American archaeology has long been focused on reconstructing past cultures through the description and chronological ordering of items found in the archaeological record. This goal was most evident starting in the early 20th century through what became known as culture history, which in retrospect produced results based on common sense and ethnographic analogues rather than on formal theory. By the mid-1930s, some culture historians realized the lack of testability in their conclusions and began exploring Darwinian evolutionary theory as an alternative. (...) However, their efforts were often ignored or ridiculed, and it wasn’t until the early 1980s that evolutionary theory and associated methods began to play significant roles in archaeology. This acceptance grew from the development of a genetics-based theory of cultural transmission and the introduction of phylogenetic methods into anthropology and archaeology. These methods offered the necessary means for distinguishing between simple historical continuity—one thing following another chronologically—and heritable continuity—how one thing is related to another in terms of descent. Two concepts that play key roles in the reconstruction of cultural phylogenies are tradition and lineage, the former representing patterns of phylogenetic relationship and the latter patterns of genealogical descent. (shrink)

Background The work of Research Ethics Boards (REBs), especially when involving genetics research and biobanks, has become more challenging with the growth of biotechnology and biomedical research. Some REBs have even rejected research projects where the use of a biobank with coded samples was an integral part of the study, the greatest fear being the lack of participant protection and uncontrolled use of biological samples or related genetic data. The risks of discrimination and stigmatization are a recurrent issue. In light (...) of the increasing interest in biomedical research and the resulting benefits to the health of participants, it is imperative that practical solutions be found to the problems associated with the management of biobanks: namely, protecting the integrity of the research participants, as well as guaranteeing the security and confidentiality of the participant's information. Methods We aimed to devise a practical and efficient model for the management of biobanks in biomedical research where a medical archivist plays the pivotal role as a data-protection officer. The model had to reduce the burden placed on REBs responsible for the evaluation of genetics projects and, at the same time, maximize the protection of research participants. Results The proposed model includes the following: 1) a means of protecting the information in biobanks, 2) offers ways to provide follow-up information requested about the participants, 3) protects the participant's confidentiality and 4) adequately deals with the ethical issues at stake in biobanking. Conclusion Until a governmental governance body is established in Quebec to guarantee the protection of research participants and establish harmonized guidelines for the management of biobanks in medical research, it is definitely up to REBs to find solutions that the present lack of guidelines poses. The model presented in this article offers a practical solution on a day-to-day basis for REBs, as well as researchers by promoting an archivist to a pivotal role in the process. It assures protection of all participants who altruistically donate their samples to generate and improve knowledge for better diagnosis and medical treatment. (shrink)

The present study investigates procedural learning of motor sequences in children with developmental coordination disorder and/or developmental dyslexia, typically-developing children and healthy adults with a special emphasis on the role of the nature of stimuli and the neuropsychological functions associated to final performance of the sequence. Seventy children and ten adults participated in this study and were separated in five experimental groups: TD, DCD, DD, and DCD + DD children and adults. Procedural learning was assessed with a serial reaction time (...) task that required to tap on a specific key as accurately and quickly as possible when stimuli appeared on the screen. Three types of stimuli were proposed as cues: the classical version of the SRTT with 4 squares aligned horizontally on the screen, giving visuospatial cues, and two modified versions, with 4 letters aligned horizontally on the screen and letters at the center of the screen. Reaction times during the repeated and random blocks allowed assessing three phases of learning: global learning, specific learning and retention of the sequence. Learning was considered as completed when RT evolved significantly in the three phases. Neuropsychological assessment involved, among other functions, memory and attentional functions. Our main result was that learning and retention were not influenced by the available cues in adults whereas learning improved with specific cues in children with or without neurodevelopmental disorders. More precisely, learning was not completed with L cues in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. For children with DD, learning was completed with the VS and VS + L cues whereas for children with DCD, learning was completed with combined VS + L cues. Comorbidity between DD and DCD had no more impact on procedural learning than DCD alone. These results suggest that learning depends on the nature of cues available during practice and that cues allowing learning and retention depend on the type of disorder. Moreover, selective attention was correlated with RT during retention, suggesting that this neuropsychological function is important for procedural learning whatever the available cues. (shrink)

Según Chantal Mouffe, las concepciones deliberativas de la democracia desconocen el fenómeno político; esto se pone manifiesto en la pretensión de alcanzar un consenso racional que niega el conflicto, elemento insoslayable de la política. Otro error que les atribuye es privilegiar la razón sobre los componentes pasionales al considerar la motivación de las acciones. Como alternativa propone la democracia radical centrada en las ideas de "hegemonía", en la oposición nosotros-ellos y en la importancia de las pasiones en la política. Este (...) artículo sostiene, primero, que la democracia deliberativa puede afrontar con éxito cada una de estas críticas; segundo, a partir de realizar una reconstrucción de los elementos normativos que contiene el pluralismo agonista, argumenta que fracasa en su intención de ofrecerse como una alternativa al estatus-quo de la democracia liberal ya que disuelve la validez en la facticidad. According to Chantal Mouffe, deliberative conceptions of democracy reject the political phenomenon. This is evident when a rational consensus to deny the conflict -politically unavoidable- is supported. Another error she also underlines is to privilege rational more than emotional elements in order to consider actions motivation. As an alternative she proposes radical democracy centered on the one hand at the idea of "hegemony", according to the opposition us-them and in the other at the passions involved in politics. The author maintains that deliberative democracy can face successfully each one of those critics. After reconstructing the normative elements that radical democracy contains, the argument proves that it fails in the pretention to be an alternative to liberal democracy status-quo since it dissolves validity in facticity. (shrink)

Jonathan Haidt has exhibited in several publications a strong influence by Hume as his inspiration to build up his Intuitionist Social Model especially in reference to the emotional and intuitive roots of morals. So, this article aims to go deeper into that influence to analyze, review and compare their concepts and hypotheses in order to establish common features in both Philosophers´ programs. By demonstrating some similarities between both authors -both critical to rationalism, and compelled to investigate the roots of morals (...) in Psychology-, their proposals will be compared and analyzed; and taking these critics into account the intuitionist assumptions that both Philosophers assume or could assume will be revised. In order to focus on the motivation of moral statements as a priority in Haidt research, the core of this article is dedicated to that issue. I will also explore Hume’s difficulty to conciliate his Emotivism with the rightness of moral statements that he considered necessary. Finally, my conclusions are that both positions sustain normative consequences ruled by an Ethics of Virtue. (shrink)

Nota crítica sobre el libro de María Luisa Femenías (2022). Los disidentes : filósofos feministas excluidos de la memoria, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : Galerna, 446 páginas.

L'auteur, un philosophe s'inspirant de Socrate, livre ses réflexions en rapport avec 19 sujets d'actualité dont le mariage homosexuel, l'éradication de la pauvreté, les droits des animaux, la peine de mort, l'insémination des célibataires, le droit à la poitrine nue en public, la "mort fine" de quelques régions du Québec, etc. [SDM].

Les objectifs de l'éthique environnementale et de l'écologie politique diffèrent. L'éthique environnementale, telle qu'elle s'est développée ces dernières années, a cherché, entre autres, à préciser la nature du lien entre l'Humain et la Nature. Cette démarche philosophique ne permet pas de définir les obligations environnementales valables pour tous dans une situation de pluralisme axiologique. Ce texte poursuit deux objectifs. À des fins d'illustration, nous présentons tout d'abord quatre approches représentatives de l'éthique environnementale contemporaine . Nous rappelons les principales objections soulevées (...) à leur endroit et le cul-de-sac théorique ou pratique dans lequel elles se trouvent engagées. Nous entreprenons ensuite de fournir l'esquisse d'une alternative que nous appelons simplement « l'écologie politique ». Nous en dressons les contours et surtout la spécificité par rapport à l'éthique environnementale. Les objets de l'éthique environnementale et de l'écologie politique sont peutêtre complémentaires mais certainement pas coextensifs.The objectives of environmental ethics and political ecology differ. Environmental ethics, such as it developed in the last few years, sought, among other things, to specify the nature of the link between Human Beings and Nature. This philosophical approach does not allow the definition of environmental obligations to be imposed on all in the context of moral pluralism. This article pursues two goals. To illustrate our argument, we will first present four representative approaches to contemporary environmental ethics . We will recall the principal objections raised against them and the theoretical and practical dead-ends in which they culminate. We will then propose the outline of an alternative which we call political ecology. We will then trace its boundaries and mainly its particularities in relation to environmental ethics. The objects of environmental ethics and of political ecology may be complementary but they are certainly not coextensive. (shrink)

Le concept de responsabilité vient généralement et spontanément à l'esprit de la plupart d'entre nous quand il est question d'action humaine. Il est surprenant pour cette raison que dans l'histoire de la philosophie de l'action, particulièrement l'histoire récente, la responsabilité ait été tenue autant à l'écart des discussions. En effet, après avoir joué chez les philosophes de la première génération suivant Wittgenstein, comme Hart, Melden, Chisholm et Rayfield, un rôle important, le concept de responsabilité a été, semble-t-il, progressivement évacué des (...) débats en philosophie analytique de l'action. Évidemment, l'action est encore affaire de responsabilité, puisque toute action peut être en principe sujette à une évaluation normative. Mais c'est le processus par lequel on en vient à évaluer la responsabilité d'une action qui ne semble plus faire partie des préoccupations des philosophes de l'action. Ceux-ci considèrent en général que de telles attributions devraient rester du resort de l'éthique ou du droit et n'ont rien à voir avec l'entreprise de la philosophie de l'action contemporaine qui, a bien des egards, se definit tout d'abord comme une extension de la philosophie de l'esprit. (shrink)

"Apprendre, qu'est-ce que cela veut dire? Qu'est-ce que cela suppose? Par quelles voies est-ce que cela passe? A ces questions, l'école contemporaine apporte une réponse catégorique : l'école traditionnelle s'est trompée, elle a voulu transmettre des connaissances détenues par un maître en les inculquant à des élèves passifs. Cette pédagogie de l'imposition ne marche pas. Il faut lui substituer une pédagogie active faisant de l'enfant l'acteur de la construction de ses savoirs. Nous sommes au moment où cette réponse se révèle (...) aussi fausse, dans sa demi-vérité, que la philosophie antérieure. Il en résulte que l'école aujourd'hui est plongée dans une incertitude complète sur la nature de l'opération qu'il lui revient d'effectuer. Tout est à reprendre, à commencer par l'opposition supposée entre activité de l'élève et transmission du savoir. C'est ce problème fondamental que ce livre s'efforce d'éclairer." [Extrait de la 4e de couv.]. (shrink)

Les liens intimes ont été soumis, particulièrement en France et au Québec, à de profondes transformations depuis l’entrée en scène de la modernité. Pour certains commentateurs, ces modifications témoignent d’une crise de la société, voire d’un effritement du lien social, qui aurait maintenant atteint ces lieux, jadis garants de la solidarité et de la morale. Pour ces mêmes observateurs, la sortie de crise se lit également dans l’urgence d’une reconstruction normative et transcendante de la société. Les auteurs désirent offrir ici (...) une lecture alternative à ces approches qui leur apparaissent décrire la société moderne dans les termes de la tradition. Ils proposent d’analyser les transformations des liens intimes à l’aune du passage de la société traditionnelle à la société moderne, c’est-à-dire du changement dans le processus de différenciation de la société. Les auteurs font l’hypothèse que la description des liens intimes en termes de crise est la conséquence d’une société moderne différenciée fonctionnellement, autrement dit une société sans centre, polycontextuelle et complexe. Dans ce contexte, les individus se voient dégagés des traditions qui les confinaient à des rôles fixes, de sorte qu’émergent une diversification et une individualisation des trajectoires de vie intime. (shrink)

The ability to recognize a face is crucial for the success of social interactions. Understanding the visual processes underlying this ability has been the focus of a long tradition of research. Recent advances in the field have revealed that individuals having different cultural backgrounds differ in the type of visual information they use for face processing. However, the mechanisms that underpin these differences remain unknown. Here, we revisit recent findings highlighting group differences in face processing. Then, we integrate these results (...) in a model of visual categorization developed in the field of psychophysics: the RAP framework. On the basis of this framework, we discuss potential mechanisms, whether face-specific or not, that may underlie cross-cultural differences in face perception. (shrink)

This study investigates the procedural learning, retention, and reactivation of temporal sensorimotor sequences in children with and without developmental coordination disorder. Twenty typically-developing children and 12 children with DCD took part in this study. The children were required to tap on a keyboard, synchronizing with auditory or visual stimuli presented as an isochronous temporal sequence, and practice non-isochronous temporal sequences to memorize them. Immediate and delayed retention of the audio-motor and visuo-motor non-isochronous sequences were tested by removing auditory or visual (...) stimuli immediately after practice and after a delay of 2 h. A reactivation test involved reintroducing the auditory and visual stimuli after the delayed recall. Data were computed via circular analyses to obtain asynchrony, the stability of synchronization and errors. Firstly, an overall deficit in synchronization with both auditory and visual isochronous stimuli was observed in DCD children compared to TD children. During practice, further improvements were found for the audio-motor non-isochronous sequence compared to the visuo-motor non-isochronous sequence in both TD children and children with DCD. However, a drastic increase in errors occurred in children with DCD during immediate retention as soon as the auditory stimuli were removed. Reintroducing auditory stimuli decreased errors in the audio-motor sequence for children with DCD. Such changes were not seen for the visuo-motor non-isochronous sequence, which was equally learned, retained and reactivated in DCD and TD children. All these results suggest that TD children benefit from both auditory and visual stimuli to memorize the sequence, whereas children with DCD seem to present a deficit in integrating an audio-motor sequence in their memory. The immediate effect of reactivation suggests a specific dependency on auditory information in DCD. Contrary to the audio-motor sequence, the visuo-motor sequence was both learned and retained in children with DCD. This suggests that visual stimuli could be the best information for memorizing a temporal sequence in DCD. All these results are discussed in terms of a specific audio-motor coupling deficit in DCD. (shrink)

Los trabajos que aquí se comentan fueron confeccionados en diferentes períodos, algunos bastante alejados entre sí. Volver a leerlos para responder a las observaciones que integran este dossier me permitió revisar mi producción y examinarla a la luz de la distancia. Confirmé que siempre me han preocupado los mismos temas: las condiciones de la justicia y las causas de las injusticias, la calidad de la democracia y el compromiso ciudadano. Dividí el artículo en tres secciones, procurando reunir mis respuestas en (...) cierta unidad temática: Democracia deliberativa y razón pública (I), Felicidad, virtud y razón práctica (II) y Algo de neuroética (III). Las observaciones y críticas que realizaron los colegas me posibilitó mejorar algunos argumentos y aclarar ciertos puntos oscuros; confío en haberlo logrado. (shrink)

This research explored the ethical decision-making process of civilians in response to real-world military dilemmas. Results revealed the complexity of these dilemmas, with about equal proportions of civilians choosing each of two response options. The moral intensity dimension of social consensus significantly predicted moral judgment in both dilemmas, whereas that of magnitude of consequences did so in only one dilemma, partially supporting our hypothesis. Both dimensions were significant predictors of moral intent in both dilemmas as was moral judgment, also supporting (...) our hypotheses. We conclude with suggestions for future research questions in this compelling area. (shrink)

Cet article a pour objectif de défendre un point de vue positiviste du droit de certaines erreurs et confusions commises à son égard. L'auteur se sert d'un récent article de G. Legault et reprend certaines affirmations identifiant le mouvement pro-choix à la doctrine positiviste. L'auteur tente de démontrer que ce rapprochement, pour l'essentiel, ne tient pas et qu'il repose sur une méconnaissance du positivisme juridique contemporain. En dernière partie, l'auteur discute de certains intérêts théoriques et pratiques d'une conception plus large (...) du concept de droit telle que privilégiée par le positivisme juridique.This article aims to defend a positivist approach of Law against some misconceptions about it. The author uses a recent article of G. Legault to discuss some assumptions about legal positivism and the pro-choice movement for abortion. He criticizes the point of view that some similarities between these two doctrines exist and he attempts to demonstrate that those assumptions are the result of many confusions about the legal positivism and the pro-choice movement. Finally, the author discusses about some fundamental reasons, theoretical and pratical, to prefer the legal positivism doctrine of Law to naturalism. (shrink)

Cet article a comme principal objectif d'effectuer un bilan critique de certaines thèses du réformisme pénal . La perspective retenue est celle de la responsabilité dans les différentes constructions théoriques du projet réformiste . Je rendrai compte des thèses respectives sur le sujet et je ferai, en conclusion, certains commentaires critiques sur les difficultés pour ces approches réformistes de la responsabilité d'offrir un point de vue cohérent et moralement acceptable de la question.The main objective of this paper is to criticize (...) some propositions of the social doctrine of penal reformism . The perspective adopted is that of the responsability in the different theoritical constructions of the penal reformism doctrine . I will explicite some thesis on the subject and I will do, in my conclusion, some critical commentaries on the difficulties that these three versions of penal reformism face when they have to give a coherent and morally acceptable point of view of the problem of responsibility. (shrink)

L’allocation universelle constitue une proposition ambitieuse de réforme de l’État-providence qui suscite de nombreuses controverses. Une partie des oppositions qu’elle soulève est tributaire de la nature paradoxale de certaines de ses principales justifications. Ces « paradoxes » minent sa crédibilité et l’empêchent de recevoir toute l’attention qu’elle devrait mériter de la part du public normalement intéressé par le renouvellement de la pensée sociale. Cet article tente d’apporter un éclairage sur quatre de ces apparents paradoxes de l’allocation universelle. Leur résolution devrait (...) permettre de montrer certains des enjeux importants, mais souvent oubliés, que notre époque se doit de relever en matière de justice sociale. (shrink)

Ofrecemos un estudio introductorio del papel que tuvo el concepto de partícula en los artículos fundacionales de la mecánica cuántica. Nos centramos en el período 1925-1927, lo que incluye el análisis de los primeros trabajos de Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Schrödinger y Dirac, y también las primeras formulaciones de la complementaridad de Bohr. Nuestro objetivo es discutir hasta qué punto se puso en duda entre los creadores de la nueva teoría, justo en el momento de su creación y cuando aún no (...) existía una interpretación consensuada ni establecida, el concepto de partícula. Posteriores desarrollos, como la teoría cuántica de campos, pusieron la vigencia de ese concepto bajo sospecha. Mostramos que un análisis historiográfico articulado mediante este concepto permite caracterizar la relación que los distintos autores de la mecánica cuántica mantuvieron con la visualización de los procesos atómicos. En algunos casos, como el de Heisenberg, su evolución es especialmente significativa. Asimismo, también citaremos algunos fragmentos donde los autores considerados reclaman para sí el legado de la antigua teoría cuántica, tratando de legitimar sus propios desarrollos a partir de su coherencia con los primeros descubrimientos de los Planck, Einstein o De Broglie. De prácticamente todos ellos hemos encontrado textos en este sentido. (shrink)