Combining insights from two of the most influential approaches in linguistics, Construction Grammar and Relevance Theory, this book furthers our understanding of how meaning comes about. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

The paper investigates how field experimentation of genetically modified crops became central to the French controversy on genetically modified organisms in recent years. Initially constructed in the 1980s as a cognitive endeavor to be preserved from lay interference, field trials of genetically modified crops were reconceived as “an intrusion in the social space,” which had to be negotiated with actors from that space. In order to analyze this transformation, the authors suggest that it is necessary to develop an interpretive framework (...) that combines theoretical perspectives from science and technology studies and the sociology of social problems, and emphasizes the importance of the way in which actors compete in a heterogeneous public space, to put forward alternative framings of problems. The authors present a detailed analysis of the interactions and conflicts between actors in diverse social arenas in order to better understand the dynamics of this sociotechnical controversy. (shrink)

The French historian Auguste Bouché-Leclercq made major contributions to our knowledge of the Hellenistic period. A member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, he was also made an officer of the Légion d'Honneur. Bouché-Leclercq is also considered the first modern historian of astrology: he had developed a long-lasting interest in divination during his extensive researches on ancient Greek civilisation. This field had not been considered worthy of serious scholarly study until he published his Histoire de la divination (...) dans l'antiquité between 1879 and 1882. L'Astrologie grecque, first published in 1899, is another important work, still referred to today. Bouché-Leclercq looks back to the oriental roots of Greek astrology. He delves into the specific influence of the zodiac signs, and explains how the celestial sphere was divided in order to draw horoscopes. Other topics include astrology in Roman culture, as well as astrological medicine. (shrink)

According to the deductivist view of mathematics which became the rule during the nineteenth century, formal proofs working with symbolic formulas replaced the intuitive knowledge that used to be gained by the step-by-step construction of geometric fgures and diagrams. Twentieth century epistemological refection on symbolic formulas and formal proofs, however, took them to be diagrams respectively exhibiting formal relations and transformations. The claim was also made that, for such diagrams to be proofs, temporal displays of transformations—and of other speech acts—were (...) required. By returning to the signifcant elements of contemporary theories of mathematical proofs, we will here show how these proofs came to be a matter for semiotics and pragmatics as much as for formal logic. Once this is done, we will provide a few arguments against the standard objections to the ability of diagrams to present temporal order or perform speech acts. (shrink)

According to Timothy Williamson, philosophy is not a mere conceptual investigation and does not involve a specific cognitive ability, different in nature from those involved in acquiring scientific or ordinary knowledge of the world. The author holds that Williamson does not succeed in explaining how it is possible for us to acquire, through thought experiments, the type of knowledge that, according to him, philosophy predominantly aims to acquire—namely, knowledge of metaphysical modality. More specifically, the author considers in detail Russell’s stopped (...) clock and Locke’s prince and the cobbler thought experiments, and argues that Williamson has not shown how the kind of thought experiment of which they are instances, and which is typically encountered in philosophy, can be the instrument of knowledge of metaphysical modality that he takes this kind of thought experiment to be. More positively, the author advances that the modal conclusions of such thought experiments are drawn through conceptual investigation. (shrink)

A la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Emmanuel Kant pouvait encore voir dans les mathématiques le modèle même des jugements synthétiques a priori, c'est-à-dire dotés d'un contenu intuitif propre quoique non dérivé de l'expérience sensible. Des géométries non-euclidiennes à la théorie des transfinis de Cantor, les mathématiques du XIXe siècle vont cependant faire triompher des systèmes mathématiques résolument déductifs et non plus intuitifs. Sur fond d'interrogations quant à la légitimité de ces développements récents, interrogations renforcées par la découverte de paradoxes, d'âpres (...) débats vont alors opposer différentes écoles quant aux méthodes de preuve acceptables ainsi que quant à ce qui constitue le fondement même du savoir mathématique. Logicisme, formalisme et intuitionnisme ; ce sont, à l'époque, pas moins de trois conceptions des mathématiques (et trois programmes pour les mathématiques) qui s'affrontent, conceptions auxquelles il faut ajouter le psychologisme, qui se nourrit de l'essor des sciences humaines et de leurs prétentions épistémologiques. En collant au plus près des textes des principaux protagonistes, l'ouvrage présente de manière tout à la fois synthétique et précise les différentes positions en présence, en soulignant autant que possible leurs divergences, mais en montrant aussi les variations et inflexions qui ont marqué leur développement durant la période 1870-1930. (shrink)

Les recompositions familiales touchent l’ensemble des liens familiaux et des liens intergénérationnels. Or, si l’on observe, tant sur le plan juridique que dans les pratiques des familles conjugales, une acception plus complexe et plus riche de la parentalité, les grands-parents restent souvent méconnus. Comment construisent-ils leurs rapports à leurs « beaux-petits-enfants »? Nous avons examiné la littérature et interrogé des « belles-grands-mères » pour tenter d’y voir plus clair. Quelles représentations le champ social offre-t-il des beaux-grands-parents? Et quelles sont concrètement (...) les conditions et les étapes qui rendent possible une identité « beau-grand-parentale »? (shrink)

Mi meta en este trabajo es proponer un nuevo tipo de argumento en defensa del ideal deliberativo de reciprocidad de justificación —que fue inicialmente introducido por el liberalismo político de John Rawls—. Dicho argumento aspira a demostrar que, aun cuando aceptemos la hipótesis de que un grupo de ciudadanos dispone de una justificación pública apropiada para creer que determinada doctrina comprehensiva es verdadera o correcta, existen razones morales fundamentales para rechazar la pretensión de que el estado pueda estar justificado para (...) actuar sobre la base de esas creencias cuando las esencias constitucionales o cuestiones de justicia básica se encuentran en juego. (shrink)

Charles S. Peirce holds some views about science and inquiry whose exact significance and ratio essendi are notoriously hard to grasp. One of these is particularly intriguing, namely, his frequently inferring from the intuitive ideas that science consists “in diligent inquiry into truth for truth’s sake”, and that the greatest threat to science is to “block the way of inquiry”, the conclusions that “belief […] has no place in science” and that the “scientific man”, when inquiring, has only “provisional” opinions. (...) In this article, I examine the ground and validity of the infamous and, arguably, strongly counterintuitive thesis that “belief has... (shrink)

Benoit Mathot À partir du cadre théorique de la décoïncidence proposé par le philosophe François Jullien, cet article explore les enjeux d’humanisation des soins médicaux, ainsi que l’introduction de la dimension spirituelle dans la prise en charge des patients. Il revient enfin sur le dialogue possible entre ces réflexions contemporaines et les considérations du théologien luthérien Paul Tillich sur la santé.

Uniformism is the view that one and the same epistemology should apply for all modal knowledge. I argue that, whether or not all modal knowledge can be accounted for in terms of knowledge of essences, uniformism about knowledge of essences is untenable. I do this by showing that, while some essences are empirically discoverable, others are not. I then argue that the uniquely realisable–non-uniquely realisable distinction is a better metaphysical candidate for grounding this epistemic difference than the concrete–abstract distinction. I (...) conclude by suggesting that the task of philosophy is to identify non-empirically discoverable essences. (shrink)

In this book, Benoît Dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. Combining the methods of archaeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. This volume explains why dominance hierarchies typical of primate societies disappeared in the human lineage and why the emergence of large-scale societies during the Neolithic period implied increased social differentiation, the creation of status hierarchies, and, eventually, (...) political centralisation. (shrink)

There exist two main notions of typicality in computability theory, namely, Cohen genericity and randomness. In this article, we introduce a new notion of genericity, called partition genericity, which is at the intersection of these two notions of typicality, and show that many basis theorems apply to partition genericity. More precisely, we prove that every co-hyperimmune set and every Kurtz random is partition generic, and that every partition generic set admits weak infinite subsets, for various notions of weakness. In particular, (...) we answer a question of Kjos-Hanssen and Liu by showing that every Kurtz random admits an infinite subset which does not compute any set of positive effective Hausdorff dimension. Partition genericity is a partition regular notion, so these results imply many existing pigeonhole basis theorems. (shrink)

My aim in this article is to elucidate the nature of a form of intellectual and practical neutrality that is not covered by existing accounts of suspension of judgment. After rejecting some inadequate characterizations of this attitude of neutrality, I provide a positive characterization of it: it is a successful effort to resist certain tendencies that are part of the dispositional profile of the doxastic state one is in on a given issue. I conclude by saying a few words about (...) the reasons for which this effort can be made, and by answering in the negative the question of whether all the attitudes that can be characterized as attitudes of committed neutrality are of the same type. (shrink)

Jean Leclercq livre une étude où il pointe d’abord quelques constats qui en appellent à la nécessité de penser philosophiquement l’argent. Il met ainsi en avant ce qu’il considère les « affres de la réduction mercantile », notamment celles qui nuisent à la valeur de nos liens sociaux, tout en montrant les problèmes philosophiques soulevés par une telle situation. Il aborde ensuite la spécificité et la pertinence du traitement que M. Henry réserve à cette question pour en tirer une (...) conclusion effective, à savoir « penser politiquement l’argent ». Son étude se termine en soulevant des champs d’action, tels que la régulation des usages, la nécessité de penser l’argent dans son rapport à la citoyenneté, les dénonciations des logiques marchandes, la réflexion radicale et renouvelée sur les politiques fiscales, et la réflexion sur la nécessité de libérer des domaines de la vie sociétale de liens d’effectivité avec l’argent, en sorte de « sanctuariser l’inévaluable ». (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to investigate the ethical implications of emerging forms of control that have developed along with the use of ubiquitous information technology. Because it can be exerted at a distance, almost anytime and anywhere, IT-based control has become more subtle, indirect, and almost invisible, with many negative side effects. Yet the issues raised by this new form of control have rarely been interpreted, treated, and framed as ethical issues in business ethics literature. Thus, a more (...) comprehensive inquiry rooted in ethical concerns is necessary to improve understanding of this more subtle form of control, its ethical consequences, and the way ethical considerations can be taken into consideration and acted on by management. This article addresses this goal with a qualitative, exploratory case study of a telecommunications company, in which salespeople have been equipped with ubiquitous technology. The findings specify the characteristics and consequences of ubiquitous IT-based control, thereby inviting a rethinking of the ethical issues related to the privacy, autonomy, human dignity, and health of salespeople. In particular, this article highlights four ethical issues raised by the use of ubiquitous IT at work: the ambivalence of this use of ubiquitous IT at work, the subtlety of the control exerted by ubiquitous IT, the invasiveness of ubiquitous IT, and the self-reinforcement of ubiquitous IT-based control. Such issues are not often taken into account, suggesting that ethical considerations fail to enter into managerial decision making. This study directly raises questions about the intentions, responsibilities, and divisions across different categories of organizational members who participate in such control systems. It also provides useful insights into employees’ perceptions and offers guidance to managers who want to apply a professional code of ethics to the uses of ubiquitous IT. (shrink)

El presente artículo propone algunas objeciones contra la concepción deliberativa de la democracia desarrollada por Carlos Nino. El blanco central de las objeciones es la tesis del filósofo argentino según la cual el valor del debate democrático derivaría, fundamentalmente, de sus virtudes epistémicas, es decir, de su capacidad para elevar las probabilidades de que el sistema político tome las decisiones correctas. Se cuestiona el modo en que el autor presenta su propuesta como una forma de superar las deficiencias que presentarían (...) las concepciones de John Rawls y Jürgen Habermas en el campo de la epistemología moral. Se intentará demostrar que el modelo de deliberación defendido por Nino no resulta aplicable a un contexto de pluralismo razonable filosófico, religioso y moral como el que resulta característico de las democracias liberales contemporáneas. Por último, se ofrece el esbozo de una concepción alternativa, práctica y moral, no epistémica, del valor de los procedimientos democráticos y de la naturaleza de la legitimidad política. This paper posits some objections against the deliberative conception of democracy developed by Carlos Nino. According to Nino, the value of democratic deliberation lies, basically, in its epistemic virtues. Public deliberation increases the probability that the political system will arrive at the correct decisions. We shall argue that the Argentinean philosopher fails to prove that his proposal is a solution to purported weaknesses in John Rawls’ and Jürgen Habermas’ positions in the field of moral epistemology. We shall try to demonstrate that the conception of deliberation posited by nino cannot be applied successfully in the context of moral, philosophical or religious reasonable pluralism that characterizes liberal contemporary democracies. Finally, we offer an outline of an alternative conception -practical and moral, non epistemic- of the value of democratic procedures and about the nature of political legitimacy. (shrink)

La meta del presente artículo es probar que existen contextos de acción en los que tiene lugar una escisión entre el conocimiento moral de los sujetos y la justificación, también moral, de sus acciones. Para que ello ocurra, según sostendremos, deben darse al menos dos condiciones: el costo de actuar sobre la base de creencias falsas debe ser muy elevado para el bienestar de los afectados y la probabilidad de que tal resultado se produzca efectivamente, aunque baja, debe ser significativa (...) o no trivial. Sostendremos que la escisión entre conocimiento y justificación de la acción referida tiene importantes consecuencias para la estructura de la deliberación moral. This paper is aimed at proving that in certain contexts of action there may be a cleavage between the moral knowledge of an agent and the moral justification of her actions. I will argue that this is so when two conditions obtain: first, acting on the basis of false beliefs may end-up being very costly in terms of the welfare of those affected; and second, even if low, the probability of such negative upshots are significant or not trivial. I shall claim that this cleavage between knowledge and justification of actions has important consequences for the structure of moral deliberation. (shrink)

Imagine you are an agnostic who wants to maximise your chances of getting the right answer to the question whether God exists. I show that theism and atheism are not on an epistemic par with one another because, under certain possible epistemically neutral conditions, the rational thing for you to do from a purely epistemic point of view would be to bet on the atheist’s judgement that God doesn’t exist rather than on the theist’s judgement that God does exist.

It seems to be a platitude that the belief that p is correct iff it is true that p. And the claim that truth is the correct‐making feature of belief seems to be just another way of expressing this platitude. It is often thought that this indicates that truth constitutes a normative standard or criterion of correctness for belief because it seems to follow from this platitude that having a false belief is believing wrongly, and having a true belief is (...) believing rightly or correctly. In this paper, I aim to show that when we judge the platitude in question to be indisputably true, we do not endorse that truth is normative for belief but merely the triviality that the belief that p is true iff it is true that p. (shrink)

El debate entre liberalismo y perfeccionismo ha sido uno de los ejes centrales de la Filosofía política durante los últimos veinte años. Este libro aspira a analizar críticamente y, en última instancia, a ofrecer una defensa del núcleo conceptual de la posicíon liberal. A lo largo del trabajo, se examina y discute una amplia serie de argumentos propuestos por filósofos contemporáneos "Rawls, Larmore, Barry, Kymlicka, Nagel y Ackerman, entre otros" en defensa de la neutralidad estatal. A su vez, se desarrollan (...) dos líneas de argumentacíon en defensa de las posiciones liberales que pretenden superar las falencias analizadas a lo largo del libro. La meta del primer argumento es demostrar que quien acepte las ideas fundamentales de la cultura política de las democracias contemporáneas deberá aceptar también las ideas básicas del liberalismo. Su punto de partida es una formulacíon del ideal ético-político de igual respeto por las personas y una reinterpretacíon y ampliacíon de lo que Rawls ha denominado las "cargas del juicio". El segundo argumento toma como punto de partida una idea arraigada en la tradicíon de pensamiento liberal: la necesidad de reconocer la falibilidad humana y sus consecuencias políticas y morales. El argumento combina la apelacíon a una premisa falibilista con una distincíon entre razones para afirmar una creencia y razones para estar justificado a actuar a partir de ella en contextos en los que cometer un error acarrearía un daño grave a terceros. Sobre esta base, se señala una serie de ventajas de las políticas que satisfacen los requisitos de justificacíon neutrales frente a las políticas perfeccionistas. (shrink)

This article shows how, starting from Schelling and Henry, one can build a radical critique of objectification and subjectification within humanities. This critique opens the way for the construction of a point of view of immanence, which is characterized by the experimentation of a constitution of affects in a process from which proceeds the subjectivity. This point of view of immanence questions the accepted attitudes in the production of social relationships and the norms that govern them, so as to increase (...) the attention to the vulnerability of these processes and their power to transform the affects. (shrink)

La présente étude rassemble les passages de l’Ab Vrbe condita de Tite-Live où un terme lié au rire est associé à un discours ou à une parole rapportée, afin de les confronter aux vues exprimées par Cicéron et Quintilien sur le rire en contexte rhétorique. Si tous les passages étudiés s’insèrent très bien dans la conception rhétorique du rire, l’historien latin s’appuie sur celle-ci pour offrir une répartition originale entre usages acceptables et formes abusives du rire qui participe à la (...) construction des portraits personnages et de l’œuvre. (shrink)

En mai 2007, une «table ronde» s’est tenue, au Collège International de Philosophie à Paris, autour de l’ouvrage de Pierre Magnard Pourquoi la religion?. Dans un texte récapitulatif, l’auteur du livre, spécialiste de la pensée de la Renaissance, montre les enjeux spéculatifs et pratiques de son approche de la religion, tout en exposant comment celle-ci se déploie dans la «marche» des hommes, en souci de leur humanisation. Si la religion – terme qu’il faut entendre ici au singulier – fait oeuvre (...) de reliaison, apportant sa contribution au fondement du lien social, n’est-ce pas en raison de sa vertu déliante: «seule la religion rassemble dûment, car elle seule est capable de délier»? Jean Leclercq donne une présentation des lignes de faîte de l’ouvrage, ce qui permet d’en prendre une première connaissance et de suivre les trois lectures, accompagnées de questionnements, que proposent ensuite, selon des perspectives différentes et complémentaires, Bernard Bourgeois, Thierry Gontier et Christian Trottmann. (shrink)

The last sentence of Chapter 10 of the Analects describes a brief encounter between Confucius and a hen-pheasant, and it does so in puzzling terms, ridden with lexical difficulties. At the same time, intertextual references insert this fragment into the context of Confucius’ life mission as well as of Chinese mythological narratives. This contribution assesses the fragment’s meaning and significance: Confucius’ reaction to the hen-pheasant unveils his evolving understanding of the Heavenly Mandate bestowed upon him. The fragment thus forcefully concludes (...) the chapter in which it is inserted. Additionally, I put forward a hypothesis: the focus of this narrative, coupled with its positioning at the end of Chapter 10, induce us to postulate that it may have been purposefully located at the very center of the Analects, a proposition that reverberates on the way we look at the composition of the book. (shrink)

One of the first frameworks developed for understanding the relation of science and technology to the economy has been the linear model of innovation. The model postulated that innovation starts with basic research, is followed by applied research and development, and ends with production and diffusion. The precise source of the model remains nebulous, having never been documented. Several authors who have used, improved, or criticized the model in the past fifty years rarely acknowledged or cited any original source. The (...) model usually was taken for granted. According to others, however, it comes directly from V. Bush’s Science: The Endless Frontier. This article traces the history of the linear model, suggesting that it developed in three steps corresponding to three scientific communities looking at science analytically. The article argues that statistics is a main reason the model is still alive despite criticisms, alternatives, and having been proclaimed dead. (shrink)

La meta del presente artículo es defender la tesis de que la aceptación de las ideas fundamentales del liberalismo político no conducen necesariamente a una concepción de la justicia global minimalista como la que desarrolló John Rawls en The Law of Peoples. Sostendré, contra lo que el filósofo explícitamente afirma, que las democracias liberales contemporáneas pueden apelar públicamente, en la esfera política global, a los ideales igualitarios y a una concepción robusta de los derechos humanos como justificación de ciertos aspectos (...) de su política exterior. Intentaré demostrar que ello no resulta incompatible con el requisito de asumir una posición de tolerancia y de respeto con las naciones que suscriben mayori-tariamente formas de vida y sistemas de creencias incompatibles con algunos de los valores liberales más significativos. The purpose of the following article is to sustain the view that accepting the basic notions of political liberalism does not necessarily lead to a minimalistic concept of global justice as that developed by John Rawls in The Law of Peoples. In opposition to his explicit opinion, I shall hold that -within the global political field- contemporary liberal democracies can publicly hold egalitarian ideals and a robust conception of human rights in order to justify some of the features of their foreign policy. I shall try to demonstrate that this is not incompatible with the required tolerance and respect toward nations that conspicuously embrace ways of life and belief systems incompatible with some of the most relevant liberal values. (shrink)

En A Letter Concerning Toleration John Locke argumenta en favor de la tolerancia religiosa afirmando que el Estado no puede mejorar la vida de las personas forzándolas a vivir de acuerdo con creencias que ellas no suscriben. Más recientemente, Ronald Dworkin y Will Kymlicka han desarrollado argumentos similares. En el caso del primero, contra ciertas políticas paternalistas; en el del segundo, en apoyo de la tesis liberal de la neutralidad estatal. Mi propósito en el presente artículo es analizar la plausibilidad (...) de dichos argumentos concebidos como una defensa de la tesis de la neutralidad estatal. Intentaré demostrar que ambas versiones del argumento fracasan. En la sección II, cuestionaré la capacidad de los argumentos para respaldar las conclusiones que aspiran establecer, sin objetar la plausibilidad de las premisas involucradas. En la sección III, desarrollaré tres objeciones contra la concepción del bienestar crítico que constituye el corazón de ambas versiones del argumento. In A Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke argues in favor of religious toleration positing that the state cannot make a person's life better by forcing that person to live according to beliefs he refuses. More recently, Ronald Dworkin and Will Kymlicka have developed similar arguments. In the first case, against some paternalistic policies; in the second, in support of the liberal ideal of state neutrality. My aim in the present paper is to analyze the plausibility of these arguments conceived as a defense of liberal neutrality. I will prove that both versions of the argument fail. In section II, I will object the argument's capability to support the conclusions it attempts to establish, without raising doubts about the reliability of its premises. In section III, I will submit three objections against the conception of critical well-being that constitutes the core of both versions of the argument. (shrink)

RESUMEN Los defensores del liberalismo político sostienen que el ejercicio del poder político es legítimo solo cuando es justificado por razones públicas que todos los ciudadanos pueden aceptar con independencia de la doctrina religiosa, filosófica o moral a la que se adhieren. Según John Rawls, satisfacer esa concepción de la legitimidad exige apelar, en la justificación pública de la acción del Estado, a "concepciones políticas de la justicia". Se busca elaborar un nuevo tipo de argumento a favor de la posición (...) de Rawls. ABSTRACT The supporters of political liberalism hold that the exercise of political power is legitimate only when it is justified by public reasons acceptable to all citizens, independently of the religious, philosophical, or moral doctrine they adhere to. In John Rawls' view, satisfying this conception of legitimacy makes it necessary to appeal to "political conceptions of justice" when attempting to publicly justify actions by the State. The article sets forth a new type of argument in favor of Rawls' position. RESUMO Os defensores do liberalismo político sustêm que o exercício do poder político é legítimo só quando é justificado por razões públicas que todos os cidadãos podem aceitar com independência da doutrina religiosa, filosófica ou moral à qual se aderem. Segundo John Rawls, satisfazer essa concepção da legitimidade exige apelar, na justificativa pública da ação do Estado, a "concepções políticas da justiça". Procura-se elaborar um novo tipo de argumento a favor da posição de Rawls. (shrink)

In the early eighties, answering a question of A. Macintyre, J. H. Schmerl ([13]) proved that every countable recursively saturated structure, equipped with a function β encoding the finite functions, is the β-closure of an infinite indiscernible sequence. This result implies that every countably saturated structure, in a countable but not necessarily recursive language, is an Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model, by which we mean that the structure expands, in a countable language, to the Skolem hull of an infinite indiscernible sequence (in the (...) new language). More recently, D. Lascar ([5]) showed that the saturated model of cardinality ℵ 1 of an ω-stable theory is also an Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model. These results naturally raise the following problem: which (countable) complete theories have an uncountably saturated Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model. We study a generalization of this question. Namely, we call ACI-model a structure which can be expanded, in a countable language L', to the algebraic closure (in L') of an infinite indiscernible sequence (in L'). And we try to characterize the λ-saturated structures which are ACI-models. The main results are the following. First it is enough to restrict ourselves to ℵ 1 -saturated structures: if T has an ℵ 1 -saturated ACI-model then, for every infinite λ, T has a λ-saturated ACI-model. We obtain a complete answer in the case of stable theories: if T is stable then the three following properties are equivalent: (a) T is ω-stable, (b) T has a ℵ 1 saturated ACI-model, (c) every saturated model of T is an Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model. The unstable case is more complicated, however we show that if T has an ℵ 1 -saturated ACI-model then T doesn't have the independence property. (shrink)

Benoit Mathot | : La négativité, comme catégorie fondamentale de l’existence humaine, connaît aujourd’hui une crise profonde qui la conduit à son effacement progressif des pratiques et des discours sociaux, culturels, religieux, au profit d’une logique de la coïncidence. Dans cette perspective, cet article a pour projet de proposer un parcours interdisciplinaire à travers la psychanalyse, les études littéraires et la théologie chrétienne, afin de montrer la centralité de ce phénomène. | : The negativity, as fundamental category of the human (...) existence, knows a deep crisis today which leads it to the progressive disappearance of the socials, cultural and religious practices and speeches, for the benefit of a logic of the coincidence. In this perspective, this article plans to propose an interdisciplinary work through the psychoanalysis, the literary studies and the Christian theology, to show the centrality of this phenomenon. (shrink)

Alterations in the gut microbiome have increasingly been implicated in driving obesity and its associated diseases, but underlying mechanisms remain poorly defined. Herein, in addition to reviewing the field, we hypothesize that a highly significant causative factor of such inflammatory disease‐associated microbiome alterations is a more aggressive microbiota that encroaches upon its host, with components having high potential to activate host pro‐inflammatory gene expression in a manner that drives metabolic disease. We further hypothesize that a range of societal changes, including (...) use of antibiotics and increasing consumption of food additives, have provoked such microbiota aggression and, consequently, may be contributing factors to the increased incidence of obesity and its associated diseases. (shrink)

The reception of René Girard’s work in France deserves book-length treatment to fully describe the heated debates, conflicting expectations, and controversy that it inspired before its lasting importance was eventually recognized. We must keep in mind that, although he lived in the US and became a citizen in 1956, he always kept his sights on his native land. He watched the transformations of French thought from the other side of the ocean; he forged his own writing strategies in response to (...) French thought; and it was within the context of French debates that he chose to formulate, through the conjoined hypotheses concerning mimetic desire, the scapegoat, and Judeo-Christian writing, the founding event of his... (shrink)

The infinite pigeonhole principle for 2-partitions asserts the existence, for every set A, of an infinite subset of A or of its complement. In this paper, we study the infinite pigeonhole pr...

The recent literature on social norms has stressed the centrality of emotions in explaining punishment and norm enforcement. This article discusses four negative emotions (righteous anger, indignation, contempt, and disgust) and examines their relationship to punitive behavior. I argue that righteous anger and indignation are both punitive emotions strictly speaking, but induce punishments of different intensity and have distinct elicitors. Contempt and disgust, for their part, cannot be straightforwardly considered punitive emotions, although they often blend with a colder form of (...) indignation to favor low-cost, indirect, and collective forms of punishment such as mockery, exclusion, and ostracism. (shrink)

It is widely agreed that humans have specific abilities for cooperation and culture that evolved since their split with their last common ancestor with chimpanzees. Many uncertainties remain, however, about the exact moment in the human lineage when these abilities evolved. This article argues that cooperation and culture did not evolve in one step in the human lineage and that the capacity to stick to long-term and risky cooperative arrangements evolved before properly modern culture. I present evidence that Homo heidelbergensis (...) became increasingly able to secure contributions form others in two demanding Paleolithic public good games (PPGGs): cooperative feeding and cooperative breeding. I argue that the temptation to defect is high in these PPGGs and that the evolution of human cooperation in Homo heidelberngensis is best explained by the emergence of modern-like abilities for inhibitory control and goal maintenance. These executive functions are localized in the prefrontal cortex and allow humans to stick to social norms in the face of competing motivations. This scenario is consistent with data on brain evolution that indicate that the largest growth of the prefrontal cortex in human evolution occurred in Homo heidelbergensis and was followed by relative stasis in this part of the brain. One implication of this argument is that subsequent behavioral innovations, including the evolution of symbolism, art, and properly cumulative culture in modern Homo sapiens , are unlikely to be related to a reorganization of the prefrontal cortex, despite frequent claims to the contrary in the literature on the evolution of human culture and cognition. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to theParmenides’methodological preamble, in which Parmenides teaches how one is to lead a dialectical inquiry. The method presented there recalls the goddess’s advice, as presented by the historical Parmenides in his Poem, to think “the way of being and the way of non-being.” In Plato’sParmenides, these two ways are seen as manners of examining a hypothesis. I explain that the method is exhaustive insofar as it requires repeatedly asking what the consequences are if a thing does (...) exist, or does not. Lastly, I suggest that the method should be distinguished from other dialectical practices found in Plato’s work. (shrink)

The progressive dominance of historical-critical methods in the reading of ancient Chinese classics has led scholars to privilege micro levels of textual analysis. Consequently, the question as to whether laws of composition could be identified in this corpus has often been ignored, or considered irrelevant. Working on Chinese number symbolism as well as on rules governing “ring composition” in other cultural contexts, this article aims at fashioning anew the question of the possibility of an ancient Chinese “structural rhetoric” and at (...) envisioning the patterns that might have governed it. It specifically applies the approach it propounds to Huainanzi 淮南子, showing how numerology frames its structure and argument, the text being built after the image of the “roundness” of the Way and of the Ruler. It then endeavors to apply these results to the unearthing of “inter-structural” patterns that would help us to locate Huainanzi, Lüshi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋, the versions at hand of Zhuangzi 莊子, Lunyu 論語, or yet Laozi 老子 into a textual universe that shares correlated rhetorical features. (shrink)