In the area of investment, responsibility may be expressed via four types of ethical concern: value-based ethics resulting in the exclusion of so-called "vicious" companies from the investment portfolio; fructification-oriented ethics with a view to long-term investment; consequence-based ethics aimed at initiating a behavioural change in the investment target; and ethics envisaged as a discriminating criterion in the search of the best financial performance. No single formula of responsible investment is available, and the "responsible" approach necessarily implies the active involvement (...) of a free acting subject striving to tackle fundamental ethical issues. The practice of responsible investment cannot be reduced to simply applying a particular legal rule or mathematical formula. (shrink)

Dans La Volonté de savoir, Foucault écrit : "Là où il y a pouvoir, il y a résistance".

La phénoménologie, après avoir dénoncé avec Husserl et Heidegger le contresens fatal qui aurait conduit Descartes à ne voir dans l’ego qu’une simple et banale « chose » pensante, conçue sur le modèle et à l’imitation de la choséité spatio-temporelle – celle qui caractérise la res extensa – s’est vite ravisée : Levinas réhabilite la dignité phénoménologique de la « res cogitans » ; Henry fait du sentir originel et soustrait à l’ekstase de la représentation le mode le plus fondamental (...) de la subjectivité vivante ; Marion réintroduit le moment de la chair sentante au cœur de la démarche métaphysique. L’article présente et discute ces différentes interprétations. (shrink)

L’auteur, qui se propose de publier, pour le bicentenaire de la naissance d’Édouard Reuss , sa correspondance avec Michel Nicolas , présente l’état de ces lettres inédites et les circonstances de leur rédaction. Il montre qu’elles éclairent l’élaboration de la production littéraire des deux protagonistes et l’évolution de la théologie protestante au XIX e siècle en France. Pour illustrer le combat commun des deux correspondants pour le progrès des sciences théologiques en France, il présente enfin les passages qui concernent (...) le projet de création d’une revue scientifique. Il suggère au passage l’influence insoupçonnée de M. Nicolas sur la théologie protestante française, en particulier sur l’évolution des sciences bibliques. The author, who proposes to publish, for the bicentennial of Edouard Reuss’ birth , his correspondence with Michel Nicolas , presents the state of these yet unpublished letters and the circumstances in which they were written. He shows that they enlighten the literary production of both protagonists and the evolution of French Protestant theology in the 19th century. To illustrate their common struggle for the advance of theological sciences in France, he presents at last passages which concern the project to create a scientific periodical. He also suggests the unsuspected influence of M. Nicolas on French Protestant theology, in particular on the evolution of biblical sciences. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: In the 18th century, Kant evaluated that his historical period was not a time of enlightenment, but rather minority, because of man’s inability to use his own understanding. Adorno updated this problem, interpreting the minority in our presente in terms of loss of experience. Men are no longer apt to experience, because the technical and economic apparatus prevents the clarification and awareness of reality. From this diagnosis, The aim of this article is to investigate Adorno’s educational thought in its (...) possibilities of emancipation. In our point of view, the role of education, in the thoughts of the Frankfurtian, is to recover the critical autonomy of individuals, through dialectical thinking, to rebuild the damaged experience. (shrink)

This book provides an innovative way to revisit the depth and scope of our moral/post-moral worldviews, while undertaking an ontic reflection about organizational life. The ontic dimension of life refers to existing entities’ lived experiences. It has nothing to do with psychological and relational processes. The ontic level of analysis mirrors a philosophical outlook on organizational life. Unlike moral worldviews, post-moral worldviews oppose the existence of Truth-itself. Post-moral worldviews rather imply that dialogical relationships allow people to express their own truth-claims (...) and welcome others’ truth-claims. The purpose of this book is to explain the philosophical implications of moral and post-moral worldviews and the way to move from a moral to a post-moral worldview. Moreover, this book explores the possibility to transcend the moral/post-moral dualism, through moral deliberation processes and a reinterpretation of the Presence of the Infinite in all dimensions of human life. This book could eventually help to better grasp the basic philosophical challenges behind ethical reflection about organizational issues. (shrink)

After a presentation of some relevant aspects of Chakravartty's semi-realism (A Metaphysics for scientific realism. Knowing the unobservable. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007), this paper addresses two difficulties that appear to be inherent to important components of his proposed metaphysics for scientific realism. First, if particulars and laws are concrete structures, namely actual groupings of causal properties as the semirealist contends, the relation between particulars and laws becomes also a relation between particulars with some annoying consequences. This worry—and some others—are (...) resolved if laws are taken to be statements and particulars are construed not only as groupings of properties, but things that contain a non-conceptual ingredient which can be given in perceptual awareness. Second, on the semirealist's view of particulars it becomes difficult to defend an epistemological version of scientific realism according to which we have good reasons to believe that the same things are referred to despite the fact that successive theories may attribute different properties to them. (shrink)

In 1968, Michel Foucault agreed to a series of interviews with critic Claude Bonnefoy, which were to be published in book form. Bonnefoy wanted a dialogue with Foucault about his relationship to writing rather than about the content of his books. The project was abandoned, but a transcript of the initial interview survived and is now being published for the first time in English. In this brief and lively exchange, Foucault reflects on how he approached the written word throughout (...) his life, from his school days to his discovery of the pleasure of writing. Wide ranging, characteristically insightful, and unexpectedly autobiographical, the discussion is revelatory of Foucault's intellectual development, his aims as a writer, his clinical methodology ("let's say I'm a diagnostician"), and his interest in other authors, including Raymond Roussel and Antonin Artaud. Foucault discloses, in ways he never had previously, details about his home life, his family history, and the profound sense of obligation he feels to the act of writing. In his Introduction, Philippe Artieres investigates Foucault's engagement in various forms of oral discourse--lectures, speeches, debates, press conferences, and interviews--and their place in his work. Speech Begins after Death shows Foucault adopting a new language, an innovative autobiographical communication that is neither conversation nor monologue, and is one of his most personal statements about his life and writing. (shrink)

Etrange parcours que celui du Logos qui, de Heraclite a nos jours, tend a s'effacer, dans ce monde actuel, tout entier voue a la science, au tout numerique. Cette vision heracliteenne de la totalite s'est estompee, transformee qu'elle fut deja des les premiers siecles de notre ere dans sa postulation religieuse, puis dans la modernite, et s'est perdue dans un monde ou, science et technique prenant leur envol, l'homme avait comme horizon de " devenir comme maitre et possesseur de la (...) Nature ". Michel Blay analyse cet etat qui nous laisse de plus en plus en desherence ; et dans un monde ou " Dieu est mort, et c'est nous qui l'avons tue ", comment ne pas sombrer dans cette illusion d'un homme tout-puissant, dans lequel meme le psychique est traite a l'aune des neuro-sciences ou l'homme a perdu sa completude et ne pense meme plus a la chercher? Ne serait-ce pas la poesie, elle seule, " dans ces temps de detresse " qui offrirait une voie pour retrouver sa voix? Certes " Il n'y a pas de paradis " nous dit Andre Frenaud. " Etait-ce l'aube, ou le soir deja perce? Qu'avions-nous espere que nous allons cherchant? ". (shrink)

Postural instability and balance impairment are disabling symptoms in patients with acute unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction. Vestibular rehabilitation is known to improve the vestibular compensation process, but its effect on posture recovery remains poorly understood, little is known about when VR must be done, and whether the degree of vestibular loss matters is uncertain. We analyzed posture control under static and dynamic postural tasks performed in different visual conditions [eye open ; eyes closed ; and optokinetic stimulation] using dynamic posturography. (...) Non-linear analyses of the postural performance were performed in two groups of patients with UVH subjected to the same VR program based on the unidirectional rotation paradigm and performed either early or later after vertigo attack. Distribution of the angular horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex gain values recorded on the hypofunction side before rehabilitation differentiated two distinct sub-groups with aVOR gains below or above 0.20. The postural performance of the four sub-groups of patients with UVH tested before VR showed significantly altered postural parameters compared with healthy controls. Greater instability, higher energy to control posture, larger sway without feedback corrections, and lower time of automatic control of posture were observed in static conditions. The four sub-groups recovered near-normal postural performance after VR in the EO and EC conditions, but still exhibited altered postural performance with optokinetic stimulation. In dynamic posturography conditions and before VR, the percentage of patients able to perform the postural tasks with EC and optokinetic stimulation was significantly lower in the two sub-groups with aVOR gain <0.20. After VR, the improvement of the postural parameters depended on the stage of rehabilitation and the degree of vestibular hypofunction. The best balance function recovery was found in the sub-group with early VR and pre-rehabilitation aVOR gain above 0.20, the worst in the sub-group with late rehabilitation and aVOR gain below 0.20. These differences were seen when the vestibular input remains the main sensory cue to control balance, that is, on unstable support without vision or altered visual motion cues. These findings extend to dynamic balance recovery the crucial roles of early rehabilitation and degree of vestibular hypofunction which we have already highlighted for vestibulo-ocular reflex recovery. (shrink)

This paper deals with the question whether Seneca’s dramas contain a concept of the tragic. Examining this question this contribution first discusses the studies that have supported the thesis that Seneca’s dramas are anti-tragic. Then it tries by means of the method of the interpretatio stoica to advance a hypothesis how a concept of tragic could be grasped at the background of Seneca’s philosophical thinking. Finally the paper examines this hypothesis at the example of the „Troades“.

The rejection of rhetoric has been a constant theme in Western thought since Plato. The presupposition of such a debasement lies at the foundation of a certain view of Reason that I have called propositionalism, and which is analyzed in this article. The basic tenets of propositionalism are that truth is exclusive, i.e. it does not allow for any alternative, and that there is always only one proposition which must be true, the opposite one being false. Necessity and uniqueness are (...) the ideals of propositionalism. But the question of the necessity of such a necessity is bound to arise. Foundationalism and propositionalism are intrinsically related. Since necessity excludes alternatives, rhetoric, which is based on the possibility of opposite standpoints, is unavoidably devalued as the crippled child of Reason, identical to sophistry or eristic. But propositionalism cannot justify itself and provide a justification for its own foundation without circle or contraditction. Since it responds to the problem of eradicating problems and alternatives through propositional entities, propositionalism is ultimately based on questioning to which it replies in the mode of denial. The unavowed foundation of Reason is therefore the question of questioning, even though this very question is suppressed as propositionalism. The trace of such a question is not only historical, but can also be seen, for instance, in the role played by the principle of contradiction in the constitution of propositional Reason (Artitotle): opposite “propositions” are not the expression of a problematic situation, they are either possible or successively unique propositions.We want to replace propositionalism by problematology which allows for the conceptualization of alternatives, thereby rendering a true rhetoric possible. Argumentation cannot then be equated with eristic any more, as propositionalism maintained.Rationality must be seen as having questioning as its true starting-point. Reason must be rhetorical if it is to survive the death of propositionalism which took place after the radical criticisms of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. Even if it is still hard ffor philosophers and rhetoricians to think within another framework and even though they prefer endlessly to deconstauct the old one instead of changing it, problematology is bound to impose itself as the new voice for rationality, because Reason has always endeavored to solve problems. Propositionalism has been only one way of conceiving problems, based on the view that solutions could be but the suppression of questioning. (shrink)

As I am not at all a specialist on Gottlob Frege’s work, my comments intended initially to be focused on an aspect that emerges in the last part of Peter Clark’s paper “Frege, neo-logicism and applied mathematics” 1, where he treats the question of “applied mathematics” — an aspect that appealed to me and that was triggered by Frege’s relationship between numbers and concepts, and reasoning. Starting with this concern, I have been led by my subject to propose some considerations (...) about foundations and rationality which will go — briefly — in two directions. The first direction is that of a distinction between logical and rational foundations, whilst the second direction is that of taking into account as a fact the historical development of mathematics among the sciences, which modifies the terms of any foundational program. In delineating these considerations, I found that what I had in mind could apply to mathematics itself as well as to “applied mathematics”, thus deviating somewhat from my first explicit intention. In conclusion I shall consider the possibility of a rational foundation programme for mathematical and physico-mathematical sciences which would take into account the changes in the scientific contents and the widenings of the forms of rationality that, in my view, make these changes possible. Such foundations for knowledge would not be any more static, but dynamical and would be possibly considered only retrospectively: they would be “forward foundations”, in a sense that will be discussed in detail elsewhere. (shrink)

According to the traditional view, meaning presents itself under the form of some kind of identity.

Il semble que la science, au sens de l'activité des scientifiques, ne soit pas vraiment la même que celles dont s'occupent, chacune de leur coté, la réflexion philosophique et la recherche historique. Les scientifiques eux-mêmes ne sont pas toujours sensibles au lien que leur travail entretient avec la philosophie et avec l'histoire des sciences, bien qu'il concerne des significations et soit en situation d'état provisoire, entre une connaissance passée et des développements ou des interprétations futures. Cependant, les leçons de la (...) découverte et du travail scientifique, telles que ceux-ci se révèlent à travers la formulation par Einstein de la théorie de la relativité restreinte, cas étudié ici à titre d'exemple, montrent les rapports réciproques et nécessaires entre ces diverses dimensions de ce qu'on appelle la science. Cette mise en relation permet d'aborder d'une manière renouvelée certains problèmes ou certaines apories traditionnelles de la pensée de la connaissance scientifique. (shrink)

We give a general method for producing various effective Null and Positivstellensätze, and getting new Positivstellensätze in algebraically closed valued fields and ordered groups. These various effective Nullstellensätze produce algebraic identities certifying that some geometric conditions cannot be simultaneously satisfied. We produce also constructive versions of abstract classical results of algebra based on Zorn's lemma in several cases where such constructive version did not exist. For example, the fact that a real field can be totally ordered, or the fact that (...) a field can be embedded in an algebraically closed field. Our results are based on the concepts we develop of dynamical proofs and simultaneous collapse. (shrink)

The focus of this article is a question that has been neglected in debates about digitalization: Could machines replace human scientists? To provide an intelligible answer to it, we need to answer a further question: What is it that makes (or constitutes) a scientist? I offer an answer to this question by proposing a new demarcation criterion for science which I call “the discoverability criterion”. I proceed as follows: (1) I explain why the target question of this article is important, (...) and (2) show that it leads to a variant of the demarcation problem of science. (3) By arguing that it is probably an essential feature of science that we can make scientific discoveries, I suggest a novel way of dealing with this problem by proposing a new demarcation criterion. Before introducing it, (4) I analyze an exemplary case of a real scientific discovery, and (5) argue that scientific discovery processes have a general underlying structure. (6) I introduce my discoverability criterion for science and present my master argument that helps us understand which criteria have to be fulfilled in order to decide whether machines can replace human scientists or not. (7) I conclude by answering the article’s target question and bringing forward a take-home message. (shrink)

Recently, for spinless non-relativistic particles, Norsen and Norsen et al. show that in the de Broglie–Bohm interpretation it is possible to replace the wave function in the configuration space by single-particle wave functions in physical space. In this paper, we show that this replacment of the wave function in the configuration space by single-particle functions in the 3D-space is also possible for particles with spin, in particular for the particles of the EPR-B experiment, the Bohm version of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment.

Among the distinguished contributors to the series are fellows of the Institute, past and present, Leonard E. Boyle, Jocelyn Hillgarth, Edouard Jeauneau, James K. McConica, M. Michèle Mulchahey, Joseph Owens, Walter H. Principe, James P. ...