L'échec des printemps arabes et l'instauration d'un nouveau Califat de la terreur en Syrie et en Irak nous contraignent à repenser la place du religieux dans le monde contemporain. Rivés sur les questions sécuritaires, nous manquons encore néanmoins d'outils philosophiques pour comprendre la montée d'un nouveau totalitarisme millénariste et apocalyptique. Le présent ouvrage s'appuie sur les travaux d'Eric Voegelin (1901-1985), un philosophe américain d'origine allemande encore trop peu connu en France et dont toute l'oeuvre vise à mettre en lumière les (...) racines religieuses des totalitarismes qui ont ensanglanté le 20e siècle. Voegelin et l'Orient propose une relecture iconoclaste de ses écrits, souvent à rebours de la réception néoconservatrice dont ils ont fait l'objet outre-Atlantique. Renaud Fabbri nous fournit ainsi des clefs pour mieux comprendre les origines idéologiques de l'islamisme radical mais aussi du nationalisme hindou. Il montre aussi qu'une redécouverte des grandes traditions de la philosophie mystique peut nous aider à conjurer le spectre des "religions politiques" qui menacent aujourd'hui aussi bien les non-croyants que les croyants de toutes les confessions. (shrink)

V. Fabbri, Danse et philosophie. Une pensée en construction, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2007, 244 p. « La construction ne relève pas nécessairement de l'architecture : elle n'est pas architectonique mais rhapsodique, procédant par ajustement et montage de matériaux. » « En tant qu'elles construisent des formes d'expériences, les pratiques artistiques sont toutes traversées par une pratique du langage, y compris et surtout la danse. Ce qui est à construire en relation au langage lui reste au moins (...) - En librairie.

We present the theory of Dirac spinors in the formulation given by Bohm on the idea of de Broglie: the quantum relativistic matter field is equivalently re-written as a special type of classical fluid and in this formulation it is shown how a relativistic environment can host the non-local aspects of the above-mentioned hidden-variables theory. Sketches for extensions are given at last.

This article presents a dialogue between Roland Barthes and Paolo Fabbri, which took place on 18 December 1965 in Florence, Italy. Barthes offers an engaging account of his structuralist approach to narrative, as was later published in essay form, ‘Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative’, included in a special issue of Communications (Issue 8, 1966). In a cordial exchange with Fabbri, Barthes provides a more candid presentation of method than found in print, along with critical reflection of (...) the underlying importance of the structuralist approach, as perceived at the time. The interview took place as part of a small conference on narrativity. Participants included Algirdas Julien Greimas, Claude Bremond, Umberto Eco, Jules Gritti, Violette Morin, Christian Metz, and Tzvetan Todorov. Subsequently, a number of these participants contributed articles to the same issue of Communications, on the structural analysis of narrative. (shrink)

Interview with Renaud Barbaras, conducted on May 18, 2011.

The spatial-temporal association indicates that time is represented spatially along a left-to-right line. It is unclear whether the spatial-temporal association is mainly related to a perceptual or a motor component. In addition, the spatial-temporal association is not consistently found using a time reproduction task. Our rationale for this finding is that, classically, a non-lateralized button for performing the task has been used. Using two lateralized response buttons, the aim of the study was to find a spatial-temporal association in a time (...) reproduction task. To account for the perceptual component, reference and target stimuli were presented in different spaces through four experiments. In all experiments, a Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect was found and this effect was not modulated by the spatial position of both reference and target stimuli. The results suggested that the spatial-temporal association was mainly derived from the spatial information provided by response buttons, reflecting a motor but not visuospatial influence. (shrink)

We consider quantum mechanics written in hydrodynamic formulation for the case of relativistic spinor fields to study their velocity: within such a hydrodynamic formulation it is possible to see that the velocity as is usually defined can not actually represent the tangent vector to the trajectories of particles. We propose an alternative definition for this tangent vector and hence for the trajectories of particles, which we believe to be new and the only one possible. We discuss how these results are (...) a necessary step to take in order to face further problems, like the definition of trajectories for multi-particle systems or ensembles, as they happen to be useful in many applications and interpretations of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

This paper aims at thoroughly analyzing the relation between Thucydides’s political realism and Hobbes’s one, first of all by examining the Hobbesian translation of The Peloponnesian War, then by stressing the peculiarities of the political theory of the English philosopher. Compared to Thucydides, Hobbes presents a more complex, problematic – and truly more useful to define a theory of modernity – version of political realism, which considers not only power and security, but also ideological elements in order to understand human (...) conflicts. (shrink)

Le moment le plus remarquable dans l'œuvre de Goodman, Langages de l'art, c'est sans doute sa théorie de la notation ; c'est aussi une théorie de l'œuvre, une approche critique de l'ontologie – la construction de ce que j'appellerai une ontologie du singulier. La danse joue un rôle décisif dans l'élaboration de ces deux aspects de la pensée de Goodman : « La possibilité d'une notation pour la danse a été l'une des questions initiales qui m'ont conduit à étudier les (...) systèmes notationnels. » Si cette question (...) - Danse, théâtre et spectacle vivant – GALERIE. (shrink)

L’articolo si propone di indagare le implicazioni ecologiche di due differenti tendenze sistemiche: La General Systems Theory di Ludwig von Bertalanffy, che fa da cornice alla Systems Ecology di Eugene Odum; La Second-Order Cybernetics elaborata da Heinz von Foerster, Humberto Maturana e Niklas Luhmann, che costituisce la matrice di un nuovo paradigma ecologico denominato General Ecology. Nell’articolo verranno comparate la GST e la SOC in relazione ai loro differenti modi di intendere il sistema e la sua genesi; il ruolo dell’osservatore (...) nella definizione dei confini di un sistema; e la relazione tra sistema e ambiente. Verrà mostrato come la SOC, mettendo in causa il principio del controllo gerarchico della GST, conduce alla nozione di differenze ecologiche, con la quale si indica una pluralità di diadi sistema-ambiente, problematizzando così la nozione di ambiente come riferimento fisico e oggettivo. (shrink)

E' un'antologia di scritti ideati in un contesto di complessità, non solo teorica, ma anche veramente vissuta nella pratica della formazione e della ricerca, in cui i formatori, educatori, consulenti, persone d'azienda ritroveranno le loro esigenze e i loro riferimenti culturali e operativi.

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Heft: Ahead of print.

The expression “ecological threat” refers to a dynamic of double intrusion: the intrusion of geological history in human history (the intrusion of Gaia) and the intrusion of human history in geological history (the Anthropocene). This double intrusion is founded on a series of major partitions (culture/nature; society/environment) that do not allow for the possibility of communication between the terms of these dichotomies unless it is in the form of reciprocal violation. In the article, the ontology of the flesh is used (...) in order to think the intrusion in a different way compared to the great partitions. Within a chiasmatic logic, the terms of each dichotomy are understood as inseparable moments of the same flesh which institutes a difference – inside/outside – through an infinite movement of folding and torsion. By thinking this common element, Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh enters in dialogue with Amerindian mythocosmologies of the “first Anthropocene.” In these mythocosmologies, a humanity-flesh – understood as a transformative, pre-individual, and metastable potential – gives birth, through differentiation, to the multiple points of view that populate the cosmos. This dialogue allows us to think about the socialization of Gaia and to trace the contours of a general ecology understood as a thought that operates between – or beyond – major partitions. (shrink)

In the contemporary digital age, recommender systems (RSs) play a fundamental role in managing information on online platforms: from social media to e-commerce, from travels to cultural consumptions, automated recommendations influence the everyday choices of users at an unprecedented scale. RSs are trained on users’ data to make targeted suggestions to individuals according to their expected preference, but their ultimate impact concerns all the multiple stakeholders involved in the recommendation process. Therefore, whilst RSs are useful to reduce information overload, their (...) deployment comes with significant ethical challenges, which are still largely unaddressed because of proprietary constraints and regulatory gaps that limit the effects of standard approaches to explainability and transparency. In this context, I address the ethical and social implications of automated recommendations by proposing a pro-ethical design framework aimed at reorienting the influence of RSs towards societal interest. In particular, after highlighting the problem of explanation for RSs, I discuss the application of beneficent informational nudging to the case of conversational recommender systems (CRSs), which rely on user-system dialogic interactions. Subsequently, through a comparison with standard recommendations, I outline the incentives for platforms and providers in adopting this approach and its benefits for both individual users and society. (shrink)

The Being of the Phenomenon opens European post-structuralism to further study and is certain to inspire new thinking about the origins of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology.

In Introduction to a Phenomenology of Life, renowned French philosopher Renaud Barbaras aims to construct the basis for a phenomenology of life. Called an introduction because it has to deal with philosophical limits and presuppositions, it is much more, as Barbaras investigates life in its phenomenological senses, approached through the duality of its intransitive and transitive senses. Originally published in French (Introduction à une phénoménologie de la vie) Introduction to a Phenomenology of Life first defines the problem of life (...) phenomenologically, then studies the failures of the phenomenological movement to adequately think about life, and finally elaborates a new, original, and productive approach to the problem. He engages "object-oriented" philosophies with this approach and concludes that they are far more phenomenological than previously believed. Combining original interpretations and expert readings of philosophers such as Kant and Husserl and contemporary thinkers such as Bergson, Badiou, and Deleuze, Barbaras offers here a powerful and important contribution to phenomenology and continental thought. (shrink)

The 2003 SARS pandemic heralded the return of quarantine as a vital part of twenty-first century public health practice. Over the last two decades, MERS, Ebola, and other emerging infectious diseases each posed unique challenges for applying quarantine ethics lessons learned from the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 outbreak. In an increasingly interdependent and connected global world, the use of quarantine to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, similarly poses new and unexpected ethical challenges. In this essay, we look beyond standard debates (...) about the ethics of quarantine and state power to explore a key quarantine principle, Reciprocity, and how it is being negotiated by healthcare workers, volunteers, and citizens in the context of the Wuhan, China, quarantine. We analyze Reciprocity through the lens of two Wuhan case studies: healthcare workers, particularly nurses, who are simultaneously essential workers and quarantined citizens, asked by their hospital administration to shave their heads because adequate PPE was not available, and citizen-to-citizen mutual aid societies attempting to fill gaps in essential supplies left unfilled by the state. We analyze social media and video-blogs from Wuhan, on the platforms of Douyin and Sina Weibo, to understand how people define and respond to ethical and legal obligations in the wake of COVID-19. It is no surprise that quarantine principles from the 2003 SARS outbreak are inadequate for COVID-19 and that both infectious disease outbreak responses and ethics must adapt to the virtual age. We offer ideas to strengthen and clarify Reciprocal obligations for the state, hospital administrators, and citizens as the globe prepares for the next wave of COVID-19 circulating now. (shrink)

L'oeuvre de Merleau-Ponty est tout entiere commandee par le souci de mettre rigoureusement en oeuvre le mot d'ordre husserlien de retour aux choses memes, ce qui exige, conformement au geste amorce par Husserl dans la Krisis, de reconnaitre l'oeuvre de l'idealisation -c'est-a-dire de l'objectivation- la meme ou elle se fait oublier, afin de la neutraliser. A l'instar de Bergson, pour qui la tache de la philosophie etait d'aller chercher l'experience au-dessus du tournant ou, s'inflechissant dans le sens de l'utilite, elle (...) devient proprement l'experience humaine, pour Merleau-Ponty, la tache de la pensee est de se situer a ce tournant ou l'experience s'accomplit et se voile a la fois dans des productions ou elle se fait proprement humaine, de definir un sens de l'Etre anterieur a la bifurcation du preobjectif et de l'oeuvre idealisante. Le but des recherches est de tenter de clarifier la nature exacte du tournant de l'experience ainsi que le projet phenomenologique merleau-pontien. (shrink)

Cette introduction explique la perception, reconnue par Husserl sous le titre de "donation par esquisses". Il s'agit d'opérer une réduction radicale qui va de la critique du néant au monde comme a priori de tout apparaître. A ce monde correspond un sujet dont le sens d'être fait problème puisqu'il est à la fois un moment du monde et en rapport avec la totalité comme telle.

This paper delves into the work of Clive L. Spash, a British radical ecological economist well-known in his field who currently holds a professorship at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. We start with an examination of the principles of his “social ecological economics.” We then critically evaluate his attack on economic growth and his perspective on the standard economic models of climate change. Lastly, we explore his approach to science as a theoretical pursuit and his policy recommendations. The (...) first version of this paper was given as a keynote lecture at the 7th Austrian Economics Meeting Europe, May 12-13, 2023, Université Catholique de l’Ouest, Angers, France, and a second version at the Summer University in Political Economy, July 20-22, 2023, Aix-Marseille University, France. I wish to thank the organizers of these conferences, and also the anonymous referees whose remarks have been taken into account to improve the paper. (shrink)

In French, the verb "to live" designates both being alive and the experience of something. This ambiguity has a philosophical meaning. The task of a phenomenology of life is to describe an originary sense of living from which the very distinction between life in the intransitive sense and life in the transitive, or intentional, sense proceeds. Hans Jonas is one of those rare authors who has tried to give an account of the specificity of life instead of reducing life to (...) categories that are foreign to it. However, the concept of metabolism, by which Jonas characterizes vital activity, attests to a presupposition as to life: life is conceived as self-preservation, that is, as negation of death, in such a way that life is, in the end, not thought on the basis of itself. The aim of this article is to show that life as such must be understood as movement in a radicalized sense, in which the living being is no more the subject than the product. All living beings are in effect characterized by a movement, which nothing can cause to cease, a movement that largely exceeds what is required by the satisfaction of needs and that, because of this, bears witness to an essential incompleteness. This incompleteness reveals that life is originarily bound to a world. Because the world to which the living being relates is essentially non-totalizable and unpresentable, living movement can not essentially complete itself. Thus, in the final analysis, life must be defined as desire, and in virtue of this view, life does not tend toward self-preservation, as we have almost always thought, but toward the manifestation of the world. (shrink)