Name der Zeitschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Jahrgang: 36 Heft: 2 Seiten: 416-420.

This paper explores the perceptions of academic staff and students to student cheating behaviours in online exams and other online assessment formats. The research took place at three Australian universities in July and August 2020 during the emergency transition to online learning and assessment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sought to inform decision making about the future of online exams at the participating universities. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using online surveys. The findings of the study (...) led to seven key observations, most notably the need to redefine the characteristics of academic misconduct to account for changes wrought to examinations in a digital world. The study concludes with lessons learned in relation to enhancing academic integrity in digital examinations and assessments. (shrink)

Las ideas de Michel Foucault han tenido una gran influencia en las ciencias de la educación. Los estudios acerca de la sociedad disciplinaria se han convertido en una referencia ineludible para pensar las dinámicas de la institución escolar. Sin embargo, esa influencia a menudo se reduce a su enfoque crítico y deconstructivo, sin elaborar adecuadamente los aspectos propositivos y la influencia constructiva que su teoría puede ofrecer. Estetrabajo parte de la hipótesis de que los últimos estudios del filósofo brindan un (...) marco conceptual sólido que va más allá la mera crítica hacia las relaciones de poder, aportando intuiciones relevantes para aplicar al campo educativo. Siguiendo esta lógica, en la presente propuesta se explorarán algunos conceptos claves del pensamientotardío de Foucault: régimen de verdad, prácticas de sí, psicagogia y parresía. Estos conceptos permitirán rastrear la importancia de los últimos trabajos de Foucault para pensar la tarea educativa. Dichos trabajos invitan a considerar la potencia de la filosofía, ya no solo para cuestionar las estructuras sedimentadas, sino también como una fuerza motivadora de procesos de transformación ética y posibilidades de invención para la trama vital delos individuos. En síntesis, la argumentación permitirá mostrar que la interpretación que el filósofo realiza tanto de la filosofía estoica como del cinismo a —través de la noción de parresía— proporciona pautas claras para aplicar al trabajo pedagógico y a la relación docente-alumno. (shrink)

International book reviews Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11007-010-9162-5 Authors Federico Leoni, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy Journal Continental Philosophy Review Online ISSN 1573-1103 Print ISSN 1387-2842.

ABSTRACTIn Democracy for Realists, Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels argue provocatively that the public falls far short of ideals of democratic citizenship, and they turn to political psychology to explain the empirics of mass political behavior. But their model of group identity fails to shed much light on the origins of political behavior and gives members of the public less credit than they deserve, for three reasons. First, group politics is not a hollow exercise; it depends on the identification of (...) a collective grievance that has a potential political solution. Second, concerns about group economics, status, and respect are more likely than individual economic considerations to animate political behavior, yet the former concerns are no less rational than the latter. Third, individuals vary in how strongly they identify with politically relevant groups, masking considerable variation in the degree to which group affiliations shape political behavior. Therefore, group identification is not a monolithic, irrational force that affects people regardless of their perceptions of political reality. (shrink)

Polycomb response elements (PREs) are regulatory switch elements that can direct the genes that they control to be either active or silenced. Once decided, this on or off state is maintained through subsequent cell divisions. We do not know how the switching works, or how it is copied to newly replicated chromosomes. Experiments that switch a silenced PRE to an active state have provided insights into both questions. A PRE switched experimentally can remember its previously silenced state and return to (...) it after several cell divisions. In the most recent study of this phenomen on,(1) the data show that several distinct variables affect the ability of PREs to “remember” and restore their previous state. The authors' interpretation of these results is discussed here. BioEssays 23:566–570, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

Considerable heterogeneity among pediatric chronic pain patients may at least partially explain the variability seen in the response to behavioral therapies. The current study tested whether autistic traits and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in a clinical sample of children and adolescents with chronic pain are associated with socioemotional and functional impairments and response to acceptance and commitment therapy treatment, which has increased psychological flexibility as its core target for coping with pain and pain-related distress. Children and adolescents aged 8–18 years were (...) recruited. Patients and their parents completed questionnaires pre- and post-ACT of 17 sessions. Correlational analyses and mixed-effects models were used to assess the role of autistic traits and ADHD symptoms in pretreatment functioning and ACT-treatment response. Outcome variables were degree to which pain interfered with daily activities, socioemotional functioning, psychological inflexibility, and pain intensity. Autistic traits and ADHD symptoms, pain frequency, and pain duration were measured at pretreatment only. Higher autistic traits were associated with greater pain interference, higher depression, and greater psychological inflexibility. Higher ADHD symptomatology was associated with greater pretreatment pain interference, lower emotional functioning, greater depression, and longer duration of pain. Across patients, all outcome variables, except for sleep disturbances and school functioning, significantly improved from pre- to post-ACT. Higher autistic traits were associated with greater pre- to post-ACT improvements in emotional functioning and sleep disturbance and non-significant improvements in pain interference. ADHD symptomatology was not associated with treatment outcome. The current results showed that neuropsychiatric symptoms in pediatric chronic pain patients are associated with lower functioning, particularly pain interfering with daily life and lower socioemotional functioning. The results suggest that not only pediatric chronic pain patients low in neuropsychiatric symptoms may benefit from ACT, but also those high in autism traits and ADHD symptoms. With the present results in mind, pediatric chronic pain patients higher in autistic traits may actually derive extra benefit from ACT. Future research could assess whether increased psychological flexibility, the core focus of ACT, enabled those higher in autism traits to cope relatively better with pain-related distress and thus to gain more from the treatment, as compared to those lower in autism traits. Moreover, to address specific effects of ACT, inclusion of an appropriate control group is key. (shrink)

This study will be of interest to anyone concerned with a critical appraisal of mental health service users’ and carers’ participation in research collaboration and with the potential of the postcolonial paradigm of cultural safety to contribute to the service user research (SUR) movement. The history and nature of the mental health field and its relationship to colonial processes provokes a consideration of whether cultural safety could focus attention on diversity, power imbalance, cultural dominance and structural inequality, identified as barriers (...) and tensions in SUR. We consider these issues in the context of state‐driven approaches towards SUR in planning and evaluation and the concurrent rise of the SUR movement in the UK and Australia, societies with an intimate involvement in processes of colonisation. We consider the principles and motivations underlying cultural safety and SUR in the context of the policy agenda informing SUR. We conclude that while both cultural safety and SUR are underpinned by social constructionism constituting similarities in principles and intent, cultural safety has additional dimensions. Hence, we call on researchers to use the explicitly political and self‐reflective process of cultural safety to think about and address issues of diversity, power and social justice in research collaboration. (shrink)

Research in diverse populations has often found that thin media images negatively affect women’s state body image, with many women reporting lower body satisfaction after exposure to pictures of thin models than before exposure. However, there is evidence that theistic affirmations might buffer against the negative effect of media on body image. Furthermore, based on cross-sectional and correlation analyses, religiosity and the Islamic body covering are discussed as protective factors against a negative trait body image. However, there is no experimental (...) research on veiled Muslim women’s state body image. Therefore, the current study experimentally investigated whether the body satisfaction of veiled Muslim women (n = 66) decreased after exposure to thin media images compared to pictures of furniture as a control condition. Christian women (n = 90) and atheist women (n = 74) were included as control groups, and participants were randomly assigned to the two conditions. Prior to the experimental session, participants’ trait body image was assessed using an online questionnaire comprising questions about body satisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, pressure to be thin, and physical appearance comparisons. The results showed that body satisfaction decreased in the experimental condition and not in the control condition, but no significant differences in pre-post changes were found between the three groups. However, in the experimental condition, veiled Muslim women reported a more positive state body image than did Christian women. Moreover, veiled Muslim women had a more positive trait body image than did Christian women and atheist women. Thus, veiled Muslim women reported lower levels of thin-ideal internalization, pressure to be thin, and physical appearance comparisons than did Christian women and atheist women. As the pre-post changes in body satisfaction did not differ between the three groups, veiling might not buffer against the negative effect of thin media images on state body image. Nevertheless, given the more positive trait body image of veiled Muslim women compared to Christian and atheist women, veiling might positively influence body image in the longer term. (shrink)

Sustainability has become a powerful discourse, guiding the efforts of various stakeholders to find strategies for dealing with current and future social-ecological crises. To overcome the latter, we argue that sustainability discourse needs to be based on a critical-emancipatory conceptualization. Therefore, we engage two such approaches—environmental justice approaches informed by a plural understanding of justice and feminist political economy ones focusing on care—and their analytical potential for productive critique of normative assumptions in the dominant sustainability discourse. Both of these approaches (...) highlight aspects of sustainability that are particularly relevant today. First, although sustainable development was conceptualized from the outset based upon a twofold notion of justice (intra- and intergenerational), the integration of justice in the dominant sustainability discourse and praxis often manifests merely as a normative aspiration. Meanwhile, the environmental justice and care approaches offer conceptualizations of justice that can act as a powerful lever and as transformation-strategy. Second, the dominant sustainability discourse largely remains within a neoliberal economic framework that continues to promote economic growth as the means to reach prosperity while neglecting the bases of every economy: care work and nature. Its focus lies solely on paid work and the market economy. By integrating (a) social and ecological ‘reproductivity’ (unpaid care and subsistence work as well as nature) and (b) democratic processes for just distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, as well as participatory equity in relevant decision making, feminist political economy and environmental justice approaches offer substantial strategies towards building humane, just and caring societies. (shrink)

In recent years, a significant body of literature has emerged on the subject of epistemic injustice: wrongful harms done to people in their capacities as knowers. Up to now this literature has ignored the role that attention has to play in epistemic injustice. This paper makes a first step towards addressing this gap. We argue that giving someone less attention than they are due, which we call an epistemic attention deficit, is a distinct form of epistemic injustice. We begin by (...) outlining what we mean by epistemic attention deficits, which we understand as a failure to pay someone the attention they are due in their role as an epistemic agent. We argue that these deficits constitute epistemic injustices for two reasons. First, they affect someone’s ability to influence what others believe. Second, they affect one’s ability to influence the shared common ground in which testimonial exchanges take place. We then outline the various ways in which epistemic attention deficits harm those who are subject to them. We argue that epistemic attention deficits are harms in and of themselves because they deprive people of an essential component of epistemic agency. Moreover, epistemic attention deficits reduce an agent’s ability to participate in valuable epistemic practices. These two forms of harm have important impacts on educational performance and the distribution of resources. Finally, we argue that epistemic attention deficits both hinder and shape the development of epistemic agency. We finish by exploring some practical implications arising from our discussion. (shrink)

This chapter draws on experiences of being identified as the financial precariat in the UK to argue that testimonial interactions between those who are in financially precarious conditions, and agents of the street-level organisations responsible for provision of health services, security and welfare, are at systematic risk of being dangerously epistemically dehumanising. This epistemic dehumanisation differs from instances of testimonial injustice in which the speaker retains some element of epistemic subjectivity and control over her contribution to the interaction. We are (...) epistemically dehumanised when we are expected to act as epistemic agents in testimonial contexts which are of great importance to us, while being met by an audience which is heavily predisposed against hearing us speak. The conditions under which this is likely to take place are strongly predicted for people marked out as poor, in their interactions with street-level organisations and their agents. As a result, the speaker who is often in serious need of help, is left epistemically disenfranchised, and at severe and probable risk of material harm. (shrink)

Performative accounts of personhood argue that group agents are persons, fit to be held responsible within the social sphere. Nonetheless, these accounts want to retain a moral distinction between group and individual persons. That: Group-persons can be responsible for their actions qua persons, but that group-persons might nonetheless not have rights equivalent to those of human persons. I present an argument which makes sense of this disanalogy, without recourse to normative claims or additional ontological commitments. I instead ground rights in (...) the different relations in which performative persons stand in relation to one another. (shrink)

AI technologies affect not only humans in many ways but also sentient animals. When investigating the impact of AI on other animals, it is important to consider how these technologies can harm them. However, it is equally important to explore how they can be used to enable animals to live good lives and improve their wellbeing. In this article, I present the rationale for this claim (Section 1), highlight applications through which AI systems are or can be used to benefit (...) nonhuman animals, and show how these benefits can be classified in terms of the harm framework proposed by Coghlan and Parker (Philosophy & Technology 36:25, 2023; Section 2). Finally, I identify open research questions that need to be addressed next (Section 3). (shrink)

This book demonstrates how the pedagogical decision making of university academics can be shaped by engagement with an educational philosophy known as "relationship-centred education". Beginning with critical analysis of concepts such as student engagement, student satisfaction, and student-centred learning, the author goes on to investigate how literature relating to social justice challenges educators to consider these terms in particular ways. From this basis, the book explores the factors featuring in inclusive, respectful, diverse and student-centred environments. In analysing these factors, the (...) author illuminates the perspectives of university teachers who struggle with the unique challenges of working in the academy; including an increasingly broad set of employment demands and narrower criteria for determining 'impact', all while retaining focus on the transformative potential of higher education. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of transformative learning, as well as social justice within higher education. Leonie Rowan is Associate Professor in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Australia. (shrink)

In How Stereotypes Deceive Us, Katherine Puddifoot provides a convincing non-normative account of what stereotypes are, and of the conditions under which we appropriately rely on them in achieving our epistemic and ethical goals. In this paper, I focus on Puddifoot’s discussion of what she takes to be the non-prejudicial use of accurate stereotypes and their role in causing or perpetuating harm. Such use can cause harm but does not, on the face of it, appear to be wrongful in the (...) way that ordinary cases of prejudicially motivated use of stereotypes are. This raises a challenge for identifying when our use of such stereotypes might be unjust or wrongful (and why). In response, I first suggest that prejudice might be located within the context in which one uses a stereotype, rather than within the content of the stereotype itself. In this way, we can indeed distinguish prejudicial (and therefore wrongful) use of accurate stereotypes from non-prejudicial (innocent) use of accurate stereotypes. And second, I suggest that we also ought to question whether the stereotypes being invoked in all cases really are accurate, given the context and scope of application. (shrink)

O presente artigo pode ser justificado como um breve panorama do debate entre modernidade e pós-modernidade em suas implicações ao campo da educação e formação humana, diante da emergência de nova humanidade, fruto do capitalismo tardio, com suas promessas não cumpridas, diante da colonização de todas as esferas, inclusive da própria educação. Assim, este trabalho visa a traçar alguns contornos do complexo liame entre modernidade e pós-modernidade, bem como a concepção de homem decadente, por um lado, e de homem emergente, (...) de outro, ante essa nova condição geracional. Para tal, o trabalho se constitui de uma pesquisa de metodologia teórico-conceitual, propondo-se como uma contribuição ao recorrente questionamento sobre a relevância das metanarrativas na formação humana, tomando como autores “estelares” Kant e Nietzsche, justificando, inclusive, uma espécie de pré-história do debate entre os metarrelatos. Daí, portanto, as escolhas conceituais deste artigo, que se deu por agenciamentos que possibilitassem a defesa de uma concepção vitalista, inerentemente criativa, como uma disciplina do pensamento indispensável a uma humanidade que se queira para além da mera reprodução erudita, do cinismo mercadológico ou, ainda, dos desígnios tecnocientíficos e rudeza materialista-determinista que rondam o tempo presente. Portanto, o artigo sugere que o novo paradigma em construção, ao se pautar por uma nova lógica, nos possibilita, considerando as críticas à modernidade, dar vazão a novo horizonte ético, que considere o homem em sua integridade. Ou seja, compreendido como “sujeito peninsular”, e não, como sonhava a modernidade, como homem “insular”, tido como sobrenatural, desenraizado do corpo e da natureza. Palavras-chave: Formação humana. Educação. Modernidade. Pós-modernidade. (shrink)

L'intention de ce texte est de présenter l'opinion de Leszek Kołakowski sur la relations entre le discours de la rationalité et celui de la foi. Chacun de ces domaines a son propre discours qui lui est specifique et intraduisible. En general, la réflexion de Kołakowski tand à prouver que la présence d'un Absolu est necessaire. Ici, cet Absolu a le visage de Dieu. C'est Lui qui permet de reconnaître comme valables les principes moraux qui en dehors de la foi sont (...) dépourvus de fondement. Ces principes ont évolué à partir du discours de la foi et ont été adaptés à l'ordre de la vie quotidienne. (shrink)

In some forms of epistemic injustice, the harm comes about because of systematic and pervasive background conditions of prejudice (Fricker, Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowing, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007). The injustice is enabled by background structural injustices (BSIs). However, in addition to background structural injustices enabling numerous forms of epistemic injustice, there are also forms of epistemic injustice that simply are structural injustices in their own right. Rather than being enabled by the presence of BSIs, they (...) are in themselves structural injustices that are best understood as structural epistemic injustices (SEIs). -/- In this chapter, I suggest that, while it is already difficult to identify sources of collective responsibility for prevention and redress in the case of BSIs, either in terms of backward- or forward-looking duties, Iris Marion Young’s social connection model may nevertheless help us to do so. However, I further argue that there are additional epistemic complications around the identification and resolution of SEIs, which make it even more difficult to identify sources of responsibility for these forms of structural injustice, both ontologically and practically. I conclude that the social connection model may not always help with identifying responsibility for SEIs and that we may need to look more widely, to fully identify those who are responsible. (shrink)

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth are currently being targeted by global anti-trans legislation that would prevent their access to gender-affirming care even by healthcare providers willing to deliver it and who understand the importance of this support. It has been suggested in some studies that transness in young people is a result of peer contagion. As such their free will, authenticity and autonomy could be brought into question when accessing gender-affirming care. It is important to explore the relevance of (...) these concepts concerning the provision of gender-affirming care to TGD youth by nurses and other healthcare professionals. Nurses should challenge the notion held by some that these young people are not capable of knowing themselves or the level of treatment they require. They can do this by practising gender-affirming care determined by aspirational ethical values of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice. (shrink)

This chapter explores Michel Foucault's contribution to a critical assessment of modern and contemporary psychiatric practice. It focuses firstly on the History of Madness : the social, political, cultural, epistemological construction of the object "psychiatric patient" and "psychiatric pathology"; the gradual historical shift from "madness" to "psychiatric pathology" and its social and epistemological consequences; the horizons and limits of the romantic task Foucault assumes on this basis ; the critique Jacques Derrida formulated about this project, and particularly about Foucault's reading (...) of Descartes. Secondly, it examines Foucault's course on Psychiatric Power, focusing on the sociopolitical consequences of this medicalization process: i.e., the construction of the object "psychiatric patient" as "disciplinated bodies", and the general context of this anthropological metamorphosis Foucault studied in his books Discipline and Punish, The Will to Knowledge, and in his course Naissance de la biopolitique. (shrink)

The use of genetic engineering is increasingly discussed for nature conservation. At the same time, recent animal ethics approaches debate whether humans should genetically engineer wild animals to improve their welfare. This paper examines if obligations towards wild sentient animals require humans to genetically engineering wild animals, while arguing that there is no moral need to do so. The focus is on arguments from animal ethics, but they are linked to conservation ethics, highlighting the often neglected overlap between the two (...) fields. The paper emphasizes that a) the benefits of genetic engineering are overestimated and at the same time harms from its development and use underestimated, b) the assumption that genetic engineering is an appropriate ‘last resort’ tool is wrong, c) many arguments in favor of genetic engineering are based on an inadequate understanding of ecology and biotechnological processes, and d) the debate downplays the importance of self-determination for wild animals. (shrink)

In May 2021, Alan Bechaz, Racher Du, Will Cailes and Thomas Spiteri interviewed Sandra Leonie Field for UPJA’s Conversations from the Region. A series of discussions that invites philosophers from or based in Australasia to share their student and academic experiences. The segment looks into what inspires people to study philosophy, how they pursue their philosophical interests, and gives our audiences a better idea of philosophy as an undergraduate.

In the field of applied computer research, the problem of the reinforcement of existing inequalities through the processing of “big data” in neural networks is typically addressed via concepts of representation and fairness. These approaches, however, tend to overlook the limits of the liberal antidiscrimination discourse, which are well established in critical theory. In this paper, I address these limits and propose a different framework for understanding technologically amplified oppression departing from the notion of “mute compulsion” (Marx), a specifically modern (...) form of power based on the social abstraction of wage labor in market exchange. I begin with a reconstruction of the process of technological abstraction in automated pattern recognition, after which I summarize the conceptional shortcomings of representational fairness discourse. In contrast, I demonstrate how the social reproduction of exploitation is conceptualized in critical theory as being mediated through a process of social abstraction, defined as a social practice of reification that manifest in fetishization. To avoid economistic shortcomings, I contextualize the argument of social abstraction against the backdrop of social reproduction theory, which takes the juncture of various historical forms of oppression into account. I conclude by elaborating how technological abstraction corresponds to the problem of mute compulsion by replicating processes of social abstraction. (shrink)

In vocational rehabilitation, empowerment is understood as the notion that people should make an active, autonomous choice to find their way back to the labour process. Following this line of reasoning, the concept of empowerment implicitly points to a specific kind of activation strategy, namely labour participation. This activation approach has received criticism for being paternalistic, disciplining and having a one-sided orientation on labour participation. Although we share this theoretical criticism, we want to go beyond it by paying attention to (...) the practical consequences of understanding empowerment as an activation strategy. Inspired by the field of Science and Technology Studies, we will explore the meaning of empowerment and activation in concrete practices of vocational rehabilitation in the Netherlands. Our analysis is based on the narratives of people with a work disability about their lives and the vocational rehabilitation programmes they participated in. We present five illustrative cases that how empowerment is ‘done’ in the practice of vocational rehabilitation and its unintended effects. Our analysis demonstrates that activation strategies seem to be caught in a paradox: instead of including people in society, they have excluding consequences. Vocational rehabilitation professionals can go beyond this paradox by learning from the ways in which empowerment is ‘done’ by clients in vocational rehabilitation programmes. (shrink)

This article examines Merleau-Ponty’s idea of an “ontological psychoanalysis” and extends it in a close dialogue both internal to Merleau-Ponty (his reflection on fetishism and the Kleinian partial object, the phenomenology of hallucination, his dissolution of ontology and the resolution of the flesh in a framework of events or a becoming of becomings) and external to Merleau-Ponty: on the one hand, with Lacan and his Seminar X (the idea of the object little-a, its possible double reading as object-divergence and as (...) event of divergence always in progress); and, on the other hand, with the Bergson of Matter and Memory (his idea of the image in itself: in Lacanian language, a kind of splinter of the real, without relation, autistic, hallucinatory) and with the Bergsonian idea of philosophical gesture (that Merleau-Ponty himself takes up, as we know, in In Praise of Philosophy). The guiding idea is that a psychoanalytic process is an experimental ontology: experimentation with being and of being, and with a being that is the result of its own staging [mise en expérience], in its own becoming through experience and experimentations, in its own future as divergence and its own movement of diverging. And the idea is also that philosophy, or at least a certain idea of philosophy, that of Merleau-Ponty’s Praise, proceeds in the same direction.L’article interroge l’idée merleau-pontienne d’une « psychanalyse ontologique » et la prolonge dans un dialogue serré interne à Merleau-Ponty (sa réflexion sur le fétichisme et sur l’objet partiel kleinien, la phénoménologie de l’hallucination, la dissolution merleau-pontienne de l’ontologie et la résolution de la chair dans une trame d’événements ou un devenir de devenirs) et externe à Merleau-Ponty : d’un côté avec Lacan et son Séminaire X (l’idée d’objet petit a, sa double lecture possible comme objet-écart et comme événement d’un s’écarter toujours en cours) ; de l’autre côté avec le Bergson de Matière et mémoire (son idée d’image en soi : en langage lacanien, une sorte de scheggia de réel, sans relation, autistique, hallucinatoire) et avec l’idée bergsonienne de geste philosophique (que Merleau-Ponty lui-même reprend, comme on le sait, dans Eloge de la philosophie. L’idée directrice est qu’un parcours psychanalytique est une ontologie expérimentale : une expérimentation avec l’être et de l’être, et avec un être qui résulte de sa propre mise en expérience, dans son propre devenir par l’expérience et par les expérimentations, dans son propre advenir comme écart et son propre mouvement d’écartement. Et aussi, que la philosophie, ou au moins une certaine idée de la philosophie, celle de l’Eloge merleau-pontien, procède dans la même direction.L’articolo muove dall’idea merleau-pontyana di una “psicoanalisi ontologica” interrogandola e prolungandola in uno stretto dialogo interno a Merleau-Ponty (la sua riflessione sul feticismo e sull’oggetto parziale kleiniano, la fenomenologia dell’allucinazione, la dissoluzione merleau-pontyana dell’ontologia e la risoluzione della carne in una trama di eventi o un divenire di divenire) ed esterno a Merleau-Ponty: da un lato con Lacan e con il suo Seminario X (l’idea di oggetto a piccolo, la sua doppia lettura possibile come oggetto-scarto e come evento di uno scartarsi sempre in corso); dall’altro con il Bergson di Materia e memoria (la sua idea di immagine in sé: lacanianamente, una sorta di scheggia di reale, irrelato, autistico, allucinatorio) e con l’idea bergsoniana di gesto filosofico (che lo stesso Merleau-Ponty riprende, com’è noto, in Elogio della filosofia). L’idea guida è che un percorso psicoanalitico sia un’ontologia sperimentale: un esperimento con l’essere e dell’essere, e con un essere o di un essere risolto nel suo proprio sperimentarsi, nel suo proprio divenire per esperienze ed esperimenti, nel suo proprio accadere come scarto e nel suo proprio scartarsi. E che la filosofia, o almeno una certa idea di filosofia, quella dell’Elogio merleau-pontyano, proceda in analoga direzione. (shrink)

The Cogito and the Mexican Salamander.Philosophy and the Rest of Sciences in the late Merleau-Ponty The article examines Merleau-Ponty’s almost parallel reading – in his last courses at the Collège de France – of the Cartesian cogito and the development of the Axolotl, the salamander studied by American biologist Coghill. My hypothesis is that the metaphysics of the cogito and the biology of the Axolotl represented for Merleau-Ponty two ways of access to the same discovery. Descartes came up against a (...) phenomenon, the cogito, which required the reshaping of metaphysics as a sort of (impossible) psychology of the event or the absolute. Within the field of anatomy, Coghill came up against a phenomenon, the embryogenesis of the Axolotl, which similarly required a sort of conversion of anatomy into embryology. Therefore, bios and psyché, “embryonality” and the cogito, would be nothing but the denomination of the objects that psychology and biology meet along their borders, names for what we could refer to as “event,” “continuum,” “becoming” or, according to an old but still suitable definition, “absolute.” This has countless consequences on the relationship between the so-called human sciences and the so-called natural sciences, their eternally missed dialogue, their false complementarity and the illusion that the famous “two cultures” do actually exist.Il Cogito e la lucertola messicana.La filosofia e il resto delle scienze nell’ultimo Merleau-Ponty L’articolo prende in esame la lettura quasi parallela che Merleau-Ponty svolge, negli ultimi corsi di lezione al Collège de France, del cogito cartesiano e dello sviluppo dell’Axolotl, la lucertola studiata dal biologo americano Coghill. La nostra ipotesi è che la metafisica del cogito, e la biologia dell’Axolotl, rappresentino agli occhi di Merleau-Ponty due modi d’accesso a una stessa scoperta. Dall’interno della metafisica, Descartes si imbatte in un fenomeno, il cogito appunto, che esige che la metafisica si istituisca come una sorta di (impossibile) psicologia dell’eventoo dell’assoluto. Tutta la metafisica sarebbe psicologia, cioè indicazione del luogo assoluto nel quale è inscritto ogni luogo. Dall’interno dell’anatomia, Coghill siimbatte in un fenomeno, lo sviluppo dell’embrione dell’Axolotl, che esige analogamente che tutta l’anatomia si risolva in embriologia. Il vivente sarebbe allora in generale questa condizione di gemmazione e autoorganizzazione, e l’embriologia sarebbe la scienza (impossibile) di questo divenire perfettamenteanoggettuale. Bios e psyché, “embrionalità” e cogito non sarebbero che i nomi di ciò che la psicologia e la biologia incontrano al loro confine, nomi di ciò che infilosofia si chiama evento, continuum, divenire, o, con un vecchio e adattissimo termine, assoluto. Il che comporta innumerevoli conseguenze circa il rapporto trale cosiddette scienze umane e le cosiddette scienze naturali, sul loro dialogo eternamente mancato, sulla loro falsa complementarietà, sull’illusione che si diano davvero le celebri “due culture”. (shrink)