Il s’agit d’approfondir la comparaison de l’ « activité d’immobilité » [Χν≅ργεια 3κινησBας] au repos en Éthique à Nic. VII 15, 1154 b 21-31, et en cela de montrer en quoi ils sont identiques et en quoi ils sont différents. Le point de départ est que Aristote vise avant tout l’activité du premier moteur et qu’il a conçu tout d’abord l’ « activité d’immobilité » pour expliquer la continuité éternelle du mouvement du ciel. Cela conduit naturellement à la Physique où (...) le premier moteur et le repos sont définis. Le passage le plus important est certainement VI 8, 239 a 23 - b 4 où les deux sont également traités. Mais c’est aussi un des passages les plus litigieux, car la lecture proposée dans cet article n’est pas celle qui est proposée généralement par les traducteurs et commentateurs qui ne rattachent pas ce passage à ce qui précède, mais le considère comme une préfiguration du chapitre 9 où se trouvent exposés les problèmes de Zénon. Une grande part de l’article est consacrée à l’analyse de leur lecture, afin de redonner à ce passage la position clé qu’il mérite comme un jalon sur le chemin qui conduit à poser l’éternelle immobilité du premier moteur à la fin de la Physique. Ce passage est crucial, car Aristote y distingue l’activité du premier moteur immobile du repos en l’affirmant « dans l’instant » comme il l’avait fait d’ailleurs en Éthique à Nic. X 3, 1174 b 9 en distinguant l’ « activité d’immobilité » du mouvement. L’une des thèses avancées dans cet article est que seule l’instantanéité permet à cette activité d’être principe d’éternité. (shrink)

This paper deals with calibration in scientific practices which investigate relatively well-understood natural phenomena by means of already standardized instrumental devices. Calibration is a crucial topic, since it conditions the reliability of instrumental procedures in science. Yet although important, calibration is a relatively neglected topic. We think more attention should be devoted to calibration. The paper attempts to take a step in this direction. The aims are two-fold: (1) to characterize calibration in a relatively simple kind of scientific practices; (2) (...) to provide conceptual and taxonomic tools of broader scope that help to get a better understanding of calibration in more complex cases and other kinds of scientific practices. For this purpose, we first provide indications for why a conceptual framework is needed. Second, a bibliographic survey of works dealing with calibration is attempted. Third, we introduce different tools to enable a better understanding of calibration. Fourth, we turn to the elaboration of what we call a “simple exemplar” of calibration, illustrated through the case of the calibration of an equal-arm balance. Fifth, the tools previously introduced, and the framework of the simple exemplar, are applied to a more complex case of calibration: calibration procedures in X-ray experiments. This serves to show the work accomplished by the simple exemplar and to emphasize features of more complex cases of calibration. Eventually, we revisit and specify the nature, status, scope and value of the proposed framework. (shrink)

Fessard, G. Jeanne Hersch, genèse d'une œuvre.--Muralt, A. de. Phénoménologie et métaphysique.--Philonenko, A. Leibniz et le platonisme.--Christoff, D. Représentation et décision dans la temporalité selon Kant.--Tilliette, X. De l'illusion au savoir, la philosophie.--Widmer, G. Variations kierkegaardiennes sur l'édifiant.--Dufour-Kowalska, G. L'imagination maîtresse de vérité.--Leyvraz, J.-P. Des noms.--Piguet, J.-C. Liberté esthétique et liberté éthique.--Schaerer, R. Le philosophe entre oui et non.--Scheurer, P.-B. Vues nouvelles sur la science du temps et l'histoire.--Starobinski, J. La littérature et l'irrationnel.--Aron, R. De la libéralisation.--Werner, E. La (...) digue et la vie.--Cottier, G. La fascination du vide, éléments pour un diagnostic. (shrink)

More or less explicitly inspired by the Aristotelian classification of arguments, a wide tradition makes a sharp distinction between argument and proof. Ch. Perelman and R. Johnson, among others, share this view based on the principle that the conclusion of an argument is uncertain while the conclusion of a proof is certain. Producing proof is certainly a major part of mathematical activity. Yet, in practice, mathematicians, expert or beginner, argue about mathematical proofs. This happens during the search for a proof, (...) then when the proof is presented and discussed by experts, and finally when it is taught or used in didactical contexts. (shrink)

There is growing interest in the effect of sound on visual motion perception. One model involves the illusion created when two identical objects moving towards each other on a two-dimensional visual display can be seen to either bounce off or stream through each other. Previous studies show that the large bias normally seen toward the streaming percept can be modulated by the presentation of an auditory event at the moment of coincidence. However, no reports to date provide sufficient evidence to (...) indicate whether the sound bounce-inducing effect is due to a perceptual binding process or merely to an explicit inference resulting from the transient auditory stimulus resembling a physical collision of two objects. In the present study, we used a novel experimental design in which a subliminal sound was presented either 150 ms before, at, or 150 ms after the moment of coincidence of two disks moving towards each other. The results showed that there was an increased perception of bouncing when the subliminal sound was presented at or 150 ms after the moment of coincidence compared to when no sound was presented. These findings provide the first empirical demonstration that activation of the human auditory system without reaching consciousness affects the perception of an ambiguous visual motion display. (shrink)

Husserl and Spatiality is an exploration of the phenomenology of space and embodiment, based on the work of Edmund Husserl. Little known in architecture, Husserl's phenomenology of embodied spatiality established the foundations for the works of later phenomenologists, including Maurice Merleau-Ponty's well-known phenomenology of perception. Through a detailed study of his posthumously published and unpublished manuscripts, DuFour examines the depth and scope of Husserl's phenomenology of space. The book investigates his analyses of corporeity and the 'lived body,' extending to (...) questions of intersubjective, intergenerational, and historical spatial experience, what DuFour terms the 'environmentality' of space. Combining in-depth architectural philosophical investigations of spatiality with a rich and intimate ethnography, Husserl and Spatiality speaks to themes in social and cultural anthropology from a theoretical perspective that addresses spatial practice and experience. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Brazil, DuFour develops his analyses of Husserl's phenomenology through spatial accounts of ritual in the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé. The result is a methodological innovation and unique mode of spatial description that DuFour terms a 'phenomenological ethnography of space.' The book's profoundly interdisciplinary approach makes an incisive contribution relevant to academics and students of architecture and architectural theory, anthropology and material culture, and philosophy and environmental aesthetics. (shrink)

E. M. Wood, one of the main figures of political Marxism, is interviewed by Frédérick-Guillaume Dufour and Jonathan Martineau and discusses the different directions of her work. The main questions she is asked concern : her relationship to Marx ; her specific approach to history and how it differs from other Marx-inspired types of analysis ; the situation of contemporary capitalism ; the dead ends of intellectual debates in recent years and the challenges of the current political situation.

Among the main concepts of Michel Henry’s work, it was mostly the immanence concept that has brought more controversy and was Jess understood. It was determinant to Material Phenomenology, due to its radical innovation and it represents the key of its interpretation. To disclose this concept against its opponents means to become aware of the principle of transcendence - not discussed by Husserl and Heidegger - and to legitimate the objective knowledge, science and, at the same time, to oppose to (...) the positivism. However, the main problem here is the inter-subjectivity. Instead of enclosure ego immanence, it enables relationships with others by creating the idea of «inter-immanence». The invisible itself is considered as a fundamental passivity of human subjectivity and of its essential pathos. Thus, the immanence concept is nothing else but self-affection. (shrink)

L'histoire de la philosophie a toujours vu en Plotin un metaphysicien. Porphyre ne dit-il pas de son maitre qu'il connaissait parfaitement la geometrie, l'arithmetique, la mecanique, l'optique et la musique, mais qu'il n'etait pas enclin a approfondir davantage ces disciplines? Ce peu de gout pour les mathematiques et la physique n'a pourtant pas empeche Plotin de rediger quelques traites exclusivement connsacres a des questions de physique et de cosmologie, traites qui furent les grands oublies des etudes neioplatoniciennes. Parmi ceux-ci, le (...) traite Sur le ciel est d'une importance capitale aussi bien en raison du sujet qu'il aborde que du debat philosophique qu'il engage avec la tradition. La vision plotinienne du monde et du ciel doit en effet trouver sa place au sein des theories cosmologiques dominantes de son epoque: celles transmises par le Timee de Platon, le De Caelo d'Aristote et la vision stoicienne de l'univers. Il va sans dire que Plotin se veut un exegete des doctrines platoniciennes, mais le present traite montre peut-etre plus que tout autre la difficile cohabitation de l'independance d'esprit et de la fidelite aux textes du maitre. Ce qui se presente comme une exegese du Timee devient en fait une trahison des enseignements qui y sont contenus. Le traite II, 1 [40] fut le theatre d'une rebellion, celle d'un interprete platonicinen qui tente de lire dans le Timee une theorie qui ne s'y trouve pas. (shrink)

Many traditional Mahayana, and modern Tibetan, Buddhist texts relate meditation attainment to psychic ability. This teaching served as the hypothesis—that more advanced meditators would choose a psi target correctly, significantly more often than beginners. A basic free-response design was used in which a computer programme (PreCOG) chose a target picture at random from a 4-picture set. There were 25 sets, all pictures of Tibet. PreCOG guided the participants through the procedure, in which they aimed to become aware of the target. (...) 18 participants, Tibetan monks, nuns and Western Buddhist meditators, completed 8 sessions each. Half the sessions used a clairvoyance, and half a precognition, protocol. Age and years of meditation practice correlated significantly with the psi scores (Pearson r = 0.52, p < 0.05). This suggests that, as one practices meditation, psychic awareness begins to manifest more reliably. This result was confounded by a non-significant psi-missing trend. There was no significant difference between the clairvoyance and precognition trials (t-diff (142) = 0.800). There was, however, significant psi-missing from the group of Rinpoches (t = -2.09, 2tail p < 0.05). The three participants who scored most strongly in the psi-missing direction all reported childhood memories of previous lives as monks in Tibet. Keywords: psychic awareness—Tibetan Buddhists—meditation. (shrink)

Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder treated with bone marrow transplantation or enzyme replacement therapy with laronidase, a high-cost orphan drug. Laronidase was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency in 2003 and by the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency in 2005. Many Brazilian MPS I patients have been receiving laronidase despite the absence of a governmental policy regulating access to the drug. Epidemiological and treatment data concerning MPS I (...) are scarce. This study aims to present a demographic profile of Brazilian patients with MPS I, describe the routes of access to laronidase in Brazil, and discuss associated ethical issues relating to public funding of orphan drugs. (shrink)

Au moment où des tentatives parcellaires se font jour au sein de l'intelligentsia occidentale pour débusquer les traces du totalitarisme sous toutes ses formes, on ne se doute peut-être pas qu'un philosophe français - l'auteur de L'Essence de la Manifestation-élabore depuis vingt ans déjà une philosophie de l'individu et qu'il apporte les principes d'une critique rigoureuse de l'entité collective. En consacrant un ouvrage à la philosophie de Michel Henry, G. Dufour-Kowalska a songé à ce qui sans doute manque le (...) plus à la pensée contemporaine: un enracinement métaphysique de la critique des idéologies et une philosophie de la réalité humaine que l'essor de ces idéologies a fini par oblitérer. Une philosophie de la vie et de la praxis est la "répétition" au sens heidéggerien, mais aussi la découverte éblouie d'une philosophie réaliste, sans doute unique en notre temps, d'une ontologie de l'homme, pour laquelle la Pensée, le Savoir, le Monde des Idées, sont toujours l'apparence et qui voudrait saisir derrière ces expressions relatives et précaires de la vie humaine la force tranquille d'un absolu qui est cette vie elle-même. La contribution propre de, la pensée de M. Henry à la philosophie en général, écrit l'auteur dans sa conclusion, réside dans ce retour qu'elle accomplit au pays déserté de la métaphysique, dans cette obstination qu'elle manifeste pour arracher à l'oubli et à l'indifférence, comme le faisaient inlassablement les Anciens, le domaine de l'invisible, la face cachée du monde. (shrink)

Societies with a higher level of income inequality tend to have lower levels of intergenerational income mobility. Known as the Great Gatsby Curve, this negative relationship in part derives from greater intergenerational economic heritance among the poor. Societies with higher rates of relative poverty will have a higher level of income inequality, but they will also tend to have lower intergenerational mobility due to the reduced capacity of low-income persons to become upwardly mobile. Reviewing relevant research in psychology, we describe (...) how poverty is associated with decreased psychological resources that compromise the competitiveness of low-income persons for superior attainment in the educational system and for greater productivity in the labor market. Economic deprivation in itself thus leads to a “vicious circle” of disadvantage that diminishes intergenerational mobility even without the existence of any culture of poverty or monopolistic institutions in the economy. (shrink)

Strategies based on performance measurement and feedback are commonly used to support quality improvement among nurses. These strategies require practice change, which, for nurses, rely to a large extent on their capacity to coordinate with each other effectively. However, the levers for coordinated action are difficult to mobilize. This discussion paper offers a theoretical reflection on the challenges related to coordinating nurses' actions in the context of practice changes initiated by performance measurement and feedback strategies. We explore how Jürgen Habermas' (...) theory of Communicative Action may shed light on the issues underlying nurses' collective actions and self‐determination in practice change and the implications for the design of strategies based on performance measurement and feedback. Based on this theory, we propose differences between communicative and functional coordination according to the nature of the actions and the purposes involved. The domains of action underlying these coordination processes, which Habermas referred to as the lifeworld and the system, are then used to draw a parallel with aspects of nursing practice. Further exploration of these concepts allows us to consider the tensions between the demands of the system and the self‐determination of nurses within their practice. (shrink)

Objectives The objectives of the study are to understand the current practice of informed consent in medical research in public hospitals in Shanghai, and to share our views with other countries, especially developing countries. Methods In the study, 145 consent forms (CFs) of the selected research projects in eight public hospitals with ethics committees in Shanghai were audited, and the principle investigators (PIs) of these research projects and 40 student subjects who had participated in clinical drug tests were surveyed by (...) questionnaires. Results The CFs of medical researches in public hospitals with ethics committees in Shanghai were generally acceptable. However, there were some defects in the CFs. Although most of the surveyed PIs had correct recognition of informed consent, some processes of informed consent were not in accordance with generally accepted requirements. A large number of the PIs considered the greatest difficulty with informal consent was lack of correct recognition of subjects or legally authorised representatives on medical research. Discussion Informed consent in medical research should consider the research ethics, the background of potential subjects, the local resources and culture of medical research. In addition, special protection is needed for student subjects in informed consent as well as efforts for building and restoring the public's trust in biomedical research. Conclusion The informed consent in Shanghai's public hospitals with ethics committees was generally acceptable and the achievement of adequate informed consent is influenced by many factors. (shrink)

Ciencia y lógica de mundos posibles indaga en un aspecto negativo de la visión positivista de la historia del pensamiento. Según esta interpretación, determinante dentro del pensamiento contemporáneo, existe una oposición irredimible entre la metodología del conocimiento científico y la metafísica. El estudio de los supuestos ontológicos de la epistemología aristotélica y de la nueva metodología galileana evidencia, sin embargo, que históricamente la ciencia moderna no nace en oposición a la metafísica, sino que surge a partir de una concepción metafísica (...) determinada. Resulta imposible comprender a fondo el fenómeno de la revolución galileana sin tener en cuenta los aportes lógicos de pensadores medievales que tuvieron una actitud crítica frente a las implicaciones ontológicas de la epistemología aristotélica. Con el advenimiento del idealismo trascendental - a diferencia de Descartes, Leibniz o Newton - la filosofía se separa de la ciencia experimental. Esto se debe a que con Kant la filosofía se aleja de la postura filosófica de los origenes de la ciencia moderna, y retorna a una concepción de la naturaleza en cierto modo similar a la aristotélica. Así mismo, la interpretación propuesta en el manifiesto del Círculo de Viena con respecto a algunas de las revoluciones científicas de los siglos XIX y XX, supone que la ciencia moderna se ha desarrollado en la dirección señalada por la concepción metafísica del mundo que se encuentra en el origen de la revolución galileana. (shrink)

This paper is divided into two sections. The first section presents a concise survey of the intellectual itinerary of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the French intellectual field. Then, after a short presentation of Bourdieu’s The Social Structures of the Economy, I proceed to a broader discussion of his economic sociology. After a presentation of Bourdieu’s key conceptual contributions, I question some aspects of Bourdieusian sociology with regard to its ambition of historicising the ‘economic field’. I identify the limitations (...) of this historicising project in the extension of the metaphor of the market to virtually all fields of human activities and in a concept of capital which fails to grasp a social relation specific to the historical development of capitalism. (shrink)

Although the word-frequency effect is one of the most established findings in spoken-word recognition, the precise processing locus of this effect is still a topic of debate. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to track the time course of the word-frequency effect. In addition, the neighborhood density effect, which is known to reflect mechanisms involved in word identification, was also examined. The ERP data showed a clear frequency effect as early as 350 ms from word onset on the (...) P350, followed by a later effect at word offset on the late N400. A neighborhood density effect was also found at an early stage of spoken-word processing on the PMN, and at word offset on the late N400. Overall, our ERP differences for word frequency suggest that frequency affects the core processes of word identification starting from the initial phase of lexical activation and including target word selection. They thus rule out any interpretation of the word frequency effect that is limited to a purely decisional locus after word identification has been completed. (shrink)

The paper discusses the place and the status of fallacies in Arnauld and Nicole’s Port-Royal Logic, which seems to be the first book to introduce a radical change from the traditional Aristotelian account of fallacies. The most striking innovation is not in the definition of a fallacy but in the publication of a new list of fallacies, dropping some Aristotelian ones and adding more than ten new ones. The first part of the paper deals with the context of the book’s (...) publication. We then show the influence of Cartesian and Augustinian/Pascalian philosophy on the whole book, especially their common critical views about logic, dialectic and their traditional academic teaching. The third part of the paper discusses the two chapters on fallacies. It focuses on their place in the book and their relation with its general orientation, before turning to their content, closely connected with some major concerns of the time. (shrink)

Le regain d'interet pour la philosophie kantienne est ne en Allemagne vers 1860 et provient essentiellement d'un declin de l'idealisme hegelien, d'une reaction au materialisme, et d'un climat politique qui favorise un abandon des questions morales et politiques pour retourner a des problemes theoriques. De sorte que ce qui caracterise tous les neokantiens est leur volonte de redonner a la philosophie son statut scientifique au titre de theorie de la connaissance. Mais comment construire cette theorie de la connaissance est une (...) question qui donne lieu a des oppositions entre des auteurs qui se reclament pourtant tous de Kant. Or c'est precisement la subtilite des differences entre les ecoles de Heidelberg, de Marbourg, ou encore entre les pensees de Cohen, de Natorp, de Lask ou de Rickert, que nous permet de saisir cet ouvrage en nous offrant un eclairage essentiel. (shrink)

This paper provides methodological tools and considers the reasons why it is difficult to address the controversial question, “Are fallacies frequent?” After preliminary remarks on the need to clarify the meaning of both ‘fallacy’ and ‘frequency,’ this paper shows that the emphasis on whether fallacies occur frequently is recent and bound to contemporary definitions that make it a necessary condition. Then, it discusses three different, debated empirical approaches that are intended to support the claim that fallacies are frequent. All of (...) them raise doubts or objections or are even controversial from a methodological point of view. Ultimately, more empirical research is needed to answer this question. (shrink)

This article explores aspects of the theory of the constitution of space in the work of Edmund Husserl that appear in his late, posthumously published writings on the themes of intersubjectivity and generativity, which the article proposes imply a theory of environmental experience. It identifies and examines Husserl’s use of the locution Umweltlichkeit as it appears in these late works, proposing a rendering of this term as environmentality. This concept, the article argues, functions operatively in Husserl’s late work, indicating a (...) relationship between his descriptions of the lived bodily constitution of spatiality and his conception of the spatio-environmental nature of the intersubjective and historical becoming of human community. In this way, the article proposes that through the concept of environmentality, Husserl articulates a phenomenological conception of the generativity of space. (shrink)