Moral Arguments in the Debate over Nanotechnologies: Are We Talking Past Each Other?

How are we to understand the fact that the philosophical debate over nanotechnologies has been reduced to a clash of seemingly preprogrammed arguments and counterarguments that paralyzes all rational discussion of the ultimate ethical question of social acceptability in matters of nanotechnological development? With this issue as its starting point, the study reported on here, intended to further comprehension of the issues rather than provide a cause-and-effect explanation, seeks to achieve a rational grasp of what is being said through the appeals made to this or that principle in the range of arguments put forward in publications on the subject. We present the results of the study’s analyses in two parts. In the first, we lay out the seven categories of argument that emerged from an analysis of the literature: the arguments based on nature, dignity, the good life, utility, equity, autonomy, and rights. In the second part, we present the background moral stances that support each category of argument. Identifying the different categories of argument and the moral stance that underlies each category will enable a better grasp of the reasons for the multiplicity of the arguments that figure in discussions of the acceptability of nanotechnologies and will ultimately contribute to overcoming the tendency towards talking past each other that all too often disfigures the exchange. Clarifying the implications of the moral arguments deployed in the debate over nanotechnologies may make it possible to reduce the confusion observable in these exchanges and contribute to a better grasp of the reasons for their current unproductiveness.     

On Happiness: A Minimalist Perspective on a Complex Neural Circuitry and its Psychosocial Constructs

To the human race, Happiness is surely the most coveted of emotions, yet the science behind it is almost as elusive as how to attain and maintain it. An attempt to understand the basis of happiness and its components, in addition to other positive experiences, including mirth and laughter, is a formidable task. Happiness is a separate entity and is not the absence or the opposite of sadness. It deserves its own field of study. It is impermeable to money and transient pleasurable overshoots. This paper is an open invitation to explore the domain of Happiness, review its neuroanatomical and psychosocial constructs and live in its blissful unawareness.     

The effect of competitive and cooperative contexts on comparative optimism

Several common characteristics are shared by competition and comparative optimism; and comparative optimism has often been observed in competitive environments like entrepreneurial fields or areas that require skills. Competitive context could be an explanatory factor for comparative optimism neglected to date. The aim of this article is to test the links between competition (vs. cooperation) and comparative optimism. In Study 1, participants in different academic majors with a more or less competitive nature (respectively, medical studies and human sciences studies) answered questions about their future and that of others. In Study 2, for the participants in the less competitive course of study (human sciences studies), we presented their studies as being either competitive or cooperative. The impact of this context was tested as a function of the closeness or distance between the participants and the comparison targets. The results of both studies showed that competition increased the expression of comparative optimism. In Study 2, this effect emerged more when the comparison target was distant than when it was close, with proximity hindering the competitive relationship between the self and others. The feeling of competition with others contributed to a better understanding of comparative optimism and initiated new explanations for its emergence.     

Priestley duality for some subalgebra lattices

Priestley duality can be used to study subalgebras of Heyting algebras and related structures. The dual concept is that of congruence on the dual space and the congruence lattice of a Heyting space is dually isomorphic to the subalgebra lattice of the dual algebra. In this paper we continue our investigation of the congruence lattice of a Heyting space that was undertaken in [10], [8] and [12]. Our main result is a characterization of the modularity of this lattice (Theorem 2.12). Partial results about its complementedness are also given, and among other things a characterization of those finite Heyting algebras with a complemented subalgebra lattice (Theorem 3.5).     

Hommage à Gerrit Mannoury

Sans résumé     

La methode empirique en sociologie

Sans résuméRésumé de l'activité sociologique à tendance empirique en France     

From negation to “notion”: Cognitive processes and argumentative strategies

Summary This article deals with the role of negation as a language and cognitive operation. Such a topic is treated here within the framework of the argumentative strategies which consist in making certain cognitive landmarks of the discourse flip over with the intent of imposing the necessity to choose between two types of notions, aiming at the transformation of this choice into an implication. The reference here to the Aristotelian logic of Prior Analytics appears to be more efficient than any other contemporary logic and the author intends to give account of the role of negation as contrary coming into play on an operational and cognitive basis in all the argumentative strategies which oscillate reciprocally from universal to particular.