The authors of the first constitutions of the Spanish-American world, in New Granada, were also scientists who published articles on geography, natural history, political economy, population or medicine. From this observation, the article seeks to show how these scholars understood how to apply the new naturalistic knowledge to the regeneration of society in their constitutional work. This ambition entailed the need to destroy the supposedly artificial and despotic hierarchies of the Ancien Régime, based on the genealogical transmission of dignities and (...) infamy, in order to replace them with others that were "natural". This device did not mean the constitutional triumph of equality, since, to take up a formula of Madame de Staël, equality before the law would mean nothing other than the reestablishment of natural inequalities. The article firstly deals with the works of the Enlightenment of New Granada and of Baron Humboldt to understand the assumptions of their naturalistic anthropology on the "American man", which later served to think, in revolutionary times, about certain political topics such as federalism, the rights of man and the limits of citizenship. It ends with a re-reading of the Discurso de Angostura by showing how this naturalistic knowledge, influenced Bolívar's constitutionalist thought. (shrink)

Newcomers and more experienced feminist theorists will welcome this even-handed survey of the care/justice debate within feminist ethics. Grace Clement clarifies the key terms, examines the arguments and assumptions of all sides to the debate, and explores the broader implications for both practical and applied ethics. Readers will appreciate her generous treatment of the feminine, feminist, and justice-based perspectives that have dominated the debate.Clement also goes well beyond description and criticism, advancing the discussion through the incorporation of a (...) broad range of insights into a new integration of the values of care and justice. Care, Autonomy, and Justice marks a major step forward in our understanding of feminist ethics. It is both direct and helpful enough to work as an introduction for students and insightful and original enough to make it necessary reading for scholars. (shrink)

The debate on cumulative technological culture is dominated by social-learning discussions, at the expense of other cognitive processes, leading to flawed circular arguments. I welcome the authors' approach to decouple CTC from social-learning processes without minimizing their impact. Yet, this model will only be informative to understand the evolution of CTC if tested in other cultural species.

RésuméCette brève étude tente de montrer comment la théorie peircienne de ľindividuation donne naissance à la première analyse moderne du nom propre. A travers une triple caractérisation, à la fois sémanique , pragmatique et sémiotique du nom propre, Peirce fournit en effet la première description véritablement éclairante des conditions sous lesquelles devient possible la désignation ?individus dans le langage, nous offrant un exemple particulièrement suggestif de ce qu'on peut concevoir comme universaux de langage.SummaryThis brief study is an attempt to show (...) how Peirce's theory of individuation gives rise to the first modern analysis of the proper noun. Through a triple characterization – semantic , pragmatic and semiotic – of the proper noun, Peirce provides the first truly enlightening description of the conditions in which it becomes possible to designate individuals in language, which gives us a particularly suggestive example of what can be understood as universals of language. (shrink)

Agir en contexte est une enquête sur les pratiques ordinaires de l'éthique, en se donnant pour objectif de saisir l'aspect épistémologiquement douteux des valeurs engagées dans nos pratiques. Cette étude de la pratique ordinaire s'appuie sur deux traditions : d'une part les travaux sur l'ordinaire de filiation wittgensteinienne et d'autre part la phénoménologie husserlienne du monde de la vie. En empruntant cette double approche, nous pouvons alors saisir comment la philosophie peut conduire à perdre le monde et à manquer, dans (...) le même mouvement, l'éthique. La mise à jour de cette dynamique sceptique n'est pas une impasse, mais au contraire indique le véritable enjeu : les besoins anthropologiques. L'hypothèse centrale qui est développée est que ce sont bien ces derniers qui mettent en forme les pratiques ordinaires. C'est autour de la thématique de l'anthropologie philosophique que s'articule le coeur de cet ouvrage. C'est à la suite de l'anthropologie philosophique développée par Hans Blumenberg dans le dialogue entre Husserl et Wittgenstein que nous cherchons à articuler l'aspect théorique et pratique de l'éthique. L'anthropologie philosophique, par sa nature transversale, apparaît comme une posture essentielle pour saisir la nature de nos pratiques ordinaires, mais également pour penser ce qui est du ressort de l'inacceptable. L'attention à l'important et les travaux sur le soin constituent le prolongement naturel de ces réflexions. A l'horizon de ces travaux, c'est aussi de la question de la place de l'homme dans la philosophie dont il est question. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic generated overflow of healthcare systems in several countries. As the ethical debates focused on prioritisation for access to care with scarce medical resources, numerous recommendations were created. Late 2021, the emergence of the Omicron variant whose transmissibility was identified but whose vaccine sensitivity was still unknown, reactivated debates. Fears of the need to prioritise patients arose, particularly in France. Especially, a debate began about the role of vaccination status in the prioritisation strategy. The Ethics Committee (EC) of (...) the University Hospital of Bordeaux (UHB), France, identified prioritisation criteria in the literature (some recommended, such as being a healthcare worker (HCW) or having consented to research, while others were discouraged, such as age with a threshold effect or vaccination status). A survey was sent within the institution in January 2022 to explore frontline physicians' adherence to these prioritisation criteria. The decision making conditions were also surveyed. In 15 days, 78/165 (47.3%) frontline physicians responded, and more widely 1286/12946 (9.9%) professionals. A majority of frontline physicians were opposed to prioritising HCWs (54/75, 72%) and even more opposed to participating in research (69/76, 89.6%). Conversely, the results were very balanced for non-recommended criteria (respectively 39/77, 50.7% and 34/69 49.3% in favour for age with a threshold effect and for vaccination status). Decisions were considered to be multi-professional and multi-disciplinary for 65/76, 85.5% and 53/77, 68.8% of frontline physicians. Responders expressed opposition to extending decision-making to representatives of patients, civil society or HCWs not involved in care. Prioritisation recommendations in case of scarce medical resources were not necessarily approved by the frontline physicians, or by the other HCWs. This questions the way ethical recommendations should be communicated and discussed at a local scale, but it also questions these recommendations themselves. The article also reports the experience of seeking HCWs opinions on a sensitive ethical debate in a period of crisis. (shrink)

Through the use of such "folk" concepts as belief, desire, intention, and expectation, Daniel Dennett asserts in this first full scale presentation of...

William James (1842-1910) appartient à la génération de penseurs qui ont contribué à donner à la pensée nord-américaine sa tonalité propre. Philosophe canonique, il est aussi considéré comme l'un des fondateurs de la psychologie. Les Principes de psychologie, publiés en 1890, marquent une date dans l'histoire d'une discipline, alors en voie de constitution, qui mobilisait les résultats de la physiologie nerveuse et cérébrale et tentait de rompre avec la philosophie. Cette " science de la vie mentale ", ce livre la (...) restitue dans ses transformations, ses débats, ses redéfinitions en reconstruisant le point de vue de James et des acteurs de l'époque à rebours de l'histoire jugée. En s'appuyant sur les archives, la correspondance, les notes de lecture inédites de William James conservées à l'université Harvard et données en partie dans l'ample dossier critique, Thibaud Trochu nous introduit dans l'atelier de travail de James. Il réactive aussi ses tensions, ses interrogations sur les zones frontières de l'expérience humaine comme le somnambulisme, la télépathie, les états hypnotiques provoqués. 11 restitue des cas de controverses précis, comme ceux de Georges Albert Smith ou de Miss Piper dont discutait James avec ses interlocuteurs européens et états-uniens. Aux origines composites de la psychologie, une dizaine d'années avant la Science des rêves de Freud. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

The basic thesis of this essay is that the progressive development of any discipline is propelled by incessant constructive criticisms, creative emendation and articulate reconstruction of established positions and received opinions in the discipline. Accordingly, the essay argues that the method and canons of Conversational Philosophy are very significant to the progressive development of African philosophy. This is because they are fundamentally articulated to promote the constructive criticism, creative emendation, and articulate reconstruction of established positions or received opinions in African (...) philosophy. It buttresses this point using Mesembe Edet’s conversation with Innocent Onyewuenyi on the question of the African belief on reincarnation. This choice stems from the explicit admittance of Edet that his conversation with Onyewuenyi adopts the method of conversationalism and the method of conversationalism is undergirded by the canons of CP. Specifically, this essay explicates how the conscious adoption of conversationalism and adherence to the canons of CP enabled Edet to engage Onyewuenyi in a very critical and creative conversation on the African belief in reincarnation which eventually led to a novel reconceptualization of reincarnation in African philosophy. It unveils the significance of conversationalism and the canons of CP in practice. It is therefore a conversational, expository and argumentative essay. Keywords : Conversationlism, Conversational Philosophy, Interrogative theory, Onyewuenyi, Reincarnation. (shrink)

Heroes may be brave, but not all of those who act bravely are necessarily heroes. Confucius is one of the most important figures in Chinese history, the philosopher-founder of an intellectual, ethical tradition that has shaped a quarter of the world's population. Often overlooked outside his native country, Jonathan Clements reveals Confucius to be an outspoken and uncompromising man, and places him within the context of China of 2,500 years ago. Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha, was the illegitimate son of (...) a retired soldier and a teenage concubine. He had a passionate belief in respect for others and it was this belief which underpinned his life and teachings. He advised the famous figures of his day, gaining their respect, and also the undying enmity of those whose paths he crossed. He was equally proud of both achievements, saying that if the evil people of the world liked him, he was doing something wrong. Confucius established many ideas that are taken for granted today. His theories became the foundation of one of the world's first civil services and established enduring social structures throughout Asia. In collating and refining the words of earlier, forgotten thinkers, he also preserved elements of China's prehistoric culture, and its ancient religion of ancestor-worship. (shrink)

Para o autor, o tema das relações entre ciência e espiritualidade merece renovado espaço ante o grande público e, não menor, no ambiente escolar ou familiar. Para ele, pessoas sábias, e não apenas letradas, partem para a aventura de desbravar tanto o mundo exterior da ciência quanto o mundo interior do espírito humano. Clemente acredita que na sociedade do conhecimento e da informação em que se vive, aprendem-se tantas coisas, muitas das quais de parco sentido e propósito. Mas é preciso (...) atravessar o rio da vida com segurança. Ciência e transcendência, para o autor, quando integradas, constituem a via disponível ao ser humano para conhecer a verdade e o bem, anseios maiores que, no íntimo, todos têm. (shrink)

Quiconque considère la résurgence du cynisme à la Renaissance pénètre un domaine vaste, mais laissé en friche par les philosophes et délaissé des littéraires. Quelques exemples suffisent à en évaluer l'étendue : reconnaître Diogène dans le Christ et faire - subrepticement - du premier des Adages un adage diogénique ; s'assimiler à Diogène roulant son tonneau pour illustrer la fabrique du Tiers Livre ; attaquer saint Augustin pour son incapacité à comprendre l'impudeur des cyniques ; souhaiter comme idéal pour l'homme (...) de n'être "serf de personne". Voilà quatre positions où l'on aura reconnu Erasme, Rabelais, Montaigne ainsi que La Boétie et qui attestent que, si le cynisme est bien une philosophie de la Renaissance, il a aussi été un formidable moyen de penser et de parler à neuf. Alors que le bien-dire envahit l'espace public, le dire vrai des cyniques, incisif, est apte à façonner des formes littéraires inédites et à procurer de nouveaux moyens critiques. Contre ceux qui pensent conforter la morale avec des discours bien-pensants, Diogène n'affirmait-il pas, crânement, que l'exercice de la vertu n'est pas pour les pisse-froid, qu'on peut être obscène et vertueux, violent et pédagogue, tout en restant "joyeux entre mille"? (shrink)

In this paper, we point out that explainability is useful but not sufficient to ensure the legitimacy of algorithmic decision systems. We argue that the key requirements for high-stakes decision systems should be justifiability and contestability. We highlight the conceptual differences between explanations and justifications, provide dual definitions of justifications and contestations, and suggest different ways to operationalize justifiability and contestability.

The modal collapse argument states that the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God necessarily creates whatever he creates and also that all creatures necessarily perform whatever actions they perform. In response to these objections, many authors argue that God’s willing to create this precise world and God’s knowing everything about individual creatures are at least partially extrinsic or Cambridge properties (i.e., the truthmaker of the respective propositions is, in part, a fact about something contingent other than God). This (...) paper argues for a general view of action, in which such properties can turn out to be at least partially extrinsic. Section 1 explains why responding to the modal collapse argument requires that part of the truthmaker relating God to contingent facts be extrinsic to God, and that it is only in this part that contingency lies. Section 2 argues that this can be generally so in certain class of causal relations, where the agent remains intrinsically the same no matter the precise effect produced. Section 3 shows that free volition is at some level one of those relations, and section 4 offers some brief remarks about the difficulties that still remain in the case of knowledge. (shrink)

Essays discuss reason, self-control, self-definition, time, cause and effect, accidents, and responsibility, and explain why people want free will.

The first part of this paper proposes a precise definition of what a worldview is, and why there is a necessity to have one. The second part suggests how to construct integrated scientific worldviews. For this attempt, three general scientific approaches are proposed: the general systems theory as the endeavor for a universal language for science, a general problem-solving approach and the idea of evolution, broadly construed. We close with some remarks about limitations of scientific worldviews.

New Blackfriars, Volume 103, Issue 1106, Page 536-553, July 2022.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Psychologists have emphasized children's acquisition of information through firsthand observation. However, many beliefs are acquired from others' testimony. In two experiments, most 4yearolds displayed sceptical trust in testimony. Having heard informants' accurate or inaccurate testimony, they anticipated that informants would continue to display such differential accuracy and they trusted the hitherto reliable informant. Yet they ignored the testimony of the reliable informant if it conflicted with what they themselves had seen. By contrast, threeyearolds were less selective in trusting a reliable (...) informant. Thus, young children check testimony against their own experience and increasingly recognise that some informants are more trustworthy than others. (shrink)

RésuméCette étude voudrait attirer ľattention sur la théorie peircéenne de la signification et, plus particulièrement, sur une notion qui paraît jouer un rôle central dans cette dernière, à savoir la notion ?on;interprétant. Médiateur entre le signe et ľobjet, l'interpretant peircéen prend tout son sens dans le cadre ?on;une theorie de la genèse des systèmes sémiotiques et ľanalyse qu'en fait Peir‐ce tente ?on;apporter, bien avant Carnap, une solution originale au problème des rapports entre sens et référence.SummaryThe purpose of this study is (...) to call the reader's attention to Peirce's theory of meaning and particularly to one notion which appears to play a decisive part in it, the notion of interpretant. The Peircean interpretant, a mediator between the sign and the object, is fully revealed within the theory of the genesis of semiotic systems and its analysis by Peirce is an attempt, long before Carnap, to propound an original solution to the problem of the relationship between meaning and reference.ZusammenfassungAnliegen dieser Studie ist es, im Rahmen der Peirceschen Theorie den Begriff der Bedeutung hervorzuheben und insbesondere das Konzept des interpretant, das eine wesentliche Rolle in dieser Theorie zu spielen scheint. Als Vermittler zwischen Zeichen und Objekt gewinnt der Peirce‐sche interpretant seine ganze Bedeutung im Rahmen einer Theorie ttber die Entstehung der semiotischen Systeme, und die Peircesche Analyse versucht lange vor Carnap eine eigene LSsung zum Problem der Beziehungen zwischen Sinn und Referenz zu erbringen. (shrink)

In November 1996, Catherine Clément and Julia Kristeva began a correspondence exploring the subject of the sacred. In this collection of those letters Catherine Clément approaches the topic from an anthropologist's point of view while Julia Kristeva responds from a psychoanalytic perspective. Their correspondence leads them to a controversial and fundamental question: is there anything sacred that can at the same time be considered strictly feminine? The two voices of the book work in tandem, fleshing out ideas and blending together (...) into a melody of experience. The result is a dialogue that delves into the mysteries of belief -- the relationship between faith and sexuality, the body and the senses -- which, Clément and Kristeva argue, women feel with special intensity. Although their discourse is not necessarily about theology, the authors consider the role of women and femininity in the religions of the world, from Christianity and Judaism to Confucianism and African animism. They are the first to admit that what they have undertaken is "as impossible to accomplish as it is fascinating." Nevertheless, their wide-ranging and exhilarating dialogue succeeds in raising questions that are perhaps more important to ask than to answer. (shrink)

As a maverick philosopher unafraid of challenging the ideas and methods of his colleagues, Clément Rosset's work attempts to connect sometimes-lofty academic philosophy with the concerns of everyday life. For decades, he has worked to illuminate some of the most obscure metaphysical issues, often using popular film, theatre, novels, and comic books to illustrate his ideas, and as a result he has gained a reputation as both a happy sage and a singular mind. In The Real and Its Double, expertly (...) translated by Chris Turner, Rosset takes on the question of the Real and humanity's natural ability to sidestep and bypass it. The key to this type of evasion, Rosset suggests, is a certain form of oracular thinking that lies buried in the origins of Western metaphysics and psychology. Here, Rosset eschews the prolix and paradoxical psychological theories of Derrida and Lacan in favor of an exceptional lucidity that speaks to his Nietzschean-tragic love of life. If good philosophy can be defined as expressing complicated things in a simple way, then here, in one of his best-known works, Rosset has proven himself a master. (shrink)

Differences in difficulty between isomorphs of the Tower of Hanoi are generally explained in terms of differences in processing loads required by the different versions Kotovsky & Fallside, 1989 . Our claim is that the general knowledge about an action, activated by the context, is what guides the elaboration of problem representation. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the context using four isomorphs. The results support the hypothesis: the selection of the adequate point of view on the action depends on (...) the context, and is a crucial step in the elaboration of problem representation. The more difficult versions are those that require abandoning the first point of view and selecting a new one. (shrink)

The field of computational law has increasingly moved into the focus of the scientific community, with recent research analysing its issues and risks. In this article, we seek to draw a structured and comprehensive list of societal issues that the deployment of automatically processable regulation could entail. We do this by systematically exploring attributes of the law that are being challenged through its encoding and by taking stock of what issues current projects in this field raise. This article adds to (...) the current literature not only by providing a needed framework to structure arising issues of computational law but also by bridging the gap between theoretical literature and practical implementation. Key findings of this article are: (1) The primary benefit (efficiency vs. accessibility) sought after when encoding law matters with respect to the issues such an endeavor triggers; (2) Specific characteristics of a project—project type, degree of mediation by computers, and potential for divergence of interests—each impact the overall number of societal issues arising from the implementation of automatically processable regulation. (shrink)

Gilles Deleuze, les vampires, Emil Cioran, Samuel Beckett, le dandysme, Friedrich Nietzsche, Raymond Roussel, Casanova, Arthur Schopenhauer, Jean-Luc Godard, Goscinny & Uderzo, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Le réel, le double, l’illusion, le tragique, la joie, la musique, la philosophie, la politique, le péché, l’enseignement. Faits divers sont les miscellanées de Clément Rosset : le répertoire désordonné et jubilatoire de ses passions et de ses dégoûts, de ses intérêts et de ses bâillements, de ses tocades et de ses coups de (...) sang – ainsi que de la prodigieuse liberté de ton et de pensée avec laquelle il les exprime et les pense. Un des philosophes, un des écrivains les plus singuliers de notre temps revisite les coulisses de son œuvre. Et vous êtes invités. (shrink)

Bien que l’ayant rencontré parfois à Paris, je ne fis réellement connaissance de Daniel Charles qu’à partir du moment où il fut nommé professeur à la faculté de lettres de Nice et s’installa dans sa villa d’Antibes. Il y organisait des soirées et des dîners mémorables, préparés par sa femme Jacqueline qui avait le quadruple avantage d’être charmante, québécoise, pianiste et excellente cuisinière. Nous ne tardâmes pas à devenir intimes. L’origine de notre amitié fut...