Ricœurian Philosophy of Life and the Question of the Fundamental – a Final Concession in Favour of Immediacy?

The paper deals with the problem of life within the thought of Paul Ricœur. The existing literature in the matter, as well as the limited purpose that orients the endeavour below, requires a selection of the aspects to be investigated. The research question that constitutes the guiding thread of the analysis focuses on the opposition between mediation and immediacy, inasmuch as it appears in the examined philosophy. Having accounted for the present state of the question, life is approached in a twofold manner: in the guise of desire and in the figure of the Fundamental. An essential critique of Henry, addressed with regard to the former aspect of the problem, turns out to be applicable as to the latter as well. All this helps to discern an eidetic moment that persists throughout Ricœur’s legacy without being constantly highlighted.The paper deals with the problem of life within the thought of Paul Ricœur. The existing literature in the matter, as well as the limited purpose that orients the endeavour below, requires a selection of the aspects to be investigated. The research question that constitutes the guiding thread of the analysis focuses on the opposition between mediation and immediacy, inasmuch as it appears in the examined philosophy. Having accounted for the present state of the question, life is approached in a twofold manner: in the guise of desire and in the figure of the Fundamental. An essential critique of Henry, addressed with regard to the former aspect of the problem, turns out to be applicable as to the latter as well. All this helps to discern an eidetic moment that persists throughout Ricœur’s legacy without being constantly highlighted

The human conscience between witnessing and discernment: Heidegger, Ricoeur and beyond

The paper deals with the problem of human conscience as an attentional mode of being that effectuates an original capacity for discernment. Such an undertaking, after the necessary terminological and phenomenological clarifications, requires one to cope with its specific background, especially the critique of the moral worldview and the postmetaphysical setting of contemporary thinking. Taking into consideration the Heideggerian view of the matter, I reflect on the doubts Ricoeur addressed to the former, and take advantage of  Ricoeur’s early philosophy to reinterpret and develop his own stance as expounded in Oneself as Another. His later work on ideology and utopia may contribute to helping to establish some criteria for the functioning of the conscience

Krucha podmiotowość, czyli o sporze na gruncie Lévinasowskiej i Ricœurowskiej filozofii człowieka oraz niektórych jego implikacjach dla rozumienia zdrowia psychicznego

The study aims to confront two concepts of fragile subjectivity: one by Emmanuel Lévinas and the other by Paul Ricœur. However, this is not the purpose in itself. Actually, the first step consists on the pointing out the similarities and divergences that exist between both approaches in dealing with the open and labile trait of human identity. This step further serves to highlight the discussion points which, due to the tension generated by the underlined incompatibilities, stimulate thinking and the search for mediation. To illustrate the fertility of this controversy, it is transferred to the area of philosophy of psychiatry, where an attempt is made to apply both anthropological positions to a philosophical interpretation of the essence of the phenomenon of schizophrenia. This interpretation of the pathogenesis of the chosen phenomenon allows, in turn, for a cautious conclusion to be drawn as to the described controversy between Lévinas and Ricœur.Poniższe studium stawia sobie jako zadanie skonfrontowanie dwóch koncepcji kruchej podmiotowości: jednej autorstwa Emmanuela Lévinasa i drugiej, wypracowanej przez Paula Ricœura. Zestawienie to nie jest wszelako celem samym w sobie. Owszem, chodzi w nim najpierw o wskazanie zbieżności i rozbieżności istniejących pomiędzy obydwoma ujęciami otwartego i labilnego w swej tożsamości ludzkiego podmiotu. Krok ów służy dalej uwydatnieniu punktów dyskusyjnych, które wskutek napięcia generowanego przez niezgodności pobudzają do myślenia i poszukiwania mediacji. W celu zilustrowania płodności tej kontrowersji zostaje ona przeniesiona na obszar filozofii psychiatrii, gdzie podejmuje się próbę zastosowania obydwu antropologicznych stanowisk w filozoficznej interpretacji istoty fenomenu schizofrenii. Zarysowana w ten sposób wykładnia patogenezy wybranego zjawiska pozwala z kolei na sformułowanie ostrożnych wniosków odnośnie do samego sporu Lévinasa i Ricœura w kwestii podmiotowości etycznej, a zwłaszcza co do odczytania ewolucji ich własnych koncepcji

Dyskurs przekonań podmiotu a tożsamość narracyjna jednostki i wspólnoty w filozofii Paula Ricœura

The Discourse of the Subject’s Beliefs, and the Narrative Identity of the Individual and of Society, in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeu

Development of a real-time qPCR assay for quantification of covert baculovirus infections in a major African crop pest

Many pathogens and parasites are present in host individuals and populations without any obvious signs of disease. This is particularly true for baculoviruses infecting lepidopteran hosts, where studies have shown that covert persistent viral infections are almost ubiquitous in many species. To date, the infection intensity of covert viruses has rarely been quantified. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of a covert baculovirus infection within the lepidopteran crop pest Spodoptera exempta. A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) procedure using a 5' nuclease hydrolysis (TaqMan) probe was developed for specific detection and quantification of Spodoptera exempta nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpexNPV). The qPCR assay indicated that covert baculovirus dynamics varied considerably over the course of the host life-cycle, with infection load peaking in early larval instars and being lowest in adults and final-instar larvae. Adult dissections indicated that, contrary to expectation, viral load aggregation was highest in the head, wings and legs, and lowest in the thorax and abdomen. The data presented here have broad implications relating to our understanding of transmission patterns of baculoviruses and the role of covert infections in host-pathogen dynamics

Orbital dependent nucleonic pairing in the lightest known isotopes of tin

By studying the 109Xe-->105Te-->101Sn superallowed alpha-decay chain, we observe low-lying states in 101Sn, the one-neutron system outside doubly magic 100Sn. We find that the spins of the ground state (J = 7=2) and first excited state (J = 5=2) in 101Sn are reversed with respect to the traditional level ordering postulated for 103Sn and the heavier tin isotopes. Through simple arguments and state-of-the-art shell model calculations we explain this unexpected switch in terms of a transition from the single-particle regime to the collective mode in which orbital-dependent pairing correlations, dominate.Comment: 5 pages 3 figure

First high-resolution infrared spectra of 2–13C-propane:Analyses of the ν26 (B2) c-type and ν9 (A1) b-type bands

International audienc

Trans-generational viral transmission and immune priming are dose-dependent

It is becoming increasingly apparent that trans-generational immune priming (i.e. the transfer of the parental immunological experience to its progeny resulting in offspring protection from pathogens that persist across generations) is a common phenomenon not only in vertebrates, but also invertebrates. Likewise, it is known that covert pathogenic infections may become 'triggered' into an overt infection by various stimuli, including exposure to heterologous infections. Yet rarely have both phenomena been explored in parallel. Using as a model system the African armyworm (Spodoptera exempta), an eruptive agricultural pest, and its endemic dsDNA virus (Spodoptera exempta nucleopolyhedrovirus, SpexNPV), the aim of this study was to explore the impact of parental inoculating-dose on trans-generational pathogen transmission and immune priming (in its broadest sense). Larvae were orally-challenged with one of five doses of SpexNPV and survivors from these treatments were mated and their offspring monitored for viral mortality. Offspring from parents challenged with low viral doses showed evidence of 'immune priming' (i.e. enhanced survival following SpexNPV challenge); in contrast, offspring from parents challenged with higher viral doses exhibited greater susceptibility to viral challenge. Most offspring larvae died of the virus they were orally-challenged with; in contrast, most offspring from parents that had been challenged with the highest doses were killed by the vertically-transmitted virus (90%) and not the challenge virus. These results demonstrate that the outcome of a potentially lethal virus challenge is critically dependent on the level of exposure to virus in the parental generation - either increasing resistance at very low parental viral doses (consistent with trans-generational immune-priming) or increasing susceptibility at higher parental doses (consistent with virus triggering). We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding both natural epizootics of baculoviruses and for using them as biological control agents