The double look on complex dimension
Abstract: Many of our motivations are wrongly considered natural. I take 3 examples: staying healthy, protecting nature, upholding equal rights. Behind them lie artificial ideals: Eternal Life, the Natural History Museum, Democratic Equality. Confused with principles truly constitutive of human nature, these ideals crush with their weight many aspects of our lives. They flatten our … Read more
Abstract: Continuation of the article on placebos, healers and patasciences. Empathy is given to us. Impossible to pump but easy to fake, with no more guilt than administering a placebo. The end is the benefit for the other, and not the satisfaction of a false ideal of righteousness in oneself. To simulate well is to … Read more
Abstract: The placebo astonishes by working even in those informed that it has no biological effect. Jane Risen, a researcher from Chicago, explains it by taking Daniel Kahneman’s 2-system model of thought: the rational system 2 detects the superstitious error of the intuitive system 1 but does not correct it. This produces acquiescence, a wobbly … Read more
The It War Death wish and death drive are mistakenly confused. Very badly named in addition because they are neither desire nor impulse but solutions. Shockingly poor solutions, yes, but when you’re on a devastated battlefield, sometimes you liquidate the last opponent standing, which is yourself. A battle, that’s what it is. Battle between unconscious … Read more
Disclaimer: This pamphlet is not intended for chronic painful patients. Another blog is dedicated to the medical. This is a philosophical reflection on pain. Fibromyalgia is cited here as a paragon of chronic pain, but the article is aimed at pain in general. It targets philosophers and caregivers, not fibromyalgia, who can be harmed by … Read more
This medical topic should be part of the dedicated blog, but I include it here as an example of horizontal complexity, before the article on the two dimensions of complexity. The horizontal is an interactive cycle between elements capable of communication, while vertical complexity is an integration of interactive systems, one forming the elements of … Read more
Pain is an exciting topic for the philosophy of mind. Its reality and meaning are redefined in this article on the frequent confusion between pain-injury and pain-repair: Abstract: Pain-repair is often confused with pain-injury. However, the attitudes to follow are very different. In search of the meaning of our feelings, let us not forget that … Read more
Do we have to choose between contradictory analyses? A recurring problem handicaps philosophical analysis: teleological and ontological views are contradictory. They describe competing cases. If it’s genetics, it can’t be psychology. If it’s culture, it can’t be biology. Etc. The contradiction arises from an epistemology that is too horizontal: the different views are deciphered, compared, … Read more
A microcosm of good size In Oceanian mythologies, the human body is the microcosm of the divine macrocosm. More representative if we give it space? The strong build is particularly appreciated by Polynesians, who engaged in ritual fattening (ha’apori). The elder children were locked in the shade in huts and fed abundantly until they made … Read more
Is there a brain? That there is a nervous system, that’s for sure, and it extends through the whole body. It concentrates remarkably in the skull. Crossroads and cells multiply there. But there remains, for the most part, a vast network of connected fibers. The key element of the nervous system is not the neuron … Read more