Existence of God

The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God or deities involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection"). The Western tradition of philosophical discussion of the existence of God or deities began with Plato and Aristotle, who made arguments that would now be categorized as cosmological. Other arguments for the existence of God or deities have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Thomas Aquinas, who presented their own versions of the cosmologica

De la "Divine Comédie" à l’Existentium: quartier agricole à Romanel-Vernand-Cheseaux (VD)

Ivana Milosevic

Mêlant espaces naturels, cultivés, habités et industriels, le paysage de Romanel-Vernand-Cheseaux est très diversifié. Ce site est appelé à connaître une future densification, exigée, dans la région lausannoise, afin de répondre à l’augmentation à venir de sa population. Le projet se situe dans un contexte marqué par la volonté de concilier la densité bâtie, requise par la future urbanisation, avec la sauvegarde des surfaces d’assolements présentes sur le site. Ainsi, le projet propose un quartier agricole associant bâtiments de logements, espaces publics productifs et non productifs. Le projet vise à devenir un nouvel Eden pour la région de Lausanne où la “Divine Comédie” sert d’outil principal de conception, en appliquant une méthode comparable à celle de Terragni pour le Danteum. La métrique lyrique des vers de Dante règle la structure du projet, tandis que le contenu narratif des chants qui décrivent l'Eden est évoqué en son intérieur. L’Eden est le cadre d'un conte architectural, un spectacle théâtral dans lequel sont représentés l’habiter et le cultiver, où les gestes simples de la vie quotidienne sont racontés. Alors, le projet devient une mise en scène de la Comédie Humaine, où architecture et narration se mêlent pour exprimer l'existence de l’Homme. Existentium sera le titre de ce spectacle sur l'existence. Comme le Danteum, l'Existentium se nourrit de la “Divine Comédie”, en mettant en scène le ”cammin di nostra vita” (Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, Inferno, chant I, v.1).

2018

The Birth of the Workshop: Techno-Morals, Peace Experts and the Care of the Self in the Middle East

Nikolas Kosmatopoulos

In the article I examine through ethnography and contextual analysis one of the flagship techniques of peace expertise in the Middle East and elsewhere, the so-called conflict resolution workshop. For the transnational and hyper-mobile clan of peacemakers and peace experts, the workshop constitutes maybe the absolute travel device: it can be transported and deployed everywhere without the need for translation into local vernaculars; it can exemplify the moral ambition for peace in the world backed with technical arrangements of space, time and learning mostly imported from other disciplinary settings; it can address sustained needs for knowledge and hopes for personal betterment by introducing a unique style of pedagogy based on both academic credentials and moral superiority. I present ethnographic evidence that shows how assemblages of peacemaking, most of them centred around the technique of the conflict resolution workshop, had at least three, often unintended, effects in Lebanon and beyond: First, a massive trend towards what one might call the workshopping of peace, namely the idea that major issues of broad concern regarding past and future violence can be effectively addressed within secluded spaces of conflict resolution workshops. Second, the widespread acceptance and consequent proliferation of a particular version of what Michel Foucault has called ‘the care of the self’ (Foucault 1986) primarily premised on a new configuration of peacemaking that understood the individual as the primary target of expert intervention in a distinct moral and technical sense. Third, the (re-)production of a professionalized field of peace experts, whose degree of legitimacy and conditions of institutional existence crucially depended on the constant need to reiterate and reify the binary between an intrinsically ignorant and potentially uncivil society (that needs to be trained) and themselves (who need to train it).

2014

The Birth of the Workshop: Techno-Morals, Peace Experts and the Care of the Self in the Middle East

Nikolas Kosmatopoulos

2014

De la "Divine Comédie" à l’Existentium: quartier agricole à Romanel-Vernand-Cheseaux (VD)

Existence analysis and numerical schemes for models of binary alloy solidification

The Birth of the Workshop: Techno-Morals, Peace Experts and the Care of the Self in the Middle East

De la "Divine Comédie" à l’Existentium: quartier agricole à Romanel-Vernand-Cheseaux (VD)

The Birth of the Workshop: Techno-Morals, Peace Experts and the Care of the Self in the Middle East

Existence analysis and numerical schemes for models of binary alloy solidification