Avoiding whinges from various and potentially conflicting stakeholders is a major challenge for sustainable development and for the identification of sustainability scenarios or policies for biodiversity and ecosystem services. It turns out that independently complying with whinge thresholds and constraints of these stakeholders is not sufficient because dynamic ecological-economic interactions and uncertainties occur. Thus more demanding no whinge standards are needed. In this paper, we first argue that these new boundaries can be endogenously exhibited with the mathematical concepts of viability (...) kernel and viable controls. Second, it is shown how these no whinge kernels have components, such as harvesting of resources, that should remain within safe corridor while some other components, in particular biodiversity, have only lower conservation limits. Thus, using radar charts, we show how this no whinge kernels can take the shape of a tree that we name viability tree. These trees of viability capture the idea that the unbounded renewal potential of biodiversity combined with a bounded use of the different ecosystem services are crucial ingredients for the sustainability of socio-ecosystems and the design of no whinge policies reconciling the different stakeholders involved. (shrink)

The obsession is pursued of a word, a sign, a thought that is identical with the thing it signifies, where there is no space between the two. And the nightmare is entertained that, if such an identity is not attained, then intellectual work in general is worth nothing and should be destroyed.

First translated into English in 1991, God Without Being continues to be a key book for discussions of the nature of God. This second edition contains a new preface by Marion as well as his 2003 essay on Thomas Aquinas.

Dans le domaine de la philosophie et de la littérature, l’étude détaillée des processus de transfert culturel franco-allemand des quinze dernières années fait apparaître une tendance forte, sans équivalent en Europe. Devenus des traducteurs actifs, les philosophes, dans les deux langues, modifient l’économie traditionnelle de la réception de leurs textes dans l’autre langue. Emerge alors le matériau d’un penser de l’intraduisible qui devient lui-même l’objet d’une réflexion commune et simultanée dans les deux langues. Le champ philosophique franco-allemand apparaît ainsi comme (...) un des moments les plus vivants de l’Europe de l’esprit. L’analyse pose les jalons d’une méthode d’exploration généralisable à d’autres diciplines et examine les effets rétroactifs prévisibles de cet événement de culture. (shrink)

Mathematics and the Divine seem to correspond to diametrically opposed tendencies of the human mind. Does the mathematician not seek what is precisely defined, and do the objects intended by the mystic and the theologian not lie beyond definition? Is mathematics not Man's search for a measure, and isn’t the Divine that which is immeasurable? The present book shows that the domains of mathematics and the Divine, which may seem so radically separated, have throughout history and across cultures, proved to (...) be intimately related. Religious activities such as the building of temples, the telling of ritual stories or the drawing of enigmatic figures all display distinct mathematical features. Major philosophical systems dealing with the Absolute and theological speculations focussing on our knowledge of the Ultimate have been based on or inspired by mathematics. A series of chapters by an international team of experts highlighting key figures, schools and trains of thought is presented here. Chinese number mysticism, the views of Pythagoras and Plato and their followers, Nicholas of Cusa's theological geometry, Spinozism and intuitionism as a philosophy of mathematics are treated side by side among many other themes in an attempt at creating a global view on the relation of mathematics and Man’s quest for the Absolute in the course of history. (Elsevier). (shrink)

Numerous countries are heading toward digital infrastructures. In particular this new technology promises to help support methods for elections. However, one should be careful that such an infrastructure does not hinder the voting and representation issues. On the contrary, it should support those issues and help citizens have a clearer picture of the underlying mechanisms. This paper deals with the limits of voting procedures as they are described in classical collective choice theory and reflects on ways to aggregate electronic votes (...) stemming from various individuals that would be at the same time democratic, decisive and rational which is not feasible when candidate rankings alone are taken into account. This paper shows how electronic voting procedures could improve the situation by introducing preference-based votes. (shrink)

La philosophie esthétique connaît depuis une quarantaine d'années un essor considérable, singulièrement dans la tradition phénoménologique occidentale. Elle constitue l'un des tournants majeurs de la philosophie du XXe et du début du XXIe siècle. Elle est devenue l'une des meilleures clés d'analyse et de compréhension des phénomènes humains. Le présent ouvrage se propose donc par ce biais, de fournir un choix représentatif de travaux dans le domaine esthétique et métaphysique relatif à la créativité africaine contemporaine. Il se propose en fin (...) de compte de faire découvrir un certain nombre de recherches d'une importance vitale pour la réflexion sur le concept essentialiste du "Primitivisme occidental" tel qu'il s'institue dans le discours philosophique et esthétique moderne pour appréhender et comprendre la beauté "nègre"! (shrink)

Il ne faut pas confondre ce que nous voyons et ce qui apparaît. Ce que nous voyons se construit à partir de notre point de vue, et donc reste notre objet, que nous tenons sous la garde du regard, que nous tenons littéralement à l’oeil. Ce qui apparaît vient de lui-même, de son fonds d’invu, et s’impose sur la scène sans que nous l’ayons, nous, mis en scène de notre point de vue. Il ne se soumet plus à notre regard, (...) à nos perspectives et dimensions, mais s’en libère et parfois les contredit même. Passer de l’un à l’autre impose sans doute à notre vision l’une des plus radicales transformations, métamorphoses, bref modifi cation de la fi gure qui se puisse concevoir, ou justement qui ne se peut pas concevoir. (shrink)

Laurent Kretzschmar 'Is Cinema Renewing Itself?' _Film-Philosophy_, vol. 6 no. 15, July 2002.

Parmi ses derniers ouvrages : Chroniques philosophiques, Paris, Galilée, 2004. La Déclosion – déconstruction du christianisme, 1, Paris, Galilée, 2005 ; Tombe de sommeil, Paris, Galilée, 2007.Ce rapprochement s’est imposé à moi lorsque Mustapha Chérif a pris l’initiative..

Aucun des termes tels que sophia ou sagesse, gnose, ontologie, henologie, theologie, philosophie transcendantale, dialectique, deconstruction, qui tous ont un rapport certain avec la metaphysique, n'egale son prestige et son pouvoir d'evocation. Dans le sens large entrevu ici, est metaphysique toute enquete argumentee, demarche ou approche dont la destination expresse est l'etablissement ou la decouverte des premiers principes ou des premieres causes de l'etre, du connaitre ou de l'agir Le questionnement metaphysique presente donc une figure hautement typique de notre tradition, (...) moins assuree que la theologie dont elle dispute pourtant l'ampleur de vue, plus indeterminee que la science dont elle veut neanmoins partager l'ideal de rigueur et d'intelligibilite. (shrink)

In vertebrates the antero‐posterior organization of the embryonic body axis is thought to result from the activity of two separate centers, the head organizer and the trunk organizer, as operationally defined by Spemann in the 1920s. Current molecular studies have supported the existence of a trunk organizer activity while the presence of a distinct head inducing center has remained elusive. Mainly based on analyses of headless mutants in mice, it has been proposed that the anterior axial mesoderm plays a determining (...) role in head induction. Recent gain‐ and loss‐of‐function studies in various organisms, however, provide compelling evidence that a largely ignored region, the anterior primitive endoderm, specifies rostral identity. In this review we discuss the emerging concept that the anterior primitive endoderm, rather than the prechordal plate mesoderm, induces head development in the vertebrate embryo. (shrink)

Depuis plus d'un siècle les éditions et les études sur Vauvenargues sont fondées sur l'édition Gilbert (1857), édition incomplète et fautive en de nombreux endroits. Après de longues recherches et des travaux ardus, D Acke, L Bove, J Dagen et J Vercruysse, quatre dix-huitiémistes connus, ont entrepris de concert une édition enfin complète, critique et authentique. Le tome IV, celui de la correspondance (largement augmentée) et de documents personnels inconnus à ce jour, permet d'ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives sur l'élaboration de (...) la pensée du jeune moraliste et les liens qu'il entretenait avec les siens. (shrink)

What does the word “value” mean? On the one hand, absolute value is an excellence that is beyond measure. On the other hand, value can also be interpreted as price, as what can be measured and exchanged. In both cases, value lies in relation and is of the same order as sense. But what is the relation between these two senses of value? And why is it so difficult to hold the two apart?

The intention of this paper is to relate the various standpoints regarding anxiety and uncertainty. Within the humanities and social sciences, research is pursued in many different disciplines without much interaction between them. Everyone's thinking is based on concepts which are domain-specific, and the distinctions, methods and arguments used are the ones that are generally accepted within the discipline. The divergent conclusions constitute pieces of a puzzle that are seldom if ever put together. There are even doubts about whether such (...) a puzzle can be put together. It can hardly be denied, however, that inspiration is to be found in a consideration of the views and findings of colleagues from other disciplines who are working on the same problems. Now that we have as our guests two prominent academics, each with specific views about our subject, we should take this opportunity to discuss together some of the sociological, anthropological, economic, philosophical and theological approaches to anxiety and uncertainty.If a number of well-known authors are to be believed, lack of trust, uncertainty and insecurity affect the most affluent and modern societies. In French one speaks of précarité , in German of Unsicherheit and Risikogesellschaft , and in English of “fear”, “risk” and “insecurity” . All modern Western societies seem to be afflicted with the same dismal and frustrating human experience.Belgian society is no exception to this. In recent years we have regularly been subjected to the emotional reactions provoked by sensational events in the areas of politics , justice and public health . Less spectacular but no less real were the results of opinion polls which showed that confidence in public institutions in general, and politics in particular, is at an all-time low. (shrink)

This article examines the ways in which Bruce Nauman’s art installations provoke audience experiences analogous to those felt during traumatic events. A central assertion of the present study is that the looping mechanisms of Nauman’s video artworks produce a theoretical stilling of the moving image that is reflective of the fight-flight-or-freeze response to a highly charged incident, which often entails a temporal shift as time appears to slow to a halt. Whereas in the past, the human response to acute stress (...) was typically prompted by a physical threat in the natural environment, today an evolutionary misfire occurs when this survival mechanism becomes prompted instead during everyday situations. Throughout human history, the experience of viewing an artwork has developed into an act of aesthetic appreciation involving a search for meaning. However, in this case, the sensory overload triggered by Nauman’s artwork purposefully impedes neuroprocessing, highlighting the adverse effects of mediation saturation in contemporary society; therefore, a stilling of the moving image in essence functions as a biological adaptation strategy in an attempt to come to terms with the puzzling nature of these artworks. By applying French philosopher Roland Barthes’s theories of the image, this article expands Barthes’s thought from the image to the performative as a reflection of human adaptation to technological advancement. (shrink)

In the ongoing ‘brain death’ controversy, there has been a constant push for the use of the ‘higher brain’ formulation as the criterion for the determination of death on the grounds that brain-dead individuals are no longer human beings because of their irreversible loss of consciousness and mental functions. This essay demonstrates that such a position flows from a Lockean view of human persons. Compared to the ‘consciousness-related definition of death,’ the substance view is superior, especially because it provides a (...) holistic vision of the human person, and coheres with the perennial axiom about the ‘whole and parts.’. (shrink)

The wages of Dexios. The new Amphictyonic coinage reconsidered In Spring 336 BCE, the Delphic Amphictyony decided to create a full-weight Aeginetic coin-age : the “ new Amphictyonic”. A re-examination of the preliminary estimate of the minting (CID II 75, col. I, l. 46-56) allows us to establish that the minter was paid at a rate of 9 Amphictyonic obols per delivered mina, and had a margin of a sixtieth (1.67%) of the total silver mass, in order to cover the (...) losses in melting. An allowance for those two expenses, as well as the actual weight shortage of the different lots of coins intended for the melting pot, were entered in the account of the global ajpousiva (l. 48-49). Such a complex calculation fits perfectly with the practices of Greek goldsmiths. In Spring 335 BCE, the experiment of the new Amphictyonic was brutally interrupted, while about 46 talents of metal were still to be struck. This raw silver mass, intended to produce 44.31 talents of Amphictyonic coins, was exchanged for 45.31 talents of Attic coins – which meant a saving of a little more than a talent (CID II 76, col. III, l. 38-42). (shrink)

This discussion note aims to address the two points which Lizza raises regarding my critique of his paper “Defining Death: Beyond Biology,” namely that I mistakenly attribute a Lockean view to his ‘higher brain death’ position and that, with respect to the ‘brain death’ controversy, both the notions of the organism as a whole and somatic integration are unclear and vague. First, it is known from the writings of constitutionalist scholars that the constitution view of human persons, a theory which (...) Lizza also holds, has its roots in John Locke’s thought. Second, contrary to Lizza’s claims, the notions of the organism as a whole and somatic integration are both more than adequately described in the biomedical and biophilosophical literature. (shrink)

We construct a world model consisting of a matter field living in 4 dimensional spacetime and a gravitational field living in 11 dimensional spacetime. The seven hidden dimensions are compactified within a radius estimated by reproducing the particle–wave characteristics of diffraction experiments. In the presence of matter fields the gravitational field develops localized modes with elementary excitations called gravonons which are induced by the sources. The final world model treated here contains only gravonons and a scalar matter field. The gravonons (...) are localized in the environment of the massive particles which generate them. The solution of the Schrödinger equation for the world model yields matter fields which are localized in the 4 dimensional subspace. The localization has the following properties: There is a chooser mechanism for the selection of the localization site. The chooser selects one site on the basis of minor energy differences and differences in the gravonon structure between the sites, which at present cannot be controlled experimentally and therefore let the choice appear statistical. The changes from one localization site to a neighbouring one take place in a telegraph-signal like manner. The times at which telegraph like jumps occur depend on subtleties of the gravonon structure which at present cannot be controlled experimentally and therefore let the telegraph-like jumps appear statistical. The fact that the dynamical law acts in the configuration space of fields living in 11 dimensional spacetime lets the events observed in 4 dimensional spacetime appear non-local. In this way the phenomenology of CQM is obtained without the need of introducing the process of collapse and a probabilistic interpretation of the wave function. Operators defining observables need not be introduced. All experimental findings are explained in a deterministic way as a consequence of the time development of the wave function in configuration space according to Schrödinger’s equation without the need of introducing a probabilistic interpretation. (shrink)

The coherentist theory of justification provides a response to the sceptical challenge: even though the independent processes by which we gather information about the world may be of dubious quality, the internal coherence of the information provides the justification for our empirical beliefs. This central canon of the coherence theory of justification is tested within the framework of Bayesian networks, which is a theory of probabilistic reasoning in artificial intelligence. We interpret the independence of the information gathering processes (IGPs) in (...) terms of conditional independences, construct a minimal sufficient condition for a coherence ranking of information sets and assess whether the confidence boost that results from receiving information through independent IGPs is indeed a positive function of the coherence of the information set. There are multiple interpretations of what constitute IGPs of dubious quality. Do we know our IGPs to be no better than randomization processes? Or, do we know them to be better than randomization processes but not quite fully reliable, and if so, what is the nature of this lack of full reliability? Or, do we not know whether they are fully reliable or not? Within the latter interpretation, does learning something about the quality of some IGPs teach us anything about the quality of the other IGPs? The Bayesian-network models demonstrate that the success of the coherentist canon is contingent on what interpretation one endorses of the claim that our IGPs are of dubious quality. (shrink)

Probabilistic models have much to offer to philosophy. We continually receive information from a variety of sources: from our senses, from witnesses, from scientific instruments. When considering whether we should believe this information, we assess whether the sources are independent, how reliable they are, and how plausible and coherent the information is. Bovens and Hartmann provide a systematic Bayesian account of these features of reasoning. Simple Bayesian Networks allow us to model alternative assumptions about the nature of the information sources. (...) Measurement of the coherence of information is a controversial matter: arguably, the more coherent a set of information is, the more confident we may be that its content is true, other things being equal. The authors offer a new treatment of coherence which respects this claim and shows its relevance to scientific theory choice. Bovens and Hartmann apply this methodology to a wide range of much discussed issues regarding evidence, testimony, scientific theories, and voting. Bayesian Epistemology is an essential tool for anyone working on probabilistic methods in philosophy, and has broad implications for many other disciplines. (shrink)

This volume is the direct result of a conference in which a number of leading researchers from the fields of artificial intelligence and biology gathered to ...

We appeal to the theory of Bayesian Networks to model different strategies for obtaining confirmation for a hypothesis from experimental test results provided by less than fully reliable instruments. In particular, we consider (i) repeated measurements of a single test consequence of the hypothesis, (ii) measurements of multiple test consequences of the hypothesis, (iii) theoretical support for the reliability of the instrument, and (iv) calibration procedures. We evaluate these strategies on their relative merits under idealized conditions and show some surprising (...) repercussions on the variety-of-evidence thesis and the Duhem-Quine thesis. (shrink)