D. Boulanger. Colloque Lamarck Paris, Vrin, 1980 EVOLUTION DU GROUPE DES NUMMULITES C'est en 1801 que Lamarck dans son Système des animaux sans vertèbres proposa le genre Nummulites qu'il considéra comme le 89e des ...

Offrir une exploration épistémologique des diverses étapes de la recherche scientifique et de la réflexion philosophique sur la matière, tel est le propos qui a régi la composition des neuf études ici réunies. Les différentes conceptions « matérialistes » dans les sciences physiques et biologiques y sont mises en rapport avec les savoirs de chaque période, depuis le temps d'Averroès jusqu'au XIXe siècle.

This chapter examines philosophical issues surrounding the classification of mental disorders by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In particular, the chapter focuses on issues concerning the relative merits of descriptive versus theoretical approaches to psychiatric classification and whether the DSM should classify natural kinds. These issues are presented with reference to the history of the DSM, which has been published regularly by the American Psychiatric Association since 1952 and is currently in its fifth edition. While the (...) first two editions of the DSM adopted a theoretical (psychoanalytic) and etiological approach to classification, subsequent editions of the DSM have adopted an atheoretical and purely descriptive (“neo-Kraepelinian”) approach. It is argued that largest problem with the DSM at present—viz., its failure to provide valid diagnostic categories—is directly related to the purely descriptive methodology championed by the DSM since the third edition of the DSM. In light of this problem, the chapter discusses the prospects of a theoretical and causal approach to psychiatric classification and critically examines the assumption that the DSM should classify natural kinds. (shrink)

Although activated spinal cord glia contribute importantly to neuropathic pain, how nerve injury activates glia remains controversial. It has recently been proposed, on the basis of genetic approaches, that toll-like receptor 4 may be a key receptor for initiating microglial activation following L5 spinal nerve injury. The present studies extend this idea pharmacologically by showing that TLR4 is key for maintaining neuropathic pain following sciatic nerve chronic constriction injury. Established neuropathic pain was reversed by intrathecally delivered TLR4 receptor antagonists derived (...) from lipopolysaccharide. Additionally, -naltrexone, -naloxone, and -naloxone, which we show here to be TLR4 antagonists in vitro on both stably transfected HEK293-TLR4 and microglial cell lines, suppressed neuropathic pain with complete reversal upon chronic infusion. Immunohistochemical analyses of spinal cords following chronic infusion revealed suppression of CCI-induced microglial activation by -naloxone and -naloxone, paralleling reversal of neuropathic pain. Together, these CCI data support the conclusion that neuron-to-glia signaling through TLR4 is important not only for initiating neuropathic pain, as suggested previously, but also for maintaining established neuropathic pain. Furthermore, these studies suggest that the novel TLR4 antagonists -naloxone and -naloxone can each fully reverse established neuropathic pain upon multi-day administration. This finding with -naloxone is of potential clinical relevance. This is because -naloxone is an antagonist that is inactive at the -opioid selective receptors on neurons that produce analgesia. Thus, these data suggest that -opioid antagonists such as -naloxone may be useful clinically to suppress glial activation, yet -opioid agonists suppress pain. (shrink)

Two thought experiments are discussed which suggest, first, a geometric interpretation of the concept of a (say, vector) potential (i.e., as a kinematic quantity associated with a transformation between moving frames of reference suitably related to the problem) and, second, that, in a quantum treatment one should extend the notion of the equivalence principle to include not only the equivalence of inertial forces with suitable “real” forces, but also the equivalence of potentials of such inertial forces and the potentials of (...) suitable real forces. The two types of cancellation are physically independent of each other, because of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Finally, we show that the latter effect itself can be understood “geometrically” as a kinematic effect arising upon the transformation between the two reference frames. (shrink)

إنَّ الخطاب الصوفي يتموقع في عرفان العقل العربي كأبرز الخطابات الروحية والفنية المؤثرة في الساحة الثقافية العربية، وهذا لما يمتلكه من شروط ومعايير خوَّلته أن يقتحم بمنجزه أسوار المشهد المعرفي الإنساني، من هذا المنطلق ستحاول هذه الدراسة الاقتراب من بعض قضاياه الضاربة في عمق هذا الخطاب، بوصفه يرسم العلاقة الحوارية بين اللغة الرمزية في بعدها المفهومي والمعرفي، المرتكزة على إمكانات الدلالة وإنتاج المعنى، وبين مفهوم المخيال الصوفي كبعد أنطولوجي/جمالي، يؤسِّس للعدسات التصوَّرية الملأى بالفضاءات الكاشفة والجامعة لمسارات إبداع المخيال الصوفي؛ المتجلية (...) أنوارُهُ وجودًا وشهودًا، والذي يشكّل في مجموعه بنية فاعلة في منظومة النسق العرفاني، ومحل إعراب هذا المخيال في إنتاج معنى منفتح يؤطر مفهوم العرفان الصوفي ويضبط إمكاناته المختلفة المنصهرة في بوتقةِ رؤيةٍ شاملة لمسارات الإبداع الروحي والنفسي للإنسان. إن بعض القضايا المطروحة في هذا الكتاب قد أسالت حبرا، وأثارت نقاشا لا يزال صداه إلى اليوم كـ " إشكالية الإنسان الكامل في الفكر الصوفي " و" جدل الحقيقة والشريعة في الفكر الصوفي " و" الرمزية الحرفية في الفكر الصوفي" خاصة عند محي الدين بن عربي، ومنها بعض القضايا التي حاولت تقديم رؤية فيها، انطلاقا من المعطى العرفاني الصوفي، كـ " الأبعاد العرفانية لخطاب الموت في الفكر الصوفي " و" عقلاء مجانين الصوفية بين خطاب الجنون وجنون الخطاب ". (shrink)

We consider a sequence of successively more restrictive definitions of abstraction for causal models, starting with a notion introduced by Rubenstein et al. (2017) called exact transformation that applies to probabilistic causal models, moving to a notion of uniform transformation that applies to deterministic causal models and does not allow differences to be hidden by the "right" choice of distribution, and then to abstraction, where the interventions of interest are determined by the map from low-level states to high-level states, and (...) strong abstraction, which takes more seriously all potential interventions in a model, not just the allowed interventions. We show that procedures for combining micro-variables into macro-variables are instances of our notion of strong abstraction, as are all the examples considered by Rubenstein et al. (shrink)

Understanding Javanese philosophy through wayang wong performance.

The general subject of the book is the re-discovery of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed by the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement in Germany of the nineteenth and beginning twentieth Germany. Since this movement is inseparably connected with religious reforms that took place at about the same time, it shall be demonstrated how the Reform Movement in Judaism used the Guide for its own agenda of historizing, rationalizing and finally turning Judaism into a philosophical enterprise of ‘ethical monotheism’. The study follows (...) the reception of Maimonidean thought, and the Guide specifically, through the nineteenth century, from the first beginnings of early reformers in 1810 and their reading of Maimonides to the development of a sophisticated reform-theology, based on Maimonides, in the writings of Hermann Cohen more then a hundred years later. (shrink)

We interpret the (formal) postulates of measurement in quantum theory in terms of measurement procedures that can be done in the laboratory (at least in principle).

How do we ready ourselves to intervene responsively in the contingent situations that arise in co-designing to make change? How do we attune to group dynamics and respond ethically to unpredictable developments when working with 'community'? Participatory Design can contribute to social transitions, yet its focus is often tightly tuned to technique for designing ICT at the cost of participatory practice. We challenge PD conventions by addressing what happens as we step into a situation to alter it with others, an (...) aspect of practice that cannot be replicated or interchanged. We do so to argue that practices of readiness are constituted by personal histories, experiences, philosophies and culture. We demonstrate this political argument by giving reflexive accounts of our dimensions of preparation. The narratives here are distinct, yet reveal complementary theories and worldviews that shape PD ontologies. We have organized these around the qualities of punctuation and poise as a way to draw out some less easily articulated aspects of PD practice. (shrink)

Proceedings of a forum held in Austin, Tex., on Mother's Day, 1996.