Feeling and knowing, by Antonio Damasio

Finally something new? I grasped Antonio Damasio’s latest book with great excitement. Judge instead! In subtitle: “Making minds conscious“. What could be more enticing for the one who has been waiting for the explanation for a very long time, desperate to the point of having developed his own theory? I dive. I soon become disillusioned. … Read more

The reason relativized by Dan Sperber

Good interview with Dan Sperber in Philomag Synthesis of the ideas of this little-known author: 1) The opposition between nature and culture of Lévi-Strauss is to be qualified. The mind is not a blank page on which cultural knowledge would be inscribed. It is structured in a complex way from birth. 2) The epidemiology of … Read more

The suffering of whom, of what?

A highly sensitive concept While our fundamental concepts are constantly advancing, for the most part, that of suffering is in a kind of sacred tabernacle. It is extracted only to contemplate it with fear and immediately place it back in the same place. Its meaning is so repulsive that the phobia extends to the container … Read more

A new dimension of thinking

Introduction to vertical thinking In this somewhat difficult article, I will justify the need for a new dimension of thinking, called vertical as opposed to horizontal or flattened current thinking. The hierarchy of thought is already known and widely used. It is, however, a classification made by horizontal thinking and not an authentic vertical thinking. … Read more

Philosophers and animal suffering

When semantics traps meaning The characteristic of philosophy is to take into account all the dimensions of human discernment. Being moved is part of it in the same way as reasoning. Contemporary philosophers are therefore moved without hesitation in the face of animal suffering. But in doing so, don’t they contradict the reason? Philosophers of … Read more