Understanding the mechanisms of early embryonic patterning and the timely allocation of specific cells to embryonic regions and fates as well as their development into tissues and organs, is a fundamental problem in Developmental Biology. The classical explanation for this process had been built around the notion of positional information. Accordingly the programmed appearance of sources of Morphogens at localized positions within a field of cells directs their differentiation. Recently, the development of organs and tissues from unpatterned and initially identical (...) stem cells (adult and embryonic) has challenged the need for positional information and even the integrity of the embryo, for pattern formation. Here we review the emerging area of organoid biology from the perspective of Developmental Biology. We argue that the events underlying the development of these systems are not purely linked to “self‐organization,” as often suggested, but rather to a process of genetically encoded self‐assembly where genetic programs encode and control the emergence of biological structures. (shrink)

Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two associations at genome-wide significance identified and replicated at PRSS1-PRSS2 and X-linked CLDN2 through a two-stage genome-wide study. The PRSS1 variant likely affects disease susceptibility by altering expression of the primary trypsinogen gene. The CLDN2 risk allele is (...) associated with atypical localization of claudin-2 in pancreatic acinar cells. The homozygous CLDN2 genotype confers the greatest risk, and its alleles interact with alcohol consumption to amplify risk. These results could partially explain the high frequency of alcohol-related pancreatitis in men. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

The essays in this volume apply philosophical analysis to address three kinds of questions: What are the implications of genetic science for our understanding of nature? What might it influence in our conception of human nature? What challenges does genetic science pose for specific issues of private conduct or public policy?

We show how a simple nonlinear dynamical system (the discrete quadratic iteration on the unit segment) can be the basis for modelling the embryogenesis process. Such an approach, even though being crude, can nevertheless prove to be useful when looking with the two main involved processes:i) on one hand the cell proliferation under successive divisions ii) on the other hand, the differentiation between cell lineages. We illustrate this new approach in the case of Caenorhabditis elegans by looking at the early (...) stages of embryogenesis, up to several hundreds of cells (lima bean larval stage). We show how the many results that have been obtained by several groups can be interpreted in terms of values for the parameters controlling the dynamical system. Furthermore, we can extend the model to the cases of genetic mutations. More precisely the teratogenetic and lethal effects are associated with abnormal variation of the control parameters with time. (shrink)

Applied Geography, A World Perspective reviews progress in applied geography in different regions of the world. It does this through the eyes of an international panel of highly regarded academic practitioners. The book offers new prospects on the use of established approaches and explores exciting new territories. Together, the contributors provide a comprehensive picture of applied geography today. This book is of relevance to faculty and graduate students in the fields of geography, planning, public policy, regional science and other related (...) social and behavioural sciences. (shrink)

This paper offers a challenge to Derek Parfit's thesis that one ought to have no preference between these two otherwise identical situations: 1. I continue to go on living as before, and 2. I do not survive, but am replaced by a duplicate, psychologically continuous to my present self (i.e. an R‐related duplicate). I point out that virtually all psychologically normal persons regard some inanimate objects as being ‘irreplaceable’ (such that no copy could adequately substitute). I then propose that in (...) every such case, this judgment is based on the subject's regarding some person as likewise irreplaceable. It would follow that any such subject would have to reject Parfit's thesis. (shrink)

David Hume (1711-76) is one of the greatest figures in the history of British philosophy. Of all of Hume's writings, the philosophically most profound is undoubtedly his first, A Treatise on Human Nature. Hume on Morality introduces and assesses: Hume's life and the background of the Treatise ; the ideas and text in the Treatise ; and Hume's continuing importance to philosophy. James Baillie provides us with a map to Books 2 and 3 of the Treatise, focusing on Hume's (...) theory of the passions and morality. This book sets out its principal ideas and arguments of the Treatise in a clear and readable way and is ideal for anyone coming to Hume's work for the first time. (shrink)

This paper proposes an abstract mathematical frame for describing some features of biological time. The key point is that usual physical (linear) representation of time is insufficient, in our view, for the understanding key phenomena of life, such as rhythms, both physical (circadian, seasonal …) and properly biological (heart beating, respiration, metabolic …). In particular, the role of biological rhythms do not seem to have any counterpart in mathematical formalization of physical clocks, which are based on frequencies along the usual (...) (possibly thermodynamical, thus oriented) time. We then suggest a functional representation of biological time by a 2-dimensional manifold as a mathematical frame for accommodating autonomous biological rhythms. The “visual” representation of rhythms so obtained, in particular heart beatings, will provide, by a few examples, hints towards possible applications of our approach to the understanding of interspecific differences or intraspecific pathologies. The 3- dimensional embedding space, needed for purely mathematical reasons, allows to introduce a suitable extra-dimension for “representation time”, with a cognitive significance. (shrink)

La cognition humaine paraît étroitement liée à la structure de l'espace et du temps relativement auxquels le corps, le geste, l'intelligibilité semblent devoir se déterminer. Pourtant, ce qui, après les approches physico-mathématiques de Galilée et de Newton, fut caractérisé par Kant comme formes de l'intuition sensible, n'a cessé au cours des siècles qui suivirent de se trouver remis en cause dans leur saisie première par les développements théoriques. En mathématiques d'abord, avec les géométries non-euclidiennes, en physique ensuite, où relativité générale (...) puis théories quantiques et critiques ont dû remanier profondément l'objectivité de ces concepts pour en faire des catégories, certes toujours aussi essentielles, mais de plus en plus contre-intuitives, et maintenant en biologie où la temporalité, notamment, et la causalité se révèlent largement différentes de celles de la physique. C'est ce que nous tentons de présenter et de discuter dans ce texte en vue d'en dégager la pertinence pour la cognition elle-même. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis study of reporting by UK national newspapers of Gipsies, Roma and Travelers offers a macro-analysis to complement existing discourse analyses. The results show a significant imbalance...

Frailty is a complex geriatric syndrome with multifactorial associated mechanisms that need to be examined more deeply to help reverse the adverse health-related outcomes. Specific inflammatory and physical health markers have been associated with the onset of frailty, but the associations between these factors and psycho-social health outcomes seem less studied. This systematic review aimed to identify, in the same study design, the potential associations between frailty and markers of inflammation, and physical or psycho-social health. A literature search was performed (...) from inception until March 2021 using Medline, Psycinfo, and EMBASE. Three raters evaluated the articles and selected 22 studies, using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Regarding biomarkers, 95% of the included studies showed significant links between inflammation [especially the higher levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 ], and frailty status. Approximately 86% of the included studies showed strong links between physical health decline, and frailty status. At most, 13 studies among the 22 included ones evaluated psycho-social variables and mixed results were observed regarding the relationships with frailty. Results are discussed in terms of questioning the medical perception of global health, centering mostly on the physical dimension. Therefore, the development of future research studies involving a more exhaustive view of frailty and global health is strongly encouraged. (shrink)

The methodology of classical economics presents a fascinating glimpse of Enlightenment scientists wrestling with ancient epistemological problems that were considered overcome in the new age. The tension between hypotheses and empirical investigation abolished by transcending the old metaphysical and religious idols recurs as efforts are made to clarify the new practice of physical science and to extend this practice to the study of human action; debates arise over the source and use of “hypotheses” and the ancient Platonic-Aristotelian split is given (...) new life. Deborah Redman has written a magisterial review of this development. (shrink)

As our scientific and technical abilities expand at breathtaking speeds, concern that modern genetics and bioengineering are leading us to a posthuman future is growing. Is Human Nature Obsolete? poses the overarching question of what it is to be human against the background of these current advances in biotechnology. Its perspective is philosophical and interdisciplinary rather than technical; the focus is on questions of fundamental ontological importance rather than the specifics of medical or scientific practice.The authors -- all distinguished scholars (...) in their fields -- take on questions about technology's goals and values that are often ignored or sidelined in the face of rapid scientific advances and the highly specialized nature of technical knowledge. The essays included represent a rich variety of thought, ranging from finely nuanced philosophical and theological arguments to historical studies and cultural commentaries. Several explore the historical background of today's biotechnology: Timothy Casey traces such developments as the emergence of cybernetic humanity from Cartesian dualism, and Diane Paul presents the history of "positive" versus coerced eugenics. Jean Bethke Elshtain discusses cloning as a "messianic project" to perfect the body and exclude natural diversity -- giving as an example the elimination of Down Syndrome as an acceptable human type -- while Harold Baillie calls for an examination of the metaphysical roots of personhood. Robert Proctor finds no evidence in paleontology for any "essence of humanity," and Tom Shannon argues against materialist reductionism. Addressing social concerns, Lisa Sowle Cahill finds the possibility of a political solution to the problems raised by genetic engineering in Catholic teachings on social justice, and Langdon Winner looks critically at the "scientific enthusiasts of a posthuman future." Taken as a whole, the book provides a humanistic overview of a subject too often considered only in its technological aspect. (shrink)

This text is in Greek with extensive commentary in English and includes a general introduction, introductions to each of the two texts, appendices, glossary, and vocabulary. The Euthyphro and the Clitophon provide an ideal, exciting introduction to Plato and Greek prose.

I describe a distinctive kind of fear that is generated by a vivid recognition of one’s mortal nature. I name it ‘existential shock’. This special fear does not take our future annihilation as any kind of harm, whether intrinsic or extrinsic. One puzzling feature of existential shock is that it is experienced as disclosing an important truth, yet attempts to specify this revelatory content bring us back to familiar facts about one’s inevitable death. But how can I discover something that (...) I already knew? I argue that in our everyday lives, we are in the grip of deeply entrenched patterns of thought and feeling that prevent the knowledge of our mortality from being fully assimilated. Rather, we merely ‘pay lip service’ to the facts of our mortality. I propose that existential shock involves a distinctive mode of presentation of oneself as a mortal being, in a way that cuts through subtle layers of denial that govern our lives. I develop this thesis by utilizing and synthesizing ideas from several traditions, including the work of Samuel Scheffler, Mark Johnston, Martin Heidegger, and Jay L. Garfield. (shrink)

This self-contained anthology collects some of the most influential primary source contributions to contemporary analytic philosophy, together with introductions and commentaries for each selection. It traces the development of a few central themes in analytic philosophy, in sufficient detail—from philosophy of mind and language, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophical logic. Frege, Russell, Moore. Wittgenstein. Logical Empiricism. Ordinary Language Philosophy. Quine. Truth, Meaning, and Interpretation. Reference and Essence. For anyone interested in Analytic Philosophy.

While all psychologically competent persons know that they will one day die, this knowledge is typically held at a distance, not fully assimilated. That is, while we do not doubt that we will die, there is another sense in which we cannot fully believe it either. However, on some rare occasions, we can grasp the reality of our mortal nature in a way that is seemingly revelatory, as if the fact is appreciated in a new way. Thomas Nagel calls this (...) experience ‘the expectation of nothingness’. But how can I be shocked by what I already know? After illustrating this phenomenon via examples including Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, I draw on the work of Thomas Nagel, Tamar Szabo Gendler, Mark Johnston and others to articulate and explain our typical state of believing-yet-not-believing in our inevitable death, and offer a hypothesis as to how this condition is occasionally overcome, so that we grasp our mortality in a more psychologically integrated manner. (shrink)

Cleaning occupations, which in recent years have accounted for a not inconsiderable share of employment and job creation in France, are characterised by particularly bad working conditions and low pay. Is this situation inevitable? Are there not in fact mechanisms that might lead employers in the cleaning sector to adopt socially more responsible behaviours towards their employees? After all, the literature on corporate social responsibility suggests that the actions of consumers could be one of these mechanisms. The aim of our (...) paper is to test the impact on job quality of contact between cleaning workers and service recipients. To this end, we analyse data from a survey carried out by the French Ministry of Labour and supplemented by interviews. Our results indicate that contact with service recipients does indeed have an influence. (shrink)

Cet article examine comment, par leur discours, les femmes se construisent comme mère, dans leurs interactions avec leurs enfants adolescent-e-s, occasionnellement avec leurs maris, contribuant ainsi à la reproduction sociale des stéréotypes de masculinité et de féminité ou, au contraire, de quelle façon elles rompent avec la tradition et proposent des modèles alternatifs. Acceptent-elles ou non leur héritage symbolique en matière de genre? En voulant la reproduire, comment réinvestissent-elles la dimension genrée dans un contexte d’interactions verbales avec leurs adolescent-e-s, les (...) renvoyant ou pas à leurs « origines » culturelles? Les mères dépassent-elles le modèle de binarité des sexes traditionnel pour parvenir à un modèle agentif? À travers le continuum de normativité et d’agentivité, l’entre-deux prend tout son sens : en quoi l’imaginaire linguistique constitue-t-il un espace à construire, un « à travers »? This research paper examines the way women discursively construct themselves as mothers, in their interactions with their teenage children, and occasionally with their husbands, and the way they thus contribute to the social reproduction of manhood and womanhood stereotypes or on the contrary break with the tradition to propose alternative models. Do they or don’t they accept their symbolic heritage as regards sex and gender? While intending to reproduce this heritage, how do they reinvest the gendered dimension in the context of verbal interaction with their teen-agers, sending them back or not to their cultural “origins”? Do the mothers go beyond the traditional binary model of sex and gender to reach an agentive model? Through the continuum that goes from normativity to agentivity, the idea of an in-between stage makes sense: in what way does the linguistic imaginary constitute an area to be forged, a crossing space? (shrink)

"Réfléchir sur la science, mais aussi sur les relations humaines et sur des engagements politiques et militants, tout en faisant référence à des textes anciens et à des enseignements "traditionnaires", n'est-ce pas un peu provocateur? Pourtant, la présente évocation aspire à surmonter les parcellisations et l'éclatement de la pensée - telle, en particulier, que l'Occident la conçoit trop souvent - en traitant aussi bien du raisonnable que de l'affectif, du cognitif que du ressenti et de l'intime, du communautaire que du (...) politique. Il s'agit donc de trouver les voies, les canaux, d'une correspondance des singularités personnelles, visant les relations qu'elles peuvent et doivent élaborer et entretenir, afin de signifier le dégagement d'un sens : le projet d'une humanité. Expression d'une nécessité, d'une rationalité en quelque sorte et aussi, au moins, d'une expérience. Je trouve précieux et émouvant que tradition ésotérique juive et expérience militante gauchiste puissent s'apporter, s'échanger, s'entendre pour une perspective de mise en oeuvre envisageant de devenir commune, sans pour autant mélanger abusivement ce qui doit demeurer séparé, jusqu'à ce que l'alliance conclue entre des protagonistes dûment identifiés et authentifiés soit en mesure de reprendre en termes de compatibilités et de convergence ce qui s'est présenté trop souvent dans l'histoire en termes d'irréductibilités et d'aléatoire." Extrait et adapté de Francis Bailly, Avant-Propos. (shrink)

The Animal Side is a manifesto on the importance of animals for human thought. It attempts to characterize the importance, for human beings, of the fact that animals exist. Adopting a philosophical and poetic approach, the book seeks to show that animals' ways of inhabiting the earth are, for human consciousness, an expansion and an exploration of what philosophers and poets have tried to name by speaking of the Open. Beginning with the story of an encounter with a deer on (...) a road at night, the book proceeds by showing that, beyond the diversity of animal life and the ways animals differ from human beings, there is a "layer of the perceptible" on which we all draw, humans and animals alike, in our own ways. At present, however, this layer itself is at risk. Thus the book can also be read as a defense and illustration of animals' modes of being, and as a plea for their survival. (shrink)

In this paper, I attempt to map out the 'logical geography' of the territory in which issues of mental content and of personal identity meet. In particular, I investigate the possibility of combining a psychological criterion of personal identity with an externalist theory of content. I argue that this can be done, but only by accepting an assumption that has been widely accepted but barely argued for, namely that when someone switches linguistic communities, the contents of their thoughts do not (...) change immediately, but only after the person becomes integrated within the new linguistic community. I also suggest that recent work on personal identity, notably by Derek Parfit, has tacitly assumed internalism regarding mental content. I do not intend to argue for either externalism or a psychological criterion. My aim is merely to explicate the issues involved in making them compatible. (shrink)

Cette dimension d’immensité est la première qui me vient à l’esprit, dès lors qu’il est question d’aborder la nature. Nature est un mot qui avait presque disparu, de l’université en tout cas. À partir de lectures hâtives, de Foucault notamment, on en était arrivé à ne plus voir dans la nature que l’illusion voire le fantasme d’une originarité perdue. Or cela, je ne l’ai jamais pensé, je ne l’ai jamais cru, j’ai toujours pensé, au contraire, qu’avec phusis et bios, nous (...) avions un infini de la... (shrink)

In an age were artificial intelligence can do everything for us why should we do things for ourselves? What is at stake is the intrinsic value of doing things for ourselves, our relationship to the world, and the sense of personal identity that springs forth from our actions. An age were automated machines do everything for us, threatens to de-skill our perceptions and to turn the individual into a passive observer rather than an active participant in the world. Therefore, this (...) paper draws upon the phenomenology of skilled perception and the Aristotelian concept of Aretê to argue for the importance of doing high-quality work for its own sake and how such domains of activity are central to our personal identities. What is required to live authentically is the targeted automation of routinized work and to enable the individual to freely choose their own practical identities based on its potential to provide an engaging perceptual niche. AI may either enhance or diminish our authenticity in three salient ways; it can either be used to liberate us from disengaging work, to facilitate psychologically engaging work, or to annihilate engaging perceptual niches and to close off corners of reality from mankind forever. (shrink)

The ways in which international non-governmental development organizations (INGDOs) engage with northern constituencies have important implications for their promotion of principles of global justice and equity, their legitimacy as global actors and their capacity to shape a democratic global civil society. This paper focuses on the diverse forms of engagement currently being sought by international development NGOs. Using development education as a case study the paper explores some of the processes of mediation and negotiation that shape NGOs' articulation of global (...) ethics. The paper argues that the diversity of approaches to engagement in the sector presents an opportunity for INGDOs to strengthen and deepen their relationships with Northern constituencies and to support the articulation and embedding of principles of global justice and equity. It argues that development education can play a central role in achieving this. (shrink)

I examine Derek Parfit’s claim that it doesn’t matter whether he survives in the future, if someone survives who is psychologically connected to him by “Relation R.” Thus, were his body to perish and be replaced by an exact duplicate, both physically and psychologically identical to him, this would be just as good as “ordinary” survival. Parfit takes the corollary view that replacement of loved ones by exact duplicates is no loss. In contrast, Peter Unger argues that we place nontransferable (...) value in the lives of individualpersons. I argue that the question of the preferability of Relation R over identity is unanswerable at present, as such hypothetical situations are too far removed from our experience to allow any reliable responses. I contrast cases involving artifacts, where we can make informed judgments concerning whether a given object’s value would be transferred to a duplicate. (shrink)

This paper challenges the widely held theory that split-brain patients have ‘two-minds’ and can thus be described as being two distinct persons. A distinction is made between the singularity of mind and the coherence of mind. It is stressed that ‘a single mind’ is not something posited to explain coherence among mental contents, but is merely a mark that such coherence holds to a certain degree. However, there is no sharp dividing line regarding what counts as a single mind. It (...) is argued that mental coherence is always a matter of degree, and that our concept of a single mind can accomodate spit-brain phenomena. (shrink)

In this paper we define two types of formal biological entities corresponding to biological levels of organization, thebiolons and theorgons, the properties of which are phenomenologically analyzed and discussed.We examine then, in a rather speculative manner, how some characteristics of these entities may suggest analogies between properties of biological systems and some special features of quantum systems.