The Belgian scientific literature dealing with political parties has four main characteristics. First it pays great attention to party doctrines and to parliamentary struggle. Indeed, in the nineteenth century political parties do not strike by their organization, which is still undeveloped, nor by their functions, which are still limited, but by the public debate they are stimulating in Parliament and in the press. Only from the end of the century, when the suffrage is extended, the organization of the parties wilt (...) get more articulated and their functions more complicated. Secondly the literature pays great attention to the legitimation of the political parties, which are still controversial particularly because they should threaten the national union. The authors exert oneselves to prove that parliamentary government is by definition a party government. They distinguish parties from factions in order to make the first acceptable. Thirdly the literature deals with the party system.The Belgian authors take the two party system which exists in Great Britain as example and try to prove that the alternation of two parties, the party of conservation and the party of progress, is necessary for the good working of the institutions. Fourthly, the literature, particularly the historica!, is rather descriptive and is characterized by a lack of comparisons, generalizations and hypothesis.Two periods can be distinguished in the literature. In the first period, 1830-1894, the suffrage is limited and the political scene is dominated by two parties.This period is marked by the publications of Emile de Laveleye, one of the most prolific writers of the second half of the nineteenth century. In the second period, 1894-1914, the advent of the socialist party disturbs the working of the classical party government. Maurice Vauthier is the main author of this period. He tries to establish the characteristics of the party government and its chances in the future. (shrink)

“This book will certainly prove to be a useful resource and reference point … a good addition to anyone’s bookshelf.” Network "This is a superb collection, expertly presented. The overall conception seems splendid, giving an excellent sense of the issues... The selection and length of the readings is admirably judged, with both the classic texts and the few unpublished pieces making just the right points." William Outhwaite, Professor of Sociology, University of Sussex "... an indispensable book for all of us (...) in philosophy and the social sciences who teach and care about the shape of social knowledge in the future." Steven Seidman, Professor of Sociology, State University of New York Albany "For a comprehensive account of the ways in which world transformations affect claims to social scientific knowledge, one need look no further than Gerard Delanty and Piet Strydom's Philosophies of Social Science . ...this collection captures nicely the increasingly engaged political nature of the philosophy of social science. Debates about pragmatism, feminism and postmodernism are particularly well represented" The Australian What is social science? How does it differ from the other sciences? What is the meaning of method in social science? What is the nature and limits of scientific knowledge? This collection of over sixty extracts from classic works on the philosophy of social science provides an essential textbook and a landmark reference in the field. It highlights the work of some of the most influential authors who have shaped social science. The texts explore the question of truth, the meaning of scientific knowledge, the nature of methodology and the relation of science to society, including edited extracts from both classic and contemporary works by authors such as Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Max Horkheimer, Jurgen Habermas, Alvin Gouldner, Karl-Otto Apel, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Dorothy Smith, Donna Haraway, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida and Claude Levi-Strauss. The readings are representative of the major schools of thought, including European and American trends in particular as well as approaches that are often excluded from mainstream traditions. From a teaching and learning perspective the volume is strengthened by extensive introductions to each of the six sections, as well as a general introduction to the reader as a whole. These introductions contextualise the readings and offer succinct summaries of them. This volume is the definitive companion to the study of the philosophy of social science, taught within undergraduate or postgraduate courses in sociology and the social sciences. (shrink)

La pensée de Jean-Jacques Rousseau est essentiellement une pensée politique, qui oscille entre un pôle transpolitique, que le citoyen de Genève incarne, par exemple, dans les personnages du législateur, du pédagogue et du sage, et un pôle prépolitique, où figurent l'homme naturel, le marginal et l'homme sensible. C'est en examinant quelques pages de trois grandes oeuvres de Rousseau: l'« Emile », « Du contrat social » et « Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse », que je tenterai d'éclaircir brièvement ces (...) points. Ainsi sera manifestée l'actualité des paradoxes rousseauistes.Rousseau's thought is essentially a political thought that swings from a transpolitical pole, presented through the figures of the legislator, the pedagogue and the wise man, and a prepolitical pole, where we meet natural man, the outsider and the man of exquisite sensibility. This theme is brought to light through a partial analysis of three of Rousseau's major works : " Emile ", " Du contrat social " and the "Nouvelle Héloïse". In this way, it is hoped that Rousseau's paradoxes will be shown to have meaning for our contemporaries. (shrink)

This paper examines the madness of Gerard de Nerval, the nineteenth-century French writer. It looks at his account of mental disturbance, how he responded to the psychiatric profession and how he reacted to being diagnosed as insane. It considers his autobiographical novella of madness, Aurelia, which he began at the suggestion of his alienist, Dr Emile Blanche, and while he was still an asylum inmate. Nerval's story raises important questions about the nature of madness. Is it, as he contended, (...) a mystical experience revealing truths about spiritual worlds inaccessible to the ‘sane’? Does psychiatry fail to understand it and inappropriately reduce it to the categories of scientific reason? Or are such notions of the spiritual value of madness guilty of the charge that they romanticise insanity? Do they make extravagant claims for an experience that is often disturbing and debilitating? What is the relationship between madness and recovery? Should an individual try to forget their experience of mental disturbance once they recover, or should they examine what the event reveals about themselves? Can the language of madness be decoded to unveil profound truths as Carl Jung and R.D. Laing have suggested, or is it, as the psychiatrist German Berrios maintains, merely a series of ‘empty speech acts’, signifying nothing? And finally, how does one avoid writing about madness, and instead write madness? (shrink)

D’une double formation de naturaliste et de philosophe, Émile Callot a consacré une partie de ses travaux à étudier les relations entre ces deux disciplines : à les définir d’abord, à les légitimer ensuite et, enfin, à les constater dans diverses œuvres de savants et de philosophes. Dans cet esprit, il commença par dresser un tableau de la Renaissance des sciences de la vie au XVIe siècle, où il fit apparaître le caractère novateur des premiers Naturalistes européens. Il s’attacha ensuite (...) à déterminer cet esprit et cet objet d’une façon théorique dans sa "Philosophie biologique", et d’une façon historique dans son "Histoire de la philosophie biologique par les textes". C’est également dans le contexte historique, qu’il décrivit la Philosophie de la vie au XVIIIe siècle, visant à dégager les idées biologiques chez des auteurs aussi différents que d’Holbach, Montesquieu et Linné. Dans cette voie, il mit en valeur Maupertuis, le savant et le philosophe, en donnant de cet auteur une étude où l’œuvre est analysée et illustrée par les extraits les plus significatifs. Enfin, il consacra à la Philosophie biologique de Cournot une monographie, où il souligna la part déterminante du vitalisme dans la pensée de cet auteur. C’est de la même façon que, dans sa Philosophie biologique de Gœthe, Émile Callot cherche, à partir des travaux scientifiques de Gœthe, à dégager les grandes lignes de sa méthode et les principes directeurs de sa conception du monde vivant. Mais ce monde prend place dans la Nature, dont le philosophe et l’artiste se sont fait également les interprètes. Il convenait donc, après l’analyse de ce domaine restreint, de montrer comment celui-ci se situe dans la vision globale et unificatrice de la pensée et de la sensibilité gœthéennes. Aussi, cet ouvrage apporte-t-il une contribution importante, non seulement à l’étude des idées biologiques qui eurent cours à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, mais encore à une compréhension mieux informée de cet esprit génial. (shrink)

Insurance coverage of abortion varies widely across the United States and is an extensively debated issue. Medicaid coverage of abortion is particularly relevant because the majority of abortion patients are poor or low‐income and are thus often covered by Medicaid. Since the Hyde Amendment was first passed in 1976, federal Medicaid funds have been banned from covering the costs of elective abortion. Although states are allowed to use their own funds to cover abortions for their Medicaid recipients, only 17 states (...) currently do so. Of these 17 states, only five cover abortion costs voluntarily; the others do so pursuant to court order. The medical literature includes few ethical analyses of the Hyde Amendment’s ban on Medicaid funding of elective abortions. To fill this gap, we perform an ethical analysis of federal policy to fund elective abortions using a consequentialist approach focused on consequences for pregnant women and their children. (shrink)

Pour cet article de réflexion critique, il s’agit de montrer en quoi les sites de rencontre, en proposant un dispositif spécifique de mise en relation de possibles partenaires, contribuent à modifier à différents niveaux la façon de concevoir le couple et de réfléchir à ce qu’il représente. L’intellectualisation que représente la nécessité de présentation de soi avant même l’éventuelle rencontre, tout autant que la définition des attentes envers le possible partenaire, positionnent différemment l’individu par rapport à une rencontre « classique (...) ». Les dimensions plus concrètes, physiques, et aussi inconscientes en jeu dans une rencontre « spontanée » semblent passer au second plan, au moins dans un premier temps. Mais ce processus de rationalisation porte en lui un certain nombre de contradictions, qui peuvent entrer en phase avec les paradoxes de l’hypermodernité : réalisation de soi dans l’autre et exacerbation des attentes envers autrui en parallèle avec l’affirmation individualiste de soi…. (shrink)

Si les expositions de peinture font l'objet d'une large fréquentation, Hegel est bien souvent décrié, surtout dans les milieux artistiques. Cette présentation de son Esthétique voudrait montrer, en privilégiant les analyses concrètes comme celle de la peinture hollandaise du XVIIe, toute la fécondité de cette approche philosophique. Loin du dogmatisme, Hegel conçoit l'art historiquement, jugeant les œuvres, mais récusant par avance toute norme académique. L'historicité de l'art est-elle solidaire de sa fin, de son dépassement? Dans quelle mesure art et religion (...) sont-ils dissociables? Questions auxquelles nous confronte cette lecture de Hegel. (shrink)

Utopia repeatedly sets forth the rhetorical strategy of using pleasant and healing words to “enter” or “flow” or “steal into” fortresses of hardened opinion and custom without arousing warlike passions to keep them out. An important part of this strategy is the creation of a character who denounces major instances and causes of injustice but who nonetheless supports war and other means of force at the expense of law in rectifying that injustice; another part of the strategy is the creation (...) of a character and a plot that embody the “indirect” rhetorical approach aimed primarily at long-term persuasion needed to improve laws and institutions. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

t. 1. Les notions au programme : séries ABCDEFG et CI, la dissertation : méthodologie et exemple, l'exercice sur texte : définition et exemple, l'histoire des philosophes au programme.