Parce qu'elle est si riche et touche à tant de domaines, l'œuvre de Jürgen Habermas se laisse difficilement saisir dans sa totalité. De là l'intérêt de la lecture présentée ici, une lecture qui met au premier plan les Écrits politiques de ce philosophe allemand. Ces derniers sont, dans une large mesure, méconnus du public français, puisqu'on n'en a traduit que quelques articles épars. Or, outre l'éclairage nouveau qu'ils jettent sur l'ensemble de son œuvre, leur connaissance permet de révéler une facette (...) importante de Habermas en tant que personne : celle du penseur engagé, de l'intellectuel qui quitte sa tour d'ivoire et participe pleinement à la vie politique de son temps. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: This text views the case of Quebec nationalism from the vantage point of the debate between Habermas and Taylor on this question. This case highlights the problem of articulating the sphere of civic rights, whose claims are universalist, to that of culture and collective identity, whose essence is particularist. It seems that the multinational context of the Quebec-Canada confrontation needs to be approached in a manner that cannot be fulfilled by a strict proceduralism and a purely formal universalism. The (...) Habermasian position will thus be criticized for these reasons, while Taylor’s stance, which contemplates the integration of material considerations in a dialogue open to ideological alterity, will be taken into account so as to make up for the shortcomings of the former. (shrink)

Dans un contexte de mondialisation, plusieurs penseurs ont cru nécessaire de repenser nos pratiques morales, tant chez les individus que chez les groupes. On défend alors l’idée d’une morale qui s’étendrait par-delà la nation, de même que l’illégitimité de toute division de l’espace moral en « communautés morales ». Selon l’auteur, une moralité transnationale n’implique cependant pas forcément la dissolution des espaces moraux que sont les nations. Afin d’explorer cette problématique, les pensées de Peter Singer, de Robert Goodin et de (...) Thomas Pogge sur cette question seront analysées et confrontées l’une à l’autre. Une approche contextualiste sera privilégiée, qui conclura à un devoir cosmopolite de faire respecter les devoirs nationaux.In a context of globalization, many — individuals and groups alike — have thought it necessary to rethink our ethical practices. In this context, what is defended is the idea of an ethical openness that extends beyond our nation as well as the illegitimacy of any division of moral space into moral communities. However, according to the author, a transnational morality does not necessarily imply that moral spaces must be dissolved. In order to explore these issues, the positions of Peter Singer, Robert Goodin and Thomas Pogge will be analyzed and compared. A contextualist approach will be favored, which will lead to the idea of a cosmopolitan duty to enforce national duties. (shrink)

This article argues that philosophical hermeneutics, despite its onto-logical character, can inform higher education teaching in a meaningful way. After discussing theoretical aspects of philosophical her-meneutics, focus will turn to pre-understandings and historically effected consciousness. These concepts will lead to hermeneutics’s transformative nature, with the notion of openness serving as a com-mon thread. The review of three further concepts of philosophical hermeneutics—hermeneutical experience, authentic dialogue, and Bildung—will provide insight into openness as a vanishing point without being a culmination. Parallels to (...) Mezirow’s method of trans-formative learning will be drawn and the concept of Bildung, central to philosophical hermeneutics, will be considered through the Hum-boldtian lens to better extract its practical implications, which lay beyond Gadamer’s theoretical focus. Finally, the last section will cement the applicative intent of the article by presenting concrete teaching practices that ????low from philosophical hermeneutics. (shrink)

Les aspects polémiques et rhétoriques de la réhabilitation des préjugés chez Gadamer font non seulement violence à la pensee de Descartes, mais obscurcissent le sens véritable de la théorie gadamérienne sur ce point. Pour en arriver à une compréhension plus adéquate de la position de Gadamer, il faut rendre explicites différents éléments qui renvoient à des motifs de la Kehre Heideggérienne et mettre Vaccent sur le rôle de principes herméneutiques développés par Gadamer, tels la tradition et le langage. On peut (...) alors arguer que la pomme de discorde entre Descartes et Gadamer ne se trouve pas dans la théorie des préjugés, leur position sur cette question étant plus complementaire qu'opposée, mais dans la théorie de la subjectivité. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: Though Habermas explicitly rejected psychoanalysis as a model for a critical theory of society, it seems to have continued to shape his thought beyond the publication of Knowledge and Human Interests. The conceptual framework underlying his more recent social theory would also be indebted to the psychoanalytical paradigm. This thesis is developed through the idea of the pathology of society, which represents the cornerstone of a specifically critical theory of society. In his demonstration, the author establishes a structural relationship (...) between psychical and social organization, and between individual pathology and the diagnostic of modern societies. (shrink)

This article explores how a focus on ‘student centeredness’ can lead to ‘innovation’ and how innovation can enhance student centeredness. Putting students at the centre of all considerations can unleash their creative and innovative potential. And recent innovations have made it easier to make students the focal point of service delivery. After a description of what we understand under these two guiding concepts, a case study is presented in which an AI-powered Student Virtual Assistant was developed at York University in (...) Toronto, Canada. All steps of the product creation, including envisioning, designing, prototyping, and evaluating are described, as well as the following steps involving maintenance and expansion. (shrink)

This article proposes a solution to the ‘paradox of normalcy’, a problem raised by the early Frankfurt Sehool in its questioning of basic concepts of psychoanalysis. After reviewing the different definitions of normalcy put forward by Freud, the paradoxical character of the concept of normalcy, as perceived by the various members of the Frankfurt School, will be made explicit. The solution to the paradox will take the form ofa practical ‘dis-solution’, and will bring to the fore a fundamental principle of (...) Critical Theory identified as the ’banning of graven images’, which will be shown to operate even in the contemporary work of Habermas.Cet artiele propose une solution au ‘paradoxe de la normalité’ qui émergea lors des analyses psychanalytiques de I’École de Francfort de première heure. Suite à une revue des différentes définitions de la normalité avancées par Freud, le caraetère paradoxaI du concept de normalité, tel que perçu par divers membres de l’École de Francfort, sera explieité. La solution au paradoxe prendra la forme d’une ‘dis-solution’ pratique et mettra en relief un prineipe fondamental de la Théorie Critique identifié comme ‘interdiction des idoles’, laquelle opère encore - comme iI sera démontré - dans I’oeuvre contemporaine de Habermas. (shrink)

Renan’s paradigmatic question ‘What is the nation?’ has been inflected in many ways: When is the nation? Where is the nation? Why is the nation? etc. However, few have explicitly considered the normative question: ‘What ought the nation to be?’, which raises the distinctively moral and philosophical-political question of the normativity of the nation in general, and in turn, that of the normative criteria that underpin the nation’s normativity. Since the choice of these criteria is clearly arbitrary and culturally-determined, any (...) normative justification will have a counterfactual character. Nonetheless, in spite of its inherent limitations resulting from axiological relativism, such an approach has the advantage of providing not only a descriptive model for countries subscribing to theselected normative principles, but also a critical basis for the evaluation of their national aspirations. (shrink)

Dans ces entretiens avec Gadamer, réalisés par Carsten Dutt, c’est la présence d’une intelligence accomplie qui retient l’attention du lecteur. Aussi peuvent-ils être une adéquate introduction à l’herméneutique gadamérienne, en ce qu’ils abordent respectivement les thèses centrales de Vérité et méthode dans le premier entretien, ensuite celles relatives à l’esthétique et à la philosophie pratique dans les second et troisième entretiens. Ce qui suscite cependant l’intérêt du lecteur plus avisé, c’est la précision avec laquelle Gadamer rectifie les plus classiques interprétations (...) que lui soumet C. Dutt, et qui demeurent à la base ou au cœur des objections actuelles dans ces domaines. Ainsi l’unité de la pensée de Gadamer, réaffirmée avec la distance de la maturité, est des plus tangibles. Unité qui redit son intuition fondamentale: «Quiconque comprend quelque chose s’y comprend soi-même» ; en laquelle s’exprime tout l’enjeu de la compréhension, tant pour les sciences de l’esprit et leur nécessaire dialogue avec la tradition, que dans la profondeur de «l’expérience esthétique», ou pour une philosophie pratique consciente des solidarités existantes. Compréhension qui advient dans le dialogue, seul garant d’une véritable entente. (shrink)

The current interest in bioregionalism, stimulated in part by Kirkpatrick Sale’s Dwellers in the Land, shows that people are looking for a form of political praxis which addresses the importance of region. In this paper, I argue that much of the bioregional literature written to date mystifies the concept of region, discounting the role of subjectivity and culture in shaping regional boundaries and veers toward asimplistic view of “nature knows best.” Bioregionalism can be rehabilitated, provided we treat it not as (...) a “revealed wisdom” for the reconstruction of human society, but as a sensibility and environmental ethic that can infuse our work even as we make use of the functional regionalisms that increasingly shape people’s consciousness. I conclude by citing Lewis Mumford’s concept of a region as capturing the dialectical interplay of natural and cultural elements. (shrink)

This article explains Aquinas's attempt to show, within an Aristotelian framework, how the soul can be both a substance in its own right and the form of the body. I argue that although Aquinas' theory is logically consistent, its plausibility is weakened by the fact that it requires a significant modification of the Aristotelian conceptions of both substance and form.

Leibniz raises three main objections to the doctrine of occasionalism: (1) it is inconsistent with the supposition of finite substances; (2) it presupposes the occurrence of "perpetual miracles"; (3) it requires that God "disturb" the ordinary laws of nature. At issue in objection (1) is the proper understanding of divine omnipotence, and of the relationship between the power of God and that of created things. I argue that objections (2) and (3), on the other hand, derive from a particular conception (...) of the intelligibility of nature, a conception to which Leibniz is firmly committed and that occasionalists like Malebranche no less firmly reject. (shrink)

This is the editorial introduction to the four papers on consciousness comprising the July 2014 issue of Essays in Philosophy (vol. 15, issue 2). The four authors are Keith E. Turausky, John K. Grandy, Adam Green, and Ben Gubran.

This textbook is a flexible and affordable collection of classic and contemporary primary sources in philosophy. The readings cover seven basic topics of Western Philosophy. The selections are long enough to present a self-contained argument but not so lengthy that students lose track of the main point. The book includes a glossary and an appendix on logic and argumentation.

This volume presents a collection of articles on Henry of Ghents philosophy with a focus on various topics in his metaphysics, such as his rejection of various points of Aristotelian philosophy and his appeal to Augustine and Avicenna. The articles deal with such questions central to Henrys thought as his intentional distinction and his metaphysical argument for the existence of God as well as its similarity to Anselms article in the Proslogion. They examine his account of human freedom, the analogy (...) of being, and his apophaticism in speaking about God, where he is clearly indebted to Pseudo-Dionysius and Maimonides. Roland J. Teske, SJ, Donald J. Schuenke Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (PhD University of Toronto, 1973) specializes in St. Augustine and medieval philosophers, especially William of Auvergne and Henry of Ghent. (shrink)

Initial sketch of a concept of faith -- Facets of faith -- Faith and knowledge -- Faith and scientific knowledge -- Faith and morality -- Secular forms of faith -- Crises of faith -- My personal journey of faith.