In this paper we reflect on the effectiveness of cognitive mapping as a method to study farm functioning in its complexity and its diverse forms in the framework of our own experiment with a diverse group of Flemish beef farmers. With a structured direct elicitation method we gathered 30 CMs. We analyzed the content of these maps both qualitatively and quantitatively. The central role of the concept “Income” in most maps indicated a shared concern for economic security. Further, the CMs (...) indicated that farmers dealt with this shared social reality differently, as the relationships included in their maps referred to different functional processes relating to revenue streams, marketing strategies, investment decisions, dependence on production inputs, on-farm resource management, and personal well-being. With a clustering algorithm we grouped farmers based on the relationships in their maps, which allowed us to trace some of the broader patterns within the data, such as the existence of more business- and investment-minded farmers, in contrast to farmers focused on their quality of life, and animal production-oriented in contrast to marketing-oriented farmers. Taking into account farmers’ comments, we find that the applied methods had limited capability to classify farmers based on their perspectives on farming. Still, the system presentations proved useful to study what aspects farmers were working on or towards, and how these aspects may actually fit together as a whole. CMing was therefore mostly effective in exploring farm functioning in its complexity, and less so in exploring farm functioning in its diversity. (shrink)

The standard reply to the critique that narrative theories of the self are either chauvinistic or trivial is to “go implicit”. Implicit narratives, it is argued, are necessary for diachronically structured self-experience, but do not require that such narratives should be wholly articulable life stories. In this paper I argue that the standard approach, which puts forward a phenomenological conception of implicit narratives, is ultimately unable to get out of the clutches of the dilemma. In its place, I offer an (...) alternative approach that does avoid the dilemma, by construing implicit narrativity as an enabling condition for experiences, rather than as something that is itself present in experience. According to this constitutive account, the coherence and intelligibility of our experiences is due to the fact that they are anchored in a larger, diachronic context. This context, I argue, takes a fundamentally embodied and narrative dimension. (shrink)

This introduction is part of the special issue ‘ Self-knowledge in perspective’ guest edited by Fleur Jongepier and Derek Strijbos. // Papers included in the special issue: Transparency, expression, and self-knowledge Dorit Bar-On -/- Self-knowledge and communication Johannes Roessler -/- First-person privilege, judgment, and avowal Kateryna Samoilova -/- Self-knowledge about attitudes: rationalism meets interpretation Franz Knappik -/- How do you know that you settled a question? Tillmann Vierkant -/- On knowing one’s own resistant beliefs Cristina Borgoni -/- Self-knowledge and (...) imagination Peter Langland-Hassan -/- Transparent emotions? A critical analysis of Moran’s transparency claim Naomi Kloosterboer -/- Mind-making practices: the social infrastructure of self-knowing agency and responsibility Victoria McGeer -/- Pluralistic folk psychology and varieties of self-knowledge : an exploration Kristin Andrews -/-. (shrink)

La prestigieuse collection de la Bibliothèque Augustinienne (BA) s’enrichit d’un nouveau volume entièrement dédié à l’un des tout premiers dialogues philosophiques d’Augustin, consacré à la question du scepticisme, le Contra Academicos. L’édition ancienne et minimaliste de René Jolivet (1939, BA 4/1) rendait cette nouvelle édition nécessaire. Anne-Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic (dorénavant ABT) livre ici un volume particulièrement complet : l’édition du texte latin et sa traduction (p. 265-535) so...

Les entretiens familiaux proposés aux familles des adolescents handicapés mentaux constituent un dispositif important de la prise en charge. L’instauration d’un espace libre d’échange et de travail psychique avec la famille a le plus souvent un impact positif sur le parcours de l’adolescent. Cependant, les défenses parentales érigées contre la souffrance liée au handicap de l’adolescent sont susceptibles de rendre ce travail difficile voire de le mettre en échec. Les éprouvés contre-transférentiels permettent, dans ces situations, la formulation d’hypothèses compréhensives concernant (...) les interactions parents-adolescent handicapé. (shrink)

My 2019 article ‘From Planning to Prototypes: New Ways of Seeing Like a State’ (P2P) drew attention to some shortcomings of the kinds of critical, reformist impulses fostered in law and development work. I sought to show that persistent preoccupations with the destructive hubris of ‘top-down’ planning—especially state planning—bypassed the tendency for great power to be deployed in other stylistic modes: through the release and responsive tweaking of prototypes, for instance. This article engages with later developments—at one of P2P’s main (...) field sites and scholarly literature in dialogue with P2P—to build upon the analysis therein. It elaborates on the kinds of power animated through prototyping, showing how prototyping is often combined with other governance styles and what it makes of the inputs on which law has typically been said to draw and of law’s claims to autonomy. It complicates the provenance of this style by reference to mid-to-late-twentieth century UN sanctions regimes, highlighting that governance prototyping is as much state-made as business-led and not restricted to the development field. With particular attention to the strangeness of the human user presupposed by prototyping, this article also aims to identify some modes of critical engagement to which this governance style might be answerable. (shrink)

Sextus Empiricus présente le scepticisme néo-pyrrhonien comme une philosophie qui cherche la vérité (PH I, 1-3). Il est difficile de le croire, pourtant, lorsque l ’ on étudie les longues séries d ’ arguments qu ’ il met en opposition afin de produire l ’ isosthénie, la force égale des arguments, qui amène à la suspension du jugement. Comment faut-il interpréter ce qui pourrait apparaître comme un décalage entre la théorie et la pratique du scepticisme? Plutôt que de conclure à (...) l ’ inconséquence du scepticisme, (i) l ’ article se propose de reprendre à nouveaux frais les passages où Sextus présente le scepticisme comme une recherche de la vérité. Pour ce faire, il faut d ’ une part (ii) lier cette présentation à l ’ opération de différenciation entre le scepticisme de la Nouvelle Académie et celui des néo-pyrrhoniens ; d ’ autre part (iii) revenir sur la pratique du scepticisme par les néo-pyrrhoniens. Loin d ’ être une recherche de la vérité, le pyrrhonisme présenté par Sextus Empiricus recherche l ’ incertitude à l ’ origine du bonheur sceptique. (shrink)

Community energy initiatives are set up by volunteers in local communities to promote sustainable energy behaviors and help to facilitate a sustainable energy transition. A key question is what motivates people to be involved in such initiatives. We propose that next to a stronger personal motivation for sustainable energy, people’s perception that their community is motivated to engage in sustainable energy and their involvement in the community (i.e., community identification and interpersonal contact) may affect their initiative involvement. We tested this (...) proposition with a questionnaire study among inhabitants of seven local communities (N= 439). Results suggested that community factors are uniquely related to initiative involvement (willingness to actively participate and attendance of an initiative meeting) next to personal sustainable energy motivations. In particular, stronger community identification and more interpersonal contact with other community members increased the likelihood that people become involved in a community initiative, but the perception of the sustainable energy motivation of one’s community was not uniquely related to initiative involvement. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings. (shrink)

When Martin Luther mounted an attack on the industry of Indulgences, he affirmed key Reformation principles: human beings are saved by God’s grace alone and the priesthood of all the baptised gives all followers of Christ equal status. This was in conformity with an earlier generation of reformers who saw the Bible as ultimate authority and witnessed to biblical truth against corruption. The logical consequence of this should have been the enabling of women who were so disposed to exercise a (...) theological vocation. In practice, the resulting rupture in religious and social life often affected women for the worse. Educational formation and leadership opportunities were restricted by the closure of convents. While the trade guilds, with their tightly regulated social systems, did not allow scope for women who transgressed normative expectations, their suppression was not necessarily liberating for women. The new social model of the home replaced that of convent and guild and marriage was exalted in place of celibacy. Changes in devotional practice involved loss and gain. Women who did not conform to the domestic norm were treated at best with misogyny and female prophets of the radical Reformation paid for their convictions with their lives. In education, leadership, piety and radical social challenge, women’s options were restricted. However, the key Reformation principles ultimately enabled the development of women’s ministry which was marked by the ordination of Constance Todd 400 years later. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to determine how a Pyrrhonian considers the Law and can respond to Aristocles’ objection that a Pyrrhonian is unable to obey laws. First, we analyze the function of the Law in the 10th Mode of Aenesidemus, in order to show laws as a dogmatic source of value. But Sextus shows also that the Sceptic can live in a human society by following laws and customs, according to so-called ‘sceptical conformism’. In the light of Pyrrhonian (...) Hypotyposes 1.23–24 and Against the Mathematicians 11.162–164, I discuss the validity of the label ‘conformism’ in order to understand the nature of the political effect of the suspension of judgement. The real nature of the political position of Pyrrhonian Scepticism – that lack of commitment does not mean indifference to politics but rather a criticism of fanaticism and praise for political cautiousness – appears by comparison with the Scepticism of the New Academy. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The expansion of health research to low and middle income countries has increased the likelihood of exploitation and undue influence in economically vulnerable populations. In behavioral research, “reasonable availability”, which was originally developed for biomedical research and advocates for the equitable provision of any product developed during the research process, cannot always prevent exploitation. In such cases and settings, the informed consent process may lack cross-cultural validity and therapeutic misconceptions may arise. This article advocates for a mutual learning framework (...) where international researchers can gain cultural competence while training and empowering local partners, increasing community ownership of health research. (shrink)

Quel rôle joue le concept de vie quotidienne dans le scepticisme de Sextus Empiricus? À partir d’une analyse du concept de βιωτικὴ τήρησις, il s’agit de faire apparaître, d’une part (i) que la vie quotidienne, par opposition à la vie philosophique, est un fait empirique qui permet au sceptique d’agir sans pour autant avoir d’opinions et d’autre part que (ii) la vie quotidienne est une valeur qui donne sens à la philosophie sceptique. Bien que ces deux approches paraissent contradictoires, le (...) but de cet article est de montrer que le scepticisme philosophique proposé par Sextus les rend compatibles. (shrink)

Questions about the normative significance of ‘transparency’ do not receive much attention, even though they were central to Richard Moran’s (2001) original account. Instead, transparency is typically studied because of its epistemic and psychological peculiarities. In this paper, I consider three normative conceptions of transparency: teleological rationalism, procedural rationalism, and relational rationalism. The first is a theory about how transparency might relate to flourishing as a rational agent; the latter two are theories about how transparency relates to non-alienated self-knowledge. All (...) three conceptions, I argue, face serious problems. I end the paper by suggesting where the rationalist might go from here and by highlighting the importance of focusing not on the methods but on the broader circumstances in which self-knowledge is gained or lost. (shrink)

This essay investigates the origins and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the new field known as Wissensgeschichte from the perspective of an American intellectual historian. It argues that while some historians of science may be ready to embrace a new identity as historians of knowledge, this terminology remains baggy and invites facile applications of Foucauldian theory. The essay concludes with the hope that the history of knowledge approach may instead open up new avenues for conversation and collaboration between historians (...) of science and garden variety historians. (shrink)

Humanitarian maps assembled using digital technology are indicative of transformations underway in how the world is made knowable, sensible, and actionable, including for international legal purposes. These transformations are exemplified by the Missing Maps Project (MMP), an initiative of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, a U.S.-registered non-profit, and three other non-governmental organisations operating internationally: American Red Cross; British Red Cross; and Médecins Sans Frontières. Projects such as the MMP make it harder for international lawyers to lay claim to, and seek to (...) imaginatively reorient, shared repositories of common sense. Meanwhile, international legal scholars continue to propagate ideas that the world may be reimagined with their help, largely without regard to such transformations. In lieu of imagination’s standard evocation to the end of enhancing critical agency in international legal writing, this article contends that the idiosyncratic notion of imagination advanced in the writings of Walter Benjamin may be better attuned to ongoing shifts in sense-making apparent in international humanitarian mapping. Walter Benjamin’s atypical rendering of imagination as a ‘purely receptive, uncreative’ force in a field of technological reproduction offers international legal scholars another way of thinking about agency and prospects for re-forming their field in the face of its burgeoning digitalisation. (shrink)

En mars 2024, le Conseil supérieur des programmes du ministère de l’Éducation nationale a publié un projet d’éducation à la sexualité de la maternelle à la terminale. Il s’agit d’un sujet délicat et polémique, car en plus de traiter des questions liées à la sexualité, il aborde celle concernant le genre. Or, dès qu’il est question de genre, les débats s’enveniment. Ainsi, après une présentation du contexte actuel au sein duquel ce débat prend place, l’article reviendra sur la question de (...) la définition du genre. Puis il s’intéressera à quelques extraits d’un reportage sur la pédagogie de questionnement des normes de genre appliquée dès le plus jeune âge en Suède. Enfin, pour tenter d’apporter une conclusion, l’article reviendra sur le sujet de la transmission du genre. (shrink)

Built environments, and social and legal interactions through them, are powerfully shaped by the arrangements by which their making and remaking are financed. There is a rich literature analysing shifts towards private and/or offshore financing of infrastructure in broad terms and their implications for governmental accountability and so-called public interest values. At the level of mundane regulatory decision and technique, however, the ways in which governance may be affected by such financing arrangements have not been well mapped. The article considers (...) some governance implications of the practice of funding urban infrastructure projects by recourse to global financial markets. It focuses, in particular, upon how regulatory decision-making may be shaped by technical practices of financial deal-making, financial modelling and related re-configurations of institutional or jurisdictional space. These implications are explored by reference to some recent examples of urban toll-road financing in Sydney, Australia and decision-making and analysis surrounding those examples. As such, it joins with other recent scholarship in probing political dimensions of technical forms of knowledge and practice that have frequently fallen between the cracks of legal scholarship's interdisciplinary inquiries to date. (shrink)

Suicide and the value of a rational life In recent Kantian discussions about suicide, it is not uncommon to find relatively ‘mild’ approaches towards suicide. Even though as a rule suicide is still impermissible, some argue that there may be circumstances that can make suicide morally permissible. If a person suffers such that she cannot be considered to have a rational life any more, suicide is no longer immoral because the object of the moral duty is no longer present. In (...) this paper, I investigate this argumentative strategy by exploring what it might mean to have a ‘rational life’. I argue that on a minimal conception, people who suffer unbearably still lead rational lives and suicide is thus not morally justified. On substantial conceptions, however, not only does having a rational life become a contingent affair, it also leads to a more liberal approach towards suicide than ‘mild Kantians’ may be prepared to accept. (shrink)

We discuss in what sense the decay-scattering system is a minimal phenomenological theory for particle decay and resonance scattering.

The problem of statistical inference based on a partial measurement (“coarse-graining”) requires the specification of an a priori distribution. We reformulate the ordinary theory such as to encompass systematically a wide range of a priori distributions (“relative coarse-graining”). This is done in a mathematical setting which admits an interpretation in both classical probability and quantum mechanics. The formalism is illustrated in a few simple examples, such as the die whose geometrical shape is known, the spin in thermal equilibrium with an (...) unknown reservoir, and the position measurement of a one-dimensional particle. It is shown that some of the limitations of the usual theory are a consequence of the fact that it is restricted to “equidistributed” (symmetric) a priori states. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to examine the political implications of Sextus Empiricus’ neo-Pyrrhonism by considering two fundamental texts (PH I23-24; AM XI 162- 165). Both texts are usually interpreted as endorsing political conformism insofar as Sextus allegedly claims that one should follow the laws and customs of one’s community. But it seems possible to interpret the reference to laws and customs merely as a description of what humans in fact do. What Sextus would therefore recommend is to abandon (...) any theoretical approach to politics in favor of a pragmatic one. (shrink)

Aunque la cuestión de la licitud de la guerra no se plantee para Maquiavelo, como no lo hace para la mayoría de los pensadores italianos de principios del siglo XVI, el componente ético no está ausente de la reflexión maquiaveliana en El arte de la guerra. De hecho, junto al aspecto técnico de la creación de una milicia de ordenanza y sus diversos modos de combatir en el campo, sin embargo, se encuentran estrechamente vinculadas a los requisitos políticos de una (...) república virtuosa las fundamentales exigencias éticas tanto en las cualidades morales de los ciudadanos-soldados como en la virtud de los comandantes y en la rectitud de los dirigentes políticos que los reclutan y emplean en las operaciones militares. Esto se evidencia, particularmente, en las partes introductoria y final del tratado. (shrink)

Does Augustine succeed in refuting Academic skepticism in the Contra Academicos? A careful reading of Augustine’s first philosophical dialogue shows that he has a deep understanding of Academic skepticism. The three books of the Contra Academicos produce a refutation of skepticism at several levels. First, Augustine refutes many of the skeptical arguments from Cicero’s Academica by showing that they are not definitive. But he has perfectly understood that this logical refutation is actually an argument for skepticism. So he has to (...) propound a new way to overcome skepticism by showing its psychological significance. Hence, the philosophical choice of skepticism is interpreted as a despair of the truth. Finally, he seeks to refute skepticism by arguing that the path to the truth depends on faith (fides). This study of the complex answers to skepticism reveals that Augustine’s main arguments against skepticism have their origin in his debate with Cicero and the New Academy. (shrink)

Supervised injectable opioid assisted treament prescribes injectable opioids to individuals for whom other forms of addiction treatment have been ineffective. In this article, we examine arguments that opioid-dependent people should be assumed incompetent to voluntarily consent to clinical research on siOAT unless proven otherwise. We agree that concerns about competence and voluntary consent deserve careful attention in this context. But we oppose framing the issue solely as a matter of the competence of opioid-dependent people and emphasize that it should be (...) considered in the context of inequities in access to siOAT as a medical treatment. Consequently, we suggest that bioethics literature on nonexploitation, which focuses on clinical research in low-income countries, is helpful due to locating ethical issues within systemic social conditions. Finally, we consider the implications of our argument for the ethics of clinical research on siOAT. (shrink)

The article proposes a novel approach to mental agency that is inspired by Victoria McGeer’s work on self-regulation. The basic idea is that certain mental acts leave further work to be done for an agent to be considered an authoritative self-ascriber of corresponding dispositional mental states. First, we discuss Richard Moran’s account of avowals, which grounds first-person authority in deliberative, self-directed agency. Although this view is promising, we argue that it ultimately fails to confront the empirical gap between occurrent judgments (...) and dispositional beliefs. Second, we show how Victoria McGeer's account of self-regulation allows us to bridge this gap by emphasizing that avowals are only reliable and authoritative insofar as we take certain steps to live up to the commitments inherent in our self-ascriptions. Third, we address the question whether and to what extent self-regulation can be seen as a form of mental agency. Unlike the ‘pure’ deliberative form of mental agency advocated by Moran, which is direct, conscious and intra-personal, we follow McGeer and argue for a notion of mental agency as an indirect, unconscious and inter-personal process of self-regulation. (shrink)

The environment where people organize themselves is fundamentally different than thirty years ago: not only has society as a whole changed under the influence of globalization and technological innovation, the theoretical concepts of the organization and perceptions on the traditional ratio between the private and public sphere are shifting simultaneously. The modern, global society consists of arbitrary, fluid networks. The porous separation between the private and the public is fading, which constantly evokes and strengthens discussions on boundaries. We regard the (...) organization as the prototype of these changes in society. In the organization, a proliferating diversity both pushes back and oversteps boundaries, while also demanding new ones. This fundamental movement, which is continuous, must be understood if ‘we’ are to manage it.In this introductory text, we investigate how organization theory anticipates these shifting ratios caused by contradictory information coming together in what we once called stable and clear organizational frameworks. (shrink)