Ethics is an unconventional field of research for a surgeon, as ethics in surgery owns several specificities and surgery is considered an aggressive specialty. Therefore, the interest of research in medical ethics is sometimes unclear.In this short essay, we discussed the interest of research in medical ethics using a comparison to thermodynamics and mainly, entropy. During the transformation of a figure from one state to another, some energy is released or absorbed; yet, a part of this energy is wasted because (...) of “unordered” reactions: it is Entropy.This “wasted energy” exists in Medical practice and justifies research in Medical ethics. (shrink)

In the following we will apply the manipulability theory of causation of Woodward (2004) to physical systems, and show that, in the context of physical systems, the theory can be simplified. Elaborating on an argument by Cartwright, we will argue that the notions of ‘modularity’ and ‘intervention’ of the cited work should be adapted for typical physical systems, in order to take into account the coupling of system equations. We will show that this allows the reduction of all cause types (...) discussed in Woodward (2004) to only one, namely that of ‘total cause’. We therefore claim that the manipulability account can be drastically simplified when applied to coupled physical systems. (shrink)

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Who makes decisions concerning defence policy in Belgium? Not the public opinion, because otherwise there would be no Cruise missiles.Not the Parliament, because the parliamentarians only ratify international treaties. Not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, because the Minister of Defence makes decisions without contacting Foreign Affairs. Even the Government as a whole and the Prime Minister do not much take care about the defence policy. The so-called experts concerning defence policy are the militaries, the diplomats and the NATO-bureaucrats.Yet, the political (...) problems with respect to the Atlantic Alliance and the division of the European continent, wilt constrain the politicians to reconsider the basic options of the policy. (shrink)

De l’art, on peut poser la définition la plus large qu’il est production de formes. Et, dans cette perspective, on précisera que si toute production, bien au-delà de l’art, est une production de formes, celles auxquelles se confronte l’art, seraient celles destinées à recevoir toutes les autres formes : la forme réceptacle. Celle-ci, forme de la forme ou forme matricielle que les produc­tions dérivées déclinent jusqu’à l’épuisement, s’inscrit en un temps et en un lieu sous forme de norme. C’e...

Toute représentation se présente comme un dédoublement du réel auquel elle se substitue. Dans cette substitution le réel est comme effacé au profit de ce qui devient son image réalisée. Dans cette réalisation l’image acquiert le statut de réel et celui-ci est comme enfoui, en réserve. Cette réserve, n’est pas un effacement, mais un refoulement temporaire ; le réel refoulé tend à reprendre le dessus sur ce qui l’a évincé. En même temps, la représentation comme image réalisée produit les images...

En 1991, paraît Qu’est-ce que la philosophie?, c’est le dernier ouvrage de Deleuze. Co-signé par Guattari, il apparaît être le quatrième volume issu de la collaboration ouverte avec L’Anti-Œdipe (1972), Kafka (1975), Mille Plateaux (1980). En réalité il serait le signe d’autre chose ; il marque à la fois la douloureuse fin d’une amitié et le face à face de Deleuze avec son oeuvre. L’ouvrage quoiqu’il en soit se présente bien comme un point d’achèvement où sont posés les ultimes jalons (...) de la... (shrink)

Dans les notes préparatoires à sa thèse le jeune Marx fait le lien entre la création philosophique et la Création originelle. Son travail de lecture d’Epicure l’amène à poser puis à évacuer la question de l’Origine. Dans cette évacuation c’est la question du sens qui disparaît elle aussi. Ou plus précisément, l’évacuation de la transcendance au profit de l’immanence ne trouve sa pertinence euristique que dans une redéfinition du sens non plus comme logique qui produit l’homme, mais comme logique inaugurée (...) par l’homme. (shrink)

Dans sa conception de la métaphysique, Schopenhauer occupe une position paradoxale. Il anticipe Nietzsche et prépare le terrain à l’anéantissement de la métaphysique, en montrant en quoi elle est un savoir qui a perdu ses bases ; mais en même temps il la replace au centre de l’enjeu philosophique en la promouvant au cœur de toute philosophie.

Cet article étudie l’étendue de la convergence réelle entre les nanotechnologies et la biologie de synthèse, symbole des technosciences biologiques. Pour traiter la question de la dichotomie entre le niveau des objets auquel on observe un processus de pluralisation plutôt qu’une convergence, et le niveau des discours, où le scénario de la convergence semble rester l’explication dominante, nous développons une analyse des disciplines comme dispositifs au sens de Foucault. Cela permet de décrire précisément les différentes strates composant les dispositifs et (...) leurs dynamiques. La convergence des Nanotechnologies, des Biotechnologies, des technologies de l’Information et des sciences Cognitives (convergence NBIC) apparaît alors comme l’interprétation réductrice d’un contexte scientifique et technologique complexe. (shrink)

Sous une limpidité apparente, le livre de J. Monod cache une profonde ambiguïté, à tel point que cet ouvrage peut donner lieu à des interprétations trés divergentes, parfois même contradictoires.

On aura lu dans le présent numéro de Dialogue une longue étude critique, où Claude Panaccio analyse la traduction, par Roland Galibois, du Commentaire d'Occam sur le Livre des Prédicables de Porphyre, ainsi que mon introduction à ce texte.On nous permettra sans doute d'y répondre, et on trouvera ci-après l'excellente justification que R. Galibois donne de sa traduction.

Opening up as many sources of information as possible is particularly conducive to the development of workable policy plans and to efficient decision-making in a democratic political system. It follows that MPs can greatly benefit from using computerized information systems.As far as the parliamentary activities are concerned, we can distinguish between internal and external information flow. The contents of the parliamentary documents, the procedure for processing them and the information on the parliamentary control are part of the internal information flow. (...) The external information on the other hand refers to the relations between the MPs and the executive and the judiciary branches, supranational and international institutions as well as the library.To date, the House of Representatives has been the only assembly that has set up a computerized information system. The data bases of the House comprise : the parliamentary documents and the state of advancement of all proceedings linked to these documents until the publication of the text in the official state journal. Other databases relate to the parliamentary control : interpellations, motions, oral questions and the entire text of the written parliamentary questions.The record of the House will also be stored in a data base giving references. The library fund has been integrated in the interlibrary network DOBIS-LIBIS. A data base was also designed for the press information, and linked to an image processing system.What has been realized in the House to date must also be feasible for the other parliamentary assemblies. Viewed from that perspective, it seems advisable that data bases be centralized in one parliamentary information DP centre. Access to this centre should be particulary user-friendly and uniform, so much so that all MPs can make maximum use of it.The system set up by the House meets with an ever increasing demand from other possible users. In this context, attention should be drawn to the interconnection of this system with other parliamentary assemblies, the extension of the system to other users in the House ofthe MPs and the external access to the system via the telephone network: direct access for the universities, and for certain public and private institutions and individual MPs, and the BISTEL and/ or VIDEOTEX access.The majority of the public data bases linked to the telephone network can be interrogated via the BISTEL system, hut many interesting applications are not accessible via the telephone network as they function in closed circuits.Opening up data bases by linking them to the telephone network, implies that the problem of cost and privacy be carefully examined. As to privacy, we should reflect on the public or confidential character of the data and its consequences, on safeguarding the information stored in the system and on the evolution ofcommunications technology from the perspective of a continental European communications network. (shrink)

The discourse on death and many indigenous African mortuary practices have received critical attention and scholarship. However, little attention has been paid to indigenous African burial practices in relation to public health, disease and crime control. This article explores how forms and causes of death determine social control systems and medical philosophies of interment in Cameroon. The paper focuses on the philosophical foundations birthing the _PfenəMbvɨmə_ (_the bottomless burial site_) in Kedjom-Keku. Using critical analysis of oral interviews, archival records and (...) extant literature, we unveil how burial practices have contributed to the philosophy of medicine and history of social change in Cameroon. (shrink)

Cet article porte sur la désuétude des concepts colligés en histoire. Ces concepts possèdent un statut particulier, du fait qu’ils ajoutent au passé certains éléments structurants qui lui sont étrangers. La question est donc de savoir si ces apports extérieurs entrent en jeu lorsque vient le moment de juger de l’utilité ou de la désuétude des concepts colligés. En travaillant à partir d’une caractérisation minimale du narrativisme, je présenterai l’analyse de deux formes de désuétudes que l’on retrouve en histoire et (...) qui se distinguent de ce que l’on peut observer ailleurs dans les autres sciences, soit la désuétude occasionnelle et la désuétude par l’élimination. (shrink)

For living beings, information is as fundamental as matter or energy. In this paper we show: a) inadequacies of quantitative theories of information, b) how a qualitative analysis leads to a classification of information systems and to a modelling of intercellular communication.From a quantitative point of view, the application in biology of information theories borrowed from communication techniques proved to be disappointing. These theories ignore deliberately the significance of messages, and do not give any definition of information. They refer to (...) quantities, based upon arbitrarily defined probabilistic events. Probability is subjective. The receiver of the message needs to have meta-knowledge of the events. The quantity of information depends on language, coding, and arbitrary definition of disorder. The suggested objectivity is fallacious. (shrink)

Claude Buffier’s Traité des premières vérités (1724) was published twice in the 19th century. The first was a Catholic edition (1822) emphasising the continuity between the Jesuit philosophy of common sense and Félicité de Lamennais’ principle of authority. Conversely, the other edition, of the Cousinian school (1843), stressed the debt of the Scottish school of Common Sense to Buffier’s work. Both editions sought to dissociate Buffier from the philosophy to which he perhaps felt the closest, but which in many ways (...) prefigured all the excesses (sensualism, materialism, atheism) of the 18th century against which Catholics and Cousinians fought: that of Locke. Because of their shortcomings, these two editions do not tell us much about the Traité des premières vérités, but they do tell us a lot about the ideological struggles of the 19th century. (shrink)

Reading both philosophical and theological texts, this book presents an argument against nostalgia: against the myth of a Golden Age, against the posture that sees "modernity" as a problem to be solved.

The development of the aquaculture industry in Canada has triggered a conflict of a scope never seen before. As stated in Young and Matthews’ The Aquaculture Controversy, this debate has “mushroomed over the past several decades to become one of the most bitter and stubborn face-offs over industrial development ever witnessed in Canada” (Young and Matthews in The aquaculture controversy in Canada. Activism, policy and contested science. UBC Press, Vancouver, p 3, 2010). It opposes a wide variety of actors: from (...) industrial investors, scientists, politicians and environmentalists to Native associations and communities, citizens groups and local stakeholders. The opposition is fierce between those in favor of a flourishing and modern aquaculture of industrial nature and those who fear the dreadful consequences of such an industry. In particular, the possible implementation of biotechnology innovations, such as a genetically modified salmon, has made this debate coextensive with the GMO debate, thus multiplying the opposition’s spectrum of arguments against the industry. Throughout the debate, Canadian environmental NGOs like the Suzuki Foundation and Greenpeace Canada have assumed leadership over the opposition to aquaculture development with certain success. Their participation in the debate features numerous ethical concerns related to environmental health, a respect for wilderness and local human communities. Such a position can be associated overall with a form of ecocentric ethics or concern. Nevertheless, a careful examination of the technical solutions proposed by these NGOs reveals their embeddedness in biocentrism. Through the example taken from the Canadian debate on aquaculture development, this paper aims to highlight the conceptual difficulty of enacting ecocentric ethical positions beyond formal arguments. Because ecocentrism implies a true paradigm shift, not only in mentality, but also in the way we conceive our technical interventions in nature, biocentrism remains an important practical method to enact ethical positions related to environmental concerns in public debates. (shrink)