Counteracting counterfeiting? False money as a multidimensional justice issue in 16th and 17th century monetary analysis

False money appeared as the general common issue in monetary debates that occured in European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. It first refered to sovereignty, in a time of state-building, as well as to a serious economic problem. Beyond sovereignty and economy, justice and, then, the public faith, were endangered by those who devoted themselves to produce false coins. The thesis of this communication is that one cannot understand clearly the general topic of false money by reading texts of the time with today's general definition of false money. We propose, then, to identify the multiple dimensions of false money : counterfeiting (by individuals), degradations of coins (by individuals and officers of the Mint) and debasement and enhancement (by princes). These dimensions appeared in monetary discourses like Bodin's, Mariana's and Locke's ones, with sometimes a lack of clarity. Then, a general claim to counteract counterfeiting may conceal a claim to suppress any possibility of debasing currency. Making clearer monetary discourses on that topic and establishing a hierarchy between the three dimensions of false money helps to understand why the false money issue was firstly a matter of monetary justice by the prince himself. In order to do so, we pay special attention to Bodin, Mariana and Locke.History of monetary thought; monetary history; modern times; counterfeiting; debasement

A mean ergodic theorem for actions of amenable quantum groups

We prove a weak form of the mean ergodic theorem for actions of amenable locally compact quantum groups in the von Neumann algebra setting.Comment: 9 page

The Key Amygdala-Hippocampal Dialogue for Adaptive Fear Memory

For centuries, philosophical and clinical studies have emphasized a fundamental dichotomy between emotion and cognition, for instance between implicit/emotional memory and explicit/representative memory. However, in the last few decades, cognitive neuroscience has highlighted data indicating that emotion and cognition are in fact in close interaction and that reciprocal amygdalar-hippocampal influences underlie their mutual regulation. While supporting this view, the present chapter discusses experimental data indicating that the hippocampal and amygdalar systems not only regulate each other and their functional outcomes but also qualify specific emotional memory representations through specific activations and interactions. Specifically, we review consistent data unveiling a direct contribution of both the amygdala and septo-hippocampal system to the identification of the predictor of a threat in different situations of fear conditioning. Our suggestion is that these two brain systems and their interplay determine the selection of relevant emotional stimuli, thereby contributing to the adaptive value of emotional memory. Hence, beyond the mutual quantitative regulation of these two brain systems described so far, we propose that different configurations of the hippocampal-amygdalar network qualitatively impact the formation of memory representations, thereby producing either adaptive or maladaptive (e.g., PTSD-like) fear memories

Trapped in ideology. The limitations of micro-finance in helping women creating viable micro-businesses

My research asks whether or not micro-finance represents a viable alternative to waged employment for women, as is the current international policy claim. To answer this question, I compared the accounts of 22 micro-finance agency employees in the UK and in Belgium with those of 20 self-employed women who received support from these agencies. The results suggest that there are major differences between what most agency employees imagine being problems for women in self-employment (e.g. lack of confidence, lack of training), and what women actually ex- perience (e.g. competitive markets pressures, low-profit sectors, insufficient regular unpaid helpers in their businesses). The data collected among these 20 women has also revealed that most self-employed women earn low or no income in self-employment, and wage employment would represent a better alternative to meet their needs. My thesis is that the individual’s quest for self-fulfilment at work and the current political argument for the increase of economic growth through micro-businesses have favoured the idealisation of both self-employment and micro- finance for women

Sens d’une oeuvre et sens d’une exposition : le parcours du visiteur

Dans cet article, nous envisageons, à la lumière de la théorie peircienne, un parcours artistique proposé par un plasticien belge, Patrick Corillon, pour une exposition qui s’est déroulée à Luxembourg en 2001. Nous décrivons d’abord brièvement le dispositif mis en place par l’artiste et nous rappelons le cadre à partir duquel nous ferons notre analyse. Nous précisons à quel type d’art contemporain nous pouvons rattacher la proposition de P. Corillon (art contextuel), en insistant particulièrement sur deux aspects : (a) cette proposition donne un sens nouveau à la traditionnelle visite d’exposition ; (b) une activité artistique centrée sur la notion de parcours détermine nécessairement une réflexion sur la spécificité de l’art.In this paper I intend – by using the semiotics theory of Ch. S. Peirce – to deal with an artistic course presented by a belgian artist in an exhibition that took place in Luxembourg in 2001. Firstly, I describe the device used by P. Corillon and I refer to the essential notions useful for the analysis. Later, I precise what kind of contemporary art it is about (contextual art) and the focus will be on two points : (a) the artistic device bears a new meaning to the traditional visit of an exhibition ; (b) an art centered around the notion of course gives rise necessarily to some fresh thinking about art