Evans & Levinson (E&L) argue against Universal Grammar on the basis of language diversity. A related and fundamental issue is whether the language input provides sufficient information for a child to acquire it. I briefly discuss the more integrated approaches to language acquisition which focus on the mechanisms, and research showing that input cues provide valuable information for the language learner.

Patients have received experimental pharmaceuticals outside of clinical trials for decades. There are no industry-wide best practices, and many companies that have granted compassionate use, or ‘preapproval’, access to their investigational products have done so without fanfare and without divulging the process or grounds on which decisions were made. The number of compassionate use requests has increased over time. Driving the demand are new treatments for serious unmet medical needs; patient advocacy groups pressing for access to emerging treatments; internet platforms (...) enabling broad awareness of compelling cases or novel drugs and a lack of trust among some that the pharmaceutical industry and/or the FDA have patients’ best interests in mind. High-profile cases in the media have highlighted the gap between patient expectations for compassionate use and company utilisation of fair processes to adjudicate requests. With many pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient groups, healthcare providers and policy analysts unhappy with the inequities of the status quo, fairer and more ethical management of compassionate use requests was needed. This paper reports on a novel collaboration between a pharmaceutical company and an academic medical ethics department that led to the formation of the Compassionate Use Advisory Committee. Comprising medical experts, bioethicists and patient representatives, CompAC established an ethical framework for the allocation of a scarce investigational oncology agent to single patients requesting non-trial access. This is the first account of how the committee was formed and how it built an ethical framework and put it into practice. (shrink)

Thinking about the end of capitalism is nothing new. The amazing thing is that Max Weber, who is not suspected of being a socialist or a communist, did so more than 100 years ago – in terms of fossil fuels. This brings him closer to the demands of the “green economy”, but on closer inspection, the energy and raw material base is only one factor in Weber’s complex conception of modern capitalism.

Le paysage religieux actuel est caractérisé par une perte d’influence des systèmes religieux établis et un intérêt fort pour les nouveaux mouvements religieux. Il en résulte des processus de transformation et de pluralisation à l’intérieur du christianisme. L’émergence d’une culture religieuse féminine, d’inspiration féministe, à l’intérieur ou en marge des Églises, participe à ces processus de transformation. Cet article donne un aperçu des nouvelles pratiques et des réorientations religieuses de chrétiennes (minoritaires et essentiellement protestantes) qui font référence à des représentations (...) féminines de Dieu, dans l’Allemagne d’aujourd’hui. (shrink)

This volume examines the conflicting factors that shape the content and form of grammatical rules in language, which speakers and addressees need to contend with when expressing themselves and when trying to comprehend messages. Chapters examine adult language, first and second language acquisition, and the motivations behind historical change.

LeShan L. and LeShan, E. Psychotherapy and the patient with a limited life span.--Kubler-Ross, E. On death and dying.--Kutscher, A. H. Anticipatory grief, death, and bereavement: a continuum.--Needleman, J. The moment of grief.--Lifton, R. J. On death and death symbolism: the Hiroshima disaster.--Nelson, B. The games of life and dances of death.--Sleeper, R. The resurrection of the body.--Friedman, M. Death and the dialogue with the absurd.--Wyschogrod, E. Sport, death, and the elemental.--Lamont, R. The double apprenticeship: life and the process of (...) dying--Selected bibliography (p. 225-235). (shrink)

Résumé L’article analyse la série photographique Danse macabre avec jeune fille de Birgit Jürgenssen selon deux axes : le concept de masque et l’enchevêtrement de deux thèmes iconographiques. En s’inscrivant dans un espace archaïsant, où apparaissent des éléments burlesques, les photographies de Jürgenssen des années 1979 et 1980 sont, comme chez Bakhtine, un éclat de rire contre la culture dominante.

L’historien, Georges Bensoussan, rédacteur en chef de la Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah a ouvert aux philosophes un numéro entier de cette revue (n° 207, oct. 2017). Sans être exhaustif, ce volume constitue sans doute une des plus importantes contributions à la question des rapports que « les » philosophes ont entretenus et entretiennent avec la Shoah, qu’il s’agisse de philosophes adeptes du nazisme exterminateur ou, au contraire, d’opposants, ou encore de victimes rescapées, comme enfin aussi, de contemporains muets. Dans (...) la grande diversité de leurs horizons et de leur nationalité, les contributeurs sont unis par l’engagement philosophique personnel avec lequel ils présentent les philosophes dont ils sont spécialistes, loin de tout exposé doxographique. Loin de clore sur des certitudes, ce numéro rend problématique non seulement un enseignement philosophique de la Shoah, mais plus radicalement interroge l’idée même d’une philosophie de la Shoah. (shrink)

La proposition de cet article est de se saisir du « temps de l’expérience » des parcs éoliens citoyens en Frise du Nord (Allemagne) en le confrontant à la fois aux pulsations politiques des expérimentations techniques et à la fois aux rythmes des vents, comme ce qui permettrait d’en prendre soin, pour penser la continuité des épreuves de transition dans le temps mais aussi dans l’espace, dans une perspective démocratique de multiplication des expériences de transition.

In a work of foundational thinking of the first rank and perhaps his most important book to date, French phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas attempts to establish the primordiality of ethics by exhibiting the structures of the ethical subject and distinguishing these from theoretical reason, even from a conatus towards the Good. In his earlier Totality and Infinity Levinas interprets this difference morphologically within the context of a Husserlian Lebensweltphilosophie as sensuous immediacy, habitation, fecundity and, beyond ontology, the commanding relation with the (...) Other. In the present work the focus shifts to discourse itself. This turn is a response to the problematic set forth in the later Heidegger as the ontological difference, the difference between Being and beings and the coming-to-pass of this difference in the Logos, as well as to French Structuralist and post-Structuralist thought which interprets language as a system of signs and meaning as arising within a field of intralinguistic difference. For both, the epistemological subject as it has been traditionally understood dissolves. But, Levinas argues, ethical subjectivity, a nul-site beyond ontology, more primordial than the ontological difference which exists as receptivity to and responsibility for the Other, remains. This work is a sustained meditation on the Good and the structure of responsibility which precedes Being and consciousness. (shrink)

We are still far from a religious history of Europe (l'histoire réligieuse de l'Europe) which would satisfy the requirements of modern religious scholarship. We do, however, have a picture of the religions of Europe, the old and the new, of their metamorphoses and effects on the intellectual world of European man, which we can use as a temporary survey. A modification in this survey concerns not only scholars; the religious history of Europe is our religious history, regardless of the value (...) it has for the individual as creed or philosophical doctrine. Unlike religion, religious history cannot be repudiated on the basis of doubts as to its truth or its existential validity (could this be “my” religion?). What is more, such a history cannot be side-stepped, for even the repudiation of all religion is an act within religious history; and a presentation of the religious history of Europe which does not concern itself with Nietzsche would not satisfy our demands as scholars. (shrink)

First published in 1984, Cultural Analysis is a systematic examination of the theories of culture contained in the writings of four contemporary social theorists: Peter L. Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas. This study of their work clarifies their contributions to the analysis of culture and shows the converging assumptions that the authors believe are laying the foundation for a new approach to the study of culture. The focus is specifically on culture, a concept that remains subject to (...) ambiguities of treatment, and concentrates on questions concerning the definition and content of culture, its construction, its relations with social conditions, and the manner in which it may be changing. The books demonstrates how these writers have made strides towards defining culture as an objective element of social interaction which can be subjected to critical investigation. (shrink)

Dans l'oeuvre d'Edith Stein, l'alterite apparait comme constitutive de la personne humaine. D'un point de vue proprement subjectif, l'alterite renvoie... l'alter ego,... la dimension communautaire et, dans une perspective croyante, au Tout-Autre. D'un point de vue objectif, elle designe les valeurs, qui faconnent la personnalite, et la foi, qui vient au secours de la raison humaine. Un parcours des oeuvres principales de l'auteur permet de prendre la mesure... la fois de la continuite et de l'evolution de sa pensee. A (...) partir de l..., l'etude entreprend de mettre en evidence, d'une part, l'originalite de la pensee d'Edith Stein par rapport... celle de Husserl et, d'autre part, comment Edith Stein se situe par rapport... la pensee de Thomas d'Aquin. L'influence de l'oeuvre de Jean de la Croix est egalement abordee. Enfin, en dialogue avec des auteurs comme Ricoeur, Levinas ou Ladriere, la troisieme partie du livre aborde de maniere critique la question de l'alterite comme fondement de la personne et cela selon trois parcours, l'un lie... la phenomenologie d'Edith Stein, l'autre... sa philosophie chretienne, et le dernier... son attrait pour la mystique. (shrink)

In the early years of Mendelism, 1900-1910, William Bateson established a productive research group consisting of women and men studying biology at Cambridge. The empirical evidence they provided through investigating the patterns of hereditary in many different species helped confirm the validity of the Mendelian laws of heredity. What has not previously been well recognized is that owing to the lack of sufficient institutional support, the group primarily relied on domestic resources to carry out their work. Members of the group (...) formed a kind of extended family unit, centered on the Batesons' home in Grantchester and the grounds of Newnham College. This case illustrates the continuing role that domestic environments played in supporting scientific research in the early 20th century. (shrink)

In this paper we will try to reconstruct, starting from Husserl’s path, the genesis of Edith Stein’s philosophical itinerary and to show that, just in her detachment from Husserl’s orthodoxy, Stein will end up opening new paths to phenomenology and to reckon with questions left open by the father of phenomenology. Therefore, we will try to show that one of the most interesting aspects of the husserlian legacy revolves around the concepts of empathy and intersubjectivity developed in Edith (...) Stein’s reflection. Moreover, we will try to refute Paul Ricoeur’s remark that speaks of an illusion arising from all attempts of phenomenology to account for the existence of the other and, in doing so, we will see that the solution proposed by Stein is not only not disappointing at all but contributes to open the way to a phenomenology of otherness that does not merely flatten and confine the other to one’s self. (shrink)

I would like to try to clarify one aspect of the relationship between Levinas’s philosophy — or “ethical metaphysics,” as Edith Wyschogrod has called it — and Judaism as Levinas understands it. In and of itself it is interesting to try to understand Levinas’s thinking and its relationship to his life as a Jew and to Judaism as he takes it to be. But I also have ulterior motives — that is, I have what some might think are larger (...) fish to fry. I will begin by saying something about Hilary Putnam’s article “Levinas and Judaism” in The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, edited by Simon Critchley and Robert Bernasconi. I think that I can indicate what those “larger fish” are by pointing to an intriguing tension in Putnam’s discussion. (shrink)

Pourquoi ajouter un ouvrage à tant d'autres qui saluent la mémoire et commentent l'oeuvre d'Edith Stein? Philosophe allemande de l'école phénoménologique (1891-1942), juive convertie au catholicisme et entrée au Carmel, elle laisse une oeuvre universitaire et spirituelle d'une rare densité. Philibert Secretan, portant le souci d'une philosophie chrétienne, a traduit et commenté de nombreux textes philosophiques, notamment d'auteurs allemands et espagnols. Profondément marqué par la pensée d'Edith Stein, il y discerne comme constantes la réflexion, l'élucidation, et la mise (...) en forme intellectuelle du "monde vécu". C'est cette constante application à penser qu'il a suivie à travers divers champs : celui des sciences (naturelles et humaines) interrogées sur leurs méthodes, celui de la politique et du droit, celui de l'éducation, celui d'une métaphysique réactualisée, et celui de la mystique invoquée au-delà de tout psychologisme et de toute émotivité irrationnelle. Cet ouvrage évoque l'apport d'Edith Stein aux débats actuels sur l'écologie, le féminisme, et la laïcité de l'Etat. Il alerte sur la valeur essentielle de la patience et du goût du silence. (shrink)