A comprehensive excursion, into anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, social and political science lead me to the conclusion that human societies are ruled by systems of shared concepts, and that these systems of thought function as a kind of public or external mind, which produces and maintain the social forms of life. Taking into account the fact that philosophy originally - in ancient Greece - was a ‘public affair’, I came up with the idea that philosophy should try to map the public (...) mind. In other words, the idea that philosophers should draw up a project for making what I call philosophical maps, i.e. maps of public thought. In what follows, I will give a brief account of this idea in the hope that other philosophers may draw inspiration from it. Of course, all this involves speculation, but it does not interfere with regular philosophy. It simply adds something to it from the outside as it were, that is from a descriptive point of view. As I will make clear, this idea is consistent with the efforts of Wittgenstein to achieve a radical descriptive philosophy. (shrink)

Kenelm Digby’s Two Treatises, of the Nature of Bodies and of the Nature of Mans Soule defends quite an idiosyncratic approach to mind-body dualism. In his use of the divisibility argument to prove that the human soul cannot be a material substance, Digby takes an uncompromising stand for merely potential material parts. In his Treatise of Bodies the present article focuses on the mode of construction of the definition of quantity as divisibility and on its links to two distinct fundamental (...) arguments against the actual material parts doctrine. The first, positive, argument consists of a semantic reason drawn from Digby’s general doctrine of meaning, whereas the second, negative, argument, addresses the traditional question of the composition of the continuum. The latter, the author contends, does not build on the medieval controversy itself, but on Digby’s opposition to Galileo’s claim of indivisibilism in his Dialogues Concerning Two Sciences. (shrink)

In this article I share some of my experiences of practising Korean Zen meditation and how, without ever mentioning the word ‘mindfulness,’ this practice helps us to become mindful. This leads me to suggest that the main ingredients of Buddhist meditation are samatha (which I will translate here as ‘concentration’) and vipassanā (which I will call ‘experiential enquiry’). No matter which Buddhist tradition one follows, the practice of samatha and vipassanā will lead to the cultivation of mindfulness. I also intend (...) to show how the traditional doctrine of the ‘four great efforts’ is very close to therapeutic methods advocated in MBCT. I will also propose that the Buddha's five methods of dealing with difficult thoughts as presented in the Vitakkhasa hāna Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 20) are examples of an early Buddhist cognitive behavioural strategy. (shrink)

This paper will attempt to establish a framework for the term vedanā. Then it will present the range of the different feeling tones: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. It will point out that ‘neutral’ feeling tone can be defined in different ways as either non-existing, indeterminate, indifference or the beginning of equanimity. Following this, vedanā will be discussed in the context of the five nāma factors: contact, feeling-tone, perception, intention and attention. This paper will suggest that mindfulness can be of benefit (...) because it possibly gives rise to what is referred to in the early Pāli texts as ‘unwordly pleasant’ feeling tones. The paper concludes by making a connection between the practice of mindfulness of feeling-tones and the cultivation of the ethical precepts as an antidote to unskilful reactive patterns that arise in relation to vedana. (shrink)

L’addition, dans la cinquième édition en 1683 de La Logique ou L’Art de penser, d’un chapitre consacré à la définition générale du signe et de plusieurs chapitres relevant spécifiquement d’une analyse des signes linguistiques, a été parfois interprétée comme une apparition tardive du “problème du langage” dans le traité d’Arnauld et Nicole. Parce que la plupart de ces chapitres supplémentaires sont la transposition de passages auparavant destinés dans la Perpétuité de la foi (1669-1674) à réfuter le sens calviniste de Ceci (...) est mon corps, on a été enclin à attribuer l’importance de la question du signe et du “problème du langage” dans l’édition de 1683 à une origine théologique. J’essaie au contraire de montrer que, dès la première édition de L’Art de penser en 1662, la problématisation des écarts des expressions linguistiques avec une correspondance terme à terme entre les mots et les idées a été indissociable pour Port-Royal de l’analyse des opérations de l’esprit. Selon moi, dans la Perpétuité de la foi, la critique du sens calviniste de la formule eucharistique constitue elle-même une application de cette analyse logique du langage : les passages incorporés ensuite dans L’Art de penser sont dans le prolongement des réflexions de 1662 sur les difficultés d’adéquation entre le dire et le vouloir-dire. Je montre pour finir que la définition générale du signe à Port-Royal suppose une restructuration de la définition augustinienne du De doctrina christiana, et fonde en 1683 une identification de la relation de signification linguistique à un rapport de représentation des mots aux idées, qui vient redoubler le rapport de représentation des idées aux choses établi en 1662. (shrink)

In the last two decades, Ralph Cudworth has been acknowledged as one of the paramount figures in the history of theories of consciousness. This paper discusses the interpretation defended by Udo Thiel and Vili Lähteenmäki. Both contend that, for Cudworth, the reflexivity defining consciousness does not constitute self-consciousness, which, they say, requires self-determination for practical ends. On the contrary, I argue that for Cudworth any degree of consciousness implies a species of self-perception that must be considered a degree of self-consciousness. (...) To do justice to Cudworth’s full position, I claim, we must take into account a kind of consciousness that I call ‘to-oneself ’ consciousness. Furthermore, I argue, the problem of the ethical self-formation of every human soul as one personality should be seen as going beyond the mere consideration of practical rationality. (shrink)

Le XVIe siècle voit l’émergence des vernaculaires comme langues de pensée, et le maintien en parallèle du latin comme langue savante de communication et de réflexion. Ce double mouvement, l’un de conquête et l’autre de résistance, a souvent été étudié du point de vue du vernaculaire, pour en marquer la progression tant pour la structuration des langues que pour le terrain gagné sur le latin dans le domaine des textes de fiction autant que d’argumentation. Le petit dossier présenté ici, issu (...) d... (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

In ethics, the use of empirical data has become more and more popular, leading to a distinct form of applied ethics, namely empirical ethics. This 'empirical turn' is especially visible in bioethics. There are various ways of combining empirical research and ethical reflection. In this paper we discuss the use of empirical data in a special form of Reflective Equilibrium (RE), namely the Network Model with Third Person Moral Experiences. In this model, the empirical data consist of the moral experiences (...) of people in a practice. Although inclusion of these moral experiences in this specific model of RE can be well defended, their use in the application of the model still raises important questions. What precisely are moral experiences? How to determine relevance of experiences, in other words: should there be a selection of the moral experiences that are eventually used in the RE? How much weight should the empirical data have in the RE? And the key question: can the use of RE by empirical ethicists really produce answers to practical moral questions? In this paper we start to answer the above questions by giving examples taken from our research project on understanding the norm of informed consent in the field of pediatric oncology. We especially emphasize that incorporation of empirical data in a network model can reduce the risk of self-justification and bias and can increase the credibility of the RE reached. (shrink)

Being able to self-regulate one’s learning is essential for academic success but is also very difficult for students. Especially first year students can be overwhelmed with the high study load and autonomy in higher education. To face this challenge, students’ monitoring and self-regulated learning processes are crucial. Yet, often students are not aware of effective SRL strategies or how to use them. In this study, the use of a mobile application with gamification elements to support first-year university students’ SRL processes (...) was investigated. In Study 1a, the Ace your self-study app was implemented in a first-year psychology course, and students’ SRL skills, motivation, self-efficacy, app use and satisfaction, and performance were measured. The results showed a significant increase in autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and metacognitive self-regulation skills across the 5-week course. Moreover, students who used the mobile application with gamified elements showed higher autonomous motivation. Nevertheless, most students used the app only for a limited number of self-study sessions. In Study 1b, students’ self-study experiences were captured using focus group interviews to shed some more light on why students did or did not use the app. The results show that if students feel they do not need support for their SRL processes during self-study, they are less inclined to use the app. Specifically, regarding using study strategies, it was found that only if students’ strategies do not work well in their perception, they feel the need to change their way of studying and choose another strategy. These results are discussed in the context of theory on SRL and how to support it. (shrink)

One's gender is merely an important subset of choosing one's form. By “form” I mean that which encloses our beingness – flesh for the life we are accustomed to, plastic for the robots of science fiction, mere data for the avatars taking over our computer screens.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology. It needs no ambient light, nor the guidance of the human eye to capture and reproduce a likeness of the world around us. Although LiDAR generates a constant stream of technical literature, LiDAR images, once envisaged for their aesthetic and expressive value, seem to call for alternative modes of analysis. How do we approach the fast-expanding archive of scanner images? How do we adequately describe the intriguing, spectral visualizations that its (...) blind process of recording produces? Following a general introduction, I look at Anouk De Clerk’s filmThing(2013), a work entirely comprised of LiDAR images. De Clerk encourages us to envisage LiDAR counterintuitively, not as the product of technological novelty, but as part of an interdisciplinary history of the arts. (shrink)

Susan Kahn rend compte dans cet ouvrage d’une recherche ethnographique menée en Israël sur l’usage des nouvelles techniques de reproduction et sur les interrogations qu’elles soulèvent concernant la parenté, la paternité, la maternité et la fabrique de citoyens juifs. Son travail s’appuie sur des entretiens avec des Israéliennes non mariées qui ont eu recours à une insémination artificielle, des rabbins et des juifs orthodoxes, ainsi que sur une observation participante dans une clinique de...

Evoquer l'univers de Rousseau est une entreprise ambitieuse qui peut aider à orienter la pensée contemporaine vers la valeur des moyens et des fins à entreprendre pour la formation de l'individu. Dans cet ouvrage les auteurs s'attachent à présenter un écrivain à hauteur d'homme et souhaitent faire partager leurs réflexions sur son oeuvre remarquable. Ils montrent notamment que les idées exprimées dans l'Emile présentent la synthèse des conceptions de Rousseau sur la société, sur l'enfance et sur ses principes d'éducation. Partagée (...) ou controversée, sa pensée constitue une approche moderne des savoirs et des pratiques tournées vers des questions qui importent en ce début de XXIe siècle. En confrontant leur regard à celui du penseur, les auteurs de ce livre invitent le lecteur à découvrir ou redécouvrir l'oeuvre de l'homme des Lumières dans des domaines aussi différents que la musique, le langage, la philosophie politique et l'éducation. Vous êtes donc conviés à un voyage au coeur de la pensée rousseauiste qui a inspiré et irrigué leur réflexion. (shrink)

Pascal’s wager was sometimes viewed in the eighteenth-century as an argument conquering its whole demonstrative force not in the Pensées but in a passage of Locke’s Essay Concerning the Human Understanding (II, XXI, § 70) dealing with the preference to be given to a virtuous life when considering the possibility of another eternal life. In this paper, I intend to show that this interpretation is ill-founded. The argument of the wager highlights the discrepancy between the requirements of alethic reason on (...) the one side and of practical reason on the other side: the wager is to be seen not as a proposition, but as an act. When emphasizing the conditions on which this act can conform to rationality, the argument used of in the Pensées puts the comparison between a unity (my life ante mortem) and a multiplicity (other possible lives post mortem) on the front of the stage, in combination with a reckoning of the chances of winning or losing the bet on God’s existence. The reduction ad absurdum of the act of betting against God’s existence is deduced from a double infinitization, not only quantitative (an infinity of lives), but also qualitative (a reiterating infinity of happiness) of the second member in the comparison. Now, the case is different in Locke’s argumentation. Its reading is vitiated if we deem that the § 70 in the Essay II, XXI consists in a self-sufficient demonstration, understandable by itself. Through a close examination of the chapter XXI in its entire, it appears on the contrary that the thesis of an alleged improvement or even of a mere equivalent of Pascal’s wager in the Essay is defeated by the necessity to put back Locke’s own argument in its true place, actually as the result of a complex enquiry on the principle of the determination of the will. (shrink)

La critique dont a été l’objet de la part d’Arnauld la proposition de Malebranche les plaisirs des sens rendent heureux a été à l’origine d’une longue argumentation de Bayle afin de démontrer, contre Arnauld, que la propriété de « rendre heureux » attribuée par Malebranche aux plaisirs sensibles a pour fondement leur spiritualité : les plaisirs des sens ne sont pas matériels. Cet article examine la manière dont Bayle parvient à ruiner la catégorisation des plaisirs en corporels et intellectuels, ou (...) sensuels et spirituels, en combinant deux stratégies : l’utilisation du principe épicurien le bonheur est le plaisir comme d’un critère pour prouver la vérité de la proposition de Malebranche, et l’utilisation de l’absence d’intentionnalité des sensations selon Malebranche comme confirmation de la nature purement psychique du plaisir chez Epicure. (shrink)

Increasing returns to scale is an area in economics that has recently become the focus of much attention. While most firms operate under constant or decreasing return to scale on their relevant range of production, some firms produce goods or services with a technology which exhibits increasing returns to scale at levels of production which are large relative to the market. These goods are an important component of economic activity in a modern economy and are typically commodities produced either by (...) a public sector or, as in the U.S., by regulated utilities. In this study, the author analyzes increasing returns using general equilibrium theory to take into account the interactions between production in the public and the private sector, and the effects of financing the public sector on the redistribution of income. (shrink)

Reconnaissant l'importance des rites dans les sociétés contemporaines, l'article s'efforce de comprendre pourquoi s'est développée une nouvelle séquence rituelle inscrite dans le processus du mariage. L'enterrement de vie de jeune fille, attesté depuis la fin des années 1980, est associé à la transformation de la place de la femme, dans ses rapports avec la famille, la société et la sexualité. Comme autrefois l'enterrement de vie de garçon, celui de la jeune fille marque symboliquement l'abandon du vagabondage sexuel et amoureux. Cette (...) cérémonie est aujourd'hui attachée au renouveau d'un mariage célébré en grande pompe, mais dont le sens a changé complètement depuis les années 1960. Organisé par la « meilleure amie », et célébré entre filles, l'EDVJF marque aussi le passage des liens d'amitié à ceux de la conjugalité. L'ethnographie de la cérémonie invite à développer la réflexion sur la diversité des effectuations qui sont dans ce cas très frappantes, au-delà de leurs caractères communs.Recognizing the importance of ritual in contemporary societies, the article seeks to understand why there has developed a new ritual sequence recorded in the marriage process. The bachelor girl, attested since the late 1980s, is associated with the transformation of the role of women in their relationships with family, society and sexuality. As the old bachelor boy, the girl that symbolically marks the abandonment of sexual promiscuity and love. This ceremony is now attached to the renewal of a marriage celebrated with great pomp, but whose meaning has changed completely since the 1960s. Organized by the "best friend", and celebrated among girls, EDVJF also marks the transition from friendship to those of conjugality. Ethnography ceremony invites us to develop reflection on the diversity of effectuations which in this case are very striking, beyond their common characteristics. (shrink)