Spermatozoa reach the fallopian tube during ovulation by traveling through the female reproductive tract mucus. This non‐Newtonian viscoelastic medium facilitates spermatozoon movement to accomplish fertilization or, in some cases, blocks spermatozoon movement, leading to infertility. While rheological properties are known to affect spermatozoon motility with in vitro models using synthetic polymers, their precise effects in vivo are understudied. This paper reviews the rheological measurements of reproductive tract mucus during ovulation in humans and model animals, focusing on viscosity and its potential (...) effect on spermatozoa. Mucus viscosity in the female reproductive tract's different compartments is poorly understood. While information on this subject is incomplete, most mammals appear to have a viscosity decrease along their female reproductive tracts. Based on this sparse information, we hypothesize that viscosity changes in female reproductive tracts may guide spermatozoa to eggs, a novel concept that could improve our understanding of reproductive biology. (shrink)

The British Columbian members of the Canadian Guidance and Counselling Association were surveyed to explore their attitudes regarding dual relationships. Of 529 deliverable surveys, 206 usable returns yielded a response rate of 39%. Participants were asked to provide incidents of problematic dual relationships and to discuss the problematic aspect(s) of these dual relationships. Respondents provided a total of 110 useable incidents with 165 associated problematic aspects. Many respondents provided data not directly related to the original questions, which were also analyzed. (...) The results of this study draw attention to several issues: (a) counselors are dealing with a variety of problematic dual relationships, (b) counselors experience discomfort and negative effects on their personal/work life secondary to these dual relationships, and (c) counselors consider the unique context of each dual relationship to be important in their ethical decision-making processes. (shrink)

Bataille and Blanchot figure among the authors who influenced Foucault the most. In this article we show how close Foucault was to these authors and to what extent his proximity to them permitted him to deviate from the prevailing university culture, i.e from those great philosophical machines called Hegelianism and phenomenology. The questions we pose are the following: How important were these experiences for Foucault? How did he receive them? How did he transform their theoretical stakes? In the first part (...) of this article we argue that the encounter with Bataille’s work and Blanchot’s was for Foucault a kind of experience of the self. In Bataille and Blanchot, experience has the function of wrenching the subject from itself: it is a project of desubjectivation and of destruction of the notion of the foundational subject and system in philosophy. The second part focuses on the contemporary experience of the death of God. According to Foucault, such an experience discloses the limitless reign of the Limit. We show how the work of Bataille, his discovery of the categories of irreversible expenditure, death, sacrifice, excess, limit, negativity pushes the system beyond its limit. In the third part we take into account the literary experience of Blanchot. According to Foucault, Blanchot’s work focuses on the disappearance of the subject: the being of language emerges in the exclusion of the subject. How is it possible to have a language stripped of dialectics? (shrink)

Comment ne pas désespérer? Comment maximiser notre capacité d'agir et de penser? Comment défaire tous les efforts et les dispositifs qui visent à séparer la multitude de sa puissance?00L'urgence de ces questions traverse l'oeuvre d'Antonio Negri depuis ses commencements dans les années 1960 et 1970, alors qu'un mouvement d'insurrection ouvrière soulevait l'Italie jusqu'à ses plus récents développements avec l'altermondialisation et l'émergence dans l'espace public des questions écologiques. À travers différents ouvrages devenus des classiques de la théorie politique notamment La Classe (...) ouvrière contre l'État, Marx au-delà de Marx, L'Anomalie sauvage, Le Pouvoir constituant, mais aussi, en collaboration avec Michael Hardt, Empire, Multitude, Commonwealth et Assembly--, Antonio Negri a proposé l'une des contributions les plus marquantes à la pensée critique contemporaine. À l'heure de la contre-révolution néolibérale et du renouvellement des modalités de l'exploitation, il s'agit pour lui de prendre acte de la péremption des formes anciennes de la lutte des classes et de contribuer à l'ouverture d'un nouvel horizon révolutionnaire, à hauteur des enjeux du temps présent."--Back cover. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Paragrana Jahrgang: 26 Heft: 1 Seiten: 75-85.

The British Columbian Members of the Canadian Guidance and Counselling Association were surveyed to explore their attitudes regarding dual relationships. Of 529 deliverable surveys, 206 usable returns yielded a response rate of 39%. The survey instrument collected data regarding respondents' characteristics and ethicality ratings of 39 dual relationship activity items. An exploratory principal components analysis was performed on responses, resulting in a 4-factor equation, which accounted for 44% of the total variance. The results suggest that, although conceptual considerations of dual (...) relationship typology do underlay the resultant factors, the relative ethicality of each item is also influential. (shrink)

La gobernanza contemporánea exige una revisión de las categorías jurídico-políticas de la modernidad. El complejo y mutable marco institucional de la contemporaneidad asiste a una intensificación y polarización de la confrontación, que se ejerce de formas y con instrumentos heterogéneos y en planos diferentes. Esto transforma el papel y la estructura de lo normativo, haciendo resurgir su carácter performativo y fluctuante como instrumento estratégico de aprehensión de lo real, entrelazado y atravesado por elementos de naturaleza extrajurídica que son todo menos (...) objetivos. Una imagen que bien resume el paradigma de la fictio legis, reconstruido por Yan Thomas a partir de la tradición ius-romanista. (shrink)

Introduction to Kant's Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View Michel Foucaulttranslated and with an introduction by Arianna BoveThis introduction and commentary to Kant's least discussed work, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, is the dissertation that Michel Foucault presented in 1961 as his doctoral thesis. It has remained unpublished, in any language, until now. In his exegesis and critical interpretation of Kant's Anthropology, Foucault raises the question of the relation between psychology and anthropology, and how they are affected (...) by time. Though a Kantian "critique of the anthropological slumber," Foucault warns against the dangers of treating psychology as a new metaphysics, explores the possibilities of studying man empirically, and reflects on the nature of time, art and technique, self-perception, and language. Extending Kant's suggestion that any empirical knowledge of man is inextricably tied up with language, Foucault asserts that man is a world citizen insofar as he speaks. For both Kant and Foucault, anthropology concerns not the human animal or self-consciousness but, rather, involves the questioning of the limits of human knowledge and concrete existence. This long-unknown text is a valuable contribution not only to a scholarly appreciation of Kant's work but as the first outline of what would later become Foucault's own frame of reference within the history of philosophy. It is thus a definitive statement of Foucault's relation to Kant as well as Foucault's relation to the critical tradition of philosophy. By going to the heart of the debate on structuralist anthropology and the status of the human sciences in relation to finitude, Foucault also creates something of a prologue to his foundational The Order of Things.Michel Foucault is widely considered to be one of the most important academic voices of the twentieth century and has proven influential across disciplines. (shrink)

In the beginning of the 20 th century, the discussion of the anthropological theme across the field of French philosophical debate. It also implies a redefinition of philosophy and politics at different levels. This is about the second episode of great anthropological questioning that took place in the 20th century, since the first had to do with the great German philosophical works which draws on the writings of Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, and Ernst Cassirer, among others. (...) In the early 1960, the issues of the debate are of a different order. What is at the heart of this reflection is both a radical discussion issue of anthropology as an attempt to define the role and status of criticism in contemporary thought. Foucault makes the anthropological critique the point of departure, at the same time, in his review of the role and function of the Humanities on the device knowledge-power of modern and contemporary societies and the whole philosophical trajectory in which he will involve his searches during the duration of his life. He tries to understand what the meaning of the field of empirical knowledge that comes to emerge at this time with the claim to be a science, anthropology. Anthropology ends up wanting to resume human experience and philosophy in a move where the man gives his truth as the soul of truth. It is at this movement that Nietzsche put an end, when he showed that the death of God accompanies the death of man; that death of God is the end of metaphysics, and the place left free isn't absolutely the man who takes. The critique of the anthropological question is the starting point of an analysis with larger theme the problem of subject’s deconstruction and reconstruction, namely, the deconstruction of the subject as a cause and reconstruction of subjectivity as effect.Au début des années 1960 la mise en discussion du thème anthropologique traverse le champ du débat philosophique français. Elle implique aussi une redéfinition de la philosophie et du politique à différents niveaux. Il s’agit du deuxième épisode du grand questionnement anthropologique qui a eu lieu dans la philosophie du 20 e siècle ; le premier ayant affaire à la grande entreprise philosophique allemande qui se dessine dans les œuvres de Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, et Ernst Cassirer, entre autres. Au début des années 1960 les enjeux du débat sont d’une autre nature. Ce qui est au centre de cette réflexion est aussi bien une mise en discussion radicale de la question de l’anthropologie qu’une tentative de redéfinir la fonction et le statut de la critique dans la réflexion contemporaine. Foucault fait de la critique de l’anthropologie le point de départ à la fois de sa critique du rôle et de la fonction des sciences humaines dans le dispositif du savoir/pouvoir des sociétés modernes et contemporaines, et de toute la trajectoire philosophique dans laquelle il va impliquer ses recherches sa vie durant. Il essaie de comprendre quelle est la signification de ce champ de la connaissance empirique qui vient d'émerger à cette époque avec la prétention de constituer une science, l'anthropologie. L'anthropologie finit par vouloir relier l'expérience de l'homme et la philosophie dans un mouvement où l'homme donne sa vérité comme âme de la vérité. C'est à ce mouvement que Nietzsche a mis un terme lorsqu'il a montré que la mort de Dieu s'accompagne de la mort de l'homme; que la mort de Dieu est la fin de la métaphysique, et la place restée vide ce n'est absolument pas l'homme qui la prend. La critique de la question anthropologique est le point de départ d’une analyse ayant pour thème majeur le problème de la déconstruction et de la reconstruction du sujet, à savoir de la déconstruction du sujet comme arché et de la reconstruction de la subjectivité comme effet.No início dos anos 1960, a discussão do tema antropológico atravessa o campo do debate filosófico francês. Ela implica também em uma redefinição da filsofia e da política em diferentes níveis. Trata-se do segundo episódio do grande questionamento antropológico que teve lugar no século XX , uma vez que o primeiro teve a ver com a grande empreitada filosófica alemã que se desenha nas obras de Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, e Ernst Cassirer, entre outros. No início dos anos 1960, as questões do debate são de uma outra ordem. O que está no centro desta reflexão é tanto uma discussão radical da questão da antropologia como de uma tentativa de definir a função e o estatuto da crítica na reflexão contemporânea. Foucault faz da crítica da antropologia o ponto de partida, ao mesmo tempo, de sua crítica do papel e da função das ciências humanas no dispositivo do saber/poder das sociedades modernas e contemporâneas e de toda a trajetória filosófica na qual ele vai envolver suas pesquisas durante na duração de sua vida. Ele tenta compreender qual a significação do campo do conhecimento empírico que vem de emergir nesta época com a pretensão de constituir uma ciência, a antropologia. A antropologia termina por querer reatar a experiência do homem e a filosofia em um movimento onde o homem dá sua verdade como alma da verdade. É a este movimento que Nietzsche colocou um fim, quando mostrou que a morte de Deus se acompanha da morte do homem; que a morte de Deus é o fim da metafísica, e o lugar deixado livre não é absolutamente o homem que o toma. A crítica da questão antropológica é o ponto de partida de uma análise tendo por tema maior o problema da desconstrução e da reconstrução do sujeito, a saber, da desconstrução do sujeito como causa e da reconstrução da subjetividade como efeito. (shrink)

Negli scorsi decenni abbiamo assistito ad un processo di accelerazione centrifuga rispetto alla molarità statuale. Da un lato, tale accelerazione ha generato un interessante polimorfismo di valori, visioni del mondo e forme di vita, liberando quelle energie sociali e politiche che hanno contribuito e contribuiscono alla ridiscussione radicale dei più profondi presupposti del vivere comune. Dall’altro, tale carica liberogena si lega, come è ovvio, –insieme come causa e risultato– ad una crescente incertezza individuale e collettiva. Viviamo insomma in un’epoca panica, (...) che per molti aspetti ricorda proprio quella stagione barocca, che fece da crogiolo alla nascita degli Stati moderni e all’equilibrio Westfaliano. Il rischio è che di fronte al contemporaneo vuoto di risposte, resti la valorizzazione economica offerta dalla logica governamentale l’unica sponda di senso disponibile, con tutto il suo precipitato di sfruttamento e alienazione. È forse possibile ritrovare nella tensione metastorica fra barocco e classico una possibile linea di equilibrio fra dinamismo Istituente e stabilità dell’Istituito? (shrink)

Mit »Überwachen und Strafen« hat Michel Foucault vor 40 Jahren ein Buch veröffentlicht, das die gängigen Vorbegriffe des Machtdenkens - und damit der politischen Theorie und des Befreiungsdiskurses - durcheinander gewirbelt hat. Der Band geht der Frage nach, wie die aktuellen Machtverhältnisse beschaffen sind, die »uns« in ihrem Bann halten. Welche Aktualität besitzen die Analysen der Disziplinierung noch heute, mit denen Foucault vor 40 Jahren Aufsehen erregte und eine breite Wirksamkeit entfalten konnte? Wie lässt sich das für Foucault so zentrale (...) Verhältnis von Bio- und Disziplinarmacht in der Gegenwart bestimmen? Welche neuen Machtformen sind entstanden - und mit welchen begrifflichen Mitteln können sie erschlossen werden? (shrink)

El tema de la hospitalidad fue suficientemente analizado por Jacques Derrida, el pensador francés de la deconstrucción. Este artículo busca investigar la cuestión de la hospitalidad considerando la oposición radical, la aporía, entre la ley de la hospitalidad incondicional, en su singularidad universal, y las leyes de la hospitalidad condicional. ¿Quién se encuentra apto para la hospitalidad? ¿Alguien que dice su nombre? ¿Una sujeto de derecho? ¿Un extranjero? Exploraremos algunas de las condiciones para responder a esta pregunta: la hospitalidad como (...) un asunto del lugar, como un asunto del lenguaje y como un asunto del nombre. (shrink)

Dentro de la filosofía de la práctica matemática, la cuestión de la pureza del método ha ido ganando un lugar en las agendas de investigación y publicaciones. Usualmente se asume que “pura” es un predicado de soluciones o demostraciones, el cual resulta satisfecho cuando estas son intrínsecas a los problemas o teoremas. En este artículo motivo la adopción de una concepción más hospitalaria, de acuerdo con la cual la pureza del método emerge con naturalidad en la práctica de construir teorías (...) matemáticas autónomas, y muestro cómo a partir de esta la concepción usual se ve enriquecida. (shrink)

El año 2001 representó un momento de quiebre en la historia reciente argentina. Las repercusiones de la crisis económica, social y de representatividad política se hicieron presentes en todo el espectro cultural. El presente artículo parte de una hipótesis central: la omnipresencia del sonido durante la crisis explica el giro hacia lo sonoro en la producción musical posterior. Nuestro estudio se estructurará en tres partes: en una primera sección, examinaremos los sonidos de la crisis y su historicidad. En las otras (...) dos secciones, analizaremos las obras de compositores y colectivos artísticos durante la crisis y la poscrisis – BAS (Buenos Aires Sonora), Nicolás Varchausky, Juan Pampín y Carmen Baliero, entre otros ejemplos. Este análisis nos permitirá evaluar cómo los sonidos de la crisis y esta particular experiencia de la escucha permearon dentro del campo sonoro y musical. (shrink)

La discusión sobre pureza del método suele enfatizar el estudio de demostraciones particulares de la práctica matemática. Una crítica a esta posición cuestiona el valor de la pureza al afirmar que el “progreso matemático” depende esencialmente del empleo de métodos impuros. Este artículo muestra que una perspectiva más holística, centrada en cómo las demandas de pureza pueden operar en la construcción de teorías autónomas, permite identificar un contexto donde la pureza del método adquiere valor en la práctica matemática. En particular, (...) se muestra la relevancia de tales demandas en el caso de las teorías algebraicas de números de Kronecker y Dedekind. (shrink)

Considerando os vários sentidos da palavra "tela" em português, tela como resultante do entrelaçamento de fios, tela como tecido, tela de cinema ou de televisão, quadro pintado, ou como questão, pretendo trazer à discussão o despojamento de Jacques Derrida ao propor, sob o prisma da desconstrução, o deslocamento do velho conceito de arquivo para uma noção de arquivo aberta a possibilidades imprevisíveis. Para tanto, seu entendimento do que ele chamou de “impressão freudiana”, sua interpretação da pulsão de morte como “mal (...) de arquivo”, nos colocará em contato com uma espécie de revolução “arquiviolítica” nos textos de toda ordem, em especial o texto psicanalítico e as artes. (shrink)

Empathy has become a common point of debate in moral psychology. Recent developments in psychiatry, neurosciences and social psychology have led to the revival of sentimentalism, and the ‘empathy thesis’ has suggested that affective empathy, in particular, is a necessary criterion of moral agency. The case of psychopaths – individuals incapable of affective empathy and moral agency, yet capable of rationality – has been utilised in support of this case. Critics, however, have been vocal. They have asserted that the case (...) of autism proves the empathy thesis wrong; that psychopathy centres on rational rather than empathic limitations; that empathy is not relevant to many common normative behaviours; and that rationality is required when empathy fails. The present paper analyses these four criticisms. It will be claimed that they each face severe difficulties, and that moral agency ought to be approached via a multi-tier model, with affective empathy as a baseline. (shrink)

Empathy is a term used increasingly both in moral theory and animal ethics. Yet, its precise meaning is often left unexplored. The book aims to tackle this by clarifying the different and even contradictory ways in which “empathy” can be defined.

The climate crisis is an enormous challenge for contemporary societies. Yet, public discussions on it often lead to anger, mocking, denial and other defensive behaviours, one prominent example of which is the reception met by the climate advocate Greta Thunberg. The paper approaches this curious phenomenon via shame. It argues that the very idea of anthropogenic climate change invites feelings of human failure and thereby may also entice shame. The notion of “climate shame” is introduced and distinguished from “climate guilt”. (...) Whereas climate guilt prioritises the flourishing of the environment and is focused on actions and morality, climate shame is concerned with human identity and selfhood. The paper then explores whether shame is a morally destructive or constructive emotion. Making use of both psychological and philosophical literature on shame, it argues that although shame faces many challenges that question its usefulness in moral pedagogy, these challenges can be met with “moral maturity”—moreover, following a utilitarian approach, the overall benefits of climate shame can justify its costs to individuals. My argument is that climate shame holds the potential of being a highly effective moral psychological method of persuasion, capable of inviting wholesale critical reflection on current, environmentally damaging practices and cultivation of more virtuous ways of co-existing with the rest of the natural world and other species. (shrink)

Most moral theorists agree that it is one thing to believe that someone has slighted you and another to resent her for the insult; one thing to believe that someone did you a favor and another to feel gratitude toward her for her kindness. While all of these ways of responding to another's conduct are forms of moral appraisal, the reactive attitudes are said to 'go beyond' beliefs in some way. We think this claim is adequately explained only when we (...) take seriously the fact that reactive attitudes are emotions. In this paper, we appeal to insights of the emotions literature to highlight one key way in which reactive attitudes go beyond beliefs: beliefs about a person and her morally significant conduct merely ascribe to the person the property of having performed a morally significant action, while reactive attitudes are ways of experiencing that person as having performed a morally significant action. We then suggest that appreciating this is a crucial first step toward understanding why reactive emotions play roles in our practices around responsibility that beliefs do not. (shrink)

Animal Suffering: Philosophy and Culture explores the multifaceted moral meanings allocated to non-human suffering in contemporary Western culture.

The Mīmāṃsā school of Indian philosophy has for its main purpose the interpretation of injunctions that are found in a set of sacred texts, the Vedas. In their works, Mīmāṃsā authors provide some of the most detailed and systematic examinations available anywhere of statements with a deontic force; however, their considerations have generally not been registered outside of Indological scholarship. In the present article we analyze the Mīmāṃsā theory of Vedic injunctions from a logical and philosophical point of view. The (...) theory at issue can be regarded as a system of reasoning based on certain fundamental principles, such as the distinction between strong and weak duties, and on a taxonomy of ritual actions. We start by reconstructing the conceptual framework of the theory and then move to a formalization of its core aspects. Our contribution represents a new perspective to study Mīmāṃsā and outlines its relevance, in general, for deontic reasoning. (shrink)

The subjective feeling of free choice is an important feature of human experience. Experimental tasks have typically studied free choice by contrasting free and instructed selection of response alternatives. These tasks have been criticised, and it remains unclear how they relate to the subjective feeling of freely choosing. We replicated previous findings of the fMRI correlates of free choice, defined objectively. We introduced a novel task in which participants could experience and report a graded sense of free choice. BOLD responses (...) for conditions subjectively experienced as free identified a postcentral area distinct from the areas typically considered to be involved in free action. Thus, the brain correlates of subjective feeling of free action were not directly related to any established brain correlates of objectively-defined free action. Our results call into question traditional assumptions about the relation between subjective experience of choosing and activity in the brain’s so-called voluntary motor areas. (shrink)