The longing for aerial flight has been one of mankind's most consuming preoccupations. A burning desire for lightness, verticality, and flight is opposed to the fatality of universal gravity. Jules Michelet, in his study of the subject, entitled L'Oiseau (The Bird), which he wrote toward the end of his life, deems this aspiration for upward motion to be characteristic of all nature. He writes: “It is the cry of all the earth, of the world and of all life… : ‘Wings! (...) We want wings, we want flight and movement.’” From ancient times, this basic element of physical experience has nourished human imagination and been a source of motivation for the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Mesopotamian civilization had its winged divinities and spirits; indeed the Western tradition of depicting winged persons has been linked to the influence of Mesopotamian art. As Jules Duhem has pointed out, four centuries before Jesus Christ, Aristotle himself was already exploring certain notions that have become part of the history of ideas of aeronautics and astronomy. Among these are the ideas of void, weight, the resistance of air, and the movement of birds and other flying creatures. Duhem has also demonstrated that Aristotle proposed an explanation, as imperfect as it was, for what causes projectiles to fall from the sky. Throughout the ages, humanity has continually expressed its desire to fly: “Man is proud of being free and of leaning on nothing,” Elias Canetti has written in regard to man's upright position. Striking examples of the impulse to fly are to be found not only in scientific discourse but in myths, literature, and works of art. (shrink)

The longing for aerial flight has been one of mankind's most consuming preoccupations. A burning desire for lightness, verticality, and flight is opposed to the fatality of universal gravity. Jules Michelet, in his study of the subject, entitled L'Oiseau (The Bird), which he wrote toward the end of his life, deems this aspiration for upward motion to be characteristic of all nature. He writes: “It is the cry of all the earth, of the world and of all life… : ‘Wings! (...) We want wings, we want flight and movement.’” From ancient times, this basic element of physical experience has nourished human imagination and been a source of motivation for the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Mesopotamian civilization had its winged divinities and spirits; indeed the Western tradition of depicting winged persons has been linked to the influence of Mesopotamian art. As Jules Duhem has pointed out, four centuries before Jesus Christ, Aristotle himself was already exploring certain notions that have become part of the history of ideas of aeronautics and astronomy. Among these are the ideas of void, weight, the resistance of air, and the movement of birds and other flying creatures. Duhem has also demonstrated that Aristotle proposed an explanation, as imperfect as it was, for what causes projectiles to fall from the sky. Throughout the ages, humanity has continually expressed its desire to fly: “Man is proud of being free and of leaning on nothing,” Elias Canetti has written in regard to man's upright position. Striking examples of the impulse to fly are to be found not only in scientific discourse but in myths, literature, and works of art. (shrink)

The Writings of Charles De Koninck, Volume 1, introduces a projected three-volume series that presents the first English edition of the collected works of the Catholic Thomist philosopher Charles De Koninck. Ralph McInerny is the project editor and has prepared the excellent translations. The first volume contains writings ranging from De Koninck's 1934 dissertation at the University of Louvain on the philosophy of Sir Arthur Eddington, to two remarkable early essays on indeterminism and the unpublished book "The (...) Cosmos." The short essay "Are the Experimental Sciences Distinct from the Philosophy of Nature?" is also included and demonstrates for the first time De Koninck's distinctive view on the relation between philosophy of nature and the experimental sciences. A comprehensive introductory essay by Leslie Armour outlines the structure and themes of De Koninck's philosophy. The volume begins with a biographical essay by De Koninck's son, Thomas. "Charles De Koninck, perhaps because of his untimely death, is not as well known to English-speaking readers as Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain, but his work belongs to that same world-class scholarship as his notable contemporaries. It is almost an understatement to say that his contribution to the philosophy of science remains timely. Readers are fortunate that his former student, Ralph McInerny, has seen fit to collect and to translate, where necessary, some of De Koninck's most important work for this volume." --Jude P. Dougherty, The Catholic University of America "Ralph McInerny is doing us the incalculable good of making available to a general public the writings of Charles De Koninck. This volume, the first of many to come, begins a chronological presentation of the books, articles, essays, and addresses of one of the strongest and most penetrating thinkers of the last century, who was at once an extraordinary philosopher and theologian, with the profound and simple faith of the proverbial peasant. May we continue now to learn from the great De Koninck, and include in our prayers the intentions of his gracious disciple, who is so felicitously discharging the office of piety to a revered and unforgettable master." --Ronald P. Mc Arthur, President Emeritus, Thomas Aquinas College. (shrink)

ARISTOTLE'S DESCRIPTION OF GOD'S ACTIVITY as νόησις νοήσεως, a "thinking of thinking," in chapters 7 and 9 of Metaphysics 12 raises some of the most significant and challenging questions in philosophy. These and other related chapters surely deserve Whitehead's praise in his own chapter on God in Science and the Modern World, where he accords to Aristotle "the position of the greatest metaphysician," adding, concerning Aristotle's God, "in his consideration of this metaphysical question [Aristotle] was entirely dispassionate; and he is (...) the last European metaphysician of first-rate importance for whom this claim can be made.... It may be doubted whether any properly general metaphysics can ever, without the illicit introduction of other considerations, get much farther than Aristotle.". (shrink)

Thomas De Koninck | : Loin de s’opposer, la dignité de la personne et la primauté du bien commun s’impliquent au contraire l’une l’autre réciproquement. C’est ce qu’on tente principalement de montrer dans le présent article. | : Far from being opposed one to the other, the dignity of the person and the primacy of the common good do in fact imply one another reciprocally. This is chiefly what the present article attempts to bring out.

ARISTOTLE'S DESCRIPTION OF GOD'S ACTIVITY as νόησις νοήσεως, a "thinking of thinking," in chapters 7 and 9 of Metaphysics 12 raises some of the most significant and challenging questions in philosophy. These and other related chapters surely deserve Whitehead's praise in his own chapter on God in Science and the Modern World, where he accords to Aristotle "the position of the greatest metaphysician," adding, concerning Aristotle's God, "in his consideration of this metaphysical question [Aristotle] was entirely dispassionate; and he is (...) the last European metaphysician of first-rate importance for whom this claim can be made.... It may be doubted whether any properly general metaphysics can ever, without the illicit introduction of other considerations, get much farther than Aristotle.". (shrink)

Les ravages de la pauvreté et de la violence dans le monde actuel sont les effets patents d'une crise éthique et culturelle profonde affectant tout spécialement les jeunes générations. Séparer l'éthique de la culture donne les résultats accablants du siècle dernier, Auschwitz en tête. Il y a en réalité une crise, à laquelle seule peut remédier l'éducation. " Éducation est un mot récent, autrefois on disait nourriture ". C'est en effet l'éducation qui donne à vivre une vie proprement humaine. Ce (...) qui doit être mis au centre des sociétés, c'est le sens de l'humain et de la dignité humaine. C'est faire violence à la réalité de l'homme que de la réduire à quelques dimensions abstraites se prêtant à des recettes magiques, comme dans ces prétendues réformes de l'éducation qui vont se succédant rapidement, avec un égal insuccès, dans nos sociétés. Car l'on a chaque fois affaire à des totalités vivantes complexes, en perpétuel devenir, chez qui tout est intimement lié et interdépendant. La tâche est immense, redoutable, et les éléments de réflexion offerts dans ce livre paraîtront bien modestes en regard. Mais nul ne saurait s'y dérober, tant elle est vitale. (shrink)

Scientific study of dreams requires the most objective methods to reliably analyze dream content. In this context, artificial intelligence should prove useful for an automatic and non subjective scoring technique. Past research has utilized word search and emotional affiliation methods, to model and automatically match human judges’ scoring of dream report’s negative emotional tone. The current study added word associations to improve the model’s accuracy. Word associations were established using words’ frequency of co-occurrence with their defining words as found in (...) a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It was hypothesized that this addition would facilitate the machine learning model and improve its predictability beyond those of previous models. With a sample of 458 dreams, this model demonstrated an improvement in accuracy from 59% to 63% on the negative emotional tone scale, and for the first time reached an accuracy of 77% on the positive scale. (shrink)

Rapport d'expériences portant sur la reconnaissance, dans des photogrammes, des photographies ou des dessins, d'une action humaine filmée. Les résultats sont analysés à la lumière de certaines interprétations psychologiques de ce que l'on appelle le mouvement dans l'image. La reconnaissance ne pouvant pleinement rendre compte du phénomène perceptif en question, il est proposé d'y voir une forme de perception dans laquelle la dimension temporelle serait dominante.

Cette introduction au actes du XXe congrès de la Société de philosophie du Québec présente celui-ci comme l'occasion d'un bilan et d'une prospective. La société nouvelle, en effet, c'est d'abord la société actuelle. que l'on peut examiner par rapport aux revendications féministes des trois décennies précédentes: lecture politique. Mais la société nouvelle, c'est aussi celle de demain, celle qu'il faut imaginer pour mesurer les insuffisances de la société actuelle et pour inciter le présent à s'humaniser: lecture hétéropolitique. Il s'agissait donc (...) d'interroger le présent à la lumière des étapes franchies et des effets pervers qu'elles ont parfois entraînés, et de "rappeler les projets mis de l'avant par le mouvement des femmes". (shrink)

Résumé On tente ici de montrer à quel point la question de Dieu s’avère plus clairement que jamais la question par excellence, et de résumer les pistes de réflexion que suggèrent à cet égard les apports les plus remarquables du savoir et des arts aujourd’hui, mais aussi de l’expérience humaine et de la pensée philosophique, tout en marquant leurs liens avec la pensée classique sur ce sujet urgent entre tous.We try here to show how and why it is that the (...) question of God should have become more clearly than ever the question among questions, and to bring out the most remarkable contributions, in that regard, of contemporary science and the arts, as well as of common human experience and philosophical thought, while underscoring their links with classical thought on this most urgent of matters. (shrink)

Le premier défi de la démocratie est de donner le «goût de l'avenir» (Alexis de Tocqueville), de générer l'enthousiasme qui poussera les jeunes d'esprit à progresser d'eux-mêmes vers de nouvelles quêtes de sens et de savoir, à renouveler peut-être surtout, dans le contexte des nouvelles connaissances et d'une prise de conscience accrue des richesses des différentes cultures, les questions que l'on appelle «ultimes et les plus hautes», pour citer Husserl, celles que la science exclut par principe et qui sont pourtant (...) «les questions les plus brûlantes», portant «sur le sens ou sur l'absence de sens de toute cette existence humaine». Le simple mot «question»évoque d'emblée le vieux français «queste», c'est-à-dire la «quête», du latin «quaerere», «rechercher», «aimer»; il traduit le désir de voir et de savoir, impliquant du coup les deux dimensions à la fois les plus essentielles et les plus grandes de notre être proprement humain, la capacité d'aimer et celle de penser. Une éducation qui exclurait, comme tranchées d'avance, ces questions ultimes, ne serait nullement à la hauteur de l'humain. Les essais composant ce livre explorent six d'entre elles, à savoir la dignité humaine, l'intelligence, la liberté, le bonheur, la mort et la beauté. (shrink)

Jacques Maritain's concern for the intellect and everything it implies is evident everywhere in his work from the very outset It would be presumptuous and in any case impossible to sketch in one short talk even an outline of such a fundamental theme of his thought or indeed of philosophy. Still, it has become probably more vital today than ever before to awake to what intellect means. This brief paper attempts merely to indicate a few questions worth pursuing anew in (...) the spirit both of Maritain and the chief sources of his thought on the matter. The questions include the following. Why invariably link together human dignity and intellect, as our tradition, no less theological than philosophical, undoubtedly seems to? Objections to this are, prima facie, rather obvious: an excessive cult of rationality; an implicit neglect of other, far more important, values; apparent scorn for the ignorant or the uninstructed; most plainly, forgetting love and the human heart. We face again the question: whence the dignity of intellect? What light can we expect the neurosciences and similar disciplies to shed on the nature of the mind? Are reason and intellect quite the same thing? What is intellectualknow ledge; its relation to existence and the existent; its relation to beauty and to the transcendentals; and its role in creativity? In a word, how is one to interpret Augustine's Intellectum vero valdeama? Or to face the greatest interpretive challenge of all, the famous saying of StJohn of the Cross: "One thought alone of man is worth more than the entire world; hence God alone is worthy of it"? (shrink)