A leading continental philosopher from France and author of Theory of the Subject interrogates the "anti-philosophy" of Ludwig Wittgenstein in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, arguing that his beliefs compromise truth and logic while rendering philosophy a practice of esoteric aphorisms.

Profondément liées aux pratiques ascétiques et aux recherches spirituelles monastiques, les oeuvres mystiques syriaques ne se confondent cependant pas avec elles. Elles construisent des visions théologiques qui participent nécessairement aux débats dans les institutions ecclésiales, que ce soit chez les syriaques occidentaux ou les syriaques orientaux. Redevables de l'héritage philosophique grec, des auteurs syro-occidentaux ont élaboré des pensées mystiques et l'oeuvre du Pseudo-Denys a été déterminante dans la mystique sacramentaire de la théologie miaphysite. C'est du côté oriental que la tradition (...) mystique a été la plus riche et a fleuri, en Mésopotamie mais aussi sur les bords du golfe Arabo-Persique dans le Bet Qatraye, où l'on se souvient d'écrivains fameux comme Isaac de Ninive, Dadisho du Qatar, Martyrios Sandona, Jean de Dalyatha ; mais qui connaît Shubhalmaran, Hananisho de Bet Qoqa ou Beh Isho de Kamul? En privilégiant des analyses thématiques et l'étude de motifs mystiques essentiels, l'ouvrage vise à attirer l'attention sur des oeuvres et des auteurs qui, dans la formation et l'évolution des cultures syriaques, ont joué un rôle tout au long de l'histoire du Proche-Orient chrétien et musulman et qui se révèlent précieux pour l'historien. (shrink)

In this article, I study Richard’s paradox, and I consider several of its solutions. I then restate the paradox using Kolmogorov’s theory of complexity. Taking as a starting point Chaitin’s demonstration that Kolmogorov’s understanding of «complexity» is only relative, I put forth a new solution to the paradox.

Interprétation générale du système kantien répondant aux principes herméneutiques simples.

A usual argument in finance refers to no arbitrage opportunities for the positivity of the bid-ask spread. Here we follow the decision theory approach and show that if positivity of the bid-ask spread is identified with strong risk aversion for an expected utility market-maker, this is no longer true for a rank-dependent expected utility one. For such a decision-maker only a very weak form of risk aversion is required, a result which seems more in accordance with his actual behavior. We (...) conclude by showing that the no-trade interval result of Dow and Werlang (1992a) remains valid for a rank-dependent expected utility market-maker merely exhibiting this weak form of risk aversion. (shrink)

What steps are needed to make life better and more convivial? The Second Convivialist Manifesto has presented a short diagnosis of the current crises and sketches of a possible and desirable future. It has been a necessary work of theoretical synthesis, but preserving a viable world also requires passion. It is thus urgent to show what people would gain from a shift to a post-neoliberal and post-growth convivialist future. This volume includes a theoretical debate on convivialism which reflects dystopias and (...) shows the multiple and major obstacles that convivialism will have to face. Mainly, however, the contributors to this volume create sketches of a convivial future and collect accounts of another future world which is attractive for as many as possible. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 108 Heft: 1 Seiten: 116-133.

Retrieval efficiencies of paper-based references in journals and other serials containing 10 scientific names of fossil amphibians were determined for seven major search engines. Retrievals were compared to the number of references obtained covering the period 1895—2006 by a Comprehensive Search. The latter was primarily a traditional library-based search which involved intensive work from 2002—2007. Only a few references originally obtained by search engines were included. Retrieval efficiencies were calculated by comparison to the number obtained through the Comprehensive Search (assumed (...) to be 100%). All percent retrievals were quite low (mean = 11.3%, range = 4.0—22.9%). For all seven search engines combined (duplicate references excluded), the percent retrieval was only 40.7%. There was also retrieval inefficiency and bias of the search engines in: sampling over time, the top five journals containing the most references, the top five most prolific authors, and non-English references. Consequently, all seven search engines were unsatisfactory for retrieval of references for our scientific research. (shrink)

Leibniz comprenait la question pourquoi y a-t-il quelque chose plutot que rien? sur un mode ontologique; il l'interpretait dans le cadre d'une physique continue, lineaire et necessaire; et il y repondait en invoquant le principe de raison suffisante. Nous comprenons desormais cette question sur un mode non ontologique, en substituant une notion relativiste et pragmatiste de realite a la notion absolue d'etre; nous l'interpretons dans le cadre d'une physique discontinue, non lineaire et probabiliste; et nous y repondons en denoncant, sur (...) un mode non sceptique, le principe de raison suffisante. Operer un tel renversement de l'analyse leibnizienne ne suffit toutefois pas. Car nous restons dans le cadre de la logique binaire adoptee par Leibniz, a savoir l'opposition entre le quelque chose (1) et le rien (0)... (shrink)

A double ambiguity has been charged against Rawls’s difference principle (DP). Is it Maximin, Leximin, or something else? Usually, following A. Sen, scholars identify DP with the so-called Leximin. One argues here that one has to distinguish 1° the Leximin, 2° the Maximin (as rule of justice formally analogous to the maximin rule of decision), represented by the figure in L of the perfectly substitutable goods, and 3° the genuine DP. When the augmentation of inequality benefits the worse off, only (...) Pareto-strong improvements are permitted. Leximin would also permit Pareto-weak improvements too (after the first maximum D), where only the richest improves: from (2, 3) to (2, 5), say. This is forbidden by DP. With two classes, unlike Maximin, DP has no curve of indifference and is always decisive, as Leximin is. For undecisive Rules of Justice, which admit indifferent curves, I propose to add a lexically secondary rule, to break ties. That move is able to clarify the links and the differences between on the one hand Maximin alone, with its typical indifference curves in L, and on the other hand, the DP properly understood and the Leximin, which both have no indifferent curves. With two classes of persons (best off/worse off), DP appears more egalitarian than Leximin, because it's secondary rule is MinIn (Minimization of Inequality). But the intuition behind the distinction is that it cannot possible “fair” that only the best off improves in a productive social cooperation. (shrink)

Si c'est "malgré tout" qu'il faut défendre la sociologie, c'est malgré ce qu'elle est devenue. Bien loin de ses grandes espérances initiales et des splendeurs que nous ont léguées les Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Elias, Mauss, etc. Ce que l'on appelle sociologie s'est peu à peu recroquevillé jusqu'à apparaître comme la "science (ou la pseudo science) des restes n, la science de ce dont ne parlent ni les philosophes, ni les économistes, ni les historiens, ni les anthropologues, ni les théoriciens (...) de la littérature, etc. Éclatée en de multiples chapelles théoriques ou idéologiques, privée de colonne vertébrale paradigmatique et institutionnelle, elle ne croit plus pouvoir trouver son unité que dans une référence de plus en plus incantatoire au "terrain" et à l'empirisme, et dans ses querelles infinies sur ce qui fait la bonne méthode ou le bon terrain. La sociologie classique, celle qu'il nous faut faire revivre et actualiser, se présentait tout autrement. Elle revendiquait hautement une approche empirique de la réalité et le souci d'établir des faits, elle aussi, mais elle n'imaginait pas que ce puisse être accompli hors-théorie et sans enjeux normatifs, c'est-à-dire éthiques et politiques... Dit autrement, elle se vivait comme le lieu et le moment généraliste de la science sociale générale. C'est cette sociologie là, autrement dit la science sociale générale, qui nous fait désormais défaut et qu'on appelle ici à renaître de ses cendres. (shrink)

La tradition sociologique a habituellement considéré la mobilité, qu’elle soit sociale ou spatiale, comme le déplacement entre des positions établies, l’essentiel étant d’analyser le système formé par ces positions. On trouve cependant, dans la sociologie même, les moyens pour élargir cette perspective. Des travaux sur la mobilité sociale, on tire une interrogation sur l’accès aux ressources qui prend en compte diverses formes de mobilité. Simmel développe l’analyse du rôle de la proximité et de la distance dans la construction du social. (...) Des travaux contemporains qui portent sur les déplacements ou sur la télématique s’inscrivent dans la même perspective. Tocqueville introduit la notion d’une mobilité individuelle, notamment spatiale, consommatoire, et qui n’a d’autre objectif qu’elle-même. Ces trois orientations permettent à la sociologie de contribuer à une théorie de la mobilité généralisée, qui croise l’interrogation sur la modernité.Sociological tradition used to consider mobility – whether social or spatial – as a movement from an established position to another, but it put more emphasis on the positions system than on the movement itself. Yet sociology itself provides the means to widen the scope. Studies on social mobility have eventually resulted in the larger problématique of resource acquisition involving various forms of mobility. Simmel developed an in-depth analysis of the influence of presence vs absence in the set up of social relationships, interrelated with current studies dealing with movements and telematics. Earlier Tocqueville had introduced the concept of individual mobility, notably spatial, consumption-focussed, and with a life of its own ; which eventually resulted in the philosophy of self-reference. These three orientations enable sociology to contribute to a theory of generalized mobility intersecting with the questioning on modernity. (shrink)

The intelligibility of a performance of improvised dance does not reside in the rehearsed execution of a pre-existing script, nor does it result from a sustained verbal interaction between the dancers. Many aspects of the speechless performance obviously play an important role in the achieved intelligibility of the dance: a dancer is seen moving on and from a ground, on a stage, in a space delimited by walls, illuminated by spotlights, sounded by music, in front of an audience. And of (...) course with other dancers, whose joint gestures and moves give shape to a choreography by providing pace, rhythm and sequences, thereby constituting a narrative or fragments thereof. This paper addresses the manufacture of this witnessable order, by presenting some results of an ethnographic inquiry. The investigation will be focused on how, in an improvised duet, each dancer interacts with the other, and more specifically how she or he positions her- or himself in relation to the other, from distance to proximity and touch. This work of distance management is the dance, whose choreographic accountability is produced and structured by dancers staying at a distance, getting closer and touching each other. The analysis shows that distance management is oriented to as relevant by the dancers and that it has consequences on their improvised duet. It is also what makes their performance analyzable by distant observers. (shrink)

Damascius’s proper insight into the neoplatonic triad has an idiosyncratic mood. Triad is not essentially seen as a kind of completeness, it is rather the place where some kind of tenseness is at stake between its second and third moments. One of the main points of this paper is connected to the very act of the triad’s second moment. This act is a twin act : rising to existence and multiplying to the infinite. The surmise grounding the argument dwells on (...) a duality that lies in receptivity issuing from the One, duality mirroring the duality affecting the One itself. (shrink)

The fall of the Berlin wall was seen by many as the final triumph of liberal democracy over communism. But now, in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, things look a little different. New questions are arising about capitalism and democracy, new social movements are challenging established institutions and new political possibilities are emerging. Is democracy an inevitable hostage of capitalism, or can it reinvent itself to meet the challenge of globalization? In an exclusive, (...) previously unpublished dialogue, Alain Badiou, a key figure of the radical left and a leading advocate of the communist idea, and Marcel Gauchet, a major exponent of anti-totalitarianism and a champion of liberal democracy, confront one another. Together, they take stock of history, interrogate one another s views and defend their respective projects: on the one side, the revival of the communist hypothesis, and on the other, the radical reform of a contested democratic model. (shrink)

Catastrophe theory has been sharply criticized because it does not seem to have practical applications nor does it seem to allow us to increase our power over Nature. I want to rehabilitate the theory by foregoing the controversy raised by scientists about its practical efficiency. After a short exposition of the theory's mathematical formalism and a detailed analysis of the main objections that have been raised against it, I argue that theory is not only to be judged on its practical (...) results, which are in fact limited, but also on its epistemological and philosophical implications. Catastrophe theory indeed represents a real revolution in science: it announces the coming of a more theoretical, less practical, science, having more to do with understanding reality than with acting on it, and, from that point of view, it may be considered as the modern philosophy of Nature. (shrink)

Deux programmes sont compris sous l’expression d’« épistémologie évolutionniste», dont Popper fut l’un des promoteurs : un programme « littéral», qui consisterait à rendre compte de la connaissance en termes d’adaptation darwinienne, et un programme « analogique», qui ferait fond sur une comparaison entre progrès scientifique et évolution du vivant. Quine est crédité du programme « fort» : la « naturalisation» de l’épistémologie. Popper est supposé être le responsable du « programme faible». Pourquoi donc s’inspirer d’une telle analogie pour penser (...) quelque chose d’aussi sophistiqué que la « croissance de la connaissance scientifique »? Une telle analogie peut avoir une valeur heuristique, mais les différences entre la science et l’évolution sont tellement évidentes qu’elle montre vite ses limites. Mais la philosophie poppérienne de l’évolution ne se réduit pas à une analogie. (shrink)

Je propose ici une hypothèse radicale, mais fragile: le commentaire sur l’Apocalypse désigné par son incipit Vox Domini, qui a été édité1 dans les Opera omnia de Thomas d’Aquin, avant d’être rejeté du corpus authentique, serait l’œuvre de Bonaventure. Je ne peux présenter aucune preuve absolue, mais un ensemble de probabilités ou de convergences. L’enjeu est de taille pour trois raisons: cette œuvre longue (environ 200.000 mots) a forcément occupé longuement Bonaventure et l’histoire de sa carrière doit être revue. Ensuite, (...) le commentaire permet d’avoir une vue plus claire des rapports de Bonaventure avec l’eschatologie de son temps. Enfin, l’indifférence sidérante des historiens aux contenus de Vox .. (shrink)

Selon Rawls, le PD permet de regarder les différences de talents comme un « atout commun ». Le libertarien Nozick y a vu l’aveu par Rawls que sa société se rend propriétaire de nos personnes, faites de nos talents propres. C’est un sophisme : seule la distribution des dons peut être vue comme un bien commun, fournissant une palette de complémentarités possibles qui est un atout commun (voir Smith sur la division du travail, comme le note Arrow). Arrow a peut-être (...) hésité sur ce point, mais il a finalement opté, comme Rawls et Nozick, pour l’idée que nous possédons nos talents, à ceci près que nous ne pouvons les développer que dans un cadre social qui rend légitime (contra Nozick) que l’impôt nous reprenne une partie de nos bénéfices pour aider les plus démunis à sortir de leur misère. Le PD éloigne de la pure méritocratie. Via Pascal, cité par Arrow, on en revient à l’importance de la notion de personne dans toute approche non utilitariste, plaidant pour la coopération entre économie et philosophie, par exemple pour généraliser le PD à plus de deux classes, si c’est possible sans entamer la souhaitable simplicité cognitive des principes de justice, ni détruire le système des incitations. Classification JEL : I13. (shrink)

Entre les états (2, 3) et (2, 4), le Principe de Différence (PD) choisit-t-il le premier, le second, ou est-il indifférent? Cette dernière interprétation est confortée par le choix par Rawls des courbes en L pour illustrer le PD (Rawls 1999 [1971], § 13, fig. 5), formellement analogue au Maximin en théorie de la décision, et qui admettrait des courbes d’indifférence ; une fois le plus mal loti maximisé, on est indifférent entre les états des mieux lotis ; le Leximin (...) enjoint lui de choisir le second état, puisqu’il réitère le PD sur le dernier plus mal loti. La plupart des commentateurs choisissent le Leximin ; or ce principe est inégalitaire, car il peut laisser s’enrichir les riches alors que les pauvres stagnent. Le PD sélectionne en fait le premier état. Si l’on peut passer du premier état au second, on doit pouvoir passer du premier à un état (2+n, 3-n). Le PD est univoque, différent du Maximin et du Leximin, qui peut favoriser des sociétés duales, où seuls les riches s’enrichissent. On n’a pu généraliser le résultat à plus de deux classes, même en tenant compte de la « connexion en chaîne », laquelle exprime l’idée fondamentale de Rawls : la solidarité via la coopération.Code JEL : I13. (shrink)

In this collection of essays, Alain Badiou revisits the age-old problem of the relation between literature and philosophy, arguing against both Plato and Heidegger's famous arguments. Philosophy neither has to ban the poets from the republic nor abdicate its own powers to the sole benefit of poetry or art. Instead, it must declare the end of what Badiou names the "age of the poets," from Holderlin to Celan. Drawing on ideas from his first publication on the subject, "The Autonomy (...) of the Aesthetic Process," Badiou also offers an illuminating set of readings of contemporary French prose writers, giving us fascinating insights into the theory of the novel while also accounting for the specific position of literature between science and ideology. (shrink)

At the start of the twentieth century, the first quantum revolution upset our vision of the world. New physics offered surprising realities, such as wave-particle duality, and led to major inventions: the transistor, the laser, and computer's integrated circuits. Less known is the second quantum revolution, arguably initiated in 1935 during a debate between giants Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. This revolution is still unfolding. Its revolutionaries--including the author of this short accessible book, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alain Aspect--explore the (...) notion of entangled particles, able to interact at seemingly impossible distances. Aspect has investigated entangled particles since the beginning of the 1980s and has helped to show how entanglement may both upend existing technologies, like cryptography, and usher in entirely new ones, like quantum computing. Explaining this physics of the future, this work tells a story of how philosophical debates can shape new realities. (shrink)

Since the beginning of the War on Terror, Israel has become increasingly salient to imperial strategy and ever more aggressive in its policies toward the Palestinians. In this context, a key ideological weapon is the cynical accusation of "anti-Semitism." For historical reasons, this has been deployed most forcefully in France, and Alain Badiou and Eric Hazan caustically demolish the "anti-Semitism is everywhere" allegation, used to bludgeon opponents of the Israeli state and those who stand in solidarity with the banlieue (...) youth. Ivan Segre undertakes a meticulous deconstruction of a rampant "reactionary philo-Semitism" that identifies Jewish interests with the "democratic West.". (shrink)

The notion of the ‘end’ has long occupied philosophical thought. In light of the horrors of the 20th century, some writers have gone so far as to declare the end of philosophy itself, emphasising the impossibility of thinking after Auschwitz. In this book the distinguished philosopher Alain Badiou, in dialogue with Giovanbattista Tusa, argues that we must renounce the ‘pathos of completion’ and continue to think philosophically. To accept the atrocities of the 20th century as marking the end of (...) philosophy is intolerable precisely because it buys into the totalising doctrines of the perpetrators. Badiou contends that philosophical thinking is needed now more than ever to counter the totalizing effects of globalised capitalism, which prescribes no objective for human life other than integration into its system, giving rise to a widespread sense of hopelessness and nihilism. To resist this degradation of human life, Badiou calls for a renewal of the idea of communism: the creation of new forms of collective organisation capable of challenging the logic of capitalism and enabling individuals to become self-determining subjects. This volume consolidates much of Badiou’s thinking over the years and will appeal to the many followers of his philosophical project, as well as all those interested in contemporary philosophy and radical political theory. (shrink)

Karl Popper (1902-1994) est mort avant d’avoir terminé cette collection d’articles. Quelques uns (comme « Back to the Presocratics » (1958), publié dans Conjectures et Réfutations, ou la note de The Open Society (1945) – huit pages – consacrée aux corps premiers du Timée) sont relativement connus. Certains, tel celui consacré à « la lumière que la Lune peut jeter sur les deux voies de Parménide » (1992) le sont moins. D’autres enfin sont inédits, comme la « réhabilitation » de (...) Xénophane (ch.... (shrink)