This seminal, multidisciplinary book shows how mathematics can be used to study the first principles of DNA. Most importantly, it enriches the so-called "Chargaff's grammar of biology" by providing the conceptual theoretical framework necessary to generalize Chargaff's rules. Starting with a simple example of DNA mathematical modeling where human nucleotide frequencies are associated to the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio through an optimization problem, its breakthrough is showing that the reverse, complement and reverse-complement operators defined over oligonucleotides induce a (...) natural set partition of DNA words of fixed-size. These equivalence classes, when organized into a matrix form, reveal hidden patterns within the DNA sequence of every living organism. Intended for undergraduate and graduate students both in mathematics and in life sciences, it is also a valuable resource for researchers interested in studying invariant genomic properties. (shrink)

Abstract:Facial transplantation is emerging as a therapeutic option for self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The self-inflicted nature of this injury raises questions about the appropriate role of self-harm in determining patient eligibility. Potential candidates for facial transplantation undergo extensive psychosocial screening. The presence of a self-inflicted gunshot wound warrants special attention to ensure that a patient is prepared to undergo a demanding procedure that poses significant risk, as well as stringent lifelong management. Herein, we explore the ethics of considering mechanism of injury (...) in the patient selection process, referring to the precedent set forth in solid organ transplantation. We also consider the available evidence regarding outcomes of individuals transplanted for self-inflicted mechanisms of injury in both solid organ and facial transplantation. We conclude that while the presence of a self-inflicted gunshot wound is significant in the overall evaluation of the candidate, it does not on its own warrant exclusion from consideration for a facial transplantation. (shrink)

Eduardo Arroyo, Armelle Auris, François Boissonnet, Paul HENRY, Pierre-Jean LABARRIERE, MATIEU, Gilles AILLAUD, Gérad THALMANN, Nicole MATHIEU, Jacques VIMARD, Michel QUAREZ, Leonardo CREMONINI, L'atelier d'Eduardo Arryo: Le carré blanc du ring, Rue Descartes, No. 7, Logiques de l'éthique (Juin 1993), pp. 149-168.

Across academia, industry, and government, "AI" has become central in research and development, regulatory debates, and promises of ever faster and more capable decision-making and action. In numerous domains, especially safety-critical ones, there are significant concerns over how "AI" may affect decision-making, responsibility, or the likelihood of mistakes (to name only a few categories of critique). However, for most critiques, the target is generally "AI", a broad term admitting many (types of) systems used for a variety of tasks and each (...) coming with its own set of limitations, challenges, and potential use cases. In this article, we focus on the military domain as a case study and present both a loose enumerative taxonomy of systems captured under the umbrella term "military AI", as well as discussion of the challenges of each. In doing so, we highlight that critiques of one (type of) system will not always transfer to other (types of) systems. Building on this, we argue that in order for debates to move forward fruitfully, it is imperative that the discussions be made more precise and that "AI" be excised from debates to the extent possible. Researchers, developers, and policy-makers should make clear exactly what systems they have in mind and what possible benefits and risks attend the deployment of those particular systems. While we focus on AI in the military as an exemplar for the overall trends in discussions of "AI", the argument's conclusions are broad and have import for discussions of AI across a host of domains. (shrink)

Across academia, industry, and government, “AI” has become central in research and development, regulatory debates, and promises of ever faster and more capable decision-making and action. In numerous domains, especially safety-critical ones, there are significant concerns over how “AI” may affect decision-making, responsibility, or the likelihood of mistakes (to name only a few categories of critique). However, for most critiques, the target is generally “AI”, a broad term admitting many (types of) systems used for a variety of tasks and each (...) coming with its own set of limitations, challenges, and potential use cases. In this article, we focus on the military domain as a case study and present both a loose enumerative taxonomy of systems captured under the umbrella term “military AI”, as well as discussion of the challenges of each. In doing so, we highlight that critiques of one (type of) system will not always transfer to other (types of) systems. Building on this, we argue that in order for debates to move forward fruitfully, it is imperative that the discussions be made more precise and that “AI” be excised from debates to the extent possible, especially as discussions move more toward discrete systems and use cases. Researchers, developers, and policy-makers should make clear exactly what systems they have in mind and what possible benefits and risks attend the deployment of those particular systems. While we focus on AI in the military as an exemplar for the overall trends in discussions of “AI”, the argument’s conclusions are broad and have import for discussions of AI across a host of domains. (shrink)

Falaremos de uma cidadania criativa que se configura lentamente na sociedade contemporânea. Consumo, beleza, vaidade, moda e corpo são elementos que irão fazer o campo da cultura refletir sobre conceitos que estavam, por muito tempo, sedimentados no campo da Comunicação. As jovens mulheres que se autointitulam “ratas” e seu estilo de vida nos guiaram para problematizar questões relativas às sociabilidades comunitárias e à cidadania cultural. Este trabalho faz uma imersão de campo na comunidade na favela da Candelária, na Mangueira, (...) Rio de Janeiro. (shrink)

In the first part of this essay, I develop the argument that Michel Foucault's work should be read with geographical and topological ideas in mind. I argue that Foucault's archeology and genealogy are fundamentally determined by spatial, topological, geographical, and geometrical metaphors and concepts. This spatial dimension of genealogy is explicitly related to racism and the regimes that domesticate agents through the practices, institutions and ideologies of racialization. The second part offers a genealogical reading of US history and spatiality (...) in terms of its racial institutions. I suggest that if we want to read the US geographies of topographies and cartographies of racism in a Foucauldian manner, then we must focus on plantations, ghettos, and prisons as the spaces‐institutions‐geographies that consolidated the racial matrix of US polity. My goal is to acculturate Foucauldian racial genealogy to the US racial matrix, and, conversely, to read US geo‐history in terms of racializing spatialities. (shrink)

O termo Ecosofia evoca a necessidade de se pensar uma nova relação entre o homem e o meio ambiente a partir de um paradigma pós-cartesiano, uma vez que sob a égide do cartesianismo subscreveu-se uma forma de dominação sobre a natureza onde a última se apresenta como “serva” do homem. Tal expressão remonta ao pensamento do ambientalista norueguês Arne Naess, fundador do movimento conhecido como Deep Ecology, o qual, entre outras características, estabelece que o problema da ecologia está além de (...) um único campo de estudos, envolvendo o esforço coletivo de diferentes áreas, uma vez que se trata de um tema de responsabilidade de todos. Diversos pensadores podem ser incluídos no desenvolvimento daquele conceito, indo de Rousseau a Félix Guattari, a sociólogos como Michel Maffesoli e físicos como Fritjof Capra. Compreendemos, com base nos trabalhos de alguns dos seus principais teóricos, que a Ecosofia abrange uma dimensão metafísica que está além das formas consensuais de combate ao desequilíbrio ambiental, os quais se instrumentalizam através de acordos e metas estabelecidas através de instituições políticas, mas que se promove como uma cosmovisão que tem como princípio transformar a consciência humana para que se acomode aos termos de um novo convívio entre si e com a natureza. Daqui emergem duas tarefas a serem plenamente consolidadas: o reconhecimento da interdependência dos seres vivos entre si, em relação ao meio ambiente e à natureza tomada como origem comum de todos. Este último ponto exprime um conflito com a tradição espiritual do Ocidente de matriz judaico-cristã. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar os elementos centrais da crítica realizada por Axel Honneth ao pensamento de Michel Foucault, em Crítica do Poder, articulando-a com sua análise da obra do chamado “círculo interno” da Escola de Frankfurt, principalmente Adorno e Horkheimer. Dessa maneira, entende-se que Honneth opera uma aproximação do pensamento foucaultiano à tradição crítica frankfurtiana, com ênfase em deficiências comuns que apontam para uma filiação entre os autores e, ao mesmo tempo, para sua insuficiência na análise da (...) sociedade contemporânea. Tal leitura, contudo, em que pese sua inovação em pôr lado a lado Foucault e Habermas enquanto desenvolvimentos rivais da Teoria Crítica, é limitada tanto cronologicamente, por não levar em consideração a reorientação realizada por Foucault, a partir de 1978, quanto por identificar problematicamente as noções de poder e dominação. Essa limitação não inviabiliza, entretanto, manter o gesto de convergência entre o pensamento foucaultiano e a Escola de Frankfurt, pensando-o através de uma via positiva, que não se restrinja às limitações das suas ferramentas críticas, mas que, ao contrário, ao focalizar a radicalidade de tal crítica, torne possível destacar a sua atualidade. (shrink)

This paper examines ethics in organizations in relation to the subjectivity of managers. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault we seek to theorize ethics in terms of the meaning of being a manager who is an active ethical subject. Such a manager is so in relation to the organizational structures and norms that govern the conduct of ethics. Our approach locates ethics in the relation between individual morality and organizationally prescribed principles assumed to guide personal action. In this (...) way we see ethics as a practice that is powerfully intertwined in an individual’s freedom to make choices about what to do and who to be, and the organizational context in which those choices are situated, framed and governed. (shrink)

O que somos? Como nos tornamos o que somos? Quais relações de saber-poder atravessam nossas subjetividades? Quais dispositivos e tecnologías foram/são mobilizados em torno das urgências histórico-contemporâneas? Quais outros somos são possíveis diante das estratégias de governamentalidade disciplinares e biopolíticas que marcam a contemporaneidade? O pensamento de Michel Foucault e seu modo crítico de indagação histórica e filosófica possibilitam que interpelemos os processos que nos fizeram e nos fazem ser quem somos, seus mecanismos de assujeitamento e posibilidades de resistências, (...) nos levando a problematizar os processos de subjetivação como efeitos e indicios de relações de poder-saber historicamente constituídas [...]. (shrink)

Entrevue avec Michel MaffesoliEntrevista com Michel Maffesoli.

O presente trabalho procura discutir a função-autor a partir de Michel Foucault em suas possíveis contribuições ao campo da Ciência da Informação. Tratando-se de trabalho de caráter qualitativo, a partir de material bibliográfico, realizou-se a leitura da literatura pertinente à temática em textos de Michel Foucault e Paul Otlet, a fim de identificar o tratamento dispensado à figura do autor em ambos, procedendo à realização de um exercício comparativo. Identificou-se em Paul Otlet a presença da atribuição à figura (...) do autor o papel explorado por Michel Foucault em seus textos, correspondendo a um sentido ordenador e a uma espécie de chave de leitura para um conjunto a que se compreende por “obra”. Concluiu-se a necessidade de aprofundar o tratamento dos textos foucaultianos no campo da Ciência da Informação, procurando compreender as condições de possibilidade dos nossos objetos. (shrink)

En este artículo buscaremos revisar el punto considerado inaugural de la “Filosofía de la Educación” en los griegos, con un especial enfoque crítico en la filosofía platónica. Esta revisión se realizará a partir de dos fórmulas tomadas de dos pensadores contemporáneos: Jacques Rancière y Michel Foucault. De Rancière extraeremos la fórmula del “desacuerdo”, propuesta en el libro El Desacuerdo (1995). Reconoceremos su alcance político y utilizaremos su modus operandi para llevar a cabo nuestra crítica de la “Filosofía de la (...) Educación”. Y con Foucault buscaremos, a partir de la lectura presentada en el curso Hermenéutica del sujeto, la fórmula del sujeto [mal] educado. A partir de esta fórmula, entenderemos cómo la figura de Alcibíades sirvió (para Platón) como dispositivo legitimador de la negación de la pedagogía griega y de la fundación de una “Filosofía de la Educación”. Armados con estas fórmulas, buscaremos comprender cómo la antigüedad (especialmente Platón) cooptó e invisibilizó la educación, como debería haber ocurrido en la Atenas del siglo V, en nombre de un proyecto filosófico. (shrink)

Neste artigo investigo a noção de corpo produtivo na obra de Michel Foucault, com foco no curso A Sociedade Punitiva (1973/2015), analisando a relação entre corpo, poder, tempo produtivo e a eficácia imaterial associada ao panoptismo. Partindo do problema central de como as disciplinas organizam corpos simultaneamente úteis, produtivos, obedientes e dóceis, examino como Foucault compreende o discurso em torno do corpo produtivo na ordem capitalista emergente. Nesse contexto, a figura do indivíduo improdutivo é identificada como inimigo social, alimentando (...) uma moralização que enquadra os ilegalismos populares e disciplina os desviantes econômicos. Essa análise está fundamentada na ideia de eficácia imaterial presente na caracterização foucaultiana do panoptismo, sob uma perspectiva que dialoga com elementos dumézilianos. Para desenvolver essa abordagem, sigo dois movimentos principais: primeiro, traço uma arqueologia do corpo produtivo com base nas primeiras quatro aulas de A Sociedade Punitiva; em seguida, demonstro o tipo de eficácia social desempenhada por esse corpo na lógica do panoptismo. (shrink)

A partir do estudo sobre o processo histórico de ressignificação da relação entre subjetividade e verdade, realizado por Michel Foucault no curso “A Hermenêutica do Sujeito”, o presente artigo analisa as possíveis implicações dessa ressignificação no processo de institucionalização da filosofia, problematizando, por conseguinte, a temática do ensino de Filosofia na Educação Básica.

La obra filosófica de Michel Henry forjó una filosofía del cristianismo que se articula como una Fenomenología de la Vida, engarzada con una filosofía de la carne y consumada como una Fenomenología de la Encarnación. El núcleo de dicha fenomenología comienza distinguiendo entre la fenomenología del mundo y la Fenomenología de la Vida. La fenomenología del mundo planteó y plantea siempre un pensamiento confinado en la exterioridad, en el estar fuera; en lo ek-stático, que siempre olvida y niega la (...) vida. La Fenomenología de la Vida, en cambio, es la inmanencia y la auto-afección (el experimentarse a sí del viviente), que se expone desde las intuiciones esenciales del cristianismo: una vida que es auto-revelación; que es auto-donación, y que está caracterizada por el gozo infinito de sí en el abrazo patético de Sí, en la auto-afección. Ello, la Vida absoluta (Dios Padre, Dios de la Vida) auto-engendra eternamente a Dios Hijo, Cristo, el Primogénito, el Archi-Hijo. En Él nacemos a y por la Vida los vivientes, que somos los Hijos de Dios, Hijos de la Vida en el Archi-Hijo. Él nos singulariza engendrándonos en su Archi-Ipseidad. La carne del viviente es engendrada en el Verbo hecho Carne; Palabra de Vida, Palabra de la Verdad, Verbo de Vida, Verbo de Amor. (shrink)

This paper seeks to highlight the methodological contributions developed by Michel Foucault in regard to a critical history. We propose a tour through various passages of the thinker´s work, with the aim of bashing the main elements that allegedly make up his method. From this exercise we maintain that, in order to record the existence of a Foucauldian method, it is necessary to reproblematize this notion beyond the displacements around the well-known three moments of his work -archeological/genealogical/ethical-, reorienting the (...) look towards the critical tension possible to peer around the unique place that occupies the question of history in his work. The novelty of our proposal is to point out that, beyond the well-known substantial contributions foreshadowed around Foucault's conceptual rig, his work must be understood as an eminently practical historical-philosophical methodology, aimed at disarticulating the canonical principles that legitimize knowledge produced by the historiographic method, thus opening a region of indiscernibility and rarity in historical practice that, we maintain, can be thought of in the vicinity of a parahistory. In sum, we propose the thesis that the displacement in Foucault's work takes on a singular power from the introduction of a strategic artifice ― anonymous ―, aimed at forcing a fold of history on itself, showing how historiographical plots actively tax to sustain and legitimize the regimes of knowledge, power and truth present in them. (shrink)

This paper develops what we can call a first approach into a “possible communication epistemology” through certain conceptions from Serres. These conceptions are characterized by an open perspective that breaks the notions of limit, frontier, barrier and competence that have distinguished epistemolo..

"On ne naît pas féministe, alors comment le devient-on? Et comment les vagues féministes se sont-elles succédé? Première universitaire à enseigner l'histoire des femmes en France au début des années 70, Michelle Perrot revient ici avec Eduardo Castillo sur ce qui l'a construite, ses lectures, son engagement. Elle donne à voir un siècle de bouleversements et la profondeur des luttes qui agitent aujourd'hui nos sociétés. Pas à pas, l'ouvrage nous guide dans cette épopée en explorant toutes ses ramifications : (...) l'histoire du patriarcat et des progrès de l'égalité, celle des grands débats féministes sur le corps, le genre, l'universalisme face au différentialisme, la sororité, MeToo. La grande histoire se mêle au destin des femmes qui l'ont portée et l'on dialogue avec Olympe de Gouges, Hubertine Auclert, Monique Wittig ou encore Arlette Farge, ainsi qu'avec toute la nouvelle génération de penseuses et de militantes. Intime et théorique, livre d'histoire et autobiographie, Le Temps des féminismes met en perspective tous les clivages du féminisme contemporain, avec la générosité et la distance d'historienne de Michelle Perrot."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Ethnoknowledge is a human cultural expression, in different discursivities that generate statements in Science teaching. This research problematizes how the contents of ENEM questions are articulated with ethno-knowledge, indicating how the examined object is presented [or excluded]. The analysis is based on Michel Foucault's theories, using as empirical evidence the images, statements and concepts of Biological Sciences present in ENEM questions from 2011 to 2021. Despite the intrinsic relationship between Science and Culture, the ways of thinking, representing and disseminating (...) knowledge in the context of Science teaching, ethno-knowledge is not conveyed to ENEM in a structured way; this, in turn, is a space for scientific and curricular knowledge. It was found that scientific knowledge that could be linked to ethno-knowledge is banned in this examination to the detriment of formal concepts, as a way of perpetuating the locus of its production: universities and specific places of scientific production. (shrink)

The present work refers to the doctorship research that implemented the Free-Expression Painting Studio technique to assist university students who had suicidal ideations or attempts. This technique was developed in France by the psychologist Michel Ternoy, based on Minkowski’s structural-phenomenon analysis method. A group session will be presented and discussed from Michel Henry’s phenomenology of life. Psychology and phenomenology can create spaces for belonging and support, which allow the transformation of suffering from experiences in the community. The Painting (...) Studio makes it possible to experience the affection of the other as a potential of one’s own possibilities, mobilizing the affective dialectical relationship, through which one can go from unbearable suffering to original fruition. We seek to show that art can be part of the therapeutic process as an alternative to the passage to the act of suicide before it becomes unbearable. (shrink)

O artigo pretende explorar, a partir de Michel Foucault, a ligação entre biopolítica, neoliberalismo e a chamada guerra às drogas, a fim de tentar esclarecer as motivações econômicas e políticas que fundamentam o tipo de combate às drogas que impera no mundo contemporâneo. O Brasil não está distante desse tipo de política que, apoiada em discursos legitimadores, tais como o discurso médico e mesmo o psicologizante, estabelecem não apenas a partilha entre os que devem viver e os que precisam (...) morrer, como também as condições para justificar toda forma de exclusão e desqualificação das populações periféricas, justificativa que, em última instância, também repercute na formulação das leis. (shrink)

Based on the hypothesis that modified human beings will have successful life projects, the biopolitical presuppositions of genetic manipulation in modern society are reflected. Considering the theories presented by Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Michael J. Sandel, Hans Jonas and Achille Mbembe, a genetic Africanization of the economically disadvantaged population is identified. In this scenario, concepts of class and race are confused and social prejudice increases. Faced with the new technologies of genetic engineering, gene manipulation presents itself as a new (...) face of biopower, since science now has the power to give life from the selection of characteristics considered superior. It is argued that the criticism surrounding the process of genetic manipulation is necessary as it opens the possibility of debating mutual recognition as a condition of life, above the identification of race or class, geographic location or other characteristics of the individuals that make up society. (shrink)

Com as frequentes tragédias ocorridas no âmbito das instituições prisionais no Brasil, surge a necessidade de debater a crise penitenciária e identificar as suas possíveis causas. O artigo propõe uma análise da falência da pena de prisão sob a abordagem das teorias do filósofo Michel Foucault, contidas principalmente em sua obra Vigiar e Punir: história da violência nas prisões. Utilizando-se de método similar ao do próprio autor, serão realizadas comparações de medidas punitivas anteriores à reforma penal com a conjuntura (...) do atual ordenamento jurídico brasileiro. Com base no conteúdo histórico-filosófico da referida obra, será exposto o conceito de gestão dos ilegalismos, o qual se mostrará pertinente para explicar um dos fatores que contribui para a tão debatida crise no sistema penal. Em síntese, esperamos aproximar as teorias foucaultianas da ineficiência do sistema penal brasileiro. (shrink)

O presente texto, cujo título é “O campo como nómos biopolítico da modernidade e a figura do muçulmano” tem por objetivo geral examinar a noção de campo como nómos biopolítico presente na modernidade, segundo as afirmações da obra de Giorgio Agamben, destacando a figura do muçulmano como seu habitante e como um paradigma da vida nua em oposição à forma-de-vida. Para que se possa realizar o objetivo proposto, iniciamos com a abordagem dos conceitos de vida nua e de biopolítica em (...) Agamben, indicando alguns de seus interlocutores, tais como Michel Foucault e Hannah Arendt. Em seguida, analisamos o conceito de campo, que caracteriza o Estado de exceção permanente na modernidade, e a figura do mulçumano, no interior dele. Por último, apresentamos breves considerações acerca da enigmática noção de forma-de-vida, com hífen, enquanto oposta a vida nua, na medida em que uma torna inoperante a politização da vida, a biopolítica. (shrink)

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo explicar desde los planteamientos de Foucault, cómo funcionan, en términos descriptivos, los fenómenos de consumo que promueven la delgadez y la juventud como características positivas, que nos conducirían a un estado de salud, belleza y felicidad. En este sentido, este artículo proyecta ser tanto una aplicación de la filosofía del autor francés, como “unalectura”, de las diversas que se pueden llevar a cabo desde este autor. Si bien Foucault no estudió directamente este tipo de (...) temáticas, bajo una contextualización de sus planteamientos, lo tomamos como el marco y eje principal que nos guiará a problematizar, vincular y comprender las lógicas que operan en los discursos de belleza física y de consumo. (shrink)

Michel de Montaigne begins his magisterial ESSAIS by telling his readers that he, himself, is the matter of his book. He says that he has written himself so that after death he could remain in the world with those who knew and loved him. Montaignes intimate project, meant to be read by friends, has emerged as one of the most surprising and compelling accounts of the human condition ever written. Although Montaigne famously retired from public life to write his (...) essais, neither his concerns nor the activities recounted in ESSAIS is purely private. This volume of essays, based on papers presented at The A.V. Elliott Conference for Great Books and Ideas sponsored by Mercer Universitys McDonald Center for Americas Founding Principles, focuses on the outward oriented political philosophy of Montaigne. Contributors include Ann Hartle, Daniel Cullen, Christine Henderson, Eduardo Velasquez, Kevin Honeycutt, and Christopher Edelman. (shrink)

Michel Foucault desafia qualquer tentativa de ser reduzido a definições simplistas. Fazer uma saudosa memória por ocasião dos 40 anos de sua morte não pode se resumir a uma apresentação estática de sua vida e obra. É imperioso ressaltar o vigor, o dinamismo interno de seu pensamento filosófico. A filosofia de Foucault é um sincero convite dirigido a todos nós para fazermos uma verdadeira experiência de pensar, a voltar-nos para nós mesmos para refletir criticamente sobre as formas de poder (...) pelas quais fomos e somos constituídos, buscando a possibilidade de imaginar novas formas de ser e de nos relacionar com o mundo. Partindo das impressões sobre o legado de Foucault, apresentamos algumas interpretações de sua filosofia no intuito de ressaltar a beleza e a importância daquela experiência de pensar que gera novas interpretações e assegura a vital relevância da filosofia. Palavras-chave: Michel Foucault. Método Genealógico. Analítica do Poder. Experiência Filosófica. (shrink)

'A fabulous journey through thirty years of political and intellectual ferment... will reorient our reading of Foucault's major works' Didier Eribon The Essential Works of Michel Foucault offers the definitive collection of his articles, interviews and seminars from across thirty years of his extraordinary career. This first volume, Ethics, contains the summaries of Foucault's renowned courses at the Collège de France, as well as key writings and candid interviews on ethical matters: from the role of the intellectual and philosopher (...) in society to friendship, sexuality and the care of the self and others. Edited by Paul Rabinow Translated by Robert Hurley and Others. (shrink)

This chapter from Michel Serres’s comprehensive study on Leibniz—"The System of Leibniz and its Mathematical Models [Le système de Leibniz et ses modèles mathématiques]"—examines Leibniz’s epistemological framework. This framework, which Leibniz developed for a large part in his “Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas [Meditationes de cognitione, veritate et ideis],” is pitched against Descartes’s "Meditations on First Philosophy [Meditationes de Prima Philosophia]" and the method of systematic doubt developed therein. While Descartes rejects any knowledge with the slightest possibility of (...) falsehood, Leibniz accepts knowledge with even a minimal degree of truth. Leibniz’s approach involves a progressive genesis of truth through a series of filters, each further refining knowledge. This process is intrinsically linked to infinitism and combinatorics, allowing for a gradual differentiation of the distinct from the indistinct. The filters are applied sequentially, with each filter proceeding through its own oppositions, resulting in a spectrum of knowledge ranging from obscure to clear, confused to distinct, inadequate to adequate, and symbolic to intuitive. This framework facilitates pluralism within rationalism that proceeds through evolving or regional truths. The filters overlap, and only the final stage of knowledge is devoid of mixture. Leibniz’s epistemology is non-Cartesian, as it relativizes truth and falsehood at each stage of the filtering process. It also accounts for the limitations of sensory perception, attributing them to the imperfection of the human mind in its current state. (Translated by Martijn Boven). (shrink)

In these two essays, two of the most important French thinkers of our time reflect on each other's work. In so doing, novelist/essayist Maurice Blanchot and philosopher Michel Foucault develop a new perspective on the relationship between subjectivity, fiction, and the will to truth. The two texts present reflections on writing, language, and representation which question the status of the author/subject and explore the notion of a "neutral" voice that arises from the realm of the "outside." This book is (...) crucial not only to an understanding of these two thinkers, but also to any overview of recent French thought.Michel Foucault (1927-1984) was the holder of a chair at the College de France. Among his works are Madness and Civilization, The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality Maurice Blanchot, born in 1907, is a novelist and critic. His works include Death Sentence, Thomas the Obscure, and The Space of Literature. (shrink)

In this manuscript of the early 1950s, Foucault outlines the path of Freud’s psychoanalysis from a biological approach based on the evolutionary perspective to disease, towards the understanding of its psychological significance. However, since the evolutionary point of view is never abandoned by Freud, the question that arises is how, in the psychoanalytic definition of the disease and its relation to personality, the evolutionary analysis is combined with the perspective of a meaningful understanding: what equilibrium can be established between them, (...) and what image of the sick man does result? Moreover, if the disease has a sense, and if it is defined by a set of significant and consistent reactions, how can it still be defined as a disease? (shrink)

This article is a transcript of a conversation between Michel Foucault and Jonathan Simon in San Francisco in October 1983. It has never previously been published and is transcribed on the basis of a tape recording made at the time. Foucault and Simon begin with a discussion of Foucault’s 1977 lecture ‘About the Concept of the “Dangerous Individual” in 19th-Century Legal Psychiatry’, and move to a discussion of notions of danger, psychiatric expertise in the prosecution cases, crime, responsibility and (...) rights in the US and French legal systems. The transcription is accompanied by a brief contextualizing introduction and a retrospective comment by Simon. (shrink)

En el presente texto busco analizar el concepto de virginidad como construcción normativa en la experiencia cristiana de la carne según el pensamiento del filósofo francés Michel Foucault. Para lograr tal cometido, primero abordo la cuestión de los aphrodisia en la Grecia Clásica junto con la configuración de una estética de la existencia. Posteriormente, destaco el lugar específico que ocupó la abstención pagana practicada por los filósofos griegos que cimentó, en parte, las bases de las artes de la virginidad (...) como dispositivo de acceso a la salvación cristiana. Finalmente, señalo -siguiendo a Foucault- la transición desde la vivencia de la sexualidad en Grecia hacia el cristianismo donde la idea del pecado original influyó de manera determinante en la experiencia cristiana de la carne, ya que avanzó sobre la elaboración de un ejercicio constante de ascesis sobre sí del sujeto en búsqueda del desciframiento de sus propios deseos. (shrink)

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and politician. After serving as Greek Finance Minister in 2015, he went on to co-found the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, of which he is now Secretary- General. The author of many books and academic papers, his latest work, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism?, was published by Bodley Head in 2023. Professor of Economics, and editor of this journal, Michel Zouboulakis interviewed Varoufakis in December 2023. What follows is a transcript of that meeti...