Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach financed and contributed to Diderot's Encyclopedia. He hosted many of Europe's best minds in the eighteenth century. The first half of this chapter describes these roles with a focus on atheism in Enlightenment France. Holbach was also a prolific writer. The second half of this chapter defends an interpretation of his atheism. Holbach held that God does not exist and that the knowledge of this fact is a great benefit to those who come to have it.

This groundbreaking book provides an analytical tool to understand how and why evil works in the world as it does. Deconstructing memory, history, and myth as received wisdom, the volume critically examines racism, sexism, poverty, and stereotypes.

Peter Singer est un philosophe utilitariste de renommée internationale. Il est titulaire de la chaire de bioéthique à Princeton. Depuis une trentaine d’années il s’intéresse à des questions éthiques telles que le statut moral des animaux, la bioéthique, l’environnement, et la manière de lutter contre la pauvreté dans le monde. C’est à cette question qu’il consacre son dernier ouvrage, paru en France en 2009 : Sauver une vie. Agir maintenant pour éradiquer la pauvreté.Sauver une vie n’est pas ..

In “A Public Health Ethics Framework for Populations with Limited English Proficiency,” Chipman and colleagues present a valuable framework for addressing health disparities linked to limited Engli...

This dissertation shows that Proclus provides a consistent reading of Plato's late dialogues, and develops a three level ontology which stands on its own. By augmenting the reserve of Platonist philosophy with Post Platonic developments of Greek mathematics and astronomy and physics, at points where Platonism ceased to provide operating principles, Proclus, reached for formulations which went beyond Plato. His own metaphysics, though sometimes obscured by theurgic allusions, grounds Being in an infinite One. ;One of the problems that Proclus attempts (...) to solve through the posit of three infinities, is that an iterative potential infinity, seen in the interval structure of the physical world, could divide to oblivion if uncolonized by Principle. The 'One Being', which brings Limit and noetic sameness, is itself entrapped in Self Reflexivity. An infinity of a third kind, one beyond all Limit and Unlimit is posed to solve this problem. This is Proclus' NeoPlatonic solution to the fact that Being alone, albeit under the rule of intellect, cannot guarantee itself. ;Platonism assumes a "universe" i.e. One grounding Many, which predetermines the place of all structure. $\rm A\nu\lambda o\gamma\iota\alpha$ is a principle of substitution which governs the visible cosmos and makes it comprehensible by mathematical formulations. Plato's emphasis on the self same as the epitome of Being, with circularity as the highest form for thought, helps Proclus provide a consistent account of: Creation ; Infinity as a Simultaneous Whole ; Soul and Nous, Dialectic is valorized over other forms of thought as most like $$ the eternal truth and a means to assimilation. Procession and reversion forms a circle which demonstrates a metaphysical successor of cosmic revolutions found to exist as the heavenly bodies carry out their noetic patterns. ;Finally Eternity encapsulates Time; but again its infinite circularity is only recouped by a One beyond all Limit which can carry out the Providence of a final cause. (shrink)

The idea that mythos and logos are incompatible, and that truth is a product of scientific and dialectical thinking, was certainly disproven by later Platonic philosophers. Deploying the works of Hesiod and Homer, Homeric Hymns and other such literature, they considered myth a valuable and significant augment to philosophical discourse. Plato’s denigration of myth gave his followers an incentive to read myth as allegory. The Stoics and first-century philosophers such as Philo, treated allegory as a legitimate interpretive strategy. The Middle (...) Platonists incorporated myth, for example, deifying the Monad and Dyad, as did 2nd century Platonists. Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris, for example, equates Isis and Osiris with form and matter: the god sows in matter logoi from himself. Porphyry’s allegorizing of Plato’s Cave of the Nymphs is another example. Plotinus is a strong influence on how the late Neoplatonists regarded myth. This paper argues that these philosophers’ use of allegory prepared the way for the Neoplatonists treatment of myth as inspired symbolism. Proclus and Syrianus, as reported by Hermias, did something more extreme by using mythology to construct inspired symbolic argument. Mythos becomes another type of logos, a vehicle for representing the invisible world of being, another kind of truth that can even serve a function in anagogic ascent. (shrink)

Résumé Aux années soixante-dix, Roland Barthes désigne le Zen japonais par « L’empire des signes », alors que la culture chinoise par la « fadeur des signes ». François Jullien reprend ultérieurement l’idée de la « fadeur » au niveau de son sens « non dualiste » dans le cadre de la philosophie comparée. Depuis les courants poststructuraliste et déconstructionniste, de plus en plus de recherches sémiotiques et philosophiques portent sur l’étude bouddhique, dont le point nodal se situe alors dans (...) un parallélisme au bénéfice des échanges interculturels. En vue d’une déspécialisation du jargon propre à chaque domaine, il semble impératif de mettre en relation les concepts de base en commun. Pour mettre en évidence l’apport de l’étude terminologique et méthodologique, cet article commence par les travaux philologiques sur la « traduction » des textes bouddhiques. Ensuite, la discussion se concentre sur la « dualité » à partir de la « réception » de l’exégétique saussurienne. Il s’agit concrètement d’une étude embryonnaire sur le terme propre couple « signifiant/signifié »: l’exégétique saussurienne s’est répandue efficacement en Chine grâce aux emprunts à la terminologie bouddhique, ce qui offrirait une perspective positive vis-à-vis du dialogue interculturel. En même temps, il serait aussi possible de traduire les termes bouddhiques par le biais sémiotique en regard d’une osmose transdisciplinaire. (shrink)

Strategies based on performance measurement and feedback are commonly used to support quality improvement among nurses. These strategies require practice change, which, for nurses, rely to a large extent on their capacity to coordinate with each other effectively. However, the levers for coordinated action are difficult to mobilize. This discussion paper offers a theoretical reflection on the challenges related to coordinating nurses' actions in the context of practice changes initiated by performance measurement and feedback strategies. We explore how Jürgen Habermas' (...) theory of Communicative Action may shed light on the issues underlying nurses' collective actions and self‐determination in practice change and the implications for the design of strategies based on performance measurement and feedback. Based on this theory, we propose differences between communicative and functional coordination according to the nature of the actions and the purposes involved. The domains of action underlying these coordination processes, which Habermas referred to as the lifeworld and the system, are then used to draw a parallel with aspects of nursing practice. Further exploration of these concepts allows us to consider the tensions between the demands of the system and the self‐determination of nurses within their practice. (shrink)

This paper draws on an in-depth phenomenological analysis of some interviews taken from volunteers, inviting them to reflect on their lived experiences of meaningfulness in the context of volunteering and citizenship. It is found that while some testimonies reinforce the standard conceptions of meaningfulness, other testimonies vary from it. The main challenge of this contribution consists in phenomenologically describing this alternative picture of meaningfulness, depicted as the event of wit(h)nessing. In a final part, the authors consider how volunteering is at (...) times especially prone to further experiences of wit(h)nessing. (shrink)

When the grounded theory appears in the 60s, it is presented and received as methodological innovation in break by the scientific traditional model. Though it is novel in several aspects, the TA is also tributary of the American sociology and the phenomenology, a double heredity that was, and contin..

In this comment on Johan Von Essen’s contribution on the meaning of volunteering we make some remarks about Von Essen’s starting point, which reveals a particular perspective on meaningfulness, namely that people perceive reality as meaningful when their actions and the things they encounter are part of a meaningful whole. By introducing another perspective on meaningfulness, namely that the shattering of a meaningful whole is full of meaning, we question if practices of volunteering which occur in face-to-face situations—and thus outside (...) the public realm—can be fully captured by the five predicates that make up the phenomenological structure of volunteering. (shrink)

Ce livre explore l’interface entre la science économique, notamment l’économie comportementale, et la condition animale. L’économie comportementale, champ d’étude relativement récent de l’économie inspiré de la psychologie offre en effet de nombreuses perspectives sur le sujet du bien-être animal. On découvre dans ce livre que la discipline économique fournit des outils notionnels et pratiques nombreux pour penser une société où les intérêts des êtres humains et les intérêts des autres anima...

Este artículo tiene como objetivo explorar las identidades matemáticas de 33 mujeres jóvenes en su encuentro con las matemáticas de la escuela secundaria superior post-obligatoria. Todas han optado por avanzar en matemáticas hasta el nivel A, separándolas de muchas otras estudiantes jóvenes de todo el mundo. A través de un marco de identidad que consta de cuatro componentes interrelacionados (competencia, desempeño, interés y reconocimiento) se realizaron y analizaron entrevistas narrativas con ellas para explorar la interacción entre las mujeres jóvenes y (...) el contexto educativo disciplinar. Los hallazgos muestran una idealización de una vía estrecha para identificarse con las matemáticas para los seleccionados que pueden producir respuestas correctas. Sin embargo, la variación en la ruta hacia el éxito se relaciona con la forma como se ven a sí mismas como arduas trabajadoras o como poseedoras de habilidades especiales para las matemáticas. La identificación de estas diferencias ofrece una comprensión más amplia de la identificación de mujeres jóvenes exitosas con las matemáticas. (shrink)

Au sein des séparations parentales conflictuelles, l’enfant peut adopter un rôle de parent. La parentification est une conséquence fréquente de ces situations. L’article présente le cas clinique d’une jeune fille de 12 ans illustrant l’articulation entre sa situation familiale et le phénomène de parentification. Marie est prise en charge en centre-médico-psychologique suite à une injonction de soin émise par le juge des enfants. Au sein de la séparation conflictuelle de ses parents, elle apparaît comme la soignante et la confidente de (...) sa mère. Elle cherche à aider cette dernière par divers moyens tels que le soutien moral, le rejet du père ou encore la rupture de liens avec sa famille. Des programmes éducatifs mandatés par les tribunaux, des programmes de prévention ou des discussions avec les parents dans les écoles sembleraient pertinents afin de diminuer la parentification. (shrink)

"Literature and the Right to Marriage," which bears the same title as the special issue that it introduces, takes up the challenge of the claim that marriage is a universal right. Framing the questions that traverse the five essays in the collection with a close reading of the sections on marriage from Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right, the authors argue that if marriage can be considered a right, this right both guarantees access to and is founded upon each (...) partner's vow to abide by his or her vows to the other. Hegel's text is important because it underscores the linguistic dimension of the marriage ceremony; and it thus helps to show that, if the right to marriage were universal, it must be understood as the right to an irreplaceable kind of ritual speech. Moreover, this text is remarkably modern in its emphasis upon love as the condition of rightful marriage. Hegel considered the exchange of marriage vows to be a political event at which love becomes ethical , and ethics becomes political ; and thus also the point at which the model for "ethical love" becomes the verbally solemnized love between a man and a woman rather than the priestly love of the neighbor. Marriage, for Hegel, is always a turning point, both in the lives of the couple and in the history of the state. But this means that the importance of any marriage cannot be measured in terms of a norm; it can only be measured in terms of the amorous situation that precedes the event of marriage. Hegel's analyses are indispensable for grasping the stakes of the essays collected in this special issue and for addressing contemporary questions about which couples have the right to marry and what marriage becomes when those who would marry already have shared long and complex lives together. (shrink)

In recent years, humans’ ability to selectively modify genes has increased dramatically as a result of the development of new, more efficient, and easier genetic modification technology. In this paper, we argue in favor of using this technology to improve the welfare of agricultural animals. We first argue that using animals genetically modified for improved welfare is preferable to the current status quo. Nevertheless, the strongest argument against pursuing gene editing for welfare is that there are alternative approaches to addressing (...) some of the challenges of modern agriculture that may offer ethical advantages over genetic modification; namely, a dramatic shift towards plant-based diets or the development of in vitro meat. Nevertheless, we provide reasons for thinking that despite these possible comparative disadvantages there are important reasons for continuing the pursuit of welfare improvements via genetic modification. (shrink)

This paper examines Irish campaigns for condom access in the early 1990s. Against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, activists campaigned against a law which would not allow condoms to be sold from ordinary commercial spaces or vending machines, and restricted sale to young people. Advancing a conception of ‘transformative illegality’, we show that illegal action was fundamental to the eventual legalisation of commercial condom sale. However, rather than foregrounding illegal condom sale as a mode of spectacular direct action, we (...) show that tactics of illegal sale in the 1990s built on 20 years of everyday illegal sale within the Irish family planning movement. Everyday illegal sale was a long-term world-making practice, which gradually transformed condoms’ legal meanings, eventually enabling new forms of provocative and irreverent protest. Condoms ‘became legal’ when the state recognised modes of condom sale, gradually built up over many years and publicised in direct action and in the courts. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je décris les usages de l’interpellatif mon frère tels qu’observés dans le film L’Esquive, lequel offre une très riche représentation d’un parler socialement situé, celui d’adolescents d’un quartier prolétarien de la banlieue parisienne. Au-delà de l’examen de cet interpellatif dès lors envisageable comme stéréotype stylistique, je m’attache à analyser le fonctionnement discursif de ce marqueur, c’est-à-dire sa désémantisation associée à une spécialisation dans des emplois non appellatifs, mais relevant d’un codage d’ordre énonciativo-pragmatique, d’une pragmaticalisation, qui permet de (...) définir mon frère comme marqueur de consensus ou d’appel au consensus. Les résultats de cette analyse invitent aussi à voir dans cet interpellatif l’un des éléments représentatifs d’un « mode de communication dirigé vers l’autre » que certains travaux avaient jusqu’à présent associé aux langues dites « interjectives » – plus qu’à des styles sociolinguistiquement définis. (shrink)

After reviewing the literature on current knowledge about consciousness in humans, we present a state-of-the art discussion on consciousness and related key concepts in animals. Obviously much fewer publications are available on non-human species than on humans, most of them relating to laboratory or wild animal species, and only few to livestock species. Human consciousness is by definition subjective and private. Animal consciousness is usually assessed through behavioural performance. Behaviour involves a wide array of cognitive processes that have to be (...) assessed separately using specific experimental protocols. Accordingly, several processes indicative of the presence of consciousness are discussed: perception and cognition, awareness of the bodily-self, self-related knowledge of the environment (including social environment). When available, specific examples are given in livestock species. Next, we review the existing evidence regarding neuronal correlates of consciousness, and emphasize the difficulty of linking aspects of consciousness to specific neural structures across the phyla because high-level cognitive abilities may have evolved independently along evolution. Several mammalian brain structures (cortex and midbrain) are involved in the manifestations of consciousness, while the equivalent functional structures for birds and fishes would likely be the pallium/tectum and midbrain. Caution is required before excluding consciousness in species not having the same brain structures as the mammalian ones as different neural architectures may mediate comparable processes. Finally, specific neurophysiological mechanisms appear to be strongly linked to the emergence of consciousness, namely neural synchrony and neural feedback. Considering the limited amount of data available and the few animal species studied so far, we conclude that different manifestations of consciousness can be observed in animals but that further refinement is still needed to characterize their level and content in each species. Further research is required to clarify these issues, especially in livestock species. (shrink)

Contre toute attente, si l’on adopte la perspective d’un « augustinisme politique », les concepts de « cité céleste » et de « cité terrestre » ne font justement l’objet d’aucune interprétation politique dans les milieux intellectuels franciscains du xiii e siècle. Jérusalem et Babylone représentent d’abord des manières d’être et de vivre ensemble, et font donc l’objet d’une lecture spirituelle. Les frères mineurs n’en ont pas moins essayé d’esquisser, à l’écart des deux cités mystiques, un espace intermédiaire, cité des (...) hommes, qui pouvait prendre la forme d’une république chrétienne universelle (Roger Bacon), d’une théocratie juridique dont le pape est le sommet terrestre (Bonaventure), ou plus radicalement d’une anticipation de la Jérusalem céleste. Cette dernière voie est celle du joachimisme, dont Bonaventure a tenté de présenter une version orthodoxe à travers l’image de la Jérusalem d’en bas. (shrink)

In the present context of aging populations, the question of how to support older workers who want to stay in employment longer is of particular importance, especially from a social justice perspective with regards to income. The challenges faced by organizations and governments are unprecedented. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from our research with regard to these challenges. First of all, the perception of retirement appears more or less unchanged over the years and remains very positive. Consequently, one of the (...) barriers to the employment of older workers may be the image of retirement itself, since it is still perceived as a gift or a right. Secondly, our results confirm that forcing people to stay longer in the labour market is a largely unpopular measure. Consequently, if public retirement plans offer limited income, governments and organizations should adopt a more voluntary approach to encourage older workers to stay in employment longer for a better income. Our results highlight the importance of the sector and type of job in the measures or incentives that could encourage older workers to stay in employment longer. Consequently, governments and organizations will probably have to adopt a contingent approach; i.e., all incentives do not necessarily fit all jobs or all sectors and social justice would require this be taken into account. We identified three sets of measures that could encourage older workers to stay in employment longer, and thus have access to better economic security: the reduction of working time, the flexibility of working time, and the individualization of retirement options and working time. The progressive reduction of their working time appears most interesting to our respondents. These measures appear to favour social justice in terms of income and right to employment at the end of active careers. (shrink)

Fertility preservation has become more common for various populations, including oncology patients, transgender individuals, and women who are concerned about age-related infertility. Little attention has been paid to fertility preservation for patients with differences/disorders of sex development (DSD). Our goal in this article is to address specific ethical considerations that are unique to this patient population. To this end, we present a hypothetical DSD case. We then explore ethical considerations related to patient’s age, risk of cancer, concern about genetic transmission (...) of a DSD condition to children, co-occurring gender dysphoria, and access to experimental fertility preservation procedures. Given the limitations of current technologies, we recommend offering fertility preservation to individuals living with DSD using an informed decision-making approach that instills realistic expectations and minimizes the potential for false hope. Finally, we conclude with practical recommendations for this case based on the ethical considerations. (shrink)

From Italian physician Hieronymus Mercurialis’s contention that the stomach was ‘the king of the belly’, to its promotion by the end of the nineteenth century to the ‘monarch of humanity’ in patent medicine, to Byron Robinson’s discovery of the enteric nervous system in 1907 (a mesh of neural connectivity that led him to dub the gut ‘the second brain’), there has historically been a longstanding awareness of the expansive reach of the gut in the functions of the body. In the (...) nineteenth century, the authority of the gut and its allyship with the brain became a focus for writers thinking about the intersections of illness and ‘modern life’. In medical texts, domestic health manuals, patent medicine, and fiction, the electric telegraph in particular became a way of envisaging what we would now call the ‘gut-brain axis’. The telegraphic metaphor enabled a view of digestion as not simply a mechanical or chemical process, but one that was understood in terms of time, space, and communication. However, such a framework also suggested problems of connection that were common to both systems, emphasising not only the healthy body’s quasi-telegraphic networks but also its vulnerability to delay, disruption, and pathological incoherence. This article will explore the use of telegraphic technologies as proxies for theorising gastric connection and more broadly the concept of ‘gastric time’ as a key conceit for understanding digestion as a process that was and is subject to the idiosyncrasies of bodily rhythms. (shrink)

The Weather Prediction Task was originally designed to assess probabilistic classification learning. Participants were believed to gradually acquire implicit knowledge about cue–outcome association probabilities and solve the task using a multicue strategy based on the combination of all cue–outcome probabilities. However, the cognitive processes engaged in the resolution of this task have not been firmly established, and despite conflicting results, the WPT is still commonly used to assess striatal or procedural learning capacities in various populations. Here, we tested young adults (...) on a modified version of the WPT and performed novel analyses to decipher the learning strategies and cognitive processes that may support above chance performance. The majority of participants used a hierarchical strategy by assigning different weights to the different cues according to their level of predictability. They primarily based their responses on the presence or absence of highly predictive cues and considered less predictive cues secondarily. However, the influence of the less predictive cues was inconsistent with the use of a multicue strategy, since they did not affect choices when both highly predictive cues associated with opposite outcomes were present simultaneously. Our findings indicate that overall performance is inadequate to draw conclusions about the cognitive processes assessed by the WPT. Instead, detailed analyses of performance for the different patterns of cue–outcome associations are essential to determine the learning strategies used by participants to solve the task. (shrink)

Cet article propose un tour d’horizon de différents types de biais que l’on peut rencontrer dans les études basées sur l’annotation de corpus vidéo de langue des signes. En tâchant de situer objectivement les choix effectués et les biais potentiels à chaque étape, nous décrivons les méthodologies que nous avons mises en place dans trois études, portant respectivement sur la synchronisation des composantes corporelles, le mouvement des sourcils et les clignements des yeux, puis la coarticulation.

This paper draws on an in-depth phenomenological analysis of some interviews taken from volunteers, inviting them to reflect on their lived experiences of meaningfulness in the context of volunteering and citizenship. It is found that while some testimonies reinforce the standard conceptions of meaningfulness, other testimonies vary from it. The main challenge of this contribution consists in phenomenologically describing this alternative picture of meaningfulness, depicted as the event of witnessing. In a final part, the authors consider how volunteering is at (...) times especially prone to further experiences of witnessing. (shrink)