Ways of Seeing is a unique collaboration between an eminent philosopher and a world famous neuroscientist. It focuses on one of the most basic human functions - vision. What does it mean to 'see'. It brings together electrophysiological studies, neuropsychology, psychophysics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy of mind. The first truly interdisciplinary book devoted to the topic of vision, it will make a valuable contribution to the field of cognitive science.

Carnap's ideal of explication has become a key concept in analytic philosophy and the basis of a method of analysis which may be considered as an alternative to various forms of naturalism, including Quine's conception of a naturalized epistemology. More recently, new light has been shed on this aspect of the classical Carnap-Quine debate by contemporary philosophers. Whereas Michael Friedman articulated a notion of relativized a priori which owes much to Carnap's internal/external distinction, André Carus attempted to restate Carnap's ideal (...) of explication in a way that bridges the gap between conceptual engineering and naturalism. On the other hand, Mark Wilson argued that concepts develop in unpredictable ways and cannot be planned in the way classical analytic philosophy has assumed from Frege and Russell onwards. This book consists of a series of defences as well as critiques of Carnap's programme, setting it in its historical context, discussing specific cases of explications, and enriching the on-going debate on conceptual engineering and naturalism in analytic philosophy.Carnap's ideal of explication has become a key concept in analytic philosophy and the basis of a method of analysis which may be considered as an alternative to various forms of naturalism, including Quine's conception of a naturalized epistemology. More recently, new light has been shed on this aspect of the classical Carnap-Quine debate by contemporary philosophers. Whereas Michael Friedman articulated a notion of relativized a priori which owes much to Carnap's internal/external distinction, André Carus attempted to restate Carnap's ideal of explication in a way that bridges the gap between conceptual engineering and naturalism. On the other hand, Mark Wilson argued that concepts develop in unpredictable ways and cannot be planned in the way classical analytic philosophy has assumed from Frege and Russell onwards. This book consists of a series of defences as well as critiques of Carnap's programme, setting it in its historical context, discussing specific cases of explications, and enriching the on-going debate on conceptual engineering and naturalism in analytic philosophy. (shrink)

La définition platonicienne du philosophe; la philosophie comme mode de vie; rupture et continuité, le Moyen Age et les temps modernes. [SDM].

Inside vocational training systems, like those implemented in health and social sector, overcoming the gap and tensions between the times and different places of the training are the periods of practical training in the field and institute training sequences calls for the establishment of cooperation between stakeholders: trainees, trainers and tutors. The latter, regarded as lighting built-reliance, takes different forms and uses different means (educational devices, booklets, portfolios, etc.). The study of some of them showed that they can be located (...) with reference to two poles having value paradigms: one referring to a technical vision of the training and practice of the profession ( and a «technician identity), the other in a clinical approach to training and a «clinician identity» of the professions. (shrink)

Le texte de la leçon inaugurale prononcée au Collège de France, le 23 avril 1982.

"This volume assembles twelve texts published between 1892 and 1915.... The editors allow one to see the genesis of the ideas of Duhem, philosopher and historian, of the variety of his styles, and sometimes also the limits of his work.... A useful index, probably unique in the field of Duhemian studies, completes the book.... The English-language public may be assured an exemplary translation and a reliable critical apparatus." --Jean Gayon, _Revue d'Histoire des Sciences_.

The main objective of this article is to capitalise on many years of research, and of practice, relating to the use of introspection in a research context, and thus to provide an initial outline description of introspection, while developing an introspection of introspection. After a description of the context of this research, I define the institutional conditions which would enable the renewal of introspection as a research methodology. Then I describe three aspects of introspective practice: 1) introspection as a process (...) of becoming aware, theorized through Husserl's model of consciousness modes; 2) introspection as recollection, through the model of retention and awakening in Husserl's theory of memory; 3) the use of universal descriptive categories for the description of all lived experiences, as a guide for skilled practice of introspection in research. Finally I examine the question of the validation of introspective data, suggesting a strong distinction between the ethical criterion and the epistemic criterion of truth. (shrink)

Nothing has yet been done, and, here, in the middle of the twentieth century, it is fast becoming too late to draw up a suitable catalogue of the works of human wisdom. We are forced to project for the future the complete realization of our desires. This future will no doubt discover a conscious and effective organization of thought and action—a constant good fortune in the pursuit of legitimate satisfactions through a total mastery of natural forces—in a word, a perfect (...) and reciprocal adaptation between man and that part of the universe in which he lives. All this, or most of it, still remains to be done; but much has already been said in the five thousand years that men have been writing. An intelligent observer arriving from Sirius would doubtless be especially struck by the extraordinary gap separating here on earth what is so well said from what is so badly carried out. Or rather he would wonder how it is that beings as highly gifted as men, judging from the knowledge and wisdom they have accumulated, still make such ineffective and even harmful use of the means at their disposal. The most indulgent hypothesis would be to see in this the result of a temporary misunderstanding owing to the great speed with which human thought evolves. Our observer would resume his journey then, resolved to return after a hundred years or two, sure that he would then find that man had bridged the gap and become as great in what he does as in what he knows. (shrink)

This paper has two parts. In the first one, we prove that an invariant dp-minimal type is either finitely satisfiable or definable. We also prove that a definable version of the -theorem holds in dp-minimal theories of small or medium directionality.In the second part, we study dp-rank in dp-minimal theories and show that it enjoys many nice properties. It is continuous, definable in families and it can be characterised geometrically with no mention of indiscernible sequences. In particular, if the structure (...) expands a divisible ordered abelian group, then dp-rank coincides with the dimension coming from the order. (shrink)

Un spectre hante l’Europe classique, l’antitrinitarisme – et sa variante la plus connue : le socinianisme. L’histoire commence par un double itinéraire européen, de l’Italie catholique et intolérante à la Suisse protestante et non moins intolérante, puis à la Pologne qui représente alors un havre de la liberté de conscience. Lelio Sozzini (1525-1562) s’était enfui de Sienne à Zurich en 1548, mais, traité d’hérétique par Calvin, il avait dû fuir de nouveau en Pologne. Dix ans plus tard, son ne..

Pour comprendre la correspondance de Spinoza, il faut s’appuyer sur les règles généralement en usage au XVIIe siècle, ainsi que sur les caractères spécifiques de l’écriture spinozienne : ses lettres sont toujours des réponses, elles s’adaptent à des questions extérieures et, loin d’être autonomes, elles renvoient à l’ensemble du système.

Georg Misch, auteur d'une monumentale histoire de l'autobiographie, met en oeuvre les principes de Dilthey: le récit de la vie est aussi vieux que l'histoire, mais il se modifie selon les époques, et les détenninations qu'il reçoit à la Renaissance et à I' Âge classique l'orientent vers la description des lois de développement de l'individu.

The article is an instructive exposition of the central problem of scholastic metaphysics, namely: the problem of analogia entis. The author sees the origin of this idea in a historical development, which began with late neoplatonism, continued with Arabic philosophy and ended with medieval authors, especially S. Thomas Aquinas.

As stressed by Perruchet & Vinter, the SOC model echoes Johnson-Laird's mental model theory. Indeed, the latter rejects rule-based processing and assumes that reasoning is achieved through the manipulation of conscious representations. However, the mental model theory as well as its modified versions resorts to the abstraction of complex schemas and some form of implicit logic that seems incompatible with the SOC approach.

v. 1. Raison et conscience de soi.--v. 2. Raison et histoire.

Cet article commence par examiner trois justifications épistémiques de la démocratie, proposées par José Luis Martí, David Estlund et Hélène Landemore. Tous trois cherchent à montrer en quoi la démocratie possède une tendance à engendrer des décisions correctes, mais font face au risque de légitimer une organisation technocratique du politique, en contradiction avec le principe d’égalité politique. Ils estiment donc que l’argument épistémique ne peut pas suffire à justifier des institutions démocratiques. Cependant, si l’on comprend la valeur «épistémique» d’une décision (...) politique à la fois d’un point de vue factuel et normatif, c’est-à-dire qu’on considère à la fois sa rationalité et son impartialité, une justification épistémique de la démocratie beaucoup plus robuste émerge. C’est cette dernière qui est explorée et défendue dans la seconde partie de cet article. (shrink)

Analyse historique et sociologique de la connaissance scientifique.

À Harvard durant l’année académique 1940-41, les philosophes-mathématiciens Quine, Tarski et Carnap débattaient de la possibilité d’établir une distinction entre les énoncés analytiques et synthétiques qui soit suffisamment mordante pour dégager un statut spécial à l’épistémologie. Quine et Tarski s’objectaient à la distinction et l’objection de Quine verra notamment le jour sous le titre fameux « Les deux dogmes de l’empirisme ». Carnap, dans son autobiographie intellectuelle, se souvient avoir alors craint : « are we now back to John Stuart (...) Mill? ». Carnap avait compris qu’une épistémologie antipsychologiste comme celle du Cercle de Vienne ne peut subsister sans la présence d’une distinction de principe entre des énoncés analytiques et synthétiques. Il avait compris qu’un rejet de la distinction signifiait, à court ou moyen terme, un retour à l’épistémologie comme « psychologie de la science » telle que la pratiquait Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill et Ernst Mach. (shrink)

Ce livre a pour objet d’évaluer l’apport de la physique quantique à l’explication du phénomène de la conscience. Après un état des lieux d’ordre sémantique, philosophique et neurobiologique de la question de la relation entre cerveau et conscience, les principaux modèles « classiques » actuels de la conscience sont exposés. Nous montrons que ces modèles laissent en suspens deux questions importantes : a) celle d’expliquer la synchronisation quasi-instantanée de régions éloignées du cerveau qui semble nécessaire à la constitution de percepts (...) conscients; b) celle du fossé explicatif qui existe entre l’expérience subjective, relevant de ce que le sujet est capable de ressentir de façon privée, et la description de ses corrélats neurophysiologiques dans le langage de la science, à la troisième personne – comment ces derniers « donnent-ils lieu » à l’expérience subjective?Les approches quantiques de la conscience plus récentes sont alors exposées de façon détaillée. Nous examinons dans quelle mesure elles peuvent contribuer à répondre à ces questions et proposer une représentation unificatrice intégrant les deux aspects psychique et physiologique du phénomène de conscience. (shrink)

The Silk Road that crosses Mongolia is unique in that it is the most northerly of all, skirting Siberia. Some authors call it the Altai Road, because it crosses the immense Altai mountain range which begins in western Mongolia and whose peaks, snow-covered and icy year round, rise more than five thousand meters above sea level. The official name of this fourth expedition of the Silk Roads project, which took place between 10 July and 5 August 1992, was "The Nomads' (...) Road." The account given below, although expressing only my personal expe rience, reflects, I believe, an experience shared by many of my colleagues. (shrink)

Cet article propose une interprétation de la métaphysique de Jankélévitch telle qu’elle se présente dans Philosophie première (1953). L’élaboration d’une déontologie métaphysique conduit Jankélévitch, par-delà le destin onto-théologique des métaphysiques classiques, à déployer une théologie « désontologisée », c’est-à-dire un discours sur Dieu dépouillé de l’être et de l’existence. Une telle détermination théologique de la métaphysique met alors nécessairement le métaphysicien à l’épreuve de l’expression de ce qui n’existe pas et qui pourtant fait exister. Ce que nous comprenons ainsi comme (...) un échec du discours métaphysique sur son objet théologique, dans l’ordre de la métaphysique, possède toutefois une fonction dans l’œuvre de Jankélévitch : fournir son modèle à l’action morale humaine. Dans un double mouvement, cette lecture achemine donc la métaphysique vers la théologie, avant de redéployer la morale depuis cette théologie. (shrink)