The coming of bioethics -- The coming of bioethicists -- "Choices on our conscience": the inauguration of the Kennedy Institute of Education -- "Hello, Dolly": bioethics in the media -- Celebrating bioethics and bioethicists -- Thinking socially and culturally in bioethics -- Reminiscences of observing participants -- Bioethics circles the globe -- Bioethics in France -- The development of bioethics in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- The coming of the culture wars to American bioethics.

In this commentary we argue that evolution of the human brain to host the language system was accomplished by the selective development of frontal and temporal areas in the left hemisphere. The unilateral development of Broca's and Wernicke's areas could have resulted from one or more transcription factors that have an expression pattern restricted to the left hemisphere.

En son principe, la raison semble etre exigence de fondement: etre rationnel, c'est expliquer les evenements en leur trouvant des causes, justifier ses affirmations en les demontrant a partir d'autres affirmations, organiser son action en la soumettant a un plan ou a un principe.[...] Il y a des lors, et c'est l'idee essentielle de Popper, une forme de pensee rationnelle, c'est-a-dire non arbitraire: c'est la pensee critique. Le principe de celle-ci, c'est de mettre a l'epreuve toutes les idees que l'on (...) emet: en partant du principe qu'elles ne peuvent acquerir de valeur qu'apres une telle mise a l'epreuve.[...] Popper ne cherche pas l'originalite mais la verite, et les theses qu'il avance n'ont pas de sens pour elles memes, mais par l'argumentation qui les soutient contre d'autres theses, parfois plus originales et seduisantes, mais a la fois non rigoureuses et pleines de prejuges dangereux pour la science comme pour la morale. (shrink)

L'Homme, cet être vivant doué de raison, fabricant d'objets élaborés, doté d'un langage articulé, chez lequel a émergé la pensée conceptuelle et symbolique, se caractérise par une aptitude à l'émerveillement, et une capacité d'espérance accompagnée d'un refus de l'absurde. Avec l'invention de l'outil manufacturé et les premiers témoignages d'une pensée symbolique, comment la fabuleuse aventure culturelle et spirituelle de l'Homme a-t-elle débuté? Pourquoi à travers les temps, même les plus anciens, et dans toutes les cultures, l'émergence du sens de la (...) transcendance n'a-t-il cessé de se manifester et de s'inscrire au coeur de notre humanité? Comment est-il devenu une caractéristique de l'Homme, une de ses aspirations profondes? Comment définir le sens du sacré? C'est de cette dimension intrinsèquement humaine, et des traces qu'elle a laissées, qu'il est ici question. Après L'Univers, la Vie et l'Homme : émergence du sens de la Conscience et Le Beau, l'Art et l'Homme : émergence du sens de l'Esthétique, voici le troisième et dernier opus dirigé par Henry de Lumley, issu d'un cycle de conférences au Collège des Bernardins. L'ambition de ces rencontres? Faire dialoguer physiciens, astrophysiciens, géologues, biologistes, paléoanthropologues, préhistoriens, historiens de l'art, philosophes et théologiens autour de questions qui ont trait à l'essence de l'humanité. (shrink)

"En fabriquant des outils, en accédant au langage articulé, en s'affranchissant progressivement des contraintes de la sélection naturelle, l'homme a donné toute liberté à son imagination, à ses rêves et à ses émotions. Peu à peu, la conscience du beau s'est imposée à lui, avec l'acquisition de la notion de symétrie, l'émergence du sens de l'harmonie, puis l'apparition de la parure, de l'art mobilier, de l'art pariétal, et même de la musique... Le sens de la beauté est une des aspirations (...) les plus profondes de la nature humaine à la recherche de la transcendance. Mais quand, et comment, ce sentiment de la beauté émerge-t-il? Qu'elle est la signification du beau? Peut-il y avoir une beauté en mathématique? Quelles ont été les grandes étapes de l'évolution de l'art préhistorique? De l'art médiéval? Qu'est-ce que le " Beau idéal "? Peut-on avoir une émotion esthétique? Que signifie le beau dans l'art contemporain? C'est à ces questions essentielles que répondent Henry de Lumley et son équipe, composée d'historiens, de physiciens, de mathématiciens, d'artistes, de philosophes et de théologiens. Ce livre, tiré d'un cycle de conférence tenu au collège des Bernardins, est une grande synthèse qui bouscule les interprétations dominantes sur l'idée de la beauté." [Source : 4e de couv.]. (shrink)

Book reviewed in this article: The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon. By Thomas E. Starzl.

Advancements in early diagnosis and novel treatments for children with complex and chronic needs have improved their chances of survival. But many survive with complex medical needs and ongoing medical management in the setting of prognostic uncertainty. Their medical care relies more and more on preference-sensitive decisions, requiring medical team and family engagement in ethically challenging situations. Many families are unprepared as they face these ethical challenges and struggle to access relevant ethical resources. In this paper, Timmy’s narrative, situated in (...) the context of what is known about ethical challenges in the care of children with chronic critical illness (CCI), serves as a case study of the gap in available ethical resources to guide families in their approach to difficult decision making for children with significant medical complexity and CCI. Our author group, inclusive of parents of children with complex medical needs and medical professionals, identifies domains of ethical challenges facing families of children with CCI and we highlight the development of family/caregiver-oriented ethics resources as an essential expansion of pediatric bioethics. (shrink)

This book brings together scholars from a variety of epistemological perspectives to explore the multiple ways in which sexuality does indeed matter in the arena of public education.

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We present new observations of the low-mass companion to HD 984 taken with the Gemini Planet Imager as a part of the GPI Exoplanet Survey campaign. Images of HD 984 B were obtained in the J and H bands. Combined with archival epochs from 2012 and 2014, we fit the first orbit to the companion to find an 18 au orbit with a 68% confidence interval between 14 and 28 au, an eccentricity (...) of 0.18 with a 68% confidence interval between 0.05 and 0.47, and an inclination of 119°with a 68% confidence interval between 114°and 125°. To address the considerable spectral covariance in both spectra, we present a method of splitting the spectra into low and high frequencies to analyze the spectral structure at different spatial frequencies with the proper spectral noise correlation. Using the split spectra, we compare them to known spectral types using field brown dwarf and low-mass star spectra and find a best-fit match of a field gravity M6.5 ±1.5 spectral type with a corresponding temperature of K. Photometry of the companion yields a luminosity of log=2.88 ± 0.07 dex with DUSTY models. Mass estimates, again from DUSTY models, find an age-dependent mass of 34 ±1 to 95 ±4 M Jup. These results are consistent with previous measurements of the object. (shrink)

The role of nonverbal communication in patients with post-stroke language impairment (aphasia) is not yet fully understood. This study investigated how aphasic patients perceive and produce co-speech gestures during face-to-face interaction, and whether distinct brain lesions would predict the frequency of spontaneous co-speech gesturing. For this purpose, we recorded samples of conversations in patients with aphasia and healthy participants. Gesture perception was assessed by means of a head-mounted eye-tracking system, and the produced co-speech gestures were coded according to a linguistic (...) classification system. The main results are that meaning-laden gestures (e.g., iconic gestures representing object shapes) are more likely to attract visual attention than meaningless hand movements, and that patients with aphasia are more likely to fixate co-speech gestures overall than healthy participants. This implies that patients with aphasia may benefit from the multimodal information provided by co-speech gestures. On the level of co-speech gesture production, we found that patients with damage to the anterior part of the arcuate fasciculus showed a higher frequency of meaning-laden gestures. This area lies in close vicinity to the premotor cortex and is considered to be important for speech production. This may suggest that the use of meaning-laden gestures depends on the integrity of patients’ speech production abilities. (shrink)

Resumo: A reforma na educação básica promovida Lei 5.692/1971, no contexto do regime militar pós-1964, teve como uma de suas consequências a exclusão da Filosofia do ensino médio. Em resposta, educadores, estudantes e entidades ligadas a essa área de conhecimento iniciaram um amplo movimento pela volta da disciplina às escolas. No centro desse movimento estavam os Departamentos de Filosofia de algumas das principais universidades do país, os quais promoveram encontros nacionais para debater e planejar ações voltadas a esse objetivo. O (...) presente artigo pretende discutir brevemente as considerações do I Encontro Nacional de Departamentos de Filosofia, realizado em 1981, no Rio de Janeiro, do qual resultaram o Documento do Rio de Janeiro e, mais tarde, o Documento de Brasília, ambos com grande repercussão na imprensa. O texto é parte da dissertação de mestrado do autor, defendida em 1991, aqui atualizado e adaptado para fins de publicação. Espera-se que a retomada daquelas discussões auxilie professores e estudantes de filosofia a enfrentar os desafios com que se deparam contemporaneamente. Palavras-chave: Ensino de Filosofia; Documento do Rio de Janeiro; Documento de Brasília; Filosofia no ensino médio. The movement for the return of Philosophy to secondary education in the post-1964 context: the first National Meeting of Philosophy Departments and the Brasília Document Abstract: The reform in basic education promoted by Law 5.692/1971, in the context of the post-1964 military regime, had as one of its consequences the exclusion of Philosophy from secondary education. In response, educators, students and entities connected to this area of knowledge started a broad movement for the return of the subject to the schools. At the centre of this movement were the Philosophy Departments of some of the main universities, which promoted national meetings to discuss and plan actions aimed at this goal. The present article intends to briefly discuss the considerations of the 1st National Meeting of Philosophy Departments, held in 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, which resulted in the Rio de Janeiro Document and, later, the Brasilia Document, both of which had great echoes in the press. The text is part of the author's Master's dissertation, defended in 1991, here updated and adapted for publication purposes. It is hoped that the resumption of those discussions will help teachers and students of philosophy to deal with the challenges they face contemporarily. Key-words: Teaching of Philosophy; Rio de Janeiro Document; Brasilia Document; Philosophy in secondary education. Il movimento per il ritorno della filosofia nell'istruzione secondaria nel contesto post-1964: il primo Incontro Nazionale dei Dipartimenti di Filosofia e il Documento di Brasília Astratto: La riforma dell’istruzione promossa dalla legge 5.692/1971, nel contesto del regime militare post-1964, ha avuto tra le sue conseguenze l’esclusione della filosofia dalle scuole secondarie. In risposta, educatori, studenti e associazioni legate a quest’area del sapere hanno dato vita a un ampio movimento per il ritorno della disciplina nelle scuole. Al centro di questo movimento c’erano i Dipartimenti di Filosofia di alcune delle principali università del Paese, che hanno promosso incontri nazionali per discutere e organizzare azioni in tal senso. Il presente articolo intende discutere brevemente le considerazioni del 1° Incontro Nazionale dei Dipartimenti di Filosofia, tenutosi nel 1981 a Rio de Janeiro, che ha prodotto il Documento di Rio de Janeiro e, successivamente, il Documento di Brasília, entrambi di grande impatto sulla stampa. Il testo fa parte della tesi di Master dell’autore, presentata nel 1991, qui aggiornata e adattata ai fini della pubblicazione. Si spera che la ripresa di queste discussioni aiuti i professori e gli studenti di filosofia ad affrontare le sfide che si pongono al giorno d’oggi. Parole chiave: Insegnamento della filosofia; Documento di Rio de Janeiro; Documento di Brasilia; Filosofia nell'istruzione secondaria. Data de registro: 23/01/2023 Data de aceite: 23/08/2023. (shrink)

Degree-sentences, i.e. sentences that seem to refer to things that allow of degrees, are widely used both inside and outside of philosophy, even though the metaphysics of degrees is much of an untrodden field. This paper aims to fill this lacuna by addressing the following four questions: [A] Is there some one thing, such that it is degree sensitive? [B] Are there things x, y, and z that stand in a certain relation to each other, viz. the relation that x (...) has more y than z? [C] In those cases in which degree sentences do not refer to phenomena that are degree sensitive, what is responsible for their prima facie seeming to do so? [D] If there are degree sensitive things, to which ontological categories do they belong? We answer each of these questions by arguing that there are, metaphysically speaking, different phenomena that degree sentences refer to: some refer to determinates that emanate from a certain determinable, others to tokens that are instantiations of a certain type, and yet others to what we call ‘complex, resultant properties that are constituted by stereotypical properties’. Finally, we show the relevance of our answers by applying them to the notions of freedom and belief. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: René Descartes' Cogito is an example of a paradigmatic thought experiment, herald of both subjectivism and new science in Europe's Modern Age, that seems to have escaped the attention of thought experiment philosophers. On deep analysis, the Cogito appears as universal instantiation. The Cogito has strong rhetorical effects for it narratively generalizes from I to all human kind, and its historical and philosophical success can be explained from its concise enthymematic structure that rings true in many possible senses. We (...) consider it a preeminent example of a thought experiment as it states the power of thinking as its very contents. From Descartes' methodology of doubt we can conclude that, e.g., on a Wittgensteinian interpretation, the Cogito is a logical thought experiment rather than a psychological one. RESUMO: O Cogito de René Descartes é um exemplo de experimento mental paradigmático, precursor tanto do subjetivismo quanto da nova ciência, na Idade Moderna europeia, o qual parece ter escapado à atenção dos filósofos que estudaram o experimento mental. Na análise profunda, o Cogito aparece como uma instanciação universal. O Cogito tem fortes efeitos retóricos por si mesmo, generalizando narrativamente desde o eu para toda a espécie humana, e seu sucesso histórico e filosófico pode ser explicado por sua estrutura entimemática concisa, que soa através de muitos sentidos possíveis. Consideramos que é um exemplo proeminente de um experimento mental, na medida em que afirma o poder de pensar como seus próprios conteúdos. A partir da metodologia da dúvida de Descartes, podemos concluir que, em uma interpretação wittgensteiniana, o Cogito é um experimento mental mais lógico que psicológico. (shrink)

Rereading Renée C. Fox's “A Sociological Perspective on Organ Transplantation and Hemodialysis,” published in 1970, one is likely to be struck more by continuity than by change. The most pressing of the social, policy, and ethical concerns that Fox raised remain problematic fifty years later. We still struggle with scientific and clinical uncertainty, with the boundary between experimentation and therapy, and with the cost of organ replacement therapies and disparities in how they are allocated. We still have an imperfect understanding (...) of transplant immune responses. We still debate when a potential donor “actually” dies, and we still seem to think better empirical criteria could harmonize the diverse religious, cultural, and socioeconomic values of patients, providers, third‐party payers, and policy‐makers. Organ transplantation was for Fox both a particular case unfolding in time and an entryway for discussing the difficult moral questions presented by many new medical technologies in a context of high demand and limited resources. (shrink)

Descartes et Freud ont pour véritables soucis fonciers, l'un l'évidence, et l'autre l'étrangeté. Il est remarquable qu'ils ne déterminent ces notions qu'implicitement, de façons réellement paradoxales. Cela peut surprendre, surtout si l'on ajoute que leurs façons sont identiques. A partir de la décision cartésienne d'identifier le vrai à l'évident se trouve fondée la science ; et l'identification freudienne du vrai à l'étrange fonde la psychanalyse. La question de la relation entre science et psychanalyse porte donc, ici, sur le réel du (...) nouage paradoxal entre les deux déterminations du vrai pointées par Descartes et Freud, sur leur différence et leur inséparabilité. Plus spécifiquement, c'est d'abord du point de vue du rapport entre mathématique et psychanalyse que la question est approfondie. La visée du livre est de construire le principe de ce nouage, de ce nœud hétérogène. La ressource centrale est de considérer comme vitale, tant au jeu de l'évidence qu'à celui de l'étrangeté, la question de la lettre. (shrink)

Degree‐sentences, i.e. sentences that seem to refer to things that allow of degrees, are widely used both inside and outside of philosophy, even though the metaphysics of degrees is much of an untrodden field. This paper aims to fill this lacuna by addressing the following four questions: [A] Is there some one thing, such that it is degree sensitive? [B] Are there things x, y, and z that stand in a certain relation to each other, viz. the relation that x (...) has more y than z? [C] In those cases in which degree sentences do not refer to phenomena that are degree sensitive, what is responsible for their prima facie seeming to do so? [D] If there are degree sensitive things, to which ontological categories do they belong? We answer each of these questions by arguing that there are, metaphysically speaking, different phenomena that degree sentences refer to: some refer to determinates that emanate from a certain determinable, others to tokens that are instantiations of a certain type, and yet others to what we call ‘complex, resultant properties that are constituted by stereotypical properties’. Finally, we show the relevance of our answers by applying them to the notions of freedom and belief. (shrink)

GALIMBERTI, Umberto. Rastros do Sagrado: o Cristianismo e a dessacralização do Sagrado. Wander Moreira da Costa KONINGS, Johan S. J. Ser cristão: fé e prática. Paulo Agostinho Nogueira Baptista KONINGS, Johan S. J. Liturgia dominical: mistério de Cristo e formação dos fiéis (anos A-B-C) Victor René Villavicencio Matienzo.

Totalité et infini (1961), oeuvre majeure d'Emmanuel Levinas, est l'exposé de l'éthique de l'altérité qui a fait de lui l'une des figures les plus marquantes de la philosophie du XXe siècle. Dans la trace de lectures multiples (Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Platon ou encore Rosenzweig), il y déploie une philosophie éthique qui se départit de tout fondement ontologique. Si Totalité et infini est bien une "oeuvre de ruptures", c'est qu'elle se donne pour projet de rompre avec l'histoire de la philosophie qui (...) donne le primat au même et à la totalité. Penser l'existence, l'advenue au monde et sa signification, à partir de la présence d'autrui, tel est l'ambitieux projet d'Emmanuel Levinas. Ne plus inscrire le "Je" comme fondement de la pensée, tel est son geste révolutionnaire. La relance du motif fondamental de l'"il y a", les gestes de rupture avec la figure de la totalité et certaines traditions de la phénoménologie, de l'épistémologie, voire de la philosophie analytique, l'actualité de l'oeuvre et l'apport pratique de Totalité et infini à l'interprétation du monde contemporain (justice, politique, éducation), le dialogue entre Totalité et infini et des pensées qui ont nourri ou qui ont croisé certains motifs de la pensée de Levinas - Henri Bergson, René Girard, Maurice Blanchot : tels sont les enjeux explorés dans ce livre. (shrink)

Books reviewed:John Barton, Joel and Obadiah: A Commentary John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, Volume III: Companions and CompetitorsWilliam E. Arnal, Jesus and the Village Scribes: Galilean Conflicts and the Setting of QRichard A. Horsley, Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's GospelMaurice Casey, Aramaic Sources of Mark's GospelPhilip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost its WayChristopher M. Tuckett, Christology and the New Testament: Jesus and His Earliest FollowersMarkus Bockmuehl, The Cambridge Companion to JesusShelly (...) Matthews, First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and ChristianityStephen J. Davis, The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late AntiquityJ. Nimmo Smith, A Christian's Guide to Greek Culture. The Pseudo‐Nonnus Commentaries on Sermons 4, 5, 39 and 43 by Gregory of Nazianzus: Introduction, Translation and Notes.David Thomas, Early Moslem Polemic Against Christianity: Abu Isa al‐Warraq's ‘Against the Incarnation’Thomas O'Loughlin, Celtic Theology: Humanity, World and God in Early Irish WritingsCaroline M. Baron and Jenny Stratford, The Church and Learning in Later Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of R. B. Dobson Owen Chadwick, The Early Reformation on the Continent Benson Bobrick, The Making of the English BiblePeter Marhall and Alec Ryrie, The Beginnings of English ProtestantismRobert Tittler, The Reformation and the Towns in England. Politics and Political Culture, c. 1540–1640Peter Marshall, Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation EnglandNicholas Tyacke, Aspects of English Protestantism, c.1530–1700John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558–1689William Gibson, The Church of England 1688–1832: Unity and AccordWarwick Gould and Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the Myth of the Eternal Evangel in the Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesJames M. Byrne, God: Thoughts in an Age of Uncertainty Michael Palmer, The Question of God: An Introduction and SourcebookMichel René Barnes, The Power of God: ΔYNAMIΣ in Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian TheologyThomas Aquinas, Disputed Questions on VirtueStanley M. Hauerwas, Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth‐Century Theology and PhilosophyDavid Toole, Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo: Theological Reflections on Nihilism, Tragedy, and ApocalypseJohn Sullivan, Catholic Education: Distinctive and InclusiveGeorge Dennis O'Brien, The Idea of a Catholic UniversityGunnar Skirbekk and Nils Gilje, A History of Western ThoughtEllen Wagner, Essays on Plato's PsychologyAnthony Kenny, Aquinas on BeingJame Daly, Deals and Ideals: Two Concepts of EnlightenmentManfred Kuehn, Kant: A BiographyP. Travis Kroeker and Bruce K. Ward, Remembering the End: Dostoevsky as Prophet to ModernityStephen Mulhall, Inheritance and Originality: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, KierkegaardDavid Braybrooke, Natural Law ModernizedMaría Pía Lara, Rethinking EvilW. W. Meisner, Freud and PsychoanalysisJennifer Jackson, Truth, Trust and MedicineJeremy Sugarman and Daniel P. Sulmasy, Methods in Medical EthicsH. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. and Mark J. Cherry, Allocating Scarce Medical Resources: Roman Catholic PerspectivesMaura A. Ryan, The Ethics and Economics of Assisted Reproduction: The Cost of LongingMichael Walsh, Dictionary of Christian Biography. (shrink)

Kenneth Burke is, at long last, beginning to get the attention he de- serves. Among anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and rhetori- cians his "dramatism" is increasingly recognized as something that must at least appear in one's index, whether one has troubled to understand him or not. Even literary critics are beginning to see him as not just one more "new critic" but as someone who tried to lead a revolt against "narrow formalism" long before the currently fashionable explosion into the "extrinsic" (...) had been dreamed of. I have recently heard him called a structuralist-before-his-time-and what could be higher praise than that! But in almost everything said about his literary criticism, there is an air of condescension that is puzzling. The tone seems usually to echo that of Rene Wellek , who, as Burke himself laments , "almost overwhelms me with praise," referring to "men of great gifts, nimble powers of combination and association, and fertile imagination," but then deplores Burke's irresponsibility, repudiates his critical judgments, condemns his general method without bothering to look closely at it, and in general makes him look like some sort of idiot savant-a buffoon with a high IQ.Wayne C. Booth received the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award in 1962 for his book The Rhetoric of Fiction. His most recent works, A Rhetoric of Irony and Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent, appeared this year. His contributions to Critical Inquiry include "Irony and Pity Once Again: Thais Revisited" , "M.H. Abrams: Historian as Critic, Critic as Pluralist" , "THE LIMITS OF PLURALISM: 'Preserving the Exemplar': Or, How Not to Dig our Own Graves" , "CRITICAL RESPONSE: Notes and Exchanges" , "Metaphor as Rhetoric: The Problem of Evaluation" ,"Ten Literal 'Theses" , with Wright Morris: "The Writing of Organic Fiction: A Conversation" , and with Robert E. Streeter and W.J.T. Mitchell: "EDITORS' NOTE: Sheldon Sacks 1930-1979". (shrink)

In this piece, we articulate the "collaborative autoethnographic practice" we utilized to illustrate the complexities of mothering that involved: (a) individually writing autoethnographic narratives on mothering, (b) sharing these autoethnographic narratives in a public forum, (c) publicly discussing the heuristic commonalities across these autoethnographic narratives, (d) tying those commonalities back to the literature, and (e) revisiting the autoethnographic narratives for aspects of social critique where our autoethnographic narratives (intentionally or unintentionally) hegemonicaly reproduced cultural scripts. We argue that presenting knowledge of (...) mothering in this way, through collaborative autoethnographic practice, creates a myriad of opportunities for growth and self-reflexivity, and our stories illuminate a part of our existence that often remains unexamined in other methodologies. (shrink)

The theoretical biology movement originating in Britain in the early 1930’s and the biosemiotics movement which took off in Europe in the 1980’s have much in common. They are both committed to replacing the neo-Darwinian synthesis, and they have both invoked theories of signs to this end. Yet, while there has been some mutual appreciation and influence, particularly in the cases of Howard Pattee, René Thom, Kalevi Kull, Anton Markoš and Stuart Kauffman, for the most part, these movements have developed (...) independently of each other. Focussing on morphogenesis understood as vegetative semiosis, in this paper I will argue that the ideas of these movements are commensurate. Furthermore, synthesising them would enable us to see life processes as proto-narratives. Doing so will involve synthesising biohermeneutics, Peircian biosemiotics with Waddington’s theoretical biology and Piagetian genetic structuralism, and this, I claim, would strengthen the challenge of these traditions to mainstream biology. At the same time, this should contribute to overcoming the opposition between the sciences and the humanities, developing a broader tradition of Schellingian thought which involves developing the humanities and then demanding of the physical and biological sciences that they are consistent with and can make intelligible the emergence of humans as conceived by the humanities. (shrink)

... Lorsque j'ai connu René Boylesve, il lui advint de me parler de son renom et de sa vente. Je reviendrai là-dessus. En tout cas, il pouvait rentrer dans la classe de ces auteurs qui, faute de savoir se montrer dangereux - car alors on vous respecte par crainte -, faute de savoir intriguer pour se faire rendre justice, et parce que les critiques notables les tiennent pour des artistes sans relief, restent dans l'ombre de leur vivant. Il est entendu (...) au demeurant que l'ombre, en France, appartient de droit au talent. Victor Hugo eut un mal infini à percer, et l'Académie l'élut à sa cinquième candidature... (shrink)

The avant-garde has been popular for some time, but its popularity has tended to fly under the radar. This ¿popular avant-garde,¿ conceived as the meeting ground of the avant-garde and popular, avoids the divorce of art and praxis of which the avant-garde has been accused. The Popular Avant-Garde takes stock of the debates about both the ¿historical¿ (¿modernist¿) and posterior avant-gardes, and sets them in relation to popular culture and art forms. With a critical introduction that examines the concepts of (...) ¿the avant-garde,¿ ¿the popular,¿ and ¿the popular avant-garde,¿ the series of essays analyzes the way in which the avant-garde employs popular genres for political purposes, as well as how the popular acquires a critical function with respect to the avant-garde. Each of the volume¿s three sections considers a different aspect of the productive exchange between the avant-garde and popular: the popular avant-garde as a culturally hybrid and cross-border phenomenon; the play between the popular avant-garde and developments in media and technology; and the popular avant-garde¿s upending of conventional ideas about ¿the people¿ and ¿the popular.¿ The Popular Avant-Garde takes a fresh look at the now canonical Dadaist, Futurist, and Surrealist movements from the perspectives of gender and sexuality, and cultural and critical theory, while at the same time exploring less well-known avant-garde work in literature, film, television, music, photography, dance, sculpture, and the graphic arts. This volume¿s coverage of the American and Afro-American, Luso-Brazilian and Latin-American, East-European, and Scandinavian avant-gardes, in addition to the vanguards of Spain and other parts of Western Europe, will appeal to all those interested in avant-garde and popular art forms. (shrink)

Group 3 as Sc–Y–La, rather than Sc–Y–Lu, dominates the literature. The history of this situation, including involvement by the IUPAC, is summarised. I step back from the minutiae of physical, chemical, and electronic properties and explore considerations of regularity and symmetry, natural kinds, and quantum mechanics, finding these to be inconclusive. Continuing the theme, a series of ten interlocking arguments, in the context of a chemistry-based periodic table, are presented in support of lanthanum in Group 3. In so doing, I (...) seek to demonstrate a new way of thinking about this matter. The last of my ten arguments is recast as a twenty-word categorical philosophical (viewpoint-based) statement. (shrink)