With the case of Belgium as a negative example, this paper will evaluate the legitimacy of using mentally incompetents as organ sources. The first section examines the underlying moral dilemma that results from the necessity of balancing the principle of respect for persons with the obligation to help people in desperate need. We argue for the rejection of a radical utilitarian approach but also question the appropriateness of a categorical prohibition. Section two aims to strike a fair balance between the (...) competing interests at stake and to define the conditions under which organ harvest from mentally incompetents might be morally acceptable. To this end, we morally assess the main requirements that have been put forward to allow organ removal from incompetent donors. We conclude that the current Belgian legislation is far too permissive and that national regulations that do not permit the harvest of non-regenerable organs from mentally incompetents in exceptional circumstances are too restrictive. On the basis of this discussion, we propose a number of guiding principles for decision-making in this area. (shrink)

Deleuze and Guattari differentiate between philosophy, science, and the arts - seeing each as a means of confronting chaos - and challenge the common view that philosophy is an extension of logic. The authors also discuss the similarities and distinctions between creative and philosophical writing. Fresh anecdotes from the history of philosophy illuminate this book, along with engaging discussions of composers, painters, writers, and architects.

Praised for its rare combination of scholarly rigor and imaginative interpretation, _Nietzsche and Philosophy_ has long been recognized as one of the most important analyses of Nietzsche. It is also one of the best introductions to Deleuze's thought, establishing many of his central philosophical positions. In _Nietzsche and Philosophy_, Deleuze identifies and explores three crucial concepts in Nietzschean thought-multiplicity, becoming, and affirmation-and clarifies Nietzsche's views regarding the will to power, eternal return, nihilism, and difference. For Deleuze, Nietzsche challenged conventional philosophical (...) ideas and provided a means of escape from Hegel's dialectical thinking, which had come to dominate French philosophy. He also offered a path toward a politics of difference. In this new edition, Michael Hardt's foreword examines the profound influence of Deleuze's provocative interpretations on the study of Nietzsche, which opened a whole new avenue in postwar thought. (shrink)

Examines the philosophical foundations of Foucault's writings and discusses his views on knowledge, punishment, power, and subjectivation.

Examines the philosophy of Henri Bergson, explains his concepts of duration, memory, and elan vital, and discusses the influence of science on Bergson.

Product differentiation has emerged as a central dynamic in contemporary agrofood systems. Departure from the mode of standardization emblematic of agrofood modernization raises questions about future technical trajectories and the ways in which learning will be sustained. This article examines two innovation trajectories: the rapid coupling of biotechnologies and information technologies to yield products differentiated by constituent components—a model based on a cognitive logic of decomposition/ recomposition—and the proliferation of product networks that mobilize distinctive, localized resources to create complete identities—a (...) model based on a cognitive logic of identity. The article analyzes the information structures—institutional mechanisms that support information exchange and learning—in each of these opposed development paradigms. We find that knowledge creation under each of the logics occurs through mechanisms not recognized within the respective paradigms. On this basis, we derive institutional hybridity as a fundamental resource in systems of innovation. (shrink)

Il faudrait que le dialogue se fasse, non pas entre des personnes, mais entre les lignes, entre des chapitres ou des parties de chapitre. Ce seraient les vrais personnages. Perdre la mémoire : il faudrait plutôt dresser des " blocs ", les faire flotter. Un bloc d'enfance n'est pas un souvenir d'enfant. Un bloc nous accompagne, est toujours anonyme et contemporain, et fonctionne dans le présent - Oublier l'histoire : la question des devenirs, et de leur géographie. Un devenir-révolutionnaire est (...) plus important que l'avenir ou le passé de la révolution. Un devenir-femme, un devenir-animal sont plus importants que la différence des sexes et des règnes - Ne pas " faire le point " : plutôt tracer des lignes. Les lignes n'ont pas d'origine, et poussent par le milieu. On ne fait jamais table rase, on est toujours au milieu de quelque chose, comme l'herbe. Plus on prend le monde là où il est, plus on a de chance de le changer... Se séparer de l'appareil d'Etat et de tout système qui le prend pour modèle ou veut le conquérir : la présence diffuse de machines de guerre irréductibles au modèle d'Etat, toute une histoire populaire qui n'a pas été recueillie, un nomadisme même immobile. Devenir ou re-devenir marxiste : aucune analyse n'est possible si elle ne porte aussi sur les mécanismes industriels et surtout financiers dans un champ social. Non pas suprême instance, mais lignes, et régimes de signes, qui s'enchaînent avec les autres, et dont les flottaisons s'agencent avec d'autres flux. (shrink)

La philosophie n'est ni contemplation, ni réflexion, ni communication. Elle est l'activité qui crée les concepts. Comment se distingue-t-elle de ses rivales, qui prétendent nous fournir en concepts? La philosophie doit nous dire quelle est la nature créative du concept, et quels en sont les concomitants : la pure immanence, le plan d'immanence, et les personnages conceptuels. Par là, la philosophie se distingue de la science et de la logique. Celles-ci n'opèrent pas par concepts, mais par fonctions, sur un plan (...) de référence et avec des observateurs partiels. L'art opère par percepts et affects, sur un plan de composition avec des figures esthétiques. La philosophie n'est pas interdisciplinaire, elle est elle-même une discipline entière qui entre en résonance avec la science et avec l'art, comme ceux-ci avec elle : trouver le concept d'une fonction, etc. C'est que les trois plans sont les trois manières dont le cerveau recoupe le chaos, et l'affronte. Ce sont les Chaoïdes. La pensée ne se constitue que dans ce rapport où elle risque toujours de sombrer. (shrink)

This brilliant exposition of the critique of identity is a classic in contemporary philosophy and one of Deleuze's most important works. Of fundamental importance to literary critics and philosophers,Difference and Repetition develops two central concepts—pure difference and complex repetition&mdasha;and shows how the two concepts are related. While difference implies divergence and decentering, repetition is associated with displacement and disguising. Central in initiating the shift in French thought away from Hegel and Marx toward Nietzsche and Freud, _Difference and Repetition_ moves deftly (...) to establish a fundamental critique of Western metaphysics. (shrink)

Here, I lay the foundations of a high-level ontology of particulars whose structuring principles differ radically from the 'continuant' vs. 'occurrent' distinction traditionally adopted in applied ontology. These principles are derived from a new analysis of the ontology of “occurring” or “happening” entities. Firstly, my analysis integrates recent work on the ontology of processes, which brings them closer to objects in their mode of existence and persistence by assimilating them to continuant particulars. Secondly, my analysis distinguishes clearly between processes and (...) events, in order to make the latter abstract objects of thought (alongside propositions). Lastly, I open my ontological inventory to properties and facts, the existence of which is commonly admitted. By giving specific roles to these primitives, the framework allows one to account for static and dynamic aspects of the physical world and for the way that subjects conceive its history: facts account for the life of substances (physical objects and processes), whereas events enable cognitive subjects to account for the life story of substances. (shrink)

Mental Spaces is the classic introduction to the study of mental spaces and conceptual projection, as revealed through the structure and use of language. It examines in detail the dynamic construction of connected domains as discourse unfolds. The discovery of mental space organization has modified our conception of language and thought: powerful and uniform accounts of superficially disparate phenomena have become available in the areas of reference, presupposition projection, counterfactual and analogical reasoning, metaphor and metonymy, and time and aspect in (...) discourse. The present work lays the foundation for this research. It uncovers simple and general principles that lie behind the awesome complexity of everyday logic. (shrink)

Conceptual integration—“blending”—is a general cognitive operation on a par with analogy, recursion, mental modeling, conceptual categorization, and framing. It serves a variety of cognitive purposes. It is dynamic, supple, and active in the moment of thinking. It yields products that frequently become entrenched in conceptual structure and grammar, and it often performs new work on its previously entrenched products as inputs. Blending is easy to detect in spectacular cases but it is for the most part a routine, workaday process that (...) escapes detection except on technical analysis. It is not reserved for special purposes, and is not costly.In blending, structure from input mental spaces is projected to a separate, “blended” mental space. The projection is selective. Through completion and elaboration, the blend develops structure not provided by the inputs. Inferences, arguments, and ideas developed in the blend can have effect in cognition, leading us to modify the initial inputs and to change our view of the corresponding situations.Blending operates according to a set of uniform structural and dynamic principles. It additionally observes a set of optimality principles. (shrink)

A criticism of the book "a la recherche du temps perdu".

- Comment une autre langue se crée dans la langue, de telle manière que le langage tout entier tende vers sa limite ou son propre " dehors "? - Comment la possibilité de la psychose et la réalité du délire s'inscrivent dans ce parcours? - Comment le dehors du langage est fait de visions et d'auditions non-langagières, mais que seul le langage rend possibles? - Pourquoi les écrivains sont dès lors, à travers les mots, des coloristes et des musiciens?

In this essay, we aim to help clarify the nature of so-called 'occurrences' by attributing distinct modes of existence and persistence to processes and events. In doing so, we break with the perdurantism claimed by DOLCE’s authors and we distance ourselves from mereological analyzes like those recently conducted by Guarino to distinguish between 'processes' and 'episodes'. In line with the works of Stout and Galton, we first bring closer (physical) processes and objects in their way of enduring by proposing for (...) processes a notion of dynamic presence (contrasting with a static presence for objects). Then, on the events side, we attribute to them the status of abstract entities by identifying them with objects of thought (by individual and collective subjects), and this allows us to distinguish for themselves between existence and occurrence. We therefore identify them with psychological (or even social) endurants, which may contingently occur. (shrink)

Le pli a toujours existé dans les arts, mais le propre du Baroque est de porter le pli à l'infini. Si la philosophie de Leibniz est baroque par excellence, c'est parce que tout se plie, se déplie, se replie. Sa thèse la plus célèbre est celle de l'âme comme " monade " sans porte ni fenêtre, qui tire d'un sombre fond toutes ses perceptions claires : elle ne peut se confondre que par analogie avec l'intérieur d'une chapelle baroque, de marbre (...) noir, où la lumière n'arrive que par des ouvertures imperceptibles à l'observateur du dedans : aussi l'âme est-elle pleine de plis obscurs. Pour découvrir un néo-Baroque moderne, il suffit de suivre l'histoire du pli infini dans tous les arts : " pli selon pli " avec la poésie de Mallarmé et le roman de Proust, mais aussi l'œuvre de Michaux, la musique de Boulez, la peinture de Hantaï. Et ce néoleibnizianisme n'a cessé d'inspirer la philosophie. (shrink)

Considered one of the most important works of one of France's foremost philosophers, and long-awaited in English, The Logic of Sense begins with an extended exegesis of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Considering stoicism, language, games, sexuality, schizophrenia, and literature, Deleuze determines the status of meaning and meaninglessness, and seeks the 'place' where sense and nonsense collide. Written in an innovative form and witty style, The Logic of Sense is an essay in literary and psychoanalytic theory as well as philosophy, (...) and helps to illuminate such works as Anti-Oedipus. (shrink)

Contemporary experimental research has emphasised the role of centrally generated signals arising from premotor areas in voluntary muscular force perception. It is therefore generally accepted that judgements of force are based on a central sense, known as the sense of effort, rather than on a sense of intra-muscular tension. Interestingly, the concept of effort is also present in the classical philosophy: to the French philosopher Maine de Biran [Maine de Biran . Mémoire sur la décomposition de la pensée , Vrin, (...) Paris ], the sense of effort is the fundamental component of self-experience, the landmark of the exercise of the will. In the present review, after a presentation of the nature and neurophysiological bases of effort sensation, we will examine its possible involvement in the neurocognitive process of agency. We will further focus on delusions of alien control in schizophrenic patients. Experimental data suggest that these patients have an abnormal awareness of effort caused by cerebral anomalies in the frontal and parietal lobes. (shrink)

If the allusive stratagems can claim to define a new type of systematicity, it is because they give access to a space where the singularity, the diagram and the metaphor may interlace, to penetrate further into the physico-mathematic intuition and the discipline of the gestures which precede and accompany ‘formalisation’. This interlacing is an operation where each component backs up the others: without the diagram, the metaphor would only be a short-lived fulguration because it would be unable to operate: without (...) the metaphor, the diagram would only be a frozen icon, unable to jump over its bold features which represent the images of an already acquired knowledge; without the subversion of the functional by the singular, nothing would come to oppose the force of habit. (shrink)

This article presents a formal ontology which accounts for the general nature of artefacts. The objective is to help structure application ontologies in areas where specific artefacts are present - in other words, virtually any area of activity. The conceptualization relies on recent philosophical and psychological research on artefacts, having resulted in a largely consensual theoretical basis. Furthermore, this ontology of artefacts extends the foundational DOLCE ontology and supplements its axiomatization. The conceptual primitives are as follows: artificial entity, intentional production (...) of entities, (state of) capacity, capacity to play a role in actions of a given type, function and functional object. These primitives enable artefacts in general to be characterized as intentionally and successfully produced entities, and isolate an important subclass of “technical” artefacts to which a function is ascribed. Lastly, we emphasize the novelty of this ontology by comparing it with other works with similar objectives. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with adaptive learning and coordination processes. Implementing agent-based modeling techniques (Learning Classifier Systems, LCS), we focus on the twofold impact of cognitive and environmental complexity on learning and coordination. Within this framework, we introduce the notion of Adaptive Learning Agent with Rule-based Memory (ALARM), which is a particular class of Artificial Adaptive Agent (AAA, Holland and Miller 1991). We show that equilibrium is approached to a high degree, but never perfectly reached. We also demonstrate that memorization (...) and learning capacities depend upon the relative discordance between the cognitive complexity of agents' mental models and the degree of stability of the environment. (shrink)

« Je considère ici le sens et le rôle de l'irrationnel dans certaines œuvres humaines, dans certaines créations majeures de l'esprit humain, et tout particulièrement dans les œuvres de la science. Dans cette perspective, je distinguerais trois types significatifs d'irrationnel. Le premier serait l'irrationnel comme obstacle, point de départ d'une reconquête de la rationalité. Le second, l'irrationnel comme recours, moyen de renouveler et de prolonger l'acte créateur. Le troisième, l'irrationnel par renoncement, ou si l'on veut par abandon, est au contraire (...) un véritable rejet du rationnel. C'est cette triple distinction qui servira de fil conducteur à nos réflexions sur l'irrationnel dans les œuvres, dans l'esprit d'un rationalisme ouvert et dynamique, en vue de reconnaître et de délimiter le rôle positif de l'irrationnel. » G. G. G. (shrink)

Machine generated contents note: -- Preface to the English edition \ Translators' Introduction \Preface to the French Edition \ 1. Theses on Movement: First Commentary onBergson \ 2. Frame and Short, Framing and Cutting \ 3. Montage \ 4. TheMovement-Image and its Three Varieties: Second Commentary on Bergson \ 5. ThePerception-Image \ 6. The Affection-Image Face and Close-Up \ 7. TheAffection-Image: Qualities, Powers, Any-Space-Whatevers \ 8. From Affect toAction: The Impulse Image \ 9. The Action-Image: The Large Form \ 10. (...) The Action-Image:The Small Form \ 11. Figures, or the Transformation of Forms \ 12. The Crisisof the Action-Image \ Glossary \ Notes \ Index. (shrink)

Looks at the philosophies of Deleuze, who lived from 1925-1995, on issues such as becoming, ethics and morality, individuation, desire, and politics.

La science étudie un système en évaluant ses grandeurs caractéristiques: elle définit ses dimensions. Combien de dimensions caractérisent le réel? Quelles dimensions sont les plus pertinentes? La physique classique étudie trois dimensions de l'espace et une de temps. Ces quatre dimensions sont réunies par la relativité restreinte et générale. Les théories cosmologiques les plus modernes en font intervenir de nouvelles, presque imperceptibles à l'homme. En mathématiques, le nombre de dimensions caractérisant un système peut être non entier. En biologie, on peut (...) s'interroger sur la dimension du système fondamental à étudier: la cellule, l'organe, l'individu? Comment la taille d'un organisme influe-t-elle sur son appréhension du réel? Enfin, en art pictural, comment représente-t-on les formes, la profondeur? De nouvelles questions fondamentales, une nouvelle approche pluridisciplinaire vous sont ici proposées. (shrink)

First delivered in French by Deleuze at the "Schizo-Culture" conference organized by Semiotext at Columbia University in 1975, "Rhizome" introduced a new kind of thinking in philosophy, both non-dialectical and non-hierarchical. The two didn't expect this neo-anarchical blue-print would eventually offer an early template for the understanding of the internet. "Rhizome" substitutes pragmatic, "couch grass," free-floating logic to the binary, oppositional, and exclusive model of the tree. In "Politics," superceding the Marxist concept of class, Deleuze envisages the social macrocosm as (...) a series of lines, and reinvent politics as a process of flux whose outcome will always be unpredictable. It is, he emphasizes, the end of the idea of revolution, but not of the "becoming revolutionary.". (shrink)

On May 11th a round table discussion was held on the subject "The Interactions of Science and Art under the Conditions of the Revolution in Science and Technology ," organized by the editorial boards of the journals Voprosy filosofii and Voprosy literatury.