Festschrift with papers by Stephan Otto, Michel Malherbe, Jean-Marie Pousseur, Wolfgang Bartuschat, Rita Widmaier, Franco Volpi, Guiseppe Micheli, Han-ding Hong, Esther Seidel, Gregorio Piaia, Mario Longo, Larry Steindler, Ulrich Charpa, Anne Mylott, Rudolf A. Makkreel, Frederick Gregory, Lucien Braun and Hardy Boullion. - The three parts of the book are related to the categories Metaphysics and History of Ideas, Cultural Identities in History of Philosophy, and Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Science.

Porfirio constitutes an essencial tie in the transition of ancient thought into the Medieval. His writings (he takes in the Enneadas of Plotino and systematically comments the works of Plato and Aristotle), offer a unitary interpretation of both systems which have enormously influenced in the medieval philosophic tradition (Saint Augustine, Boecio, Thomas Aquinas, etc.), a tradition which may be presented as the different forms of Platonism aristotelized, or aristoteleanism platonized.

El autor investiga el papel desarrollado por las reglas constitutivas en la construcción de la realidad social. En particular, niega que, por ejemplo, las reglas constitutivas del ajedrez sean condición suficiente de la práctica llamada juego del ajedrez. Para crear una nueva práctica, se necesita también la existencia de la gramática de esa práctica, o sea el sentido mismo de la práctica (por ejemplo: el sentido de juego). Es la gramática de una práctica (y no las reglas constitutivas) la que (...) determina la naturaleza de la práctica misma. El sentido de una práctica no puede ser creado por las reglas constitutivas. (shrink)

Historically, philosophers have tended to see moral responsibility as a matter of having a certain metaphysical status. Strawson shifted the debate by defining responsibility as part of an interpersonal practice, but he did not discuss the relationship between interpersonal relationships and the politics of oppression. His view, in other words, was an example of ideal theory. This article adopts a non‐ideal theoretic framework to explore how ordinary responsibility practices uphold intersecting logics of oppression. It argues that the reactive attitudes function (...) to police double binds, creating situations of oppression for marginalized groups. (shrink)

In the past decade the central principles of western feminist theory have been dramatically challenged. many feminists have endorsed post-structuralism's rejection of essentialist theoretical categories, and have added a powerful gender dimension to contemporary critiques of modernity. Earlier 'women' have been radically undermined, and newer concerns with 'difference', 'identity', and 'power' have emerged. Destabilizing Theory explores these developments in a set of specially commissioned essays by feminist theorists. Does this change amount to a real shift within feminist theory, or will (...) feminism's links with an emancipatory modernism reinstate an older political agenda? Can we transcend the common counterposition of equality and difference, or is feminism condemned to argue within the terms of this binary opposition? (shrink)

Digital Earth applications provide a common ground for visualizing, simulating, and modeling real-world situations. The potential of Digital Earth applications has increased significantly with the evolution of artificial intelligence systems and the capacity to collect and process complex amounts of geospatial data. Yet, the widespread techno-optimism at the root of Digital Earth must now confront concerns over high-risk artificial intelligence systems and power asymmetries of a datafied society. In this commentary, we claim that not only can current debates about data (...) governance and ethical artificial intelligence inform development in the field of Digital Earth, but that the specificities of geospatial data, together with the expectations surrounding Digital Earth applications, offer a fruitful lens through which to examine current debates on data governance and artificial intelligence ethics. In particular, we argue that for the implementation of ethical artificial intelligence and inclusive approaches to data governance, Digital Earth initiatives need to involve stakeholders and communities at the local level and be sensitive to social, legal, cultural, and institutional contexts, including conflicts that might arise within those contexts. (shrink)

Fondé sur la nécessité du discernement et des libertés créatrices, l'humanisme de G. Fessard en appelle à l'universel, fruit d'une recherche humaine et sociétale en perpétuelle recréation, et d'une attention constante portée aux situations et aux évènements.

If we consider the field of argumentation studies, we notice that many approaches consider argumentation in a pragmatic manner and define it as a verbal activity oriented towards the realization of a goal . The idea that subtends—in an explicit or implicit way—most of these approaches is that argumentation fundamentally aims to produce an effect upon an addressee, and that this effect consists in a change of attitude with respect to a viewpoint : argumentation theories inevitably confront the issue of (...) persuasion. In this article, I defend, on the contrary, the hypothesis that it is not necessary to have recourse to the notion of persuasion, nor even to speak of an attempt to provoke a change of attitude in the addressee , in order to develop a general definition of argumentation. It seems to me that there are serious reasons to uncouple, insofar as a definition is concerned, argumentation and persuasion. I will look to identify these reasons, to formulate them and to evaluate their strength. In the same vein as recent works by Christian Plantin and Marc Angenot, I will try to contribute to the development of a non - persuasive conception of argumentation. Such a conception bases the definition of argumentation on the pragmatic aims of “justification” and “positioning”, as well as on the articulation of a discourse and a counter-discourse. I argue that such a conception might offer a better empirical adequacy than those that link, insofar as a definition, the argumentative activity and the persuasive aim. (shrink)

This paper takes part in the ongoing debate on how emotions can be dealt with by argumentation theory. Its main goal is to formulate a relationship between emotion and argumentation which differs from that usually found in most of the literature on the subject. In the “standard” conception, emotions are seen as the objects of appeals which function as adjuvants to argumentation: speakers appeal to pity, fear, shame and the like in order to enhance the cogency of an argument which (...) bears on something else—whether it be the validity of a disputable opinion or the opportunity of a course of action. According to the “alternative” conception which I propose to consider, emotions themselves may be viewed, in some cases, as the very objects of argumentation. This conception lays emphasis on the arguability of emotions. Drawing on insights from current psychological and philosophical theories, it involves a reassessment of the Aristotelian concept of pathos, as well as an in-depth critical discussion of normative and descriptive approaches to emotional appeals. (shrink)

Since 1974 Belgian traditional sectors have been facing important financial difficulties, which compelled them to seek both increased productivity through more capital intensive techniques, and goods with higher valued added.This twofold evolution implied investments and job-reductions that could hardly have been possible without adequate public policies. As far as steel and textile are concerned those policies used mainly a common scheme based on public financial intervention and social measures. Public financial support required to cover annual losses and investments consisted of (...) either grants or state equities. It amounted to over 200 billions BEF.Besides, policies were designed in favour of people losing their jobs : early retirement was made possible and was even accompanied with tax cuts. However the budgetary cost of those policies is very high, they may be considered successful as Belgian producers now seem able to stand unternational competition. (shrink)

This volume’s aim is to stimulate philosophical interest in the experience of noise. There are at least three important open questions about noise. First, how should the relationship between noise as a scientific phenomenon and as a type of experience be understood? Is the one to be understood in terms of the other, and what implications may be drawn from this? Second, are experiences of noise strictly limited to perceptual states or to one type of perceptual state – for instance, (...) to acoustic experiences? E.g. is there noise that is visual or tactile? Is there noise that is cognitive, affective, or evaluative? Third, how can philosophy make sense of noise in the first place? Should noise simply be relegated to the hither side of the explananda of philosophy, as the mere leftover of whatever philosophy sets out to account for; meaning, being, totality, etc.? Or may noise be understood as a positive phenomenon in its own right, which has its own distinctive features and content, difficult though they might be to pin down? This volume will contribute to the burgeoning philosophy of noise by highlighting how contemporary philosophical perspectives with a phenomenological or experiential bent – the latter under both broad and narrow construals – can make inroads to these questions about a fascinating yet little understood quarter of human experience. (shrink)

The work of Michèle Le Dœuff creatively disrupts established notions of what philosophy might be. Far from being a discipline about the leader and the disciple, a hierarchy of knowledge and paternalism, Le Dœuff proposes a philosophy of dialogue and friendship. The conversations in this book explore how this philosophy can be enacted and explored, and show how openness and generosity can be the starting point of truly rigorous thinking. Introduced and curated by the late philosopher, Pamela Sue Anderson, In (...) Dialogue with Michèle Le Dœuff explores themes like contemporary feminism, joy in philosophy, memory, the significance of friendship to thinking and a key Le Dœuffian concept, the imaginary. Le Dœuff's interlocutors, including Penelope Deutscher, Elizabeth Fallaize and Meenda Dhanda, are some of the most significant thinkers in the fields of feminism and continental thought and provide insights and ways into considering philosophy as a profoundly dialogical exercise. (shrink)

Quiconque considère la résurgence du cynisme à la Renaissance pénètre un domaine vaste, mais laissé en friche par les philosophes et délaissé des littéraires. Quelques exemples suffisent à en évaluer l'étendue : reconnaître Diogène dans le Christ et faire - subrepticement - du premier des Adages un adage diogénique ; s'assimiler à Diogène roulant son tonneau pour illustrer la fabrique du Tiers Livre ; attaquer saint Augustin pour son incapacité à comprendre l'impudeur des cyniques ; souhaiter comme idéal pour l'homme (...) de n'être "serf de personne". Voilà quatre positions où l'on aura reconnu Erasme, Rabelais, Montaigne ainsi que La Boétie et qui attestent que, si le cynisme est bien une philosophie de la Renaissance, il a aussi été un formidable moyen de penser et de parler à neuf. Alors que le bien-dire envahit l'espace public, le dire vrai des cyniques, incisif, est apte à façonner des formes littéraires inédites et à procurer de nouveaux moyens critiques. Contre ceux qui pensent conforter la morale avec des discours bien-pensants, Diogène n'affirmait-il pas, crânement, que l'exercice de la vertu n'est pas pour les pisse-froid, qu'on peut être obscène et vertueux, violent et pédagogue, tout en restant "joyeux entre mille"? (shrink)

Un large public apprécie en Gaston Bachelard le philosophe de la rêverie poétique et l'épistémologue. Ses oeuvres consacrées à la question du temps sont moins connues. Cet ouvrage se propose de montrer en quoi les données actuelles des neurosciences apportent un éclairage nouveau à cette réflexion. Nombre d'hypothèses formulées en neurobiologie et en neuroesthétique renforce la thèse bachelardienne de la discontinuité du temps vécu et la conception qu'avait le philosophe de "l'instant poétique".

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L'oeuvre de Claude Tresmontant est un formidable appel à un développement théologique digne des défis actuels du XXIe siècle, fondé sur les bases solides théologiques reconnues par l'Eglise, en particulier les conciles. Tresmontant qui connaît parfaitement l'hébreu s'est livré à une recherche approfondie sur le véritable contenu du christianisme. Sa pensée est celle d'une métaphysique qui nous réconcilie avec le réel : il donne toute sa place dans la réflexion à ce que les sciences de la nature nous enseignent.

Comprising some of the key texts, this collection illustrates not only Kant's influence on British thought in the 19th century, but also gives a greater insight into British intellectual attitudes of that time.

Preface: The Shameful face of Philosophy In fact, Socrates talks about laden asses, blacksmiths, cobblers and tanners1 Whether one looks for a ...

In this article, we perform an evidential analysis of three types of construction taken from essays written by students of French as a foreign language: the shown source, the quoted source and borrowed knowledge. The issue with these constructions, which refer to passages from a book, is knowing the extent to which they have an evidential value because, within the context of our analysis, the source and the knowledge reference overlap. We defend an evidential reading of these segments given their (...) argumentative function in the students’ discourse. We perform a pragmatic analysis of these language forms that take into account the parameters of the communicative situation and the type of text that the students have to produce. Our hypothesis is this: the figure of the teacher and his or her instructions have a direct impact on the way in which the student presents his or her knowledge of the book on which he or she is commenting. The analysis of the function of these three forms has also led us to address the issue of the relationship between evidentiality and notions like the reliability and epistemic modality. We conclude that source is a reliability’s character and an epistemic function in the discourse. (shrink)

This paper presents a new diachronic corpus of the Italian language, i.e., CODIT (COrpus Diacronico dell’ITaliano ‘Diachronic corpus of Italian’). After a description of the corpus design, the second part of the article is devoted to show possible applications of the corpus in the morphological field, specifically in the domain of evaluative morphology. We highlight the corpus’ strengths and limitations through the diachronic analysis of two affixes, i.e., sopra- and -oide. The study contributes to shed light on the dynamism of (...) evaluative morphology by focusing on the loss of the intensification function suffered by sopra- and the emergence of an approximating value that currently affects -oide. (shrink)

Il pensiero di Jonas, in particolare quello della sua seconda fase, dedicato alla filosofia della biologia, apre nel confronto filosofico con la scienza nuovi spazi di riflessione critica per la filosofia e per le scienze stesse. In tale incontro entrambe si arricchiscono, acquisendo maggior coscienza metodologica e ampliando le prospettive di osservazione dei fenomeni. Sorge, così, in modo rinnovato, la possibilità di nuove soluzioni interpretative, che, ponendosi al di là di desueti schieramenti ideologici, riescano a comprendere più in profondità la (...) complessità della realtà epocale a cui ci troviamo di fronte e dunque aumentino la capacità di governarla. (shrink)

L'articolo nella prima parte affronta il tema della concezione operativa della scienza in Bacone e Descartes; nella seconda il ruolo che rivestono le motivazioni biografiche di Descartes espresse nella VI parte del Discorso sul metodo per la strategia di comunicazione della nuova scienza.