The problem of the finite and the infinite.--Pragmatism and a theory of knowledge.

A notre époque, la qualité d'humaniste est constamment revendiquée en particulier par les hommes politiques. Nous sommes surpris lorsque nous découvrons que les prétendants à cette démarche développent des approches très différentes de l'être humain et de sa vie en société. Mais d'où viennent ces conflits entre «humanistes»? Tout simplement de l'objet de leur préoccupation : de l'homme lui-même. L'homme est au coeur de la cité, bien sûr, mais quel homme?

This skit of Bertrand Russell’s philosophy was originally published in 1918 by Russell’s correspondent friend Jourdain. The introduction explains that the contents purport to be lost papers written by Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll, a contemporary of Bertrand Russell. This politically humorous volume from the early 20 th Century parodies the writing style of Russell as well as his theories.

The Beti with whom this study is concerned belong to the “so-called Pahouin group,” which includes, besides the Beti, the Bulu and the Fang. This group occupies large parts of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and southern Cameroon. The region where the Beti live has a quite varied relief; the vegetation is extremely luxuriant, worthy of the great tropical forest, and there are many hills and streams. The Beti population, organized along what are known as “anarchic” lines, is made up essentially of (...) farmers and hunters, as are most of the forest populations. The flora and fauna are also quite varied; they are the same that appear in typical Beti tales and fables. (shrink)

What Proudhon’s work calls collective reason questions the notion of the general interest in order to distinguish itself from Rousseau’s terminology. The former allows the articulation between individuals and groups through both an anthropological and a deliberative procedure approaches. This conception of socialization will produce the unity that could result from the check and balance in normative terms. Thus, collective reason englobes the totality of social interactions. In the political sphere, the concept allows the understanding of general or collective interest (...) not as the monist unity embodied by the sovereignty of the state, but by a pluralistic unity marked by the autonomy of the collective beings subordinating the state to their service. (shrink)

Constructions marking information structure in French have been widely documented within the constructionist framework. C’est ‘it is’ clefts have been demonstrated to express the focus of the sentence. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how children are able to acquire clefts, and how they develop information structure categories. The aim of this study is to investigate the acquisition of clefts in French through the usage-based framework, to understand whether IS categories emerge gradually like other linguistic categories, and how children build IS categories. (...) For this, I analysed 256 c’est-clefts produced by three children between age 2 and 3. I show that most early clefts are produced by children with the chunk c’est moi associated with the concrete function of requesting to perform an action themselves. This chunk then becomes a frame with slot, extending the function to other human referents and discourse participants with the function of requesting adults to perform an action. Another large portion of early clefts seems to belong to a frame with slot c’est X whose function is to identify the agent who carried out an action. These findings suggest that the information structure category of focus emerges gradually. (shrink)