Defining roles of agents (i.e., people, organisations, etc.) is required in various Semantic Web applications, including access control, knowledge management and skill repository. So far, many theo...

Many philosophers regard the persistence of philosophical disputes as symptomatic of overly ambitious, ill-founded intellectual projects. There are indeed strong reasons to believe that persistent disputes in philosophy (and more generally in the discourse at large) are pointless. We call this the pessimistic view of the nature of philosophical disputes. In order to respond to the pessimistic view, we articulate the supporting reasons and provide a precise formulation in terms of the idea that the best explanation of persistent disputes entails (...) that they are pointless. We then show how to answer the pessimistic argument. Taking a well-known mathematical controversy as our paradigm example, we argue that some persistent disputes reflect substantive disagreements at the “meta-analytic” level, i.e., disagreements about the best way, among quite different candidates, to understand the topic at issue, and the best associated cluster of analytic truths one should accept concerning it. Moreover, our concrete example shows that such meta-analytic disagreements can in principle be settled and yield a genuine theoretical (as opposed to merely pragmatic) breakthrough. We conclude optimistically that persistent disputes can be an important means of fostering epistemic progress. (shrink)

Currently, the widely used notion of activity is increasingly present in computer science. However, because this notion is used in specific contexts, it becomes vague. Here, the notion of activity is scrutinized in various contexts and, accordingly, put in perspective. It is discussed through four scientific disciplines: computer science, biology, economics, and epistemology. The definition of activity usually used in simulation is extended to new qualitative and quantitative definitions. In computer science, biology and economics disciplines, the new simulation activity definition (...) is first applied critically. Then, activity is discussed generally. In epistemology, activity is discussed, in a prospective way, as a possible framework in models of human beliefs and knowledge. (shrink)

To improve the safety and the performance of operators involved in risky and demanding missions, human-machine cooperation should be dynamically adapted, in terms of dialogue or function allocation. To support this reconfigurable cooperation, a crucial point is to assess online the operator’s ability to keep performing the mission. The article explores the concept of Operator Functional State, then it proposes to operationalize this concept on the specific activity of drone swarm monitoring, carried out by 22 participants on simulator SUSIE. With (...) the aid of supervised learning methods, physiological and contextual are classified into three classes, corresponding to different levels of OFS. This classification would help for adapting the countermeasures to the situation faced by operators. (shrink)

How many words—and which ones—are sufficient to define all other words? When dictionaries are analyzed as directed graphs with links from defining words to defined words, they reveal a latent structure. Recursively removing all words that are reachable by definition but that do not define any further words reduces the dictionary to a Kernel of about 10% of its size. This is still not the smallest number of words that can define all the rest. About 75% of the Kernel turns (...) out to be its Core, a “Strongly Connected Subset” of words with a definitional path to and from any pair of its words and no word's definition depending on a word outside the set. But the Core cannot define all the rest of the dictionary. The 25% of the Kernel surrounding the Core consists of small strongly connected subsets of words: the Satellites. The size of the smallest set of words that can define all the rest—the graph's “minimum feedback vertex set” or MinSet—is about 1% of the dictionary, about 15% of the Kernel, and part-Core/part-Satellite. But every dictionary has a huge number of MinSets. The Core words are learned earlier, more frequent, and less concrete than the Satellites, which are in turn learned earlier, more frequent, but more concrete than the rest of the Dictionary. In principle, only one MinSet's words would need to be grounded through the sensorimotor capacity to recognize and categorize their referents. In a dual-code sensorimotor/symbolic model of the mental lexicon, the symbolic code could do all the rest through recombinatory definition. (shrink)

Las humanidades asumieron el concepto astronómico de revolución. Si antes la idea consistía en un retorno total a su punto de retorno, ahora va más allá de su significado original y pasa a relacionarse con grandes transformaciones estructurales, a una ruptura con el status quo, o concebirse como un intento de adaptar el ideal al real; una subversión del orden. Sin embargo, hoy en día, la idea de Revolución parece temida o algo que sólo pertenece a los libros de historia. (...) Con la caída de la URSS, con cierto entusiasmo, se proclamó un presagio falaz: ¡hemos llegado al fin de la Historia! Lo real ahora sólo era responsable de adaptarse a un único ideal victorioso: el (neo)liberal. Es como si después de las Eras de las Revoluciones, de los Imperios y de los Extremos, hubiéramos llegado a una era del conformismo, la Era de la Inercia, cuya noción del tiempo se presenta como un presente eterno e inevitable sin dimensión alguna de futuro, para mantener la humanidad. la contingencia y la creatividad rehenes de un pensamiento único, de una dictadura de la falta de alternativas. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es utilizar autores clásicos y contemporáneos que nos permitan pensar el hoy más allá del ahora, permitiéndonos vislumbrar nuevos mañanas; un rescate de nuestra creatividad y contingencia. Necesitamos recuperar una disputa sobre las utopías y responder: ¿es todavía posible una revolución? ¿Los Nuevos Brasiles pueden ser nuestro horizonte de expectativas? Así, a través de Hegel y la tradición hegeliana, reflexionaremos sobre la relación entre historicidad y revolución para criticar lo que identificamos como un intento neoliberal de congelar la temporalidad; y, finalmente, recuperar nuestra dimensión de futuro y potencial transformador. (shrink)

Preoperative mapping of language and declarative memory functions in temporal lobe epilepsy patients is essential since they frequently encounter deterioration of these functions and show variable degrees of cerebral reorganization. Due to growing evidence on language and declarative memory interdependence at a neural and neuropsychological level, we propose the GE2REC protocol for interactive language-and-memory network mapping. GE2REC consists of three inter-related tasks, sentence generation with implicit encoding and two recollection memory tasks: recognition and recall. This protocol has previously been validated (...) in healthy participants, and in this study, we showed that it also maps the LMN in the left TLE. Compared to healthy controls, left TLE showed widespread inter- and intra-hemispheric reorganization of the LMN through reduced activity of regions engaged in the integration and the coordination of this meta-network. We also illustrated how this protocol could be implemented in clinical practice individually by presenting two case studies of LTLE patients who underwent efficient surgery and became seizure-free but showed different cognitive outcomes. This protocol can be advantageous for clinical practice because it is short and easy to perform; allows brain mapping of essential cognitive functions, even at an individual level; engages language-and-memory interaction allowing to evaluate the integrative processes within the LMN; provides a more comprehensive assessment by including both verbal and visual modalities, as well as various language and memory processes. Based on the available postsurgical data, we presented preliminary results obtained with this protocol in LTLE patients that could potentially inform the clinical practice. This implies the necessity to further validate the potential of GE2REC for neurosurgical planning, along with two directions, guiding resection and describing LMN neuroplasticity at an individual level. (shrink)

Henri Bergson is primarily known for his work on time, memory, and creativity. His equally innovative interventions into politics and religion have, however, been neglected or dismissed until now. In the first book in English dedicated to Bergson as a political thinker, leading Bergson scholars illuminate his positions on core concerns within political philosophy: the significance of emotion in moral judgment, the relationship between biology and society, and the entanglement of politics and religion. Ranging across Bergson's writings but drawing mainly (...) on his last book, _The Two Sources of Morality and Religion_, the contributors consider Bergson's relevance to contemporary discussions of human rights, democratic pluralism, and environmental ethics. _Contributors._ Keith Ansell-Pearson, G. William Barnard, Claire Colebrook, Hisashi Fujita, Suzanne Guerlac, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Frédéric Keck, Leonard Lawlor, Alexandre Lefebvre, Paola Marrati, John Mullarkey, Paulina Ochoa Espejo, Carl Power, Philippe Soulez, Jim Urpeth, Melanie White, Frédéric Worms. (shrink)

On ignore presque tout des circonstances qui ont amené Hermann von Helmholtz à s’engager en 1878 dans ce que l’on pourrait appeler une « campagne de promotion académique ». Seul parmi les historiens des sciences, Philipp Felsch mentionne dans son excellente monographie consacrée au physiologiste italien Angelo Mosso [Felsch 2007, 43] le fait que Helmholtz rédigea, très probablement à la demande de son collègue cadet ou à celle d’un secrétaire (permanent ou non) d’une académie des sciences eur...

In this article we show how the Lacanian theory of the Imaginary , as elaborated in Lacan's earlier texts, is strongly influenced by the Hegelianism of Alexandre Kojève. In the first part we explain how Lacan is giving a fresh interpretation of Freud's theory of Narcissism by making use of the category of the Imaginary. The second part indicates how the Kojèvian interpretation of the dialectics of Self-consciousness serves as a paradigm for imaginary intersubjectivity. Imaginary intersubjectivity, however, leads to (...) an impasse since authentic recognition requires a symbolic context. That is why Lacan's theory of a fundamental desire for recognition is intrinsically linked up with his theory of the Symbolic. According to Lacan this aspect has been neglected by Hegel . Hegel did not see the importance of the symbolic order. This affirmation, however, implies a severe misinterpretation of Hegel's text. In the last part we elaborate the relation between the Imaginary and the Symbolic as a dialectical one. The Lacanian interpretation of Freud's theory, ' Hegelianizes' Freud. We illustrate this in reference to the Freudian concept of 'libido'. (shrink)

L'entrée des enfants médiévaux dans la collection de « La Vie Quotidienne » vaut reconnaissance. Ce petit ouvrage clot la polémique née il y a trente ans, quand Philippe Ariès avait avançé l'idée que la rareté des sources concernant l'enfance médiévale révélait un désintérêt des gens de cette époque pour leurs enfants. L'ouvrage que nous proposent ces deux spécialistes de l'enfance médiévale, Danièle Alexandre-Bidon et Didier Lett, offre une synthèse des connaissance acquises sur les...

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviews 171 c:\users\ken\documents\type3402\rj 3402 050 red.docx 2015-02-04 9:19 PM REFLECTIONS FROM PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA Russell Wahl English and Philosophy / Idaho State U. Pocatello, id 83209 usa [email protected] Alexandre Guay, ed. Autour des Principia Mathematica de Russell et Whitehead. (Collection Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences.) Dijon: Editions Universitaires de Dijon, 2012. Pp. 168. isbn 978-2-36441-001-4. €20.00 (pb). his collection, by several distinguished French philosophers, is intended to be a (...) work on problems which are suggested by or perhaps stem from Whitehead and Russell’s Principia Mathematica. It turns out to be a somewhat eclectic collection. Some of the papers explicate points in Principia, some delve into issues from Principia or perhaps suggested by something in it, and q= 172 Reviews c:\users\ken\documents\type3402\rj 3402 050 red.docx 2015-02-04 9:19 PM some into issues suggested by later works of Russell’s. The collection was put together for the centenary of Principia, with the idea of focusing on “its posterity, the doors it has opened, the questions it has brought up, and the techniques it has initiated” (p. 5). The essays are all interesting, but in some of them the main focuses are only introduced and are not developed very much, appearing to explicate points already made in detail elsewhere and not adding a great deal that is new. The first essay, for example, gives an overview of the development of Russell’s logic, the theory of classes and the account of relations, the antinomies, the theory of descriptions and even the ramified theory of types. While the review is useful, there doesn’t seem to be here anything more than what would be found in the previous works of Denis Vernant, Jules Vuillemin, or Philippe de Rouilhan, on which the author draws. Hints of further issues are to be found in the discussion, but they are not developed because of the sheer number of points being reviewed. Denis Vernant, in the fifth essay, gives a thorough review of Russell’s account of similarity of relations and his use of this in relation-arithmetic, mostly from Chapter 6 of Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. Vernant points out that Russell uses the terms “analogy” and “exactly analogous” in several places and thinks of these in terms of his definition of structure. At the end of the essay Vernant begins with Russell’s formal account of structure and seeks to give an account of analogy, and specifically metaphor, using the tools of similarity of structure. Again, the discussion of similarity relations is good, but does not really go beyond previous work, and the application to metaphor, while interesting, is very brief. The sixth essay, by Nadine Gessler and Denis Miéville, discusses Lesniewski ”s criticisms of Principia and gives some hint of Lesniewski’s own positions. Lesniewski’s work is very interesting and has probably not been given its due. These authors briefly mention Lesniewski’s concerns about classes, the assertion sign and definitions, and then give a short presentation of Lesniewski’s own views. This last part is again just sketched out. The authors do point out difficulties Lesniewski had with parts of Principia, including the sloppiness about use and mention, the requirement that definitions be non-creative and the theory of types. They also point out that Lesniewski had a view of logic (reminiscent of Arnauld and Nicod) as “the art of thinking”, and they discuss his suspicion of sets as abstract entities rather than mereological wholes of the kind which can be grounded in experience. Lesniewski apparently thought of mathematical logic as limiting and not encompassing the whole of thinking. This is curious, because often Russell and Whitehead are accused of expanding logic in order to capture all mathematics as part of logic. Gessler and Miéville accent the differences between Lesniewski ’s position and Principia, but in many ways Lesniewski’s views are actually Reviews 173 c:\users\ken\documents\type3402\rj 3402 050 red.docx 2015-02-04 9:19 PM closer to those of Whitehead and Russell than to, e.g., the views... (shrink)

Voici, pour la premiere fois edite et traduit, un texte grec antique perdu dans la langue originale et conserve en arabe. Il s'agit d'une lettre redigee par un mysterieux Ptolemee, philologue aristotelicien actif a Alexandrie autour de l'an 200 apres J.-C., dans laquelle celui-ci rapporte la Biographie et le Testament d'Aristote, ainsi qu'un Catalogue d'une centaine de titres inconnu par ailleurs. Ce vestige est l'une de nos meilleures sources d'information - et la seule qui soit interne a l'ecole peripateticienne - (...) sur la vie d'Aristote. Elle permet de reconstituer les liens entre Aristote et le pouvoir macedonien - Philippe, Alexandre le Grand et le general Antipatros - ainsi que l'emancipation progressive d'Aristote a l'egard de Platon. C'est aussi notre seul temoignage sur la premiere edition, dans l'Antiquite, des ecrits savants du Philosophe. Instantane pris sur le vif de l'etat de la philologie aristotelicienne, a Alexandrie, a la fin du IIe siecle, ce texte est une lecture essentielle pour quiconque s'interesse a la question de savoir ce que nous lisons quand nous lisons Aristote. (shrink)

Galilée n’a pas seulement contribué à détruire la cosmologie ancienne. Resté attaché à l’idée d’ordre cosmique, mais conscient qu’il est peut-être en partie inaccessible à l’intelligence humaine, il propose dans sa « Lettre à Ingoli » et dans le Dialogue sur les deux systèmes du monde les linéaments d’une cosmologie copernicienne positive, dont les principes sont dégagés dialectiquement et exposés avec prudence. Cet article s’attache à décrire le contexte théorique de l’entreprise cosmologique galiléenne, tout à la fois anti-aristotélicienne et anti-képlérienne, (...) et met en évidence les principes heuristiques qui gouvernent son élaboration : principes d’analogie, de limitation et de localité, de stabilité et d’empiricité. (shrink)

Le rapport de Spinoza à l’histoire est ici envisagé comme rapport à l’histoire de la philosophie. Il s’agit non d’une recherche de sources ou d’influences de la doctrine, mais d’examiner le geste propre qu’aurait Spinoza-philosophe de rappeler le passé de la philosophie. Peut-on légitimement qualifier d’« historique » l’usage qu’il fait de ce passé? L’évocation, la correction ou la réfutation font-elles apparaître, sous la plume de Spinoza, une forme d’historicité de la philosophie? L’idée ici proposée est la suivante : la (...) considération successive des philosophes, des mots et des motifs de rédaction des Principia ne révèle, en dépit des apparences, nulle histoire authentique, mais autant de stratégies discursives (tracer, narrer, constituer) propres à établir les éléments d’une « vraie » philosophie et, par là même, à se situer soi-même par démarcation et promotion d’une pensée propre. (shrink)

A notre époque, la qualité d'humaniste est constamment revendiquée en particulier par les hommes politiques. Nous sommes surpris lorsque nous découvrons que les prétendants à cette démarche développent des approches très différentes de l'être humain et de sa vie en société. Mais d'où viennent ces conflits entre «humanistes»? Tout simplement de l'objet de leur préoccupation : de l'homme lui-même. L'homme est au coeur de la cité, bien sûr, mais quel homme?

This paper offers an ethnomethodological exploration of fun in Go, the timely delivery of a ‘Monkey Jump’, and its lingering relevance to science studies. In Go terms, the paper makes a ‘pincer’ move: on the one hand, it explores the analytic potential of ‘fun’ for ethnographic purposes and, on the other hand, it questions its manifest abandonment in some quarters of science studies. In particular, the paper challenges their “curious seriousness” :69–78, 1990) whenever grand ontological claims are mixed up with (...) suspended empirical inquiry. That said, the latter criticism does not take the form of a scholarly exercise in conceptual clarification, but remains part and parcel of the author’s ethnography of playing amateur Go, including his dealing with and delivery of a Monkey Jump and reading of Go literature and replaying of professional games. The key point of the paper, then, is to demonstrate the heuristic interest of adopting a practitioner’s stance, not only for understanding a technical domain such as Go in its own terms, but also for launching a phenomenological critique of analytic discretion in science studies. Therefore, the second part of the paper re-examines, from an amateur Go player’s stance, Latour and Woolgar’s Go analogy in and for Laboratory Life —an early exemplar of science studies’ ontological bent. (shrink)

Innovating new experiences is an innovation strategy that increases product differentiation and the perceived value of offers for future autonomous cars. Young Chinese customers are a relevant target group of lead users to co-create those experiences. We address the co-creation of memorable and engaging experiences with targeted potential users and the building of the meaning of experiential imaginary that results from innovations (based on digital media) echoing the need for sensory atmospherics while strolling in the city. We aim at understanding (...) how customers can co-create meaningful experiences. We analyze the narrative structures of the experiential imaginaries, considering the narratives as a major component of ambiance experiences and imaginary. With an empirical approach that associates projective techniques to semiotic analysis of the corresponding narratives, we describe the structural system of the experiential imaginary of young Chinese customers when imagining driving in the city in tomorrow’s cars. Semiotics offers a novel contribution to innovation marketing and idea generation of experiential innovations. This theoretical stance valorizes the outside-in paradigm of future lead-users as co-creators of innovative experiences, whose imaginary narratives are raw materials for creativity. This approach is an alternative to brainstorming and its limits for creating disruptive innovations. (shrink)

Aujourd'hui, des malades atteints de pathologies graves pour lesquelles les alternatives therapeutiques sont limitees ou inexistantes reclament, non plus tant une protection contre les essais cliniques, qu'un droit d'y participer. Cette nouvelle revendication est le point de depart de la presente enquete, a la fois historique, juridique et sociologique, qui montre comment s'est formee, dans les normes et dans les pratiques, du XVIIIe au XXe siecle, la distinction entre l'animal de laboratoire et le sujet humain. Entre les cobayes et les (...) hommes. La premiere partie de l'ouvrage decrit la formation, de part et d'autre du proces des medecins de Nuremberg, d'un consensus normatif international en reponse aux crises sanitaires, accidents et scandales qui emaillent l'histoire des essais medicaux sur l'etre humain. La seconde partie detaille la situation en France, l'emergence d'une legislation sur les recherches biomedicales, les paradoxes qui persistent dans la loi et les realites nouvelles, sociologiques et scientifiques, qu'elle doit affronter. L'ouvrage montre l'urgence d'un nouveau contrat social en matiere de recherche biomedicale, articulant respect de l'autonomie, equite d'acces et protection des personnes. Et il propose des solutions. (shrink)

This paper sets out a new way of combining Kripke-complete modal logics: lexicographic product. It discusses some basic properties of the lexicographic product construction and proves axiomatization/completeness results.

This article examines the points of similarity and the differences between the Patočkian concept of interpellation and Merleau-Ponty’s concept of chiasmus. These two modes of relating-to-being through language and body, perception and space share the same character of reversibility and openness to the other. However, the “co-respondance” between the subject and the world is not approached by the two phenomenological philosophers from the same perspective. Being-questioned is the inter-psychical event specific to one’s experience of others and of the world; the (...) chiasmatic structure is the bedrock of the ontological relationship and the intercorporeity of beings. Close, but distinct one from the other, interpellation and chiasm partially reveal the common preoccupations of two philosophers whose dialogue History never allowed to occur. (shrink)

Les thèses dites de la “croissance endogène” mettent fort justement en avant le rôle clef d’un certain nombre de secteurs économiques dans le phénomène de croissance des revenus. Cependant, la modélisation qui s’y rattache conduit parallèlement à émettre un certain nombre de jugements normatifs erronés quant au rôle légitime de la puissance publique.En particulier, la structure même des modèles de croissance endogène interdit de rendre compte du caractère subjectif de la valeur et néglige les aspects profondément individuels de l’accumulation de (...) capital. Par conséquent, elle ne s’intéresse qu’aux aspects matériels de cette dernière.Loin de justifier l’intervention publique en vue d’augmenter statistiquement le PIB, les connaissances apportées par la théorie autrichienne conduisent à préférer la propriété naturelle et la liberté de contracter qui en découle comme véritable moyen de faire croître, à un rythme soutenu, les capitaux matériels et immatériels des individus.The so-called theories of “endogeneous growth” rightfully emphasize the key role of some particular economic sectors in the process of income growth. However, their modelling leads to erroneous normative judgements in the rightful role of the government authorities.The very structure of endogeneous growth models makes it impossible to account for the subjective character of value and disregards the deeply individual aspects of capital accumulation. Consequently, it only takes an interest in its material aspects.Far from justifying public intervention in order to statistically increase the GDP, the basic tenets of the Austrian theory rather lead to prefer natural property and the freedom to contract that goes with it, as real means to have the tangible and intangible individual assets grow at a steady rythm. (shrink)

I sometimes like to daydream that if we were all somehow simultaneously outed as lechers and perverts and sentimental slobs, it might be, after the initial shock of disillusionment, liberating. It might be a relief to quit maintaining this rigid pose of normalcy and own up to the outlaws and monsters we are.