This paper explores the notion of ‘relational values’ from a phenomenological point of view. In the first place, it stresses that in order to make full sense of relational values, we need to approach them through a relational ontology that surpasses dualistic descriptions of the world structured around the subject and the object. With this aim, the paper turns to ecophenomenology's attempt to apprehend values from a first-person perspective embedded in the lifeworld, where our entanglement with other beings is not (...) a theoretical construction but a palpable reality. Overall, the article's main purpose is to show that, in our direct and raw experience, values do not appear as subjective judgments or as objective properties but as events in which we participate alongside other human and non-human beings. (shrink)

As a discipline of its own, the philosophy of science can be traced back to the founding of its academic journals, some of which go back to the first half of the twentieth century. While the discipline has been the object of many historical studies, notably focusing on specific schools or major figures of the field, little work has focused on the journals themselves. Here, we investigate contemporary philosophy of science by means of computational text-mining approaches: we apply topic-modeling algorithms (...) to eight major philosophy of science journals, from the 1930s up until 2017. Based on the full-text content of some 15,897 articles, we identified 25 research themes and 8 thematic clusters that show how the research agenda of the philosophy of science has changed in its content over the course of the last eight decades, up to the philosophy of science we now know. We also show how each one of the journals contributed in its own way to this thematic evolution. (shrink)

In recent cancer research, strong and apparently conflicting epistemological stances have been advocated by different research teams in a mist of an ever-growing body of knowledge ignited by ever-more perplexing and non-conclusive experimental facts: in the past few years, an 'organicist' approach investigating cancer development at the tissue level has challenged the established and so-called 'reductionist' approach focusing on disentangling the genetic and molecular circuitry of carcinogenesis. This article reviews the ways in which 'organicism' and 'reductionism' are used and opposed (...) in this context, with an aim at clarifying the debate. Methodological, epistemological and ontological implications of both approaches are discussed. We argue that the 'organicist/reductionist' opposition in the present case of carcinogenesis is more a matter of diverging heuristics than a claim about theoretical or ontological (ir)reducibility. As a matter of fact, except for the downward causation claim, which we question, we argue that the organicist arguments are compatible with the reductionist approach. Moreover, we speculate that both approaches, which currently focus on specific entities i.e., genes versus tissues, will need to shift their conceptual frameworks to studying complex arrays of relationships potentially ranging over several levels of entities, as is the case with 'systems biology'. (shrink)

Artificial stimulation of the peripheral vestibular system has been shown to improve ownership of body parts in neurological patients, suggesting vestibular contributions to bodily self-consciousness. Here, we investigated whether galvanic vestibular stimulation interferes with the mechanisms underlying ownership, touch, and the localization of one’s own hand in healthy participants by using the “rubber hand illusion” paradigm. Our results show that left anodal GVS increases illusory ownership of the fake hand and illusory location of touch. We propose that these changes are (...) due to vestibular interference with spatial and/or temporal mechanisms of visual-tactile integration leading to an enhancement of visual capture. As only left anodal GVS lead to such changes, and based on neurological data on body part ownership, we suggest that this vestibular interference is mediated by the right temporo-parietal junction and the posterior insula. (shrink)

Though only established as a discipline since the 1970s, philosophy of biology has already triggered investigations about its own history The Oxford handbook of philosophy of biology, Oxford University Press, New York, pp 11–33, 2008). When it comes to assessing the road since travelled—the research questions that have been pursued—manuals and ontologies also offer specific viewpoints, highlighting dedicated domains of inquiry and select work. In this article, we propose to approach the history of the philosophy of biology with a complementary (...) data-driven perspective that makes use of statistical algorithms applied to the complete full-text corpus of one major journal of the field—Biology and Philosophy—from its launch in 1986 up until 2017. By running text-mining and topic-modeling algorithms, we identified 67 key research topics that span across these 32 years. We also investigated the evolution of these topics over time and their fluctuating significance in the journal articles. Our results concur with known episodes or traits of the discipline—for instance, the significance of evolution-related topics or the decrease of articles with a marked historical dimension—but also highlight a diversity of topics that is much richer than what is usually acknowledged. (shrink)

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a pervasive difficulty affecting number processing and arithmetic. It is encountered in around 6% of school-aged children. While previous studies have mainly focused on general cognitive functions, the present paper aims to further investigate the hypothesis of a specific numerical deficit in dyscalculia. The performance of 10- and 11-year-old children with DD characterised by a weakness in arithmetic facts retrieval and age-matched control children was compared on various number comparison tasks. Participants were asked to compare a (...) quantity presented in either a symbolic (Arabic numerals, number words, canonical dots patterns) or a nonsymbolic format (noncanonical dots patterns, and random sticks patterns) to the reference quantity 5. DD children showed a greater numerical distance effect than control children, irrespective of the number format. This favours a deficit in the specialised cognitive system underlying the processing of number magnitude in children with DD. Results are discussed in terms of access and representation deficit hypotheses. (shrink)

It is a most commonly accepted hypothesis that life originated from inanimate matter, somehow being a synthetic product of organic aggregates, and as such, a result of some sort of prebiotic synthetic biology. In the past decades, the newly formed scientific discipline of synthetic biology has set ambitious goals by pursuing the complete design and production of genetic circuits, entire genomes or even whole organisms. In this paper, I argue that synthetic biology might also shed some novel and interesting perspectives (...) on the question of the origin of life, and that, in addition, it might challenge our most commonly accepted definitions of life, thereby changing the ways we might think about life and its origin. (shrink)

Dans cet article, j’entends décrire comment évolue la philosophie de la physique de Weyl au cours de la période 1918-1927. Je rappellerai en particulier qu’il développe différentes formes d’« apriorisme» entre 1918 et 1923: un apriorisme « spéculatif» avec sa théorie unifiée des champs (1918-1921), puis une conception des connaissances a priori largement inspirée de la Wesensanalyse de Husserl dans ses travaux sur le problème de l’espace (1921-1923). Je montrerai par ailleurs que le holisme de Weyl, i.e., la thèse selon (...) laquelle seule une théorie physique envisagée comme un tout peut faire l’objet de tests empiriques, occupe le devant de la scène dès 1924-1925 dans des textes qui portent sur les fondements des mathématiques. Ce holisme est étroitement lié à sa conception de la théorie physique comme construction symbolique de la réalité. Au bout du compte je caractériserai le point de vue holiste de Weyl en le comparant à certaines réflexions développées par Cassirer, Einstein et Hilbert à peu près au même moment. (shrink)

Dans cet article l’auteur a souhaité étudier le travail de subjectivation des liens familiaux chez un auteur de violence sexuelle dans le cadre du dispositif pénal qu’est l’injonction de soins. À partir d’une recherche clinique menée sur un mode longitudinal, il propose de montrer comment le génogramme (en test, re-test) peut être un révélateur de la mise en œuvre du processus de subjectivation. Ce procédé permet de relever deux différences notables entre les deux génogrammes : dans le passage d’une place (...) fantasmatique dans les liens (celle d’un « enfant ») à celle d’une position instituée concomitante avec une affiliation intersubjective ; la présence ou l’absence de nom sur les icônes parentales. Des différences favorisées, selon nous, par le dispositif d’injonction de soins. (shrink)

DMet 10: Prime matter is the origin of all quantities. Hence it is the origin of every dimension of continuous quantity whatever. ...

The aim of this paper is to examine the medieval posterity of the Aristotelian and Pyrrhonian treatments of the infinite regress argument. We show that there are some possible Pyrrhonian elements in Autrecourt's epistemology when he argues that the truth of our principles is merely hypothetical. By contrast, Buridan's criticisms of Autrecourt rely heavily on Aristotelian material. Both exemplify a use of scepticism.

From John Maynard Keynes’s prediction of a fifteen-hour workweek to present-day speculation about automation, we have not stopped forecasting the end of work. Critical theory and political philosophy have turned their attention away from the workplace to focus on other realms of domination and emancipation. But far from coming to an end, work continues to occupy a central place in our lives. This is not only because of the amount of time people spend on the job. Many of our deepest (...) hopes and fears are bound up in our labor—what jobs we perform, how we relate to others, how we might flourish. The Return of Work in Critical Theory presents a bold new account of the human significance of work and the human costs of contemporary forms of work organization. A collaboration among experts in philosophy, social theory, and clinical psychology, it brings together empirical research with incisive analysis of the political stakes of contemporary work. The Return of Work in Critical Theory begins by looking in detail at the ways in which work today fails to meet our expectations. It then sketches a phenomenological description of work and examines the normative premises that underlie the experience of work. Finally, it puts forward a novel conception of work that can renew critical theory’s engagement with work and point toward possibilities for transformation. Inspired by Max Horkheimer’s vision of critical theory as empirically informed reflection on the sources of social suffering with emancipatory intent, The Return of Work in Critical Theory is a lucid diagnosis of the malaise and pathologies of contemporary work that proposes powerful remedies. (shrink)

Résumé Considéré comme un auteur érotique, Crébillon fils ne met pourtant pas en scène des corps charnels dont il décrit les ébats. Bien au contraire, il s’intéresse à des corps amoureux plus intéressants, comme en témoigne son premier texte intitulé Le Sylphe. Ce texte liminaire met en scène un corps doublement subtil en ce qu’il est aérien et en ce qu’il se dérobe aux ébats. Le corps amoureux chez Crébillon fils est donc un corps sensuel et sensible qui se dérobe (...) pourtant au moment de l’amour. (shrink)

A l'occasion du soixantieme anniversaire d'Alain de Libera, une trentaine de collegues de France et de l'etranger ont souhaite, par une serie d'etudes d'histoire de la philosophie et de metaphysique, saluer son oeuvre scientifique et lui offrir un temoignage d'amitie. L'histoire de la metaphysique etant l'un des points cardinaux du travail philosophique d'Alain de Libera, a qui l'on doit notamment de magistraux ouvrages sur les universaux, il a semble judicieux d'etudier ces entites mineures mais neanmoins indispensables qui viennent completer la (...) substance pour constituer l'individu: les proprietes accidentelles. La question des accidents est ici etudiee sur la longue duree - d'Aristote a la metaphysique analytique contemporaine, avec une attention particuliere portee aux discussions medievales - et sous ses differents aspects: ontologique, semantique, epistemologique et psychologique. Sont ainsi abordes des problemes philosophiques aussi fondamentaux que ceux induits par les categories aristoteliciennes de qualite et de relation, les tropes, la causalite, l'individuation. (shrink)

Les sources proposent deux dates concurrentes pour l’archontat de Damasias : 582/1 et 580/79. Cette étude tente premièrement d’établir que ces propositions sont toutes deux correctes. En effet, le nom de Damasias devait figurer sur la liste des archontes pour les trois années durant lesquelles il exerça cette charge, et non uniquement pour la première. La seconde partie de l’étude propose une interprétation nouvelle des intervalles de temps qui, dans le chapitre XIII de la Constitution d’Athènes, scandent la période séparant (...) le départ de Solon de la désignation de Damasias, afin de les faire correspondre avec les deux termini établis plus haut. Pareille démarche oblige à remettre sur le métier la chronologie de l’archontat solonien qui constitue le point de départ du comput, question que nous aborderons à travers l’implication du législateur dans la première guerre sacrée. (shrink)

À partir de deux vignettes a priori sans rapport, l’auteur se propose de réfléchir aux effets des transformations sociales sur le rapport que les individus entretiennent avec la parentalité. Revendication d’autonomie, création et utilisation d’un réseau « coparental » autour de l’enfant ; il sera question de mesurer l’intérêt dans un cadre clinique de porter attention aux modalités de rencontre, ou de non-rencontre, entre la créativité des parents et leur environnement. L’auteur en arrivera à paraphraser D.W. Winnicott en proclamant qu’« (...) un parent, ça n’existe pas! ». (shrink)

If the idea of isolating new beings, meticulously removed from the usual processes of education and socialization, is not an invention of the Age of Enlightenment, such fictitious experiences (whether they are thought experiments, experimental projects, or literary fictions of infantile isolation) multiplied in the 18th century. The experimental dissolution of the social link in fiction most often aims at demonstrating the naturality of this link and its necessity in the development of the enlightenment of reason. This paper intends to (...) highlight how the Rousseauist problematic introduces a considerable break within the elaboration of these fictions of infantile isolation: in the wake of the Second Discours and Émile, the intention is no longer to illustrate the vacuity that breaking the social link would produce but, on the contrary, of disinhibiting the original properties of the nature of men which they lost through the double process of denaturation and renaturation, and of developing a priori unimaginable potentialities for corrupt beings. Experimental unlinking must allow the regeneration of the individual and the community. (shrink)

With this proposal, we wish to revisit the Idea of the University in the perspective of the democratic project of the American philosopher and pragmatist John Dewey. Our hypothesis consists in the thesis that the deweyen project confronts the problem of the social distribution of knowledge, in the aim of giving us the means to transform the latter. In this way, if we consider that the university is part of this distribution through its student learning function, then our purpose is (...) to demonstrate that this learning is currently guided by an individual intelligence paradigm harms that the development of collective intelligence. For John Dewey, the latter is one of the central means of his democratic project which would reconcile the Idea of a University with real University institutions. Therefore, according to him, if universities want to contribute to the democratic project, we must adopt a new pedagogical orientation promoting individual and collective intelligence. (shrink)

Condemned to exist beyond his essence, since he is only what he does and can always become what he is not or not to be what he is any more, man is, for Sartre, condemned to freedom without condition which constitutes, not his nature, but his condition. Free of anything apart from not being free, since he chooses neither to be, nor the necessity to choose the being that he must make himself be, man, however, is always already determined by (...) his condition: thrown in to a world where he acknowledges his own condition. Far from calling into question the integrity of his autonomy of choice, this ontological conditioning is for the Being-itself the ground on which the need for his engagement appears and, therefore also the plenitude of his freedom. As tragic as that which one considers controlled by fate, for Sartre, the human condition thus means being condemned to freedom. (shrink)

Editorial: Folk Epistemology. The Cognitive Bases of Epistemic Evaluation Content Type Journal Article Pages 477-482 DOI 10.1007/s13164-010-0046-8 Authors Christophe Heintz, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Dario Taraborelli, Centre for Research in Social Simulation, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK Journal Review of Philosophy and Psychology Online ISSN 1878-5166 Print ISSN 1878-5158 Journal Volume Volume 1 Journal Issue Volume 1, Number 4.

Ectopeptidases are transmembrane proteins present in a wide variety of tissues and cell types. Dysregulated expression of certain ectopeptidases in human malignancies suggests their value as clinical markers. Ectopeptidase interaction with agonistic antibodies or their inhibitors has revealed that these ectoenzymes are able to modulate bioactive peptide responses and to influence growth, apoptosis and differentiation, as well as adhesion and motility, all functions involved in normal and tumoral processes. There is evidence that ectopeptidase-mediated signal transduction frequently involves tyrosine phosphorylation. Combined (...) analyses of gene organization and regulation of ectopeptidases by various physiological factors have provided insights into their structure–function relationships. Understanding the roles of ectopeptidases in pathophysiology may have implications in considering them as therapeutic targets. BioEssays 23:251–260, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

Résumé On attribue souvent à John Stuart Mill une théorie de la liberté fondée sur un principe de non-nuisance qui conduirait à une critique radicale du paternalisme politique et juridique. Cependant, en analysant de plus près la portée de ce principe ainsi que son mode de justification, il est possible d’en donner une interprétation qui soit compatible avec certaines formes de paternalisme. On peut ainsi considérer De la liberté comme une des sources du paternalisme libéral et plus précisément d’un paternalisme (...) perfectionniste visant à préserver et à promouvoir l’autonomie des individus. (shrink)

À une époque d'ultra normalisation des comportements, que ce soit dans le domaine de la médecine, de l'entreprise ou de l'éducation (de la maternelle à l'IUFM), il nous a semblé utile de questionner la notion de norme en la rattachant au thème transversal de la santé, qui intéresse toutes les disciplines et permet d'explorer la problématique des normes (la question de leur origine et de leur valeur) sous des angles variés et complémentaires. Le terme de norme est abordé ici dans (...) ses deux sens... (shrink)

Cet article discute la thèse de Bergson suivant laquelle toute philosophie consiste en l’explicitation d’une intuition première. A travers l’exemple de Schopenhauer, il s’attache à montrer que le point de départ d’une philosophie n’est pas une intuition, mais un problème que le philosophe s’efforce de résoudre par une « création » de concepts.

« Car celui qui regarde, dans ce drame, est aussi celui qui détruit. » J.-M. G. Le Clézio, Le rêve mexicain « Le barbare, c’est d’abord celui qui croit à la barbarie. »C. Lévi-Strauss, Race et histoire « Là où dialoguent les cultures. »Slogan du Musée du quai Branly Introduction Durant plus de quatre siècles, l’altérité radicale s’est incarnée en Occident dans la figure du barbare « exotique », issu de mondes lointains et méconnus. Notre rapport à cet Autre absolu (...) a souvent trahi une fascinat... (shrink)

Dès la première phrase de son introduction, l’auteur précise l’objet de son étude qui n’est pas la virginité féminine en elle-même mais la domination masculine que la question de la virginité est à même de révéler : « this book is about cultural constructions of men’s sexuality as ideally aggressive » (p. 1). Il entreprend d’étudier pensée rabbinique et pensée chrétienne qui ont pu s’appuyer sur le passage biblique de Deutéronome 22 :13-21, texte ayant statué sur la nécessaire virginité des (...) j... (shrink)

Loin d’être circonscrit à Sein und Zeit , dont il est un motif central de l’analytique existentiale, le On heideggérien — das Man — n’est ni une notion ordinaire, ni un hapax arbitraire. Comme tout concept philosophique, il possède une histoire que son auteur ne cesse d’ailleurs d’écrire avant la publication de son œuvre majeure. S’y employant dès 1922, dans le cadre de l’herméneutique de la vie facticielle, il s’en détache pourtant en 1927 pour, de fait, y renoncer définitivement. Animé (...) du désir d’en faire mieux comprendre le sens, en nous appuyant sur ses occurrences, c’est le devenir de ce motif singulier que, de sa naissance à son évanescence, nous aimerions retracer. (shrink)

Réservant à la pensée de Descartes un traitement plus réservé que l’étude qu’il peut mener de ses autres grands devanciers, Heidegger, à en croire certains commentateurs, dissimulerait mal envers le penseur français son inimitié, celle-ci le prémunissant sans doute du danger de ne pouvoir se relever d’un « cartésianisme inné », dont il fait le reproche aux philosophes. C’est pourtant contre ce préjugé qu’il s’agit ici de lutter en désamorçant, à travers l’éclaircissement de la notion d’ Auseinandersetzung , cet apparent (...) paradoxe : entrant toujours en confrontation avec ses ‘’prédécesseurs’’, jamais pourtant Heidegger n’entre en conflit avec eux. (shrink)

Storage operators are λ-terms which simulate call-by-value in call-by-name for a given set of terms. Krivine's storage operator theorem shows that any term of type ¬D → ¬D*, where D* is the Gödel translation of D, is a storage operator for the terms of type D when D is a data-type or a formula with only positive second order quantifiers. We prove that a new semantical version of Krivine's theorem is valid for every types. This also gives a simpler proof (...) of Krivine's theorem using the properties of data-types. (shrink)