The differential point of view of the infinitesimal calculus in Spinoza, Leibniz and Deleuze

In Hegel ou Spinoza,1 Pierre Macherey challenges the influence of Hegel’s reading of Spinoza by stressing the degree to which Spinoza eludes the grasp of the Hegelian dialectical progression of the history of philosophy. He argues that Hegel provides a defensive misreading of Spinoza, and that he had to “misread him” in order to maintain his subjective idealism. The suggestion being that Spinoza’s philosophy represents, not a moment that can simply be sublated and subsumed within the dialectical progression of the history of philosophy, but rather an alternative point of view for the development of a philosophy that overcomes Hegelian idealism. Gilles Deleuze also considers Spinoza’s philosophy to resist the totalising effects of the dialectic. Indeed, Deleuze demonstrates, by means of Spinoza, that a more complex philosophy antedates Hegel’s, which cannot be supplanted by it. Spinoza therefore becomes a significant figure in Deleuze’s project of tracing an alternative lineage in the history of philosophy, which, by distancing itself from Hegelian idealism, culminates in the construction of a philosophy of difference. It is Spinoza’s role in this project that will be demonstrated in this paper by differentiating Deleuze’s interpretation of the geometrical example of Spinoza’s Letter XII (on the problem of the infinite) in Expressionism in Philosophy, Spinoza,2 from that which Hegel presents in the Science of Logic.

Spinoza today: the current state of Spinoza scholarship

What I plan to do in this paper is to provide a survey of the ways in which Spinoza’s philosophy has been deployed in relation to early modern thought, in the history of ideas and in a number of different domains of contemporary philosophy, and to offer an account of how some of this research has developed. The past decade of research in Spinoza studies has been characterized by a number of tendencies; however, it is possible to identify four main domains that characterize these different lines of research: studies of Spinoza’s individual works, of its problematic concepts, from the point of view of the history of ideas, and comparative studies of Spinoza’s ideas

Citizen network: advancing inclusion for all

The ideal of inclusion offers a hopeful vision of how human beings can live together in a spirit of justice and mutual respect. It has had a powerful impact on the imagination of many and it has inspired important innovations and social change. However, there are also many negative forces at work in modern society that take us away from inclusion. Citizen Network is an emerging movement that seeks to advance inclusion through global cooperation and by challenging everyone to act like a citizen. The organisation is still at an early stage, but there are promising signs that it could offer a different way to tackle injustice, confront major challenges and reveal better ways for diverse people to live together as equals. (DIPF/Orig.)Das Ideal der Inklusion bietet eine hoffnungsvolle Vision, wie Menschen im Geiste der Gerechtigkeit und des gegenseitigen Respekts zusammenleben können. Es hat die Vorstellungskraft vieler Menschen stark beeinflusst und wichtige Innovationen und soziale Veränderungen angestoßen. Allerdings sind in der modernen Gesellschaft auch viele negative Kräfte am Werk, die uns davon abhalten, den Weg der Inklusion konsequent zu beschreiten. Citizen Network ist eine aufstrebende Bewegung, welche durch globale Zusammenarbeit und gezielte Aufforderung an alle, als Bürger*innen zu agieren, das Ideal der Inklusion voranbringen will. Als Organisation befindet sie sich noch in einem Pionierstadium, aber deuten bereits viele Anzeichen darauf hin, dass sie einen neuen Weg bieten könnte, um Ungerechtigkeiten zu bekämpfen, große Herausforderungen zu bewältigen und bessere Wege für ein gleichberechtigtes Zusammenleben unterschiedlicher Menschen aufzuzeigen. (DIPF/Orig.

Solid phase chemistry to covalently and reversibly capture thiolated RNA.

Here, we describe an approach to enrich newly transcribed RNAs from primary mouse neurons using 4-thiouridine (s4U) metabolic labeling and solid phase chemistry. This one-step enrichment procedure captures s4U-RNA by using highly efficient methane thiosulfonate (MTS) chemistry in an immobilized format. Like solution-based methods, this solid-phase enrichment can distinguish mature RNAs (mRNA) with differential stability, and can be used to reveal transient RNAs such as enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) and primary microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) from short metabolic labeling. Most importantly, the efficiency of this solid-phase chemistry made possible the first large scale measurements of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) elongation rates in mouse cortical neurons. Thus, our approach provides the means to study regulation of RNA metabolism in specific tissue contexts as a means to better understand gene expression in vivo

Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services: a qualitative study

In recent years Jobcentre Plus has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the delivery of services to customers. There has been a rapid expansion in the use of telephony and web-based services, and so the number of ‘channels’ through which people can access Jobcentre Plus services has increased. The Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services (AJCS) model was introduced into offices to help deal with rising levels of unappointed footfall and to help customers utilise the service channel that best meets their needs. This evaluation provides early feedback following the national roll-out and examines whether AJCS is operating as intended. The evaluation focused on ten Jobcentre Plus local offices and their associated Benefit Delivery Centres (BDCs) and involved: observational studies and in-depth face-to-face staff interviews in the selected Jobcentre Plus local offices; telephone interviews with staff in the five BDCs; and a focus group with the National Jobcentre Plus Customer Representative Group Forum (hereafter referred to as customer representatives)

The impact of resources on decision making

Decision making is a significant activity within industry and although much attention has been paid to the manner in which goals impact on how decision making is executed, there has been less focus on the impact decision making resources can have. This article describes an experiment that sought to provide greater insight into the impact that resources can have on how decision making is executed. Investigated variables included the experience levels of decision makers and the quality and availability of information resources. The experiment provided insights into the variety of impacts that resources can have upon decision making, manifested through the evolution of the approaches, methods, and processes used within it. The findings illustrated that there could be an impact on the decision-making process but not on the method or approach, the method and process but not the approach, or the approach, method, and process. In addition, resources were observed to have multiple impacts, which can emerge in different timescales. Given these findings, research is suggested into the development of resource-impact models that would describe the relationships existing between the decision-making activity and resources, together with the development of techniques for reasoning using these models. This would enhance the development of systems that could offer improved levels of decision support through managing the impact of resources on decision making