Existing literature on entrepreneurship education has continually highlighted its potential for job creation. However, much attention has not been paid to the restructuring of the curriculum that can enable entrepreneurship education to thrive for job creation. This study used a structural equation modelling approach to understand the mediating role that the deployment of emerging Internet Applications (IAs) play in the nexus between curriculum restructuring and job creation. Being a quantitative study, a virtual snowball sample of 4,628 higher education graduates (males (...) = 2,362; females = 2,266) participated in an electronic survey that was designed by the researchers. Results indicate that curriculum restructuring has a substantial link with the deployment of emerging Internet Applications and job creation respectively. The deployment of emerging Internet applications substantially contributes to the job creation activities of Nigerian graduates. There is a significant positive mediation effect of the deployment of emerging Internet applications on the link between curriculum restructuring and job creation by Nigerian graduates. Based on these results practical implications are discussed, while it was concluded that curriculum restructuring and the deployment of emerging Internet applications are very important variables for job creation. (shrink)

The study evaluated primary texts' availability and utilisation status in core subjects (English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies and Basic Science) in primary schools’ libraries in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State. The researchers formulated six null hypotheses to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population of this study comprised a total of 30,036 teachers and pupils, distributed across the 73 public primary schools. A proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select (...) 30% and 5% of the available teachers and pupils in each school, resulting in a sample of 270 respondents. Two instruments were used for data collection: Availability and Pupils Utilisation of Primary Texts in Core Subjects Questionnaire (APUPTCSQ) and Teachers Utilization of Primary Texts in Core Subjects Questionnaire (TUPTCSQ). Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the null hypotheses were all tested at the .05 level of significance using population t-test and independent t-test statistical techniques. Findings revealed that textbooks in core subjects are available to a significant extent; the utilisation status of texts in core subjects is not significantly low; the available books in core subjects are not considerably utilised by the pupils and teachers respectively; factors affecting availability are not substantially different from those affecting utilisation of textbooks in core subjects in the area of study. Based on the study's findings, it was recommended, among others, that textbooks be procured and distributed evenly across all subjects and schools in the Local Government Area by the Government. Outdated books should also be eliminated from the school libraries frequently by the primary school librarians or other people assigned to do so. (shrink)

A structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse 32 factors affecting students’ attitudes towards test-taking in secondary schools. Data for the study were obtained from a sample of 1,276 students using the proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a Rating Scale on Factors Affecting Students’ Attitudes Towards Test-Taking (RSFASATTT). Findings of the study revealed a total of 21 factors that significantly affect students’ attitudes towards test-taking in secondary schools. Out of these significant factors, (...) 14 had a positive effect while 7 factors negatively affected students’ attitudes towards test-taking. However, 11 factors were not significant predictors of students’ attitudes towards test-taking. Based on these findings, it was concluded that students’ attitudes towards test-taking are affected by several factors. These factors are either traceable to the students’ emotions, their family background, or the school environment. Based on this conclusion, recommendations and policy implications were made. (shrink)

This study examined school characteristics and secondary school teachers’ work effectiveness in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State. Specifically, the study examined the influence of school location, school population, and school ownership on secondary school teachers’ work effectiveness respectively. Three research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were formulated accordingly to guide the study. The design adopted for the study was a descriptive survey research design. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 156 (...) respondents out of a population of 549 teachers. A questionnaire titled “Teachers’ work effectiveness questionnaire” (TWEQ) was used as an instrument for data collection. Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the null hypotheses were all tested at .05 level of significance using the independent t-test statistical technique. The results of the analysis revealed that school characteristics such as location, population, and ownership, influenced secondary school teachers’ work effectiveness respectively. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that; teachers should be motivated using intrinsic and extrinsic channels such as praises, rewards for outstanding performance, regular payment of salaries, promotion and other incentives such as improved working conditions, good classroom, and office environment, and so on, for improved work performance. (shrink)

Previous research has interlinked alcohol consumption (AC), mental stress (MS), psychotic experiences (PE), and academic performance (AP) of students and psychological behavior of the general population. The current study seems to be the first to consider the joint and partial mediation effects of MS and PE in linking AC to graduates’ job performance in specific areas such as teamwork (TW), communication competence (CC), customer service (CS), and job functions (JF). A virtual cross-section of 3,862 graduates with self-reported cases of having (...) taken alcohol in the past participated in the study. These participants responded to an electronic questionnaire that was mailed to them. The instrument used for data collection had acceptable psychometric properties. The study used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to achieve its objectives. The inner and outer models were all evaluated for quality and goodness of fit. Results showed a significant negative effect of AC and MS on graduates’ job performance in terms of TW, CC, CS, and JF, respectively. AC had a significant positive effect on MS and PE. MS had a significant positive effect on PE. A significant joint mediation effect of MS and PE was found in linking AC to graduates’ TW, CC, and CS, excluding JF. MS partially mediated AC’s paths to all the graduates’ job performance indicators. PE was only a significant partial mediator of the connection between AC to JF, but not TW, CC, and CS. This study’s result can help improve graduates’ work effectiveness and has revealed some negative predictors. Therefore, it is recommended that graduates avoid alcohol or only consume mild quantities of it to enable them to discharge services effectively at the workplace. (shrink)

Through the use of such "folk" concepts as belief, desire, intention, and expectation, Daniel Dennett asserts in this first full scale presentation of...

A pioneering work in the philosophy of mind, Content and Consciousness brings together the approaches of philosophers and scientists to the mind--a connection that must occur if genuine analysis of the mind is to be made. This unified approach permits the most forbiddingly mysterious mental phenomenon--consciousness--to be broken down into several distinct phenomena, and these are each given a foundation in the physical activity of the brain. This paperback edition contains a preface placing the book in the context of recent (...) work in the area. (shrink)

Essays discuss reason, self-control, self-definition, time, cause and effect, accidents, and responsibility, and explain why people want free will.

Daniel C. Dennett is a brilliant polemicist, famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies. Over the last thirty years, he has played a major role in expanding our understanding of consciousness, developmental psychology, and evolutionary theory. And with such groundbreaking, critically acclaimed books as Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea (a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist), he has reached a huge general and professional audience. In this new book, Dennett shows that evolution is the key to resolving the ancient (...) problems of moral and political freedom. Like the planet's atmosphere on which life depends, the conditions on which our freedom depends had to evolve, and like the atmosphere, they continue to evolve-and could be extinguished. According to Dennett, biology provides the perspective from which we can distinguish the varieties of freedom that matter. Throughout the history of life on this planet, an interacting web and internal and external conditions have provided the frameworks for the design of agents that are more free than their parts-from the unwitting gropings of the simplest life forms to the more informed activities of animals to the moral dilemmas that confront human beings living in societies. As in his previous books, Dennett weaves a richly detailed narrative enlivened by analogies as entertaining as they are challenging. Here is the story of how we came to be different from all other creatures, how our early ancestors mindlessly created human culture, and then, how culture gave us our minds, our visions, our moral problems-in a nutshell, our freedom. (shrink)

An enlightening discussion that will motivate students to think critically, the book opens with Plantinga's assertion that Christianity is compatible with evolutionary theory because Christians believe that God created the living world, and it is entirely possible that God did so by using a process of evolution.

In our attempt to distinguish two types of social appraisal, we clarify the “knower–learner” relationship in affective social learning, underline the important role that affective observation may have in acculturation processes, and highlight some potential consequences for the recent debate on the benefits of child-directed learning.

Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks,watching The Simpsons? In Inside Jokes, Matthew Hurley, DanielDennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective.

Some things are funny -- jokes, puns, sitcoms, Charlie Chaplin, The Far Side, Malvolio with his yellow garters crossed -- but why? Why does humor exist in the first place? Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks, watching _The Simpsons_? In _Inside Jokes_, Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Humor, they propose, evolved out of a computational problem that arose when our long-ago ancestors were (...) furnished with open-ended thinking. Mother Nature -- aka natural selection -- cannot just order the brain to find and fix all our time-pressured misleaps and near-misses. She has to bribe the brain with pleasure. So we find them funny. This wired-in source of pleasure has been tickled relentlessly by humorists over the centuries, and we have become addicted to the endogenous mind candy that is humor. (shrink)

Essays from some of the 20th century's greatest thinkers explore topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, evolution, science fiction, philosophy, reductionism, and consciousness, presenting a variety of conflicting visions of the self and the soul. Illustrations.

Tercera lliçó del professor i filòsof nord-americà, Daniel Clement Dennet, sobre teleologia.

La distopía o utopía negativa es un subgénero que ha hecho famoso la literatura inglesa, particularmente desde las obras de George Orwell (1984, de 1948) y Aldous Huxley (Brave New World, de 1932). Sin embargo, suele pasarse por alto que la primera antiutopía moderna pertenece a un autor ruso, Evgueni Zamiátin: la novela Nosotros (My), de 1922, producto de una modernidad tardía. Esta obra estableció los paradigmas que caracterizarían de ahí en más formalmente a la distopía. En 1968, los hermanos (...) Arcadi y Boris Strugatsky, principales referentes de la ciencia ficción soviética en aquellos años, reelaboraron a partir de estas bases una ciudad ya no distópica sino infernal y oscuramente irracional, eje de su novela Ciudad maldita (Grab obrechonni), una distopía ya en clave posmoderna, llevándola a un auténtico (e irresuelto) planteo sobre la naturaleza del mal. A partir de un marco teórico que vincula la evolución de las utopías negativas con la ciencia ficción, nuestra hipótesis implica que esta novela, curiosa síntesis de ciencia, política, esoterismo y literatura, define un nuevo tipo de obra distópica. El paisaje de ruinas que implica, tan caro a la ciencia ficción posterior a la caída del Muro de Berlín, se vuelve un sistema de sinécdoques que representa, desde la estética del fragmento, un profundo nihilismo donde la posmodernidad adquiere la forma de abismo. (shrink)

In this paper, we point out that explainability is useful but not sufficient to ensure the legitimacy of algorithmic decision systems. We argue that the key requirements for high-stakes decision systems should be justifiability and contestability. We highlight the conceptual differences between explanations and justifications, provide dual definitions of justifications and contestations, and suggest different ways to operationalize justifiability and contestability.

Social learning is likely to include affective processes: it is necessary for newcomers to discover what value to attach to objects, persons, and events in a given social environment. This learning relies largely on the evaluation of others’ emotional expressions. This study has two objectives. Firstly, we compare two closely related concepts that are employed to describe the use of another person’s appraisal to make sense of a given situation: social appraisal and social referencing. We contend that social referencing constitutes (...) a type of social appraisal. Secondly, we introduce the concept of affective social learning with the hope that it may help to discriminate the different ways in which emotions play a critical role in the processes of socialization. (shrink)

The resting-state human electroencephalogram power spectrum is dominated by alpha and theta oscillations, and also includes non-oscillatory broadband activity inversely related to frequency. Gratton proposed that alpha and theta oscillations are both related to cognitive control function, though in a complementary manner. Alpha activity is hypothesized to facilitate the maintenance of representations, such as task sets in preparation for expected task conditions. In contrast, theta activity would facilitate changes in representations, such as the updating of task sets in response to (...) unpredicted task demands. Therefore, theta should be related to reactive control, while alpha may be more relevant to proactive control. Less is known about the possible relationship between 1/f activity and cognitive control, which was analyzed here in an exploratory fashion. To investigate these hypothesized relationships, we recorded eyes-open and eyes-closed resting-state EEG from younger and older adults and subsequently tested their performance on a cued flanker task, expected to elicit both proactive and reactive control processes. Results showed that alpha power and 1/f offset were smaller in older than younger adults, whereas theta power did not show age-related reductions. Resting alpha power and 1/f offset were associated with proactive control processes, whereas theta power was related to reactive control as measured by the cued flanker task. All associations were present over and above the effect of age, suggesting that these resting-state EEG correlates could be indicative of trait-like individual differences in cognitive control performance, which may be already evident in younger adults, and are still similarly present in healthy older adults. (shrink)

Background: Mental fatigue can impact physical demands and tactical behavior in sport-related contexts. Small-sided games are often used to develop a specific sport-related context. However, the effects of mental fatigue on physical demands and tactical behaviors during soccer SSGs have not been aggregated for systematical assessment.Objective: This systematic review was conducted to compare the effects of mental fatigue vs. control conditions in terms of the total running distance and tactical behavior of soccer players during SSGs.Methods: The data sources utilized were (...) PubMed, PsycINFO, Scielo, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. The study eligibility criteria were established based on PICOS: Population: healthy youth and young adult men soccer players with regular training practice and belonging to teams with regular competitions; Intervention: exposed to mental fatigue-induced protocols only before SSGs; Comparator: control conditions before SSGs; Outcomes: physical demands and tactical behavior ; Study design: counterbalanced cross-over design; and only full-text and original articles written in English.Results: The database search initially identified 111 titles. From those, six articles were eligible for the systematic review and meta-analysis. Results showed no significant effect of fatigue on total running distance and tactical behavior.Conclusions: A non-significant effect of mental fatigue on total running distance and tactical behaviors performed by soccer players during SSGs was found in this systematic review. (shrink)

Although we applaud the general aims of the target article, we argue that Affective Social Learning completes TTOM by pointing out how emotions can provide another route to acquiring culture, a route which may be quicker, more flexible, and even closer to an axiological definition of culture than TTOM itself.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) has been considered as a measure of heart-brain interaction and autonomic modulation, and it is modified by cognitive and attentional tasks. In cognitive tasks, HRV was reduced in participants who achieved worse results. This could indicate the possibility of HRV predicting cognitive performance, but this association is still unclear in a high cognitive load sport such as chess Objective: To analyse modifications on HRV and subjective perception of stress, difficulty and complexity in different chess problem (...) tasks. Design: HRV was assessed at baseline. During the chess problems, HRV was also monitored, and immediately after chess problems the subjective stress, difficulty and complexity were also registered. Method: A total of 16 male chess players, age: 35.19 (13.44) and ELO: 1927.69 (167.78) were analysed while six chess problem solving tasks with different level of difficulty were conducted (two low level, two medium level and two high level chess problems). Participants were classified according to their results into two groups: high performance or low performance. Results: Friedman test showed a significant effect of tasks in HRV indexes and perceived difficulty, stress and complexity in both high and low performance groups. A decrease in HRV was observed in both groups when chess problems difficulty increased. In addition, HRV was significantly higher in the high performance group than in the low performance group during chess problems. Conclusions: An increase in autonomic modulation was observed to meet the cognitive demands of the problems, being higher while the difficulty of the tasks increased. Non-linear HRV indexes seem to be more reactive to tasks difficulty, being an interesting and useful tool in chess training. (shrink)

This book is dedicated to clarify ambiguous concepts from the world of creativity and innovation. One of the initial triggers for the development of the book was the perceived ambiguity of the binomials Design vs. Design Thinking and Innovation vs. Invention. Frequently, designers and innovation consultants are questioned by their clients about the relationships between these kind of concepts. Has the second emerged through the first, or vice-verse? Is one part of the other? Where are the similarities and which are (...) the differences? This conceptual incomprehension makes itself noticeable between many ambiguous concepts in the world of innovation and creativity. What is the difference between Radical and Disruptive Innovation? Or is Social Innovation the same as Social Intervention? And regarding Creativity, are Creativity and Creative Thinking the same? In this book the reader will find answers to these kinds of questions and doubts. 28 authors from 10 different countries and cultural backgrounds are questioning current definitions and perceptions, by comparing different sources and ideas, or simply by giving their personal opinions. Some of the authors have an academic background, others a practical one, being either entrepreneurs, working with innovation in companies, or being innovation/design consultants. (shrink)

Bien que l’ayant rencontré parfois à Paris, je ne fis réellement connaissance de Daniel Charles qu’à partir du moment où il fut nommé professeur à la faculté de lettres de Nice et s’installa dans sa villa d’Antibes. Il y organisait des soirées et des dîners mémorables, préparés par sa femme Jacqueline qui avait le quadruple avantage d’être charmante, québécoise, pianiste et excellente cuisinière. Nous ne tardâmes pas à devenir intimes. L’origine de notre amitié fut...

What if there is no hard problem with consciousness? Daniel Clement Dennett, King’s College London, The Philosophical Society, January, 13th, 2014. [Daniele Mario Cassaghi] How is it possible to distinguish a system which is conscious of its internal states from one which is not? In other terms, on which methods can we rely to discern a human being from a zombie with no “consciousness” at all? If I perceive red, I am, quo human being, conscious of the “redness” (...) of the strawberry in front of me. How is it possible for a non-conscious system to be different from me? After all, it just perceives that strawberry without being internally aware of the “redness”. How is it possible, indeed, to differentiate two behaviourally indistinguishable systems on the basis of the presence of a certain conscious element within them? All these questions are what we call The Hard Problem with Consciousness: there is no a specific method to separate systems endowed with the so-called consciousness from those which work unconsciously. -/- Why isn’t there more progress in philosophy? David Chalmers, Royal Institute of Philosophy, London, December, 13th, 2013. [Mattia Sorgon] There has not been large collective convergence on the big questions of philosophy. Concerning the most fundamental issues, such as the mind-body problem, the access to the external world, or the principles of morality, the debate is still very intense and controversial. Therefore, philosophy has not already reached neither a definitive result on its major topics and every theoretical perspective is still a viable position within the debate. (shrink)

Science fiction has often been at the forefront of popular renderings and exploration of various “subaltern” groups, including that of nonhuman animals. I argue that science fiction’s freedom from the boundaries of what is currently possible allows writers such as Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, Olaf Stapledon, Daniel Keyes, Octavia Butler, Cordwainer Smith, and H. Beam Piper to explore ethical possibilities regarding animals that are diverse from those of the context in which they wrote. It is (...) also notable that the earlier science fiction writers only critique majority views regarding animals, whereas their antecessors go so far as to suggest the empowerment of the “Other,” in this case, nonhuman animals. (shrink)

In what particular manner human beings are free moral agents and to what extent they can reasonably expect to attain a good life are two intertwined questions that rose to prominence in antiquity and have remained so to the present day. This book analyzes and compares the approaches of two significant authors from different schools at the turn of the third century CE, Alexander of Aphrodisias and Clement of Alexandria. These contemporaries utilize their respective Peripatetic and Christian commitments in (...) their employment of the shared Greek classics toward these shared ethical questions. (shrink)

This article seeks to interpret the phrase Πάτερ, ημων ο εν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς in the invocation of the Lord’s Prayer in the light of Ewe-Ghanaian cosmology. The article employs a combination of the historical-critical and indigenous mother tongue biblical hermeneutical approaches to explore the implication of the invocation for Ewe-Ghanaian Christian spirituality today. The article firstly discusses the various theological and hermeneutical positions of the invocation in dialogue with Ewe-Ghanaian concept of God and the plurality of his dwelling place. The (...) article argues that Matthew’s use of οὐρανοῖς to suggest a plurality in God’s dwelling place resonates with Ewe cosmology, where it is believed that there are seven states of existence and that Mawugã, the Supreme Being, dwells in the first – the absolute state. Thus God exists in ‘seven heavens’ in Ewe cosmology, with the highest heaven being the eternal state of abode. On the other hand, the inclusive interpretation of the fatherhood of God in Ewe cosmology is discontinuous with the exclusive interpretation in the works of the church fathers such as Cyprian, Origen, Gregory of Nissa, Augustine and Clement of Alexandria. This hermeneutical position, the article observes, was responsible for the theological tensions that characterised the encounter between missionary Christianity and Ewe indigenous religion in the middle of the 19th century. However, the introduction of social services as evangelisation strategy, the legacy of the Ewe Bible and liturgy and the handing over of the Ewe church to the indigenous coworkers may have contributed to a large extent in ensuring religious tolerance among followers of the two religions. Today, Ewe-Ghanaian popular Christianity has shifted from its apologetic stance to a more liberal stance and employs indigenous religious and cultural categories in theologising.Contribution: Matthew’s rendition of the invocation of the Lord’s Prayer in the context of Ewe-Ghanaian cosmology is the focus of this article. The article forms part of the researcher’s contribution to the academic knowledge on the Lord’s Prayer and inspires the use of mother tongue biblical hermeneutics in the development of theological materials for the Ewe-Ghanaian Christian communities in Ghana and Togo. (shrink)

En 1929 se publicó en Estados Unidos Los de abajo, de Mariano Azuela, con ilustraciones de José Clemente Orozco. El pintor mexicano había llegado en 1927 a la Gran Manzana, desde donde le daba a conocer al público estadounidense los desastres revolucionarios a través de una colección de dibujos, grabados y acuarelas, más tarde intitulada México en Revolución. Dado que parecen derivar artísticamente de esa colección, los dibujos con que Orozco ilustra la novela de Azuela no son una mera réplica (...) gráfica de los contenidos del texto, sino que constituyen una visión particular de la lucha armada. El presente trabajo pretende explicar cómo se relacionan las dos visiones artísticas sobre la Revolución que confluyen en la primera edición en inglés de Los de abajo. (shrink)

While the author cannot speak for churches of Christ, common among them are unique ways of understanding holy scripture, believed to have been written by the apostles and prophets of the Lord before the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.) and circulated among the early Christian communities (E.g. A letter called First Clement in about 95 A.D., refers to at least ten New Testament books), then collected as a volume by the self-identified Christian community of the second century A.D. or (...) earlier, e.g. the list of Marcion (140 A.D.). (shrink)

Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books offers insights into the cultural and historical transmission and practices of martial arts, based on the corpus of the Fight Books (Fechtbücher) in 14th- to 17th-century Europe. The first part of the book deals with methodological and specific issues for the studies of this emerging interdisciplinary field of research. The second section offers an overview of the corpus based on geographical areas. The final part offers some relevant case studies. This is the first (...) book proposing a comprehensive state of research and an overview of Historical European Martial Arts Studies. One of its major strengths lies in its association of interdisciplinary scholars with practitioners of martial arts. Contributors are Sydney Anglo, Matthias Johannes Bauer, Eric Burkart, Marco Cavina, Franck Cinato, John Clements, Timothy Dawson, Olivier Dupuis, Bert Gevaert, Dierk Hagedorn, Daniel Jaquet, Rachel E. Kellet, Jens Peter Kleinau, Ken Mondschein, Reinier van Noort, B. Ann Tlusty, Manuel Valle Ortiz, Karin Verelst, and Paul Wagner. (shrink)

A une epoque de desillusion comme celle de notre Modernite, ou les structures heritees d'un ideal passe sont systematiquement rejetees par le scepticisme; ou, du fait que les principes dont nous sommes les legataires forces ont prouve leur statut illusoire, il s'agit de se defaire enfin de la desuetude; et ou l'on aborde avec cynisme la realite quotidienne, l'histoire joue un role marginalise, sinon nul, tandis que percue comme symptome de ce que nous ne sommes pas. ;Or, se situer a (...) l'encontre d'un heritage, refuser de suivre le modele de celui-ci, ne suffit pas a abolir le rapport au passe. Fondee a partir d'un refus apriorique, notre modernite se constitue ainsi par un mouvement de perpetuel differement soit, par ce que Derrida appelle "la difference" ou, suivant un processus parallele, par le mecanisme du "simulacre" deleuzien. A partir de ces deux modeles et par le biais d'exemples tels ceux que nous offrent Jean Baudrillard, Clement Greenberg et Thierry de Duve, nous chercherons, dans un premier temps a montrer en quoi cette tendance caracteristique de notre Modernite est de l'ordre de la planeite, de l'ordre d'une heterogeneite laterale sans relief qui semble peu a peu perdre de vue ce qu'elle rejetait hier et qui des lors, aujourd'hui, s'oriente aveuglement selon le flux arbitraire d'un quotidien, ahistorique. A titre d'exemple, nous aborderons l'oeuvre de Michel Butor, de Frank Stella, de Marguerite Duras, de Robert Ryman, et de Marcel Duchamp. ;Comme nous l'avons dit, s'orienter a l'encontre de l'histoire par voie d'un processus differentiel n'abolit pas pour autant notre rapport a celle-ci. Ainsi, par le biais de la reflexion d'Alain Finkielkraut, il s'agira de determiner en quoi le rapport de notre epoque au passe, bien qu'effectuant certaines innovations importantes, releve d'une "memoire vaine"---c'est-a-dire que sous l'effet appaisant de l'oubli, notre rapport a l'histoire a peu a peu compromis son fondement ethique. Nous verrons en quoi ceci releve d'une perte de l'aura et de la valeur cultuelle sur le plan culturel, pour ensuite explorer la portee ponctuelle de ce rapport ahistorique dans l'oeuvre de Flaubert et de Duras. Il s'agira d'une analyse du rapport de l'individu au monde moderne abordee par le biais des propos de Benjamin au sujet du portrait photographique. ;Dans la derniere partie de ce travail, nous nous pencherons sur la reflexion de Benjamin, Yourcenar et Finkielkraut sur l'Histoire. Nous chercherons de voir en quoi ces "philosophes" nous rappellent a l'ordre en operant, dans le mouvement meme de leur pensee, la recuperation de l'histoire dont certains instants singuliers se voient, par la, sauves par voie du present. Il s'agira ainsi pour nous de proposer en quoi la Modernite se doit d'apprehender une ouverture avec la plus grande adresse et delicatesse, afin que l'imperatif de la responsabilite soit retabli au sein d'une planeite sinon hermetique et sans orientation. (shrink)