Le Glossaire du latin philosophique est un fichier d'environ 230.000 à 260.000 fiches consacré au vocabulaire philosophique du moyen âge. Une équipe du CNRS, au départ sous la direction de Pierre Michaud-Quantin, y a travaillé durant de nombreuses années. Récemment, il a été transporté de la Sorbonne à l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, où il est désormais consultable à la Section latine. À l'occasion de l'arrivée du Glossaire du latin philosophique à l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (...) et pour marquer un nouveau départ, une journée d'étude consacrée à ce fi chier a eu lieu à l'IRHT, le jeudi 15 mai 2008, sous le titre "Les innovations du vocabulaire latin à la fin du moyen âge:autour du Glossaire du latin philosophique." -- P. [4} of cover. (shrink)

Il saggio è dedicato al problema dell'omonimia del bene nei commenti all'Etica di Alberto Magno, Tommaso d'Aquino e nei cosiddetti commenti «averroisti». Dopo aver circoscritto il problema, mettendo in rilievo la critica aristotelica all'idea di Bene platonica, l'A. procede poi all'analisi della ricezione di tale nucleo concettuale nei due scritti albertini, in Ethica I, lect. V-VI e in Ethica I, tract. V, capp.11-18. L'A. dà conto della complessa rielaborazione della critica aristotelica a Platone formulata da Alberto nel suo primo commento, (...) che lo conduce ad attribuire al più celebre allievo di Socrate una teoria ibrida, in cui si fondono elementi del commento all'Etica di Eustrazio ed elementi avicenniani; nel secondo abbandona questa posizione per riavvicinarsi ad Aristotele. Tommaso è in linea con una più genuina ripresa della filosofia aristotelica, anche se siamo ben lontani da un aristotelismo schietto: la trattazione del tema dell'omonimia del bene, della partecipazione e delle idee divine vede il mescolarsi di accenti platonici e peripatetici. L'ultima sezione, dedicata ai commenti «averroisti», alla luce di un'analisi sottile dei testi, conferma il giudizio già formulato da R.-A. Gauthier, che vedeva una stretta dipendenza di questi dal commento di Tommaso d'Aquino e da Alberto Magno. In appendice si dà l'edizione dei seguenti testi: Egidio di Orléans, Questiones supra decem libros Ethicorum , q. 18 ; Supplemento al commento di Egidio di Orléans , q. 3 ; Anonimo, Questiones in Ethicam , q.19 ; Anonimo, Questiones in Ethicam , q. 16 ; «Commento del Vaticano» all'Etica Nicomachea , q. 20 ; Anonimo di Iacopo da Padova, Questiones in Ethicam , q. 19 ; Anonimo di Iacopo da Padova, Questiones in Ethicam - secondo supplemento , qq. 7-13. (shrink)

Cette étude explore la position de Thomas d'Aquin au sujet du rôle de la chair dans la transmission du péché originel. Elle montre la différence entre la position définitive de Thomas à ce sujet (notamment dans le De malo) et celle, plus proche d'Albert le Grand et de Bonaventure, qu'il avait soutenue dans son Commentaire des Sentences.

L’article étudie les théories scolastiques de l’ obstinatio des démons chez certains théologiens de la seconde moitié du xiii e siècle et du début du xiv e. On analyse, en particulier, comment ces auteurs ont caractérisé l’état de la volonté des créatures damnées : contrairement à la volonté des viatores, qui peut être bonne ou mauvaise, et à la volonté des anges, qui ne peut plus pécher, la volonté des damnés se trouve dans la situation paradoxale de causer librement, entièrement (...) ou en partie, l’acte même qui constitue leur punition et dont ils voudraient se libérer. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to study some aspects of the Medieval Latin reception of Aristotle’s theory of pleasure. First, I introduce Aristotle’s position, with special attention to the problem of the ontological status of pleasure and the relationship between pleasure and the different genera of causes, as well as the somehow ambiguous exegesis of Michael of Ephesus. Second, I take into account the interpretation given by Albert the Great in his first commentary on the Ethics. Finally, I present (...) some theological issues raised by Albert’s interpretation, in the discussions about beatific vision. The authors taken in account are James of Viterbo, Radulphus Brito, Peter Auriol and William of Ockham. (shrink)

Anticipation plays an essential role in the perception of the empirical reality. Music, because of its purely dynamical nature, is a privileged environment for the study of anticipation processes. In this chapter, we firstly discuss the current viewpoint on anticipation in music perception and the meaning of anticipation structures in general. Then we present a descriptive study of how melodies are experienced inside the psychic present, analyzing a series of musical excerpts alongside selected pictorial analogues. Focusing on the dynamic patterns (...) shared by auditory and visual modalities, we discuss the nature of perceptual continua and their boundaries in the subjective space-time. (shrink)

Brain tumors are a common form of solid tumors in children and, unfortunately, they are characterized by a very uncertain prognosis. The treatment of this pathology often includes one or more very invasive surgical procedures, quite often in the very first steps of the treatment. Cases of brain tumors in children represent one of the greatest challenges for health care professionals in the domain of pediatric neurosurgery. This is clearly due to the complexity of the therapeutic plan, but also to (...) the nature of the bond that is established between the child, the parents, and the members of the staff during the often-dramatic initial phase of the illness. In this phenomenological-hermeneutic study, we explore both the emotional and organizational needs, as well as the available professional and personal resources of the staff in the Neurosurgery ward of the Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence. The ward staff, composed of 7 surgeons, a pediatric neuro-oncologist, 12 nurses, and 4 auxiliary health care professionals, underwent in-depth interviews that were recorded. The recordings were then transcribed and submitted to content analysis according to COREQ standards. A complex picture of emotional as well as organizational demands emerged from the data. Shared experiences were pointed out, together with more specific and idiosyncratic contents characteristic of different professional roles. The focus of the present paper was twofold, first, we considered the needs that are overtly expressed by the staff, and then we discussed the main sources of their motivational drives. We found that the latter is mainly found in the quality of the therapeutic bond that is established with the children and the family members, together with the deep interest in one’s own professional activity and the effective complementarity and integration of the personal and professional qualities of the staff members within the multidisciplinary caring group. (shrink)

What are human rights? What makes a particular human rights claim ‘genuine’ or ‘valid’? These are difficult questions with which current philosophical literature on human rights is concerned. They are also the same kind of questions that legal philosophers asked about Law throughout the 20th century. Drawing from the similarities between the two fields, I attempt to do with the concept of human rights something similar to what Ronald Dworkin accomplished with that of Law in Law’s Empire. First, I offer (...) a critique of the two dominant perspectives on human rights—the Orthodox and Political views—that is similar in character to Dworkin’s Semantic Sting objection to Legal Positivism. Second, I sketch an alternative, Dworkinian-inspired framework that seeks to develop the notion of human rights as an interpretive concept. According to this framework, different accounts of human rights are to be understood as expressing different interpretations of the point (or purpose) of human rights practice. (shrink)

Human rights have become an important ideal in current times, yet our age has witnessed more violations of human rights than any previous less enlightened one. This book explores the historical and theoretical dimensions of this paradox. Divided into two parts, the first section offers an alternative history of natural law, in which natural rights are represented as the eternal human struggle to resist opression and to fight for a society in which people are no longer degraded or despised. At (...) the time of their birth in the 18th Century and again in the popular uprisings of the last decade, human rights became the dominant critique of law and society. The radical rhetoric of rights and its apparently endless expansive potential has led to its adoption by governments and individuals alike seeking to justify their actions on moral grounds and has undermined its radical edge. Part Two examines the philosophical logic of rights. The classical critiques of Kant, Burke, Hegel and Marx illuminate traditional aproaches to the concept of human rights. The work of Heidegger, Sartre and psychoanalysis is used to deconstruct the metaphisical essentialism of bothe universalists and cultural relativists. Finally, through a consideration of the ethics of otherness, and with reference to recent human rights violations, it is argued that the end of human rights is to judge law and politics from a moral stand point which both transcends the present and is historically relevant. (shrink)

The concept of fitness, central to population genetics and to the synthetic theory of evolution, is discussed. After a historical introduction on the origin of this concept, the current meaning of it in population genetics is examined: a cause of the selective process and its quantification. Several difficulties arise for its exact definition. Three adequacy criteria for such a definition are formulated. It is shown that it is impossible to formulate an adequate definition of fitness respecting these criteria. The propensity (...) definition of fitness is presented and rejected. Finally it is argued that fitness is a conceptual device, a useful tool, only for descriptive purposes of selective processes, changing from case to case, and thus devoid of any substantial physical counterpart. Any attempt to its reification is an apport to the metaphysical load evolutionary theory has inherited from Natural Theology. (shrink)

The current crisis is one outcome of the financialisation of contemporary capitalism. It arose in the USA because of the enormous expansion of mortgage-lending, including to the poorest layers of the working class. It became general because of the trading of debt by financial institutions. These phenomena are integral to financialisation. During the last three decades, large enterprises have turned to open markets to obtain finance, forcing banks to seek alternative sources of profit. One avenue has been provision of financial (...) services to individual workers. This trend has been facilitated by the retreat of public provision from housing, pensions, education, and so on. A further avenue has been to adopt investment-banking practices in open financial markets. The extraction of financial profits directly out of personal income constitutes financial expropriation. Combined with investment-banking, it has catalysed the current gigantic crisis. More broadly, financialisation has sustained the emergence of new layers of rentiers, defined primarily through their relation to the financial system rather than ownership of loanable capital. Finally, financialisation has posed important questions regarding finance-capital and imperialism. (shrink)

Erudite and timely, this book is a key contribution to the renewal of radical theory and politics.

Jurisprudence is the prudence of jus, law's consciousness and conscience. Throughout history, when thinkers wanted to contemplate the organisation of society or the relationship between authority and the subject, they turned to law. All great philosophers, from Plato to Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, Marx and Weber had either studied the law or had a deep understanding of legal operations. But jurisprudence is also the conscience of law, the exploration of law's justice and of an ideal law or equity at the bar (...) of which state law is always judged. Jurisprudence brings together 'is' and 'ought', the positive and the normative, law and justice. But after a long process of decay, legal theory is today characterised by cognitive and moral poverty. Jurisprudence has become restricted and academically peripheral, a guidebook to technocratic legalism and a legitimation of the existent. Critical jurisprudence returns to the classical tradition of a general philosophy of law and adopts a much wider concept of legality. It is concerned both with posited law and with the law of the law. All legal aspects of the economic, political, emotional and physical modes of production and reproduction of society are part of critical jurisprudence. This widening of scope allows a radical rethinking of the nature of rights, justice, sovereignty and judgement. A political philosophy of justice today must examine the political economy of law; transitions from Empire to nation; ideological and imaginary constructions through which we understand ourselves and relate to others; ways in which gender, race or sexuality create forms of identity that both discipline bodies and offer sites of resistance. Law's complicity with political oppression, violence and racism has to be faced before it is possible to speak of a new beginning for legal thought, which in turn is the necessary precondition for a theory of justice. Critical Jurisprudence offers an ethics of law against the nihilism of power and an aesthetics of existence for the melancholic lawyer. (shrink)

We investigate the higher-order modal logic , which is a variant of the system presented in our previous work. A semantics for that system, founded on the theory of quasi sets, is outlined. We show how such a semantics, motivated by the very intuitive base of Schrödinger logics, provides an alternative way to formalize some intensional concepts and features which have been used in recent discussions on the logical foundations of quantum mechanics; for example, that some terms like 'electron' have (...) no precise reference and that 'identical' particles cannot be named unambiguously. In the last section, we sketch a classical semantics for quasi set theory. (shrink)

This volume of essays traces the history of jurisprudence from classical times, and examines various interpretations of written laws.

The issue of what consequences to draw from the existence of non-classical logical systems has been the subject of an interesting debate across a diversity of fields. In this paper the matter of alternative logics is considered with reference to a specific belief system and its propositions :the Azande are said to maintain beliefs about witchcraft which, when expressed propositionally, appear to be inconsistent. When the Azande have been presented with such inconsistencies, they either fail to see them as such (...) or else accept them as non-problematical. Is our knowledge of logical truths a relative and culturally determined phenomenon, or is there some (transcendent) criterion that allows us to adjudicate between alternative logical systems? The authors propose an approach for resolving disputes about the status of Azande reasoning which assumes a paraconsistent framework, thus providing a new perspective on this debate. (shrink)

Responding to Alain Badiou’s ‘communist hypothesis’, the leading political philosophers of the Left convened in London in 2009 to take part in a landmark conference to discuss the perpetual, persistent notion that, in a truly emancipated society, all things should be owned in common. This volume brings together their discussions on the philosophical and political import of the communist idea, highlighting both its continuing significance and the need to reconfigure the concept within a world marked by havoc and crisis.

It is becoming clear that many of today’s management theories are inadequate theoretically and practically to move understanding, scholarship, and practice to where it needs to be for scholars, business leaders, and policy makers to cope with an increasing fraught world. This Special Issue’s focus is on sustainability. Sustainability challenges need to incorporate multidisciplinary interventions and the trans- and interdisciplinary nature of solutions. To actively seek transformation toward sustainability, fundamental and innovative short-term as well as long-term efforts are required in (...) society, economy, technology, and education, including our understanding of human behavior and attitudes toward the management of the environment. This introductory piece presents natural science theories as a promising approach for achieving progress toward transformation for sustainability. (shrink)

In this paper we provide frame definability results for weak versions of classical modal axioms that can be expressed in Fitting's many-valued modal languages. These languages were introduced by M. Fitting in the early '90s and are built on Heyting algebras which serve as the space of truth values. The possible-worlds frames interpreting these languages are directed graphs whose edges are labelled with an element of the underlying Heyting algebra, providing us a form of many-valued accessibility relation. Weak axioms of (...) the form we treat here have been examined from the completeness perspective and further explored for applications in non-monotonic reasoning. Here, we introduce more weak many-valued modal axioms and prove a frame correspondence result for all of them. The classes of corresponding labelled frames possess algebraic properties which are strongly reminiscent of many classical ones, such as the Church-Rosser property, reflexivity, transitivity, partial functionality, etc. (shrink)