Volume 20, Issue 4, May 2020, Page 116-118.

There is good reason to suppose that religious belief and ritual are manifestations of the archetypal blueprint for human existence encoded in the genetic structure of our species. As a consequence, religion has become a focus of study for psychobiologists and neuroscientists. However, scientific explanations of religious experience do not “explain away” such experience nor are they substitutes for the experience itself. On the contrary, scientific discoveries may be seen as corroboration of religious insights into the unus mundus, the essential (...) oneness of all experience, which links human nature with the nature of the cosmos. (shrink)

Ce livre presente une investigation critique de la science generale de l'etre, instituee par Aristote au titre de la science de l'etant en tant qu'etant. L'auteur met en lumiere ce qu'est l'etre pour Aristote, ce que signifie precisement le type d'unite de ses significations multiples, et quelles sont les structures, principes et concepts epistemologiques par lesquels le reel peut etre explique dans son ensemble. L'originalite aristotelicienne qui se revele dans son apprehension horizontale du reel, est a la fois responsable de (...) son naufrage historique dans l'ocean dominant des pensees hierarchisantes, et de son renouveau axtremement stimulant pour la pensee actuelle. (shrink)

Partant du constat qu’il existe à la fois une très grande similitude entre les philosophies de la perception d’Aristote et de Merleau-Ponty, et une revendication de ce dernier de s’affranchir du cadre ontologique hérité, cet article cherche à définir où se situe exactement la différence entre les deux conceptions. Il écarte d’abord l’hypothèse d’une assimilation ontologique totale entre sentant et sensible dans l’indistinction de la chair, dans la mesure où ce tissu n’est pas un uniforme mais peut toujours présenter la (...) dualité adhérente de l’envers et de l’endroit. Ensuite se pose la question de savoir si la Visibilité en général, comme puissance indéterminée, était impensable pour Aristote en raison de sa théorie de la substance – et il est montré que celle-ci, bien comprise, admet la pure puissance, tout en favorisant la détermination. Dès lors, la différence entre les deux auteurs se manifeste plutôt dans la conception de l’être, qui pour Merleau-Ponty demeure en retrait, tandis que pour Aristote il est toujours a priori déterminable, quoique selon des modalités irréductiblement multiples.Starting from the observation that there is at once a great similarity between the perception philosophy of Aristotle and Merleau-Ponty, and a claiming from the latter to emancipate oneself from the inherited ontological frame, this article tries to define where exactly stands the difference between the two conceptions. It first dismisses the hypothesis of a complete ontological assimilation between perceptive and perceptible in the indistinction of the « flesh », as far as this « web » is not a uniform but can always produce the adhering duality of inside and outside. Then comes the question whether the general Visibility, as indeterminable potency, was unthinkable by Aristotle because of his substance theory – and it is showed that this theory, if well understood, admits the pure potency even favouring the determination. Finally, the difference between the two thinkers appears rather in the conception of Being, that, according to Merleau-Ponty, stands in the background, while, according to Aristotle, it is always a priori determinable although in irreducibly multiple modes. (shrink)

The requirements of the UK Equality Act 2010 and some high profile criticism for using a potentially ageist methodology have prompted the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to assess the processes and methodology it uses to make appraisal decisions. This paper argues that NICE has established rigorous systems to protect against ageist decisions, has no track record of ageism and is well placed to meet the requirements of new UK equality legislation.

The Snowden revelations in 2013 redrew the lines of debate surrounding surveillance, exposing the extent of state surveillance across multiple nations and triggering legislative reform in many. In the UK, this was in the form of the Investigatory Powers Act. As a contribution to understanding resistance to expanding state surveillance activities, this article reveals the intertwining of diverse interests and voices which speak in opposition to UK state surveillance. Through a computational topic modelling-based mixed methods analysis of the submissions made (...) to the draft Investigatory Powers Bill consultation, the article demonstrates the diversity and intersection of discourses within different actor groups, including civil society and the technology industry. We demonstrate that encryption is a key issue for these groups, and is additionally conflated with a human rights discourse. This serves to unite seemingly disparate interests by imbuing encryption with a responsibility for the protection of human rights, but also threatens to legitimate corporate interests and distract from their own data-driven activities of surveillance capitalism. (shrink)

Depuis l'avenement de la physique moderne, la physique d'Aristote a perdu son ancien prestige, voire sa credibilite. Pour beaucoup elle ne constitue plus qu'un objet d'etude pouvant interesser uniquement l'histoire des sciences ou de la philosophie. Cette pauvrete dans l'utilisation d'un texte pourtant essentiel de la pensee du Stagirite contraste avec le succes d'autres de ses oeuvres, comme les traites de logique, d'ethique, de metaphysique ou de poetique. Ce phenomene se poursuit au XXe siecle, puisque les livres sur la Physique (...) sont rares et, le plus souvent ne tiennent compte que de certains problemes. Cette nouvelle traduction souhaite permettre aux regards de se tourner a nouveau vers un livre central de la pensee d'Aristote. (shrink)

English summary: The fifth book of Aristotles Metaphysics is presented here in a new French translation with analysis of the books structure and considerable commentary and overview of the significance and often difficult meaning of this essential text. French description: On s'est beaucoup interroge sur le cinquieme livre de la Metaphysique, qui se presente sous la forme de trente notices consacrees a l'etude des differentes significations ou usages de certains termes, dont les raisons du choix n'apparaissent pas d'emblee. Le present (...) travail met en evidence la maniere dont le livre s'integre a l'enquete proprement metaphysique d'Aristote, par l'analyse de ces termes de toute premiere importance philosophique, trop generaux pour etre etudies par une science particuliere, mais indispensables a la connaissance de n'importe quel domaine de l'etre. Une traduction inedite, qui degage la structure du texte, un commentaire approfondi et une synthese originale des significations distinguees permettent une approche nouvelle de ce document celebre. Les auteurs esperent ainsi a la fois faciliter la lecture et la comprehension du texte, et fournir en outre aux specialistes de nombreuses suggestions d'interpretation de passages controverses ou obscurs. (shrink)

In this study, we sought to obtain detailed opinion on some of the practical issues that might arise should physician-assisted suicide (PAS) ever be legalized in the UK. We carried out an anonymous postal questionnaire of medical students, junior and senior doctors working at an acute hospital trust, over a three-week period. A total of 435 questionnaires were distributed and we had an overall return rate of 34%. We found that opinions changed very little as doctors progressed from medical school (...) through to senior clinical positions. Overall, there was neutral opinion on whether PAS should be legalized. There was strong support for a multidisciplinary approach to the process and the involvement of the coroner. An opt-out clause for physicians who did not want to be involved in assisted suicide also received strong support. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that emotionally-valenced words are given higher judgements of learning (JOLs) than are neutral words. The current study examined potential explanations for this emotional salience effect on JOLs. Experiment 1 replicated the basic emotionality/JOL effect. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we used pre-study JOLs and assessed memory beliefs qualitatively, finding that, on average, participants believed that positive and negative words were more memorable than neutral words. Experiment 3 utilised a lexical decision task, resulting in lower reaction times (...) (RTs) for positive words than for neutral words, but equivalent RTs for negative and neutral words, suggesting that processing fluency may partially account for higher JOLs for positive words, but not for negative words. Finally, we conducted a series of moderation analyses in Experiment 4 which assessed the relative contributions of fluency and beliefs to JOLs by measuring both factors in the same participants, showing that RTs made no significant contribution to JOLs for either positive or negative words. Our findings suggest that although positive words may be more fluently processed than neutral words, memory beliefs are the primary factor underlying higher JOLs for both positive and negative words. (shrink)

The book is divided into two parts: an interpretive section that concerns symbols in general and a "dictionary" that lists hundreds of symbols and explains their origins, their resemblances to other symbols, and the belief systems behind ...

L’ouvrage se présente comme un commentaire continu des chapitres de la Physique d’Aristote consacrés à l’étude du lieu (IV, 1-5). Le texte grec est cité d’après l’édition de Ross, et traduit par l’auteure de manière toujours très précise et rigoureuse (si ce n’est l’introduction d’une négation indue à la ligne 212a31, p. 237). L’ensemble permet de se donner une bonne conception de l’importance qu’Aristote accorde au lieu pour expliquer le mouvement des corps, de sa différence avec la notion d...

Une étude qui se situe exclusivement sur le terrain linguistique est bien placée pour attirer l’attention de l’interprète de Parménide, avide d’un éclairage nouveau sur un texte tellement commenté qu’il semble ne plus être possible d’y apporter quoi que ce soit. Le point de vue du grammairien pourrait en effet révéler certaines subtilités jusque-là ignorées, en particulier s’il ne cherche pas à mettre la grammaire au service d’une signification philosophique (comme on l’a déjà fait abondam­me...