Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the most important French philosophers of the Twentieth Century. His impact has been felt across many disciplines: sociology; cultural studies; art theory and politics. This volume presents a diverse selection of interviews, conversations and debates which relate to the five decades of his working life, both as a political militant, experimental philosopher and teacher. Including hard-to-find interviews and previously untranslated material, this is the first time that interviews with Lyotard have been presented (...) as a collection. Key concepts from Lyotard's thought – the differend, the postmodern, the immaterial – are debated and discussed across different time periods, prompted by specific contexts and provocations. In addition there are debates with other thinkers, including Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, which may be less familiar to an Anglophone audience. These debates and interviews help to contextualise Lyotard, highlighting the importance of Marx, Freud, Kant and Wittgenstein, in addition to the Jewish thought which accompanies the questions of silence, justice and presence that pervades Lyotard's thinking. (shrink)

In The Differend, Lyotard subjects to scrutiny- from the particular perspective of his notion of 'differend' - the turn of all Western philosophies toward language; the decline of metaphysics; the present intellectual retreat of Marxism; the hopes raised and mostly dashed, by theory; and the growing political despair. Taking his point of departure in an analysis of what Auschwitz meant philosophically, Lyotard attempts to sketch out modes of thought for our present.

In this paper, we consider how the four key team emergent states for team learning identified by Bell, Kozlowski and Blawath (2012), namely psychological safety, goal orientation, cohesion, and efficacy, operate as a system that produces the team’s learning climate (TLC). Using the language of systems dynamics, we conceptualize TLC as a stock that rises and falls as a joint function of the psychological safety, goal orientation, cohesion, and efficacy that exists in the team. The systems approach highlights aspects of (...) TLC management that are traditionally overlooked, such as the simultaneous influence of and feedback between the four team emergent states and the inertia that TLC can have as a result. The management of TLC becomes an issue of controlling the system rather than each state as an independent force, especially because changing one part of the system will also affect other parts in sometimes unintended and undesirable ways. Thus the value is to offer a systems view on the leadership function of team monitoring with regards to team emergent states, which we term team state monitoring. This view offers promising avenues for future research as well as practical wisdom. It can help leaders remember that TLC represents an equilibrium that needs balance, in addition to pointing to the various ways in which they can influence such equilibrium. (shrink)

Jean-Francois Lyotard's contribution to the debate, Heidegger and 'the Jews, ' is a marked departure from the standard fare. In the first of the two interrelated essays, 'the Jews, ' Leotard quickly establishes the theme of the entire text, placing 'the Jews' in lower case, plural, and in quotation marks to represent the outsiders, the nonconformists: the artists, anarchists, blacks, homeless, Arabs, etc. --and the Jews; as an alien and dangerous disruption, they represent an 'other' to be excised from (...) the West's dream of unbounded fulfillment and development. (shrink)

We introduce nudges in order to incite investors to choose Socially Responsible Investment funds instead of traditional funds. We have set up two online experiments with a total of 713 US retail investors, using three types of nudges to elicit their effects on investors’ SRI investments level: making SRI the default investment, introducing a SRI explanation message, and priming ethical values by displaying shocking images. Making SRI the default option is the most efficient nudge to influence investors towards SRI. Its (...) effect is twofold. First, around 50% of investors do not opt-out of the default allocation. Second, even investors who opt-out of the default allocation invest more in SRI than those in the control group, an effect that appears driven by anchoring. Although investors subjected to both priming and message content marginally increase their SRI investment, priming or message content in isolation appears to have a non-significant influence. For choice architects who want to steer retail investors towards SRI funds, making them the default option appears to be the most powerful nudge. (shrink)

The ambition and proposal for data modeling of myths presented in this paper is to link contemporary technical affordances to some canonical projects developed in structural anthropology. To articulate the theoretical promise and innovation of this proposal, we present a discrete-event system specification modeling and simulation approach in order to perform a generative analysis and a dynamic visualization of selected narratives, aimed at validating and revitalizing the transformational and morphodynamic theory and methodology proposed by Claude Lévi-Strauss in his structural analysis (...) of myth. After an analysis of Lévi-Strauss’s transformational methodology, we describe in detail how discrete-event system specification models are implemented and developed in the framework of a DEVSimPy software environment. The validation of the method involves a discrete-event system specification simulation based on the extension of discrete-event system specification models dedicated to provide a dynamic Google Earth visualization of the selected myth. Future work around the discrete-event system specification formalism in anthropology is described as well as future applications regarding the impact of computational models to new contemporary anthropological domains. (shrink)

This latest offering from one of the founding figures of postmodernism is a collection of fifteen "fables" that ask, in the words of Jean-Francois Lyotard, "how to live, and why?

Nouvelle édition critique et traduction française annotée de la _Lettre à Marcella_ de Porphyre. Le philosophe néoplatonicien Porphyre (234-305) y adresse à sa femme un témoignage unique sur la manière dont une vie philosophique peut être conduite et se préserver. This book presents a new annotated and translated edition of neoplatonist 3rd-century Greek philosopher Porphyrius’ _Letter to Marcella_. This letter, adressed to his wife, gives a unique account on the ways and principles along which a philosophical life should be led (...) so as to perpetuate itself. (shrink)

Kant describes a conflict among the different theories of knowledge. A productive conflict whose emergence is the origin of a renewal: it awakens the spirit and it leads it to think critically. Philosophy becomes critique, Kant says, when it is not focused on the doctrines and on their demands, but on the relationship between general rules (the “sense”) that coordinates all the faculties – and their particular expression, that is to say the specific cases. Similarly operates the judge, that, in (...) court, has to invent (ausdenken) the rule capable of corresponding to the single case: a judge that, in order to decide (jus dicere) and utter the decision, tries to compensate the absence of adequate legal rules and often decides without the adapt general rule. The problem of the différend does not concern, thus, anthropology. It concerns language. Exemplary cases provide analoga of the sensitive data and are devices that allow the dialectic between different systems of value by connecting their core meaning, the proper names involved and what Kant defines the Darstellung. Nevertheless, against this background, a change of paradigm becomes necessary – a change that entails the break with hegelian philosophy of law and with a thought built on mediation, that is to say with the kantian Zusammenstimmung. It is not possible, nor desirable, to substitute the battle field with the court and to subordinate the individual interests to the general logic of argumentation, because the synthesis of the different voices might imply totalitarianism and the end of the différend might correspond to the beginning of terror. (shrink)

The suppression of the Modus Ponens inference is described as a loss of confidence in the conclusion C of an argument ''If A1 then C; If A2 then C; A1'' where A2 is a requirement for C to happen. It is hypothesised that this loss of confidence is due to the derivation of the conversational implicature ''there is a chance that A2 might not be satisfied'', and that different syntactic introductions of the requirement A2 (e.g., ''If C then A2'') will (...) lead to various frequencies in the derivation of this implicature, according to previous studies in the field of causal explanation. An experiment is conducted, whose results support those claims. Results are discussed in the light of the Mental Logic and Mental Model theories, as well as in the light of the pragmatic approach to uncertain reasoning. (shrink)

The political writings of Jean-Francois Lyotard, the prophet of the postmodern, are presented here as both the missing dimension of his work and the key to understanding his position within contemporary debate.

Résumé : Le thème lancinant de la crise occidentale de l’éducation est souvent vu à travers une focale centrée sur l’individualisme, vu comme un des fléaux majeurs de l’hypermodernité démocratique. Cet article revient de façon critique sur cette idée en utilisant les outils forgés par Michel Foucault pour penser l'herméneutique du sujet, la gouvernementalité néolibérale et le souci de soi. En appliquant ces analyses à l'étude des conditions actuelles de l'éducation, il est possible de mettre en lumière l'emprise du modèle (...) de l'enfant consommateur et entrepreneur de soi, autrement dit d'assister à la fabrication de l'enfant du Capital. En contrepoint, l’article esquisse les traits d’une éducation scolaire repensée à la lumière des thématiques du Commun. La centralité de la problématique de la relation entraîne alors le métier d’éducateur vers celui de médiateur. Mots-clés : Foucault, herméneutique, néolibéralisme, éducation, Commun Para acabar com a criança do Capital Resumo: O lancinante tema da crise da educação ocidental é visto, frequentemente, sob o prisma do individualismo, tomado como uma das maiores pragas da hipermodernidade democrática. Este artigo debruça-se de modo crítico sobre este tema, usando as ferramentas forjadas por Michel Foucault para pensar a hermenêutica do sujeito, a governamentalidade neoliberal e o cuidado de si. Ao aplicar tais análises aos estudos atuais sobre educação, é possível destacar o modelo da criança consumidora e empreendedora de si ou, para dizer de outro modo, é possível assistir à fabricação da criança do Capital. Em contraponto, o artigo esboça os traços de uma educação escolar repensada sob o foco das temáticas do Comum. A centralidade da problemática da relação transforma, então, a profissão do educador na profissão de mediador. Palavras-chave: Foucault, hermenêutica, neoliberalismo, educação, Comum To finish with the child of Capital Abstract: The haunting theme of the Western education crisis is often seen through a focus centered on individualism, seen as one of the major scourges of democratic hypermodernity. This paper critically revisits this idea by using the tools forged by Michel Foucault to think about the hermeneutics of the subject, neoliberal governmentality, and care of the self. By applying these analyzes to the study of the current conditions of education, it is possible to shed light on the influence of the model of the child consumer and self-entrepreneur, in other words to witness the making of the child of Capital. In counterpoint, the article sketches the features of a school education rethought in the light of the themes of the Common. The centrality of the problem of the relationship then leads the profession of educator to that of mediator. Key words: Foucault, hermeneutics, neoliberalism, education, Common Data de registro: 22/07/2022 Data de aceite: 13/12/2022. (shrink)

Prenant pour fil conducteur les écrits de Jean-Marie Vaysse et de Bernard Mabille, l’article examine la manière dont le « retournement » heideggérien de l’hégélianisme a pu lui-même être « retourné » grâce à une lecture de Hegel libérée des préjugés qui l’affectent usuellement, et dont Heidegger lui-même ne s’est pas complètement libéré. De la sorte se dessine la voie d’une autre Kehre, plus radicale, en un sens, que celle de Heidegger.

Personality signatures are sets of if-then rules describing how a given person would feel or act in a specific situation. These rules can be used as the major premise of a deductive argument, but they are mostly processed for social cognition purposes; and this common usage is likely to leak into the way they are processed in a deductive reasoning context. It is hypothesised that agreement with a Modus Ponens argument featuring a personality signature as its major premise is affected (...) by the reasoner's own propensity to display this personality signature. To test this prediction, Modus Ponens arguments were constructed from conditionally phrased items extracted from available personality scales. This allowed recording of (a) agreement with the conclusion of these arguments, and (b) the reasoner's propensity to display the personality signature, using as a proxy this reasoner's score on the personality scale without the items used in the argument. Three experiments ( N = 256, N = 318, N = 298) applied this procedure to Fairness, Responsive Joy, and Self-Control. These experiments yielded very comparable effects, establishing that a reasoner's propensity to display a given personality signature determines this reasoner's agreement with the conclusion of a Modus Ponens argument featuring the personality signature. (shrink)

Qu'est-ce que la fameuse caverne de Platon si ce n'est la plus grande chambre noire que l'on ait jamais réalisée? Reprenant cette intuition de Paul Valéry, Jean-François Mattéi procède à une relecture magistrale des grands dialogues de Platon, de La République au Timée, pour y découvrir la matrice de notre monde, un monde envahi par les images et les simulacres. Du cinéma aux jeux vidéo en passant par Internet, le cyberespace et les téléphones portables, nouvelles "cavernes personnelles ", (...) les images ont en effet pris le pouvoir. Censées initialement représenter le réel, elles se sont mises à le simuler, à le dupliquer, voire à l'absorber pour faire surgir une nouvelle dimension, celle du virtuel. Matrix, Avatar, World of Warcraft, Toy Story, la 3D, sont le vecteur de cette révolution. Pour la plupart des philosophes, la victoire des simulacres constitue un renversement sans précédent du rapport entre image et réalité, institué il a 2500 ans par Platon. Les images ne seraient plus le miroir d'une réalité intelligible qui leur confère consistance, mais de purs simulacres sans aucun rapport avec le réel. En croisant la lecture minutieuse de Platon avec une plongée passionnante dans les processus les plus contemporains de modélisation des images, cet essai démontre qu'il n'en est rien. Loin d'être autonomes, les phénomènes de simulation proviennent de procédés rationnels qui projettent leur intelligibilité dans le sensible. Et ces procédés artificiels redoublent l'opération première, advenue dans la nuit des temps, au cours de laquelle le monde fut structuré grâce à des modèles intelligibles qui se sont inscrits en lui. (shrink)

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive traditional plant medicine preparation used by the indigenous tribes of the Upper Amazon in their shamanic traditions. Its use has become popular amongst Westerners seeking alternative means of healing, and the medicine has now spread across the globe via syncretic spiritual healing traditions such as the Santo Daime Church. Despite the increased use of the medicine, little research exists on its effectiveness for healing depression. The existing literature does not contain a detailed self-reported phenomenological account of (...) ayahuasca healing a case of depression. The aim of this paper is to share a personal account of healing depression using ayahuasca in a Santo Daime ritual in Johannesburg, South Africa. This experience was unplanned and unexpected and resulted in a profoundly transformative healing process. Based on my experience, I describe ayahuasca’s ingestion as having created a powerful mind-body-spirit connection that resulted in what appeared and felt like a profound reconfiguration of the bio-electrical energy system in my body and a powerful anti-depressant action on my mind. These effects were catalyzed by a strong intention to heal and trust in and take responsibility for myself. Other South African Santo Daime members have reported healing of depression with ayahuasca, although in longer and different processes. It appears that the medicine engages the individual’s unique collective self (life-history, physical and mental disposition, beliefs and intents) resulting in different outcomes for different individuals. Thus, from my own and others’ experience, I describe ayahuasca as a spiritual medicine; one that promotes enhanced awareness and deeper connection to one’s core self, to others and the greater universe, while facilitating the manifestation of one’s intentions and beliefs. This encounter with ayahuasca provided me a first-hand experience of learning and healing from the medicine, making real to me the indigenous Amazonian description of plants as being teachers and doctors. (shrink)

Delphica 6. Notes on the stairway of the theater at Delphi (SD 541) The stairway, made of limestone, by which one reached the theater at Delphi since its discovery (end of the 19th c.) was dismantled in 1974. Below it were discovered two earlier ones, made of poros, a third of the width and seemingly not related to the theater. The datings have varied according to time and author. The limestone stairway has even been considered a paleochristian construction. It is (...) true that its first narrow flight of steps resulted from a transformation of that date. But a trace still visible on the string wall permits documenting the original profile of this part and reconstituting a width equal to the rest of the structure, thus restoring a monumental aspect to the ensemble. The date must be that now attributed to the theater : 160-150. (shrink)

Alors qu’il était précepteur en Suisse, le jeune Hegel traduisit minutieusement un libelle révolutionnaire dénonçant l’oppression que les autorités bernoises exerçaient sur le Pays de Vaud. Il publia ces Lettres de Jean-Jacques Cart à son retour en Allemagne, en 1798, sous le couvert d’un anonymat qu’il ne leva jamais. Derrière le caractère anecdotique de cette première publication, on peut déceler des enjeux qui conduisirent à l’instauration de l’idéalisme spéculatif. Le motif de la lutte pour la reconnaissance, en particulier, semble (...) y trouver sa première apparition. Plus fondamentalement cette première publication éclaire le travail d’élaboration stylistique conduisant progressivement au système, avec, à l’horizon, la question de la portée pratique de la philosophie. (shrink)

Foucault débute le cours de 1983, l’avant-dernier de son enseignement au Collège de France, par la lecture de Qu’est-ce que les Lumières?, texte auquel il confère le statut que Kant attribue à l’ Aufklärung, celui de Wahlspruch, à la fois blason, précepte et marque distinctive. On se demande comment le lecteur est engagé par la lecture qu’il expose aux auditeurs du cours. S’agit-il de se reconnaître l’obligé de ce que Kant envisage en termes de sortie, une redistribution du rapport du (...) gouvernement de soi et du gouvernement des autres? S’agit-il de s’approprier d’une manière inédite le mode kantien de l’attention à ce rapport en s’appliquant à un examen théorico-pratique qui sera à la hauteur de ce que l’actualité exige de nous? (shrink)

This book considers the possibility of ethical political practice after deconstruction. Both authors probe the relationship of language to truth and the consequences, for ethics and politics, of any theoretical posture on this issue: 'Can we have a politics without the Idea of justice? and if so, can we do so on the basis of opinion?'.

Une postérité,bien connue, est née de Charles de Foucauld : des congrégations religieuses qui se sont inspirées de lui et qui ont fait surgir des ≪ tiers-ordres ≫ (Fraternités Sacerdotale et Séculière). Une autre postérité existe, née du vivant de Charles de Foucauld, une ≪UNION ≫ qu’il a fondée, rassemblant des baptises, maries ou non, ordonnes ou non, religieux ou non, qu’il a destines a être, comme lui, des ≪ missionnaires isoles ≫, disait-il, des ≪ défricheurs évangéliques≫ ; mille membres (...) existent aujourd’hui a travers le monde, qui veulent, dans leur vie quotidienne et leurs insertions, leur ≪Nazareth ≫, vivre selon cette vocation. (shrink)

Les images sont-elles des imitations ou des signes conventionnels? Sont-elles ressemblantes ou dénotatives? Pour tenter de dépasser ces oppositions devenues classiques, cet article part du constat que les images sont d’abord et avant tout réalisées en fonction de certains moyens techniques de production et selon des attentes liées à l’usage qui en sera fait. Ce faisant, au lieu de récuser la ressemblance ou de nier qu’il puisse y avoir des conventions dans les images, il montre que la ressemblance est toujours (...) relative à une visibilisation spécifique de la réalité, laquelle peut à l’occasion recourir à des conventions. Cet article défend ainsi l’idée que les images sont originaires : fondatrices de nos manières de voir. (shrink)

Starting from the classical distinctions proposed by Thomas Aquinas, we examine how the discovery of the New World and the Spanish Conquest led Francisco de...

Cet article s'interroge sur l'origine des quatre causes d'Aristote (formelle, matérielle, efficiente, finale), c'est-à-dire sur le coeur de la métaphysique. En effet pourquoi y a-t-il quatre causes? Qu'est-ce qui fait leur communauté et leur « systématicité »? Dans un premier temps, l'auteur montre que le système des quatre causes est articulé par deux couples d'opposition formant deux schèmes de la causalité : d'une part le couple cause formelle/cause matérielle, statique, qui renvoie à une causalité analytique (schème rationnel) ; d'autre part (...) le couple cause finale/cause efficiente, dynamique, qui renvoie à une causalité synthétique (schème causal). Dans un deuxième temps, l'A. montre que ce « système étiologique tétrapolaire » est déjà présent dans l'oeuvre de Platon : plus particulièrement dans le Timée, avec les couples d'opposition démiurge/milieu matériel (chôra) et formes intelligibles/monde sensible, mais aussi dans le Philèbe et le Sophiste, où une double opposition systématique analogique à la précédente est à l'oeuvre. Une fois mises en évidence ces « deux souches de la métaphysique », l'auteur montre que le schème rationnel l'emporte sur le schème causal, aussi bien dans l'oeuvre d'Aristote que dans celle Platon. (shrink)

Deux appréciations différentes peuvent être portées quant à l'in­fluence de la cosmologie moderne sur l'héliolâtrie tradition­nelle. Selon la première, la cosmologie moderne a valorisé le Soleil en lui accordant une position cosmologique conforme à son incontestable importance physique, astronomique et sym­bolique. Selon la seconde au contraire, en conduisant au dé­senchantement du monde, elle a mis fin à l'héliolâtrie an­tique. Ces appréciations, apparemment con­tra­dic­toires, contiennent chacune une part de vérité, dans la mesure où la cosmologie moderne se décompose en trois étapes (...) presque simul­tanées, mais aux conséquences bien différentes : 1°) le passage du géocentrisme à l'héliocentrisme, qui opère un renforcement de la symbolique solaire : 2°) la suppression de la bipartition entre monde sublunaire et monde céleste, qui au contraire vient infir­mer la perfec­tion et l'excellence traditionnellement reconnues à l'astre du jour ; et enfin 3°) le passage du monde clos à l'uni­vers infini, qui parachève la désacralisation du Soleil précédem­ment entamée. Cet article est con­sacré à la deuxième de ces trois étapes. Il met notam­ment en évi­dence, d'une part, que le Soleil, maintenant qu'il est connu comme couvert de taches, symbo­lise non plus la divinité, mais l'imperfection inévitable du monde et du genre humain et, d'autre part, que si sa désigna­tion traditionnelle comme étant «l'omnivoyant» reste de mise, c'est dorénavant au sein d'usages comiques et irrévérencieux. –– There are two possible points of view with regards to how modern cosmology has influenced the traditional heliocentric system. The first would say that modern cosmology has given a greater importance to the sun by giving her a place in the universe which is equal to her undeniable physical, astrono­mical and symbolic value. Another possible point of view would be that when the symbolic value of the earth was diminished, the sun suffered the same fate. Both of these two, apparently contradictory, points of view are true in their own way, insofar as modern cosmology can be divided into three stages which although simultaneous, have very different effects. 1) Passing from a geocentric to a heliocentric system strengthened the symbolic value of the sun. 2) However, this movement caused what had been a clear distinction between the sublunary world and the heavens to be lost. This distinction had upheld the excellence of the day star. 3) Finally the world which had been finite and well defined became infinite. The third stage was the final blow in the devaluation of the sun. This article deals with the second of these three stages: that, on the one hand, the sun is covered with marks and can no longer be seen as symbolising divinity but only inevitable imperfection, which reflects the world and mankind itself. On the other hand, if the sun was “all seeing”, this vision is now at best a comic parody, if not strictly irreverent. (shrink)

Si les interprétations de ce qu'il est convenu de nommer la « dernière philosophie » de Heidegger sont aujourd'hui monnaie courante, non sans risque d'inflation parfois quand on les lie sans précaution à l'engagement politique de l'auteur de Sein und Zeit, personne pourtant n'avait jusqu'ici pris le risque d'aborder la question controversée du « tournant » de front. Les différences évidentes entre un Heidegger I, parti de la phénoménologie pour revenir à une « ontologie fondamentale », et relevant encore à (...) ce titre de la philosophie, et un Heidegger II, voué désormais à une « autre pensée » réfractaire à l'élaboration conceptuelle, sinon à une sorte de mysticisme poétique, paraissent si tranchées à la plupart des commentateurs qu'ils entérinent sans plus attendre une telle division. Celle-ci a d'ailleurs été accréditée par l'auteur lui-même qui, le premier, mentionna l'existence d'un « tournant » de sa propre pensée, en termes réservés toutefois, sinon énigmatiques. (shrink)

In this book it explores science and technology, makes connections between these epistemic, cultural, and political trends, and develops profound insights into the nature of our postmodernity.

Sustainable management is a popular topic whose utilization should be questionned when applied to professions intended for others. The seven articles presented in this thematic issue are anchored in the domains of management, health and education. On the one hand, they examine how professional training improves practice, cultivates the sens of socialy responsible management, modulates identity dynamics and professional retraining. On a second hand, they question the repercussions of managerial and professional cultures ont the meaning given by workers to their (...) mission, the recognition of their expertise, their job satisfaction, and their attachment to their job. (shrink)

En apparence l'enjeu est clair, il s'agit de dépasser la métaphysique ou de la déconstruire pour retrouver la question primordiale du sens de l'être. Comment faut-il entendre la nécessité de ce " dépassement de la métaphysique "? Heidegger a répondu à ces questions en mentionnant, de manière explicite, le " tournant " (Kehre) propre de sa pensée, lequel permet moins d'effectuer le " dépassement " (Überwindung) que l' "appropriation " (Verwindung) de la métaphysique. Après cet épisode du " tournant " (...) que l'on peut faire remonter à 1930, Heidegger se dé-tournera de la métaphysique pour se consacrer à la pure pensée de l'être, dans laquelle la poésie, celle de Hölderlin en particulier, jouera désormais un rôle déterminant. Le poète précède toujours le penseur au cœur de cette forêt profonde qu'est l'Être. Pour Heidegger comme pour Dante, l'homme est un poème qui s'achève sous le regard scintillant d'une étoile. (shrink)