In this essay, we argue that there exist obvious parallels between questions that inform philosophy of chemistry and the so-called hard problem of consciousness in philosophy of mind. These include questions regarding the emergence of higher-level phenomena from lower-level physical states, the reduction of higher-level phenomena to lower-level physical states, and 'downward causation'. We, therefore, propose that the 'hard problem' of consciousness should be approached in a manner similar to that used to address parallel problems in philosophy of chemistry. Thus, (...) our contribution begins by scrutinizing the ways chemists and quantum chemists think about and use different levels of organization and chemical relations and relata and then investigates the problem of 'downward causation' as it relates to the question of emergence. We demonstrate that the science of the transformation of 'substances', namely chemistry, enables us to go beyond substantialism and to develop, instead, a non-substantialist account of levels of reality. Similarly, the 'hard problem' of consciousness will require that we transcend traditional emergentism and its substantialist conception of mind. As with chemical phenomena, mental phenomena must be examined in terms of the relationality of wholes and parts, and this will require the development of a mereology that explains how parts and wholes may co-define each other. Like the non-classical and non-transitive mereology that has been proposed for quantum chemistry, an extended mereology for philosophy of mind must be one that entangles the whole, its parts, and the environment, thus rendering 'downward causation' into a relational concept. This proposal is neither a reductionist analysis that only needs the parts to define the whole, nor a merely holistic description within which the whole is necessary to define the parts. Rather, we propose that the parts, the whole, and the environment co-define each other so that our understanding of parts, wholes, and environment as independent concepts must itself be altered. (shrink)

Here Jean-Pierre Changeux elucidates our current knowledge of the human brain, taking an interdisciplinary approach and explaining in layman's terms the complex theories and scientific breakthroughs that have significantly improved our ...

Par son enseignement et par ses traductions de Kant, Jean-Pierre Fussler a influencé plusieurs générations d'étudiants. Croisant les approches, ce recueil de travaux en son honneur fait dialoguer perspectives kantiennes, lectures et relectures des œuvres de Kant, commentaires de son œuvre et études de sa réception contemporaine, mais aussi, plus généralement, questions éthiques, essais phénoménologiques et diverses études philosophiques qui s'accordent toutes sur la nécessité de la méthode, la diversité du rationalisme et les impératifs de la pensée critique."--Page (...) 4 of cover. (shrink)

In a remarkable exchange between neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux and philosopher Paul Ricoeur, this book explores the vexed territory between these...

An examination of the fundamental role cybernetics played in the birth of cognitive science and the light this sheds on current controversies. The conceptual history of cognitive science remains for the most part unwritten. In this groundbreaking book, Jean-Pierre Dupuy—one of the principal architects of cognitive science in France—provides an important chapter: the legacy of cybernetics. Contrary to popular belief, Dupuy argues, cybernetics represented not the anthropomorphization of the machine but the mechanization of the human. The founding fathers (...) of cybernetics—some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, including John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch, and Walter Pitts—intended to construct a materialist and mechanistic science of mental behavior that would make it possible at last to resolve the ancient philosophical problem of mind and matter. The importance of cybernetics to cognitive science, Dupuy argues, lies not in its daring conception of the human mind in terms of the functioning of a machine but in the way the strengths and weaknesses of the cybernetics approach can illuminate controversies that rage today—between cognitivists and connectionists, eliminative materialists and Wittgensteinians, functionalists and anti-reductionists. Dupuy brings to life the intellectual excitement that attended the birth of cognitive science sixty years ago. He separates the promise of cybernetic ideas from the disappointment that followed as cybernetics was rejected and consigned to intellectual oblivion. The mechanization of the mind has reemerged today as an all-encompassing paradigm in the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. The tensions, contradictions, paradoxes, and confusions Dupuy discerns in cybernetics offer a cautionary tale for future developments in cognitive science. (shrink)

Ils s’embrassaient tous les deux pour le moment et pour toujours mais le cavalier n’avait plus sa tête, rien qu’une ouverture au-dessus du cou, avec du sang dedans qui mijotait en glouglous comme de la confiture dans la marmite.Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Voyage au bout de la nuit, Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Folio », 2008, p. 17. Embarras du discours Je souhaite interroger la notion de barbarie en l’illustrant par des cas concrets empruntés au théâtre occidental, en particulier au spectacle vivant...

This paper aims to connect philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy. We first characterize chemistry by underlining how chemists: co-define chemical bodies, operations, and transformations; always refer to active and context-sensitive bodies to explain the reactions under study; and develop strategies that require and intertwine with a molecular whole, its parts, and the surroundings at the same time within an explanation. We will then point out how green chemists are transforming their current activities in order to act upon (...) the world without jeopardizing life. This part will allow us to highlight that green chemistry follows the three aforementioned characteristics while including the world as a partner, as well as biodegradability and sustainability concerns, into chemical practices. In the third part of this paper, we will show how moral philosophy can help green chemists: identify the consequentialist assumptions that ground their reasoning; and widen the scope of their ethical considerations by integrating the notion of care and that of vulnerability into their arguments. In the fourth part of the paper, we will emphasize how, in return, this investigation could help philosophers querying consequentialism as soon as the consequences of chemical activities over the world are taken into account. Furthermore, we will point out how the philosophy of chemistry provides philosophers with new arguments concerning the key debate about the ‘intrinsic value’ of life, ecosystems and the Earth, in environmental ethics. To conclude, we will highlight how mesology, that is to say the study of ‘milieux’, and the concept of ‘ecumeme’ proposed by the philosopher and geographer Augustin Berque, could become important both for green chemists and moral philosophers in order to investigate our relationships with the Earth. (shrink)

Evaluative Semantics proposes a strongly postmodernist theory of cognition, ideology and discourse in which the structure and internal consistency of ideology resemble those of evaluative knowledge of the mind. The strength of this book is that it goes beyond purely theoretical claims to propose an original connectionist model of evaluative interpretation. Malrieu's new semantics makes a unique contribution to the literature of cognitive science, linguistics, and discourse analysis.

v. 1. A défaut-- la littérature -- v. 2. Arts et philosophie mêlés.

Jean-Pierre Dupuy a tenu pendant la pandémie un « journal de pensée » d'un genre spécial : il réagit moins aux événements que nous avons tous vécus depuis le mois de mars 2020 qu'à la manière dont ces événements ont été analysés, discutés. Il le fait à la lumière de sa contribution majeure à la pensée de la catastrophe développée dans un livre fameux et souvent mal compris, Pour un catastrophisme éclairé. Quand l'impossible est certain (Seuil, 2002 ; (...) 2004). Voici un livre de combat mû par la colère. La colère de voir des intellectuels relativiser la gravité de la pandémie en cours, s'engager dans une critique virulente de sociétés et de gouvernants qu'ils jugent obsédés par la « protection de la vie », au point de sacrifier l'avenir du monde, de l'économie et des libertés publiques. Avec rigueur et détermination, Jean-Pierre Dupuy leur répond et met au jour les erreurs logiques - et scientifiques - qui sous-tendent ces raisonnements, et propose par là même une réflexion passionnante et passionnée sur la mort et la vie au temps de la pandémie."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Jean-Paul Sartre: Mind and Body, Word and Deed celebrates Sartre's polyvalence with an examination of Sartrean philosophy, literature, and politics. In four distinct yet related sections, twelve scholars from three continents examine Sartre's thought, writing and action over his long career. "Sartre and the Body" reappraises Sartre's work in dialogue with other philosophers past and present, including Maine de Biran, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Didier Anzieu. "Sartre and Time" offers a first-hand account by Michel Contat of Sartre and Beauvoir working (...) together, and a "philosophy in practice" analysis by François Noudelmann. "Ideology and Politics" uses Sartrean notions of commitment and engagement to address modern and contemporary politics, including insights into Castro, De Gaulle, Sarkozy and Obama. Finally, an important but neglected episode of Sartre's life the visit that he and Beauvoir made to Japan in 1966 is narrated with verve and humour by Professor Suzuki Michihiko, who first met Sartre during that visit and remained in touch subsequently. Taken together, these twelve chapters make a strong case for the continued relevance of Sartre today. (shrink)

This paper first queries what type of concept of emergence, if any, could be connected with the different chemical activities subsumed under the label ‘quantum chemistry’. In line with Roald Hoffmann, we propose a ‘rotation to research laboratory’ in order to point out how practitioners hold a molecular whole, its parts, and the surroundings together within their various methods when exploring chemical transformation. We then identify some requisite contents that a concept of emergence must incorporate in order to be coherent (...) from the standpoint of the scientific practices involved. In this respect, we finally propose a relational form of emergence which pays attention to the constitutive role of the modes of intervention and to the co-definition of the levels of organization. No metaphysical distinction between the higher and basic levels of organization is supposed, but only a plurality of modes of access. Moreover, these modes of access are not construed as mere ways of revealing intrinsic patterns of organization but, on the contrary, are considered to be active elements on which the constitution of those patterns depends. What is at stake in this paper is therefore not an ontological form of emergence but an agnostic one which fits what chemists do in their daily work. (shrink)

Durante cuatro siglos, cristianos (de rito romano o visigótico), musulmanes y judíos coexistieron en la ciudad de Toledo. Pero tal coexistencia, antes de terminar de manera trágica, se caracterizó por muchos matices y atravesó circunstancias diversas. Cuando los llamados mozárabes (cristianos arabizados de rito visigótico) se fundieron en la masa cristiana de rito latino y lengua hispánica, después de dominar en la ciudad durante largo tiempo, los musulmanes (mudéjares), nunca muy numerosos, alcanzaron cierto apogeo en el siglo XIV, antes de (...) quedar parcialmente marginalizados en el XV. En cuanto a los judíos, debido al papel que desempeñaban en la gestión del dinero, fueron objeto de la ira y el furor popular, sobre todo en los siglos XIV y XV, incluso después de su conversión, fingida o sincera, a la fe cristiana. (shrink)

In this paper, I introduce and examine the notion of “mathematical engineering” and its impact on mathematical change. Mathematical engineering is an important part of contemporary mathematics and it roughly consists of the “construction” and development of various machines, probes and instruments used in numerous mathematical fields. As an example of such constructions, I briefly present the basic steps and properties of homology theory. I then try to show that this aspect of contemporary mathematics has important consequences on our conception (...) of mathematical knowledge, in particular mathematical growth. (shrink)

Bd. 1. Allgemeine Themen. Iberische Halbinsel. Italien -- Bd. 2. Frankreich und Niederlande -- Bd. 3. England.

In this unique study, Jean-Pierre Clero examines medical ethics from a philosophical perspective. Based on the thoughts of great philosophers, he develops a theory of medical ethics that focuses on the values of intimacy.

The five narratives identified by the DEEPEN-project are interpreted in terms of the ancient story of desire, evil, and the sacred, and the modern narratives of alienation and exploitation. The first three narratives of lay ethics do not take stock of what has radically changed in the modern world under the triple and joint evolution of science, religion, and philosophy. The modern narratives, in turn, are in serious need of a post-modern deconstruction. Both critiques express the limits of humanism. They (...) do not imply, however, that these narratives should not be taken seriously. In particular, the enduring presence of three ancient narratives in laypeople’s symbolic thought is highly significant in terms of the role that the logic of the sacred keeps playing in the workings of modern societies. Lay people’s implicit understanding of how modern technology tends towards catastrophe and apocalypse provides the strongest argument for taking these narratives seriously. (shrink)

"This wonderfully eloquent and playful colloquy of two brilliant minds gives new life to the old notion of Dialogue, a sadly forgotten form now.... I "love" this book!

Jean-Pierre Boistel est percussionniste et Directeur pédagogique de l'École régionale de Jazz et des Musiques actuelles de Montpellier. Tous ses droits sont réservés. Aborder l'expression rythmique par le nombre d'impulsions : 1 : Un coup, un accent, une note, un son permet d'entendre immédiatement l'origine – le passage du silence, du vide (plein de potentiels) non déterminé à la résonance. Plaquer un accord et le laisser résonner ouvre le champ du chant musical et l'imagination de l'interprète (...) - (...) Musique et Musicologie – GALERIE – Nouvel article. (shrink)

La démocratie contemporaine, aux yeux des peuples et des cultures d'aujourd'hui, souffre d'une crise de crédibilité. Pour qui croit encore aux principes et idéaux de la démocratie, la compréhension de cette crise est une urgence intellectuelle et pratique de notre temps. L'essai présenté ici est un effort soutenu dans ce sens. Or comprendre cette crise, c'est d'abord comprendre les fondements des principes et des valeurs qui font de la "thèse démocratique" une thèse défendable, sur le registre de la raison critique, (...) mais aussi, et surtout, de l'expérience. Et l'expérience, précisément, nous fournit-elle une image cohérente du fonctionnement démocratique réel de nos sociétés? Dans la sphère économique, les rapports de pouvoir sont-ils aussi démocratiques que dans la sphère politique? D'où la question centrale : la démocratie peut-elle être fondée universellement, à tous les niveaux de l'organisation sociale? (shrink)

Dans l'impossibilite de s'instaurer ex nihilo, toute societe doit definir la nature des rapports que ses valeurs, ses normes, ses institutions et ses moeurs actuelles entretiennent avec celles qui gouvernaient son passe. Ces rapports se situent entre deux poles: celui de la reconduction et de la reproduction les plus fideles d'une part; celui de la rupture et de l'arrachement d'autre part. Les societes voisines du premier pole seront qualifiees de traditionnelles; celles plus proches du second seront appelees modernes. On reservera (...) le qualificatif de traditionalistes aux societes ou sous-groupes sociaux qui, au sein du monde moderne, veulent ouvertement, sinon restaurer, du moins rester inconditionnellement fideles a des principes, regles et modes de vie subvertis par la dynamique de la modernite. Apres avoir examine la polysemie de la tradition et du rapport a la tradition, l'ouvrage etudie en detail trois cas particuliers de la dialectique entre tradition et modernite la secularisation du christianisme et les mutations contemporaines des croyances et pratiques religieuses; la tension entre contractualisme et traditionalisme dans la constitution et les manifestations de l'appartenance nationale republicaine; la tradition du nouveau dans les arts plastiques. (shrink)

Cet article traite des analyses proposées par Karl Marx et par Friedrich Engels sur le mouvement des salaires dans la dynamique du capitalisme, et sur la question de la « paupérisation » des travailleurs, en particulier entre les années 1840 et les années 1860. Il montre que si Engels n’a jamais pronostiqué clairement une « paupérisation absolue » ou « relative », Marx, dans ses écrits des années 1860 et au-delà, maintient la thèse d’une baisse du « salaire relatif », (...) mais ne pronostique plus une baisse des salaires réels en longue période, et ne formule aucune « loi » de « misère croissante » du prolétariat. (shrink)

For the first time this volume makes Jean-Pierre Meunier's influential thoughts on the film experience available for an English-speaking readership. Introduced and commented by specialists in film studies and philosophy, Meunier's intricate phenomenological descriptions of the spectator's engagement with fiction films, documentaries and home movies can reach the wide audience they have deserved ever since their publication in French in 1969.

A monster stalks the earth—a sluggish, craven, dumb beast that takes fright at the slightest noise and starts at the sight of its own shadow. This monster is the market. The shadow it fears is cast by a light that comes from the future: the Keynesian crisis of expectations. It is this same light that causes the world’s leaders to tremble before the beast. They tremble, Jean-Pierre Dupuy says, because they have lost faith in the future. What Dupuy (...) calls Economy has degenerated today into a mad spectacle of unrestrained consumption and speculation. But in its positive form—a truly political economy in which politics, not economics, is predominant—Economy creates not only a sense of trust and confidence but also a belief in the open-endedness of the future without which capitalism cannot function. In this devastating and counterintuitive indictment of the hegemonic pretensions of neoclassical economic theory, Dupuy argues that the immutable and eternal decision of God has been replaced with the unpredictable and capricious judgment of the crowd. The future of mankind will therefore depend on whether it can see through the blindness of orthodox economic thinking. (shrink)

Notre propos est de donner des bases philosophiques à la réalité vis-à-vis d'une tradition de la pensée qui y serait passée à côté. La réalité étant ce qui est le plus direct pour nous, ce qui est vrai, demande aussi dans un second temps, l'élaboration d'un système de pensée qui puisse la rendre telle qu'elle est. Ce qui a été pendant longtemps perçu comme "naïf", à savoir le réalisme le plus pur, fut sans doute un solide préjugé à la fois (...) de l'antique et de la moderne étude sur l'être, et qui pour s'en défaire auraient dû saisir tous les enjeux d'un rapport plus concret à celui-ci. Cela aurait pu se faire en revenant à l'essentiel de l'expérience face aux divers objets réels du monde. C'est sur cette négligence que nous avons concentré nos réflexions, puisqu'il en va de la conception quotidienne sur la réalité qui nous entoure, et tout aussi bien de la validité de la science qui repose sur elle. Face à une pensée abstraite reposant sur le sujet et la psychologie, il nous a fallu revenir aux fondements des choses : les faits matériels qui anticipent toute connaissance. Ainsi, la connaissance théorique apporte des résultats positifs surtout quand elle vient appuyer les observations rigoureuses d'où elle part. En clair, nous avons voulu suivre la réalité comme condition de toute démonstration. (shrink)

The development of a scientific theory of mind was thus significantly delayed."--BOOK JACKET.