Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

With the advent of CRISPR gene-editing technology, designer babies have become a reality. Françoise Baylis insists that scientists alone cannot decide the terms of this new era in human evolution. Members of the public, with diverse interests and perspectives, must have a role in determining our future as a species.

Suddenly, COVID-19 has changed the world and the way people work. Companies had to accelerate something they knew was imminent in the future, but not immediate and extremely humongous. This situation poses a huge challenge for companies to survive and thrive in this complex business environment and for employees, who must adapt to this new way of working. An effective e-leadership, which promotes companies’ adaptability, is needed. This study investigates the existing knowledge on teleworking and e-leadership; and analyzes the supposed (...) challenges. The literature review shows that companies with effective e-leadership can view teleworking as an opportunity. It is advantageous for not only companies’ productivity but also the environment and people who work remotely. However, a traditional or no leadership can result in some risks. Thriving in remote work environments implies that managers must adjust the companies’ structure, making them less hierarchical, and developing new abilities to establish a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees to maintain their competitiveness, while retaining a genuine concern for their employees’ well-being. Similarly, successful e-leadership must be able to consolidate and lead effective virtual teams to accomplish organizational goals. This study contributes to the literature and leaders during the pandemic. (shrink)

This work was supported, in part, by a Stem Cell Network grant to Françoise Baylis and Jason Scott Robert and a CIHR grant to Françoise Baylis. We sincerely thank Alan Fine, Rich Campbell, Cynthia Cohen, and Tim Krahn for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks are also owed to Tim Krahn for his research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Department of Bioethics and the Novel Tech Ethics research team. (...) We thank the participants at each of these meetings for their helpful comments. (shrink)

Now that stem cell scientists are clamouring for human eggs for cloning-based stem cell research, there is vigorous debate about the ethics of paying women for their eggs. Generally speaking, some claim that women should be paid a fair wage for their reproductive labour or tissues, while others argue against the further commodification of reproductive labour or tissues and worry about voluntariness among potential egg providers. Siding mainly with those who believe that women should be financially compensated for providing eggs (...) for research, the new stem cell guidelines of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) legitimise both reimbursement of direct expenses and financial compensation for many women who supply eggs for research. In this paper, the authors do not attempt to resolve the thorny issue of whether payment for eggs used in human embryonic stem cell research is ethically legitimate. Rather, they want to show specifically that the ISSCR recommended payment practices are deeply flawed and, more generally, that all payment schemes that aim to avoid undue inducement of women risk the global exploitation of economically disadvantaged women. (shrink)

À la fin du xviiie siècle, Diderot et Robinet occupent une place symétrique et inverse dans la République des Lettres : philosophes et traducteurs de Shaftesbury, ils construisent leur œuvre à partir de la position seconde de traducteur. Robinet a la capacité de s’effacer devant l’auteur qu’il traduit mais Diderot « use du bien d’autrui avec une grande liberté », la traduction constituant pour lui une méthode de lecture et une forme de dialogue critique avec lui-même. Tous les deux néanmoins (...) s’appuient sur la lecture de Shaftesbury pour développer l’hylozoïsme. (shrink)

This surprising selection of photographs by Ansel Adams, Eugène Atget, Alfred Stieglitz, Carleton Watkins, and others, focuses on the tree as subject matter.

oise Baylis, 1234 Le Marchant Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3P7. Tel.: (902)-494–2873; Fax: (902)-494-2924; Email: francoise.baylis{at}dal.ca ' + u + '@' + d + ' '//--> . Abstract Recently, there has been a growing interest in public health and public health ethics. Much of this interest has been tied to efforts to draw up national and international plans to deal with a global pandemic. It is common for these plans to state the importance of drawing upon a well-developed (...) ethics framework and we argue that this framework should reflect the values and insights of feminist relational theory. More specifically, we argue that pandemic planning must be squarely situated in the larger realm of public health and that an ethics framework for public health will be one that recognizes the need to pay particular attention to the vulnerability of subpopulations lacking in social and economic power. We propose an ethics framework for public health that builds on the notions of relational personhood (including relational autonomy and social justice) and relational solidarity. In this way, we aim for a public health ethics that, as appropriate, promotes the public interest and the common good. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

How, asks Françoise Dastur, can philosophy account for the sudden happening and the factuality of the event? Dastur asks how phenomenology, in particular the work of Heidegger, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, may be interpreted as offering such an account. She argues that the “paradoxical capacity of expecting surprise is always in question in phenomenology,” and for this reason, she concludes, “We should not oppose phenomenology and the thinking of the event. We should connect them; openness to phenomena must be identified (...) with openness to unpredictability.” The article offers reflections in these terms on a phenomenology of birth. (shrink)

Il pense, donc il est : sérieux, solitaire, méditatif et de noir vêtu, Descartes est depuis des siècles l'incarnation de la raison triomphante et du génie français. Tant de limpidité et d'éclat a éclipsé l'homme même, qui demeure très méconnu : fils d'un temps d'incertitude? père de la philosophie moderne? Qui était vraiment René Descartes et qu'en reste-t-il aujourd'hui, au-delà des idées reçues et de la référence obligée? Mettant en lumière les contradictions du philosophe, Françoise Hildesheimer brosse le portrait (...) d'un homme fort éloigné du mythe officiel. On le veut rationnel, on ne l'imagine pas rêvant ; c'est pourtant sur trois songes que Descartes a fondé son projet d'une science universelle qui devait faire de lui le nouvel Aristote. Il a côtoyé de très près les courants déviants de l'époque, avant de s'établir en Hollande en 1628 pour concevoir son système, dévoilé au fil du Discours de la méthode, des Méditations métaphysiques, des Principes de la philosophie et des Passions de l'âme. Sa vie durant, Descartes a balancé entre désir de reconnaissance officielle et soif d'incognito ; il invitait le monde entier à débattre de ses théories, mais n'aimait guère la contestation ; il affectionnait le repos, et n'a cessé de voyager, sans jamais s'établir durablement ; lui qui se tenait éloigné du pouvoir a fini ses jours, en 1650, à la cour de la reine Christine de Suède. Curieux paradoxe que cet obsédé du secret, ce maniaque du brouillage des pistes, se soit consacré corps et âme à la quête de la Vérité et à l'étude de la lumière... (shrink)

This article looks at the tensions experienced by teacher trainers in National Higher Institutes for Teaching and Education (Instituts nationaux supérieurs du professorat et de l'éducation ; INSPE), following the implementation of the reform of pre-service teacher training (beginning of the 2021 academic year). Thus, the positioning of competitive examinations at the end of the master's degree has led to the reorganization of training content. A questionnaire survey (n = 725) was conducted in spring 2022. Having defined the place and (...) role of trainers in the professional development of future teachers, the analyses highlighted the tensions present in the respondents' discourse. This latest reform, between continuity and change, has generated tensions with multiple sources and has forced many trainers to reconsider their activity, judging some of the prescribed measures as paradoxical. The resulting dilemmas have forced these trainers to rethink their priorities, to readjust their practices, and to reconsider their professionalism as well as the meaning of their activities. (shrink)

Célestin Freinet’s pedagogy faces important challenges today. On one side, cognitive psychology suggests that it is useful to move from the students’ free expressions only if this process permits the acquisition of concepts and competences, on the other hand institutional pedagogy, tracing back to psychoanalysis, teaches how important is to build mediation institutions within the group. In many experiences of institutional pedagogy the relationship, through the “places of word”, becomes the main purpose of education. But in this way knowledge, which (...) contributes to the formation of personality, would be denied. Institutional pedagogy anyway induces Freinet’s pedagogy to consider the importance of the institutional processes within the group and of the educational techniques as mediation structures in interpersonal relationships. (shrink)

The theory of immediate pairs of Henselian valued fields, with a given residual theory (of characteristic zero) and a given theory of valuation group (nonzero), is undecidable and has 2ℵ0 completions.

Une semaine, a l'ecart, a Cerisy: il ne fallait pas moins d'un tel retrait, dans ce lieu prestigieux de la reflexion, pour pouvoir, en suivant l'itineraire de Francois Jullien, examiner comment rouvrir des possibles de la pensee. Pour deranger la pensee, en effet, les textes reunis ici croisent les points de vue les plus divers. Repartant de l'investissement initial du travail de Francois Jullien, ils s'interrogent sur l'ecart des langues et des pensees de la Chine et de l'Europe et ce (...) que celui-ci apporte pour envisager a nouveaux frais des questions telles que celles de la morale et de la strategie. Mais ils font egalement voyager d'un pole a l'autre, comme entre les pensees de l'universel et de l'intime; ou entre la pensee de l'immanence et son expression poetique; et d'abord entre les ressources premieres de la pensee: les langues et leur traduction. Du fait que Francois Jullien ne prend pas seulement la Chine comme un objet d'erudition, mais fait jouer a cette reference le role d'un operateur theorique, le champ balaye est logiquement des plus larges. Il peut aller de la pensee du commencement et du changement en physique a ce qui se redessine des enjeux politiques contemporains. Autant d'approches de prime abord dispersees mais qui font apparaitre que c'est, non du semblable, mais de l'ecart et de la tension qu'il organise, que peut se produire du commun. (shrink)

CETTE THESE CHERCHE A FAIRE RESSORTIR LA CONTINUITE EXISTANT ENTRE LES CONCEPTIONS DEVELOPPEES PAR LES NEOPOSITIVISTES ET PAR WITTGENSTEIN AUTOUR DES ANNEES TRENTE A VIENNE ET LES EPISTEMOLOGIES EVOLUTIONNISTES QUI SONT APPARUES A PARTIR DES ANNEES SOIXANTE DANS LE MONDE ANGLO-SAXON. L'ANALYSE DES THEORIES DE CARNAP ET DE WITTGENSTEIN MET L'ACCENT SUR LA TRANSFORMATION QU'ILS FONT SUBIR A L'A PRIORI KANTIEN ET EXPLICITE LA PERSPECTIVE NOUVELLE QU'ILS OUVRENT AINSI A LA REFLEXION PHILOSOPHIQUE. NOUS MONTRONS COMMENT A PARTIR DE LA SE (...) DESSINE UN DOUBLE PARCOURS : LE PREMIER CONDUISANT DU CONVENTIONNALISME DES NEOPOSITIVISTES A L'EPISTEMOLOGIE EVOLUTIONNISTE DE POPPER, ET LE DEUXIEME DE LA THEORIE DU LANGAGE DE WITTGENSTEIN A L'EPISTEMOLOGIE EVOLUTIONNISTE DE TOULMIN. ENFIN, APRES AVOIR DEGAGE LES THESES CONSTITUTIVES DE CHACUNE DE CES DEUX CONCEPTIONS, NOUS ANALYSONS LES CONTRIBUTIONS QU'ELLES APPORTENT A LA REFLEXION EPISTEMOLOGIQUE CONTEMPORAINE. TROIS APPENDICES PERMETTENT DE DISTINGUER L'EPISTEMOLOGIE EVOLUTIONNISTE DE POPPER ET DE TOULMIN DE CONCEPTIONS APPROCHANTES, EN PARTICULIER DE L'"EVOLUTIONARE ERKENNTNISTHEORIE" ALLEMANDE DE CES QUINZE DERNIERES ANNEES. (shrink)

Mill’s defence of individual liberty rests on a conception of historical determinism that is crucial for his liberalism, but is generally misunderstood. The aim of the paper is to explore Mill’s complex view both of the historicity of human nature and of the historical factors that shape it. Avoiding the weaknesses of Bentham’s a-historical utilitarianism, Mill describes in On Liberty human beings as self-developing individuals. As a consequence, the role of society and history in that constant transformation cannot be understood (...) in naturalistic terms as in the natural sciences. In his Logic, Book VI, Mill develops his ambition to produce a “new” science of human behaviour or Ethology that would unite individual freedom and social factors in our understanding of history. (shrink)

Most philosophers adopt an etiological conception of functions, but not one that uniformly explains the functions attributed to material entities irrespective of whether they are natural or man-made. Here, I investigate the widespread idea that a combination of the two current etiological theories, SEL and INT, can offer a satisfactory account of the proper functions of both organisms and artifacts.. Making explicit what a realist theory of function supposes, I first show that SEL offers a realist theory of biological functions (...) in which these are objective properties of a peculiar sort. I argue next that an artifact function demonstrates the same objective nature as a biological function when it is accounted for by SEL, but not when it is accounted for by INT. I explain why a dual theory of artifact functions admitting both INT and SEL functions is to be dismissed. I establish that neither INT nor SEL alone can account for all artifact functions. Drawing the conclusion that we need a new etiological theory of function, I show how one can overcome the apparent inevitability of INT for some artifact functions. Finally, I outline a new etiological theory of functions that applies equally to biological entities and to artifacts. (shrink)

This article explores the notion of the dislocated self following deep brain stimulation (DBS) and concludes that when personal identity is understood in dynamic, narrative, and relational terms, the claim that DBS is a threat to personal identity is deeply problematic. While DBS may result in profound changes in behaviour, mood and cognition (characteristics closely linked to personality), it is not helpful to characterize DBS as threatening to personal identity insofar as this claim is either false, misdirected or trivially true. (...) The claim is false insofar as it misunderstands the dynamic nature of identity formation. The claim is misdirected at DBS insofar as the real threat to personal identity is the discriminatory attitudes of others towards persons with motor and other disabilities. The claim is trivially true insofar as any dramatic event or experience integrated into one’s identity-constituting narrative could then potentially be described as threatening. From the perspective of relational personal identity, when DBS dramatically disrupts the narrative flow, this disruption is best examined through the lens of agency. For illustrative purposes, the focus is on DBS for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. (shrink)

La lutte contre la Covid a donné à l’Europe un premier élan fédéral. Le second est provoqué par le bruit des bottes russes en Ukraine. L’Union réagit par des sanctions sans précédent contre la Russie, en particulier en diminuant drastiquement ses approvisionnements en gaz. L’Allemagne en est la première perdante. La combinaison d’intérêts économiques divergents et la tradition allemande de l’Ostpolitik approfondissent les divergences entre la France et l’Allemagne. La France affirme la souveraineté stratégique européenne ; l’Allemagne considère l’alliance avec (...) les États-Unis incontournable. Elle décide de porter le projet de « bouclier antimissile européen » avec la plupart des pays de l’Est, au moyen de technologies américaines et israéliennes, ce qui crispe la France. La question de l’envoi possible de troupes en Ukraine achève de détériorer le tandem franco-allemand. L’Europe est entrée dans une nouvelle ère : son centre de gravité se déplace vers l’est. L’élargissement qui se profile appelle à un saut fédéral. (shrink)

We outline a number of ethical objections to genetic technologies aimed at enhancing human capacities and traits. We then argue that, despite the persuasiveness of some of these objections, they are insufficient to stop the development and use of genetic enhancement technologies. We contend that the inevitability of the technologies results from a particular guiding worldview of humans as masters of the human evolutionary future, and conclude that recognising this worldview points to new directions for ethical thinking about genetic enhancement (...) technologies. (shrink)

The primary objective of The Health Care Ethics Con sultant is to focus attention on an immediate practical problem: the role and responsibilities, the education and training, and the certification and accreditation of health care ethics consultants. The principal questions addressed in this book include: Who should be considered health care ethics consultants? Whom should they advise? What should be their responsi bilities and what kind of training should they have? Should there be some kind of accreditation or certification program (...) to ensure that those who call themselves ethics consultants are in fact qualified to advise, consult, research, and write in health care ethics? The distinguished authors ofthese articles are persons with diverse backgrounds, interests, presumptions, and val ues. Not surprisingly, therefore, diverse responses have emerged to the questions posed. Though the book's chapters are individually authored, they are informed by the group discussions that went on during active workshop sessions, and by knowledge of the contributions of others. All of the chapters meaningfully represent their consensus. This is not to say that there were no disagreements regarding specific details, but rather that there were no fundamental objections on the book's basic content among a panel of authors who share basic premises regarding the role, responsibilities, education, and certifica tion of health care ethics consultants. (shrink)

L’article procède à un cheminement en quatre étapes : la première traite de la question de la mesure économique des productions nanométriques, dans une dynamique de filière et de convergence multidisciplinaire, champ d’étude de la méso-économie ; la seconde fait référence aux origines de l’approche mercantiliste de l’économie et à ses conséquences sur l’économie politique des matériaux avancés, procédés et services du domaine des nanotechnologies et matériaux avancés manufacturés ; la troisième étape recherchera les points d’appui sur lesquels l’économie politique (...) fait porter ses efforts pour développer la production et les échanges induits par les nanosciences et techniques en s’appuyant sur deux exemples ; la quatrième et dernière étape examine les barrières réelles au développement économique induit par les nanotechnologies, telles que les conflits d’intérêts entre acteurs autour de la question de la traçabilité les ont progressivement révélées dans les dialogues entre parties prenantes. (shrink)

Appuyé sur un document, cet article esquisse l’histoire d’une organisation mal connue et éphémère : « le Bureau de liaison issu de la rencontre internationale des femmes 1960 », rencontre dont l’initiative revient à la Fédération démocratique internationale des femmes. Il explicite également le rôle qu’y a joué la militante française Marguerite Thibert, animé de l’espoir de dépasser la guerre froide. Mais la neutralité et l’équilibre politiques souhaités pour parler au nom de toutes les femmes se heurtent aux tensions internationales (...) qui alimentent, d’un côté, l’anticommunisme et, de l’autre, des stratégies d’instrumentalisation des solidarités. (shrink)

Chronique/critique de Françoise Favretto parue dans la revue L'intranquille. Revue de littérature, n° 20, St-Quentin-de-Caplong, L'Atelier de l'Agneau, 2021, p. 83. - Recensions.

On trouve de nombreuses références à Marx dans les textes de Heidegger, ce nom étant souvent associé à celui de Hegel, et l’on sait qu’il a probablement commencé à véritablement lire les textes de Marx au début des années 1930, au moment où Siegfried Landshut, qui avait suivi ses cours (ainsi que ceux de Husserl) à Freiburg, puis à Marbourg, découvrit les Manuscrits de 1844 de Marx et en fut l’éditeur, avec Jacob-Peter Mayer, en février 1932. C’est d’ailleurs un passage (...) de l’un des textes du... (shrink)

Various causes are responsible for the important absenteeism which prevails in the public sessions and committees of the legislative assemblies: the various activities to be accomplished by Representatives andSenators outside Parliament are more and more numerous and time-consuming.However, they cannot afford to neglect these since they favour the contacts indispensable for re-election. Additionally, absenteeism can be explained by the M.P.s' lack of interest for debates which they consider insignificant, either because these are too specialized, or because they concern matters largely (...) aired by the media before being submitted to Parliament, or because they cover political choices already made.Within the parliamentary institution there are means to reduce this absenteeism. It would be appropriate to reduce drastically the number of public sessions of the Assemblies and to multiply the written proceedings. It is important to make use of the existing procedures such as permanent sections, as these are better adapted than the large assemblies to the requirements of contemporary parliamentarism. Finally, it is necessary that group leaders and commission presidents should be more vigilant to absenteeism in the commissions, because it impedes correct and functional parliamentary work and can in no manner be justified. (shrink)

Les premières mythographies de l’Europe néo-latine, depuis la Genealogia deorum de Boccace, considèrent l’histoire des dieux sur le modèle des généalogies humaines, en cherchant à recomposer « la lignée de Saturne ». Les premiers historiens de la Grèce, comme les poètes, inventèrent des généalogies mythiques pour inscrire l’origine des hommes dans l’histoire de leur relation aux dieux. Que fondent les généalogies divines ? Non seulement des structures religieuses, non seulement la raison même des sociétés humaines, mais encore la préhistoire de (...) l’humanité. Mais si les engendrements divins donnent sens aux relations entre les hommes et les dieux, c’est l’histoire des commencements du monde que les mythographes cherchent à comprendre en interrogeant l’articulation des généalogies divines et humaines. Depuis que, dans le Timée, Platon a associé mythologia et genealogia comme deux modes de discours « archéologiques », les mythographes ont ouvertement revendiqué un savoir sur le monde qui se définit comme une synthèse des « sciences de la nature ».Mythologia, Genealogia, Archaiologia:A Paleontological Scope for Mythography. The first European mythographical treatises in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, since Boccaccio’s Genealogia deorum, were determined by a genealogical method, looking at the history of the gods with human patterns and seeking the reconstruction of “Saturn’s lineage”. The early Greek mythographers, like the poets, imagined various genealogies for seeking out the origins of humanity through their relationships with gods. What is founded on divine genealogies? Not only religious structures, nor only the true ratio of human sociability, but a human paleon­tology too. By interpreting filiations as a system of connexions between gods and humans, the mythographers aimed at understanding the protohistory of the universe. Since Plato’s Timaeus associated mythologia and genealogia as two modes of “archaeological” discourse, mythographers have wanted to assert their own “physical science” as a whole synthetic perception of the natural world. (shrink)