The ratio of index- and ring-finger lengths is thought to be related to prenatal androgen exposure, and in many, though not all, populations, men have a lower average digit ratio than do women. In many studies an inverse relationship has been observed, among both men and women, between 2D:4D ratio and measures of athletic ability. It has been further suggested that, in hunter-gatherer populations, 2D:4D ratio might also be negatively correlated with hunting ability, itself assumed to be contingent on athleticism. (...) This hypothesis has been tested using endurance running performance among runners from a Western, educated, and industrialized population as a proximate measure of hunting ability. However, it has not previously been tested among actual hunter-gatherers using more ecologically valid measures of hunting ability and success. The current study addresses this question among Tanzanian Hadza hunter-gatherers. I employ a novel method of assessing hunting reputation that, unlike previous methods, allows granular distinctions to be made between hunters at all levels of perceived ability. I find no statistically significant relationship between digit ratio and either hunting reputation or two important hunting skills. I confirm that Hadza men have higher mean 2D:4D ratios than men in many Western populations. I discuss the notion that 2D:4D ratio may be the consequence of an allometric scaling relationship between relative and absolute finger lengths. Although it is difficult to draw clear conclusions from these results, the current study provides no support for the theorized relationship between 2D:4D ratio and hunting skill. (shrink)

This paper discusses findings from a study funded by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (NI) to explore the promotion of gender equity in the classroom and the extent to which initial teacher training and in-service courses address gender issues. Data from a questionnaire survey of 344 teachers and the qualitative dimensions of the study suggest that teachers are generally aware of gender stereotypes in the classroom and that, despite their lack of training in gender issues, where appropriate, most attempt (...) to challenge this type of behaviour. Concern was expressed with the role of teachers in unconsciously perpetuating stereotypes and the extent to which equality issues are directed more towards girls than boys. (shrink)

Cet article expose, à partir de deux cas, certaines difficultés de l’adoption. Il vise à montrer le décalage entre le désir des adoptants et la réalité parfois très dure qu’ils vont devoir affronter. Surtout lorsqu’il s’agit d’enfants de plus de cinq ans, porteurs d’un passé traumatique qui reste non dit. La création de liens forts se fait cependant au milieu de ce vécu difficile et, dans le meilleur des cas, les parents y jouent alors un rôle de soignants.

As the new Cell-free DNA (Cf-DNA) prenatal screening test for Down syndrome was being introduced into the UK’s fetal anomaly screening program, Down syndrome charities had an opportunity to participate. An experience of co-production where we were the minority voice then followed. This paper explores that process and our experience as a charity. Institutional and societal structures meant that it was difficult to be heard and a significant amount of bias was noted within the program. Consequently, our viewpoints were often (...) considered and then dismissed. However, at times we were listened to, and feel that there were some valuable changes made resulting from our involvement. The end product was far from reflective of all that we stand for, and there are still lessons to be learned in England about the need to place a higher value on minority voices of lived experience in a co-production exercise. (shrink)

An ethic of care acknowledges the centrality of the role of caring relationships in moral education. Care ethics requires a conception of ?care? that differs from the quotidian use of the word. In order to teach care ethics more effectively, this article discusses four interrelated ways that teachers? understandings of care differ from care ethics: (1) conflating the term of reference ?care? with its quotidian use; (2) overlooking the challenge of developing caring relationships; (3) tending toward monocultural understandings of care; (...) and (4) separating affect and intellect. Awareness of these conceptions of care supports teacher educators to teach care ethics in more meaningful and relevant ways. We explore stories and their dramatization as a medium to facilitate effective and in-depth teaching of care ethics. (shrink)

No centro do presente artigo está a problemática kierkegaardiana do possível e do impossível, ou seja, a coexistência dos opostos como explicitação do paradoxo, uma das figuras matriciais do Absurdo. Para Kierkegaard, o homem singular vê-se confrontado com o Paradoxo precisamente na medida em que a sua existência não cai sob o domínio da metafísica e do estético. Por outras palavras, o paradoxo invade a existência humana no momento em que se trata do paradoxo absoluto, escândalo para o Judeu, loucura (...) para o Grego, absurdo para a Razão. O artigo mostra, contudo, que antes de se confrontar com o Paradoxo, o existente precisa de aprender a esperar, malgrado o absurdo, na certeza de que tudo é possível a Deus. Porém, a experiência do Paradoxo implica percorrer um caminho prévio. Por outras palavras, é necessário aprender a experimentar a "condensação do possível", seja sob a forma de melancolia seja sob a forma do escrúpulo, de modo a poder desesperar da ideia do possível. Mostra-se assim a capacidade inovadora de Kierkegaard, mesmo sabendo nós que o desespero constitui um tema filosófico clássico já deste a Antiguidade. O que Kierkegaard faz, porém, é colocar em movimento uma dialéctica em que o jogo dos opostos se organiza em diversas figuras precárias, sempre incertas e fluentes e que se escalonam segundo degraus múltiplos de intensidade. Ora é precisamente graças a este jogo de oposições que no pensamento do Solitário de Copenhaga se articulam, ainda que de forma frágil, o finito e o infinito, o temporal e o eterno, a possibilidade e a necessidade. /// At the center of the present article is the kierhegaardian approach to the dialectic of the possible and the impossible, whose co-existence gives evidence to the Paradox, one of the figures of the Absurd. For Kierkegaard, the singular human being finds herself confronted with the Paradox precisely in the measure in which her existence does not fall under the dominion of metaphysics and of the aesthetical. The paradox invades human existence when it becomes absolute, i.e., when for the Jew it becomes Scandal, for the Greek Madness and for Reason the Absurd. The article shows, however, that before confronting itself with Paradox, the existent needs to learn how to hope by virtue of the absurd that everything is possible to God. In fact, the experience of the Absurd must be anteceded by a preparatory way. In other words, it is necessary to learn how to experience a "condensation of the possible", being it under the form of melancholy or under the form of scruple, so that the existent comes to the point of despairing of the very idea of the possible. In this way, the article demonstrates the innovative capacity of Kierkegaard, even if we know that despair constitutes a classical theme in philosophy since Antiquity. But Kierkegaard put into action a dialectic in which the play of the opposites becomes organized in different figures, always uncertain and fluid, which can be ordered in accordance with multiple degrees of intensity. But it is precisely due to this game of oppositions that the thought of the Solitary of Copenhagen comes to articulate, however in a subtle form, the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, possibility and necessity. (shrink)

The late Vivienne Westwood sketched a role for fashion that elevates it from the prosaic to the status of art, as something important, life-enhancing, and worthy of pursuit. Here, a philosophical treatment of Westwood’s vision of fashion that does justice to the artistic and life-enhancing value that fashion can realise is offered, using an emergent theory in contemporary analytic aesthetics. The virtue theory of art delineates the intrinsic worth of art in terms of the opportunities it provides for us to (...) exercise and cultivate virtues such as courage, self-expression, imagination, wit, or authenticity. Our engagement with art can subsequently be genuinely life-enhancing in lieu of the constitutive role the virtues play in living well. The present study takes Westwood’s claims as a jumping-off point, considering how they speak not just to her own designs but to our relationship with our clothes more broadly. Fashion is defended as a practice that performs this function in analogous ways to other genres of art and thus has clear artistic value as well as enables us to live well. Given this potential, just as Westwood claimed, there are reasons to perform the practice well because it has importance for the ways in which it can realise artistic value and aid us in living well. (shrink)

Despite the successes, and the considerable and continuing ethical disputes regarding wolf reintroduction in the United States, no clear, cogent, theoretically based ethical examination of the wolf reintroductions has yet been completed. Ecological feminist thought, particularly as articulated by Karen J. Warren, presents one way to create such an ethical assessment. Applying ecological feminist theories to wolf reintroduction also generates an intriguing instance of theoretical application in the “real world” and sheds insight on the pragmatic value of ecological feminist thought. (...) While ecofeminism does not give a definitive and decisively defensible position concerning wolf reintroduction, it does offer a repeatable framework and set of conditions by which one can assess environmental practice and policy, evidencing yet another example of the relevance of environmental ethics for the assessment of environmental policy. (shrink)

I examine the consistency between contemporary environmentalist ideals and Buddhist philosophy, focusing, first, on the problem of value in nature. I argue that the teachings found in the Pāli canon cannot easily be reconciled with a belief in the intrinsic value of life, whether human or otherwise. This is because all existence is regarded as inherently unsatisfactory, and all beings are seen as impermanent and insubstantial, while the ultimate spiritual goal is often viewed, in early Buddhism, as involving a deep (...) renunciation of the world. Therefore, the discussion focuses mostly on the Mahāyāna vehicle, which, I suggest has better resources for environmentalism because enlightenment and the ordinary world are not conceived as antithetical. Still, many contemporary green ideas do not sit well with classical Mahāyāna doctrines. Mahāyāna philosophers coincide in equating ultimate reality with ‘emptiness,’ and propose knowledge of this reality as a final soteriological purpose. Emptiness is generally said to be ineffable, and to involve the negation of all views. An important question is how to reconcile environmentalism with the relinquishing of views. I consider several prevalent themes in environmentalism, including the philosophy of ‘Oneness,’ and other systems that are often compared with Buddhism, like process thought. Many of these turn out to have more in common with an extreme view that Buddhism seeks to avoid, namely, eternalism. I attempt to outline an environmental position that, like the doctrine of emptiness, traverses a Middle Path between eternalism and nihilism. I conclude by proposing that emptiness could be regarded as the source of value in nature, if it is seen in its more positive aspect, as ‘pliancy.’ This would imply that what Buddhist environmentalists should seek to protect is not any being in its current form, nor any static natural system, but the possibility of adaptation and further evolution. (shrink)

Participants compared the mental capacities of various human and nonhuman characters via online surveys. Factor analysis revealed two dimensions of mind perception, Experience and Agency. The dimensions predicted different moral judgments but were both related to valuing of mind.

This book shows that Hauriou's positivist and pragmatic jurisprudence and social theory, as well as their application to the study of institutions, is satisfactorily supported by his idealistic philosophy. The nine chapters first locate Hauriou's influences, then situate his disciplinary methodologies within methodology in general. The central chapters concern each of the three methodologies in turn.

The importance of the Tree of Life when looked at from its negative side will give the reader new perspective of the spiritual path. Ignorance of universal law can mean that when you think you are doing "good", you may actually be doing "evil". Consciousness is the key. This is an important book for students on any path.

Despite the successes, and the considerable and continuing ethical disputes regarding wolf reintroduction in the United States, no clear, cogent, theoretically based ethical examination of the wolf reintroductions has yet been completed. Ecological feminist thought, particularly as articulated by Karen J. Warren, presents one way to create such an ethical assessment. Applying ecological feminist theories to wolf reintroduction also generates an intriguing instance of theoretical application in the “real world” and sheds insight on the pragmatic value of ecological feminist thought. (...) While ecofeminism does not give a definitive and decisively defensible position concerning wolf reintroduction, it does offer a repeatable framework and set of conditions by which one can assess environmental practice and policy, evidencing yet another example of the relevance of environmental ethics for the assessment of environmental policy. (shrink)

Le sens commun actuel s’évertue à faire des féministes un groupe militant uniquement composé de femmes, malgré la réémergence d’associations féministes mixtes depuis le milieu des années 1990. Le beau livre d’Alban Jacquemart apporte alors une réponse positive et éclairée à la question suivante : peut-on être homme et militant féministe? L’ouvrage est issu de la thèse de sociologie menée par Alban Jacquemart sous la direction de Rose-Marie Lagrave et récompensée par le Prix de la thèse sur...

A great philosopher will change the way you think about your life. For most of human history, religion provided a clear explanation of life and death. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries new ideas -- from psychiatry to evolution to Communist -- seemed to suggest that our fate was now in our own hands. We would ourselves become God. This is the theme of a remarkable new book by one of the world's greatest lving philosophers. It is (...) a brilliant and frightening look at the problems and opportunities of a world coming to grips with humankind's now solitary, unaided place in the universe. Gray takes two major examples: the belief that the science-backed Communism of the new USSR could reshape the planet, and the belief among a group of Edwardian intellectuals -- popularized through mediums and automatic writing -- that there was a non-religious form of life after death. Gray presents an extraordinary cast of philosophers, journalists, politicians, charlatans and mass murderers, all of whom felt driven by a specifically scientific and modern world view. He raises a host of fascinating questions about what it means to be human. The implications of Gray's book will haunt its readers for the rest of their lives. (shrink)

On the ethics of extending human life: healthy people have a right to carry on livingHumanity has long demonstrated a paradoxical ambivalence concerning the extension of a healthy human lifespan. Modest health extension has been universally sought, whereas extreme health extension has been regarded as a snare and delusion—a dream beyond all others at first blush, but actually something we are better off without. The prevailing pace of biotechnological progress is bringing ever closer the day when humanity will be able (...) to act on the latter view by rejecting a clear and present opportunity for much longer healthy lives. Indeed, some biogerontologists contend that that day has already arrived, to the extent that our hesitation in embarking on a vigorous “war on ageing” is already delaying the point at which a cure for ageing will be developed. Here I consider whether our present caution concerning the wisdom of truly curing ageing is likely to survive the increased scrutiny that it will receive in coming years as a result of these technical advances. I conclude that it will not, because of its irreconcilability with values that are more deeply held by the large majority of humanity than any values that argue against the quest for a cure. I further conclude that all the major current reasons given for not curing ageing are mere crutches to help us cope with the immutability of ageing that we have been brought up to accept. Our failure to set aside such irrationality is already shortening potential longevity—quite probably of those already alive today—to a staggering degree. Once we realise this, our determination to consign human ageing to history will be second …. (shrink)

I examine whether certain aspects of early Buddhist doctrine are compatible with ascribing value to nature by focusing in particular on the doctrine of the Three Marks of Existence. This portrays the world as characterised by suffering, impermanence, and by 'not-self'. From the perspective of environmental philosophy each of these is problematic, either because nature is viewed negatively, or else because only nibbāna is valued positively, and this is understood to entail a repudiation of the world. I argue against such (...) interpretations and show that the doctrine of not-self militates against any attribution of value, whether positive or negative. This disposes of the prevalent charge that the doctrines imply a negative view of nature. (shrink)

Most restoration projects are designed to approximate the species composition and ecotypes ecologists and historians determine were present in an area at some point in the historical past. In most cases, although somewhat arbitrary, the specific time chosen is based on an understanding of historic species composition and anthropogenic disturbances.Although restoring an area to the estimated, historical vegetation types is widely accepted, the exclusory nature of the restoration process often actively eliminates not just invasive species, but also non-invasive, nonnative species (...) as well as displaced native species. These exclusory activities echo patterns of domination and degradation that led to a need for restoration in the first place. Although the domination present in restoration stems from an earnest desire to repair harms inflicted by human carelessness, it at the same time enforces a human conception of the ideal landscape. Attending to ecofeminist concepts such as inclusivism and pluralism, and embracing their rejection of dualistic thinking and the logic of domination demands an expanded tolerance within the practice of ecological restoration. An expanded ecofeminist conceptualization of restoration, a restorashyn, attempts to reduce the presence of overt human domination of the land. Doing so may ultimately mean that the species composition of an ecofeminist restorashyn will not be purely native, but may instead include a diverse mix of both native and non-invasive, nonnative species. (shrink)

Chaque fois que nous chantons dans le choeur ou jouons dans l'orchestre, comme lorsque nous pénétrons dans un monument fédérant l'espace urbain, tout notre être s'éprouve soudain d'une façon inédite et multi-dimensionnée. Nous contemplons alors un espace-temps rendu holistique, tout en détaillant les singularités linéaires de mouvements spiralés rythmiques, mélodiques et harmoniques, dont la synergie provoquera, par rebond, notre accession à une dimension d'ouverture, d'écoute et d'être, d'autant plus supérieure qu'y est intimement présente la dimension communautaire. Ainsi apprenons-nous, par et (...) au sein de l'invariant et du géométrisme qui structurent toute oeuvre d'art, à penser de façon entière et globalisée, à travers un espace mental infiniment élargi – particulièrement à l'altérité, seule apte à rassembler et fonder tout l'ensemble de notre activité à tous les plans, du plus physique au plus conceptuel et de l'idée à sa dimension la plus spirituelle. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage propose une exploration de l'aventure doctorale dans le regard de celles et ceux qui la vivent, les doctorant·e·s, au travers du prisme des émotions. Il aborde, dans une perspective psychopédagogique, les défis inhérents à cette formation exigeante dont l'une des finalités est la construction individuelle et sociale des connaissances. À partir de deux constats préoccupants - le taux d'abandon élevé et l'état de santé critique des doctorant·e·s - l'ouvrage questionne les conditions individuelles et situationnelles qui soutiennent ou entravent (...) le processus d'apprentissage et d'appropriation créative, en présumant que le bien-être constitue la pierre angulaire de la (trans)formation. Après quelques balises théoriques, des éclairages sur l'expérience doctorale sont amenés en deux volets complémentaires. Le premier dresse un panorama international de sept tendances issues de 70 recherches réalisées au cours des vingt dernières années. Le deuxième présente les résultats de l'étude longitudinale menée par l'autrice entre 2016 et 2017 auprès de 26 doctorant·e·s d'une université suisse. Les leviers et les freins du quotidien sont décrits à partir de 256 évènements signifi catifs. Puis, 26 vignettes d'évènements particulièrement (dé)mobilisateurs illustrent comment ces doctorant-e-s se (trans)forment durant leurs activités au contact de leur environnement. L'ouvrage se termine par une réfl exion critique sur l'accompagnement du doctorat et la culture pédagogique dans laquelle il s'inscrit. Des recommandations sont proposées à l'usage des actrices et acteurs de la formation doctorale, pouvant inspirer plus largement celles et ceux de la formation post-obligatoire"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

In this article, I defend Buddhism from Paul Waldau’s charge of speciesism. I argue that Waldau attributes to Buddhism various notions that it does not necessarily have, such as the ideas that beings are morally considerable if they possess certain traits, and that humans, as morally considerable beings, ought never to be treated as means. These ideas may not belong in Buddhism, and for Waldau’s argument to work, he needs to show that they do. Moreover, a closer look at his (...) case reveals a more significant problem for ecologically minded Buddhists—namely that the Pāli texts do not seem to attribute intrinsic value to any form of life at all, regardless of species. Thus, I conclude that rather than relying on Western concepts, it may be preferable to look for a discourse from within the tradition itself to explain why Buddhists ought to be concerned about the natural world. (shrink)

I consider the issue of the self and its relation to the environment, focusing on the accounts given in ecofeminism and deep ecology. Though both stress the relatedness of the human self to nature, these accounts differ in various ways. Ecofeminism stresses the value of personal relations with particular others, whereas deep ecology argues that we should expand our sense of self to include all natural others and the whole of nature. Deep ecology’s views on the self, which are loosely (...) based on scientific ecology, are examined further and I argue that the implications are that selves are not to be seen as static things but rather as processes, and as constituted by their relations with others. This understanding of the self, I argue, enriches both deep ecology and ecofeminism’s claims on selfhood, and will enable the resolution of some of the difficulties they perceive in each other’s account. (shrink)

On imagine trop souvent que les caractères " naturels " (le sexe, la race, par exemple) " tombent sous le sens ", sont des évidences inquestionnables. Tout au plus admet-on que les sociétés manipulent un peu tout cela, qu'il en résulte des différences, bonnes ou mauvaises, c'est selon... Pourtant, ne serait-ce pas déjà une manipulation que de prétendre certains caractères " naturels "? Le " naturel " ne serait-il pas une interprétation, bref un " artifice ", ancré dans de très (...) particulières relations sociales où certains sont assignés à l'état d'objet? Cet ouvrage associe la description d'une réalité matérielle quotidienne dans ses formes les plus banales (conversations de bistrot, scènes de rue, faits divers) et l'analyse précise des systèmes idéologiques qui prétendent expliquer cette réalité. (shrink)

Over the past 50 years the diversity of higher education faculty in the mathematical, physical, computer, and engineering sciences has advanced very little at 4-year universities in the United States. This is despite laws and policies such as affirmative action, interventions by universities, and enormous financial investment by federal agencies to diversify science, technology, mathematics, and engineering career pathways into academia. Data comparing the fraction of underrepresented minority postdoctoral scholars to the fraction of faculty at these institutions offer a straightforward (...) empirical explanation for this state of affairs. URM postdoc appointments lag significantly behind progress in terms of both undergraduate and Ph.D.-level STEM student populations. Indeed, URM postdoc appointments lag well-behind faculty diversity itself in the MPCES fields, most of which draw their faculty heavily from the postdoctoral ranks, particularly at research-intensive universities. Thus, a sea-change in how postdocs are recruited, how their careers are developed, and how they are identified as potential faculty is required in order to diversify the nation’s faculty, and particularly the R1 MPCES professoriate. Our research shows that both Ph.D. students and postdocs benefit from intentional structure at various levels of their respective “apprentice” experiences, a factor that we believe has been neglected. Several key structural approaches are highly effective in these regards: A collaborative approach in which leading research universities collectively identify outstanding URM candidates; Faculty engagement in recruiting and supporting these postdocs; Inter-institutional exchange programs to heighten the visibility and broaden the professional experiences of these postdocs; Community-building activities that create a sense of belonging and encourage continuing in academia for each cohort; and Continuing research based on outcomes and new experimental approaches. The California Alliance, consisting of UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, and Stanford, has been engaged in such a program for almost a decade now, with most of the California Alliance URM postdocs now in tenure track positions or on the path toward careers as faculty at research intensive institutions. If this approach was brought to scale by involving the top 25 or so URM Ph.D.-producing R1 institutions in the MPCES fields, about 40% of the national URM postdoctoral population in these fields could be affected. Although this impact would fall short of bringing URM MPCES faculty ranks up to full representation of the United States population as a whole, it would vastly improve the outlook for URM students and their aspirations to take on leadership roles as scientists and engineers. (shrink)

L'article décrit et expose les résultats de deux séries d'expériences de coulée de figurines en bronze suivant la méthode de la fonte à la cire perdue. Ces expérimentations avaient pour but d'essayer de reproduire les procédés d'élaboration et de coulée utilisés à l'époque minoenne et de préciser leur rôle et leur influence sur l'apparence finale des objets.

Le monde latin tardo-antique a rencontré des difficultés à s’approprier la diversité des théories visuelles grecques. L’impression reste qu’au brouillage conceptuel s’ajoute l’imprécision lexicale. La synthèse néoplatonicienne qui assimile la lumière platonicienne au diaphane aristotélicien provoque une confusion entre brillance et transparence. Saint Augustin présente la vision comme un acte orienté de l’œil à l’objet. Ensuite apparaît un deuxième mouvement de la vision, de l’objet vers l’œil. Jean Scot Erigène, inspiré par les Pères grecs, ne crée certes pas un lexique (...) scientifique, mais réussit à élaborer un lexique unifié et structuré, entièrement tourné vers l’expression de la théologie du Dieu-lumière. (shrink)

Moïse Maïmonide (1168-1204) a combattu avec acharnement l’idée de la corporéité divine, car elle est contraire à la proclamation de l’existence d’un Dieu unique, la croyance fondamentale du peuple d’Israël. D’autre part, bien que la religion demande que l’on admette la création dans le temps, l’éternité du monde est la seule preuve philosophique de l’existence divine. Ces convictions, acquises dans sa jeunesse sous l’influence de l’orthodoxie almohade, sont clairement exprimées dans son Mishnéh Torah. C’est en raison des critiques acerbes des (...) dirigeants rabbanites qu’elles le sont beaucoup moins dans le Guide des Égarés, comme le montrent les brouillons autographes. De plus, une note manuscrite, écrite dans sa vieillesse sur son exemplaire personnel d’un autre de ses livres, prouve que Maïmonide n’avait pas changé d’avis en ce qui concerne l’éternité du monde. (shrink)

In spite of the numerous efforts made to control their transmission, parasite schistosomes still represent a serious public health concern and a major economic problem in many developing countries. Praziquantel (PZQ) is the drug of choice for the treatment of schistosomiasis and the only one that is available for mass chemotherapy. However, its widespread use and its inefficacy on juvenile parasites raise fears that schistosomes will develop drug resistance, and make the development of alternative drugs highly desirable. Protein tyrosine kinases (...) (PTKs) are key molecules that control cell differentiation and proliferation and they already represent important targets for molecular cancer therapy. The recent characterization in Schistosoma mansoni of several cytosolic and receptor PTKs, with properties similar but also divergent from their vertebrate counterparts, opens new perspectives for the development of novel strategies in chemotherapy of schistosomiasis, which could be based on the use of parasite‐specific tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitors. BioEssays 29:1281–1288, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Dans la première moitié du xii e siècle, les chartrains créent un lexique spécialisé pour l’optique en sélectionnant des termes sans connotation théologique et en leur ajoutant un sens géométrique. Grâce à Constantin l’Africain, ils y intègrent l’ophtalmologie. Alors que ce lexique est utilisé par les traducteurs gréco-latins, les traducteurs arabo-latins, à l’exception de l’Émir Eugène de Sicile, ignorent largement ces spécialisations sémantiques. L’hétérogénéité des choix des traducteurs réintroduit ainsi une incertitude lexicale qui nécessite une clarification des concepts et une (...) sélection des termes. Dépendant de l’évolution générale du lexique philosophique, la fixation du vocabulaire de l’optique est loin d’être achevée à la fin du siècle. (shrink)

Current debates about “Darwinizing culture” have typically focused on the validity of memetics. In this article we argue that meme-like inheritance is not a necessary requirement for descent with modification. We suggest that an alternative and more productive way of Darwinizing culture can be found in the application of phylogenetic methods. We review recent work on cultural phylogenetics and outline six fundamental questions that can be answered using the power and precision of quantitative phylogenetic methods. However, cultural evolution, like biological (...) evolution, is often far from treelike. We discuss the problems reticulate evolution can cause for phylogenetic analyses and suggest ways in which these problems can be overcome. Our solutions involve a combination of new methods for the study of cultural evolution , and the triangulation of different lines of historical evidence. Throughout we emphasize that most debates about cultural phylogenies can only be settled by empirical research rather than armchair speculation. (shrink)

The present study examined whether a dissociation among formats for rational numbers can be obtained in tasks that require comparing a number to a non-symbolic quantity. In Experiment 1, college students saw a discrete or else continuous image followed by a rational number, and had to decide which was numerically larger. In Experiment 2, participants saw the same displays but had to make a judgment about the type of ratio represented by the number. The magnitude task was performed more quickly (...) using decimals, whereas the relation task was performed more accurately with fractions. The pattern observed for percentages was very similar to that for decimals. A dissociation between magnitude comparison and relational processing with rational numbers can be obtained when a symbolic number must be compared to a non-symbolic display. (shrink)

Eric Voegelin holds that the platonic dialogue Gorgias is a battleground in which a struggle for the soul of the younger generation is at stake. The rhetorician and the philosopher compete for their influence over Athenian youth: against the teaching of political success stands the teachings of the "substantial". But as Voegelin shows, this is not a fight between equals, between equivalent or really disputable options. Instead, it is an opposition between what could be called the decadent representation of a (...) tradition and a revolution incarnated by Socrates. A revolution about the meaning of politics as a privileged space of realization of what is human, which contrasts with the sophistic instrumentalization. And, as the fragments about tyranny show, if tyranny is fearsome, it is so because it entails the irruption of the "limitless" individual into politics, and consequently carries the rupture of the organic links which build up the community. But Socrates demands more than the restauration of these links: he fights for the building of a new political self. (shrink)

La democracia del siglo XXI se enfrenta a nuevas imposturas: prácticas comunes en los extintos autoritarismos del siglo XX aparecen ahora como atributos de gobiernos que se declaran democráticos. Se trata, en realidad, de una crisis de identidad de la idea de democracia, que le obliga a reconocer su carácter intrínsecamente abierto y por ello mismo, incierto, lo que remite a su fundamento moral. La revisión de las distintas familias de teorías de la democracia revela que lo que la define (...) es la existencia de salvaguardas constitucionales y poderes limitados que permiten la emergencia de un agente moral autónomo. Pero entonces, se asoma una crisis del sujeto democrático: el régimen democrático, como sistema de separaciones, supone y exige sujetos moralmente comprometidos con la libertad, lo que a su vez peligra en tiempos de modernidad tardía. Palabras clave : incertidumbre; constitucionalismo; autonomía; separaciones; modernidad tardía. Theories of Democracy: Uncertainties and SeparationsDemocracy in the XXI century faces new impostures: practices that were common under the extinct authoritarianisms of the XX century appear now as attributes of self-declared democratic governments. The idea of democracy suffers an identity crisis, which obliges it to acknowledge its own intrinsically open, and thus uncertain, nature; in turn, this directs one to democracy’s moral foundations. The review of the different families of theories of democracy reveals that what defines the latter is the existence of constitutional safeguards and limited powers, which allow for the emergence of an autonomous moral agent. But then, a crisis of the democratic subject becomes visible: the democratic regime, as a system of separations, involves and demands subjects who are morally committed with freedom, which in turn is in jeopardy in times of late modernity. Keywords: uncertainty; constitutionalism; autonomy; separations; late modernity. (shrink)

This book surveys the vast body of medieval Jewish philosophy, devoting ample discussion to major figures such as Saadiah Gaon, Maimonides, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Judah Halevi, Abraham Ibn Daoud, and Gersonides, as well as presenting the ancillary texts of lesser known authors. Sirat quotes little-known texts, providing commentary and situating them within their historical and philosophical contexts. A comprehensive bibliography directs the reader to the texts themselves and to recent studies.

Cochlear implants electrically stimulate surviving auditory neurons in the cochlea to provide severely or profoundly deaf people with access to hearing. Signal processing strategies derive frequency-specific information from the acoustic signal and code amplitude changes in frequency bands onto amplitude changes of current pulses emitted by the tonotopically arranged intracochlear electrodes. This article first describes how parameters of the electrical stimulation influence the loudness evoked and then summarizes two different phenomenological models developed by McKay and colleagues that have been used (...) to explain psychophysical effects of stimulus parameters on loudness, detection, and modulation detection. The Temporal Model is applied to single-electrode stimuli and integrates cochlear neural excitation using a central temporal integration window analogous to that used in models of normal hearing. Perceptual decisions are made using decision criteria applied to the output of the integrator. By fitting the model parameters to a variety of psychophysical data, inferences can be made about how electrical stimulus parameters influence neural excitation in the cochlea. The Detailed Model is applied to multi-electrode stimuli, and includes effects of electrode interaction at a cochlear level and a transform between integrated excitation and specific loudness. The Practical Method of loudness estimation is a simplification of the Detailed Model and can be used to estimate the relative loudness of any multi-electrode pulsatile stimuli without the need to model excitation at the cochlear level. Clinical applications of these models to novel sound processing strategies are described. (shrink)