The concept of the future is re-emerging as an urgent topic on the academic agenda. In this article, we focus on the ‘politics of the future’: the social processes and practices that allow particular imagined futures to become socially performative. Acknowledging that the performativity of such imagined futures is well-understood, we argue that how particular visions come about and why they become performative is underexplained. Drawing on constructivist sociological theory, this article aims to fill (part of) this gap by exploring (...) the question ‘how do imagined futures become socially performative’? In doing so, the article has three aims to (1) identify the leading social–theoretical work on the future; (2) conceptualize the relationship of the imagination of the future with social practices and the performance of reality; (3) provide a theoretical framework explaining how images of the future become performative, using the concepts ‘techniques of futuring’ and ‘dramaturgical regime’. (shrink)

First published in 2010, Cornelia Vismann’s article has already attained the status of a classic. In a formulation inspired by linguistic theory, the author argues that the relation between cultural techniques and media can be understood in analogy to grammatical operations. Thus, cultural techniques define the agency of media and execute the procedural rules which the latter set in place. Together, they articulate a critique of subjectivity and sovereignty that proceeds by re-examining the notion of ‘culture’ via its (...) agricultural origins to the current moment when the ‘preservation of cultural techniques’ has entered legal and academic discourse. Ultimately, despite their apparent separation from praxis, cultural techniques continue to proliferate through axes of substitution and displacement. (shrink)

These introductory remarks outline the German concept of Kulturtechniken (cultural techniques) by tracing its various overlapping meanings from the late 19th century to today and linking it to developments in recent German theory. Originally related to the agricultural domain, the notion of cultural techniques was later employed to describe the interactions between humans and media, and, most recently, to account for basic operations and differentiations that give rise to an array of conceptual and ontological entities which are said (...) to constitute culture. In the second part of the essay, cultural techniques are analyzed as a concept that allows theorists to overcome certain biases and impasses characteristic of that domain of German media theory associated with the work of the late Friedrich Kittler. (shrink)

Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning, 2/e is an introductory volume that teaches students to recognize and construct correct deductions. It takes students through all logical steps--from premise to conclusion--and presents appropriate symbols and terms, while giving examples to clarify principles. Logic, 2/e uses models to establish the invalidity of arguments, and includes exercise sets throughout, ranging from easy to challenging. Solutions are provided to selected exercises, and historical remarks discuss major contributions to the theories covered.

This paper seeks to introduce cultural techniques to an Anglophone readership. Specifically geared towards an Anglophone readership, the paper relates the re-emergence of cultural techniques (a concept first employed in the 19th century in an agricultural context) to the changing intellectual constellation of postwar Germany. More specifically, it traces how the concept evolved from – and reacted against – so-called German media theory, a decidedly anti-hermeneutic and anti-humanist current of thought frequently associated with the work of Friedrich Kittler. (...) Post-hermeneutic rather than anti-hermeneutic in its outlook, the reconceptualization of cultural techniques aims at presenting them as chains of operations that link humans, things, media and even animals. To investigate cultural techniques is to shift the analytic gaze from ontological distinctions to the ontic operations that gave rise to the former in the first place. As Siegert points out, this shift recalls certain concurrent developments within the North American posthumanities; the paper therefore also includes a discussion of the similarities and differences between German and North American posthumanism. (shrink)

Contrary to the general belief that modernist art and architecture reflect the technological society, Jacques Ellul maintains in his L’empire du non-sens that they are justifications for the integration of humankind into what he called the technicist complex. Modernism in art and architecture meant that every product must be qualified by a technological character. This unassailable belief exerted some far-reaching influences on symbolic thought, on artistic expression, on architectural character. If imitation and invention were the two inseparable concepts through which (...) art and architecture were produced and symbolized, it is because they operate on a certain transparency between an exemplar and a work of art. By contrast, in the mentality of technique, artistic production operates based on a certain opacity to meanings outside of itself. Imitation and invention were separated. Thus, one of the principal beliefs in modernism, that art and architecture symbolize the technological society is actually one of its weakest. In considering technology as both the symbol and the product, the artistic idea and its representation collapsed into each other. (shrink)

Nous sommes dans une société où se multiplient les techniques de communication. Quelles sont-elles? Quelles nouvelles formes de lien social accompagnent-elles? Comment penser le rapport entre techniques et société? Telles sont les interrogations avancées et qui s’appuient sur la demande sociale latente propre à nos sociétés et qui est à la source des progrès techniques, ceux-ci, ensuite, imposant leur propre logique.In our society, techniques of communication increase in number. What are they? What new forms of social (...) link go with them? How are we supposed to think the relationship between techniques and society? Such are the questions we have to ask. They imply a social unconscious characteristic of modern societies and, in feed-back, the effects of the technical logic. (shrink)

The paper seeks to analyze children’s bodily vulnerability as grounded in generational order. The thesis is put forward, that the generational order is embodied via body techniques of vulnerability, deployed both by adults and children. In presenting results from research on professional responses to child maltreatment and neglect, three sets of age related body techniques of vulnerability are identified, concerning caregivers, professionals and the children itself.

Humanity is made of technical objects. Despite of this fact, technique is not considered as a cultural matter especially in engineering schools where it should be taught. As teachers and searchers at the INSA Lyon, we have experienced the way and the difficulties to develop this technical culture.

Research on perception without awareness has provoked strong emotional responses from individuals within and outside the scientific community, due in part to the perceived potential for abuse of subliminal techniques. In this paper, four basic issues regarding the use of subliminal techniques for propaganda purposes are discussed: whether exposure to subliminal stimuli can produce significant, predictable changes in affect, cognition and behavior; whether these effects are robust and powerful enough to make the use of subliminal techniques for (...) propaganda purposes feasible; whether the effects of subliminal stimulation are stable over time; and whether subliminal influences can be resisted by unwilling subjects. Research suggests that exposure to simple drive-or affect-related subliminal stimuli can produce ecologically significant, temporally stable changes in attitudes and behavior, and therefore may have potential for use as propaganda tools. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the mechanisms underlying subliminal perception are discussed. Technical problems which would need to be addressed before subliminal propaganda techniques could be employed are also discussed. Ethical issues raised by the use of covert attitude and behavior manipulation techniques are addressed. (shrink)

One of the clearest examples of a technological system, in the sense that Ellul discussed it, is contemporary biomedical health care. The foundation of technological systems is technique: efficient methods for achieving isolated goals. However, the goal of health care should be to achieve health in the full sense of wholeness. Traditional healing systems addressed heath in this sense, but biomedicine cannot; attempting to use the techniques of traditional systems without the accompanying culture ruptures those systems. Using the contemporary (...) epidemic of chronic noncommunicable diseases as an example, this article attempts to exposes the limitations of a technical approach, as well as the limitations of the methodology of risk analysis. (shrink)

Neoliberal Techniques of Social Suffering: Political Resistance and Critical Theory from Latin America and Spain is the result of the critical and political commitment of various Latin American and Spanish philosophers who share a critical approach to the global “stealth revolution” in recent decades, where neoliberalism has forced the well-being and reproduction of life to adapt to a system devastating for both humans and non-humans. The authors voice the shared concern of contemporary Spanish and Latin American societies to build (...) new conceptions of the public and the common through mobilizing affects usually disavowed in political theory. If, in Ancient Greece, the idea of strengthening the most vulnerable and weakest was deplored as the art of sophists, this collection edited by Laura Quintana and Nuria Sánchez Madrid explores the other side of our social world to revive grassroots strategies of resistance and emancipation, which are able to bring about new distributions of power, welfare, and discursive legitimation and to extend our goal of creating a radically democratic world. (shrink)

This article reevaluates the mystical techniques and experiences peculiar to Abraham Abulafia’s Kabbalah and attempts to offer an alternative approach to their dominant understanding, which largely depends on Moshe Idel’s work. Current scholars of Jewish mysticism have a habit of highlighting the “unique character” of Abulafia’s mystical practices while asserting that they cannot be compared with the induction techniques and the psychophysical phenomena typical of hypnosis. While generally agreeing with the scholars discussed that the hyperactivation of the mind (...) found in Abulafian Kabbalah contrasts sharply with the mental relaxation attained through the mystical practices of other religious traditions, the present study takes issue with the current view of Abulafian Kabbalah’s relation to hypnotic procedures, processes, and states. This work addresses the issues present with the current view and offers a more inclusive model for interpreting Abulafia’s Kabbalah, drawing from psychiatrist Roland Fischer. (shrink)

Many historical studies tend to underline two central Kantian themes frequently emerging in Georges Canguilhem’s works: (1) a conception of activity, primarily stemming from the Critique of Pure Reason, as a mental and abstract synthesis of judgment; and (2) a notion of organism, inspired by the Critique of Judgment, as an integral totality of parts. Canguilhem was particularly faithful to the first theme from the 1920s to the first half of the 1930s, whereas the second theme became important in the (...) early 1940s. With this article, I will attempt to show that a third important theme of technique arose in the second half of the 30s also in the wake of Kant’s philosophy, especially Sect. 43 of the Critique of Judgment. This section, which states that technical ability is distinguished from a theoretical faculty, led Canguilhem to a more concrete and practical conception of activity. I will then suggest that it was by considering technique that the concept of normativity, which characterizes Georges Canguilhem’s philosophy of life, also took shape. (shrink)

Avec l’identification biométrique, nous passons imperceptiblement du contrôle à distance des populations pratiqué par les États modernes à des macro-systèmes techniques qui imposent de plus en plus leur propre logique. Du point de vue anthropologique ce déplacement de paradigme met en jeu la définition même de l’identité en renforçant le divorce entre l’identité civile et l’identité personnelle ou sociale. La frontière est désormais inscrite à même le corps biologique des individus au sein de l’espace géré depuis les terminaux du (...) grand réseau mondial de gestion des flux disséminés sur la planète. Elle tend donc à se confondre avec les limites fonctionnelles du Macro-Système technique. Du point de vue du droit, la mise en place par les États de dispositifs d’identification biométriques s’exprime principalement par la restriction de la liberté de circuler accordée aux individus. L’un des constats apporté par la revue des législations nationales montre pourtant que le droit s’adapte globalement à cette nouvelle situation. Cet article interroge en conclusion quelques-unes des raisons permettant d’expliquer ces reculs successifs et propose, parmi elles, la définition implicite de l’individu sur laquelle fait fond le droit moderne.With biometric identification we are imperceptibly moving from the remote control of the population practised by the modern States on to large technical systems which increasingly impose their own logic on people. From an anthropological viewpoint, this paradigm shift calls into question the very definition of « identity » by broadening the divide between civil identity and personal or social identity. The frontier is now inscribed on the biological body of the individual within the space that is managed from the terminals of the global flow management networks scattered the world over. The frontier thus tends increasingly to coincide with the functional limits of the large technical system. From a legal viewpoint, the introduction by States of biometric identification systems results primarily in a restriction of the freedom of circulation granted to individuals. One of the findings which emerge from a review of national legislations is however that law is globally adapting to this new situation. In the conclusion, the article considers some of the reasons behind these successive backward steps, and proposes, amongst them, an implicit definition of the individual on which modern law is founded. (shrink)

In accordance with societal norms and values, consumers readily indicate their positive attitudes toward sustainability. However, they hardly take sustainability into account when engaging in exchange relationships with companies. To shed light on this paradox, this paper investigates whether defense mechanisms and the more specific concept of neutralization techniques can explain the discrepancy between societal norms and actual behavior. A multi-method qualitative research design provides rich insights into consumers’ underlying cognitive processes and how they make sense of their attitude–behavior (...) divergences. Drawing on the Ways Model of account-taking, which is advanced to a Cycle Model, the findings illustrate how neutralization strategies are used to legitimize inconsistencies between norm-conforming attitudes and actual behavior. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the repetitive reinforcement of neutralizing patterns and feedback loops between individuals and society are linked to the rise of anomic consumer behavior. (shrink)

For Ricœur any study of Freud, or of psychoanalysis more generally, needs to take into account the crucial dimension of the analytic experience itself. Psychoanalysis, as a “mixed discourse,” aims to anticipate questions of meaning and explication alongside technical questions of energies, repression, displacement, and so on. The analytic experience is one which is practical and intersubjective, but which is also guided by various techniques or methods. These techniques, I will argue, should be understood as a type of (...) techne, one which is less concerned with hermeneutic questions of meaning than with quasi-scientific questions of force, feedback, struggle, and process. The practice of psychoanalysis, on the other hand, deals with the ways in which these forces or drives become meaningful for a particular subject, and within a singular context or history. This article will aim to draw out both the interrelationship between techniques and practical understanding, and also the productive incommensurability between the two. (shrink)

Les réseaux socionumériques constituent des supports identitaires ambivalents pour leurs utilisateurs. À de nombreux égards, ils entretiennent des proximités avec les techniques de soi développées depuis l'antiquité dans la société occidentale. Cette similarité explique certainement leur adoption si enthousiaste. Cependant, ces plateformes possèdent des caractéristiques particulières qui les éloignent des objectifs usuels des techniques de soi, destinées au développement de l'autoréflexivité et au soin de soi. Elles constituent davantage des outils d'expression de soi que des techniques de (...) soi. Leur compréhension nécessite aussi de sortir d'une vision egocentrée de l'individu pour envisager la dimension fondamentalement co-construite de notre identité. (shrink)

There is considerable interest in the use of neuroimaging techniques for forensic purposes. Memory detection techniques, including the well-publicized Brain Fingerprinting technique (Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, Inc., Seattle WA), exploit the fact that the brain responds differently to sensory stimuli to which it has been exposed before. When a stimulus is specifically associated with a crime, the resulting brain activity should differentiate between someone who was present at the crime and someone who was not. This article reviews the scientific (...) literature on three such techniques: priming, old/new, and P300 effects. The forensic potential of these techniques is evaluated based on four criteria: specificity, automaticity, encoding flexibility, and longevity. This article concludes that none of the techniques are devoid of forensic potential, although much research is yet to be done. Ethical issues, including rights to privacy and against self-incrimination, are discussed. A discussion of legal issues concludes that current memory detection techniques do not yet meet United States standards of legal admissibility. (shrink)

Building and expanding on Foucault’s work, this essay interprets pastoral power as a turning point within the long-term history of the care of the self. Through an analysis of early Christian monasticism, it claims that the pastorate emerged out of a re-conceptualization of ancient understandings of human finitude and a correlative transformation of the techniques revolving around it. Pastoral power instantiates a specific way of framing institutionally the subject’s opening to the limits. The argument thus suggests how, and to (...) what extent, this matrix of government still determines, albeit under a different guise, the current political phase, especially in as far as economic governmentality and its call to the indefinite self-enhancement of subjectivity are concerned. (shrink)

Clinical ethics consultation (CEC) has become all about right technique. When we encounter a case of conflict or confusion, clinical ethicists are expected to deploy a standardized, repeatable, and rationally defensible method for working toward a recommendation and/or consensus. While it has been noted previously that our techniques of CEC often foreclose on its internal goods, there remains an assumption that we must just find the _right_ efficient technique and the problem would be solved. In this paper, I question (...) that assumption, arguing that any standardized, identically repeatable model of CEC will pull us counterproductively away from ethical reflection, and toward the values of modern _techne_: primarily efficiency, efficacy, and repeatability. This is because standardized techniques of CEC pull the dynamism of being into what Catherine Pickstock calls “identical repetition,” a technologized ontology, which is fundamentally at odds with what being is. And, since ethics is a search for the good of being, avoiding the ontological heart of being severely restricts ethics. (shrink)

Collecting data using an appropriate sampling technique is a challenging task for a researcher to do. The researchers will be unable to collect data from all possible situations, which will preclude them from answering the study’s research questions in their current form. In light of the enormous number and variety of sampling techniques/methods available, the researcher must be knowledgeable about the differences to select the most appropriate sampling technique/method for the specific study under consideration. In this context, this study (...) also looks into the basic concepts in probability sampling, kinds of probability sampling techniques with their advantages and disadvantages. Social science researchers will benefit from this study since it will assist them in choosing the most suitable probability sampling technique(s) for completing their research smoothly and successfully. (shrink)

Many sentences like ‘Some chairs are heavier than some tables’ seem both to be true and to imply the existence of composite objects. Some nihilists response to the challenge such sentences present by replacing them with “nihilistically acceptable paraphrases,” sentences that serve the same practical ends but do not even seem to imply the existence of composite objects. The chairs/tables sentence has been given the paraphrase ‘There are _x_s that are arranged chairwise and there are _y_s that are arranged tablewise, (...) and the _x_s are heavier than the _y_s’. But Gabriel Uzquiano has given examples of apparently true sentences that apparently imply the existence of composite objects and which cannot be given nihilistically acceptable paraphrases using only the devices displayed in the chairwise/tablewise paraphrase. This chapter presents techniques that enable one to provide nihilistically acceptable paraphrases of Uzquiano’s “challenge” sentences and proceeds to discuss some possible limitations of these techniques. (shrink)

Mitochondrial replacement techniques, known in the popular media as 'three-parent' or 'three-person' IVFs, have the potential to enable women with mitochondrial diseases to have children who are genetically related to them but without such diseases. In the debate regarding whether MRTs should be made available, an issue that has garnered considerable attention is whether MRTs affect the characteristics of an existing individual or whether they result in the creation of a new individual, given that MRTs involve the genetic manipulation (...) of the germline. In other words, do MRTs affect the qualitative identity or the numerical identity of the resulting child? For instance, a group of panelists on behalf of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has claimed that MRTs affect only the qualitative identity of the resulting child, while the Working Group of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics has argued that MRTs would create a numerically distinct individual. In this article, I shall argue that MRTs do create a new and numerically distinct individual. Since my explanation is different from the NCOB's explanation, I shall also offer reasons why my explanation is preferable to the NCOB's explanation. (shrink)

This paper proposes an account of accurate scientific representation in terms of techniques that produce data from a target phenomenon. I consider an approach to accurate representation that abstracts from such epistemic factors, justified by a thesis I call Ontic Priority. This holds that criteria for representational accuracy depend on a pre-established account of the nature of the relation between a model and its target phenomenon. I challenge Ontic Priority, drawing on the observation that many working scientists do not (...) have access to information allowing them to describe this relation between model and target or compare them accordingly. I critique the ability of an ontic-first approach to provide accuracy criteria in such cases and present historical support for an alternative according to which a model is accurate if and only if integrating the model into a theory of the data acquisition process yields well-fitting predictions of patterns in the data. (shrink)

The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding: Methods, Materials and Regional Varieties. By Karin Scheper. Islamic Manuscripts and Books, vol 8. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Pp. xii + 428, illus. $181, €140.

Casting Techniques in Minoan and Mycenaean Crete. I. The casting tools Studies on copper and bronze metallurgy in the prehistoric Aegean area generally focus on metal objects but neglect the bronzesmith tools : crucibles, molds and ventilation systems (“ tuyères”, bellows…). However, their study provides new information on both the technical processes of making a metal object and their evolution, and the existence of technical traditions and “ savoir-faire” of these bronzesmiths. The first part of this study is devoted (...) to the examination of the corpus of Cretan tools from the EBA to the LBA highlighting their specific features and functions, while the resulting synthesis— forthcoming in a future issue— will focus on the technical process and changes in casting activities and the “ savoir-faire” of the Cretan bronzesmiths. (shrink)

Several objections against the morality of researching or employing mitochondrial replacement techniques have been advanced recently. In this paper, I examine three of these objections and show that they are found wanting. First I examine whether mitochondrial replacement techniques, research and clinical practice, should not be carried out because of possible harms to egg donors. Next I assess whether mitochondrial replacement techniques should be banned because they could affect the study of genealogical ancestry. Finally, I examine the (...) claim that mitochondrial replacement techniques are not transferring mitochondrial DNA but nuclear DNA, and that this should be prohibited on ethical grounds. (shrink)

The need to align multiple experimental procedures and produce converging results so as to demonstrate that the phenomenon under investigation is real and not an artifact is a commonplace both in scientific practice and discussions of scientific methodology (Campbell and Stanley 1963; Wimsatt 1981). Although sometimes this is the purpose of aligning techniques, often there is a different purpose—multiple techniques are sought to supply different perspectives on the phenomena under investigation that need to be integrated to answer the (...) questions scientists are asking. After introducing this function, I will illustrate it by considering three of the major techniques in cognitive neuroscience for linking cognitive function with neural structure. (shrink)

Innovative loss‐of‐function techniques developed in recent years have made it much easier to target specific genomic loci at transcriptional levels. CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) has been proven to be the most effective and specific tool to knock down any gene of interest in mammalian cells. The catalytically deactivated Cas9 (dCas9) can be fused with transcription repressors to downregulate gene expression specified by sgRNA complementary to target genomic sequence. Although CRISPRi has huge potential for gene knockdown, there is still a lack (...) of systematic guidelines for efficient and widespread use. Here we describe the working mechanism and development of CRISPRi, designing principles of sgRNA, delivery methods and applications in mammalian cells in detail. Finally, we propose possible solutions and future directions with regard to current challenges. (shrink)

“Dialectic” has been a matter of growing interest in contemporary philosophy. The present article analyzes dialectical methods and positions them by reference to two paradigmatic texts of German idealism and analytic philosophy, i.e. J.G. Fichte’s Science of Knowing (1804) and J. McDowell’s Mind and World. Both dialectical approaches will be interpreted with regard to their contribution in the debate on reductionism and anti-reductionism: both Fichte and McDowell claim that philosophical positions and logical terms stand in a dualistic relationship to one (...) another, on the one hand, but are separated by a gulf, on the other. I will argue that for McDowell dialectic seems to be an alternative to one-sided reductionisms as well as to normal anti-reductionistic holism. Furthermore, for Fichte dialectic is an adequate method for describing the relationship of reductionism and anti-reductionism itself. Both see in dialectic a technique for bridging the gulf between binary opposite terms of logic as well as mutually exclusive positions, such as mind and world, subject and object, or idealism and realism. (shrink)

Faut-il craindre la technique comme un monstre qui dévorerait notre être et qui nous éloignerait du souci de nous-mêmes, en nous réduisant à ne plus être que ses objets? Faut-il la craindre tout particulièrement pour la médecine qui se donne en confiance aux appareils et aux calculs, sans toujours imaginer à quelle opération de réduction, elle risque, ce faisant, de livrer malades et maladies? Mais la technique n’est-elle pas d’abord un geste de notre part, un geste provisoire que nous faisons (...) vers nous-mêmes, aussi maladroit puisse-t-il paraître? Ce geste, l’avons-nous achevé? Sommes-nous sûrs du sens et de la suite que nous voulons lui donner? Parmi tous les lieux de technique en médecine qui appellent à réenvisager ces questions, il y en a un emblématique, celui de l’imagerie cérébrale, avec sa prétention à dire notre intimité, sa réalité de faiseuse d’images et notre jouissance à en nourrir notre imaginaire. Devons-nous être dupes? Ne pouvons-nous voir la technique comme un moyen, non de nous figer, mais de nous chercher et de nous dépasser? Un moyen de nous révéler, une confiance que nous nous donnons pour cette entreprise? (shrink)

Les sciences et les techniques sont au coeur de nos vies quotidiennes et constituent les piliers de notre modernité. Elles ont transformé les modes de vie, les relations de pouvoir, nos identités et nos imaginaires. Controverses sur les OGM, enjeux du changement climatique et de sa prévision, nouveaux imaginaires véhiculés par Internet ou les jeux vidéo... Comment analyser dans ces cas qui font l'actualité les liens inextricables entre ce que l'on sait du monde, ce que l'on souhaite y faire (...) et la façon dont on le gouverne? Les théories et approches dominantes de l'économie, de la sociologie, de l'histoire ou de la science politique ont souvent ignoré ces enchevêtrements complexes. Cet ouvrage propose un panorama du champ "sciences, techniques et société", très interdisciplinaire, qui s'est justement donné pour objet l'étude des transformations récentes et conjointes des façons de savoir, des formes d'expertise, des marchés, des espaces publics et des formes de gouvernement. (shrink)

The Manufacturing Techniques of Myrtos-Pyrgos Stone Vessels The Minoan site of Myrtos-Pyrgos has produced a wide range of Proto-and Neopalatial objects (faience, pottery, stone vessels, sealstones, etc.) that demonstrate a high level of craftsmanship and also the existence of an elite to consume them. Among the finds, the Protopalatial stone vessels show great skill in production and appear very similar to those of Quartier Mu at Malia. While the repertoire of forms is largely common to the two centres, study (...) of the techniques used reveals particularly close links — which may suggest a regional distribution of techniques in the Cretan workshops of the time. Among the later material, the presence of fragments of Egyptian vessels (and vessels of Egyptian stone) points to likely exchanges with Egypt. (shrink)

La distinction qu’Aristote propose de la connaissance pratique et de la connaissance théorique semble laisser le statut de la technique problématique : présentée comme une étape vers la science en Métaphysique A 1, la technique est rapprochée de la prudence en Éthique à Nicomaque VI 1, en ce qu’elles relèvent toutes deux de la même « raison délibérative ». Cette indétermination semble légitimer la critique célèbre adressée par Kant à la distinction aristotélicienne, ainsi que la conclusion radicale qu’il en tire (...) de rapatrier l’ensemble de la technique et des maximes de la prudence dans le domaine de la connaissance théorique. Le commentaire aristotélicien lui-même reste divisé sur cette question. Dans cet article, nous souhaitons proposer une interprétation nouvelle de la place qu’assigne Aristote à la technique dans le domaine du savoir, et notamment de son autonomie vis-à-vis des sciences théoriques. Cette interprétation se fonde sur l’analyse par Aristote de la délibération pratique comme d’une forme de recherche (ζήτησις), qui s’oppose fondamentalement à l’ἐπιστήμη comme savoir constitué et achevé dans sa présentation déductive. La technique apparaît alors comme le savoir positif qui permet de guider la délibération, et qui a donc trait aux méthodes. L’intérêt de cette lecture est de suggérer l’existence d’un lien profond entre la technique et la logique de l’ Organon, qui pointe vers notre concept moderne de « procédure », dont le rôle est central dans la théorie moderne de la calculabilité et en informatique. (shrink)

An analysis of Jonas' thought, focusing on three major themes: technique, vulnerability and ontology of life. Hans Jonas proposes a critique of traditional ethical approaches, which have proven incapable of dealing with the complex long-term effects of technological innovations. He suggests the "Responsibility Principle" as a new ethical paradigm, centered on considering the future consequences of human actions. In this sense, Jonas emphasizes the need for future-oriented ethics, which includes the preservation of life and the environment, ensuring that technological development (...) does not compromise future generations. The relevance of the "Responsibility Principle" lies in its ability to offer an adequate response to technological transformations and the threats they pose to planetary sustainability. Jonas highlights that the power acquired by humanity over nature, due to technological advances, requires ethical reflection that goes beyond classical paradigms such as utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. He criticizes the lack of guidance in previous approaches to dealing with long-term implications, proposing an ethics that considers the impact of current actions on future generations. (shrink)

Argument This essay studies the convergence of brain research with the physiology of emotions during the early twentieth century. It argues that the brain entered the laboratory of emotions not as an object of knowledge, but as a technique for producing emotions, in spite of the laboratory. The new brain-generated emotion signaled an epistemic break in the nature of studied emotion. It restructured the relationships between physiological and psychological forms of knowledge. It embodied the historical and political concerns of physiologists (...) with pain. And it excluded the affectively experiencing subject from the study of “emotion.” The essay also suggests that the brain-generated emotion was an object suspended in time and abstracted from history. Its unique a-temporal and de-contextualized characteristic transformed emotion into a product of a laboratory whose mode of production mimicked the modern factory. The constitutive elements that were assembled in creating the brain as emotion-generator were instrumental for the important studies of James Papez, Paul MacLean, and for the modern concept of Limbic System. The time has come [to]…begin the vivisection of the human heart according to scientific methods. Angelo Mosso, 1896. (shrink)

Legal text retrieval traditionally relies upon external knowledge sources such as thesauri and classification schemes, and an accurate indexing of the documents is often manually done. As a result not all legal documents can be effectively retrieved. However a number of current artificial intelligence techniques are promising for legal text retrieval. They sustain the acquisition of knowledge and the knowledge-rich processing of the content of document texts and information need, and of their matching. Currently, techniques for learning information (...) needs, learning concept attributes of texts, information extraction, text classification and clustering, and text summarization need to be studied in legal text retrieval because of their potential for improving retrieval and decreasing the cost of manual indexing. The resulting query and text representations are semantically much richer than a set of key terms. Their use allows for more refined retrieval models in which some reasoning can be applied. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art of these innovativetechniques and their potential for legal text retrieval. (shrink)

This article explores the carnal dimensions of existence through ethnographic research in a mixed martial arts club. Mixed martial arts (MMA) is an emergent sport where competitors in a ring or cage utilize strikes (punches, kicks, elbows and knees) as well as submission techniques to defeat opponents. Through data gathered from in-depth interviews with MMA practitioners and participant observation in an MMA club, I elucidate the social processes that are integral to the production of an MMA fighter habitus. I (...) examine how body techniques are learned and become attached to the identity of mixed martial arts fighters. Using Crossley’s concept of reflexive body techniques, I examine how MMA fighters engage in body callusing through use of reflexive body techniques thereby allowing them to withstand the rigors of the sport. (shrink)

[ENGLISH] This article discusses the potential of synthetic biology to address fundamental questions in the philosophy of biology regarding the nature of life and biological functions. Synthetic biology aims to reduce living organisms to their simplest forms by identifying the minimal components of a cell and also to create novel life forms through genetic reprogramming, biobrick assembly, or novel proteins. However, the technical success of these endeavors does not guarantee their conceptual success in defining life. There is a lack of (...) consensus among researchers on how to define and classify the entities produced in the lab, whether they should be considered living or categorized differently. The criteria for minimal cells and minimal life are subject to arbitrary choices and varying interpretations. The concept of function, crucial to synthetic biology, is also difficult to define. The article highlights the need to consider the minimal set of functions that characterize life before determining the smallest genomes that code for those functions. The arbitrary nature of defining both life and function complicates the understanding and classification of these entities. The article suggests that the traditional dichotomy between the living and the non-living may no longer be valid and that the concept of life itself may not require precise scientific definition. As synthetic biology advances, the article emphasizes the importance of redefining or constructing new categories to encompass the expanding possibilities and creations in the field. The ability to create new life forms raises questions about recognition, identification, and ethical implications, requiring a conceptual and philosophical engagement beyond the technical achievements of synthetic biology. -/- [FRENCH] L'article aborde le potentiel de la biologie synthétique pour répondre à des questions fondamentales de la philosophie de la biologie concernant la nature de la vie et des fonctions biologiques. La biologie synthétique vise à réduire les organismes vivants à leurs formes les plus simples en identifiant les composants minimaux d'une cellule et à créer de nouvelles formes de vie grâce à la reprogrammation génétique, à l'assemblage de biobriques ou à des protéines nouvelles. Cependant, le succès technique de ces approches ne garantit pas leur réussite conceptuelle dans la définition de la vie. Il n'y a pas de consensus parmi les chercheurs sur la façon de définir et de classer les entités produites en laboratoire, qu'elles doivent être considérées comme vivantes ou catégorisées différemment. Les critères des cellules minimales et de la vie minimale sont soumis à des choix arbitraires et à des interprétations variables. La notion de fonction, essentielle en biologie synthétique, est également difficile à définir. L'article met en évidence la nécessité de prendre en compte l'ensemble minimal de fonctions qui caractérisent la vie avant de déterminer les plus petits génomes qui codent ces fonctions. La nature arbitraire de la définition de la vie et de la fonction complique la compréhension et la classification de ces entités. L'article suggère que la dichotomie traditionnelle entre le vivant et le non-vivant pourrait ne plus être valable et que le concept même de vie ne nécessite pas une définition scientifique précise. À mesure que la biologie synthétique progresse, l'article souligne l'importance de redéfinir ou de construire de nouvelles catégories pour englober les possibilités et créations croissantes dans le domaine. La capacité à créer de nouvelles formes de vie soulève des questions de reconnaissance, d'identification et d'implications éthiques, nécessitant une réflexion conceptuelle et philosophique au-delà des avancées techniques de la biologie synthétique. (shrink)

The author considers the model-theoretic character of proofs and disproofs by means of attempted counterexample constructions, distinguishes this proof format from formal derivations, then contrasts two approaches to semantic tableaux proposed by Beth and Lambert-van Fraassen. It is noted that Beth's original approach has not as yet been provided with a precisely formulated rule of closure for detecting tableau sequences terminating in contradiction. To remedy this deficiency, a technique is proposed to clarify tableau operations.

Batteries are a fundamental storage component due to its various applications in mobility, renewable energies and consumer electronics among others. Regardless of the battery typology, one key variable from a user’s perspective is the remaining energy in the battery. It is usually presented as the percentage of remaining energy compared to the total energy that can be stored and is labeled State Of Charge (SOC). This work addresses the development of a hybrid model based on a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) (...) power cell, due to its broad implementation. The proposed model calculates the SOC, by means of voltage and electric current as inputs and the latter as the output. Therefore, four models based on k-Means, Agglomerative Clustering, Gaussian Mixture and Spectral Clustering techniques have been tested in order to obtain an optimal solution. (shrink)

Unlike a great deal of research on expert/non-expert communication, most of which is based on written materials, this article focuses on face-to-face communication. The analysis is based on a large corpus of transcribed recordings of medical seminars in rehabilitation centres and of interviews with chronically ill patients suffering from heart conditions. The focus is on procedures of illustration, which are often combined with reformulation procedures. Four main types are described: metaphors, exemplification, `scenarios', concretization. Whatever the type of illustration used, participants (...) in face-to-face interaction show a marked preference for procedures which relate abstract medical information to everyday life and experience. After a brief outline of the theoretical approach adopted the analysis proceeds in two steps: first, the emphasis is on techniques employed by the `experts', then on those used by `non-experts', i.e. patients. This is followed by an examination of the question how the roles of expert and non-expert are constituted in and by interaction. (shrink)

We are used to the idea that computers operate on numbers, yet another kind of data is equally important: the syntax of formal languages, with variables, binding, and alpha-equivalence. The original application of nominal techniques, and the one with greatest prominence in this paper, is to reasoning on formal syntax with variables and binding. Variables can be modelled in many ways: for instance as numbers (since we usually take countably many of them); as links (since they may `point' to (...) a binding site in the term, where they are bound); or as functions (since they often, though not always, represent `an unknown'). None of these models is perfect. In every case for the models above, problems arise when trying to use them as a basis for a fully formal mechanical treatment of formal language. The problems are practical—but their underlying cause may be mathematical. The issue is not whether formal syntax exists, since clearly it does, so much as what kind of mathematical structure it is. To illustrate this point by a parody, logical derivations can be modelled using a Gödel encoding (i.e., injected into the natural numbers). It would be false to conclude from this that proof-theory is a branch of number theory and can be understood in terms of, say, Peano's axioms. Similarly, as it turns out, it is false to conclude from the fact that variables can be encoded e.g., as numbers, that the theory of syntax-with-binding can be understood in terms of the theory of syntax-without-binding, plus the theory of numbers (or, taking this to a logical extreme, purely in terms of the theory of numbers). It cannot; something else is going on. What that something else is, has not yet been fully understood. In nominal techniques, variables are an instance of names, and names are data. We model names using urelemente with properties that, pleasingly enough, turn out to have been investigated by Fraenkel and Mostowski in the first half of the 20th century for a completely different purpose than modelling formal language. What makes this model really interesting is that it gives names distinctive properties which can be related to useful logic and programming principles for formal syntax. Since the initial publications, advances in the mathematics and presentation have been introduced piecemeal in the literature. This paper provides in a single accessible document an updated development of the foundations of nominal techniques. This gives the reader easy access to updated results and new proofs which they would otherwise have to search across two or more papers to find, and full proofs that in other publications may have been elided. We also include some new material not appearing elsewhere. (shrink)

On the example of the online game Akinator, the basic principles on which programs of this type are built are considered. Effective technics have been proposed by which artificial intelligence systems can build logical inferences that allow to identify an unknown subject from its description. To confirm the considered hypotheses, the terminological analysis of definition of the program "Akinator" offered by the author is carried out. Starting from the assumptions given by the author's definition, the article complements their definitions presented (...) by other researchers and analyzes their constituent theses. Finally, some proposals are made for the next steps in improving the program. The Akinator program, at one time, became one of the most famous online games using artificial intelligence. And although this was not directly stated, it was clear to the experts in the field of artificial intelligence that the program uses the techniques of expert systems and is built on inference rules. At the moment, expert systems have lost their positions in comparison with the direction of neural networks in the field of artificial intelligence, however, in the case considered in the article, we are talking about techniques using both directions – hybrid systems. Games for filling semantics interact with the user, expanding their semantic base and use certain strategies to achieve the best result. The playful form of such semantics filling programs is beneficial for researchers by involving a large number of players. The article examines the techniques used by the Akinator program, and also suggests possible modifications to it in the future. This study, first of all, focuses on how the knowledge base of the Akinator program is built, it consists of incomplete sets, which can be filled and adjusted as a result of further iterations of the program launches. It is important to note our assumption that the order of questions used by the program during the game plays a key role, because it determines its strategy. It was identified that the program is guided by the principles of nonmonotonic logic – the assumptions constructed by the program are not final and can be rejected by it during the game. The three main approaches to acquisite semantics proposed by Jakub Šimko and Mária Bieliková are considered, namely, expert work, crowdsourcing and machine learning. Paying attention to machine learning, the Akinator program using machine learning to build an effective strategy in the game presents a class of hybrid systems that combine the principles of two main areas in artificial intelligence programs – expert systems and neural networks. (shrink)

The analysis of the operation of tourism companies will provide valid information for the design of policies to reactivate the tourism industry, which has been strongly affected during the pandemic generated by COVID-19. The objective of this paper is to use soft computing techniques to analyse tourism companies in Ecuador. First of all, dimensionality reduction methods are applied: principal component analysis, isometric feature mapping and locally linear embedding, on data of tourism enterprises in Ecuador for the year 2015. In (...) addition, to verify the trend of operational variables, the data of tourism companies in Ecuador in 2019 and 2020 are analysed with dimensionality reduction methods that improve the interpretation by minimizing the loss of information. The data sets are analysed with k-means, k-medoids and Hierarchical Clustering, generating groups according to similar characteristics. The optimal number of clusters is determined with the following: Elbow Method, Silhouette Coefficient, Davies-Bouldin Index and Dunn Index. In addition, an analysis of the operation of tourism companies in the year 2020 concerning previous years is included. The study allows exploring Soft Computing techniques to identify important information for the definition of strategies that contribute to an effective reactivation of the tourist industry of Ecuador. (shrink)

Jürgen Habermas is regarded as a central bioconservative commentator in the debate on the ethics of human prenatal genetic manipulations. While his main work on this topic, The Future of Human Nature, has been widely examined in regard to his position on prenatal genetic enhancement, his arguments regarding prenatal genetic therapeutic interventions have for the most part been overlooked. In this work I do two things. First, I present the three necessary conditions that Habermas establishes for a prenatal genetic manipulation (...) to be regarded as morally permissible. Second, I examine if mitochondrial replacement techniques meet these necessary conditions. I investigate, specifically, the moral permissibility of employing pronuclear transfer and maternal spindle transfer. I conclude that, according to a Habermasian perspective on prenatal genetic manipulation, maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer are morally impermissible. Maternal spindle transfer is, in principle, morally permissible, but only when we have beforehand preselected a sperm and an egg for our reproductive purpose. These findings are relevant for bioconservatives, both for those who hold a Habermasian stance and for those who hold something akin to a Habermasian stance, because they answer the question: what should bioconservatives do regarding mitochondrial replacement techniques? In fact, the answer to this question does not only normatively prescribe what bioconservatives should do in terms of their personal morality, but it also points towards what kind of legislation regulating mitochondrial replacement techniques they should aim at. (shrink)

The study investigated principals’ supervisory techniques for combating corruption and the attainment of quality school governance. Two null hypotheses were formulated. The ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Census technique was used to draw the entire population of 81 principals from all the public secondary schools in Aba Education Zone of Abia State. Data collection was carried out with the use of a research instrument titled: “Principals’ Supervisory Techniques for Combating Corruption and Attainment of Quality (...) School Governance Questionnaire (PSTCCAQSGQ)”. The instrument was validated by two experts of Test and Measurement in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Calabar. The reliability value obtained was .88 using Cronbach Alpha technique. One-way analysis of variance was used in testing the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a significant influence of principals’ clinical and demonstration techniques of supervision for combating corruption on quality school governance. Based on the findings, it was concluded that school governance should be enhanced with supervisory techniques by principals for the attainment of anti-corruption culture in Aba education zone of Abia State, Nigeria. (shrink)