A number of attempts have been made to conceptualise legal reasoning along falsificationist lines. This paper criticises a recent one by Bernhard Schlink. After familiarising the reader with falsificationism, I argue that falsificationism is premised on an epistemological asymmetry between singular observation statements and universal hypotheses, and that absent such an asymmetry in the context of statutory interpretation, framing jurisprudence in falsificationist terms is unwarranted and misleading. To get off the ground, legal falsificationism would need to combine with some kind (...) of broadly intuitionist moral cognitivism, but even then, it would still misrepresent what is going on in legal reasoning. The arguments in this paper apply mutatis mutandis to all falsificationist theories of legal and ethical reasoning. I point to some by Albert, Canaris and Larenz. (shrink)

In this study we investigated sensorimotor processing of painful pressure stimulation on the lower back of patients with chronic lower back pain (CLBP) by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure changes in cerebral hemodynamics and oxygenation. The main objectives were whether patients with CLBP show different relative changes in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin ([O2Hb] and [HHb]) in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1) compared to healthy controls (HC). Twelve patients with CLBP (32 ± 6.1 years; range: (...) 24 – 44 years; 9 women) and twenty HCs (33.5 ± 10.7 years; range 22-61 years; 8 women) participated in the study. Painful and non-painful pressure stimulation was exerted with a thumb grip perpendicularly to the spinous process of the lumbar spine. A force sensor was attached at the spinous process in order control for pressure forces. Tactile stimulation was realized by a one-finger brushing. Hemodynamic changes in the SMA and S1 were measured bilaterally using a multi-channel continuous wave fNIRS imaging system and a multi-distant probe array. Patients with CLBP showed significant stimulus-evoked hemodynamic responses in [O2Hb] only in the right S1, while the healthy controls exhibited significant [O2Hb] changes bilaterally in both, SMA and S1. However, the group comparisons revealed no significant different hemodynamic responses in [O2Hb] and [HHb] in the SMA and S1 after both pressure stimulations. This non-significant result might be driven by the high inter-subject variability of hemodynamic responses that has been observed within the patients group. In conclusion, we could not find different stimulus-evoked hemodynamic responses in patients with CLBP compared to HCs. This indicates that neither S1 nor the SMA show a specificity for CLBP during pressure stimulation on the lower back. However, the results point to a potential subgrouping regarding task-related cortical activity within the CLBP group; a finding worth further research. (shrink)

Pascal semble toujours s’être tenu dans les marges de l’historiographie philosophique. Cette situation tient d’abord à la méfiance explicite qu’il nourrit à l’égard des « philosophes ». Mais elle s’explique aussi par l’influence d’un acteur décisif dans l’institutionnalisation de la discipline : Victor Cousin. Pour le montrer, nous étudions les effets produits sur le long terme par la construction d’une « figure philosophique » qui articule, sous le nom de Pascal, des textes et un contenu philosophique spécifique, en (...) se focalisant sur sa réception chez Havet, Brunschvicg et Heidegger. Un tel retour historique permet de mettre en évidence des points aveugles dans notre interprétation de ce que peut être la philosophie de Pascal, voire dans notre conception de ce qui constitue l’en dehors de la philosophie en général. Il offre en outre un éclairage original sur les opérations de sélection qui ont présidé à la constitution de ce que nous appelons notre « modernité » philosophique. (shrink)

Editions and translations were a major part of the work of French philosophers in the 19th century. They were not considered trivial tasks but philosophical works unto themselves. In this article, I show that to be considered as such, it is necessary to identify the reasons that would spark an author’s interest in the text he was publishing and the effects he expected from its publication in the philosophical field. I focus on the case of Blaise Pascal in the (...) second half of the 19th century. My goal is to underline that the matter of Pascal’s inclusion or exclusion from the philosophical “canon” led two philosophers, who were hostile to his thought, to publish Pascal’s Pensées: Ernest Havet and Léon Brunschvicg. Their aim was not to declare themselves “against” Pascal but rather to integrate their edition of his texts into their own philosophical projects. (shrink)

Previous chapter It is striking that one of the most fundamental issues of our study—one of those that will explain both the commonalities and the insurmountable fractures within the rhythmic constellation—already appears in the very first pages of A Thousand Plateaus, which tackle a famous question raised by Aristotle in his founding work Poetics: that of mímêsis. As one may remember, Aristotle did not conceive of literature as a mere imitation or reproduction of reality by poets, but - Philosophie – (...) Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter The Bypass of Ideas and its Cost We now realize how elaborate the ethics outlined by Deleuze and Guattari was. It was a remarkable piece of philosophical ingineering which provided a number of valuable insights into the good life from a fundamentally rhuthmic perspective. It is therefore precious to us who are now facing a completely fluid world dominated by modern technologies of communication and transport, and neoliberal capitalism. This does not mean however that it - Philosophie – (...) Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter As usual, the theory of the State and economics presented in Chapter 13 was strictly correlated with the theory of agency, power and the war machine that had just been introduced in the preceding chapter. It was the exact counterpart, this time seen from the political and economic context, of the rhuthmic approach of politics advocated previously. It suggested a kind of rhuthmic description of the negative as well as positive conditions under which any rhuthmic - Économie classique (...) et marxiste – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Deleuze and the Social is the first book to focus on the implications of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's thinking on the social sciences and organisation. This book is concerned with the most basic notions of 'the social'. It seeks both to comprehend the 'multiplicity' of the social--in Deleuzian terms, the 'becoming' of the social itself; and it seeks to develop a new social analytical practice. Each of the newly commissioned chapters aims to show the strength of as well (...) as practice the radicalism of a Deleuzian and Guattarian approach to social science and organisation studies. Deleuze and the Social is a book about order, subjectivity, art, capitalism and the construction of a social ontology. It avoids scholasticism by foregrounding its authors' shared concern for practical issues. How is social order constituted? How is resistance possible between the rush of capitalism and the overcoding of the State? How are thinking and living possible? (shrink)

Charting a genealogy of the modern idea of the self, Felix Ó Murchadha explores the accounts of self-identity expounded by key Early Modern philosophers, Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Hume and Kant. The question of the self as we would discuss it today only came to the forefront of philosophical concern with Modernity, beginning with an appeal to the inherited models of the self found in Stoicism, Scepticism, Augustinianism and Pelagianism, before continuing to develop as a subject of philosophical (...) debate. Exploring this trajectory, The Formation of the Modern Self pursues a number of themes central to the Early Modern development of selfhood, including, amongst others, grace and passion. It examines on the one hand the deep-rooted dependence on the divine and the longing for salvation and, on the other hand, the distancing from the Stoic ideal of apatheia, as philosophers from Descartes to Spinoza recognised the passions as essential to human agency. Fundamental to the new question of the self was the relation of faith and reason. Uncovering commonalities and differences amongst Early Modern philosophers, Ó Murchadha traces how the voluntarism of Modernity led to the sceptical approach to the self in Montaigne and Hume and how, by way of Hamann and Jacobi's reception of Hume, this sceptical strand, in turn, culminated in Kant's rational faith. More than a history of the self in philosophy, The Formation of the Modern Self inspires a fresh look at self-identity, uncovering not only how our modern idea of selfhood developed but just how embedded the concept of self is in external considerations: from ethics, to reason, to religion. (shrink)

In a fine essay on agricultureAgriculturein Flaubert’sFlaubert, GustaveBouvard et Pécuchet, Jean Gayon shows how much knowledge of the biology and agronomy of his time FlaubertFlaubert, Gustave is able to display. He also suggests that Flaubert’sFlaubert, Gustaveinterest in Pouchet’sPouchet, Félix-Archimède views on spontaneous generationSpontaneous generation is connected to romantic theories of life and matter, and to his lifelong interest in the nature of stupidity.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Logik-Vorlesung: Unveröffentlichte Nachschriften I (Logik Bauch), and Logik-Vorlesung: Unveröffentlichte Nachschriften II (Logik Hechsel, Warschauer Logik)Hoke RobinsonTillmann Pinder, editor. Logik-Vorlesung: Unveröffentlichte Nachschriften I (Logik Bauch), and Logik-Vorlesung: Unveröffentlichte Nachschriften II (Logik Hechsel, Warschauer Logik), vols. 8 and 9 of the series Kant-Forschungen, general editors Reinhard Brandt and Werner Stark. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1998. Vol. 8, pp. lxx + 268; vol. 9, pp. vii + 718. NP.Between 1755, (...) when he received the venia legendi, and 1796, when he ended his teaching activity, Kant taught logic some 30 times. In accordance with the requirements of the Prussian ministry of culture, his course lectures were built around a recognized text, G. F. Meier's 1752 Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre. Kant did not merely present Meier's views, however, but commented on and criticized these as he thought appropriate; his own copy of Meier was full of marginal notes and interleaved with notes on separate bits of paper. When in 1799 he entrusted G. B. Jäsche with this material for the compiling of a logic text, the thought was presumably of a Kantian logic organized around Meier's framework.Since logic plays such a prominent role in the Critical philosophy, one would expect the Jäsche logic to be viewed as an important tool for the interpretation of the Critical philosophy. But dissatisfaction with it was evident right from its original publication in 1800, and later scholars were even more negative (in 1913 Erich Adickes referred to it [End Page 603] as "the contrivance [Machwerk]... that Jäsche published under the name of Kant's logic," Erich Adickes, quoted in Ak. XXIV.960). And in fact, as Pinder's careful and detailed introduction points out, the nature and origin of the Jäsche logic presented a serious problem for Wilhelm Dilthey's organization of the now-standard Akademie-Ausgabe (Kants gesammelte Schriften, herausgegeben von der königlich preussischen [now: deutschen] Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1902- Cited as "Ak.").Dilthey conceived of four divisions of the Akademie-Ausgabe: Kant's published writings, his correspondence, his literary remains ("handschriftlicher Nachlass") and his lectures ("Vorlesungen"). Where, exactly, did the Jäsche logic belong? Kant had himself compiled a similar text from his lecture notes on anthropology, and this text was published in the first division (in volume VII). But did the Jäsche logic count as Kant's work? It was indeed authorized by Kant and based on Kant's own lecture notes; but these notes themselves were to be published in the Nachlass division. Furthermore, as it turned out, Jäsche had also employed manuscripts compiled from the lectures themselves, and these were to be published in the Vorlesungen division. This would not include his own transcription, as Erdmann had conjectured. It turns out Jäsche never heard Kant lecture on logic—he was never in Königsberg when they were being held! (xxvi, n. 29). The resulting controversies delayed the publication of the Jäsche logic in vol. IX from 1908 until 1923, after the 1914 publication in the Nachlass division of the notes on which it was based.Dilthey's projected Vorlesungen division itself was called into question by Benno Erdmann, Dilthey's successor as Akademie-Ausgabe general editor. Erdmann recognized the questionable nature of the Jäsche logic and the other compilations, but considered Dilthey's aim for a "critically secured" edition of the lecture manuscripts as "hopeless." Still, interest in the manuscripts resulted in their piecemeal publication independently of the Akademie-Ausgabe, and when the Nachlass division's publication had been completed in 1955, the Vorlesungen division was resurrected. Vol. XXIV (in two parts) appeared in 1966; it contained the logics Blomberg, Philippi, Pölitz, Busolt, Dohna-Wundlacken and the Vienna logic, the short logic Herder, and fragments of the lost logics Hintz and Hoffmann. The Pinder volumes reviewed here contain the logics Bauch, Hechsel, and the Warsaw logic.What exactly are the manuscripts in question? If Kant had been concerned merely to explicate Meier, his students could perhaps have been content with their marginal notes in the text and a few further ones for elucidation. But... (shrink)

Rreview of Maughn Rollins Gregory and Megan Jane Laverty, eds.. In Community of Inquiry with Ann Margaret Sharp: Childhood, Philosophy, and Education. Routledge, 2018, Pp. 264.

El nuevo Bachillerato ofrece algunas posibilidades de presencia filosófica cuya puesta en práctica requiere el compromiso de los profesores de Filosofia. Una de esas posibilidades es la nueva asignatura Ciencia, tecnología y Sociedad, por cuya asignación al Seminario de Filosofía se define con claridad el autor de este artículo.

En las corrientes filosóficas continuadoreas de las dos grandes tradiciones filosóficas de la modernidad, empiristas y racionalestas, el papel de los sentimientos en la vida moral ha contado con una atención insuficiente. No obstante, en los últimos decenios han aparecido numerosas aprtaciones sobre este tema. Por un lado están los trabajos que han pretendido clarificar la definición de los sentimientos desde la filosofía y la psicología, haciendo ver la profucnda relación que existe entre la dimensión afectiva y cognitiva de la (...) vida humana. Por otra parte hay diversas corrientes que reivindican un protagonismo mayor de los entimientos en la comprensión de la vida moral, tato si los entendemos como motivadores de la acción moral como si los cosideramos como rasgos que permiten percibir la realidad moral. (shrink)

Bering argues that belief in posthumous intentional agency may confer added fitness via the inhibition of opportunistic behavior. This is true only if these agents are interested parties in our moral choices, a feature which does not result from Bering's imaginative constraint hypothesis and extends to supernatural agents other than dead people's souls. A by-product model might handle this better.

It is the intention of this article on De Trinitate by St. Augustine to show that his doctrine is built upon applied epistemology aimed at the acquisition ofintellectus fidei. The main part of this paper explores the Augustinian search for vestigia trinitatis which reveals striking “psychological analogues” of thedivine trinity present in the human mind (Books 8-15). A mystical union with the holy trinity, however, appears impossible due to the impar imago of thehuman mind.

Historians of science generally consider that Darwinism has played an important part in the birth of scientific ecology. Now most 19th century seminal works of the new discipline have been elaborated within a Lamarckian framework. The source of this paradox lies in the double-content of the adaptation concept, considered as a static phenomenon by the ecologists and as a dynamic process by the evolutionists. Although closely related nowadays, as shown by modern evolutionary ecology, the problematics of the fields of research (...) at issue were initially separated. (shrink)

Le discours social du XIXe siècle fait un usage abondant du mot de «peuple». Les définitions qui en sont données - de Michelet à Larousse -, les représentations qui en sont construites - de Balzac à Zola -tendent cependant à vider le peuple de toute substance historique ou à le placer à la frontière de la civilisation. Une sociologie, une anthropologie, une physiologie, une raciologie s'additionnent en ce sens au fil du siècle, dont les schémas pèseront durablement sur l'imaginaire des (...) classes dominantes.The word "peuple" is one of the most frequent in the social discourse of the 19th century. From Michelet to Larousse, from Balzac to Zola, its definitions and literary representations tend however to drain the people of any historical substance. Moreover, from one text to another, a complex blending of sociology, anthropology, physiology and raciology seems to lead the popular classes outside the very border of civilization. (shrink)

Tels leurs lointains prédécesseurs des Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, la Marquise d’U*** et le chevalier d’E*** sont réunis à la campagne et se livrent à des entretiens sur les sciences et la philosophie naturelle. Ils passent en revue les principaux problèmes de la philosophie des sciences, la nature de la découverte, des faits, de la probabilité, le réalisme et l’instrumentalisme, fictions et expériences de pensée, abordent quelques grands sujets de la science d’aujourd’hui, astronomie, chaos et hasard, objets quantiques, (...) nature des entités mathématiques et s’intéressent particulièrement à la biologie évolutionniste et à l’éthologie. Ils débattent des valeurs et des idéaux du savant et de la relation entre la science et la religion. La philosophie, de nos jours, aspire à être populaire, et même "peuple". On fustige son ésotérisme et sa sophistication et l’on voudrait qu’elle soit toujours accessible. Mais ne faut-il pas également songer à l’éducation philosophique des marquises? N’ont-elles pas droit elles-aussi à des introductions claires et légères aux questions centrales de l’épistémologie? Et ce qui est bon pour elles ne peut-il l’être pour tout un chacun? (shrink)

"De nos jours, la justice est omniprésente dans l’espace public. Elle nous interpelle sous diverses formes?: faits divers, procès qui enflamment l’opinion publique, jugements qui affectent la vie des citoyens ou qui changent le paysage institutionnel dans lequel nous évoluons, etc. En fait, la médiatisation de la justice joue depuis longtemps un rôle essentiel dans le débat public, la régulation sociale ou le jeu politique en Occident. En une vingtaine d’études, plusieurs facettes du lien entre justice et espaces publics sont (...) explorées, de la fin du Moyen Âge jusqu’au siècle dernier, en Europe comme au Canada?: usages politiques de la justice, enjeux sociaux révélés par l’intervention judiciaire, échos médiatiques du palais et mobilisation de l’opinion publique, rôle de la presse dans les représentations du crime et des criminels, critiques du pouvoir judiciaire et des forces policières. Cet ouvrage collectif montre à quel point l’institution judiciaire a contribué à la construction de l’espace public au fil de ses transformations séculaires, combien aussi la justice ne se conçoit qu’à travers les lieux du vivre-ensemble et les différentes expressions de l’opinion publique. Le lecteur est donc convié à suivre le fil d’une vaste interrogation sur la place que la justice a historiquement occupée dans la formation de la conscience publique des sociétés occidentales." Présentation de l'éditeur. (shrink)