Purpose This article aims to describe the personal experience and ethical dilemmas that the author encountered when conducting qualitative research on a highly sensitive topic, i.e. interviews with offenders convicted of child pornography. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an autoethnographic approach to describe and reflect on my personal experience, emotions and ethical dilemmas when undertaking sensitive research that examines illegal acts. Findings Ethical dilemmas and emotional challenges highlighted refer to the issue of access to useful empirical material, conducting interviews with convicted (...) offenders in prison environments, the complexity surrounding confidentiality when interviewing offenders about their criminal activities, vulnerability and insecurity for the researcher and emotional challenges for the researcher when listening to the offenders’ stories describing serious crimes against children. Originality/value This article contributes with insights and reflections on conducting qualitative research with a marginalized and stigmatized group in prison environments. (shrink)

In recent years there has been an expansion of scientific work on consciousness. However, there is an increasing necessity to integrate evolutionary and interdisciplinary perspectives and to bring affective feelings more centrally into the overall discussion. Pursuant especially to the theorizing of Endel Tulving , Panksepp and Vandekerckhove we will look at the phenomena starting with primary-process consciousness, namely the rudimentary state of autonomic awareness or unknowing consciousness, with a fundamental form of first-person ‘self-experience’ which relies on affective experiential states (...) and raw sensory and perceptual mental existences, to higher forms of knowing and self-aware consciousness. Since current scientific approaches are most concerned with the understanding of higher declarative states of consciousness, we will focus on these vastly underestimated primary forms of consciousness which may be foundational for all forms of higher ‘knowing consciousness’. (shrink)

Within recent years, an increasing number of people and researchers in the Global North have become interested in psychedelic substances and their therapeutic application. While much of the current media attention and research effort mainly concentrate on the therapeutic potential and actions of the individual's acute psychedelic experience, this article explores the user-perceived, therapeutic dynamics of psychedelics in a more long-term perspective by charting the lived experiences and practices of ‘integration’ among psychedelic users in Denmark. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from (...) November 2020 to June 2021, I offer a dual typology of self-related integration as narrative and experiential-somatic. Combining the two, I argue that psychedelic integration in contemporary Denmark can be viewed as a processual self-transformation of the users' experiential orientation where understandings and/or modes of being from the acute psychedelic experience are woven into, prolonged, and/or embodied in their everyday existence. (shrink)

We characterize four fruitful and underappreciated epistemic roles played by the concept of an individualized niche in contemporary biology, utilizing results of a qualitative empirical study conducted within an interdisciplinary biological research center. We argue that the individualized niche concept (1) shapes the research agenda of the center, (2) facilitates explaining core phenomena related to inter-individual differences, (3) helps with managing individual-level causal complexity, and (4) promotes integrating local knowledge from ecology, evolutionary biology, behavioral biology and other biological fields. We (...) thereby also challenge arguments that the niche concept is superfluous in ecology. (shrink)

Writing about testimonies from the concentration camps poses a fundamental problem to those who undertake this task, for one cannot lightly broach the still-living history of the Nazi camps. Auschwitz “is not a subject for a colloquium” or, at least, not a subject like others. For the deportees themselves, speaking up is not easy. In whose name can they speak, in the name of what can they remember, how can they say it and to whom? Such are the first questions (...) which arise like so many obstacles to communication. How to express the inexpressible? Such is the problem lying at the heart of all the testimonies, inasmuch as their credibility but also their possibility of existing depend on it. As Yves Reuter points out, the question of form appears in its most crucial aspect here: Neither history nor textual theory can overlook the concentration camp testimonies, extreme discourses of an extreme experience. To be concerned with form is not at all secondary. The obsessive “how to say it” of the accounts in this case seems of capital importance to me. (shrink)

l presente texto propone un recorrido por la obra de Gilbert Simondon a partir de una pregunta acerca de la piel y el contacto. Su conceptualización del límite y de la relación en La individuación a la luz de las nociones de forma y de información permite trazar líneas conceptuales para pensar el contacto en un diálogo con prácticas corporales y artísticas del campo de las técnicas somáticas y de la danza. La lectura de Simondon en diálogo con experiencias sensibles (...) permite entender algunos de los conceptos centrales de su obra y conceptualizaciones originales que se elaboran en el cruce. (shrink)

This paper examines different kinds of definite descriptions denoting purely contingent, necessary or impossible objects. The discourse about contingent/impossible/necessary objects can be organised in terms of rational questions to ask and answer relative to the modal profile of the entity in question. There are also limits on what it is rational to know about entities with this or that modal profile. We will also examine epistemic modalities; they are the kind of necessity and possibility that is determined by _epistemic_ constraints (...) related to knowledge or rationality. Definite descriptions denote so-called _offices_, roles, or _things to be._ We explicate these α-offices as partial functions from possible worlds to chronologies of objects of type α, where α is mostly the type of individuals. Our starting point is Prior’s distinction between a ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ definite article ‘the’. In both cases, the definite description refers to at most one object; yet, in the case of the weak ‘the’, the referred object can change over time, while in the case of the strong ‘the’, the object referred to by the definite description is the same forever, once the office has been occupied. The main result we present is the way how to obtain a Wh-knowledge about who or what plays a given role presented by a hyper-office, i.e. _procedure_ producing an office. Another no less important result concerns the epistemic necessity of the impossibility of knowing who or what occupies the impossible office presented by a hyper-office. (shrink)

Ce commentaire critique a pour objectif de définir, d’expliquer et d’illustrer trois systèmes de croyances et d’oppression généralement peu connus en santé, mais susceptibles d’influencer négativement les pratiques de professionnels de la santé et de services sociaux ainsi que celles d’organisations publiques ou privées de santé, à savoir : le capacitisme, le sanisme et le suicidisme. Il a aussi pour objectif d’identifier certaines pistes d’action pouvant contribuer à combattre ces systèmes largement répandus au sein des institutions et organisations de nos (...) sociétés occidentales contemporaines. (shrink)

S’inscrivant dans un courant qui reconsidère aujourd’hui la place des femmes dans l’histoire, Mélanie Fabre publie une édifiante biographie de Dick May, une intellectuelle largement oubliée de la Belle Époque, fondatrice notamment du Collège libre des sciences sociales en 1895, de la première École supérieure de journalisme française en 1899 et de l’École libre des hautes études sociales en 1900. Elle a été aussi active dans la fondation du Musée social en 1894, dans la formation de l’univers...

Architectural adaptation, as an integral concept, involves all the actors, buildings and elements (technical, organic, material, social) of an inhabited site and allows for adaptive actions within a common development process in the face of the current crisis. In order to explore this, we re-actualize an integral notion of "Environments" introduced by artists and architects in the 1960s as open settings that challenge the boundaries and relationships between designers and visitors, art and life. Adaptation processes in architectural "Environments" evolve on (...) social, spatial and design levels and are based on reciprocity, inclusive communication and continuous negotiation between all actors. In this way, they can be understood as a medium between different needs and conditions, or as agents of mediation and negotiation for situational adaptation states. The development of an adaptive high-rise in Stuttgart shows that adaptive structures, due to their ability to react dynamically, have special media qualities that are important for negotiation processes with all actors in architectural 'Environments.' Each new form or state reflects and informs changing situations and relationships between actors and enables communication and interaction processes within Environments. Using pre-modern examples, we discuss how earlier 'Environments' formed a medium for and with (non-human and human) inhabitants, their practices, knowledge and history, and their surroundings over long periods of time. Historical research on communication processes in and with architecture shows how an exchange between all actors of 'Environments' can function in the future, for collaborative adaptation processes, for design interaction with human, plant and animal actors, and of natural processes and social practices. Based on concepts from media theory as well as design and empirical findings, we have developed designs with multiple media qualities in which different actors can be involved in a joint development process, e.g. with materials that allow for further processing and spatial structures that allow for remodeling. Architecture is a medium that allows for the creation of new forms, and adaptive buildings allow for multiple spatial states in dynamic adaptation processes. (shrink)

À une époque où la réflexion trinitaire connaît une certaine élaboration, Eckhart souligne qu’elle est encore insuffisante. Aussi allie-t-il théorie et pratique pour expliquer que la bullitio, le bouillonnement de la vie trinitaire, compte une e bullitio qui, sur le plan anthropologique, se traduit par la naissance de Dieu dans l’âme. Ainsi articule-t-il théologie trinitaire et anthropologie et, pour mieux se faire comprendre, il présente un résumé de sa pensée dans le Poème intitulé Granum sinapis.

Este artículo, después de las observaciones preliminares, expone dos cuestiones, a saber, si las Locutiones in Hepateucum de Agustín están completas y cuál era el propósito de esta obra.

L’article se propose d’explorer l’univers des facultés de droit sous la République de Weimar, que les contemporains jugent en « crise ». Cette perception renvoie tout d’abord aux difficultés d’adaptation d’un enseignement qui est de plus en plus écartelé entre les exigences de la science (transmettre une compréhension historique de l’évolution du droit) et celles de la pratique (préparer les étudiants au monde professionnel par une connaissance du droit en vigueur) : l’Université apparaît ainsi comme un lieu de confrontation entre (...) professeurs et autorités étatiques pour le contrôle du cursus juridique. Par ailleurs, dans un contexte de grande expansion des effectifs étudiants, les facultés de droit ne connaissent pas de démocratisation de leur public et restent le domaine des élites traditionnelles ; de ce fait, elles semblent en décalage avec leur époque et continuent de former un univers passéiste que conforte l’engagement des étudiants dans des corporations traditionnelles. Ce mode de socialisation explique leur radicalisation dans le camp antirépublicain dès les années 1920. (shrink)

Introduction -- From natural philosophy to theories of method -- Explanations, laws, and theories -- Change and the effect on scientific realism -- Science, society, and values -- Conclusion -- Glossary.

This book offers a philosophical approach to tourism as a permanent factor in the lifestyle, economy, and culture of the contemporary global community. Travel to well-known destinations and pursuit of an ever-increasing range of leisure activities are an aspiration of most humans today. Those not themselves engaged in tourist activities are quite often involved in providing the goods and services which make tourism possible. Yet the ill effects of mass tourism and overtourism on sensitive ecosystems, resources, and community life have (...) begun to outweigh economic gains, threatening to destroy destinations, cultural heritage, and livelihoods. The editors and contributors of this collection reflect on the nature and meaning of tourism, its history, elements, and forms, the roles of tourist and host, the limits of hospitality, tendencies to excess and the reasons why we engage in such forms of behaviour, and the place of tourism in human culture as a whole. By shedding light on these questions, more efficacious solutions to the urgent problems raised by the practice of tourism can be found. This work is a must-read for scholars, teachers, and students engaged in study and research on philosophy of culture, philosophical anthropology, tourist and destination management, human factors engineering, and sustainability. (shrink)

Los relatos escritos por Menchu Gutiérrez nos someten a un presente vibrante e intenso, un presente, tan alejado de la anécdota como el propio curso de las constelaciones, que convierte cada secuencia en «hecho», en una epifanía. El presente nos adentra de inmediato en el espacio altamente simbólico tejido por la escritora y nos involucra en una serie de reduplicaciones especulares nunca exactas, mediante las cuales volvemos a recorrer tanto las moradas de algún castillo interior como las estaciones perfumadas preciosamente (...) iluminadas de un nuevo manuscrito de las «ricas horas». Escritura al filo, en la cordillera, en que se reúnen prosa y poesía, comprensión y enigma, razón y sinrazón y por la que nos proponemos pasear, oído atento a esta lengua inaudita, tanteando oscuridades radiantes con las manos ofrecidas por los propios textos. (shrink)

In _Platonici minores_ Marie-Luise Lakmann offers a collection of all “minor” Platonists considered to be “Middle Platonists”. A prosopography presents all known facts about their life and teaching, followed by a collection of fragments and _testimonia_, accompanied by a German translation.

Une situation de crise, ici représentée par une demande d’IVG, amène cette femme à exprimer sa plainte et sa difficulté de couple dans un cadre légal auprès d’un professionnel de l’écoute. Il s’ensuit pour elle une demande d’aide qui amène le professionnel à situer son écoute dans le cadre du Conseil conjugal puis, une nouvelle demande s’adressant au même professionnel pour une demande de thérapie avec changement du cadre.

En tant que soutien à la participation et à l’inclusion, le fauteuil roulant constitue un objet d’étude intéressant pour comprendre l’expérience quotidienne des personnes en situation de handicap physique. Cet article s’intéresse dès lors au fonctionnement du fauteuil, à ses déplacements, et à la fac¸ on dont le fauteuil influence l’identité individuelle de son utilisateur. À partir d’une ethnographie de dix-huit mois dans un township coloured du Cap (Afrique du Sud), cette approche du fauteuil roulant mobilise une lecture relationnelle et (...) intersectionnelle de la citoyenneté. Définie largement comme la relation à son corps, à son environnement, à ses proches, et à l’État, la citoyenneté est dès lors expérimentée à travers un réseau de relations sociales, institutionnelles et matérielles. En fin de compte, une telle approche soulève des questions bien plus larges autour de l’inclusion, de l’appartenance, et de la stigmatisation. Après une présentation du contexte de la recherche, trois sections de l’article examinent respectivement les concepts de citoyenneté active, citoyenneté moderne et droit à la ville. La conclusion revient quant à elle sur les apports d’une telle approche dans les études sur le handicap et en Afrique du Sud. (shrink)

Philosophers have studied mechanisms in many fields in biology. The focus has often been on molecular mechanisms in disciplines such as neuroscience, genetics and molecular biology, with some work on population-level mechanisms in ecology and evolution. We present a novel philosophical case study of individual-level mechanisms, mechanisms in ecology and evolution that concern the interactions between an individual and its environment. The mechanisms we analyze are called Niche Choice, Niche Conformance and Niche Construction (NC3) mechanisms. Based on a detailed analysis (...) of biologists’ research practices, we develop metaphysical claims about the components and organization of NC3 mechanisms, the phenomena they bring about and how these phenomena relate to individual differences, a major explanatory target in the field. We provide reasons for why processes of niche choice, conformance and construction are mechanisms and how they differ from molecular mechanisms underlying individual differences. Finally, we demonstrate that a general representation of NC3 mechanisms is highly abstract, with more specific types of NC3 mechanisms in particular study systems exhibiting more complex components organized in more complex ways. Our case study highlights some distinctive features of individual-level mechanisms in ecology and evolution, such as complex and heterogeneous organization and multiple phenomena. (shrink)