" L'homme a toujours pensé que le visage du monde devait l'instruire sur lui-même. " Fort de cette certitude, le philosophe et historien des sciences français Jacques Merleau-Ponty a cherché toute sa vie à donner un sens à l'extraordinaire histoire que nous racontent les astronomes contemporains. Or le visage de l'univers actuel est une véritable énigme pour l'homme moderne : origine inaccessible, histoire chaotique, espace infini, temps relatif, avenir imprévisible... A l'accumulation des connaissances, il fallait répondre par le courage de (...) la pensée. Contemporain de toutes les découvertes cosmologiques du XXe siècle, Jacques Merleau-Ponty a été un des très rares philosophes à y réfléchir pour redonner une place à l'homme dans cet ensemble démesuré. Car si la science cosmologique appartient aux spécialistes, la description du ciel est un bien commun et la pensée du big bang une nouvelle nécessité. Ce livre expose pour la première fois cette pensée qui prend le risque de poser la plus universelle et intime des questions : quel est le sens de l'univers? Depuis Copernic, l'homme n'est décidément plus au centre du cosmos mais il est toujours au coeur de sa signification. (shrink)

Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the most important French philosophers of the Twentieth Century. His impact has been felt across many disciplines: sociology; cultural studies; art theory and politics. This volume presents a diverse selection of interviews, conversations and debates which relate to the five decades of his working life, both as a political militant, experimental philosopher and teacher. Including hard-to-find interviews and previously untranslated material, this is the first time that interviews with Lyotard have been presented as (...) a collection. Key concepts from Lyotard's thought – the differend, the postmodern, the immaterial – are debated and discussed across different time periods, prompted by specific contexts and provocations. In addition there are debates with other thinkers, including Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, which may be less familiar to an Anglophone audience. These debates and interviews help to contextualise Lyotard, highlighting the importance of Marx, Freud, Kant and Wittgenstein, in addition to the Jewish thought which accompanies the questions of silence, justice and presence that pervades Lyotard's thinking. (shrink)

Nouvelle édition critique et traduction française annotée de la _Lettre à Marcella_ de Porphyre. Le philosophe néoplatonicien Porphyre (234-305) y adresse à sa femme un témoignage unique sur la manière dont une vie philosophique peut être conduite et se préserver. This book presents a new annotated and translated edition of neoplatonist 3rd-century Greek philosopher Porphyrius’ _Letter to Marcella_. This letter, adressed to his wife, gives a unique account on the ways and principles along which a philosophical life should be led (...) so as to perpetuate itself. (shrink)

The political writings of Jean-Francois Lyotard, the prophet of the postmodern, are presented here as both the missing dimension of his work and the key to understanding his position within contemporary debate.

This latest offering from one of the founding figures of postmodernism is a collection of fifteen "fables" that ask, in the words of Jean-Francois Lyotard, "how to live, and why?

In this book it explores science and technology, makes connections between these epistemic, cultural, and political trends, and develops profound insights into the nature of our postmodernity.

Kant describes a conflict among the different theories of knowledge. A productive conflict whose emergence is the origin of a renewal: it awakens the spirit and it leads it to think critically. Philosophy becomes critique, Kant says, when it is not focused on the doctrines and on their demands, but on the relationship between general rules (the “sense”) that coordinates all the faculties – and their particular expression, that is to say the specific cases. Similarly operates the judge, that, in (...) court, has to invent (ausdenken) the rule capable of corresponding to the single case: a judge that, in order to decide (jus dicere) and utter the decision, tries to compensate the absence of adequate legal rules and often decides without the adapt general rule. The problem of the différend does not concern, thus, anthropology. It concerns language. Exemplary cases provide analoga of the sensitive data and are devices that allow the dialectic between different systems of value by connecting their core meaning, the proper names involved and what Kant defines the Darstellung. Nevertheless, against this background, a change of paradigm becomes necessary – a change that entails the break with hegelian philosophy of law and with a thought built on mediation, that is to say with the kantian Zusammenstimmung. It is not possible, nor desirable, to substitute the battle field with the court and to subordinate the individual interests to the general logic of argumentation, because the synthesis of the different voices might imply totalitarianism and the end of the différend might correspond to the beginning of terror. (shrink)

People can reason about the preferences of other agents, and predict their behavior based on these preferences. Surprisingly, the psychology of reasoning has long neglected this fact, and focused instead on disinterested inferences, of which preferences are neither an input nor an output. This exclusive focus is untenable, though, as there is mounting evidence that reasoners take into account the preferences of others, at the expense of logic when logic and preferences point to different conclusions. This article summarizes the most (...) recent account of how reasoners predict the behavior and attitude of other agents based on conditional rules describing actions and their consequences, and reports new experimental data about which assumptions reasoners retract when their predictions based on preferences turn out to be false. (shrink)

Research on reasoning about consequential arguments has been an active but piecemeal enterprise. Previous research considered in depth some subclasses ofconsequential arguments, but further understanding of consequential arguments requires that we address their greater variety, avoiding the risk of over-generalisation from specific examples. Ideally we ought to be able to systematically generate the set of consequential arguments, and then engage in random sampling of stimuli within that set. The current article aims at making steps in that direction, using the theory (...) of utility conditionals as a way to generate a large set of consequential arguments, and offering one study illustrating how the theory can be used for the random sampling of stimuli. Itis expected that further use of this method will bring more diversity to experimental research on consequential arguments, and more robustness to models of argumentation from consequences. (shrink)

BackgroundThe advent of learning healthcare systems (LHSs) raises an important implementation challenge concerning how to request and manage consent to support secondary use of data in learning cycles, particularly research activities. Current consent models in Quebec were not established with the context of LHSs in mind and do not support the agility and transparency required to obtain consent from all involved, especially the citizens. Therefore, a new approach to consent is needed. Previous work identified the meta-consent model as a promising (...) alternative to fulfill the requirements of LHSs, particularly large-scale deployments. We elicited the public’s attitude toward the meta-consent model to evaluate if the model could be understood by the citizens and would be deemed acceptable to prepare for its possible implementation in Quebec.MethodsEight focus groups, with a total of 63 members of the general public from various backgrounds were conducted in Quebec, Canada, in 2019. Explicit attention was given to literacy levels, language spoken at home and rural vs urban settings. We assessed attitudes, concerns and facilitators regarding key components of the meta-consent model: predefined categories to personalized consent requests, a dynamic web-based infrastructure to record meta-consent, and default settings. To analyse the discussions, a thematic content analysis was performed using a qualitative software.ResultsOur findings showed that participants were supportive of this new approach of consent as it promotes transparency and offers autonomy for the management of their health data. Key facilitators were identified to be considered in the implementation of a meta-consent model in the Quebec LHSs: information and transparency, awareness campaigns, development of educational tools, collaboration of front-line healthcare professionals, default settings deemed acceptable by the society as well as close partnerships with recognized and trusted institutions.ConclusionsThis qualitative study reveals the openness of a sample of the Quebec population regarding the meta-consent model for secondary use of health data for research. This first exploratory study conducted with the public is an important step in guiding decision-makers in the next phases of implementing the various strategies to support access and use of health data in Quebec. (shrink)

This paper analyses Catherine Colliot-Thélène’s two books, La démocratie sans “demos” (2011) and Le commun de la liberté (2022), focusing on the “politics of subjective rights” they propose. It highlights their originality, particularly with regard to the reading of Marx, and the contribution they make to the critical theory of society.

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive traditional plant medicine preparation used by the indigenous tribes of the Upper Amazon in their shamanic traditions. Its use has become popular amongst Westerners seeking alternative means of healing, and the medicine has now spread across the globe via syncretic spiritual healing traditions such as the Santo Daime Church. Despite the increased use of the medicine, little research exists on its effectiveness for healing depression. The existing literature does not contain a detailed self-reported phenomenological account of (...) ayahuasca healing a case of depression. The aim of this paper is to share a personal account of healing depression using ayahuasca in a Santo Daime ritual in Johannesburg, South Africa. This experience was unplanned and unexpected and resulted in a profoundly transformative healing process. Based on my experience, I describe ayahuasca’s ingestion as having created a powerful mind-body-spirit connection that resulted in what appeared and felt like a profound reconfiguration of the bio-electrical energy system in my body and a powerful anti-depressant action on my mind. These effects were catalyzed by a strong intention to heal and trust in and take responsibility for myself. Other South African Santo Daime members have reported healing of depression with ayahuasca, although in longer and different processes. It appears that the medicine engages the individual’s unique collective self (life-history, physical and mental disposition, beliefs and intents) resulting in different outcomes for different individuals. Thus, from my own and others’ experience, I describe ayahuasca as a spiritual medicine; one that promotes enhanced awareness and deeper connection to one’s core self, to others and the greater universe, while facilitating the manifestation of one’s intentions and beliefs. This encounter with ayahuasca provided me a first-hand experience of learning and healing from the medicine, making real to me the indigenous Amazonian description of plants as being teachers and doctors. (shrink)

In The Differend, Lyotard subjects to scrutiny- from the particular perspective of his notion of 'differend' - the turn of all Western philosophies toward language; the decline of metaphysics; the present intellectual retreat of Marxism; the hopes raised and mostly dashed, by theory; and the growing political despair. Taking his point of departure in an analysis of what Auschwitz meant philosophically, Lyotard attempts to sketch out modes of thought for our present.

The ambition and proposal for data modeling of myths presented in this paper is to link contemporary technical affordances to some canonical projects developed in structural anthropology. To articulate the theoretical promise and innovation of this proposal, we present a discrete-event system specification modeling and simulation approach in order to perform a generative analysis and a dynamic visualization of selected narratives, aimed at validating and revitalizing the transformational and morphodynamic theory and methodology proposed by Claude Lévi-Strauss in his structural analysis (...) of myth. After an analysis of Lévi-Strauss’s transformational methodology, we describe in detail how discrete-event system specification models are implemented and developed in the framework of a DEVSimPy software environment. The validation of the method involves a discrete-event system specification simulation based on the extension of discrete-event system specification models dedicated to provide a dynamic Google Earth visualization of the selected myth. Future work around the discrete-event system specification formalism in anthropology is described as well as future applications regarding the impact of computational models to new contemporary anthropological domains. (shrink)

In this paper, we look for the relevance of chaos in the well-known Hicks-Samuelson's oscillator model investigating the endogenous fluctuations of the national income between two limits: full employment income and under-employment income. We compute the Lyapunov exponent, via Monte- Carlo simulations, to detect chaos in the evolution of the income between both limits. In the case of positive Lyapunov exponent and large values of the parameter (i.e. marginal propensity to consume and technical coefficient for capital), the evolution of income (...) is seen to be chaotic. The model also may contain a quasi-periodic attractor that can be chaotic or not. (shrink)

Résumé La religion de l’Humanité que fonde Auguste Comte vise à développer le lien social entre les hommes actuellement existants, mais surtout à renforcer leurs liens avec ceux des hommes des générations antérieures qui ont fait progresser l’Humanité. En affirmant que « les vivants sont toujours, et de plus en plus, gouvernés nécessairement par les morts », Comte réagit contre « l’insurrection continue des vivants contre les morts » qu’il qualifie de « maladie occidentale ». Les morts qui le méritent (...) accèdent à un équivalent de l’immortalité chrétienne, puisque leurs pensées et surtout leurs sentiments survivent dans les cerveaux de leurs successeurs. Comte ne se contente pas de justifier la mort d’un point de vue scientifique et sociologique, il en vient même à la chérir à travers l’amour qu’il éprouve pour Clotilde morte. La religion positiviste est ainsi à l’origine d’un culte nécrophile des tombes et des cimetières. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to analyze the measurability and interfirm comparability of sustainability performance through the qualitative content analysis of 12 sustainability reports of mining firms using the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. The systematic comparison of information disclosed in 92 GRI indicators sheds light on the reasons underlying the impossibility of rigorously measuring and comparing the sustainability performance of firms from the same sector, which are supposed to be strictly following the same reporting guideline. These reasons include qualitative (...) aspects of sustainability, lack of compliance with GRI protocols, indicator contingency, ambiguous or incomplete information, data heterogeneity, and report opacity. The study makes it possible to return to the very notion of sustainability, its meaning, and flexible application by organizations. The results are discussed from three different theoretical perspectives, each of which proposes possible and complementary explanations of the main findings. (shrink)

This article starts, on the one hand, with a consideration of the paradoxical way in which, namely when he wanted to evoke those intellectual figures that have decidedly contributed to the revelation of the "true Pascal", i. e., of the Pascal that had known the good usage of reason, Fortunat Strowski comes to the idea of putting side by side Pierre Duhem and Leon Brunschvicg. On the other, a reference is made to the fact that Duhem only published two articles (...) and a preface on Pascal while Brunschvicg is the author of a major work on the great figure of the XVIIth -Century. Hence, the question raised is about the consideration that shall be given to a paradoxical affirmation that seems to place on equal terms the few pages that Duhem has written on Pascal with the imposing contributions of Brunschvicg. For the author of the article, it would not be very consequent to take such affirmations as if they were unreflected ones, since it is clear that Strowski knew exactly what he was writing as we can see from the very good knowledge he had of the writings of both Blaise Pascal and Pierre Duhem. Indeed, and more than anyone else, Strowski was in a very good position to enlighten us about these two thinkers and to write about them in the terms he effectively did. The goal of the article, therefore, is to justify that assertion, which on its face is quite paradoxical, by showing in concrete terms the extent to which Pierre Duhem was truly influenced by Blaise Pascal. ––– O presente artigo começa por realçar o modo paradoxal como, uma vez que ele se dá ao trabalho de evocar aqueles autores que contribuíram para a revelação do verdadeiro Pascal, ou seja, daquele que conheceu o bom uso da razão, Fortunat Strowski não hesita em colocar o nome de Pierre Duhem lado a lado com o de Léon Brunschvicg. O facto, porém, é que Pierre Duhem não fez mais do que publicar dois artigos e um prefácio sobre Blaise Pascal, ao passo que Brunschvicg lhe dedicou uma obra que haveria de ficar famosa. O problema, portanto, consiste em saber qual o valor que se deve atribuir a uma tal afirmação desconcertante, a qual parece simplesmente equalizar as poucas páginas de Duhem sobre Pascal com as imponentes contribuições de Brunschvicg. Nesse sentido, a estratégia do autor do artigo consiste em não tomar de forma ligeira uma tal afirmação, como se Strowski não tivesse considerado bem as consequências e o alcance daquilo que escrevia, pois a verdade é que ele conhecia não só a obra de Pascal mas também a de Duhem. Ou seja, mais do que ninguém, ele estava perfeitamente à altura de nos comunicar algo de substancial acerca de cada um destes pensadores e de escrever a seu propósito aquilo que ele efectivamente escreveu. Em suma, o presente artigo não tem outra pretensão que não a de justificar essa afirmação aparentemente paradoxal segundo a qual Pierre Duhem foi um verdadeiro pascaliano. (shrink)

Les philosophes anciens ont ecrit sur le rapport de la cite et du monde et c'est a eux que l'on doit les premieres theses cosmopolitiques. L'objet de l'essai de Jean-Francois Pradeau est d'exposer ces theses, en les rendant accessibles a des lecteurs qui ne les connaissent pas. Ainsi l'essai presente-t-il ce que des auteurs comme Diogene le cynique, Platon, les stoiciens ou encore le Pere de l'Eglise Saint Augustin ont pu dire de la citoyennete mondiale et du reve d'une (...) cite mondiale unique qui reunirait enfin tous les peuples. Les questions qu'agite cette histoire ancienne du cosmopolitisme sont pour beaucoup celles de notre epoque, qui a fait l'eloge pendant quelques decennies d'une forme d'emancipation cosmopolitique, qui a invente une Europe supranationale, mais qui parait aujourd'hui figee autour de ses frontieres. Les grecs anciens qui ont invente la formule citoyen du monde ont quelque chose a nous dire de la mondialisation. Ils nous rappellent avec une certaine simplicite que la vie humaine, qui est une vie politique, c'est-a-dire une vie qui n'est possible que dans les limites instituees d'une communaute civique, ne peut atteindre la tranquillite ou le bonheur sans apprecier a sa juste mesure la place qui lui convient dans le monde. Il est nefaste et finalement impossible de vivre sans se faire une certaine idee de ce monde et de son ordre, sans se representer, ne serait-ce que de maniere vraisemblable, ce qu'est l'univers et la place qui nous revient en son sein. (shrink)

Browsing through his work from 1975 to 2010, Jean-François Laé discovers the very powerful presence of a figure, “the teenage mother”, who is caught up in the nets of the courts, social work and institutional supervision. He traces the sinuous path of his research and of his own biography, in order to re-examine a connection from the 1950s, civil case law from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, police archives from the 1960s, and (...) the archives of social institutions. (shrink)

Sustainable management is a popular topic whose utilization should be questionned when applied to professions intended for others. The seven articles presented in this thematic issue are anchored in the domains of management, health and education. On the one hand, they examine how professional training improves practice, cultivates the sens of socialy responsible management, modulates identity dynamics and professional retraining. On a second hand, they question the repercussions of managerial and professional cultures ont the meaning given by workers to their (...) mission, the recognition of their expertise, their job satisfaction, and their attachment to their job. (shrink)

En apparence l'enjeu est clair, il s'agit de dépasser la métaphysique ou de la déconstruire pour retrouver la question primordiale du sens de l'être. Comment faut-il entendre la nécessité de ce " dépassement de la métaphysique "? Heidegger a répondu à ces questions en mentionnant, de manière explicite, le " tournant " (Kehre) propre de sa pensée, lequel permet moins d'effectuer le " dépassement " (Überwindung) que l' "appropriation " (Verwindung) de la métaphysique. Après cet épisode du " tournant " (...) que l'on peut faire remonter à 1930, Heidegger se dé-tournera de la métaphysique pour se consacrer à la pure pensée de l'être, dans laquelle la poésie, celle de Hölderlin en particulier, jouera désormais un rôle déterminant. Le poète précède toujours le penseur au cœur de cette forêt profonde qu'est l'Être. Pour Heidegger comme pour Dante, l'homme est un poème qui s'achève sous le regard scintillant d'une étoile. (shrink)

Les images sont-elles des imitations ou des signes conventionnels? Sont-elles ressemblantes ou dénotatives? Pour tenter de dépasser ces oppositions devenues classiques, cet article part du constat que les images sont d’abord et avant tout réalisées en fonction de certains moyens techniques de production et selon des attentes liées à l’usage qui en sera fait. Ce faisant, au lieu de récuser la ressemblance ou de nier qu’il puisse y avoir des conventions dans les images, il montre que la ressemblance est toujours (...) relative à une visibilisation spécifique de la réalité, laquelle peut à l’occasion recourir à des conventions. Cet article défend ainsi l’idée que les images sont originaires : fondatrices de nos manières de voir. (shrink)

Résumé : Le thème lancinant de la crise occidentale de l’éducation est souvent vu à travers une focale centrée sur l’individualisme, vu comme un des fléaux majeurs de l’hypermodernité démocratique. Cet article revient de façon critique sur cette idée en utilisant les outils forgés par Michel Foucault pour penser l'herméneutique du sujet, la gouvernementalité néolibérale et le souci de soi. En appliquant ces analyses à l'étude des conditions actuelles de l'éducation, il est possible de mettre en lumière l'emprise du modèle (...) de l'enfant consommateur et entrepreneur de soi, autrement dit d'assister à la fabrication de l'enfant du Capital. En contrepoint, l’article esquisse les traits d’une éducation scolaire repensée à la lumière des thématiques du Commun. La centralité de la problématique de la relation entraîne alors le métier d’éducateur vers celui de médiateur. Mots-clés : Foucault, herméneutique, néolibéralisme, éducation, Commun Para acabar com a criança do Capital Resumo: O lancinante tema da crise da educação ocidental é visto, frequentemente, sob o prisma do individualismo, tomado como uma das maiores pragas da hipermodernidade democrática. Este artigo debruça-se de modo crítico sobre este tema, usando as ferramentas forjadas por Michel Foucault para pensar a hermenêutica do sujeito, a governamentalidade neoliberal e o cuidado de si. Ao aplicar tais análises aos estudos atuais sobre educação, é possível destacar o modelo da criança consumidora e empreendedora de si ou, para dizer de outro modo, é possível assistir à fabricação da criança do Capital. Em contraponto, o artigo esboça os traços de uma educação escolar repensada sob o foco das temáticas do Comum. A centralidade da problemática da relação transforma, então, a profissão do educador na profissão de mediador. Palavras-chave: Foucault, hermenêutica, neoliberalismo, educação, Comum To finish with the child of Capital Abstract: The haunting theme of the Western education crisis is often seen through a focus centered on individualism, seen as one of the major scourges of democratic hypermodernity. This paper critically revisits this idea by using the tools forged by Michel Foucault to think about the hermeneutics of the subject, neoliberal governmentality, and care of the self. By applying these analyzes to the study of the current conditions of education, it is possible to shed light on the influence of the model of the child consumer and self-entrepreneur, in other words to witness the making of the child of Capital. In counterpoint, the article sketches the features of a school education rethought in the light of the themes of the Common. The centrality of the problem of the relationship then leads the profession of educator to that of mediator. Key words: Foucault, hermeneutics, neoliberalism, education, Common Data de registro: 22/07/2022 Data de aceite: 13/12/2022. (shrink)