Offers a philosophical perspective on the nature and value of writing a memoir. Artful Truths offers a concise guide to the fundamental philosophical questions that arise when writing a literary work about your own life. Bringing a philosopher’s perspective to a general audience, Helena de Bres addresses what a memoir is, how the genre relates to fiction, memoirists’ responsibilities to their readers and subjects, and the question of why to write a memoir at all. Along the way, she delves into (...) a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of the self, the limits of knowledge, the idea of truth, the obligations of friendship, the relationship between morality and art, and the question of what makes a life meaningful. Written in a clear and conversational style, it offers a resource for those who write, teach, and study memoirs, as well as those who love to read them. With a combination of literary and philosophical knowledge, de Bres takes the many challenges directed at memoirists seriously, while ultimately standing in defense of a genre that, for all its perplexities—and maybe partly because of them—continually proves to be both beloved and valuable. (shrink)

Philosophy professor, humorist, and identical twin Helena de Bres takes the curious, wondrous, ludicrous experience of being a twin as a lens through which to reconsider our place in the world and how we relate to others. Which one are you? Are you the same? Can you read each other's minds? Identical twins get the weirdest existential questions from strangers, also from loved ones, in fact, even from themselves. For twins fascinate all of us... including twins. For Helena de Bres, (...) this fascination was never far from philosophy's most unnerving unknowns. What makes someone themselves rather than someone else? What does perfect love look like? Can we really act freely? Drawing from her relationship with her own twin Julia, and accompanied by Julia's line drawings, Helena uses twinhood to rethink the limits of personhood, consciousness, love, freedom, even justice. With her inimitably candid, goofy, brilliant voice, she explores the long tradition of twin representations in art, myth, and popular culture; their "freakish" history; their peculiar social standing; and what it's really like to be one of two. With hope and humor, she argues that our reactions to twins reveal our broader desires and fears about selfhood, fate, and human connection, and that reflecting on twinhood can help each of us-twin and singleton alike-to recognize our own multiplicity, and approach life with greater curiosity, imagination, and courage. (shrink)

Dans ce monde qui semble soumis à une accélération constante, où l'on ne cesse de louer la marche ou la course, nous souhaitons et craignons à la fois que tout ralentisse ou même que tout s'arrête. L'ambivalence de ce désir reste à étudier, comme ce que signifie aujourd'hui le fait de ne pas bouger. La privation de mouvement est une peine ; le droit pénal, les disciplines scolaires ou militaires immobilisent ; les accidents et les maladies paralysent ; l'accélération technique (...) se paye en inertie dans les embouteillages ou les bureaux. Les éloges de la mobilité comme la critique de l'accélération sont passés à côté de ces situations où l'immobilité s'impose, non sans violence. Il faut redonner son sens à l'immobilisation. Car cette peine est aussi une étape, une station, impliquant le corps et la pensée. Tenir, debout, assis, dans la position du lotus ou même couché, c'est exercer sur soi une contrainte signifiante. Les "mouvements" d'occupation des places nous le rappellent, l'art également. Savoir faire halte, c'est savoir résister. Jérôme Lèbre est professeur de philosophie en classes préparatoires. Membre du Collège international de philosophie, il est notamment l'auteur de : Vitesses (2011) ; Derrida - La justice sans condition (2013) ; Les Caractères impossibles (2014) ; et, avec Jean-Luc Nancy, de Signaux sensibles (2017). (shrink)

La philosophie contemporaine et la phénoménologie du corps, en visant à rendre le corps plus multiple, plus habité par l'altérité y compris technique (J. Derrida, J.-L. Nancy), ont fait évoluer profondément le problème du lien entre "l'âme" et le corps ; et cela au-delà des contours de la problématique marquée par les recherches cognitives du XXe siècle, qui ont pourtant donné une accélération remarquable à l'étude des rapports entre le cerveau et la machine corporelle. Ces perspectives ont introduit dans le (...) cadre de l'ancien débat, d'origine cartésienne, des variantes liées surtout à l'art, l'écriture et la pensée environnementale. L'Orient et l'Occident se retrouvent ainsi confrontés à un corps aux multiples "décors", qui le spécifient, l'entourent, l'enrichissent, etc. Le Mind Body Problem d'ordre simplement épistémologique, suivant la tradition jusqu'à la seconde moitié du siècle dernier, s'est changé en problème culturel, cognitif, écologique qui récupère de façon critique la notion générale de "vie", de "contexte phénoménologique de vie", d'existence également. Ce volume, issu d'un Colloque organisé par le Collège International de Philosophie, a voulu reconsidérer les tenants et aboutissants de ce changement, pour le développement d'une perspective de philosophie du corps impliquant une multitude d'intersections trans-et multidisciplinaires et trans- et multiculturelles : entre esthétique, arts du spectacle, phénoménologie, écologie, histoire de l'art et de la pensée de l'art, pensée orientale, nouvelles sciences cognitives, Cultural Studies. (shrink)

In der Philosophie der Wissenschaft wird die Konzeption der Supervenienz fur einen Vorschlag, der die bisherigen Lucken in den konzeptualen Schemen uberwindet, betrachtet. Die Unmoglichkeit der Reduzierung der Daseinsebenen erzwingt die Notwendigkeit der Annahme der Begrenzung bei der Benutzung des methodologischen Naturalismus. Der methodologische Naturalismus bildete das Postulat der Autonomie der Naturwissenschaften im Gegensatz zu Metaphysik. Zur Zeit kommt die Frage der Trennung der Naturwissenschaften von der Asthetik und der Ethik. Die Versuche, die beiden in die Erklarungssysteme einzufugen, ohne das (...) Prinzip des methodologischen Naturalismus zu verletzen, verursachen dass, der Naturalismus in sich keine Ausschliessung der philosophischen Fragen nach der Wirklichkeit als Ganzheit enthalt. Er impliziert auch keine konkrete Antworten auf die Fragen dieser Art. (edited). (shrink)

Ce premier volume des Ontologies de la création en musique tente d'isoler quelques modes d'existence de l'acte en musique, sans prétention à l'exhaustivité. Envisagée tour à tour comme un acte politique, un acte compositionnel, un acte ou une action improvisée, une action physique sur l'instrument, la musique nous révèle l'une de ses précieuses facettes : elle est, en empruntant les mots à Bergson, un art qui permet d'agir en Homme de pensée et de penser en Homme d'action.

"Trente ans, c'est ce que nous avons gagné en espérance de vie depuis 1900 : la totalité d'une existence au XVIIe siècle. Formidable avancée qui bouleverse tout : notre vie professionnelle, amoureuse, familiale, notre rapport au monde, à la maladie, le sens même de notre destin. À partir de la cinquantaine, l'animal humain connaît une suspension entre maturité et vieillesse. Il comprend ce qu'il est précieux de sauvegarder, déraisonnable de convoiter et permis d'espérer. Que faire de ce cadeau ambigu? Comment (...) remplir cette moisson de jours supplémentaires? S'agit-il de vivre plus longtemps, ou plus intensément? Le défi de la longévité n'est-il pas d'arbitrer entre la fatigue et la ferveur, la grâce du renouveau et la disgrâce du renoncement? Voici un nouvel art de vivre l'été indien de la vie."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Contre Platon et Aristote, c’est dans les corps que les stoïciens et les épicuriens veulent voir les seules réalités, ce qui agit et ce qui pâtit. Par une espèce de rythme, leur physique reproduit celle des physiciens antérieurs à Socrate. Ainsi les stoïciens rejettent, dans les incorporels, les non-être comme le lieu ou le temps.

Many theorists have argued that the meaningfulness of a life is related in some way to the narrative or story that can be told about that life. Relationists claim that a life gains in meaning when a particular set of “narrative relations” obtain between the events that constitute it. Recountists claim that it is the telling of a story about those relations, not the relations themselves, that confers meaning. After identifying problems with existing versions of both of these positions, this (...) paper introduces a new and more satisfying variant of Recountism, centered on the old-fashioned idea that a meaningful life is, in part, an intelligible one. I argue that personal narration does play a role in a meaningful life and that my “Fitting Story” account provides the best explanation of how and why that is so. (shrink)

Tout chercheur, toute personne s’interrogeant sur un thème philosophique ou sur une période est un jour ou l’autre conduit à déplorer l’indisponibilité d’ouvrages publiés jadis et devenus introuvables, sauf dans quelques rares bibliothèques. Aussi faut-il louer les éditeurs qui les réimpriment, fût-ce sous la forme initiale, sans commentaires ni notes. C’est ce que firent, il...

RESUMO: Este texto aborda alguns trabalhos contemporâneos em artes visuais que apresentam diferentes relações e disposições de um material dito natural: pedras. Ao retomar as distinções explicitadas por Heidegger, entre meras coisas, utensílio e obra de arte, bem como entre a pedra, o animal e o homem em relação ao mundo, serão discutidos deslocamentos acerca dessas distinções, com base em apontamentos da desconstrução. Pretende-se indicar alguns dos sentidos em que os enfoques desconstrutivos são frutíferos, para se pensar movimentos (...) contemporâneos no âmbito do que Derrida denomina artes do espaço. ABSTRACT: This text approaches some contemporary works in the visual arts which present different relations and dispositions of a material taken to be natural: stone. I intend to revisit the distinctions presented by Heidegger between mere things, utensils and works of art, as well as between stone, animal and man in connection with the world. Furthermore, I will discuss dislocations regarding such issues, based on indications from deconstruction. I aim to indicate some of the meanings under which deconstructive approaches are fruitful for thinking about contemporary movements within the scope of what Derrida calls "spatial arts". (shrink)

If global distributive justice or injustice is to exist, there must be something that is just or unjust: something to which the moral assessments at issue attach. I argue in this paper against one popular candidate for that role: the “global basic structure.” I argue that principles of distributive justice that target the global basic structure fail to satisfy a crucial “action guidance” desideratum and that this problem points to an alternative target that philosophers of global justice have yet to (...) widely acknowledge. We ought to exclusively direct our principles at subspheres of global politics: disaggregating global justice for a disaggregated world. (shrink)

Critical evaluations of the current movement of corporate social responsibility commodification have neglected an important question: How do CSR professionals manage the tensions resulting from the search for both profit and social responsibility? This article addresses this question by analyzing the discourse of CSR consultants with the aim of understanding how they deal with such tensions through identity work. Our findings suggest that people who claim, or who are ascribed, paradoxical professional identities may engage in ‘paradoxical identity mitigation’ – a (...) process whereby the concomitant and paradoxical use of linguistic strategies is aimed at simultaneously embracing and distancing oneself from contradictory identity demands. In uncovering how CSR professionals discursively manage the tensions engendered by CSR commodification, our results also advance current knowledge of CSR by shedding light on the underlying processes whereby new ‘hybrid’ identities are constituted and mobilized by actors to make sense of their professional activities. (shrink)

This article identifies the main issues of justice that arise in international trade and critically evaluates contemporary philosophical debates over how to understand them. I focus on three central questions of distributive justice, as applied to trade. What is it about trade that makes it a subject of justice? Which aspects of the international trading system should our principles of justice regulate? What do duties of justice or fairness in trade demand? I show how debates over these questions turn not (...) only on empirical disagreements specific to trade but also on deeper and more general disputes in moral and political philosophy. I argue that trade is a domain in which diverse moral concerns complexly intersect and that a satisfying account of it must do justice to this complexity by itself exhibiting substantial pluralism. (shrink)

This article identifies the main issues of justice that arise in international trade and critically evaluates contemporary philosophical debates over how to understand them. I focus on three central questions of distributive justice, as applied to trade. What is it about trade that makes it a subject of justice? Which aspects of the international trading system should our principles of justice regulate? What do duties of justice or fairness in trade demand? I show how debates over these questions turn not (...) only on empirical disagreements specific to trade but also on deeper and more general disputes in moral and political philosophy. I argue that trade is a domain in which diverse moral concerns complexly intersect and that a satisfying account of it must do justice to this complexity by itself exhibiting substantial pluralism. (shrink)

Les publications récentes permettent de mettre en relief des questions de détail ou d’ensemble qui n’avaient pas jusqu’ici attiré l’attention.Une note à un texte classique paru dans le tome VI de la traduction française des œuvres de Freud conduit à s’interroger sur l’origine, ainsi que sur la signification psychologique, philosophique et théologique de l’expression inter urinas et faeces nascimur.La publication, attendue depuis plus de vingt ans, de la traduction en français des lettres complètes de Freud à Fliess fait apparaître que, (...) contrairement à ce que prétendaient les éditeurs de 1950, Freud a collaboré scientifiquement avec Fliess. On y voit également la lente genèse de la « théorie sexuelle » jusqu’en 1905.La publication de la correspondance de Freud et d’Eitingon montre en ce dernier un ami fidèle qui fournit à Freud des matériaux littéraires et cliniques et lui assura un lien avec les organisations juives.Dans une tout autre perspective, le livre récent de Lionel Naccache, Le nouvel inconscient, met très clairement en lumière les processus cérébraux correspondant à ce qui, chez Freud, est l’inconscient en tant que « représentation non représentée ». En revanche, il critique d’une manière intéressante mais discutable d’autres aspects de l’inconscient freudien : son intemporalité, son origine infantile, son rapport au refoulement.Recent publications enable to stress detail or overall topics that had not up to now attracted attention.A footnote in a classical text to be found in the 6th volume of the French translation of Freud’s works leads to question the origin, together with the psychological, philosophical and theological meanings, of the expression inter urinas et faeces nascimur.The publication, longed for for more than twenty years, of a French translation of the Complete Letters of Freud to Fliess stresses that, contrary to what the editors of the 1950 translation had pretended, Freud did indeed work hand in hand scientifically with Fliess. One also witnesses here the slow genesis of the « sexual theory » until 1905.The publication of Freud’s and Eitingon’s letters shows how the latter was a faithful friend of Freud ; giving both literary and clinical references, and also granting him a link with the Jewish organizations.In quite a different perspective, Lionel Naccache’s recent book, entitled Le nouvel inconscient, highlights very vividly the cerebral processes corresponding to the unconscious as « non represented representation ». Conversely, he criticizes quite interestingly but in a questionable way other aspects of the Freudian unconscious : i.e. its timelessness, its infantile origin, its relationship with repression. (shrink)

Tout chercheur, toute personne s’interrogeant sur un thème philosophique ou sur une période est un jour ou l’autre conduit à déplorer l’indisponibilité d’ouvrages publiés jadis et devenus introuvables, sauf dans quelques rares bibliothèques. Aussi faut-il louer les éditeurs qui les réimpriment, fût-ce sous la forme initiale, sans commentaires ni notes. C’est ce que firent, il..

La première partie de cet article envisageait, pour le siècle nouveau, un judéo- christianisme compatible avec l'athéisme contemporain, car il consisterait en une sorte de pratique « théâtrale » qui, de la tradition, ne retiendrait pas la foi métaphysique et historique mais le couple péché/Rédemption vécu comme une sorte d'illusion positive. On essaie maintenant de déterminer le rôle qu'ont pu jouer, dans ce devenir : Kant, Bergson, Freud, le pape Jean-Paul II et certains philosophes français d'aujourd'hui. The first part of (...) this paper was studying, for this coming century, a new judeo- christianism compatible with contemporary atheism since it would consist in some kind of a theatrical practice. This new form of judeo- christianism would keep from tradition no longer the metaphysical and historical faith but the couple sin/redemption, lived as some kind of a positive illusion. One now attempts at determining what may be the part played in such a process by Kant, Bergson, Freud, Pope John Paul II and a few French philosophers of today. (shrink)

C’est sous ce titre vraiment bien trouvé que vient enfin de paraître la nouvelle traduction de la Traumdeutung1, comme tome IV des Œuvres complètes, Psychanalyse , de Freud. Or chaque fois que, depuis 1988, sort un des tomes de cette édition , journaux et magazines se mettent à en contester le vocabulaire. Certes, germanistes,..

The small portion of philosophical work on global distributive justice that directly discusses particular agents, institutions or practices in global politics tends to focus on a narrow range of the existing set. The emphasis is chiefly on bilateral diplomacy or intergovernmental organisations, to the neglect of a variety of more recent forms of transnational governance, many of which incorporate non-state actors, have more limited membership, involve informal and dynamic structures, employ cooperative and reflexive methods for ensuring compliance, and operate largely (...) out of the public eye. This article considers how philosophers should conceive of distributive justice in relation to these neglected sites of transnational governance, using the International Organization for Standardization as an illustration. (shrink)

L’avenir du judéo-christianisme (suite et fin), p. 55. La première partie de cet article ( Revue philosophique, 2001-4, p. 435-480) envisageait, pour le siècle nouveau, un judéo-christianisme compatible avec l’athéisme contemporain, car il consisterait en une sorte de pratique « théâtrale » qui, de la tradition, ne retiendrait pas la foi métaphysique et historique mais le couple péché/Rédemption vécu comme une sorte d’illusion positive. On essaie maintenant de déterminer le rôle qu’ont pu jouer, dans ce devenir : Kant, Bergson, Freud, (...) le pape Jean-Paul II et certains philosophes français d’aujourd’hui (Michel Henry, Alain Juranville, Jean-Luc Marion). (shrink)

Bien qu’il paraisse difficile pour une société de se passer de religion, les Occidentaux du début du XXIe siècle, et en particulier les Français, semblent être majoritairement sans religion. En effet, si l’on exclut quelques manifestations collectives qui en seraient plutôt la caricature,...

_ Source: _Page Count 26 Under which conditions does the relation between the levels of benefit and burden held by distinct individuals become a concern of justice? Associativists argue that principles of comparative distributive justice apply only among those persons who share some form of association; humanists argue that some such principles apply among all human persons qua human persons. According to the “weak associativist” account that I defend, humanism is wrong, but so are current versions of associativism. Association is (...) necessary if talk of comparative distributive justice is to be apt, but no special form of it is required. Whether or not principles of comparative distributive justice do in fact apply to an association will depend on whether or not the conditions for legitimate enforcement of the resulting duties are satisfied, and we can expect these conditions to be satisfied by a wide range of associative forms. (shrink)

_ Source: _Page Count 26 Under which conditions does the relation between the levels of benefit and burden held by distinct individuals become a concern of justice? Associativists argue that principles of comparative distributive justice apply only among those persons who share some form of association; humanists argue that some such principles apply among all human persons qua human persons. According to the “weak associativist” account that I defend, humanism is wrong, but so are current versions of associativism. Association is (...) necessary if talk of comparative distributive justice is to be apt, but no special form of it is required. Whether or not principles of comparative distributive justice do in fact apply to an association will depend on whether or not the conditions for legitimate enforcement of the resulting duties are satisfied, and we can expect these conditions to be satisfied by a wide range of associative forms. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 13, Issue 2, pp 161 - 186 Under which conditions does the relation between the levels of benefit and burden held by distinct individuals become a concern of justice? _Associativists_ argue that principles of comparative distributive justice apply only among those persons who share some form of association; _humanists_ argue that some such principles apply among all human persons _qua_ human persons. According to the “weak associativist” account that I defend, humanism is wrong, but so are current (...) versions of associativism. Association is necessary if talk of comparative distributive justice is to be apt, but no special form of it is required. Whether or not principles of comparative distributive justice do in fact apply to an association will depend on whether or not the conditions for legitimate enforcement of the resulting duties are satisfied, and we can expect these conditions to be satisfied by a wide range of associative forms. (shrink)

any of us think that we have duties of distributive justice towards our fellow citizens that we do not have towards foreigners. Is that thought justified? This paper considers the nature of the state's relationship to distributive justice from the perspective of utilitarianism, a theory that is barely represented in contemporary philosophical debates on this question. My strategy is to mount a utilitarian case for state-specific duties of distributive justice that is similar in its basic structure to the one that (...) is standardly mounted for special duties towards the near and dear. I begin with a discussion of whether or not the co-citizen relationship can be justified in terms of its welfare consequences. I then consider what the answer to that first question implies concerning the duties of distributive justice that arise within that relationship. (shrink)

The small portion of philosophical work on global distributive justice that directly discusses particular agents, institutions or practices in global politics tends to focus on a narrow range of the existing set. The emphasis is chiefly on bilateral diplomacy or intergovernmental organisations, to the neglect of a variety of more recent forms of transnational governance, many of which incorporate non‐state actors, have more limited membership, involve informal and dynamic structures, employ cooperative and reflexive methods for ensuring compliance, and operate largely (...) out of the public eye. This article considers how philosophers should conceive of distributive justice in relation to these neglected sites of transnational governance, using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an illustration. (shrink)

L'Allemagne n'a plus de destin. C'est ainsi qu'elle est devenue une voisine comme une autre. Mais peut-être est-elle le pays qui a le plus pensé sa destinée et celui qui s'en est le plus écarté. Peut-être est-ce pour cela qu'elle a encore quelque chose à nous dire, qui n'est pas de l'ordre de la rigueur économique. Les textes présentés ici interrogent le romantisme et l'idéalisme allemands, puis se penchent sur la lecture qu'en font les passeurs et les penseurs français, de (...) Blanchot à Nancy, pour brosser une esquisse de ce qui ne peut plus être ni une importation du vrai, ni une œuvre collective, ni un destin commun ; dans la relation avec l'Allemagne se joue plutôt la prise de distance vis-à-vis de l'œuvre, au nom de la singularité et de l'être en commun, ou, même si notre voisine l'évoque rarement, de ce qui peut encore se nommer communisme."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Mediante as relações de sentido que possam existir entre as temáticas do corpo, representação e morte, sobretudo nas produções que se utilizam do suporte da fotografia, e também pensando no ponto de mudança entre o documento fotográfico para a mestiçagem da arte contemporânea, o presente artigo se propõe refletir sobre a produção de três artistas visuais: Rosângela Rennó, Christian Boltanski e YdessaHendeles. Os referidos artistas se utilizaram de práticas mestiças e do suporte fotográfico em suas produções visuais, de (...) modo que, através de um olhar mais aprofundado sobre suas obras, seja possível identificar parcialmente a forma como estabeleceram um diálogo entre a representação do corpo morto e a arte contemporânea.Palavras-chave: Fotografia. Memória. Arte Contemporânea. Produção de sentido. (shrink)

Despite their central role in the construction and development of the market for virtues as well as in the design, implementation, and evaluation of corporate sustainability strategies and governmental sustainability policies, sustainability consultants remain at best “hidden” corporate change agents. In this paper, we bring sustainability consultants back to the fore to account for how these actors discreetly regulate and shape contemporary sustainability transformations from the outside-in. We do so first by unpacking various roles of consultants as engineers, market builders, (...) power vehicles, boundary workers, issue translators, and soft regulators; then we conceptualize how, through these roles, they contribute to empowering, legitimizing but also potentially supplanting and undermining the activities of corporate change agents operating inside corporations. We finally propose some research orientations for studying further the role of sustainability consultants in corporate transformations toward sustainability. (shrink)

The article presents the conception of biological conditionings of language in Konrad Z. Lorenz\'s approach. In Lorenz\'s works the category of fulguration is the main philosophical category. It means the creation of \'something new\' as result of the process of a sequence of phenomena that are causally related. Viewing the human race from the historical perspective Lorenz differentiates two important fulgurations, called superfulgurations. One of them is the transition from the \"experiencing I\" to the \"conscious I\". Development of man\'s mental (...) sphere made it possible to form \"verbal speech\". More broadly, in Lorenz\'s approach, also culture has its subjectivization in nature. Cognition is an element of an organism\'s behavior, and what is more, every mechanism of learning evolved phylogenetically. However, this does not result in strict determinism - various cultures are developed independently of one another. In the process of development of culture a special role is played by symbolization. Lorenz differentiates two types of symbols: symbols of a group (e.g. emblem) and language symbols. Language symbols were created in the regularity formed in the process of phylogeny, that is in conceptual thinking. In his philosophical explanation of the language structure Lorenz uses the data supplied by particular sciences. Moreover, language behaviors of particular people are conditioned by their personal experiences, and by the definite social and cultural milieu they live in. (shrink)