Just how eternal is the Eternal Return? This article examines how Foucault's readings of Nietzsche and of Deleuze critically revise the Return so as to arrive at a concept of contingency that is itself contingent. I argue that this archaeological/genealogical rereading problematises the Return as presented in Difference and Repetition; when the Return is presented as ‘the form of change [that] does not change’, it risks returning eternally to the Same – for all its avowed affirmation of difference. By returning (...) the Return to its own historically contingent epistemic conditions of possibility, Foucault repeats Deleuze's philosophy with maximum difference. (shrink)

Dysfunction or injury of pain-transmitting primary afferents' central pathways can result in pain. The organism as a whole responds to such injury and consequently many symptoms of neuropathic pain develop. The nervous system responds to painful events and injury with neuroplasticity. Both peripheral sensitization and central sensitization take place and are mediated by a number of biochemical factors, including genes and receptors. Correction of altered receptors activity is the logical way to intervene therapeutically. [berkley; blumberg et al.; coderre & katz; (...) dickenson; mcmahon; wiesenfeld-hallin et al.]. (shrink)

Syntax of displacing predicates -- Argument hierarchies -- Animacy and adult sentence processing -- Animacy and children's language -- Modeling displacing predicates -- Conclusions and origins.

We use tools of mathematical logic to analyse the notion of a path on a complex algebraic variety, and are led to formulate a “rigidity” property of fundamental groups specific to algebraic varieties, as well as to define a bona fide topology closely related to etale topology. These appear as criteria for ℵ1-categoricity, or rather stability and homogeneity, of the formal countable language we propose to describe homotopy classes of paths on a variety, or equivalently, its universal covering space.Technically, for (...) a variety A defined over a finite field extension of the field Q of rational numbers, we introduce a countable language L describing the universal covering space of A, or, equivalently, homotopy classes of paths in A. Under some assumptions on A source we show that the universal covering space of A is an analytic Zariski structure [26]), and present an Lω1ω)-sentence axiomatising the class containing the structure and that is stable and homogeneous over elementary submodels. The “rigidity” condition on fundamental groups says that projection of the fundamental group of a variety is the fundamental group of the projection, up to finite index and under some irreducibility assumptions, and is used to prove that the projection of an irreducible closed set is closed in the analytic Zariski structure.In particular, we define an analytic Zariski structure on the universal covering space of an Abelian variety defined over a finite extension of the field Q of rational numbers. (shrink)

Volume 33, Issue 8, November 2020, Page 1096-1120.

The Meno, one of the most widely read of the Platonic dialogues, is seen afresh in this original interpretation that explores the dialogue as a theatrical presentation. Just as Socrates's listeners would have questioned and examined their own thinking in response to the presentation, so, Klein shows, should modern readers become involved in the drama of the dialogue. Klein offers a line-by-line commentary on the text of the Meno itself that animates the characters and conversation and carefully probes (...) each significant turn of the argument. "A major addition to the literature on the Meno and necessary reading for every student of the dialogue."--Alexander Seasonske, Philosophical Review "There exists no other commentary on Meno which is so thorough, sound, and enlightening."-- Choice Jacob Klein was a student of Martin Heidegger and a tutor at St. John's College from 1937 until his death. His other works include Plato's Trilogy: Theaetetus, the Sophist, and the Statesman, also published by the University of Chicago Press. (shrink)

In the study of Chinese thought, the products of the Han dynasty have historically been identified as those most antithetical to Western rationalism. In many of these narratives, the commentarial t...

Diogenes, Ahead of Print. In the study of Chinese thought, the products of the Han dynasty have historically been identified as those most antithetical to Western rationalism. In many of these narratives, the commentarial tradition and systems of complementary yin and yang receive the most attention. The present work draws on Mawangdui texts, the writings of Dong Zhongshu, the Huainanzi, and ultimately Heshanggong’s Commentary on the Daodejing to complexify this view. Within these examples one discovers divergent philosophies of opposites and (...) yin and yang that confound the notion of a monolithic and solely holistic Han cosmology. Ultimately, this paper seeks to promote Heshanggong’s Commentary as an exemplar of Eastern Han Daoist yin-yang theory that subdivides these two principles into mode and substance. Such an interpretive move explains the commentary’s valorization of yin modes but not yin substances, and yang substances but not yang modes. Furthermore, this approach unveils new insights about the relationship of the Dao and Heaven, the history of Daoism, and the varieties of correlative cosmologies in the Han. (shrink)

In the study of Chinese thought, the products of the Han dynasty have historically been identified as those most antithetical to Western rationalism. In many of these narratives, the commentarial t...

Exploring the status of feminism in this "postfeminist" age, this sophisticated meditation on feminist thinking over the past three decades moves away from the all too common dependence on French theorists and male thinkers and instead builds on a wide-ranging body of feminist theory written by women. These writings address the question "Where are we going?" as well as "Where have we come from?" As evidenced in the essays compiled here, the multiplicity of directions available to this new feminism ranges (...) from poststructuralist academic theory through cultural activism to re-readings of law, literature, and representation. Contributors include Mieke Bal, Lauren Berlant, Rosi Braidotti, Elisabeth Bronfen, Judith Butler, Rey Chow, Drucilla Cornell, Ann Cvetkovich, Jane Gallop, Beatrice Hanssen, Claire Kahane, Ranjana Khanna, Biddy Martin, Juliet Mitchell, Anita Haya Patterson, and Valerie Smith. _Feminist Consequences_, representing the forefront of international feminist thought, marks a new and long-desired stage of feminist criticism where women are themselves making theory rather than reacting to male production. (shrink)

This is the third draft of a paper that aims to clarify the apparent contradictions in the views presented in certain standards and other specifications of health informatics systems, contradictions which come to light when the latter are evaluated from the perspective of realist philosophy. One of the origins of this document was Klein’s discussion paper of 2005-07-02 entitled “Conceptology vs Reality” and the responses from Smith, as well as the several hours of discussions during the 2005 MIE meeting (...) in Geneva. (shrink)

One of the important lessons to take away from Rohit Parikh’s impressive body of work is that logicians and computer scientists have much to gain by focusing their attention on the intricacies of political campaigns. Drawing on recent work developing a theory of expressive voting, we study the dynamics of voters’ opinions during an election. In this paper, we develop a model in which the relative importance of the different issues that concern a voter may change either in response to (...) candidates’ statements during a campaign or due to unforeseen events. We study how changes in a voter?s attention to the issues influence voting behavior under voting systems such as plurality rule and approval voting. We argue that it can be worthwhile for candidates to reshape public focus, but that doing so can be a complex and risky activity. (shrink)

Cancer susceptibility testing is likely to become routine in medical practice, despite many limitations and unanswered questions. These uncertainties greatly complicate the process of informed consent, creating an excellent opportunity to reconsider exactly how it should be conducted. Research with women's reactions to the availability of genetic susceptibility testing for breast cancer dramatically underscores that informed consent ought to be highly individualized, taking care to discern what patients believe about the disease and its causes and what role they want their (...) physician to play. (shrink)

The emergence of economic inequality has often been linked to individual differences in mental or physical capacities. By means of an agent-based simulation this paper shows that neither of these is a necessary condition. Rather, inequality can arise from iterated interactions of fully rational agents. This bears consequences for our understanding of both inequality and rationality. In a setting of iterated bargaining games, we claim that expected utility maximizing agents perform suboptimally in comparison with other strategies. The reason for this (...) lies in complex feedback effects between an agents’ action and the quality of beliefs used to calculate expected utility. Consequentially, we argue that the standard notion of rationality as maximizing expected utility is insufficient, even for certain standard cases of economic interaction. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose to see the Necker cube phenomenon as a basis for the development of a mathematical language in accordance with Leibniz’s vision of soft logic. By the development of a new coordinate system, we make a distinction between −0 and +0. This distinction enables us to present a new model for nonstandard analysis, and to develop a calculus theory without the need of the concept of limit. We also established a connection between “Recursive Distinctioning” and soft (...) logic, and use it as a basis for a new computational model. This model has a potential to change the current computational paradigm. (shrink)

Cet article dresse, à partir de correspondances et de documents inédits déposés à Jérusalem aux Archives centrales sionistes, un portrait d'Émile Meyerson ( 1859-1933), essentiellement du point de vue de l'homme. C'est ainsi qu'apparaissent son environnement familial (à Lublin), sa formation universitaire (en Allemagne) et son parcours professionnel (installé en France, il travaille dans l'industrie chimique, avant d'occuper un poste dans la presse, puis de diriger un secteur important à la Jewish Colonization Association). Sont également évoquées ses relations avec le (...) milieu intellectuel français et international, où il côtoie tant les savants que les hommes de lettres. (shrink)

Note: Paper to appear in special issue of the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, on the evolution of consciousness //// Klein, Nguyen, & Zhang (in press) argued that the evolutionary transition from respondent to agent during the Cambrian Explosion would be a promising vantage point from which to gain insight into the evolution of organic sentience. They focused on how increased competition for resources -- in consequence of the proliferation of new, neurally sophisticated life-forms -- made (...) awareness of the external world (in the service of agentic acts) an adaptive priority. The explanatory scope of Klein et al (in press) was limited to consideration of the conscious apprehension of externally sourced content – i.e., content delivered from the sensory registration of objects occupying phenomenal space. But consciousness – at least for humans -- takes its objects from internal as well as external sources. In the present article we extend their analysis to the question of how internally sourced content (i.e., mental states) became the object of conscious apprehension. (shrink)

Si Meyerson, immigrant polonais, ne peut pas s’intégrer dans un cadre institutionnel académique, il sait s’imposer dans les milieux intellectuels français grâce à l’écho que connaît son premier ouvrage qui lui en ouvre la porte d’accès. Sa soif de reconnaissance l’incite à solliciter l’avis des personnalités du monde scientifique et philosophique et à créer ainsi des liens où il sait s’imposer. Son autorité est incontestable auprès des jeunes, même si certains s’en détachent.If Meyerson, an immigrated Polish, could not be integrated (...) in an academic institutional framework, he had succeeded in becoming essential to the French intellectual milieus thanks to the echo which his first book has received which has opened him the gates to it. His thirst for recognition has encouraged him to ask for the opinion of the personalities of the scientific and philosophical world and to thus create links where he could impose himself. His authority is undeniable to the young people, even if some have left him. (shrink)

The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality is about research design, specifically concerning research that uses observational data to make a causal inference. It is separated into two halves, each with different approaches to that subject. The first half goes through the concepts of causality, with very little in the way of estimation. It introduces the concept of identification thoroughly and clearly and discusses it as a process of trying to isolate variation that has a causal interpretation. Subjects (...) include heavy emphasis on data-generating processes and causal diagrams. Concepts are demonstrated with a heavy emphasis on graphical intuition and the question of what we do to data. When we "add a control variable" what does that actually do? (shrink)

The unconscious-thought effect occurs when distraction improves complex decision making. Recent studies suggest that this effect is more likely to occur with low- than high-demanding distraction tasks. We discuss implications of these findings for Newell & Shanks' (N&S's) claim that evidence is lacking for the intervention of unconscious processes in complex decision making.

This paper discusses physician-assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia, supplies a short history and argues in favour of permitting both once rigid criteria have been set and the cases retro-reviewed. I suggest that among these criteria should be that VAE should only be permitted with one more necessary criterion: that VAE should only be allowed when physician assisted suicide is not a possible option. If the patient is able to ingest and absorb the medication there is no reason why VAE (...) should be permitted. A brief history of VAE and PAS is given and some of the arguments which have been given are analyzed. The Principle of the Double Effect is briefly discussed and why, in my opinion, it is not a valid principle is briefly discussed. (shrink)

My purpose in this article is twofold. I wish to discuss the rift between Jewish feminists and Christian feminists and their Goddess peers, aiming to grapple with points of dispute, alienation and disparity. I equally aspire to find shared grounds; even where agreement is impossible, to raise a greater insight into Judaism beyond irreducible divides, and enhance mutual understanding and respect. By mutual respect I mean that not only shared grounds should build bridges; bridges should be built where homologous identity (...) is missing. While leaving a space for disagreements, irreducible edges and differences; it is when divides are irreducible that mutual respect is most needed, though most difficult to find. Bridges over both shared and unshared grounds are the future of relations, as awareness of differences and open contention can widen reciprocal understanding of our separate worlds. (shrink)

While life thrives on all that is particular, private and personal, arbitrary atrocity conspires to establish itself on the power to destroy it. Conversely, art of atrocity finds its vocation in concentrating on the particular, by magnifying minute details. Individualizing the anonymous victim, ‘art of atrocity' 1 protests the conspiracy of dehumanization that lies with destruction of life.