Susanna Schellenberg develops a unified account—“capacitism”—of perceptual content, phenomenology, and epistemic force. In this paper, I raise questions about her arguments for a capacitist account of evidential force, and then challenge her claim that such an account, even if correct, demands that our evidence be less than fully transparent to us.

According to capacitism, to perceive is to employ personal-level, perceptual capacities. In a series of publications, Schellenberg (2016, 2018, 2019b, 2020) has argued that capacitism offers unified analyses of perceptual particularity, perceptual content, perceptual consciousness, perceptual evidence, and perceptual knowledge. “Capacities first” (2020: 715); appealing accounts of an impressive array of perceptual and epistemological phenomena will follow. We argue that, given the Schellenbergian way of individuating perceptual capacities which underpins the above analyses, perceiving an object does not require employing a (...) perceptual capacity which picks it out. Although each eye, used on its own, can suffice for perceiving objects in one’s environment, binocular vision allows one to see the same object(s) via both eyes, taking advantage of informational disparities registered by each eye. Yet in certain conditions it is possible to simultaneously see one object via the left eye and a distinct object via the right eye (at least when the inputs are sufficiently similar to prevent the onset of binocular rivalry). We argue that capacitism has trouble making sense of this. After surveying responses, we conclude that not all of the above phenomena can be unified under the capacitist framework. We then present a more nuanced, disjunctivist account of how capacities are individuated. While it may be illuminating to think of perceiving as the employment of perceptual capacities, this picture does not best favour a ‘common factor’ theory of perceptual content in the way existing presentations have envisaged. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue for a new solution to Mary’s puzzle in Jackson’s famous knowledge argument. We are told that imprisoned Mary knows all facts or truths about color and color vision. On her release, she learns something new according to B-type of materialism and according to property dualism. I argue that this cognitive improvement can only be accounted for in terms of what Schellenberg has recently called “capacitism,” namely the claim that that experience is constitutively a matter of (...) discriminating and singling out particulars by employing perceptual capacities. Of course, I am not claiming that knowing the phenomenal character is simply the possession of abilities, let alone that the phenomenal character is a sort of know-how. That is why my claim is not affiliated with Lewis and Nemirow's ability hypothesis position. I take for granted here a sort of property-representationalism, according to which the phenomenal character of experience supervenes on the cluster of properties that the respective experiences represent. On her release, Mary acquires those perceptual abilities on the basis of which she learns to discriminate all shades of color. And after applying her old physical concept RED to the shade of red, she comes to know what it is like to experience red (propositional knowledge). (shrink)

Cet article propose une réflexion sur la protection des capacités au travail à partir de Martha Nussbaum. Sa visée est de penser les conditions institutionnelles de l’accès aux capacités, dans le cadre du travail, en mettant en évidence les points de tension entre l’approche des capacités et d’autres approches libérales, contractualiste ou utilitariste, qui structurent l’organisation du travail dans la société de marché. Libérale d’un point de vue politique dans la lignée d’Emmanuel Kant, tout en s’intéressant comme Aristote et à (...) Karl Marx à la question des seuils et des libertés substantielles, Nussbaum permet de souligner dans le même temps les tensions qui traversent le travail contemporain et les conditions d’un développement humain au travail à partir d’une liste de capacités centrales et d’un seuil d’accès aux ressources nécessaires pour les mettre en œuvre. L’article s’appuie sur cette approche des capacités et la théorie de la justice de Nussbaum pour analyser les limites du droit, souligner les logiques institutionnelles qui conditionnent l’accès aux capacités au travail, et de distinguer les responsabilités collectives vis-à-vis du développement humain au travail. (shrink)

This paper focuses on Schellenberg’s Capacitism about Phenomenal Evidence, according to which if one is in a phenomenal state constituted by employing perceptual capacities, then one is in a phenomenal state that provides phenomenal evidence. This view offers an attractive explanation of why perceptual experience provides phenomenal evidence, and avoids difficulties faced by its contemporary alternatives. However, in spite of the attractions of this view, it is subject to what I call “the alien experience problem”: some alien experiences (e.g. clairvoyant (...) experience) are constituted by employing perceptual capacities, but they do not provide phenomenal evidence. This point is illustrated by a counterexample which is similar to, but also different in some important respects from, Bonjour’s famous clairvoyant Norman example. At the end of the paper, I sketch a restricted version of Capacitism about Phenomenal Evidence by putting some etiological constraint on the perceptual capacities employed. (shrink)

Cet article remet en question les fondements théoriques et pédagogiques de la notion de compétence éthique ainsi que la conception de l’éthique qu’elle préfigure. Après une analyse du contexte d’émergence de cette notion, notamment dans le champ de la santé, nous verrons en quoi l’approche socioconstructiviste de l’apprentissage, à laquelle se réfèrent de nombreux dispositifs de formation, fait de l’éthique une ressource d’action visant l’adaptation passive des professionnels au contexte organisationnel et socioprofessionnel. Nous proposerons dès lors de revisiter l’apprentissage de (...) l’éthique dans une approche pragmatiste plus critique et plus émancipatrice. Nous en exposerons les principales orientations pédagogiques et insisterons, pour conclure, sur la responsabilité des environnements socioprofessionnels. Ces derniers sont appelés à devenir plus capacitants, c’est-à-dire à créer les conditions favorables au développement de cet apprentissage de l’éthique. (shrink)

Nous nous référerons dans cet article à la mémoire de l’homme, incarné et historique, déterminé par les médiations spatio-temporelles et exposé aux dilemmes éthiques que doit affronter l’ipséité dans sa capacité d’accueillir l’autre telle que la définit Ricœur. Notre réflexion vise la mémoire inquiétée par des médiations propres à la condition existentielle et corporelle du soi moderne, dans un contexte d’ébullition culturelle et technologique. Un tel contexte a en effet des conséquences qui affectent aussi bien l’identité personnelle et collective, (...) que l’exercice des capacités du soi agissant et souffrant – et tout spécialement celui de sa mémoire. Nous examinerons la dimension tant réceptive que dynamique de la mémoire exposée aux fragilisations qui affectent l’identité narrative humaine, en déterminant ses pouvoirs qui laissent des traces au niveau de la conscience et du corps. Nous terminerons enfin notre réflexion par une analyse des effets volontaires et involontaires qui mettent en question la capacité même de la mémoire, en influant sur l’imagination et sur la réponse éthique du soi. (shrink)

The Unity of Perception offers a grand synoptic vision of how perception, consciousness and knowledge fit together. It is a remarkable achievement. A short comment can only address fragments of Schellenberg’s picture; naturally I will look for weak spots.

An important feature of male fertility is the physiological priming of spermatozoa by a multifaceted process collectively referred to as capacitation. The end point of this evasive process is the hyperactivated spermatozoa capable of binding to terminal sugar residues on the egg's extracellular coat, the zona pellucida (ZP), and undergoing acrosomal exocytosis (i.e., induction of the acrosome reaction). The hydrolytic action of acrosomal enzymes released at the site of zona binding, along with the enhanced thrust generated by the hyperactivated beat (...) pattern of the bound spermatozoa, are important factors that regulate the penetration of ZP and fertilization of the egg. Despite many advances in identifying sperm components that promote capacitation, the mechanism underlying the calcium‐triggered process remains elusive. The purpose of this review article is to focus on new advances that have enhanced our understanding of in vivo/in vitro capacitation, a prerequisite event resulting from a dramatic modification and reorganization of the sperm membrane molecules. Special emphasis has been laid on accumulating evidence suggesting potential similarities between the sperm capacitation and early phases of calcium‐triggered membrane fusion (i.e., tethering and docking) during secretory and endocytotic pathways among eukaryotes. BioEssays 26:281–290, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is typically viewed as a time-limited intervention—a bridge to recovery or transplant—not a destination therapy. However, some patients with decision-making capacity request continued ECMO support despite a poor prognosis for recovery and lack of viability as a transplant candidate. In response, critical care teams have asked for guidance regarding the ethical permissibility of unilateral withdrawal over the objections of a capacitated patient. In this article, we evaluate several ethical arguments that have been made in favor of (...) withdrawal, including distributive justice, quality of life, patients’ rights, professional integrity, and the Equivalence Thesis. We find that existing justifications for unilateral withdrawal of ECMO support in capacitated patients are problematic, which leads us to conclude that either: (1) additional ethical arguments are necessary to defend this approach or (2) the claim that it is not appropriate to use ECMO as a destination therapy should be questioned. (shrink)

Since several landmark legal decisions in the 1970s and 1980s, substituted judgment has become widely accepted as an approach to decision‐making for incapacitated patients that incorporates their autonomy and interests. Two notable exceptions have been cases involving minors and those involving cognitively or psychiatrically impaired individuals who never previously possessed the ability to contemplate the medical decisions involved in their care. While a best interest standard may have universal merit in pediatric cases, this paper argues that substituted judgement has been (...) rejected too broadly for “never‐capacitated” patients. It then lays out a three‐condition test for using substituted judgment in these cases. For a subset of “never‐capacitated” patients who belong to distinctive religious or cultural communities with clear medical values and have an appropriate surrogate, these values may prove helpful in vindicating the interests of the never‐capacitated and should not be blanketly dismissed. (shrink)

While reflexivity is seen as a not-to-be-missed concept in professional training, references to design pedagogical devices to enhance actors’ reflective capacities on their professional situations and to foster their professional and personal development are scarce and embedded in a patchwork of theoretical and practical approaches. As designers of such devices in agricultural higher education, our practical experiences, theoretical background and discussions led us to build a model of reflexivity as five intertwined key dimensions. These dimensions deal with aspects of reflexivity (...) that it is possible to work on directly with learners by using appropriate scaffolding methods, which we describe and illustrate in this paper, referring to our teaching experiences. Two dimensions of the model are particularly relevant for people who are not familiar with reflexivity, and sometimes reluctant to practice it. (shrink)

Henri Maldiney est ancien élève de l’Ecole normale supérieure. Il fut prisonnier en Allemagne pendant la guerre. Il est un des représentants en France du courant philosophique de la phénoménologie. Ses champs de réflexion concernent la maladie mentale, l'art et, bien sûr la philosophie. Il a influencé nombre de psychiatres, de philosophes et d'artistes. La meilleure façon de proposer une introduction à la pensée de Henri Maldiney, c’est peut-être de faire partager une expérience personnelle de rencontre. Bernard Rigaud, en travaillant (...) sur différents sujets, a croisé et recroisé de façon régulière la pensée de ce philosophe. À chaque occasion, il a eu le sentiment d’être éclairé et inspiré. Partant des différentes modalités du mal-être, la pensée d’Henri Maldiney devient une pensée sur l’être. Mais comment penser ce qui est? Le philosophe nous conduit sur les voies de l’art, et sur les voies des dysfonctionnements, de la folie, de la dépression... (shrink)

Natalia Carrillo and Tarja Knuuttila claim that there are two traditions of thinking about idealization offering almost opposite views on their functioning and epistemic status. While one tradition views idealizations as epistemic deficiencies, the other one highlights the epistemic benefits of idealization. Both of them treat idealizations as deliberate misrepresentations, however. They then argue for an artifactual account of idealization, comparing it to the traditional accounts of idealization, and exemplifying it through the Hodgkin and Huxley model of the nerve impulse. (...) From the artifactual perspective, the epistemic benefits and deficiencies introduced by idealization frequently come in a package due to the way idealization draws together different resources in model construction. Accordingly, idealization tends to be holistic in that it is not often easily attributable to some specific parts of the model. They conclude that the artifactual approach offers a unifying view into idealization in that it is able to recover several basic philosophical insights motivating both the deficiency and epistemic benefit accounts, while being simultaneously detached from the idea of distortion by misrepresentation. (shrink)

The capacitive voltage transformer is a special measuring and protecting device, which is commonly applied in high-voltage power systems. Its measurement accuracy is affected seriously by the stray capacitances of the capacitance voltage divider to ground and other charged parts. In this study, based on the boundary element method, a mathematical model was established firstly to calculate the stray capacitance. Then, the voltage distribution of the CVD was obtained by the CVD’s equivalent circuit model. Next, the effect of stray capacitance (...) on the voltage distribution and the voltage difference ratio of CVD was analysed in detail. We finally designed three types of shield and optimized their structure parameters to reduce VDR. The results indicated that the average deviation rate between calculated and experimental measured voltages is only 0.015%; that is to say, the method has high calculation precision. The stray capacitance of the CVD to ground is far larger than that of the CVD to the high-voltage terminal. It results in the inhomogeneous distribution of voltage and the increase of VDR. For the test CVT, its VDR exceeds the requirement of class 0.2. Among all of the three types of shield, the C type reduced the VDR of the test CVT the most. After optimizing the structure parameters of C-type shield, the VDR is further reduced to 0.08%. It is not only in accord with the requirement of class 0.2 but also has an adequate margin. (shrink)

According to the High Court in England and Wales, the primary purpose of legal interventions into the lives of vulnerable adults with mental capacity should be to allow the individuals concerned to regain their autonomy of decision making. However, recent cases of clinical decision making involving capacitous vulnerable adults have shown that, when it comes to medical law, medical ethics and clinical practice, vulnerability is typically conceived as opposed to autonomy. The first aim of this paper is to detail the (...) problems that arise when the courts and health care practitioners respond to the vulnerability of capacitous adults on the basis of such an opposition. It will be shown that not only does the common law approach to vulnerability fail to adequately capture the autonomy of capacitous vulnerable adults, the conception of vulnerability and autonomy in oppositional terms leads to objectionably paternalistic health care responses that undermine the autonomy of vulnerable patients as well as clinical and legal interventions that violate their autonomy. In response, the second aim of this paper is to show that the concepts of autonomy and vulnerability are necessarily entwined and, on that basis, the focus should be on promoting the autonomy of capacitous vulnerable adults where possible. In order to make this case, the paper explains the limitations of standard approaches to the autonomy of vulnerable adults and, in their place, offers a conception of legitimate, self-authorised autonomy that is fundamentally dependent on intersubjective practices of recognition. (shrink)

There are two traditions of thinking about idealization offering almost opposite views on their functioning and epistemic status. While one tradition views idealizations as epistemic deficiencies, the other one highlights the epistemic benefits of idealization. Both of these, however, identify idealization with misrepresentation. In this article, we instead approach idealization from the artifactual perspective, comparing it to the distortion-to-reality accounts of idealization, and exemplifying it through the case of the Hodgkin and Huxley model of nerve impulse. From the artifactual perspective, (...) the epistemic benefits and deficiencies introduced by idealization frequently come in a package due to the way idealization draws together different resources in model construction. Accordingly, idealization tends to be holistic in that it is not often easily attributable to just some specific parts of the model. Instead, the idealizing process tightly embeds theoretical concepts and formal tools into the construction of a model. (shrink)

The ‘best interests’ decision making standard is used in clinical care to make necessary health decisions for non-capacitated individuals for whom neither explicit nor inferred wishes are known. It has been also widely acknowledged as a basis for enrolling some non-capacitated adults into clinical research such as emergency, critical care, and dementia research. However, the best interests standard requires that choices provide the highest net benefit of available options, and clinical research rarely meets this criterion. In the context of modern (...) norms of bioethics, the best interests standard rarely supports surrogate consent for research and should not be accepted as a routine provision. (shrink)

Unfortunately, there is broad confusion regarding the justification for healthcare professionals unilaterally limiting or withdrawing life-prolonging interventions. Many mistakenly believe that suc...

The environmentally responsive molecular chaperone Hsp90 assists the maturation of many key regulatory proteins. An unexpected consequence of this essential biochemical function is that genetic variation can accumulate in genomes and can remain phenotypically silent until Hsp90 function is challenged. Notably, this variation can be revealed by modest environmental change, establishing an environmentally responsive exposure mechanism. The existence of diverse cryptic polymorphisms with a plausible exposure mechanism in evolutionarily distant lineages has implications for the pace and nature of evolutionary change. (...) Chaperone‐mediated storage and release of genetic variation is undoubtedly rooted in protein‐folding phenomena. As we discuss, proper protein folding crucially affects the trajectory from genotype to phenotype. Indeed, the impact of protein quality‐control mechanisms and other fundamental cellular processes on evolution has heretofore been overlooked. A true understanding of evolutionary processes will require an integration of current evolutionary paradigms with the many new insights accruing in protein science. BioEssays 26:348–362, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In this work, we focus on the problem of selecting low-level heuristics in a hyperheuristic approach with offline learning, for the solution of instances of different problem domains. The objective is to improve the performance of the offline hyperheuristic approach, identifying equivalence classes in a set of instances of different problems and selecting the best performing heuristics in each of them. A methodology is proposed as the first step of a set of instances of all problems, and the generic characteristics (...) of each instance and the performance of the heuristics in each one of them are considered to define the vectors of characteristics and make a grouping of classes. Metalearning with statistical tests is used to select the heuristics for each class. Finally, we used the Naive Bayes to test the set instances with k-fold cross-validation, and we compared all results statistically with the best-known values. In this research, the methodology was tested by applying it to the problems of capacitated vehicle routing and graph coloring. The experimental results show that the proposed methodology can improve the performance of the offline hyperheuristic approach, correctly identifying the classes of instances and applying the appropriate heuristics in each case. This is based on the statistical comparison of the results obtained with those of the state of the art of each instance. (shrink)

N. Emrah Aydinonat offre une caractérisation des explications par la main invisible. Celles-ci seraient des explications partielles potentielles et seraient en mesure de nous indiquer des capacités à l’œuvre dans le monde et élargiraient notre horizon intellectuel en conceptualisant des possibilités jusqu’alors inédites. Je montre que Nancy Cartwright offre un argument permettant de douter de cette première possibilité. La science économique n’ayant que peu de principes sûrs à sa disposition et reposant ainsi sur des hypothèses auxiliaires, il est impossible d’effectuer (...) des expériences galiléennes avec les modèles et de mettre au jour les capacités. La conception d’Uskali Mäki des modèles comme isolations et systèmes de représentation laisse penser que la deuxième possibilité est néanmoins fondée. (shrink)

Marc-Antoine Vallée | : Dans leurs différents efforts pour se défaire de toute forme d’absolutisation du sujet, plusieurs philosophes ont cherché à développer une intelligence relationnelle du soi. Pour ce faire, ils ont largement puisé dans la tradition judéo-chrétienne qui avait déjà ouvert la voie dans cette direction. Cet article montre, plus précisément, que cette intelligence relationnelle du soi se développe chez Kierkegaard, Buber, Levinas et Marion à travers une reprise philosophique du modèle de l’homme devant Dieu. Mais le problème (...) est qu’une telle approche peine à reconnaître une véritable consistance au soi. Pour éviter cet écueil, l’auteur mobilise la pensée de Paul Ricoeur afin de défendre la thèse selon laquelle les relations, les appartenances et les capacités constitueraient les trois déterminations fondamentales du soi. | : In their different efforts to get beyond any absolutization of the subject, many philosophers have tried to develop a relational understanding of the self. To do so, they have drawn heavily on the Judeo-Christian tradition, who had already paved the way in this direction. This paper shows, more precisely, that Kierkegaard, Buber, Levinas and Marion develop such relational understanding of the self through a philosophical recovery of the model of human being before God. But the problem is that such approach hardly recognizes a real consistency to the self. To avoid this problem, the author mobilizes the thought of Paul Ricoeur in order to defend the thesis that relations, belongings and capacities constitute the three fundamental characteristics of the self. (shrink)

Dans l’Italie médiévale et moderne, les femmes qui sont exclues de la citoyenneté politique participent à diverses formes de construction du lien d’appartenance à un lieu particulier. La mobilité conditionne par ailleurs les statuts individuels, non seulement en raison des diverses manières de définir citoyens et étrangers, mais aussi du fait que les contenus du droit municipal ne se ressemblent pas d’un endroit à l’autre, surtout en matière de droits et de capacités des femmes. Cet essai illustre les principales thématiques (...) sous-tendant la citoyenneté féminine et examine ensuite les réactions des femmes et des hommes à la multiplicité des normes locales et à leurs différences. (shrink)

La « danse grecque antique » évoque en général des images de chœurs imposants et de festivités dionysiaques, ou encore d’Isadora Duncan dansant au milieu des ruines de l’Acropole. Dans cet article, j’étudie une figure peu connue de la danseuse de l’Antiquité : l’orchestris, ou danseuse de banquet. De ces femmes, marginalisées par leur genre et leur classe, il ne demeure que des traces éparses dans la littérature et les vestiges matériels. En réunissant ces traces, cet article met en lumière (...) la place de la danseuse de banquet dans l’imaginaire culturel grec. Il montre ensuite que l’exploration fictionnelle de la subjectivité des femmes dans le dialogue III des Dialogues des courtisanes de Lucien doit nous inciter à réfléchir à la façon dont le mouvement et l’incarnation ont pu constituer – à toutes les époques – des sources essentielles, bien qu’à jamais hors de notre portée, de la capacité d’agir des orchestrides. (shrink)

Capacitism is the view that capacities come first in epistemological theorising: they are explanatorily basic and key epistemic phenomena are to be analysed in terms of capacities. This paper develops a problem for capacitism and outlines a motivated way of solving it.

A capacitated pregnant woman has a nearly unqualified right to refuse a cesarean section. Her right to say “no” takes precedence over clinicians’ preferences and even over clinicians’ concerns about fetal health. Leading medical societies, human rights organizations, and appellate courts have all endorsed this principle. Nevertheless, clinicians continue to limit reproductive liberty by forcing and coercing women to have unwanted cesareans. This “Legal Briefing” reviews recent court cases involving this type of obstetric violence. I have organized these court cases (...) into the following six categories: 1. Epidemic of Unwanted Cesareans2. Court-Ordered Cesareans3. Physician-Coerced Cesareans4. Physician-Ordered Cesareans5. Cesareans for Incapacitated Patients6. Cesareans for Patients in a Vegetative State or Who Are Brain Dead. (shrink)

La capacité des êtres humains à obéir aux ordres, même si ceux-ci sont jugés atroces, n’a plus à être prouvée. Comme l’a souligné Howard Zinn, « D’un point de vue historique, les évènements les plus terribles – tels que la guerre, les génocides et l’esclavage – ont résulté non pas de la désobéissance, mais de l’obéissance» (Zinn, 1997). Mais la question de savoir « comment» les individus peuvent commettre des atrocités lorsqu’ils suivent des ordres reste ouverte. Les études de (...) Milgram sont célèbres pour avoir montré une forte soumission aux ordres de l’expérimentateur. Mais ces études n’ont révélé que les facteurs situationnels et sociaux favorisant l’obéissance. Elles n’ont pas permis de comprendre comment tant de personnes ont accepté d’envoyer des chocs douloureux et potentiellement mortels à une autre personne. Dans cet article, j’opposerai les entretiens qualitatifs réalisés avec d’anciens génocidaires au Rwanda et la recherche expérimentale en neurosciences pour tenter de faire émerger un élément de réponse à cette question critique. Je soutiendrai que le dépassement des frontières entre différentes disciplines scientifiques est la clé d’une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont l’obéissance modifie la prosocialité. Je défendrai également l’idée provocatrice que les chercheurs devraient saisir l’opportunité de quitter leur laboratoire pour étudier la question de l’obéissance. (shrink)

Le " libre arbitre ", cette capacité à choisir librement ou encore à déterminer notre propre volonté, semble menacé par les avancées de la psychologie et des neurosciences contemporaines. Or, certaines interrogations philosophiques doivent être résolues avant de tirer les conséquences de ces résultats empiriques : le déterminisme causal, qui est au fondement de toute démarche scientifique, est-il compatible avec la notion de libre arbitre? Quel type de relation entretiennent l'esprit et le cerveau? L'examen de ces problèmes fondamentaux constitue (...) le préalable à l'interprétation des données issues des neurosciences, en particulier des expériences de Benjamin Libet qui ont semblé remettre en question l'efficacité causale de nos décisions conscientes. Par ailleurs, il est légitime de se demander si les limites de la conscience et le rapport qu'elle entretient avec les processus inconscients, qu'ils relèvent de l'Inconscient freudien ou de l' " inconscient cognitif " mis en lumière par les neurosciences, constituent un frein à l'exercice de notre liberté. Cet ouvrage esquisse une solution nouvelle à ces questions. Il montre comment la psychologie et les neurosciences, bien que menaçant la conception traditionnelle du libre arbitre, permettraient de concevoir en leur sein même une redéfinition de cette notion, envisagée comme une capacité relative et non plus absolue, nécessitant un apprentissage. (shrink)

Quelles sont les capacités et valeurs qui peuvent animer des académiques en ces temps de changement où nous vivons?? À cette question, généralement non explicite dans leurs travaux, ont répondu quinze chercheuses et chercheurs de différentes spécialités. En revisitant leurs thèmes de recherche ou leur parcours sous cet angle, il se dessine une constellation où semblent émerger trois pôles?: critique, imagination, interdépendance.00Avec les contributions de : 00Philippe Baret, Tom Bauler, Philippe Bourdeau, Isabelle Ferreras, François Gemenne, Marie-Françoise Godart, Marine Lugen, Delphine (...) Misonne, Muriel Moser, François Ost, Benoît Timmermans, Christian Vandermotten, Didier Viviers et Arnaud Zacharie. (shrink)

According to Schellenberg’s capacitism, perception is constituted by employing perceptual capacities to discriminate and single out particulars, including objects, events and property instances. To say that perception is so constituted, for her, is to say that perceptual states have the content, phenomenal character, and evidential force they do in virtue of the fact that they are yielded by employing perceptual capacities.1 1.

During mammalian fertilization sperm bind to the egg's zona pellucida (ZP) after undergoing capacitation. Capacitated mouse sperm bind to mZP3 (one of three ZP glycoproteins), undergo the acrosome reaction, penetrate the ZP, and fuse with egg plasma membrane. Sperm protein 56 (sp56), a member of the C3/C4 superfamily of binding proteins, was identified nearly 20 years ago as a binding partner for mZP3 by photoaffinity cross‐linking of acrosome‐intact sperm. However, subsequent research revealed that sp56 is a component of the sperm's (...) acrosomal matrix and, for sperm with an intact acrosome, should be unavailable for binding to mZP3. Recently, this dilemma was resolved when it was recognized that some acrosomal matrix (AM) proteins, including sp56, are released to the sperm surface during capacitation. This may explain why uncapacitated mammalian sperm are unable to bind to the unfertilized egg ZP. (shrink)

A partir de una discusión sobre el concepto de pobreza desde la perspectiva de las necesidades, absoluta y relativa, y su satisfacción, se exponen estrategias metodológicas y alternativas para su medición. Considerando zonas espaciales, se estima la pobreza territorial para las delegaciones del Distrito Federal sincrónica y diacrónicamente en el periodo 2000-2040. Se hace uso del método de ESNBI a fin de comparar espacios territoriales demarcados por una división política, lo cual se desarrolla a través de variables de Necesidades Básicas (...) o variables directas y un indicador de feminización de la pobreza. A las variables seleccionadas se les da un tratamiento con base en el Método de Componentes Principales que da como resultado un índice de pobreza. (shrink)

La revendication de la capacité de la science mécaniste nouvelle à prolonger la vie, dans des proportions dont on s’est souvent complu à exhiber le caractère irrationnel, est plus complexe qu’il n’y paraît. L’étude du détail des textes de Descartes, en particulier de la correspondance, montre ainsi que ce n’est pas d’abord l’étude de la médecine, si parfaite et démonstrative soit-elle, qui peut fournir à l’homme les moyens de vivre mieux et plus longtemps. C’est, inversement, la mise au jour (...) des pouvoirs de l’âme sur ses représentations, donc sur le corps auquel elle est jointe, qu’il faut privilégier. La problématique de la conservation de la santé se résout ainsi dans une éthique de la joie entée sur une psychophysiologie radicalement singulière. (shrink)

It is widely accepted that valid consent is a necessary condition for permissible sexual activity. Since non-human animals, children, and individuals who are severely cognitively disabled, heavily intoxicated or unconscious, lack the cognitive capacity to give valid consent, this condition explains why it is impermissible to have sex with them. However, contrary to common intuitions, the same condition seems to render it impermissible to have sex with robots, for they too are incapable of consenting to sex due to insufficient cognitive (...) capacitation. This paper explores whether the intuition that non-consensual sex with robots is permissible can be vindicated, whilst preserving valid consent as a general requirement for permissible sexual activity. I develop and evaluate four possible ways to argue that there is a morally significant difference between robots on the one hand, and insufficiently cognitively capacitated humans and non-human animals on the other hand, to substantiate and justify the intuition that it is permissible to have non-consensual sex with the former but not with the latter. (shrink)

Schellenberg's capacitism maintains that perceptual capacities ground representational content because perceptual capacities can be exercised unsuccessfully. This paper argues against the claim that exercise conditions differ from success conditions such that the relevant perceptual capacities can be exercised unsuccessfully in the way needed to ground representational content.

Is it ethical for doctors or courts to prevent patients from making choices that will cause significant harm to themselves in the future? According to an important liberal principle the only justification for infringing the liberty of an individual is to prevent harm to others; harm to the self does not suffice.In this paper, I explore Derek Parfit’s arguments that blur the sharp line between harm to self and others. I analyse cases of treatment refusal by capacitous patients and describe (...) different forms of paternalism arising from a reductionist view of personal identity. I outline an Identity Relative Paternalistic Intervention Principle for determining when we should disallow refusal of treatment where the harm will be accrued by a future self, and consider objections including vagueness and non-identity.Identity relative paternalism does not always justify intervention to prevent harm to future selves. However, there is a stronger ethical case for doing so than is often recognised. (shrink)

En partant de la capacité enfantine du « faire comme si, pas pour de vrai, mais très sérieusement », deux dossiers familiers sont repris sous l’angle du jeu : celui du rituel des jardins d’Adonis (à l’horizon de l’opposition platonicienne entre jeu et sérieux) ; celui aussi de l’hymne homérique où Hermès enfant joue avec la louange hymnique et le sacrifice, au risque de compromettre son statut divin. Cela nous entraîne à reconsidérer l’historiographie du rapport entre jeu et religion.

The standard of care in the United States favors stabilizing any adult who arrives in an emergency department after a failed suicide attempt, even if he appears decisionally capacitated and refuses life-sustaining treatment. I challenge this ubiquitous practice. Emergency clinicians generally have a moral obligation to err on the side of stabilizing even suicide attempters who refuse such interventions. This obligation reflects the fact that it is typically infeasible to determine these patients’ level of decisional capacitation—among other relevant information—in this (...) unique setting. Nevertheless, I argue, stabilizing suicide attempters over their objection sometimes violates a basic yet insufficiently appreciated right of theirs—the right against bodily invasion. In such cases, it is at least prima facie wrong to stabilize a patient who wants to die even if they lack a contrary advance directive or medical order and suffer from no terminal physical illness. (shrink)