Un texte n’existe que dans la mesure où il est lu et ses différentes lectures contribuent à en montrer la richesse et l’intérêt. En France on a longtemps lu et on continue encore à lire Fanon, en particulier Les damnés de la terre , à la lumière de la préface que Sartre avait rédigée, à la demande de Fanon lui-même, après une rencontre et d’intenses discussions entre les deux hommes au printemps 1961 à Rome. Le premier chapitre des Damnés de (...) la terre , intitulé “De la violence” avait été publié séparément dans les Temps Modernes , la revue dirigée par Jean-Paul Sartre, comme s’il s’agissait là de l’essentiel de ce livre. Il y a eu depuis beaucoup d’autres lectures de l’œuvre de Fanon, et en particulier de ce livre difficile et complexe. Je voudrais m’attacher, dans les pages qui vont suivre, à la lecture faite par Edward Said des textes de Fanon tout au long de sa carrière, à partir du moment, où, à la suite de la guerre de 1967 entre Israël et les pays arabes, et l’occupation de la Cisjordanie et de Gaza, ainsi que l’annexion de la partie Est de Jérusalem, Said va mêler intimement élaboration théorique et agir politique. Il est d’autant plus intéressant, d’un point de vue français, de porter attention à cette lecture, que Fanon aussi bien que Said, sont largement marginalisés dans le champ intellectuel et universitaire. Ils sont l’un et l’autre le symptôme d’une tache aveugle dans la pensée française dominante, peu encline à analyser le phénomène colonial. Il ne s’agit pas seulement des lacunes de l’histoire coloniale, qui commence tout juste à se développer. Le regard porté par Frantz Fanon sur la colonisation française en Algérie est difficilement supportable dans un pays qui se veut la “patrie des droits de l’Homme” et des valeurs universelles, tout comme la mise en évidence du racisme dans la France des années 1950. Ce qui semble encore davantage difficile à admettre, c’est que la domination coloniale puisse concerner aussi les catégories intellectuelles, les productions de l’imaginaire, et la construction des subjectivités. Lors de la parution, en 1980, de la traduction française d’ Orientalism , la levée de boucliers contre l’ouvrage fut telle qu’il fallut attendre vingt-cinq ans pour une nouvelle édition du livre qui était devenu introuvable. Entre temps Edward Said était mort, et sa notoriété internationale telle qu’il était impossible de continuer à faire comme si cet ouvrage avait cessé d’exister. On peut naïvement s’étonner d’une telle réaction, en face d’un livre dans lequel il est largement question d’écrivains et de savants français, et qui surtout a été écrit en partie dans le sillage intellectuel de Michel Foucault. Said avait cependant déjà pris, à cette époque, des distances avec la théorie foucaldienne, en s’appuyant sur d’autres théoriciens, au premier rang desquels Fanon. L’importance qu’il accordait à Fanon était antérieure. En effet, dans Beginnings , son premier ouvrage important de théorie littéraire, qui précédait Orientalism , Said avait déjà situé Fanon parmi ceux qui, avec Freud, Orwell, Lévi-Strauss et Foucault, avaient contribué à la production d’un “langage mental commun.&rdquo. (shrink)

Implications of algorithmic mediation can be studied through the artefact itself, peoples’ practices, and the social/political/economical arrangements that affect and are affected by such interactions. Most studies in Academic social media (ASM) focus on one of these elements at a time, either examining design elements or the users’ behaviour on and perceptions of such platforms. We take a multi-faceted approach using affordances as a lens to analyze practices and arrangements traversed by algorithmic mediation. Following our earlier studies that examined the (...) artefact, this study’s aim is to understand how algorithmic mediation in ASM may shape researchers’ perceptions. We conducted online in-depth interviews with show and tell (n = 11) with ASM users from four countries, about their use of ASM. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and the codes were clustered in themes and validated via peer debriefing process. Four themes—related to exposure to content, visibility, ethical or legal infringements, and engagement—are discussed considering implications of datafication and findability. We conclude that algorithmic mediation constructs a narration of the relevant other in ASM, configuring the other as participatory and productive. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Confidentiality and Its LimitsMaude Laliberté, John D. Lantos, and Sonia GowdaMultiple sclerosis is believed to be an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. However, according to Italian physician Paolo Zamboni, it is related to cerebrospinal vascular insufficiency. Zamboni claims that MS can be treated by remedying this condition with venous angioplasty. This surgery is offered as treatment for MS in various countries—Poland, Bulgaria, and Costa Rica, for (...) example. But the Medical Board of Quebec, Canada, does not allow its members to perform the surgery and strongly advises patients against seeking it elsewhere. This opposition is based on the lack of evidence to support the procedure and the serious risks associated with it (including venous thrombosis, stroke, and pulmonary embolism). As a result, many Canadian MS patients have traveled to other countries to receive the surgery. Quebec physicians have been reluctant to provide surgical follow-up for patients who undergo the surgery in other countries due to the lack of information regarding the procedure. No alternative treatments are effective to partially or completely cure MS, and so the treatments available in Canada aim only to manage its symptoms.Jade is a forty-year-old Canadian woman with MS. She is on long-term disability leave, complains of growing fatigue and muscle stiffness, and has painful sensations in her limbs. She has been followed by an interdisciplinary team in a specialized hospital in Quebec for the past twenty years, since she was diagnosed. At her last appointment, Jade told her physical therapist that she recently underwent the experimental Zamboni surgery in Poland, despite her physician’s strong recommendation not to. Jade fears her physician’s reaction, so she asks the physical therapist to keep this information from the rest of her medical team.Jade is shy and tends to distrust health care professionals. It took many years for her physical therapist to gain her trust and to develop a positive therapeutic relationship with her. However, the physical therapist knows that serious complications can occur in patients who have had Zamboni’s surgery. Not telling Jade’s physician about the surgery could result in harm; Jade could have complications that are not recognized. Providing the information to the rest of the team would allow them to adjust her treatment to respond to the surgery and give her information and postoperative education that she will need. Moreover, keeping this secret could threaten team cohesion and trust if they find out about it later.Jade decided to undergo a risky surgery against her doctor’s advice in the hope of improving her quality of life. This was her autonomous choice. How should the physical therapist respond?CommentaryMaude Laliberte (bio)Laws and professional codes of ethics direct clinicians to respect their patients’ autonomy through confidentiality and informed consent unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. Health professionals are deeply committed to helping patients; above all, they want to avoid harming them. Therefore, a key component of this case is the possibility that respecting Jade’s desire to conceal information from the team may put her at direct risk if any postoperative complications are not detected, and at indirect risk if Jade’s trust in her medical team is undermined to the point where she turns away from them.The physical therapist must determine if the possible physical risks to Jade are imminent and serious enough to go against her autonomous choice. One risk that can occur following Zamboni’s surgery is inflammation of a vein caused by a blood clot. This is a life-threatening situation (although it may not be a likely complication for Jade). But the physical therapist can teach Jade to recognize the physical signs that can alert her to this problem, giving her ample time to seek treatment. Thus, even though she may be in danger from a life-threatening risk, there may be ways to manage it besides violating her confidentiality.The respect for autonomous choice is a crucial aspect of our democratic values. It promotes a process of exchange in the therapeutic alliance: the professional guides and informs the patient, but the patient is a partner in care planning and treatment. An important... (shrink)

Critics, then, who label theories such as objectivism or deconstructionism as “authoritarian” or “subversive” are committing a fallacy of overspecificity. To call Hirsch’s theory authoritarian is to assume that such a theory lends itself to one and only one kind of political use and that that use can be determined a priori. To refute such an assumption, one need only stand back from the present in order to recall that today’s authoritarian ideology is often yesterday’s progressive one, and vice versa. (...) Indeed, there’s considerable historical irony in the fact that objectivism has now acquired the status of a right-wing idea, while Nietzsche and Heidegger have emerged as heroes of literary leftism. As recently as a few decades ago, these alignments were different. George Orwell, for instance, thought that the tendency to deny the possibility of objective truth reflected a totalitarian mentality. “Totalitarianism,” he wrote, “in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the existence of objective truth.” He added that “the friends of totalitarianism in this country tend to argue that since absolute truth is not attainable, a big lie is no worse than a little lie. It is pointed out that all historical records are biased and inaccurate, or, on the other hand, that modern physics has proved that what seems to us the real world is an illusion, so that to believe in the evidence of the senses is simply vulgar philistinism.”10It’s not that it hadn’t occurred to Orwell that the notion of objective truth could easily be used to justify the actions of tyrants and oppressors. But Orwell’s experience of Fascist and Communist falsification of history showed how the denial of the possibility of objectivity could also justify oppressive actions, perhaps in a more disarming way. For various historical reasons, Orwell’s insight is easily lost today. His is one of those Enlightenment concepts of truth which have been compromised in usage. As the Enlightenment has come to be associated not with progress, democracy, and equality but with the ideological exploitation of those concepts in the interests of social control, a great moral and political transvaluation of the epistemological vocabulary has occurred. Enlightenment thinking is frequently associated with the bourgeois complacency or the menacing technology of Western democracies or is identified with the totalitarian regimentation of the Soviet Union. Thus the concepts of objective truth, nature, essence, identity, and teleology have come to be viewed as conservative or reactionary ideas, as if these ideas had never operated, and never could operate, in quite other ways.11 10. George orwell, “The Prevention of Literature,” The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, 4 vols. , 4: 63-64.11. As Frederic Jameson has noted, “it is certainly the case that a belief in the natural is ideological and that much of bourgeois art has worked to perpetuate such a belief…. Yet in different historical circumstances the idea of nature was once a subversive concept with a genuinely revolutionary function, and only the analysis of the concrete historical and cultural conjuncture can tell us whether, in the post-natural world of late capitalism, the categories of nature may not have acquired such a critical charge again”. (shrink)

We begin this article by delineating the explanatory gaps left by prevailing gene‐focused approaches in our understanding of phenotype determination, inheritance, and the origin of novel traits. We aim not to diminish the value of these approaches but to highlight where their implementation, despite best efforts, has encountered persistent limitations. We then discuss how each of these explanatory gaps can be addressed by expanding research foci to take into accountbiological agency—the capacity of living systems at various levels to participate in (...) their own development, maintenance, and function by regulating their structures and activities in response to conditions they encounter. Here we aim to define formally what agency and agents are and—just as importantly—what they are not, emphasizing that agency is an empirical property connoting neither intention nor consciousness. Lastly, we discuss how incorporating agency helps to bridge explanatory gaps left by conventional approaches, highlight scientific fields in which implicit agency approaches are already proving valuable, and assess the opportunities and challenges of more systematically incorporating biological agency into research programs. (shrink)

This series presents issues which are central to 20th-century European thought, but unfamiliar to students of Anglo-American philosophy. In this book the author traces the development of the concept of situation through the work of Gabriel Marcel, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty.

Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is the first full-length study of Beauvoir's political thinking. Best known as the author of The Second Sex, Beauvoir also wrote an array of other political and philosophical texts that together, constitute an original contribution to political theory and philosophy. Sonia Kruks here locates Beauvoir in her own intellectual and political context and demonstrates her continuing significance. Beauvoir still speaks, in a unique voice, to many pressing questions concerning politics: the values (...) and dangers of liberal humanism; how oppressed groups become complicit in their own oppression; how social identities are perpetuated; the limits to rationalism; and the place of emotions, such as the desire for revenge, in politics. In discussing such matters Kruks puts Beauvoir's ideas into conversation with those of many contemporary thinkers, including feminist and race theorists, as well as with historical figures in the liberal, Hegelian, and Marxist traditions. Beauvoir's political thinking emerges from her fundamental insights into the ambiguity of human existence. Combining phenomenological descriptions with structural analyses, she focuses on the tensions of human action as both free and constrained. To be human is to be a paradoxical being, at once capable of free choice and yet, because embodied, vulnerable to injury from others. Politics is thus a domain of complexly interwoven, multiple, human interactions that is rife with ambiguity, and where freedom and violence too often closely intertwine. Beauvoir accordingly argues that failure is a necessary part of political action. However, she also insists that, while acknowledging this, we should assume responsibility for the outcomes of what we do. (shrink)

In recent years, the changing landscape for the conduct and assessment of research and of researchers has increased scrutiny of the reward systems of science. In this context, correcting the research record, including retractions, has gained attention and space in the publication system. One question is the possible influence of retractions on the careers of scientists. It might be assessed, for example, through citation patterns or productivity rates for authors who have had one or more retractions. This is an emerging (...) issue today, with growing discussions in the research community about impact. We have explored the influence of retractions on grant review criteria. Here, we present results of a qualitative study exploring the views of a group of six representatives of funding agencies from different countries and of a follow-up survey of 224 reviewers in the US. These reviewers have served on panels for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and/or a few other agencies. We collected their perceptions about the influence of self-correction of the literature and of retractions on grant decisions. Our results suggest that correcting the research record, for honest error or misconduct, is perceived as an important mechanism to strengthen the reliability of science, among most respondents. However, retractions and self-correcting the literature at large are not factors influencing grant review, and dealing with retractions in reviewing grants is an open question for funders. (shrink)

Este ensaio pretende explorar a noçãoheideggeriana de angústia existencial comosuporte epistêmico da concepção psicanalítica depsicopatologia fundamental. Nessa medida oestudo apontará, através do conceito de angústia,alguns aspectos que unem filosofia e psicanálise.

The idea of nonconceptual contents proposes that there are mental contents at the level of the experiencing person that are individuated independently of ‘anything to do with the mind.’ Such contents are posited to meet a variety of theoretical and explanatory needs concerning concepts and conceptual mental contents which are individuated in terms having to do with the mind. So to examine the idea of nonconceptual content we need to examine whether we really need to posit such content and whether (...) there is a coherent, viable way of doing so. I will examine the idea of nonconceptual contents by considering Christopher Peacocke's attempt, in his Study of Concepts, to posit such contents.Three principal kinds of considerations motivate positing non-conceptual content: epistemological, phenomenological, and explanatory-psychological. A theory of knowledge might posit nonconceptual content in order to show that our experience contains the justificatory base for empirical thought as its own proper part. Non-conceptual content might also be posited in order to account for the finely detailed or determinate phenomenological character of perceptual experience. (shrink)

John Carvalho’s Thinking with Images, an Enactivist Aesthetics argues that puzzling artworks can draw us into a special activity – thinking when we don’t know what to think – which is valuable because it takes us beyond our skills and understanding. Enactivism is the theory of mind that best explains such thinking. The book illustrates this proposal with four chapters that detail Carvalho’s highly personal or individual encounters with enigmatic works of art. I raise two concerns. First, the four illustrative (...) chapters say that they are enactivist, but they do not show this. The illustrative chapters detail considerations about the works that are not distinguished by a particular theory of mind and might fit with any number of approaches to works of art. The suggestion that the thinking presented in each chapter is skillful is not explained. Second, the book does not just focus on thinking when we don’t know what to think, it also claims that such thinking frees us from mere looking. But enactivism does not require us to deny that our engagement with particular works in their ‘concrete singularity,’ to use Carvalho’s term, is perceptual. If perception is richly integrated or even continuous with what we understand skillfully or cognitively – and enacted in one’s circumstances – this does not erase differences between perception and thought or between their functions. When we ‘think with’ an individual so that we are engaged with it in its concrete singularity, perception is involved either in the present or the past. There is no need to shunt perception or looking aside as life activities that are just rule-bound, just part of knowing what to think rather than part of our response when we don’t know what to think. (shrink)

El objetivo de este capítulo es analizar el presunto despliegue de la «democracia sin alternativas» en Europa y sus consecuencias para la calidad de las democracias nacionales, especialmente las de la periferia de la zona euro –giips: Grecia, Irlanda, Italia, Portugal y España. El argumento principal es que la falta de receptividad de los gobiernos nacionales de los países giips hacia los deseos de sus ciudadanos constituye el reverso de la moneda de un exceso de atención de los gobiernos de (...) los países núcleo del euro, en especial de Alemania, a las preferencias de su ciudadanía. En todas las democracias representativas los políticos se enfrentan a un dilema fundamental entre receptividad a las demandas ciudadanas y responsabilidad ante terceros. Enfrentados a este dilema, los países núcleo del euro han optado claramente por lo primero –la receptividad ante las demandas de los electorados nacionales–, mientras que los países de la periferia de la zona euro se han visto forzados a ser responsables –ante sus socios de la ue y ante la ue en su totalidad. Como resultado, la crisis financiera de 2008 ha conducido a una ruptura en tres frentes dentro de la Unión Europea entre el núcleo y la periferia: con relación al ritmo de la recuperación económica, a los grados de autonomía gubernamental y, lo más importante, a la legitimidad democrática. Los países de la periferia de la eurozona se encuentran en el bando perdedor en los tres frentes.The objective of this article is to analyze the alleged unfolding of ‘democracy without choices’ in Europe and its consequences for the quality of national democracies, particularly those of the Eurozone periphery –giips: Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The argument is, in a nutshell, that the lack of responsiveness of giips national Governments to their respective national constituencies is the reverse of the medal of an excess of responsiveness in core Euro countries, particularly Germany. Governments are trapped between the pressure to be responsive at home and the need to be responsible to their European partners and the European project. If the trade-off of all democratic politics is between responsiveness and responsibility, Euro core countries have clearly opted for responsiveness –to domestic constituencies– and Eurozone peripheral countries have been forced to be responsible –towards their eu partners and the eu as a whole. As a result, the 2008 financial crisis has led to a three-fold breach inside the eu between core and periphery concerning the pace of economic recovery, the degrees of governmental autonomy and, most important of all, democratic legitimacy. Eurozone peripheral countries are at the losing side of this three-fold breach. (shrink)

Contribution of emotional valence and arousal to attentional processing over time is not fully understood. We employed a rapid serial visual paradigm in three experiments to investigate the...

Reification, fetishism, alienation, mastery, and control – these are some of the key concepts of modernity that have been battered and beaten by postmoderns and nonmoderns alike, with Bruno Latour, a nonmodern, discarding them most recently. Critical of this approach, which creates a rift between moderns and nonmoderns, the author engages in dialogue with modern thinkers – particularly Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann and Stanley Pullberg – with a view to recycling and redefining the concept of reification from a nonmodern perspective. (...) Marxian scholars associate reification with an attitude of detachment and passivity. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Luvale-speaking region of northwest Zambia, Africa, the author seeks to convert the negative and asymmetrical Marxian reading of reification, which places subjects above objects, to a positive symmetry. Marx explained the capitalist economy through the lens of religion. Reversing the direction of symmetrical comparison, the author considers the northwestern Zambian universe of ancestors and their different mahamba manifestations in the form of spiritual beings, diseased bodies and material objects through the lens of Marxian concepts, mainly reification and fetishism. Three aspects of reification understood as a human universal come to light: first, reification and animation entail each other both in the realms of materiality (human bodies and material objects) and immateriality (concepts and spirits), being best perceived as a form of fetishism. Reifacts are fetishes and fetishes are reifacts. Second, because fetishes are animated and do things, reification is a form of engagement with the world, a means to action and a tool for transformation. Third and last, and without contradiction, reification entails engagement and detachment, action and withdrawal, control and surrender. There is much to gain from recycling the old concept of reification. In a non-partisan symmetrical perspective, the redefinition of reification as fetishism yields a new, positive understanding of the place of material and immaterial things in social life and the ways in which we humans apprehend the world and implicate those things in our projects and struggles. Reification is not an impediment to action but a condition for action. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to Franz Brentano’s conception of intentionality, and aims to reveal some of its lesser known aspects, like the implications of his studies for our understanding of Aristotle’s psychology. I try to show two “currents” in Brentano’s thought: beside what is widely known as Franz Brentano’s philosophy of mind, I also present the Aristotelian side of his thinking. Each of these currents, which I call A and B, makes different assumptions about the ontological status of the soul (...) and God, and from these different conceptions of mental life and its relation to God follow different accounts of immortality. By discussing them in detail I also hope to show Brentano as a philosopher of religion. (shrink)

Beauty and the End of Art shows how a resurgence of interest in beauty and a sense of ending in Western art are challenging us to rethink art, beauty and their relationship. By arguing that Wittgenstein's later work and contemporary theory of perception offer just what we need for a unified approach to art and beauty, Sonia Sedivy provides new answers to these contemporary challenges. These new accounts also provide support for the Wittgensteinian realism and theory of perception that (...) make them possible. -/- Wittgenstein's subtle form of realism explains artworks in terms of norm governed practices that have their own varied constitutive norms and values. Wittgensteinian realism also suggests that diverse beauties become available and compelling in different cultural eras and bring a shared 'higher-order' value into view. With this framework in place, Sedivy argues that perception is a form of engagement with the world that draws on our conceptual capacities. This approach explains how perceptual experience and the perceptible presence of the world are of value, helping to account for the diversity of beauties that are available in different historical contexts and why the many faces of beauty allow us to experience the value of the world's perceptible presence. -/- Carefully examining contemporary debates about art, aesthetics and perception, Beauty and the End of Art presents an original approach. Insights from such diverse thinkers as Immanuel Kant, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Arthur Danto, Alexander Nehamas, Elaine Scarry and Dave Hickey are woven together to reveal how they make good sense if we bring contemporary theory of perception and Wittgensteinian realism into the conversation. (shrink)

En este artículo se analizarán las claves para comprender la encrucijada actual de la Teoría Feminista y poder así entender los retos del futuro a los que se enfrenta el pensamiento feminista. Inmersa durante largo tiempo en un debate centrado en una dualidad ficticia entre feminismo de la igualdad y feminismo de la diferencia, la teoría feminista se encuentra en la actualidad con nuevos retos que superan tal simpleza dicotómica. Podemos decir que la teoría feminista hoy está embarcada en una (...) tarea masiva de desactivación de tópicos. (shrink)

Entre os desafios postos para as pesquisas em ciências humanas e sociais está a compreensão do cotidiano como espaço para a captura das formas de apropriação da realidade objetiva por parte dos sujeitos e, ao mesmo tempo, a identificação das respostas dos sujeitos diante das condições postas. Como categoria analítica, destacamos as reflexões de Lukács acerca da categoria alternativa, tomando-a como mediação entre teleologia e reflexo, no processo de objetivação da teleologia em causalidade posta.

: The multifaceted nature of the map animates a wide range of debates that reveal its interdisciplinary nature. Our goal is to overcome classical cognitivism harmonizing the fields of neuroscience, geography, and enactivism to promote a holistic view not only of the map, but also of human beings and, more specifically, of the dynamic subject-world relationship. We have retraced the spatiality of the body and described the spatial dimension of implicit and explicit bodily skills and properties involved in the exploration (...) of – and engagement with – the world. We believe that maps, which present space in isolation, cannot grasp the global quality of subjective experience: space and time are not separable concepts for a cognitive agent engaged in the world. Finally, going beyond the theory of the extended mind to extended consciousness, we argue that ecological mapping, mental mapping, and practical mapping are closely interrelated. Keywords: Mapping; Enactivism; Image; Perception; Extended Consciousness Sono una mente, quindi sono una mappa. La costruzione di mappe come processo spazio-temporale esteso Riassunto: La natura poliedrica della mappa anima una vasta gamma di dibattiti che rivelano la sua natura interdisciplinare. Nostro scopo è quello di superare il cognitivismo classico, armonizzando campi quali la neuroscienza, la geografia e l’enattivimo, per promuovere una visione olistica non solo della mappa, ma anche dell’essere umano e, più specificamente, del rapporto dinamico tra soggetto e mondo. Intendiamo ripercorrere la spazialità del corpo e descrivere la dimensione spaziale delle abilità e delle proprietà corporee implicite ed esplicite implicate nell’esplorazione del – e nel coinvolgimento con – il mondo. Crediamo che le mappe, che presentano lo spazio in maniera isolata, non possono cogliere la qualità globale dell’esperienza soggettiva: lo spazio e il tempo non sono concetti separabili per un agente cognitivo coinvolto nel mondo. Infine, passando dalla teoria della mente estesa a quella della coscienza estesa, intendiamo sostenere che la creazione di mappe ecologiche, mentali e pratiche sia un’attività profondamente interconnessa. Parole chiave: Mappatura; Enattivismo; Immagine; Percezione; Coscienza estesa. (shrink)

Herder is often criticized for having embraced cultural relativism, but there has been little philosophical discussion of what he actually wrote about the nature of the human species and its differentiation through culture. This book focuses on Herder's idea of culture, seeking to situate his social and political theses within the context of his anthropology, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, theory of language and philosophy of history. It argues for a view of Herder as a qualified relativist, who combined the conception of (...) a common human nature with a belief in the importance of culture in developing and shaping that nature. Especially highlighted are Herder's understanding of the relativity of virtue and happiness, and his belief in the impossibility of constructing a single best society. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers interested both in Herder and in Enlightenment culture more generally. (shrink)

Sonia Greger; Aesthetic Meaning, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 6, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 137–163, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.1972.tb0.

Drawing on managerial discretion and conflicting institutional logics literature, this study investigates the relation between the personal sustainability behaviors of owner–managers and the corporate sustainability practices of SMEs. The research proposes a contingency model that assesses the moderating effects of perceived economic advantages and environmental hostility on this relationship. Based on linear hierarchical multiple regression analyses of a cross-sectoral sample of French SMEs, the results suggest a positive influence of the manager's PSB on the SME's CS practices that appears to (...) be differently moderated depending on the type of practice considered. The influence on environmental practices is fostered through the perception of economic advantages. The influence on workplace practices is only effective when the business environment is deemed benign and the influence on community practices is dampened by the perception of environmental hostility. Highlighting the trade-off between the manager's personal values and the SME's economic constraints, these findings contribute to a better understanding of the critical antecedents of sustainability in small businesses. (shrink)

This article explores a modern approach to childhood that abandons the traditional view of children in western societies as inferior, fragile and vulnerable. The modern approach explored in this paper takes a plural perspective in the conception of children as people who are able to think for themselves and who have the absolute right to participate in the affairs that affect them. This modern approach is related in this study to the free-rangers thesis, in which childhood is interpreted as a (...) process of maturation and not as a stage of life, which is the conception linked to the traditional percepcion of childhood in the western societies. In the framework of formal education, this modern approach to childhood is related to Freire’s liberating education and the proposals for the school of philosophy with children in which philosophical practices are encouraged from an early age, thereby stimulating a much more active role for children in schools and giving their voice due recognition. So, this study highlights the importance of promoting liberating education in schools with the aim of making every effort to subvert the traditional roles of both teachers and pupils in formal education to give a more active role to children. In thi sense, this paper calls for the activity of philosophy whith children and encourages the idea of putting philosophy at the service of schools to give children’s voices greater value. (shrink)

Objectives To analyse the perspective of clinical research stakeholders concerning post-trial access to study medication. Methods Questionnaires and informed consents were sent through e-mail to 599 ethics committee (EC) members, 290 clinical investigators (HIV/AIDS and Diabetes) and 53 sponsors in Brazil. Investigators were also asked to submit the questionnaire to their research patients. Two reminders were sent to participants. Results The response rate was 21%, 20% and 45% in EC, investigators and sponsors’ groups, respectively. 54 patients answered the questionnaire through (...) their doctors. The least informative item in the consent form was how to obtain the study medication after trial. If a benefit were demonstrated in the study, 60% of research participants and 35% of EC answered that all patients should continue receiving study medication after trial; 43% of investigators believed the medication should be given to participants, and 40% to subjects who participated and benefited from treatment. For 50% of the sponsors, study medication should be assured to participants who had benefited from treatment. The majority of responders answered that medication should be provided free by sponsors; investigators and sponsors believed the medication should be kept until available in the public health sector; EC members said that the patient should keep the benefit; patients answered that benefits should be assured for life. Conclusions Due to the study limitations, the results cannot be generalised; however, the data can contribute to discussion of this complex topic through analysing the views of stakeholders in clinical research in Brazil. (shrink)

: Common wisdom in genetic counseling, which is supported by Biesecker, holds that counselors should strive not to influence their clients' decision making. Such a presumption of nondirectiveness is challenged in this commentary.

The COVID-19 outbreak has ravaged all societal domains, including education. Home confinement, school closures, and distance learning impacted students, teachers, and parents’ lives worldwide. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on Italian and Portuguese students’ academic motivation as well as investigate the possible buffering role of extracurricular activities. Following a retrospective pretest–posttest design, 567 parents reported on their children’s academic motivation and participation in extracurricular activities. We used a multi-group latent change score model to (...) compare Italian and Portuguese students’: pre-COVID mean motivation scores; rate of change in motivation; individual variation in the rate of change in motivation; and dependence of the rate of change on initial motivation scores. Estimates of latent change score models showed a decrease in students’ motivation both in Italy and in Portugal, although more pronounced in Italian students. Results also indicated that the decrease in students’ participation in extracurricular activities was associated with changes in academic motivation. Furthermore, students’ age was significantly associated with changes in motivation. No significant associations were found for students’ gender nor for parents’ education. This study provides an important contribution to the study of students’ academic motivation during home confinement, school closures, and distance learning as restrictive measures adopted to contain a worldwide health emergency. We contend that teachers need to adopt motivation-enhancing practices as means to prevent the decline in academic motivation during exceptional situations. (shrink)

There was a day in March 2020 when I discovered I was old. There had, of course, been quite a few previous intimations of impending old age, but they had not “really” defined my being for me. Some years earlier, I had been surprised when people started to offer me their seat on a crowded bus or train. At first, I politely refused the seat; later, I decided that I would accept such invitations because declining seemed ungracious, and because accepting (...) would encourage this thoughtful behavior from which “others” would benefit. Recently, as my feet have begun to ache more, I have sometimes been happy to accept a seat on my own account. There have been other intimations too: some physical indications, such as needing a brighter light in order to read and stiffness in my knees. There have also been signs that my cultural, intellectual, and professional world, a world in which I have been deeply embedded, is passing: Students now live in an online media world that is alien to me, and a few of my colleagues have made it known that they find my research interests on Simone de Beauvoir a bit old-fashioned. But none of this actually defined me for myself as “old.” Surely, still an unremarkable, white, late-middle-aged woman, I did not think I “looked my age.” Surely, I had not yet become a member of that detested “foreign species” whose presence lurks within us all and that I, like most of us, so vehemently sought to deny. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study aimed to describe how parents and physicians experienced the informed consent interview and to investigate the aspects of the relationship that influenced parents’ decision during the consent process for a randomised clinical trial in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. The secondary objective was to describe the perspectives of parents and physicians in the specific situation of prenatal informed consent.SettingSingle centre study in NICU of the Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Créteil, France, using a convenience period from February to (...) May 2016.DesignAncillary study to a randomised clinical trial: Prettineo. Records of interviews for consent. Population: parents and physicians. Mixed study including qualitative and quantitative interview data about participants’ recall and feelings about the consent process. Interviews were reviewed using thematic discourse analysis.ResultsParents’ recall and understanding of the study’s main goal and design was good. Parents and physicians had a positive experience, and trust was one of the main reasons for parents to consent. Misunderstanding was the main reason for refusal.Before birth, three situations can compromise parents’ consent: the mother already consented to participate in other studies, the absence of the father during the interview and the feeling that the baby’s birth is not an imminent possibility.ConclusionsConfronting parents and physicians’ perspectives in research can help us reach answers to sensitive issues such as content and timing of information. Each different types of study raises different ethical dilemmas for consent that might be discussed in a more individual way. (shrink)

Observer intervention can be useful in preventing workplace harassment. This research extends the workplace harassment literature by using the Jones et al. ( 1984 ) stigma dimensions and related research (Summers et al., 2018 ; Weiner et al., 1988 ) to highlight differences and similarities between three forms of harassment (i.e., sexual, sexual orientation, religious) and their relations to observer intervention in workplace harassment incidents. Results from two studies reveal differences (controllability, stability, visibility) and similarities (disruptiveness, peril, bystander efficacy, position (...) authority) across forms of harassment in associations with observer intervention. Several differences across harassment of different religious subgroups (Atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims) are also noted. We explore the implications of these findings and suggest future directions for research in the observer intervention and workplace harassment literature. (shrink)

The authors argue that from the perspective of distributive justice, school district fragmentation—meaning both the existing reality of hyper-proliferated school districts and the practice of further breaking larger districts into smaller ones—produces three distinct injustices. First, it undermines racial solidarity and the bonds of community. Second, it violates the demands of procedural justice. And third, it leads to substantively unfair outcomes. Taken together, these concerns suggest that to create a more just educational system we ought to resist further fragmentation and (...) push for larger, more consolidated school districts coupled with progressive redistributive funding. To support this central normative argument, the article provides two justifications for conceptualizing education as a fundamental entitlement and its provision as a form of mutual aid. (shrink)

Au sein du service de placement où exerce en tant que psychologue le premier auteur de cet article a été développée une recherche longitudinale qui vise à explorer le fonctionnement psychique des adolescents auteurs de violences sexuelles et les modalités de leur accompagnement éducatif et thérapeutique. L’article propose de se centrer sur leur placement en famille d’accueil, la dynamique relationnelle témoignant des particularités des liens tissés avec les premiers objets. La présentation de la situation de Nicolas mettra en exergue les (...) difficultés, malentendus et usures qui semblent illustrer un scénario qui se répète et qui conduit à la rupture. Les auteurs ouvrent une réflexion, dans une perspective psychodynamique, pour tenter de comprendre les mouvements psychiques à l’œuvre du côté de l’adolescent, notamment sur un plan intersubjectif, dans la perspective développée par René Kaës, et invitent à s’intéresser aux adaptations nécessaires au sein des dispositifs éducativo-thérapeutiques d’accompagnement. (shrink)

Marxism was an integral aspect of Beauvoir's political and theoretical orientation from the mid‐1940s onwards and it colors much of her writings. This chapter first locates Beauvoir in her politico‐intellectual milieu. It then traces the complex ways in which, throughout her works, she draws on materialist and humanistic aspects of Marxism while also often distancing herself from the more mechanistic Marxism of the French Communist Party.

According to the dominant historiographical narrative, the social reconstructionists were a homogeneous group with a shared social, political, economic, and educational agenda. However, the pages of the journal The Social Frontier are replete with evidence that they were not in agreement on significant issues, especially when it came to the proper role of teachers in reform efforts. In fact, a close look reveals that the social reconstructionists presented multiple, overlapping, and often conflicting theories and strategies to advance the reconstruction of (...) society, while explicating different roles for teachers therein. When teachers are placed at the center of the investigation, their factionalism, which has been discussed previously by C.A. Bowers and James Giarelli in their studies of the journal, is conspicuously apparent. Analysis of the different conceptions of teachers presented in The Social Frontier (subsequently titled Frontiers of Democracy) reveals that collectively, the social reconstructionists engaged in “more than one struggle”; and individually, they held views that were influenced by personal priorities and responses to the Depression, the spread of Communism and Fascism, the start of war in Europe and Asia, and, eventually, the involvement of the United States in World War II. (shrink)