Le constat que fait Spinoza dans le Traité de la réforme de l ’ entendement selon lequel on ne connaît ses parents que par ouï-dire fournit l’occasion de développer, à partir de l’exemple de la famille, la conception originale qu’offre le point de vue spinoziste sur les institutions. En reprenant une distinction que fait Julie Henry, on peut dire que la famille n’existe pas par nature, mais qu’elle est un effet naturel. L’univocité de la causalité et la diversité des causes (...) qui président à sa constitution permettent d’échapper à l’opposition nature – culture comme à toute tentative de réduire les phénomènes sociaux à des principes biologiques ou environnementaux. (shrink)

L'immense aventure du savoir grec est encore aujourd'hui la source essentielle à laquelle puise et revient sans cesse notre civilisation. L'ambition de ce livre, élaboré par les plus éminents spécialistes de l'Antiquité et traduit en plusieurs langues depuis sa parution initiale, est de mesurer ce que les Grecs savaient, ce qu'ils croyaient savoir, ce qu'ils ont inventé ; d'analyser le regard qu'ils ont porté sur leur civilisation et sur leurs propres entreprises intellectuelles. Il y est ainsi moins question de leur (...) histoire que de leurs historiens, de leur poésie que de leur poétique, de leur musique que de leur harmonique, car l'originalité des Grecs n'est pas tant d'avoir su beaucoup de choses que d'avoir exigé d'eux-mêmes de savoir ce qu'ils savaient, ce qu'ils disaient, ce qu'ils faisaient, ce qu'ils voulaient... (shrink)

Το ψήφισμα αυτό, μοναδικό ως σήμερα στο είδος του, προσδιορίζει στους τριάντα πέντε στίχους του σκεπτικού τις καθιερωμένες αρμοδιότητες του αθηναίου κυβερνήτη του νησιού και επιτρέπει να διακρίνουμε το ρόλο που διαδραμάτισε ο επιμελητής Οφέλας στη διάρκεια των έντονων ταραχών που συντάραξαν την Ελλάδα, κατά το έτος άσκησης του αξιώματος του (147/6).

The involvement of developing countries in international clinical trials is necessary for the development of appropriate medicines for local populations. However, the absence of appropriate structures for ethical review represents a barrier for certain countries. Currently there is very little information available on existing structures dedicated to ethics in western and central Africa. This article briefly describes historical milestones in the development of networks dedicated to capacity building in ethical review in these regions and outlines the major conclusions of two (...) workshops on this issue, which were held in September and October 2002 in Libreville, Gabon, and Paris, France. The workshops were the culmination of collaboration between the African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET) and the Pan African Bioethics Initiative (PABIN). They produced an update on ethics organizations with regard to mission, function, activities, members, and contact people, in eight countries within the regions discussed. As a result of the commitment of mandated delegates, a further prominent outcome followed these workshops: the creation of national structures, where none existed before, dedicated to the ethical review of clinical trials. (shrink)

JEAN-PIERRE CLERO, LYNDA LOTTE. — Lacan est mort il y a un peu plus de vingt ans, en 1981 ; il semble que sa présence, pour ne pas dire son règne, n’ait jamais été aussi éclatante. Il faut toutefois se méfier de ce qui paraît évident et peut-être y a-t-il eu de profonds changements au cours de ces deux dernières décennies où son œuvre est apparue..

The author of the Moretum, who is quite unlikely to be identified with Virgil himself, designed a clear winter setting as the background to his narration. An indepth scrutiny of winter images and topics dispersed throughout the poem (astronomical opening, repeated allusions to the winter fire, description of the farmer’s occupations) shows that the poet was a careful reader of the Georgics and borrowed from Virgil’s passages related to the winter season. The crafting and tone of several verses confirm the (...) witty and parodic intentions of the author. (shrink)

Dans l'"Avis des éditeurs", on explique en quoi consiste l'intérêt particulier de ce recueil de lettres privées, non destinées à la publication. En plus, on apprend les circonstances grâce auxquelles une partie importante des papiers de Rousseau est entrée à la Bibliothèque de la ville (actuelle Bibliothèque publique et universitaire) de Neuchâtel: "J'entends que tous les papiers manuscrits de Jean-Jacques Rousseau [...] soient recueillis et rassemblées en paquets étiquetés et cachetés, pour être déposés dans une bibliothèque publique bien assurée. (...) Les lettres adressées à moi seront également déposées [...]" (extrait du testament de Pierre-Alexandre Du Peyrou du 22 juillet 1791. "Avis..." p. 16 s.). (shrink)

Economic Geography is the most complete, up-to-date textbook available on the important new field of spatial economics. This book fills a gap by providing advanced undergraduate and graduate students with the latest research and methodologies in an accessible and comprehensive way. It is an indispensable reference for researchers in economic geography, regional and urban economics, international trade, and applied econometrics, and can serve as a resource for economists in government. Economic Geography presents advances in economic theory that explain why, despite (...) the increasing mobility of commodities, ideas, and people, the diffusion of economic activity is very unequal and remains agglomerated in a limited number of spatial entities. The book complements theoretical analysis with detailed discussions of the empirics of the economics of agglomeration, offering a mix of theoretical and empirical research that gives a unique perspective on spatial disparities. It reveals how location continues to matter for trade and economic development, yet how economic integration is transforming the global economy into an economic space in which activities are performed within large metropolitan areas exchanging goods, skills, and information. Economic Geography examines the future implications of this evolution in the spatial economy and relates them to other major social and economic trends.Provides a complete introduction to economic geography Explains the latest theory and methodologies Covers the empirics of agglomeration, from spatial concentration measurement to structural estimations of economic geography models Includes history and background of the field Serves as a textbook for students and a resource for professionals. (shrink)

This article deals with the links between the enaction paradigm and artificial intelligence. Enaction is considered a metaphor for artificial intelligence, as a number of the notions which it deals with are deemed incompatible with the phenomenal field of the virtual. After explaining this stance, we shall review previous works regarding this issue in terms of artificial life and robotics. We shall focus on the lack of recognition of co-evolution at the heart of these approaches. We propose to explicitly integrate (...) the evolution of the environment into our approach in order to refine the ontogenesis of the artificial system, and to compare it with the enaction paradigm. The growing complexity of the ontogenetic mechanisms to be activated can therefore be compensated by an interactive guidance system emanating from the environment. This proposition does not however, resolve that of the relevance of the meaning created by the machine (sense-making). Such reflections lead us to integrate human interaction into this environment in order to construct relevant meaning in terms of participative artificial intelligence. This raises a number of questions with regards to setting up an enactive interaction. The article concludes by exploring a number of issues, thereby enabling us to associate current approaches with the principles of morphogenesis, guidance, the phenomenology of interactions and the use of minimal enactive interfaces in setting up experiments which will deal with the problem of artificial intelligence in a variety of enaction-based ways. (shrink)

Οί συγγραφείς προτείνουν Ινα συνεχές κείμενο τών στίχων 12-45 τοΰ αποσπάσματος Β, σχολιασμένο χαί μεταφρασμένο. 'Επίσης μερικές παρατηρήσεις σχετικά μέ τό απόσπασμα Α αύτοΰ τοΰ σημαντικού κειμένου πού δημοσιεύθηκε άπό τους P. Cabanes καί J. Andréou.

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)

Operational distinction : it is capitalism as a totalitary system that must be fought and not capitalist enterprise as such or merchant exchange in general. Theoretical unification : the three major problems - environment, women and youth - must be analysed in the light of this totalitarian capitalist concept.

Publication et commentaire du décret, affiché à Délos, par lequel le peuple athénien avait honoré en 157/6 le gymnasiarque Pausanias de Mélitè, en fonction dans l'île l'année précédente.