Teeth are one of the most fascinating innovations of vertebrates. Their diversity of shape, size, location, and number in vertebrates is astonishing. If the molecular mechanisms underlying the morphogenesis of individual teeth are now relatively well understood, thanks to the detailed experimental work that has been performed in model organisms (mainly mouse and zebrafish), the mechanisms that control the organization of the dentition are still a mystery. Mammals display simplified dentitions when compared to other vertebrates with only a single tooth (...) row positioned in the anterior part of the mouth, whereas other vertebrates exhibit tooth rows in many locations. As proposed 60 years ago, tooth rows can be formed sequentially from an initiator tooth. Recent results in zebrafish have now largely confirmed this hypothesis. Here this observation is generalized upon and it is suggested that in most vertebrates tooth rows could form sequentially from a single initiator tooth. (shrink)

On peut inscrire les travaux de Engel dans le sillage rationaliste des Pères de la philosophie analytique, mais après le tournant naturaliste opéré par Quine. Ce sont les diverses bonnes raisons, exposées de manière non systématique par Engel, d’associer naturalisme et rationalisme que je souhaite présenter tout en cherchant à identifier la difficulté constitutive de ce programme qui ne reçoit pas de solution complète: la normativité épistémique ne semble ni éliminable, ni correctement intégrée à ce programme.

As Paulo Freire’s education theory for social change and emancipation is being continually studied and disseminated in East Asia, it has faced skepticism as some educators are unfamiliar with its critical pedagogy or education for freedom concepts. In light of this, scholars have attempted to compare Freirean philosophies with concepts in Chinese philosophy of education as a way of bridging East and West. Diverging from previous studies that use popular Chinese philosophies (such as Confucianism) to connect with Freirean theory, this (...) paper introduces an understudied but compatible Chinese philosophical thought, Mohism, for comparison with Freirean theory. Mohism is a political philosophy for the working class that expanded into grassroots movements for people’s welfare in ancient China. The Mohist bottom-up approach echoes the grassroots emancipatory pedagogy that underlies Freirean philosophy. A comparative analysis of education concepts in both philosophies reveals that despite differences in the educational content of Freirean theory and Mohism, there are similarities in their conceptualization of education for anti-oppression and praxis for social change. Implications for utilizing Mohist philosophy to contemplate Freirean philosophy within the East Asian educational context are also explored. Ultimately this paper revives educational concepts of Mohism that aligns with Freirean philosophy to a broader audience of scholars and educators. (shrink)

Not only is he lying, who speaks against his knowledge, but even more so he, who speaks against his ignorance [Nichtwissen].Augustine provided the first attempt to define lies in De Mendacio. It is central to his account that lying involves being dishonest. Many still follow Augustine in this. His definition shall serve as a background against which to contrast Nietzsche's notion of lying.2 The dishonesty definition of lying claims that telling a lie involves saying something the liar does not believe (...) to be true. Lying involves making a statement to someone else and trying to make it in such a way that the addressee does not realize the liar does not believe the statement to be true3—the liar tries to deceive the... (shrink)

We define a notion of reducibility for subsets of a second countable T 0 topological space based on relatively continuous relations and admissible representations. This notion of reducibility induces a hierarchy that refines the Baire classes and the Hausdorff–Kuratowski classes of differences. It coincides with Wadge reducibility on zero dimensional spaces. However in virtually every second countable T 0 space, it yields a hierarchy on Borel sets, namely it is well founded and antichains are of length at most 2. It (...) thus differs from the Wadge reducibility in many important cases, for example on the real line $${\mathbb{R}}$$ or the Scott Domain $${\mathcal{P}\omega}$$. (shrink)

Via a historical reconstruction, this paper primarily demonstrates how the societal debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) gradually extended in terms of actors involved and concerns reflected. It is argued that the implementation of recombinant DNA technology out of the laboratory and into civil society entailed a “complex of concerns.” In this complex, distinctions between environmental, agricultural, socio-economic, and ethical issues proved to be blurred. This fueled the confusion between the wider debate on genetic modification and the risk assessment of (...) transgenic crops in the European Union. In this paper, the lasting skeptical and/or ambivalent attitude of Europeans towards agro-food biotechnology is interpreted as signaling an ongoing social request – and even a quest – for an evaluation of biotechnology with Sense and Sensibility. In this (re)quest, a broader-than-scientific dimension is sought for that allows addressing the GMO debate in a more “sensible” way, whilst making “sense” of the different stances taken in it. Here, the restyling of the European regulatory frame on transgenic agro-food products and of science communication models are discussed and taken to be indicative of the (re)quest to move from a merely scientific evaluation and risk-based policy towards a socially more robust evaluation that takes the “non-scientific” concerns at stake in the GMO debate seriously. (shrink)

Hume’s chapter “Of Miracles” has been widely discussed, and one issue is that Hume seems to simply beg the question. Hume has a strong but implicit naturalist bias when he argues against the existence of reliable testimony for miracles. In this article, I explain that Hume begs the question, despite what he says about the possibility of miracles occurring. e main point is that he never describes a violation of the laws of nature that could not be explained by scientific (...) theories. (shrink)

The peripersonal space is an adaptive and flexible interface between the body and the environment that fulfills a dual-motor function: preparing the body for voluntary object-oriented actions to interact with incentive stimuli and preparing the body for defensive responses when facing potentially harmful stimuli. In this position article, we provide arguments for the sensorimotor rooting of the peripersonal space representation and highlight the variables that contribute to its flexible and adaptive characteristics. We also demonstrate that peripersonal space represents a mediation (...) zone between the body and the environment contributing to not only the control of goal-directed actions but also the organization of social life. The whole of the data presented and discussed led us to the proposal of a new theoretical framework linking the peripersonal action space and the interpersonal social space and we highlight how this theoretical framework can account for social behaviors in populations with socio-emotional deficits. (shrink)

Depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années, Albert Piette travaille à renouveler les méthodes et les concepts de l’anthropologie. Cette refondation s’appuie sur ses propres travaux empiriques, notamment sur le religieux, sur l’usage de méthodes plus pointillistes comme la photographie ou la description des détails, ainsi que sur des hypothèses relatives à la différence entre Sapiens et Néandertal. Les nouvelles propositions de travail qu’il avance empruntent souvent à la philosophie comme moyen d’une réflexion épistémologique, mais aussi parfois à la métaphysique. C’est pourquoi (...) je me propose de discuter en philosophe son ouvrage Contre le relationnisme. Lettre aux anthropologues. Il ne s’agit pas de réactiver la pratique philosophique de la science ultime couronnant les autres disciplines grâce à une réflexivité plus radicale, mais de suivre la démarche de Piette dans ses motivations profondes qui, comme il l’admet lui-même, l’oblige à passer par la philosophie. (shrink)

Despite the subjective experience of a continuous and coherent external world, we will argue that the perception and categorisation of visual space is constrained by the spatial resolution of the sensory systems but also and above all, by the pre-reflective representations of the body in action. Recent empirical data in cognitive neurosciences will be presented that suggest that multidimensional categorisation of perceptual space depends on body representations at both an experiential and a functional level. Results will also be resumed that (...) show that representations of the body in action are pre-reflective in nature as only some aspects of the pre-reflective states can be consciously experienced. Finally, a neuro-cognitive model based on the integration of afferent and efferent information will be described, which suggests that action simulation and associated predicted sensory consequences may represent the underlying principle that enables pre-reflective representations of the body for space categorisation and selection for action. (shrink)

This two-volume set provides a comprehensive overview of the multidisciplinary field of Embodied Cognition. With contributions from internationally acknowledged researchers from a variety of fields, _Foundations of Embodied Cognition_ reveals how intelligent behaviour emerges from the interplay between brain, body and environment. Covering early research and emerging trends in embodied cognition, Volume 1 _Perceptual and Emotional Embodiment_ is divided into four distinct parts, bringing together a number of influential perspectives and new ideas. Part one opens the volume with an overview (...) of theoretical perspectives and the neural basis of embodiment, before part two considers body representation and its links with action. Part three examines how actions constrain perception of the environment, and part four explores how emotions can be shaped and structured by the body and its activity. Building on the idea that knowledge acquisition, retention and retrieval are intimately interconnected with sensory and motor processes, _Foundations of Embodied Cognition_ is a landmark publication in the field. It will be of great interest to researchers and advanced students from across the cognitive sciences, including those specialising in psychology, neuroscience, intelligent systems and robotics, philosophy, linguistics and anthropology. (shrink)

Le constat semble s'imposer du caractère éphémère de toute existence. La brièveté de la vie nous obligerait à nous dépêcher, à courir, à construire, à jeter les fondements de ce qui nous survivra, à produire cela même qui défiera le temps en un simulacre d'éternité : l'art, la culture... Mais une telle existence - gagner et dépenser, conquérir et perdre, jouir et déprimer - il faut bien avouer que ce n'est pas une vie! C'est qu'il y a autre chose que (...) le constat de l'éphémère. L'acte le plus léger est lesté d'éternité. L'oeuvre la plus fragile accueille l'absolu. Et c'est cela la culture. C'est peut-être là ce qu'on nomme « incarnation » : la Vie faite chair, sentiment, angoisse, action, épreuve... La Vie inscrite dans les sursauts du corps, dans ses tremblements, dans ses élans. Inscrite et non pas assignée. L'incarnation n'est pas une incarcération. Elle est la Vie qui informe la matière pour la faire chair, pour l'ouvrir au-delà d'elle-même, pour l'ourler d'un débord, pour lui donner de naître, infiniment. Elle est la Vie qu'accueille chacun de nos souffles, chacune de nos paroles, le moindre de nos gestes, la moindre de nos pensées. Alors, dans ce dessaisissement de soi qui est déjà accueil plénier de la Vie se laisse entendre une promesse, autant dire un envoi : rien ne nous sera repris de ce qui nous a été donné. Toute grâce est irrévocable. Donné, c'est donné. Pour la Vie! (shrink)

De manière étonnante, la philosophique occidentale a toujours eu du mal à penser la vie. Elle a toujours eu bien des choses à nous dire sur la vie heureuse, la vie politique, la vie animale, l’éthique de la vie, la vie des hommes illustres… il lui est même arrivé de se risquer plus avant pour nous parler du vivant, voire du vécu. Et pourtant, ce qu’il en est de la vie elle-même, non pas de la vie en certaines de ses (...) manifestations régionales, mais de la vie en tant que telle, voilà ce qui pou... (shrink)

In the inaugural issue of this journal, David Tyfield used some recent discussions about "meaning finitism" to conclude that the sociology of scientific knowledge is an intellectually hopeless basis on which to erect an intelligible study of science. In contrast, the authors show that Tyfield's argument rests on some profound misunderstandings of the SSK. They show that his mischaracterization of SSK is in fact systematic and is based on lines of argument that are at best incoherent.

Résumé À la fin de sa vie missionnaire en Inde, l’Abbé Jules Monchanin (1895-1957) remit en chantier l’étude de la problématique de l’un et du multiple qui avait occupé sa réflexion dans les années 1930 à Lyon. Dans une note restée inédite, il mit en parallèle le déploiement de cette question philosophique chez les Grecs, de Parménide à Plotin, et dans la tradition indienne des Upanishads et de Shankara.

Le dernier étage de l’ Aufbau de Carnap est occupé par le type des objets culturels . L’examen des remarques fugitives de Carnap et la formulation des embarras ou des lacunes qu’elles manifestent montrent notamment, de l’intérieur, les faiblesses du cadre extensionnaliste en ce qui concerne la compréhension des objets culturels. La mention comparative de certains essais phénoménologiques d’ontologie des objets culturels suggère d’autres voies .The last floor of the Carnap's Aufbau by is inhabited by the type of cultural objects (...) . The examination of Carnap's brief remarks and the formulation of the embarrassments or the lacunas they exhibit show, from within, the weaknesses of the extensionalist framework for the comprehension of cultural objects. The comparative mention of phenomenological attempts at an ontology of cultural objects suggests other ways of handling them. (shrink)

Résumé La Russie participe à la régionalisation du monde et à l’intégration régionale en Europe. Pendant des siècles, elle a construit une réalité territoriale impé-riale, tout en entretenant des relations fortes avec l’Europe. Dans cet article, on montre que la problématique de l’intégration régionale appliquée à la Russie renvoie ainsi à deux espaces de référence – l’Europe et l’empire – qui renvoient eux-mêmes à problématiques différentes. On montre égale-ment que l’histoire et la géographie, à l’instar d’autres disciplines, permet-tent d’explorer ces (...) problématiques. (shrink)

Is there any ecological purpose in assuming that perception for action exists only through a global array of energy? Unlike Stoffregen & Bardy, who assume that behavior consists of movements, we would argue that behavior consists of a stable coupling between perception and action achieved through experience in an adaptive context. Determining target position in an aiming manual task and temporal control of impact movement illustrate that patterns of energy used for action are task-dependent.

Parfois, nous nous entendons dire : "J'ai le pressentiment que quelque chose va arriver". Certains appellent cela une pré-cognition. D'autres, plus stoïques, y voient non une fatalité, mais une marque de la destinée. Mais quelle est la nature de ce quelque chose? Est-il tellement indéterminé et inessentiel que le philosophe a l'impression de perdre son temps à essayer de le penser? Le "quelque chose" résiste à la pensée, il pose problème.

Qu'y a-t-il de commun entre un malade en fin de vie, un couple en mal d'enfant et un donneur d'organe? La bioéthique! Cette alliance entre morale et science, qui interroge sur les usages des technologies appliquées au vivant, est devenue le théâtre d'opinions et de féroces conflits moraux, religieux politiques et juridiques. Il ne fallut, par exemple, pas moins de onze ans et de multiples décisions de justice et médicales contradictoires, pour décider de l'arrêt des soins d'un jeune infirmier en (...) état végétatif. Est-ce bien raisonnable? Alors pourquoi avoir inventé une telle notion si peu et si mal partagée? Quels intérêts protège-t-elle: ceux des citoyens, des médecins..., de la morale? Mais alors de quelle morale? L'acteur de la santé, de la politique, du droit comme le citoyen, curieux et peut-être inquiet des manipulations scientifiques du vivant, trouveront tous matière à réflexion sur les limites mais aussi les ressources, souvent mal exploitées, de ce que l'on appelle, parfois hâtivement, la bioéthique."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

La vulnérabilité due à l’âge ou à la maladie conduit à mettre en place des dispositifs juridiques de protection. La famille et le juge et, dans une certaine mesure, le notaire, en sont les acteurs traditionnels. La protection du patrimoine est une des dimensions non négligeables de cette protection assurée prioritairement par la famille du protégé, conjoint et enfants qui sont aussi ses héritiers et ses débiteurs d’aliments. En réexaminant la place assignée à chacun – famille, juge, notaire, professionnel – (...) dans un nouveau texte réformant la loi plus que trentenaire qui régissait jusqu’alors la protection des majeurs, le législateur a semble-t-il pris acte de l’évolution de la famille et d’une nouvelle perception de son rôle par les différents acteurs de la protection. Comme toujours, l’argent est un puissant révélateur de la place assignée à chacun dans la famille. Les règles récemment modifiées qui régissent la protection, notamment patrimoniale, de la personne vulnérable et qui organisent sa représentation ne pouvaient donc être totalement neutres sur ce terrain. (shrink)

Using an international sample of environmental and social firm-level ratings between 2007 and 2019, we form synthetic overlapping region-based equity portfolios to examine the impact of screening stringency on abnormal returns and specific risk. While previous literature analyzes this relationship in a bidimensional setting, inferences made in this study are additionally robust to regional levels of market efficiency. Our results suggest that (1) screening stringency displays an inverted curvilinear relationship with risk-adjusted returns and (2) the impact on specific risk is (...) strictly increasing. Thus, portfolios that employ marginal and substantial screening incur the cost of responsible investing. However, moderate screening has the benefit of increasing performance without the burden of financing the least responsible corporations. (shrink)

This book explores the scope, application and role of medical law, regulatory norms and ethics, and addresses key challenges introduced by contemporary advances in biomedical research and healthcare. While mindful of national developments, the handbook supports a global perspective in its approach to medical law. Contributors include leading scholars in both medical law and ethics, who have contributed specially commissioned pieces in order to present a critical overview and analysis of the current state of medical law and ethics. Each chapter (...) offers comprehensive coverage of longstanding and traditional topics in medical law and ethics, and offers dynamic insights into contemporary and emerging issues in this heavily debated field. Topics covered include: Bioethics, health and human rights Medical liability Law and emerging health technologies Public health law Personalized medicine The law and ethics of access to medicines in developing countries Medical research in the genome era Emerging legal and ethical issues in reproductive technologies This advanced level reference work will prove invaluable to legal practitioners, scholars, students and researchers in the disciplines of law, medicine, genetics, dentistry, theology, and medical ethics. (shrink)

Via a historical reconstruction, this paper primarily demonstrates how the societal debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) gradually extended in terms of actors involved and concerns reflected. It is argued that the implementation of recombinant DNA technology out of the laboratory and into civil society entailed a “complex of concerns.” In this complex, distinctions between environmental, agricultural, socio-economic, and ethical issues proved to be blurred. This fueled the confusion between the wider debate on genetic modification and the risk assessment of (...) transgenic crops in the European Union. In this paper, the lasting skeptical and/or ambivalent attitude of Europeans towards agro-food biotechnology is interpreted as signaling an ongoing social request – and even a quest – for an evaluation of biotechnology with Sense and Sensibility. In this (re)quest, a broader-than-scientific dimension is sought for that allows addressing the GMO debate in a more “sensible” way, whilst making “sense” of the different stances taken in it. Here, the restyling of the European regulatory frame on transgenic agro-food products and of science communication models are discussed and taken to be indicative of the (re)quest to move from a merely scientific evaluation and risk-based policy towards a socially more robust evaluation that takes the “non-scientific” concerns at stake in the GMO debate seriously. (shrink)

La narrativa del cubano Edmundo Desnoes describe los cambios sociales que se dieron en la isla con el triunfo de la revolución en 1959. La pérdida de la libertad significó un proceso de alienación en el individuo y la sociedad, cuya degradación paulatina se observa en la novela Memorias del subdesarrollo, descendiendo desde la animalización a la desintegración. Cuarenta años más tarde, Desnoes publica Memorias del desarrollo y describe a un protagonista derivado del anterior, en su evolución después de haber (...) dejado la isla y haberse instalado en Nueva York. Sin embargo, la vida en una sociedad desarrollada no curará las heridas mortales abiertas por la represión de la dictadura, porque su identidad ha sido dañada para siempre. (shrink)

The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Networks represents the frontier of research into how and why networks they form, how they influence behavior, how they help govern outcomes in an interactive world, and how they shape collective decision making, opinion formation, and diffusion dynamics. From a methodological perspective, the contributors to this volume devote attention to theory, field experiments, laboratory experiments, and econometrics. Theoretical work in network formation, games played on networks, repeated games, and the interaction between linking and (...) behavior is synthesized. A number of chapters are devoted to studying social process mediated by networks. Topics here include opinion formation, diffusion of information and disease, and learning. There are also chapters devoted to financial contagion and systemic risk, motivated in part by the recent financial crises. Another section discusses communities, with applications including social trust, favor exchange, and social collateral; the importance of communities for migration patterns; and the role that networks and communities play in the labor market. A prominent role of networks, from an economic perspective, is that they mediate trade. Several chapters cover bilateral trade in networks, strategic intermediation, and the role of networks in international trade. Contributions discuss as well the role of networks for organizations. On the one hand, one chapter discusses the role of networks for the performance of organizations, while two other chapters discuss managing networks of consumers and pricing in the presence of network-based spillovers. Finally, the authors discuss the internet as a network with attention to the issue of net neutrality. (shrink)

Hundreds of millions of rare biospecimens are stored in laboratories and biobanks around the world. Often, the researchers who possess these specimens do not plan to use them, while other researchers limit the scope of their work because they cannot acquire biospecimens that meet their needs. This situation raises an important and underexplored question: how should scientists allocate biospecimens that they do not intend to use? We argue that allocators should aim to maximise the social value of the research enterprise (...) when allocating scarce biospecimens. We provide an ethical framework for assessing the social value of proposed research projects and describe how the framework could be implemented. (shrink)

In this article, I explain how and why different attempts to defend absolute divine simplicity fail. A proponent of absolute divine simplicity has to explain why different attributions do not suppose a metaphysical complexity in God but just one superproperty, why there is no difference between God and His super-property and finally how a absolute simple entity can be the truthmaker of different intrinsic predications. It does not necessarily lead to a rejection of divine simplicity but it shows that we (...) may consider another conception of divine simplicity compatible with some metaphysical complexity in God. (shrink)

Is it OK to lie to Siri? Is it bad to mistreat a robot for our own pleasure? Under what condition should we grant a moral status to an artificial intelligence (AI) system? This paper looks at different arguments for granting moral status to an AI system: the idea of indirect duties, the relational argument, the argument from intelligence, the arguments from life and information, and the argument from sentience. In each but the last case, we find unresolved issues with (...) the particular argument, which leads us to move to a different one. We leave the idea of indirect duties aside since these duties do not imply considering an AI system for its own sake. The paper rejects the relational argument and the argument from intelligence. The argument from life may lead us to grant a moral status to an AI system, but only in a weak sense. Sentience, by contrast, is a strong argument for the moral status of an AI system—based, among other things, on the Aristotelian principle of equality: that same cases should be treated in the same way. The paper points out, however, that no AI system is sentient given the current level of technological development. (shrink)

Le théisme est la position métaphysique au cœur des religions monothéistes : il est l’affirmation qu’il existe un Dieu omniscient, omnipotent, parfaitement bon et créateur. Penser l’objet de ces croyances, à savoir Dieu, suppose donc une étude des catégories métaphysiques nécessaires à l’explicitation du théisme. Loin de tout rationalisme étroit et de toute exaltation mystique, le présent ouvrage mobilise les outils de la philosophie contemporaine afin de mettre au jour les choix théoriques qui sont requis pour concevoir un Dieu compris (...) comme l’être ayant toutes les perfections. Les questions du réalisme, de la vérité, du premier principe, du possible et du nécessaire sont étudiées aussi bien à partir du contenu des croyances religieuses que de la métaphysique analytique contemporaine, en réponse aux critiques de Kant et de Heidegger. Car avant même de s’interroger sur l’existence ou sur l’inexistence d’un tel Dieu, ou encore de discuter de la rationalité ou de l’irrationalité des croyances religieuses, ce sont les outils conceptuels pour penser un Dieu qu’il nous faut examiner philosophiquement. (shrink)