The Abidjan School is a school of thought that developed in the 1980s and 1990s in the Côte d'Ivoire inspired by the work of Louis-Joseph Lebret and Amartya Sen. It follows the empirical approach i...

Is jealousy eliminable? If so, at what cost? What are the connections between pride the sin and the pride insisted on by identity politics? How can one question an individual's understanding of their own happiness or override a society's account of its own rituals? What makes a sexual desire "perverse," or particular sexual relations undesirable or even unthinkable? These and other questions about what sustains and threatens our identity are pursued using the resources of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and other disciplines. The (...) discussion throughout is informed and motivated by the Spinozist hope that understanding our lives can help change them, can help make us more free. (shrink)

Our research addresses the issue of teaching and learning concepts in science education as an empirical question. We study the process of conceptualization by closely examining the unfolding of classroom lesson sequences. We situate our work within the practice turn line of research on epistemic practices in science education. We also adopt a practice turn approach when it comes to the learning of concepts, as we consider conceptualization as being inherent within epistemic practices. In our work, pedagogical practices are modeled (...) as learning games and epistemic practices in science education are characterized as enacted epistemic games emerging through the unfolding of learning games. Science practices are modeled as source epistemic games since they are the source of the knowledge at stake in pedagogical practices. From this point, we examine closely how playing learning games can enable students to play enacted epistemic games and then in turn the source epistemic games at the core of conceptual understanding. Thus, the main contribution of this paper is to link pedagogical practices to epistemic practices in science education and to science practices in general. Our method is consistent with this epistemological framework as our case study on the concept of earthquakes in a 5th grade classroom sequence illustrates. Following an investigation of two experienced teachers and their classes during a teaching unit, our analysis shows how teaching effectiveness is determined by a dialectic. This entails on the one hand a didactic continuity between learning games and enacted epistemic games and, on the other, an epistemic continuity between enacted epistemic games and source epistemic games. (shrink)

Se quiere presentar la figura de Pedro Abelardo, desde el concepto de “intelectual total”, por ello atrevernos a proponer una lectura de “Historia Calamitatum” basada en los estudios de Sociología de la Literatura, de Pierre Bourdieu y Jacques Dubois es una tarea un tanto compleja. Para comprender la propuesta que presentamos: Abelardo: El intelectual del siglo XII, es necesario tener en cuenta que dicha hipótesis esconde tres cuestiones fundamentales. La primera es acerca del concepto de Intelectual Total; la segunda, (...) se refiere a la trayectoria intelectual de Pedro Abelardo basándonos en los trabajos sobre postura literaria del Jêrome Meizoz, y la tercera se basa en una comparación, un poco más atrevida, entre las condiciones históricas, del siglo XII y la de finales del siglo XIX, en París. (shrink)

We investigate the nature of the sense of presence that usually accompanies perceptual experience. We show that the notion of a sense of presence can be interpreted in two ways, corresponding to the sense that we are acquainted with an object, and the sense that the object is real. In this essay, we focus on the sense of reality. Drawing on several case studies such as derealization disorder, Parkinson’s disease and virtual reality, we argue that the sense of reality is (...) two-way independent from the spatial and sensory contents of experience. We suggest that the sense of reality is an affective experience akin to a metacognitive feeling. Finally, we present a potentially important implication of our account for the current debate between Intentionalism and Naïve Realism. Since perception is “opaque” with respect to the reality of what is perceived, Intentionalism cannot refer to the sense of reality as what differentiates perception from sensory-like experiences such as imaginings. In contrast, Naïve Realism has an independent explanation of the specificity of perception. (shrink)

In this two-part analysis, I analyze Marc Lewis’s arguments against the brain-disease view of substance addiction and for a developmental-learning approach that demedicalizes addiction. I focus especially on the question of whether addiction is a medical disorder. In Part 1, I argued that, even if one accepts Lewis’s critique of the brain evidence presented for the brain-disease view, his arguments fail to establish that addiction is not a disorder. Relying on my harmful dysfunction analysis of disorder, I defended the view (...) that addiction is a medical disorder and a brain disorder. In Part 2, I consider some broader philosophical issues raised by Lewis’s arguments: I consider a larger puzzle, at the heart of the neo-Kraepelinian program in contemporary psychiatry, that is raised by Lewis’s argument that addiction is not a disorder because the brain displays no damage but only normal learning: must all mental disorders be brain disorders, or can mental disorders occur in normal brains? I argue that mental disorders can occur in normal brains. I critique Lewis’s response to the evolutionary “novel environment” approach to explaining why addiction is a disorder. Lewis agrees with brain-disease proponents that interpreting addiction as brain disorder relieves addicts of moral censure, but I argue that moral defect and brain disease are not exclusive. Finally, I consider Lewis’s “developmental-learning” account of addiction that encourages positive and empowering narrativizing of addiction, but I argue that the developmental-learning view is vacuous due to use of an overly broad notion of “development.”. (shrink)

The poor performances of typically developing children younger than 4 in the first-order false-belief task “Maxi and the chocolate” is analyzed from the perspective of conversational pragmatics. An ambiguous question asked by an adult experimenter (perceived as a teacher) can receive different interpretations based on a search for relevance, by which children according to their age attribute different intentions to the questioner, within the limits of their own meta-cognitive knowledge. The adult experimenter tells the child the following story of object-transfer: (...) “Maxi puts his chocolate into the green cupboard before going out to play. In his absence, his mother moves the chocolate from the green cupboard to the blue one.” The child must then predict where Maxi will pick up the chocolate when he returns. To the child, the question from an adult (a knowledgeable person) may seem surprising and can be understood as a question of his own knowledge of the world, rather than on Maxi's mental representations. In our study, without any modification of the initial task, we disambiguate the context of the question by (1) replacing the adult experimenter with a humanoid robot presented as “ignorant” and “slow” but trying to learn and (2) placing the child in the role of a “mentor” (the knowledgeable person). Sixty-two typical children of 3 years-old completed the first-order false belief task “Maxi and the chocolate,” either with a human or with a robot. Results revealed a significantly higher success rate in the robot condition than in the human condition. Thus, young children seem to fail because of the pragmatic difficulty of the first-order task, which causes a difference of interpretation between the young child and the experimenter. (shrink)

This collection of original essays, from both established scholars and newcomers, takes up a debate that has recently flared up in philosophy, sociology, and disability studies on whether disability is intrinsically a harm that lowers a person's quality of life. While this is a new question in disability scholarship, it is also touches on one of the oldest philosophical questions: What is the good human life? Historically, philosophers have not been interested in the topic of disability, and when they are (...) it is usually only in relation to questions such as euthanasia, abortion, or the moral status of disabled people. Consequently, implicitly or explicitly, disability has been either ignored by moral and political philosophers or simply equated with a bad human life, a life not worth living. This collection takes up the challenge that disability poses to basic questions of political philosophy and bioethics, among others, by focusing on fundamental issues as well as practical implications of the relationship between disability and the good human life. (shrink)

Afropessimism incites controversy within and without the academy for the provocation that modernity’s ethical life, including its purportedly progressive facets, is entirely undergirded by a rejection of blackness. On this basis it squares a self-concept as a non-prescriptive theoretical framework with a negative prescription of “world-abolition.” I reconstruct Afropessimism’s conceptual apparatus in light of its criticism in academic philosophy. I then relate the theory’s negativism with Theodor Adorno’s view that “in wrong life there is no right life,” to argue that (...) Afropessimists should take up the implication that there is no right thinking. (shrink)

Philosophical and popular ethics tend to focus on the question "What ought I to do?" Is there, in addition to the ethics of action, an ethics of fantasy? Are there fantasies one ought not to have? Of course there are fantasies with horrific content. Does it follow that there is something wrong with a person who has such fantasies or that they ought to make efforts to suppress them or to otherwise change themselves? Do the problems such fantasies raise depend (...) on their links to desire and action? Masturbation fantasies are considered as well as fantasies that may emerge during sex with others, fantasies that include actual others, and fantasies that get embodied in pornography. Psychoanalytic and legal aspects of the issues are emphasized. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

The general aim of this volume is to investigate the nature of the relation between pictorial experience and aesthetic appreciation. In particular, it is concerned with the character and intimacy of this relationship: is there a mere causal connection between pictorial experience and aesthetic appreciation, or are the two relata constitutively associated with one another? The essays in the book's first section investigate important conceptual issues related to the pictorial experience of paintings. In Section II, the essays discuss the notion (...) of styles, techniques, agency, and facture, and also take into account the experience of photographic and cinematic pictures. The Pleasure of Pictures goes substantially beyond current debates in the philosophy of depiction to launch a new area of reflection in philosophical aesthetics. (shrink)

Retrieval efficiencies of paper-based references in journals and other serials containing 10 scientific names of fossil amphibians were determined for seven major search engines. Retrievals were compared to the number of references obtained covering the period 1895—2006 by a Comprehensive Search. The latter was primarily a traditional library-based search which involved intensive work from 2002—2007. Only a few references originally obtained by search engines were included. Retrieval efficiencies were calculated by comparison to the number obtained through the Comprehensive Search (assumed (...) to be 100%). All percent retrievals were quite low (mean = 11.3%, range = 4.0—22.9%). For all seven search engines combined (duplicate references excluded), the percent retrieval was only 40.7%. There was also retrieval inefficiency and bias of the search engines in: sampling over time, the top five journals containing the most references, the top five most prolific authors, and non-English references. Consequently, all seven search engines were unsatisfactory for retrieval of references for our scientific research. (shrink)

« Dans la sphère économique, un acte, une habitude, une institution, une loi n’engendrent pas seulement un effet, mais une série d’effets. De ces effets, le premier seul est immédiat ; il se manifeste simultanément avec sa cause, on le voit. Les autres ne se déroulent que successivement, on ne les voit pas, heureux si on les prévoit. Entre un mauvais et un bon Economiste, voici toute la différence : l’un s’en tient à l’effet visible, l’autre tient compte et de (...) l’effet qu’on voit et de ceux qu’il faut prévoir. » Frédéric Bastiat (1850), Ce qu’on voit, ce qu’on ne voit pas. Abstract: Outre l’économiste érudit, le spécialiste de l’école autrichienne et de la théorie du Public Choice, Bertrand Lemennicier se passionnait pour la prévision en général et la prévision politique en particulier. Dans cet article en forme d’hommage, nous proposons de faire un point d’étape sur les méthodes de prévision électorale, en allant des méthodes non quantitatives aux méthodes quantitatives au sein desquelles les modèles de vote politico-économiques occupent une place éminente. En l’espèce, nous évoquerons la contribution de Bertrand Lemennicier à « l’art » de la prévision électorale. (shrink)

To 2021, κατά τη µελέτη του κεραµικού υλικού που προέκυψε από την έρευνα που πραγµατοποίησε ο Olivier Pelon το 1978 και το 1985 στην αίθουσα IX b, που βρίσκεται στη βόρεια πτέρυγα του Ανακτόρου των Μαλίων, αναγνωρίστηκαν οκτώ λύχνοι τύπου «κηροπηγίου». Αυτοί οι λύχνοι που περιέχονται σε ένα σύνολο της ΠΜ ΙΙΙ - ΜΜ ΙΑ από το βορειότερο τµήµα του δωµατίου, αποτελούν προϊόντα τοπικής παραγωγής που κατασκευάστηκαν από έναν ηµι‑λεπτόκοκκο ερυθρό πηλό και µιµούνται τα περίτεχνα διακοσµητικά θέµατα της κεραµικής µε (...) ανοιχτόχρωµα µοτίβα επί σκοτεινού βάθους, η οποία αποτέλεσε το σήµα κατατεθέν της ύστερης Προανακτορικής παραγωγής στην Ανατολική Κρήτη. Αυτοί οι περίτεχνοι λύχνοι µε τα ανοιχτόχρωµα διακοσµητικά θέµατα επί σκοτεινούς βάθους που προέρχονται από στρώµατα της Ύστερης Προανακτορικής περιόδου του ανακτόρου των Μαλλιών φαίνεται να αντιπροσωπεύουν το πρωτότυπο των µεταγενέστερων λύχνων τύπου «κηροπηγίου», που µαρτυρούνται σε όλη την περιοχή των Μαλίων από τη ΜΜ Ι έως την ΜΜ ΙΙ. Η παρούσα εργασία έχει ως στόχο να παρουσιάσει οκτώ λύχνους και το ανασκαφικό τους περιβάλλον, να παραθέσει παράλληλα τόσο από τα Μάλια όσο και από την Μινωική Κρήτη και να ανιχνεύσει την εξέλιξη του συγκεκριµένου σχήµατος από την Ύστερη Προανακτορική περίοδο έως την Παλαιονακτορική περίοδο σε ολόκληρο το νησί. (shrink)

This paper discusses the critical necessity of teaching students about the social and ethical responsibilities of scientists. Both a university scientist and a middle school science teacher reflect on the value of teaching the ethical issues that confront scientists. In the development of the atomic bomb in the US-led Manhattan Project, scientists faced the growing threat of atomic bombs by the Germans and Japanese and the ethical issues involved in successfully completing such a destructive weapon. The Manhattan Project is a (...) prime example of the types of ethical dilemmas and social responsibilities that scientists may confront. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a neuro-meditation program to support nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-five nurses were classified into three groups based on their systolic blood pressure: normotensive, hypertensive and control. Using a parallel, randomly controlled design across a 4-week period, 10 × 30-min sessions using the Rebalance© Impulse were completed. Sleep was assessed by wrist actigraphy and subjective sleep questionnaires; perceived sleep quality, Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test questionnaire and the Spiegel (...) Sleep Quality questionnaire. Blood pressure, resting heart rate, mean heart rate, heart rate variability index, cortisol, and alpha-amylase were also measured. Statistical analysis was completed using factorial ANOVA. Sleep improved in the G-hyp group; SSQ ; perceived sleep quality ; sleep efficiency and fragmentation index. In the G-nor group, sleep was improved to a lesser extent; perceived sleep quality. A significant time–group interaction was reported in resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure with these measures being significantly reduced in the G-hyp group. RMSSD increased in the G-nor group. This initial evidence suggests that neuro-meditation reduces excessive sympathetic activity, promoting enhanced sleep quality and autonomic control during periods of increased work-related stress.Clinical Trial RegistrationThe study was conducted at Bioesterel, Sophia-Antipolis, France as a clinical trial: Neuro-meditation improves sleep quality, https://www.drks.de/ui_data_web/DrksUI.html?locale=en, DRKS00025731. (shrink)

E.O. Wright, using the labourtransfer and game theory approach of J. Roemer, provides a general framework for a comparative analysis of the different class systems, the historical variations of which are founded on the peculiar nature of the "asset" the dominant class appropriates.

This is a new release of the original 1951 edition.