This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family policy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia. This article uses Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality and later developments discussing technologies of citizenship. More specifically, using interviews, documents, and participant observations, so-called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied as a mode of governmentality. The analysis shows how the civic initiative studied attempted to empower fathers and how it has altered (...) demographic discourses while approaching similar societal goals as the state does in its biopolitical strategies. Thus, the daddy-schools provide a complementary discourse concerning fatherhood while approaching the same perceived demographic crisis that the Russian state is challenged by. (shrink)

This book is an account of the important influence on the development of mathematical logic of Charles S. Peirce and his student O.H. Mitchell, through the work of Ernst Schroder, Leopold Lowenheim, and Thoralf Skolem. As far as we know, this book is the first work delineating this line of influence on modern mathematical logic.

Could there have been nothing? is the first book-length study of metaphysical nihilism - the claim that there could have been no concrete objects. It critically analyses the debate around nihilism and related questions about the metaphysics of possible worlds, concrete objects and ontological dependence.

It has become a truism that we live in so-called information societies where new information technologies have made information abundant. At the same time, information science has made us aware of many phenomena tied to the way we process information. This article explores a series of socio-epistemic information phenomena resulting from processes that track truth imperfectly: pluralistic ignorance, informational cascades, and belief polarization. It then couples these phenomena with the hypothesis that modern information technologies may lead to their amplification so (...) as to give rise to what are called “infostorms.” This points to the need for studying further the exact relations between information technologies and such infostorms, as well as the ways we may design technologies to avoid being misled away from what we have good reasons to believe. (shrink)

Neste artigo, discutiremos os limites do modelo de estabilização empregado nas operações da Organização das Nações Unidas para construção da paz de longo prazo. Nosso argumento é que a estratégia política da estabilização, por ser baseada no uso robusto da força para combater grupos armados e apoiar governos no restabelecimento da autoridade estatal, acaba perdendo de vista os esforços de resolução dos conflitos, o que, no limite, contribui para o prolongamento da violência. Metodologicamente, o artigo se baseia no estudo do (...) caso do combate ao grupo armado M23 pela MONUSCO na RDC, por meio da análise de dados e documentos que nos permitam avaliar dois aspectos principais: (i) os níveis de violência armada; e (ii) a condução de um processo político de resolução do conflito. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 2, Page 46-48, February 2012.

Gwénael Murphy est spécialiste de l’histoire des religieuses et des couvents pendant la Révolution française. Ayant rencontré de nombreuses épouses maltraitées réfugiées dans des couvents dans les sources consultées, il a décidé de consacrer ses recherches à l’histoire des rapports conflictuels entre hommes et femmes dans le cadre conjugal. L’ouvrage publié est le résultat de dix-huit années de recherches. L’auteur place sa réflexion dans le temps long, en analysant des sources issues des xvi...

The study of metaphysical possibility involves two central questions: What are possible worlds? Is there an empty possible world? In looking at the first question we consider the different accounts of possible worlds—Lewisian realism, ersatzism, etc. In looking at the second question we consider the discussions of metaphysical nihilism, the modal ontological arguments, etc. In this paper I am drawing these two questions together in order to show how the position we hold on one of these issues affects the position (...) we should hold on the other. (shrink)

Prisoners sometimes die in prison, either due to natural illness, violence, suicide, or a result of imprisonment. The purpose of this study is to understand deaths in custody using qualitative methodology and to argue for a comprehensive definition of death in custody that acknowledges deaths related to the prison environment. Interviews were conducted with 33 experts, who primarily work as lawyers or forensic doctors with national and/or international organisations. Responses were coded and analysed qualitatively. Defining deaths in custody according to (...) the place of death was deemed problematic. Experts favoured a dynamic approach emphasising the link between the detention environment and occurrence of death rather than the actual place of death. Causes of deaths and different patterns of deaths were discussed, indicating that many of these deaths are preventable. Lack of an internationally recognised standard definition of death in custody is a major concern. Key aspects such as place, time, and causes of death as well as relation to the prison environment should be debated and incorporated into the definition. Systematic identification of violence within prison institutions is critical and efforts are needed to prevent unnecessary deaths in prison and to protect vulnerable prisoners. (shrink)

Among Marxists and Communists, Louis Althusser has long had a reputation for theoreticism and scientism, the factors most often cited to explain the eclipse of his work since the 1960’s. According to the standard account, the distinguishing characteristic and major flaw of his work is that it brings everything back to knowledge. In this essay, I interrogate this understanding of Althusser by reconsidering two cornerstones of Althusserian theory that seem most to exemplify his extreme privileging of epistemology: the symptom and (...) the interpellation theory of ideology. I argue not that taking them to work on the epistemological level is wrong but rather incomplete; there exists a not quite acknowledged beyond of knowledge and interpellation in Althusser, which takes the form of a traumaticnarrative of history, enjoyment, and desire. The production of knowledge in Althusser unfolds as a pathos-laden story, which on one level gestures toward the turbulent world history in which he developed his theory: primarily WW II and the post-war Stalinist revelations, along with the conflicts it provoked in the Communist Party, and the French Communist Party in particular. Although not the subject of extended analysis, these events haunt Althusser’s texts in the form of allusions and the surprisingly violent figurative language with which Althusser discusses theoretical labor. I contend that they call to be analyzed as a kind of return of the repressed, best approached through Slavoj Žižek’s psychoanalytically inflected theory of ideology. (shrink)

Résumé À travers les questions « Qu’est-ce que l’individu du point de vue de la domination? », « Qu’est-ce que l’individu du point de vue de la résistance, de la lutte et de la subversion? », nous analyserons le rapport entre le groupe militant Women on Waves et certaines pratiques artistiques contemporaines. Cette association, par un brouillage nécessaire et efficace des frontières et des limites d’actions autant territoriales que politiques, sociales, juridiques ou encore artistiques, nous semble poser aujourd’hui frontalement au (...) champ de l’art contemporain la question de l’engagement et surtout la possibilité d’une action éthique forte. Le principe même des Women on Waves repose sur l’idée que la responsabilité justifie la désobéissance ; nous verrons dans quelle mesure cette désobéissance civile parvient à nouer des relations singulières entre action artistique et groupe associatif. (shrink)

L’époque contemporaine est dominée par l’injonction à « produire du lien social », laissant supposer que le lien social est en crise, qu’il s’est perdu, à tout le moins s’est affaibli, morcelé et diversifié, sous le coup de l’individualisme, de l’accroissement des inégalités, de la perte des sentiments collectifs et d’une forme de consensus moral. L’urgence sanitaire dans laquelle nous sommes plongés nous exhorte soudainement au confinement généralisé en faisant résonner le concept nouveau de...

L’article explore les différentes modalités du lien chez Rousseau, social, civil, politique, selon les principaux axes de sa pensée. On part de la critique de la sociabilité des Lumières conduite dans le Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes pour confronter le remède politique apporté dans le Contrat social à l’analyse qui est menée dans l’Émile autour de « l’homme abstrait » cultivant sa capacité d’attachement. Peut ainsi émerger la généalogie des liens à partir des relations (...) de besoin. En contrepoint de la condamnation de la dépendance réciproque, une cartographie des notions de liaison, rapport, relation, nœud et ressort permet de donner tout son sens à la définition positive de l’homme comme « être relatif ». (shrink)

Transformative unlearning: safety, discernment and communities of learning This paper aims to stimulate awareness about the intellectual and emotional work of ‘unlearning’ in knowledge workers in the emerging learning age. The importance of providing a safe space for dialogue to promote transformative learning, through building ‘communities of learning’, is highlighted. Unlearning is conceptualized within a transformative education paradigm, one whose primary orientation is discernment, a personal growth process involving the activities of receptivity, recognition and grieving. The author utilizes the metaphor (...) of an unfolding spiral path to explore her experience of needing to ‘unlearn’ a trusted nursing practice prior to ‘learning’ new best caring practices related to infant sleep positions. Macro and micro approaches to facilitating unlearning in organizations, in learners and in nurses are suggested. (shrink)

The relationship between archaeology and other sciences has only recently become a research topic for sociologists and historians of science. From the 1950s to the present day, different approaches have been taken and the aims of research studies have changed considerably. Besides methodological textbooks, which aim at advancing archaeological knowledge, historians of archaeology have tackled this question by exploring the development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. More recently, collaborations between archaeologists and other scientists have been examined as a general (...) phenomenon regarding transfers of knowledge and power relationships between specialists, organizations, and scientific tools, where archaeology is considered as a scientific practice. Adopting a sociohistorical perspective, this entry examines the specificity of aims, facts, and procedures shared by archaeologists and other scientists regarding the crucial question of measuring time and computations. (shrink)

Different theoretical models have proposed cognitive and affective components in empathy and moral judgments encompassing compassion. Furthermore, gender differences in psychological and neural functions involving empathic and moral processing, as well as compassionate experiences, have been reported. However, the neurobiological function regarding affective and cognitive integration underlying compassion and gender-associated differences has not been investigated. In this study, we aimed to examine the interaction between cognitive and emotional components through functional connectivity analyzes and to explore gender differences for the recruitment (...) and interaction of these components. Thirty-six healthy participants were exposed to social images in an fMRI session to judge whether the stimuli elicited compassion. The results showed a different connectivity pattern for women and men of the insular cortex, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the cingulate cortex. The integration of affective and cognitive components follows a complex functional connectivity pattern that is different for both genders. These differences may indicate that men largely make compassionate judgments based on contextual information, while women tend to notably take internal and introspective processes into account. Women and men can use different affective and cognitive routes that could converge in similar learning of moral values, empathic experiences and compassionate acts. (shrink)

Working Feminism looks at key concepts and debates within feminist theory and puts them to work concretely in relation to the real problems faced by Filipina ...

In his Convention David Lewis defined conventions as behavioural regularities instantiating proper coordination equilibria made salient by precedent and operational by this being common knowledge. While later proponents of game theoretical approaches in the study of convention have agreed on dropping Lewis’ eccentric ‘coordination’ requirement as well as that of common knowledge, they are confused as to whether conventions should be regarded as proper thereby precluding mixed equilibria. In this paper I argue that mixed equilibria may not be conventions, but (...) also suggest that the reason for this reveals that though common knowledge is not necessary for a convention to operate, it may be utilized to identify the conventional aspect of a given practice. (shrink)

Drawing on an ethnography among Quebecois and French female new Muslims, I consider how converts epitomize and embody the “encounter” between Muslim and western societies. By choosing Islam, converts position themselves on the margins, giving them a unique perspective on the “West.” My participants’ reflexive narratives hinge on continuity/disruption dialectics that dissolve the commonly held dichotomy between Sameness and Otherness. In analyzing these narratives, I view subjectivity as a rhetorical construction and elaborate upon converts’ daily intimate encounters and dialogues with (...) Otherness in social spaces. In light of Simmel’s figure of the Stranger based on distance and proximity, I show that converts’ experiences echo the “pacific coexistence” that Muslim and European populations have experienced historically. I argue that narratives are crucial to understanding how Islam—as a political and symbolic language of Otherness—can help frame and profile emergent western subjects and identities. (shrink)

Here we reconsider teachers’ changing subjectivities as autonomous agents whose practices acknowledge risk as an essential element in intellectual inquiry. We seek alternative descriptions to the limiting language of teachers’ current practices within the primacy of the market. We are convinced by Levinas’s claim that ethics is the first philosophy with its concomitant responsibility for the Other. This provides a valuable point of departure and our understanding of its relevance is expanded by Biesta and Todd. This perspective allows interruption of (...) the global reform ensemble with its reductionist understandings of teachers’ subjectivities within concerns for a ‘visible pedagogy’ and performativity. We illustrate how this global policy imperative is reworked in policies in the Republic of Ireland and share reflexive insights from our tutoring of teachers studying for a Master’s degree in Education. We show that teachers’ autonomy, which we understand as the capacity of teachers to facilitate risk and make ethically informed local judgements, is severely restricted by imposed standards, codes and laws to which there is tightly policed adherence. Instead we describe teachers’ practices occurring within an Invisible Pedagogy, which is not concerned with totalising and limited performativity but instead, explores risks associated with existential possibilities beyond commodification. (shrink)

Epistemic relationism in the theory of assertion is the view that an assertion's epistemic propriety depends purely on the relation between the asserter and the proposition asserted. Many accounts of assertion are relationist in this sense, including the familiar knowledge, belief, and justification accounts. A notable feature of such accounts is that they give no direct importance to the role of hearer: as far as such accounts are concerned, we need make no mention of hearers in characterising an assertion's propriety (...) conditions. This paper develops an account which rejects relationism, by giving central importance to the role of hearer. The paper introduces the knowledge provision account, according to which an assertion that p is proper only if it is fit to give a hearer knowledge that p. The paper aims to show: (i) that we can understand this account in a way which does not leave it open to obvious counterexamples, (ii) that it does not reduce to any familiar relationist account, and (iii) that it carries certain advantages over familiar relationist accounts. (shrink)

Correspondence analysis of 28 proteomes selected to span the entire realm of prokaryotes revealed universal biases in the proteins’ amino acid distribution. Integral Inner Membrane Proteins always form an individual cluster, which can then be used to predict protein localisation in unknown proteomes, independently of the organism’s biotope or kingdom. Orphan proteins are consistently rich in aromatic residues. Another bias is also ubiquitous: the amino acid composition is driven by the GþC content of the first codon position. An unexpected bias (...) is driven, in many proteomes, by the AANbox of the genetic code, suggesting some functional biochemical relationship between asparagine and lysine. Less-significant biases are driven by the rare amino acids, cysteine and tryptophan. Some allow identification of species-specific functions or localisation such as surface or exported proteins. Errors in genome annotations are also revealed by correspondence analysis, making it useful for quality control and correction. (shrink)

The author divides this work into three parts entitled: analytical therapy; yoga; and a comparison.

A printed record of the symposium held in 1971 that was sponsored by the University of California's medical campus in San Francisco and the City and County of San Francisco to examine man's destiny and moral development.

À l’intérieur même de la mouvance cartésienne du second xviie siècle, la notion de santé est loin d’être univoque. À l’aide des œuvres des trois « médecins cartésiens », Regius, Louis de La Forge et Daniel Duncan, auxquelles nous conférons une valeur heuristique, nous souhaitons mettre en évidence que ce foisonnement s’enracine dans l’œuvre même de René Descartes et qu’il révèle une pluralité d’orientations métaphysiques.

À l’intérieur même de la mouvance cartésienne du second xviie siècle, la notion de santé est loin d’être univoque. À l’aide des œuvres des trois « médecins cartésiens », Regius, Louis de La Forge et Daniel Duncan, auxquelles nous conférons une valeur heuristique, nous souhaitons mettre en évidence que ce foisonnement s’enracine dans l’œuvre même de René Descartes et qu’il révèle une pluralité d’orientations métaphysiques.