La difficile sagesse du politique chez Emmanuel Levinas

L’éthique lévinassienne peut-elle s’articuler à la vie sociale, pratique et publique ? A-t-elle une quelconque influence possible dans le champ politique, surtout à l’égard de la tentation totalitaire de tout État, bien décrite par Levinas ? Dans cet article, nous tentons de montrer en quoi les réflexions d’Emmanuel Levinas pour articuler l’éthique et le politique – à travers la question du tiers et de la justice – permet de produire une forme de sagesse politique.   Mots-clés : Politique, Justice, Tiers, État, Totalitarisme, Sagesse

La naissance du sujet chez Louis Lavelle et Emmanuel Lévinas

Louis Lavelle et Emmanuel Lévinas proposent une genèse de la subjectivité à travers un processus de différenciation avec l’être. Ce processus a pour spécificité de s’exercer grâce à la notion d’instant. Si Lévinas semble assumer une parenté philosophique avec la pensée de Lavelle, les déceptions ressenties à son encontre le pousseront à radicaliser sa conception de l’instant et de la temporalité

Paul Ricœur et Emmanuel Levinas: vulnérabilité, mémoire et narration: Peut-on raconter la vulnérabilité?

In Time and narrative then in Oneself as another Paul Ricœur proposes a philosophy of personal and collective identity, through research on time and narrative. According to these books, emplotment would synthesize and reconcile the temporal discordance, experienced by the selfhood. The subject’s fragmentation by the otherness of time could then define vulnerability. Our aim is to question this triad time-vulnerability-narrative thanks to the opposite positions of Emmanuel Levinas. Unlike Ricœur, Levinas severely criticizes the idea of memory and narrative in order to respect the vulnerability of the other. Yet, the Ricœurian analysis of the responsibility affirms the need for a capable and not dispossessed Self. From this point of view, Ricœur helps us to question the limits set by Levinas to narrative and leads us to wonder if the ethical plot for the vulnerability of others does not need memory and narrative.Dans Temps et récit puis dans Soi-même comme un autre, Paul Ricœur propose une philosophie de l’identité personnelle et collective, à travers des recherches menées sur le temps et la narration. Le récit, selon ces ouvrages, permettrait de synthétiser et de réconcilier la discordance temporelle subie par un sujet. L’éclatement du sujet par l’altérité du temps pourrait alors définir sa vulnérabilité. Nous voudrions revenir sur cette triade temps-vulnérabilité-narration en la confrontant à la philosophie d’Emmanuel Levinas. Contrairement à Ricœur, Levinas critique sévèrement l’idée de la mémoire et du récit afin de respecter la vulnérabilité d’autrui. Pourtant, l’analyse ricœurienne de la responsabilité affirme la nécessité d’un Soi capable et non point dépossédé. De ce point de vue, Ricœur nous aide à questionner les limites posées par Levinas à la narration et nous pousse à nous demander si l’intrigue éthique pour la vulnérabilité d’autrui n’a pas besoin de la mémoire et du récit

Co-Expression of miRNA Targeting the Expression of PERK, but Not PKR, Enhances Cellular Immunity from an HIV-1 Env DNA Vaccine

Small non-coding micro-RNAs (miRNA) are important post-transcriptional regulators of mammalian gene expression that can be used to direct the knockdown of expression from targeted genes. We examined whether DNA vaccine vectors co-expressing miRNA with HIV-1 envelope (Env) antigens could influence the magnitude or quality of the immune responses to Env in mice. Human miR-155 and flanking regions from the non-protein encoding gene mirhg155 were introduced into an artificial intron within an expression vector for HIV-1 Env gp140. Using the miR-155-expressing intron as a scaffold, we developed novel vectors for miRNA-mediated targeting of the cellular antiviral proteins PKR and PERK, which significantly down-modulated target gene expression and led to increased Env expression in vitro. Finally, vaccinating BALB/c mice with a DNA vaccine vector delivering miRNA targeting PERK, but not PKR, was able to augment the generation of Env-specific T-cell immunity. This study provides proof-of-concept evidence that miRNA effectors incorporated into vaccine constructs can positively influence vaccine immunogenicity. Further testing of vaccine-encoded miRNA will determine if such strategies can enhance protective efficacy from vaccines against HIV-1 for eventual human use

The Chemotherapeutic Drug 5-Fluorouracil Promotes PKR-Mediated Apoptosis in a p53- Independent Manner in Colon and Breast Cancer Cells

The chemotherapeutic drug 5-FU is widely used in the treatment of a range of cancers, but resistance to the drug remains a major clinical problem. Since defects in the mediators of apoptosis may account for chemo-resistance, the identification of new targets involved in 5-FU-induced apoptosis is of main clinical interest. We have identified the ds-RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) as a key molecular target of 5-FU involved in apoptosis induction in human colon and breast cancer cell lines. PKR distribution and activation, apoptosis induction and cytotoxic effects were analyzed during 5-FU and 5-FU/IFNα treatment in several colon and breast cancer cell lines with different p53 status. PKR protein was activated by 5-FU treatment in a p53-independent manner, inducing phosphorylation of the protein synthesis translation initiation factor eIF-2α and cell death by apoptosis. Furthermore, PKR interference promoted a decreased response to 5-FU treatment and those cells were not affected by the synergistic antitumor activity of 5-FU/IFNα combination. These results, taken together, provide evidence that PKR is a key molecular target of 5-FU with potential relevance in the clinical use of this drug

The influence of viral RNA secondary structure on interactions with innate host cell defences

RNA viruses infecting vertebrates differ fundamentally in their ability to establish persistent infections with markedly different patterns of transmission, disease mechanisms and evolutionary relationships with their hosts. Although interactions with host innate and adaptive responses are complex and persistence mechanisms likely multi-factorial, we previously observed associations between bioinformatically predicted RNA secondary formation in genomes of positive-stranded RNA viruses with their in vivo fitness and persistence. To analyse this interactions functionally, we transfected fibroblasts with non-replicating, non-translated RNA transcripts from RNA viral genomes with differing degrees of genome-scale ordered RNA structure (GORS). Single-stranded RNA transcripts induced interferon-β mediated though RIG-I and PKR activation, the latter associated with rapid induction of antiviral stress granules. A striking inverse correlation was observed between induction of both cellular responses with transcript RNA structure formation that was independent of both nucleotide composition and sequence length. The consistent inability of cells to recognize RNA transcripts possessing GORS extended to downstream differences from unstructured transcripts in expression of TNF-α, other interferon-stimulated genes and induction of apoptosis. This functional association provides novel insights into interactions between virus and host early after infection and provides evidence for a novel mechanism for evading intrinsic and innate immune responses

Caracterisation d'un systeme proteine kinase associe : l'action de l'interferon dans le plasma riche en plaquettes

SIGLECNRS T 56758 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Emmanuel Levinas : time at work

Si la philosophie d’Emmanuel Levinas fut souvent présentée comme une philosophie de l’éthique, et fut identifiée à des notions telles que le visage, autrui ou la responsabilité, cette thèse vise à démontrer que ces notions se comprennent à partir d'un primat accorde au temps, voire d’une métaphysique de la temporalité. Il s’agira d'établir que la philosophie levinassienne inaugure une nouvelle philosophie du temps que nous pouvons qualifier de « discontinuiste », s’opposant aux pensées de la continuité comme la philosophie bergsonienne de la durée et husserlienne du flux. La constitution de la subjectivité par émergence et distinction d’avec l'existence atemporelle, encore nommée « l'il y a », son rapport au monde comme sa rencontre avec autrui ne se comprennent qu’à l’aune de leur temporalisation. Toutefois, cette structuration temporelle du sujet et de l’altérité invite à dégager différents types de temporalité et à spécifier l’essentielle dialectique entre le temps et l’autre.If Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy has often been introduced as a philosophy of ethics, determined by famous notions such as the face, the other or the responsibility, this thesis aims at demonstrating that these notions can be understood thanks to the primacy of time, and to a metaphysics of temporality. The goal lies in explaining how Levinas' philosophy ushers a philosophy of time that we can qualify as « discontinuist », opposed to Bergson's philosophy of duration and Husserl's theory of time flow. Subjectivity is processed through a distinction with the atemporal existence or the « there is », the connection to the world and relations to the others can be appreciated thanks to the notion of temporalisation.However this temporal structuration of the subject and the otherness encourages us to make several distinctions between different types of temporality and to consider the essential dialectic between time and the other