The very concept of the ‘birth’ or ‘origin’ of art may seem inappropriate, since humans are by nature artists and the history of art begins with that of humanity. In their artistic impulses and achievements humans express their vitality, their ability to establish a beneficial and positive relationship with their environment, to humanize nature; their behaviour as artists is one of the characteristics for selection favourable to the evolution of the human species. Evidence from a huge analysis of rock art (...) and cave paintings and engravings shows that, from their origins, humans have also been Homo aestheticus. (shrink)

Chi biasima la pittura, biasima la natura . . . . Stephen Newton is a 53 year old professional artist with a doctorate from the Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is therefore one of a niche academic fraternity working the disputed borderlands between empirical cognitive science, psychoanalysis as a school of neurophilosophy, psychoanalysis as a clinical professionalism, and the philosophy of art. This is his first high profile book, and it stands proudly in a series (...) which goes back to Freud's 'Leonardo' and which includes Ehrenzweig's 'The Psychoanalysis of Artistic Vision and Hearing' , Kuhn's 'Psychoanalytic Theory of Art' , Gedo's 'The Artist and the Emotional World' , Glover's 'Psychoanalytic Aesthetics' , and a host of anthropological input from the likes of Andr? Leroi-Gourhan, Michel Lorblanchet, Georges Sauvet, Jean Clottes, and Howard Morphy. The book's seven chapters fall into two neat sections, namely an early theoretical statement on the psychodynamics of artistic creation, followed by an erudite application and extension of that theory. (shrink)

Michel Serres is one of the most influential living theorists in European philosophy. This volume makes available a work which has a foundational place in the development of chaos theory, representing a tour de force application of the principles underlying Serres' distinctive philosophy of science.

Technology is even more than our world, our form of life, our civilization. Technology interacts with the world to change it. Philosophers need to seriously address the fluidity of a smartphone interface, the efficiency of a Dyson vacuum cleaner, or the familiar noise of an antique vacuum cleaner. Beyond their phenomenological description, the emotional experience acquires moral significance and in some cases even supplies ethical resources for the self. If we leave this dimension of modern experience unaddressed, we may miss (...) something of value in contemporary life. Combining European humanism, Anglophone pragmatism, and Asian traditions, Michel Puech pleads for an "ethical turn" in the way we understand and address technological issues in modern day society. Puech argues that the question of "power" is what needs to be reconsidered today. In doing so, he provides a three-tier distinction of power: power to modify the outer world ; power over other humans ; power over oneself. (shrink)

S'inscrivant dans une perspective d'analyse interactionnelle des discours argumentatifs, l'étude comparée des forums interner comme dispositifs de discussion argumentative et du courrier des lecteurs d'un quotidien se développe selon trois axes: la dimension dialogale, la mise en scène de soi et les procédés argumentatifs. Elle montre que ces deux dispositifs constituent des espaces d'expression politique citoyenne, mais que seul le forum peut permettre une discussion argumentative horizontale entre citoyens.As part of an interactional perspective of discourse analysis argumentative, comparative study of (...) forums as intern devices argumentative discussion and letters to the editor of a newspaper develops along three axes: the dialogical dimension, the staging of self and argumentative processes. It shows that these two devices are spaces of citizen political expression, but only the forum can provide a horizontal argumentative discussion among citizens. (shrink)

Written while the pandemic was still a key issue, this article tries to imagine the post-pandemic from different perspectives, and first of all in distinct temporalities. A question arises immediately: how can we consider the hypothesis of a deep cultural or anthropological mutation with intellectual or scientific tools that were forged before this mutation? What might new approaches for the social sciences look like? The article proceeds to analyse the more obvious social, technological and cultural changes that occurred with the (...) pandemic, which definitively modify our perception and understanding of globalisation. New or renewed inequalities, intergenerational tensions, racism, increasing fake news and conspiracy theory visions of the world, but also issues raised by feminism or ecology are at stake here. (shrink)

Quel que soit l'angle sous laquelle on l'aborde, l'innovation apparaît comme une activité collective qui implique des collaborations, des échanges, des circulations de toutes sortes. C'est aussi une activité située, puisque l'on dispose à présent d'un ensemble de résultats empiriques qui convergent sur l'existence d'« effets de proximité spatiale », c'est-à-dire sur le fait que ces collaborations, échanges et circulations sont plus fréquentes lorsque les partenaires sont proches dans l'espace géographique, en particulier lorsqu'ils sont situés dans la même métropole ou (...) le même bassin d'emploi. Diverses explications de ces effets de proximité spatiale ont été proposées, qui mettent en jeu des conceptions variables des rapports entre la sphère économique et la vie sociale d'ensemble, des contraintes qui s'exercent sur les collaborations et les échanges, de la dynamique même de l'innovation. Ainsi dans le cas des relations science-industrie par exemple, de nombreux auteurs attribuent les effets de proximité aux contraintes sur les échanges de savoirs tacites (les savoirs et savoir faire scientifiques non publiés ou non codifiables parce que trop nouveaux), qui exigeraient des échanges en face à face, et donc une proximité forte entre les entreprises et les laboratoires. (shrink)

Mucoidy and cytotoxicity arise from two independent modifications of the phenotype of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa that contribute to the mortality and morbidity of cystic fibrosis. We show that, even though the transcriptional regulatory networks controlling both processes are quite different from a molecular or mechanistic point of view, they may be identical from a dynamic point of view: epigenesis may in both cases be the cause of the acquisition of these new phenotypes. This was highlighted by the identity of (...) formal graphs modelling these networks. A mathematical framework based on formal methods from computer science was defined and implemented with a software environment. It allows an easy and rigorous validation and certification of these models and of the experimental methods that can be proposed to falsify or validate the underlying hypothesis. (shrink)

The conviction, due to previous failures, that bacteriology and darwinism were incompatible, has postponed the application of molecular phylogenesis to bacteria. But once introduced, this new field has led to a profound revolution of this science. A stable classification of the bacteria is at last possible; a new domain, the Archae, as distant from the Bacteria as from the Eukarya, has been discovered; noncultivable new species can be identified from the environment. It may even be possible to unravel the pathway (...) of early evolution after the common ancestor. However, controversies on this subject are already disregarded by the new paradigm. (shrink)

The mechanisms by which bacteria adapt to changes in their environment involve transcriptional regulation in which a transcriptional regulator responds to signal(s) from the environment and regulates (positively or negatively) the expression of several genes or operons. Some of these regulators exert a positive feedback on their own expression. This is a necessary (although not sufficient) condition for the occurrence of multistationarity. One biological consequence of multistationarity may be epigenetic modifications, a hypothesis unusual to microbiologists, in spite of some well-known (...) epigenetic modifications in bacteria. We propose here that the occurrence of mucoidy in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is currently attributed to mutations only, may also be an epigenetic modification. A theoretical approach using a generalised logical analysis lends credit to this hypothesis and suggests experiments to ascertain it. (shrink)

The Courage of the Truth is the last course that Michel Foucault delivered at the College de France before his death in 1984. In this course, he continues the theme of the previous year's lectures in exploring the notion of "truth-telling" in politics to establish a number of ethically irreducible conditionsbased on courage and conviction.

Comment repenser la sexualité et le « genre »? Relire la Genèse et le Prologue de l'évangile de Jean à partir de prémisses féministes donne une idée très vive de la chape idéologique et conceptuelle qui a été coulée sur l’inconscient collectif par les monothéismes, finalement assistés par les catégories philosophiques platoniciennes.

Le concept d’intégration mérite-t-il toujours la place centrale que lui confère la sociologie classique, en particulier d’inspiration durkheimienne ou fonctionnaliste? Trois raisons d’en douter sont proposées ici : la montée en puissance des approches centrées sur le Sujet ; la crise des modèles dits d’ « intégration », anglais comme français ; la poussée d’identités collectives circulant dans d’autres espaces que celui d’État-nation.Does the concept of integration still deserve the forefront place classical sociology – particularly drawn from Durkheim or functionalism (...) – bestowed on it? The question opens up three avenues of investigation : an ever-increasing number of approaches focusing on the Subject ; the crisis of both English and French « integration » models ; the upsurge of collective identities in arenas outside the Nation-State. (shrink)

Academic freedom is currently threatened not only in dictatorial or authoritarian regimes but in democracies as well. Thus, this analysis of the contemporary French experience, in which we observe a destructive climate maintained by intellectuals and political actors on both the right and the left. The extremization, intolerance, and radicalization of debates have increased since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. At the same time, university institutions often appear overwhelmed or powerless in the face of both internal and external (...) dangers. (shrink)

La 4e de couverture indique : "Notre conception de l'éducation est liée à l'idée de vérité. Ce rapport à la vérité s'avère toutefois problématique aujourd'hui : érosion de l'autorité des institutions, sources plurielles et concurrentes d'informations, voire avènement d'une ère de "post-vérité". Comment en sommes-nous arrivés là? Quelle est la part de responsabilité des doctrines philosophiques dans cette crise de la factualité? Comment la problématique de la factualité se décline-t-elle à partir de débats philosophiques contemporains (Russell et Dewey, Rorty et (...) Habermas, Bouveresse et Foucault, Latour et la revue du Mauss, Butler et Nussbaum)? Quels sont les enjeux politiques et éducatifs de cette crise de la vérité factuelle? Comment, dans ce contexte, penser la formation à l'esprit critique? L'École peut-elle retrouver une normativité épistémologique à partir de la notion d'enquête?". (shrink)

"Je suis toujours du côté des femmes, des homosexuels, des laïcs, des Juifs, des libres-penseurs, je n'ai pas changé ; je ne suis pas non plus pour le commerce des corps, la location des utérus et la vente d'enfants, je n'ai pas changé ; je suis toujours athée et j'estime que toutes les religions font mauvais ménage avec la démocratie et la liberté. Je n'ai pas changé, mais le monde a changé. (...) Ce huitième tome du Journal hédoniste est encore (...) et toujours la chronique d'un libre esprit dans un temps qui l'est de moins en moins, libre, parce qu'il s'effondre et que la panique saisit les rats du navire qui coule. J'étais, je suis et je demeure debout sur le bateau qui coule.""--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This book provides an innovative way to revisit the depth and scope of our moral/post-moral worldviews, while undertaking an ontic reflection about organizational life. The ontic dimension of life refers to existing entities’ lived experiences. It has nothing to do with psychological and relational processes. The ontic level of analysis mirrors a philosophical outlook on organizational life. Unlike moral worldviews, post-moral worldviews oppose the existence of Truth-itself. Post-moral worldviews rather imply that dialogical relationships allow people to express their own truth-claims (...) and welcome others’ truth-claims. The purpose of this book is to explain the philosophical implications of moral and post-moral worldviews and the way to move from a moral to a post-moral worldview. Moreover, this book explores the possibility to transcend the moral/post-moral dualism, through moral deliberation processes and a reinterpretation of the Presence of the Infinite in all dimensions of human life. This book could eventually help to better grasp the basic philosophical challenges behind ethical reflection about organizational issues. (shrink)

Le développement et le renouvellement des études aristotéli­ciennes depuis le milieu du XXe siècle doivent beaucoup aux inter­prètes, anglo-saxons notamment, qui ont abordé les textes du philo­sophe à partir de préoccupations liées à la philosophie du langage et de la connaissance, dans le sillage de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la « philosophie analytique ». De fait, les commentaires et les discus­sions résultant de ces efforts ont fait apparaître des affinités saisis­santes entre les déma...