Qu'est-ce au juste que le mental? Les nouvelles "sciences de l'esprit" ne paraissent pas avoir de doute sur la réponse : c'est ce qu'il y a dans la boîte crânienne. L'idée que le mental puisse être autre chose que le côté "interne" d'une métaphore qui l'oppose à de l'externe, et qu'à ce titre il puisse s'avérer intrinsèquement social, leur paraît incongrue. C'est pourtant cette idée que le présent ouvrage s'applique à défendre. Il élabore une conception sociale du mental, en prenant (...) appui sur les courants de recherche qui, en philosophie et en sciences humaines et sociales, ont souligné, tant d'un point de vue conceptuel qu'empirique, l'imbrication du social et du mental. Cette élaboration passe par une clarification des deux concepts. D'un côté, il est nécessaire de remédier au rétrécissement du social non seulement par les sciences cognitives, mais aussi par une partie des sciences sociales. De l'autre, il faut proposer une nouvelle compréhension de ce que l'on entend par mental. La conception esquissée est une conception qu'on peut qualifier d'adverbiale : "mental" est un concept opératoire qui qualifie une modalité de l'action d'agents appartenant à une société. (shrink)

In recent years researchers have begun to investigate how the perceptual, motor and cognitive activities of two or more individuals become organized into coordinated action. In the first part of this introduction we identify three common threads among the ten papers of this special issue that exemplify this new line of research. First, all of the papers are grounded in the experimental study of online interactions between two or more individuals. Second, albeit at different levels of analysis, the contributions focus (...) on the mechanisms supporting joint action. Third, many of the papers investigate empirically the pre‐requisites for the highly sophisticated forms of joint action that are typical of humans. In the second part of the introduction, we summarize each of the papers, highlighting more specific connections among them. (shrink)

Although rapidity of fading has been long identified as one of the crucial design features of language, little is known about its effects on the design of communication systems. To investigate such effects, we performed an experiment in which pairs of participants developed novel communication systems using media that had different degrees of rapidity of fading. The results of the experiment suggest that rapidity of fading does not affect the pace with which communication systems emerge or the communicative effi cacy (...) of the emerged systems. However, rapidity of fading seems to affect the design of these systems. In particular, communication systems implemented in the more rapidly fading medium exhibited a higher degree of combinatorial reuse of their forms than systems implemented in the medium that faded more slowly. These results suggest that the design of language might be constrained by subtle relations the presence of which can be ascertained only through direct experimental manipulation. Human communication systems crafted today in the laboratory can provide new insights into the design of natural languages. (shrink)

Bruno Latour is best known for his work in the cultural study of science. In this pamphlet he turns his attention to another worthy pursuit: the project of peace. As one might expect, Latour gives us a radically different picture of this project than Kant or the philosophes, asserting that the West has been in a constant state of war both with other cultures and its own—although unwittingly so. Read through the lens of his trademark take on "the modern," (...) his arguments are original, thoughtful, and, as usual, provocative. (shrink)

This is a review of the book Metaética: algumas tendências. The book contains papers of three important philosophers in this subject, Peter Railton, Allan Gibbard and Stephen Darwall. Since this book has been published, the study of metaethics has been improved in Brazil. In this review we describe the main aspects of the book, focusing on Railton’s ideas.

1. Can “practice” and “practices” be used as epistemological tools to study history? Can these concepts be used to break up unilateral and teleological narratives one the one hand, and, on the other, to provide a basis for a new understanding and writing of history and histories? The twelve essays (by thirteen authors) collected by Francis Chateauraynaud and Yves Cohen under the title Histoires Pragmatiques (in the Ehess’s Raisons pratiques. Epistémologie, sociologie, théorie sociale series)...

Trata-se, neste artigo, de investigar as noções de filosofia, pedagogia e espírito à luz dos debates decoloniais. Neste sentido, a partir de um diálogo que procuro estabelecer com Enrique Dussel, Catherine Walsh e M. Jacqui Alexander, desenvolvo três hipóteses. Em primeiro lugar, apresento certa noção de pedagogia como constitutiva da própria filosofia (portanto, a ideia de pedagogia para além de mero instrumento, meio ou termo acessório à filosofia). Em segundo lugar, argumento que essa dita pedagógica-filosófica precisará ser entendida como a (...) epistemologia indispensável para a abordagem, conhecimento e tratamento da realidade, no seguinte sentido: mediante o aprender e o ensinar alternadamente (como práxis, atitude e método filosófico por excelência), tornar possível que a realidade apareça. E esse é mais um dos pontos em relação aos quais os três autores estão de acordo, assim como em relação ao terceiro e mais importante movimento da presente investigação. Pois será, então, do reconhecimento do fracasso da ontologia universalista (moderna e colonial), mais precisamente, do encontro com uma realidade indeterminada e aberta, que se poderá a fundo compreender o sentido da atitude pedagógica (da epistemologia pedagógica) que descerra toda a realidade possível. Tal realidade_ _sempre Outra_ _– que não se pode localizar em qualquer lugar ou tempo, na mesma medida em que se faz presente em todos os lugares e momentos – é o que se poderá caracterizar como espírito. E é o que fará do espírito, por conseguinte, agência de resistência e perturbação a todo esforço epistemológico/filosófico, tanto quanto (e por isso mesmo) da atitude pedagógica-filosófica instância de revelação de um mundo prenhe de sentidos possíveis. (shrink)

Marcus Aurelius reigned from 161 A.D. to 180 A.D., and he ranks among the most successful emperors of the antonine dynasty. The success of his administration may be attributed to his philosopher personality and, more than that, to his stoic character. Meditations presents thoughts of a stoicism devotee, which reflects in moments of intimacy on the challenges that he faced throughout his life as an emperor. It is in the practice of the ethical precepts of stoicism that he finds his (...) refuge. The text consists of a series of spiritual exercises which reaffirm the indifference to pleasures, contempt for fame, detachment from riches and abnegation for political power. This paper is a study of Meditations, and its main purpose is to elucidate how the stoic way of life is incorporated in the figure of the philosopher emperor; this, as a military function, as he was a commander of the Roman army in the war against the Nordics, where political virtue was tested. Amid the chaos of an insane struggle for the survival of Rome, he found in stoicism a precious source of inspiration. Marcus Aurelius was not dazzled by the cult of the emperor's personality; he acted for the natural right to freedom and guided his political actions for the common good. His stoic perseverance reveals itself in a harmonious conduct with the city, the rational and cosmic organism from which the emperor is a simple part. (shrink)

L’intérêt durable porté par Edmund Husserl aux travaux de William James en dépit de la divergence de leurs projets philosophiques s’explique sans doute par deux traits saillants de la psychologie de James qui l’inscrivent dans le prolongement de celle de Franz Brentano et lui confèrent même une certaine supériorité par rapport à cette dernière. Ces deux traits sont d’une part la capacité de James à articuler de manière particulièrement convaincante les analyses de psychologie descriptive aux explications en termes neurophysiologiques et (...) d’autre part sa capacité à penser le caractère dynamique du flux de conscience et la genèse en lui de la structure intentionnelle. Bien plus, loin de la condamner au psychologisme, ces deux traits de la pensée de James s’inscrivent sur fond d’une critique très sévère de la « psychologist’s fallacy » commise notamment dans l’école associationniste, critique qui marqua profondément Husserl.The long lasting interest which Edmund Husserl has taken in William James’ work in spite of their very different philosophical projects can be explained by two significant features which place James’ psychology in the continuation of Franz Brentano’s and even confer it some superiority compared to the latter. These features are on the one hand James’s ability to combine analyses of descriptive psychology with explanations of neurophysiology and on the other hand James’ ability to study the dynamic nature of the stream of consciousness as well as the intentional structure arising from this stream. Furthermore, far from condemning him to psychologism, both these features of James’ thought take their roots in a very strong criticism of the « psychologist’s fallacy » made in the associationist school, criticism which impressed Husserl deeply. (shrink)