Chantal Mouffe is one of the most influential political theorists at work today. Her work has influenced political parties across Europe and continues to inform the direction of left politics. In this work, Mouffe argues that liberal democracy misunderstands the problems of ethnic, religious and nationalist conflicts because of its inadequate conception of politics.

Chromosome ends have been implicated in the meiotic processes of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Cytological observations have shown that chromosome ends attach to the nuclear membrane and adopt kinetochore functions. In this organism, centromeric activity is highly regulated, switching from multiple spindle attachments all along the chromosome during mitotic division to a single attachment during meiosis. C. elegans chromosomes are functionally monocentric during meiosis. Earlier genetic studies demonstrated that the terminal regions of the chromosomes are not equivalent in their meiotic (...) potentials. There are asymmetries in the abilities of the ends to recombine when duplicated or deleted. In addition, mutations in single genes have been identified that mimic the meiotic effects of a terminal truncation of the X chromosome. The recent cloning and characterization of the C. elegans telomeres has provided a starting point for the study of chromosomal elements mediating the meiotic process. (shrink)

The themes of citizenship and community are today at the center of a fierce debate as both left and right try to mobilize them for their cause. For the left such notions are crucial in all the current attempts to redefine political struggle through extending and deepening democracy. But, argue the contributors to this volume, these concepts need to be made compatible with the pluralism that marks modern democracy. Rather than reject the liberal tradition, they argue, the aim should be (...) to radicalize it. These essays set out to examine what types of “citizen” and “community” might be required by such a radical and plural democracy. From a range of disciplines and a fruitful diversity of theoretical perspectives, the contributors help us to address the following challenge: how to defend the greatest possible pluralism without destroying the very framework of the democratic political community. Despite their differences, a vision emerges from these essays which is sharply at odds both with the universalistic and rationalistic conception to be found in the work of Habermas, and with postmodern celebrations of absolute heterogeneity. For this book is an exploration of politics—of a politics where power, conflict and antagonism will always play a central role. (shrink)

Since September 11th, we frequently hear that political differences should be put aside: the real struggle is between good and evil. What does this mean for political and social life? Is there a 'Third Way' beyond left and right, and if so, should we fear or welcome it? This thought-provoking book by Chantal Mouffe, a globally recognized political author, presents a timely account of the current state of democracy, affording readers the most relevant and up-to-date information. Arguing that liberal (...) 'third way thinking' ignores fundamental, conflicting aspects of human nature, Mouffe states that, far from expanding democracy, globalization is undermining the combative and radical heart of democratic life. Going back first to Aristotle, she identifies the historical origins of the political and reflects on the Enlightenment, and the social contract, arguing that in spite of its good intentions, it levelled the radical core of political life. Contemporary examples, including the Iraq war, racism and the rise of the far right, are used to illustrate and support her theory that far from combating extremism, the quest for consensus politics undermines the ability to challenge it. These case studies are also highly effective points of reference for student revision. _On the Political _is a stimulating argument about the future of politics and addresses the most fundamental aspects of democracy that will aid further study. (shrink)

Revisiting the generally accepted notion of psycho-physical parallelism in Spinoza, Chantal Jaquet offers a new analysis of the relation between body and mind. Looking at a range of Spinoza's texts, and using an original methodology, she analyses their unity in action through affects, actions and passions.

Digital technologies have become an integrated part of everyday life, and this development has not left relationships untouched. A need exists for theological reflection on the interaction between the dynamic contexts of the digital age and Christian marital relationships. The relational implications of the digital age are quite vast; therefore the focus of the article will be limited to online identity formation as a particular challenge of the digital age. Employing the method of a literature study within the scientific field (...) of practical theology, this article explores the interplay between online identity formation and Christian marriage. It suggests that online identity formation exists around a reciprocal interaction with two prominent qualities of Christian marriages: The expansion of the self and one-ness. When considering the interplay between online identity formation and Christian marriage, awareness can be created regarding the marital implications of spouses' online engagements, which may enhance contextual pastoral care with a relational focus within the digital age. CONTRIBUTION: The article contributes to practical theological reflection on challenges posed to Christian marriages by the digital age. It is aimed at stimulating pastoral thinking regarding online identity formation and its adverse effects on so-called one-ness in Christian marriages that can enhance pastoral care with a view on the flourishing of couples in the digital age. (shrink)

Riassunto Il tragico epilogo delle vicende graccane non lasciò indifferente la classe dirigente romana. La violenza e il ricorso legittimo ad essa furono oggetto di un’articolata riflessione storiografica presso le élites. La violenza diventò parametro interpretativo della storia politica dell’ultimo secolo della res publica. La rilevanza del problema influenzò profondamente la successiva riflessione storiografica, suscitando interesse anche nella storiografia moderna.

This paper is part of a larger project defending of the foundations of microeconomics against recent criticisms by philosophers. Here, we undermine one source of these criticisms, arising from philosophers' disappointment with the performance of microeconomic tools, in particular game theory, when these are applied to normative decision theory. Hollis and Sugden have recently articulated such disappointment in a sophisticated way, and have argued on the basis of it that the economic conception of rationality is inadequate. We argue, however, that (...) their claim rests upon a misunderstanding of the concept of a game as it is used in microeconomics. (shrink)

We show that all QE rings of prime power characteristic are constructed in a straightforward way out of three components: a filtered Boolean power of a finite field, a nilpotent Jacobson radical, and the ring Z p n or the Witt ring W 2 (F 4 ) (which is the characteristic four analogue of the Galois field with four elements).

Entretien réalisé par Chantale Mailhot avec Madeleine Akrich, ingénieure et sociologue, créatrice du cours « Controverses environnementales », et avec Liliana Doganova, chargée de recherche, cofondatrice – avec Brice Laurent, également chargé de recherche et ingénieur au corps des mines – de l’option « Affaires publiques et Innovation » à l’École des Mines de Paris.

[Carl Schmitt and the paradox of liberal democracy].

‘De huidige ‘‘consensus van het midden’’ is niet -- zoals vaak wordt beweerd -- een blijk van vooruitgang van de democratie, maar een reëel gevaar voor haar toekomst. Het ontbreken van een agonistisch debat tussen de democratische partijen en van een confrontatie tussen verschillende politieke stromingen heeft het de burgers onmogelijk gemaakt zich te identificeren met een gedifferentieerd scala aan democratische politieke identiteiten. Dit heeft een vacuüm geschapen dat in toenemende mate door rechts-populistische partijen wordt gevuld. Zij vervangen de afgezwakte (...) tegenstelling tussen links en rechts door een nieuwe wij-zij-tegenstelling die wordt opgebouwd rond de tegenstelling tussen ‘‘de bevolking’’ en ‘‘het establishment’’. Het is nodig om te beseffen dat ondanks de voorspelde verdwijning van collectieve identiteiten en de vermeende overwinning van het individualisme, de collectieve dimensie niet uit de politiek kan worden verwijderd. Als ze niet beschikbaar zijn via de traditionele politieke kanalen, zullen collectieve vormen van identificaties worden aangeboden in andere vormen, die veel minder vatbaar zijn voor democratische beïnvloeding. Als de maatschappelijke tweedeling niet meer kan worden weergegeven als een verdeling in links en rechts, kunnen gevoelens niet langer worden gekanaliseerd in de richting van democratische doelen en kunnen conflicten een vorm aannemen die de democratische instituties in gevaar brengt.’. (shrink)

To this day, Polynesian people continue to be reduced to the myth of the Good Savage. Beyond fables of innocence, protection and salvation, it is essential to reintegrate them within a truly human history, which accepts men and women in their bravery as well as in their pettiness, in their treasons as in their truthfulness, in their violence as in their generosity, in their hates as in their compassions. This would call for the deconstruction of 200 years of domineering, imperialism (...) and occupation. This would also put into question most of the current approaches, which assume that civilisation has to be Western, that Progress has to be material, and that the future has to be globalized. (shrink)

One of the main reasons that liberal democratic societies are not ill-prepared to confront the present challenge presented by disaffection with democratic institutions, is that the type of political theory currently in vogue is dominated by an individualistic, universalistic, and rationalistic framework. This erases the dimension of the political and impedes envisaging in an adequate manner the nature of a pluralistic democratic public sphere. This paper examines the most recent paradigm of liberal democracy: 'deliberative democracy', in order to bring to (...) the fore its shortcomings. Then, the authos puts forward some element for the elaboration of an alternative model that she proposes to call 'agonistic pluralism'. (shrink)

The ability to sustain antibiotic efficacy is directly affected by incentive models aiming to stimulate antibiotic research and development. This paper analyzes the extent to which the models proposed by the Innovative Medicine Initiative-funded research project DRIVE-AB can be expected to support sustainable use, drawing on basic economic theory and the incentives that derive from it. It then discusses the use of minimal safeguards that will be needed to support sustainable use where industry incentives have not been re-aligned with those (...) of public health. (shrink)

Le système spinoziste comprend une infinité d'expressions de la Nature et offre aux modes finis que nous sommes la possibilité d'appréhender la puissance d'agir sous un angle physique, mental, ou encore psychophysique, selon qu'elle est ...

In this reflection on the debates that surrounded gay marriage in Europe and North-America , Chantal Nadeau wonders what are the costs and benefits for the queer and the Nation-State when blood-as-sex is traded for blood-as-status, within a legal apparatus that is pro-family and pro-nation, working as a vector of social cohesiveness. Queer sexuality is no longer imagined as an aberration or as a misalliance, but rather as a machine of inclusion and erosion of difference, producing a new emblematic (...) figure : the queer family man. In its obsession with filiation, blood-as-status resurrects a community within which the alliance between the queer and the State guarantees the protection of the “ordinary” citizen: the normal, reasonable, patriotic citizen, whose sexuality no longer carries any dynamics of differentiation. (shrink)

Deconstruction and pragmatism constitute two of the major intellectual influences on the contemporary theoretical scene; influences personified in the work of Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty. Both Rortian pragmatism, which draws the consequences of post-war developments in Anglo-American philosophy, and Derridian deconstruction, which extends and troubles the phonomenological and Heideggerian influence on the Continental tradition, have hitherto generally been viewed as mutually exclusive philosophical language games. The purpose of this volume is to bring deconstruction and pragmatism into critical confrontation with (...) one another through staging a debate between Derrida and Rorty, itself based on discussions that took place at the _College International de Philosophie_ in Paris in 1993. The ground for this debate is layed out in introductory papers by Simon Critchley and Ernesto Laclau, and the remainder of the volume records Derrida's and Rorty's responses to each other's work. Chantal Mouffe gives an overview of the stakes of this debate in a helpful preface. (shrink)

Political conflict in our society is inevitable, and the results are often far from negative. How then should we deal with the intractable differences arising from complex modern culture? Developing her groundbreaking political philosophy of agnostics--the search for a radical and plural democracy--Chantal Mouffe examines international relations, strategies for radical politics, the future of Europe and the politics of artistic practices. She shows that in many circumstances where no alternatives seem possible, agonistics offers a new road map for change. (...) Engaging with cosmopolitanism, post-operaism, and theories of multiple modernities she argues in favor of a multipolar world with a real cultural and political pluralism. -- Publisher's website. (shrink)

This book familiarizes the English-speaking reader with the debate on the originality of Gramsci’s thought and its importance for the development of Marxist theory. The contributors present the principal viewpoints regarding Gramsci’s theoretical contribution to Marxism, focussing in particular on his advances in the study of the superstructures, and discussing his relation to Marx and Lenin and his influence in Eurocommunism. Different interpretations are put forward concerning the elucidation of Gramsci’s key concepts, namely: hegemony, integral state, war of position and (...) passive revolution. (shrink)

De nombreux ouvrages - travaux historiques, mémoires, romans ou témoignages - évoquent la condition des Africaines en Afrique du Sud, qui représentent 70% de la population féminine et n'ont cessé de subir les manifestations de la discrimination et du sexisme. Le livre de Jacklyn Cock (1980) est une étude approfondie sur le statut social et économique des Africaines. Dès l'enfance la jeune fille est victime d'un préjudice qui détermine le reste de son existence. La famille puis l'école...

Although Wittgenstein is famously skeptical about the possibility of making substantial philosophical claims, he can be said to offer significant insights into the difference between inner and outer as well as the difference between self and other.1 He consistently reminds us that inner and outer are intimately connected instead of only causally related, as well as that the self—far from being a wholly independent entity—always already finds itself constituted by its relationships with others. In thus contesting the Cartesian view on (...) subjectivity, however, Wittgenstein may appear to simply reduce the inner to the outer and the self to the other.. (shrink)

In philosophy, or in philosophy of the continental kind, “1968” has come to represent a specific type of thinking. Or, rather, it has come to mark the decline of one type of theorizing in favor of another, namely, the kind that is suspicious of all-embracing theories.1 Though the philosophers associated with the Paris upheavals are figures like Jean-Paul Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, around the same time several thinkers entered onto the stage (such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard) (...) who were to make an entire career out of undermining the theoretical constructions of their predecessors. These then up-and-coming…. (shrink)

El despliegue casi generalizado de las democracias iliberales en el centro de Europa es inquietante. La mayoría de esos países (Polonia, Hungría, República Checa, Eslovaquia) están afectados pero, en esos mismos países, abundan los partidos extremistas, además de los que están en el poder. En Eslovaquia, hay varios partidos nacionalistas, algunos de ellos muy radicales. En Hungría, el partido Jobbik deja a Orban por moderado. El fenómeno es amplio y profundo. Como consecuencia, aumentan las disensiones entre la Europa occidental y (...) la Europa central. La incomprensión viene de lejos y no lo habíamos advertido…. (shrink)

Während weibliche Kapitalverbrechen spätestens seit Beginn der Neuzeit immer wieder Aufsehen erregten, blieb weibliche Gewaltkriminalität in statistischen Betrachtungen lange Zeit eine Randerscheinung. Auch die Forensik mit ihren traditionellen Kerndisziplinen Psychiatrie und Recht fokussierte in Analyse und Theoriebildung jenseits des Kindsmords lange auf den gefährlichen männlichen Täter: Männliche Forensiker analysierten männliche Gewalttäter. Seit den 1960er Jahren finden sich in der Bundesrepublik zunehmend wissenschaftliche Beiträge zu weiblicher Kriminalität und deren Ursachen. Auch Frauen analysierten jetzt – in professioneller und gesellschaftskritischer Perspektive – weibliche (...) Kriminalität; eine Entwicklung, die mit der Neuen Frauenbewegung und der Kritischen Kriminologie deutlich an Dynamik gewann. Der Beitrag legt den Fokus auf den Diskurs über weibliche Gewaltkriminalität in der „alten“ Bundesrepublik. Er fragt zunächst nach der Thematisierung von weiblicher Gewaltkriminalität im kriminologischen Diskurs. Untersucht wird vor diesem Hintergrund, wie sich geschlechtsspezifische Konstruktionen von Kriminalität speziell in der Auseinandersetzung mit der „gefährlich Geisteskranken“ in forensischen Diskussionsforen entwickelten, ob und wenn ja welche Topoi fortgeschrieben wurden und welche Topoi Veränderungen erfuhren. Unterschieden sich die Analysen weiblicher Wissenschaftlerinnen von denen ihrer männlichen Fachkollegen? Welche Bedeutung kam dabei kritischen beziehungsweise feministischen Strömungen und Akteur*innen zu? Angesichts gesellschaftlicher Veränderungsprozesse (Emanzipation, Psychiatriereform, Strafrechtsreform) fragt der Artikel nach der Deutung weiblicher Gewalt sowie dem Zusammenhang zwischen Geschlecht, Gefährlichkeit und psychischer Krankheit. Im Fokus steht die Frage nach der Beharrungskraft, Dynamisierung oder Diversifizierung geschlechtsspezifischer Konstruktionen und Normvorstellungen von normal/verrückt in der forensischen Zuspitzung von „gefährlich – krank“. (shrink)