This volume is the first systematic presentation of the work of Albert Einstein, comprising fourteen essays by leading historians and philosophers of science that introduce readers to his work. Following an introduction that places Einstein's work in the context of his life and times, the book opens with essays on the papers of Einstein's 'miracle year', 1905, covering Brownian motion, light quanta, and special relativity, as well as his contributions to early quantum theory and the opposition to his light quantum (...) hypothesis. Further essays relate Einstein's path to the general theory of relativity and the beginnings of two fields it spawned, relativistic cosmology and gravitational waves. Essays on Einstein's later years examine his unified field theory program and his critique of quantum mechanics. The closing essays explore the relation between Einstein's work and twentieth-century philosophy, as well as his political writings. (shrink)

Ce livre de Michel Freitag interpelle "tous ceux qui s'interrogent sur la place qu'ils tiennent ou le rôle qu'ils jouent dans l'aventure de l'Université contemporaine." (Georges Leroux, Spirale) Une des constantes des écrits contenus dans ce livre "réside dans la comparaison systématique que Michel Freitag établit entre les caractéristiques de la modernité et celles de la postmodernité et les conséquences de celle-ci sur le traitement des enjeux et des problèmes actuels." (Louis Guay, Anthropologie et société) "Dans une société (...) réduite au bavardage, à l'insignifiance, à la poursuite de petits bonheurs mesquins, le tout sous contrôle bureaucratique de plus en plus envahissant, une telle réflexion est devenue essentielle. Voici un livre de bonne foi qui n'attend que ses lecteurs, qu'on souhaite nombreux." (Robert Major, Voix et images). (shrink)

La figure de l’il y a dans Autrement qu’être témoigne d’une fragilité intrinsèque de la responsabilité chez Lévinas. La réponse du sujet convoqué à cette responsabilité ne peut s’autoriser d’aucune certitude, pas même celle d’être au service du Bien ou d’autrui, plutôt que d’être soumise au non-sens de l’il y a. Selon la lecture proposée ici, une incertitude aussi radicale est la condition même de toute action pratique et politique, qui ne condamne pas celle-ci à l’impuissance, mais l’ouvre au contraire (...) sur un renouvellement et une fécondité qui en font toute l’endurante exigence.In Otherwise than Being, Levinas’ notion of the there is points towards an inherent fragility of all human responsibility. The answer of the responsible subjectivity can’t rely on any certainty, not even that of being well inspired by the Good or by the other, instead of being submitted to the nonsense of the there is. Such a radical uncertainty is to me the condition of all practical and political action. This condition doesn’t condemn us to be powerless, but leads on the contrary to a constant renewal and fecundity of the action, which makes its requiring endurance. (shrink)

In order to assess the future status and applicability of process modes of thought, three steps are suggested: first, a systematic account of Process and Reality's conception of philosophical speculation; second, its application to the targeted question; third a complementary specification with the help of Whitehead's insistence on duty and reverence.

This seminal, multidisciplinary book shows how mathematics can be used to study the first principles of DNA. Most importantly, it enriches the so-called "Chargaff's grammar of biology" by providing the conceptual theoretical framework necessary to generalize Chargaff's rules. Starting with a simple example of DNA mathematical modeling where human nucleotide frequencies are associated to the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio through an optimization problem, its breakthrough is showing that the reverse, complement and reverse-complement operators defined over oligonucleotides induce a (...) natural set partition of DNA words of fixed-size. These equivalence classes, when organized into a matrix form, reveal hidden patterns within the DNA sequence of every living organism. Intended for undergraduate and graduate students both in mathematics and in life sciences, it is also a valuable resource for researchers interested in studying invariant genomic properties. (shrink)

The writings published here are not so much an epitome as episodes. But most do not digress. They mark the turns and turning points of a human style, the tropes of an expressive life embodying the changing tempos of an age. Until we fall silent, all of us are trying to say. These fragmentary efforts to speak to, rejoin, and help create a new community of liberated human beings constitute the epigraphs of Sartre's historical inscription.

Newman and Soloviev -- The influences of Tolstoy and Tchadaiev -- Early influences -- Soloviev as professor -- Soloviev as writer -- Soloviev as logician -- Soloviev as moralist -- The beginning of Soloviev's work as a theologian -- Soloviev's development as a theologian-questions put to the Russian hierarchy-his relations with Mgr. Strossmayer -- The conclusions of Soloviev the theologian -- Soloviev's asceticism.

La conscience ordinaire est conscience d’objet. Elle s’enracine dans la perception, se continue dans la science, s’incarne dans la volonté. Elle clive la personne et la rend étrangère à elle-même. Mais elle dissimule la durée qui coule en nous comme la source de notre être. L’intuition qui nous la révèle est une conscience sans objet. Elle ouvre l’accès à des expériences hors de portée de la connaissance objective. Ces expériences peuvent être psychologiques comme le jeu des habitudes supérieures ou spirituelles (...) comme l’activité mystique dans le zen ou le quiétisme chrétien. (shrink)

In this article it is argued that Popper's well-known deductive and falsificationistic epistemology is historically rooted in German psychology, notably the work of Otto Selz. Drawing on Popper's early and still unpublished psychological manuscripts it is shown how Otto Selz's psychology of thinking with its emphasis on the guiding role of schematic anticipations gave the impetus to Popper's theory of problem solving, his theory of the Searchlight, and its attendant rejection of empiricism, the so-called Bucket theory of knowledge. In the (...) second part of the article it is argued that Selz's theory of schematic anticipations is rooted in Meinong's Gegenstandstheorie. Because Meinong's theory was partly an attempt to do justice to the objectivity of thinking, this may explain why the anti-psychologist Popper felt nevertheless attracted to the psychology of Selz. (shrink)

This paper discusses a neglected theme in Wittgenstein’s writings on meaning and psychology from the early 1930s until 1949. Throughout this period Wittgenstein deals with aspects of meaning of words and pictures that cannot be accounted for in dispositional terms but have to be related to experience and perception. Wittgenstein’s reading of William James, I argue, has sharpened his eye for the many pitfalls in coming to terms with this experiential notion of meaning. James’s treatment of experiences of meaning succumbs (...) to the temptation to postulate “meaning-bodies,” bearers of meaning apart from the way and context in which we use the particular words. I argue that the conflation of what Wittgenstein calls the transitive and intransitive use of words is at the root of postulating meaning-bodies. I also argue that contemporary treatments of experiences of meaning are similarly vulnerable to James’s confusion. (shrink)

L’article se propose de présenter les critiques adressées par Comte à la pensée politique moderne. Une fois dressé un constat de la situation actuelle, il faut s’assurer que les embarras en question sont bien ceux de la démocratie. Une troisième partie présente à grands traits l’esprit de la politique positive. On peut alors expliciter le jugement porté sur la démocratie. Si la souveraineté populaire est une « mystification oppressive », il est toutefois possible d’en dégager un noyau positif, ce qui (...) est beaucoup plus difficile pour l’égalité. Liberté et égalité travaillent en sens contraire et les niveleurs méconnaissent ce qui sert de fondement à la sociologie, à savoir la statique sociale ou théorie de l’ordre. (shrink)