Il n’est question ici d’étudier ni les origines ni l’histoire de la formation des empires coloniaux. On voudrait seulement s’interroger sur leur manière de se constituer en discontinuité avec l’espace physique et l’héritage culturel de l’Europe. Cette présentation doit aider avant tout à comprendre la conception « impériale » de la colonisation..

The subjective Bayesian interpretation of quantum mechanics and Rovelli’s relational interpretation of quantum mechanics are both notable for embracing the radical idea that measurement outcomes correspond to events whose occurrence is relative to an observer. Here we provide a detailed study of their similarities and especially their differences.

Traite des rapports entre force et raison au sein des démocraties. Deux conférences de J. Derrida se font écho pour interroger le concept de souveraineté de l'Etat.

Professor Dreze is a highly respected mathematical economist and econometrician. This book brings together some of his major contributions to the economic theory of decision making under uncertainty, and also several essays. These include an important essay on 'Decision theory under moral hazard and state dependent preferences' that significantly extends modern theory, and which provides rigorous foundations for subsequent chapters. Topics covered within the theory include decision theory, market allocation and prices, consumer decisions, theory of the firm, labour contracts, and (...) public decisions. (shrink)

The Political Illusion, examines modern man's passion--political affairs--and the role he plays in them and in the modern state.

Twelve essays exploring aspects of literacy and art criticism, retrospective sociology and the effects of relativism on moral behavior.

Censures au XVIIIe siecle, les ecrivains-philosophes des Lumieres demeurent controverses ou singes de nos jours. Cette etude privilegie leurs idees-forces sans negliger les porte-parole. Celebres (Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Helvetius, d'Holbach...) ou reconnus (d'Argens, Mably, Mirabeau, d'Alembert, Volney, Mme de Stael...) ils n'enferment point leur oeuvre dans le moule d'une pensee unique. Ne parlant jamais d'une seule voix, tous associent l'invention de la liberte et l'idee neuve de bonheur. La Mettrie, materialiste medecin des ames, ecrit en precurseur de Freud. (...) Immoraliste visionnaire, Sade anticipe les derives d'une philosophie deshumanisee. Les debats seculaires avec les apologistes (Abbadie, Barruel, Bergier, Gerard, Holland, Vernes...) elaborent les fondements universels d'une morale non confessionnelle. Du refus des dogmes et de tout esprit de systeme nait une ethique transcendant les revelations. (shrink)

The discussion about the concept of enlightenment runs through the conception of Immanuel Kant, who thematized it as an exit from the individual from his condition of intellectual minority and guardianship of those who prevent the exercise of thinking for himself, impelling the achievement of autonomy that requires freedom and to make public use of reason. Such problematization about the difficulties interposed to the process of enlightenment can be related to the problem of estrangement in Marx, making the necessary considerations (...) in relation to the historical and social context of both philosophers. In this way, through philosophical investigation, it is possible to establish correlations of complementarities, differences and counterpoints between the different conceptions of Kant and Marx. Thus, we realize that the search for enlightenment depends on overcoming the material determinations of the set of alienations produced by the capitalist mode of production, aiming at the achievement of human emancipation understood as effective autonomous freedom. (shrink)

Pricing algorithms are computerized procedures a seller may use to adapt instantaneously its price to market conditions, including to prices quoted by its rivals. These algorithms are related to the extensive use of web-collectors which contribute in many industries to identifying the best price. In such settings, price competition operates between algorithms, no longer between executives of brick and mortar companies. In this context, the question is to know how implicit forms of collusion may arise between the sellers. This paper (...) is aimed at discussing this conceptual issue in a price-setting homogeneous product oligopoly with decreasing returns to scale where algorithms implement matching policies. Using fixed point argument, we find a family of equilibrium prices encompassing Cournot and Pareto efficient solutions, if matching is allowed upward and downward. Dynamical stability is studied in the linear demand constant return case. When matching operates only for price undercutting, this family is extended up to a bottom value of the market price, close to the Walrasian price. Pricing algorithms may solve the Bertrand–Edgeworth paradox. (shrink)

Femmes, quel titre eût été plus juste et plus résonnant? Prononcée en 1972, cette conférence fut en effet scandée ou jouée par telles propositions : "la femme sera mon sujet", "il n'y a pas d'être ou d'essence de la femme ou de la différence sexuelle", "la femme n'aura donc pas été mon sujet"... Pour "déchiffrer cette inscription de la femme" l'écriture ne doit plus recevoir ses ordres de la philosophie ou de la littérature.

The concept of nature is central in any reflection about the relationships between humans and their environment. It is frequently under attack, which created a divide in academia that might partly explain the science war of the 1990s and that is still latent. This article is an attempt to make a step ahead in this debate. It responds to the anti-essentialist critique of nature formulated by Bruno Latour in his influential book Politiques de la nature. It shows that nature as (...) an objective nonsocial reality must be conceptualised and studied if the relationships between humans and their environment are to be properly understood and managed. It proposes a definition of the word nature that is compatible with both an essentialist view of nature and the nonseparation of nature and culture. Eventually, it argues that such a return to an essentialist view of nature does not imply the use of nature as a benchmark to measure morality. (shrink)

At head of title: The Johns Hopkins University. Institute for the Study of Law.

The aim of this paper is to make a comparison between two philosophical theories on convention, totally independent from each other, and produced by two thinkers of this century yet totally unknown to each other, in order to assess to what extent both theories meet the same facts or are verified by the same features. The result of this inquiry is that each theory is autonomous, but that both theories are quite compatible with each other, that they even fairly coincide (...) with each other, and that there where they emphasize different aspects of a convention they are complementary to each other. In a general introductory paragraph we lay stress upon the distinction between something conventional and something arbitrary and assign a place to conventionalism between rationalism and relativism. In the second part of the paper we examine D. K. Lewis's conception and analysis of the notion of a convention, which he defines in terms of the theory of games of pure coordination, in terms of coordination equilibrium, of orders of mutual expectations, of preferences and of regularities. In the third part of the paper we show that Dupréel's sociological concept of 'being of one mind' is the analogue of Lewis's definition. We also compare Lewis's remarks on the phenomenon of the imitation with Dupréel's theory of the consolidation and endorse the latter's view that a convention has a creative function so that it cannot be reduced to being a pure sign of something else. In the fourth part of our paper we analyze the relation between value and convention and claim that in Dupréel's philosophy the main values may not be identified with conventions. Lastly we justify our conclusion as already stated at the beginning of this summary. (shrink)

The vision of la Storta, usually interpreted as a decisive confirmation of the apostolic charism of the Society of Jesus, poses a delicate historical-critical problem. The greater part of recent essays base themselves on the study by H. Rahner, written during the 1930's. Yet an attentive analysis of the primary source - Ignatius of Loyola's own declarations - demonstrates that, contrary to what is suggested by other sources, particularly the testimony of Laynez taken up in large part by Nadal, the (...) apparition of 1537 did not concern the future mission to be carried out as much as its interior Trinitarian form and the attitude of filial obedience it requires. (shrink)