The purpose of this paper is to discuss some ways in which dialectical models can be put to computational use. In particular, we consider means of facilitating human-computer debate, means of catering for a wider range of dialogue types than purely debate and means of providing dialectical support for group dialogues. We also suggest how the computational use of dialectical theories may help to illuminate research issues in the field of dialectic itself.

I take 'informal logic' to be the (descriptive and normative) study of 'real arguments'-arguments which are or have been used with the aim of convincing others of a point of view. I argue that the informal logic tradition thus conceived (i) lends strong support to something like Quine's view that our beliefs really support one another like the filaments in a spider's web--and thus that the traditional view that implication is an asymmetric relation is false; (ii) suggests that the classic (...) division of arguments into deductive and inductive has distorted our thinking about the evaluation of real arguments; and (iii) implies that naturalised epistemology is on the right track. (shrink)

En représentant la promesse de répliquer certaines fonctions écosystémiques et de permettre la vie dans l’invivable, certaines technologies spatiales nourrissent un imaginaire de la catastrophe qui laisse penser que tout puisse continuer comme avant. Au travers d’une enquête sur des systèmes de support de vie biorégénératifs développés dans le contexte des programmes spatiaux habités, cet essai examine un mode d’existence capsulaire qui nie les planétarités concrètes en proposant d’habiter des sphères à l’atmosphère contrôlée. Il étudie aussi quelques trajectoires singulières qui (...) font imploser le paradigme capsulaire en prêtant attention aux alliances et affects partagés entre les vivants. (shrink)

Human beings adapt the spontaneous pace of their actions to interact with the environment. Yet, the nature of the mechanism enabling such adaptive behavior remains poorly understood. The aim of the present contribution was to examine the role of attention in motor timing using time series analysis, and a dual task paradigm. In a series of two studies, a finger-tapping task was used in sensorimotor synchronization with various tempi and motor complexity. Time series analyzes indicated that two different timing strategies (...) were used depending on the speed constraints. At slow tempi, tapping sequences were characterized by strong negative autocorrelations, suggesting the implication of cognitive predictive timing. When moving at fast and close-to-spontaneous tempi, tapping sequences were characterized by less negative autocorrelations, suggesting that timing properties emerged from body movement dynamics. The analysis of the dual-task reaction times confirmed that both the temporal and spatial constraints impacted the attentional resources allocated to the finger-tapping tasks. Overall, our work suggests that moving fast and slow involve distinct timing strategies that are characterized by contrasting attentional demands. (shrink)

Comment analyser les oppositions entre normes religieuses et mutations de genre? Comment penser les changements ayant lieu dans les mondes religieux? Faisant suite à un colloque organisé en 2012, cet ouvrage collectif Normes religieuses et genre, co-dirigé par Florence Rochefort et Maria-Eleonora Sanna (chercheuses au CNRS), interroge les dynamiques religieuses au prisme du genre dans le monde contemporain, en croisant les regards disciplinaires entre spécialistes du genre et spécialistes d...

Si les travaux sur l’articulation entre genre et sexualités se multiplient, peu encore accordent de l’intérêt à la matérialité du sexe et des organes sexuels en eux-mêmes. Le numéro « Regards sur le sexe » coordonné par Julie De Ganck et Vanessa D’Hooghe pour la revue Sextant et issu du colloque « Montrez ce sexe que je ne saurais voir! » (3-4 mai 2012) cherche à remédier à cette lacune. Le numéro croise plusieurs types de regards sur le sexe : (...) des regards disciplinaires (regards historique... (shrink)

As Russell's paradox of "the set of all sets that do not contain themselves" indicated long ago, matters go seriously amiss if one operates an ontology of unrestricted totalization. Some sort of restriction must be placed on such items as "the set of all sets that have the feature F' or "the conjunction of all truths that have the feature G." But generally, logicians here introduce such formalized and complex devices as the theory of types or the doctrine of impredictivity. (...) The present paper argues for the informal and elementary idea that the items invoked in a proper identification have themselves already been identified. Even as an explanation is not satisfactory that proceeds in terms of items that themselves require prior explanation, so the same holds with identification. And heed of this elementary idea suffices to sideline those otherwise paradoxical perplexities. (shrink)

In this work, we question the ability of existing ranking-based semantics to capture persuasion settings, emphasising in particular the phenomena of procatalepsis and of fading. Some widely accepted principles of ranking-based semantics are incompatible with a faithful treatment of these phenomena, which means that no existing ranking-based semantics can capture these two principles together. This motivates us to introduce a new parametrized ranking-based semantics based on the notion of propagation which extends the existing propagation semantics 139–150) by adding an additional (...) parameter allowing us to gradually decrease the impact of arguments when the length of the path between two arguments increases. We show that this parameter gives the possibility of choosing if one wants to satisfy the property Void Precedence or not and to control the scope of the impact of the arguments. We also propose an experiment to show that the new semantics remains stable when this parameter varies and an axiomatic evaluation to compare it with existing ranking-based semantics in the literature. (shrink)

1. Argumentation consists in reasoning with conflicting information based on the exchange and evaluation of interacting arguments. It can be used for modelling dialogue (persuasion, negotiation), d...

In this discussion piece, eight scholars in geography, urban planning, and agri-food studies from the United States (US) and France engage in a bi-national comparison to deepen our collective understanding of food and land justice. We specifically contextualize land justice as a critical component of food justice in both the US and France in three key areas: access to land for cultivation, urban agriculture, and non-agricultural forms of food provisioning. The US and France are interesting cases to compare, considering the (...) differences and similarities in their colonial and agricultural histories, persistent and systemic race and class-based inequities in land access, and the roles of public bodies and social movements. In this paper, we synthesize literature, share reflections, and offer directions for future scholarship, including a broader comparative research agenda. An important difference we found is in the degree of scholarly attention to race and how it mediates access to land. We also observe that few scholars articulate a clear definition of justice in their work, nor do they share a common justice framework. We hope that this paper contributes to a more robust food and land justice framework for the use of scholars, practitioners and activists. (shrink)

Ce livre est la version remaniée d'une thèse dont l'Auteure est désormais maître de conférence à l'EPHE et travaille également à l'Institut Européen en Sciences des Religions récemment fondé sur la recommandation de Régis Debray. Isabelle Saint-Martin évoque un monde en voie de disparition, celui des images pieuses qui ont contribué à la formation religieuse des chrétiens de la génération de nos grands et arrière-grands-parents. Publié pour la première fois vers le milieu des années 1880 et c..

Dans la « campagne participative » nationale de Ségolène Royal et de son association « Désirs d'avenir », le formatage des activités par les interfaces numérisées joue un rôle crucial dans l'appropriation de pratiques politiques innovantes, ainsi que dans le régime d'implication des militants. L'épaisseur sémiotique de la campagne influence la dynamique organisationnelle. Elle contribue à légitimer les positions de la candidate; elle facilite également la rectification de ses propos. Ces pratiques reposent sur des micro-dispositifs logiciels très rustiques, souvent (...) des offres grand-public gratuites.In the "participatory campaign" National Ségolène Royal and its association 'desires for the future ", the formatting of activities by Digital interfaces plays a crucial role in the appropriation of innovative policy practices, as well as involvement in the scheme activists. The thickness of the campaign semiotic influence organizational dynamics. It helps to legitimize the positions of the candidate, it also facilitates the correction of his remarks. These practices are based on micro-devices software very hardy, often offers free general public. (shrink)

In the French presidential election, both candidates tried to keep their domestic life separate from their campaign. Ségolène Royal is not married to François Hollande, the father of her four children. When asked whether they were a couple, Royal replied, “Our lives belong to us.” Similarly, in response to rumors that President-elect Nicholas Sarkozy’s wife had left him, a spokesman for Sarkozy said, “That’s a private matter.” The French have a long tradition of respecting the privacy of their politicians’ (...) personal lives, and French public opinion is more broad-minded than in the United States, where an unwed mother of four would have no chance of being nominated for the presidency by a major party. Indeed, last month, Randall Tobias, the top foreign aid adviser in the US State Department, resigned after acknowledging that he had used an escort service described as providing “high-end erotic fantasy” – although Tobias said he only had a massage. (shrink)

The article presents an analysis of the ways in which knowledge is displayed, contested and renegotiated in the 2007 French presidential debate between Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy. Knowledge displays can be achieved through a series of ‘neutral’ resources, such as informing, explanation or comment, or through face-damaging resources, such as questioning an unknowledgeable interlocutor to prove his inferior epistemic status and boost one’s own. The article focuses on this latter type of knowledge display where a knowledgeable participant engages (...) in question–answer sequences with an unknowledgeable respondent in front of a third party. The article also undertakes an analysis of the multimodal strategies employed by the participant to discredit the opponent. The article intends to contribute to the existent literature on epistemic stance by offering a prototypical example of incongruence between the epistemic status of the questioner and the epistemic stance he adopts. (shrink)