We understand the workings of the human body as a series of interdependent physiological relationships: muscle interacts with bone as the heart responds to hormones secreted by the brain, all the way down to the inner workings of every cell. To make an organism function, no one component can work alone. In light of this, why is it that the accepted understanding that the physical phenomenon of the mind is attributed only to the brain? In The Embodied Mind, internationally renowned (...) psychiatrist Dr. Thomas R. Verny sets out to redefine our concept of the mind and consciousness. He brilliantly compiles new research that points to the mind's ties to every part of the body. The Embodied Mind collects disparate findings in physiology, genetics, and quantum physics in order to illustrate the mounting evidence that somatic cells, not just neural cells, store memory, inform genetic coding, and adapt to environmental changes-all behaviors that contribute to the mind and consciousness. Cellular memory, Verny shows, is not just an abstraction, but a well-documented scientific fact that will shift our understanding of memory. Verny describes single-celled organisms with no brains demonstrating memory, and points to the remarkable case of a French man who, despite having a brain just a fraction of the typical size, leads a normal life with a family and a job. The Embodied Mind shows how intelligence and consciousness-traits traditionally attributed to the brain alone-also permeate our entire being. Bodily cells and tissues use the same molecular mechanisms for memory as our brain, making our mind more fluid and adaptable than we could have ever imaged. (shrink)

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Telling Time takes up Heidegger's ideas of a "phenomenological chronology" in an attempt to pose the question of the possibility of a phenomenological language that would be given over to the "temporality of being" and the finitude of existence. The book combines a discussion of approaches to language in the philosophical tradition with readings of Husserl on temporality and the early and late texts of Heidegger's on logic, truth and the nature of language. As well as Heidegger's "deconstruction" of logic (...) and metaphysics Dastur's work is informed by Derrida's deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence and Nietzschean genealogy. Appealing as much to Humboldt's philosophy of language as to Hölderlin's poetic thought, the book illuminates the eminently dialectical structure of speech and its essential connection with mortality. (shrink)

La Grande Guerre peut paraître lointaine. Longtemps éclipsée dans les mémoires par les années noires de l’Occupation et le combat contre le nazisme, elle a retrouvé récemment une place de premier plan : renouvellement historiographique induit par les approches d’histoire culturelle et d’histoire des femmes et du genre, questionnement sur son caractère matriciel dans les violences du xxe siècle et sur l’anthropologie du combat, publication de carnets et de correspondances de guerre. Lettres à...

RESUMENEs habitual señalar a Platón como uno de los portavoces del dualismo –el propio Platón era el primero en hacerlo–, a pesar de lo cual Peirce parece dispuesto a discutir esta idea, al menos por remisión a cómo sería la doctrina platónica si ciertas tendencias dentro de ella fueran debidamente reforzadas. El decorado escogido para poner en escena esta relectura, así como sus consecuencias para la adscripción de Platón como filósofo dogmático o científico (sic), es el mito de la caverna. (...) Como ocurre tantas veces, la relectura trabaja en ambas direcciones y la ciencia tampoco sale indemne de sus tratos con la dialéctica.PALABRAS CLAVE PLATÓN, PEIRCE, MATEMÁTICAS, DIALÉCTICA, CIENCIAABSTRACTPlato is generally considered to be –first of all by himself– an advocate of dualism. Peirce seems ready to discuss this description though, at least on account of what his philosophy would be, if certain trends in it were duly reinforced. The myth of the cave is chosen here as the perfect set to stage this re-reading of Plato, and its consequences regarding his ascription as a dogmatic or –surprisingly enough– a scientific philosopher. As it usually happens, the re-reading works both ways and science is also touched by this pairing up with dialectics.KEY WORDSPLATO, PEIRCE, MATHEMATICS, DIALECTICS, SCIENCE. (shrink)

With the advent of CRISPR gene-editing technology, designer babies have become a reality. Françoise Baylis insists that scientists alone cannot decide the terms of this new era in human evolution. Members of the public, with diverse interests and perspectives, must have a role in determining our future as a species.

This work was supported, in part, by a Stem Cell Network grant to Françoise Baylis and Jason Scott Robert and a CIHR grant to Françoise Baylis. We sincerely thank Alan Fine, Rich Campbell, Cynthia Cohen, and Tim Krahn for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks are also owed to Tim Krahn for his research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Department of Bioethics and the Novel Tech Ethics research team. (...) We thank the participants at each of these meetings for their helpful comments. (shrink)

In January 2008, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority issued two 1-year licenses for cytoplasmic hybrid embryo research. This article situates the HFEA's decision in its wider scientific and political context in which, until quite recently, the debate about human embryonic stem cell research has focused narrowly on the moral status of the developing human embryo. Next, ethical arguments against crossing species boundaries with humans are canvassed. Finally, a new argument about the risks of harm to women egg providers resulting (...) from research involving the creation of humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryos is elaborated. Taken together these ethical concerns about the moral status of the human embryo, about the ethics of crossing species boundaries with humans, and about the potential harms to women, provide good reason to eschew humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryo research in favor of less ethically controversial means to the laudable end of successful regenerative medicine. (shrink)

We outline a number of ethical objections to genetic technologies aimed at enhancing human capacities and traits. We then argue that, despite the persuasiveness of some of these objections, they are insufficient to stop the development and use of genetic enhancement technologies. We contend that the inevitability of the technologies results from a particular guiding worldview of humans as masters of the human evolutionary future, and conclude that recognising this worldview points to new directions for ethical thinking about genetic enhancement (...) technologies. (shrink)

This issue of Diogenes is devoted to questions of bioethics. This subject was chosen not because bioethics is fashionable but rather because the purpose of this journal is to explore the timely and timeless questions of our era in order to understand what is at stake and to share this knowledge with our readers.I have chosen to call my piece “Bioethics: Between the Plausible and the Thinkable” to highlight at least three themes that are taken up either directly or indirectly (...) in the articles that follow. (shrink)

We show here that the first order theory of the positive integers equipped with multiplication remains decidable when one adds to the language the usual order restricted to the prime numbers. We see moreover that the complexity of the latter theory is a tower of exponentials, of height O(n).

Appuyé sur un document, cet article esquisse l’histoire d’une organisation mal connue et éphémère : « le Bureau de liaison issu de la rencontre internationale des femmes 1960 », rencontre dont l’initiative revient à la Fédération démocratique internationale des femmes. Il explicite également le rôle qu’y a joué la militante française Marguerite Thibert, animé de l’espoir de dépasser la guerre froide. Mais la neutralité et l’équilibre politiques souhaités pour parler au nom de toutes les femmes se heurtent aux tensions internationales (...) qui alimentent, d’un côté, l’anticommunisme et, de l’autre, des stratégies d’instrumentalisation des solidarités. (shrink)

In September 2007, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the United Kingdom concluded that "there is no fundamental reason to prevent cytoplasmic hybrid research . . . this area of research can, with caution and careful scrutiny, be permitted." Later, in January 2008, HFEA issued two research licenses to create humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryos from which stem cells could be derived. This article critically examines the public consultation process that preceded these decisions, concluding that the process was flawed (...) and demonstrating how the HFEA documents summarizing the findings of the public consultation process misrepresent the public's contributions to this policymaking initiative. (shrink)

oise Baylis, 1234 Le Marchant Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3P7. Tel.: (902)-494–2873; Fax: (902)-494-2924; Email: francoise.baylis{at}dal.ca ' + u + '@' + d + ' '//--> . Abstract Recently, there has been a growing interest in public health and public health ethics. Much of this interest has been tied to efforts to draw up national and international plans to deal with a global pandemic. It is common for these plans to state the importance of drawing upon a well-developed (...) ethics framework and we argue that this framework should reflect the values and insights of feminist relational theory. More specifically, we argue that pandemic planning must be squarely situated in the larger realm of public health and that an ethics framework for public health will be one that recognizes the need to pay particular attention to the vulnerability of subpopulations lacking in social and economic power. We propose an ethics framework for public health that builds on the notions of relational personhood (including relational autonomy and social justice) and relational solidarity. In this way, we aim for a public health ethics that, as appropriate, promotes the public interest and the common good. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

This paper is dedicated to the analysis of some important points of Patočka’s Heretical Essays on the Philosophy of History in order to question his major thesis of the common origin of philosophy, politics and history shared by Hannah Arendt and based on Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenological conception of the Greek beginning. It tries to show the complexity of Patočka’s conception of Europe, which on one side can be understood as falling into Eurocentrism, but on the other side brings to (...) light the dark face of modern European nihilism and planetary domination and tries to find a remedy for it by appealing to a philosophical conversion leading to the recognition of the diversity of human culture. (shrink)

Chronique/critique de Françoise Favretto parue dans la revue L'intranquille. Revue de littérature, n° 20, St-Quentin-de-Caplong, L'Atelier de l'Agneau, 2021, p. 83. - Recensions.

The article begins with Heidegger’s familiar question, Who is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra? Yet the piece takes far more seriously than Heidegger does the enigmatic choice that Nietzsche makes for his own principal spokesperson, his own mask. Why, for the philosopher who wills the revaluation of all values, the ancient Persian prophet? Why, for the anti moralist, the ancient founder of a moral worldview?

Translated by David Farrell Krell. This essay continues the project, also found in "Qui est le Zarathoustra de Nietzsche?" published in first issue of this journal, of discerning the importance of Asian sources for emergent modern European thought. It explores Novalis's relation to the now mostly neglected Sanskrit myth (and play by Kālidāsa) of Shakuntala, clarifying its importance for Novalis's view of the interpenetration of the visible and the invisible and the need for a visual symbol, such as the ring, (...) as pointer and reminder of the invisible's fullness and pervasiveness, in this world, as Love. (shrink)

Non-perfect separably closed fields are stable, and not superstable. As a result, not all types can be ranked. We develop here a new tool, a "semi-rank", which takes values in the non-negative reals, and gives a sufficient condition for forking of types. This semi-rank is built up from a transcendence function, analogous to the one considered by Kolchin in the context of differentially closed fields. It yields some orthogonality and stratification results. /// Un corps séparablement clos non algébriquement clos est (...) stable sans être superstable. Cela signifie que seuls certains de ses types sont rangés. Nous développons un autre outil, un "semi-rang" à valeurs réelles, qui donne un critère de déviation des types. Ce semi-rang est construit à partir d'un analogue de la fonction de Kolchin associée à un type au-dessus d'un corps différentiel. Il produit des résultats de stratification des modèles et des résultats d'orthogonalité. (shrink)

We need to distinguish two sorts of natural kinds, scientific and common NKs, because the notion of NK, which has to satisfy demands at three different levels—ontological, semantic and epistemological—, is subject to two incompatible sets of constraints. In order to prove this, I focus on the much-discussed case of jade. In the first part of the paper, I show that the current accounts are unsatisfactory because they are inconsistent. In the process, I explain why LaPorte’s analysis of “jade” as (...) a vernacular NK-term with an open-texture meaning does not offer a way out. Using a reductio ad absurdum argument, I conclude that according to the main tenets of NK-term theories, today’s “jade” has to be an NK-term, and jade thereby an NK. In the second part of the paper, I argue for this conclusion in a positive manner. First, I present a series of thought experiments demonstrating that today’s “jade” has the specific features of an NK-term. Then, I show that the kind that we presently call “jade” exhibits the typical ontological and epistemological features of an NK. More generally, I expound on why common NKs are more than mere classes, and why categories such as “jade” are useful in many inferences and explanations. (shrink)

Suddenly, COVID-19 has changed the world and the way people work. Companies had to accelerate something they knew was imminent in the future, but not immediate and extremely humongous. This situation poses a huge challenge for companies to survive and thrive in this complex business environment and for employees, who must adapt to this new way of working. An effective e-leadership, which promotes companies’ adaptability, is needed. This study investigates the existing knowledge on teleworking and e-leadership; and analyzes the supposed (...) challenges. The literature review shows that companies with effective e-leadership can view teleworking as an opportunity. It is advantageous for not only companies’ productivity but also the environment and people who work remotely. However, a traditional or no leadership can result in some risks. Thriving in remote work environments implies that managers must adjust the companies’ structure, making them less hierarchical, and developing new abilities to establish a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees to maintain their competitiveness, while retaining a genuine concern for their employees’ well-being. Similarly, successful e-leadership must be able to consolidate and lead effective virtual teams to accomplish organizational goals. This study contributes to the literature and leaders during the pandemic. (shrink)

Throughout his remarkable and too‐brief career, Benjamin Freedman was concerned with the ethical standards of ethicists themselves. He worried that ethicists had been bought out, as he knew of none whose opposition to an employer had ever led to being fired. If we look today for what he sought—a bioethical hero—Benjy is himself still the preeminent example.

ABSTRACTThis commentary responds to genetic testing of African ancestry through a series of personal narratives that reveal a complex, intimate, and individualised process of identity formation. The author discusses both how her family and others outside her family have fostered and challenged her sense of black identity. She concludes by maintaining that racial identity is not in the genes but in the world in which we live and the stories we construct and are able to maintain.

On se propose ici de tenter de rapprocher la critique wittgensteinienne des propositions métaphysiques du projet heideggérien de « destruction phénoménologique de l’histoire de l’ontologie ». Il s’agit donc d’abord de rappeler que dans le Tractatus Wittgenstein établit une différence « transcendantale » entre ce qui peut se dire et ce qui ne fait que « se montrer » et qu’il faut plutôt taire. Mais chez Wittgenstein la mise en évidence de cette différence conduit au refus du métalangage, et à (...) l’interdiction d’une interrogation sur sa propre démarche de philosophe, c’est-à-dire à ce que l’on pourrait nommer un « transcendantalisme paradoxal ». Chez Heidegger en revanche la mise en évidence de la différence ontologique, laquelle ne permet ni de faire de l’être un prédicat réel ni d’énoncer l’être sous la forme de propositions prédicatives conduit à interroger le fondement antéprédicatif du langage énonciatif, qui n’est autre que la transcendance du Dasein. Il répond ainsi à la paradoxie du Tractatus en montrant qu’il n’y a d’apophansis que sur la base d’une hermeneia plus originaire. Une mise en parallèle de l’« herméneutique de la facticité » heideggérienne et de l’analyse wittgensteinienne des jeux de langage en tant que formes de vie peut alors être tentée, dans la mesure où la dimension herméneutique du comprendre n’est pas entièrement absente chez le second Wittgenstein, en dépit de sa conception instrumentale du langage.The object of this paper is to try a comparison between Wittgenstein’s critique of metaphysical statements and Heidegger’s project of a « phenomenological destruction of the history of ontology ». It is at first necessary to recall that in Tractatus Wittgenstein establishes a transcendental difference between what can be said and what can only show itself and has to be passed over in silence. But this leads Wittgenstein to refuse metalanguage and to prohibit all questioning of his own position as a philosopher, that is to say to what could be named a « paradoxical transcendentalism ». On the contrary, Heidegger, in bringing to light the ontological difference, which does not allow to define Being as a real predicate or to enunciate Being in the form of predicative statements, is led to question the antepredicative foundation of the propositional language or logos apophantikos, which is nothing else than the transcendence of Dasein. He thus gives an answer to Wittgenstein’s parodoxy by showing that there is apophansis only on the basis of a more originary hermeneia. A comparison between Heidegger’s « hermeneutics of facticity » and Wittgenstein’s analysis of language games as life forms can then be performed, in so far as the hermeneutic dimension of understanding is not completely absent in Wittgenstein’s Investigations, in spite of his instrumental conception of language. (shrink)

Verges' manifesto argues that feminists should no longer be accomplices of capitalism, racism, colonialism and imperialism: it is time to fight the system that created the boss, built the prisons and polices women's bodies. The author grapples with the central issues in feminist debates today: from Eurocentrism and whiteness, to power, inclusion and exclusion. Delving into feminist and anti-racist histories, Verges also assesses contemporary activism, movements and struggles, including #MeToo and the Women's Strike. Centering anticolonialism and anti-racism within an intersectional (...) Marxist feminism, the book puts forward an urgent demand to free ourselves from the capitalist, imperialist forces that oppress us. --From publisher description. (shrink)