The Gene Ontology is an important tool for the representation and processing of information about gene products and functions. It provides controlled vocabularies for the designations of cellular components, molecular functions, and biological processes used in the annotation of genes and gene products. These constitute three separate ontologies, of cellular components), molecular functions and biological processes, respectively. The question we address here is: how are the terms in these three separate ontologies related to each other? We use statistical methods and (...) formal ontological principles as a first step towards finding answers to this question. (shrink)

The Capitalist Schema uses marxist philosophy to explain how money frames all social relations in our capitalist world and how money regulates and conditions social references to past and future social life. Consequently, modern life becomes ever more abstract and leveled, and all human desire becomes channeled towards profit and making money.

_The Lamp that Integrates the Practices_ is a systematic and comprehensive exposition of the most advanced yogas of the Esoteric Community Tantra as espoused by the Noble Tradition, an influential school of interpretation within the Mahayoga traditions of Indian Buddhist esoterism. Equal in authority to Nagarjuna's famous Five Stages, Aryadeva's work is perhaps the earliest prose example of the "stages of the mantra path" genre in Sanskrit. Its studied gradualism exerted immense influence on later Indian and Tibetan tradition, and it (...) is widely cited by masters from all four major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. This volume presents the _Lamp_ in a tri-lingual format: its Sanskrit original critically-edited from recently-identified manuscripts, a critical edition of the eleventh-century Tibetan translation by Rin-chen Bzang-po, and a thoroughly-annotated English translation. Includes an introductory study discussing the history of the Guhyasamaja and its exegetical traditions, surveying the scriptural and commentarial sources of the Noble Tradition, and analyzing in detail the contents of the _Lamp_. Features a detailed, tri-lingual glossary. Published by American Institute of Buddhist Studies. (shrink)

We offer a critical assessment of the “exclusion argument” against free will, which may be summarized by the slogan: “My brain made me do it, therefore I couldn't have been free”. While the exclusion argument has received much attention in debates about mental causation (“could my mental states ever cause my actions?”), it is seldom discussed in relation to free will. However, the argument informally underlies many neuroscientific discussions of free will, especially the claim that advances in neuroscience seriously challenge (...) our belief in free will. We introduce two distinct versions of the argument, discuss several unsuccessful responses to it, and then present our preferred response. This involves showing that a key premise – the “exclusion principle” – is false under what we take to be the most natural account of causation in the context of agency: the difference-making account. We finally revisit the debate about neuroscience and free will. (shrink)

This Savonarola of our century can fill a hall at the drop of a leaflet. But where the inflammatory friar of Florence was silenced by hanging and roasting at the stake, Chomsky's punishment is to be consigned to media oblivion in his own land.

Emu aux larmes à l'écoute d'une musique, en arrêt devant ce tableau, vous ressentez un plaisir indéfinissable que n'a su provoquer aucune autre oeuvre. Celle-ci excite vos émotions, captive votre corps, court-circuite votre réflexion. "Que c'est beau!". Perdu en elle, vous fusionnez avec le mystère de sa présence en un acte de communion proche de l'amour romantique ou de l'extase mystique. Vous l'aimez, tout simplement! Entremêlant objet, culture et sujet, la relation artistique superpose aux significations de tous, un plaisir, des (...) questionnements et des interprétations qui ne dépendent que de vous. Comment la relation esthétique s'y prend-elle pour éveiller tant d'émotions et comment l'art s'y prend-il pour transmettre du sens? Quel pourrait être l'apport des sciences cognitives à la compréhension de ces problèmes? Finalement, se pourrait-il que les relations complexes qu'entretiennent l'esthétique, l'artistique et son institutionnalisation, révèlent la nature émergente et systémique de l'Art? (shrink)

Être responsable de notre conduite passée, c’est, en un sens, devoir en répondre. Cela signifie d’accepter qu’on en est l’auteur, à titre d’individu ou de membre d’un groupe. Mais cela implique aussi de devoir la défendre, c’est-à-dire de la justifier si possible ou de l’excuser et parfois d’en accepter les conséquences négatives. Bref, si nous sommes responsables, c’est que nous sommes concernés et que nous devons réagir. À la difficulté psychologique de cette prise de responsabilité s’ajoutent des défis intellectuels majeurs. (...) Peut-on être responsables si notre conduite est due à des mouvements d’atomes déterminés ou soumis au hasard? Comment pourrait-il y avoir responsabilité à titre de membre d’un groupe qui échappe à notre contrôle? -/- Ce livre contient trois chapitres principaux (« le réseau de la responsabilité », « responsabilité et métaphysique », « responsabilité et société ») et deux analyses de textes importants (un extrait du livre III de l'Éthique à Nicomaque et « La responsabilité collective et ses implications » de Margaret Gilbert). -/- // -/- To be responsible for our past conduct is, in a sense, to have the duty to answer for it. This duty implies accepting that we are its author, either qua individual or qua member of a group. It may also imply defending our past conduct, by justifying or excusing it or, in the absence of a good defence, accepting adverse consequences. If we are responsible, we are concerned and must act. Clearly, taking our responsibilities is psychologically difficult; but it also poses tricky intellectual challenges. Can we be responsible for our conduct if it is due to the determined or random movements of atoms? Can we be responsible as a member of a group whose behaviour lies outside of our control? -/- This book contains three main chapters ("The network of responsibility", "responsibility and metaphysics", and "responsability and society"), as well as comments on two seminal texts (an extract of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Book III and Margaret Gilbert's "Collective Responsibility and its Implications"). (shrink)

Il volume fornisce una nuova traduzione italiana, con introduzione storico-filosofica e commento del trattato plotiniano Sulla bellezza intelligibile (Enn. V 8 [31]). In Enn. V 8 [31] Plotino cerca di indagare il complesso rapporto tra il carattere “ideale” e quello “reale” della bellezza e delle sue diverse forme di manifestazione nel mondo. Tra queste, che la tradizione precedente aveva recluso negli spazi angusti dell’arte imitativa, il filosofo neoplatonico prende spunto dall’opera dello scultore, per poi ampliare lo sguardo verso altri aspetti (...) della bellezza: in particolare, quello del suo essere (ontologia) e quello del suo valore (etica). Lungi dall’essere una semplice testimonianza della corrente mistica del pensiero antico, il trattato Sulla bellezza intelligibile è anche (forse soprattutto) un invito all’azione e un comando a rendere oggetto del proprio agire innanzitutto sé stessi. Come Fidia dimostrò, grazie al suo Zeus Olimpio, che un grande artista non può limitarsi a concepire l’ideale, ma deve anche realizzarlo concretamente nella realtà; così ogni uomo, se vero uomo, sa ergersi sulla materia che lo circonda e farsi tempio della Luce intelligibile. *** Der vorliegende Band bietet eine neue italienische Übersetzung samt einer philosophiegeschichtlichen Einleitung und Kommentar zur Abhandlung Plotins Über die intelligible Schönheit (Enn. V 8 [31]). In Enn. V 8 [31] untersucht Plotin die komplizierte Beziehung zwischen dem ‚ideellen‘ und dem ‚realistischen‘ Charakter der Schönheit und ihren verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen in der Welt, die von der früheren Tradition als künstliche Nachahmungen kritisiert wurden. Als Beispiel zieht der neuplatonische Philosoph das Werk des Bildhauers heran und erweitert daraufhin seine Untersuchung im Hinblick auf andere Aspekte der Schönheit, insbesondere ihr ‚Sein‘ (Ontologie) und ihren ‚Wert‘ (Ethik). Weit davon entfernt ein Beweis für den mystischen Teil des antiken Denkens zu sein, ist die Abhandlung Über die intelligible Schönheit auch im Besonderen ein Aufruf zum Handeln und ein Befehl an jeden Menschen, sich selbst zum Objekt seines Handelns zu machen. Wie Phidias anhand seines Zeus bewies, ist es für einen großen Künstler nicht möglich, nur das Ideale zu denken, er muss es auch in der Realität verwirklichen. Auf dieselbe Art und Weise muss jeder (wahre) Mensch über der Materie stehen und sich selbst zum Tempel des intelligiblen Lichtes erheben, das überall sein Leben beleuchtet. (shrink)

In this article, I demonstrate that the term ‘ubuntu’ has frequently appeared in writing since at least 1846. I also analyse changes in how ubuntu has been defined in written sources in the period 1846 to 2011. The analysis shows that in written sources published prior to 1950, it appears that ubuntu is always defined as a human quality. At different stages during the second half of the 1900s, some authors began to define ubuntu more broadly: definitions included ubuntu as (...) African humanism, a philosophy, an ethic, and as a worldview. Furthermore, my findings indicate that it was during the period from 1993 to 1995 that the Nguni proverb ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ (often translated as ‘a person is a person through other persons’) was used for the first time to describe what ubuntu is. Most authors today refer to the proverb when describing ubuntu, irrespective of whether they consider ubuntu to be a human quality, African humanism, a philosophy, an ethic, or a worldview. (shrink)