The usual action integral of classical electrodynamics is derived starting from Lanczos’s electrodynamics – a pure field theory in which charged particles are identified with singularities of the homogeneous Maxwell’s equations interpreted as a generalization of the Cauchy–Riemann regularity conditions from complex to biquaternion functions of four complex variables. It is shown that contrary to the usual theory based on the inhomogeneous Maxwell’s equations, in which charged particles are identified with the sources, there is no divergence in the self-interaction so (...) that the mass is finite, and that the only approximations made in the derivation are the usual conditions required for the internal consistency of classical electrodynamics. Moreover, it is found that the radius of the boundary surface enclosing a singularity interpreted as an electron is on the same order as that of the hypothetical “bag” confining the quarks in a hadron, so that Lanczos’s electrodynamics is engaging the reconsideration of many fundamental concepts related to the nature of elementary particles. (shrink)

Experiences of absence are common in everyday life, but have received little philosophical attention until recently, when two positions regarding the nature of such experiences surfaced in the literature. According to the Perceptual View, experiences of absence are perceptual in nature. This is denied by the Surprise-Based View, according to which experiences of absence belong together with cases of surprise. In this paper, I show that there is a kind of experience of absence—which I call frustrating absences—that has been overlooked (...) by the Perceptual View and by the Surprise Based-View and that cannot be adequately explained by them. I offer an alternative account to deal with frustrating absences, one according to which experiencing frustrating absences is a matter of subjects having desires for something to be present frustrated by the world. Finally, I argue that there may well be different kinds of experiences of absence. (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)

If we return to the experiences of our youth, we perceive what had the power to awaken our curiosity and ambitions*. The non-conformism of the Surrealists was fostered by Romantic sources and every conceivable symbolism; even if in a roundabout manner, it was through them that the names of Klee and Kandinsky were first heard. The world of the marvellous, the only one decreed worthy of attention, opened out onto painting. The moderns of the group: Dali, Tanguy, Masson, received first (...) prize for poetic adventure, but they harked back to certain selected precursors—rightly or wrongly—for the same gifts that they had themselves: Uccello, Bosch, Dürer, Blake, and Gustave Moreau. And indeed, by retaining only the unexpected, the fantastic, and (often indulgently) the scandalous, a taste was maintained for emotional shock and association, as exemplified by the sustained style of André Breton, and the more supple prose of Aragon. (shrink)

O presente artigo pretende apresentar um recorte da filosofia da arte na Alemanha, nos séculos XVIII e XIX, tendo como foco o contexto em que se insere O nascimento da tragédia, de Nietzsche. Para isso, serão discutidos mais especificamente os conceitos de intuição estética e princípio de individuação, a partir de Schelling e Schopenhauer, respectivamente.

O presente artigo científico é parte de pesquisa destinada a investigar as implicações e interpretações advindas da transformação do posicionamento do princípio de universalização (U) operada na teoria do discurso do filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas, sobretudo a partir de algumas de suas obras das décadas de 80 e 90. A pretensão cognitivista da ética do discurso fundamenta a moral diante da possibilidade de reconstrução racional discursiva das justificativas das normas. O teste de universalização faz parte da fundamentação, mas em que (...) sentido? A fim de afastar o ceticismo quanto a pretensão de justificação prática, Habermas repensa a relação kantiana entre moral e direito. Mais precisamente, diante de sociedades complexas marcadas pelo Estado Democrático de Direito e pelo uso de discursos práticos diversos da moral para a justificação das práticas sociais, a legitimidade das normas passa por explicitar a relação discursiva entre direito, moral e política. É no âmbito deste desafio que o filósofo alemão vem modificando a formulação e o posicionamento de seu princípio de universalização (U) ao longo do tempo, bem como sua relação com o princípio do discurso (D) e, posteriormente, com o princípio da democracia (De). Após percorrermos este caminho, lançamos a hipótese, segundo a qual, a ênfase que Habermas confere ao direito em Facticidade e Validade junto do reposicionamento do ponto de vista moral, permite pensar de maneira dialógica a interação social como práxis comunicativa sem sujeitos. (shrink)

« L’ordre de la chambre reproduit l’ordre du monde dont elle est la particule élémentaire », écrit Michelle Perrot en conclusion du bel essai qu’elle vient de consacrer à l’histoire de la chambre comme lieu de vie. Mais son livre dément ou du moins déborde cette proposition trop générale par la complexité sinueuse et aléatoire des transformations dont il reconstitue le cheminement. Dans l’histoire de l’habitat, la chambre individuelle ou conjugale constitue moins une particule élémentaire qu...

Overview of feminist bioethics for the journal of the Ewha Women's College, Seoul, South Korea.

L'unique tâche philosophique de Lequier a consisté dans la recherche d'une première vérité. Le récit existentiel est la voie qu'il a choisie. Cette voie, loin de mettre en question la métaphysique, expose, sous une forme phénoménologique, comment la vérité peut s'accomplir comme liberté dans l'histoire grâce à laquelle un être humain affirme son identité.

Après une présentation du livre de B.M. Levinson, L’Herméneutique de l’innovation , on souligne tout l’intérêt de la méthode consistant à mettre en évidence dans les textes de l’AT un principe de développement procédant d’une exégèse intra-biblique dont les méthodes préparent celles de l’exégèse rabbinique. L’exemple développé dans l’ouvrage fait alors l’objet d’un réexamen. Une lecture différente des textes est proposée, qui pose la question de savoir si le travail des rédacteurs bibliques ne vise pas davantage à rectifier une interprétation (...) biaisée de la sentence du décalogue qu’à corriger, au moyen d’une exégèse corrective, le texte même de la loi auquel on ne pouvait toucher dans la mesure où il était déjà considéré comme saint. (shrink)

RésuméCet article expose et analyse la notion de référentielà laquelle Gonseth avail consacré son dernier livre. II distingue un référentiel personnel qui comporte deux aspects et un référentiel de groupe qui lui aussi présente diverses modalités . Entre les référentiels personnels et les référentiels de groupe s'établit une symbiose existentielle favorisant les interactions. Cette notion de référentiel peut être utilisée avec profit pour décrire et interpréter les relations que ľhomme entretient avec ses semblables, avec les collectivités dont il fait partie (...) et avec le milieu naturel dans lequel il se trouve engagé.SummaryThis article presents and analyses the notion of reference frame, to which Gonseth devoted his last book. A personal reference frame involving two aspects is distinguished from a group reference frame which also takes various forms . Personal and group reference frames are in an existential symbiosis fostering interactions. This notion of reference frame may be used to advantage in describing and interpreting the relations between man and his fellow man, his organizations, and his natural environment. (shrink)

Les recherches présentées dans cet ouvrage s'inscrivent dans deux grandes familles épistémologiques, celle des approches narratives et celle de l'analyse de l'activité. Les auteur(e)s convoquent les principes théoriques et méthodologiques de ces deux approches pour interroger la place du sujet dans le travail éducatif à partir de plusieurs points de vue : l'intersubjectivité d'une situation éducative et la spécificité de la rencontre qu'elle génère ; le rôle des outils narratifs et réflexifs dans l'émancipation de l'individu ; la prise en compte (...) de la temporalité dans l'élaboration et l'analyse de ces outils ; l'importance d'une posture de recherche collaborative prenant en compte l'ensemble des sujets impliqués dans cette rencontre. Impulsé par l'équipe Profeor du laboratoire CIREL et ouvert à d'autres auteurs experts de ces champs, l'ouvrage propose un dialogue entre ces deux familles épistémologiques, souvent abordées de façon distincte, ainsi qu'entre chercheurs, professionnels de l'éducation et de la formation et apprenants."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Despite its title and stated objectives this edited volume does not provide a broad and inclusive survey of post-apartheid South African historiographical developments. Its main topic is the unexpected demise in the post-apartheid context of the radical or revisionist approach that had invigorated and transformed the humanities and social studies during the 1970s and 1980s. In the context of the anti-apartheid struggle the radical historians had developed a plausible model of praxis for progressive scholarship, yet in the new post-apartheid democratic (...) South Africa radical historical scholarship itself encountered a crisis of survival. This should not be confused with a general “crisis” of historical scholarship in South Africa, as some of the uneven contributions to this volume contend, as that remains an active and diversely productive field due also to substantial contributions by historians not based in South Africa. If the dramatic and ironic fate of radical historical scholarship in the context of the transition to a post-apartheid democracy is the volume's primary topic, then it unfortunately fails to provide serious and sustained critical reflection on the origins and possible explanations for that crisis. A marked feature of the accounts of “history making” provided in this volume is the radical historians' lack of self-reflexivity and the scant interest shown in the underlying history of their own intellectual trajectories. (shrink)

Introduction : Gramsci, ce célèbre inconnu -- 1. Trois portaits de Gramsci en intellectuel politique -- 2. Quasi système et histoire dans les cahiers de prison -- 3. Antonio Gramsci : quel socialisme ? Quel communisme ? -- 4. La philosophie de la praxis entre conception du monde, religion, idéologie, sens commun -- 5. Survie et création en prison -- 6. L'hégémonie comme pédagogie: formation de la volonté collective et de la personnalité individuelle.

This book presents a comprehensive and detailed exploration of the relationship between the thought of G.W.F. Hegel and that of John McDowell, the latter of whom is widely considered to be one of the most influential living analytic philosophers. It serves as a point of entry in McDowell’s and Hegel’s philosophy, and a substantial contribution to ongoing debates on perceptual experience and perceptual justification, naturalism, human freedom and action. The chapters gathered in this volume, as well as McDowell’s responses, make (...) it clear that McDowell’s work paves the way for an original reading of Hegel’s texts. His conceptual framework allows for new interpretive possibilities in Hegel’s philosophy which, until now, have remained largely unexplored. Moreover, these interpretations shed light on various aspects of continuity and discontinuity between the philosophies of these two authors, thus defining more clearly their positions on specific issues. In addition, they allow us to see Hegel’s thought as containing a number of conceptual tools that might be useful for advancing McDowell’s own philosophy and contemporary philosophy in general. (shrink)

Pourquoi Averroès? Pourquoi Averroès juriste? Parce que dans le cadre du débat avec ceux qui soutiennent le caractère indubitable du texte sacré, Averroès affirme la primauté de la raison. Il a ainsi mis en avant le questionnement, le doute dans la recherche de la vérité. Ce doute toléré dans le cercle restreint des philosophes était inacceptable en droit (la charia) qui s'applique à tous les membres de la communauté des musulmans. D'où sa condamnation et son exil. La redécouverte de la (...) pensée d'Averroès pourrait permettre au monde arabo-musulman de s'extraire du chaos. (shrink)