Etablie sur les dernieres editions revues par Malebranche, la presente edition des Conversations chretiennes et des Meditations sur l'humilite et la penitence reunit, selon les intentions de l'auteur, les textes disjoints par les editeurs modernes. Nous tenons compte d'une edition des petites meditations de 1701 jusqu'ici perdue. Par leur date de publication et par les enrichissements qu'ils apportent a la Recherche de la verite ces textes annoncent les Eclaircissements de 1678 et les oeuvres de la maturite. L'orthographe et la ponctuation (...) sont modernisees, et les citations retraduites. (shrink)

Je crois devoir avertir que ceux qui savent bien les principes que j'ai prouves dans la Recherche de la verite et ailleurs, n'ont pas besoin de lire les additions qui suivent, ni meme les eclaircessements qui sont a la fin de ce traite, dans lesquels on peut fort bien entendre ma pensee. Mais ils seront peut-etre utiles a ceux que je n'avais pas en vue, lorsque j'ecrivais le traite De la nature et de la Grace, et que je souhaiterais extremement (...) de pouvoir contenter aussi bien que les autres. Dans ces oeuvres completes de Malebranche, nous presentons le texte de la meilleure edition designee par Malebranche. (shrink)

Ouvrage majeur de la philosophie de Malebranche, De la recherche de la verite constitue un moment cle dans la reflexion philosophique a l'age classique. Si son inspiration est cartesienne, Malebranche y soutient d'emblee une theorie originale de la connaissance, de la verite et de la causalite: notamment la these de la vision en Dieu des idees et l'analyse des causes de l'erreur. Plus qu'une theorie de la connaissance, c'est donc une theorie complete de l'esprit humain et de ses multiples fonctions (...) que nous livre l'ouvrage. Cette nouvelle edition de la Recherche de la verite donne a lire pour la premiere fois dans un format accessible a tous, un texte majeur de la pensee moderne, heritier de l'age classique et annonciateur des Lumieres: les textes sont etablis a partir des deux dernieres editions de 1700 et 1712 revues par Malebranche lui-meme, et des trois premiers volumes des oeuvres Completes publiees sous la direction d'Andre Robinet; l'orthographe a ete modernisee. La ponctuation a fait l'objet d'une revision systematique; les textes cites en langue etrangere ont ete traduits ou retraduits, et leurs references mises a jour afin de tenir compte des editions les plus recentes. Enfin, le lecteur trouvera, dans ce premier volume, une presentation eclairante de cette oeuvre par Jean-Christophe Bardout, offrant ainsi des grilles de lecture et de comprehension de cet ouvrage majeur du XVIIe siecle, qui n'avait jusqu'alors fait l'objet d'aucune etude specifique. (shrink)

Eines der zentralen Anliegen des "Wiener Kreises" ist heute aktueller denn je. Es bestand darin sichtbar zu machen, wie ganz unterschiedliche, weit auseinanderliegende Bereiche wissenschaftlicher Theoriebildung miteinander in Zusammenhang gebracht werden können. Genannt sei hier Otto Neurath, als Motor der ganzen Sache. Die "Encyclopedia of United Science" sollte eine Vorstellung davon vermitteln, wie moderne Wissenschaften ihre Erkenntnisansprüche formulieren und überprüfen. Sie knüpfte ausdrücklich an die Enzyklopädisten der französischen Aufklärung an. Die in diesem Band zusammengefassten Beiträge durchleuchten das Aufklärungskonzept, das der (...) Enzyklopädie der Logischen Empiristen zugrunde liegt. (shrink)

Nicht nur den Umsturz des Geozentrismus, der zur Niederlage der theologischen Astronomie geführt hat, sondern auch, als dessen metaphorisches Korrelat, die Erosion des ewig bestehenden Kosmos: Dies bedeutet für Hans Blumenberg die kopernikanische Wende, die den Weg zur Neuzeit bahnt. Am Leitfaden der damit verknüpften Himmels- und Sternmetaphorik erschliesst Nicola Zambon den Horizont der Philosophie Blumenbergs: An Konstellationen astronomischer und theologischer, ästhetischer und philosophischer Motive wird eine bewusstseinsgeschichtliche Perspektivierung herausgearbeitet, die im Blick auf Kant, Husserl und Heidegger in der Darstellung (...) und Interpretation von Blumenbergs Phänomenologie gipfelt. Dabei figuriert der gestirnte Himmel nicht mehr die Erscheinung des Ganzen, das Eidos einer fertigen Welt: Der stetige Wandel der kontingenten, der Zeitlichkeit unterstellten Ordnung findet im 'Nachleuchten der Sterne' sein Sinnbild. (shrink)

Die Autorinnen und Autoren dieses Bandes analysieren in kritischer Weise die Breite und Tiefe des Diskurses zu Neuro-Enhancement, der sich aber nicht nur durch ethische Fragen auszeichnet. Sie zeigen, dass es darüber hinaus grundlegende philosophische, anthropologische und gesellschaftstheoretische Aspekte sind, die im Steigerungsbedürfnis spätmoderner Leistungsgesellschaften zu Tage treten. So scheint eine neue Wunschwelt vor der Tür zu stehen: Doping fürs Gehirn! Der rasante Fortschritt der Neurowissenschaften hat das menschliche Gehirn erreicht. Die Möglichkeiten der Leistungssteigerung könnten bald auch das „Innerste“ des (...) Menschen essentiell betreffen: sein Denken und Fühlen, Entscheiden und Handeln. Die Herausgeber Prof. Dr. Nicola Erny ist Professorin für Philosophie an der Hochschule Darmstadt. Dr. Matthias Herrgen lehrte am Philosophischen Seminar der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. Prof. Dr. Jan Cornelius Schmidt unterrichtet Philosophie, Ethik und Technikfolgenabschätzung an der Hochschule Darmstadt. (shrink)

Jacques Derridas Verständnis von Freundschaft wird, so zeigt Nicola Tams, nicht nur in seinen veröffentlichten Texten, sondern vor allem in seinen Briefen deutlich. Ihre Studie untersucht eine Auswahl des Briefverkehrs Derridas (etwa mit Blanchot, Nancy, Bauchau, Ukai und Granel), verwebt die Ergebnisse mit Derridas Theorien der Freundschaft und zeigt, dass die vornehmlich in Briefen entwickelten Gedanken traditionellen Konzepten der Freundschaft in der Philosophiegeschichte nicht so fern sind.

In this book, Nicolas Laos studies the meaning of the terms "world" and "order," the moral dimensions of each world order model, and wider issues of meaning and interpretation generated by humanity's attempt to live in a meaningful world and to find the logos of the beings and things in the world. The aim of this book is to propose a unified theory of world order (i.e., a theory that combines philosophy, theology, and political theory). In this context, the author (...) provides a thought-provoking (re)interpretation of classical philosophy (placing particular emphasis on Platonism), an in-depth inquiry into medieval philosophy and spirituality (placing particular emphasis on the cultural differences between the Greek East and the Latino-Frankish West), and an intellectually challenging review and evaluation of modern Western philosophy (including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Husserl, and Heidegger) and of Nietzsche's and the postmodernists' revolt against modernity. He then elucidates the philosophical foundations and "pedigree" of each of the three basic political theories of modernity (i.e., Liberalism, Communism, and Fascism), and he studies the basic theoretical debates in International Relations, Geopolitics, and Noopolitics. Finally, Laos proposes a new, "fourth," political theory which he calls "metaphysical republicanism.". (shrink)

Nicolas Asselin,Stéphanie Audet,Eric Crégheur,Julio Cesar Dias Chaves,Gavin McDowell,Charles-Frédéric Murray,Louis Painchaud,Paul-Hubert Poirier,Maryse Robert,Philippe Therrien.

For Nicolas Auray, works relationships in an information society would recover, an illusion, pleasure would obliterate an exploitation of resources. So informatics which creates a mutant humanity ends, actually, to a pastoral govermentality. As far as he thinks hacker’s ethics by analogy with the University, Pekka Himanen does not propose any perspective of transformation. The understanding of the freedom of hackers, is a vision which protect their sovereign power with regard to the users, but which not allows them to play (...) role, in moral regulation of the city, for which Nicolas Auray waits. (shrink)

Third World Citizens and the Information Technology Revolution Content Type Journal Article Category Review Pages 515-522 DOI 10.1558/jcr.v11i4.515 Authors Nicolas Adam, Centre d’études sur l’intégration et la mondialisation, Université du Québec à Montréal, 400, rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Pavillon Hubert-Aquin, 1er étage, bureau A-1560, Montréal H2L 2C5 Canada Journal Journal of Critical Realism Online ISSN 1572-5138 Print ISSN 1476-7430 Journal Volume Volume 11 Journal Issue Volume 11, Number 4 / 2012.

Nicola Lacey presents a new approach to the question of the moral justification of punishment by the State. She focuses on the theory of punishments in context of other political questions, such as the nature of political obligation and the function and scope of criminal law. Arguing that no convincing set of justifying reasons has so far been produced, she puts forward a theory of punishments which places the values of the community at its centre.

In order to describe the logic of morality, "contractualist" philosophers have studied how individuals behave when they choose to follow their moral intuitions. These individuals, contractualists note, often act as if they have bargained and thus reached an agreement with others about how to distribute the benefits and burdens of mutual cooperation. Using this observation, such philosophers argue that the purpose of morality is to maximize the benefits of human interaction. The resulting "contract" analogy is both insightful and puzzling. On (...) one hand, it captures the pattern of moral intuitions, thus answering questions about human cooperation: why do humans cooperate? Why should the distribution of benefits be proportionate to each person's contribution? Why should the punishment be proportionate to the crime? Why should the rights be proportionate to the duties? On the other hand, the analogy provides a mere as-if explanation for human cooperation, saying that cooperation is "as if" people have passed a contract-but since they didn't, why should it be so? To evolutionary thinkers, the puzzle of the missing contract is immediately reminiscent of the puzzle of the missing "designer" of life-forms, a puzzle that Darwin's theory of natural selection essentially resolved. Evolutionary and contractualist theory originally intersected at the work of philosophers John Rawls and David Gauthier, who argued that moral judgments are based on a sense of fairness that has been naturally selected. In this book, Nicolas Baumard further explores the theory that morality was originally an adaptation to the biological market of cooperation, an arena in which individuals competed to be selected for cooperative interactions. In this environment, Baumard suggests, the best strategy was to treat others with impartiality and to share the costs and benefits of cooperation in a fair way, so that those who offered less than others were left out of cooperation while those who offered more were exploited by their partners. It is with this evolutionary approach that Baumard ultimately accounts for the specific structure of human morality. (shrink)

Many natural languages include plural terms, i.e., terms which denote many individuals at once. Are there also superplural terms, i.e., terms which denote many pluralities of individuals at once? Some philosophers say ‘Yes’, citing a range of sentence-types which apparently can’t be analyzed in a first-order plural logic, but which can be analyzed in a superplural one. We argue that all the data presented in favor of the superplural can, in fact, be analyzed using only first-order resources. The key is (...) to add to ordinary plural logic a new notion of a generalized cover. A generalized cover reflects how interlocutors in a conversation may divide a salient plurality into many subpluralities, which can then be involved in reference and predication. With generalized covers in place, all the apparently troublesome sentences can be easily handled. Our approach can also be extended to account, not only for linguistic data which seem to favor the superplural, but also for other phenomena involving plurals. The result is a unified approach to natural language plurals on which superplurals are analyzed away. (shrink)

It is usual to identify initial conditions of classical dynamical systems with mathematical real numbers. However, almost all real numbers contain an infinite amount of information. I argue that a finite volume of space can’t contain more than a finite amount of information, hence that the mathematical real numbers are not physically relevant. Moreover, a better terminology for the so-called real numbers is “random numbers”, as their series of bits are truly random. I propose an alternative classical mechanics, which is (...) empirically equivalent to classical mechanics, but uses only finite-information numbers. This alternative classical mechanics is non-deterministic, despite the use of deterministic equations, in a way similar to quantum theory. Interestingly, both alternative classical mechanics and quantum theories can be supplemented by additional variables in such a way that the supplemented theory is deterministic. Most physicists straightforwardly supplement classical theory with real numbers to which they attribute physical existence, while most physicists reject Bohmian mechanics as supplemented quantum theory, arguing that Bohmian positions have no physical reality. (shrink)

Most physics theories are deterministic, with the notable exception of quantum mechanics which, however, comes plagued by the so-called measurement problem. This state of affairs might well be due to the inability of standard mathematics to “speak” of indeterminism, its inability to present us a worldview in which new information is created as time passes. In such a case, scientific determinism would only be an illusion due to the timeless mathematical language scientists use. To investigate this possibility it is necessary (...) to develop an alternative mathematical language that is both powerful enough to allow scientists to compute predictions and compatible with indeterminism and the passage of time. We suggest that intuitionistic mathematics provides such a language and we illustrate it in simple terms. (shrink)

This work proposes a philosophical analysis of the ideal of authenticity, first by presenting and discussing the works of Charles Taylor and Charles Larmore, then by developing some more personal analysis of conformism and what the author calls experiences of authenticity.

De réchauffement climatique en scandale sanitaire et d’OGM en catastrophe nucléaire, la science et la technique sont devenues des questions pleinement politiques, tandis que la « technoscience » vient interroger les concepts moraux les mieux ancrés. Pourtant, ce qui devrait susciter un intérêt soutenu ne génère souvent que la résignation de « n’y rien comprendre » - ce qui laisse le champ libre aux lobbies de la technologie et aux bluffs scientifiques les plus éhontés. Qu’y puis-je, direz-vous, si la science (...) m’a toujours été présentée comme rébarbative et « chiantifique », et si la parole des experts, même de mauvaise foi, couvre la mienne quand je tente de m’exprimer à ce sujet? Et puis, cela me concerne-t-il vraiment? Un seul remède : se plonger dans ce dictionnaire, qui vise moins à « faire passer » de l’information qu’à donner les outils nécessaires pour dégonfler les prétentions excessives de la technoscience. De « abeille » à « zz » en passant par « sérendipité » et « post-humanisme », c’est tout le domaine de la science et de la technologie qui se révèle non seulement comme digne d’être exploré mais aussi comme susceptible d’être squatté efficacement : les théories les plus décoiffantes, les idées les moins convenues et les personnages les plus inattendus font de ce domaine un incomparable tremplin pour l’imagination, et incitent à pénétrer sans crainte dans ce que tant d’autres aimeraient continuer à considérer comme une chasse gardée. (shrink)

We are facing uncertainties regarding climate change and its impacts. To conceptualize and communicate these uncertainties to policy makers, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has introduced an uncertainty framework. In this paper, I assess the latest, most developed, version of this framework. First, I provide an interpretation of this framework, which draws from supporting documents and the practice of its users. Second, I argue that even a charitable interpretation exhibits three substantial conceptual problems. These problems point towards untenable (...) assumptions regarding evidence aggregation in the context of climate scientific findings. Third, I put forward a tentative roadmap for improving the uncertainty framework. (shrink)

Utilizing a critical approach, this article aims to interpret two of the most important concepts of Husserl’s late work: crisis (Krisis) and original foundation (Urstiftung). Special attention is paid to the metaphorological background as well to the unintended implications of Husserl’s use of both concepts.

This paper offers a framework for consciousness of internal reality. Recent PET experiments are reviewed, showing partial overlap of cortical activation during self-produced actions and actions observed from other people. This overlap suggests that representations for actions may be shared by several individuals, a situation which creates a potential problem for correctly attributing an action to its agent. The neural conditions for correct agency judgments are thus assigned a key role in self/other distinction and self-consciousness. A series of behavioral experiments (...) that demonstrate, in normal subjects, the poor monitoring of action-related signals and the difficulty in recognizing self-produced actions are described. In patients presenting delusions, this difficulty dramatically increases and actions become systematically misattributed. These results point to schizophrenia and related disorders as a paradigmatic alteration of a ''Who?'' system for self-consciousness. (shrink)

This book is the first extensive treatment of Husserl's phenomenology of time-consciousness. Nicolas de Warren uses detailed analysis of texts by Husserl, some only recently published in German, to examine Husserl's treatment of time-consciousness and its significance for his conception of subjectivity. He traces the development of Husserl's thinking on the problem of time from Franz Brentano's descriptive psychology, and situates it in the framework of his transcendental project as a whole. Particular discussions include the significance of time-consciousness for other (...) phenomenological themes: perceptual experience, the imagination, remembrance, self-consciousness, embodiment, and the consciousness of others. The result is an illuminating exploration of how and why Husserl considered the question of time-consciousness to be the most difficult, yet also the most central, of all the challenges facing his unique philosophical enterprise"--Provided by publisher. (shrink)