This paper offers a critical assessment of the Successive Addition Argument (SAA) in support of past finitism, i.e., the thesis that the past of the universe is finite in duration. This old philosophical argument, re-popularized by William Lane Craig in modern times, contends that the universe’s past cannot be infinite because an infinite series cannot be formed by successive addition. I first address a recently popular objection to the argument, namely the Zeno Objection, showing that it can be easily dismissed (...) once each addition is taken to have the same duration. Nevertheless, I contend that the _onus_ of the proof lies on those who propose the SAA, and that their main argumentative strategies fail. Indeed, many of their arguments are based on the supposedly uncontroversial claim that one cannot traverse the infinite by starting somewhere. I argue that a complete traversal of the infinite, with a beginning infinitely far from its end, is logically and metaphysically possible. Other popular arguments against traversed infinities are based on thought experiments such as the backward counter or the Tristram Shandy thought experiments. I argue that, once infinitely far beginnings are granted, none of the arguments based on such thought experiments prove effective, so that the SAA must be rejected. (shrink)

In the epilogue to Memory, History, Forgetting, Paul Ricoeur introduces an overlooked “vertical” axis into the problem of forgiveness. This verticality runs from the “depth” of fault to the “height” of forgiveness. For Ricoeur, forgiveness only appears an impossible “exchange” if one excludes this verticality from the question. Instead, he calls forgiveness “difficult” because it traverses from height to depth. This article argues that Ricoeur’s notion of the horizontal and the vertical in Memory, History, Forgetting is best understood as an (...) allusion to his account of time and eternity in Chapter 1 of Time and Narrative, volume 1, even though Ricoeur himself does not explicitly make this connection. In light of the ontological tenor of this connection, the author also suggests a slight modification of Ricoeur’s account, calling forgiveness “improbable” rather than difficult. (shrink)

Comment survivre à la vie? Car la vie finit mal, se passe mal aussi parfois, avec ruptures, chagrins, deuils, maladies, et mort. Comment traverser ces catastrophes? Avec l'aide de la foi, qui donne sens à ce qui n'est que souffrance? Mais qu'en est-il de l'athée? S'il veut être cohérent, il ne doit pas chercher à donner un sens à ces souffrances, à leur trouver une justification mais il ne peut faire fond que sur l'absurdité de la vie. Quelle fécondité trouver (...) aux vies abîmées? Comment penser la mort et la douleur? Comme ce qui est étranger à la vie, comme ce qui ne la concerne pas. Sans pour autant faire comme si cela n'était rien. Il faudrait donc tenir ensemble la réalité terrifiante du malheur et la valeur absolue de la vie, qui seule importe.Un essai de philosophie athée rigoureuse, qui pose la question essentielle : à quoi bon vivre? Introduction. Vivre au dehors. Idées pour la constitution d'une éthique athée Chapitre premier. Le pendule équivoque. Tomber malade, vivre debout Chapitre II. Expérience et misère de la mort Chapitre III. Vivre sans, vivre avec - après la mort Chapitre IV. Quelle tuile! Sur l'événement amoureux Chapitre V. Heureux qui comme David (Se faire son petit bonheur juif) Chapitre VI. Des petits et des grandsbouleversements La fin du pire? Remerciements. (shrink)

In recent years, Richard Kearney has emerged as a leading figure in the field of continental philosophy, widely recognized for his work in the areas of philosophical and religious hermeneutics, theory and practice of the imagination, and political thought. This much-anticipated--and long overdue--study is the first to reflect the full range and impact of Kearney's extensive contributions to contemporary philosophy. The book opens with Kearney's own "prelude" in which he traces his intellectual itinerary as it traverses the three imaginaries explored (...) in the volume: the dialogical, the political, and the narrative. The interviews that follow the first section allow readers to listen in on conversations between Kearney and some of the most interesting and respected thinkers of our time--Noam Chomsky, Charles Taylor, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricouer, and Martha Nussbaum--as they reveal new and unexpected aspects of their thought on stories and mourning, ethics and narrative, terror and religion, intellectuals and ideology. The next section, on the political imaginary, looks at Kearney's distinctive contribution to the political situation in Ireland and in Europe more generally; and in the last, on narrative, writers including David Wood, Terry Eagleton, and Mark Dooley focus on Kearney's novels as instances of narrative theory put into literary practice. Concluding with Kearney's postscript, an essay on "Traversals and Epiphanies in Joyce and Proust," the volume comes full circle, encompassing the full extent of Richard Kearney's engagement and offerings as a philosopher. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to present a proof to the conclusion that is impossible to traverse an infinite series (in particular, an infinite series of past moments). This may also show (given additional assumptions) that the series of past moments cannot be infinite. In the first section I formulate five theses concerning traversing, successive addition and successive subtraction and I present the idea of the argument: if it were possible to traverse an infinite past, it should be in (...) principle possible to go back, which is, however, impossible. The main body of the paper is concerned with working out a simple mathematical representation of some structural features of processes like traversing and successive addition. I also make a crucial distinction between completion of a process at a particular time and its timeless "completion" in infinite time. In section V, I present the formal proof and defend it against a possible objection of question-begging. Finally, I suggest that my argume. (shrink)

The generalized Brans–Dicke theory (GBD), as one of the modified gravitational theories, was proposed previously and some interesting properties were found in this theory. Here we investigate the traversable-wormhole physics for GBD theory. Firstly, we derive the gravitational field equation in the framework of GBD wormhole geometry. The traversable wormhole could be gained in this theory. Secondly, using the classical reconstruction technique we originally derive an Lagrangian function for describing gravity in GBD theory. And the derived Lagrangian function for gravity (...) could be satisfied with the requirement of the viable conditions, such as the local gravity tests and the cosmological constraints, etc. Thus, the viable model for cosmology, local gravity and traversable WH can be unified in a uniform Lagrangian quantity within the framework of GBD theory. Thirdly, given that the violation of the energy conditions (ECs) often induce some problems in theory, we explore the ECs of matter in the traversable wormhole. It is shown that the null EC, the weak EC and the dominated EC for the matter can be satisfied in the traversable-wormhole physics of GBD theory, which are different from the results given in GR. It seems that the theory of GBD owns the more logic technically and consistency formally than the theory of GR. Fourthly, some other properties of GBD traversable WH are explored, such as the total gravitational energy, the volume integral quantifier, the dynamical stability of the anisotropic matter, and the difference of the propagation of sound within the matter configuration. The results support the GBD to provide an interesting candidate for traversable WH. (shrink)

While many have suggested that to withdraw medical interventions is ethically equivalent to withholding them, the moral complexity of actually withdrawing life supportive interventions from a patient cannot be ignored. Utilizing interplay between expository and narrative styles, and drawing upon our experiences with patients, families, nurses, and physicians when life supports have been withdrawn, we explore the changeable character of boundaries in end-of-life situations. We consider ways in which boundaries imply differences – for example, between cognition and performance – and (...) how the encounter with boundaries can generate altered meanings important for understanding decisions and actions in these contexts. We conclude that the reliance on mere roles to support the moral weight of withdrawing medical interventions is inadequate. Roles that lead us to such moments are exceeded by the responsibility encountered in such moments. And here, we suggest, is the momentous character of withdrawal: it presents the grave astonishment, the trembling awe, in the not-being-there of the other in death. (shrink)

Addressing six primary philosophical concerns - the self, reality, epistemology, ethics, politics and religion, this text contains not only many readings from the Western canon, but essential readings from many cultural perspectives not typically included in introductory philosophy classes as well.

Simondon’s poorly examined theory of imagination reveals a number of interesting possibilities. On the one hand, by grounding the function of images within the idea of a cycle, it provides an attempt of reconciliation between the assumptions that privilege either reproduction or creativity. On the other hand, his view might also be conceived as a serious alternative to various theoretical stances that characterize the problem of imagination strictly within a dichotomy between individual subject and social imaginaries. The paper proposes a (...) reading of Simondon’s lectures given between 1965 and 1966 in Sorbonne in the broader context of his philosophy and outlines the role of imagination that exceeds imagining subject as well as establishing the mode of correlation with associated milieu, which performs the conditioning of its potentiality. Rejecting the primacy of representation, Simondon’s take enables one to draw the conclusion that imagination can be attributed to all living beings and conceived as the function of life. (shrink)

Slavoj Zizek is one of the most provocative and important thinkers writing in contemporary philosophy. This book is an engaged debate with Zizek. It contains a series of specially commissioned critical essays from an impressive collection of contributors covering the full extent of his oeuvre. Essays examine Zizek on cultural theory, film studies, ethics, political theory, social theory, Kant and Lacanian psychoanalysis. In the spirit of Zizek‘s own interventions, these essays critically interrogate his ideas, challenging him to respond directly which (...) he does in an extended polemical reply that concludes the collection. This volume represents an exciting and important contribution to contemporary theoretical debate and adds significantly to the growing literature on Zizek. (shrink)

This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of collaboration and ecosystem management in order to identify the relationships and processes involved in implementing ecosystem management programs through cross-sector collaboration. Ecosystem management requires a highly adaptive and resilient social-ecological governance approach, which addresses spatiality and temporality issues. In order to explore possible implementation issues with ecosystem management, propositions are developed dealing with institutional isomorphism and collective action. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretic underpinnings involved in implementing ecosystem management through (...) cross sector collaborations. (shrink)

Epistasis plays an important role in the genetic architecture of common human diseases and can be viewed from two perspectives, biological and statistical, each derived from and leading to different assumptions and research strategies. Biological epistasis is the result of physical interactions among biomolecules within gene regulatory networks and biochemical pathways in an individual such that the effect of a gene on a phenotype is dependent on one or more other genes. In contrast, statistical epistasis is defined as deviation from (...) additivity in a mathematical model summarizing the relationship between multilocus genotypes and phenotypic variation in a population. The goal of this essay is to review definitions and examples of biological and statistical epistasis and to explore the relationship between the two. Specifically, we present and discuss the following two questions in the context of human health and disease. First, when does statistical evidence of epistasis in human populations imply underlying biomolecular interactions in the etiology of disease? Second, when do biomolecular interactions produce patterns of statistical epistasis in human populations?Answers to these two reciprocal questions will provide an important framework for using genetic information to improve our ability to diagnose, prevent and treat common human diseases. We propose that systems biology will provide the necessary information for addressing these questions and that model systems such as bacteria, yeast and digital organisms will be a useful place to start. BioEssays 27:637–646, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The article analyses programmes against gender-based violence (GBV) in Cambodia in order to understand what notions of power, agency and resistance reside within these programmes. The text relies on in-depth interviews with four different organisations in Cambodia. The interviews display a number of hands-on practices of resistance against GBV, which require a broad discussion of identity in order to be fully understood. In particular, the organisations emphasize the importance of approaching men—in men's groups, as trainers and role models—in the resistance (...) against GBV. In their approach to Cambodian men, the trainers mixed representations of a more ‘particular’ character with representations of a more ‘universal’ appearance. Both in the establishment of new subject positions and new discourses, the Cambodian trainers leaned upon and alternated between universal and particular notions. In addition, men's ‘particular’ subject positions became the very lens through which they considered ‘universal’ notions of violent masculinities. New aspects of the resistance against GBV thus become visible as the concepts of universalism and particularism are put in use. It is in the nexus between ‘universal’ and ‘particular’ representations that a non-violent masculinity is fostered. (shrink)

Summary: An aesthetic of superimposition characterizes these experiences of spawning and passage that are reading, history, writing, life. Proust as being crossed and crossing, this is the subject of this journey that accounts for the active power of a depth that works at the heart of people and the world.

The discipline of business ethics traditionally has paid too much attention to articulating and applying the moral law and has devoted too little thinking to the nature and consequences of evil for our souls. For purposes of this discussion, I shall limit myself to Dante’s vision of evil as a diminution of human being. On his journey through hell, Dante encounters the shades—people who, through their own actions, have rendered themselves less than fully human. This paper concentrates especially on the (...) various types of fraud andtheir psychic effects as portrayed by Dante in his book Inferno. (shrink)

Historically, Judeo-Christian doctrine has been used to justify the mistreatment of nonhuman animals through the “dominion” view of human superiority. Linzey and others have questioned this perspective, suggesting that critical tenets of religion, and particularly Christianity, support the ethical treatment of other animals by defining dominion as stewardship. This article considers how framing and networks help explain the complex relationship between religion and support for animal rights. We offer ways in which social networks and framing might inform the beliefs and (...) behaviors of religious individuals who support animal rights as well as the strategies of the animal rights movement intended to appeal to such individuals. (shrink)

Towards the end of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, Nyasha is taken to a psychiatrist who dismisses her family’s concerns based on his belief that Africans cannot suffer metal illness. Frantz Fanon explores a similar theme in his 1952 essay, ‘The “North African Syndrome”’. In both cases, the veil of sterility behind which the clinical encounter is often presumed to take place is rent, and the clinician and patient are exposed as coloniser and colonised or ‘white’ and ‘raced’ first. Similarly, the (...) pages that follow provide an account of the situation of the racialised at the outset of a psychiatric consultation with a white clinician in a Western clinical setting. Drawing on Fanon’s ‘The “North African Syndrome”’ I attempt to shed light on the gulf that must be traversed in order for the patient to be intelligible to the clinician. I question the process of bridging that divide, particularly the question of which party bears the bulk of the responsibility for traversing the distance between the two. The challenge presented to clinician, and the extent of the turmoil of the patient in this kind of encounter are thus brought to the fore. I conclude by offering a suggestion of what Fanonian ethics demand of the clinician. (shrink)

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” Genesis This article examines the problem of belief as it relates to radical negativity and as such engages with two positions in regard to the Real of the void. The first, drawing from speculative realism seeks to conceptualise this void in positive terms, as something that can be reached and in a sense overcome. The second, Hegelian account, by contrast, situates the void as (...) something inherent to the very coordinates of reality and being itself. As such the following discussion specifically examines the status of objective reality within the continental philosophical paradigm. (shrink)

Nous remercions Julie Perrin de nous avoir autorisé à reproduire cet article. Il a déjà paru dans le n° 3 d'Ambiances. Revue internationale sur l'environnement sensible, l'architecture et l'espace urbain – Animer l'espace public? Entre programmation urbaine et activation citoyenne, en 2017. Résumé : Dans Walk, Hands, Eyes, l'artiste chorégraphique Myriam Lefkowitz propose à un spectateur à la fois une balade urbaine silencieuse, les yeux fermés. Cet article examine la dimension spatiale, - Urbanisme.

Manifest in this writing experiment is a proposition that traversing theoretical dispositions as a new infinity (nod to Deleuze, 1994) brings our attention to the qualification of vibrancy, or as D...

Scholars in science and technology studies, as well as economics and innovation studies, utilize the trajectory metaphor in describing a technology’s maturation. Impetus and purpose may differ, but the trajectory serves as a shared tool for assessing social change either in society at large or within a market sector, a firm, or a discipline. In reverse, the lens of a technology trajectory can be a basis for assessing technology, estimating economic growth, and selecting among plausible product development pathways. Emerging technologies (...) pose a challenge in that the promissory claims that attracted investment may also challenge social safeguards, leading to necessary, but unforeseen hurdles to later technology acceptance. The experiences with biotechnology and nanotechnology demonstrate that knowledge gained in the intervening years was to have tempered exaggerations and addressed the criteria and the responsibilities of those who would later be deciding on product acceptability. In particular, the promissory claim for nanotechnology, unique phenomena, challenged regulatory practice, while claims for biotechnology products were often the fruition of themes found in the educational experience common to both the biotechnology researcher and the regulator. The social science and humanities literature mirrored these points as did the responses of civil society organizations. A prospective trajectory for artificial intelligence is developed using the example of driverless cars and then qualitatively compared to the retrospective trajectories for nanotechnology and biotechnology. Experience with automation, algorithm transparency, and computational modeling of biological mechanisms are identified as pertinent to responsible AI development. (shrink)

Ancien professeur d'histoire de la philosophie à la Sorbonne, Maurice de Gandillac a traversé le siècle, depuis son Périgord natal jusqu'à Paris où il a côtoyé Sartre, Maurras, Maritain, Jankélévitch, Raymond Aron, Simone Weil, Claudel.

L'" inconscient de l'œuvre ", le " signe pictural ", la " chair de l'œuvre" : autant de formules qui font désormais partie du vocabulaire esthétique.C'est que la psychanalyse, la sémiotique et la phénoménologie, nées presque simultanément, auront profondément marqué le XXe siècle et radicalement transformé les approches de l'esthétique, de la critique et de l'histoire de l'art, au point qu'il est aujourd'hui difficile de mener un propos théorique dans le domaine des arts sans s'y référer. Nul doute que ces (...) disciplines apportent des éclairages fondamentaux, même si elles ont davantage traversé l'esthétique que renouvelé ses questionnements. Revisiter ces théories en partant de l'esthétique, confronter leurs principaux enjeux respectifs, comprendre leur incidence théorique et en faire la critique du point de vue de l'esthétique, tel est le programme de cet ouvrage. (shrink)

This book uses the analogy of three mountains on the horizon that must be traveled in order to explore ethics in relation to student affairs. It contends there are three major approaches to ethics that represent three major approaches to the moral life: (1) principles-based; (2) case-based; and (3) virtues-based. In order to facilitate a person's experiences in using these approaches, an overview is presented, with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches. The chapters refer to an (...) extended case encapsulating the events of a real situation. Chapter One discusses several major approaches to ethics and student affairs administration. Chapter Two presents a single case in depth. In Chapter Three, a summary of major principles-based approaches to ethics is presented. Chapter Four explains the case-based approach to ethics, and how the guiding rules emerge from the facts of the case itself. Another approach to ethics, the virtues-based approach is discussed in Chapter Five. In the virtues-based approach a person asks "What would be correct for me to do in light of my moral character?" The book concludes with Chapter Six, which presents ethics of responsibility as one way to synthesize the various approaches to ethics. The ethics of responsibility draws on the three ethics methods previously discussed, the expressive-collaborative approach, and the contributions of feminism. This information is presented to help people identify which approaches to ethics reflect their personal values, and to articulate the reasons behind this affinity. (Contains 128 references.) (JDM). (shrink)

Notre réponse à la question de l'échec constitue aujourd'hui un problème pour la philosophie. Convaincus de ses prétendues vertus par des psys et des coachs pourtant peu convaincants sur ses tenants et ses aboutissants, nous nous méprenons en effet gravement sur l'échec. Dans une insatiable logique de la réussite, l'envie qui est la nôtre d'en tirer parti crée le besoin de le rendre autre qu'il n'est. Fût-il cuisant, fût-il complet, nous n'en parlons plus que comme d'un insuccès, nous ne le (...) pensons plus que comme une chance. Qui ne sait toutefois que les réussites dans la vie ne font pas forcément la réussite de la vie, ni les échecs son échec? Fermons donc l'oreille au nihilisme afin de rouvrir les yeux sur ces truismes : le bonheur n'est pas plus la réussite que la réussite le succès ; et si rater sa vie ne signifie pas nécessairement la gâcher, on ne peut manquer de la manquer au regard de l'inexorable loi de l'échec. Cela ressaisi, le seul désir qui mérite d'être cultivé ici-bas est d'échouer pour arriver, mieux : d'arriver â s'échouer. Aussi l'idée de l'échec conduit-elle in fine à entrer dans le registre de la marine, pour y envisager ex nunc notre existence comme une traversée. (shrink)

La danse a peu fait l'objet de la philosophie. Pourtant, immanente au corps du danseur, la philosophie de la danse decoule non seulement d'une rencontre entre la danse et les problemes philosophiques, mais apporte egalement la possibilite d'un renouvellement de leur traitement en vertu de sa nouveaute. Le corps danseur est ainsi fondamental: a partir de la pratique, de l'experience, de la vie des danseurs, la philosophie parvient a restituer l'intense subtilite de leur existence. Parallelement, l'exercice de la pensee pratique (...) dans la continuite du corps incite a prendre en compte la materialite, la sensibilite, et donc a repenser, d'une certaine maniere, l'ame. Cet essai, ecrit dans un langage clair, s'adresse a la fois aux philosophes et aux danseurs, aux praticiens de ces disciplines ainsi qu'au public amateur. (shrink)