The double look
A nexialist is a specialist in transdisciplinarity. A non-specialist in fact. His knowledge has no borders. On the contrary, he must explore all areas, without trying to push his expertise in any. This extra time would be missing from his other explorations. And it usually arrives in less safe terrain. The nexialist invents bridges. His … Read more
At the pediment of the Academy Love of wisdom, science of knowledge, questioning of the nature of Man, blessed energy (Epicurus), system of knowledge (Kant), astonishment in the world (Schopenhauer), intelligence of reality (Hegel)… Definitions of philosophy are imbued with the personality of their authors. To the point of making it the place where one … Read more
Strong-Low-Electromagnetic-Gravitational “Four fundamental forces govern the Universe,” you read fluently in articles popularizing physics. Where does this pantheon come from? Are physicists the prophets of modern times, replacing the old gods with new ones? Revelation, in science, takes other paths. The divine mysteries, which must be believed without having seen anything, are replaced by concrete … Read more
Question turned ritual: If what we take as factual is our personal reality, and we revise its form to our liking, where is the truth ? Ritual question but worrying as ever. Providers of alternative realities besiege us. All of them want to tape us. Execrable scandals, hideous cruelties, push us towards magnificent revolts, idealized … Read more
More realistic pessimists Depressive realism is the balance praised by political scientist Juliane Marie Schreiber. It takes up an agreed discourse: pessimists and their attitude towards the world are the most realistic vision. They are critical, empathetic, not very sensitive to bias. While optimists, always positive and in a good mood, overestimate themselves and blind … Read more
A closed point It seems to Sven Ortoli that mortuary cremations “lack an end point, a moment when we recognize that the door is closed. This is what happens in a cemetery, or on a pyre on the banks of the Ganges. ‘The sacred goes with the closure’, notes Régis Debray.” Many endings are missing … Read more
The no as a conscious project? Frédéric Manzini, in the footsteps of Alain and Derrida, opposes the thought of the yes, systematic and blind, to the thought of the no, which always questions its merits. Thought refuses to acquiesce, to “give up arms”. It says no to itself to avoid its lazy transformation into a … Read more
An upheaval, really? Reading the article The Great Inversion, supposed to reveal a major upheaval in our society, many of you will have pouted. “What does he announce? Media dominance is a truism. Propaganda has been around for centuries. Debord has already taken care of denouncing the society of the spectacle. Information flows come and … Read more
Hookworm, human needle worm Albert Schweitzer, in Respect and Responsibility for Life: “I fished twice on the line with other boys. The torture of hook-impaled worms and fish that were tore their mouths inspired me with such horror that I refused to continue this cruel game. I even had the courage to turn my comrades … Read more
The terms of the dilemma The trolley problem is a thought experiment revealing the kind of ethics used by each of us. The answers vary in significant proportion according to the places of the test, showing that there is no universal ethics but a cultural preference. Several variants to the story. Here’s the one I … Read more