En lieu et place du « retour aux choses mêmes » prôné par Husserl, la phénoménologie françaiseoscille aujourd’hui, dans un paysage philosophique surdéterminé par la question du « réalisme »,entre une description « traumatologique » de l’événement et une herméneutique infinie destinée à l’y rendre « résiliente ». La présente étude tente de comprendre, de manière critique, un tel état de chose, en le reconduisant à ce qui apparaît rétrospectivement, chez Husserl lui-même mais, finalement, dans l’ensemble de la philosophie transcendantale, (...) comme un présupposé voire un dogme qui exige d’être analysé comme tel : celui d’une impuissance de l’apparaître. (shrink)

One of Michel Henry’s major contributions to the phenomenology of the body consists in his proposal, based on his reading of Maine de Biran, to understand the subjective corporeity from the angle of the ability of action. Subjective corporeity acquires its ontological autonomy and its reality only through its own temporality. In reference to several unpublished texts, this article tries to clarify the nexus between ability and time, and thus to emphasize the crucial importance of the past for a “phenomenology (...) of life”, in his paradoxical connection with the necessity to think a “coming in presence” of the world. (shrink)

Nas últimas décadas, a ideia de criatividade tem obtido um aumento de interesse nos campos da filosofia, ciências cognitivas, sociologia, etc. e tem havido uma contribuição renovada com relação à ideia clássica de criatividade. Consideramos que a contribuição do pragmatismo clássico merece uma menção especial – em especial, as obras de Charles S. Peirce e John Dewey. Neste artigo, iremos nos referir, exclusivamente, ao tratamento deweyiano a essa ideia. Sustentaremos que a teoria de Dewey fornece elementos interpretativos que são inovadores (...) e disruptivos com relação à tradição filosófica, inclusive, uma nova concepção de imaginação criativa. Exporemos algumas consequências de sua posição – como nós a interpretamos. Com efeito, sustentaremos que Dewey afasta-se das demandas clássicas para as quais um produto criativo envolve, necessariamente, uma transformação radical da vida humana, segundo a ideia de níveis de criatividade; essa teoria deweyiana constitui um insight interessante para a promoção da atitude criativa; esse processo criativo preserva a mesma estrutura em todos os casos – ciência e arte, por exemplo – e essa criatividade é, agora, uma potencialidade intrínseca dos seres humanos – a qual pode ser realizada ou não. Por fim, consideramos a relevância de alguma tese deweyiana para as posições atuais, como no caso do psicólogo cognitivo Robert Weisberg, enfatizando as coincidências e desacordos de ambos. (shrink)

Analyzing the way computer technologies are used is crucial for their development. Such analyses make it possible to evaluate these technologies and enhance their evolution. The present article presents some ideas drawn from the development of a cooperation platform for elementary school children (10–11 years old). On the basis of an obvious ergonomic requirement, we worked on two other dimensions: cultural aspects and the teaching scenario. The goal was to set up observation situations and analyze the conversations produced during those (...) situations, in order to understand what using the platform meant to both the pupils and their teachers. (shrink)

This article examines conceptualisations of violence against women developed in Brazilian feminism, and in legal and institutional measures against violence, from the 1980s to the present. Based on ethnographic studies carried out at the Women’s Police Stations and Special Criminal Courts, and the controversies surrounding the 2006 Brazilian Law on domestic and familial violence, the authors map the meanings of expressions such as ‘violence against women’, ‘marital violence’, ‘domestic violence’, ‘family violence’ and ‘gender violence’. The article reveals that the discourse (...) that transforms violence into crime, in the Brazilian context, leads to semantic and institutional developments that replace an interest in politicising justice for the defence of women with the judicialisation of family relations. (shrink)

Depuis l’ouvrage magistral et incontournable consacré par F. Pouillaude à ce qu’il nomme « le désœuvrement chorégraphique », l’on sait combien et pourquoi la philosophie – ou ce que l’on a retenu d’elle à travers ce que nous en a livré l’histoire qu’on en a toujours racontée –, a peu eu affaire à la danse. Échappant à la catégorie d’œuvre – c’est-à-dire, finalement, d’objet –, et dès lors à cette métaphysique de la production et de sa réception dont l’esthétique et (...) la philosophie de l’art fur... (shrink)

L’une des difficultés propres à la réception de la pensée henryenne réside dans la possibilité de la situer précisément dans l’histoire de la phénoménologie avec laquelle, tout en en héritant, elle a délibérément voulu rompre. L’objet de cette étude est de contribuer à faire droit à cette exigence en suivant la voie, trop peu empruntée, de la réforme puissante proposée par Michel Henry de la problématique fondatrice de la différence du mondain et du transcendantal – et corrélativement, des attitudes naturelle (...) et phénoménologique. Après avoir rappelé la fonction fondamentale de cette différence dans le dispositif phénoménologique et insisté sur sa charge problématique résiduelle, nous nous proposons donc d’élucider son traitement henryen – au prisme de la thèse selon laquelle une telle différence s’avérerait finalement « inessentielle » – avant d’en dégager la portée quant à la compréhension de l’œuvre henryenne en général. (shrink)

Dans la lignée de certaines intuitions de Mikel Dufrenne, la phénom´enologie française tente actuellement d’opérer un tournant en direction d’une « phénoménologie de la nature » dont le propre est de conférer à l’apparaître lui-même une puissance « ontogénétique ». L’objectif de cet article est de circonscrire de manière critique ce nouveau paradigme en montrant que, s’il suppose à juste de titre de rompre avec deux dogmes fondamentaux que la phénoménologie « historique » avait hérités du kantisme, il suscite néanmoins (...) un certain nombre de difficultés que la pensée de M. Henry permet de circonscrire et dont il est nécessaire de prendre acte avec lucidité. (shrink)

The recent liberation of phenomenology’s “metaphysical” word seems to us to present a twofold risk: on the one hand, that of leading us to lose in intension what they will have made us gain in extension - what exactly does the term “metaphysical” mean here, and can we even hope to provide an exact definition? On the other hand, it would convert our former reservations, which may indeed have been excessive, into a temerity that would ultimately be no less so. (...) The aim we have set ourselves here must therefore be modest: to attempt to avert this twofold risk by first equipping ourselves with a clear and unambiguous concept of what is or could legitimately be understood by the term “phenomenological metaphysics; to show then how and why phenomenology, rightly or wrongly, but without really realizing what was preventing it from doing so, has never really managed to do so; to indicate finally the question that a “phenomenological metaphysics” conforming to its concept would have to ask, and to which it would have to commit itself to answer. (shrink)

Es innegable que el pensamiento de Renaud Barbaras está en vías de dar nacimiento, en Francia, a un nuevo paradigma fenomenológico. Este artículo pretende discutir este paradigma desarrollando dos hipótesis. La primera es que, tras la expresión “cosmología fenomenológica” que él mismo utiliza para designarla y que en sí misma no está desprovista de ambigüedad (si “cosmos” significa “mundo”, en el fondo toda fenomenología se presenta como una “cosmología”), se oculta un giro fenomenológico demasiado poco advertido, y que Ricoeur ya (...) había diagnosticado en su lectura de Dufrenne: el giro de una fenomenología de la conciencia -o del Dasein- a una fenomenología de la naturaleza -o de la physis- que obliga a redefinir a fondo sus coordenadas conceptuales. La segunda es que, al instituir tal paradigma, la obra misma de Renaud Barbaras, por sus sutiles evoluciones, nos permite captar sus dificultades o ambigüedades, y al hacerlo, nos permite heredarla de manera crítica. (shrink)

Hotel websites display textual and non-textual strategies with the aim of turning online visitors into customers. This article focuses on two related textual aspects: how consumers are discursively construed and how conditional constructions are used in order to persuade and convince consumers of the adequacy of the hotel. The framework adopted for the analysis combines Stern’s notion of ‘implied consumer’ with a corpus-driven approach. The corpus data comprises 114 British hotel websites and totals half a million words. This is a (...) subcorpus of COMETVAL, a database compiled at the University of València. The results reveal the importance of a number of words that address consumers directly or indirectly. These words intertwine with others to form patterns that help establish a bond between hoteliers and their clients. Further exploration of the corpus confirmed that some conditional sequences such as if you and should you are used by advertisers to speculate about the needs and wishes of consumers that the hotel can fulfil for them. The analysis suggests that conditional structures are a distinctive discursive characteristic strongly associated with the dialogic nature of the discourse hotel websites. (shrink)

S?il va de soi que le projet de dégager différentes figures du concept de passivité dans la tradition phénoménologique se doit de rencontrer, à un moment ou à un autre, la pensée de M. Henry, il est beaucoup moins certain que la genèse de ce concept dans la philosophie henryenne puisse être retracée au fil directeur de son rapport explicite à une telle tradition. Notre conviction ? et ainsi notre hypothèse de lecture ? est en effet que c?est bien plutôt (...) en se confrontant à un tout autre courant de pensée, avec laquelle la phénoménologie n?entretient apparemment que peu de rapports ? bien plus, si l?on s?en tient à la phénoménologie française et à sa réception « agres­sive » de Bergson, avec laquelle elle a explicitement tenu à n?entretenir que peu de rapports ? et qui n?est autre que celui du « spiritualisme français ». Comme l?on sait, si l?on excepte son mémoire de fin d?étude sur Spinoza, c?est en effet avec un livre sur Maine de Biran que M. Henry inaugure sa carrière philosophique. On sait également que ce livre ? Philo­sophie et phénoménologie du corps. Essai sur l?ontologie biranienne ? qui servit à Henry de thèse complémentaire, fut, bien que publié après , rédigé avant L?essence de la manifestation ? et bien avant , puisque sa rédaction s?achève en 1949, plus de dix ans par conséquent avant sa soutenance. Sans doute le parcours ultérieur de M. Henry semble-t-il. (shrink)

L’un des traits saillants du caractère philosophique de Claude Romano est sans doute d’aimer penser là où on ne l’attend pas. Depuis la publication, à la fin des années 1990, de ses deux livres majeurs consacrés à l’événement, l’on croyait légitime de le tenir pour ce phénoménologue de l’événementialité destiné à en exploiter le filon jusqu’à la dernière pépite. En 2010 pourtant, Au cœur de la raison, la phénoménologie , exprime clairement le besoin de parler d’autre chose et, en nouant (...) notamment avec la philosophie d’inspiration analytique un dialogue inattendu, d’en parler autrement. Aussi ce livre, créant paradoxalement l’événement du fait de ne plus en parler, sembla témoigner d’un changement de cap — malgré, il est vrai, la publication concomitante de L’Aventure temporelle , qu’il était néanmoins possible de lire comme l’ultime mise au point sur une période désormais révolue. Les indices, du reste, ne manquaient pas, et les quelques autocritiques qui s’y trouvaient formulées, nous y reviendrons, renforcèrent l’idée d’un certain « tournant réaliste » dans l’œuvre. (shrink)

Plus qu’aucune autre dans la tradition phénoménologique, la pensée de Michel Henry semble prêter le flanc à l’objection de solipsisme : non seulement en raison de son traitement en apparence tardif du problème de l’expérience d’autrui, mais aussi en ceci que, positivement cette fois, L’essence de la manifestation fait explicitement de la « solitude » l’un des traits fondamentaux de l’être de l’ego. À rebours d’une telle interprétation, et prenant appui sur un ensemble de notes de jeunesse parfois inédites, cette (...) étude se propose au contraire de montrer qu’une telle « solitude », parce qu’elle permet de conférer à l’idée même de « subjectivité » une signification tout à fait nouvelle et originale, constitue aux yeux de M. Henry le seul lieu possible d’un authentique rapport à l’autre — pour autant qu’il est un Soi. (shrink)

Dans son article fameux de 1974, « What is it like to be a bat? », Thomas Nagel défend la thèse d’une irréductibilité « des états mentaux conscients » d’un organisme vivant à toute connaissance « objective ». Pour autant que « cela fait un certain effet d’être cet organisme », cet effet n’est autre selon Nagel qu’une expérience radicalement subjective inaccessible à tout « point de vue » qui, comme tel, ne se confondrait pas avec celui de l’individu en (...) question – ou plus techniquement, qu’un... (shrink)

L’objectif de cette étude est de contribuer au débat concernant la possibilité d’un traitement phénoménologique de la vie en y introduisant un concept précis – celui de « vitalisme phénoménologique » – et en tentant d’argumenter en faveur de sa consistance et de sa fécondité. Si nous nous proposons d’avancer ici un tel concept, c’est d’abord pour deux raisons : la première est la conviction, qu’il nous faudra évidemment étayer, que c’est sous ce titre qu’il nous faut ressaisir l’inspiration d...

A key role in inference is played by randomization, which has been extensively used in clinical trials designs. Randomization is primarily intended to prevent the source of bias in treatment allocation by producing comparable groups. In the frequentist framework of inference, randomization allows also for the use of probability theory to express the likelihood of chance as a source for the difference of end outcome. In the Bayesian framework, its role is more nuanced. The Bayesian analysis of clinical trials can (...) afford a valid rationale for selective controls, pointing out a more limited role for randomization than it is generally accorded. This paper is aimed to offer a view of randomization from the perspective of both frequentist and Bayesian statistics and discussing the role of randomization also in theoretical decision models. (shrink)

In this article we intend to analyze the relationship between science and values from the philosophy of Hans Jonas. It starts with an analysis of the change identified by the author with regard to the new status of knowledge in modernity, which gives rise to the so-called technobioscience, born from the articulation between knowing and doing, in view of a new power. It is about showing how the old formulation of knowledge as contemplation gave way to the utilitarian idea of (...) knowledge as exploration, although in such a version, the claim of neutrality and absolute freedom is maintained, characteristic of the old moral island represented by knowledge pre-modern. Jonas argues in favor of an articulation of technobioscience with ethics, in order to provide the values capable of guiding knowing, doing and power in technological civilization. (shrink)

Esta investigación está contextualizada en torno a la influencia que ejercen las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación, en la educación informal. En concreto, nuestro objetivo es reflexionar sobre la televisión. Para ello, partimos de un análisis teórico, que nos permite entender cómo ha cambiado el significado de algunos conceptos claves, como educación y comunicación, en la postmodernidad globalizada. Con los datos derivados de diversas investigaciones, determinamos cuál es el impacto de la televisión en los niños y adolescentes, (...) valoramos sus efectos educacionales y su influencia en diversos aspectos de la persona, fundamentalmente en su conducta. No obstante los resultados negativos que reflejan estos trabajos, debemos tener en cuenta los efectos positivos de la televisión, que resultan menos subrayados y que pueden ser más abundantes si son cabalmente planeados, desde el ámbito educativo. Finalmente, esta investigación nos permite constatar que hay una asignatura pendiente: dar un nuevo impulso a nuestro desarrollo humano y ético, con ayuda de las tecnologías. Partiendo de la importancia de la “escuela paralela”, creemos que es posible elaborar un nuevo modelo educativo integral, que responda a los retos que nos plantea la sociedad moderna. (shrink)

Crítica bibliográfica de Tecnopersonas. Cómo nos transforman las tecnologías. Prólogo-Carta de Vilma Coccoz por J. Echeverría y L. S. Almendros.

Over the past two decades, Ginsburg and Jablonka have developed a novel approach to studying the evolutionary origins of consciousness: the Unlimited Associative Learning framework. The central idea is that there is a distinctive type of learning that can serve as a transition marker for the evolutionary transition from non-conscious to conscious life. The goal of this paper is to stimulate discussion of the framework by providing a primer on its key claims and a clear statement of its main empirical (...) predictions. (shrink)

The increasing implementation of and reliance on machine-learning (ML) algorithms to perform tasks, deliver services and make decisions in health and healthcare have made the need for fairness in ML, and more specifically in healthcare ML algorithms (HMLA), a very important and urgent task. However, while the debate on fairness in the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and in HMLA has grown significantly over the last decade, the very concept of fairness as an ethical value has not yet been sufficiently (...) explored. Our paper aims to fill this gap and address the AI ethics principle of fairness from a conceptual standpoint, drawing insights from accounts of fairness elaborated in moral philosophy and using them to conceptualise fairness as an ethical value and to redefine fairness in HMLA accordingly. To achieve our goal, following a first section aimed at clarifying the background, methodology and structure of the paper, in the second section, we provide an overview of the discussion of the AI ethics principle of fairness in HMLA and show that the concept of fairness underlying this debate is framed in purely distributive terms and overlaps with non-discrimination, which is defined in turn as the absence of biases. After showing that this framing is inadequate, in the third section, we pursue an ethical inquiry into the concept of fairness and argue that fairness ought to be conceived of as an ethical value. Following a clarification of the relationship between fairness and non-discrimination, we show that the two do not overlap and that fairness requires much more than just non-discrimination. Moreover, we highlight that fairness not only has a distributive but also a socio-relational dimension. Finally, we pinpoint the constitutive components of fairness. In doing so, we base our arguments on a renewed reflection on the concept of respect, which goes beyond the idea of equal respect to include respect for individual persons. In the fourth section, we analyse the implications of our conceptual redefinition of fairness as an ethical value in the discussion of fairness in HMLA. Here, we claim that fairness requires more than non-discrimination and the absence of biases as well as more than just distribution; it needs to ensure that HMLA respects persons both as persons and as particular individuals. Finally, in the fifth section, we sketch some broader implications and show how our inquiry can contribute to making HMLA and, more generally, AI promote the social good and a fairer society. (shrink)

Single crystal samples of n - deformed to a permanent strain of 2% at room temperature under multiple-slip conditions contain faulted dipoles whose density exhibits some dependence on load orientation. Although FDs are hard to observe after compression along [210], they are profuse and congregated in places in the [1 1 8.6] load orientation. They exhibit most of the topological characteristics of FDs formed under single slip as reported by Grégori and Veyssière such as elongation in the screw direction of (...) the primary d 011] slip direction and a noticeable shape asymmetry. It is shown further that, in the [1 1 8.6] samples, bundles of FDs originate at jogs that result from intersection with forest dislocations of appropriate Burgers vectors. A mechanism for FD nucleation is proposed on the basis of asymmetrical dissociation of the parent d 011] dislocation and specific impingements between the various partials on two adjacent octahedral planes. Implications of the FD nucleation at jogs on the load orientation dependence of the FD density are discussed. (shrink)

Heyes argues that human metacognitive strategies (“cognitive gadgets” or “mills”) are the products of cultural evolution based on domain‐general cognition with few simple biases. Although like Heyes, we believe that the evolution of domain‐general cognitive processes played a crucial role in the evolution of human cognition, we argue that Heyes' distinction between mills and grist is too sharp, that associative learning evolved gradually to become more complex and hierarchical, something that is not captured by the system 1/system 2 distinction, and (...) that human cognitive plasticity required the genetic accommodation of gadget‐specific processes that led to more plasticity‐enhancing human‐specific biases. (shrink)

Multimodal communication research focuses on how different means of signalling coordinate to communicate effectively. This line of research is traditionally influenced by fields such as cognitive and neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and linguistics. With new technologies becoming available in fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, the field can increasingly avail itself of new ways of analyzing and understanding multimodal communication. As a result, there is a general hope that multimodal research may be at the “precipice of greatness” due (...) to technological advances in computer science and resulting extended empirical coverage. However, for this to come about there must be sufficient guidance on key (theoretical) needs of innovation in the field of multimodal communication. Absent such guidance, the research focus of computer scientists might increasingly diverge from crucial issues in multimodal communication. With this paper, we want to further promote interaction between these fields, which may enormously benefit both communities. The multimodal research community (represented here by a consortium of researchers from the Visual Communication [ViCom] Priority Programme) can engage in the innovation by clearly stating which technological tools are needed to make progress in the field of multimodal communication. In this article, we try to facilitate the establishment of a much needed common ground on feasible expectations (e.g., in terms of terminology and measures to be able to train machine learning algorithms) and to critically reflect possibly idle hopes for technical advances, informed by recent successes and challenges in computer science, social signal processing, and related domains. (shrink)

This is a response to the nine commentaries on our target article “Unlimited Associative Learning: A primer and some predictions”. Our responses are organized by theme rather than by author. We present a minimal functional architecture for Unlimited Associative Learning that aims to tie to together the list of capacities presented in the target article. We explain why we discount higher-order thought theories of consciousness. We respond to the criticism that we have overplayed the importance of learning and underplayed the (...) importance of spatial modelling. We decline the invitation to add a negative marker to our proposed positive marker so as to rule out consciousness in plants, but we nonetheless maintain that there is no positive evidence of consciousness in plants. We close by discussing how UAL relates to development and to its material substrate. (shrink)

In our target article, “Learning and the evolution of conscious agents” we outlined an evolutionary approach to consciousness, arguing that the evolution of a form of open-ended, representational, and generative learning (unlimited associative learning, UAL) drove the evolution of consciousness. Our view highlights the dynamics and functions of consciousness, delineates its taxonomic distribution and suggests a framework for exploring its developmental and evolutionary modifications. The approach we offer resonates with biosemioticians’ views, but as the responses to our target article show, (...) our proposal also faces challenges and has led to suggestions that extend, develop and qualify it. Our response to the 14 varied and rich commentaries starts with the recurring and deep question raised by many of them – the relation between life and sentience. We explore this question by introducing and expanding on “vivaciousness”, a term we coined to describe the turbulent, flexible exploration-stabilization processes inherent in the living condition, as well as addressing the related concepts of Umwelt and selfhood. We then consider the question of the adequacy of unlimited associative learning (UAL) as an evolutionary transition marker (ETM) of minimal consciousness (rather than as a marker of a complex form of sentience), and the possible precursors of sentience. The engagement with these broad themes is entangled with a discussion of evolutionary transitions, constitutive emergence and the function/s of consciousness. The suggestions of our commentators, urging us to explore new concepts and new avenues of research within the framework of a richer view of evolution are then discussed. We end by briefly considering what we regard as a conceptual lacuna, which is leading to the indiscriminate use of the term “sentience” and which awaits further investigation. (shrink)

Biochar is a soil—improving substrate made from phytomass pyrolysis. In Southeast Asia, its application decreases due to the long-term growth of biochar cost and thus caused further prolongation of the payback period. In the Euro-American civilization the biochar application is already almost forgotten once it has been much earlier recognized that the crop yields can be increased much faster with higher doses of nutrients and other agrochemicals. The payback period can be expected in decades. Such a long-time investment into soil (...) fertility raises also many ethical questions. The final decision combines issues of social responsibility, risk and other financial indicators as well as personal preferences and more. The attitudes of Western and Central European decision makers in the agriculture business segment were analyzed on the basis of electronic questionnaire survey and a subsequent interview through their local unions. According to the data, most of them did not know about the possibilities of a more environmentally friendly approach to soil enhancement based on the addition of a fertilizer in the form of biochar. Among others, the collected data also shows that the decision makers from Western Europe have a much different ethical approach to the land and financial indicators than the Central Europeans. (shrink)

Many popular artificial intelligence (AI) ethics frameworks center the principle of autonomy as necessary in order to mitigate the harms that might result from the use of AI within society. These harms often disproportionately affect the most marginalized within society. In this paper, we argue that the principle of autonomy, as currently formalized in AI ethics, is itself flawed, as it expresses only a mainstream mainly liberal notion of autonomy as rational self-determination, derived from Western traditional philosophy. In particular, we (...) claim that the adherence to such principle, as currently formalized, does not only fail to address many ways in which people’s autonomy can be violated, but also to grasp a broader range of AI-empowered harms profoundly tied to the legacy of colonization, and which particularly affect the already marginalized and most vulnerable on a global scale. To counter such a phenomenon, we advocate for the need of a relational turn in AI ethics, starting from a relational rethinking of the AI ethics principle of autonomy that we propose by drawing on theories on relational autonomy developed both in moral philosophy and Ubuntu ethics. (shrink)