Depuis les années 1960, Gilbert Durand a fondé et développé une méthodologie et une épistémologie novatrices de l'étude des imaginaires individuels et culturels qui ont inspiré une Ecole de Grenoble, qui n'a cessé d'essaimer à travers un grand nombre de centres de recherches en France et dans le monde. Sa pensée, connue à travers la mythocritique et la mythanalyse, enrichie par une vaste culture historique et pluriculturelle, a été appliquée dans les domaines les plus divers des sciences humaines et (...) sociales. Loin d'être un système clos, son oeuvre a inspiré une épistémologie ouverte qui a permis, sur la base des acquis fondamentaux, de se préciser, de s'adapter à des champs nouveaux, de recevoir les apports d'autres écoles, courants ou traditions culturelles. Les contributions ici rassemblées permettront de mieux situer l'émergence de la problématique de l'imaginaire dans différentes disciplines ou champs d'études, de présenter les innovations théoriques apportées par l'anthropologie de l'imaginaire de G Durand, d'illustrer les innovations qu'elles auront permises, d'amorcer des éléments de prospective pour les chantiers actuellement en cours d'exploration. (shrink)

L’objectif principal que nous poursuivons dans cet article est de montrer que pour un phénomène aussi complexe que le schwa, qui ne se laisse pas appréhender de manière triviale, la constitution de corpus s’appuyant sur une méthodologie rigoureuse et explicite est un élément indispensable de la construction des objets phonologiques. A cette fin, nous nous concentrons sur l’étude de la position finale, et plus spécifiquement de l’opposition /Cə#/ vs /C#/, à la lumière de trois enquêtes du projet « Phonologie du (...) français contemporain (PFC) : usages, variétés et structure » : un corpus de Douzens (Aude), un corpus de Biarritz (Pays Basque) et un corpus de Treize-Vents (Vendée). Après avoir resitué la problématique du schwa dans le débat général sur le traitement des positions finales, nous présentons le projet PFC, sa méthodologie et ses outils. Nous exposons enfin les résultats obtenus pour les trois corpus : le corpus de l’Aude représente un français du Midi très conservateur, où l’opposition /Cə#/ vs /C#/ est tenace malgré des variations entre générations ; le corpus du Pays Basque représente un français du Midi en évolution, où cette opposition tend à disparaître mais est résiduellement présente ; le corpus de Vendée (variété rarement décrite) se révèle plus proche du français de référence, et les données indiquent sans ambiguïté que l’opposition /Cə#/ vs /C#/ a été éliminée. Notre conclusion, si la démarche est correcte, est que ces résultats et les analyses qu’ils permettent (y compris l’étude des corrélations entre oral et écrit) seraient difficiles, voire impossible, à obtenir sur la base d’intuitions ou d’observations non contrôlées. (shrink)

In 1952, Heinrich Scholz published a question in The Journal of Symbolic Logic asking for a characterization of spectra, i.e., sets of natural numbers that are the cardinalities of finite models of first order sentences. Günter Asser in turn asked whether the complement of a spectrum is always a spectrum. These innocent questions turned out to be seminal for the development of finite model theory and descriptive complexity. In this paper we survey developments over the last 50-odd years pertaining to (...) the spectrum problem. Our presentation follows conceptual developments rather than the chronological order. Originally a number theoretic problem, it has been approached by means of recursion theory, resource bounded complexity theory, classification by complexity of the defining sentences, and finally by means of structural graph theory. Although Scholz' question was answered in various ways, Asser's question remains open. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est d’essayer de tester un certain nombre d’hypothèses sur la nature de l’engagement théorique, la forme du travail intellectuel et les ressources spécifiques de la philosophique sociale en évoquant certaines figures majeures des traditions allemande et française au xx e siècle. Cette très brève esquisse sera donc aussi l’occasion d’une interrogation croisée sur les champs allemands et français et sur les avantages comparés de leur trajectoire respective du point de vue de la philosophie sociale. Ce (...) dernier objectif est porté par la conviction que le rapport réflexif avec la conjoncture historique et intellectuelle est un des traits typiques de la philosophie sociale – à la fois pour le philosophe lui-même, mais aussi pour celui qui commente ce type de production théorique. (shrink)

Dans la médecine occidentale, le patient fut longtemps conçu comme un enfant à sauver, incapable ne serait-ce que de recevoir, de manière raisonnable, le savoir du médecin. Après la seconde Guerre Mondiale, la découverte des expérimentations scientifiques intolérables menées sur l’homme, mais aussi le vent libéral et individualiste des années 60, le progrès des biotechnologies, la démocratisation des savoirs ont favorisé l’émergence d’un nouveau paradigme et d’une nouvelle discipline : la bioéthique. Aujourd’hui, le médecin ne peut plus imposer son traitement (...) au malade, il doit, par respect de son autonomie, chercher à obtenir son consentement libre et éclairé. Les normes médicales et sociales, autrefois coercitives, voire transcendantes, sont aujourd’hui discutées et interrogées au regard des préférences et des valeurs individuelles. Des comités d’éthique pluridisciplinaires sont chargés de prendre en compte les demandes des patients qui ne cessent de bousculer les normes établies. (shrink)

De 1815 - avec le Congrès de Vienne qui inaugure une ère de Restauration - à mars 1848, avec les répercussions de la révolution de février en Europe, la période du Vormârz ("avant mars") se caractérise, au sein du monde germanique, par une vie intellectuelle d'une particulière effervescence. Les grandes philosophies qui se sont construites pour dépasser Kant, avec Fichte, Schelling et Hegel, autorisent bon nombre de penseurs allemands à considérer l'Allemagne comme étant philosophiquement en avance sur son temps, ou (...) tout au moins à la pointe de la modernité. Cette avance théorique tranche pourtant avec la réalité politique et sociale de l'époque, façonnée par Metternich. Une solution de cette contradiction dans laquelle se trouve l'Allemagne semble alors résider, aux yeux de certains auteurs, dans l'idée suivant laquelle il ne resterait plus à l'Allemagne qu'à réaliser sa philosophie. Le présent ouvrage entend contribuer à l'analyse de la façon dont le thème de la réalisation de la philosophie est élaboré par, ou à partir des réflexions de plusieurs auteurs de l'époque. Il s'agit des Jeunes Hégéliens, et principalement : Eduard Gans, Heinrich Heine, Arnold Ruge, Ludwig Feuerbach, Max Stirner, David Strauss, les frères Bruno et Edgar Bauer, Moses Hess, Michel Bakounine, August von Cieszkowski, Karl Marx et Friedrich Engels."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:THE MUNUS OF TRANSMITTING HUMAN LIFE: A NEW APPROACH TO I-IUMANAE VITAE JANET E. SMITH University of Dallas Irving, Texas 'TIRE ONLY ACQUAINTANCE 1bhat most rea;ders have with the Latin of Humanae Vitae is the tit1le. It is likey that fow laymen and perhaps eV'en fow schofars make ire:ferenoe to the Latin text; indeed, it is ireported that I-Iumanae Vitae was originally composed in ltalian, and it seems that (...) aH available translations of the text al'e based primarily on the Italian V'ersion. But since the official text of Humanae Vitae is in Latin and since translations are necessa11ily deficient, we shouild not be surprised that the ava:ilahle translations fail to convey a:M the nuances of the official text. (Latin, of course, is tihe langua:ge in which all official documents of the Church are written.) This study seeks to show that attenti¥eness to certain words fa the Latin text, most particularly the word munus, uncovers important eonnections between Humanae Vitae and pe['spect[ves of the Church, perspectives particularly highlighted in the documents of Vatican II. It also seeks to show that the La.tin provides greater philosophical precision for certain key teaohings of the text, most particularly section 11: "each and every maritail act must remain open to proc11eation." It is ii.mportant to note that some of the crucial Latin words of the document cal'ry connotations tihat cannot possibly be captured ihy 1any one English word. Indeed, some of the words convey concepts and attitudes that are quite foreign to speak:iers of modern English; to convey the meaning of some terms requires a. fairly lengthy expl,ication of notions not immed :iate1ly and directly graspaible hy ail readers. Even to the reade[' of Latin, the text does not 'easily ~eld its secrets. The 385 386 JANET E. SMITH Latin of the document has no identifiahle souTee of reliabJe deoipherment; it is a kind of " modern " 0 1 r " Church " Latin, which is an odd comhinat~on of elassical Latin and the lang1uage the Ohurch ha:s deve1oped oveil.' the centuries. The method of translation employed here has invo1 lved consultation of classical and medieval dictionaries, reference to arguably rep-!l1esentative classical and medieval 1 authors, tracing of the word 'being ioonsidered through t1he documents of Vatican II, con- 'sideration of 1appearance of the word in other Church documents, cross-reference to other uses of the word within Huma,nae Vitae itself, and reference to the Italian" 1 original." 1 l In preparation for this article reference was made to six English translations : (a) the translation done by the NC News Service, made widely available by the Daughters of Saint Paul, Of Human Life (Boston, Mass.: Daughters of St. Paul, 1968), hereafter referred to as the "usual translation" and designated by HY; (b) the translation by the Catholic Truth Society printed in John Horgan, Humanae Vitae and the Bishops (Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1972), 33-53; this translation was modified and reprinted in (c) The Pope Speaks 13 (1969): 329-346, and in (d) the Vatican Press Office translation, " Encyclical Letter on the Regulation of Births " in Vatican II: More Post-Conciliar Doauments, ed. Austin Flannery, O.P. (Northport, N. Y.: Costello Publishing Company, 1982), 397-416; (e) the translation by Rev. Marc Calegari, S.J., Humanae Vitae (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1978), which has undergone a further, as of yet unpublished, revision. 'There is one translation (f) that was made entirely from the Latin, by Rev. A. J. Durand, Humanae Vitae: A New Translation (Bethlehem, Pa.: Catechetical Communications; no date given); it is, though, not widely available. Rev. Calegari, in private communication with this author, noted that the document was originally written in Italian, though the Latin text is the official text. He also stated that the modern language versions were made from the Italian text. My comparisons of the translations of Humanae Vitae with the Italian and the Latin versions indicate that Rev. Calegari is correct in saying that most modern versions are based on the Italian, though a few, most notably that by the Catholic Truth Society, have clearly made reference to the... (shrink)

The Dominican theologian Durand of Saint-Pourçain (ca. 1275–1334), breaking from the wide consensus, made a two-pronged attack on concurrentism (i.e., the theory according to which God does more than conserving creatures in existence and co-causes all their actions). On the one hand, he shows that the concurrentist position leads to the unacceptable consequence that God is the direct cause of man’s evil actions. On the other hand, he attacks the metaphysical foundations of concurrentism, first in the version offered by (...) Thomas Aquinas and Giles of Rome, and then in a more general way. Against Thomas and Giles, he challenges Neoplatonic assumptions about causality and being. More generally, he establishes that God’s action and a creature’s action can be neither identical nor different, and thus cannot both be direct causes of the same effect. Without claiming that Durand’s series of objections are definitely unanswerable, we may at least observe that they have generally been underestimated (which earned him the lowly role of the mere foil of the concurrentist view in the history of philosophy) and are able to do considerable damage to concurrentism. (shrink)

Se è spontaneo associare i concetti di immagine e immaginario, in quanto sembrano due nozioni strettamente legate, non è affatto semplice determinare il modo in cui si configura il loro rapporto. Per tracciare i distingua di tale relazione e i metodi che possono aiutarci a chiarirla, partiremo dalla descrizione della coscienza d’immagine — si tratta di un termine husserliano — per arrivare al mito. La nostra riflessione si dividerà in diversi fasi. Analizzeremo infatti la struttura fenomenica dell’immagine mentale, del segno (...) e del simbolo e seguiremo, brevemente, anche il cammino inverso che va dal simbolo all’immagine. I punti salienti della nostra dimostrazione saranno i seguenti: il rapporto immagine-immaginario non può essere definito in modo univoco, in quanto cambia in base al tipo di immagine; a livello della coscienza d’immagine, un approccio psicologico può rivelarsi utile, poiché il supporto percettivo costituisce un momento essenziale dell’immagine reale; nel caso della phantasia o immagine mentale, il metodo psicoanalitico sembra quello più appropriato, poiché l’assenza del supporto percettivo rende le immagini mentali libere da ogni costrizione. Pertanto la comprensione delle dinamiche affettive-desiranti può fornire una spiegazione al corso apparentemente sregolato di associazioni che qui si manifestano. Per quanto riguarda il segno, il simbolo e il mito, le dimensioni affettiva, percettiva, transizionale e fantastica sono strettamente correlate. Questo tipo di immagini sembrano insistere su “schermi” diversi e pertanto si richiede un approccio metodologico variegato. (shrink)

En esta entrevista, el preservador Olaff Durand narra su experiencia como miembro de una organización ecológica, la cual se ha caracterizado por los cuidados que se han realizado al medioambiente. Estas actividades las han venido haciendo siempre de manera presencial, aunque en tiempo de pandemia se ha recurrido a virtualidad. Sin embargo, la labor y los proyectos ecológicos que él relata demuestran que ha habido un trabajo constante de concientización y de educación ambiental para los ciudadanos. En fin, esta (...) conversación será de utilidad para futuros investigadores e interesados en la materia, ya que podrán conocer cuáles son y serán las medidas sociales que adoptan los integrantes de esta organización ecológica para contrarrestar cualquier forma de contaminación en este siglo XXI. (shrink)

This chapter brings a philosophical perspective to the concept of stem cell. Three general questions both clarify the concept of stem cell and emphasize its ambiguities: (1) How should we define stem cells? (2) What makes them different from non-stem cells? (3) What is their ontology? (i.e. what kind of property is “stemness”?) Following this last question, the Chapter distinguishes four conceptions of stem cells and highlights their respective consequences for the cancer stem cell theory. Determining what kind of property (...) stemness is, in what context, is an urgent question, at least for therapeutic strategies against cancers. I hope that this chapter also illustrates how philosophy can be useful to biology. -/- The Chapter starts by clarifying the notions of self-renewal and differentiation. This leads to the question “can we (and if so, how) distinguish stem cells from non-stem cells through these two properties?”. From that will follow an interrogation on whether stem cells belong to a natural kind. On this issue, biologists and philosophers have framed the following alternative: either the concept of stem cell refers to entities (the cells that belong to the stem cell natural kind) or it refers to a transient and reversible cell state. I will argue that four conceptions of stemness should be distinguished rather than two. Finally, I will develop the case of the cancer stem cell (CSC) theory in order to show why it is crucial to answer the ontological question: some therapies might or might not be efficient depending on what stemness is. (shrink)

A substância deste artigo consiste na leitura de alguns autores que tratam do mito e do imaginário sem acatar as propostas que se fundamentam no racionalismo cartesiano e no influente positivismo do século XIX. Tais autores, como Eliade e Durand, desenvolveram no século XX um estudo do mito e da imagem com a perspectiva de uma orientação epistemológica que surgira na intenção de se constituir como uma nova abordagem científica, levando o elemento imaginativo e mítico ao encontro da realidade (...) imediata. O argumento principal dessa nova abordagem, que aqui tentamos minimamente apresentar, em torno do mito e da imagem, opõe-se ao dualismo filosófico que coloca em extremos o materialismo e o subjetivismo; dessa forma, tais autores chegaram a uma conclusão que ratifica a retórica da imagem simbólica e reafirma a força diretiva dos mitos, deixando o ditame imaginário de ser uma simples abstração ou engano, uma vez que segue regras mais profundas e é significativamente responsável pela dinâmica social ou pelas produções individuais representativas da cultura, no tempo e no espaço. Palavras-chave: Mito; Imaginário; Nova epistemologia; Século XX. ABSTRACT This article resentats some authors who treat myth and the imaginary without taking into consideration the proposals based on Cartesian rationalism and on 19th-century influent positivism. Those authors, such as Eliade and Durand, developed a study of myth and image in the perspective of an epistemological orientation aimed at elaborating a new scientific approach, promoting the encounter between imaginative and mythical elements and immediate reality. The main point in this approach in terms of myth and image, which we attempt to briefly present here, is opposed to the philosophical dualism that sets materialism and subjectivism distantly apart. Thus, those authors eventually reached a conclusion that ratifies the rhetoric of symbolic image and reaffirms the guiding strength of myths, releasing the imaginary from the restriction of being just an abstraction or a mistake, once it follows much deeper rules and is significantly responsible for social dynamics or for the individual’s culturally representative prductions in time and space. Key words: Myth; The imaginary; New epistemology; 20th century. (shrink)

O ensaio busca problematizar o Símbolo como o elemento que estabelece o cortejoentre o sagrado e o secular, tanto na escritura quanto na leitura da Bíblia, ao tensionar a suaprevalecente dimensão sagrada com o seu irrecusável aspecto humanístico e literário. Afundamentação teórica recai sobre a trajetória de pesquisa do pensador francês Gilbert Durand(1921-2012) sobre o símbolo e o imaginário, bem como a denúncia que ele efetua ao que elechama de esvaziamento simbólico do pensamento ocidental; e sobre os estudos dos (...) críticosliterários John B. Gabel, Charles B. Wheeler, Northrop Frye (1912-1991), Robert Alter e FrankKermode (1919-2010) da relação entre a Bíblia e a literatura. (shrink)

Applied Ethics has developed first in the English-Speaking world, but since the 1970's onward, the field also developed in the french part of Canada, especially Québec. This book presens three major contributions of the field in that context for a French public; in France, applied ethics is a quite recent development (1990's). Theoretical analysis of three authors is followed by interviews with the same persons to go further in the clarifications. The authors are Pierre Fortin, Guy Durand and Georges (...) A. Legault respectively from Rimouski, Montreal and Sherbrooke. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é propor, em confluência com a filosofia de Gaston Bachelard, uma pedagogia do não inspirada na figura do cogito do sonhador para refletir sobre uma educação para a imaginação. Parte-se da filosofia do não de Bachelard para a construção de uma pedagogia do não, expressa como pedagogia do diálogo, que põe em relação complexa e complementar o conceito e a imagem, como prolongamentos do racionalismo aberto e da imaginação criadora. Na sequência, o cogito do sonhador é (...) evocado para o estudo do devaneio e do imaginário, no quadro da imaginação material dos quatro elementos. Esses passos preambulares são necessários para se chegar à educação para a imaginação, cuja dimensão de Bildung se opera por meio da eufemização. Como função da imaginação, a eufemização tende a transfigurar o sofrimento, a morte e o nada em algo aceitável, não como negação, mas como dinamismo prospectivo que tenta melhorar a situação do homem no mundo. Exemplo desse dinamismo são as imagens literárias, com a polissemia e a polifonia que as caracterizam e as alçam ao domínio do estranho e da transgressão em relação à ordem do sentido primário. Desse modo, intenta-se mostrar como a pedagogia do não e o cogito do sonhador se articulam na proposição de uma educação para a imaginação pautada pela função de eufemização. São convocadas para este estudo, além da já mencionada filosofia de Gaston Bachelard, as contribuições teóricas de Gilbert Durand e Jean Jacques Wunenburger. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze social imaginary theoretical-epistemological basis. First, it defined the term social imaginary in relation to other similar or derivative, imagination, social representation and others. They settled their differences and finally developed the ideas of the most important authors on the subject, Moscovici, Abric, Castoriadis, Durand, Carter, Baeza, Pintos. It was concluded that the social imaginary are 1) interpretations in reality, 2) socially legitimized, 3) material manifestation as speech, symbols, attitudes, affective appraisals, knowledge legitimated 4) historically (...) developed and modified, 5) as matrices for social cohesion and identity, 6) distributed primarily through school, media and other social institutions, and 7) committed to the hegemonic groups. El presente trabajo tiene como propósito fundamental analizar los fundamentos teórico-epistemológicos de los imaginarios sociales. En primer lugar, se delimitó el término imaginario social con respecto a otros similares o derivados; imaginación, representación social y otros. Se establecieron sus diferencias y finalmente, se desarrollaron las ideas de los autores más relevantes sobre el tema (Moscovici, Abric, Castoriadis, Durand, Carretero, Baeza, Pintos). Se concluyó que los imaginarios sociales constituyen 1) esquemas interpretativos de la realidad, 2) socialmente legitimados, 3) con manifestación material en tanto discursos, símbolos, actitudes, valoraciones afectivas, conocimientos legitimados, 4) históricamente elaborados y modificables, 5) como matrices para la cohesión e identidad social, 6) difundidos fundamentalmente a través de la escuela, medios de comunicación y demás instituciones sociales, y 7) comprometidos con los grupos hegemónicos. (shrink)

O objetivo principal deste artigo é discutir a circulação do mito na sociedade através dos processos comunicacionais, refletindo-se sobre sua dinamização adaptativa aos diversos estratos de consciência social. Para tanto, recorre-se à Teoria Geral do Imaginário de Gilbert Durand, em especial à sua proposta de tópica sociocultural, que define três diferentes níveis de circulação mítica na sociedade: o inconsciente antropológico, a consciência social e a superconsciência normatizadora. Adota-se a definição do imaginário como resultante de uma negociação entre coerções historicamente (...) localizadas e pulsões de origem biopsíquica. Conclui-se que a circulação social do mito é fortemente impulsionada pela comunicação e que ele, a partir dela, exerce sua força regulatória sobre as coletividades. (shrink)

Esprits objectifs et esprits subjectifs.--Quelques aspects du réalisme contemporain.--Orientations fondamentales en métaphysique.--Joseph-Pierre Durand de Gros.--L'esthétique métaphysique.--Réflexions sur la philosophie scientifique et la philosophie des sciences.--La structure des nouvelles théories physiques (Gustave Juvet).--L'idée de la raison (Jean de La Harpe).--Les principes de la logique et la critique contemporaine (Arnold Reymond).--Philosophie spiritualiste (Arnold Reymond).--Vers une philosophie de l'esprit ou de la totalité (Henri-L. Miéville).--Les méthodes de la philosophie moderne (Maurice Muller).--Idéalisme et thomisme (Aimé Forest).--La civilisation juive en Espagne au Moyen Age (...) et la Renaissance (Saül Mézan).--Gustave Juvet, in memoriam.--André Burnier, in memoriam. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 497 Both theologians and philosophers need to see a completely integrated treatment of both rational and faith aspects of Aquinas's theology of creation. To this end, more work on theology as science also would be helpful. Emery's treatment of the end and subject of a science is not quite neoplatonic enough. His presentation of the subject of theology forces God, its subject in the Summa theologiae, on (...) earlier texts of Albert (49) and Aquinas (302). In I Sent. Aquinas says the subject is ens divinum, "being as related to the divine," which is much wider than God, who is the end but not subject oftheology. His model is Avicenna's ens commune as the subject of a metaphysics with God as its end. More work also must be done on the articles of faith, part of the subject of theology for Albert; but theology's proper principles for Aquinas. How primordial the articles are, and the interplay of reason and faith in knowing them, are still unresolved issues. In sum, one hopes this fine book by Fr. Emery will be the first of many helping give Thomism the new look it deserves. Centerfor Tlwmistic Studies Houston, TX R. E. HOUSER Relation als Vergleich: Die Relationstheorie des Johannes Buridan im Kontext seines Denkens und der Scholastik. By ROLF SCHONBERGER. Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, Band 43. Leiden/New York/Koln: E. J. Brill, 1994. Pp. 489. $108.75 (cloth). This book is a revised version of the author's 1990 Habilitationsschrift at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich. It aims to articulate the theory of relations developed by the noted Parisian philosopher, John Buridan (ca. 1295-1358), "in connection with the extensive scholastic discussion of this problem," and, in particular, to show how the same arguments were advanced or refuted by different philosophers from "fundamentally different starting points" (ix, 59). This stems from the author's working hypothesis that the medieval debate on the nature of relations proceeded dialectically, and that Buridan's contribution to it can be better understood by taking its argumentative context into consideration. The scope of the book is wide-ranging, to say the least. Readers expecting a book about Buridan's theory of relations will find the title somewhat misleading, however, since background material and a survey of the "scholastic context" of Buridan's theory fill up the first 372 pages, with the author's presentation and discussion of the theory itself limited to the final 498 BOOK REVIEWS 75. Furthermore, the author seems to regard the relevance of the former discussion to the latter as self-evident. This is fine where the connections are fairly uncontroversial, as in the case of William of Ockham, but where they are less so, as in the cases 0f Giles of Rome, Henry of Ghent, Meister Eckhart, Durand of St. Pour~ain, and Peter John Olivi, one is left in the dark about why separate chapters are devoted to each. Giles and Olivi are not even mentioned in the chapters on Buridan. Henry and Durand make one appearance each, both in the course of the trivial observation that unlike in their theories, "consideration of the doctrine of the Trinity plays no role in Buridan's theory of relations" (399). Eckhart is mentioned a few times, but in terms so speculative as to be useless for the general reader. For example, the author finds Jan Pinborg's characterization of Buridan as a someone who "took the arbitrariness of language seriously" to be "of course... too microscopic " (393). The reason is that Pinborg allegedly failed to see the radicalization of conventionality in the fourteenth century in terms of an "epochal shift" from "the symbolic and quasi-naturalistic conception of language in the early Middle Ages," a conception that, the author parenthetically notes, "is perhaps still to be found (or further strengthened) in Bonaventure or Meister Eckhart" (ibid.). But even bracketing the question of how this description fits the latter authors, the Buridan story is more complex than this. Buridan does emphasize that spoken and written expressions signify conventionally, but he never abandons the Aristotelian/Boethian tripartite conception of language, according to which concepts are said to... (shrink)

Selon Damásio, le moi conscient se crée à partir de la capacité du cerveau à raconter, c’est-à-dire à transformer en récit les signaux et messages produits par ses diverses couches. Les mythes donnent au monde une cohérence significative qui provient de l’organisation des éléments que ses récits produisent. Les rapports au monde de toutes les espèces vivantes sont contenus dans les limites de leurs possibilités phylogénétiques qui résultent déjà d’une relation continuée pendant des millions d’années. La capacité humaine de créer (...) des récits sur le réel doit intégrer ces éléments phylogénétiques qui se manifestent même dans les parties non conscientes du cerveau intégrées pourtant dans le récit qui construit un moi. Ce dépôt venu du fond des âges est une des causes de l’excès de sens que nous poursuivons toujours et qui est, au niveau de l’imaginaire « premier » la voix de ce fonds dans ces rapports avec le texte du monde. Un récit est ainsi une façon de donner à voir l’invisible, et cette invisibilité produit un excès de sens qui cherche toujours à se manifester. Il est marqué par les cohérences et consistances des images de cet imaginaire premier qui médiatise toujours nos relations au monde et aux autres, et auquel s’ajoute les cohérences des imaginaires « seconds » des individus et des cultures. According to Damásio, the self-conscious arises from the ability of the brain to tell, i.e. turn into a story the signals and messages produced by its various layers. Myths give the world a significant consistency that comes from the organization of the elements produced by its stories. The relationships of all living species with the world are contained within the limits of their phylogenetic opportunities resulting from a relationship continued for millions of years. The human ability to create stories about reality must incorporate these phylogenetic elements into the narrative that builds self-awareness. This unknown repository coming from the depths of time is one of the causes of the excess of meaning that we always pursue and is, at the level of the basic imaginary, one that Gilbert Durand considered the heritage of sapiens, the voice of these assets in their links with the text of the world. A narrative is thus a means of seeing the invisible, and this invisibility produces an excess of meaning which always seeks to manifest itself. It is marked by the coherence and consistency of the images of this basic imaginary which always mediates our relationship to the world and to others, and to which is added the coherences of the secondary imaginary coming from individuals and cultures. (shrink)

Cet article reprend sur de nouveaux frais la question de la carrière académique de Francis Caracciolo, et de son importance dans le milieu de Durand de Saint-Pourçain et de ses contemporains. Il confirme que Caracciolo était bien la personne visée par la désignation « cancellarius » dans les textes théologiques parisiens de la seconde décennie du xiv e siècle, y compris les Notabilia Cancellarii ; la thèse de Harclay s’en trouve réfutée. L’article rejette également l’attribution à Caracciolo de deux (...) Quodlibeta dans le ms. Vat. lat. 932 tout en envisageant la possibilité que Radulphus de Hotot en soit l’auteur. (shrink)

The recent drastic development of agriculture, together with the growing societal interest in agricultural practices and their consequences, pose a challenge to agricultural science. There is a need for rethinking the general methodology of agricultural research. This paper takes some steps towards developing a systemic research methodology that can meet this challenge – a general self-reflexive methodology that forms a basis for doing holistic or (with a better term) wholeness-oriented research and provides appropriate criteria of scientific quality.From a philosophy of (...) research perspective,science is seen as an interactive learning process with both a cognitive and a social communicative aspect. This means, first of all,that science plays a role in the world that it studies. A science that influences its own subject area, such as agricultural science, is named a systemic science. From this perspective, there is a need to reconsider the role of values in science. Science is not objective in the sense of being value-free.Values play, and ought to play, an important role in science – not only in form of constitutive values such as the norms of good science, but also in the form of contextual values that enter into the very process of science. This goes against the traditional criterion of objectivity. Therefore, reflexive objectivity is suggested as a new criterion for doing good science, along with the criterion of relevance. Reflexive objectivity implies that the communication of science must include the cognitive context, which comprises the societal,intentional, and observational context. Ina ccordance with this, the learning process of systemic research is shown as a self-reflexive cycle that incorporates both an involved actor stance and a detached observer stance. The observer stance forms the basis for scientific communication.To this point, a unitary view of science as a learning process is employed. A second important perspective for a systemic research methodology is the relation between the actual,different, and often quite separate kinds of science. Cross-disciplinary research is hampered by the idea that reductive science is more objective, and hence more scientific, than the less reductive sciences of complex subject areas – and by the opposite idea that reductive science is necessarily reductionistic. Taking reflexive objectivity as a demarcator of good science, an inclusive framework of science can be established. The framework does not take the established division between natural, social, and human science as a primary distinction of science.The major distinction is made between the empirical and normative aspects of science,corresponding to two key cognitive interests.Two general methodological dimensions, the degree of reduction of the research world and the degree of involvement in the research world, are shown to span this framework. The framework can form a basis for transdisciplinary work by way of showing the relation between more and less reductive kinds of science and between more detached and more involved kinds of science and exposing the abilities and limitations attendant on these methodological differences. (shrink)

The debate about the relative epistemic weights carried in favour of a theory by predictions of new phenomena as opposed to accommodations of already known phenomena has a long history. We readdress the issue through a detailed re-examination of a particular historical case that has often been discussed in connection with it-that of Mendeleev and the prediction by his periodic law of the three 'new' elements, gallium, scandium and germanium. We find little support for the standard story that these predictive (...) successes were outstandingly important in the success of Mendeleev's scheme. Accommodations played an equal role-notably that of argon, the first of the 'noble gases' to be discovered; and the methodological situation in this chemical example turns out to be in interesting ways different from that in other cases-invariably from physics-that have been discussed in this connection. The historical episode when accurately analysed provides support for a different account of the relative weight of prediction and accommodation-one that is further articulated here. (shrink)

The Kyoto Protocol on global warming has provoked great controversy in part because it calls for heavier burdens on wealthy countries than on developing countries in the effort to control climate change. The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to oppose any agreement that does not require emissions reductions in low-income countries. The ethics of this position are examined in this paper which shows that there are good moral reasons for supporting the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. Such a conclusion follows easily (...) from considerations of distributive justice but can also be supported by more narrowly self-interested arguments. (shrink)

George Boole emerged from the British tradition of the “New Analytic”, known for the view that the laws of logic are laws of thought. Logicians in the New Analytic tradition were influenced by the work of Immanuel Kant, and by the German logicians Wilhelm Traugott Krug and Wilhelm Esser, among others. In his 1854 work An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities, Boole argues that the laws of thought acquire (...) normative force when constrained to mathematical reasoning. Boole’s motivation is, first, to address issues in the foundations of mathematics, including the relationship between arithmetic and algebra, and the study and application of differential equations (Durand-Richard, van Evra, Panteki). Second, Boole intended to derive the laws of logic from the laws of the operation of the human mind, and to show that these laws were valid of algebra and of logic both, when applied to a restricted domain. Boole’s thorough and flexible work in these areas influenced the development of model theory (see Hodges, forthcoming), and has much in common with contemporary inferentialist approaches to logic (found in, e.g., Peregrin and Resnik). (shrink)

A personal view is presented of how metaphysics and ontology stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the light of developments during the twentieth. It is argued that realist metaphysics, with serious ontology at its heart, has a promising future, provided that its adherents devote some time and effort to countering the influences of both its critics and its false friends.

In this brief reply to Fraser MacBride's critical examination of the four‐category ontology and the place within it of the particular ‐ universal distinction, it is argued that the prospects for identifying the four basic ontological categories in terms of the characteristic patterns of ontological dependency between entities belonging to the different categories are rather more promising than MacBride suggests.

Housed in one volume for the first time are several of the seminal essays on Du Bois's contributions to sociology and critical social theory: from DuBois as inventor of the sociology of race to Du Bois as the first sociologist of American religion; from Du Bois as a pioneer of urban and rural sociology to Du Bois as innovator of the sociology of gender and culture; and finally from Du Bois as groundbreaking sociologist of education and cultural criminologist to Du (...) Bois as critic of the disciplinary decadence of the discipline of sociology. Unlike any other anthology or critical reader on Du Bois, this new volume offers an excellent overview of the critical commentary on arguably one of the most imaginative and innovative, perceptive and prolific founders of the discipline of sociology. (shrink)

Se trata de unareflexión interdisciplinar, a partir de W. Benjamin, sobre las relaciones entre experiencia, tiempo y memoriahistórica. La 1. parte analiza el empobrecimiento moderno de la Erfahrung que genera una“nueva barbarie”, a la vez que expenmentación innovadora, y que reclama un concepto más rico de experiencia, ligada ala totalidad concrete de la existencia. La 2. señala algunas paradojas de la memoria, muestra la inconsistencia del tiempo, cristalizado en el mito de Cronos, comoprincipio ordenador, y toma en consideración experiencias relevantes (...) que requieren concebir otro tiempo. En esa dirección, la 3. parte desarrolla la idea de Jetztze¡t, nucleo de la concepción crítica de la historia como tradición de los oprimidos, en cuyos bistantes de peligro relanipagea el angelus novus.Il s’agit d’une reflexion interdisciplinaire sur les liaisons entre expérience, temps et bistoire. La lére partie analyse l’appauvrissement moderne de l’Erfahrung, qui produit, selon W. Benjaniin, experimentation créatice et á la fois “une nouvelle barbarie”, et qui exige la construction d’un concept plus tiche d’expérience, liée á la totalité concréte de l’existence. La 2&me ¡nontre quelques paradoxes de la mémoire, sovligne ]‘inconsistance dv lemps comino principe d’ordre, et rappelle l’existence d’expériences qui demandent un autre concept du temps. La 3éme partie developpe ¡‘idee benjaininienne de Jetztzeit, noyau de sa conception critique de l’histoire conune tradition des opprimés, et analyse particuliérement la figure de l’angelus novus. (shrink)

A moving cultural biography of abolitionist martyr John Brown, by one of the most important African-American intellectuals of the twentieth century. In the history of slavery and its legacy, John Brown looms large as a hero whose deeds partly precipitated the Civil War. As Frederick Douglass wrote: "When John Brown stretched forth his arm... the clash of arms was at hand." DuBois's biography brings Brown stirringly to life and is a neglected classic.