Transplantation continues to push the frontiers of medicine into domains that summon forth troublesome ethical questions. Looming on the frontier today is human facial transplantation. We develop criteria that, we maintain, must be satisfied in order to ethically undertake this as-yet-untried transplant procedure. We draw on the criteria advanced by Dr. Francis Moore in the late 1980s for introducing innovative procedures in transplant surgery. In addition to these we also insist that human face transplantation must meet all the ethical requirements (...) usually applied to health care research. We summarize the achievements of transplant surgery to date, focusing in particular on the safety and efficacy of immunosuppressive medications. We also emphasize the importance of risk/benefit assessments that take into account the physical, aesthetic, psychological, and social dimensions of facial disfiguration, reconstruction, and transplantation. Finally, we maintain that the time has come to move facial transplantation research into the clinical phase. (shrink)

To systematically answer the generalized Kretschmann objection, I propose a mean to make operational a criterion widely recognized as allowing one to decide whether the gauge symmetry of a theory is artificial or substantial. My proposition is based on the dressing field method of gauge symmetry reduction, a new simple tool from mathematical physics. This general scheme allows one in particular to straightforwardly argue that the notion of spontaneous symmetry breaking is superfluous to the empirical success of the electroweak theory. (...) Important questions regarding the context of justification of the theory then arise. (shrink)

In the literature on medical ethics, it is generally admitted that vulnerable persons or groups deserve special attention, care or protection. One can define vulnerable persons as those having a greater likelihood of being wronged – that is, of being denied adequate satisfaction of certain legitimate claims. The conjunction of these two points entails what we call the Special Protection Thesis. It asserts that persons with a greater likelihood of being denied adequate satisfaction of their legitimate claims deserve special attention, (...) care or protection. Such a thesis remains vague, however, as long as we do not know what legitimate claims are. This article aims at dispelling this vagueness by exploring what claims we have in relation to health care – thus fleshing out a claim-based conception of vulnerability. We argue that the Special Protection Thesis must be enriched as follows: If individual or group X has a greater likelihood of being denied adequate satisfaction of some of their legitimate claims to physical integrity, autonomy, freedom, social provision, impartial quality of government, social bases of self-respect or communal belonging, then X deserves special attention, care or protection. With this improved understanding of vulnerability, vulnerability talk in healthcare ethics can escape vagueness and serve as an adequate basis for practice. (shrink)

Attempts to use Big Data to transform car insurance pricing in France have failed. Why? Three possible explanations are discussed: organisational and cognitive inertia, normative preventions, and deliberate strategy. This article finds that moral or political reluctance has played only a secondary role in the failure of telematics devices. More important has been the deployment of an experimental strategy that has resulted in the conclusion that in the short and medium term at least, the use of big data to rate (...) car insurance is not profitable. There are too many organisational and cognitive barriers to the smooth adoption of innovation. All insurers note they all arrived at this conclusion. An implicit consensus therefore remains to retain the old business model. (shrink)

This paper gives a philosophical outline of the initial foundations of politics as presented in the work of Plato and argues why this traditional philosophical approach can no longer serve as the foundation of politics. The argumentation is mainly based on the work of Latour (1993, 1997, 1999a, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008) and consists of five parts. In the first section I elaborate on the initial categorization of politics and science as represented by Plato in his Republic. In the second (...) section I discuss the gap between humans and non-humans and how they are tied together in actual real life political topics. In the third section I elaborate on the concepts of political and scientific discourse and how they are thought of as separated fields based on the ancient constitution of human society. In the fourth section I link the concepts of matter of fact and matter of concern. In a final section I present a redefinition of the nature of politics as represented in the work of Bruno Latour as an alternative foundation for the study of political systems. (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

Les céramiques présentées ici proviennent de quatre dépôts scellés sous une maison de Nicosie et vidés en 1948. Ces fosses, au remplissage homogène, contenaient des cruches, des marmites, des poêlons et de la vaisselle de service produits à Chypre, de rares importations anatoliennes ou balkaniques et une belle collection de vaisselle de table de Ligurie, de Toscane, de Vénétie et d’Émilie-Romagne. Cette dernière, bien datée, permet d’attribuer le contenu des dépotoirs au dernier quart du xvie‑première moitié du xviie s. Une (...) ébauche de chronotypologie peut donc être établie pour les céramiques des ateliers de Lapithos, de Nicosie et du Troodos, très mal connues pour cette période. La confrontation des sources écrites, faisant état de la prise de la ville par les Ottomans en 1570 et des années qui suivirent, avec cette exceptionnelle source archéologique montre que la vie quotidienne avait sans doute repris un cours normal dès le début du xviie s. (shrink)

This chapter looks at the impact of recent societal approaches of knowledge and science from the perspectives of two rather distant educational domains, mathematics and music. Science’s attempt at ‘self-understanding’ has led to a set of control mechanisms, either generating ‘closure’—the scientists’ non-involvement in society—or ‘economisation’, producing patents and other lucrative benefits. While scientometrics became the tool and the rule for measuring the economic impact of science, counter movements, like the slow science movement, citizen science, empowering music-art initiatives and other (...) critical approaches focus on intrinsic and ethical questions of education and knowledge. Thinking about knowledge and research in terms of quantifiable products impacts heavily upon the domains of science and arts, while the complexity of knowledge acquisition forces society to consider also other parameters like equality, personal development and participatory processes. (shrink)

The development of the philosophy of science in the twentieth century has created a framework where issues concerning funding dynamics can be easily accommodated. It combines the historical-philosophical approach of Thomas Kuhn. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, [1962] ) with the sociological approach of Robert K. Merton The sociology of science. Theoretical and empirical investigations. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 267–278, [1942] ), linking the ‘exact’ sciences to economy and politics. Out of this came a new domain, (...) namely the study of scientific practices : Science as practice and culture. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992). Given this broad theoretical framework, we will specify by looking at the case of STEM education and its variant Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics with Art education as an example par excellence. Without going into the technical details of the financial support of the projects, we prefer to open a philosophical debate on the way how policies on academic subjects influence a whole society and the personal life of both researchers and people/pupils involved in education. (shrink)

L’exploration archéologique du site de l’Arkipiskopi dans la vieille ville de Nicosie, conduite par Fryni Hadjichristofi et son équipe (Département des Antiquités de Chypre) de 2009 à 2011 puis en 2016, a mis au jour les vestiges d’un puits à roue élévatrice appelé à Chypre αλακάτιν/alakatin et plus habituellement connu dans le monde méditerranéen sous le nom de sakieh. S’il en existe des exemplaires plus anciens dans l’île, c’est la première machine hydraulique à traction animale permettant de puiser l’eau dans (...) un puits profond fouillée à Nicosie pour les époques latine, ottomane et anglaise. Cette étude entend d’abord examiner et interpréter les vestiges de ces structures au regard des informations livrées par des documents d’archives et des récits de voyageurs, des dessins de la fin du xvie et du début du xviiie siècle, un plan de 1882 et le cadastre de 1948, afin d’en mieux saisir les contextes de fonctionnement sur une longue durée. Elle présente aussi les godets de terre fixés sur la roue pour le puisage de l’eau et qui, à de rares exceptions, ont complètement échappé aux études céramologiques conduites dans l’île. (shrink)

Στα πλαίσια του προγράμματος « Ποταμιά-Άγιος Σωζόμενος, η ανασύνθεση των τοπίων στη μεσαιωνική Ανατολή », η κεραμική που συλλέχτηκε στη διάρκεια της πρόσφατης επιφανειακής έρευνας, παρά τον αποσπασματικό χαρακτήρα της, έδωσε νέα στοιχεία για τη Φραγκική και την Οθωμανική περίοδο τόσο στη συγκεκριμένη θέση όσο και σε ολόκληρο το νησί. Η μελέτη της δίνει πληροφορίες όχι μόνο για την επιτόπια παραγωγή και εκείνη της ευρύτερης περιοχής αλλά και για τη διακίνηση αγγείων από τη δυτική και την ανατολική λεκάνη της Μεσογείου. (...) Η αποσπασματικότητα του υλικού αντισταθμίζεται από τον όγκο του και από τον επαναλαμβανόμενο χαρακτήρα των διαφόρων κεραμικών κατηγοριών, οι οποίες ταξινομήθηκαν κατά τύπους και χρονολογικές περιόδους. Στο άρθρο προτείνεται μια νέα ταξινόμηση της κυπριακής κεραμικής με βάση τις παλαιότερες έρευνες αλλά και τα πρόσφατα ευρήματα. (shrink)

This paper presents a novel methodological approach of how to design, conduct and analyse robot-assisted play. This approach is inspired by nondirective play therapy. The experimenter participates in the experiments, but the child remains the main leader for play. Besides, beyond inspiration from non-directive play therapy, this approach enables the experimenter to regulate the interaction under specific conditions in order to guide the child or ask her questions about reasoning or affect related to the robot. This approach has been tested (...) in a long-term study with six children with autism in a school setting. An autonomous robot with zoomorphic, dog-like appearance was used in the studies. The children’s progress was analyzed according to three dimensions, namely, Play, Reasoning and Affect. Results from the case-study evaluations have shown the capability of the method to meet each child’s needs and abilities. Children who mainly played solitarily progressively experienced basic imitation games with the experimenter. Children who proactively played socially progressively experienced higher levels of play and constructed more reasoning related to the robot. They also expressed some interest in the robot, including, on occasion, affect. Keywords: Human–Robot Interaction, Robot-Mediated Therapy, Robot-Assisted Play, Non-Directive Play Therapy, Assistive Technology, Autism, Children. (shrink)

Le dégagement de cinq fosses dépotoirs au comblement homogène sur le site de l’Archipiskopi à Nicosie fouillé par F. Hadjichristofi (Département des Antiquités de Chypre) de 2009 à 2011 a livré un bel échantillonnage de productions chypriotes déjà connues et d’importations byzantines et proche-orientales. Cependant, l’intérêt majeur de ces assemblages réside dans la mise en évidence d’une production locale de poterie à pâte calcaire, glaçurée ou non. Cette activité potière à Nicosie a débuté à la fin du xiie‑xiiie siècle et (...) s’est poursuivie presque inchangée au xive siècle. Les productions de la capitale des Lusignan sont diversifiées et, pour une partie d’entre elles, témoignent d’apports proche-orientaux – émail, bases à disque, cruche à filtre. L’artisanat de la terre dans l’île ainsi que les liens entretenus avec les territoires croisé et musulman du Proche‑Orient sont donc réexaminés au regard de ces nouvelles données. (shrink)

Les philosophies de Schopenhauer et de Bergson, comme d’ailleurs celle de Nietzsche, parlent d’une réalité qui se trouverait derrière des apparences utiles à la pratique. Dans les trois cas, cette réalité est désignée en termes de volonté. On aurait donc affaire, chez Schopenhauer et chez Bergson, à deux « ontologies de la volonté ». Mais il reste à savoir ce que les deux auteurs entendent par « volonté ». Deux différences majeures doivent être signalées : pour Schopenhauer, la volonté est (...) la chose en soi. Bergson refuse la distinction kantienne entre phénomènes et chose en soi. D’autre part, pour Schopenhauer, l’expérience de la volonté est souffrance. Bergson, en revanche, la caractérise comme joie. Dans ces conditions, l’ontologie de la volonté prend une figure différente dans les deux cas. Ce sont ces deux figures que nous tentons de déterminer. (shrink)

Gauge symmetries play a central role, both in the mathematical foundations as well as the conceptual construction of modern (particle) physics theories. However, it is yet unclear whether they form a necessary component of theories, or whether they can be eliminated. It is also unclear whether they are merely an auxiliary tool to simplify (and possibly localize) calculations or whether they contain independent information. Therefore their status, both in physics and philosophy of physics, remains to be fully clarified. In this (...) overview we review the current state of affairs on both the philosophy and the physics side. In particular, we focus on the circumstances in which the restriction of gauge theories to gauge invariant information on an observable level is warranted, using the Brout-Englert-Higgs theory as an example of particular current importance. Finally, we determine a set of yet to be answered questions to clarify the status of gauge symmetries. (shrink)

It is a rather safe statement to claim that the social dimensions of the scientific process are accepted in a fair share of studies in the philosophy of science. It is a somewhat safe statement to claim that the social dimensions are now seen as an essential element in the understanding of what human cognition is and how it functions. But it would be a rather unsafe statement to claim that the social is fully accepted in the philosophy of mathematics. (...) And we are not quite sure what kind of statement it is to claim that the social dimensions in theories of mathematics education are becoming more prominent, compared to the psychological dimensions. In our contribution we will focus, after a brief presentation of the above claims, on this particular domain to understand the successes and failures of the development of theories of mathematics education that focus on the social and not primarily on the psychological. (shrink)

Le présent article tente de se demander pourquoi Schopenhauer demeure un philosophe important pour nous aujourd’hui, c’est-à-dire qu’il vise à déterminer quel fut le geste propre de cet auteur en philosophie. Pour cela, nous cherchons à situer son point de rupture avec Kant, et nous pensons le trouver dans la question des rapports entre temps et causalité, à l’occasion de laquelle Schopenhauer institue une critique de Kant. Nous présentons quatre observations au sujet de cette critique, qui concernent respectivement les notions (...) de corps et de volonté, de rêve, de connaissance, enfin d’objet, de perception et d’expérience. À l’issue de cette analyse, l’innovation de Schopenhauer apparaît dans un certain retournement qu’il fait subir à la question critique elle-même. (shrink)

This article embodies the result of a collective work that seeks to understand the manner in which the notion of conflict is transformed by the attempt to apply it to reality, according to the doctrines hereby comprise as “ontologies of conflict”. It seems that there are three resulting “logics of conflict” which may receive the following qualifications: logic of contradiction, logic of contrariety and logic of difference.

Main Response Topics ? Introduction ? Open display and public evaluation ? Publicity versus patient privacy ? Facial tissue donation ? Validity of Louisville Instrument for Risk Acceptance ? Patients' understanding of risk ? Face versus hand transplantation ? Rejection rates/risks ? Patient compliance ? Exit strategy ? Functional recovery ? Societietal implications ? Psychological implications ? Conclusion: Uncertainty likely to persist.

_Humanizing Education_ offers historic examples of humanizing educational spaces, practices, and movements that embody a spirit of hope and change. From Dayton, Ohio, to Barcelona, Spain, this collection of essays from the _Harvard Educational Review_ carries readers to places where people have first imagined—and then organized—their own educational responses to dehumanizing practices and conditions. Contributors include Montse Sánchez Aroca, William Ayers, Kathy Boudin, Fernando Cardenal, Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade, Marco Garrido, Jay Gillen, Maxine Greene, Kathe Jervis, Nancy Uhlar Murray, Valerie (...) Miller, Wendy Ormiston, Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas, Vanessa Siddle Walker, Arthur E. Thomas, and Travis Wright. (shrink)

In this volume, Simona Goi and Frederick M. Dolan gather stimulating arguments for the indispensability of fiction_including poetry, drama, and film_as irreplaceable sites for wrestling with nature, meaning, shortcomings, and the future of modern politics.

Processing and recognizing facial expressions are key factors in human social interaction. Past research suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder present difficulties to decode facial expressions. Those difficulties are notably attributed to altered strategies in the visual scanning of expressive faces. Numerous studies have demonstrated the multiple benefits of exposure to pet dogs and service dogs on the interaction skills and psychosocial development of children with ASD. However, no study has investigated if those benefits also extend to the processing (...) of facial expressions. The aim of this study was to investigate if having a service dog had an influence on facial expression processing skills of children with ASD. Two groups of 15 children with ASD, with and without a service dog, were compared using a facial expression recognition computer task while their ocular movements were measured using an eye-tracker. While the two groups did not differ in their accuracy and reaction time, results highlighted that children with ASD owning a service dog directed less attention toward areas that were not relevant to facial expression processing. They also displayed a more differentiated scanning of relevant facial features according to the displayed emotion. Results from the present study suggest that having a service dog and interacting with it on a daily basis may promote the development of specific visual exploration strategies for the processing of human faces. (shrink)

The text focuses on reflecting on the role of modern university in a man intellectual development, starting from Nietzsche’s ideas. By drawing up some of the main methodological and philosophical concepts of the German philosopher, the text highlights a series of aspects on the Humboldian nature of current universities – a state of tension under the political, economic and social factors. Thus, the classic concepts of Bildung and Kultur specific to the XIX-century University are analyzed in relation with the crisis (...) that marked the Prussian state of Bismarck period. Higher education being available to the masses is a current problem Nietzsche didn’t avoid to call „savageness” and „decline” of the higher educational system. The purpose of the text is to point out if Nietzsche’s ideas can be still applied nowadays. (shrink)

A new model of bioturbation has been developed to describe short term sediment reworking induced by macrobenthic communities. The design of the model had to consider the mixing processes, firstly, at the organism level, and secondly, at community level. This paper describes the mixing mode of the four types of bioturbators defined by the authors: the biodiffusors, the upward-conveyors, the downward-conveyors and the regenerators. The mathematical formulation of these sub-models consists of ordinary differential equations. They take into account the size (...) of the bioturbated zone, the output fluxes to the water column, tracer decay, physical mixing due to local currents and the type and intensity of the bioturbation processes. These sub-models make it possible to describe correctly the mixing events that have occurred in cores with each type of bioturbator. They also provide the basis for general bioturbation model, that will take into account the respective degrees of involvement of (i) the different bioturbation processes and their characteristics, (ii) the interference between the different processes, and (iii) make possible to predict the particle reworking in order to include it in studies of organic matter in early diagenesis. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Examining the Role of Re-Presentation in Mathematical Problem Solving: An Application of Ernst von Glasersfeld’s Conceptual Analysis” by Victor V. Cifarelli & Volkan Sevim. Upshot: The value of Cifarelli & Sevim’s target article lies in the analysis of how reflective abstraction contributes to the description of mathematical learning through problem solving. The additional value of the article lies in its emphasis of some aspects of the learning process that goes beyond radical constructivist learning theory. (...) I will look for common ground between the humanist philosophy of mathematics and radical constructivism. By doing so, I want to stress two converging elements: (i) the move away from traditionalist ontological positions and (ii) the central role of the students’ activity in the learning process. (shrink)

Cooking and earthenware pots in Byzantium. This study presents in a synoptic manner the utensiles for culinary use, the pots for preserves, the jars for storage, and other small kitchen equipment utilized at the hearth and in the storeroom in an urban and rural framework during the Macedonian, Comnenian, and Paleologian periods. The joint examination of ceramics discovered at sites in Greece, in Thrace, and in Anatolia, and various written sources in which pots and jars are mentioned, allows, on the (...) one hand, establishing an inventory of the diverse types of utensiles employed in the Byzantine empire, and, one the other, replacing the objects in their functional context. (shrink)

El artículo trata de las huellas que el agustinismo del siglo XVI dejó en la exégesis bíblica de la facultad de teología de Lovaina. Como un ejemplo de esto, se abordan las obras de Cornelio Jansenio de Gante, subrayando su doble propósito académico y pastoral-litúrgico. Se estudian también las obras de Thomas Stapleton, Promptuaria y Antidota, señalando su intención de contrarrestar las interpretaciones bíblicas de Calvino, Beza y otros reformadores.