: Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a (paradoxically) non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a (paradoxically) non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

How, asks Françoise Dastur, can philosophy account for the sudden happening and the factuality of the event? Dastur asks how phenomenology, in particular the work of Heidegger, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, may be interpreted as offering such an account. She argues that the "paradoxical capacity of expecting surprise is always in question in phenomenology," and for this reason, she concludes, "We should not oppose phenomenology and the thinking of the event. We should connect them; openness to phenomena must be identified with (...) openness to unpredictability." The article offers reflections in these terms on a phenomenology of birth. (shrink)

Chronique/critique de Françoise Favretto parue dans la revue L'intranquille. Revue de littérature, n° 20, St-Quentin-de-Caplong, L'Atelier de l'Agneau, 2021, p. 83. - Recensions.

Most philosophers adopt an etiological conception of functions, but not one that uniformly explains the functions attributed to material entities irrespective of whether they are natural or man-made. Here, I investigate the widespread idea that a combination of the two current etiological theories, SEL and INT, can offer a satisfactory account of the proper functions of both organisms and artifacts.. Making explicit what a realist theory of function supposes, I first show that SEL offers a realist theory of biological functions (...) in which these are objective properties of a peculiar sort. I argue next that an artifact function demonstrates the same objective nature as a biological function when it is accounted for by SEL, but not when it is accounted for by INT. I explain why a dual theory of artifact functions admitting both INT and SEL functions is to be dismissed. I establish that neither INT nor SEL alone can account for all artifact functions. Drawing the conclusion that we need a new etiological theory of function, I show how one can overcome the apparent inevitability of INT for some artifact functions. Finally, I outline a new etiological theory of functions that applies equally to biological entities and to artifacts. (shrink)

How, asks Françoise Dastur, can philosophy account for the sudden happening and the factuality of the event? Dastur asks how phenomenology, in particular the work of Heidegger, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, may be interpreted as offering such an account. She argues that the “paradoxical capacity of expecting surprise is always in question in phenomenology,” and for this reason, she concludes, “We should not oppose phenomenology and the thinking of the event. We should connect them; openness to phenomena must be identified with (...) openness to unpredictability.” The article offers reflections in these terms on a phenomenology of birth. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that there is no compelling therapeutic ‘need’ for human nuclear genome transfer to prevent mitochondrial diseases caused by mtDNA mutations. At most there is a strong interest in this technology on the part of some women and couples at risk of having children with mitochondrial disease, and perhaps also a ‘want’ on the part of some researchers who see the technology as a useful precedent – one that provides them with ‘a quiet way station’ in (...) which to refine the micromanipulations techniques essential for other human germline interventions and human cloning. In advance of this argument, I review basic information about mitochondrial disease and novel genetic strategies to prevent the transmission of mutated mitochondria. Next, I address common features of contemporary debates and discussions about so-called mitochondrial replacement. First, I contest the cliché that science-and-technology is fast outpacing ethics. Second, I dispute the accuracy of the term ‘mitochondrial replacement’. Third, I provide a sustained critique of the purported ‘need’ for genetically-related children. In closing, I call into question the mainly liberal defense of human nuclear genome transfer. I suggest an alternative frame of reference that pays particular attention to issues of social justice. I conclude that our limited resources should be carefully expended in pursuit of the common good, which does not include pandering to acquired desires. (shrink)

Suddenly, COVID-19 has changed the world and the way people work. Companies had to accelerate something they knew was imminent in the future, but not immediate and extremely humongous. This situation poses a huge challenge for companies to survive and thrive in this complex business environment and for employees, who must adapt to this new way of working. An effective e-leadership, which promotes companies’ adaptability, is needed. This study investigates the existing knowledge on teleworking and e-leadership; and analyzes the supposed (...) challenges. The literature review shows that companies with effective e-leadership can view teleworking as an opportunity. It is advantageous for not only companies’ productivity but also the environment and people who work remotely. However, a traditional or no leadership can result in some risks. Thriving in remote work environments implies that managers must adjust the companies’ structure, making them less hierarchical, and developing new abilities to establish a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees to maintain their competitiveness, while retaining a genuine concern for their employees’ well-being. Similarly, successful e-leadership must be able to consolidate and lead effective virtual teams to accomplish organizational goals. This study contributes to the literature and leaders during the pandemic. (shrink)

I would like to show how with Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas, we have to do with three different ways of understanding the experience of the other. For Sartre it is a visual experience, the experience of being looked at by the other, so that the experience of the other is understood as a confrontation; for Merleau-Ponty, the experience of the other necessarily implies coexistence and what he calls intercorporeality, so that for him the other is never to be found in (...) front, but instead beside me, in reciprocity with me; for Levinas, the experience of the other is the experience of a non-reciprocity, of an assymetrical relation, because the experience of the other is for him an ethical and not an ontological experience, and because this experience of the face of the other is the experience of a speaking and not in the first place corporeal presence. There are consequently three different ways of finding an access to the other : the look for Sartre, intercorporeality for Merleau-Ponty and the face for Levinas. (shrink)

This work was supported, in part, by a Stem Cell Network grant to Françoise Baylis and Jason Scott Robert and a CIHR grant to Françoise Baylis. We sincerely thank Alan Fine, Rich Campbell, Cynthia Cohen, and Tim Krahn for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks are also owed to Tim Krahn for his research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Department of Bioethics and the Novel Tech Ethics research team. We thank (...) the participants at each of these meetings for their helpful comments. (shrink)

How, asks Françoise Dastur, can philosophy account for the sudden happening and the factuality of the event? Dastur asks how phenomenology, in particular the work of Heidegger, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, may be interpreted as offering such an account. She argues that the “paradoxical capacity of expecting surprise is always in question in phenomenology,” and for this reason, she concludes, “We should not oppose phenomenology and the thinking of the event. We should connect them; openness to phenomena must be identified with (...) openness to unpredictability.” The article offers reflections in these terms on a phenomenology of birth. (shrink)

: Françoise Proust explains that where Foucault established a cartography of power, she is interested in elaborating an "analytic of resistance." This, she elaborates, would be "the transcendental of every resistance, whatever kind it be: resistance to power, to the state of things, to history; resistance to destruction, to death, to war; resistance to stupidity, to peace, to bare life.".

oise Baylis, 1234 Le Marchant Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3P7. Tel.: (902)-494–2873; Fax: (902)-494-2924; Email: francoise.baylis{at}dal.ca ' + u + '@' + d + ' '//--> . Abstract Recently, there has been a growing interest in public health and public health ethics. Much of this interest has been tied to efforts to draw up national and international plans to deal with a global pandemic. It is common for these plans to state the importance of drawing upon a well-developed (...) ethics framework and we argue that this framework should reflect the values and insights of feminist relational theory. More specifically, we argue that pandemic planning must be squarely situated in the larger realm of public health and that an ethics framework for public health will be one that recognizes the need to pay particular attention to the vulnerability of subpopulations lacking in social and economic power. We propose an ethics framework for public health that builds on the notions of relational personhood (including relational autonomy and social justice) and relational solidarity. In this way, we aim for a public health ethics that, as appropriate, promotes the public interest and the common good. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

The primary objective of The Health Care Ethics Con sultant is to focus attention on an immediate practical problem: the role and responsibilities, the education and training, and the certification and accreditation of health care ethics consultants. The principal questions addressed in this book include: Who should be considered health care ethics consultants? Whom should they advise? What should be their responsi bilities and what kind of training should they have? Should there be some kind of accreditation or certification program (...) to ensure that those who call themselves ethics consultants are in fact qualified to advise, consult, research, and write in health care ethics? The distinguished authors ofthese articles are persons with diverse backgrounds, interests, presumptions, and val ues. Not surprisingly, therefore, diverse responses have emerged to the questions posed. Though the book's chapters are individually authored, they are informed by the group discussions that went on during active workshop sessions, and by knowledge of the contributions of others. All of the chapters meaningfully represent their consensus. This is not to say that there were no disagreements regarding specific details, but rather that there were no fundamental objections on the book's basic content among a panel of authors who share basic premises regarding the role, responsibilities, education, and certifica tion of health care ethics consultants. (shrink)

Tri‐methylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me3) is a near‐universal chromatin modification at the transcription start site of active genes in eukaryotes from yeast to man and its levels reflect the amount of transcription. Because of this association, H3K4me3 is often described as an ‘activating’ histone modification and assumed to have an instructive role in the transcription of genes, but the field is lacking a conserved mechanism to support this view. The overwhelming finding from genome‐wide studies is that actually (...) very little transcription changes upon removal of most H3K4me3 under steady‐state or dynamically changing conditions, including at mammalian CpG island promoters. Instead, rather than a major role in instructing transcription, time‐resolved experiments provide more evidence supporting the deposition of H3K4me3 into chromatin as a result of transcription, influencing processes such as memory of previous states, transcriptional consistency between cells in a population and transcription termination. -/- . (shrink)

Cet article expose les premiers contacts d’Alexandre Nequam (1157-1217) avec la traduction latine du Liber de causis dans sa proposition 2, et le recours à son ami le théologien Alain de Lille ( c. 1120-1202) qu’il jugea nécessaire. Celui-ci répondit par ses quatre premières Regulae theologicae.

Sur quoi aujourd’hui fonder l’autorité des parents? Que transmettre? Et comment exercer cette autorité au temps de l’enfance? Questions cruciales pour le devenir subjectif des nouveaux venus au monde... Car, sans autorité, pas de transmission de la dette de vie, celle qui ouvre à la Loi et au désir, pas d’humanisation et de socialisation des enfants.

We need to distinguish two sorts of natural kinds, scientific and common NKs, because the notion of NK, which has to satisfy demands at three different levels—ontological, semantic and epistemological—, is subject to two incompatible sets of constraints. In order to prove this, I focus on the much-discussed case of jade. In the first part of the paper, I show that the current accounts are unsatisfactory because they are inconsistent. In the process, I explain why LaPorte’s analysis of “jade” as (...) a vernacular NK-term with an open-texture meaning does not offer a way out. Using a reductio ad absurdum argument, I conclude that according to the main tenets of NK-term theories, today’s “jade” has to be an NK-term, and jade thereby an NK. In the second part of the paper, I argue for this conclusion in a positive manner. First, I present a series of thought experiments demonstrating that today’s “jade” has the specific features of an NK-term. Then, I show that the kind that we presently call “jade” exhibits the typical ontological and epistemological features of an NK. More generally, I expound on why common NKs are more than mere classes, and why categories such as “jade” are useful in many inferences and explanations. (shrink)

It has often been considered that the most important part of Derrida's work consisted in the five books published between 1967 and 1972. This paper intends, by way of a re-reading of Derrida's most powerful text from this period, Speech and Phenomena, to bring to light Derrida's specific manner of uniting the question of the disruption of presence to the question of writing. What is therefore questioned is Derrida's emphasis on death, considered as the very condition of possibility of language (...) and writing. As Derrida rightfully shows, Husserl, in spite of the importance he conferred upon writing in the process of idealization, was not aware of the fact that the relationship to death constitutes the concrete structure of the living present. But on the other hand, by still opposing in a too dualistic manner presence and absence, life and death, Derrida himself was not able to see that the condition of language is not so much the death of the subject as the being toward death and the finitude of Dasein. (shrink)

En partant de la définition des rituels, et notamment du rôle de la parole, qu'elle soit verbale ou non-verbale, cet article interroge la façon dont la ritualisation peut contribuer à l'éducation, notamment en milieu scolaire. Après un tour d'horizon des principaux aspects rituels de l'enseignement et de l'école, l'auteur questionne plus particulièrement les rituels d'apprentissage, c'est-à-dire ceux qui structurent la relation enseignant/enseigné au sein de la classe. En s'appuyant sur une théorisation psychanalytique elle montre alors comment les rituels peuvent ou (...) non, notamment en fonction de leur degré « d'ouverture », contribuer à faire exister les élèves dans leur singularité et, ce faisant, les aider à se construire dans leur rapport au savoir.Starting from the definition of rituals, including the role of speech, either verbal or non-verbal, this article examines how ritual can contribute to education, particularly in schools. After an overview of the main aspects of teaching and rituals of the school, especially the author questions the rituals of learning, that is to say those that structure the relationship teacher / learner in the class. Based on psychoanalytic theorizing it then shows how rituals may or may not, depending on their particular degree of "openness" to help students exist in their singularity, thereby helping to build in their relation to knowledge. (shrink)

To what do "natural selection" and "genetic drift" refer? To causes, as is usually thought? Or to mere statistical effects? The question arises because assessing causes faces specific difficulties when stochastic processes are concerned. In this paper, I establish that a central anti-causalist argument from Matthen and Ariew (2002) does not work, because selection doesn't depend on chance (or unknown factors) in the manner that current analogies with games of chance suggest. I then explain how a clear understanding of how (...) chance and biases are involved in natural selection supports one form of causalism, while every other form has indeed to be rejected. (shrink)

In their model, Findlay & Walker propose that where and when the eyes move is determined by two relatively independent processing streams. Whereas both saccade direction and amplitude result from a low-level visual analysis of the peripheral visual stimulation, saccade latency results mainly from higher-level processes related to processing of the central information. In the present commentary, reading eye movement data are put forward as evidence against a strict autonomy of “Where” and “When” processing streams. First, saccade direction and amplitude (...) might be modified by high-level processes related to word identification. Second, the direction of a saccade directly affects its latency. (shrink)

This commentary focuses on the two basic assumptions of the E-Z Reader model, discussing the possibility that adjacent words in reading may be processed in parallel rather than serially, and presenting evidence against a cognitive control of eye guidance in reading.

Beverly Beckham writes in the Boston Globe in praise of Lisa Genova’s Still Alice: “You have to get this book. … I couldn’t put it down. …” After I read Still Alice, a book of fiction about an accomplished Harvard professor with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, I too wanted to tell everyone to get this book, but not because “I couldn’t put it down.” The first time I read it, I put it down several times to cry. It was too painful (...) to read in one stretch. Years back, my mother, Gloria Baylis,1 had been diagnosed with vascular dementia, and recently there had been findings suggestive of an atypical presentation of Alzheimer’s disease. The story of Alice Howland, the Alice of Still Alice, was both too... (shrink)

Françoise Lauwaert Dans cet article, après un essai de définition de ce que l’on entendait par « rites » dans les premiers traités normatifs qui leur furent consacrés, sera retracée l’évolution ayant mené à la constitution d’un « système rituel » à visée totalisante. Or, la recherche de « l’ordre parfait » à laquelle s’adonnaient les ritualistes a suscité des débats infinis et n’a pu aboutir à construire un édifice aussi solide que ces derniers l’auraient souhaité. Pour l’anthropologue Philippe Descola, (...) ce mélange de fascination pour un système quasi totalitaire et d’incapacité à se mettre d’accord sur sa physionomie réelle caractérise l’ontologie analogiste qui fut celle de la Chine à l’époque où ces traités ont été rédigés (la fin de la période des Royaumes Combattants). C’est la première cause, d’ordre logique, que l’on peut trouver à la fragilité d’un système décrit par Yuri Pines comme « the Universal Panacea ». La deuxième cause est plutôt d’ordre psychologique. Elle trouve sa source dans le doute et l’anxiété provoqués par la pression qu’exerce sur les sujets l’injonction de recréer en soi un ordre idéal et toujours déjà perdu. Cette dernière partie s’appuie sur les travaux récents de deux auteurs, Mark Csikzentmihalyi et Michael David Kaulana Ing, lesquels montrent, à partir d’une analyse détaillée de deux ouvrages normatifs : le Wuxing 五行 (Les Cinq types d’actions vertueuses) et le Liji 禮記 (Livre des rites), comment furent abordées les questions de la faillite du rituel et de la faillibilité humaine, indiquant ainsi la voie vers une sortie possible du fantasme de l’ordre parfait. (shrink)

L’article procède à un cheminement en quatre étapes : la première traite de la question de la mesure économique des productions nanométriques, dans une dynamique de filière et de convergence multidisciplinaire, champ d’étude de la méso-économie ; la seconde fait référence aux origines de l’approche mercantiliste de l’économie et à ses conséquences sur l’économie politique des matériaux avancés, procédés et services du domaine des nanotechnologies et matériaux avancés manufacturés ; la troisième étape recherchera les points d’appui sur lesquels l’économie politique (...) fait porter ses efforts pour développer la production et les échanges induits par les nanosciences et techniques en s’appuyant sur deux exemples ; la quatrième et dernière étape examine les barrières réelles au développement économique induit par les nanotechnologies, telles que les conflits d’intérêts entre acteurs autour de la question de la traçabilité les ont progressivement révélées dans les dialogues entre parties prenantes. (shrink)

Françoise Proust explains that where Foucault established a cartography of power, she is interested in elaborating an "analytic of resistance." This, she elaborates, would be "the transcendental of every resistance, whatever kind it be: resistance to power, to the state of things, to history; resistance to destruction, to death, to war; resistance to stupidity, to peace, to bare life.".

The existence of dysfunctions precludes the possibility of identifying the function to do F with the capacity to do F. Nevertheless, we continuously infer capacities from functions. For this and other reasons stated in the first part of this article, I propose a new theory of functions (of the etiological sort), applying to organisms as well as to artefacts, in which to have some determinate probability P to do F (i.e. a probabilistic capacity to do F) is a necessary condition (...) for having the function to do F. The main objective of this paper is to justify the legitimacy of this condition when considering artefacts. I begin by distinguishing “perspectival probabilities”, which reflect a pragmatic interest or an arbitrary state of knowledge, from “objective probabilities”, which depend on some objective feature of the envisageditems. I show that objective probabilities are not necessarily based on physical constitution. I then explain why we should distinguish between considering an object as a physical body and considering it as an artefact, and why the probability of dysfunction to be taken into account is one relative to the object as member of an artefact category. After clarifying how an artefact category can be defined if it is not defined in physical terms, I establish the objectivity of the probability of dysfunction under consideration by showing how it is causally determined by objective factors regulating the production of items of a definite artefact type. Ifocus on the case of industrially produced artefacts where the objective factors determining the probability of dysfunction can be best seen. (shrink)

Début 1871, Helmholtz donne une conférence à Heidelberg, devant un public de non spécialistes, sur « la genèse du système planétaire », dont le sujet sera ce qu’il appelle la théorie de Kant-Laplace. Plutôt que de commencer par expliquer ce qu’il faut entendre par cette dernière, Helmholtz expose devant ses auditeurs la représentation que l’on se fait désormais de la formation des corps célestes et de leur devenir probable, en s’appuyant sur les progrès des connaissances, la découverte de nouvelles lois, (...) l’usage d’instruments de plus en plus perfectionnés. C’est ainsi que la validité de l’hypothèse de Kant et de Laplace se trouve confirmée a posteriori et leur audace légitimée. Aussi, la démarche adoptée par Helmholtz relativise-t-elle implicitement, et peut-être à son insu, la rigueur postulée de la bonne méthode scientifique. La cosmogonie esquissée par Helmholtz ressemble à un spectacle bien étudié dont les auditeurs sont les spectateurs, les savants, les acteurs, et la science épurée, l’enjeu. L’analyse de ce texte a donc pour objectif principal d’identifier et de rappeler les éléments contextuels qui lui confèrent son épaisseur, depuis la guerre franco-prussienne jusqu’aux tensions idéologiques, philosophiques, scientifiques qui en sont l’arrière-plan. (shrink)