Cette recherche est centrée sur la pensée du philosophe français Gilbert Simondon. Nous explorons la possibilité ouverte par Simondon d’articuler un monisme ontogénétique avec un pluralisme ontologique, c'est-à-dire l'idée qu’il est possible d'apprécier une continuité entre les différentes dimensions du réel -physique, biologique, psycho-collective- sans nier leur pluralité intrinsèque. Dans la première partie, nous étudions la relation entre la matière inerte et les êtres vivants à travers de la rencontre entre la philosophie simondonienne de l'individuation et la thermodynamique du non-équilibre d’Ilya Prigogine. La conception de Simondon est présentée comme un moyen approprié pour surmonter la division ontologique entre la matière et la vie. Toutefois, l'accent mis sur la cristallisation comme l'exemple paradigmatique de l'individuation physique révèle certaines limites pour mener à bien ce projet qui peuvent être surmontées par le concept d'une auto-organisation de la matière que l'on trouve dans la thermodynamique du non-équilibre. Dans la deuxième partie, nous proposons une interprétation des principaux points de la métaphysique de Simondon. Nous suivons la lecture de Deleuze où la philosophie de Simondon apparaît comme une transformation du concept kantien du transcendantal. Ensuite, nous défendons une interprétation selon laquelle la pensée de Simondon est une forme de réalisme processuel et relationnel. Enfin, la philosophie simondonienne est confrontée au tournant spéculatif de la philosophie actuelle, en particulier au matérialisme spéculatif de Quentin Meillassoux et à la philosophie orientée aux objets de Graham Harman. / This research is focused on the thought of the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. We explore the possibility opened by Simondon to articulate an ontogenetic monism with an ontological pluralism, that is, the idea that it is possible to appreciate a continuity between the different dimensions of the real -physical, biological, psycho-collective-without denying their intrinsic plurality. In the first part, we study the relation between inert matter and living beings through the encounter between Simondon’s philosophy of individuation and Ilya Prigogine’s non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Simondon’s conception is shown as a suitable way to overcome the ontological division between matter and life. However, his focus on crystallization as the paradigmatic example of physical individuation reveal certain limitations to carry out this project which can be overcome through the concept of self-organization of matter that we find in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. In the second part, we offer an interpretation of the main points of Simondon’s metaphysics. We follow Deleuze's reading in which Simondon's philosophy appears as a transformation of Kant's concept of the transcendental. Then, we defend an interpretation according to which Simondon’s thought is a form of process-relational realism. Finally, we confront Simondonian philosophy with the speculative turn of contemporary philosophy, especially with Quentin Meillassoux’s speculative materialism and Graham Harman’s object-oriented philosophy. / La presente investigación gira en torno al pensamiento del filósofo francés Gilbert Simondon. Exploramos la posibilidad que abre Simondon para articular un monismo ontogenético con un pluralismo ontológico, esto es, la idea según la cual es posible apreciar una continuidad entre las diferentes dimensiones de lo real -física, biológica, psíquico-colectiva- sin negar por ello su pluralidad intrínseca. En la primera parte, realizamos un estudio de la relación entre materia inerte y seres vivos por medio del encuentro entre la filosofía simondoniana de la individuación y la termodinámica del no-equilibrio desarrollada por Ilya Prigogine. La concepción de Simondon se muestra como una vía apropiada para superar la división ontológica entre materia y vida. Sin embargo, su focalización en la cristalización como ejemplo paradigmático de individuación física revela ciertas limitaciones para llevar a cabo este proyecto, las cuales pueden ser superadas por medio del concepto de una auto-organización de la materia presente en la termodinámica del no-equilibrio. En la segunda parte, realizamos una interpretación de los principales puntos de la metafísica de Simondon. Seguimos la lectura deleuziana en la cual la filosofía de Simondon aparece como una transformación del concepto kantiano de lo trascendental. A continuación, defendemos una interpretación según la cual el pensamiento de Simondon constituye una forma de realismo procesual-relacional. Finalmente, realizamos una confrontación de la filosofía simondoniana con el giro especulativo de la filosofía actual, especialmente con el materialismo especulativo de Quentin Meillassoux y la filosofía orientada a los objetos de Graham Harman.

The work towards global sustainable development is growing increasingly complex. Cities and the local urban scale have been acknowledged as important arenas towards sustainability; as they are actors contributing to high climate impacts and contain nebulous circumstances surrounding social orders due to rapid urbanisation. In response to the elaborate difficulties of achieving urban sustainability, Marc Wolfram (2016) conceptualised a framework for urban transformative capacity aimed at analysing and creating capacity for development. By applying relational ontology to a case study of Vallastaden, a newly built neighbourhood in Linköping Sweden this thesis has deepened the understanding of transformative capacity on a local scale. This was accomplished by scrutinising the planning and built environment of Vallastaden in the case study by applying semi-structured interviews, qualitative content analysis and a survey as data collecting methodologies.  The findings of the case study show that Vallastaden has been planned with care by focusing on the human scale and putting emphasis on building meaningful places and aiming to create social sustainability through many shared premises in the neighbourhood. The following six out of ten components of the framework for urban transformative capacity were made visible in the empirical data; (1) transformative leadership, (2) inclusive and multi-form governance, (3) empowered communities of practice, (4) system awareness and memory, (5) reflexivity and social learning and (6) urban sustainability foresight. Furthermore, the most prominent findings display the relations between the agency component (1-3), that the project of Vallastaden contributes to capacity development through social learning and a heterogeneous interdependence of relations between the shared premises and residents.

La musique, pour les Autochtones au Québec, joue un rôle fondamental pour l’expression et la consolidation identitaire, la mise en relation interpersonnelle, interculturelle et spirituelle ainsi que pour exercer un pouvoir d’action et de transformation sur soi et le milieu environnant. Cette thèse dresse un panorama de la scène musicale populaire autochtone contemporaine au Québec, en s’attardant plus particulièrement au milieu algonquien du Nord, tout en démontrant un lien de continuité évident avec le sens des traditions musicales et des rassemblements ancestraux. La musique populaire autochtone y est considérée comme un mode d’affirmation identitaire et de relation au monde, la scène de la musique populaire autochtone au Québec comme un réseau relationnel, et les événements musicaux comme des points de rencontre et de convergence (foyers) d’une communauté autochtone s’y reconnaissant et s’y reliant de façons différenciées. Le cadre théorique arrime les concepts de scène dans le contexte de culture populaire, des politiques/poétiques de l’identité, d’intersubjectivité, de résonance, de nomadisme, d’ontologie relationnelle, de poétiques de l’habiter (of dwelling), d’indigénisation et de transformation des identités et des modes d'être au monde autochtones dans le contexte contemporain. Selon les traditions algonquiennes, les actes musicaux servent à s’identifier en tant que personne particulière et membre d’une collectivité et du cosmos ainsi qu’à entretenir des relations avec les autres personnes du cosmos (humains et non humains) afin de vivre bien et de se donner du pouvoir sur soi et son environnement. Cette thèse démontre que les musiques populaires contemporaines et ses événements associés, bien que sous d’autres formes, poursuivent ce sens relationnel et identitaire des traditions musicales ancestrales et de leurs contextes de manifestation. Le réseau contemporain de la scène musicale populaire autochtone est ainsi formé d’espaces investis par les Autochtones de différentes nations, où ils se créent un chez-nous, un « espace à nous » et se redéfinissent des identités. Chanter, notamment dans leur langue, est ainsi un acte d’« habitation » du monde, de cohabitation, de communication, une inscription identitaire dans un environnement ainsi habité et senti. / For Aboriginal people in Quebec, music plays a fundamental role in the consolidation and expression of identity in interpersonal, intercultural and spiritual relationships, but also in terms of personal empowerment. This thesis provides an overview of the contemporary Aboriginal popular music scene in Quebec, focusing more specifically on Algonquian communities and demonstrating continuity with musical traditions and ancestral gatherings. Aboriginal popular music is considered as a way of asserting identity and a relationship to the world; the aboriginal popular music scene in Quebec is presented as a network of relationships, and musical events are seen as focal points of an aboriginal community that connect individuals and groups in differentiated ways. According Algonquian traditions, musical acts are used to identify oneself as a particular person and member of a community and the cosmos as well as to maintain relationships with others in the cosmos (human and nonhuman). Different forms of musical practice are desirable in order to live well and to empower the self in a particular environment. This thesis demonstrates that contemporary popular music and its associated events, albeit in other forms, are continuing a relational sense of ancestral musical traditions in various performative contexts. The contemporary Aboriginal popular music scene network is forged through spaces invested by Aboriginal people of different nations, where they create a "home", a "space for us", and redefine identity in unexpected ways. Singing, especially in Aboriginal languages, is an act of dwelling and cohabitation in an environment that is lived and felt.

This work unfolds Arturo Escobar's radical relational ontology in an imagined discussion with Gilbert Simondon. Questioning Escobar's academic reception in the North, we seek the answer in Escobar's own work, in his proposal of a political ontology and the pluriversal posture it underlies. In trying to grasp what radical difference means, understood as ontological excess, we come to the point of having to outline a pluriversal ethic of otherness in order to "live fearlessly the difference from within". Key words: relational-ontology; indigenous-struggles-for-the-territory ;ontological- conflicts ; otherness ; radical-otherness; anthropology ;philosophy; Arturo-Escobar; Gilbert- Simondon

This thesis is focused on the material known as the Mesolithic portable art. Earlier research have interpreted the material as representative art relating to ideology, mythology, prestige, ritual practices,and tribalism. Such interpretations are based on theoretical frameworks that build on hylomorphism and Cartesian metaphysics. By a change of theoretical framework, to a new animistic perspective based on a combination of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s rhizome theory, Tim Ingold’s meshwork and Giordano Bruno’s theory of bonds in general, followed by the use of ChantalConneller’s method rhizomatic chaîne opératoire, I conclude that the motifs on the tools and pendants are communications to the animated subjects that make up and inhabit the environment. Furthermore, I conclude that the binary positions of function and ritual cannot be applied when studying the formgenerating process of this material, as the tools and pendants along with their applied motifs are a result of what is in between these binary positions.

This work considers what ontology might be after the deconstruction of arché in Reiner Schürmann's and Giorgio Agamben's thinking. It addresses the question by reading Schürmanns historical deduction of the categories of presencing in his book Heidegger On being Acting: From Principles to Anarchy. This deduction is at the heart of his thought in that it tries to manifest what it means to live the transition from arché to an-arché, from a life under principles and why's, to a life without why, and the principle of anarchy. This transitional thought rests on what he calls the hypothesis of closure of the metaphysical field. The deduction is therefore a question of a relation between the first beginnings end as an other beginning. He shows this by establishing categories that are both conceptual- and sensible form. This reaches its full articulation in what he calls the categories of transition; categories in which the distinction between category and intuition seems to collapse – that are its own gaze or eye, that sees both the past and the future at the same time. This is a question regarding relationality: the transition from a causal relationality to an anarchic relationality, from a substance ontology to relational ontology. What is the relational status of the transition itself and its categories? This question lead to the main one: is the transition between arché and an-arché a relation between the two? The overall purpose is to explore this question in order to open, in the end, a path between him and Agamben. The later has pointed out that the key problem to live truly anarchic is a critique of the ontological relation because language presuppositional structure manifests in it, which takes its “full” form in his work The Use of Bodies. Here, perhaps – which we only can point to – Schürmann's thought can meet Agamben's in the caesura between arché and an-arché. Can anarchy ever be in a position of principle? In the end we will have to point to the notion of oikonomia as an area of further research to understand the question of anarchy between Agamben and Schürmann.

Face à la complexité significative du domaine mammographique ainsi que l'évolution massive de ses données, le besoin de contextualiser les connaissances au sein d'une modélisation formelle et exhaustive devient de plus en plus impératif pour les experts. C'est dans ce cadre que s'inscrivent nos travaux de recherche qui s'intéressent à unifier différentes sources de connaissances liées au domaine au sein d'une modélisation ontologique cible. D'une part, plusieurs modélisations ontologiques mammographiques ont été proposées dans la littérature, où chaque ressource présente une perspective distincte du domaine d'intérêt. D'autre part, l'implémentation des systèmes d'acquisition des mammographies rend disponible un grand volume d'informations issues des faits passés, dont la réutilisation devient un enjeu majeur. Toutefois, ces fragments de connaissances, présentant de différentes évidences utiles à la compréhension de domaine, ne sont pas interopérables et nécessitent des méthodologies de gestion de connaissances afin de les unifier. C'est dans ce cadre que se situe notre travail de thèse qui s'intéresse à l'enrichissement d'une ontologie de domaine existante à travers l'extraction et la gestion de nouvelles connaissances (concepts et relations) provenant de deux courants scientifiques à savoir: des ressources ontologiques et des bases de données comportant des expériences passées. Notre approche présente un processus de couplage entre l'enrichissement conceptuel et l'enrichissement relationnel d'une ontologie mammographique existante. Le premier volet comporte trois étapes. La première étape dite de pré-alignement d'ontologies consiste à construire pour chaque ontologie en entrée une hiérarchie des clusters conceptuels flous. Le but étant de réduire l'étape d'alignement de deux ontologies entières en un alignement de deux groupements de concepts de tailles réduits. La deuxième étape consiste à aligner les deux structures des clusters relatives aux ontologies cible et source. Les alignements validés permettent d'enrichir l'ontologie de référence par de nouveaux concepts permettant d'augmenter le niveau de granularité de la base de connaissances. Le deuxième processus s'intéresse à l'enrichissement relationnel de l'ontologie mammographique cible par des relations déduites de la base de données de domaine. Cette dernière comporte des données textuelles des mammographies recueillies dans les services de radiologies. Ce volet comporte ces étapes : i) Le prétraitement des données textuelles ii) l'application de techniques relatives à la fouille de données (ou extraction de connaissances) afin d'extraire des expériences de nouvelles associations sous la forme de règles, iii) Le post-traitement des règles générées. Cette dernière consiste à filtrer et classer les règles afin de faciliter leur interprétation et validation par l'expert vi) L'enrichissement de l'ontologie par de nouvelles associations entre les concepts. Cette approche a été mise en 'uvre et validée sur des ontologies mammographiques réelles et des données des patients fournies par les hôpitaux Taher Sfar et Ben Arous. / Facing the significant complexity of the mammography area and the massive changes in its data, the need to contextualize knowledge in a formal and comprehensive modeling is becoming increasingly urgent for experts. It is within this framework that our thesis work focuses on unifying different sources of knowledge related to the domain within a target ontological modeling. On the one hand, there is, nowadays, several mammographic ontological modeling, where each resource has a distinct perspective area of interest. On the other hand, the implementation of mammography acquisition systems makes available a large volume of information providing a decisive competitive knowledge. However, these fragments of knowledge are not interoperable and they require knowledge management methodologies for being comprehensive. In this context, we are interested on the enrichment of an existing domain ontology through the extraction and the management of new knowledge (concepts and relations) derived from two scientific currents: ontological resources and databases holding with past experiences. Our approach integrates two knowledge mining levels: The first module is the conceptual target mammographic ontology enrichment with new concepts extracting from source ontologies. This step includes three main stages: First, the stage of pre-alignment. The latter consists on building for each input ontology a hierarchy of fuzzy conceptual clusters. The goal is to reduce the alignment task from two full ontologies to two reduced conceptual clusters. The second stage consists on aligning the two hierarchical structures of both source and target ontologies. Thirdly, the validated alignments are used to enrich the reference ontology with new concepts in order to increase the granularity of the knowledge base. The second level of management is interested in the target mammographic ontology relational enrichment by novel relations deducted from domain database. The latter includes medical records of mammograms collected from radiology services. This section includes four main steps: i) the preprocessing of textual data ii) the application of techniques for data mining (or knowledge extraction) to extract new associations from past experience in the form of rules, iii) the post-processing of the generated rules. The latter is to filter and classify the rules in order to facilitate their interpretation and validation by expert, vi) The enrichment of the ontology by new associations between concepts. This approach has been implemented and validated on real mammographic ontologies and patient data provided by Taher Sfar and Ben Arous hospitals. The research work presented in this manuscript relates to knowledge using and merging from heterogeneous sources in order to improve the knowledge management process.

The notion of identity has always been central to the human person's understanding of self. The question "who am I?" is fundamental to human being. Answers to this question have come from a wide range of academic disciplines. Philosophers, theologians, scientists, sociologists and anthropologists have all sought to offer some insight. The question of individual identity has traditionally been answered from two broad perspectives. The objectivist approach has sought to answer the question through empirical observation - you are a mammal, you are a homo-sapien, you are male, you are African etc. The subjectivist approach has sought to answer the question through phenomenological exploration - I understand myself to be sentient, I remember my past, I feel love etc. A recent development in the field of computer science has however shown a shortcoming in both of these approaches. Ray Kurzweil, a theorist in strong artificial intelligence, suggests the possibility of an interesting identity crisis. He suggests that if a machine could be programmed and built to accurately and effectively emulate a person's conscious experience of being `self' it could lead to a crisis of identity. In an instance where the machine and the person it is emulating cannot be either objectively distinguished (i.e., both display the same characteristics of the person in question), or subjectively distinguish themselves (i.e., both believe themselves to be the `person in question' since both have an experience of being that person. This experience could be based on memory, emotion, understanding and other subjective realities) how is the true identity of the individual validated? What approach can be employed in order to distinguish which of the two truly is the `person in question' and which is the `emulation of that person'? This research investigates this problem and presents a suggested solution to it. The research begins with an investigation of the claims of strong artificial intelligence and discusses Ray Kurzweil's hypothetical identity crisis. It also discusses various approaches to consciousness and identity, showing both their value and shortfall within the scope of this identity conundrum. In laying the groundwork for the solution offered in this thesis, the integrative theory of Ken Wilber is presented as a model that draws on the strengths of the objectivist and subjectivist approaches to consciousness, yet also emphasises the need for an approach which is not only based on individual data (i.e., the objectivist - you are, or subjectivist - I am). Rather, it requires an intersubjective knowing of self in relation to others. The outcome of this research project is an African Theological approach to self-validating consciousness in strong artificial intelligence. This takes the form of an African Theology of relational ontology. The contribution falls within the ambit of Christian anthropology and Trinitarian theology - stressing the Christian belief that true identity is both shaped by, and discovered in, relationship with others. The clearest expression of this reality is to be found in the African saying Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (A person is a person through other persons). / Systematic Theology / D. Th.

The notion of identity has always been central to the human person's understanding of self. The question "who am I?" is fundamental to human being. Answers to this question have come from a wide range of academic disciplines. Philosophers, theologians, scientists, sociologists and anthropologists have all sought to offer some insight. The question of individual identity has traditionally been answered from two broad perspectives. The objectivist approach has sought to answer the question through empirical observation - you are a mammal, you are a homo-sapien, you are male, you are African etc. The subjectivist approach has sought to answer the question through phenomenological exploration - I understand myself to be sentient, I remember my past, I feel love etc. A recent development in the field of computer science has however shown a shortcoming in both of these approaches. Ray Kurzweil, a theorist in strong artificial intelligence, suggests the possibility of an interesting identity crisis. He suggests that if a machine could be programmed and built to accurately and effectively emulate a person's conscious experience of being `self' it could lead to a crisis of identity. In an instance where the machine and the person it is emulating cannot be either objectively distinguished (i.e., both display the same characteristics of the person in question), or subjectively distinguish themselves (i.e., both believe themselves to be the `person in question' since both have an experience of being that person. This experience could be based on memory, emotion, understanding and other subjective realities) how is the true identity of the individual validated? What approach can be employed in order to distinguish which of the two truly is the `person in question' and which is the `emulation of that person'? This research investigates this problem and presents a suggested solution to it. The research begins with an investigation of the claims of strong artificial intelligence and discusses Ray Kurzweil's hypothetical identity crisis. It also discusses various approaches to consciousness and identity, showing both their value and shortfall within the scope of this identity conundrum. In laying the groundwork for the solution offered in this thesis, the integrative theory of Ken Wilber is presented as a model that draws on the strengths of the objectivist and subjectivist approaches to consciousness, yet also emphasises the need for an approach which is not only based on individual data (i.e., the objectivist - you are, or subjectivist - I am). Rather, it requires an intersubjective knowing of self in relation to others. The outcome of this research project is an African Theological approach to self-validating consciousness in strong artificial intelligence. This takes the form of an African Theology of relational ontology. The contribution falls within the ambit of Christian anthropology and Trinitarian theology - stressing the Christian belief that true identity is both shaped by, and discovered in, relationship with others. The clearest expression of this reality is to be found in the African saying Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (A person is a person through other persons). / Systematic Theology / D. Th.