This paper outlines a phenomenological approach for describing physiological reactions occurring immediately after vital threats. This exemplified by data taken from previous studies relative to chemical intoxications of rats by a neurotoxical drug. The survival rate of the animals and the variations of their cerebral acetylcholinesterese activity are both reported as a function of the drug concentration, and with respect to their age. The collecting of the results may be described as the cusp, a bifurcation set of Thom's Catastrophe Theory.The (...) young animals react by a vital burst which modifies the shape of the cusp. A new fold or pocket takes place, changing it to the butterfly bifurcation set. This pocket supports the survival attractor concept, which appears reactional, transitory and variable in its intensity. (shrink)

A physiological function can be described as a cycle based on a cusp bifurcation set in catastrophe theory. This cycle involves four phases that are successively developed along a functional potential, which is used to perform a given physiological act. The work we present is firstly based on a detailed study of the global function of vision, which covers a vast field extending from the molecular to cerebral scale. We then present other examples of generalised functions by expanding the frame (...) of reference, from the scale of an organ to the scale of a whole organism with predation function, and to the scale of a social group with crisis management. We observed that the criteria remain the same, whether the function is considered on the scale of a cell membrane or a group of individuals organised into a cohort. Moreover, a so-called generalised function can be broken down into simpler sub-functions, each phase of the initial function containing the physiological act of each sub-function. It seems thus that a fractal extension may characterise the four-cusp spiral. This spiral is increasingly large as the types of sub-functions are multiplied. In functions relative to sociological science, such as crisis management, which are not natural but built and designed by humans, close attention must be paid to following the rules of these generalised biological functions. (shrink)

This comunication is based on a preliminary work which emphasized a topological model of biomembranes from Thom's Catastrophe Theory. In this model called swallowtail bifurcation set, the structural state of a biomembrane was within the control of two structural attractors. Then, the physiological act of this biomembrane resulted in a sudden transfer of weight from the hydrophilic attractor to the hydrophobic attractor.In this consecutive work, the physiological act appears to be one of the four stages which permit to describe the (...) larger notion of cyclic membrane function. Two of these stages unfold in the structural axis of the swallowtail model. They prepare the two others (physiological act and refractory stages) which expand in the functional direction. (shrink)

La place de l'observation dans les sciences. Evolution de son rôle et importance croissante de son étendue. Développement progressif des méthodes d'investigation la rendant de plus en plus sophistiquée et indirecte. Définition et utilisation de ses deux processus majeurs : induction et déduction.

La Voix divine, nous disent les mythes et traditions, a créé le monde. Le chant des voix humaines lui répond. Orphée, l'initié des Mystères grecs, personnifie les pouvoirs de la musique. De nos jours, le matérialisme scientiste qui nie l'harmonie cosmique est démenti par la science ± holistique? qui rejoint la sagesse ancestrale. Au confluent de la physique contemporaine et de la métaphysique traditionnelle, de la cosmologie et de l'anthropologie, de la musicologie et de l'ethnomusicologie, cet ouvrage contribue à ce (...) nouveau paradigme en élucidant les arcanes de l'harmonie musicale. Il lui restitue sa dimension symbolique et spirituelle et éclaire l'évolution confuse de la musique occidentale depuis le début du xxe siècle. (shrink)

In this work, we compare two global approaches which are usually considered as completely unconnected one with the other. The former is Thom’s topology and the latter is Jung’s psychology. More precisely, it seemed to us interesting to adapt some morphologies of Thom’s catastrophe theory to some Jung’s notions. Thus, we showed that the swallowtail, which is one of these morphologies, was able to describe geometrically the structural organisation of the psyche according to Jung, with its collective unconscious, personal unconscious (...) and conscious. Moreover, we have correlated this morphology with Jung’s evolutive processes like individualisation and individuation. These comparisons incited us to think that some morphologies of Thom’s catastrophe theory are the geometrical dealing of Jung’s archetypes. (shrink)

High noise levels may have an adverse effect on the normal cochlea function and lead to significant hearing loss. Clinically, exposure to high intensity impulse noise produces a wide range of audiometric effects which may result in long term or even irreversible symptoms. Nevertheless, there is sometimes a spontaneous rebound recovery of the auditory function. This phenomenon was previously studied in the vision, another sensory function. It was called the visual survival attractor.In view of the importance that the sensory organs (...) have for the brain, and in particular in its function of recognising and dealing with its environment, it was interesting to know whether this survival attractor concept already described for vision occurs more generally in all the sensory functions. With this in mind we present here the results of a new study, this time on hearing. (shrink)

"One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy." -- J. Hillis Miller, Yale University Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in De la grammatologie sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of their disciplines that had previously been considered improper. Thirty (...) years later, the immense influence of Derrida's work is still igniting controversy, thanks in part to Gayatri Spivak's translation, which captures the richness and complexity of the original. This corrected edition adds a new index of the critics and philosophers cited in the text and makes one of contemporary criticism's most indispensable works even more accessible and usable. (shrink)

This work is a qualitative study of an organism''s physiological adaptative response to stress. The experimental data were selected from a previous study leading to the conclusion that stress may be considered as a topological retraction within a vital space that must be more precisely defined. The experimental methodology uses rat poisoning by neurotoxins. The control parameter is the intensity of the toxic doses. Measured parameters are the animals'' survival rate and the kinetics of cerebral acetylcholinesterase activity. The results, when (...) expressed as a function of the inverted doses, show a characteristic evolution. The pattern of the curve closely resembles a vortex profile. This analogy is studied more extensively in both the physical and biological domains. These findings help to clarify the concept of biological stress which presents the same vectorial properties as hydrodynamic vorticity. In particular, the dissipation of stress and the dissipation of vorticity seem to obey the same laws. This observation is valid for both diffusion and convection processes. The decompensation phase of stress could be compared with the instability and turbulence in flows.Our approach in this paper is mainly to establish a general and phenomenological description of the stress response fitting experimental observations. (shrink)

Spinoza, le spinozisme et les fondements de la sécularisation est un ouvrage dédié à la mémoire d’Emmanuel Levinas, dont l’auteur a été l’élève durant plusieurs années. Il vise, à travers une analyse d’ordre philosophique, historique, épistémologique et théologique, à mettre au jour les conditions d’émergence interrelatées du spinozisme et de la sécularisation. Pour ce faire, il souligne, entre autres, l’importance des polémiques anti-maimonidiennes, des débats sur les attributs divins, la substance, l’infini, du marranisme et de la Kabbale sur la formation (...) du spinozisme, ainsi que son rapport à la pensée contemporaine. Il mène une recherche interdisciplinaire devant permettre d’éclairer l’origine des difficultés théoriques que ce système philosophique présente. (shrink)

In tracing the survival reaction of an organism, following a vital stress, we have proceeded from the breakdown of a cerebral enzyme as a function of the constraint, to its initial and spontaneous recovery. We have so observed a partial enzymatic recovery, the velocity of which being variable with respect to the constraint intensity. This velocity is expressed asdq/dt, that is, the quantity of enzymedq recovered per unit of timedt. In this paper, the basic idea is to consider the inverse (...) parameterdt/dq, that is, the timedt needed by the organism to recover a given quantity of enzymedq. The integration of this parameter over the constraint accumulated by the stressed organism allows us to determine a timeT which appears to be variable when observed by a distant observer.The properties of this timeT are discussed with the help of an analogical approach based on hydrodynamical and cosmological models. (shrink)

This work presents an hydrodynamical model of heat stroke, which is a physiopathological state of stress, due to an exposure of animals to an ambient temperature of approximatively 40°C during two hours. The evolution of body temperature during this stress process is characterised by three phases. A first phase of increase is followed by a plateau which occurs before a second phase of increase which can be lethal. The model is based on the analogy of a boat progressively caught in (...) a whirlpool. The evolution of the degree of freedom lost by the boat is mathematically analysed and this study leads to the same three phases. The theoretical curves calculated during this study are well in agreement with the experimental curves obtained with animals. This analogy is compared to a previous one which has been made during another experiment with animals constrained by chemical intoxications. It seems that stress can be considered as a vital vorticity and that hydrodynamic models are powerful tools in understanding this physiopathological state. (shrink)

La question des rapports du spinozisme à l’axiologie a fait l’objet de nombreux débats. Certains commentateurs considèrent Spinoza comme étant profondément immoraliste, alors que pour d’autres, il maintient l'ensemble des valeurs humaines. Spinoza a cherché à dépasser l’utilitarisme propre au conatus de chacun, afin de fonder un altruisme rationnel. Il souligne que le bien auquel l’homme aspire lorsqu’il suit la vertu, il le désirera aussi pour tous les autres hommes. Cependant, les moyens mis en œuvre pour démontrer cette thèse semblent (...) problématiques. Cet article analyse la logique de la coopération interhumaine élaborée par Spinoza, ainsi que son idéal de l’homme libre, montrant, qu'en fait, il n'a pas réussi à surmonter la nature profondément égoïste du conatus. -/- The question of the relationship between Spinozism and axiology has been the subject of much debate. Some commentators consider Spinoza to be profoundly immoralist, while for others he upholds the set of human values. Spinoza sought to go beyond the utilitarianism proper to the conatus of each person, in order to establish a rational altruism. He emphasizes that the good to which man aspires when he follows virtue, he will also desire for all other men. However, the means used to demonstrate this thesis seem problematic. This article analyzes Spinoza's logic of interhuman cooperation, as well as his ideal of the free man, showing that, in fact, he failed to overcome the profoundly egoistic nature of conatus. -/- . (shrink)

The question of Spinozist determinism and necessitarianism have been extensively studied by commentators, while the relationship between the notions of divine will and free will still requires elaborate studies. Our article seeks to contribute to such research, by clarifying the analyses of these questions by authors that Spinoza has confronted: Maimonides, as well as other Jewish philosophers, and Leibniz who criticized Spinozist determinism. We will study the consequences of these analyses on two examples that Spinoza gave to refute free will, (...) namely the dream and the situation of Buridan's ass. -/- Résumé: La question du déterminisme spinoziste et du nécessitarisme a été largement étu-diée par les commentateurs, tandis que la relation entre les notions de volonté divine et de libre arbitre nécessite encore des études plus élaborées. Notre article cherche à contribuer à ces recherches, en clarifiant les analyses de ces questions par des auteurs auxquels Spinoza s’est confronté : Maïmonide, ainsi que d’autres philosophes juifs, et Leibniz qui a lui-même critiqué le déterminisme spinoziste. Nous étudierons les conséquences de ces analyses sur deux exemples que Spinoza a donnés pour réfuter le libre arbitre, à savoir le rêve et la situa-tion de l’âne de Buridan. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to bring to light some of the factors that allowed the emergence of secularization, and to understand to what extent and in what ways these factors contributed to the formation of the main lines of Spinozism. I will first examine the issues of secularization, emphasizing the importance of the transformations in the status of the Hebrew language during the Renaissance. I will then analyze the role that the Tractatus theologico-politicus may have had in European (...) culture. Finally, I will clarify Spinoza’s relationship to deism and atheism, specifying the nature of the controversies related to his religious attitude. (shrink)

In the 1960s a radical concept emerged from the great French thinker Jacques Derrida. Read the book that changed the way we think; read "Writing and Difference," the classic introduction.

"In this densely imbricated volume Derrida pursues his devoted, relentless dismantling of the philosophical tradition, the tradition of Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger--each dealt with in one or more of the essays. There are essays too on linguistics (Saussure, Benveniste, Austin) and on the nature of metaphor ("White Mythology"), the latter with important implications for literary theory. Derrida is fully in control of a dazzling stylistic register in this book--a source of true illumination for those prepared to follow his (...) arduous path. Bass is a superb translator and annotator. His notes on the multilingual allusions and puns are a great service."--Alexander Gelley, Library Journal. (shrink)

AbeBooks.com: The Technological Society.

Jacques Derrida argues that the feminist and intellectual Hélène Cixous is the most important writer working within the French idiom today. To prove this, he elucidates the epistemological and historical interconnectedness of four terms: genesis, genealogy, genre, and genius, and how they pertain to or are implicated in Cixous's work. Derrida explores Cixous's genius (a masculine term in French, he is quick to point out) and the inspiration that guides and informs her writing. He marvels at her skillful working (...) within multiple genres. He focuses on a number of her works, including her extraordinary novel _Manhattan_ and her lyrical and evocative _Dream I Tell You_, a book addressed to Derrida himself and one in which Cixous presents a series of her dreams. Derrida also delves into the nature of the literary archive, the production of literature, and the importance of the poetic and sexual difference to the entirety of his own work. For forty years, Derrida had a close personal and intellectual relationship with Hélène Cixous. Clever, playful, and eloquent, _Geneses, Genealogies, Genres, and Genius_ charts the influence these two critical giants had on each other and is the most vital work to address Cixous's contribution to French thought. (shrink)

These two lectures by Jacques Derrida, 'Foreigner Question: Come from Abroad' and 'Step of Hospitality/No Hospitality', derive from a series of seminars on 'hospitality' conducted by Derrida in Paris, January 1996. The book consists of two texts on facing pages. 'Invitation' by Anne Dufourmantelle appears on the left clarifying and inflecting Derrida's 'response' on the right. The interaction between them not only enacts the 'hospitality' under discussion, but preserves something of the rhythms of teaching. The book also characteristically combines (...) careful readings of canonical texts and philosophical topics with attention to the most salient events in the contemporary world, using 'hospitality' as a means of rethinking a range of political and ethical situations. For example, Antigone is revisited in light of the question of impossible mourning; the trial of Socrates is brought into conjunction with the televised funeral of François Mitterrand. (shrink)

Ce livre est donc voué à la bizarrerie. Mais c'est qu'à accorder tout son soin à l'écriture, il la soumet à une réévaluation radicale. Et les voies sont nécessairement extravagantes lorsqu'il importe d'excéder, pour en penser la possibilité, ce qui se donne pour la logique elle-même - celle qui doit déterminer les rapports de la parole et de l'écriture en se rassurant dans l'évidence du sens commun, dans les catégories de 'représentation' ou 'd'image', dans l'opposition du dedans et du dehors, (...) du plus et du moins, de l'essence et de l'apparence, de l'originaire et du dérivé. Analysant les investissements dont notre culture a chargé le signe écrit, Jacques Derrida en démontre aussi les effets les plus actuels et parfois les plus inaperçus. Cela n'est possible que par un déplacement systématique des concepts - on ne saurait en effet répondre à la question 'qu'est-ce que l'écriture?' par un appel de style 'phénoménologique' à quelque expérience sauvage, immédiate, spontanée. L'interprétation occidentale de l'écriture commande tous les champs de l'expérience, de la pratique et du savoir, et jusqu'à la forme ultime de la question ('qu'est-ce que?') qu'on croit pouvoir libérer de cette prise. L'histoire de cette interprétation n'est pas celle d'un préjugé déterminé, d'une erreur localisée, d'une limite accidentelle. Elle forme une structure finie mais nécessaire dans le mouvement qui se trouve ici reconnu sous le nom de différance. (shrink)

Speech and phenomena.--Form and meaning.--Differance.

" "Positions brings together three interviews with Derrida, outlining his central concerns and ideas.

A penetrating analysis of our technical civilization and of the effect of an increasingly standardized culture on the future of man.

"I shall speak of ghost, of flame, and of ashes." These are the first words of Jacques Derrida's lecture on Heidegger. It is again a question of Nazism--of what remains to be thought through of Nazism in general and of Heidegger's Nazism in particular. It is also "politics of spirit" which at the time people thought--they still want to today--to oppose to the inhuman. "Derrida's ruminations should intrigue anyone interested in Post-Structuralism. . . . . This study of Heidegger (...) is a fine example of how Derrida can make readers of philosophical texts notice difficult problems in almost imperceptible details of those texts."--David Hoy, London Review of Books "Will a more important book on Heidegger appear in our time? No, not unless Derrida continues to think and write in his spirit. . . . Let there be no mistake: this is not merely a brilliant book on Heidegger, it is thinking in the grand style."--David Farrell Krell, Research in Phenomenology "The analysis of Heidegger is brilliant, provocative, elusive."--Peter C. Hodgson, Religious Studies Review. (shrink)

Spinoza, le spinozisme et les fondements de la sécularisation est un ouvrage dédié à la mémoire d’Emmanuel Levinas, dont l’auteur a été l’élève durant plusieurs années. Il vise, à travers une analyse d’ordre philosophique, historique, épistémologique et théologique, à mettre au jour les conditions d’émergence interrelatées du spinozisme et de la sécularisation. Il présente une recherche interdisciplinaire devant permettre d’éclairer l’origine des difficultés théoriques que ce système philosophique présente. Ce volume est le premier d’une pentalogie consacrée à Spinoza et au (...) Spinozisme, dont les autres paraîtront dans la même collection. Spinoza, Spinozism and the Foundations of Secularization is a book dedicated to the memory of Emmanuel Levinas, whose author was a student for several years. It aims, through a philosophical, historical, epistemological and theological analysis, to bring to light the interrelated conditions of emergence of Spinozism and secularization. It presents interdisciplinary research to shed light on the origin of the theoretical difficulties that this philosophical system presents. This volume is the first of a pentalogy devoted to Spinoza and Spinozism, the others of which will appear in the same collection. (shrink)

Interdisciplinary essays on the ethical issues which encompassed the trials and Code of Nuremberg have been collated from researchers from various countries in fields as diverse as medicine, bioethics, psychoanalysis, history, philosophy, Jewish thought, law, and ethics. The book focuses on five main areas: the juridical originality of the Nuremberg trials; the scientific, epistemological, and psychoanalytic backgrounds of racism and anti-Semitism; the biomedical and bioethical issues of the Nuremberg Code; a post-Nuremberg historical, ethical, and philosophical study of the notion of (...) a 'crime against humanity'; and the Jewish perspective on purity, impurity, race, and the universal ethical expectations of mankind. The goal of the interdisciplinary study is to outline the necessary components of a bridge between science ethics, and ethics and law. (shrink)

This paper reports on an approach to model generalized implicatures using nonmonotonic logics. The approach, called compositional, is based on the idea of compositional semantics, where the implicatures carried by a sentence are constructed from the implicatures carried by its constituents, but it also includes some aspects nonmonotonic logics in order to model the defeasibility of generalized implicatures.

"The four essays in this volume constitute Derrida's most explicit and sustained reflection on the art work as pictorial artifact, a reflection partly by way of philosophical aesthetics (Kant, Heidegger), partly by way of a commentary on art works and art scholarship (Van Gogh, Adami, Titus-Carmel). The illustrations are excellent, and the translators, who clearly see their work as both a rendering and a transformation, add yet another dimension to this richly layered composition. Indispensable to collections emphasizing art criticism and (...) aesthetics."--Alexander Gelley, Library Journal. (shrink)

Jacques Derrida is probably the most famous European philosopher alive today. The University of Nebraska Press makes available for the first English translation of his most important work to date, Glas. Its appearance will assist Derrida's readers pro and con in coming to terms with a complex and controversial book. Glas extensively reworks the problems of reading and writing in philosophy and literature; questions the possibility of linear reading and its consequent notions of theme, author, narrative, and discursive demonstration; (...) and ingeniously disrupts the positions of reader and writer in the text. Glas is extraordinary in many ways, most obviously in its typography. Arranged in two columns, with inserted sections within these, the book simultaneously discusses Hegel’s philosophy and Jean Genet’s fiction, and shows how two such seemingly distinct kinds of criticism can reflect and influence one another. The customary segregation of philosophy, rhetoric, psychoanalysis, linguistics, history, and poetics is systematically subverted. In design and content, the books calls into question “types” of literature (history, philosophy, literary criticism), the ownership of ideas and styles, the glorification of literary heroes, and the limits of literary representation. (shrink)

La question à laquelle nous tentons de répondre doit être abordée de différentes façons : elle est récurrente dans l'histoire des technologies pour l'éducation ; elle peut être pensée à l'échelle mondiale, particulièrement pour ce qui est des pays en développement ; elle concerne à la fois les sciences de l'éducation, les sciences de la communication, l'économie et les institutions. Nous évoquons d'abord les établissements scolaires sous l'angle de l'histoire des technologies pour l'éducation et des discours sur «la fin des (...) enseignants». Dans une deuxième partie, nous analysons les effets du e-learning sur les établissements universitaires et leurs enseignants. Enfin, nous nous interrogeons sur l'absence de réflexion concernant le rôle des enseignants dans les projets TICE mis en place dans les pays en développement.The question we try to answer needs to be addressed in different ways: it is recurrent in the history of technology in education, it can be thought globally, particularly with regard to developing countries, it for both science education, communication sciences, economy and institutions. We discuss first schools in terms of the history of technology in education and discourse on "the end of teachers." In a second part, we analyze the effects of e-learning academic institutions and their teachers. Finally, we question the lack of reflection on the role of teachers in ICT projects implemented in developing countries. (shrink)

First published in 1980. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.