérienne, membre de l’Académie française, auteure de nombreux romans écrits en français sur l’histoire, les femmes, les relations entre les générations ou entre les sexes ; et Michelle Perrot, historienne qu’on ne présente...

En 1993, lors de la publication en castillan de l’Histoire des femmes en Occident, une centaine de pages coordonnées par Mary Nash ont été ajoutées au tome V dirigé par Françoise Thébaud consacré au xxe siècle, afin d’ouvrir sur les sociétés contemporaines hispanique et latino-américaines. Le programme original de Georges Duby et de Michelle Perrot portait sur les femmes dans le monde occidental. De ce fait, les éclairages avaient été concentrés sur les principaux foyers de cette civilisation...

Arthur Danto's discussions of architecture are sparse. This chapter discusses the place, role, and meaning of architecture in Danto's writings and the extent to which Danto has influenced architectural theory and criticism. In addition to architecture being a key influence on his thought, Danto's writings on art and philosophy have permeated architectural theory and allowed for novel approaches to architecture by contemporary scholars. The most relevant contribution to contemporary architectural history may be Danto's conception of history as a process which (...) involves the use of what he termed “narrative sentences” and which culminates with the end of self‐conscious historical meta‐narratives. The considerations of Danto's thought within the fields of architectural theory and the philosophy of architecture seem only to be brief. His preferences toward Kahn and Holl reflect his interest in what could be called a philosophical architecture: one that embodies philosophical meanings and whose creators think philosophically while designing. (shrink)

How do technologies such as webcams influence health care and what concepts may describe this? This article explores the literature and analyses what people looking through webcams do within a particular health care practice in the Netherlands, that is, within the rehabilitation of people suffering from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma. Several ways to describe the activities webcams support and perform are identified. The webcam is concentrating the activities of its users, by making them focus on the task (...) at hand and magnifies the characteristics of the already existing relationships between webcam users by imposing a relational distance that fits best with intimate contacts. Although webcams shift notions of space and distance, their working appears to be related, to a great extent, to their location. (shrink)

I examine the problem of what Ricœur calls représentance, which is a stand-in narratives offer of what took place (in the case of historical narratives) or actions (in the case of the re-telling of what people did). Ricœur rejects as insufficient two naive options: first, a simple adequacy between what took place and the historical narrative about it and, second, a simple heterogeneity between them so that historical narratives would be mere “possible versions” of what took place. I explore further (...) why Ricœur brought into consideration the attitude of the one offering the narrative, what he calls a “being-in-debt” or “attestation”. I then offer an assessment of Ricœur’s success in still claiming that what actually happened serves as the ultimate referent of the narratives given of the past event or the action. (shrink)

Balanceren. Dat is waar sociale ondernemers onderlegd moeten in zijn: balanceren tussen sociale en economische doelstellingen, tussen empathie en zakelijkheid, tussen bedrijfsstabiliteit en sociale meerwaarde, tussen flexibiliteit en rigiditeit, tussen idealisme en realiteitszin. Sociaal ondernemen is dan ook een complexe uitdaging. Dat mag alvast een conclusie zijn van dit boek en het onderzoek waarop het gebaseerd is. Een andere vaststelling is dat sociale ondernemers, ook in moeilijke omstandigheden, bijzonder gedreven blijven om hun sociale missie waar te maken.0Er bestaat onmiskenbaar een (...) groeiende interesse in sociale en maatschappelijk verantwoorde bedrijfsvoering, die zich vertaalt in aandacht voor het welzijn en de ontwikkeling van de medewerkers, milieubewustzijn, duurzame productieketens, en dergelijke. Dit boek tracht inzicht te geven in welke vlag de lading ‘sociaal ondernemerschap’ dekt, zonder in zwart-witdenken te vervallen.0Het boek bouwt voort op wetenschappelijk onderzoek van de Hogeschool Gent, een samenwerkingsproject tussen de Faculteit Bedrijf & Organisatie en de onderzoeksgroep Sociale innovatie en Ondernemerschap van de Geassocieerde Faculteit Handelswetenschappen en Bestuurskunde. (shrink)

FOR THE GREATER part of this century a certain dogmatic complex of analytic-linguistic philosophy has prevented philosophers of that persuasion from acknowledging the real foundation question. It has been taken for granted instead that the foundation question begins and ends with the fate of what has come to be called, in the last two decades, foundationalism. If the thesis of this essay should prove persuasive, it will reinforce the dominant conviction that foundationalism is unacceptable. But that is only incidental to (...) my purpose. It is, however, essential to my purpose that two component dogmas of the complex are also principles of foundationalism. It will therefore be convenient to have before us the principles that appear to be common to the various versions of foundationalism: knowledge is a matter of justified true belief; knowledge consists of a system of propositions, and it is therefore these in which the knower has justified true belief; the justification of some of the propositions is direct, or immediate, and these are the foundational ones; the justification of the rest of the propositions is mediated by the foundational ones and so is indirect. (shrink)