Since 2002, at least two kinds of laboratory-testable, solid-state Maxwell demons have been proposed that utilize the electric field energy of an open-gap n-p junction and that seem to challenge the validity of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In the present paper we present some arguments against the alleged functioning of such devices.

Appropriate information and consent has been one of the most intensely discussed topics within the context of biobank research. In parallel to the normative debate, many socio-empirical studies have been conducted to gather experiences, preferences and views of patients, healthy research participants and further stakeholders. However, there is scarcity of literature which connects the normative debate about justifications for different consent models with findings gained in empirical research. In this paper we discuss findings of a limited review of socio-empirical research (...) on patients’ and healthy research participants’ experiences and views regarding consent to biobank research in light of ethical principles for appropriate information and consent. (shrink)

The establishment of international sanitary institutions, which took place in the context of rivalry among the great European powers and their colonial expansion in Asia, allowed for the development of administrative systems of international epidemiological surveillance as a response to the cholera epidemics at the end of the nineteenth century. In this note, I reflect on how a historical analysis of the inception of international epidemiological surveillance and pandemic management helps us to understand what is happening in the COVID-19 pandemic (...) today. (shrink)

This article traces the historical co-evolution of microbiology, bacteriology, and virology, framed within industrial and agricultural contexts, as well as their role in colonial and national history between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. The epistemology of germ theory, coupled with the economic interests of European colonies, has shaped the understanding of human-microbial relationships in a reductionist way. We explore a brief history of the medical and biological sciences, focusing on microbes and (...) the difficulty of implementing germ theory outside of biology laboratories. Furthermore, we highlight the work of Lynn Margulis, who conceptualized microbes within their ecological contexts. Such research shows the active role microbes play in handling life-sustaining biological and biochemical processes. We outline how the industrial and technological advancements of the last two centuries not only impacted almost all human societies, but also changed the world on microbial, biological, and geological levels. The narration of these histories is a complex task, and depends on how national, international, and intergovernmental institutions (such as the World Health Organization) conceive of the selective environmental pressures exerted by industry and biotechnological companies. (shrink)

BackgroundInnovations in technology have contributed to rapid changes in the way that modern biomedical research is carried out. Researchers are increasingly required to endorse adaptive and flexible approaches to accommodate these innovations and comply with ethical, legal and regulatory requirements. This paper explores how Dynamic Consent may provide solutions to address challenges encountered when researchers invite individuals to participate in research and follow them up over time in a continuously changing environment.MethodsAn interdisciplinary workshop jointly organised by the University of Oxford (...) and the COST Action CHIP ME gathered clinicians, researchers, ethicists, lawyers, research participants and patient representatives to discuss experiences of using Dynamic Consent, and how such use may facilitate the conduct of specific research tasks. The data collected during the workshop were analysed using a content analysis approach.ResultsDynamic Consent can provide practical, sustainable and future-proof solutions to challenges related to participant recruitment, the attainment of informed consent, participant retention and consent management, and may bring economic efficiencies.ConclusionsDynamic Consent offers opportunities for ongoing communication between researchers and research participants that can positively impact research. Dynamic Consent supports inter-sector, cross-border approaches and large scale data-sharing. Whilst it is relatively easy to set up and maintain, its implementation will require that researchers re-consider their relationship with research participants and adopt new procedures. (shrink)

Dans cette note il s’agit de la découverte de deux copies manuscriptes inconnues du chapitre quinze d’une oeuvre d’eschatologie hebraique de la moitié du XIIe siècle rédigée par Abrahm bar HIija ou Abraham Savosarda, le Liber revelator. Cette oeuvre est connue seulement en hebraique et dans la traduction de Marie Josef Millás-Vallicrosa. Le chapitre cinque regarde une conception astrologique de la philosophie de l’histoire du monde, de la naissance ou de la chute des gouvernements et des religions avec le titre (...) De redemptione Israel. L’Autrice a retrouvé une traduction latine inconnue en deux copies manuscriptes, dans deux Bibliotèques allemandes, une à Lipsie et l’autre à Wolfenbüttel redigées par le frère des Franciscains mineurs du Couvent de Gottingen Theodoricus de Northem. On demontre en renvoyant aussi à ses études précédantes à ces propos, que ce chapitre cinq à été la source primaire de l’oeuvre de Pierre d’Ailly qui partagait la même philosophie astrologique de l’histoire sacrée, l’ Elucidarium opus concordantiae astronomiae cum theologia nec non historice veritatis édité en 1490, à commencer du chapitre 24 jusqu’au chapitre 33. (shrink)

Certains auteurs germanophones contemporains exploitent la discordance entre la présence attendue du déterminant du groupe nominal (GN) en allemand et l’absence d’actualisateur pour coder une variété germano-turque, désignée par le terme Kiez, qui signifie métonymiquement « langage des quartiers ». Un exemple en est la menace rituelle « ich mach dich messer », qu’on pourrait traduire littéralement par : « je te fais couteau » et qui correspond pragmatiquement à une signification de type « tu vas avoir affaire à (...) mon couteau ». L’absence de tout déterminant pour le substantif Messer met en scène une langue inhabituelle pour le lecteur germanophone. La contribution analyse les réalisations et leurs effets chez deux auteurs germano-turcs contemporains : Feridun Zaimoglu dans le recueil Kanak Sprak, écrit dans cette « langue de canaques », et Emine Sevgi Özdamar dans l’ensemble de titre Mutterzunge, « Langue de la mère ». (shrink)

Dans cet article nous esquisserons les contours d’une phénoménologie de ce que nous appellerons la tolérance « active » conçue comme une attitude consistant en l’approbation du comportement et des codes culturels d’autrui, par opposition à une tolérance « passive » plus proche de la définition classique de la tolérance comme pâtir. Pour ce faire nous nous appuierons sur un essai (1965) du phénoménologue germano-américain Herbert Spiegelberg consacré précisément à une phénoménologie de l’approbation (ou de l’appréciation). Notre principal objectif (...) sera de décrire aussi précisément que possible la structure intentionnelle relativement complexe de l’acte au cœur de la tolérance active et de le distinguer d’autres types d’acte apparemment similaires en mettant au jour ses fondements dans des états-de-choses axiologiques. Notre objectif secondaire sera de réfléchir à la manière dont cette analyse peut nourrir une phénoménologie interculturelle. (shrink)

Reseña critica de los trabajos presentados en el encuentro italo-germano sobre Vico celebrado en Merano, 8-9 de Mayo de 1995, con la participación de G. Cotroneo, D. Barbieri, J. Seifert, K. Flasch, H. Seidl y G. Patella.A critical review of the papers submined at the Italian-German Meeting on Vico held at Merano during May, 8th and 9th 1995. References are made to G. Cotroneo, D. Barbieri, J. Seifert, K. Flasch, H. Seidl and G. Patella.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:80 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AVERROES' Quaesitum ON ASSERTORIC (ABSOLUTE) PROPOSITIONS UNTIL 1962 ONLY ONE logical work of Averroes existed in print in the original Arabic? At this late date, D. M. Dunlop published the Arabic text of the short tract by Averroes on the modality of propositions with which we shall be concerned here.' The text published by Professor Dunlop forms part of a collection of treatises by Averroes (...) which has long been known to exist in the immensely valuable collection of Arabic manuscripts of the Escorial Library, near Madrid.' The collection is simply entitled Mas~'il (Questions),' faithfully reflected in the rubric of Quaesita under which several of these treatises are given in Latin versions in the sixteenth-century editions of.4ristotelis Opera cure.4verrois Commentariis. The particular treatise published by Prof. Dunlop deals with the problem of the relationship of assertoric propositions to the modalities of possibility and necessity. This treatise has been accessible for over four centuries in two printed Latin versions, made in Renaissance times from medieval Hebrew translations. The earlier of the Latin versions was made by a Jewish scholar, Ella del Medigo, for the Renaissance luminary Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and was printed in the very rare Aldine incunabulum edition of the Quaesita Averrois in librum priorum (analytiorum Aristotelis) (Venice, 1497). A second Latin translation was made by Abraham de Balmes (d. 1523): and printed in several editions of the Juntine Latin Aristotle (Venice, from 1590): From these versions the main substance, at any rate, of Averroes' xMaurice Bouyges, ed., Averroes: Talkh~ Kitdb al-Maqouldt ("Middle Commentary on Aristotle 's Categoriae") Beyrouth, 1932 (-- Vol. IV of Bibliotheca Arabica-Scholasticorum, S6rie Arabe). sD. M. Dunlop, "Averroes (Ibn Rushd) on the Modality of Propositions," Islamic Studies (Journal of the Gentral Institute of Islamic Research, Karachi), Vol. I (1962), 23-34. sMichael Casiri, Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis (2 vols., Madrid; 1760, 1770), No. 629; Hartwig Derenbourg, Les Manuscrits Arabcs de l'Escurial (3 vols., Paris; 1884, 1903, 1928), No. 632. ' Prof. Dunlop states that "another copy" of the Masa'il (presumably made from the Escorial MS?) exists in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (No. 102 in the catalog of Robles). For information about this translator, see Bayle's Dictionary, art. "BALMIS, Abraham de," where note (B) describes some complaints about his translations from Hebrew to Latin. (I owe this reference to Prof. Richard Popkin.) Note (I) of Bayle's article on "AVERROES" gives some data concerning the Renaissance translations of Averroes, citing inter alia the opinion expressed by Keckermann in his PraecognitisLogicis (II, 2, nb. 32): "How much all Philosophy is indebted to Averroes, can then only be known, when God shall raise up a Genius, who will free our Latin Translations of him from the unintelligible Barbarisms everywhere to be met with, and render him in That Language, in a style, at least tolerable, and intelligible, for the Use of Students in Philosophy." eAristotelis Opera cure Averrois Commentariis, Vol. I. The edition of 1562 is now readily accessible in a photoreprinting made in Frankfurt am Main in 1962, and contains the "Averrois varii generis quaesita in libros logicae Aristotelis, Abramo de Balmes interprete," pp. 75 verso--- NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS 81 Quaesitum has been determinable.' The present, reasonably literal translation of the Arabic text should facilitate the work of anyone wishing to form his own judgment about the character of the Latin versions of Averroes' logical treatises, or at any rate the not insignificant number of them that came from the pen of Abraham de Balmes. The Latin version in the present instance is, on the whole, literal to the point of obscurity. It is punctuated by occasional strange, and sometimes ludicrous renderings--as, for example, at 27:6, where "not used in the art of rhetoric" becomes "non uterent agricolae"l Occasionally the Latin incorporates a marginal explanation within the text (e.g., at 29:10), and sometimes it omits phrases of the Arabic text. In general, it is significantly more difficult to derive from the Latin than from the Arabic an exact idea just what it is that Averroes had in mind. Unquestionably the most interesting aspect of Averroes' treatise is the light it sheds... (shrink)

"S'inscrivant dans la démarche générale de l'École de Francfort, s'efforçant d'unir la démarche dialectique et matérialiste du marxisme avec la psychanalyse, dans le cadre d'un projet visant l'émancipation totale de l'homme, la philosophie sociale critique du "Grand Refus" esquissée par Herbert Marcuse est caractérisée par une lecture beaucoup plus radicale des écrits de Freud, par I 'effort de dépasser le fatalisme de Freud et la tentative de s'interroger sur le visage particulier que prennent la répression, la sublimation de la sexualité, (...) le refoulement et l'agressivité dans nos sociétés modernes industrielles très avancées. Ainsi appelle-t-il "surrépression" la répression inutile et irrationnelle qui les caractérise. Le présent ouvrage s'efforce de reconstruire l'itinéraire philosophico-sociologico-politique de ce grand penseur germano-américain incarnant le désir d'une société future non-répressive, dont l'œuvre avait atteint, à l'époque de la révolte étudiante et de la Guerre du Vietnam, un rayonnement mondial, en consacrant des analyses précises et approfondies à chacune des étapes de sa pensée."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

L’entre-deux nous le rencontrons, c’est l’autre. Pour nous, il fut présent dans les formations-recherches interculturelles des Offices des jeunesses : franco-allemand, germano-polonais, franco-québécois. L’autre, les ennemis ou les alliés? Ceux d’hier ou les nouveaux, alors, l’Est et l’Ouest. Leur rivalité pour l’espace nous référait à l’entre-deux du cosmos et de l’humain ; le cosmos, repère d’entre-deux. En microphysique, à chaque particule, son antiparticule. Le proton en noyau, les électrons alentour mais aussi le neutron. En cosmologie : rayonnement centrifuge des (...) étoiles ; gravitation centripète jusqu’au trou noir. Le monde du vivant n’est pas en reste. De la cellule à l’être pluricellulaire. De la scissiparité à la reproduction sexuée. Entre-deux du monde végétal et du monde animal ; de l’humain ouvert à l’infini et de l’univers plein. Mais s’ils se sentent vides, les humains tombent dans des absolus qui les opposent parfois jusqu’au meurtre de l’autre. L’antidote : vivre, penser, inventer les entre-deux de l’histoire et des civilisations. The in-between, we meet it: it is my neighbour. For me, it was present in the intercultural trainings-searches for the Services of the youths: French-German, German-Polish, French-from Quebec. The others: enemies or allies? Those of yesterday or the new, then, the East and the West. Their rivalry for space referred to us in the in-between of the cosmos and the human being; the cosmos, the mark of the in-between. In microphysics, in every particle, its antiparticle. The proton in core, electrons surrounding but also the neutron. In cosmology: brilliance of spin-dries stars; centripetal gravitation up to the black hole. Le Monde of the alive is not outdone. From the cell to the being pluricellulaire. From the fissiparity to the sexual reproduction. In-between of the vegetable world and of the animal kingdom; of the human being, open to the infinity, and of the full universe. But if they feel empty, the human beings fall in absolutes, which sometimes bring them to the murder others. The antidote: living, thinking, inventing the in-between of history and of the civilizations. (shrink)

Le but de la présente étude est d’établir un bilan aussi complet que possible des grandes lignes de la recherche des vingt dernières années en théologie sacramentaire. Pour cela, l’auteur commence par une analyse sélective des communications données au Colloque des RSR qui s’est tenu à Chantilly du 28 au 30 juin 1986 afin de déceler les courants majeurs qui se retrouvent par la suite dans les travaux de recherche théologique postérieurs à cette époque. Dans une deuxième partie, il retrace (...) le fruit des travaux recensés entre 1987 et 2001 dans les bulletins critiques des RSR, ce qui, soit dit en passant, justifie que l’ensemble de ce dossier soit dédié à la mémoire de Henri Bourgeois, décédé prématurément en 2001. Un tel itinéraire permet de se faire une idée de tout ce qui a été élaboré sur le sujet par des auteurs, surtout franco-, anglo-, germano- et italophones. En dernier lieu, sont données quelques propositions du point de vue d’un théologien systématique, dogmaticien, engagé lui-même comme acteur dans cette recherche.The purpose of the present study is to assess as completely as possible the principal areas of research during the past 20 years of sacramental theology. To that end, the author begins with a selective analysis of papers given at the Colloquium of RSR, which was held at Chantilly from the 28th to the 30th of June 1986. His goal was to identify major contributions that influenced theological research during the period that followed. The second part retraces the fruit of the works reviewed between 1987 and 2001 in the critical bulletins of the RSR , which we can say in passing, justified the dedication of the whole dossier to the memory of Henri Bourgeois, who died prematurely in 2001. Such an approach provides a broad perspective of the contributions made on the subject by authors, especially French-, English-, German-, and Italian-speaking. Finally, some proposals represent the view of a systematic, dogmatic theologian who was himself engaged as a participant in this research. (shrink)

En ce moment propice aux débats sur la Constitution, la souveraineté du peuple, la démocratie directe, cet essai veut donner un aperçu historique, politique et philosophique du problème, à partir d'une seule idée directrice repensée dans la perspective de la "théorie mimétique" de René Girard : l'opposition établie par Giovanni Lobrano entre le "modèle ancien ou romain", seul vrai modèle républicain, et le "modèle moderne ou germano-anglais", d'origine féodale.

The precautionary principle holds that we should not allow scientific uncertainty to prevent us from taking precautionary measures in response to potential threats that are irreversible and potentially disastrous. Critics of the principle claim that it deters progress and development, is excessively risk-aversive and is unscientific. This paper argues that the principle can be scientific provided that (1) the threats addressed by the principle are plausible threats, and (2) the precautionary measures adopted are reasonable. The paper also argues that one (...) may use epistemic criteria, such as consistency, coherence and explanatory power, to determine whether a threat is plausible, and that one may use practical considerations, such as effectiveness, proportionality, cost-effectiveness, realism and consistency, to determine whether a response to a threat is reasonable. (shrink)

Brown famously held that in the field of public education, segregation has no place. But segregation was undefined. Was segregation constituted by mere racial classification, by the fact that the state had divided children into racial groups? Or did Brown condemn a caste system whose effect was to stigmatize black children. In Parents Involved v. Seattle Justice Roberts says segregation is about children not black children. This colorblind approach represents both a rewriting and appropriation of Brown in the service of (...) formalism. The Roberts court writes not only a new version of Brown but a new historical narrative about the meaning of segregation. The theme of this new story is formal equality - equality of opportunity only - as a universal ideal. This new story is woven entirely out of the language of Brown detached from all historical context. Conservatives have long canonized Brown. It has been a kind of second constitution for the second reconstruction. But how does this new story compare to the original understanding ?: Was this the evil that Brown denounced? By framing the issue in this way the paper seeks to make an end run around an impasse in our social and legal debate. Many progressive scholars have challenged the conservative conception of formal equality by suggesting alternative ways of thinking about it: anti-subordination models, a heightened call that equality should take issues of racial caste into account. But this external critique has stalled, perhaps in part because of the slippery indeterminacy of normative ideals. Segregation is far more determinate; it is something that has been concretized not only by the lived experience of black people, but by an earlier realist tradition on the part of the Warren court which saw it as it was. Retelling the two parts of this forgotten history we expose the disconnect between the Supreme Court's universalism and the actual meaning of segregation in context. Also, by focusing on the original understanding we seek a kind of internal critique showing how the politics of historical revision does not withstand the conservatives own interpretive approach. (shrink)

Quale rapporto c'è tra una noticina di appena 30 righe e un'opera filosofica di quasi 500 pagine? A questa domanda, appassionante per chi s'interessa alla genesi delle opere del pensiero, Simone D'Agostino risponde esaminando il rapporto tra il capolavoro blondeliano del 1893, L'Action, e quella che si suole chiamare la "Première notule" del 5 novembre 1882. Il presente lavoro non è uno studio genetico del pensiero blondeliano, bensì una sua interpretazione sistematica da due punti focali e rispecchiantisi l'uno nell'altro. Sotto (...) questo aspetto, la ricerca di D'Agostino può definirsi unica nel suo genere. (shrink)

What roles do women play in world politics? Who are these women, and what impact do they have on international relations? D'Amico and Beckman have assembled a diverse array of contributors who provide a variety of answers. Some contributors consider women as national leaders and profile Chamorro, Gandhi, Thatcher, and Aquino as examples. Autobiographical essays and interviews describe the experiences of Margaret Anstee, Benazir Bhutto, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Golda Meir. Other contributors analyze international women's movements, the roles of women in (...) the Green Movement and in the revolutionary movements in Cuba and Nicaragua, and the work of Jane Addams in the peace movement. Some analyze the attitudes and beliefs of America's leading opinion makers on the subject of women and men in leadership roles. Written for beginning students in comparative politics and international relations, their work is both fundamental as an introductory text and pioneering in scope and conception. (shrink)

Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, read on important Christian feasts, can be commented on from various perspectives: as a documents about mission, about warning with regard to the difficulties concerning the life of a believer, as one about the differences between Jews and Christians, or/and as one about freedom. It seems to us that within this text the Apostle intended to emphasize especially the latest aspect. St. John Chrysostom considered this document so important that he included it in his Liturgy.

We obtain a general relativistic unification of gravitation and electromagnetism by simply(1) restricting the metric so that it admits an orthonormal tetrad representation in which the spacelike vectors are curl-free, and(2) identifying the timelike vector as the potential for an electromagnetic field whose only sources are singularities. It follows that: (A) The energy density is everywhere nonnegative, (B) the space is flat if and only if the electromagnetic field vanishes, (C) the vector potential (through which all curvature enters) admits no (...) invariant algebraic decomposition, and satisfies the covariant Lorentz condition identically, (D) the theory is free of “prior geometry,” (E) the electromagnetic self-energy of a spherically symmetric point charge equalsMC 2 , (F) particles deviate from geodesic motion according to the Lorentz force law with radiative reaction, and (G) particles with all electromagnetic multipole structures are included. (shrink)

This article proposes a typology of the epistemology of live blogging through an analysis of two live news blogs: Radio New Zealand News’ live blog of a significant earthquake in Aotearoa New Zealand in November 2016 and BBC News’ live blog of the Brexit referendum result in June 2016. We use these cases to draw out five features of the genre that we suggest may characterise other live news blogs. We demonstrate that these blogs tend to produce a fragmentary narrative (...) that reflects particular moments in time, curate an array of textual objects from a range of information sources to produce ‘networked balance’, gain coherence from an often informal authorial voice or voices and generate claims to knowledge of events which are simultaneously dynamic and fragile. This typology contributes to understanding journalism’s position within networked information spaces. (shrink)

La foi et la raison. La foi, don de Dieu. La raison, don de l'homme ou don de Dieu? La foi et la raison eurent à combattre, comme si le ciel et la terre vivaient en conflit incessant. Le combat demeure, différent certes, parce que l'homme oublie ses origines sans en regarder la cause. Jean-Paul II s'est lancé dans cette épreuve, en rédigeant une encyclique, pour enfin tenter de sortir l'homme de son enfermement dialectique. Le magistère de l'Eglise catholique lui (...) en donne l'autorité et la lui demande, pour enfin réconcilier l'homme avec lui-même et avec Dieu"-- Back cover. (shrink)

In the very first issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies, dualist John Beloff discusses the problem of how interactions may occur between the supposedly different realms of mind and matter. It is indeed the case that meta-analyses covering many years of research give very strong support to the reality of psi phenomena . Historical analysis has shown, however, that the results of some of the stronger paradigms are subject to a decline effect after an initial successful period of ten (...) to twenty years. And even if the reality of the phenomena stand up against time, a proper use of the available data -- as opposed to Beloff's selective use of it -- would at least complicate the naive interactionist picture and in fact argue against the dualist perspective. (shrink)

This paper discusses some of C. S. Peirce’s insights about continuity in his attempt to grasp the concept of the mathematical continuum. After a discussion of his earlier notions which he called ‘Kanticity’ and ‘Aristotelicity’ we arrive at his later belief that a continuum is rather a system of potential points. In his mature views, Peirce grasps a continuum as “a whole range of possibilities” without points at all. In the sequel, we turn to take into account some of Leibniz’s (...) attempts to deal with continuity and the continuum and we compare Peirce and Leibniz’s approaches detecting certain impressive similarities and differences. (shrink)