Après avoir revisité les résistances culturelles qui ont retardé son étude scientifique, le rappel des différentes genèses parallèles du jeu vidéo et de son mode de propagation aide à comprendre sa puissance originelle. Si les ressorts de la communication ludique semblent expliquer une telle dynamique d’expansion, sa nature cybermédiatique s’est quant à elle nettement révélée avec la mise en réseau des humains et des machines via l’image interactive. Pour intégrer théoriquement les propriétés fondamentales du jeu vidéo, une modélisation des conditions (...) de la pratique vidéoludique est proposée grâce aux concepts d’instanciation et de réflexivité. Elle met notamment en valeur la figure centrale de l’avatar numérique, laquelle invite à interroger autrement l’intimité croissante des rapports entre l’être humain et sa technologie.After reviewing the cultural resistance that has delayed scientific studies of video games, we discuss their different parallel origins and patterns of propagation in order to better understand their novel predominance. While the driving factors of communication through play seem to explain the dynamics of video game expansion, their cyber-nature was clearly revealed when networks emerged between humans and machines via interactive images. In order to theoretically integrate the fundamental properties of video games into theory, the patterns of video gaming practice were modelled through the concepts of instantiation and reflex- ivity. This emphasized, in particular, the importance of the central digital avatar, which has prompted a different way of exploring the increasingly close relationships between humans and their technology. (shrink)

This book, written by well-known students of Etienne Gilson and especially dedicated to Armand A. Maurer, helps inaugurate a long-overdue special series in philosophy honoring Gilson's legendary scholarship. It presents wide-ranging expositions of Thomist realism in the tradition of Gilsonian humanism covering themes related to philosophy in general, historical method, aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and politics.".

This book, written by well-known students of Étienne Gilson and especially dedicated to Armand A. Maurer, helps inaugurate a long-overdue special series in philosophy honoring Gilson’s legendary scholarship. It presents wide-ranging expositions of Thomist realism in the tradition of Gilsonian humanism covering themes related to philosophy in general, historical method, aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and politics.

This book, written by well-known students of Étienne Gilson and especially dedicated to Armand A. Maurer, helps inaugurate a long-overdue special series in philosophy honoring Gilson’s legendary scholarship. It presents wide-ranging expositions of Thomist realism in the tradition of Gilsonian humanism covering themes related to philosophy in general, historical method, aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and politics.

If citizens are to make enlightened collective decisions, they need to rely on true factual beliefs, but misinformation impairs their ability to do so. Although some cases of misinformation are deliberate and amount to propaganda, cases of inadvertent misinformation are just as problematic in affecting the beliefs and behavior of democratic citizens. A review of empirical evidence suggests that this is a serious problem that cannot entirely be corrected by means of deliberation.

A collection of Essays over the last 20 years, exploring different dimensions of the philosophical debate on "subjecthood" and "subjectivity" in Modernity, as it was framed by the "Controversy on the subject" from the 1960's, and showing how it is now continued in a "controversy on the Universal.".

Dans cet ouvrage, Herbert Spencer propose une exploration approfondie de la psychologie, explorant les principes fondamentaux qui sous-tendent notre perception et notre compréhension du monde qui nous entoure. Ce livre est un classique de la psychologie moderne et une lecture indispensable pour les étudiants et les professionnels. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United (...) States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Major difficulties for readers of Foucault’s The Order of Things concern the historical function and the logical construction of the episteme. Our proposal is to link it with another notion, the ‘point of heresy’, less frequently addressed. This leads to asserting that irreconcilable dilemmas are in fact determined by the type of rationality governing the emergence of common objects of knowledge. It also introduces a possibility of ‘walking on two roads’: a dialogical adventure within rationality. Foucault is not content with (...) either accepting or rejecting the ‘transcendental’ question ‘What is Man?’: with the help of quasi-transcendental categories performing a ‘transdisciplinary’ function, he wants to reach the ‘heretical’ point where anthropology becomes historicity within the horizon of finitude. (shrink)

ArgumentIn recent decades, through the work of Jane Goodall and other ethologists, the practice of giving personal names to nonhuman animals who are the subjects of scientific research has become associated with claims about animal personhood and scientific objectivity. While critics argue that such naming practices predispose the researcher toward anthropomorphism, supporters suggest that it sensitizes the researcher to individual differences and social relations. Both critics and supporters agree that naming tends to be associated with the recognition of individual animal (...) rights. The history of the naming of research animals since the late nineteenth century shows, however, that the practice has served a variety of purposes, most of which have raised few ethical or epistemological concerns. Names have been used to identify research animals who play dual roles as pets, workers, or patients, to enhance their market value, and to facilitate their identification in the field. The multifaceted history of naming suggests both that the use of personal names by Goodall and others is less of a radical break with previous practices than it might first appear to be and that the use of personal names to recognize the individuality, sentience, or rights of nonhuman animals faces inherent limits and contradictions. (shrink)

A recent French reform has revised the legal definition of the corporation. In essence, the law stipulates that the corporation must be run with due regard to the social and environmental impacts of its activity. It also introduces the notion of raison d’être and affords the possibility for any corporation to assign social or environmental purposes to itself, defined in its by-laws. This reform is similar to recent reforms in the UK and the US, but is based on an original (...) and distinctive theoretical argument. The aim of our article is to analyze the fundamental tenets of this reform and their implications for the theory of the corporation. It shows that the new law is based on a new positive definition of the enterprise as not only an economic organization or a productive entity, but more fundamentally a space for innovative collective action. We argue that this view of the enterprise challenges our conceptualization of the corporation in two important ways. First, it shows that the traditional theories overlook the activities of the enterprise and their related impacts, and that the corporation is not necessarily the appropriate legal vehicle for the innovative enterprise. Second, it suggests that the stipulation of the enterprise’s purpose or raison d’être in the corporate by-laws can provide new promising legal foundations for corporate responsibility. (shrink)

Discussions around the meaning and validity of Freud’s notion of Todestrieb, as it was introduced in the essay from 1920 Beyond the Pleasure Principle, later...

Failure increases the motivation to escape self-awareness. To date, however, the role of self-conscious emotions (shame and guilt) in triggering escape responses after failure has not been sufficiently addressed. In this pre-registered study (N = 156 undergraduates), we adapted a classic paradigm (avoidance of one’s image in a mirror) to a modern eye-tracking technology to test the hypothesis that shame proneness moderates the effect of failure on self-awareness avoidance. Individual differences in guilt and shame proneness were assessed before priming thoughts (...) of failure or success. Then, an eye-tracking paradigm was used to monitor gaze avoidance of one’s screen-reflected face during a neutral, unrelated task. Unexpectedly, results showed that guilt but not shame proneness exacerbated self-avoidance after failure. The present findings challenge the dominant view that shame fosters avoidance more so than guilt. (shrink)

Cet article propose une analyse philologique, épistémologique et critique du concept de survaleur, des Grundrisse de 1858 jusqu’au Capital où il reçoit son développement systématique. Il rappelle la centralité que lui confère son couplage avec la notion de surtravail pour opérer le renversement du « point de vue du capital » au « point de vue du travail », faire de l’exploitation du travail la source de l’accumulation du capital, et comprendre comment s’articulent la « contradiction » et le « (...) conflit » dans le mouvement historique du capitalisme et de son dépassement. Il identifie pour finir certains points de tension appelant, plutôt que l’invalidation de la théorie de la survaleur, sa relance critique dans des analyses de l’exploitation devant inclure, non seulement une grande contradiction entre capital et travail, mais aussi des contradictions spécifiques au sein du travail, qui ne peuvent rester sans conséquences pour l’analyse « marxiste » des articulations entre théorie critique du capitalisme, composition de classes, et mouvements ou formes de mobilisation politiques. (shrink)

The important work, exquisitely translated by Mark Wauck, brings the essential elements of philosophy into view as a cohesive, readily understandable, and erudite structure, and does so rigorously in the best tradition of St. Thomas.

La sociologie bourdieusienne du sens pratique apparaît comme un prolongement fidèle de la philosophie merleau-pontienne du corps percevant; du coup cette dernière tombe sous l’objection, fréquemment adressée à Bourdieu, d’un nouveau sociologisme. On verra qu’une définition plus fine de la chair, et la notion de rôle qui y est inscrite, répondent à l’objection, libérant la possibilité d’une véritable pratique réflexive.

On emploie ici le terme « structuralisme » dans un sens large, incluant les œuvres de Lévi-Strauss et Barthes aussi bien que celles d'Althusser, de Lacan, de Foucault. J'y vois non pas un système ou une école de pensée, mais un mouvement, et j'y inclus également le « post-structuralisme » de Derrida et de Deleuze, en tant que « négation déterminée » de certains présupposés. Je soutiens que le structuralisme ne se caractérise pas par une position objectiviste, mais par la (...) relance de la tentative pour produire une « genèse » ou une « construction » du sujet au sein de structures transindividuelles, et donc pour y voir un système d'effets au lieu d'une cause originaire. Cette conversion d'un point de vue du sujet constituant au point de vue du sujet constitué explique l'importance des modèles linguistique, psychanalytique et anthropologique, ainsi que d'une certaine interprétation du marxisme comme théorie de l'imaginaire social chez les structuralistes. Quant au post-structuralisme, il déploie un mouvement de rectification, en présentant les limites de la subjectivité, qui impliquent la dissolution de la « normalité » et la mise à jour de la violence inhérente au processus de constitution, comme des « différences » pures qui engendrent l'activité et la passivité. Ce second mouvement contribue de façon décisive à conférer au structuralisme, non seulement une portée épistémologique, mais aussi une orientation éthique. (shrink)

This article examines how French philosophy reflected the revolutionary changes of 1968. In particular, it focuses on the problems of desire and otherness in the works of Luce Irigaray and Gilles Deleuze with Félix Guattari. The confrontation of these two philosophical positions opens up a broader view of French thought in and after 1968, articulating the relationships between feminism, psychoanalysis and structuralism.

The Greeks have long been regarded as innovators across a wide range of fields in literature, culture, philosophy, politics and science. However, little attention has been paid to how they thought and felt about novelty and innovation itself, and to relating this to the forces of traditionalism and conservatism which were also present across all the various societies within ancient Greece. What inspired the Greeks to embark on their unique and enduring innovations? How did they think and feel about the (...) new? This book represents the first serious attempt to address these issues, and deals with the phenomenon across all periods and areas of classical Greek history and thought. Each chapter concentrates on a different area of culture or thought, while the book as a whole argues that much of the impulse towards innovation came from the life of the polis which provided its setting. (shrink)

During the afternoon of December 21, 1989, in Bucharest, a mass of demonstrators gather in a public square at the request of Nicolae Ceausescu, then president of Romania. In the previous days, students had shaken the country by taking to the streets in protest in the city of Timisoara. These mass protests had been preceded that year by a wave of other social movements that took place in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. Now in a broadcast from the (...) balcony of the square, Ceausescu tries to reassure the population while making distressed appeals to preserve the unity of the political regime in the country. In the front row of the assembled crowd... (shrink)

The discovery of neurogenesis and neural stem cells (NSC) in the adult CNS has overturned a long‐standing and deep‐routed “dogma” in neuroscience, established at the beginning of the 20th century. This dogma lasted for almost 90 years and died hard when NSC were finally isolated from the adult mouse brain. The scepticism in accepting adult neurogenesis has now turned into a rush to find applications to alleviate or cure the devastating diseases that affect the CNS. Here we highlight a number (...) of methodological, technical and conceptual drawbacks responsible for the historical denial of adult neurogenesis. Furthermore, we discuss old and new issues that need to be faced before NSC or endogenous neurogenesis can safely enter into the doctor's bag for therapies. BioEssays 30:135–145, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

What is it Like to See as a Human Being?We will ask here “what is it like to see as a human being?” Such a question is difficult, for taking a step back from perception and considering that it might not be what it is, this question goes against what is commonly called the “natural attitude”. Merleau-Ponty orchestrates this relativization of human seeing and itsspontaneous realism in two different ways. First, there is what might be called the “way of finitude.” (...) This consists in taking the point of view from nowhere on perception, the point of view of a mind without worldly attachments. We would then say, as Merleau-Ponty never stopped saying, that perceiving is not seeing from nowhere, and that we always perceive from somewhere, in a finite body, and not from the point of view of god. Our animal origin, however, offers a second, quite different way of frustrating the dogmatism of the perceptual faith. This is the way that Merleau-Ponty adopts in The Structure of Behavior, where he is, in a very natural manner, brought to interrogate that which distinguishes animal perception from human perception. His answer here is valuable: to see as a human is to be capable of “perspectival multiplicity.” To catch sight of such a concept, to see human seeing as plural and excessive, is only possible for someone who has abandoned the point of view of nowhere and who has decided to philosophize starting from the animal.Che effetto fa vedere come un essere umano?Noi ci chiederemo qui che cosa significa «vedere come un essere umano». La questione è difficile, poiché, nell’assumere un distacco rispetto alla percezione e nel supporre che questa possa non essere ciò che è, va contro ciò che comunemente si definisce «atteggiamento naturale». Merleau-Ponty orchestrerà in due modi diversi questa relativizzazione del vedere umano, e del suo realismo spontaneo. Vi è prima di tutto ciò che si potrebbe chiamare la « via della finitezza ». Questa consiste nel prendere nei confronti della percezione il punto di vista assoluto, il punto di vista di uno spirito privo di legami mondani; diremo allora, come Merleau-Ponty non cessa di ripetere, che percepire non è vedere da nessun luogo, che percepiamo sempre da qualche luogo, in un corpo finito, e non dal punto di vista di dio. La nostra origine animale si offre tuttavia come una seconda modalità, ben diversa, di svelare il dogmatismo della fede percettiva. È la via che Merleau-Ponty fa propria ne La Struttura del comportamento, in cui egli è naturalmente portato ad interrogarsi su ciò che distingue le percezioni animali ed umane. Da qui questa risposta, per noi preziosa: vedere come un essere umano significa essere capaci di una « molteplicità prospettica ». Intravedere un tale concetto, vedere il vedere umano come plurale ed eccessivo, è ciò di cui è capace solamente chi ha abbandonato un punto di vista assoluto ed ha deciso difilosofare a partire dall’animale. (shrink)

In the 1960s and 70s, first Lacan and then Althusser invoked the category of instance, in a way which would mark what is today called the «structuralist moment» of French philosophy, profoundly influencing the discourse of those who were the disciples of both. The complex system of references to action, demand, insistence, effectivity, decision, hierarchy, which found themselves combined in the notion, proves difficult to translate into other languages, and in particular into English (which has today become the paramount language (...) of critical theory). In order to achieve a syncretism of three heritages (Marx, Freud, Saussure), the French theorists drew on the polysemic extension of the word «instance», which while it does exist in English, operates differently. Hence the interest in examining the divergent choices made by the English and American translators, reading them as symptoms of certain tensions and of a logical instability which affect, from within, the «structuralist» paradigm à la française. (shrink)

Les archives, bien que fondamentales dans la pratique des historiens, tiennent une faible place dans leur réflexion épistémologique, alors que la notion, employée le plus souvent au singulier, a été davantage analysée par certains philosophes, dont en dernier lieu Paul Ricoeur. Il s'agira donc de comprendre l'usage que ce dernier fait du concept d'archive dans son dernier ouvrage, La Mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli, puis de montrer sa filiation avec les travaux de Michel Foucault et de Michel de Certeau. Enfin, on voudrait (...) montrer en quoi cette« archive», liée intimement à la notion de témoignage, peut conduire à des difficultés du point de vue de l'épistémologie historique, et qu'il semble possible de lui opposer un autre usage de la notion, soucieux d'en souligner l'historicité et la matérialité face à une interprétation plus textuelle et herméneutique. (shrink)

Al iniciar con la discusión suscitada por la redacción de los artículos 10 y 11 de la Declaración de los derechos humanos y del ciudadano de 1789, Etienne Tassin establece la diferencia entre la tolerancia como principio de cortesía democrática y la laicidad como principio de ciudadanía republicana. El autor sugiere que la laicidad es la política de la tolerancia cuando la tolerancia es la ética de la política, y que la forma republicana del poder político es la condición de (...) posibilidad de una sociedad democrática. Se puede, entonces, entender que la intransigencia política de la laicidad es como la condición trascendental de la tolerancia civil en el seno de las sociedades democráticas, o incluso que la intransigencia cívica es la única manera de garantizar la tolerancia civil. (shrink)

Cet article, en contrepoint de la discussion des nouvelles théories de la « reproduction sociale » et de leur confrontation avec la critique marxiste de l’économie politique, esquisse une généalogie historique et sémantique du concept même de « reproduction ». Celle-ci croise l’histoire des disciplines (notamment l’histoire naturelle et l’économie politique) et montre la persistance, mais aussi les déplacements, de trois registres de signification qu’on peut rattacher aux catégories de mimèsis, de genesis et de poièsis : reproduction d’un modèle, engendrement (...) d’une lignée, renouvellement d’un stock. Elle permet de confronter les attitudes en face de la crise et de problématiser à nouveau les questions de la mutabilité et de l’interruption, qui sous-tendent l’imaginaire de la révolution. (shrink)

Dans cet entretien se confrontent deux points de vue sur une question cardinale pour Marx et les traditions marxistes : la question de la nation et de l’internationalisme. L’historien et le philosophe puisent tous deux dans le marxisme pour penser la question sur la longue durée et jusqu’à nos jours, tout en divergeant sur plusieurs points. Il ressort de cette confrontation une nécessaire prise en compte non fétichiste des « classiques du marxisme », insuffisants pour penser la totalité de la (...) complexité de la persistance de la « nation », mais indispensables malgré tout pour définir une visée émancipatrice. (shrink)