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)

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)

In this short paper, I argue with the help of Paul Ricœur's work that human freedom depends in part on the anonymity of political institutions. First, I explain why institutions are essential to the realization of freedom. Second, I show that institutions are anonymous in two distinct ways. While the first way expresses the corruption of certain institutions, the second pertains to the essence of all of them. I conclude by suggesting that all critiques of the anonymity of institutions should (...) take this distinction into account. (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.

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)

Le monument dit «des Navarques », élevé à Delphes par Lysandre après la victoire remportée sur les Athéniens à Aigos-Potamoi (405 av. J.-C.), est connu depuis longtemps par des textes et par des dalles inscrites provenant de la plinthe des statues. Plusieurs localisations et plusieurs restitutions architecturales en ont été proposées sur la base d’une documentation souvent inexacte ou mal comprise et toujours incomplète. Critique des principales hypothèses. Une connaissance plus étendue du secteur et de l’ensemble des éléments, y compris (...) les blocs de construction dégagés par la fouille, permet de présenter, à défaut d’une restitution unique et certaine, un panel de solutions plus vraisemblables. (shrink)

Selon l’interprétation traditionnelle, la révolution copernicienne, qui opère le passage du géocentrisme à l’héliocentrisme, aurait détrôné et dévalorisé l’homme, en lui retirant sa position cen­trale, et donc privilégiée, dans le cosmos, pour le reléguer sur une planète devenue analogue aux autres et occupant une place quelconque à l’intérieur du système solaire. Cette inter­prétation ne pèche pas seulement dans sa compréhension de l’héliocentrisme copernicien, mais également dans sa percep­tion du géocentrisme aristotélico-médiéval. Il faut donc dénon­cer sa fausseté générale et, plus encore, (...) lui substituer un autre schéma interprétatif qui, peut-être moins évocateur de notre rapport au monde, soit plus respectueux de la vérité historique. ––– According to the traditional interpretation, the Copernican revo­lution, which brought about the transfer from geocentrism to heliocentrism, is said to have dethroned and devalued man by removing his central and hence privileged position in the cos­mos and by relegating him to a planet now seen as analogous to others occupying an insignificant position within the solar system. This interpretation fails not only in its understanding of Copernican heliocentrism, but also in its percep­tion of Aristo­telian mediaeval geocentrism. It is necessary, therefore, not only to denounce its general falsity, but also to substitute for it a different interpretative scheme which, although it may empha­size less our link with the world, may be more respectful of historical truth. (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.

First recorded in the 14th century, the analogy of spit-roast meat argues that expecting the Sun to rotate around a strictly immobile Earth would be just as ludicrous as trying to move the fire around the roasting meat. On the contrary, it should be the Earth that spins upon itself in order to glean, from all possible angles, all the benefits of the Sun, just as it is the meat’s responsibility to turn on the spit before the motionless fire for (...) it to be perfectly cooked on all sides. Aimed at demonstrating, in geocentricism, the plausibility of the rotation of the Earth and, in heliocentrism, at supporting the physical reality of this terrestrial rotation, nowadays this analogy barely elicits more than an amused, or even condescending, smile. However, its continued long-term existence and its frequency of use — from the 14th to the 19th century, we found it mentioned by no less than 45 different authors — incited us to finally pay attention to it. We then noticed that beyond its explicitly cosmological scope, it raises, in its own way, the question of the purpose of the natural world: had the latter been conceived based upon humankind, then it is normal, despite what this analogy advocates, that the Sun is at the service of something more important than itself by rotating, to the profit of humankind, around the Earth; conversely, since such an infringement of the rule of common sense, as illustrated by this analogy, can neither be justified nor tolerated, it is up to the Earth to move around the Sun. Tracing the vicissitudes of this analogy, over 6 centuries, is thus not only about reconstructing the largely forgotten history of a presently obsolete analogy, but also about discovering the deeper meaning, henceforth incomprehensible, behind it. In describing how this meaning became progressively lost, one can finally pro­vide an understanding of why, in the present day, we are no longer capable of more than an amused smile when happening upon it! (shrink)

Bien sûr, «la philosophie des sciences sans l’histoire des scien­ces est vide et l’histoire des sciences sans la philosophie des sciences est aveugle» (Lakatos), mais cette formule célèbre ne méconnaît-elle pas l’importance dissymétrique de cette relation de dépendance réci­proque ? En effet, ne pourrait-on pas soute­nir que les philoso­phes des sciences désireux d’arriver à une juste et saine philosophie des sciences ont besoin, pour ce faire, des travaux des historiens des sciences, bien plus que ces der­­niers n’ont besoin, pour leurs (...) recons­tructions historiques, des écrits des philosophes des sciences ? Telle est la thèse, quelque peu provocatrice, que l’auteur tente de défendre : un séminaire ne doit-il pas être un lieu de débat ? ––– Of course, «the philosophy of science is empty without the history of science and the history of science is blind without the philosophy of science» (Lakatos). But does not this famous formula fail to recognize the importance of the dyssymetry of this relationship of mutual dependence ? Could it not be main­tained that the philos­ophers of science, in their search for a correct and healthy philos­ophy of science, need the works of the historians of science far more than the latter need the works of the philosophers of science for their historical work ? This is the somewhat provocative thesis we shall attempt to defend : should not a seminar be a forum for debate ? (shrink)

Lucien BOSSY, «La physique d’Einstein» de Georges Lemaître, 1922 (pp. 9-22). Jean-Marc GÉRARD, Georges Lemaître et l’his­toire de notre Univers (pp. 23-55). Jean LADRIÈRE, La portée philo­sophique de l’hypothèse de l’atome primitif (pp. 57-80). Dominique LAMBERT, Pie XII et Georges Lemaître : deux visions distinctes des rapports sciences-foi (pp. 81-111). Marc LEC­LERC, La liberté intellectuelle de l’homme de sciences catho­lique (pp. 113-117). Alfonso PÉREZ DE LABORDA, Cosmologies et dogma­tiques : un problème d’interférence et de représen­tation (pp. 119-142). (...) class='Hi'>Jean-François STOFFEL, Mgr Georges Lemaître : bio-biblio­graphie (pp. 145-220). Jean-François STOFFEL, «La physique d’Einstein», texte inédit de Georges Lemaître (pp. 223-360). (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.

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)

Fra il 1892 e il 1896, lo scienziato francese Pierre Duhem pubblicò, nella «Revue des questions scientifiques», sette articoli che, per la prima volta, fecero conoscere la sua concezione della scienza a un pubblico più vasto. L’accoglienza reticente, persino ostile, che è stata loro riservata lo indurrà, già in questo breve lasso di tempo, a fare evolvere la sua concezione. Otto anni dopo sarà pubblicata la sua famosa «Théorie physique : son objet, sa structure», in cui sono integrati molti di (...) questi testi. Offrendo per la prima volta l’edizione bilingue completa di questi sette articoli, il volume fornisce una migliore comprensione non solo dell’evoluzione del pensiero duhemiano, ma anche del contenuto del capolavoro di fama mondiale che ne sarebbe derivato. * * * Entre 1892 et 1896, le savant français Pierre Duhem fait paraître, dans la «Revue des questions scientifiques», sept articles qui, pour la première fois, font connaître sa conception de la science à un plus large public. L’accueil réticent, voire hostile, qui leur est réservé l’amènera, déjà au sein de ce court laps de temps, à faire évoluer sa conception. Huit ans plus tard paraîtra sa célèbre «Théorie physique : son objet, sa structure» dans laquelle plusieurs de ces textes se trouvent intégrés. En offrant pour la première fois l’édition bilingue intégrale de ces sept articles, ce volume permet donc de mieux comprendre non seulement l’évolution de la pensée duhémienne, mais encore le contenu du maître-ouvrage, mondialement connu, qui devait en résulter. (shrink)

The concept of craniofacial difference refers to a set of innate or acquired features causing facial abnormalities. While craniofacial difference is usually understood as an individual fact and is currently overlooked in the definitions of disability that govern disability policies, this study addresses it in its disregarded social dimensions, as shown in a case of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021. The study then proposes a theological reflection on how the craniofacial anomaly destabilizes certain cultural patterns that guide our (...) visions of the world and how it invites us to engage in a different relationship to reality and meaning. (shrink)

It might seem paradoxical to present Schelling's thought by emphasizing the practical dimension of his work when so many commentators are challenging the reality of this practical dimension. When one considers Schelling's position within modern European philosophy, or when one attempts to underline the importance and the contemporary nature of his thought, several themes repeatedly come to the fore: the existence of freedom (which asserts itself in the face of the system and of closure), positivity and factuality (which are irreducible (...) to the self‐movement of thought), and, lastly, creative temporality, the system of time, the organic nature of which is destined to make possible and thinkable the new beginnings that stem from an initial decision. I wish to propose that the problem of freedom – that is the freedom to do good and evil, as well as the metaphysics of evil which is introduced by this problem – constitutes the crux of Schelling's thought, capable of opening up a line of thought in classical German philosophy which deserves to be pursued again today, even if it is muddled by the theo‐cosmological speculations of the later Schelling. (shrink)

Dans les débats sur la situation des religions en Europe, la pensée de Jürgen Habermas reste incontournable. Depuis le choc de 11 septembre 2001, celle-ci a largement évolué pour accorder une place plus grande aux demandes de reconnaissance des religions dans l’espace public. Pour autant, l’éthique de la discussion doit aujourd’hui être interrogée à nouveaux frais face aux recrudescences des fondamentalismes religieux et laïcistes.

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)

" Le nihilisme est devant la porte : d'où nous vient ce plus inquiétant de tous les hôtes? ", demande Nietzsche dans un fragment posthume. L'hôte est ici celui qui vient chez nous et non celui qui octroie l'hospitalité. Le nihilisme est donc cette figure étrange qui vient nous saisir dans notre maison et faire de nous, en dépit de notre résistance, des nihilistes. Mais alors, si " la catastrophe nihiliste " dont parle Nietzsche s'abat sur nous et nous pétrifie (...) sur notre propre seuil, comment devons-nous entendre la dénonciation nietzschéenne du nihilisme et sa tentative héroïque de le surmonter? Les auteurs réunis dans ce volume tentent d'éclairer le sens de la direction à prendre en ces temps obscurs où, toujours selon Nietzsche, nous ne savons plus où aller, où venir parce que nous avons perdu le sens de la terre. Le nihilisme est peut-être la seule lumière qui permet d'éclairer le caractère équivoque du monde moderne. Mais c'est une lumière noire. Ont participé à la rédaction de cet ouvrage : Yannis Constantinidès, Marc Crépon, françoise Dastur, Paolo D'Iorio, Thierry Gontier, Dominique Janicaud, Mathieu Kessler, Jean-Paul Larthomas, Marc de Launay, Jean-François Mattéi, Olivier Ponton, franco Volpi. (shrink)

resumo O presente artigo investiga as relações entre individualidade e espírito objetivo no quadro da filosofia política hegeliana. Retomando o significado mediador contido na idéia de “vida ética”, procura-se apontar uma alternativa à interpretação de que Hegel seria partidário de um institucionalismo forte, que dissolveria o indivíduo quando de sua institucionalização sócio-política. palavras-chave vida ética – subjetividade – indivíduo – instituição – linguagem universal.

Using a latent variable modelling strategy we study individual differences in patterns of answers to the selection task and to the truth table task. Specifically we investigate the prediction of mental model theory according to which the individual tendency to select the false consequent card (in the selection task) is negatively correlated with the tendency to judge the false antecedent cases as irrelevant (in the truth table task). We fit a psychometric model to two large samples ( N = 486, (...) twice), and find no evidence for this negative correlation. We examine which of the assumptions of the model theory must be amended to accommodate our findings. (shrink)

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)

Durante la vida de Newton, su Óptica se publicó en sucesivas ediciones. En esta medida, fijar una versión definitiva del texto es problemático, por lo cual se hace necesario recurrir no sólo al texto sino también a los contextos y a la intertextualidad. El artículo plantea las dificultades de las lecturas tradicionales de la Óptica (como respuesta a teorías de la visión y la luz precedentes y como parte de la físico-teología inglesa) y argumenta a favor de una lectura teológica (...) del tratado, desde la epistemología de la Óptica y del entusiasmo religioso que Newton rechazó categóricamente. Consecuencia de esta lectura es una reformulación del texto, el contexto y la intertextualidad que hacen comprensible la Óptica de Newton. (shrink)

La base no 215 de Delphes, qui est située en face du trésor des Siphniens, peut être datée du IIe s. av. n. è. Monument familial, elle portait à l’origine trois statues féminines. Au Ier s. av. n. è., on a ajouté les statues de deux hommes, apparemment de la même famille de Naupacte. La base a aussi servi à l’affichage de décrets honorant surtout des Étoliens. La niche qui l’encadre est dans un état très tardif, mais son histoire remonte (...) haut car elle contient un bassin situé dans l’axe du grand réseau hydraulique du sanctuaire et qui doit avoir appartenu à une fontaine. Le mur de fond a été reconstruit plus d’une fois. Dans un état ancien, il a pu porter certains des décrets cités plus haut. La niche pourrait être appelée «étolienne ». (shrink)

L’œuvre du criminologue italien Cesare Lombroso illustre le fait que la médecine, au xixe siècle, n’est pas seulement une technique thérapeutique mais qu’elle propose bien plutôt une véritable « vision médicale du monde ». La médecine entend résoudre définitivement les problèmes philosophiques traditionnels. Pour Lombroso les références à la médecine ou à la mesure sont des moyens de valider des thèses matérialistes mais surtout ultra-déterministes, et d’en tirer des conséquences politiques et sociales.The works of the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso illustrates (...) the fact that medicine, in the 19th century, is not only a therapeutic technique but, first and foremost, that it suggests a genuine « medical view of the world ». It is assumed that medicine would solve, once and for all, all the traditional philosophical problems. Lombroso’s references to medicine or measurement serve as evidence for materialistic and ultra-deterministic philosophical theses, and enable one to draw their political and social implications. (shrink)