Search results for "Philosophy of Science"
showing 10 items of 808 documents
Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control from Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution
2017
The Sartre‐Heidegger Controversy on Humanism and the Concept of Man in Education
2012
Jean‐Paul Sartre claims in his 1945 lecture ‘Existentialism is a Humanism’ that there are two kinds of existentialism: that of Christians like Karl Jaspers, and atheistic like Martin Heidegger. Sartre's ‘spiritual master’ Heidegger had no problem with Sartre defining him as an atheist, but he had serious problems with Sartre's concept of humanism and existentialism. Heidegger claims that the essence of humanism lies in the essence of the human being. After the Enlightenment, the Western concept of man has been presented in education in the form of Kantian humanistic essentialism. At least in the Finnish educational system, Kantian humanism is almost an official ideological background of all…
Scientific ethos and the cinematic zombie outbreak : science in fictional narratives
2015
Public anxiety about emerging biothreats is evident in the recent glut of popular entertainment where the demise, or near demise, of humankind is imagined to be the result of a new infectious pathogen against which science has no existing vaccine or cure. This article examines the figure of the scientist in such fictional narratives and what these characterizations indicate about public attitudes toward science in our contemporary world. It focuses in particular on the image of the scientist as clumsy naïve, immoral experimenter, heroic savior, and self-reflexive ethical agent.
Frettes (Haute-Saône, France) : un gisement de plein-air du paléolithique moyen, premiers résultats
2014
International audience; Frettes is an open air site discovered in 1900 by Docteur Bouchet. Since that date, the site has been prospected by several other local researchers. The surface industry condensed by areas of 50 m2, shows something defined around a Ferrassie Mousterian with oriental similitudes. Following a sondage campain in 1988 and 1989, the site has been dug in 1990 and 1991 by Gilles Huguenin. This excavation spread over 48 m2 and 3746 artefacts constitute one main lithic serie with about 78 artefacts per meter. During the first polls of 1988-1989 of 4 m2 of extension and the fulfilment of a 200 m trench which had for aim to compare polls all together, the lithic obtained was ri…
EUGENICS AND SOCIALIST THOUGHT IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA: THE CASE OF JAMES MEDBERY MACKAYE
2018
The aim of this essay is to assess James Medbery MacKaye’s contribution to socialist thought during the Progressive Era. Largely forgotten today, MacKaye proposed a special version of socialism, which he called “Pantocracy,” based on a peculiar blend of utilitarian and eugenic assumptions. Specifically, MacKaye held that biological fitness mapped to the capacity for happiness—biologically superior individuals possess a greater capacity for happiness—and saw the eugenic breeding of “a being or race of beings capable in the first place of happiness” as a possibility open by the advent of Pantocracy. Incidentally, this essay provides further evidence that the influence of eugenic and racialist…
Entre los campos y los hospitales: ayuda médica humanitaria a los refugiados republicanos españoles en Francia (1939-1950)
2020
Como es bien sabido, las fronteras entre los estados responden, en el mundo contemporáneo, a factores de índole militar y político, pero también a razones jurídicas y económicas. Sin embargo, a menudo se olvida que, en el marco de la consolidación de los estados-nación, las fronteras obedecen también a motivaciones de índole sanitaria, esto es, al deseo de los poderes fácticos de evitar la transmisión de enfermedades sobrevenidas procedentes de otros países, bien sea por medio de personas, animales o mercancías. La práctica de las cuarentenas y los cordones sanitarios obedece a la lógica del distanciamiento social que se establece con el fin de detener la propagación de enfermedades transmi…
The Development of a new Philosophy of Physics in the 18th Century
2012
The study of books on physics published in the 18th century shows that the evolution since the 17th century is much more than just a furthering of the discoveries of Newton, as we often tend to present it these days. Descartes’s mechanistic physics, severely criticized by Newton, was to develop with help from many scientists, particularly from the Academy of Sciences in Paris. The discussions between Cartesians and Newtonians did not end in the 1740’s. This real scientific duel, which lasted over half a century, was the heart of a broader way of thinking about physics which operated on several levels: Mathématization, Concepts, définitions, laws, the role of experimentation and hypotheses, …
A qualitative fallacy: Life trapped in interpretations and stories
2021
This paper points out some problematic aspects of qualitative research based on interviews and uses examples from mental health. The narrative approach is explored while inquiring if the reality of life here is forced into the formula of a chronological story. The hermeneutic approach, in general, is also examined, and we ask if the reality of life in this scenario becomes caught up in a web of interpretations. Inspired by ideas from Bakhtin and phenomenology, we argue for interview-based research that stays with unresolvedness and constantly question the web of interpretations and narratives that determine our experiences. This also chimes with certain dialogical practices in mental healt…
desat1 and the Evolution of Pheromonal Communication in Drosophila
2009
1749-6632 (Electronic) 0077-8923; The evolution of communication is a fundamental biological problem. The genetic control of the signal and its reception must be tightly coadapted, especially in interindividual sexual communication. However, there is very little experimental evidence for tight genetic linkage connecting the emission of a signal and its reception. In Drosophila melanogaster, desat1 is the first known gene that simultaneously affects the emission and the perception of sex pheromones. Our experiments show that both aspects of pheromonal communication (the emission and the perception of sex pheromones) depend on distinct genetic control and may result from tissue-specific expre…
An extension of the algebra of sets
1973
We shall explain the aim which leads us in the construction of an extended system of the algebra of sets1. The symbol 1. {*:?(*)} denoting the set of these and only these elements of domain of the variable x which satisfy the propositional condition (propositional function or form) ?9 (x)" is in com? mon use nowadays, so that it is adopted in school courses of mathematics in many countries, and in Poland as well. This condition will be said to define the set 1. However, if we admit propositional conditions which are meaningless for some values of their variables then we encounter some difficulties connected with the ex? pression 1. The formulae 2. {x : 9 (*)} = {x : 9 (*)}' 3. {x : 9 (s) v …