Henri Bergson (1859-1941) is one of the truly great philosophers of the modernist period, and there is currently a major renaissance of interest in his unduly neglected texts and ideas amongst philosophers, literary theorists, and social theorists. Creative Evolution (1907) is the text that made Bergson world-famous in his own lifetime; in it Bergson responds to the challenge presented to our habits of thought by modern evolutionary theory, and attempts to show that the theory of knowledge must have its (...) basis in a theory of life. (shrink)

Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space and real space. In the course of his (...) exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures. (shrink)

" Vivid . . . immense clarity . . . the product of a brilliant and extremely forceful intellect." — Journal of the Royal Naval Scientific Service "Still a sheer joy to read." — Mathematical Gazette "Should be read by any student, teacher or researcher in mathematics." — Mathematics Teacher The originator of algebraic topology and of the theory of analytic functions of several complex variables, Henri Poincare (1854–1912) excelled at explaining the complexities of scientific and mathematical ideas to (...) lay readers. Science and Method, written in 1908, has been appreciated by a wide audience of nonprofessionals and translated into many languages. It defines the basic methodology and psychology of scientific discovery, particularly in regard to mathematics and mathematical physics. Drawing on examples from many fields, it explains how scientists analyze and choose their working facts, and it explores the nature of experimentation, theory, and the mind. 1914 edition. Translated by Francis Maitland. (shrink)

The final published book by Nobel Prize-winning author and philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), La pensée et le mouvant (translated here as The Creative Mind), is a masterly autobiography of his philosophical method. Through essays and lectures written between 1903 and 1923, Bergson retraces how and why he became a philosopher, and crafts a fascinating critique of philosophy itself. Until it leaves its false paths, he demonstrates, philosophy will remain only a wordy dialectic that surmounts false problems. With masterful skill (...) and intensity, Bergson shows that metaphysics and science must be rooted in experience for philosophy to become a genuine search for truth. And in the quest for unanswered questions, the spiritual dimension of human life and the importance of intuition must be emphasized. A source of inspiration for physicists as well as philosophers, Bergson's introduction to metaphysics reveals a philosophy that is always on the move, blending man's spiritual drive with his mastery of the material world. (shrink)

Parallel to the New Left, whose influence on French public opinion is so pronounced today, a new academic movement has grown up in the United States in the last fifteen years. Its ideas are the portents of an intellectual and scientific revolution whose importance for the economic and political future of western society should be almost as great as the Keynesian revolution of the ‘30s.

Paris. The Place de Grève is teeming with the city's idle seeking relief from their boredom. Street-singers, story-tellers and showmen are encircled by groups of people in varying moods—some sullen, others eager, some distracted, others attentive. Sweets vendors, mercers and lampoonists attract customers by their words and gestures. A little apart from the crowd, men with grave faces seem to be waiting for something: they are the unemployed, keeping an eye out for a possible hirer. On some days a drumroll (...) precedes several men-at-arms escorting a condemned man and his executioner to the place of execution; the festive atmosphere turns suddenly somber, the crowd becomes silent. If scattered jeers and taunts are heard, more often than not it is just to relieve the tension.The Place de Grève gave its name to the French word for strike, greve. And perhaps something still remains of the liveliness of that gathering-place in today's strikes. The Spanish word for strike, huelga, is near to juerga, Spanish for amusement or diversion. The English “strike,” the German streik, the Italian sciopero, all connote fighting, an exchange of blows. The words themselves thus suggest that a strike may be both militant and festive. (shrink)

HENRI BERGSON (1859-1941), philosophe français, professeur au Collège de France de 1900 jusqu´à 1921, récompensé avec le prix Nobel de littérature en 1928. Ses oeuvres majeures, écrites avec un style parfaitement accessible au lecteur non spécialisé, sont : « Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience » (1889), « Matière et mémoire » (1896), « L´évolution créatrice » (1907) et « Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion » (1932). Dans ces études, Bergson élabore une (...) vision philosophique en opposition au matérialisme et positivisme scientifique. Concentrant sa recherche sur les intuitions individuelles, il prône la notion d´élan vital, lequel dirige le procès évolutif vers des états d´organisation de plus en plus complexes, et de là vient l´intérêt de donner prééminence à tout ce qui est spirituel et ouvertement créatif, sur tout ce qui est formel, fixé, fermé. Dans « Le rire : essai sur la signification du comique » (1900), il trouve que le comique est soulevé des que nous percevons dans les actions humaines les automatismes, répétitions ou dysfonctionnements qui contrastent avec l´essentielle spontanéité de la vie réelle. (shrink)

HENRI BERGSON (1859-1941), philosophe français, professeur au Collège de France de 1900 jusqu´à 1921, récompensé avec le prix Nobel de littérature en 1928. Ses oeuvres majeures, écrites avec un style parfaitement accessible au lecteur non spécialisé, sont : « Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience » (1889), « Matière et mémoire » (1896), « L´évolution créatrice » (1907) et « Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion » (1932). Dans ces études, Bergson élabore une (...) vision philosophique en opposition au matérialisme et positivisme scientifique. Concentrant sa recherche sur les intuitions individuelles, il prône la notion d´élan vital, lequel dirige le procès évolutif vers des états d´organisation de plus en plus complexes, et de là vient l´intérêt de donner prééminence à tout ce qui est spirituel et ouvertement créatif, sur tout ce qui est formel, fixé, fermé. Dans « Le rire : essai sur la signification du comique » (1900), il trouve que le comique est soulevé des que nous percevons dans les actions humaines les automatismes, répétitions ou dysfonctionnements qui contrastent avec l´essentielle spontanéité de la vie réelle. (shrink)

La publication de ce cours inédit de Bergson est un événement. Donné au Collège de France en 1902-1903"--Back cover.

Belgian electoral law clearly and explicitly describes a procedure by which proportional representation is refined through grouping of lists from different districts of the same province. However, the actual practice of provincial electoral boards diverges from legal prescriptions to the extent that about 10 % of the seats at the House of Representatives are mis-occupied, though there is absolutely nothing that could impede a strict application of the law.

Avant Newman: Le christianisme bourgeois.--Sydney Smith.--Aubes conversion: I. L'inquiétude de Newman et la sérénité de Pusey. II. La logique du coeur.--M. Brunetière et "l'irrationnel" de la foi. III. Wiseman et les catholiques anglais pendant la crise d'Oxford.--Lendemains de conversion: I. La logique de l'esprit. W. G. Ward. II. Manning et Newman. III. L'ideal et la réalité dans la vie catholique.--Épilogue:Christus vivit.

Cette édition numérique a été réalisée à partir d'un support physique, parfois ancien, conservé au sein du dépôt légal de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, conformément à la loi n° 2012-287 du 1er mars 2012 relative à l'exploitation des Livres indisponibles du XXe siècle. Pages de début Préface Introduction 1 - Le jeu avec les normes 2 - La production des contraires dans la vie quotidienne 3 - Les masques de la valeur4 - La négation critique Conclusion Pages de fin.

The distinction has occasioned a long controversy between Carnap and W.V. Quine. The latter distinguishes two sorts of analytic statements: the logical truths, characterized by their remaining true under all reinterpretations of the descriptive terms; and the statements, which reduce to logical truths with the help of definitions or by substitution of synonyms for synonyms. In “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, he directs his criticism mainly against the latter arguing that the explications so far provided move in a circle, since, in (...) the end, the concept of synonymy is explained in terms of analyticity. He reaches the conclusion that the only form of synonymy not exhibiting this deficiency is that introduced by explicit conventions. But according to him, this procedure is of no avail, because the philosophically interesting content of the general term “analytic in L” cannot be grasped with its help. Carnap’s suggestion of defining a new basic concept “analytic in L0” does not solve the problem since we could just as well designate this with a neutral word, say “K”, thus avoiding the illusion of an explanation. The attempt to define synonymy with the help of semantic rules fails in a similar way: it accomplishes nothing more than to place certain statements under the rubric “Semantic rules” — a notion which is no clearer than the explicandum. Carnap replies that his definition of “analytically true” is given with regard to artificial or formalized languages for which we can determine syntactic and semantic rules in such a way that the concept of truth, in Tarski’s sense, can be applied to them. Analytic statements other than logical truths will thus be distinguished by means of so-called meaning postulates which serve to make the truth-value of such statements independent of empirical matters. I share Carnap’s astonishment that Quine finds the term “semantic rule” unintelligible while formulating no complaint against similar notions such as that of a syntactically well-formed formula, or that of an axiom etc. It appears that he cannot be satisfied with rules, because he expects a theory which would give us an empirical, i.e., a behavioristic, criterion of analyticity for natural languages. His chief dissatisfaction seems to come from the fact that no clear explicandum has been put forward — in contrast, e.g., with the notion of truth, where we have a sufficiently clear pre-theoretical concept. Thus, according to him, there is nothing that could be clarified by an explication. (shrink)

v. 1. Connaissance spermatique -- t. 2. Athéisme de l'écriture.

1. Logique. Métaphysique.--2. Physique, mathématiques.

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