The ancient Egyptians and Dogon conceive that all elements of the universe operate in harmony. Therefore, the manner in which the Egyptians and Dogon express and experience their cosmologies must agree with this harmony. Using an African-centered approach, this study examines three key factors that define both cosmologies and allow for the full expression of harmony. The first key is Maat. Maat is the Egyptian principle of balance, order, justice, and harmony and is the fundamental descriptive characteristic of (...) the universe for the Egyptians and Dogon. The second key is myth. Myth discloses the sacred world. To the Dogon, myth represents the ultimate revelation of knowledge. In Egypt, creation narratives are told as myths. The third key is Nature. Nature provides the symbols, forms, images, behaviors, and objects used to express the cosmology. This study describes the place where these three factors converge. To do this, a multidisciplinary approach from philosophy, art, myth, and culture is used to provide context, because all have greatly influenced the perception of myth in culture. The articulation of Egyptian and Dogon stories of the universe is a feast for the tactile senses, challenging the mind, and able to be experienced through the simple activities of daily living. This study brings this to light. (shrink)

Peut-on mieux caractériser autrement Hannah Arendt que par la passion de comprendre, par cette large appétence à saisir l'inédit du monde dans toute sa complexité? Introduite en France depuis une vingtaine d'années seulement, la philosophe, qui a toujours entretenu un rapport tumultueux avec la philosophie, y est considérée aujourd'hui comme un auteur majeur grâce à des ouvrages comme Les Origines du totalitarisme, La Crise de la culture ou La Condition de l'homme moderne. On ne cesse de la citer, de la (...) lire ou de s'y référer, tant dans le domaine philosophique que dans les sciences politiques ou sociales. Mais comment connaître davantage son itinéraire Intellectuel et l'articulation d'une pensée forte, qui touche à des domaines aussi divers? Comment percevoir les intuitions clés d'Hannah Arendt au-delà d'une seule approche événementielle? Philosophe de formation, elle aussi, Martine Leibovici invite ici à mieux découvrir ou redécouvrir la cohérence et l'originalité d'une réflexion qui marque en profondeur le XXe siècle. (shrink)

Le XVIe siècle voit l’émergence des vernaculaires comme langues de pensée, et le maintien en parallèle du latin comme langue savante de communication et de réflexion. Ce double mouvement, l’un de conquête et l’autre de résistance, a souvent été étudié du point de vue du vernaculaire, pour en marquer la progression tant pour la structuration des langues que pour le terrain gagné sur le latin dans le domaine des textes de fiction autant que d’argumentation. Le petit dossier présenté ici, issu (...) d... (shrink)

Susan Kahn rend compte dans cet ouvrage d’une recherche ethnographique menée en Israël sur l’usage des nouvelles techniques de reproduction et sur les interrogations qu’elles soulèvent concernant la parenté, la paternité, la maternité et la fabrique de citoyens juifs. Son travail s’appuie sur des entretiens avec des Israéliennes non mariées qui ont eu recours à une insémination artificielle, des rabbins et des juifs orthodoxes, ainsi que sur une observation participante dans une clinique de...

The new word “beme” is an adaptation of the linguist’s word “morpheme,” which means the smallest unit of meaning. A “beme” is the smallest unit of being, or existence. Being is usually defined as a state of existing, or as somebody’s essential nature or character. Hence, a beme is the smallest unit of someone’s essential nature or character. For example, the image of one’s mother, a predilection toward honesty and the ways one smiles are all examples of bemes. “Bemes” are (...) similar to “memes,” units of cultural transmission that were first explicated in 1976 by Richard Dawkins[1]. Memes parallel without biochemistry the replication and mutation characteristics of genes. An idea such as “war is bad” is a meme that can be passed from person to person the way genes are passed from parents to children. The meme “war is bad” can also be mutated into “war is always bad” or “war is good” just as genes for growth can be mutated into gigantism or dwarfism. “Memes” span a broader field than the linguistic-bound morphemes , and are studied more for their transmissibility characteristics than for their inherent meaning. By analogy, a beme is a unit of existence, nature or character that can behave like a gene. Hence, a beme can produce behaviors like a gene can produce proteins. Also, a beme can be replicated or combined or mutated either within a being or in an offspring . In certain instances, bemes might be thought of as very specific kinds of memes. But most small units of existence are not units of cultural transmission. In any event, the growing public familiarity with the concept of memes is helpful in gaining understanding of the new concept of bemes. (shrink)

A child of the era of decolonization, Claire Denis grew up in various regions of France’s subSaharan colonial lands, and was brought back to the ‘métropole’ as a teenager in the 1960s.She has thus had a double practice of foreignness, abroad, and in her ‘own’ country, whichshe did not know and where, in similar yet fundamentally different ways than in Africa, shefelt like an outsider again. As the daughter of a colonial administrator – a childhoodbeautifully evoked in her first feature, (...) Chocolat – she had stood as a highly visibleembodiment of the Western presence on colonial soil. On her return to France, she wouldlive through the more banal experience of becoming an invisible intruder, an exile at‘home’– a theme explored in her subsequent works. From the start, Denisthus drew on her personal knowledge of feeling rootless to explore issues that haveremained at the heart of her filmmaking: the deeply perplexing questions of identity andalienation, assimilation and rejection, desire and fear inseparable from the post-colonialmalaise that affects France with particular acuteness. (shrink)

Je ne dirai pas, pour désigner Archéologie du sujet, les livres d’Alain de Libera, car même si nous avons deux volumes, et si la série doit se poursuivre, ce n’est pourtant jamais que d’un seul livre qu’il s’agit, d’un même individu livre, dans son identité diachronique (2007, 2008). Archéologie du sujet aurait pu ne pas s’appeler Archéologie du sujet, et pourtant le livre aurait été le même individu, sous une autre description, qui aurait été l’équivalent français du titre donné en (...) 1994 par... (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

Kenelm Digby’s Two Treatises, of the Nature of Bodies and of the Nature of Mans Soule defends quite an idiosyncratic approach to mind-body dualism. In his use of the divisibility argument to prove that the human soul cannot be a material substance, Digby takes an uncompromising stand for merely potential material parts. In his Treatise of Bodies the present article focuses on the mode of construction of the definition of quantity as divisibility and on its links to two distinct fundamental (...) arguments against the actual material parts doctrine. The first, positive, argument consists of a semantic reason drawn from Digby’s general doctrine of meaning, whereas the second, negative, argument, addresses the traditional question of the composition of the continuum. The latter, the author contends, does not build on the medieval controversy itself, but on Digby’s opposition to Galileo’s claim of indivisibilism in his Dialogues Concerning Two Sciences. (shrink)

The prior issue of Krisis (42:1) published Critical Naturalism: A Manifesto, with the aim to instigate a debate of the issues raised in this manifesto – the necessary re-thinking of the role (and the concept) of nature in critical theory in relation to questions of ecology, health, and inequality. Since Krisis considers itself a place for philosophical debates that take contemporary struggles as starting point, it issued an open call and solicited responses to the manifesto. This is one of the (...) sixteen selected responses, which augment, specify, or question the assumptions and arguments of the manifesto. (shrink)

Résumé Le refus par Arnauld, en 1641, de la thèse cartésienne d’une fausseté des idées, et non des seuls jugements, est habituellement analysé en fonction de l’admission, vue comme un revirement sous l’influence des Quatrièmes réponses, des idées de la sensation comme idées fausses dans la Logique. J’essaie au contraire de rapporter ce refus seulement aux textes des Méditations et des Premières réponses qui lui servent d’appui. Arnauld construit son objection en sorte que la thèse des idées fausses apparaisse en (...) contradiction avec la doctrine cartésienne même des idées. Ce n’est nullement la fausseté des idées de la sensation, mais la fausseté des idées tout court, qui est sa cible, et ses écrits ultérieurs manifestent une forme de continuité avec les raisons de sa critique initiale, plutôt qu’un simple abandon de cette dernière. (shrink)

À partir de lots d'ossements retrouvés dans le sanctuaire de Poséidon et d'Amphitrite à Ténos, on peut mettre en évidence certains aspects des rituels sanglants dans ce grand centre religieux des Cyclades. Les ossements étudiés proviennent des niveaux correspondant à la période de plus forte fréquentation du lieu de culte, entre le IIIe et le IIe siècle av. J.-C. Les résultats de l'analyse archéo-zoologique aident à reconstituer avec plus d'exactitude le déroulement des sacrifices et des rituels que l'on connaissait par (...) les textes. Outre des détails sur les gestes accomplis, l'étude des ossements apporte des informations d'ordre général sur la sélection des espèces et d'autres, plus spécialisées, sur les âges d'abattage, la stature des bêtes sacrifiées, la méthode de mise à mort, les pratiques de débitage des carcasses, la sélection et la découpe des quartiers ainsi que les parties consommées ou consacrées aux deux principales divinités téniotes. (shrink)

Based on an analysis of 44 cases in Canada, Tunisia, and Cameroon, this research attempts to determine the fundaments of sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) in an international perspective and to shed the light on the potential impact of economic, institutional, and cultural dimensions upon diverse levels of sustainability in smalland medium-size firms (SMEs). Neo-institutional and entrepreneurship theories were combined in an integrative conceptual model to fully embrace the meanings and practices of SE and to question the "culture free" argument of some (...) prescriptions as well as some international programs. The analysis of the rationale behind entrepreneurs committed to sustainability in the three countries compared to less engaged firms shows that entrepreneurs' individual values are crucial in all cases. Socio-cultural specificities and institutional realities can, however, be more or less inductive to the adoption of sustainable practices in SMEs. This study also demonstrates that external stimuli are needed in Tunisia and Cameroon to reach the same environmental involvement as found in Canada. Moreover, support programs to assist SMEs with the adoption of sustainable practices and communication about the issue have to be tailored to the entrepreneur's motives, the firms' levels of openness to sustainability, the socio-cultural practices already embedded, and the countries' priorities. Implications for policy, management, and research are also discussed. (shrink)

This article examines Grotius’ lifelong support for Dutch expansion overseas. As noted in other publications of mine, Grotius cooperated closely with the directors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the years 1604–1615. Right up to his arrest for high treason in August 1618, he contributed towards Dutch government discussions about the establishment of a West India Company (WIC). Three years of imprisonment at Loevestein Castle and, following his escape, long years of exile could not weaken his dedication to (...) the cause. His relatives in Holland, in particular his brother Willem de Groot and his brother-in-law Nicolaas van Reigersberch, kept him up-to-date on the fortunes of the VOC and WIC. His expertise on maritime affairs was in high demand. For example, Cardinal Richelieu invited him in November 1626 to become actively involved in the establishment of a French East India Company. As itinerant ideologue of empire, Grotius sought to further his own career and those of his nearest family members, without damaging the interests of the United Provinces. Through Willem de Groot and Nicolaas van Reigersberch, he provided informal advice on Dutch imperial policy to the VOC directors and government officials in The Hague. He was rewarded with the appointment of his brother and his second son, Pieter de Groot, as VOC lawyers (ordinaris advocaten) in 1639 and 1644, respectively. They served as his proxies in diplomatic disputes involving the VOC, the States General and the Portuguese ambassador in autumn 1644, when Pieter and Willem de Groot wrote a defense of VOC claims to the cinnamon-producing areas of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), liberally citing De Jure Belli ac Pacis. Grotius’ vision of empire hardly changed in the course of 40 years. In his view, the Dutch had gone to the Indies as merchants, not conquerors, and should regulate themselves according to natural law and the law of nations. Thus he contributed to the creation of two political orders, one for Europe and one for the Indies. European diplomatic relations counted for little beyond the Line. VOC and WIC officials could act as judges and executioners in their own cause, without reference to indigenous rulers, other colonial powers, or even the political authorities back home. (shrink)

One's gender is merely an important subset of choosing one's form. By “form” I mean that which encloses our beingness – flesh for the life we are accustomed to, plastic for the robots of science fiction, mere data for the avatars taking over our computer screens.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology. It needs no ambient light, nor the guidance of the human eye to capture and reproduce a likeness of the world around us. Although LiDAR generates a constant stream of technical literature, LiDAR images, once envisaged for their aesthetic and expressive value, seem to call for alternative modes of analysis. How do we approach the fast-expanding archive of scanner images? How do we adequately describe the intriguing, spectral visualizations that its (...) blind process of recording produces? Following a general introduction, I look at Anouk De Clerk’s filmThing(2013), a work entirely comprised of LiDAR images. De Clerk encourages us to envisage LiDAR counterintuitively, not as the product of technological novelty, but as part of an interdisciplinary history of the arts. (shrink)

Being able to self-regulate one’s learning is essential for academic success but is also very difficult for students. Especially first year students can be overwhelmed with the high study load and autonomy in higher education. To face this challenge, students’ monitoring and self-regulated learning processes are crucial. Yet, often students are not aware of effective SRL strategies or how to use them. In this study, the use of a mobile application with gamification elements to support first-year university students’ SRL processes (...) was investigated. In Study 1a, the Ace your self-study app was implemented in a first-year psychology course, and students’ SRL skills, motivation, self-efficacy, app use and satisfaction, and performance were measured. The results showed a significant increase in autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and metacognitive self-regulation skills across the 5-week course. Moreover, students who used the mobile application with gamified elements showed higher autonomous motivation. Nevertheless, most students used the app only for a limited number of self-study sessions. In Study 1b, students’ self-study experiences were captured using focus group interviews to shed some more light on why students did or did not use the app. The results show that if students feel they do not need support for their SRL processes during self-study, they are less inclined to use the app. Specifically, regarding using study strategies, it was found that only if students’ strategies do not work well in their perception, they feel the need to change their way of studying and choose another strategy. These results are discussed in the context of theory on SRL and how to support it. (shrink)

L’irruption de l’image animée dans l’espace de la scène, pour n’être pas récente, réactualise pourtant un vieux débat qui opposerait ceux qui comme Goethe plaident pour de strictes frontières à ceux qui, après Hegel, derrière Wagner et le chapitre V d’ Opéra et Drame (1851), constatent que chaque art, puisqu’il « tend à une extension indéfinie de sa puissance », est commandé par une sorte de loi du « passage à la limite ». La mise en scène de l’avenir est-elle (...) désormais tributaire d’une alliance avec les autres formes artistiques dont le cinéma et la vidéo, ou la vérité du théâtre ne saurait-elle outrepasser les limites de la scénographie « traditionnelle »? Quelques expériences récentes alimentent un débat qui opposait déjà au xviii e siècle les contempteurs de l’opéra face au théâtre : la parole proférée par l’acteur est-elle nécessaire et suffisante ou faut-il y ajouter le « merveilleux » spectaculaire? (shrink)

Les syndicats libres féminins s'inspirent du catholicisme social, et ils reprennent à leur compte les idées développées par Léon XIII dans l'encyclique Rerum novarum. Par exemple, la recherche d'une collaboration de classe se concrétise dans la participation d'ouvrières et de bourgeoises à la vie syndicale, les premières étant sollicitées et encadrées par les secondes. Si ces organisations se donnent pour but de défendre les intérêts spécifiques des salariées, présence et action syndicales ne trouvent en fait leur plénitude et leur sens (...) qu'en s'inscrivant dans une dimension éthique et morale. L'ouvrière est prise en charge dans l'usine, mais aussi au-dehors. Son mode de vie, ses relations sociales et familiales, son avenir personnel sont l'objet d'attentions et deviennent le support d'un projet politique plus vaste. (shrink)