Volume 20, Issue 10, October 2020, Page 1-4.

A survey of democratic institutions and republics reveals the aristocratic origins of democracy.

Many authors have posited an “object file” system, which underlies perceptual selection and tracking of objects. Several have proposed that this system internalizes principles specifying what counts as an object and relies on them during tracking. Here I consider a popular view on which the object file system is tuned to entities that satisfy principles of three-dimensionality, cohesion, and boundedness. I argue that the evidence gathered in support of this view is consistent with a more permissive view on which object (...) files select and track according to well-known perceptual organization criteria. Further evidence supplies positive support for the permissive view. (shrink)

This new translation of four revised radio interviews, conducted in December 2002 at France Culture with Elie During, is the best introduction to Stiegler's Time and Technics series. This collection includes a new interview conducted specially for this volume and an interview with Artpress from 2001. In Philosophising By Accident, Stiegler introduces some of the key arguments about the technical constitution of the human and its relation to politics, aesthetics and economics. He reads philosophical texts from the perspective of his (...) controversial thesis about the three types of memory and speaks about concepts central to his later works, such as synchrony/diachrony, grammatisation and the industrial temporal object. (shrink)

After more than a decade teaching ancient Greek history and philosophy at University College, Oxford, British philosopher and political theorist Bernard Bosanquet resigned from his post to spend more time writing. He was particularly interested in contemporary social theory, and was involved with the Charity Organisation Society and the London Ethical Society. He saw himself as a radical in the Liberal Party, and at a theoretical level he was a 'collectivist', considering the individual to be a part of a (...) larger social organism. He thought the state should be in harmony with the general will, and that going beyond it would lead to repression. Bosanquet's political ideas are explained in this influential work, which was published in 1899 and ran to four editions by 1923. Bosanquet begins with the theory of state, and then addresses sociological and philosophical ideas about politics before examining the idea of 'will'. (shrink)

The scholastic philosopher is interested in definition for a different reason than the lexicographer and linguist. The philosopher is trying to learn things. Fe defines, after investigating reality, in an attempt to describe reality clearly and to sum up some aspect of his understanding of reality. Hence, we find our scholastic philosophers adopting as a main feature of their method this insistence on defining, on precise and detailed explanation of their definitions, and on proving that their definitions da correctly express (...) what a nature or activity is. A dictionary of the language of scholastic philosophy fitted to the needs of beginners and of undergraduate students of the subject is not available in English. (shrink)

Una terza collezione, preparata per i Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan dai curatori Robert M. Doran e John D. Dadosky, è un utile complemento ai volumi quattro e tredici della serie. Il volume contiene quindici scritti, redatti tra il 1974 e il 1982, e include alcuni dei suoi più importanti scritti brevi, come "Prolegomeni allo studio della coscienza religiosa emergente del nostro tempo" e "Diritto naturale e mentalità storica", di cui sono specificate le voci d'archivio, in modo che il (...) lettore possa consultarle. Gli interventi di questo volume ripropongono in chiave nuova i temi di una vita. Senza ritornare in alcun modo sulle principali enfasi dei primi lavori di Lonergan - la teoria cognitiva e poi l'esplorazione di un quarto livello esistenziale di coscienza - si concentrano maggiormente sull'amore e sul movimento dall'alto verso il basso della coscienza. La comunità è enfatizzata come contesto e frutto dell'emergere di soggetti autentici. (shrink)

This article situates the emergence of cybernetic concepts in postwar French thought within a longer history of struggles surrounding the technocratic reform of French universities, including Marcel Mauss’s failed efforts to establish a large-scale centre for social-scientific research with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the intellectual and administrative endeavours of Claude Lévi-Strauss during the 1940s and 1950s, and the rise of communications research in connection with the Centre d’Études des Communications de Masse (CECMAS). Although semioticians and poststructuralists used cybernetic discourse (...) critically and ironically, I argue that their embrace of a ‘textocratic’ perspective – that is, a theory of power and epistemology as tied to technical inscription – sustained elements of the technocratic reasoning dating back to these 1920s efforts to reform French universities. (shrink)

Overgeneralization -- Vague definition -- Post hoc, propter hoc -- False analogy -- Partial selection of the evidence -- Groupthink -- Scams, deceptions, ruses, swindles, hoaxes and gaslights -- Begging the question -- The logic of Alice.

In this article, I examine Nietzsche's famous claim that moralities are a “sign-language” or “symptomatology” of the affective states of moral agents. I sketch out the sentimentalist interpretation of this claim, which has become prevalent in the scholarly literature, and argue that it cannot be correct. The relation it posits between values and the affects that explain them displays certain distinctive characteristics—noncontingency, expressive transparency, and specificity—which the relation between affects and values Nietzsche envisages in the examples that illustrate his claim (...) ostensibly lacks. I argue that the relation between affects and values is better understood as functional, rather than expressive: he explains moral judgments by showing how they serve certain emotional needs of the agent. Thus, Nietzsche's claim is better understood as articulating a kind of sentimental pragmatism. I conclude with some brief thoughts on the relation between this pragmatism and sentimentalism. (shrink)

Offers an exploration of what it means to be a Jew, rooted in the Talmudic tradition of argument and conflict.

Alors qu’un nombre important de situations relevant d’une souffrance psychique du lien est régulièrement rapporté par les professionnels de la protection de l’enfance, peu d’études se sont penchées sur le processus psychique inconscient nécessairement à l’œuvre pour permettre l’accueil et l’intégration, même provisoire, dans une famille d’un enfant qui initialement n’en fait pas partie. Les auteurs de cet article cherchent à étudier la dynamique de fonctionnement psychique sous-jacent à l’accueil de l’enfant, en appui sur les conceptualisations théoriques psychanalytiques groupales et (...) psychanalytiques familiales. Les propositions de lecture offrent un modèle de compréhension des ruptures de liens rencontrées dans les problématiques du placement familial. (shrink)

« L'âme humaine [...] est comparable à ces créatures fabuleuses - la Chimère, Scylla ou Cerbère - qui unissent en un seul corps les formes de plusieurs espèces d'êtres vivants. »Platon (env. 428-347 av. J.-C.) fait aujourd'hui figure de mythe. Fondateur de nombreux concepts dont nous sommes les héritiers, il apparaît comme le père de la philosophie moderne. Mais quel homme fut-il? Remarquable par son physique athlétique et son esprit brillant, cet enfant de l'aristocratie athénienne se destinait à la politique (...) ou aux arts. Sa rencontre avec Socrate bouleverse le cours de son existence. Rejetant dès lors la futilité de ses premiers penchants et condamnant les excès de la vie politique, il se voue corps et âme à la quête de la vérité.De son œuvre, il nous reste vingt-huit écrits, qui ont traversé vingt-cinq siècles. De son vécu, bien peu de chose. L'entreprise de Bernard Fauconnier soulève la question des sources : faute de pouvoir apporter une réponse ferme et limpide, l'auteur tente de retracer la ligne d'une vie qui, à bien des égards, fut exemplaire. Introduction Légendes et vérités Une jeunesse au bruit de la guerre Une éducation princière Un dissident Un procès criminel Premiers voyages Premiers dialogues J'aimerais tant voir Syracuse... L'Académie Un banquet de paroles Le temps de La République Une crise ontologique Le deuxième voyage à Syracuse L'échec du troisième voyage Ultimes corrections Mort d'un philosophe Après Platon Repères chronologiquesRéférences bibliographiques Notes. (shrink)

La science est un modèle qui mime dans l'abstrait le comportement de la nature. Créations du chercheur, les théories pour un fait donné peuvent être multiples et chacune valide. La science a des lois, la nature n'en a pas. L'ordre de la nature, c'est le chercheur qui l'y met. L'esprit, façonnant un amorphe premier, participe à la mise en forme de la nature produisant le Réel "en nous". Celle-ci, réciproquement, modèle l'esprit. De ce fait, l'univers n'existerait plus si l'homme disparaissait...