This paper explores an apparent tension between two widely held views about logic: that logic is normative and that there are multiple equally legitimate logics. The tension is this. If logic is normative, it tells us something about how we ought to reason. If, as the pluralist would have it, there are several correct logics, those logics make incompatible recommendations as to how we ought to reason. But then which of these logics should we look to for normative guidance? I (...) argue that inasmuch as pluralism draws its motivation from its ability to defuse logical disputes—that is, disputes between advocates of rival logics—it is unable to provide an answer: pluralism collapses into monism with respect to either the strongest or the weakest admissible logic. (shrink)

In this paper, we pursue three general aims: (I) We will define a notion of fundamental opacity and ask whether it can be found in High Energy Physics (HEP), given the involvement of machine learning (ML) and computer simulations (CS) therein. (II) We identify two kinds of non-fundamental, contingent opacity associated with CS and ML in HEP respectively, and ask whether, and if so how, they may be overcome. (III) We address the question of whether any kind of opacity, contingent (...) or fundamental, is unique to ML or CS, or whether they stand in continuity to kinds of opacity associated with other scientific research. (shrink)

Descartes a choisi, pour conclure les Méditations métaphysiques, de revenir sur une thèse majeure : la distinction réelle entre l’esprit et le corps. C’est aussi l’occasion pour lui de critiquer, à mots à peine couverts, la conception scolastique de la pesanteur. Ce texte rarement commenté a néanmoins été discuté par trois des plus grands lecteurs de Descartes (Gilson, Gouhier et Garber) qui s’accordent à y voir une charge contre les lointains disciples d’Aristote, même si aucune cible n’est explicitement mentionnée. Une (...) analyse minutieuse du dixième point des Sixièmes Réponses, en particulier de la page consacrée à la pesanteur, met aussi en évidence une liberté de langage déroutante, qui permet à Descartes de parler de l’esprit comme d’une qualité, de le dire ensuite étendu, et d’affirmer enfin qu’il faut penser pour se diriger vers un but déterminé. (shrink)

The question of ontological foundation has undergone a noteworthy revival in recent years: metaphysicians today quarrel about how exactly to understand the asymmetrical and hyperintensional relationship of grounding. One of the reasons for this revival is that the old quantificationalist meta-ontology inherited from Quine has been effectively criticised by leading philosophers favourable to a meta-ontology, the aim of which is to come to know “which facts/items ground (constitute the base of) which other facts/items”, thus to examine the relation of ontological (...) dependence between beings (e.g. chemical properties depend on physical properties, the economic situation on the behaviour of individuals etc.), i.e. to explore the hierarchical structure of reality. I shall not discuss here the relationship of grounding in itself, but make some historical-formal remarks on the properties of the ultimate ontological foundational item itself and its aporetic nature. To do so I explore various more or less exotic philosophical ecosystems in the following order: Heidegger (Seyn), Plato (ἕν), Wáng Bi (道, dào). On the way I shall propose a new interpretation both of certain hypotheses in the Parmenides and of the nature of the opposition between Wáng Bì and Guō Xiàng in regard to the logical grammar of the expression “nothing (無, wú)” (transl. J. Dudley). (shrink)

Responding to recent concerns about the reliability of the published literature in psychology and other disciplines, we formed the X-Phi Replicability Project to estimate the reproducibility of experimental philosophy. Drawing on a representative sample of 40 x-phi studies published between 2003 and 2015, we enlisted 20 research teams across 8 countries to conduct a high-quality replication of each study in order to compare the results to the original published findings. We found that x-phi studies – as represented in our sample (...) – successfully replicated about 70% of the time. We discuss possible reasons for this relatively high replication rate in the field of experimental philosophy and offer suggestions for best research practices going forward. (shrink)

The paper proposes a morphological approach towards a philosophy of design. Beginning with the question: what is “Gestalt”? it argues that there is a crucial difference between the concepts of “Gestalt” and “form”. I will proceed in three steps, beginning with the Aristotelian doctrine of the four causes and its implications for the concept of nature. Secondly I will briefly discuss Goethe’s notion of “Gestalt” within his “Morphologie” and how it was used among his successors (including the “Bauhaus”), which leads (...) straight into contemporary debates about computational design. Finally, and in conclusion, I introduce a morpho-logical “Gestalt”-thinking as a distinct and original kind of design-philosophy, beyond common design-history, or mere design-thinking. (shrink)

Quand on évoque la philosophie comme manière de vivre, on imagine le bleu de la Méditerranée, le soleil d’Italie et les rivages hellènes. Parfois on s’aventure jusqu’à penser à une bibliothèque, au premier étage d’une vieille tour, à ses poutres sur lesquelles le maître des lieux faisait peindre des sentences en grec et en latin ; certains vont jusqu’à évoquer un étang en Nouvelle-Angleterre, une cabane en Norvège. Qui imaginerait un presbytère, des grands marronniers, une église de village, et, en (...) toile de fond la forêt des Ardennes? On trouve la philosophie dans les lieux les plus insolites, et les plus inattendus, là où, les hommes simples vivent, simplement en hommes. (shrink)

In this paper, I question the dichotomy between fundamental moral disagreements, arising from divergences on moral principles, and superficial moral disagreements, that are expected to disappear under ideal epistemic circumstances. I claim that there are many other possibilities for moral disagreements, including moral disagreements that do not arise from different moral principles but would not disappear under ideal epistemic conditions. I describe two major kinds of such disagreements: semi-fundamental disagreements, which are made possible by the fact that the same moral (...) rules can be applied in different ways to the same situations, and non-morally fundamental moral disagreements, which arise by the fact that moral truths are not the only potentially non-factual truths. (shrink)

Generations of researchers observed a mismatch between headphone and loudspeaker presentation: the sound pressure level at the eardrum generated by a headphone has to be about 6 dB higher compared to the level created by a loudspeaker that elicits the same loudness. While it has been shown that this effect vanishes if the same waveforms are generated at the eardrum in a blind comparison, the origin of the mismatch is still unclear. We present new data on the issue that systematically (...) characterize this mismatch under variation of the stimulus frequency, presentation room, and binaural parameters of the headphone presentation. Subjects adjusted the playback level of a headphone presentation to equal loudness as loudspeaker presentation, and the levels at the eardrum were determined through appropriate transfer function measurements. Identical experiments were conducted at Oldenburg and Aachen with 40 normal-hearing subjects including 14 that passed through both sites. Our data verify a mismatch between loudspeaker and binaural headphone presentation, especially at low frequencies. This mismatch depends on the room acoustics, and on the interaural coherence in both presentation modes. It vanishes for high frequencies and broadband signals if individual differences in the sound transfer to the eardrums are accounted for. Moreover, small acoustic and non-acoustic differences in an anechoic reference environment exert a large effect on the recorded loudness mismatch, whereas not such a large effect of the respective room is observed across moderately reverberant rooms at both sites. Hence, the non-conclusive findings from the literature appear to be related to the experienced disparity between headphone and loudspeaker presentation, where even small differences in room acoustics significantly change the response behavior of the subjects. Moreover, individual factors like loudness summation appear to be only loosely connected to the observed mismatch, i.e., no direct prediction is possible from individual binaural loudness summation to the observed mismatch. These findings – even though not completely explainable by the yet limited amount of parameter variations performed in this study – have consequences for the comparability of experiments using loudspeakers with conditions employing headphones or other ear-level hearing devices. (shrink)

À propos de : Nathalie Heinich, Des valeurs. Une approche sociologique, Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Bibliothèque des Sciences humaines », 2017, 416 p. Si jusqu’à présent les articles publiés par Nathalie Heinich sur la question des valeurs restaient modestes dans leurs ambitions et à ce titre inconsistants dans leurs propositions, Des valeurs. Une approche sociologique constitue à l’inverse une somme soigneusement élaborée. Et au-delà des polémiques extra-scientifiques suscitées par l’obtention...

This paper aims to show that Deleuze’s ideas on space and extension are heavily in debt to Leibniz. The focus is on chapter five, ‘the Asymmetrical Synthesis of the Sensible’, of Difference and Repetition. Concepts such as ‘intensive magnitude’, ‘distance’, ‘order’ and most importantly ‘spatium’ are shown to have their origin in Leibniz’s philosophy. In order to do so, the article starts with Leibniz’s critique on Cartesian mechanics and how this leads Leibniz to a conception of space that goes beyond (...) the Cartesian concept of extension. The latter lacks difference, potentiality and individuality. Leibniz argues that the Cartesian homogeneous plenum should therefore be grounded in a deeper more substantial space: the spatium. Understood as such, space is not an absolute substance but a structure of relations between substances. Although Leibniz’s texts offer enough to understand this spatium, they do not explain how the genesis of extension out of space should be understood. It is on this point that Deleuze offers a fruitful interpretation of Leibniz by conceptualizing such a genesis in terms of difference. Extension is understood as a homogenization and externalization of the internal and pure differences in space. In the end, Leibniz helps us to understand Deleuze’s theory, while Deleuze offers us an enriching interpretation of Leibniz that succeeds where authors such as Yvon Belaval and Martial Gueroult have failed. (shrink)

t. 1. "Myśl i rzeczywistość" i inne pisma filozofizne.

Un seul coup de crayon sur une feuille de papier, et tout l'espace s'ébranle : c'est la force du premier trait sur la toile vierge, c'est l'alif à l'origine de l'alphabet, c'est l'écriture se déployant dans les méandres de l'encre. Projection en même temps qu'inscription de la lumière sur une surface, de préférence plane et claire, l'ombre est la trace du vivant sur terre. A peine l'a-t-on cernée d'un contour que l'absent qui s'y est réfugié reprend forme, retrouve son identité, (...) et que la mémoire se met à agir. Dessins, estampes, photographies sont des moyens de retenir - chacun à leur manière, et chacun à leur rythme - ces brèves manifestations de l'existant. Florian Rodari s'interroge dans ces pages sur la volontaire et contraignante limitation au couple noir/blanc, dualité splendide de l'encre et du papier en vue d'obtenir - hors tout recours à la couleur - des images capables de satisfaire pleinement le regard. Sont réunis dans cet ouvrage un certain nombre de ses essais consacrés à des artistes aussi divers que Rembrandt, Victor Hugo, Henri Michaux, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Balthasar Burkhard ou Georg Baselitz. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that, barring a few important exceptions, the phenomenon we refer to using the expression “being moved” is a distinct type of emotion. In this paper’s first section, we motivate this hypothesis by reflecting on our linguistic use of this expression. In section two, pursuing a methodology that is both conceptual and empirical, we try to show that the phenomenon satisfies the five most commonly used criteria in philosophy and psychology for thinking that some affective episode (...) is a distinct emotion. Indeed, being moved, we claim, is the experience of a positive core value (particular object) perceived by the moved subject as standing out (formal object) in the circumstances triggering the emotion. Drawing on numerous examples, we describe the distinctively rich phenomenology characteristic of the experience as well as the far-reaching action-tendencies and functions associated with it. Having thus shown that the candidate emotion seem to satisfy the five criteria, we go on, in section three, to compare it with sadness and joy, arguing that it should not be confused with either. Finally, in section four, we illustrate the explanatory power of our account of “being moved” by showing how it can shed light on, and maybe even justify, the widespread distrust we feel towards the exhibition of ‘sentimentality’. On the whole and if we are right, we have uncovered an emotion which, though never or rarely talked about, is of great interest and no small importance. (shrink)

Education and Social Change sheds a new light on Florian Znaniecki's most original program of the sociology of education. The volume contains newly discovered reports from the research under the auspices of the Columbia University in the thirties, focused on educating to participate in democratic social order and cultural innovation. Preparation for cooperative interactions with leaders lies at the core of the analysis. Included are several texts published in English which clearly expound Znaniecki's analysis of social processes in education. (...) The key idea of transforming educational systems in the direction of self-education still proves relevant. (shrink)

Political Revolution Revolutions are commonly understood as instances of fundamental socio-political transformation. Since “the age of revolutions” in the late 18th century, political philosophers and theorists have developed approaches aimed at defining what forms of change can count as revolutionary as well as determining if and … Continue reading Political Revolution →.

Ethnographic study of the constitution of algorithms.

In Theologie und Wissenschaft bei Petrus Aureoli, Florian Wöller offers an account of the theories of science and of theology as they emerge from Peter Auriol's (c. 1280-1322) commentaries on the Sentences.

This article deals with the contribution of the indirect tradition to establishing the text of Lucan's Bellum ciuile. First, the methodological basis for the use of quotations is outlined, and then five passages from the Bellum ciuile are discussed. The variant readings which appear in the indirect tradition constitute important points that have been wrongly neglected by most editors of Lucan's poem.

Ever since the publication of his monograph Cartesian Linguistics(1966), Noam Chomsky has been eager to show that his vision of psychology in general and theoretical linguistics in particular is conceptually sound. The claim has been opposed from various sides, including perspicuous objections by Baker and Hacker (1984: Chapters 8 and 9) and Wright (1989). Chomsky and his followers have subsequently concentrated their efforts on defending Chomskian methodologies in psychology and theoretical linguistics. The present paper considers one particular question in relation (...) to these efforts: Is Chomsky’s methodology in psychology and theoretical linguistics conceptually sound? The paper begins by considering Chomsky’s views on methodology and subjects it to a conceptual challenge. The conceptual challenge comes from Bennett and Hacker (2003) and was initially raised, under the label ‘mereological fallacy’, to counter conceptual confusion in neuroscience. It had, however, been anticipated in a more general form by Kenny (1984: 125-36) and Wittgenstein (1958: § 281, §282-4, 357-61). Any version of the challenge can be readily adapted to serve present purposes, but Bennett and Hacker’s is particularly suitable due the amount of detail they provide. The section ends with Chomsky’s reply to the challenge and the leading question of the paper will be answered: whereas Chomsky’s methodological naturalism will be found to be sound, his particular brand of internalism will be shown to be pernicious. (shrink)

Sound can be listened to in various ways and with different intentions. Multiple factors influence how and what we perceive when listening to sound. Sonification, the acoustic representation of data, is in essence just sound. It functions as sonification only if we make sure to listen attentively in order to access the abstract information it contains. This is difficult to accomplish since sound always calls the listener’s attention to concrete—whether natural or musical—points of references. Important aspects determining how we listen (...) to sonification are discussed in this paper: elicited sounds, repeated sounds, conceptual sounds, technologically mediated sounds, melodic sounds, familiar sounds, multimodal sounds and vocal sounds. We discuss how these aspects help the listener engage with the sound, but also how they can become points of reference in and of themselves. The various sonic qualities employed in sonification can potentially open but also risk closing doors to the accessibility and perceptibility of the sonified data. (shrink)

Le thème de l’éducation reste présent chez S. Freud jusqu’au bout dans son œuvre, et s’incarne dans son intérêt pour la mission qu’il a confiée à sa fille, développer la psychanalyse de l’enfant. Après avoir exposé les principaux éléments de ses prises de position théorico-cliniques concernant l’éducation de l’enfant, incluant la dénonciation de l’hypocrisie des adultes, nous explorons la façon dont la théorie freudienne s’est défléchie chez les deux sœurs rivales de la psychanalyse, A. Freud et M. Klein, dont le (...) conflit porte notamment sur le rôle de l’environnement thérapeutique de l’enfant. (shrink)

Le processus de différenciation est singulièrement ravivé à l’adolescence au service de la conquête de l’altérité, du déploiement des capacités créatives et du devenir sujet. La gémellité à l’adolescence dédouble la difficulté de l’individuation à l’égard des figures œdipiennes par un conflit aigu lié aux enjeux de séparation entre les jumeaux. Cet article porte sur une exploration du fonctionnement psychique de deux sœurs jumelles homozygotes en fin d’adolescence. L’analyse repose sur un entretien semi-structuré et des épreuves projectives dont l’analyse clinique (...) traduit la lutte constante entre l’indifférenciation et la différenciation. Les récurrences archaïques et dépressives repérées permettent de supposer l’existence d’un « complexe d’unicité », propre à la gémellité homozygote, particulièrement mis sous tension à l’épreuve du processus de subjectivation. (shrink)

Ce travail opère une relecture de deux textes de jeunesse de Th. W. Adorno dans l’optique d’une réévaluation de leur importance pour son œuvre ultérieure, en particulier pour sa philosophie de l’histoire. Ces deux textes, dans lesquels est défini le concept d’interprétation philosophique de l’histoire, ou Deutung, seront abordés à partir d’une question issue des philosophies de l’histoire classiques du xixe siècle, celle du lien entre cette interprétation philosophique et une expérience commune de l’histoire. Nous montrerons que, loin de pouvoir (...) constituer un programme univoque pour la suite de la philosophie adornienne, ces textes de jeunesse sont au contraire travaillés par une ambiguïté. Fondamentale pour toute la philosophie adornienne de l’histoire, cette ambiguïté prend place entre un fondement méthodologique de la Deutung et la tentative de l’originer au contraire dans une expérience dialectique de la réalité historique. (shrink)