What is the role of consciousness in nature? The science of consciousness has largely neglected the question through its emphasis on human experience. In this précis of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness, I outline how we can move from a top-down approach that begins with investigations in humans to an evolutionary bottom-up approach that targets the adaptive origins of even the most minimal forms of subjective experience. I will also offer an introduction to the central thesis of (...) the book, i.e. the pathological complexity thesis, according to which consciousness evolved in order to enable animals to adaptively respond to their life history challenges. (shrink)

Polynomizing is a term that intends to describe the uses of polynomial-like representations as a reasoning strategy and as a tool for scientific heuristics. I show how proof-theory and semantics for classical and several non-classical logics can be approached from this perspective, and discuss the assessment of this prospect, in particular to recover certain ideas of George Boole in unifying logic, algebra and the differential calculus.

Neurostimulation to restore cognitive and physical functions is an innovative and promising technique for treating patients with severe brain injury that has resulted in a minimally conscious state (MCS). The technique may involve electrical stimulation of the central thalamus, which has extensive projections to the cerebral cortex. Yet it is unclear whether an improvement in neurological functions would result in a net benefit for these patients. Quality-of-life measurements would be necessary to determine whether any benefit of neurostimulation outweighed any harm (...) in their response to different degrees of cognitive and physical disability. These measures could also indicate whether the technique could be ethically justified and whether surrogates could give proxy consent to its use on brain-injured patients. (shrink)

This book is an interdisciplinary exploration of the notion of childhood and its place in philosophical education. Childhood is not seen as a developmental state that needs to be overcome, but rather an existential state that constitutes a significant part of being human as well as the (forgotten) dimension of the world itself.

The concept of metaphysics has undergone a significant change in the last 200 years. Beginning with Kant, there is a development in which “metaphysics” is no longer understood as a philosophical discipline but as a personal disposition which rather is an object of philosophical reflexion. For Wittgenstein and Heidegger, this has been the starting point of their understanding of the task and the end of the activity called philosophizing. For both thinkers, philosophy depends on an initial presupposition which, in order (...) to reach the result to which it is devoted, must be substantially revised within the process of philosophical thinking. And the term by which they designate that prejudice is “metaphysics”. I want to point out the genuine temporal aspect of both thinkers’ explication of this essential constellation of the philosophical activity. (shrink)

Lorsque commença en 1933 la dispersion des savants allemands, il n’y avait aucun domaine dont la connaissance familière aurait pu leur conférer un prestige exclusif. Pourtant, les regards de l’Europe étaient tournés vers eux, et il s’y lisait plus que de la sympathie. C’étaient des regards interrogateurs, comme les font naître des gens qui ont été confrontés à un danger inhabituel,..

Patočka, J. Erinnerungen an Husserl.--Landgrebe, L. Philosophische Anthropologie - eine empirische Wissenschaft?--Schmidt, G. Was ist der Mensch?--Polin, R. Être et ordre.--Funke, G. Handeln aus Pflicht.--Kohlenberger, H. Zum Problem der Teleologie des Handelns.--Schaller, K. Theorie der Bildsamkeit.--Berlinger, R. Die Weltgestaltung der Philosophie.--Fink, E. Phronesis und Theoria.--Krońska, I. Atome und Menschen.--Dembowski, H. Martin Luthers Disputatio de Homine von 1536.--Heintel, E. Aristotelismus und Transzentalismus im "Begriff" bei Hegel.--Orth, E. W. Husserl und Hegel.--Baczko, B. Zum Problem der Leiblichkeit in der Anthropologie von Marx.--Kolakowski, L. (...) Richard Avenarius et le suicide apparent de la philosophie.--Biemel, W. Der Beginn von Prousts À la recherche du temps perdu.--Van Breda, H. L. L'itinéraire husserlien de la phénoménologie pure à la phénoménologie transcendentale. (shrink)