RNA modifications have recently emerged as an important regulatory layer of gene expression. The most prevalent and reversible modification on messenger RNA (mRNA), N6‐methyladenosine, regulates most steps of RNA metabolism and its dysregulation has been associated with numerous diseases. Other modifications such as 5‐methylcytosine and N1‐methyladenosine have also been detected on mRNA but their abundance is lower and still debated. Adenosine to inosine RNA editing is widespread on coding and non‐coding RNA and can alter mRNA decoding as well as protect (...) against autoimmune diseases. 2′‐O‐methylation of the ribose and pseudouridine are widespread on ribosomal and transfer RNA and contribute to proper RNA folding and stability. While the understanding of the individual role of RNA modifications has now reached an unprecedented stage, still little is known about their interplay in the control of gene expression. In this review we discuss the examples where such interplay has been observed and speculate that with the progress of mapping technologies more of those will rapidly accumulate. (shrink)

Jean-Yves Strasser The Olympia of Alexandria and the Pancratiast M. Aur. Asklepiades p.421-468 The Alexandrian Olympia are known thanks to inscriptions and especially papyri. The latter mention the olympionikoi, who may have been victors not in the great competition at Pisa, but in the Olympia of the Egyptian city. These competitions, created under Marcus Aurelius, became eiselastikoi under Gallien; they were first celebrated in 268. Like the majority of the great competitions in Egypt, they took place in the (...) winter of even years divisible by four. That was the case already in the 2nd century AD: the first Olympia were organised in 180. In 200, at the time of the sixth celebration, the periodonikes M. Aur. Asklepiades won the Olympia pancration in the presence of Septimius Severus and Caracalla. An inscription at Coptus (I. Portes 88) mentions a hellanodikes of Alexandria: he could have been serving at the time of the seventeenth Olympiad in 244; in 246-247 he had a statue of Sarapis Polieus erected under the prefect of Egypt Valerius Firmus. (shrink)

Les philosophies de l'histoire se nourrissaient de miettes tombées de la table du théologien. L'effondrement de leurs projets onto-théologiques permettrait-il de penser enfin l'histoire en fidélité au logos de la philosophie? Mettre toute métaphysique de l'histoire entre parenthèses ne consacre pas l'éternel retour du même, ou plutôt du pareil, mais libère le champ d'une temporalité plénière. Et parce que la temporalité - le temps tel que je le vis et que nous le vivons - se déploie comme ce que l'on (...) peut nommer une histoire, celle que je suis et celle que nous sommes, alors la question philosophique de l'histoire peut être logée sans reste dans une quaestio de tempore formulée après Husserl et Heidegger, et certains autres : sans préjuger d'une eschatologie que seule la théologie peut organiser, mais en s'autorisant à en précomprendre les raisons. L'existence est le mode d'être de l'étant que nous sommes, et l'existence est être en/comme histoire, historialité. L'historialité est une dimension de la temporalité. Qui le sait saura éviter les ornières de la philosophie de l'histoire. Non pas pour décrire une existence sans histoire, mais pour rendre raison du phénomène de l'histoire. En première instance seulement, certes, mais en rigueur, parce que sans prétention apocalyptique indue. L'histoire dont nous parlons est une réalité avant-dernière."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau est l'auteur de l'entrée "économie politique" dans l'Encyclopédie en 1755. A ce titre, il aurait pu être l'un des fondateurs de cette discipline. Pourtant, la définition qu'il en donne est à l'encontre de la pensée libérale des physiocrates, puis des classiques, et constitue une véritable "anti-économique". En hypertrophiant le rôle de l'Etat et en niant l'intérêt personnel, Rousseau est au contraire l'un des pères du socialsme. En niant la liberté humaine, il nie aussi l'existence de choix éthiques.

This text is an outgrowth of notes prepared by J. Y. Girard for a course at the University of Paris VII. It deals with the mathematical background of the application to computer science of aspects of logic (namely the correspondence between proposition & types). Combined with the conceptual perspectives of Girard's ideas, this sheds light on both the traditional logic material & its prospective applications to computer science. The book covers a very active & exciting research area, & it will (...) be essential reading for all those working in logic & computer science. (shrink)

Using methods of abstract logic and the theory of valuation, we prove that there is no paraconsistent negation obeying the law of double negation and such that $\neg(a\wedge\neg a)$ is a theorem which can be algebraized by a technique similar to the Tarski-Lindenbaum technique.

Papers... "selected from a larger number of contributions most of them based on talks presented at the First World Congress on the Square of Opposition organized in Montreux in June 2007"--Preface, p. 12.

"Christian philosophy" is commonly regarded as an oxymoron, philosophy being thought incompatible with the assumptions and conclusions required by religious faith. According to this way of thinking, philosophy and theology must forever remain distinct. In From Theology to Theological Thinking, Jean-Yves Lacoste takes a different approach. Stepping back from contemporary philosophical concerns, Lacoste--a leading figure in the philosophy of religion--looks at the relationship between philosophy and theology from the standpoint of the history of ideas. He notes in particular (...) that theology and philosophy were not considered separate realms until the high Middle Ages, this distinction being a hallmark of the modern era that is coming to an end. Lacoste argues that the intellectual task before us now is to work in the frontier region between or beyond these domains, work he identifies as "the task of thinking." With this argument, Lacoste resets our understanding of Western Christian thought, contending that a new way of thinking that is at once philosophical and theological will be the lasting discourse of Christianity. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Heidegger and Dao: Things, Nothingness, Freedom by Eric S. NelsonJean-Yves Heurtebise (bio)Heidegger and Dao: Things, Nothingness, Freedom. Eric S. Nelson. London: Bloomsbury, 2024. Pp. viii + 256. Paper $103.50, ISBN 978-1-350411-90-6.On the Way: from Heidegger to Nagarjuna via Lao-ZhuangAfter having reviewed Eric S. Nelson’s 2017 Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought (for the Journal of Chinese Philosophy) and his 2020 Daoism and Environmental Philosophy (...) (for Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie), reviewing now, for Philosophy East & West, Nelson’s 2024 Heidegger and Dao: Things, Nothingness, Freedom, which develops on the insights of his two previous opuses, is both a real pleasure and a true challenge. It’s a pleasure to read again Eric S. Nelson’s scholarly prose with its own specific conceptual style and distinctive philosophical rhythm. It’s a challenge to give a meaningful and fair overview of a conceptually complex, scholarly rich, and thought-provoking book.No one can speak better about the aim and goals of Nelson’s book than the author himself--following the wayist way of spontaneous ziranity, we will thus let the book speak for itself:Its primary thesis is that, entangled with Daoist and other intercultural sources, Heidegger’s path proceeds from the paradigmatic Occidental philosophy of available givenness and mere presence--which conceals the open spacing of things and seeks to logically exclude and dialectically subordinate negativity and the nothing--to nothingness, emptiness, and the clearing in their coming to presence and withdrawal in absence or, to accentuate its mutable verbal sense, presencing-absencing. […] Zhuangzi’s vision of free and easy wandering indicates ways of practicing philosophy as contesting and unraveling fixations. These practices allow rethinking Heidegger’s pathways and reimagining for ourselves things, nothingness, and world in the specificity of our existential condition.(p. 10)These lines can give already a good indication about what the reader will be provided with: a Heideggerian reading of Daoism nurturing and enriching a Daoist reading of Heidegger; a Daoist reinterpretation of the late Heidegger feeding and complexifying a Heideggerian Pre-Socratic reinterpretation of early Daoism; a continuous feedback loop leading to a process of mutual symbiosis and multiple conceptually creative hybridizations. Ziran and Dao are used to unlock the concealed potentialities of overdetermined Western concepts such as Nature and Ethos while the Heideggerian deconstruction of “Western metaphysics” is [End Page 1] used to de-Eurocentricize our understanding of Daoist and Buddhist thoughts about Thing and Nothingness.The book is divided in two parts: the first part deals with the concept of Thing, the second with the concept of Nothingness. Thing and Nothingness seem to be the perfect antithesis but the magic of Nelson’s reading of their tri-cultural Daoist, Buddhist and Heideggerian conceptualization is to dissipate the classical, ontological antinomy between Being and Non-Being to explore what’s both beyond and below: the natural source of life emergence, coming and returning to a Nothing that is Everything via a Thing that is never Anything (a ready-made and exchangeable object in the universal trading scheme of capitalist general equivalence) but always Something (this and that in particular, in their own specific rhythm of coming back and forth, from and to their source of un-nothingity).The first five chapters evoke the issue of the encounter of Heidegger and Daoist thinking in relation to the deconstruction of Thingness. In the first chapter, Nelson proposes a cross-cultural perspective about the Nature of the Thing linking Heidegger’s critique of the reduction of Things’ Presence to Functional Tools to the Daoist extended conception of Things in terms of Multitude (wanwu 萬物), in which objects, living beings, and spirits participate in the fabric of reality. Chapter 2 examines the connection between Heidegger’s and Daoism’s understanding of “nature” as manifesting a distinct yet similar attention to things’ autopoiesis: following the natural disclosing and unfolding of “things” entails a specific way to think and be in the world. In chapter 3, a comparison is established between Heidegger and Laozi with respect to the notion of void and emptiness: the fact that what powers the utility of a thing is what... (shrink)

Nous tentons dans cet article de proposer une thèse cohérente concernant la formation de la notion d’involution dans le Brouillon Project de Desargues. Pour cela, nous donnons une analyse détaillée des dix premières pages dudit Brouillon, comprenant les développements de cas particuliers qui aident à comprendre l’intention de Desargues. Nous mettons cette analyse en regard de la lecture qu’en fait Jean de Beaugrand et que l’on trouve dans les Advis Charitables.

In this article, Jean-Yves Lacoste lays out the central moments of Heidegger’s complicated relationship to Christian thinking, from his earliest studies under Carl Braig up to his death in 1976. With careful attention to personal letters, scholarly reviews, conferences, as well as major texts, Lacoste shows that this influence was mostly in one direction: despite the eagerness of theology to engage with Heidegger, Heidegger continually demonstrated reticence to approach theology except strictly on his own terms. The article closes (...) with a retrospective evaluation of the central themes of the original Heidegger et la Question de Dieu volume, which took up this investigation in France in 1979. Despite the fact that its publication predated many of Heidegger’s essential texts on this theme, these essays, in Lacoste’s estimation, remain a “perfectly timeless” resource for those seeking to understand the place of God within phenomenology. (shrink)

The familiar connective of negation is broken into two operations: linear negation which is the purely negative part of negation and the modality “of course” which has the meaning of a reaffirmation. Following this basic discovery, a completely new approach to the whole area between constructive logics and programmation is initiated.

The hexagon of opposition is an improvement of the square of opposition due to Robert Blanché. After a short presentation of the square and its various interpretations, we discuss two important problems related with the square: the problem of the I-corner and the problem of the O-corner. The meaning of the notion described by the I-corner does not correspond to the name used for it. In the case of the O-corner, the problem is not a wrong-name problem but a no-name (...) problem and it is not clear what is the intuitive notion corresponding to it. We explain then that the triangle of contrariety proposed by different people such as Vasiliev and Jespersen solves these problems, but that we don’t need to reject the square. It can be reconstructed from this triangle of contrariety, by considering a dual triangle of subcontrariety. This is the main idea of Blanché’s hexagon. We then give different examples of hexagons to show how this framework can be useful to conceptual analysis in many different fields such as economy, music, semiotics, identity theory, philosophy, metalogic and the metatheory of the hexagon itself. We finish by discussing the abstract structure of the hexagon and by showing how we can swing from sense to non-sense thinking with the hexagon. (shrink)

L'idée du cinéma comme " septième art ", Art total, synthèse des autres Arts, trouve son origine et ne se comprend vraiment que par rapport à la philosophie kantienne de l'Art. Cela peut sembler étonnant, mais c'est ce que fait apparaître de façon frappante, sur plusieurs points importants, l'étude du cinéma et de la manière dont les grands cinéastes et théoriciens se le sont eux-mêmes souvent représenté. La dimension philosophique, voire proprement métaphysique du cinéma, même du cinéma le plus simple (...) et le plus modeste, est en même temps liée à ce qui fait que le cinéma est un Art qui plaît tant populairement. Il y a là de quoi soupçonner ou entrevoir l'importance culturelle, sociale, morale et politique, peut-être, du cinéma le plus artistique. Il n'est pas nécessaire d'être spécialiste de philosophie pour lire l'ouvrage : tout ce qui est proprement philosophique y est expliqué simplement. Jean-Yves Chateau y montre à quelles conditions le cinéma peut être un Art, où se révèle avec une singulière clarté l'essence même de l'Art. En lui, sous des formes diverses, il y va toujours du monde lui-même et de la possibilité d'en faire un monde commun. (shrink)

We present the logic K/2 which is a logic with classical implication and only the left part of classical negation.We show that it is possible to define a classical negation into K/2 and that the classical proposition logic K can be translated into this apparently weaker logic.We use concepts from model-theory in order to characterized rigorously this translation and to understand this paradox. Finally we point out that K/2 appears, following Haack's distinction, both as a deviation and an extension of (...) K. (shrink)

We discuss the history of the revival of the theory of opposition, with its emerging paradigms of research, and the related events that are organized in this perspective, including the latest one in Leuven in 2022.

Jean-Yves Béziau Abstract In this paper I relate the story about the new rising of the square of opposition: how I got in touch with it and started to develop new ideas and to organize world congresses on the topic with subsequent publications.

In some situations, a decision is best represented by an incompletely analyzed act: conditionally on a given event A, the consequences of the decision on sub-events are perfectly known and uncertainty becomes probabilizable, whereas the plausibility of this event itself remains vague and the decision outcome on the complementary event ${\bar{A}}$ is imprecisely known. In this framework, we study an axiomatic decision model and prove a representation theorem. Resulting decision criteria aggregate partial evaluations consisting of (i) the conditional expected utility (...) associated with the analyzed part of the decision, and (ii) the best and worst consequences of its non-analyzed part. The representation theorem is consistent with a wide variety of decision criteria, which allows for expressing various degrees of knowledge on ( ${A, \bar{A}}$ ) and various types of attitude toward ambiguity and uncertainty. This diversity is taken into account by specific models already existing in the literature. We exploit this fact and propose some particular forms of our model incorporating these models as sub-models and moreover expressing various types of beliefs concerning the relative plausibility of the analyzed and the non-analyzed events ranging from probabilities to complete ignorance that include capacities. (shrink)

In his Brouillon Project on conic sections, Girard Desargues studies the notion of traversale, which generalizes that of diameter introduced by Apollonius. One often reads that it is equivalent to the notion of polar, a concept that emerged in the beginning of 19th century. In this article we shall study in great detail the developments around that notion in the middle part of the Brouillon project. We shall in particular show, using the notes added by Desargues after the first draft (...) was written, how here arises a new theory, that of the polarity associated to a conic section. We shall show that besides a natural correspondance between points and lines, Desargues has understood that a conic induces on every line in its plane an involution, and how he progressively handles the considerable conceptual difficulties he has to deal with when trying to explain clearly his novative ideas. (shrink)

This paper introduces the special issue on Logic and Religion of the journal Logica Universalis (Springer). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and Religion, by Jean-Yves Beziau and Ricardo Silvestre; Thinking Negation in Early Hinduism and Classical Indian Philosophy, by Purushottama Bilimoria; Karma Theory, Determinism, Fatalism and Freedom of Will, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; From Logic in Islam to Islamic Logic, by Musa Akrami; Leibniz’s Ontological Proof of the Existence of God and the Problem of Impossible Objects, (...) by Wolfgang Lenzen; A Logical Analysis of the Anselm’s Unum Argumentum (from Proslogion), by Jean-Pierre Desclés; Monotonic and Non-monotonic Embeddings of Anselm’s Proof, by Jacob Archambault; Computer-Assisted Analysis of the Anderson–Hájek Ontological Controversy, by C. Benzmüller, L. Weber and B. Woltzenlogel Paleo. (shrink)

This special issue is related to the 6th World Congress on the Square of Opposition which took place at the Orthodox Academy of Crete in November 2018. In this introductory paper we explain the context of the event and the topics discussed.

Despite its wealth and economic performances, Western Europe is anxious about its future and unable to solve its main problem: unemployment. Its great project is the building or Europe. But many questions have no real answers: how can we avoid social fractures? is globalisation and internationalisation a risk or chance? how should we fight corruption? Europe should be the best answer to those questions. But it depends on the answers to new questions: what are the social values on which we (...) want to build the European society of the next century. Eastern Europe is still poor. But the questions are the same and people are confronted with the same problems. Our common challenge is to build a society for the future. And for the first time of our long history, we have no model. We have to invent it. Firms and managers from Hungary and Eastern Europe have to bring their contribution and promote values and virtues as a major factor of the building of our common Europe. (shrink)

I discuss the origin and development of logic prizes around the world. In a first section I describe how I started this project by creating the Newton da Costa Logic Prize in Brazil in 2014. In a second section I explain how this idea was extended into the world through the manifesto A Logic Prize in Every Country! and how was organized the Logic Prizes Contest at the 6th UNILOG in Vichy in June 2018 with the participation of 9 logic (...) prizes winners from 9 countries. In a third section I discuss how this project will develop in the future with the creation of more logic prizes, an Encyclopædia of Logic, the book series Logic PhDs, as well as the creation of a World Logic Day, January 14, day of birth of Alfred Tarski and of death of Kurt Gödel. (shrink)

The relations of Frederic Bastiat with Faith are complex. He often speaks of God in his works, but his conversion, or rather his return, to the Catholicism was progressive and ended at the time of his death in 1850 in Rome. According to Bastiat, there is no opposition between science and Faith and, above all, economic and social harmonies express and reflect the wisdom of God.Moreover, Bastiat was to join the Catholics of his time, especially in the struggles for the (...) freedom of eductaion, and he was to propose some reforms that the French Catholics adopted only later, such as the separation of the Church and the State; in this way, when he disagreed with the nineteenth century’s Catholics, he anticipated in fact the positions of the twentieth century’s Catholics, being in this instance, as in economic thought, ahead of his time.Les rapports de Frédéric Bastiat et de la foi sont complexes. Il parle souvent de Dieu dans ses oeuvres, mais sa conversion, ou plutôt son retour, au catholicisme a été lente et ne s’est achevée qu’au moment de sa mort à Rome en 1850. Pour Bastiat, il n’y a pas d’opposition entre science et Foi et, surtout, les harmonies sociales expriment et reflètent la sagesse de Dieu.Par ailleurs, Bastiat rejoindra les catholiques de son époque, en particulier dans les combats en faveur de la liberté de l’enseignement, et il proposera des réformes que les catholiques français n’accepteront que plus tard, comme la séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat ; en ce sens, lorsqu’il est en désaccord avec les catholiques du XIXème siècle, il anticipe en fait sur les positions des catholiques du XXème siècle, étant là aussi, comme en économie, en avance sur son temps. (shrink)

After recalling the distinction between logic as reasoning and logic as theory of reasoning, we first examine the question of relativity of logic arguing that the theory of reasoning as any other science is relative. In a second part we discuss the emergence of universal logic as a general theory of logical systems, making comparison with universal algebra and the project of mathesis universalis. In a third part we critically present three lines of research connected to universal logic: logical pluralism, (...) non-classical logics and cognitive science. (shrink)

Le comte Joseph de Maistre fut un ennemi radical des Lumières.

Go back to An-fang, the Peace Square at An-Fang, the Beginning Place at An-Fang, where all things start (… ) An-Fang was near a city, the only living city with a pre-atomic name (… ) The headquarters of the People Programmer was at An-Fang, and there the mistake happened: A ruby trembled. Two tourmaline nets failed to rectify the laser beam. A diamond noted the error. Both the error and the correction went into the general computer. Cordwainer SmithThe Dead Lady (...) of Clown Town, 1964. (shrink)

We assess the celebration of the 1st World Logic Day which recently took place all over the world. We then answer the question Why a World Logic Day? in two steps. First we explain why promoting logic, emphasizing its fundamental importance and its relations with many other fields. Secondly we examine the sense of a one-day celebration: how this can help reinforcing logic day-to-day and why logic deserves it. We make a comparison with other existing one-day celebrations. We end by (...) presenting and commenting the logo of the World Logic Day. (shrink)

Colors can be understood in a logical way through the theory of opposition. This approach was recently developed by Dany Jaspers, giving a new and fresh approach to the theory of colors, in particular with a hexagon of colors close to Goethe’s intuitions. On the other hand colors can also be used at a metalogical level to understand and characterize the relations of opposition, including the relations of opposition between colors themselves. In this paper we furthermore develop a theory of (...) psychic dispositions, using the hexagon of opposition of colors. We present a hexagon of psychic dispositions based on colors that we compare in particular with Plutchick’s wheel of emotions. (shrink)

L’élargissement de l’Union à l’Ukraine se pose en des termes particuliers. Il est devenu le fondement politique d’une solidarité européenne et d’un soutien inconditionnel face à l’agression de Poutine. Bien que le pays se conforme à « l’acquis communautaire » en termes d’État de droit, le principe de l’élargissement se heurte à de nombreuses difficultés et oppositions des États membres : faible soutien militaire et insuffisance des industries de défense, concurrence des produits agricoles ukrainiens en cas d’intégration dans un grand (...) marché libre exempté de droits de douane. On est face à un paradoxe qu’il faudra dépasser. L’élargissement est à la fois indispensable, inévitable pour la sécurité de tout le continent, et complexe du point de vue économique. (shrink)

This paper aims to shed new light on Hegel’s rather problematic statements about Asian thinking and Chinese philosophy by disclosing the Orientalist antecedents found in Kant’s anthropological works. First, the notion of Orientalism will be defined with reference to Orientalism and “Orientalism Reconsidered” by Edward Said. Second, an exploration of Kant’s anthropological research will show that this constituted the turning point in the Western Orientalist perception of China which had a strong influence on Hegel Finally, it will be claimed that (...) Hegel’s Orientalist perception of China rests on a definition of culture as the expression of the “spirit of a people” that has recently been revised by contemporary post-colonial anthropologists. (shrink)

Un mot d'usage quotidien, "danger", est devenu concept chez Heidegger. L'usage heideggerien de "danger" n'est pourtant pas celui de ce livre, qui refuse de s'engager de front dans la "question de l'être" au profit des manières ou modes d'être, dont il explore un échantillon sans prétention exhaustive mais utilisé comme trame heuristique. Mode d'être de l'oeuvre d'art, mode d'être de la "chose" ou du sacrement, mode d'être comme "existence" et comme "vie", un danger est toujours présent : l'existence, telle que (...) décrite chez Heidegger, est déconstituée par des phénomènes auxquels elle ne peut rendre justice ; la vie abrite l'existence mais court le risque perpétuel de n'être que dans les frontières de l'existence, etc. Et si l'étant nous est toujours donné dans un comment - comment de son apparaître, donc comment de son être -, rien ne garantit la pérennité de cette donation : presque tout étant, et d'abord l'étant que nous sommes, est en danger d'apparaître autre qu'il ne nous apparaît maintenant. Aussi convenait-il, après avoir ajointé le concept de vie à celui d'esprit, après avoir dit que la vie est "spirituelle", de justifier le titre du livre en liant "être" et "danger" ; et il restait au final le temps de proposer, dans l'élément du possible, l'hypothèse d'une eschatologie de l'être, avant tout de notre être, sur laquelle le danger n'aurait plus de prise. (shrink)

The present book discusses all aspects of paraconsistent logic, including the latest findings, and its various systems. It includes papers by leading international researchers, which address the subject in many different ways: development of abstract paraconsistent systems and new theorems about them; studies of the connections between these systems and other non-classical logics, such as non-monotonic, many-valued, relevant, paracomplete and fuzzy logics; philosophical interpretations of these constructions; and applications to other sciences, in particular quantum physics and mathematics. Reasoning with contradictions (...) is the challenge of paraconsistent logic. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers working in mathematical logic, computer science, philosophical logic, linguistics and physics. (shrink)

We are pleased to present this special issue of the journal History and Philosophy of Logic dedicated to the square of opposition.The square of opposition is a diagram and a theory of opposition re...

As it is commonly used, the concept of dignity applies to people as well as to groups of people. It is sometimes supposed to encapsulate such widely different notions as privacy, physical or mental integrity and personality. There is something puzzling in such a situation. This article argues, firstly, that the concept of dignity is best understood when applying ‹only› to autonomy, perfectibility and rationality. Belonging to the language of morals, the concept of dignity has something strongly prescriptive built into (...) it: its function is to justify prohibitions in our ways of dealing with persons. But if interpreted as depending on the actual possession of some capacities, it fails to do its job, because it applies to too few people; and if interpreted as expressing an essence, it fails because it gives way to some form of discrimination. It is suggested that a two-level use of the notion of dignity could improve things, albeit at the cost of trivialising the notion. (shrink)