Filatov, Vladimir P. (ed.). Nikolai Onufrievich Losskii. Filosofiia Rossii pervoi poloviny XX veka. Rosspen, Moscow, 2016

This is a review of: Николай Онуфриевич Лосский, под редакцией В. П. Филатова, Москва: Росспэн (Серия "Философия России первой половины ХХ века"), 2016. It describes and appraises the content of this collection of nineteen articles on the life and thought of the prominent twentieth century Russian philosopher Nikolai Lossky. The volume, edited by Vladimir Filatov, presents the reader with an analysis of Lossky's philosophical legacy, including such aspects of his thought as his intuitivism, his personalism, his relation to phenomenology, his narrative of the history of Russian philosophy, and so on. Lossky is also compared to other Russian philosophers (Shpet, Frank) and his legacy in other countries (Poland, Slovakia) is examined. The authors are Piama Gaidenko, Frances Nethercott, Albert Novikov, Victor Molchanov, Vitaly Lechtzer, Tatiana Shchedrina, Irina Beshkareva, Anatoly Pushkarsky, Elena Serdyukova, Vasily Vanchugov, Irina Blauberg, Roman Granin, Varvara Popova, Evgeny Babosov, Teresa Obolevich, Zlatica Plašienková, Oleg Ermichin, Alexander Podoxenov, Alexander Opalev, and Vladimir Schultz

Michel Tremblay adaptateur de pièces françaises : le cas de Les Trompettes de la Mort

A well-known novelist and playwright, Michel Tremblay has also authored a substantial number of translations and adaptations that have received little critical attention so far. Surprisingly five of these adaptations, including Les Trompettes de la mort, concern French plays. Why did Michel Tremblay undertake the seemingly redundant task of adapting French plays into Québécois? Was this task informed by the same ethnocentric impulse reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s and vehemently condemned by Annie Brisset? Through the case-study analysis of the Quebecois adaptation of Les Trompettes de la mort, this article sets out to investigate Michel Tremblay’s poorly documented adaptation practice. Résumé Romancier et dramaturge bien connu, Michel Tremblay est également l’auteur de nombreuses traductions et adaptations encore peu étudiées par les critiques. Dans ce large corpus d’adaptations, l’on note la présence pour le moins surprenante de cinq pièces françaises dont Les Trompettes de la mort écrite par Tilly. Comment comprendre le choix de Michel Tremblay d’adapter des pièces françaises ? Faut-il y voir la manifestation de la tendance ethnocentriste des années 1970-80 mise en évidence par Annie Brisset ? À travers l’analyse de l’adaptation québécoise de la pièce Les Trompettes de la mort, cet article se propose de questionner la pratique de l’adaptation de Michel Tremblay

Voluntary activation of human knee extensors measured using transcranial magnetic stimulation

The aim of this study was to determine the applicability and reliability of a transcranial magnetic stimulation twitch interpolation technique for measuring voluntary activation of a lower limb muscle group. Cortical voluntary activation of the knee extensors was determined in nine healthy men on two separate visits by measuring superimposed twitch torques evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation during isometric knee extensions of varying intensity. Superimposed twitch amplitude decreased linearly with increasing voluntary torque between 50 and 100% of mean maximal torque, allowing estimation of resting twitch amplitude and subsequent calculation of voluntary activation. There were no systematic differences for maximal voluntary activation within day (mean ± S.D. 90.9 ± 6.2 versus 90.7 ± 5.9%; P = 0.98) or between days (90.8 ± 6.0 versus 91.2 ± 5.7%; P = 0.92). Systematic bias and random error components of the 95% limits of agreement were 0.23 and 9.3% within day versus −0.38 and 7.5% between days. Voluntary activation was also determined immediately after a 2 min maximal voluntary isometric contraction; in four of these subjects, voluntary activation was determined 30 min after the sustained contraction. Immediately after the sustained isometric contraction, maximal voluntary activation was reduced from 91.2 ± 5.7 to 74.2 ± 12.0% (P < 0.001), indicating supraspinal fatigue. After 30 min, voluntary activation had recovered to 85.4 ± 8.8% (P = 0.39 versus baseline). These results demonstrate that transcranial magnetic stimulation enables reliable measurement of maximal voluntary activation and assessment of supraspinal fatigue of the knee extensors

David Patterson, Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)

This is a critical review of David Patterson's book Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins (2015). In this review, I present the author's new explanation of the roots of anti-Semitism, which he finds in the anti-Semite's desire to become like God himself. Patterson's explanation makes an anti-Semite of all those who partake in the "Western rationalist project," especially philosophers (including Jewish philosophers such as Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, and Marx), but also Islamists and anti-Zionist Jews. I criticize Patterson on two fronts: First, his "metaphysical" explanation relies on a petitio principii. Second, he should have argued his stance against that of Zeev Sternhell's thesis, according to which Western anti-Semitism is rooted, not in Western rationalism, but rather in the Western anti-rationalist (anti-Enlightenment) movement