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)

Dans cette étude, le rôle et la valeur de l’ornementation sont repensés en examinant principalement, par une approche différente, l’une des mosaïques de sol de la Maison de Dionysos à Néa Paphos, celle de l’enlèvement de Ganymède par un aigle. L’organisation spatiale du décor géométrique (la structure générale avec ses motifs) et de la scène figurée permet de suggérer la présence d’un triclinium. L’analyse d’un type de motif géométrique en particulier, le « fleuron en six‑feuilles », montre qu’il revêt vraisemblablement (...) une signification astrale. L’interprétation considère la relation étroite entre la scène figurée et les sept motifs d’étoile, qui renvoient aux planètes connues dans l’Antiquité, et s’appuie sur des comparanda iconographiques et textuels pour réexaminer la portée symbolique de la composition dans son contexte d’utilisation. (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)

Most instantiations of the inference ‘y; so if x, y’ seem intuitively odd, a phenomenon known as one of the paradoxes of the material conditional. A common explanation of the oddity, endorsed by Mental Model theory, is based on the intuition that the conclusion of the inference throws away semantic information. We build on this explanation to identify two joint conditions under which the inference becomes acceptable: (a) the truth of x has bearings on the relevance of asserting y; and (...) (b) the speaker can reasonably be expected not to be in a position to assume that x is false. We show that this dual pragmatic criterion makes accurate predictions, and contrast it with the criterion defined by the mental model theory of conditionals, which we show to be inadequate. (shrink)

resumo O presente artigo investiga as relações entre individualidade e espírito objetivo no quadro da filosofia política hegeliana. Retomando o significado mediador contido na idéia de “vida ética”, procura-se apontar uma alternativa à interpretação de que Hegel seria partidário de um institucionalismo forte, que dissolveria o indivíduo quando de sua institucionalização sócio-política. palavras-chave vida ética – subjetividade – indivíduo – instituição – linguagem universal.

Es ist nicht zuletzt Hegels Kritik der Demokratie gewesen, die ihm den Ruf zugetragen hat, ein Vordenker des modernen Totalitarismus zu sein. Die genaue Analyse zeigt hingegen, dass Hegels Demokratiekritik die Entfaltungsbedürfnisse der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft reflektiert und damit gerade den Anspruch des politischen Raums nach Totalität, wie er sich in der – antiken – Demokratie manifestiert, in Frage stellt. Hegels Zusammendenken von Staat und Gesellschaft lässt sich zugleich als Kritik des vom Liberalismus entwickelten Staatsverständnisses fruchtbar machen.

resumo Esse artigo busca mostrar, em contraste com uma tradição já estabelecida, que a filosofia clássica alemã, longe de fazer do indivíduo simples apêndice do Estado, propõe uma verdadeira teoria do Estado de direito , e isso, antes mesmo que esta tenha sido formulada pelos juristas liberais. Mas se trata de uma teoria crítica, que põe em evidência o caráter ilusório da idéia liberal segundo a qual a sociedade civil poderia furtarse inteiramente à tutela do Estado. Para Fichte e para (...) Hegel, mas também para Kant, apenas um Estado verdadeiro, com os atributos de sua potência, pode ser um verdadeiro Estado de Direito. palavras-chave Fichte; Kant; Hegel; sociedade civil; liberalismo; Estado de direito. (shrink)

The dual-process model of cognition but most especially its reflective component, system 2 processing, shows strong conceptual links with critical thinking. In fact, the salient characteristics of system 2 processing are so strikingly close to that of critical thinking, that it is tempting to claim that critical thinking is system 2 processing, no more and no less. In this article, I consider the two sides of that claim: Does critical thinking always require system 2 processing? And does system 2 processing (...) always result in critical thinking? I argue that it is plausible and helpful to consider that critical thinking requires system 2 processing. In particular, this assumption can provide interesting insights and benchmarks for critical thinking education. On the other hand, I show that system 2 processing can result in a range of outcomes which are either contradictory with critical thinking, or of debatable social desirability—which suggests that there is more to critical thinking than mere system 2 processing, and more to system 2 processing than just critical thinking. (shrink)

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)

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.

"In a wide-ranging discussion the author examines the philosophy of Kant, Heidegger, Adorno and Derrida and looks at the works of modernist and postmodernist artists such as Cezanne, Debussy and Boulez. Lyotard addresses issues such as time and memory, the sublime and the avant-garde, and the relationship between aesthetics and politics. Throughout his discussion he considers the close but problematic links between modernity, progress and humanity, and the transition to postmodernity. Lyotard claims that it is the task of literature, philosophy (...) and the arts to bear witness to and explain this difficult transition." "This important contribution to aesthetic and philosophical debates will be of great interest to students in philosophy, literary and cultural theory and politics."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (shrink)

Lee suggests a conceptualization of health data sharing not merely as an act of altruism, but as a gift. The difference is important, as the inscription of the latter in a social context inv...

The rise of big digital data is changing the framework within which linguists, sociologists, anthropologists, and other researchers are working. Semiotics is not spared by this paradigm shift. A data-driven computational semiotics is the study with an intensive use of computational methods of patterns in human-created contents related to semiotic phenomena. One of the most promising frameworks in this research program is the Semantic Vector Space (SVS) models and their methods. The objective of this article is to contribute to the (...) exploration of the SVS for a computational semiotics by showing what types of semiotic analysis can be accomplished within this framework. The study is applied to a unique body of digitized artworks. We conducted three short experiments in which we explore three types of semiotic analysis: paradigmatic analysis, componential analysis, and topic modelling analysis. The results reported show that the SVS constitutes a powerful framework within which various types of semiotic analysis can be carried out. (shrink)

Starting from the classical distinctions proposed by Thomas Aquinas, we examine how the discovery of the New World and the Spanish Conquest led Francisco de...

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)

Résumé Cet article est un exercice pour comprendre la définition par Hegel de la Logique comme « la science de l’idée pure », et pour en examiner les implications. Revenant sur la question du rapport de la Logique et de la Phénoménologie, et proposant une interprétation de l’approche délibérément aporétique de la question du « commencement » par Hegel, il s’efforce ensuite de décrire les principales caractéristiques du « programme » logique, dont elles illustrent la radicalité.

In this essay, I analyze Kant’s views on the permissibility of revolutions as a means of political change. I hold that in the same way the developments of the French Revolution were somehow contained in the ambiguity of the 1791 Constitution, Kant’s hesitations concerning the continuity of a juridical order reflect his own inability to clearly specify who the sovereign is. This difficulty might be due to the fact that Kant did not develop a sound theory of constituent power.

Derrida aura souvent souligné la dimension aporétique en laquelle vient s’inscrire « la » déconstruction, dont les déterminations sont prises dans la logique de la double négation : ni..., ni... On interroge ici cette dimension aporétique en suivant le fil conducteur de la traduction : qu’est-ce qui de la Destruktion heideggérienne se traduit dans la « déconstruction »? Devant quoi la « déconstruction » est-elle traduite? et quels sont les effets de cette traduction?

Le théâtre, contrairement au cinéma, serait par excellence l’art de la coprésence entre acteurs et spectateurs. Pourtant, la récente apparition de robots sur la scène vient semer un doute : l’acteur serait-il menacé d’être bientôt éclipsé par des machines qui ont « les allures de la vie sans avoir la vie »? L’humain serait-il l’objet d’une nouvelle mise en cause radicale, un siècle après Maeterlinck, Jarry et Craig? L’auteur aborde ces questions en s’appuyant sur la pièce emblématique Sayonara de Oriza (...) Hirata (2012) qui met en scène un robot humanoïde. Il analyse dans quelle mesure on peut rapprocher cette proposition scénique de l’art de la marionnette, et en quoi le devenir-acteur du robot réactualise, ou déplace, la partition entre vivant et artificiel sur la scène. (shrink)

Les études sept à neuf de Soi-même comme un autre, dans les-quelles Paul Ricoeur développe sa « petite éthique » souvent quali-fiée d’éthique de la sollicitude, s’achèvent sur une suggestion d’après laquelle la « catégorie de la reconnaissance » exprime adé-quatement la « dialectique du même et de l’autre » au coeur de cette éthique. Jean Greisch y a vu « la cellule germinale du Parcours de la reconnaissance » et a qualifié ce bloc d’études de « premier “travail (...) de reconnaissance” ». Radicalisant ces remarques, nous soutenons que la petite éthique peut être qualifiée d’éthique de la reconnais-sance. Nous fournissons à cette thèse une première assise en clari-fiant le rapport qu’entretient la notion d’estime de soi – fondamen-tale dans la petite éthique, où elle est définie comme la capacité d’une personne à évaluer la cohérence de ses actions avec sa con-ception de la vie bonne, – avec celle de reconnaissance (de soi). (shrink)

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)

Pour trancher entre les conclusions contradictoires des études récemment publiées sur la construction du nouveau temple d'Apollon, on présente l'ensemble des données utiles, autant que possible dans l'ordre chronologique. Plusieurs étapes sont fixées à peu près : notamment, dans la période 344-336, l'achèvement du péristyle, l'édification du sékos, la couverture. Ainsi, sont tout à la fois définis, le rythme (soutenu) du travail des années de l'après-guerre et l'ordre (traditionnel) de la construction. Mais un premier sékos pourrait-il avoir précédé celui que (...) nous connaissons? Cette solution permettrait d'expliquer certaines opérations relatives à un entablement, mais, à cause de son caractère singulier, et surtout parce qu'elle est fondée sur une acception médiocrement établie (du mot σελίς), elle reste purement hypothétique. (shrink)