According to the author, psychology of religion should be the study of the personal experiences, tensions, conflicts and resolutions to conflict within a specific, clearly identified religion. The author opposes philosophical-psychological preconceptions which tend to eliminate the proper psychological reality of dynamic conflicts . With Freud, Evan-Pritchard and Needham, he affirms the historical dimension of civilizations and religions, and elaborates its consequences. He examines in this context work by Maslow on extrinsic and intrinsic religion and by Rokeach on mental-psychological dogmatism. (...) He stresses the largely preconscious motivations and processes that are at play in the personal interests and defense mechanisms operating in the various forms of belief and unbelief and in their changes. This preconscious reality is the psychological one par excellence and is the appropriate object for subtle psychological investigations. (shrink)

What makes the person truly human? This is the question that is systematically investigated by Vergote in this fine collection of papers. The integrating themes of the various studies reported here are the exploration of human experience, and the achievement of humanity by the individual. The main question is approached from a variety of angles and focuses on the central issues of human existence.

RésuméL'analyse non‐standard fournit une base solide à la théorie des infinitésimaux. L'approche axiomatique qu'en donne Nelson est basée sur un nouveau predicat qui est ajouté au langage de la théorie usuelle des ensembles. Nous interprétons ce prédicat et formulons les axio‐mes de Nelson ?on;une façon qui peut être comparee à la discussion de P. R. Halmos dans son livre Naïve Set Theory .SummaryNon‐standard analysis gives a proper foundation to the theory of infinitesimals. Nelson's axiomatic approach of it uses a new (...) predicate which is added to the classical language of set theory. We interpret this new predicate and formulate Nelson's axioms in a way that can be compared to P. R. Halmos' discussion of set axioms in his book Naïve Set Theory .ZusammenfassungDie nicht‐standard Analyse liefert eine solide Grundlage für die Theorie der infinitesimalen Grössen. Die von Nelson vorgeschlagene Axiomatisierung beruht auf einem neuen Prädikat, das den in der Sprache der Mengentheorie üblichen hinzugefügt wird. Wir interpretieren dieses Prädikat und formulieren Nelsons Axiome auf eine Art, die mit der Diskus‐sion von P.R. Halmos in Naïve Set Theory verglichen werden kann. (shrink)

RésuméLe saint — phénomène religieux universel — est compris comme un personnage à travers lequel un Absolu se manifeste au sein du relatif: le saint représente le fondement transcendant d'une société. Ce fait détermine ses relations avec la dernière: libéré des contraintes habituelles d'ordre transactionnel qui régissent la société, le saint en assure l'équilibre en intervenant comme arbitre lors de conflits graves — en particulier en période de crise —, ou comme directeur des consciences. En faisant de lui un objet (...) de vénération et en l'utilisant comme référence et justification ultimes de sa propre existence, la société essaie de l'intégrer dans ses structures. Toutefois, la dimension d'Absolu demeurent irréductible au relatif, la présence du saint conduit immanquablement à l'élaboration de diverses théories concernant l'existence de deux niveaux de vérité.SummaryThe saint is understood as a universal phenomenon in religion and defined as a person through which absolute Reality manifests itself in the midst of relative reality: the saint represents the transcendental foundation of society. Standing outside and above the constraints deriving from the transactional pattern of social life, the saint acts as an arbiter in cases of major conflicts and as a spiritual guide, and thus assures harmony and peace among the members of society. Society tries to get possession of the saint by making him an object of veneration and by considering him as the ultimate reference and justification of its existence. However, absolute Reality being forever irreducible to relative reality, the saint's presence leads inevitably to the elaboration of theories concerning two levels of truth.ZusammenfassungDer “Heilige” ist ein universelles religiöses Phänomen; er kann definiert werden als ein Mensch, in welchem sich das Absolute innerhalb des Relativen manifestiert: der Heilige repräsentiert die transzendente Grundlage einer Gesellschaft. Diese Tat‐sache bestimmt seine Beziehungen zu der letzteren: der Heilige ist befreit von den transaktionellen Zwängen, die das Gesellschaftsleben beherrschen und ist dadurch befähigt, in schwierigen Konfliktsfällen als Schiedsrichter zu wirken , sowie als geistlicher Führer zu amten. Indem die Gesellschaft ihm ihre Verehrung darbringt und ihn als letzte Begründung und Rechtfertigung ihrer Existenz betrachtet, versucht sie, ihn in ihre Strukturen hereinzuholen. Da indessen das Absolute nie im Relativen aufgeht, führt das Dasein des Heiligen unweigerlich zur Aus‐bildung verschiedener Theorien hinsichtlich der Existenz einer doppelten Wahrheit. (shrink)

RésuméOn examine ?on;abord les termes explicites et implicites du contrat de justice selon Rawls. Ensuite on rappelle ľinterprétation ‘procédurale’ que ce dernier donne de ľautonomie kantienne et ľon montre ľinanité de cette interprétation. Cependant la doctrine de Rawls exprime avec bon‐heur une conception sceptique de la justice.SummaryAfter a short examination of the explicit and implicit contract of justice according to Rawls, the reasons afforded by him to give a Kantian foundation to the contract are recalled and rebutted. However Rawls's doctrine (...) remarkably expresses the main argument of a sceptical conception of justice.ZusammenfassungNach einer kurzen Untersuchung des expliziten und impliziten Begriffs des Gesellschaftsver‐trages, wie Rawls ihn versteht, wird die besondere Interpretation erOrtert, die er vom Kantschen Autonomiebegriff gibt. Es wird gezeigt, dass diese unzutreffend ist und dass Rawls Lehre eher auf eine skeptische Auffassung der Gerechtigkeit zutrifft. (shrink)

In this paper I will alternate between the position of a psychoanalyst who reflects on psychoanalysis as a moral philosopher, and that of a psychoanalyst who views moral concepts from an analyst’s point of view. By psychoanalysis I mean the clinical practice and observations deriving from Freud’s ideas and theoretical constructions, as well as the necessary theoretical underpinnings on which it rests.Jungian theory and practice, though inspired by Freud, differ sharply from Freudian theory and practice — as much as Lamarck (...) differs from Darwin. This is why Jung himself referred to his own theory as ‘analytic psychology’. To conflate them under a single category as theologians are sometimes prone to do, even before E. Drewermann, is a misleading therapeutic and scientific ecumenism. In addition, the word ‘sublimation’ occurs extremely rarely in Jung’s works and has little meaning there. The concept has no real place within his theory. While ‘God’, Shiva, Christ, the devil, the holy virgin mother, etc. may be the representative forms of innate archetypes, it is not a sublimation of drives that has raised them to the level of psychological ‘religion’.My decided choice for Freudian theory and practice rests on experience, on epistemological arguments and on philosophical-anthropological convictions. This point of view, however, does not mean that I think one should or can simply repeat Freud’s practical hints and theoretical statements. Precisely because Freud, like Newton and Darwin, was the founder of a new science, his theoretical concepts open up new fields for observation and thought. In this paper, however, I will not carry out any technical exegesis of Freud’s texts and the discussion it has inspired. (shrink)

Language Use offers a philosophical examination of the basic conceptual framework of pragmatic theory, and contrasts this framework with detailed descriptions of our everyday practices of language use. While the results should be highly relevant to pragmatics, the investigation is not a contribution to pragmatic theory. Drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's approach to philosophical problems, Language Use brings out the relevance of Wittgenstein's methods to fundamental problems in central pragmatic fields of research such as deixis, implicatures, speech acts and presuppositions.

RésuméContrairement à ce que pourrait donner à penser la these de E. Mayr sur ľimportance actuelle des explications évolutives en biologie, par opposition aux explications fonctionnelles, ľauteur soutient que, pour ľépistémologie de la causalité, le second type ?on;explication reste plus significatif que le premier. II tente de le montrer en reprenant brièvement son analyse des travaux de P.E. Pilet sur les inhibiteurs de croissance , telle qu'elle a ete présentée dans quatre articles antérieurs.SummaryStarting from E. Mayr's distinction between functional and (...) evolutionary explanation, the author suggests that, as far as the epistemological analysis of causality is concerned, the former type of explanation remains of more interest than the latter. He illustrates this claim by briefly taking up his philosophical and logico‐linguistic study of P.E. Pilet's work on growth inhibitors in the field of plant growth regulation, which was presented in a series of four previous papers.ZusammenfassungVon E. Mayrs Unterscheidung zwischen funktionaler und evolutiver Erklärung ausgehend, weist der Autor nach, dass die erste Art der Erklärung in bezug auf die erkenntnistheoretische Analyse der Kansalität mehr Bedeutung hat. Er versucht aufgrund seiner früheren Analysen von P.E. Pilets Schriften über Wachstumsinhibitoren auf dem Gebiet der Wachstumsregulation von Pflanzen diese Auffassung zu erhärten. (shrink)

On ne peut comprendre la position de cette œuvre, annoncée dès 1840 comme devant être tout à la fois 'ironique et polémique', sans savoir précisément ce à quoi elle s'oppose. On ne peut saisir le sens de cette opposition si on ne découvre ce qui en constitue le 'point archimédique'. Pour avoir compris cette triple exigence, l'auteur de cet essai fait découvrir dans le monde intellectuel danois du XIXe siècle, qu'il ressuscite, un monde si proche du nôtre qu'on s'en reconnaît (...) presque contemporain, jusqu'à souhaiter apprendre de Kierkegaard le secret d'une exemplaire résistance à la malhonnêteté et à l'irresponsabilité des 'brigands semi-cultivés' qui font de notre époque, comme de la sienne, une 'époque de désagrégation' et de notre société, plus encore que de la sienne, une société du 'nivellement'. Mais il avertit aussi bien que ce n'est pas en cherchant à tout savoir sur Kierkegaard qu'on apprendra quoi que ce soit de Kierkegaard. (shrink)

RésuméCet exposé repose essentiellement sur des idées originates déjà développées par ľauteur. En fait, les concepts en cause, à savoir ľévolution prébiotique et biotique, ainsi que la sénescence et le cancer, sont rassemblés dans une théorie profoundément unitaire résultant, soit de ľaccroissement, soit de la diminution, du poids moléculaire du DNA.Ceci s'apparente singulièrement à la révolution de la physique dans ce premier quart de siècle qui a conduit àľélaboration de la théorie de la relativité et de la mécanique ondulatoire.SummaryThis paper (...) is based essentially on original ideas already developed by the author. In fact the concepts considered, that is to say prebiotic and biotic evolution as well as ageing and cancer, are brought together into a highly unified theory resulting from the increase or the lowering of the molecular weight of DNA.This is closely in agreement with the revolution in physics which took place in the first quarter of this century and which led both to the theory of relativity and of wave mechanics.ZusammenfassungDie Arbeit beruht im wesentlichen auf vom Verfasser schon früher entwickelten Originalge‐danken. Die involvierten Begriffe, die vorbiotische und die biotische Evolution sowie das Altern und die Wucherung, finden sich in der Tat in einer einheitlichen Theorie vereinigt, die aus der Zunahme oder Abnahme des Molekulargewichts des DNA resultiert.Dies stimmt auffällig mit der Revolution in der Physik überein, die im ersten Viertel unseres Jahrhunderts zur Ausarbeitung der Relativitätstheorie und der Wellenmechanik geführt hat. (shrink)

‘Spirituality’ is an old word which throughout history has been given different meanings. Over the last two decades, it has successively become an increasingly frequent concept in scientific studies, none the least in psychosocial oncology. Advocates of ‘spirituality’ regard it as a human dimension and state that since all humans have ‘spiritual needs’ it is urgent to develop ‘spiritual care’. With the focus on recent publications, this article critically scrutinizes aspects of scientific soundness in this growing research tradition, foremost problems (...) of the lack of conceptual clarity and reliance on interconnected instruments that imply circular findings. It is concluded that the concept adds more confusion than clarity if it is not put into a meaningful theoretical and cultural context, and subsequently it is important to guard against preconceptions and vague meanings in this research field. (shrink)

RésuméLa scission ressentie aujourd'hui entre une recherche dite fondamentale, supposée desintéressée, et une recherche de caractère appliqué orientée vers une production, ne repose pas lant sur des differénces de méthode que sur la motivation du chercheur. Les problèmes liés àľessor actuel des applications de la biologie, en particulier à celui des ≤biotechnologies≥, permettent de poser la question de la fécondité du savoir dans un contexte dialectique liant indissociablement ľacte réalisateur aux processus cognitifs.SummaryIt is often felt that there exists a division (...) between research referred to as fundamental – assumed to be disinterested – and research of an applied nature – which is orientated towards a production. This dichotomy is not based so much upon methodological differences as upon the research worker's attitude and motives. The problems associated with the actual rise of applications of biology, particularly those termed ≤biotechnologies≥, allows one to examine the question of knowledge's fruitfulness in a dialectical context joining irreversibly concrete actions to cognitive processes.ZusammenfassungDie heutzutage empfundene Spaltung zwischen einer uneigennützig gemeinten sogenannten Grundforschung und einer auf Produktion eingestellten angewandten Forschung beruht auf Unterschieden weniger in der Methode des Forschers als vielmehr in dessen Motivation. Die Pro‐bleme, die mit dem gegenwärtigen Aufschwung der Anwendungen der Biologie verbunden sind, führen dazu, die Frage der FYuchtbarkeit des Wissens in einen dialektischen Kontext zu stellen, der die verwirklichende Tat unlSsbar mit den Erkenntnisprozessen verbindet. (shrink)

Peter Elmsley once said ‘difficillimum opus esse accuratam librorum collationem’. He was pointing out some mistakes in Porson's collation of the editio princeps of the four plays of Euripides, which Porson had said that he himself had collated ‘summa cum religione, ne dicam superstitione’. These were both men who knew Greek and who could collate manuscripts. So we ν;θρωπσκοι who would follow in their footsteps in this most difficult task cannot expect to do more than increase in some small measure (...) the accuracy and completeness of existing collations. It is to be hoped that others in their turn may in due course improve on our work also, so that finally, with sufficient workers in the field, a close approximation to truth may be achieved. (shrink)

This paper articulates a case for supposing that all shades of colour are visually complex.