Lip reading is the ability to partially understand speech by looking at the speaker's lips. It improves the intelligibility of speech in noise when audio-visual perception is compared with audio-only perception. A recent set of experiments showed that seeing the speaker's lips also enhances sensitivity to acoustic information, decreasing the auditory detection threshold of speech embedded in noise [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 109 (2001) 2272; J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108 (2000) 1197]. However, detection is different from comprehension, and it remains (...) to be seen whether improved sensitivity also results in an intelligibility gain in audio-visual speech perception. In this work, we use an original paradigm to show that seeing the speaker's lips enables the listener to hear better and hence to understand better. The audio-visual stimuli used here could not be differentiated by lip reading per se since they contained exactly the same lip gesture matched with different compatible speech sounds. Nevertheless, the noise-masked stimuli were more intelligible in the audio-visual condition than in the audio-only condition due to the contribution of visual information to the extraction of acoustic cues. Replacing the lip gesture by a non-speech visual input with exactly the same time course, providing the same temporal cues for extraction, removed the intelligibility benefit. This early contribution to audio-visual speech identification is discussed in relationships with recent neurophysiological data on audio-visual perception. (shrink)

Speech is a perceptuo-motor system. A natural computational modeling framework is provided by cognitive robotics, or more precisely speech robotics, which is also based on embodiment, multimodality, development, and interaction. This paper describes the bases of a virtual baby robot which consists in an articulatory model that integrates the non-uniform growth of the vocal tract, a set of sensors, and a learning model. The articulatory model delivers sagittal contour, lip shape and acoustic formants from seven input parameters that characterize the (...) configurations of the jaw, the tongue, the lips and the larynx. To simulate the growth of the vocal tract from birth to adulthood, a process modifies the longitudinal dimension of the vocal tract shape as a function of age. The auditory system of the robot comprises a “phasic” system for event detection over time, and a “tonic” system to track formants. The model of visual perception specifies the basic lips characteristics: height, width, area and protrusion. The orosensorial channel, which provides the tactile sensation on the lips, the tongue and the palate, is elaborated as a model for the prediction of tongue-palatal contacts from articulatory commands. Learning involves Bayesian programming, in which there are two phases: specification of the variables, decomposition of the joint distribution and identification of the free parameters through exploration of a learning set, and utilization which relies on questions about the joint distribution. Two studies were performed with this system. Each of them focused on one of the two basic mechanisms, which ought to be at work in the initial periods of speech acquisition, namely vocal exploration and vocal imitation. The first study attempted to assess infants’ motor skills before and at the beginning of canonical babbling. It used the model to infer the acoustic regions, the articulatory degrees of freedom and the vocal tract shapes that are the likeliest explored by actual infants according to their vocalizations. Subsequently, the aim was to simulate data reported in the literature on early vocal imitation, in order to test whether and how the robot was able to reproduce them and to gain some insights into the actual cognitive representations that might be involved in this behavior. Speech modeling in a robotics framework should contribute to a computational approach of sensori-motor interactions in speech communication, which seems crucial for future progress in the study of speech and language ontogeny and phylogeny. (shrink)

One of the fundamental questions raised by Ruchkin, Grafman, Cameron, and Berndt's (Ruchkin et al.'s) interpretation of no distinct specialized neural networks for short-term storage buffers and long-term memory systems, is that of the link between perception and memory processes. In this framework, we take the opportunity in this commentary to discuss a specific working memory task involving percept formation, temporary retention, auditory imagery, and the attention-based maintenance of information, that is, the verbal transformation effect.

We agree with MacNeilage's claim that speech stems from a volitional vocalization pathway between the cingulate and the supplementary motor area (SMA). We add the vocal self- monitoring system as the first recruitment of the Broca-Wernicke circuit. SMA control for “frames” is supported by wrong consonant-vowel recurring utterance aphasia and an imaging study of quasi-reiterant speech. The role of Broca's area is questioned in the emergence of “content,” because a primary motor mapping, embodying peripheral constraints, seems sufficient. Finally, we reject (...) a uniquely peripheral account of speech emergence. (shrink)

We consider a computational model comparing the possible roles of and in phonetic decoding, demonstrating that these two routes can contain similar information in some communication situations and highlighting situations where their decoding performance differs. We conclude that optimal decoding should involve some sort of fusion of association and simulation in the human brain.

This is the first English translation published of Jean-Luc Nancy's acclaimed consideration of the law's most pervasive principles in the context of actual systems and contemporary institutions, power, norms, laws.

Jean-Luc Nancy provides an analysis of the anti-Semitic aspects of Heidegger's recently published Black Notebooks. Nancy refers to a philosophical or "historial" anti-Semitism marked, nonetheless, by the "banality" of ordinary anti-Semitism pervading Europe. Heidegger's thought is placed in the broader context of the European (especially Christian) impulse toward new beginnings.

Contrary to what many interpretations claim, according to Bayle faith does not completely eliminate reason. It intervenes to reveal factual truths that can only be known through revelation (for example, that God allowed Adam and Eve to sin). To these factual truths can be applied a rational principle (an axiomatic and evident one, according to Bayle, which he calls a "common notion"), namely, that "what God does is well done." God allowed sin, so we must think it was justified, even (...) if we don't understand why. This approach is what I call, cum grano salis, Pierre Bayle's theodicy. (shrink)

Presque vingt ans après sa parution, Etant donné (Puf, 1997) a, au-delà des premiers débats, imposé la question du donné et de la donation. Etant donné. Reprise reprend et prolonge ces nouvelles interrogations. D'abord la question de la réduction : définit-elle vraiment le principe dernier de la phénoménologie? Si tel était le cas, la formule " autant de réduction, autant de donation " peut-elle se justifier (en discussion avec la critique de Michel Henry)? Ensuite, la reconnaissance du donné comme instance (...) première et dernière de la phénoménalité peut-elle encore faire droit à l'herméneutique (en discussion avec Hans-Georg Gadamer)? Dans ce cas, comment se déplie le pli de la donation avec la manifestation? Et encore, le monde peut-il se manifester comme l'un des phénomènes donnés, et même comme la totalité du donné? Ou ne faut-il pas lui reconnaître une donation par exception, celle de la possibilité de toute donation (sur la ligne de Jan Patocka)? Enfin, la reprise du phénomène à partir de la donation n'impose-t-elle pas de substituer décidément au modèle de l'objet, constitué à l'identique et pour lui, celui de l'événement, qui surgit à partir de soi seul, sans cause ni a priori (en faisant droit à Claude Romano)? (shrink)

In Doing, Jean-Luc Nancy, one of the most prominent and lucid articulators of contemporary French theory and philosophy, examines the precarious but urgent relationship between being and doing. His book is not so much a call to action as a summons to more vigorous thinking, the examination and reflection that must precede any effective action. The first section of the book considers this matter tersely: Jean-Luc Nancy's quickness of language and grace of humor lead the reader carefully past (...) the dangers of oversimplification, toward a general awareness of meaningful being. In the last section, Nancy examines the realities of terrorist actions--specifically those that shocked Paris a few years ago, and more generally the frightening world of politics without conscience, where conscience is the root of all thinking. (shrink)

Now in paperback, Jean-Luc Marion's groundbreaking philosophy of human uncertainty. In Negative Certainties, renowned philosopher Jean-Luc Marion challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions we have developed about knowledge: that it is categorical, predicative, and positive. Following Descartes, Kant, and Heidegger, he looks toward our finitude and the limits of our reason. He asks an astonishingly simple—but profoundly provocative—question in order to open up an entirely new way of thinking about knowledge: Isn’t our uncertainty, our finitude, and rational (...) limitations, one of the few things we can be certain about? Marion shows how the assumption of knowledge as positive demands a reductive epistemology that disregards immeasurable or disorderly phenomena. He shows that we have experiences every day that have no identifiable causes or predictable reasons and that these constitute a very real knowledge—a knowledge of the limits of what can be known. Establishing this “negative certainty,” Marion applies it to four aporias, or issues of certain uncertainty: the definition of man; the nature of God; the unconditionality of the gift; and the unpredictability of events. Translated for the first time into English, Negative Certainties is an invigorating work of epistemological inquiry that will take a central place in Marion’s oeuvre. (shrink)

A timely new work by one of France’s premier philosophers, A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment offers insight into what “catholic” truly means. In this short, accessible book, Jean-Luc Marion braids the sense of catholic as all-embracing and universal into conversation about what it is to be Catholic in the present moment. A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment tackles complex issues surrounding church-state separation and addresses a larger Catholic audience that transcends national boundaries, social identities, and linguistic (...) differences. Marion insists that Catholic universalism, with its core of communion and community, is not an outmoded worldview, but rather an outlook that has the potential to counter the positivist rationality and nihilism at the core of our current political moment, and can help us address questions surrounding liberalism and religion and what is often presented as tension between “Islam and the West.” As an inviting and sophisticated Catholic take on current political and social realities—realities that are not confined to France alone—A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment is a valuable contribution to a larger conversation. (shrink)

Ego Sum proposes a provocative and unprecedented reading of Descartes. By paying attention to mode of presentation of Descartes's philosophy, Nancy challenges our common understanding of the Cogito and shows how Descartes's ego is not the self-certain, self-transparent Subject of metaphysics but a mouth that opens to utter: ego sum.

Bousculant peuples, pensées, régulations et représentations, deux séismes secouent le monde mondial. L'un est fait d'attentats, l'autre de coups et de coûts écotechniques. Une évidence surnage, une double question : "Que faire?" et "Quelle politique?". Les deux restent sans réponse parce qu'elles ne sont pas justes. Le "faire" lui-même doit être interrogé sur sa portée ; la "politique" doit être repensée dans sa notion. Tout le faire s'est englouti dans le flux du "produire". La "politique" a été emportée par le (...) même flux — ou bien son nom s'est chargé tantôt d'opprobre et tantôt d'emphase magique. Il faut se délivrer des confusions. L'action la plus urgente, dont toute autre dépend, consiste à parler net et à penser clair. Ce qui nous bouscule porte plus qu'une révolution : une mutation dans laquelle se dessine, encore invisible, la forme d'une résolution. Celle qui décidera d'un nouveau monde. Politique ou pas, religieux ou pas, économique ou pas, il est déjà en train de se faire, ce nouveau monde. Il ne se fait pas comme une production mais comme se font les vies, collectives et personnelles, comme se font les vallées et les montagnes, les pensées et les poèmes : par les lentes et profondes poussées des désirs de l'existence. (shrink)

Prologue -- Une enfance catholique -- Préparation -- Une initiation philosophique -- Dans le miroir des aînés -- En découvrant la théologie -- Les choix de Descartes -- Communion et communication -- Antitotalitaire -- Le tournant -- Premières percées -- Disputes -- Le cas Heidegger -- Augustin et Thomas -- Entre la Somme et la Réforme -- Dans l'ombre du cardinal -- Le vent de l'histoire -- Figures contemporaines -- Les mœurs et l'Église -- L'illusion des valeurs -- Eros -- (...) Les deux papes -- Les polémiques -- En Amérique -- À l'œuvre -- La France, toujours -- L'Europe malgré tout -- Des honneurs et de l'immortalité -- Nihil -- Tour du monde -- Épilogue. (shrink)

Jean-Luc Marion has long endeavored to broaden our view of truth. In this illuminating new book--his deepest engagement with theology to date--Marion proposes a rigorous new understanding of human and divine revelation in a deeply phenomenological key. Although today considered the central theme of theology, the concept of Revelation was almost entirely unknown to the first millennium of Christian thought. In a penetrating historical deconstruction Marion traces the development of this term to the rise of metaphysics from Aquinas through (...) Descartes, Suárez, and Kant; formalized into an epistemological framework, this understanding of Revelation has restricted philosophical and theological thinking ever since. To break free from these limits, Marion takes hints from theologians including Balthasar and Barth while mobilizing the phenomenology of givenness to provide a rigorous new understanding of revelation as a mode of uncovering. His extensive study of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures unfolds a logic of Trinitarian phenomenality, worked out in conversation with Augustine, Basil, Hegel, Schelling, and others, that ultimately transforms our very notions of being and time. The result is precisely what we have come to expect from this acclaimed philosopher: masterful historical scholarship working in tandem with daring originality. (shrink)

A phenomenological reflection on central aspects of Christian revelation: the practice of faith, the obligation and role of the baptized Christian, the gift of the sacraments, the future of Catholicism, the role of the Christian intellectual, examined always in light of their inherent rationality and relationship to philosophical reason.

La question de la peinture n'appartient ni d'abord, ni uniquement aux peintres ou aux esthéticiens. Elle appartient à la visibilité elle-même, donc à tous. A dire vrai ou plus exactement à tous ceux pour qui voir ne va pas de soi. Et c'est sans doute pourquoi la philosophie ne peut que se trouver, quand il y va de la peinture, à demeure. En effet, la philosophie a pris aujourd'hui une figure essentielle, la phénoménologie ; or la phénoménologie ne prétend revenir (...) aux choses mêmes que parce qu'elle entreprend d'abord de voir ce qui se donne - ce que cela donne. La visibilité exceptionnelle du tableau devient alors un cas privilégié du phénomène, éventuellement une voie vers la phénoménalité en général. Mais la phénoménologie suffit-elle à cerner la visibilité et donc tous les tableaux possibles? Le tableau n'admet-il lui-même qu'un seul statut, ou ne ménage-t-il pas d'autres ressources? En passant de l'idole à l'icône, nous poursuivons certes des recherches antérieures, mais nous suivons surtout la nécessité de la chose même : le tableau, donc le visible par excellence, s'offre au dilemme de deux figures d'apparition, inverses, adverses et pourtant indispensables, inséparables. La théologie devient, dans cette situation, une instance irrécusable de toute théorie du tableau. Pour l'avoir parfois dénié, puis simplement oublié, la pensée esthétique s'est parfois empêtrée dans de longues apories. Le temps vient peut-être de s'en délivrer et de voir le visible en face, comme le don de l'apparaître. J.-L. M. (shrink)

Désirer, qu’est-ce que c’est? Quelle différence entre désirer, vouloir ou avoir besoin? Jean-Luc Nancy, auteur fidèle de la collection, s’attache à percevoir comment le désir travaille en nous, et comment nous vivons avec cette force toujours à l’oeuvre, quels que soient nos âges et nos situations.

Partant de l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'élaboration d'une théorie générale de l'imagination constitue l'une des visées centrales de la philosophie ricoeurienne et l'un de ses legs les plus prometteurs, ce livre se propose de travailler à une genèse rigoureuse de cette philosophie de l'imagination, en s'appuyant principalement sur les trois oeuvres qui composent la Philosophie de la volonté. A travers une analyse des dialogues de Ricoeur avec Sartre, Nabert, Bachelard, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Cassirer, Husserl et Heidegger autour de la question de l'imagination, (...) il s'agit de montrer comment cette première grande oeuvre philosophique ricoeurienne esquisse une théorisation très novatrice de la fonction poético-pratique de l'imagination - capable tout à la fois de poser les bases d'une réhabilitation générale de la fonction de l'imagination dans l'agir humain et d'initier une réflexion critique sur les usages méthodologiques de l'imagination dans le discours philosophique. (shrink)

James of Viterbio is one of the rare medieval authors to sustain a thoroughly innatist philosophy. He borrows from Simplicius the notion of idoneitas (aptitude, predisposition) so as to ground a cognition theory in which external things are not the efficient and formal causes of mental acts. A predisposition has the characteristic of being halfway between potentiality and actuality. Therefore, the subject that has predispositions does not need to be acted upon by another thing to actualize them. External things only (...) “incline” the mind to make use of a stock of cognitive schemes. Consequently, in order to avoid an infinite regress James must adopt innatism. Following the lead of late Neoplatonism, he goes as far as including, not only conceptual schemes, but also perceptual schemes among the inbuilt stock. As a result, James’s theory, while it echoes certain preoccupations and themes that are common in the thirteenth century, proves to be one of a kind. (shrink)

Les valeurs sont aujourd'hui omniprésentes dans les discours et les témoignages des Européens. Elles permettent aux individus comme aux institutions de se justifier et de légitimer leurs comportements. Toutefois, autant il est devenu obligatoire d'invoquer des valeurs, autant il est délicat d'en revendiquer l'exclusivité ou la propriété. L'acceptation du pluralisme des valeurs a été pour les catholiques un tournant majeur au vingtième siècle. Mais, en utilisant le langage des valeurs, le christianisme se positionne-t-il en continuité ou en rupture avec ses (...) origines? (shrink)

When Jean-Luc Nancy first encountered the work of Jacques Derrida in the 1960s, he knew he was hearing something new, a voice genuinely of its time. Thinking with and against each other over the course of their long friendship, the two thinkers reshaped the European intellectual landscape. Nancy's writings on Derrida, collected in this volume, reflect on the elements of their shared concerns with politics, the arts, religion, the fate of deconstruction, and the future of sense. Rather than studies, (...) commentaries, or interpretations of Derrida's thought, they are responses to his presence-not exactly a presence to self, but a presence in the world. (shrink)

One of the strongest strands in Nancy's philosophy is an attempt to rethink community and the very idea of the social in a way that does not ground these ideas in some individual subject or subjectivity. The fundamental argument of this book is that being is always 'being with', that 'I' is not prior to 'we', that existence is essentially co-existence. He thinks this being together, not as a comfortable enclosure in a pre-existing group, but as a mutual abandonment and (...) exposure to each other, one that would preserve the 'I' and its freedom in a mode of imagining community as neither a 'society of spectacle' nor via some form of 'authenticity'. (shrink)

Les travaux consacrés par René Girard aux crises du mimétisme se donnent simultanément comme une théologie judéo-chrétienne de la violence et comme une anthropologie existentielle du lien social. Ils proposent ainsi une vaste rétrospective sur l’histoire de la christianisation et de la déchristianisation des sociétés. Notre étude anticipe sur une lecture critique de cette œuvre en avançant deux objections: la théo-anthropologie de R. Girard réduit les significations du sacré à l’expérience qu’en a fondée l’institution religieuse monothéiste; elle ne réduit pas (...) la dispersion méthodologique des sciences sociales. D’où les deux inconnues qui subsistent: le sacré résiste-t-il au déclin de l’institution religieuse? Comment les sciences sociales résisteront-elles à la fragmentation de leurs modèles et de leurs prémisses? (shrink)

A collection of five essays of French philosopher Nancy, originally published in 1985-86: The Inoperative Community, Myth Interpreted, Literary Communism, Shattered Love, and Of Divine Places.