Joseph Grange's beautifully written book provides a unique synthesis of two major figures of world philosophy, John Dewey and Confucius, and points the way to a global philosophy based on American and Confucian values. Grange concentrates on the major themes of experience, felt intelligence, and culture to make the connections between these two giants of Western and Eastern thought. He explains why the Chinese called Dewey "A Second Confucius," and deepens our understanding of Confucius's concepts of the way (...) (dao) of human excellence (ren). The important dimensions of American and Chinese cultural philosophy are welded into an argument that calls for the liberation of what is finest in both traditions. The work gives a new appreciation of fundamental issues facing Chinese and American relations and brings the opportunities and dangers of globalization into focus. (shrink)

Compassionate care is a foundation of the National Health Service. However, several high-profile inquiries into healthcare failures in the NHS suggest compassion is often absent in our hospitals. Ensuing policies mandate healthcare professionals to ‘show more compassion’ but, as the psychological evidence-base indicates, this instruction neglects the complexity of this social emotion. This paper applies the psychological research on compassion to modern healthcare settings with the aim of creating a better understanding of the pathways leading to uncompassionate care. A review (...) of the empirical evidence suggests a range of psychological factors modulate compassion. In particular, the psychological literature indicates the human compassion system is adaptive, highly attuned to its environment. As such, a healthcare professional’s ability to experience and display compassionate behaviour will be, in part, determined by the environment in which they practise; that is, aspects of the organisational environment will either facilitate or inhibit compassion. This paper argues that the typical organisational set-up of a modern healthcare setting seriously undermines compassionate care. Organisational features frequently associated with uncompassionate care include the understaffing of hospital wards, excessive working shift patterns and the dogged focus on achieving service efficiencies—each has been identified as contributing to the alarming breakdown of compassionate care at the centre of several healthcare failings. Policies focusing on culture change in the NHS neglect the growing psychological evidence base on compassion, but by applying a psychological understanding of compassion to healthcare settings, we can begin to adequately understand and address the real causes of uncompassionate care. (shrink)

The erosion of the three interlocking dimensions of nature, society and self is the consequence of what Felix Guattari referred to as integrated world capitalism (IWC). In South Africa the erosion of nature, society and self is also the consequence of centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid. In this paper I wish to explore how the African philosophy of ubuntu (humanness), which appears to be anthropocentric, might be invoked to contribute to the healing of the three ecologies—how healing of (...) the social might transversally effect healing of nature and the self. My theoretical exploration has relevance to education in South Africa, given that a mandate of national curriculum policy is that indigenous knowledge systems form part of the discursive terrains of all school learning areas/subjects. (shrink)

Pour Thomas d’Aquin, la Trinité n’est pas d’ordre philosophique mais théologique, dépendant de la révélation biblique. Les controverses trinitaires sont déjà loin, les résolutions conciliaires aussi, mais Thomas, à plusieurs reprises et à chaque fois de manière différente, expose un traité des plus délicats. Il s’agit de poser trois personnes dans une seule substance. L’un de ses principaux apports est d’enrichir les relations d’origine qui distinguent les trois personnes en relations substantielles. Thomas tire les concepts au-delà de leur acception ordinaire, (...) manifestant ainsi la manière qui est la sienne d’entrecroiser philosophie et théologie. (shrink)

This article explores the influence of Spinozism on the deep ecology movement and on new materialism. It questions the stance of supporters of the DEM because their ecosophies unwittingly anthropomorphise the more-than-human-world. It suggests that instead of humanising the ‘natural’ world, morality should be naturalised, that is, that the object of human expression of ethics should be the more-than-human world. Moreover, the article discusses Deleuze’s Spinozism that informs new materialism and argues that stripping the human of its ontological privilege does (...) not deprive the human animal from its ethico-normative distinctiveness. Implications of the discussion for an education aimed at cultivating human sensibilities are explored. (shrink)

The National Health Service (NHS) has, for over four decades, been beset with numerous ‘scandals’ relating to poor patient care across several diverse clinical contexts. Ensuing inquiries proceed as though each scandal is unique, with recommendations highlighting the need for more staff training, a change of culture within the NHS based upon a ‘duty of candour’, and proposed criminal sanctions for employees believed to breach good patient care. However, mistakes reoccur and failings in patient safety continue. While inquiries describe _what_ (...) went awry in each case, questions of _how_ and _why_ such failures came to be remain unanswered. Psychology has a role in answering these questions. Applying psychological theory can guide an understanding of the _causes_ that lead to catastrophic failures in healthcare settings. Indeed, what is often neglected in inquiries is the role of human behaviour in contributing to these failures. Drawing upon behavioural, social and cognitive theories, a psychological analysis of key factors, typically present in clinical contexts where serious failures of care occur, is presented. Applying theory and models from the field of psychology can guide further understanding of the precipitants to poor care. (shrink)

Thierry Patrice, 57 ans, médecin, nommé professeur à 32 ans, Lauréat de la Faculté, est internationalement connu pour ses travaux concernant l'action de la lumière sur les tissus vivant en cancérologie. Il a reçu plusieurs Prix pour l'étude du rôle de l'oxygène dans différentes maladies, dont le diabète, mais aussi lors du vieillissement.

The present paper examines how discursive representations and emotive constructions underpin an argumentative dynamic that emerges from apparently non-argumentative statements, like those found in newspaper headlines. Our data comes from Greek broadsheet newspapers in the polarized context of the Greek crisis. First, we outline an analytic synergy that scrutinizes representational meaning and the semiotization of emotions in headlines. We then move towards the reconstruction of the inferential passage, contained in the headlines, that unites the implicit standpoint with its supporting argument.

Valorising the biocultural heritage of common goods could enable peasant farmers to achieve socially and economically inclusive sustainability. Increasingly appreciated by consumers, peasant heritage products offer small farmers promising opportunities for economic, social and territorial development. Identifying the obstacles and levers of this complex, multi-scale and multi-stakeholder objective requires an integrative framework. We applied the panarchy conceptual framework to two cases of participatory research with small quinoa producers: a local fair in Chile and quinoa export production in Bolivia. In both (...) cases, the “commoning” process was crucial both to bring stakeholders together inside their communities and to gain outside recognition for their production and thus achieve social and economic inclusion. Despite the differences in scale, the local fair and the export market shared a similar marketing strategy based on short value chains promoting quality products with high identity value. In these dynamics of biocultural heritage valorisation, the panarchical approach revealed the central place as well as the vulnerability of the community territory. As a place of both anchoring and opening, the community territory is the privileged space where autonomous and consensual control over the governance of common biocultural resources can be exercised. (shrink)

Despite the 300 years of philosophy separating them. Spinoza and Heidegger are committed to a unifying vision of the human and the natural. Such a perspective encourages a renewed understanding of the place of feelings in environmental studies. Neither untrustworthy reactions nor neutral readings of environmental stimuli, human feelings are the basic way in which we encounter the world. The primordial character of emotions in both Spinoza and Heidegger follows from their commitment to the unity of reality. An understanding of (...) both thinkers opens up being. feeling. and environnlent as the proper subject matter of ecology. Environmental studies will begin to advance again when it dedicates itself to the potential riches of such a unitive vision. (shrink)

Politisation du temps et temporalisation du politique, « politique du temps », chronopolitique… Les approches de la relation entre temps et politique sont variées, n’ont pas fait l’objet d’une école particulière dans l’histoire de la philosophie et, pour tout dire, sont restées assez invisibles, comparées aux philosophies de l’histoire. Bruno Godefroy pose pourtant cette question cruciale, qui commence seulement à être abordée, en sociologie par exemple, et le fait en s’attachant à la compara...

Dès l’introduction, qui est un article en soi et non pas une présentation, l’ambition de l’ouvrage apparaît. Nous n’aurons pas affaire à un nouveau livre sur la guerre et ses représentations (même si nous en manquons) ; nous allons lire un ouvrage sur la poétique de la guerre. Si l’expression peut paraître insupportable, elle est pourtant la garantie, dans la démarche des auteurs, que rien ne nous fera céder à la fascination morbide. Au minimum, la poétique, attachée aux détails, est (...) un moyen... (shrink)

Our planet is sick and perhaps on a tipping point of extinction. The causes are well known—global warming, the collapse of the world economy, human greed, and thermonuclear war—to name but a few agents at work in the contemporary world. America and China hold the world's destiny in their grip. How they will interact is unknown. What is known is that both civilizations have in their traditions the ways and means to reverse this approaching apocalypse. Each country is now passing (...) through cultural explosions. This article searches classical Chinese and American philosophy for concepts and social forms that can give shape to this era of upheaval. I have confidence in the genius of Confucius as well as that of certain great classical American philosophers. Read together they can help us come to deal with both the decay of established orders and the overwhelming novelty now sweeping through our consciousness. (shrink)

L’auteur s’appuie sur le travail de F. André, L’enfant insuffisamment bon (1985), pour explorer l’idée que le handicap et la souffrance qu’il procure à son contact met en question l’identification humaine sur un plan familial et sociétal et entraîne des mécanismes d’indifférenciation entre l’humain et le non-humain, le vivant et le non vivant. Situés dans un mouvement protecteur au départ, ces mécanismes aggravent ensuite les effets du handicap au sein des familles ou des établissements spécialisés en empêchant le développement de (...) la sub-jectivité de chacun. Pour le comprendre, l’auteur expose deux exemples de thérapies familiales psychanalytiques, l’un dans le cas d’une enfant gravement handicapée (atteinte neurologique et psychose symbiotique), et l’autre dans le cas d’un enfant dont le handicap se trouve majoré par les éléments trans-générationnels réactivés à sa naissance et dont il va se retrouver porteur. (shrink)

L’adoption a la particularité d’activer un champ fantasmatique dont l’auteur se propose d’éclairer certains aspects. La résonance entre la situation adoptive et ce que Freud a appelé le « roman familial » en fait un lieu possible d’exacerbation des rivalités, des fantasmes de rapt, des mécanismes d’idéalisation, aussi bien au sein des familles adoptantes que dans leurs relations avec les professionnels chargés de les accompagner. L’idéalisation conjointe parents-pro-fessionnels de la situation adoptive a pour effet d’empêcher la reconnaissance de la négativité (...) présente dans toute forme de transmission. Elle peut empêcher aussi le repérage de ce que l’auteur propose d’appréhender comme une clinique de la rupture de transmission. Cette rupture a parfois comme conséquence la mise en place de clivages internes à chacun des protagonistes, clivages qui vont se redoubler et diffuser sous forme de sidération ou de conflits dans l’agencement des professionnels gravitant autour de ces situations. Ces situations complexes, bouleversant profondément chacun, nécessitent des espaces spécifiques de traitement et de réflexion pour en construire des modalités de compréhension. (shrink)

Le baroque politique est connu pour avoir été pensé dans les images théâtrales. Par rapport à la compréhension du pouvoir sous la forme de la représentation ostentatoire, le secret – contenu et pratique – se présente dans une dimension toute différente. Héritier infidèle des pensées de la raison d’État et des théories de la dissimulation machiavélienne, le secret politique est lié aux nouvelles descriptions de la prudence mélangée, où ne sont plus séparées morale et politique. Dissimulation des intentions plutôt que (...) mensonge, le secret ouvre un nouvel espace politique qui n’a pas de lieu propre, et dont tout l’intérêt pour les hommes de pouvoir est de laisser croire qu’il y a secret, presque indépendamment du contenu lui-même. Ainsi le secret pensé politiquement est-il lié à un nouveau partage du politique, qui crée une société restreinte liée par une communication spéciale entre destinateur, dépositaire et destinataire du secret, inaugurant à la fois une rationalité sans légitimité et une science politique nouvelle. (shrink)

If postmodernism is/was a condition and poststructuralism an academic theory associated with it, then one might ask what condition characterizes contemporary life and what emerging theories might b...

Currently, global society is delicately poised on a civilisational threshold similar to that of the feudal era. This is a time when outmoded institutions, values, and systems of thought and their associated dogmas are ripe for transcendence by more relevant systems of organization and knowledge (Davidson, 2000). The foundations of the modern era (including modern educational institutions) are under sharp scrutiny; the fragmentation of nature, society and self is evidence of the cracks in the foundations. In times of crises old (...) questions often come to the fore. For example, as environmental problems reach unprecedented levels the perennial existential question of how we should live is emerging once more. So too are educational questions such as what and how we should learn. But, times of crises also present new opportunities, create fresh imaginings and alternative meanings, metaphors and languages.In this paper I wish to appraise sustainability (and its epithets such as development) as a new discourse that emerged in the late 20th century in response to the psycho-socio-environmental crises of the time. I shall also examine the (in)capacity of disciplinary knowledge and traditional scholarship to respond to the complex and pressing problems of contemporary society. Finally, I will critically discuss the role that new modes of knowledge production, an expanded view of scholarship and alternative metaphors might play in (re)imagining the university's role in sustainability education. (shrink)

The primary method by which science endeavors to order the world is the analytic approach, consistent with Cartesian principles of dividing the problem in as many sections as required for an optimal solution, and progressing from the simplest to the most complex reasoning. When the interactions among the various elements of the system being studied are minimal, such a procedure indeed makes it possible to formulate laws that describe chains of causality. However, when the variables are interdependent and linked by (...) non-linear equations, the atomistic method cannot account for the phenomenon in its entirety. Spurred by this inadequacy, scientists sought to discover synthetic methods which, early in the twentieth century, led to the conceptualization of holistic theories in a number of disciplines. The most highly developed fields are the psychology of form, structural anthropology (1), and the various systems theories (2). More recently, the development of epigenetic concepts in biology has corresponded to the appearance of different theories of pattern in physics and mathematics (3, 4) and to the progressive emergence of the concept of self-organization (5, 6, 7). The objective is to explain the production of complex structures on the basis of interacting elements, none of which contains a guiding scheme that dictates these structures. In biology, the challenge is to locate the constraints that are expressed in a space of possibilities (8) in order to develop a theory of organization that is capable of predicting the finite number of forms that living creatures can assume (9). This school of thought can be described as structuralist, emergentist, self-organizational, or epigeneticist, depending on the theoretical version that is emphasized. (shrink)

Provides a set of normative measure sto assess the value of nature and proposes the new discipline of foundational ecology as a response to environmental crisis.

We present a proof of Goodmanʼs Theorem, which is a variation of the proof of Renaldel de Lavalette [9]. This proof uses in an essential way possibly divergent computations for proving a result which mentions systems involving only terminating computations. Our proof is carried out in a constructive metalanguage. This involves implicitly a covering relation over arbitrary posets in formal topology, which occurs in forcing in set theory in a classical framework, but can also be defined constructively.

This article outlines a moral education guided by African traditional values such as ubuntu and ukama. It argues that ubuntu is not by definition speciesist, as some have claimed, but that it has strong ecocentric leanings, that is, if ubuntu is understood as a concrete expression of ukama. In fact, ubuntu deconstructs the anthropocentric?ecocentric distinction which has characterised and continues to characterise debates in environmental theory/philosophy. To become more fully human does not mean caring only for the self and other (...) human beings but also for the entire biophysical world. Some implications that this discussion has for moral education are explored, as well as some opportunities that post-apartheid curriculum frameworks offer for implementing a moral education guided by ubuntu. (shrink)

This study was aimed at explaining how and under what conditions surface similarity leads to the retrieval of an analogous base problem in LTM. Some elements of a theory of the organisation of knowledge in memory are proposed. Two levels of representation are distinguished. The first level represents directly accessible, local surface properties. The second level represents more abstract information pertaining to the category with which each analogous problem can be associated. Some results will be described showing that access to (...) an analogue in LTM based on surface properties is determined by the existence of a similarity at a higher level of abstraction. This is a search-area effect, in that categorical information seems to delimit a memory search space, within which the connection between local surface properties is more likely to be made. (shrink)