scholarly journals How Philosophy of Nature Needs Philosophy of Chemistry

Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Llored ◽  

This paper aims to highlight how the philosophy of chemistry could be of help for rethinking Nature today. To do so, we will point out: (1) the co-definition of chemical relations (transformations) and chemical relata (bodies) within chemical activities; (2) the constitutive role of the modes of intervention in the definition, always open and provisional, of “active” chemical bodies; and (3) the mutual dependence of the levels of organization in chemistry. We will insist on the way chemists tailor networks of interdependencies within which chemical bodies and properties are context-sensitive and mutually determined by means of particular chemical operations or transformations. To conclude, we will show how the specific action of bodies upon the Earth at different scales of space and time, and how the relational definition of a chemical body, pave the way for a new understanding of Nature.

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Anjali Prabhu

The half-century, which is the time that has elapsed since the publication of Wretched of the Earth, seems such a short period when one imagines its author in all his intellectual magnificence, his anguish, and the many details we all know of his short-lived reality. Dare one say, after the concept has long been declared “dead” that we imagine him as having been a live “author”? As I write this, the idea of various notable intellectuals and revolutionary movements could come to mind in order for them to serve as interesting comparisons as we discuss and remember Fanon, his analyses of the colonial aftermath, and his many predictions, both explicit and implicit. However, the “death” of the author is, in fact, as Barthes’ polemical essay showed, a premise that empowers the text in its full potentiality well beyond the deism by which the identity of the author becomes the authority. Here, the liberation of the text joins up the enunciation with its “content” so to speak, or in Barthes’ words, reveals how Fanon “made of his very life a work for which his book was a model.” It is from this idea that I wish to see Fanon as incomparable. The reason to do so does not stem from some esoteric form of admiration, but rather a conviction that Fanon’s narration itself is both indicative and exemplary of a process of thinking that, for me, remains unparalleled in theorizing the role of the intellectual. Such a conviction requires us to read beyond the content of Wretched and be “reborn” in the Barthesian sense as readers. In essence, it is to simply follow the way Fanon himself allows us to actually trace how he dreams of “the native” or “the people” and thus accomplishes an affective leap, arguably, more completely than any other intellectual. This reading is, thus, an invitation to dream – even momentarily – of Fanon.


1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Miller ◽  
A. Gaye Cummins

Historically, theoretical and popular conceptions about power have not included or addressed women's experiences. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge about women by examining women's perceptions of and relationship to power. One hundred twenty-five women, ranging in age from 21 to 63, were asked to define and explore power through a variety of structured and open-ended questions. The results showed that women's definition of power differed significantly from their perception of society's definition of power, as well as from the way power has traditionally been conceptualized. More theoretical and empirical attention should be given to understanding the role of personal authority in both women's and men's experience of power.


Author(s):  
Allyn Fives

Are parents caretakers or liberators? Is the role of parents to act in a paternalistic fashion so as to take care of their children or is it instead to set their children free? In this chapter, I argue that those who defend the caretaker thesis do so on the basis of assumptions characteristic of the liberal view on paternalism. It is assumed that paternalism entails interfering with another’s liberty, that it does not involve moral conflicts, and that it is justified treatment of those who lack the qualities of an agent. In addition, no clear distinction is made between children who lack the qualities of an agent and children who are merely incompetent. What is more, the same assumptions underlie the liberation thesis. Indeed, both the caretaker thesis and the liberation thesis are questionable because they operate with a definition of paternalism that is highly problematic. I also want to make one further argument here. Namely, even an adequate conceptualisation of paternalism is insufficient as a general account of parental power, as there are non-paternalistic forms of parental power as well.


Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
David F. Levi ◽  
Dana Remus ◽  
Abigail Frisch

With the prospect of nonlawyers stepping in to do low-fee legal work, how should the legal profession conceive of its relationship to that work and ensure that nonlawyers bolster rather than undermine the value that lawyers add to society? Lawyers should reclaim their role as connectors in their communities: interstitial figures with the knowledge, skill, and trust to help resolve disputes, move beyond stalemates, dispel tensions, and otherwise bring people and resources together in productive solutions. They should do so, at least in part, through pro bono work for poor and low-income clients. It would be a mistake to stand in the way of innovative solutions to the justice gap. But it would also be a mistake, and a deep loss, if lawyers–particularly those who do not normally represent poor and low-income clients– turned their backs on the poor and low-income segments of our society.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
Stanley N. Katz

This essay asks the question “What would it mean to be a just university?” and answers to that the question may be understood in two ways. One way to understand “just” is procedural, having to do with internal governance and ensuring that a university’s policies are themselves just. The other is substantive, having to do with the university’s purpose or reason for existing. The second assumes the university is to serve some function necessary for the general good. This good is often defined in material terms: fostering a stronger economy, medical breakthroughs, more efficient use of natural resources, and so on. But such a view of the university defines its value entirely by factors external to itself. Proponents of one definition of the university’s purpose typically acknowledge some validity in the other, and universities commonly strive to fulfill the claims of both definitions. But universities also have an obligation to teach the young and to do so within the context of a common set of values that both determines the setting in which teaching takes place and encourages students to develop values that will shape their own lives. Katz argues in particular that intellectuals have a special obligation to work cooperatively to eliminate intellectual obstacles that stand in the way of commensuration, communication, and comprehension globally. It is this responsibility that he calls “intellectual philanthropy.”


1989 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-67

We have come to the human dimension in this discussion. It would, therefore, be useful for us to consider two different ways of approaching this. One is talking about people at arm's length, in the way we have been doing most of the day; to a certain extent we have had to do so, as social scientists or even as humanists. I am going to try the other approach, namely, to talk about a few individuals to see if there is anything there that might help us in understanding the nationality question. My subject is literature and language. First, I will cover literature as an instrument, as something of interest to social scientists; and then I will discuss certain important individuals. As far as the nationality question is concerned, the individual does matter, although, it seems, the Party places that aspect at the bottom of its list of nationality concerns deemed important.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-172
Author(s):  
Kobi (Yaaqov) Assoulin
Keyword(s):  
Do So ◽  
The Way ◽  

When we discuss the concept of place, we mostly do so geographically, or as a metaphor. That is, by representing what we think about by geographical notions. This paper avoids this literary tendency by discussing directly the role of actual place in W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants. Not only that, While still acknowledging melancholy's main role in the novel, and the way in which it is discussed in Freud and through Freud et al, the paper takes this melancholy to be a phenomenological spring board for explicating the centrality of place within The Emigrants's melancholy. In order to do this, the paper discusses the role of place within major phenomenological thinkers like Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty and the way their discussion dissolves the classical dichotomy of subject/object. However, as this dichotomy is dissolved, it becomes clearer as to the way places do not only belong to human-beings – simultaneously, humans belong to places. Through explicating this, we come to understand in The Emigrants what makes it such a tragic story. While the emigrants find their home to be rooted in places and memories of places, these places carry at the same time a mood of being-at-home and alongside that, a sense of ruins which haunt. Thus they become trapped between the conflicting urges of running toward and running from these memories. A dilemma that is finally solved only, in the novel, through death.


2020 ◽  
pp. 053331642094213
Author(s):  
Henry Luiker

This is the first of two articles examining the pervasiveness of religious, primitive and magical thinking in the culture of group analysis. I do so through the vehicle of the writings of Patrick de Maré. The article spells out what I believe to be the misunderstandings underlying de Maré’s rejection of causality, evidence and logical argument; calls into question the conventional view of de Maré’s writings as erudite but difficult; and examines the relationship between de Maré’s ideas and the way he takes up the role of large group conductor.


1983 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 182-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Grellier

This article describes the way internal assessment with external moderation has been put into practice at a School of Occupational Therapy, and the particular problems involved in being the first to do so. It explains the role of the Validation Board and the moderators, how this School's submission was prepared, presented and approved, and what the effect has been on the students, School staff, and clinical supervisors. The author believes that although more work is necessary by all concerned in the initial stages, there is greater satisfaction for staff and benefit to the student through self-directed learning and a fairer system of assessment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis N. Katsikis ◽  
Lida P. Kyrgidou

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to define a range of entrepreneurial concepts and provide a critical review of their content in order to map the forms of the entrepreneurial actions within their teleological context.Design/methodology/approachBased on the authors' definition of teleology as the process of heading towards an end, entrepreneurship was categorized into a three‐item typology, namely subject, process and object. The latter served as a platform for the analysis, which reveals some key qualities about research in entrepreneurship.FindingsThe paper provides a categorization of entrepreneurship both at the distinction (subject, process, object) and the contextual level and the commonalities and differences among entrepreneurship's different teleological approaches are analyzed and the potential is offered for further avenues of research to emerge. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the teleological approaches represent distinct approaches to interpret diverse aspects of the entrepreneurial phenomenon and provide insights into the way in which the entrepreneurial process itself unfolds.Originality/valueThe paper provides an innovative categorization of entrepreneurship as subject, process and object while discussing a variety of various entrepreneurial forms through their teleological nature within each of the three categories. The paper is valuable to scholars seeking to further advance their understanding in the various fields of entrepreneurship, understand the function of the particular set of activities to be undertaken, the role of particular individuals/agents involved in the entrepreneurial process, the opportunity identification/exploitation process as well as the particular objective that each entrepreneurial form aims at fulfilling.


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