The prior research on different forms of what can be referred to as corporate social responsibility reporting is vast. As CSR reporting becomes more commonplace, the theoretical and empirical analysis of this type of reporting has matured and both academics and practitioners have begun to explore the possibility of having CSR disclosures assured. This paper makes an important contribution by synthesising the findings on emerging forms of CSR assurance practice. It summarises the ground covered to date and provides a comprehensive (...) review of the literature on the characterises, use and limitations of CSR assurance services. It develops a conceptual model which distinguishes between determinants of CSR assurance at the national- and firm-level and shows how the nature of assurance services, a company’s reporting infrastructure and current technologies of assurance enable or constrain the benefits of having CSR disclosures assured. Areas for future research, based on identified weaknesses in the current CSR assurance environment, are also identified. (shrink)

In a manuscript which is being studied here for the first time, al-Samaw'al quotes a paragraph from al-Bīrūnī which shows that the latter knew not only of Brahmagupta's method of quadratic interpolation, but also of another Indian method. Al-Samaw'al examines these methods, as well as linear interpolation, compares them, and evaluates their respective results. He also tries to improve them. In this article the author shows that al-Bīrūnī had used four methods of interpolation, two of which were of Indian origin; (...) and that al-Samaw'al explicitly introduced a new way of evaluating these different methods. He also throws light on the active movement of research on numerical methods that constitutes the background to al-Bīrūmī's and al-Samaw'al's work, and uses modern means to evaluate the different methods and to justify the mathematicians' choices. The author has edited and translated al-Samaw'al's text in order to make it available to historians of Arabic and Indian mathematics. This allows them to follow the history and the mathematical arguments, and deepens our understanding of the importance to the development of mathematics of certain astronomical work. It also highlights the contribution of Indian mathematicians to the development of Arabic mathematics. Dans un texte manuscrit jamais examiné auparavant, al-Samaw'al cite un paragraphe d'un écrit d'al-Bīrīnī qui montre bien que ce dernier connaissait non seulement la méthode d'interpolation quadratique de Brahmagupta, mais également une autre methode indienne. Al-Samaw'al éetudie ces méthodes ainsi que l'interpolation linéaire, les compare les unes aux autres et par conséquent s'interroge sur leurs performances respectives afin d'opter pour la meilleure, et tente de les perfectionner. Dans cet article, l'auteur montre qu'al-Bīrūnī disposait de quatre méthodes d'interpolation, dont deux sont d'origine indienne, et qu'al-Samaw'al a introduit explicitement une nouvelle interrogation pour juger de la performance des différentes méthodes; il restitue les études d'al- Bī;rūnī et d'al-Samaw'al dans le mouvement actif de recherche sur les méthodes numériques, et reprend avec des moyens modernes la comparaison entre les diverses méthodes pour comprendre les choix des différents mathématiciens. L'auteur établit et traduit le texte d'al-Samaw'al afin de le rendre accessible aux historiens des mathématiques arabes et indiennes, et pour permettre aux lecteurs de suivre l'exposé' historique et mathématique qui vise, au-delà de ces résultats, à mieux connaître l'apport de certaines recherches en astronomie au développement des mathématiques, et d'autre part, la contribution des mathématiciens de l'Inde à l'histoire des mathématiques arabes. (shrink)

Among the phenomena examined in the Meteorologica, some, although they are sublunar, are too distant to be accessible to direct study. To remedy this situation, it was necessary to develop procedures and methods which could allow observation, and above all the geometrical control of observations. The eventual result of this research was to detach the phenomenon under consideration from meteorology, and to insert it within optics or astronomy. Abū Sahl al-Qūhī, composed a treatise on shooting stars in which he carries (...) out such an insertion. In a second treatise, he deals with another type of observation, intended to measure maritime, terrestrial, and celestial surfaces. Here, the author studies al-Qūhī's contribution and gives the editio princeps of these two treatises, as well as their translation. (shrink)

In his encyclopedic book, the mathematician of Saragossa, Ibn Hūd, established by an intrinsic demonstration of spherical geometry, a remarkable theorem which generalizes the proposition III.11 from Theodosius’s Spherics and integrates the propositions III.23-25 from Menelaus’s Spherics. In this paper, we study this theorem and the demonstration of Ibn Hūd. The reader will find also some established and translated texts addressing the same theme. Résumé Dans son livre encyclopédique, le mathématicien de Saragosse, Ibn Hūd, établit par une démonstration intrinsèque de (...) la géométrie sphérique un théorème remarquable qui généralise la proposition III.11 des Sphériques de Théodose et intègre les propositions III.23-25 des Sphériques de Ménélaüs. Dans cet article, on étudie ce théorème ainsi que la démonstration d’Ibn Hūd. Le lecteur trouvera aussi établis et traduits quelques textes qui portent sur le même thème. (shrink)

Our aim here is to show that an enigmatic text of Avicenna's Glosses, devoted to the problem of evil, takes on its full meaning in the light of the last chapter of the Šifā ' on De generatione et corruptione. We will see how Avicenna, deepening and developing a cosmological argument already present in the commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on the De generatione, ends up building most of his theodicy on the relative incommensurability of the different celestial periods. All (...) the problem of divine Justice is thus reinterpreted in terms of opposition between discrete and continuous. Finally we will show the importance that this development of Avicenna had in Western Christendom in the 14th century, and the complex relationship which Leibniz has with it in his recently edited reflections on the Great Year. (shrink)

Né le 4 février 1917 dans un village des environs de Damiette, ‘Abd al-Rahmān Badaī s'est éteint au Caire, où il avait étudié puis enseigné – à l'Universitél – avant de joindre l'Université d'Héliopoplis. ‘A. Badawī nous laisse une oeuvre monumentale, plus de cent-vingt livres en arabe et cinq autres en français. Mondialement connu, son impact sur l'histoire de la philosophie grecque, sur l'histoire de la philosophie islamique et sur la pensée arabe au cours de la seconde moitié du XX (...) e siècle, est immense et incontestable. Travailleur solitaire et acharné, il n'a jamais été égalé pour ses connaissances tant linguistiques que philosophiques et historiques, et surtout pour l'étendue des champs du savoir qu'il a pu couvrir. (shrink)

Abū al-Jūd Muḥammad ibn al-Layth is one of the mathematicians of the 10th century who contributed most to the novel chapter on the geometric construction of the problems of solids and super-solids, and also to another chapter on solving cubic and bi-quadratic equations with the aid of conics. His works, which were significant in terms of the results they contained, are moreover important with regard to the new relations they established between algebra and geometry. Good fortune transmitted to us his (...) correspondences with the mathematician and astronomer al-Bīrūnī. The questions they debated, and the answers they yielded, all offer us multiple in vivo perspectives on the research that was undertaken in that period. The reader would find in this article a critical edition and French translation of this correspondence, with historical and mathematical commentaries. Résumé Abū al-Jūd Muḥammad ibn al-Layth est l’un des mathématiciens du x e siècle qui ont le plus contribué au nouveau chapitre sur les constructions géométriques des problèmes solides et sur-solides, ainsi qu’à un autre chapitre, sur la solution des équations cubiques et biquadratiques à l’aide des coniques. Ses travaux, importants pour les résultats qu’ils renferment, le sont aussi par les nouveaux rapports qu’ils instaurent entre l’algèbre et la géométrie. La bonne fortune nous a transmis sa correspondance avec le mathématicien et astronome al-Bīrūnī. Les questions qui y sont débattues, les réponses apportées, nous offrent, in vivo, plusieurs perspectives sur la recherche qui était alors menée. Le lecteur trouve dans cet article l’édition critique de cette correspondance, sa traduction française ainsi qu’un commentaire historique et mathématique. (shrink)

The use of the immediate and common point of view is presented, in Arab philosophy, as characteristic of the rhetorical method. We will endeavour, in this article, to determine the importance, the significance and the origins of this concept in the works of Fbb where Fbahb which depend on the concept of the immediate and common point of view, focusing in particular on the definition of enthymema. In the last part, we will investigate some philological and philosophical difficulties, such as (...) the difference between rhetorical and dialectical premises, which constitute the background to the development of the concept. (shrink)

Juxtaposing Beauvoir’s view of sexual difference in The Second Sex with Michel Houellebecq’s representation of a flailing masculine hegemony in Les Particules élémentaires (Atomised/The Elementary Particles) elucidates how the novel’s main protagonists, Bruno and Michel, fall from transcendence to immanence as they navigate new performances of masculinity that are not anchored in traditional virile models. This article examines how this degradation of self occurs and how it can be read through the actions of the main protagonists of Atomised.

Striking similarities, often literal, between Ibn Riwan's Book on the Application of Logic in the Sciences and Arts and the Didascalia in Rhetoricam Aristotelis ex glosa Alpharabii lead to suppose that the first of these treatises has preserved something of the Arabic source of the second one, the Great Commentary on the Rhetoric by al-Fbn has, as the Didascalia, a system of the means of the persuasion which puts on the same level eight non pathetical means external to the speech, (...) the enthymeme and the example. Nervertheless, one has also to note that Ibn Riwan's theory of rhetoric is radically different from Didascalia's: on the one side, a general rhetoric n's rhetorical doctrine towards the Didascalia, and the project underlying his work. (shrink)

Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics reveals the original version, previously considered lost, of a landmark work in Arabic philosophy. Undoubtedly authored by the Cordovan thinker Averroes (1126-1198), this "middle" commentary is distinct from the Long Commentary and the Short Commentary in method, several doctrinal elements, and scope (it includes books M and N of the Stagirite's treatise). These points and the transmission of the Middle Commentary at the crossroads of Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin traditions are addressed in the introduction, (...) which also establishes that the work was extensively quoted by the mystical philosopher Ibn Sab'in (XIIIth c.). The edition of the text and the facing translation follow. At the end of the book are Ibn Sab'in's quotations, along with extensive indexes. (shrink)

La eutanasia y el suicidio asistido están prohibidos por la legislación francesa. La Convención Ciudadana sobre el Final de la Vida, creada en diciembre de 2022, se encargó de evaluar el marco de la asistencia al final de la vida. Su informe final muestra que la mayoría de los miembros de la Convención están a favor de una evolución de la ley hacia la “ayuda activa a morir”. Esta conclusión constituye la base de un proyecto de ley que se estudiará (...) antes del verano de 2024. Este artículo analiza los principales dilemas bioéticos en juego si se aprueba la ley. (shrink)

La nueva ley de bioética en Francia, propuesta en 2019 y aprobada por la Asamblea Nacional el 29 de junio de 2021, introduce en su artículo primero, relativo a las Tecnologías de Reproducción Artificial (ART por sus siglas en inglés), modificaciones al artículo L. 2141-2 y L. 2141-3 de la ley número 2011-814 de 7 de julio de 2011 relativa a la bioética. Abre así el camino a “cualquier pareja formada por un hombre o una mujer o por dos mujeres (...) o cualquier mujer soltera”. Como resultado, se rompe el vínculo entre el derecho y la bioética. Mientras que el derecho debe proteger el interés individual, la bioética le recuerda al derecho que también debe protegerse el bien común. De ahí las siguientes interrogantes que surgen a raíz de esta nueva ley de bioética: ¿las ART son un derecho para todos? ¿Es legítimo reivindicarlo en nombre de la igualdad? ¿Qué pasa con la justicia? En este artículo me gustaría abordar el tema desde un punto de vista biojurídico, situando el problema en el marco de la filosofía del derecho. (shrink)

El embrión humano en la legislación no tiene un estatus definido. En lo referente a su condición en los debates éticos, no se ha logrado un consenso entre la pluralidad de contiendas de las distintas corrientes bioéticas. Lo cierto es que, en la mayoría de las legislaciones y para eludir los debates éticos, los argumentos se basan sobre todo en datos científicos. Como resultado, la ética se limita al aspecto científico, aunque es importante recordar que la bioética no solo se (...) detiene en este aspecto o en el sociológico. En particular, el enfoque de la bioética personalista invita a considerar al ser humano, incluido el embrión, en su aspecto metaontológico. La visión personalista se basa en la noción de “persona” descrita por santo Tomás de Aquino. ¿Podría este enfoque dar respuestas a los dilemas éticos de nuestros días? Este artículo pretende responder a esta pregunta analizando el tema de la discontinuidad embrionaria y la unidad de la persona desde una reflexión meta-ontológica. (shrink)

Der heute verlorene Kommentar von Alexander aus Aphrodisias zur Physik des Aristoteles ist eines der wichtigsten Werke der Antike: beeinflusste er doch als Quelle sowohl die griechischen Kommentatoren des Aristoteles als auch - vermittelt durch die Araber - die Philosophie des Mittelalters. Die in dieser Ausgabe pr+sentierte Erstedition und Untersuchung der nahezu 700 byzantinischen Scholien, die erst j8ngst entdeckt wurden, erlauben eine genauere Rekonstruktion der physikalischen Lehren Alexanders und tragen zugleich zum besseren Verst+ndnis der Geschichte des Aristotelismus und der vorklassischen (...) Physik bei. (shrink)

Madness is a complex and contested term. Through time and across cultures it has acquired many formulations: for some, madness is synonymous with unreason and violence, for others with creativity and subversion, elsewhere it is associated with spirits and spirituality. Among the different formulations, there is one in particular that has taken hold so deeply and systematically that it has become the default view in many communities around the world: the idea that madness is a disorder of the mind. -/- (...) Contemporary developments in mental health activism pose a radical challenge to psychiatric and societal understandings of madness. Mad Pride and mad-positive activism reject the language of mental 'illness' and 'disorder', reclaim the term 'mad', and reverse its negative connotations. Activists seek cultural change in the way madness is viewed, and demand recognition of madness as grounds for identity. But can madness constitute such grounds? Is it possible to reconcile delusions, passivity phenomena, and the discontinuity of self often seen in mental health conditions with the requirements for identity formation presupposed by the theory of recognition? How should society respond? -/- Guided by these questions, this book is the first comprehensive philosophical examination of the claims and demands of Mad activism. Locating itself in the philosophy of psychiatry, Mad studies, and activist literatures, the book develops a rich theoretical framework for understanding, justifying, and responding to Mad activism's demand for recognition. (shrink)

This book is the first study of the ontological system of Alexander of Aphrodisias (floruit c. 200 AD), famous for his commentaries on the works of Aristotle.

There have been recent arguments against the idea that substructural solutions are uniform. The claim is that even if the substructuralist solves the common semantic paradoxes uniformly by targeting Cut or Contraction, with additional machinery, we can construct higher-level paradoxes (e.g., a higher-level Liar, a higher-level Curry, and a meta-validity Curry). These higher-level paradoxes do not use metainferential Cut or Contraction, but rather, higher-level Cuts and higher-level Contractions. These kinds of paradoxes suggest that targeting Cut or Contraction is not enough (...) for solving semantic paradoxes; the substructuralist must target Cut of every level or Contraction of every level to solve the paradoxes. Hence, the substructuralists do not provide as uniform of a solution as they hoped they did. In response, we argue that the substructuralists need not admit these additional machineries. In fact, they are redundant in light of the validity predicate (i.e., there is no gain in terms of expressive power). The validity predicate is powerful enough to creep these paradoxes in the object level. The substructuralist does not need to ascend to metainferences to construct higher-level paradoxes. Moreover, there is a reading available to the substructuralist such that all the higher-level structural rules would collapse to instances of the object-level structural rules (e.g., meta \(_n\) Cut and meta \(_n\) Contraction would become instances of Cut and Contraction). We then address Barrio et al.’s worry that the validity predicate has its shortcomings; the substructuralist cannot internalize some of its metarules. We claim that the validity of metarules can be internalized without the need to strengthen the validity predicate. However, a problem raised by Barrio et al. is still present—the problem of internalizing unwanted instances of Cut in Cut-free approaches. We argue that this internalization problem is not unique to the validity predicate; the same problem is present with other problematic predicates, such as the truth predicate and the provability predicate. (shrink)

This article continues and improves the research already accomplished in Géométrie et dioptrique au Xe siècle (1993). It presents two fragments and an additional treatise which enlarge our understanding of the work of Ibn Sahl on the geometrical constructions and projections. All the necessary corrections are included.

RésuméDans les Sphériques, Ménélaüs ne démontre pas l'importante proposition III.5, mais propose seulement une esquisse de démonstration. Une fois le livre des Sphériques traduit en arabe, les mathématiciens, à partir de la fin du IXe siècle, ont voulu en donner une démonstration complète. Le développement de la géométrie sphérique a permis à Ibn ʿIrāq de parvenir au but. Un premier article a été consacré à sa contribution. Deux mathématiciens du XIIIe siècle – Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī et Ibn Abī Jarrāda – (...) ont repris la démonstration de cette même proposition, à partir de Ménélaüs et des acquis d'Ibn ʿIrāq. C'est le sujet du présent article. (shrink)

BackgroundThe process of peer-review in academia has attracted criticism surrounding issues of bias, fairness, and professionalism; however, frequency of occurrence of such comments is unknown.MethodsWe evaluated 1491 sets of reviewer comments from the fields of “Ecology and Evolution” and “Behavioural Medicine,” of which 920 were retrieved from the online review repository Publons and 571 were obtained from six early career investigators. Comment sets were coded for the occurrence of “unprofessional comments” and “incomplete, inaccurate or unsubstantiated critiques” using an a-prior rubric (...) based on our published research. Results are presented as absolute numbers and percentages.ResultsOverall, 12% of comment sets included at least one unprofessional comment towards the author or their work, and 41% contained incomplete, inaccurate of unsubstantiated critiques.ConclusionsThe large number of unprofessional comments, and IIUCs observed could heighten psychological distress among investigators, particularly those at an early stage in their career. We suggest that development and adherence to a universally agreed upon reviewer code of conduct is necessary to improve the quality and professional experience of peer review. (shrink)

The reference to Albinus in a refutation of Bardesanes († c. 222) by Ephrem the Syrian († 373) is not unknown to modern commentators. This text, edited and translated into English since the beginning of the twentieth century, is regularly mentioned, albeit rather cursorily, by scholars of Middle Platonism. Although much has been clarified between the first publication of the book just over a century ago and the present day, the following pages aim to continue the exploration. The aim will (...) be to better understand what has so far remained unnoticed: the dependence of Albinus’ work on Posidonius on three crucial points: (1) his classification of incorporeals, (2) his doctrine of comprehensive representation, and (3) the deep relationship between (1) and (2). (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Introduction to the Special Theme Religious Experience and PsychopathologyMohammed Abouelleil Rashed, MD, PhDIn the first verse of the seventeenth sura of the Qur’an, Al-Isra’,1 we learn about Prophet Mohammed’s night-time journey to Al-Quds (Jerusalem):Glory to Him who made His servant travel by night from the sacred place of worship [in Mecca] to the furthest place of worship [in Al-Quds], whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him some (...) of Our signs.The year was 621 AD. The Prophet was transported by a fabled creature known as Al-Buraq—a name that derives from the Arabic word for lightning—that was able to cover the distance of a month-long journey in a matter of hours. Accompanied by the Angel Jibreel, the second part of the journey, Al-Mi’raj,2 involved an ascension to the Heavens. Along the way, the Prophet met several past Messengers until, now all alone, he received communications from Allah and, according to some accounts, encountered the Divine manifestation.When he returned to Mecca the following morning and recounted his miraculous journey, he met with a familiar range of responses. Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, who was to become the first Caliph following the Prophet’s death, immediately believed him and never doubted the veracity of his account. Members of the Quraish tribe, a polytheistic tribe then dominant in the Arabian Peninsula and hostile to the Prophet, denounced his account outright, mocking him for its apparent impossibility or accusing him of madness. Others agreed that the Prophet had undergone the experiences he described but reasoned that this was a spiritual journey and not a physical one of literal bodily transportation. Later Christian critics went further by reducing the experience to the manifestations of epilepsy and insanity, or by questioning its Divine origin and attributing it to spirits and satanic entities.It really did matter how the Prophet’s experiences were understood and received: the stakes could not be higher. Here was the Prophet in the 11th year of a mission that called for a renewal of the message of monotheism. If true, this journey to the three holy sites of Islam (Mecca, Medina, Al-Quds) and to the Heavens was further evidence of his Prophethood and one of his miracles. His [End Page 195] critics and his followers had their own answer to the question on everyone’s mind: did the Prophet really undergo these experiences, whether in a spiritual or physical sense, or was it an expression of a pathological disturbance?________The year is 1997 AD. Mike Jackson and Bill Fulford publish a paper entitled Spiritual Experience & Psychopathology. The paper engages the exact question that troubled the Prophet’s critics and allies 1,376 years earlier. The question is now framed as a distinction between spiritual and pathological varieties of psychotic phenomena. And even though the stakes do not rise to the level of Prophethood—we have banished Prophets a long time ago—they are high enough:Spiritual experiences, whether welcome or unwelcome, and whether or not they are psychotic in form, have nothing (directly) to do with medicine.... It would be quite wrong, then, to “treat” spiritual psychotic experiences with neuroleptic drugs, just as it is quite wrong to “treat” political dissidents as though they were ill.(Jackson & Fulford, 1997, p. 42)Jackson and Fulford were not the first to invoke the distinction as a problem to be examined. In modern times, this is usually traced to William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), where he drew attention to the overlap between religious experiences and psychosis. James, like Jackon and Fulford a century later, noted the phenomenological similarities among these two ‘types’ of experience: voices, visions, an ineffable sense of significance to otherwise mundane events, and the loss of agency to external forces and powers.The 1997 paper stimulated much debate, responses, and rebuttals. In the process, at least four approaches for drawing the distinction have emerged: by appealing to the outcome of the experience; by appealing to theological criteria; by examining the organization of the experience; and by paying attention to the process of meaning-making in its cultural context. On the... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:What Can (and Cannot) Be Said About the Distinction Between Religious Experience and PsychopathologyMohammed Abouelleil Rashed, MD, PhDThe distinction between religious experience and psychopathology as a puzzle to be pondered, debated, clarified, and analyzed is an example of a thoroughly modern problem. It is modern in that the distinction can only make sense if our starting assumption is the existence of unique and separate types of experience that (...) might overlap phenomenologically but are ultimately different entities that should be distinguished from each other. And it can only have this sort of sense in a secular worldview where the possibility of a fully areligious type of psychological suffering is on the table and widely accepted. By framing the matter in this way, the debate presupposes, rather than argues for, the existence of unique and separate types of experience. This is a major presupposition, and its coherence cannot be assumed, nor can we ignore the impact of our standpoint in the debate on whether or not we can actually make that distinction let alone resolve it. In the original paper (Rashed, 2024), I deconstruct the distinction by examining what can, and cannot, be said about it given the standpoint that we adopt. In what follows, I respond to Awais Aftab’s and Warren Kinghorn’s thoughtful commentaries on my paper and in the process clarify my thesis further.What We Believe and the limits of What We Can ArgueAwais Aftab (2024) perceptively points out that the way I define the terms renders the distinction between religious experience and psychopathology an instance of the broader distinction between the religious worldview and the scientific worldview. Accordingly, my approach deviates from the usual [End Page 219] approach in these debates, which tend to focus on specific areas of phenomenology (delusion, hallucinations, low mood, etc.). This focus then directs the debate toward distinguishing these states from each other, and not toward asking if there is a distinction that needs to made at all, and, if there is, what the distinction is really about. In order to overcome this potential blind spot, we need to step back and examine our assumptions about the possibility and the nature of the allegedly competing conceptions of religious experience and psychopathology. And to do so, we need to apprehend the distinction in the broadest possible sense, as it is there that we can identify our assumptions about those ‘things’ we are trying to distinguish from each other.The first step in deconstructing this debate is to identify our stance towards the categories of religious experience and mental disorder, and what this stance enables us to say and prohibits us from saying. On an ontological stance, we would be dealing with two distinct categories of experience out there in the world for us to identify, study, and differentiate; there is a truth of the matter as to the origin of the experience, a truth that we can get hold of if we can get to the essence of the respective phenomena. On a constructivist stance, there is no sense to this claim, and what we have are two possible interpretations of experience that cannot be differentiated from each other from a natural or a supernatural standpoint; they do not reflect distinct types of experience, merely the attribution of meaning, which can always go the other way depending on the social situation and the cultural context. And so, our initial stance as to an ontological or constructivist understanding will constrain from the outset what can and cannot be said about the distinction between religious experience and psychopathology. The issue is further complicated by the fact that we can hold a range of positions: we can, at the same time, adopt an ontological view of religious experience and a constructivist view of mental disorder, or vice versa, and in each case we might end up in a different place.For philosophers, theologians, and others writing from a religious standpoint, we can assume that they are adopting an ontological reading of religious experience. In other words, they take it to be true that some experiences have a divine origin, connect the person to non... (shrink)

Obituaries Roshdi Rashed, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, FirstView Article.

Quel doit être le comportement éthique du juif à l'égard du non-juif ? Et d'abord qui est cet « autre », cet « étranger », comment le définir et comprendre ce qu'il est, aux yeux de Dieu et par rapport au peuple juif ? La Bible contient des lois qui concernent tous les hommes en général, d’autres le peuple d'Israël en particulier, elle énonce des préceptes relatifs à « autrui », au « prochain », aux « étrangers ». Les Sages (...) de l'époque talmudique ont longuement scruté et commenté ces écritures, le plus souvent à propos de cas concrets, par exemple celui-ci : si le taureau d'un juif agresse celui d’un non-juif, le propriétaire du premier doit-il réparation à celui du second comme il le devrait pour un autre juif ? Dans le cours des temps, des Sages ont rendu sur ce cas d'école des arrêts contradictoires et diversement motivés, par suite vraisemblablement de changements dans la situation des communautés juives au sein de populations étrangères. Plus tard, il arrivera que des textes, qui semblaient préconiser un traitement discriminatoire du juif et du non-juif, seront jugés scandaleux par des 1ecteurs chrétiens, au point même d'être expurgés par la censure ecclésiastique des éditions du Talmud. De nos jours encore, les décisions des Sages d’autrefois alimentent la controverse, et l'histoire des taureaux retrouve de l'actualité dans un état d'Israël en butte aux conflits ethniques. Mais la relecture critique du Talmud tend à faire prévaloir une attitude plus universaliste et non discriminatoire, que n'ignoraient pas les temps anciens.What should the ethical comportment of the Jew be toward non-Jews ? To begin with, who is this « other », this « stranger », ; how can you define and understand who is in the eyes of God and in relation to the Jewish people ? The Bible contains laws that concern all men in general, and some that concern the people of Israel in particular. It presents precepts relative to the « other », the « neighbor », and « strangers ». The Sages of the Talmudic period examined and commented on this writings at length, most often concerning concrete cases, for example this one : if a Jew’s bull aggresses that of a non-Jew, does the former owe reparation to the latter, as he does to another Jew ? Throughout the ages, the Sages made rulings on this theoretical case that were contradictory and diversely motivated. This was due, apparently, to changes in the situation of Jewish communities living among foreign populations. Later, it happened that texts, which seemed to recommend a discriminating treatment of the Jew towards non-Jew, were judged scandalous by Christian readers, to extent that ecclesiastical censure expurgated them from editions of the Talmud. Still today, the decisions of past Sages feed the controversy, and the story of the bulls regains actuality in the state of Israel as it struggles with ethnic conflicts. But a critical rereading of the Talmud tends to favor an attitude more universalistic and non-discriminatory, of which ancient times was not ignorant. (shrink)

This article proposes a reconstitution of the philosophical tenor of al-Fb al-Mawdayyira). It is shown that this work is not only a response to book VI of John Philoponus' Contra Aristotelem, but that its real issues can only be grasped in the context of the author's metaphysical system. Although, for al-Fbī, genuine demonstrations proceed from the cause to the caused, thus following the order of being, it will be explained how he also admits a strictly physical proof of the simple (...) fact, independently of its cause, and that the physical demonstration of the eternity of the world pertains to this type of proof. This physical proof is specifically directed against the Kindian doctrine of creation. (shrink)

Central to the identity of modern medical specialities, including psychiatry, is the notion of hypostatic abstraction: doctors treat conditions or disorders, which are conceived of as “things” that people “have.” Mad activism rejects this notion and hence challenges psychiatry’s identity as a medical specialty. This article elaborates the challenge of Mad activism and develops the hypostatic abstraction as applied to medicine. For psychiatry to maintain its identity as a medical speciality while accommodating the challenge of Mad activism, it must develop (...) an additional conception of the clinical encounter. Toward elaborating this conception, this article raises two basic framing questions: For what kind of understanding of the situation should the clinical encounter aim? What is the therapeutic aim of the encounter as a whole? It proposes that the concepts of “secondary insight” (as the aim of understanding) and of “identity-making” (as a therapeutic aim) can allow the clinical encounter to proceed in a way that accommodates the challenge of Mad activism. (shrink)

In this paper, we highlight a number of difficulties concerning the relationship between the Critias and theT imaeus, notably a contradiction between Timaeus 27a-b and Critias 108a-c. On this basis we argue that the Critias must be considered spurious.

RésuméC'est le premier d'une série d'articles comportant quatre textes composés entre le XIeet le XIIIesiècle, qui traitent de la proposition 5 du livre III desSphériquesde Ménélaüs. Le premier article comprend des commentaires historiques et mathématiques de l'œuvre d'Ibn ʿIrāq en géométrie sphérique et une édition critique des deux textes qu'il a consacrés à la rectification de la proposition III.5, ainsi que la traduction de ces deux textes. Le second article propose une édition critique des textes de Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī et (...) d'Ibn Abī Jarrāda sur le même sujet, cette fois aussi avec une traduction et des commentaires historiques et mathématiques. (shrink)

In seiner Schrift "De generatione et corruptione" entwickelt Aristoteles seine Antworten auf die Aporien, die sich aus dem Begriff des Werdens ergeben. Dabei geht es ihm ebenso darum, analytisch - und dies im angelsachsischen Sinne des Wortes - das gesamte Bedeutungsspektrum des griechischen Verbes "genesthai" zu klaren und zu ordnen, wie darum, auf rein physikalischer Ebene allgemeine Betrachtungen zur Einfuhrung in die physiologischen Studien des biologischen Corpus anzustellen.Die philosophische Uberlieferung hat, mehr oder minder bewusst, immer erkannt, dass es in Aristoteles (...) Schrift um die Machbarkeit und den Platz einer physikalischen Untersuchung des Lebendigen ging und - unter monotheistischen Vorzeichen - um das Verhaltnis Gottes zu seinen Geschopfen. Man denke nur an den Ps.-Okellos in hellenistischer Zeit, ferner an die galenische Tradition und an die bahnbrechenden physikalischen Intuitionen des Alexander von Aphrodisias. Man denke auch an die grosse Anziehungskraft, die dieser Text auf die arabischen Philosophen und spater auf die Physiker-Arzte Suditaliens ausgeubt hat. Und man denke schliesslich an die fast siebzig byzantinischen Manuskripte, die uns den Text des Traktats in der Originalsprache uberliefert haben. All das zeugt von der Faszination, die dieser Text auf Denker ausgeubt hat, die zu verstehen versucht haben, warum und wie die Welt der reinen Potenz und Materie unter bestimmten, sehr spezifischen Bedingungen in die Individualisierung der aktualisierten Form munden kann.Auch die Gegner waren sich der Bedeutung des Textes bewusst. So hat Philoponus den Traktat nicht ausdrucklich verworfen, wenn er auch in seinem De Aeternitate mundi contra Aristotelem und seinem De Aeternitate munde contra Proclum die These von der Ewigkeit der Welt und dem Fortbestand der Arten ablehnt, der ja, wie wir gerade gesehen haben, in dem Traktat eine grundlegende Bedeutung zukommt. Eine systematische Widerlegung von De generatione et corruptione wird erstmals von einem der grossten islamischen Theologen zu Anfang des 10. Jahrhunderts gefuhrt. Der Autor zeigt unter anderem, dass die wichtigste unter den drei arabischen Ubersetzungen sehr wahrscheinlich auf das byzantinische Exemplar der physikalischen Traktate zuruckgeht, dass die suditalienischen Arzte es nicht versaumt haben, sich unverzuglich die vielfaltigen, von Burgundio von Pisa zusammen mit seiner Version ubersetzten Randnotizen zunutze zu machen, - dass ubrigens die beiden Manuskripte, die mit Suditalien in Verbindung gebracht werden konnen, jeweils medizinische Texte enthalten -, dass zahlreiche byzantinische Gelehrte es sich haben angelegen sein lassen, den Text durch oft interessante, zuweilen brillante Konjekturen zu verbessern.Der Autor liefert mit seiner Uberlieferungsgeschichte also nicht nur das fur eine wirklich textkritische Ausgabe unerlassliche Stemma. Er fuhrt uns ebenso die Vielgestaltigkeit der Geschichte der Philosophie vor Augen, die sich ebenso mit der Theologie wie mit den Naturwissenschaften befasst. Nur die Uberlieferungsgeschichte kann uns vor historischen Trugbildern bewahren, d. h. vor der pseudo-philosophischen Rekonstruierung riesiger Phantasiefresken. (shrink)

Le présent article se propose de traduire et de discuter un certain nombre de textes arabes sur la question de l’éternité du monde. Il s’agit de fragments perdus en grec de Jean Philopon et de Proclus, peu connus ou inconnus, et de textes des philosophes arabes des ix e - xi e siècles qui les ont lus, discutés et utilisés. On montrera, en se fondant sur ce panorama philologique renouvelé, que loin d’être un dogme partagé par tous les hellénistes arabes, (...) l’éternité du monde n’a été soutenue que par une portion d’entre eux. On montrera aussi que chaque camp, à l’intérieur de la tradition philosophique elle-même, s’appuie sur un même corpus de textes – le livre VI du Contra Proclum de Philopon – pour argumenter en faveur des deux branches de l’antinomie. On montrera enfin que si, par ce canal, la tradition philosophique de langue arabe a eu accès à la cosmologie médio-platonicienne de Taurus et à ses développements néoplatoniciens, elle les a également profondément transformés, en leur appliquant une grille de lecture empruntée à la théologie rationnelle contemporaine, le kalâm. (shrink)

The present article aims to show that the treatise On the Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages the Divine Plato and Aristotle cannot have been written by al-FbwillryAdAdrr in the field of cosmology, for theological reasons.