Search results for "060302 philosophy"

PASSIONATE DESCARTES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE BODY'S ROLE IN CARTESIAN THOUGHT

2020

Abstract The usual reading of Descartes' “anthropological” perspective classifies it as a radical dualism with a distinction between two substances, mind and body, which experience major interaction difficulties. Through a contextualization of Descartes' physiological and psychological thought as well as through a less fragmented reading of his work, we intend to review this traditional interpretation, thereby showing its distorted character. When we pay attention to passion, a new Descartes’ image as a sort of phenomenal monism appears, which is markedly different from the legendary image typically associated with him, even today.

Assessing the role of evidence of mechanisms in causal extrapolation

2020

Extrapolation of causal claims from study populations to other populations of interest is a problematic issue. The standard approach in experimental research, which prioritises randomized controlled trials and statistical evidence, is not devoid of difficulties. Granted that, it has been defended that evidence of mechanisms is indispensable for causal extrapolation. We argue, contrarily, that this sort of evidence is not indispensable. Nonetheless, we also think that occasionally it may be helpful. In order to clarify its relevance, we introduce a distinction between a positive and a negative role of evidence of mechanisms. Our conclusion is that the former is highly questionable, but the l…

Smithian Sentimentalism Anticipated: Pufendorf on the Desire for Esteem and Moral Conduct

2018

In this paper, we argue that Samuel Pufendorf's works on natural law contain a sentimentalist theory of morality that is Smithian in its moral psychology. Pufendorf's account of how ordinary people make moral judgements and come to act sociably is surprisingly similar to Smith's. Both thinkers maintain that the human desire for esteem, manifested by resentment and gratitude, informs people of the content of central moral norms and can motivate them to act accordingly. Finally, we suggest that given Pufendorf's theory of socially imposed moral entities, he has all the resources for a sentimentalist theory of morality.

Modalités d’attachement et maternité : étude des remaniements psychiques à partir d’un cas

2023

Resume Cet article presente les premiers resultats d’une recherche sur les modifications de l’attachement en ante- et en post-natal, dans une population de femmes primipares, au sein d’un service de maternite d’un Centre Hospitalier Regional Universitaire. La maternite, percue dans notre societe comme une source d’epanouissement et de plenitude, resulte de processus psychiques complexes et delicats. Le style d’attachement est considere comme une donnee constante tout au long de la vie. Nous faisons l’hypothese de sa variation durant la periode perinatale. Pour la mesurer et la comprendre, nous nous appuyons sur la notion de strategies d’attachement. Sur le plan methodologique, nous avons me…

Aristotle’s Doctrine of Causes and the Manipulative Theory of Causality

2018

I will argue for the similarity between some aspects of Aristotle’s doctrine of causes and a particular kind of interventionist theory of causality. The interventionist account hypothesizes that there is a connection between causation and human intervention: the idea of a causal relation between two events is generated by the reflection of human beings on their own operating. This view is remindful of the Aristotelian concept of αἴτιον (cause), which is linked to the figure of the αἴτιος, the person who is responsible of an action. Aristotle conceives of the efficient cause as the active element which, in the φύσις, gives rise to movement and imposes the form, in analogy with the active ele…

Reformuler des prémisses fausses comme des propositions vraies dans un certain domaine?

1988

Antropologia come "general Weltkenntniß" Kant e la concezione cosmica dell'umano

2018

Il progetto antropologico di un mondo-ambiente nel quale l'uomo, grazie allo sviluppo delle proprie capacità, trova la sua posizione e conquista un ruolo centrale, si inserisce, in Kant, all'interno in un disegno più ampio che pone l'uomo al cospetto di scopi la cui realizzazione va ben al di là di quel che egli può fare; va ben al di là dell'immagine pragmatica di un mondo pensato e progettato a misura d'uomo. Come risulta insufficiente, dunque, ogni antropologia fisiologica che rimanga limitata al punto di vista dell'uomo in quanto prodotto del gioco della natura, altrettanto insufficiente risulterebbe un'antropologia pragmatica che si legasse unicamente alla rappresentazione antropocentr…

On how to legitimately constrain a semantic theory

2021

Abstract Semanticists often restrict their theories by imposing constraints on the parameters that can be employed for interpreting the expressions of a language. Such constraints are based on non-logical features of actual contexts of utterance, but they often have important effects on issues that do pertain to logic, like analyticity or entailment. For example, Kaplan’s restriction to so-called “proper contexts” was required in order to count “I am here now” as valid. In this paper I argue that constraints of this kind are often posited in an arbitrary and non-consistent way, and that they yield the intended results only at the price of imposing ad hoc principles whose justification could…

Beyond free will : The embodied emergence of conscious agency

2019

Is it possible to reconcile the concept of conscious agency with the view that humans are biological creatures subject to material causality? The problem of conscious agency is complicated by the tendency to attribute autonomous powers of control to conscious processes. In this paper, we offer an embodied process model of conscious agency. We begin with the concept of embodied emergence – the idea that psychological processes are higher-order biological processes, albeit ones that exhibit emergent properties. Although consciousness, experience, and representation are emergent properties of higher-order biological organisms, the capacity for hierarchical regulation is a property of all livin…

Why do Helvétius' writings matter? Rousseau's Notes sur De l'esprit

2016

International audience; De l’esprit was read and commented on by Rousseau, Diderot, and Voltaire, in 1758. So was De l’homme when it appeared posthumously in 1773. We will go into this series of books, marginalia, and refutations, to address the question: what exactly was widely discussed between the three authors during the 1750s? Is it ‘materialism’? Our first point is to interpret the potential distortions, re-workings or re-appropriations in Rousseau’s marginalia, known as Notes sur De l’esprit, especially here about the so-called theory of passive judgement. We will then see that there certainly is, in the discussion between Rousseau and Helvétius, a real opposition on the question of…