Modern thinking about the ground tends to take it as a purely material base for the unfolding of history and ideas emerging on its surface. In this article, I question above-ground visions of city building by drawing on both the history of ground engineering and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Paris with geotechnicians. I address the difficulties that theorists have faced over past centuries in modelling soils, and the contemporary practice of building piles underneath buildings to anchor them. From this (...) unfolds an understanding of the ground as produced through an equilibrium between forces and materials in which buildings become participants, rather than a solid base upon which they stand. Looking at the activities of foundation builders, we find that the inertia of the urban soil no longer betokens an absence of activity or movement, but is rather a continuous achievement, a slow and dangerous process of balancing tensions. (shrink)

SummaryThe history of quantum physics has been deeply conditioned by the change in scientific practice as a social activity during the past fifty years. As a result the theory has not been allowed full maturing; both its formal and empirical advances have not resulted in a comparable conceptual progress. The recasting of quantum theory thus appears as an epistemological necessity. One of the main aspects of this process is to clear quantum theory from its persisting classical connections in order to (...) endow it with an autonomous and intrinsic status. Problems related to the foundations, description, interpretation and approximations of quantum theory are considered in turn, and various recent works are reviewed which contribute to the proposed endeavour.RésuméL'histoire de la théorie quantique a été fortement conditionnée par les changements intervenus au cours des cinquante dernières années dans la pratique scientifique en tant qu'activité sociale. La théorie en conséquence n'a pu atteindre sa pleine maturité et ses développements à la fois formels et empiriques n'ont pas conduit à des progrès conceptuels comparables. La refonte de la théorie quantique apparaît ainsi comme une nécessitéépistémologique. L'un des principaux aspects de ce processus consiste à débarrasser la théorie quantique de ses persistantes attaches classiques, de façon à lui conférer un statut autonome et intrinsèque. On considère ici tour à tour les problèmes de fondements, de terminologie, d'interprétation et de limites, de la théorie quantique, tout en passant en revue divers travaux récents contribuant à l'entreprise proposée.ZusammenfassungDie Geschichte der Quantenphysik ist in entscheidender Weise durch die Veränderungen, die in den letzten fünfzig Jahren in der wissenschaftlichen Praxis als einer sozialen Tätigkeit eingetreten sind, bestimmt worden. Die Theorie hat deshalb ihre volle Reife nicht erlangen können; ihre zugleich formalen und empirischen Entfaltungen haben nicht zu einem entsprechenden begrifflichen Fortschritt geführt. Eine Umgestaltung der Quantentheorie muss daher als ein erkenntnistheoretisches Desiderat betrachtet werden. Einer der wichtigsten Aspekte eines derartigen Unterfangens wird darin bestehen, die Theorie von ihren hartnäckigen Bindungen an klassische Begriffe zu befreien, um ihr einen eigenständigen und autonomen Status zu verleihen. Es werden die Probleme der Begründung, der Terminologie, der Interpretation und der Grenzen der Quantentheorie diskutiert, indem auch verschiedene kürzlich erschienene Arbeiten, die sich auf das vorgeschlagene Unternehmen beziehen, berücksichtigt werden. (shrink)

In her 2012 novel The Panopticon, Jenni Fagan chose to examine the possibility of emancipation from within the care system, and between the walls of an institution modelled on Bentham’s 18th century eponymous invention. Setting the adventures of Anais, an orphan and chronic offender, in that building, testifies to the persistence of the master trope of surveillance, which turns the visual world of the novel into an anxiety-ridden field of observation and control. The reference to disciplinary and punitive visuality proves (...) particularly effective in conveying Fagan’s critique of a system that has relinquished its duty of care and devotes itself to the marginalisation and subjugation of the young delinquents it purports to rehabilitate. However the novel also inspires itself from Foucault by reminding us that the visual field of discipline is not one in which power can be exerted absolutely. In the Panopticon, surveillance elicits the resistance of the residents, who repeatedly escape the all-seeing watchtower, claim a “right to look” and eventually bring down the dispositive of disciplinary visuality, allowing Anais’s emancipation in the process. Ultimately the narrative uses the visual paranoia of panopticism as a foil, as its young protagonist looks for practices of seeing and modes of inscription in the visual landscape that will nurture rather than discipline and punish. Far from rejecting visuality altogether, the narrative seeks out spaces where visual care and consideration constitute a response to the failure of the State system of surveillance effectively to reform or care for its citizens. (shrink)

Cent ans après sa parution, il est possible de lire le livre de Bergson sur la relativité de façon moins polémique qu’à l’époque. La maturation et la stabilisation de la théorie d’Einstein, devenue une composante banale de l’arsenal des physiciens, permettent une évaluation précise des méprises commises par Bergson dans son exégèse, en même temps qu’elles amènent à reconnaître leur intérêt épistémologique. Nous entendons ici réfléchir sur cette lecture bergsonienne de la Rélativité einsteinienne.

Our commentary aims to show that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing barriers to healthcare in England for ethnic minority and migrant women. We expose how the pandemic has affected the allocation of healthcare resources leading to the prioritisation of COVID-19 patients and suspending the equal access to healthcare services approach. We argue that we must look beyond this disruption in provision by examining existing barriers to access that have been amplified by the pandemic in order to understand the poorer (...) health outcomes for women in ethnic minority and migrant communities. The reflection focuses on racialised medical perceptions, gendered cultural norms including information barriers and stigma, and specific legal barriers. (shrink)

Open and shut -- Thinking about technology -- The problem with technology -- Evil and the empire of good -- Hall of mirrors -- Our faith -- Thinking past technology -- Living among things -- Less is more.

Originally a contribution to a symposium on this topic, i argue that metaphysics has little relevance to contemporary unrest. the latter expression gets its meaning from patterns of behavior that involve the use of similar means for very diverse ends. the attempt to develop philosophic theories of contemporary history is likely to ignore the important differences and to make much of rather insignificant similarities.

This article analyzes the remarkable congruence between the ideas of Antonio Gramsci and Mao Zedong regarding the role of consciousness, human will, and culture in socioeconomic change. These spiritual and humanistic concerns that are central to philosophical idealism were prominent in the young Marx’s writings, to which neither had access. Yet both theorists highlighted these elements as powerful, autonomous factors that can impede or accelerate socioeconomic change. It is argued that this congruence is best explained by the intersection of the (...) Italian and Chinese philosophical traditions resulting from the impact of Neo-Confucianism on European idealist philosophy. While their work anticipated the cultural turn in leftist philosophy, it represents a nexus of Chinese and European humanistic and spiritual values that both challenges assumptions regarding the incommensurability of Eastern and Western philosophies and reaffirms the continued significance of these concerns for the continuing struggle between democratizing and authoritarian forces. (shrink)

En 1587, le jeune Galilée est invité à donner Due lezioni all’Accademia Fiorentina circa la figura, sito e grandezza dell’Inferno di Dante (ci-après Leçons sur l’Enfer) [Galilei 1587] afin d’éclairer une vive controverse sur l’interprétation de la géographie de l’Enfer dantesque. Ce travail d’exégèse littéraire permet à Galilée de faire reconnaître ses talents mathématiques comme ses qualités pédagogiques. Mais la portée de ces leçons va bien au-delà, car on peut y voir apparaître plusieurs thèmes majeurs de l’œuvre ultérieure de Galilée (...) : au plan mathématique, l’importance de la géométrie d’inspiration archimédienne, au plan physique, l’étude des questions de similitude que pose la résistance des matériaux – sans oublier l’intérêt constant du scientifique pour la langue et pour la culture littéraire. (shrink)

This paper studies the capture of organisms and materials in soil construction – a branch of ecological engineering dedicated to making soil in order to compensate for soil degradation. This approach takes all organisms to be ‘ecosystem engineers’, and often refers to earthworms as ‘collaborators’ in making soil. I examine the claim that such a convocation of worms amounts to a redistribution of agency and the underlying assumption that form-taking is the shaping of raw matter according to pre-existing forms. Drawing (...) on processual anthropology, I question the distinction between living and material components of soils, and between growing and making. I elaborate on soil scientists’ description of soil growth as pedogenesis in order to propose a view in which soil materials, along with organisms, participate in soil’s transformative and generative fluxes. I envisage the process as a concrescence, an experimentation that brings humans, worms, and soil materials together in new ways. (shrink)

This article analyzes the influence of Chinese Neo-Confucianism on the development of German idealism. Information obtained by Leibniz from Jesuit missionaries included key concepts in Neo-Confucian philosophy that not only confirmed Leibniz’s belief in the universality of his organic image of the cosmos but also influenced Leibniz’s later writings. Such influence is also exhibited in Kant’s work, especially in his crucial noumenon-phenomenon distinction, as well as in Hegel’s phenomenology and philosophy of history. Recognition of these influences, unacknowledged by either Kant (...) or Hegel, enhances our assessment of the import of both Neo-Confucianism and German idealism in international religio-philosophical discourse. (shrink)

Dans cet entretien de conclusion, Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, physicien et épistémologue, professeur émérite de l'Université de Nice, directeur des collections scientifiques aux éditions du Seuil et de la revue Alliage, montre qu'il est faux de penser que les sciences exactes n'ont besoin qu'accessoirement de la langue en raison du degré de leur formalisation, contrairement aux sciences humaines. La conceptualisation en sciences ne saurait se passer de la langue, ni même des langues . Le recours à l'anglais n'est qu'un moyen, nullement (...) une fin en soi - ce que la mondialisation rend de plus en plus évident, au fur et à mesure que la science se décline de plus en plus en hindi, en chinois, ou dans d'autres langues. En refusant d'être plurilingue comme elle l'a été par le passé, la science risque l'aphasie, non seulement linguistique, mais aussi conceptuelle, ce qui n'est pas sans gravité pour la diffusion des connaissances scientifiques à l'échelle aussi bien locale que mondiale.In this interview, conclusion, Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, physicist and epistemologist, professor emeritus at the University of Nice, director of scientific collections by Seuil and review alloy, shows that it is wrong to think that sciences do not need the language incidentally because of the degree of formalization, unlike the humanities. Conceptualization science can not do without the language or even language . The use of English is a means, not an end in itself - that globalization makes it increasingly obvious, as and as science comes increasingly Hindi, Chinese or in other languages. Refusing to be multilingual as it was in the past, science risk aphasia, not only linguistic, but also conceptual, which is not trivial for the dissemination of scientific knowledge to scale as both local and global. (shrink)

Le présent article se propose de mettre en lumière non seulement la critique platonicienne de la poésie telle qu’elle se déploie dans les livres II, III et X de la République, mais aussi - et surtout - la lecture qu’en fait le néoplatonicien Proclus dans son vaste Commentaire sur la République. Le principal enjeu de cette lecture est le lien entre le mythe et l’éducation. Nous verrons d’abord comment Platon s’emploie à lier ces deux éléments, puis comment Proclus cherche pour (...) sa part à relativiser ce lien, au point où mythe et éducation en viennent, sinon à s’exclure mutuellement, du moins à n’entretenir qu’un faible commerce. (shrink)

Une modernité indigène: Ruptures et innovations dans les théories politiques japonaise du xviiie siècle, by Olivier Ansart, is a thoughtful, elegantly written book that offers valuable insights into Japanese political thought in an era that culminated in the Meiji Restoration. Despite the specific characteristics of the rigid centralized feudal structure of Tokugawa society, Ansart argues, political ideas generally associated with the advent of “modernity” in the West were generated indigenously in a context in which knowledge of the West was limited (...) primarily to science and technology.The main focus of the book is the thought of Kaiho Seiryō.1 Seiryō was inspired by two schools of thought that... (shrink)

A little-known movie by Alfred Hitchcock, Torn Curtain — admittedly not one of his best — tells a story of spying and science. It features a strange scene, where two physicists confront one another on some theoretical question. Their “discussion”, if it may be so called, consists solely in one of them writing some equations on the blackboard, only to have the other angrily grabbing the eraser and wiping out the formulas to write new ones of his own, etc., without (...) ever uttering a single word. This picture of theoretical physics as an aphasic knowledge entirely consisting of mathematical symbols, as common as it may be in popular representations, we know to be wrong, of course, and we have to acknowledge that, far from being mute, we are a very talkative kind; physics is made out of words. What I wish to question here, however, is the very nature of our relationship with language, particularly as concerns quantum theory. My thesis will be that we have been somewhat offhand and rather indifferent with respect to the words we use, or rather without respect for them, and that this attitude has reinforced, and sometimes perhaps even produced some of the persisting epistemological and pedagogical difficulties in our field — not to speak of the new cultural problems that we are facing. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to analyze the writing of three neo-scholastic writers of the twentieth century -- Marcel Chossat, Pedro Descoqs, and Francis Cunningham -- who happen to dispute the prevailing view of Thomists that St. Thomas Aquinas does indeed hold a doctrine of thereal distinction of essence and existence in created being. The approach utilized will be basically historical: we start with the year 1910, the year in which Marcel Chossat rekindled the ever-smoldering embers of the essence-existence (...) controversy with his claim that Aquinas never held such a doctrine. In order to justify another treatment of what has been called “the endlessly rehashed question”, we try to show that the arguments put forth by the three thinkers in question an are based on considerable and weighty linguistic grounds which others in the debate have tended to dismiss. We conclude by saying that any discussion of the real distinction controversy must take a “linguistic turn” if it is to have any hope of being fruitful. (shrink)

The ways in which other animal species can be informative about human biology are not exhausted by the traditional picture of the animal model. In this paper, I propose to distinguish two roles which laboratory organisms can have in biomedical research. In the more traditional case, organisms act as surrogates for human beings, and as such are expected to be more manageable replicas of humans. However, animal models can inform us about human biology in a much less straightforward way, by (...) being used as measuring devices—what I call their instrumental role. I first characterize this role and provide criteria for it, before illustrating it with some examples from biomedical research, especially cancer research. In such an instrumental role, phenotypes are not expected to phenocopy human phenomena, but instead have the purely instrumental value of detecting or measuring differences. I argue that the instrumental role is more prevalent than might first be suspected, and that some characteristics of contemporary biomedical research are increasingly shifting the use of laboratory organisms to the instrumental role. Finally, in light of the distinction proposed, I discuss the meaning of the expression “animal model”. (shrink)