Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue, the first study in any language to provide a complete overview of Buber's thought, remains the definitive guide to the full range of his work and the starting point for all modern Buber scholarship. Maurice S. Friedman reveals the implications of Buber's thought for theory of knowledge, education, philosophy, myth, history and Judaic and Christian belief. This fully revised and expanded fourth edition includes a new preface by the author, an expanded bibliography incorporating (...) new Buber scholarship, and two new appendices in the form of essays on Buber's influence on Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin. (shrink)

How does literature illuminate the way we live? Maurice Natanson, a prominent champion of phenomenology, draws upon this method's unique power to show how fiction can highlight aspects of experience that are normally left unexamined. By exploring the structure of the everyday world, Natanson reveals the "uncanny" that lies at the core of the ordinary. Phenomenology--which involves the questioning of that which we usually take for granted--is for Natanson the essence of philosophy. Drawing upon his philosophical predecessors Edmund Husserl, (...) Alfred Schutz, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Natanson paves his own way with stories and examples that themselves bear witness to how phenomenology occurs in literature. In considering such works as Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Natanson shows how literature opens us to the domain of possibility and how metaphor offers philosophical power when we think about freedom and change. This book, written by one of the twentieth century's leading phenomenologists, will interest students in philosophy and in literature. They will value the work particularly for its clarification of concepts and terms that frequently emerge in the contemporary intellectual climate. (shrink)

Economical questions indisputably occupy a central place in everyday life. In order to clarify these questions, people generally turn to those who are familiar with economics. In answering such legitimate questions, economists propose explanations which rest on a few principles among which the rationality principle is by far the most fundamental. This principle assumes that people are rational, but what is meant by this has to be specified. Rationality and Explanation in Economicsclaims that only a minimal kind of rationality is (...) required to ‘animate’ economic explanations. However, such a conception of rationality faces serious objections: it is closely associated with harshly criticised methodological individualism and it is not easily disentangled from sheer irrationality. The book answers these objections and shows that the economists’ way of mobilising the concepts of maximization or of consistency for defining rationality raises more serious problems. Since the latter have encouraged various attempts to downgrade or even to dispense with the very notion of rationality, the book is largely devoted to countering arguments associated with these attempts and to show why postulating that agents are rational is still the only efficient way to explain economic phenomena as such. The author also proposes original views about the role of rationality, the meaning of methodological individualism, the relevance of the selection argument and the relation between ‘rational’ explanations of economics and explanations in natural sciences. (shrink)

Popper's short essay about the rationality principle has been the target of many criticisms which have raised serious doubts about its consistency. How could the well-known promoter of falsificationism suggest that we not reject a principle that he himself describes as false? Nonetheless, the essay can be read in a way that makes it appear much more consistent. Better sense can be made of Popper's own examples (the flustered driver, the pedestrian, etc.), by taking seriously his view that the rationality (...) principle might be "approximately true" and falsified only in very rare cases, while also giving proper attention to his four rather elliptical arguments. (shrink)

He focuses on Hegel and Nietzche, perhaps to give Mallarme and Kafka a breathing spell. Paper edition (unseen), $10.95. No index or bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

La linguistique saussurienne paraît avoir exercé, spécialement au cours des années 1951 à 1954, une influence assez considérable sur la pensée de Merleau-Ponty. Un travail de portée plus générale nous ayant amené à mesurer l'importance de la chose pour Pensemble de l'œuvre de ce philosophe, nous allons seulement essayer ici de prećiser un peu le rôle d'une telle influence en nous appuyant sur une analyse de l'interprétation de Saussure par Merleau-Ponty.Dans la Phénoménologie de la Perception, celui-ci avait déjà consacré un (...) chapitre à l'étude de la parole conçue comme gesticulation ou expression corporelle. Quand, en 1953–54, il abordera le Problème de la Parole, dans un cours au Collège de France, c'est à Saussure lui-même qu'il attribuera des vues assez voisines: “Le cours cherchait à illustrer et é étendre cette notion saussurienne de la parole comme fonction positive et conquérante. (shrink)

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction. The Galileo Affair from Descartes to John Paul II: A Survey of Sources, Facts, and Issues 1. The Condemnation of Galileo 2. Promulgation and Diffusion of the News 3. Emblematic Reactions: Descartes, Peiresc, Galileo’s Daughter 4. Polarizations: Secularism, Liberalism, Fundamentalism 5. Compromises: Viviani, Auzout, Leibniz 6. Myth-making or Enlightenment? Pascal, Voltaire, the Encyclopedia 7. Incompetence or Enlightenment? Pope Benedict XIV 8. New Lies, Documents, Myths, Apologies 9. Napoleonic Wars and Trials 10. The Inquisition on Galileo’s Side? (...) The Settele Affair and Beyond 11. Varieties of Torture: Demythologizing Galileo’s Trial? 12. A Miscarriage of Justice? The Documentation of Impropriety 13. Galileo Right Again, Wrong Again: Hermeneutics, Epistemology, "Heresy" 14. A Catholic Hero: Tricentennial Rehabilitation 15. Secular Indictments: Brecht’s Atomic Bomb and Koestler’s Two Cultures 16. History on Trial: The Paschini Affair 17. More "Rehabilitation": Pope John Paul II Epilogue: Unfinished Business. (shrink)

The paper proposes a distinction between ethical problems internal to the practice of a discipline and ethical problems external to it. It argues that ethical problems encountered in architecture are typically of the former kind, in contrast, for example, to bioethical problems. From this point of view, it discusses the state of other arts and surveys various 19th and 20th century positions concerning ethics in architecture. It illustrates that, where architecture is concerned, ethics is closely related to aesthetics and frequently (...) tied to a philosophy of history, a point which is explained with the help of the above-mentioned distinction. (shrink)

A critical examination of the dialectical approach, focusing on a comparison ofthe illative and the dialectical definitions of argument. I distinguish a moderate, a strong and a hyper dialectical conception of argument. I critique Goldman's argument for the moderate conception and Johnson's argument for the strong conception, and argue that the moderate conception is correct.

Featuring essays originally published in La Nouvelle Revue Française, this collection clearly demonstrates why Maurice Blanchot was a key figure in exploring the relation between literature and philosophy.

High blood pressure is an important component of pre-eclampsia. The underlying mechanism of development of hypertension in pre-eclampsia is complicated and still remains obscure. Several theories have been advanced including endothelial dysfunction, uteroplacental insufficiency leading to generalized vasoconstriction, increased cardiac output, and sympathetic hyperactivity. Increased blood flow and pressure are thought to lead to capillary dilatation, which damages end-organ sites, leading to hypertension, proteinuria and edema. Additional theories have been put forward based on epidemiological research, implicating immunological and genetic factors. (...) None of these theories have been substantiated. Based on a review of literature this paper postulates that the initiating event for the development of preeclampsia is intermittent hypoxia associated with irregular breathing during sleep, hypoapnea, apnea,inadequate respiratory excursions during the waking hours and inadequate cardiopulmonary synchronization (abnormal sympatho-vagal balance). (shrink)

The advent of the post-Stalin "thaw," particularly the period after 1956, was marked by a spectacular expansion in the publishing of translated Western writing and also, on occasion, of editions in the original languages: the virtual ban on import of Western books was, as of 1975, never relaxed. The more permissive political atmosphere favored the publication of a vastly larger variety of Western authors and titles and provision for the Soviet public of much larger quantities of such books in the (...) country's bookstores and libraries. While the improvement was very impressive in itself, abundant data attest that it was far from adequate to satisfy reader demand.1 Among the beneficiaries, books by American authors stood out the more prominently since it was these that were most discriminated against during the years immediately preceding.2 Decades of neglect, to say nothing of politically inspired selectivity, resulted in such incongruities as the first Russian translation of Melville's Moby Dick in 1961—more than a century after the novel's appearance—and the first Soviet publication of any work by Henry James in 1973. It was not until the 1960's that Russians had an opportunity to read Faulkner—but then, the same was true of Kafka. However unevenly, the range of American literature, both old and new, now made available to Soviet readers is gradually expanding. · 1. The overall problem is discussed in detail in this writer's forthcoming book, A Decade of Euphoria: Western Literature in Post-Stalin Russia, 1954-64 . · 2. For a thorough and illuminating discussion of the fate of American literature in the U.S.S.R. from the Revolution until the early post-Stalin years, see Deming Brown, Soviet Attitudes toward American Writing . Interesting statistical data on the first post-Stalin years may also be found in Melville J. Ruggles, "American Books in Soviet Publishing," Slavic Review 20, n.3 : 419-35. A useful, very brief list of selected works of American writing published by 1968, though not entirely as complete as it purports to be, may be found in M.O. Mendel'son, A.N. Nikolyukin, R.M. Samarin, eds., Problemy literature S. Sh. A. XX. veka , pp. 391-517. Unfortunately, the Soviet bibliography contains no information on press runs of the books listed. Maurice Friedberg, head of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois, is the author of numerous essays and articles on Soviet literature. Professor Friedberg's most recent book, A Decade of Euphoria: Western Literature in Post-Stalin Russia, 1954-1964, will be published this year. (shrink)

Vu l’intérêt croissant que l’on porte aux questions éthiques dans le monde contemporain, on ne s’étonne plus de voir se multiplier les travaux qui discutent la façon dont ces questions se posent dans telle ou telle discipline. Or parmi celles-ci, l’architecture occupe une place assez particulière. Dans la mesure où l’on a affaire à l’un des beaux-arts, il ne va pas de soi que l’on puisse attribuer à l’architecture une fonction éthique, tant il est vrai que l’artiste authentique est en (...) droit de revendiquer une sorte de liberté qui se prête mal au respect inconditionnel d’impératifs d’origine morale. Toutefois, comme l’architecture est un art dont le propre est de répondre à un besoin fondamental de l’être humain, soit celui de trouver un abri et un lieu propice à l’habitation, au travail, à l’étude, au recueillement, à la détente ou à quelque autre activité jugée importante, les architectes ont rarement eu beaucoup de. (shrink)

Une réflexion intéressante, quoique manquant parfois de rigueur, sur l'évolution des idées de gauche (ce que l'auteur appelle la pensée critique). Le sujet, malgré quelques considérations sociologiques, est abordé essentiellement sous un angle théorique: examen du sort fait à la pensée marxiste dans les domaines de l'épistémologie, de l'économie et de l'histoire avec Althusser, Balibar, Dobb, Poulantzas, etc. Involontairement sans doute, le livre finit par mettre en question le sérieux de la théorie marxiste: au cours des années 1960, elle semble (...) surtout avoir servi de paravent, de "caution scientifique" à des idéaux généreux qui ont su finalement garder leurs distances: écologie, contestation, défense des minorités. [SDM]. (shrink)

Le dernier livre de Fernand Dumont — si l'on excepte son récent recueil de poèmes — se présente à première vue comme un ouvrage à deux versants: un versant épistémologique constitue la première partie consacrée à « la crise et la reconstruction de l'objet » en sciences économiques, un versant dit « phénoménologique » porte non plus sur la science mais sur « le monde économique ».Il convient donc ici de mettre en lumière la façon dont s'articulent ces deux parties (...) et pour ce faire, il peut être intéressant de s'arrêter d'abord a la seconde où ceux qui se sont intéressés au développement de la pensée de Fernand Dumont n'auront pas de mal à retrouver les grandes lignes de celle-ci. (shrink)

Le concept de plan utilisé en planification socialiste est rapproché du concept de plan invoqué par diverses philosophies de l'histoire. Pour ce faire, la notion de « plan divin » est analysée à l'aide d'une structure à sept termes qui, s'appliquant également au concept socialiste de plan, permet de fonder ce rapprochement. Les avatars du concept de plan en philosophie de l'histoire sont ensuite examinés de manière à faire ressortir un parallèle entre les dilemmes de cette philosophie et ceux de (...) la planification soviétique, yougoslave ou chinoise.The concept of planning used in socialist experiences is approached by the "plan" concept put forward by diverse philosophies of history. In order to do this, the notion of "divine plan" is analysed with the help of a structure of seven terms which, being equally applied to the socialist concept of planning, allows the foundation of this "rapprochement" . The transformations of the concept of plan in the philosophy of history are next examined in such a manner to manifest a parallel between the dilemmas of this philosophy and those of Soviet, Yugoslav or Chinese planning. (shrink)

Au cours des dernières décennies, d'importants philosophes tels Walter B. Gallie, Arthur Danto, Louis Mink, Hayden White et Paul Ricoeur ont mis l'accent sur le rôle de la narration en histoire. Le présent texte rappelle les thèses de ces auteurs et porte ensuite une attention particulière aux travaux de David Carr voulant que l'action historique elle-même ait une structure narrative. L'article discute des conséquences de ce « narrativisme » en prenant parti dans un débat alimenté par des interventions comme celles (...) de William Dray et de Noël Carroll. Il soutient qu'une thèse «réaliste» en la matière risque de déboucher sur la réactualisation d'une forme de philosophie spéculative de l'histoire, ce qui ne va pas sans soulever quelques questions à propos de l'analyse politique et de la pratique de l'histoire. (shrink)

C'est bien à la question de savoir s'il est légitime de parler d'une connaissance philosophique, que Gilles-Gaston Granger a voulu répondre, et répondre par l'affirmative, en publiant son dernier livre intitulé Pour la connaissance philosophique. À en juger pourtant par les réactions agaçées que provoque souvent cette enquête constamment réouverte sur la nature de la philosophie, il se pourrait bien que nombre de philosophes trouvent un peu excessif de consacrer encore un ouvrage de près de trois cents pages à justifier (...) la portée cognitive d'une discipline qui, au cours de sa longue histoire, a produit autant d'œuvres dont le moins qu'on puisse dire est qu'elles ont hautement contribué à enrichir le bagage culturel de l'humanité. Qui, parmi ceux qui vouent l'essentiel de leur vie à l'enseignement de la philosophie, accepterait de se voir refuser le droit de prétendre transmettre une connaissance authentique? Pourtant, je voudrais soutenir ici que, compte tenu de son contexte, non seulement l'intervention de Granger n'était pas superflue mais qu'elle n'aura pas été suffisante pour établir de façon convaincante qu'il existe telle chose qu'une connaissance proprement philosophique. (shrink)

Ronald Coase is usually considered anything but a methodologist. Thus, it is not surprising that, in the introduction to "How Should Economists Choose?", which is the only paper Coase wrote on a methodological topic, he readily confessed his relative ignorance of philosophy of science, candidly observing that "Words like epistemology do not come tripping from my tongue" (HSEC, 6). However, given the importance of this Nobel Prize winner's contribution to the renewal of theoretical thinking in economics, everyone should admit that (...) his infrequent reflections on methodology, however crude they might look to methodologists, undoubtedly merit close consideration. Whatever methodological clarification these reflections might procure, it is surely worthwhile briefly to analyze them, with the hope of understanding a little better some dimensions of Ronald Coase's way of thinking and, more specifically, of emphasizing some implications of the close relationship between his methodological views and his radical conception of the market. With this in mind, I will first illustrate how far these methodological views seem, at first glance, to be dominated by a fundamental commitment to a straightforward realism; I will then show that they are instead subordinated, in a more complex way, to what I have just called Coase's radical conception of the market and, in conclusion, I will point out some questions raised by this situation. (shrink)

There is a general consensus among economists that the notion of rationality plays a central role in microeconomics. It is important to note, however, that they are far from agreement on the meaning of this notion. It would be difficult to lay out a set of welldefined concepts of rationality, but it might be useful to distinguish three quite different approaches around which economists tend to situate themselves when characterising this notion. I prefer to refer to three "approaches" rather than (...) to three concepts, as I did in the title of the paper, because the concepts of rationality which correspond to these approaches cannot be isolated easily. Indeed, their unsettled definitions often overlap, and even when they purport to be related to opposing approaches, they are more or less interrelated. In any case, I propose to refer to these three approaches as "rationality-purposefulness", "rationality-efficiency", and "rationality-consistency". According to rationalitypurposefulness, an action is rational if and only if it is oriented towards the satisfaction of the agent's purpose, as most Austrian economists would tend to say. According to rationality-efficiency, an action is rational if and only if it actually maximises a positively valued magnitude such as utility or profit, as many neoclassical economists would say, especially when adopting a traditional approach. By contrast, rationality-consistency states that choices are rational if and only if it they are consistent as a set, which implies in particular that they are transitive. (shrink)

It is frequently repeated that the rationality principle is the fundamental principle of economics and it is so much so that the same principle is equivalently designated as the «economic principle»1. However, it is often the doom of fundamental principles that they are so intimately associated with the science itself that those who practice this science rarely take notice of their presence and of their role. Consequently, it is not surprising not to find any entry for "rationality" or for "rationality (...) principle" in virtually any treaties on economy. If rational behaviour is the object of economics like living organism is the object of biology, specific references could hardly be expected in either of these sciences to what is nothing but the affirmation of the very existence of their subject matter. (shrink)

There is no doubt that Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises can be considered as two of the most representative and influential members of the Austrian school of economics. However, given the fact that this school is well known for being a methodological school, it might be surprizing to note how far these two prominent economists apparently stand on methodological questions. While Menger frequently insisted that "no essential differences between the ethical and the natural sciences exists, but at most only (...) one of degree"1, Mises emphasizes the alleged gulf between social and natural sciences to the point of adopting what he called a "methodological dualism". As a consequence of this dualism, Mises did not hesitate when it comes to the analysis of human action to refer to laws "derived a priori" that "permit of no exception" because they belong to "an aprioristic and universally valid theory" 2. Such an uncompromising apriorism was so contrary to the empiricist mood of.. (shrink)

Nul penseur, fût-il le plus étranger à la problématique propre de l'histoire, ne peut, bien entendu, s'empêcher de laisser entrevoir, çà et là au long de son œuvre, sa façon de comprendre celle-ci. Aussi est-ce avec beaucoup de prudence qu'il faut parler de «la philosophie de l'histoire» d'un auteur. Réservons pour la fin de cet article la question de savoir si la philosophie de Merleau-Ponty mérite ce titre et contentons-nous pour l'instant de dégager l'ensemble de réflexions que notre auteur présente (...) comme une philosophie de l'histoire. Puisque Merleau-Ponty n'a jamais consacré une œuvre aux problémes de l'Histoire, on pourrait d'ailleurs être tenté de considérer ses réflexions sur la question comme des passages épisodiques qui trahissent seulement son profond intérét pour la situation politique où il s'est trouvé engagé. Il nous faudra donc montrer qu'on peut effectivement parler d'un «ensemble de réflexions» qui, pour ne pas avoir été jeté dans une œuvre particulière, doit se lire en filigrane tout au long des travaux du philosophe. C'est cette lecture en somme que le présent article veut suggérer. (shrink)

Beginning with the similarities between Buber and Levinas-both twentieth-century Jewish philosophers, each in his own way dialogica-this essay proceeds to their differences. From there the essay discusses Levinas's critiques of Buber's philosophy, the extent to which they were based on misunderstanding, and Buber's own replies to Levinas. This foundation provides a springboard for discussion of the source of the moral ought in both Buber and Levinas-Buber's emphasis on the "between" and Levinas's emphasis on the "face"-and raises a serious ethical question (...) concerning Levinas's argument against Buber's discussion of "Samuel and Aging" from the Hebrew Bible. (shrink)

In the context of a study of meta-arguments in general, and famous meta-arguments in particular, I reconstruct chapter 1 of Mill’s Subjection of Women as the meta-argument: women’s liberation should be argued on its merits because the universality of subjection derives from the law of force and hence provides no presumption favoring its correctness. The raises the problem of the relationship among illative, dialectical, and meta-argumentative tiers.