This interview ranges across a number of topics relevant to Dominique Lestel's thought: the history and philosophy of ethology; animal culture; realist-Cartesian and bi-constructivist ethology; biosemiotics; philo- sophical anthropology; animal studies; the other-than-human; veganism; and technology. It touches on thinkers including Bruno Latour, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Paul Shepard, and Donna Haraway.
A hereditary character in individuals of the same species is envisaged as belonging to a “target” made up of several mutually independent particles, which can be manifested in diverse forms. The phenotype depends on the distribution of the different forms in the target. Cell fission then corresponds to a certain mode of division of the target, permitting particle transmission between generations. In this way the rules for appearance of various phenotypes are determined. The problem of determining the number of particles (...) constituting a target is examined and a solution is given. This solution takes into account simultaneously three factors: a) mathematical , b) experimental and c) numerical .Chez les individus d'une mÊme espèce, un caractère héréditaire est supposé associé à une “cible” constituée de plusieurs particules, indépendantes entre elles, et susceptibles de se présenter sous diverses formes. Le phénotype dépend de la répartition de ces différentes formes dans la cible. A la division cellulaire correspond un certain mode de division de la cible, permettant la transmission des particules d'une génération à l'autre, et induisant des règles d'apparition des divers phénotypes. Le problème de la détermination du nombre des particules constituant la cible est examiné ici, et une solution est exposée. Cette solution tient compte à la fois des aspects mathématiques , expérimentaux et numériques. (shrink)
Qu’un interet renouvelé se manifeste aujourd’hui pour la versant épistémologique de l’œuvre de Gaston Bachelard peut se comprendre au regard de l’histoire contemporaine de la philosophie des sciences.Cette histoire a été dominée durant la plus grande partie du XXe siècle par une doctrine – celle de l’empirisme logique – promue à Vienne à la fin des années 1920 par une institution originale, le Cercle de Vienne qui publie son manifeste en 1929, et s’organise comme un mouvement à visée universelle et (...) progressiste – celui de la “conception scientifique du monde”.La tradition française de la philosophie des sciences a pris d’entrée de jeu un tout autre chemin. Si elle ne les a pas ignorées, elle a refusé de souscrire aux thèses majeures du positivisme logique lorsqu’il s’est présenté à elle. Elle a toujours lié étroitement philosophie et histoire des sciences.Dans le titre de ce petit livre écrit durant l’année universitaire 1967-1968 sous la direction de Georges Canquilhem, Dominique Lecourt a avancé l’expression d’“épistémologie historique” pour signaler, à propos de Gaston Bachelard, cette particularité. (shrink)
This interview ranges across a number of topics relevant to Dominique Lestel's thought: the history and philosophy of ethology; animal culture; realist-Cartesian and bi-constructivist ethology; biosemiotics; philo- sophical anthropology; animal studies; the other-than-human; veganism; and technology. It touches on thinkers including Bruno Latour, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Paul Shepard, and Donna Haraway.
The `co-productions' of science and society have undergone dramatic changes in recent decades. However, contrasts between `Mode 1' and `Mode 2' are not compelling inhistorical terms. This essay will argue that, in fact, they offer too naturalistic and a-political a picture.
Diagrams have played an important role throughout the entire history of differential equations. Geometrical intuition, visual thinking, experimentation on diagrams, conceptions of algorithms and instruments to construct these diagrams, heuristic proofs based on diagrams, have interacted with the development of analytical abstract theories. We aim to analyze these interactions during the two centuries the classical theory of differential equations was developed. They are intimately connected to the difficulties faced in defining what the solution of a differential equation is and in (...) describing the global behavior of such a solution. (shrink)
ome Remarks on the Crisis of Capitalism What are the causes and consequences of the crisis of capitalism ? What are the plausible scenarios forthe outcome of the crisis ? To what extent is the current crisis comparable to that of 1929, and to whatextent does it differ from the crisis of the 1970s ? To what extent can one speak of a crisis of neoliberalism ? These are some of the questions which the authors of The Crisis of Neoliberalism (...) address here. (shrink)
In medical settings, machines are in close proximity with human beings: with patients who are in vulnerable states of health, who have disabilities of various kinds, with the very young or very old, and with medical professionals. Machines in these contexts are undertaking important medical tasks that require emotional sensitivity, knowledge of medical codes, human dignity, and privacy. -/- As machine technology advances, ethical concerns become more urgent: should medical machines be programmed to follow a code of medical ethics? What (...) theory or theories should constrain medical machine conduct? What design features are required? Should machines share responsibility with humans for the ethical consequences of medical actions? How ought clinical relationships involving machines to be modeled? Is a capacity for empathy and emotion detection necessary? What about consciousness? -/- The essays in this collection by researchers from both humanities and science describe various theoretical and experimental approaches to adding medical ethics to a machine, what design features are necessary in order to achieve this, philosophical and practical questions concerning justice, rights, decision-making and responsibility, and accurately modeling essential physician-machine-patient relationships. -/- This collection is the first book to address these 21st-century concerns. (shrink)
We focus on the task of finding a 3D conductivity structure for the DO-18 and DO-27 kimberlites, historically known as the Tli Kwi Cho kimberlite complex in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Two airborne electromagnetic surveys are analyzed: a frequency-domain DIGHEM and a time-domain VTEM survey. Airborne time-domain data at TKC are particularly challenging because of the negative values that exist even at the earliest time channels. Heretofore, such data have not been inverted in three dimensions. In our analysis, we start (...) by inverting frequency-domain data and positive VTEM data with a laterally constrained 1D inversion. This is important for assessing the noise levels associated with the data and for estimating the general conductivity structure. The analysis is then extended to a 3D inversion with our most recent optimized and parallelized inversion codes. We first address the issue about whether the conductivity anomaly is due to a shallow flat-lying conductor or a vertical conductive pipe; we conclude that it is the latter. Both data sets are then cooperatively inverted to obtain a consistent 3D conductivity model for TKC that can be used for geologic interpretation. The conductivity model is then jointly interpreted with the density and magnetic susceptibility models from a previous paper. The addition of conductivity enriches the interpretation made with the potential fields in characterizing several distinct petrophysical kimberlite units. The final conductivity model also helps better define the lateral extent and upper boundary of the kimberlite pipes. This conductivity model is a crucial component of the follow-up paper in which our colleagues invert the airborne EM data to recover the time-dependent chargeability that further advances our geologic interpretation. (shrink)
. We start from the geometrical-logical extension of Aristotle’s square in [6,15] and [14], and study them from both syntactic and semantic points of view. Recall that Aristotle’s square under its modal form has the following four vertices: A is □α, E is , I is and O is , where α is a logical formula and □ is a modality which can be defined axiomatically within a particular logic known as S5 (classical or intuitionistic, depending on whether is involutive (...) or not) modal logic. [3] has proposed extensions which can be interpreted respectively within paraconsistent and paracomplete logical frameworks. [15] has shown that these extensions are subfigures of a tetraicosahedron whose vertices are actually obtained by closure of by the logical operations , under the assumption of classical S5 modal logic. We pursue these researches on the geometrical-logical extensions of Aristotle’s square: first we list all modal squares of opposition. We show that if the vertices of that geometrical figure are logical formulae and if the sub-alternation edges are interpreted as logical implication relations, then the underlying logic is none other than classical logic. Then we consider a higher-order extension introduced by [14], and we show that the same tetraicosahedron plays a key role when additional modal operators are introduced. Finally we discuss the relation between the logic underlying these extensions and the resulting geometrical-logical figures. (shrink)
Public surveys conducted in many countries report widespread willingness of individuals to donate a kidney while alive to a family member or close friend, yet thousands suffer and many die each year while waiting for a kidney transplant. Advocates of financial incentive programs or “regulated markets” in kidneys present the problem of the kidney shortage as one of insufficient public motivation to donate, arguing that incentives will increase the number of donors. Others believe the solutions lie—at least in part—in facilitating (...) so-called “altruistic donation;” harnessing the willingness of relatives and friends to donate by addressing the many barriers which serve as disincentives to living donation. Strategies designed to minimize financial barriers to donation and the use of paired kidney exchange programs are increasingly enabling donation, and now, an innovative program designed to address what has been termed “chronologically incompatible donation” is being piloted at the University of California, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the United States. In this program, a person whose kidney is not currently required for transplantation in a specific recipient may instead donate to the paired exchange program; in return, a commitment is made to the specified recipient that priority access for a living-donor transplant in a paired exchange program will be offered when or if the need arises in the future. We address here potential ethical concerns related to this form of organ “banking” from living donors, and argue that it offers significant benefits without undermining the well-established ethical principles and values currently underpinning living donation programs. (shrink)
In an age of cloning, virtual reality and artificial intelligence what sort of future is in store for human beings? If it is a "posthuman" future as some predict, will it also be inhuman? On the Human Condition is a thought-provoking and profound reflection on where the idea of the human stands today. Dominique Janicaud argues that while we need to avoid apocalyptic talk of a posthuman condition, as embodied in technology such as cloning, we should neither fall back (...) on a conservative humanism nor become technophobic. Drawing on topical examples such as genetic engineering, the mythology around the Frankenstein myth and the ideas of Pascal and Primo Levi, Dominique Janicaud urges us to acknowledge the fragile and provisional nature of being human. Above all, he argues that even if we do live in a world that is already posthuman, it is not a predicament we can confront alone and heroically, but must share with others. (shrink)
The article defends a conception of ecology that considers what ecosystems mean not only in themselves but also for themselves. Each living being is thus a message for another living being, and not merely a functional piece in a physical process of energy exchange or in an evolutionary process in which individual reproduction is all that counts. The article deems that the hatred of the animal kingdom characteristic of Western history and the resulting atrophy of our imagination of the living (...) world explain our blindness. The author suggests Westerners should be more open to non-Western ways of thinking, which might help overcome their difficulty in thinking through the existential, ethical and cultural stakes involved in the present collapse of biodiversity. (shrink)
What I consider in this paper are various forms of government, various technologies and discursive regimes of government that are in common use today. What interests me are the categories and tools, practical dispositifs and languages that developed over the last decades ‘to constitute, define, organize, and instrumentalize the strategies that individuals, acting freely, may use to deal with one another’ (Foucault). The paper considers first the neo-liberal wish to reassert the individual as alone in responsibility for his/her own life (...) after the unfortunate digression into Welfare Statism and Keynesian economics, source of all ills. It then focuses on some material and social technologies that encourage people to accept full and complete ‘self-sovereignty’. This section leads to a discussion on the new demands (and resistance) society imposed on this liberal normative ideal. It notably considers the growing demands to ‘participate’ in decision processes and to be environmentally friendly. In section Les Mots et Les Choses: A New Discursive Regime , it considers the discursive regime that progressively took shape and which currently permeates international governance bodies of all stripes—from the World Bank to the Conference of Parties for Climate Change. In the final section, it comes back to the initial question and considers what these changes actually mean for the democratic order as constituted over the past 250 years. (shrink)
did roger bacon and peter john olivi ever meet? We suggest a positive answer to this question. After he became a Franciscan in 1257, Roger Bacon spent ten years at the Franciscan Paris convent. In those years he wrote the De multiplicatione specierum —his most thought-out piece—the Opus majus, Opus minus, and Opus tertium, which he completed by early 1268. It is not clear whether Bacon returned to England after 1268, or remained in Paris until 1280.1 Peter John Olivi wrote (...) the Summa questions in several phases.2 According to Sylvain Piron's chronology, Olivi's questions on Physics should be dated before 1270, and his theory of... (shrink)
In democratic political systems, political equality is often defined as an equality of opportunity for influence. But inequalities in resources and status affect the capacity of disadvantaged citiz...
In democratic political systems, political equality is often defined as an equality of opportunity for influence. But inequalities in resources and status affect the capacity of disadvantaged citizens to achieve an effective political equality. One common thread running through recent democratic innovations is the belief that appropriate institutional devices and procedures can alleviate the impact of background inequalities on the presence and voice of the disadvantaged within those designs. My objective is to achieve a clearer understanding of the conception of (...) political equality that informs a specific subset of these designs: deliberative mini-publics. I focus firstly on the methods of participant selection advocated to secure equal presence. According to what principle is participation distributed? If it is according to the ‘equal probability’ principle, rather than ‘equal opportunity’, what difference does this make in terms of political equality? Secondly, achieving equality of voice is usually conceived in terms of equalising opportunities for influence among participants. How is this objective understood and what does this say about the underlying conception of political equality? (shrink)
Let ξ ≥ 1 be a countable ordinal. We study the Borel subsets of the plane that can be made [Formula: see text] by refining the Polish topology on the real line. These sets are called potentially [Formula: see text]. We give a Hurewicz-like test to recognize potentially [Formula: see text] sets.
The position of veganism is ulti- mately inconsistent, speciesist and unrealistic. To be human is to fully embrace the fact that our bodies can be formed from other animals. Unlike vegans, carnivores permit themselves to be intoxicated by other animals and take plea- sure in meat eating. Nevertheless, factory farming should be rejected and meat consumed responsibly.
À quelle certitude puis-je prétendre dans la connaissance des phénomènes naturels? De quelle nature sont les premiers principes de la connaissance, et comment les connaît-on? Comment une proposition scientifique, en se rapportant à un objet de connaissance, atteste-t-elle ainsi de sa vérité objective? Qu’est-ce qui fait l’unité d’une science en général, au-delà de la multiplicité des connaissances qui la constituent? Sur quel fondement se définissent et se séparent les sciences spéculatives réelles ? En vertu de quelle structure la logique et (...) la métaphysique sont-elles articulées?Telles sont quelques unes des questions fondamentales qui innervent la théorie du savoir de Jean Duns Scot et manifestent l’importance et l’acuité de sa spéculation épistémologique. À ne pas se focaliser sur la seule dimension métaphysique de la pensée du Docteur Subtil, et à la réinscrire bien plutôt à l’intérieur de sa théorie de la connaissance, de ses concepts et de ses problèmes, on pourra s’apercevoir alors qu’au-delà de la refondation de la métaphysique par l’univocité de l’étant, un geste plus important encore s’est produit chez Duns Scot : une autonomisation des principes de la connaissance objective sur la métaphysique, autonomisation qui ouvre un espace métaphysiquement neutre : celui de la pure possibilité objective en général. (shrink)
A citizen is a member of a political community who enjoys the rights and assumes the duties of membership. This broad definition is discernible, with minor variations, in the works of contemporary authors as well as in the entry “citoyen” in Diderot's and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie..
The question of animal cultures has once again become a subject of debate in ethology, and is now one of its most active and problematic areas. One surprising feature of this research, however, is the lack of attention paid to the communications that go on in these complex animal societies, with the exception of mechanisms of social learning. This neglect of communications is all the more troubling because many ethologists are unwilling to acknowledge that animals have cultures precisely because they (...) do not possess language, a refusal therefore on semiotic grounds. In the present article, I show that the biosemiotic approach to animal cultures is, on the contrary, essential to their understanding, even if the complexity of animal communications is far from being well enough understood. I consider that some of the consequences of this approach are very important, in particular the question of whether we can talk about subjects in the case of animals. Alternatively, I suggest that the semiotic approach to animal cultures leads to a discussion of some of the most serious limitations of biosemiotics, particularly when it comes to investigating the status of the interlocutors in a social community, or to taking into account interspecific communications and the social dimension of any biosemiotic interaction - which biosemiotics has for the moment failed to do. Finally I call attention to the importance of animals living in human communities and suggest that this be studied so as to better apprehend the capacities for culture in non-human living organisms. (shrink)
The philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Paul Shepard, while rarely encoun- tering the other, nevertheless prove to be surprisingly complementary. Derrida acknowl- edges the impossibility and necessity of the human/animal frontier, thinking the human/ animal relation in a paradigm of seeing and being seen, conceived in particular in the context of a sphere of the intimate. Shepard's not merely biological but ontological interpretation of evolution argues that humans need animals, not only metabolically but for their mental development. From the positive (...) dependence of the human on the animal follows an infinite debt that can never be repaid; but in attempting to do so lies the responsibility and destiny of the human, that most animal animal. (shrink)
Many Australians have traveled overseas to fulfill their hopes of parenthood by accessing reproductive services in countries such as the United States, Thailand, and India: more than 269 babies were created for Australian reproductive travelers in 2011 . Ova provided by third parties1 and gestational surrogates2 are in short supply in Australia, where payment for providing these reproductive resources is prohibited. In contrast, India has a thriving legal trade that makes the country a popular, relatively affordable destination for Australian reproductive (...) travelers.In response to news of changes in Indian policy that may restrict foreign access to reproductive services (Ministry of Home Affairs .. (shrink)
