Now, twenty years later, this collection of fifteenessays brings her work into dialogue with those philosophical views that are at center stage today-- in critical theory, communitarianism, virtue theory, and feminism.

Often advocates for persons with disabilities are resistant to what might appear to be the banal truism that, at bottom, disability is a decrement in health. Disability advocates have long objected to the “medicalization” of disability, when that means focusing entirely on a person’s underlying impairments and ignoring all of the manifold obstacles in his or her environment — e.g., physical, human-built, attitudinal, social, political, and cultural — that makes living with those impairments at least disadvantageous and socially devalued. Over-medicalization (...) is another and well understood problem that people with disabilities are justifiably concerned about. Yet it is somewhat of a mystery why anyone with an impairment would ever deny, or feel uncomfortable being told, that their impairment is a health problem. Surely, people with disabilities are unhealthy, by virtue of their impairments and to the degree according to the severity of those impairments. How could it be otherwise? (shrink)

Argumentation theory has much to offer our understanding of the doctor-patient relationship as it plays out in the context of seeking and obtaining consent to treatment. In order to harness the power of argumentation theory in this regard, I argue, it is necessary to take into account insights from the legal and bioethical dimensions of informed consent, and in particular to account for features of the interaction that make it psychologically complex: that there is a fundamental asymmetry of authority, power (...) and expertise between doctor and patient; that, given the potential for coercion, it is a challenge to preserve the interactive balance presumed by the requirement of informed consent; and finally that the necessary condition that patients be ‘competent to consent’ may undermine the requirement of respecting patient autonomy. I argue argumentation theory has the resources to deal with these challenges and expand our knowledge, and appreciation, of the informed consent interaction in health care. Keywords: argumentation theory, informed consent, doctor-patient interaction, competency to consent, autonomy, medical paternalism. (shrink)

Can the age-old practices of animal selection and breeding and the more recent biotechnological interventions on animals, far more intrusive and systematic than any present form of human enhancement, enlighten us as to the future of enhancement practices? This book explores issues raised by past and present practices of animal enhancement in terms of their means and their goals, clarifies conceptual issues and identifies lessons that can be learned about enhancement practices, as they concern both animals and humans. The extreme (...) ambiguity of the claim that animals are being enhanced, the driving goals and strategies of third-party interests, but also the similarity of the substances and techniques used on humans and animals, suggest that human enhancement practices may be just as tainted by equivocal goals and strategies as equivalent practices with animals. (shrink)

The defence of necessity has had a long, though confused, legal career. Like self-defence, consent, duress, insanity and mistake of law, necessity is rooted in moral intuitions about when conduct which causes harm to another's person or property is not wrong, or should be tolerated, permitted or praised. If a man is literally starving to death and steals a loaf of bread, we are reluctant to say that his extreme circumstances should make no difference at all to the way we (...) treat him at trial. And if two men, adrift at sea, are clinging to a log which can only support the weight of one, we are once again reluctant to say that if one pushes the other off the log, it is just a case of murder. These intuitions are deepseated; but it is extremely difficult to articulate the defence they seem to support, or to isolate the circumstances which mark the difference between a situation where the defence ought to apply and where it ought not. (shrink)

The Post-Information Age will see the merger of humans and their technologies, perhaps creating an entirely new species.

Résumé Les musées semblent souvent à la fois immuables et « objectifs » pour ce qui est des relations qu’ils proposent aux œuvres. La constitution des musées procède pourtant d’une histoire qui emprunte directement à la rhétorique des méthodes visant à convaincre, toucher, persuader, voire manipuler à tout prix les personnes à qui on a affaire. Les questions d’invention, de disposition, d’élocution se retrouvent ainsi au musée dans les choix et catégorisations d’œuvres, la muséographie, la médiation, la visite guidée...

Résumé L’interprétation serait un point qui divise les arts. À l’encontre de cette idée, l’auteur pose un principe d’équivalence entre les arts qui n’est plus fondé sur des questions de définition des « pratiques artistiques » mais sur leur mode de diffusion. Le concert, le spectacle, le cinéma, l’édition d’un livre trouvent alors leur contrepartie dans le monde des arts plastiques avec l’exposition. L’exposition est en outre le point de rencontre de différentes formes d’interprétation : celle de l’artiste, celles de (...) ses médiateurs, celles des spectateurs. (shrink)

Does the success of quantum mechanics require that we abandon the notion of complete scientific explanation? Or does it represent a breakthrough in the explanatory scope of physical theories? Ever since Werner Heisenberg formulated the theory of matrix mechanics in 1925, this issue has been the topic of a continuing philosophical debate. In this essay I propose to explain Heisenberg's rejection of the mechanistic philosophy associated with classical physics and the significance of his return to Aristotle's concept of matter as (...) potency. (shrink)

Contextualizationof Biblical texts is a priority of every exegete, who endeavors to bring the ancient scripts to dialogue with contemporary issues. This paper, which studies Psalm 72 and a prayer composed for good governance in Anambra State Nigeria, focuses on this hermeneutical interpretation. The writer adopts a simplified literary method in Biblical research that takes cognizance of the varied poetic techniques in Psalm 72 and engages in a detailed comparative study of a Psalm composed more than two millennia ago and (...) a prayer of our time. Such comparative study reveals a striking similar preoccupation of the composers of both texts. Both prayed for good governance of which all developing countries today are in dire need. (shrink)

Research into mathematics often focuses on basic numerical and spatial intuitions, and one key property of numbers: their magnitude. The fact that mathematics is a system of complex relationships that invokes reasoning usually receives less attention. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight the intricate connections between reasoning and mathematics, and to use insights from the reasoning literature to obtain a more complete understanding of the processes that underlie mathematical cognition. The topics that are discussed range from the (...) basic heuristics and biases to the various ways in which complex, effortful reasoning contributes to mathematical cognition, while also considering the role of individual differences in mathematics performance. These investigations are not only important at a theoretical level, but they also have broad and important practical implications, including the possibility to improve classroom practices and educational outcomes, to facilitate people's decision-making, as well as the clear and accessible communication of numerical information. (shrink)

Prologue: retrospective and prospective -- The ethics of enough -- Real and apparent goods -- Wrong desires: pleasure, money, fame, and power -- Right desires: the totum bonum and its constituents -- Fundamental errors in moral philosophy -- Necessary but not sufficient -- Epilogue: transcultural ethics.

Preface by Dr. Franz Alexander - Director, Psychiatric and Pychosomatic Research Institute Mount Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles. Vol. 9.

In this paper, I propose a study of the figure of the philistine (Spidsborgeren) as the embodiment of spiritlessness in Kierkegaard. Indeed, although the pseudonyms aim at representing all the possibilities of existence, declining at the same time the diverse degrees of inwardness, the philistine appears throughout the whole work as the very paradigm of the lack of inwardness. While this figure stands as a kind of antipseudonym, I thus argue that it plays a decisive role in Kierkegaard, because it (...) enables him to constitute and to structure, in a negative way, his philosophy of existence. (shrink)

In 1791, the Loi relative aux découvertes utiles instituted a new patent system in France. Because patents were seen as the expression of the natural right of inventors, prior examination was abolished. However, only a few years after the law was passed, an unofficial examination was reinstated, and it was entrusted to the Comité Consultatif des Arts et Manufactures – a consultative body composed of prominent scientists. I analyze the political significance of the involvement of the savants in the patent (...) system, and based on the archives of the Comité, I study the scope and practicalities of the examination process, paying close attention to the ways through which the savants of the Comité directly intervened in the writing and drawing of specifications. I show how a distinct regime of intellectual property emerged in France and how it was constructed by the interests and norms of scientists, eager as they were to distinguish ‘science’ from ‘industry’ and establish the superiority of the former over the latter. (shrink)

Notre article consiste en une étude talmudique à propos du messianisme. Nous analysons en particulier une double difficulté. La première consiste dans le nouage obscur que le Talmud suggère entre des éléments intimes de la subjectivité humaine et l’advenue collective globale, de nature politique, d’un dépassement de la société mercantile inégalitaire. La deuxième concerne l’élaboration de cette subjectivité, que l’on peut dire paradoxale, puisqu’elle conjoint une forme de désespoir de la délivrance à une attente renouvelée. Notre approche s’inscrit dans la (...) continuité des lectures talmudiques d’Emmanuel Levinas, en ce qu’elle n’est pas historique, mais cherche à proposer la constitution d’une pensée féconde pour notre modernité. (shrink)

Many theories require empirical patches or ad hoc assumptions to work properly in application to chemistry. Some examples include the Bohr quantum theory of atomic spectra, the Pauli exclusion principle, the Marcus theory of the rate-equilibrium correlation, Kekule’s hypothesis of bond oscillation in benzene, and the quantum calculation of reaction pathways. Often the proposed refinements do not grow out of the original theory but are devised and added ad hoc. This brings into question the goal of constructing theories derived from (...) first principles and the concept of ranking the merit of theories according to their freedom from empirical contamination. (shrink)

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R. E. Jennings has recently provided us with two formal renderings of the motto of the view he calls ‘pseudo-subjectivism’, viz., ‘One ought to do what one thinks one ought to do’. These renderings are.

Résumé Le cheminement de la pensée occidentale, depuis plus d’un siècle, a vu : la mort de Dieu, la chute des idéologies politiques qui semblaient avoir pris le relais des valeurs « divines », la solitude de l’individu désorienté. Le malaise de l’individu serait le symptôme d’une remise en question de la notion même d’être humain. En reprenant la critiques de l’humanisme introduite par Nietzsche, Sloterdijk fait ressortir que l’homme aurait échappé à la bestialité par les moyens mêmes qu’il emploie (...) pour apprivoiser les animaux et les mettre à son service. Que dire de ce que la recherche permet actuellement de faire sur l’être humain? La manipulation du vivant a fait émerger la possibilité d’une fabrique de l’être humain. Les choix que nous avons à faire quant au devenir de l’humain restent éminemment politiques. Le terme d’humanisme est complexe : il est deux types d’humanisme. Celui qui conçoit l’humain comme une essence. La seconde forme considère qu’il n’y a pas de nature humaine, que l’on devient humain. Le monde humain est ouvert à la création, mais fragilisé parce que placé sous notre responsabilité. (shrink)

In his preface to Human, Too Human Nietzsche wrote: ‘My books have been labelled the school of suspicion … ‘ Predicted and desired by Nietzsche, the age of suspicion does seem to be one of the labels that best characterize the century that has just closed. And symptomatically it was used a few decades later in France to describe writers’ interrogations about the novel as a literary genre, its facilities and conventions, its easy determinisms, as well as the exorbitant power (...) of the novelist-demiurge. Is it necessary to recall that the forerunner to the nouveau roman, written by Nathalie Sarraute in the 1930s, was in fact entitled L’Ère du soupçon? It is impossible to emphasize enough this close concordance between philosophical questioning and aesthetic interrogations, particularly in the notion of avant-garde, which is indispensable for thinking about intellectual and political renewal. It is true that the 20th century was the century of the universal declaration of human rights, but also the century of rejection of norms inherited from philosophical, literary, cultural, religious or scientific traditions, which came to be suspected of providing only off-the-peg elements for thought and action at a time when the world was changing and required new forms of thinking. (shrink)

Mgr Félix Hedde (1879-1960), o.p., est un personnage-clé de la mission des dominicains de Lyon dans le Haut-Tonkin. Son long ministère au Việt Nam (1926-1960) en fit un témoin privilégié d’une période dramatique de l’histoire du pays. Il a connu les années prospères de la colonisation française jusqu’en 1940, les souffrances de ses compatriotes pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et la guerre d’Indochine, leur humiliation face à la décolonisation forcée, et enfin la persécution ouverte ou larvée des chrétiens sous le (...) régime communiste. Chez Félix Hedde, l’amour pour la mission du Tonkin, le désir d’y implanter l’Église, se conjuguait à sa volonté d’honorer ses traditions familiales et nationales. L’épreuve de l’occupation japonaise, de la guerre d’Indochine, des défaites de l’armée française, autant que le réconfort de la fidélité des chrétiens vietnamiens de la mission dans une situation de plus en plus critique, détachant Mgr Hedde de ses rêves patriotiques, le conduisirent à l’accomplissement de sa vocation missionnaire. Les conditions particulières de son territoire de mission, où les ethnies montagnardes sont très largement majoritaires, l’amenèrent cependant à proposer pour lui succéder le Français André Jacq, privant ainsi d’évêque les chrétiens du lieu, de 1958 à 1990. (shrink)

Cet article analyse les liens entre les SEL et l'économie solidaire. Les SEL sont définis comme des associations au sein desquelles des personnes échangent services et biens au moyen d'une comptabilité interne tenue en une monnaie propre ; elles émergent en 1983. SEL et économie solidaire partagent certains objectifs communs. Les SEL revendiquent en effet par leurs actions l'institution de nouveaux rapports économiques procédant d'une solidarité sous la forme d'une proximité relationnelle et spatiale, à laquelle ne répondent pas l'échange marchand (...) et la redistribution étatique. Cependant les SEL peuvent voir leur projet solidaire remis en cause, en particulier pour deux raisons : le risque d'instrumentalisation politique d'une part, la contrainte juridique et sociale d'autre part.This article analyzes links between LETS and a civil and solidarity-based economy. LETS are defined as associations in which individuals exchange services and goods by means of an internal accounting system based on its own currency. The first LETS appeared in 1983. These LETS and the new social economy share some common purposes. By their actions, LETS aim to set up a new system of economic relations based on solidarity proceeding from relational and spatial proximity. Market exchanges and State redistribution do not provide an efficient response to these needs. However, there are certain threats to the solidarity aimed at by LETS such as firstly the risk that politicians may instrumentalize these initatives and secondly legal and social constraints. (shrink)