A positive connection has been established between personality traits and suicidal ideation. However, the possible mediation of resilience within this association has never been thoroughly discussed. In this study, we aimed to investigate this topic by using population-based cross-sectional survey data of 4,489 Chinese children and adolescents. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from the participants. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were adopted to measure the crude and adjusted associations between personality traits, SI, and resilience. Path analysis (...) was performed to evaluate the mediation of resilience in the association between personality traits and SI. For 4,489 study subjects, the mean age was 13.4 years, ethnic minorities accounted for 71.8%, and over a half were middle school students. The reported prevalence rates for 1-week, 1-year, and lifetime SI were 27.6%, 35.5%, and 56.7%, respectively. Girls reported a significantly higher prevalence of SI than boys. Path analysis results revealed a prominent mediation of resilience; moreover, for different dimensions of personality traits, the proportion of mediation by resilience varied. Our major findings suggest that resilience-based intervention measures could be considered in preventing personality traits related to suicidal risk among youngsters. For children and adolescents, the measuring of personality dimensions may also be helpful in targeting key subpopulations of intervention priority. (shrink)

Let G = V G, E G be a molecular graph, where V G and E G are the sets of vertices and edges. A topological index of a molecular graph is a numerical quantity which helps to predict the chemical/physical properties of the molecules. The Wiener, Wiener polarity, and the terminal Wiener indices are the distance-based topological indices. In this paper, we described a linear time algorithm that computes the Wiener index for acyclic graphs and extended this algorithm for (...) unicyclic graphs. The same algorithms are modified to compute the terminal Wiener index and the Wiener polarity index. All these algorithms compute the indices in time O n. (shrink)

Chez P. Ricoeur se distingue de langue et de parôle en analysant de discours. Il souligne en quoi une meilleure étude des structures narrative est éclairante pour l'étude du régime d'historicité, à condition de ne pas confondre dans une indistinction ontologique les discours d'ordre historique et d'ordre fictionnel.Avec Temps et Récit, Ricoeur poursuit aussi sa confrontation avec l'oeuvre de Heidegger, dont la réflrxtion sur l'historialité a beaucoup compté pour lui. On peut déceler derrière la triologie de Ricoeur une forme de (...) réponse à Etre et Temps. Selon Ricoeur, il ne s'agit d'hypostasier ni le récit ni le temps, mais de montrer comment dans la triangulation récit-temps-action, c'est en fait cette dernière dimention qui occupe une position fondatrice, car c'est dans l'agir et le pâtir que se situe la structure première du temps, laquelle ne peut s'exprimer que sous la forme d'un récit. On peut ainsi mesurer, sur un thème commun aux deux périodes, le parcours réalisé avec Temps et Récit. A la notion traditionnelle de continuité en histoire il substitue la notion plus élaborée de mise en intrigue, commeopération configurante du rapport du récit au temps. L'autre continuité majeure qui accompagne son intérêt pour la question de l'historicité est son souci de tenir ensemble les deux versants de celle-ci, le versant de l'histoire racontée et celui de l'histoire à faire, donc l'articulation sur un agir. P. Ricoeur place donc le discours historique dans une tension qui lui est propre entre identité narrative et ambition de vérité. Il y a aussi la condition de l'événement historique devient tributaire de sa mise en intrigue. Elle est la médiation qui assure la matérialisation du sens de l'expérience humaine du temps "aux trois niveaux de sa préfiguration pratique, de sa configuration épistémique et de sa reconfiguration herméneutique." La mise en intrigue joue le rôle d'opérateur, de miseen relation d'événements hétérogènes. En réticent face aux risques de l'hyperbole, convaincu du caractère aporétique de toute quête directe, de toute tentative de remontée aux conditions qui donnent accès à une temporalité toujours déjà constituée, déjà‐là, et donc nécessairement imparfaite. (shrink)

Profitant de la commémoration du cinquantenaire de la création du premier Centre de recherches sur l’imaginaire fondé par Gilbert Durand, Léon Cellier et Paul Deschamps, nous tentons d’approfondir notre réflexion sur les influences réciproques entre l’imaginaire chinois et la pensée durandienne, dont la rencontre se révèle féconde et fructueuse dans les champs interculturels et comparatifs, et semble propice pour la connaissance et le rayonnement de l’un comme de l’autre, et pour le développement futur de la recherche sur l’imaginaire. While seizing (...) the opportunity to participate in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the first Research Center on the Imaginary Founded by Gilbert Durand, Léon Cellier and Paul Deschamps, this presentation aims to deepen reflection on the reciprocal influences between the Chinese Imaginary and Durandian thought, This encounter proves to be fruitful in both inter-cultural and comparative fields, and is propitious for the knowledge and influence of both cultures. It may well spawn future developments in research on the Imaginary. (shrink)

Dans les théories traditionnelles de la sociologie du développement, les recherches se concentrent sur deux axes. D’un côté, les théories de la modernisation, qui étudient l’évolution des pays développés, de l’autre, celles du développement, qui s’intéressent aux modèles latino-américains, africains et est-asiatiques. Ces deux axes traditionnels limitent fortement le champ de vision de la sociologie du développement. Nous montrerons que les processus de transition dans les pays socialistes tels que la Chine, l’ex-URSS ou l’Europe de l’Est soulèvent toute une série (...) de débats inédits. Comment analyser la voie de développement propre à des régions et des pays différents ? Comment examiner les relations entre l’État et la société au sein du processus de développement et de transition ? Comment aborder le problème des inégalités sociales au sein de ce processus ? Autant de nouvelles questions – et ce ne sont pas les seules – qui élargissent non seulement le champ de vision de la sociologie du développement, mais qui permettent aussi d’envisager une nouvelle théorie pour cette discipline. Il s’agit d’observer le processus pratique de transition sociale dans les pays de l’ancien bloc communiste. L’objectif ? Restructurer la sociologie du développement autour de trois piliers : les théories de la modernisation, du développement et de la transition.Among the traditional theories in the sociology of development, research generally focuses on two lines. On the one hand, the theories of modernization, which mainly study the evolution of developed countries, on the other hand, the theories of development, which are interested in the patterns spread out by Latin America, Africa and East Asia. Those two directions set serious restrictions on the sociology of development’s scope. We’ll show that the transition processes of socialist countries such as China, ex-USSR or Eastern Europe actually raise a whole series of new debates. How should we analyze the specific way of development of countries or areas that are different ? How examine the relations between State and society during the development and transition process ? How should we deal with the issue of social inequalities during this process ? These new interrogations – and many others – do broaden the sociology of development’s horizons, but also help us build up a new theory for the discipline. We must scrutinize the practical process of social transition in the countries which were part of the former communist bloc, and, in so doing, rebuild the sociology of development on three pillars : the theories of modernization, of development and of transition. (shrink)

Ben shu wei wo she chong dian tu shu hua xia wen ku ru xue shu xi zhong di yi ben. Gai shu yi jian ming de wen zi gou le le Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi san wei Ming mo da ru sheng huo de shi dai bei jing, hong ru de sheng ping jing li, ta men de xue shu zao yi (zhu yao zhi ta men zai ru xue fang mian de cheng jiu), cheng yu jiao (...) you yi ji san wei zai li shi shang de di wei he gong xian, ta men ren sheng de kan ke du lai ling ren bu sheng xi. (shrink)

本书通过对中国古代文化现象中的火与天文,《周易》,五行,丹道,中医,哲学方面联系的研究,阐述了"火"作为特殊哲学范畴所经历的漫长发展和演变过程.全书再现了中国人传统思维的特点,以及人类文明中独特的中国 智慧.

In the broadest sense of the phrase, there is action at a distance whenever there is a spatial or temporal gap between a cause and its effect. In this sense, it is not at all controversial that there is action at a distance. To cite a few instances: the page a few inches in front of you is impinging on your senses; the Sun is now warming the Earth; we are still living with the consequences of the Second World War. (...) What is controversial is the idea of unmediated action at a distance, where there is both a gap between cause and effect and no intermediate causes and effects to fill it. The three examples just mentioned are cases of action at a distance, certainly, but not, surely, unmediated action at a distance. What we expect to find, in each case, is a spatially and temporally continuous causal series stretching across time and space. (shrink)

An essential reference since the Middle Ages for European intellectuals, the work of Boethius contributed to the universalization of knowledge. This collective volume highlights the cultural heritage of this great classic from antiquity with its exemplary scientific eclecticism.

Lumbar Exoskeleton, as an important instance of wearable exoskeleton, has broad application prospects in logistics, construction, and other industries. Specifically, in the working scenarios that require long-term and repeated bending and rising movements, active lumbar exoskeleton can provide effective protection and flexible assistance to wear’s waist muscles and bones, which will significantly reduce the risk of lumbar muscle strain. How to improve the human-machine coupling and enhance the assistance performance are the main challenges for ALE’s development. Based on the biomechanical (...) analysis of the movement of lifting heavy objects from bottom up, this paper proposes a lightweight but powerful ALE, named as SIAT-WEXv2, which can output maximum assistive force of 28 N. Additionally, we use robust fuzzy adaptive algorithm to improve SIAT-WEXv2’s antidisturbance ability, so that it can provide continuous and supple assistance for wearer. Electromyography signals of the lumbar erector spinae from ten subjects in two experimental cases were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of our new ALE. The experimental results indicate that the reduction of iEMG signal at LES decreased monotonically from 60% ± 5.5% to 40.5% ± 6.5% as the weight of lifting load increased from 0 to 25 kg. (shrink)

Increasing computational power and improving deep learning methods have made computer vision technologies pervasively common in urban environments. Their applications in policing, traffic management, and documenting public spaces are increasingly common (Ridgeway 2018, Coifman et al. 1998, Sun et al. 2020). Despite the often-discussed biases in the algorithms' training and unequally borne benefits (Khosla et al. 2012), almost all applications similarly reduce urban experiences to simplistic, reductive, and mechanistic measures. There is a lack of context, depth, and specificity in these (...) practices that enables semantic knowledge or analysis within urban contexts, especially within the context of using and occupying urban space. This paper will critique existing uses of artificial intelligence and computer vision in urban practices to propose a new framework for understanding people, action, and public space. This paper revisits Geertz's (1973) use of thick descriptions in generating interpretive theories of culture and activity and uses this lens to establish a framework to approach evaluating the varied uses of computer vision technologies that weigh meaning. By discussing cases of implemented examples of urban computer vision—from LinkNYC and Numina's urban measurements to the Detroit Police's use of DataWorks Plus's facial recognition technology—it proposes a framework for evaluating the thickness of the algorithm's conclusions against the computational method's complexity required to produce that outcome. Further, we discuss how the framework's positioning may differ (and conflict) between different users of the technology, from engineer to urban planner and policymaker, to citizen. This paper also discusses how the current use and training of deep learning algorithms and how this process limits semantic learning and proposes three potential methodologies toward gaining a more contextually specific, urban-semantic, description of urban space relevant to urbanists. This paper contributes to the critical conversations regarding the proliferation of artificial intelligence by challenging the current applications of these technologies in the urban environment by highlighting their failures within this context while also proposing an evolution of these algorithms that may ultimately make them sensitive and useful within this spatial and cultural milieu. (shrink)

Dans le sillage de Chris Marker ou de Grégory Chatonsky, de plus en plus d’artistes contemporains pratiquent la réappropriation, le détournement, l’usage critique de l’intelligence artificielle. Grand connaisseur des arts numériques, Fabien Zocco est l’un d’entre eux. Il est l’auteur, avec le réalisateur Gwendal Sartre, d’ Attack The Sun, film dont des dialogues ont été générés par une IA au cours même du tournage qui suit la dérive d’un youtuber californien paraissant sombrer dans une folie de tuerie. L’enjeu : éprouver (...) « de l’intérieur » des outils contemporains comme l’IA pour « escompter ensuite analyser et déconstruire leurs effets ». (shrink)

The article presents musicological and existentialist philosophical discourses on renaissance and baroque structures in the works of two contemporary classical composers. The existentialist point of view is imposed due to the examination of contemporary music works in which historically conditioned practices are also found. Being and Time and Introduction to Metaphysics by Martin Heidegger serve as a starting point for the reflections. The two works D’Om Le Vrai Sens by Kaija Saariaho and Concerto Grosso “Sun Reflections” by Yordan Goshev are (...) stylistically very different but the first bears renaissance and the second – baroque features respectively. In consequence, Der Man or Das Man is defined by the opposition between renaissance humanism and the metaphysics of Being. (shrink)

Les Sphériques ont été écrites par Ménélaos sous la forme d’un traité d’apparence purement mathématique. Cependant, la matière qui y est développée dans les deuxième et troisième livres est étroitement liée à des problèmes rencontrés en astronomie: calcul des coordonnées équatoriales du Soleil, établissement de tables d’ascensions, étude du mouvement du Soleil dans la sphère oblique, levers simultanés. Ce lien, qui demeure implicite dans le texte, a été mis en évidence par deux mathématiciens et astronomes arabo-musulmans, qui ont exposé la (...) signification astronomique de certains théorèmes des Sphériques. Nous présenterons, commenterons et complèterons cette explicitation en classant les théorèmes concernés en trois groupes: sens de variation de certaines grandeurs sur la sphère, propositions de trigonométrie sphérique et applications, sens de variation de rapports entre certaines grandeurs sur la sphère. The Spherics were written by Menelaos in the form of a purely mathematical treatise. However, the material developed in the second and third book is closely linked to problems met in astronomy: computation of equatorial coordinates of the Sun, setting up of rising-time tables, study of the motion of the Sun in the sphaera obliqua, simultaneous risings. This link, which remains implicit in the text, was clearly displayed by two arabo-islamic mathematicians and astronomers, who expounded the astronomical meaning of some theorems of the Spherics. We describe, comment and complement their explanations, by classifying the implications of the theorems in three groups: direction of variation of some quantities on the sphere, spherical trigonometry and applications, direction of variation of ratios of some quantities on the sphere. (shrink)

Qu’est-ce donc que la musique des aliens ou pour les aliens? Des cinq notes de la mélodie de Rencontres du troisième type aux explorations sonores de Sun Ra ou des intelligents dansants de l’électro, elle n’est peut-être que l’expression la plus accomplie d’une tendance très humaine à projeter sur l’extraterrestre certains reflets plus ou moins déformés de soi, surjouant quelque insaisissable mystère, révélation ou écart incompressible venu de l’ailleurs pour retrouver finalement, tout là-bas, une bribe d’ici.

Unlike the physical sciences, sociology is frequently described as an interpretative non-experimental science. Comparative epistemology sheds new light on this claim. 1. Experimentation is not a constant character of the physical sciences; 2. Experimental hypothetical-deductive reasoning, including the test of predictions, is also practicable in sociology. The argument is developed by a detailed step-wise comparison of the prediction of light ray deviation within the Sun’s gravitational field made in 1919 (physics) and the prediction of 8% cosmopolitanism of Cambridge University between (...) 1250 and 1350 (sociology). Extensive analysis of regent masters’ prosopographic notes yields the result of 9.5 percent cosmopolitanism, which is close to the theoretical prediction. Au contraire des sciences physiques, la sociologie est souvent décrite comme une science interprétative et non-expérimentale. L’épistémologie apporte un éclairage nouveau sur cette position : 1) L’expérimentation n’est pas un trait constant des sciences physiques ; 2) Le raisonnement expérimental est également applicable en sociologie. L’argument est développé en comparant en détail le test de la prédiction d’une déviation des rayons lumineux dans un champ de gravitation effectué en 1919 et le test de la prédiction d’un taux de cosmopolitisme de 8 % de l’université de Cambridge dans la période 1250-1350. Le dépouillement des notices prosopographiques des maîtres régents donne un résultat de 9,5 % proche de la prédiction théorique initiale. (shrink)

Résumé Méditation sur une fonction des mythologies et contres-mythologies chez Sun Ra, au sein de leur usage dans la culture afro-américaine. Le musicien-compositieur n’ayant jamais voulu théoriser, distillant plutôt ses pensées par d’énigmatiques bribes éparpillées, cette étude explore les passages mentionnant l’usage et le rapport aux mythes dans son œuvre – voyageant dans sa poésie et prose, dans une série d’interviews et de paroles filmées. Articulant cette vue émergente au rapport des anciens Égyptiens avec le mythe et l’énigmatique, une analyse (...) de scènes clefs du film Space Is the Place devient possible. La dimension stratégique de l’usage de contre-mythologies nous apparaît plus clairement, chez ce chef d’orchestre jazz inspiré. (shrink)

A ready answer to the question of Empedocles’ thinking about Good and Evil is to be found in Aristotle, who provides us with this simple rule of thumb : Good is associated with Love, and Evil with Hate. Fundamentally obvious as that rule may be, we need to go beyond Aristotle’s words. This article investigates several topics : fire, the sun, water, the hoard of divine thought, reincarnation, Empedoclean ethics, and, finally, the Blessed Ones. Complexity rules our quest to determine (...) what belongs to the Good and what belongs to the Bad. There are times when Love takes advantage of Hate’s ability to cause separation. The sun, manifestation par excellence of fire, is loaded with ambivalence in Empedocles – even though the high value placed almost universally on light is a commonplace in Greek thought. Empedocles is torn between his sense of wonder at the works of Aphrodite and his pessimism on recognizing the infernal cycle in which mortals are involved. (shrink)

Among Plato’s dialogues, the Timaeus was the most authoritative for Middle Platonists. But alone it does not suffice to explain some of the most important tenets defended by these philosophers. A remarkable example is the doctrine of the three Principles, which characterizes imperial Platonism, and which cannot be stated on the basis of the Timaeus alone. In my paper I show that Numenius was influenced by the Republic as well : in the metaphor of the Sun he found the Good (...) as first principle and an indication of a second principle which is further subdivided into an Intellect thinking the Ideas and a Demiurge ordering the universe. This interpretation provides him with some interesting solutions. But such an influence also raises difficulties insofar as the causal role of the first principle is concerned. (shrink)

An outdated geography supplies the bond among the thirty‐one articles in Sur les traces des Cassini. In the seventeenth century, when the Italians Gian Domenico Cassini and his nephew Giacomo Filippo Maraldi were born in Perinaldo, north of Genoa, their birthplace belonged to the County of Nice. Hence the rationale of building a set of papers on astronomy in the south of France around Cassini I and his family, which for four generations ran the Royal Observatory in Paris.Over half the (...) articles concern the Cassinis, mostly Cassini I and his great‐great‐grandson and namesake Cassini IV. There was also a Cassini V, Henri de Cassini, who countered the family genius and stamina by preferring botany and dying early, of the same outbreak of cholera that took the life of Sadi Carnot, without having created Cassini VI. He had already entered the Academy of Sciences with a push from his father. “I dare to beg of you [Cassini IV wrote to his fellow academician A. M. Ampère] to consider whether this unique situation in the history of letters, [a family's] devotion to the sciences for five successive generations and 170 years, ought not add some weight to the scientific credentials of my son.” It is hard to refuse the children of important alumni.The portion of Traces dealing more directly with astronomy in the south of France gets off to a distant start. Pytheas of Marseilles, who lived about 350 b.c., sailed to the Orkneys and the Baltic and earned himself the reputation of a liar back home for his stories of midnight suns and frozen lakes. He measured the latitude of Marseilles, the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the size of the earth. Ptolemy praised him. Strabo did not: “Pytheas lied about everything and covered it up with his knowledge of astronomy and numbers.”No traces worth following up were laid down for just under two thousand years. Then, in 1580, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc first saw the light of day. He lived in Italy for four years as a very young man, deepening his knowledge of astronomy and human nature and meeting the main future actors in the Galileo affair: Galileo himself, Bellarmine, and Matteo Barberini . At his center in Aix‐la‐Provence, Peiresc made many useful astronomical observations, some in collaboration with Pierre Gassendi. He died in harness, worrying about the change of the obliquity since the days of Pytheas.There follow articles on Provençal astronomers who determined longitude and latitude at sea, on neglected observers in Languedoc who assisted the cause of the Enlightenment, and on modern observatories in the south of France. The political circumstances after the defeat of 1870–1871 favored decentralization of astronomy away from the Paris Observatory. In Italy, too, recent political events—the unification of 1870—made a restructuring of astronomical institutions desirable and possible. But whereas France had too few observatories, Italy had too many. Georges Rayet and Pietro Tacchini, both astrophysicists, compared the circumstances in their countries and made mutually reinforcing proposals to their colleagues and governments. Their respective proposals, most of which were enacted, called for reassigning some Italian observatories to meteorological work, building new observatories in Besançon, Bordeaux, and Lyon, and refurbishing older ones at Marseilles and Toulouse. Once again, as in the days of Cassini I, Italy made a decisive contribution to the practice of astronomy in France.Sur les traces des Cassini mixes slight and weighty work, admits antiquarian and broader approaches, offers new documentation, displays pertinent illustrations, and does it all at a high level of scholarship. Since, because of its title, the book's primary audience probably will be people interested in the Cassinis, its fullest articles about them may usefully be mentioned here: Anna Cassini on Cassini's brief return to Italy, 1694–1696; Claude Teillet on the provincial life and poetry of Cassini IV; Christiane Demeulenaere‐Douyère on the Cassinis and the Académie des Sciences; Fabrizio Bonoli and Alessandro Braccesi on Cassini I's astronomical work in Bologna, with full bibliography; and Monique Pelletier on the Cassini map of France, on which she has written a book . Pytheas and Peiresc are the subjects of collaborative articles by Simone Arzano and Yvon Georgelin. (shrink)

The essay illustrates the figure of Demetrios Kavàkis Rhaoul, Byzantine official at the service of the last two Paleologue emperors and of the Despots of the Peloponnese, who was also George Gemistos Plethon’s friend and student. Two short works of his are here published for the first time, one on the Sun God and another on the classification of the religions professed by humanity, alongside two small inedited letters by Plethon. In the first of the two writings, Kavàkis clears the (...) reasons for his aversion towards any kind of religion or philosophy that places the divine beyond the visible world and that believes in the existence of an intelligible or, even worse, over-intelligible world. These ideas lead him to clash not only with Christianity, but also with Plato and with the ideas of his beloved teacher Plethon, who, however, seems to agree with him in a dream. In the second writing this peculiar solar religion is reaffirmed, against the religion of poets and the religions of transcendence, warning however that nature wants some respect for the religion of ancestors, whichever this might be, when it is functional to the life of the society and of the State. (shrink)

In what is quite possibly the most famous passage of the De revolutionibus, Copernicus implies that nobody could ever place this supreme flaming torch that is the Sun in another or better place than that from which it can illuminate everything simultaneously, namely the centre of this extremely beautiful temple that is our world. Considering the fact that he leaves an interrogatory twist to this argument of convenience, and since he makes this statement without any justification as it seems entirely (...) evident to him, certain Copernicans choose to illustrate this by means of an analogy: if indeed the Sun must be positioned thus, it is because the most appropriate place for the torch intended to illuminate the room is at its centre, and not in one of its corners. Despite the heliosophy of the Renaissance having been shared by both geocentrists and Copernicans alike, this "torch" argument does not appear to have achieved much success: rarely adopted by the Copernican camp, it was even contested by some of them; as for the geocentrists, it held no appeal for them whatsoever. Did this argument of convenience therefore not benefit from the self-evidence attributed to it by Copernicus, and from, in his wake, it's continued support by a good many commentators? As is often the case when it comes to the history of thought, the pseudo-obviousness of this argument is merely the fruit of a blatant anachronism: presenting heliocentrism as the cosmological system that finally grants the Sun its worthy centrality by placing it in the centre of the room and not in a corner, is to ignore the fact that this star of the day already enjoyed, in geocentrism, a centrality esteemed to be perfectly in keeping with both its dignity and its inherent illuminative function. Having lost their grasp on this worldview that no longer belonged to them, the Copernicans thus put forward an argument which, for the geocentrists, is worthless. Yet they could have argued the objective superiority of their centrality over that accorded to the Sun by geocentrism: while the latter is only numerical, on a purely planetary scale, and frankly fictitious, the former is thoroughly spatial, of cosmic proportions and, at least on first approximation, very real. In order to produce arguments of convenience that could carry their own weight, the protagonists of the new cosmology would have benefited from getting to know the world vision of their adversaries a little better instead of addressing them from their own point of view; similarly, instead of treating as an obvious fact that which is only evident to one of the two parties present, historians of scientific thought would also be well advised to have a better understanding of the world vision of those who history now considers as the losers! (shrink)

The city has featured as a central image in utopian thought. In planning the foundation of the new and ideal city there is a close interconnection between ideas about urban form and the vision of the moral good. The spatial structure of the ideal city in these visions is a framing device that embodies and articulates not only political philosophy but is itself an articulation of moral and cosmological systems. This paper analyses three different utopian moments in three different historical (...) epochs – Tommaso Campanella’s City of the Sun (1602), the Choson dynasty foundation of the city of Seoul (1395) and the modernist utopian urbanism of the controversial Le Corbusier (1887–1965). In this analysis attention is drawn to the cosmological and moral visions articulated in these three ‘images of the city’ (Lynch). The opposition between rationalistic/mechanistic and religious/traditional urban design can prove to be an oversimplification that obscures the complex interrelations between the moral geometry and the natural alignments of the ideal urban form. (shrink)

Dans la genese de sa constitution, la philosophie n'a pu faire l'economie d'une confrontation avec la musique qui fournissait aux anciens Grecs les schemes fondamentaux de la culture. De cette confrontation Platon est le temoin. Scindant la musique, il privilegie l'Harmonique, qui en est la partie theorique, sans toutefois lui reconnaitre la titre de science supreme. Correlativement, il condamne comme dysharmonie, tumulte fracassant et perturbateur de l'ordre cosmique, l'harmonie chromaticiste dont il s'emploie, non sans paradoxe, a decrire le detail. Par (...) cette lecture en filigrane des Dialogues de Platon, l'auteur se propose de reconstruire la pensee qui procede de l'harmonie chromaticiste et de montrer son importance dans l'elaboration de la philosophie fondatrice. Au carrefour des disciplines du savoir antique, ce livre s'adresse non seulement aux philosophes, mais aussi a tous ceux qui, musiciens ou stylisticiens, s'interessent a la forme musicale. (shrink)

In attempting to explain or deal with negative workplace behaviours such as workplace bullying, the notion of ‘workplace psychopaths’ has recently received much attention. Focusing on individual aspects of negative workplace behaviour is at odds with more systemic approaches that recognise the contribution of individual, organisational and societal influences, without seeking to blame a person(s) for their behaviour or personality disorder. Regarding a coworker as a psychopath is highly stigmatising, and given the relatively low prevalence of psychopathy in the community, (...) is likely to be incorrect. Sources promoting the notion of workplace psychopathy provide lists of diagnostic criteria and appear to encourage the perception that it is common. This research examines how lay persons use behavioural criteria consistent with psychopathy and the label ‘psychopath’ in relation to a coworker. 307 Australian workers completed an online survey concerning their experience of workplace bullying, which also asked them to rate a coworker’s behaviour on a range of scales to assess perceptions of psychopathy. Rates of psychopathy, when using labels and behavioural criteria, were found to be much higher than scientific estimates of prevalence, for both participants who had been bullied and those who had not. A higher proportion of non-bullied participants classified a coworker as a psychopath when using the label ‘psychopath’, compared to when using behavioural criteria. The notion that there are psychopaths in every workplace should be treated with caution to ensure that the potential for ‘misdiagnosis’ and stigmatisation do not cause further harm in situations of unacceptable workplace behaviours. (shrink)

In Insister – À Jacques Derrida Cixous declares that she will have to write ‘the book of words’, among which ‘words of power’ will be vermögen (to be able), together with Unvermöglickeit (impossibility), and tragen (to carry), along with austragen (to bear to term) and übertragen (to transfer, translate, also in the sense of metaphor). By examining Derrida's reading of Cixous in H. C. pour la vie, c'est à dire … this article deepens the association of tragen with life and (...) power that fascinates Derrida in the second year of his final seminar where he tracks a thread between Austrag, Walten, Trieb, and Vermögen. Its point of departure is a passage towards the end of H. C. pour la vie where Derrida speaks of the trap of metalanguage or, rather, metaphrasis that lurks in the c’est of c'est à dire. I link this passage both to the discussion of metaphorization in the earlier ‘Le puits et la pyramide’ and the characterization of puisse as ‘the exhaustion [ l'épuisement] of the sun before its time’ in the essay on Cixous to associate puissance with the wearing-out of the world and its usure in the double sense elaborated in ‘La mythologie blanche’. (shrink)

On the winter morning of 16 June 1976, fifteen thousand black children marched on Orlando Stadium in Soweto, carrying slogans dashed on the backs of exercise books. The children were stopped by armed police who opened fire, and thirteen-year-old Hector Peterson became the first of hundreds of schoolchildren to be shot down by police in the months that followed. If, a decade later, the meaning of Soweto’s “year of fire” is still contested,1 it began in this way with a symbolic (...) display of contempt for the unpalatable values of Bantu education, a public rejection of the “culture of malnutrition” with which blacks had been fed.2 The local provocation for the Orlando march was a ruling that black children be taught arithmetic and social studies in Afrikaans—the language of the white cabinet minister, soldier, and pass official, prison guard, and policeman. But the Soweto march sprang from deeper grievances than instruction in Afrikaans, and the calamitous year that passed not only gave rise to a rekindling of black political resistance but visibly illuminated the cultural aspects of coercion and revolt.The children’s defacement of exercise books and the breaking of school ranks presaged a nationwide rebellion of uncommon proportion. The revolt spread across the country from community to community, in strikes, boycotts, and street barricades. It represented in part the climax of a long struggle between the British and Afrikaans interlopers for control over an unwilling black populace and was at the same time a flagrant sign of the contestation of culture, an open declaration by blacks that cultural value, far from shimmering out of reach in the transcendent beyond, would now be fought for with barricades of tires, empty classrooms, and precocious organization. 1. At least three general analyses of the Soweto uprising have emerged: deeper African National Congress involvement in the community; strains on the educational system, unemployment and recession, with greater industrial militancy stemming from the strikes in the early seventies; and the emergence of Black Consciousness ideology. See Tom Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 , pp. 321-62.2. See M. K. Malefane, “ ‘The Sun Will Rise’: Review of the Allahpoets at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg,” Staffrider ; reprinted in Soweto Poetry, ed. Michael Chapman, South African Literature Studies, no. 2 , p. 91. Soweto Poetry will hereafter be cited as SP. Anne McClintock is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Columbia University. She is the author of a monograph on Simone de Beauvoir and is working on a dissertation on race and gender in British imperial culture. Her previous contribution to Critical Inquiry , “No Names Apart: The Separation of Word and History in Derrida’s ‘Le Dernier Mot du Racisme,’ ” appeared in the Autumn 1986 issue. (shrink)

What is the relationship between complexity in the world and complexity in the mind? Intuitively, increasingly complex objects and events should give rise to increasingly complex mental representations (or perhaps a plateau in complexity after a certain point). However, a counterintuitive possibility with roots in information theory is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the “objective” complexity of some stimulus and the complexity of its mental representation, because excessively complex patterns might be characterized by surprisingly short computational descriptions (e.g., if they (...) are represented as having been generated “randomly”). Here, we demonstrate that this is the case, using a novel approach that takes the notion of “description” literally. Subjects saw static and dynamic visual stimuli whose objective complexity could be carefully manipulated, and they described these stimuli in their own words by giving freeform spoken descriptions of them. Across three experiments totaling over 10,000 speech clips, spoken descriptions of shapes (Experiment 1), dot-arrays (Experiment 2), and dynamic motion-paths (Experiment 3) revealed a striking quadratic relationship between the raw complexity of these stimuli and the length of their spoken descriptions. In other words, the simplest and most complex stimuli received the shortest descriptions, while those stimuli with a “medium” degree of complexity received the longest descriptions. Follow-up analyses explored the particular words used by subjects, allowing us to further explore how such stimuli were represented. We suggest that the mind engages in a kind of lossy compression for overly complex stimuli, and we discuss the utility of such freeform responses for exploring foundational questions about mental representation. (shrink)

Droit et complexité. Le rapprochement de ces deux mots pourrait passer pour incongru. L'idéal du droit ne tend-il pas, en effet, à la rigueur et à la clarté garantes de certitudes et d'efficacité? Cet ouvrage, tiré des travaux du colloque tenu à Brest en mars 2006 a pris un parti inverse en faisant le choix, d'une certaine façon pascalien, de dialoguer avec l'incertitude dans des échanges très ouverts qui ont confirmé l'ampleur du changement de perspectives sur le droit. Un changement (...) que traduit bien le vocabulaire : régulation, pluralisation des ordres normatifs, dissémination dans des réseaux, internormativité, droit de coordination, procéduralisation, ajustement, négociation, expérimentation, flexibilité d'un droit devenu " droit souple ", voire " droit soluble "... Le système semble s'être converti à la modestie en perdant non de sa massivité comme l'a récemment souligné le Conseil d'Etat, mais en perdant de sa monumentalité pyramidale intimidante au profit d'un plasma de normes de plus en plus imbriquées dans des rapports de complémentarité, de négociation, de synergie déployés dans la dimension horizontale. La frontière entre les différentes catégories de normes persiste certes, mais elle se brouille, vire au " flou ". Si bien que là où prévalaient des distinctions nettes et des normes chimiquement pures, stables, s'imposent désormais des alliages, des rapports d'interdépendance analogues aux fils de trame d'un tissu. Edgar Morin aime à rappeler que le mot complexe signifie " tisser ensemble " et il définit la complexité comme " un tissu [...] de constituants hétérogènes inséparablement associés ". (shrink)

One way of understanding the reduplicative formula ‘Christ is, qua God, omniscient, but qua man, limited in knowledge’ is to take the occurrences of the ‘ qua ’ locution as picking out different parts of Christ: a divine part and a human part. But this view of Christ as a composite being runs into paradox when combined with the orthodox understanding of the Incarnation, according to which Christ is identical to the second person of the Trinity. In response, we have (...) to choose between modifying the orthodox understanding, adopting a philosophically and theologically contentious perdurantist account of persistence through time, or rejecting altogether the idea of the composite Christ. (shrink)

Genre has been a critical issue in discourse analysis as well as in other disciplines. Based on a literature review of the concept of genre and taking judgments as one type of genre in legal settings, the present study provides a corpus-based insight into the nature of genre. The literature review per se reveals that genre has one typical feature of a sign, that is, being subject to multiple and alternative interpretations; in other words, genre as a sign may have (...) various interpretants. The present study unravels the actual generic structures, distinguishes different types of generic structures within the given genre, and then defines the dominant generic structure of judgments in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. This study also examines and contrasts the generic structure potential of judgments in each jurisdiction. In addition, the variation of Mainland China's judgments over time is briefly discussed. Comparing the generic structures of judgments among the three jurisdictions, as well as the structures of judgments in Mainland China over time, the paper argues that genre also has the essential features of a sign, that is, the characteristics of temporality and spatiality. (shrink)

It is highly likely that, to achieve full human–machine symbiosis, truly intelligent cognitive systems—human-like —may have to be developed first. Such systems should not only be capable of performing human-like thinking, reasoning, and problem solving, but also be capable of displaying human-like motivation, emotion, and personality. In this opinion article, I will argue that such systems are indeed possible and needed to achieve true and full symbiosis with humans. A computational cognitive architecture is used in this article to illustrate, in (...) a preliminary way, what can be achieved in this regard. It is shown that Clarion involves complex structures, representations, and mechanisms, and is capable of capturing human cognitive performance as well as human motivation, emotion, personality, and other relevant aspects. It is further argued that the cognitive architecture can enable and facilitate true human–machine symbiosis. (shrink)

BackgroundIt has been well investigated that nature exposure intervention can restore directed attention and improve subsequent cognitive performance. The impairment of decision-making skills in mentally fatigued soccer players was attributed to the inability of attention allocation. However, nature exposure as the potential intervention to counter mental fatigue and improve the subsequent decision-making skill in soccer players has never been investigated.ObjectsThis study aimed to evaluate the effects of nature exposure intervention on decision-making skills among mentally fatigued university soccer players. Moreover, different (...) durations of nature exposure were also evaluated.MethodsA random control between-subject design was adopted. Players were randomly assigned into six groups with three different durations of the experimental group compared with the corresponding control group. All players were first mentally fatigued by performing a 45-min Stroop task; then, they viewed virtual photos of natural or urban scenes; and finally, they performed a soccer decision-making task.ResultsThe subjective ratings of mental fatigue were significantly higher following the Stroop task. Only Exp 3 significantly improved decision-making reaction time compared with Con 3. Moreover, the accuracy slightly increased in Exp 3 after the intervention.ConclusionIn line with attention restoration theory, nature exposure significantly improved decision-making skills in mentally fatigue university players. However, the duration must be 12.50 min for each stimulus to stay longer to attract involuntary attention. (shrink)

This paper discusses essential motivational representations necessary for a comprehensive computational cognitive architecture. It hypothesizes the need for implicit drive representations, as well as explicit goal representations. Drive representations consist of primary drives — both low-level primary drives (concerned mostly with basic physiological needs) and high-level primary drives (concerned more with social needs), as well as derived (secondary) drives. On the basis of drives, explicit goals may be generated on the fly during an agent’s interaction with various situations. These motivational (...) representations help to make cognitive architectural models more comprehensive and provide deeper explanations of psychological processes. This work represents a step forward in making computational cognitive architectures better reflections of the human mind and all its motivational complexity and intricacy. (shrink)

Los versos 990-1008 de Suplicantes de Eurípides constituyen un verdadero locus desperatus: allí Evadne se presenta sobre la escena y expresa en versos líricos los sentimientos previos a su suicidio final. Ni la métrica sin responsio del pasaje, ni el texto evidentemente corrupto, ni la gramática inadecuada ayudan a comprender el sentido del pasaje. Tan así es que la mayoría de los editores ha renunciado a tratar de comprender el sentido de sus palabras. Sin embargo, creemos que la adecuada interpretación (...) de la metáfora utilizada por la esposa de Capaneo ayudará a la comprensión del pasaje: se trata de un priamel que se constituye en patético recordatorio del día de la boda por parte de una mujer que está a punto de suicidarse sobre la tumba de su esposo ya muerto. El fuego del rayo que mató a Capaneo, así como el fuego de la pira en donde arde ahora su cadáver (y en la que ella misma se arrojará muy pronto), le suscitan una serie de recuerdos de días mejores, vinculados todos ellos con el fuego y con la luz. La mención del carro del sol y de la luna, que constituye una metáfora casi cristalizada en la literatura griega, permite desarrollar de manera novedosa otra metáfora: las muchachas que, también ellas, cabalgan sobre la oscuridad portando sus antorchas. Evadne destaca la alegría que reinó el día de su boda, para que sea más agudo el contraste con el momento presente. The verses 990-1008 of Euripides’ Suppliants are a locus desperatus: Evadne there appears on the scene and expresses feelings in lyrical verse before his final suicide. Neither the passage’s metric without Responsio, or text clearly corrupt or improper grammar help make sense of the passage. So much so that most publishers have given up trying to understand the meaning of his words. However, we believe that the proper interpretation of the metaphor used by the wife of Capaneus help the understanding of the passage: it is one that constitutes priamel poignant reminder of the wedding day by a woman who is about to suicide on the grave of her husband already dead. The fire of lightning that killed Capaneus and fire burning pyre where his body is now (and which will throw herself very soon), will raise a number of memories of better days, all linked with the fire and light. The mention of the chariot of the sun and moon, which is a metaphor almost crystallized in Greek literature, enables a new way to develop another metaphor: the girls that they too ride on the dark carrying torches. Evadne highlights the joy that reigned on the day of her wedding, to be sharper contrast with the present moment. (shrink)

First of all, I have spoken so far of the history of Greek thought. It would be more correct to speak of Graceo-Roman thought. Certainly, the Latins were not inventors, in science or in philosophy. But, if one thinks of what our knowledge of Greek ...

Photographs, paintings, rigid sculptures: all these provide examples of static images. It is true that they change—photographs fade, paintings darken and sculptures crumble—but what change they undergo is irrelevant to their representational content. A static image is one that represents by virtue of properties which remain largely unchanged throughout its existence. Because of this defining feature, according to a long tradition in aesthetics, a static image can only represent an instantaneous moment, or to be more exact the state of affairs (...) obtaining at that moment'. It cannot represent movement and the passage of time. This traditional view mirrors a much older one in metaphysics: that change is to be conceived of as a series of instantaneous states and hence that an interval of time is composed of extensionless moments. The metaphysical view has been involved in more controversy than its aesthetic counterpart. Aristotle identified it as one of the premises of Zeno's arrow paradox and Augustine employed it in his proof of the unreality of time. (shrink)

In the literature, CSR’s roles on firm performance are found to be positive, negative, or neutral. This inconclusive pattern suggests there may be a more complicated mechanism at work than the traditional focus on simple linear associations. We propose and test an inverted-U-shaped relationship between CSR and shareholder value, the fundamental measure of firm performance. Further, we incorporate a critical firm attribute, marketing capability, to moderate the nonlinear link between CSR and shareholder value, thereby exploring a previous understudied area involving (...) the interplay between CSR and market-side competency. The results show that an initial increase in CSR engagement positively drives firm shareholder value, but the effect turns negative when a firm pursues excessive CSR engagement. Notably, however, this negative association does not apply to firms that have a high marketing capability. Our research generates meaningful implications for a stakeholder view of CSR, strategic management, firm valuation, resource-based theories, and business practices. (shrink)