Joint actions typically involve a sense of togetherness that has a distinctive phenomenological component. While it has been hypothesized that group size, hierarchical structure, division of labour, and expertise impact agents’ phenomenology during joint actions, the studies conducted so far have mostly involved dyads performing simple actions. We explore in this study the complex case of collectively improvised musical performances, focusing particularly on the way group size and interactional patterns modulate the phenomenology of joint action. We recorded two expert improvisation (...) ensembles of contrasting sizes (16 vs 4 musicians) and collected data about their musical behaviour, as well as reports about five aspects of their phenomenology (sense of agency, agentive identity, integration, dependence, reflexivity) and about their musical intentions. Our overall data enabled us to assess how those five phenomenological dimensions related to one another during jointly improvised performances. They also show how such phenomenology varied with the way improvisers dynamically related to one another throughout the performance. Finally, we observe that group size strongly altered the phenomenology of improvisers who otherwise shared many characteristics (high expertise, similar aesthetic preferences, etc.). Our study thus sheds light on the interactional and structural parameters that shape and modulate our felt experience when acting together, and thereby highlights the importance of pluralism for studying the phenomenology of joint action. (shrink)

Cette article présente l'étude comparative des systèmes éducatifs grecs et chrétiens dans la mesure où tous les deux accordent une place centrale à l'obéissance dans la formation des individus. Il vise à mettre en évidence leur opposition absolue. Chez les grecs l'obéissance joue le rôle d'un outil éducatif destiné à faire de l'élève un être libre. Elle est pensée comme une méthode d'accès à la liberté inséparable d'un enjeu politique : la formation des citoyens libres. L'obéissance au maître, c'est-à-dire la (...) docilité, constitue ainsi la condition de possibilité de l'assujettissement de la partie irrationnelle de l'âme à la partie rationnelle. Or dans le projet éducatif monachique, la lecture de la Bible comme pratique ascétique joue le rôle d'un outil de lutte contre les tentations, non celui d'un moyen d'apprentissage qui vise l'acquisition d'un savoir. Cette pratique ascétique est donc inséparable d'une exigence : la purification de l'âme. Dès lors, l'obéissance devient une voie d'accès à la vertu et le lieu d'une attention exclusive inséparable d'un autre enjeu politique, diamétralement opposé à celui des systèmes grecs : la destruction de toute idée de liberté. Elle ne représente plus une méthode devant conduire à la liberté, mais le terme de la formation des individus. Elle n'est plus visée comme un moyen, mais comme une fin en soi. Elle ne vise plus le développement de la raison, mais la soumission de la volonté. (shrink)

The Genotype-Phenotype (G-P) distinction was proposed in the context of Mendelian genetics, in the wake of late 19th century studies about heredity. In this paper, we provide a conceptual analysis that highlights that the G-P distinction was grounded on three pillars: observability, transmissibility, and causality. Originally, the genotype is the non-observable and transmissible cause of the phenotype, which is its observable and non-transmissible effect. We argue that the current developments of biology have called the validity of such pillars into question. (...) First, molecular biology has unveiled the putative material substrate of the genotype (qua DNA), making it an observable object. Second, numerous findings on nongenetic heredity suggest that some phenotypic traits can be directly transmitted. Third, recent organicist approaches to biological phenomena have emphasized the reciprocal causality between parts of a biological system, which notably applies to the relations between genotypes and phenotypes. As a consequence, we submit that the G-P distinction has lost its general validity, although it can still apply to specific situations. This calls for forging new frameworks and concepts to better describe heredity and development. (shrink)

The concept of biological inheritance has recently been extended so as to integrate, among other elements, parts of organisms’ environments. The literature refers to the trans-generational reconstruction of these parts in terms of environmental or ecological inheritance. This article’s main objective is to clarify the different meanings of "environmental inheritance," to underline so far unnoticed theoretical difficulties associated to this polysemous notion and to consequently argue that inheritance, even when extended, should be theoretically distinguished from trans-generational environmental stability. After disentangling (...) the different meanings of environmental inheritance, I underline that studies dealing with this concept place themselves in the wake of earlier contributions about biological environment and elaborate on the role of organisms in the determination of their relevant developmental and selective surroundings. This leads me to question the legitimacy of the category shift operated by niche inheritance proponents—from environment to inheritance—and to explain why the very concept of inherited environment shows important and so far unnoticed theoretical limitations. In this context, I assert the necessity to distinguish two related but different research programs: the construction of a finer-grained theory of environment and the elaboration of an extended theory of inheritance. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the increasing data about non-genetic inheritance requires the construction of a new conceptual framework that should complement the inclusive approaches already discussed in the literature. More precisely, I hold that this framework should be epistemologically relevant for evolutionary biologists in capturing the limits of extended inheritance and in reassessing the boundaries of biological systems that transmit traits to their offspring. I outline the first elements of an organizational account of extended inheritance. In this account, (...) the category of inherited factors is neither restricted to genes nor extended to stable resources related to trans-generational similarities. Instead, it includes persisting constitutive elements appearing as difference makers for heterogeneous organizational constraints, namely for heterogeneous constitutive parts whose specific role is to harness flows of matter and energy across generations of clearly delimited extended organized systems. This both inclusive and restrictive framework opens an additional way to apprehend how extended inheritance may affect evolutionary trajectories. (shrink)

La notion de petit corpus nécessite une réflexion épistémologique pour se situer dans le paysage des sciences du langage. La taille du corpus ne pouvant suffire pour départager les petits corpus des grands corpus, la ligne de partage se situe au niveau de la représentativité et des objectifs de recherche. Le petit corpus est constitué en vue d’un objectif de recherche mené sur un domaine précis de la langue et du discours pour tenir compte des influences du type de discours (...) et du genre sur les phénomènes linguistiques étudiés. Le petit corpus doit donc rendre compte de ce champ d’investigation particulier. La spécialisation du corpus lui confère donc sa représentativité. Pour aboutir à cette spécialisation, il est nécessaire d’établir un corpus homogène concernant les paramètres textuels, (discours, type de texte, genre, etc.). Par ailleurs, le petit corpus rend possible un retour au contexte linguistique et situationnel : une connaissance approfondie des textes favorise l’interprétation des données. Afin d’illustrer ces propos sur les petits corpus, un corpus construit dans le cadre d’une recherche menée sur la synonymie selon une approche onomasiologique et syntagmatique est présenté. Au-delà de sa petite taille, ce corpus tire sa spécialisation de son homogénéité : les paramètres textuels ont été neutralisés, puisque les textes du corpus appartiennent tous au même discours, au même type de texte et au même genre. La recherche onomasiologique suppose d’ajouter un paramètre thématique lors de la constitution du corpus : les textes choisis doivent manifester de façon saillante la même thématique. Si les paramètres textuels semblent les plus évidents pour spécialiser un corpus, d’autres paramètres inhérents à l’objectif de recherche interviennent. (shrink)

L?analyse de la notion d?acédie proposée ici se découpe en trois parties. Une première partie, historique, est consacrée à l?examen de textes de législateurs du monachisme évoquant cette notion née pour qualifier la prostration de l?anachorète qui n?arrive plus à investir l?ascèse et le mode de vie solitaire qu?il s?est choisi. Une deuxième partie, esquisse d'une phénoménologie de l'acédie, est consacrée à une analyse de ses déterminations essentielles pour la sortir de son cadre historique et voir en quoi elle constitue (...) une disposition anthropologique fondamentale de l?âme humaine. Plus précisément, l?auteur examine en quoi elle est une expérience privilégiée de la structure temporelle de l?âme, dans la lignée des réflexions augustiniennes sur le temps au livre XI des Confessions et de l'analyse heideggérienne de l'ennui dans les Concepts fondamentaux de la métaphysique. Dans la dernière partie, elle suggère enfin quelques réflexions à propos de la disparition dans la pensée occidentale de cette notion décrivant une disposition fondamentale de toute âme humaine à ne rien désirer, disparition qui a entraîné aussi celle de la conception subjective du temps de la conscience intime esquissée chez Augustin et qui ne réapparaîtra que bien plus tard, chez Brentano et dans la phénoménologie husserlienne. (shrink)

Gaëlle Demelemestre | : On présente généralement Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto et Domingo Bañez comme des auteurs de la Seconde Scolastique, et plus précisément de sa première vague. Il est de ce fait supposé que leurs positions intellectuelles sont suffisamment similaires pour que l’on puisse les traiter ensemble, et qu’elles soient exposées et complétées les unes par les autres. Des personnalités d’une telle envergure peuvent-elles cependant réellement avoir fondu leurs objet et visée propres en une thèse commune (...) qu’elles auraient perpétuée? C’est la question que nous nous poserons en comparant précisément la façon dont ils comprennent les notions de dominium et de ius. | : Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto and Domingo Bañez are generally presented as authors of the Second Scholastic, and more precisely of his first wave. It is thereby assumed that their intellectual positions are sufficiently similar to be treated together, and exposed and completed the one by the others. However, such personalities could they really have flow together their own object and aim in one same position that they have perpetuated? That’s the question we will ask in comparing precisely their meaning of the notions of dominium and ius. (shrink)

The paper outlines the contours of an organizational perspective on extended inheritance. Based on theoretical studies about biological organization and extended physiology, this perspective allows for the conception of extended biological legacies while keeping a theoretically indispensable distinction between biological systems and their environment. In this context, the line of demarcation between these systems and their surroundings is modelled on an organizational criterion and on the related conceptual distinction between organizational constraints, whose specific role is to harness flows of matter (...) and energy across generations of composite biological systems, and resources exploited by those systems. Biological legacies are restricted to persisting constitutive elements responsible for the reoccurrence of organizational constraints in a given environment. The case of symbiotic transmission is presented as a paradigmatic system illustrating the main proposed conceptual clarifications. (shrink)

This study provides evidence that personality traits associated with responsiveness to conscious reward cues also influence responsiveness to unconscious reward cues. Participants with low and high levels of Novelty Seeking performed updating tasks in which they could either gain 1 euro or 5 cents. Gains were presented either supraliminally or subliminally at the beginning of each trial. Results showed that low NS participants performed better in the high-reward than in the low-reward condition, whereas high NS participants’ performance did not differ (...) between reward conditions. Interestingly, we found that low NS participants performed significantly better when rewards were presented unconsciously, whereas high NS participants’ performance did not differ whether reward cues were presented subliminally or supraliminally. Our findings highlight the necessity of taking personality into account in unconscious cognition research. They also suggest that individual differences might determine whether implicit and explicit motives have similar or complementary influences. (shrink)

Gaëlle Demelemestre | Résumé : Les controverses opposant les dominicains et les jésuites après le concile de Trente renvoient l’image d’une scission qui se serait produite à ce moment au sein de la seconde scolastique, à partir de laquelle deux traditions doctrinales se seraient constituées. Existe-t-il cependant une réelle césure interprétative entre les deux ordres? Peut-on réellement trouver une différence de traitement des données ou de raisonnement permettant de distinguer deux traditions de pensée? Ce sont les questions auxquelles cet (...) article entend apporter des éléments de réponse en comparant la doctrine de deux illustres représentants de ces ordres, Domingo de Soto et Luis de Molina, sur les questions cruciales de la nature et de la fonction du droit et du pouvoir politique. Soto est le premier à proposer un exposé systématique du droit et de la loi, et Molina prolonge ses analyses en reprenant le même projet. Si leurs contemporains ne semblent pas distinguer leurs théorisations du droit, certaines différences définitionnelles préfigurent pourtant des divergences qui se creuseront chez leurs successeurs. |: The controversies between the Dominicans and the Jesuits after the Council of Trent reflect the image of a split that would have occurred at that time within the second scholasticism, from which two doctrinal traditions would have been formed. However, is there a real interpretative break between the two orders? Can we really find a difference in the data process or in the reasoning allowing to distinguish two traditions of thought? These are the questions to which this article intends to give an answer by comparing the doctrine of two illustrious representatives of these orders, Domingo de Soto and Luis de Molina, on the crucial questions of the nature and function of law and political power. Soto is the first to propose a systematic exposition of the right and the law, and Molina extends his analyzes by taking up the same project. If their contemporaries do not seem to distinguish their theorisations from the law, some defining differences prefigure, nevertheless, divergencies which will be widened among their successors. (shrink)

Gaëlle Demelemestre | Résumé : On attribue à la Réforme la paternité de notre intelligence libérale du pouvoir et de la société civile. La tradition théologique classique, maintenant la possibilité d’une médiation entre l’homme et Dieu, ne serait pas parvenue à dégager la sphère des activités proprement humaines à partir de laquelle la modernité a pris son essor. Nous nous proposons ici d’évaluer cette thèse en comparant la pensée de Luther à celle d’un de ses contemporains prenant explicitement le (...) contre-pied de ses positions, Vitoria, sur trois points précis : leur intelligence de la relation homme-Dieu, la nature de l’action humaine et de la loi naturelle qui s’en déduit, et leur théorisation subséquente du pouvoir politique. |: The Reformation is considered as the promoter of our liberal understanding of the political and civil society. The classical theological tradition, implying the possibility of a mediation between men and God, wouldn’t have been able to achieve the proper sphere of human activity from which modernity has taken off. Hereafter, we try to challenge this thesis by a comparison between Luther’s thought and the intellectual positions of one of his contemporaries, explicitly against Luther’s positions, Vitoria, on three precise points : their understanding of the God-men relation, the nature of human action and natural law which proceed from it, and their consequent theorization of the political power. (shrink)

During the last few years, various authors have called for the elaboration of a theoretical framework that would better take into account the role of organisms in evolutionary dynamics. In this paper, I argue that an organism-centered evolutionary theory, which implies the rehabilitation of an organizational thinking in evolutionary biology and should be associated with what I will call a heuristic of collaboration, may be completed by an organizational perspective of biological inheritance. I sketch this organizational perspective – which allows (...) going beyond gene-centrism –, show how it grounds a systemic concept of heritable variation suited to the new evolutionary framework, and highlight some of its explanatory value and theoretical implications for evolutionary thinking. (shrink)

In the literature, Fair Trade (FT) goods are usually associated with other products differentiated by process attributes such as organic food, genetically modified (GM) food or child labour-free clothing. All of these products are regarded as credence goods. This classification refers to the simplified definition of credence goods, which describes product attributes which consumers cannot evaluate, even after having consumed the good. Focusing on the characteristics of FT goods, this article proposes a reassessment of the link between FT goods and (...) credence properties as defined by Darby and Kami. We first demonstrate that (1) the usual classification masks important particularities of FT goods compared to other goods with process attributes and (2) the full definition of credence goods may even provide a better description of the quality of FT goods. However - and this is our second theoretical contribution - the lack of consensus among experts concerning FT standards and their level of efficiency encourage us to consider FT goods as indeterminate goods as defined by Lupton. This result leads us to suggest a new typology of product attributes summarized in an innovative diagram. It sheds light on how competition between the different FT approaches works and why the FT market is still confined to a niche, if not threatened with collapse. We mainly illustrate our theoretical analysis with observations relating to the French FT market and institutions. (shrink)

Since its inception in the history of ideas, the concept of race has been oscillating between the political-social and biological domains. While the political-social perspectives have been dominant in the second half of the 20thcentury, “race” seems to be subject to a new kind of biologisation during the time of epigenetics. In this article, I show that the epigenetic approach to race echoes earlier externalist conceptions of race, and that it leads to the articulation of naturalism, environmentalism, and biosocial constructivism. (...) I argue that it invites us to think about race as a relational, plastic, and accidental property, and so-called “racial groups” as biosocial historically contingent constructs. (shrink)

First, we define the concepts of well-being and happiness at school. Then, we explore well-being at school from the perspective of the teacher-student relationship, both from the point of view of the students and of the teachers. To do this, the main results of two studies carried out in 2019 and 2020, mainly in Quebec, are presented. Finally, the two perspectives, that of the pupils and that of the teachers, are confronted.The results of our analysis highlight the importance of the (...) teacher-student relationship both in the student's school experience and in the teacher's professional practice. The affective nature of the relationship seems to occupy a major place. Suggestions and recommendations for optimizing the quality of the teacher-student relationship, for the happiness of learning or teaching, are proposed. (shrink)

Complex diseases involve both a genetic component and a response to environmental factors or lifestyle changes. Recently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have succeeded in identifying hundreds of polymorphisms that are statistically associated with complex diseases. However, the association is usually weak and none of the associated allelic forms is either necessary or sufficient for the disease occurrence. We argue that this promotes a network view, centred on functional redundancy. We adapted reliability theory to the concerned sub-network, modelled as a parallel (...) array of functional modules. In our model, as long as one module remains active, the function correlated with the respective disease is ensured and disease does not occur. Genetic factors reduce the initial number of available modules while environment, contingent surroundings, personal history, epigenetics, and some intrinsic stochasticity influence their persistence time. This model reproduces age-specific incidence curves and explains the influence of environmental changes. It offers a new paradigm, according to which disease occurs due to a lack of functional elements, depending on many idiosyncratic factors. Genetic risk assessed from GWAS is only a statistical notion with no direct interpretation at the individual level. However, genomic profiling could be useful at population level in devising models to guide decisions in health care policy. (shrink)

Comment Augustin caractérise-t-il la volonté ? Cet article dégage les quatre axes dramatiques sur lesquels se déploie la conception augustinienne de la volonté : 1° la volonté comme tentation de la transgression (désobéissance) ; 2° la volonté comme impuissance (c'est-à-dire rupture entre le désir et son accomplissement); 3° la volonté comme effort ; 4° la volonté comme instance décisoire (cause spirituelle).

Il s'agit de la recension d'un ouvrage paru en hommage à Michel Morange.

The concept of biological inheritance has recently been extended so as to integrate, among other elements, parts of organisms’ environments. The literature refers to the trans-generational reconstruction of these parts in terms of environmental or ecological inheritance. This article’s main objective is to clarify the different meanings of "environmental inheritance," to underline so far unnoticed theoretical difficulties associated to this polysemous notion and to consequently argue that inheritance, even when extended, should be theoretically distinguished from trans-generational environmental stability. After disentangling (...) the different meanings of environmental inheritance, I underline that studies dealing with this concept place themselves in the wake of earlier contributions about biological environment and elaborate on the role of organisms in the determination of their relevant developmental and selective surroundings. This leads me to question the legitimacy of the category shift operated by niche inheritance proponents—from environment to inheritance—and to explain why the very concept of inherited environment shows important and so far unnoticed theoretical limitations. In this context, I assert the necessity to distinguish two related but different research programs: the construction of a finer-grained theory of environment and the elaboration of an extended theory of inheritance. (shrink)

An historical review of the concepts of self-consciousness is presented, highlighting the important role of the body (particularly, body perception but also body action) and the social other in the construction of self-consciousness. More precisely, body perception, especially intermodal sensory perception including kinesthetic perception, is involved in the construction of a sense of self allowing self-nonself differentiation. Furthermore, the social other, through very early social and emotional interactions, provides meaning to the infant’s perception and contributes to the development of his/her (...) symbolization capacities. This is a necessary condition for body image representation and awareness of a permanent self in a time-space continuum (invariant over time and space). Self-image recognition impairments in the mirror are also discussed regarding a comprehensive developmental theory of self-consciousness. Then, a neuropsychological and neurophysiological approach to self-consciousness reviews the role of complex brain activation/integration pathways and the mirror neuron system in self-consciousness. Finally, this article offers new perspectives on self-consciousness evaluation using the mirror as an experimental paradigm to study self- and other- image and body recognition. (shrink)

Les travaux des exégètes français sur la tradition du droit naturel ont été largement ignorés par les scientifiques anglo-saxons jusqu’à une date très récente. Cependant, depuis une vingtaine d’années, la tendance accrue à la juridicisation des droits de la personne a conduit les juristes anglophones à s’interroger sur leur statut, leur réalité et leur signification, questions jusqu’alors assez peu pertinentes dans la tradition de la common law. Il n’est donc pas surprenant d’avoir vu émerger outre-mer des recherches approfondies sur certains (...) concepts-clé des grands interprètes français des idées juridiques, concernant en particulier la théorie thomasienne du droit classique et la thèse selon laquelle le nominalisme occamien est à l’origine de la notion de droit subjectif. Le présent article entend montrer comment la marque française s’est imprimée dans ces nouveaux travaux, à la fois en ouvrant des perspectives qui n’auraient jamais été explorées sans elle, et en nourrissant de ce fait une critique informée et stimulante de ses thèses majeures. (shrink)

Dans le cadre d’une éthique préventive, nous serons amenés à valider toute la pertinence que requiert la compréhension des logiques de la non-perception d’un risque de contamination du sida par voie sexuelle dans la population guadeloupéenne. En passant par l’analyse des limites sous-jacentes à la séparation de deux populations, celle infectée et celle non infectée, nous pourrons avancer que la non-perception de ce risque relève d’une construction culturelle et sociale où toute confusion, qu’elle soit sexuelle, corporelle, spatiale, participe à la (...) fois d’un sentiment d’invulnérabilité et d’un sentiment de peur. C’est en tenant compte de cette réalité que les différentes instances décisionnelles devraient agir afin d’enrayer une épidémie déjà bien implantée en Guadeloupe. (shrink)

L'objectif de cet article est de revenir sur la dimension pratique de la philosophie de Nietzsche, puisqu'elle est l'expression et l'affirmation d'un art de vivre et d'une esthétique de l'existence, c'est-à-dire d'un ensemble de pratiques de soi. Sur quoi repose cette philosophie pratique? Sur la thèse selon laquelle le corps et la volonté sont au fondement de toute connaissance. Elle implique la sévère critique d'une tradition idéaliste et dualiste dominante dans toute l'histoire de la philosophie. Cette critique est inséparable chez (...) Nietzsche de l'affirmation de nouvelles pratiques de soi, d'exercices passionnels et passionnés destinés à intensifier la vie. Critique qui implique une philosophie belliqueuse, agressive, alliant lucidité, réalisme et indépendance d'esprit, mais aussi l'oubli actif, destiné à nous apprendre à ne plus être prévisible et régulier, c'est-à-dire à être courageux dans la prise de risques. (shrink)

The dichotomy made by Jankélévitch between excusing the ignorant and forgiving the wicked serves first as a key to analyzing Derrida's logic of forgiving the unforgivable. Fiasse shows Jankélévitch's influence on Derrida in spite of their opposite conclusions. The author highlights several limits in the literature on forgiveness caused by knowledge and wickedness being too strongly opposed to ignorance and excusing. She turns to Aristotle in order to emphasize the forgiveness of voluntary actions that are not necessarily ill-intended. She insists (...) on the role of apologies, the degree of personal commitment in the disapproval of the action, the harm done to the victim, the distinction between matters of slight and strong importance, the different kinds of ignorance and responsibility, and the crucial role of regret. (shrink)

Lors du séminaire de 1962 sur la conférence Temps et Être, Jean Beaufret prit la parole pour dénoncer l’amalgame hâtif trop souvent fait entre la pensée de Heidegger et celle de Hegel : « Ainsi prévaudrait largement en France, annonçait-il, l’impression que la pensée de Heidegger est une reprise - comme approfondis­sement et comme élargissement - de la philosophie de Hegel ». Lors de ce séminaire, qui abordait une pléthore de penseurs es­sentiels, seul Hegel d’ailleurs fut abordé en propre, e..

The first part of this article presents Ricœur's hermeneutics as a method, a style of writing and a particular philosophy. As a method, Ricœur revisits the notion of traditions and interpretations, in order to keep them open to debts from the past, to unexplored sources, to creative imagination and to the critical search for meaning. It is a style of writing, constantly put in dialogue with the history of philosophy which aims at unpacking a diversity of meanings. It is also (...) a philosophy in itself, a phenomenological hermeneutics of the self who is capable and suffering, although the Cogito is shattered and cannot pretend to immediacy and thus needs mediations. Such an hermeneutics is also tied to a new interpretation of ontology of being as capacity and actualization. The meanings of the other are discussed, as well as the notion of narrative identity for Ricœur's hermeneutics. In the second part of the article, the author highlights how this hermeneutics remains tied to the search for the originary and for universals, and is animated by the constant ethical demand of respect of the singularity of each person. This is why the notion of trust plays a particular role, as well as the dialogue with Levinas. The author thus revisits the important aspects of Ricœur's Little Ethics, and its distanciation from Sartre's voluntarist existential project. It is shown that beyond interpretations, a critique of ideologies remains necessary, as well as the demand for an ethics, a morality, and a judgment in situation. (shrink)

Insight problem solving was investigated with the matchstick algebra problems developed by Knoblich, Ohlsson, Haider, and Rhenius (1999). These problems are false equations expressed with Roman numerals that can be made true bymoving one matchstick. In a first group participants examined a static two-dimensional representation of the false algebraic expression and told the experimenter which matchstick should be moved. In a second group, participants interacted with a three-dimensional representation of the false equation. Success rates in the static group for different (...) problem types replicated the pattern of data reported in Knoblich et al. (1999). However, participants in the interactive group were significantly more likely to achieve insight. Problem-solving success in the static group was best predicted by performance on a test of numeracy, whereas in the interactive group it was best predicted by performance on a test of visuo-spatial reasoning. Implications for process models of problem solving are discussed. (shrink)

ANY SCHOLAR INVESTIGATING ARISTOTLE’S ACCOUNT of φρόνησις sooner or later encounters the question whether φρόνησις concerns means to the ends of human actions or those ends themselves. There is an abundance of literature, mostly French, on the topic; nevertheless, the question is worthy of reconsideration, because an element essential to answering the question, namely an understanding of the ends of human action or πρᾶξις, has not received adequate treatment in the literature to date. One reason for this oversight is that (...) Aristotle defines πρᾶξις as having its end in itself, in distinction from ποίησις which has its end in something external to itself. Hence, when Aristotle says in Nicomachean Ethics 3 that actions are for the sake of things other than themselves, scholars have tended to conclude that Aristotle is confusing moral action and poietic action in this passage. In addition, there is an ambiguity about the very notion of an end in the Nicomachean Ethics which has not been fully recognized and explained. It is clear from the beginning that happiness is the end of ethics; yet it is worthy of note that Aristotle speaks of ends both in the singular and in the plural. If πρᾶξις is a specific action in specific circumstances, and if, as Aristotle says, it has its end in itself, how are we to understand these ends, or this one end, happiness, as the end of a particular action? Could it be in fact the case that practical actions have ends other than themselves, as the passage from Nichomachean Ethics 3 suggests? Since Aristotle says that the principles of actions are their ends, is there one end which unifies moral activity? How can an indeterminate end such as happiness, the supreme good, be the real end of a specific action? To answer these questions we will need to explain, in a manner consistent with Aristotle’s other statements, how moral action has its end, how it can have an end other than itself, and what are the different perspectives in which things can be regarded as ends. We will then be in a better position to reconsider what it is that makes our actions moral and how the morality of our actions is related to φρόνησις in its role as the discerner of practical truth. (shrink)

Paul Ricoeur, dans «Soi-même comme un autre», porte une attention particulière à l'éthique de l'amitié chez Aristote. Gaëlle Fiasse expose dans son livre quels sont les enjeux éthiques et métaphysiques d'une telle lecture du philosophie grec. Elle montre comment Ricoeur s'approprie et se sépare des différents sens de l'être, puisque il rejette la substance au bénéfice de l'être selon la puissance et l'acte. Elle revient ensuite aux textes d'Aristote pour répondre aux objections de Paul Ricoeur tout en dialoguant avec (...) lui. Ce livre offre donc à la fois une nouvelle lecture d'Aristote et de Paul Ricoeur et une analyse du statut éthique et ontologique de l'autre à la lumière de l'amitié. (shrink)