Today's world is post-colonial and post-Cold War. These twin characteristics explain why international society is also riddled with the two major forms of injustice which Nancy Fraser identified as afflicting national societies. First, the economic and social disparities between states caused outcry in the 1950s when the first steps were taken towards decolonisation. These inequalities, to which a number of emerging states now contribute, are still glaring and still pose the problem of the gap between formal equality and true equality. (...) Second, international society is increasingly confronted with culture- and identity-related claims, stretching the dividing line between equality and difference. The less-favoured states, those that feel stigmatised, but also native peoples, ethnic groups, minorities and women now aspire to both legal recognition of their equal dignity and the protection of their identities and cultures. Some even seek reparation for injustices arising from the past violation of their identities and the confiscation of their property or land. In answer to these two forms of claim, the subjects of international society have come up with two types of remedy encapsulated in legal rules: the law of development and the law of recognition. These two sets of rights are neither wholly autonomous and individualised branches of law nor formalised sets of rules. They are imperfect and have their dark side. Yet they can be seen as the first milestones towards what might become a fairer international society; one that is both equitable (as an answer to socio-economic injustice) and decent (as an answer to cultural injustice). This book explores this evolution in international society, setting it in historical perspective and examining its presuppositions and implications. (shrink)

Since the beginning of the new millennium, initiatives known as roundtables have been developed to create voluntary sustainability standards for agricultural commodities. Intended to be private and voluntary in nature, these initiatives claim their legitimacy from their ability to ensure the participation of all categories of stakeholders in horizontal participatory and inclusive processes. This article characterizes the political and material instruments employed as the means of formulating agreement and taking a variety of voices into consideration in these arenas. Referring to (...) the specific case of the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil”, I undertake a detailed analysis of the tensions relating to different forms of participation, which create a gap between “local minority voices” and international stakeholders—either non-governmental organizations or industries. Local communities and small-scale farmers face difficulties when making their voices heard in the form of debate proposed. Firstly, some participants attempt to re-impose a vertical hierarchical relationship between small-scale farmers or affected communities and company managers/directors in order to deprive the former of their powers of representation and of being able to transform reality. Secondly, the liberalism of interest groups in the roundtable accords value to experts, global knowledge, strategy, and detachment, at the expense of other capabilities of rooted or attached people who come to defend their real lives with a desire to raise critical issues of injustice. In this context, I highlight the capacity of local NGOs to relieve some of those tensions and to help locally affected communities and small-scale farmers introduce public stages for debates, by accommodating other forms of participation apart from the liberal one. By being close to and by restoring their dignity through a specific work of solicitude and care, local NGOs prepare affected people for public speaking. (shrink)

Cet article propose une nouvelle enquête sur l ’ ancien concept de preuve rhétorique. Seront examinées les notions suivantes : le tekmerion (l ’ indice), le paradeigma (l ’ exemple) et le topos (lieu), afin d ’ éclairer leur lien apparemment paradoxal avec la persuasion et la validité. Le propos est de montrer qu ’ un tel paradoxe peut être résolu grâce à une conception stratifiée de la rationalité, où la raison archaïque soutient la persuasion, tandis que la raison moderne (...) fonde la validité. (shrink)

Paying more attention to the rhetorical side of argumentation raises epistemological questions. In this article I argue that rhetoric has to be an integral part of argumentative models if such models are to be considered rational. In other words, I claim that rhetoric is a necessary condition for argumentation studies. I am aware that this view may appear provocative. I hope to show that it is not the case, if we consider rationality to be a concept that encompasses more than (...) just a strictly logical way of thinking. Indeed, I would like to defend a humanistic conception of rationality as the background for a theory of rhetoric in order to underscore the specific rationality of the humanist frame of thinking for a .. (shrink)

Ce volume collectif accompagne, à quelques mois d’intervalle, la publication de l’édition critique des textes consacrés par Bentham à l’Australie (_Panopticon versus New South Wales and other writings on Australia_) chez UCL Press sous la direction de Tim Causer et Philip Schofield. Les versions numériques des deux ouvrages sont disponibles en accès ouvert sur le site de l’éditeur. Bentham consacre un premier essai au système pénal en Australie en 1791, à peine six ans après le début des déportations de prisonniers (...) vers la nouvelle colonie carcérale. Il s’oppose sans relâche à cette politique et tente de démontrer que son propre projet de prison panoptique est à la fois plus efficace et moins coûteux pour punir les criminels et conduire à leur réforme. En 1801, au moment où le ministère rejette définitivement la construction du panoptique près de Londres, Bentham érige les colonies australiennes en symboles de la corruption de la constitution et de la malhonnêteté des membres du gouve... (shrink)

In this paper, we provide an analysis about the relationship between expert and pragmatic categories used to name and categorize social space, from the point of view of the social hierarchies that structure it. Taking the case of Chile, and applying an experimental simulation methodology, we seek to contribute to the epistemological debate about the representations that individuals elaborate about social space, from a cognitive and interactionist perspective of everyday life. We analyse in particular the scope of the concept of (...) social class as an element of expert description of social reality, but also as a categorization used by ordinary subjects. We argue that although classifications used by ordinary people to describe members of society are not consistent with the most common academic class schemes, they nevertheless share the same logic and ranking system, adding evaluative and normative elements to the cognitive distinction, in the social construction of reality. En este artículo, presentamos un análisis acerca de la relación entre categorías expertas y categorías pragmáticas usadas para nombrar y categorizar el espacio social, desde el punto de vista de las jerarquías sociales que lo estructuran. Tomando el caso de Chile y aplicando una metodología experimental de simulación, aportamos al debate epistemológico acerca de las representaciones que los sujetos sociales elaboran acerca del espacio social, desde una perspectiva cognitiva e interaccionista situada en la vida cotidiana de las personas. Analizamos en especial el alcance del concepto de clase social en cuanto elemento de descripción experta de la realidad social, contrastándolo con la categorización de la misma de parte de sujetos comunes y corrientes. Postulamos que si bien las clasificaciones que ocupan las personas comunes y corrientes para describir a los integrantes de la sociedad no se condicen con las clasificaciones académicas más comunes, comparten sin embargo las mismas lógicas clasificatorias de jerarquización y ordenamiento, agregándose a la distinción cognitiva elementos normativos que aportan a la construcción social de la realidad. (shrink)

Ένας αρχαϊκός θησαυρός στο ιερό του Απόλλωνα (Θησαυρός 5): αρχιτεκτονική μελέτη Στο άρθρο αυτό παρουσιάζεται η αρχιτεκτονική μελέτη ενός από τα αρχαιότερα κτίρια του ιερού του Απόλλωνα στη Δήλο, του Θησαυρού 5. Ο θησαυρός βρίσκεται στα βόρεια του ιερού του Απόλλωνα και είναι το δυτικότερο από τα πέντε μνημεία που οικοδομήθηκαν γύρω από τον Πώρινο ναό. Η μελέτη ξεκινά με την παρουσίαση των κτιρίων αυτών, που θεωρούνται ως οίκοι. Το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο είναι αφιερωμένο στο αρχαιότερο από τα κτίρια αυτά, το (...) Θησαυρό 5 αναφέρονται επίσης οι προηγούμενες μελέτες για το μνημείο αυτό. Εξετάζεται ιδιαιτέρως και απορρίπτεται, η υπόθεση του R. Vallois για την ύπαρξη μιας κλασικής φάσης του Θησαυρού 5. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο προτείνεται η αποκατάσταση της αρχικής φάσης του δωρικού αυτού κτιρίου, το οποίο χρονολογείται γύρω στο 550 π. Χ. με βάση την τεχνική κατασκευής των θεμελίων και το στυλ του κίονά του. Το ζήτημα της ταύτισης του κτιρίου και τα κριτήρια χρονολόγησης εκτίθενται στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο. Στο πρώτο από τα δύο παραρτήματα παρουσιάζονται οι επτά λίθοι που ο R. Vallois είχε προτείνει να αποδοθούν στην κλασική φάση του μνημείου. (shrink)

In Quebec, control measures – isolation, restraints and chemical substances – have been the subject of a legislative framework since 1998. However, since that date, chemical substances have been at the heart of a debate on their legal status, between therapy and control. In 2015, the Ministry of Health and Social Services published a revised Reference Framework that is supposed to establish guidelines for chemical substances used for control purposes. A review of this framework, however, reveals several inconsistencies, continuing an (...) indeterminacy about their status. On the one hand, the consent exception does not correspond to the Quebec legal framework for care, suggesting that it is indeed a control measure. On the other hand, the reserved acts are the same whether the chemical substances are used for control or for therapeutic purposes, suggesting that it is in fact a therapeutic measure. (shrink)

Ces livres semblent à première vue assez similaires puisqu’ils se consacrent tous les deux à l’étude de la maternité, de l’époque moderne jusqu’à nos jours, et accordent une place importante à la littérature. Les mutations importantes de la maternité ces dernières décennies rendent pertinentes l’étude des représentations et du vécu des mères dans le temps long. Ce champ historiographique est cependant loin d’être vierge en France ; de nombreux travaux lui ont été consacrés depuis les années 1...

"La pensée tragique traverse l'irréductible déchirure de l'homme, considérant, outre les tourments auxquels il est exposé, sa vocation, comme celle de toute chose, à la mort et à l'oubli. Décidée à cheminer loin des rivages consolants, unetelle pensée se recommande, selon Clément Rosset, d'une logique du pire, s'efforçant d'appréhender le réel dans sa présence singulière et chaotique, où chaque existence, émergence hasardeuse et éphémère, n'est arrimée à rien. Nous avons tenté de repérer les points d'impact de cette logique. Il s'est (...) agi tout d'abord de penser l'épreuve de la condition humaine : découverte de celle-ci sous son jour précaire, l'enracinant au sein du réel destructeur. Nous avons envisagé ensuite les implications de cette traversée première, interrogeant la possibilité du suicide et celle de l'approche religieuse de notre destin. Si l'idée du suicide représente un important sas de liberté pour l'existant, la pensée tragique ne prône pourtant pas le passage à l'acte, celui-ci constituant, au fond, une tentative de neutralisation de la mort, plutôt qu'un véritable affrontement de notre finitude. Elle ne s'inscrit pas, non plus, dans la perspective de la foi religieuse, y discernant, quelle que puisse être la profondeur de son inspiration, une façon d'éluder l'impact de notre mortalité intime et la dureté de notre présence au monde. Dès lors, avons-nous essayé de cerner les contours d'une sagesse tragique. Invitation à un accueil sans partage de la totalité tragique du réel, sollicitant une attention aiguë à l'instant présent, reconnaissant aussi dans l'humour et dans la joie, plus encore, l'écho gracieux d'une capacité de jubilation à même de résister à la peine."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Le propos de cet ouvrage, paru dans la collection _Repères _aux éditions La Découverte_ _est d’offrir une introduction précise et nuancée à l’utilitarisme comme courant philosophique depuis Bentham jusqu’aux utilitaristes contemporains (Peter Singer, Derek Parfit notamment). Dans un petit format (128 pages dont 108 de texte et 13 de bibliographie), Christophe Salvat donne une synthèse problématisée et efficace des avancées récentes de la recherche et met en valeur leur contribution aux questions éthiques contemporaines. Dans le paysage intellectuel anglophone, l’utilitarisme occupe (...) une place spécifique depuis le début du XIX e siècle. Les idées de Jeremy Bentham, de John Stuart Mill puis de Henry Sidgwick ont été diffusées, commentées et attaquées, elles ont joué un rôle structurant dans les controverses de l’époque victorienne. Au XX e siècle, une riche tradition universitaire – notamment dans les départements de droit, de politique et de philosophie – a contribué à considérablement élarg... (shrink)

Au cours des années 1770, ayant trouvé sa vocation de réformateur du droit et guidé par le principe du plus grand bonheur du plus grand nombre, Jeremy Bentham rassemble ses idées dans de volumineux manuscrits qu’il classe sous le titre de « principes préparatoires ». La publication récente de ces feuillets par Douglas Long et Philip Schofield entr’ouvre la porte de l’atelier du philosophe au tout début de sa carrière. Car la décennie 1770 est particulièrement féconde pour Bentham. C’est pend...

Dès 1890, aux Etats-Unis, des philosophes et des psychologues se sont intéressés au social et à aux pratiques vivantes. Tournés vers les usages du langage, ces philosophes pragmaticiens, Dewey, James, Mead, et bien sûr Peirce, engagent la philosophie vers l'action, le quotidien, la parole. Nous leur devons sans doute une nouvelle manière de concevoir la philosophie et sa méthode, un souci de l'interdisciplinarité et une pensée construite à partir de ce qu'elle apprend sur le terrain des pratiques.

Cet article se propose de réfléchir à l’apport de la temporalité intergénérationnelle. Pensée initialement pour analyser les parcours des descendants d’immigrés maghrébins dans la société française, la temporalité intergénérationnelle semble avoir une portée heuristique plus large. Pour parvenir à cette démonstration, l’auteur débute par une première partie consacrée à la prise en compte du temps dans l’analyse des parcours. Elle définit notamment la manière dont elle a mobilisé les concepts de temps et de parcours. Dans la deuxième partie, à partir (...) d’exemples empiriques, l’auteur décrit la manière dont elle saisit les contextes et leurs dimensions intergénérationnelles. Dans la troisième partie, l’auteur poursuit en prenant appui sur le paradigme du life course pour montrer pourquoi, selon elle, la temporalité intergénérationnelle est une composante du principe de temporalité. Sous forme de tableau est représentée la façon dont la temporalité intergénérationnelle permet de saisir à la fois l’histoire familiale et les dynamiques sociales. La quatrième partie tente pour finir de démontrer pourquoi la temporalité intergénérationnelle est incontournable pour appréhender les parcours. Ce faisant, cet article tente d’être une contribution à l’ambition épistémologique visant à montrer l’importance que revêt la question du temps en proposant ici de prendre plus en compte la dimension intergénérationnelle dans l’approche temporelle. (shrink)

Cet article analyse la transformation des modes de coordination associée à la modernisation des entreprises. Nous observons que l'adoption massive et transversale des technologies de l'information et de la communication et que la mise en oeuvre de nouvelles pratiques d'organisation du travail conduisent à l'intensification de la communication des salariés, l'élargissement de leur périmètre de communication et plus largement au développement de réseaux de communication non hiérarchiques. Dans cette optique, nous envisageons la communication interpersonnelle comme un mécanisme de coordination privilégié (...) dans les firmes qui se modernisent.This article analyzes the transformation of modes of coordination associated with the modernization of enterprises. We observe that the mass adoption and transverse information technology and communication and the implementation of new practices of work organization lead to increased communication workers, expanding their scope of communication, and more broadly to the development of non-hierarchical communication networks. In this context, we consider the interpersonal communication as a coordination mechanism in privileged firms modernize. (shrink)

For centuries, philosophy has been considered as an intellectual activity requiring complex cognitive skills and predispositions related to complex (or critical) thinking. The Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach aims at the development of critical thinking in pupils through philosophical dialogue. Some contest the introduction of P4C in the classroom, suggesting that the discussions it fosters are not philosophical in essence. In this text, we argue that P4C is philosophy.

Using the lens of positive organizational ethics, we theorized that empathy affects decisions in ethical dilemmas that concern the well-being of not only the organization but also other stakeholders. We hypothesized and found that empathetic managers were less likely to comply with requests by an authority figure to cut the wages of their employees than were non-empathetic managers. However, when an authority figure requested to hold wages constant, empathy did not affect wage cut decisions. These findings imply that empathy can (...) serve as a safeguard for ethical decision making in organizations during trying times without generally undermining organizational effectiveness. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research. (shrink)

This paper examines the ethical issues of the inclusion of workers with disabilities in the workplace with a cross-fertilization approach between organization studies, the ethics of care, and a movement from the field of architecture and design that is called Universal Design (UD). It explores how organizations can use UD to develop more inclusive workplaces, first by applying UD principles to workspaces and second by showing how UD implies an integrative understanding of inclusion from the workspace to the workplace. Moreover, (...) this paper discusses the ethical challenges and complexities that this design practice faces in regard to its applicability to diverse organizations and industries. Finally, this paper demonstrates that inclusion requires abandoning any notion of a perfect, productive body and, therefore, recognizing our shared vulnerability and fundamental interdependence in the workplace. (shrink)

This study examines to what extent perceived corporate social responsibility reduces employee cynicism, and whether trust plays a mediating role in the relationship between CSR and employee cynicism. Three distinct contributions beyond the existing literature are offered. First, the relationship between perceived CSR and employee cynicism is explored in greater detail than has previously been the case. Second, trust in the company leaders is positioned as a mediator of the relationship between CSR and employee cynicism. Third, we disaggregate the measure (...) of CSR and explore the links between this and with employee cynicism. Our findings illustrate that the four distinct dimensions of CSR of Carroll are indirectly linked to employee cynicism via organizational trust. In general terms, our findings will help company leaders to understand employees’ counterproductive reactions to an organization, the importance of CSR for internal stakeholders, and the need to engage in trust recovery. (shrink)

The following is an early, previously untranslated essay by Emmanuel Levinas concerning “the metaphysics of antisemitism.” This essay, published originally in 1938 for Paix et Droit, concerns the shared history and destiny of Jews and Christians, religious groups who maintain a relation of essential “foreignness” to, and so “do not belong” to, the “pagan” world. Levinas distinguishes between the long history of Jewish-Christian antagonism and the newer Nazi-style antisemitism, a particularly insidious “racism” that threatens both Jews and Christians. Levinas calls (...) for a renewed appreciation of the “vocation” common to Jews and Christians to advance Judeo-Christian “solidarity,” a solidarity that Levinas believes is increasingly necessary. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Newly Veiled Woman: Irigaray, Specularity, and the Islamic VeilAnne-Emmanuelle Berger (bio)In 1995, in a piece published in a special issue of Les temps modernes devoted to the Algerian “Guerre des frères,” the late Monique Gadant, a sociologist of postcolonial Algeria, called for a dispassionate reflection on the reasons why a sizable number of Algerian women, in Algeria but also in France, decided to wear the hijab, or (...) “Islamic veil,” without, she said, being coerced into doing it. Warning against a naive French ethnocentrism which may have led people to mistake the hijab too quickly for a sign of women’s oppression, she wrote:C’est s’aveugler que de ne pas voir qu’il y a de très nombreuses femmes qui portent le hidjab sans y être forcées par personne.... Avant de se dresser contre le hidjab, réduit à un symbole d’oppression (les femmes qui le portent étant jugées en contradiction avec ce qui est censé être leurs intérêts et la vérité sur elles-mêmes dites par d’autres), on devrait prendre un peu de temps pour réfléchir aux motivations de ces femmes.[”Femmes alibi” 228][One would be blind not to see that numerous women are wearing the hijab without being forced to do it by anybody.... Before denouncing the hijab, reductively conceived as a symbol of oppression—the women wearing it being found to contradict what are supposed to be their interests and the truth about themselves as told by others—one should take some time to reflect on these women’s motivation.]Indeed, a growing number of women have adopted the hijab in the past decade, in Muslim or predominantly Muslim countries where the “Islamic veil” has not yet been made state law, as is the case in Iran. One thinks of Egypt or Indonesia, for instance, as two other examples where—against weak attempts by the governments in place to curb the powerful development of Islamism, after they helped foster it—the hijab has enjoyed considerable though unequal success. One should not underestimate coercion as a factor, especially within the last few years, when terrorism directed against civilians in Algeria and ever-growing intimidation stemming from Islamism’s social success in Egypt have undeniably led tens of thousands of scared, weary, or energetically “persuaded” women to wear the veil. Nonetheless, I want to take up Monique Gadant’s suggestion that we seriously try to think through at least some of the stakes of the phenomenon she identifies: an impressive number of women today affirm that they want to wear the hijab, and they do it. This raises at least two series of questions: (1) if the hijab fulfills a wish, rather than indicating a state of oppression or alienation, one has to reflect on the nature and structure of this wish or desire, and perhaps ask what the relation might be between desire and the veil, or rather this veil. For the hijab, as it is called in Arabic, is indeed a new kind of veil, or rather a new way of using an old Koranic precept, one intended to replace traditional modes of dressing and veiling. (2) If the hijab, and sometimes even the nikab and the jelbab, which cover women’s faces and bodies entirely, are willingly worn, should one [End Page 93] take this as a particularly blatant testimony to the radical relativity of cultures, which would in turn preclude any “Westerner” or non-Muslim individuals or groups, beginning with women, from making any assumptions concerning the condition of women or the hermeneutics of gender relations across cultures? This is indeed what Gadant hints at when she denounces the “naive [French] ethnocentrism” [228] at work in the negative response to the hijab. 1 One encounters here, as we know, a most divisive, philosophically crucial, and politically decisive issue, one that not only pitches non-Westerners against Westerners, but sometimes equally forcefully, as in this case, “Westerners” against “Westerners.” Ethnocentrism, as a tendency to (mis)understand a different culture in terms of one’s own, hence as a veiled form of cultural imperialism, should be uncovered and indeed denounced... (shrink)

Inventeur du néologisme « déontologie », le philosophe anglais Jeremy Bentham lui donnait pour but de fixer ce qui doit être sous l'égide du principe de l'utilité, de concilier les intérêts privés et les intérêts publics. Emmanuelle de Champs explore la branche politique de la déontologie benthamienne, l'art du législateur, celui du droit constitutionnel, et la dimension morale de l'utilitarisme, qu'elle juge centrale dans le système philosophique benthamien. Elle montre que la théorie du langage et de la connaissance est (...) une véritable condition de possibilité de la réflexion politique: il s'agit de forger les outils nécessaires à l'élaboration d'une morale de l'action publique. Loin d'être le produit d'une conversion tardive à la démocratie, la réflexion constitutionnelle habite l'œuvre de Bentham dès le début des années 1770. Au cours des années, elle se nourrit des Révolutions américaine et française, de la montée des revendications radicales en Grande-Bretagne, puis des révolutions libérales du sud de l'Europe et d'Amérique latine au début du XIXe siècle. Etudiée dans son contexte, la déontologie politique benthamienne s'inscrit dans un dialogue avec Montesquieu et Blackstone, Burke et Paine, Mill et Macaulay. Elle apparaît alors comme une étape majeure dans l'histoire des idées politiques occidentales. Pages de début Note concernant les citations et les traductions Introduction Les principes de la science de la législation Premiers écrits politiques, 1776 Éléments d'une théorie constitutionnelle La France révolutionnaire, laboratoire constitutionnel L'engagement radical La genèse d'une constitution universelle Le Constitutional Code, pouvoir, intérêts et bonheur ConclusionRemerciements Bibliographie Index des noms de personnes et de pays Pages de fin. (shrink)

Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995) is at the center of the renewed debate over the question of the ethical. In the context of the phenomenological tradition, Levinas defines ethics as an originary response to the face of the other. Between 1982 and 1992, Levinas gave numerous interviews, closing a distinguished sixty-year career. Of the twenty interviews collected in this volume, seventeen appear in English for the first time. In the interviews Levinas sets forth the central features of his ethical philosophy. He underlies (...) his dedication to the phenomenological search for the concrete and the nonformal signification of alterity. He also elaborates on issues that do not receive extensive treatment in his formal philosophical works, including the question of pre-philosophical experiences, the ethical signification of money, justice, and the State. The informality of the interviews prompt Levinas to address matters about which he is reticent in his published works. (shrink)

Les stratégies matrimoniales élitaires entraînent des migrations d’individus des deux sexes, non seulement du conjoint qui rejoint l’autre, mais aussi de toutes sortes de personnes de milieux sociaux différents qui l’accompagnent. Ces migrations ne touchent cependant pas de la même manière hommes et femmes, même si certains aspects présentent des points communs. Il s’agit donc de les analyser, en plaçant le genre au cœur de la réflexion. Elles seront envisagées, dans le royaume des Francs du haut Moyen Âge, d’abord en (...) amont, pour comprendre comment elles sont décidées et réalisées, puis en aval, pour en saisir les conséquences en matière d’identité et d’intégration. (shrink)

Demenageries, Thinking (of) Animals after Derrida is a collection of essays on animality following Jacques Derrida's work. The Western philosophical tradition separated animals from men by excluding the former from everything that was considered “proper to man”: laughing, suffering, mourning, and above all, thinking. The “animal” has traditionally been considered the absolute Other of humans. This radical otherness has served as the rationale for the domination, exploitation and slaughter of animals. What Derrida called “la pensée de l'animal” (which means both (...) thinking concerning the animal and “animal thinking”) may help us understand differently such apparently human features as language, thought and writing. It may also help us think anew about such highly philosophical concerns as differences, otherness, the end(s) of history and the world at large. Thanks to the ethical and epistemological crisis of Western humanism, “animality” has become an almost fashionable topic. However,Demenageries is the first collection to take Derrida's thinking on animal thinking as a starting point, a way of reflecting not only on animals but starting from them, in order to address a variety of issues from a vast range of theoretical perspectives: philosophy, literature, cultural theory, anthropology, ethics, politics, religion, feminism, postcolonialism and, of course, posthumanism. (shrink)

Thoughtprints Anne E. Berger andMarta Segarra I admit to it in the name of autobiography and in order to confide in you the following: [...] I have a particularly animalist perception and interpretation of what I do, think, write, live, ...

Alors même que les Grecs, dans l’Égypte des Ptolémées (323-330 av. nè), se trouvaient globalement dans une situation de « minorité dominante », il est généralement admis que la condition des femmes grecques était inférieure à celle des femmes égyptiennes en raison de l’obligation qui leur était faite d’être assistées en certaines matières par un représentant légal, leur kurios. Dans la pratique néanmoins, le kurios n’est pas nécessairement le signe d’une incapacité juridique de la Grecque d’Égypte. Avoir un kurios pouvait (...) même être le moyen d’afficher une appartenance à l’élite de la société ptolémaïque. (shrink)

The heart is not a political concept, and is hardly a philosophical one. Yet, Derrida invites us to think about the heart, or more exactly with and from the heart, when it comes to certain political questions. The heart, he says, is on the side of life. ‘My’ heart, he shows, is always the other(‘s), or rather, ‘my heart of the other’. When politics is a matter of ‘living together’, of the possibility or impossibility of doing so, as is the (...) case in the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or when it's a question of life and death, as in the case of the state-administered death penalty, Derrida turns to the heart. This essay examines the stakes and modalities of doing and thinking politics with the heart (‘my heart of the other’) in/as mind. (shrink)

Disagreement in science exists in a variety of strengths, from doubt-raising articles and issues of non-reproducibility up to raging disputes and major controversies. An often-latent form of disagreement consists of misconceptions whereby false ideas are held that run contrary to what is commonly accepted as knowledge. Misconceptions have been the focus of much research in education science and psychology. Here we draw attention to misconceptions that may arise in the very practice of science. We highlight formal features that can be (...) used to characterize misconceptions and distinguish them from controversies, in addition to how they relate to knowledge creation. (shrink)

Cette introduction présente les enjeux politiques et historiographiques soulevés par l’examen des rapports entre utilitarisme et libéralisme. Car l’utilitarisme occupe une place à part au sein du courant libéral. Quel rôle les intérêts doivent-ils jouer en politique? Comment mettre en œuvre les conditions du plus grand bonheur du plus grand nombre? Comment articuler liberté et droits de l’homme? Au fur et à mesure que de nouvelles sources sont disponibles pour les chercheurs, ces questions trouvent – notamment en France – des (...) réponses différentes. (shrink)

Globally, robots can be described as some sets of moving parts that are dedicated to a task while using their own energy. Yet, humans commonly qualify those machines as being intelligent, autonomous or being able to learn, know, feel, make decisions, etc. Is it merely a way of talking or does it mean that robots could eventually be more than a complex set of moving parts? On the one hand, the language of robotics allows multiple interpretations (leading sometimes to misreading (...) or confusion in various contexts). On the other hand, the status of robots is challenged more and more by technical achievements and humans’ own empirical beliefs. In this paper, we follow a linguistic approach in order to explore the relevance of these words when talking about robots. Since we note that the words impose themselves (even if opposed), we discuss the efficiency of a rhetorical strategy in order to work with such a lexicon in robotics. More precisely, we explore the argumentative technique of the dissociation of notions through the study of a practical case: the case of robot lawn mowers versus hedgehogs. (shrink)

Pain, as Emily Dickinson aptly described, “has an element of blank.” It is perhaps the most universal human experience, yet even in its most visceral and all-consuming forms, pain defies descriptio...

Patient decision-making autonomy refers to the patients’ ability to freely exert their own choices and make their own decisions, given sufficient resources and information to do so. In pain medicine, it is accepted that appropriate beneficial management aims to propose an individualized treatment plan shared with the patients, as agents, to help them live as autonomously as possible with their pain. However, are patients in chronic pain centers sufficiently autonomous to participate in the therapeutic decisions that concern them? As this (...) question still remains unanswered, a pilot study was set up to that aim. Over a 2-month period, first-time patients within a tertiary multidisciplinary pain center underwent a systematic evaluation of their autonomy using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T), considered the benchmark tool for measuring a patient’s ability to consent to treatment. Demographic data and pain characteristics of the patients were collected and their respective attending pain physicians were asked to clinically assess their patients’ degree of autonomy. Another physician, who had not participated in the initial patient evaluation, subsequently administered the MacCAT-T questionnaire to the same patients. Twenty-seven patients were included during the study period (21 women and 6 men), with an average age of 50 years. The average duration of pain was 8 years. Based on their clinical experience, the 4 different pain physicians in charge of these patients considered that out of 25 assessed patients, 22 of them (89%) had full decision-making capacity, with no deficit in autonomy. According to the MacCAT-T results, only 13 of these 25 patients (48%) had no deficit, while 7 (26%) had a major deficit in autonomy. The only patient characteristic that appeared to be related to autonomy was pain type, specifically nociplastic pain. The average time taken to complete the test was 20 min, and patients were very satisfied with the interview. Results from the present pilot study suggest that patients suffering from chronic pain do not appear to be entirely autonomous in their decision to consent to the proposed treatment plan according to the MacCAT-T questionnaire, and physicians seem to find it difficult to properly assess this competence in a clinical setting. Further studies with larger samples are needed to better evaluate this concept to improve the complex management of these patients. (shrink)