Pierre Bayle can lay claim to having fathered the history of philosophy or the history of ideas. Marx at any rate said of his Dictionnaire that it "wrote the epitaph of philosophy." He was also the founder of the journal Nouvelles de la République des Lettres—one of the forerunners of the modern academic journal—in whose Preface he wrote: "il s'agit [ici] de Science: on doit donc mettre bas tous les termes qui divisent les hommes en différentes factions et considérer seulement (...) le point dans lequel ils se réunissent, qui est la qualité d'Homme illustre dans la République des Lettres." Mme. Labrousse devotes the first two chapters to an elucidation of the connection between Bayle's active interest in science and in the history of ideas, a connection all the more obscure because science for Bayle meant roughly Cartesian mechanism, and Descartes was notably anti-historical. While the author's observations are pertinent, it would seem that the connecting link is overlooked: the Discours de la méthode is itself a history. However that may be, this well executed work will serve as an appropriate introduction to the issues in the very extensive writings of one of the moving spirits of the Enlightenment.—H. C. (shrink)

The first and longer of the two books in this volume interprets some doctrines of "the levels of Being," ontological knowledge and evil: those of Plato, Plotinus, Jewish mysticism, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, D. H. Lawrence and Bergson. Mme. Amado's purpose is to present the basic intuition and vision of each position, rather than an articulation of the theses. She shows that an identical intuition underlies the greatly differing theories. With some justifiable oversimplification, we might call this an historical epistemology. In Book (...) Two, Mme. Amado shows that knowledge grows from the surmounted experience of evil, and that evil is an ontological category. Being itself is historical. Knowledge, being, evil and history are brought together in an explication of "the desire to know." Evil is discussed principally in terms of exile and alienation--to seek knowledge is to overcome diremption; it is to seek the One. In this light, the history of Israel is examined at some length. An astute student of both Marx and Freud, the author manages to be faithful to them even in speculative philosophy. The book is forbidding in length and locution, but it justifies Mme. Amado's reputation as one of the more important philosophers in Europe today.--C. D. (shrink)

"L'ouvrage que nous propose aujourd'hui Mme Delphine Espagno est peut-être la plus belle des invitations qui ait été écrite afin d'inciter le lecteur, citoyen et/ou juriste, à comprendre la pensée du doyen de Bordeaux. Léon Duguit méritait effectivement le présent ouvrage et hommage car le doyen, comme Jean-Jacques Rousseau avant lui, a longtemps été et est encore souvent présenté soit comme un marginal de la pensée juridique, soit est même dédaigné de façon méprisante comme si sa qualité de juriste lui (...) était déniée. Hauriou, nous rappelle l'auteure, ira même ainsi jusqu'à affubler Duguit d'être un "anarchiste de la chaire" ce qui n'avait manifestement pas totalement déplu à ce dernier! Car, ce que rappelle Mme Espagno dès son introduction, c'est bien une nouvelle manière de penser et de réinventer le Droit dans son ensemble que nous invite à accomplir Léon Duguit. Il n'est pas qu'un faiseur de théorie(s) (comme celles du service public, des agents publics ou encore de l'Etat), il est - pour reprendre l'expression de Chenot désormais consacrée - un véritable "faiseur de système dans son sens le plus noble et mélioratif. Duguit assume en effet son rôle de guide et nous a donné à voir une nouvelle façon d'appréhender le Droit non pas tel qu'il est mais tel qu'il devrait être. Un Droit qu'il a comme réinventé en chaussant de nouvelles lunettes tel le spectateur qui verrait en deux dimensions et désormais en découvrirait - grâce à lui - une troisième. Après Léon Duguit, les juristes n'ont ainsi pu feindre de ne concevoir le Droit qu'à l'instar d'un artifice fictif, technique et juridique : le Droit est devenu indissociable de la sociologie. Ce "droit duguiste" nous offre alors grâce à la lumière qu'y dépose avec délicatesse Mme Delphine Espagno la vision renouvelée des relations existantes entre Droit, individu et collégialité ou société. En outre, ce que va construire le doyen de Bordeaux n'est pas - comme on le lit encore souvent - une "simple" théorie du service public mais une théorie réaliste de l'Etat par le service public", Mathieu Touzeil-Divina. (shrink)

La liberté est-elle un pouvoir neutre et indifférencié de choix et d'action qui est octroyé à tout individu, et qu'il exerce identiquement avec tout autre, ou n'est-elle pas plutôt une capacité qui n'échoit qu'à lui seul d'accomplir son être propre dans ce qu'il a d'unique? En souscrivant à la seconde branche de cette alternative, Claude Romano s'efforce de préciser les conditions de possibilité de qu'il appelle " liberté intérieure ", c'est-à-dire la capacité de vouloir et de décider en l'absence de (...) conflit intérieur, de telle manière que cette volonté et cette décision expriment l'être que nous sommes et manifestent un accord de cet être avec lui-même.0En soulignant les limites de la conception largement dominante, de Platon à Harry Frankfurt, de cette liberté comme une subordination de nos désirs et tendances affectives spontanées aux " désirs de second ordre " qui découlent de notre réflexion rationnelle, l'auteur défend une conception originale de l'autonomie qui rejette une telle hiérarchie. Il étaye son propos par l'analyse d'un exemple littéraire, la décision finale de la Princesse de Clèves dans le roman éponyme de Mme de Lafayette. (shrink)

Pierre Poiret (1646-1719) s’est fait l’éditeur infatigable de nombreux textes mystiques, y compris ceux de ses contemporains. Se distinguent notamment les Œuvres complètes de Madame Guyon (1648-1717), qu’il a rassemblées en trente-neuf volumes, certains parus après sa mort : c’est le cas des Justifications (trois tomes, 1720), ce dossier d’autorités que Mme Guyon avait rassemblées pour sa défense au moment de la querelle du quiétisme. On s’est proposé de confronter cette édition au manuscrit (l’exemplaire adressé à Bossuet, conservé à la (...) Bibliothèque nationale de France). Poiret s’y révèle d’une scrupuleuse fidélité, contraint à des modifications certes importantes mais toujours pour servir l’original, récupérant la quasi-totalité du manuscrit, le transformant il est vrai, par les vertus de la seule mise en forme, en anthologie de la « doctrine mystique » (selon les termes de la préface) commune. (shrink)

L'on ne saurait trop souligner combien l'âge "classique" est un âge critique. Moment de crise aiguë, totale, puisque c'est la destitution du monde ancien qui s'amorce et une situation inédite qui se dessine : l'homme se découvrant comme jamais instance de liberté face à un monde dont il est désormais séparé, ce qui devient pensable, c'est la réformation générale du monde et de soi. La question est de savoir comment réinventer la liberté dans les conditions de la modernité. Cette entreprise (...) s'énonce électivement en terme d'usage et sa fortune témoigne de la variété des voies empruntées. Or parmi les figures de "la liberté par l'usage", il en est une qui, méconnue, se recommande de trois sources anciennes : le stoïcisme, la théologie paulinienne et le legs augustinien. Révéler son originalité consiste à déployer ce qui est ramassé dans l'étrange formule de Paul : "user du monde comme n'en usant pas". Attester son actualité à l'âge classique, c'est montrer comment Fénelon, Pascal, Malebranche ou Mme de Lambert jouent de sa plasticité pour se l'approprier diversement et en faire une figure de la liberté disponible pour la modernité - y compris la nôtre. (shrink)

An adequate theory of rights ought to forbid the harming of animals to promote trivial interests of humans, as is often done in the animal-user industries. But what should the rights view say about situations in which harming some animals is necessary to prevent intolerable injustices to other animals? I develop an account of respectful treatment on which, under certain conditions, it’s justified to intentionally harm some individuals to prevent serious harm to others. This can be compatible with recognizing the (...) inherent value of the ones who are harmed. My theory has important implications for contemporary moral issues in nonhuman animal ethics, such as the development of cultured meat and animal research. (shrink)

How best to avoid the Levinas Effect, as it has been called, the tendency to make Emmanuel Levinas everything to everyone? One way is to demonstrate that Levinas's thinking does not fit into any of the categories by which we ordinarily approach political theory. If one were forced to categorize Levinas's political theory, the term "inverted liberalism " would come closest to the mark. As long, that is, as one emphasizes the term "inverted" over "liberalism." Levinas's defense of liberalism is (...) likely the strangest defense the reader has encountered. We should, argues Levinas, foster and protect the individual because only the individual can see the tears of the other, the tears that even the just regime cannot see. The individual is to be fostered and protected for the sake of the other individual. Whether this has anything to do with "real" liberalism, and whether it should, is the topic of this essay. (shrink)

Corporate governance is increasingly becoming an issue of global concern, not least because we are more and more living in a corporate world that transcends international boundaries. The main purpose and motivation of this study is to determine how the international community should motivate businesses in fostering exemplary corporate governance, therefore eliminating obstacles to ethically exemplary behavior. The empirical approach utilized here has been applied to 161 businesses, both listed and over-the-counter (OTC) companies, with the results indicating that ethical considerations, (...) corporate governance and organizational performance are inextricably linked and, to an extent, demonstrably proportional. This study also indicates a major finding that family management is a significant mediating variable of the ethical considerations of corporate governance and organizational performance. Finally, this study has developed an operational model of ethical considerations of corporate governance as a consultancy aid for businesses that wish to implement and/or boost their performance in respect to corporate governance. (shrink)

Most whistleblowers talk as if they never had a choice about whether to blow the whistle. This doesn't mean they acted suddenly, or impulsively, only that they believe they could not have done otherwise. Trying to make sense of this near universal answer to the question "Why did you do it?" the essay draws on narrative theory. Narrative theory distinguishes between actant and sender—that is, between actor and his or her values. This distinction helps to explain what it means to (...) face a difficult choice over something about which one feels one never had a choice. (shrink)

This article considers various approaches used in complementary and alternative medicine research, and discusses the challenges that reviewing such research poses for Human Research Ethics Committees. Drawing on our experience with the University of Technology Sydney HREC, we offer some suggestions about how ethical principles governing conventional medical research can be applied in the context of research in complementary and alternative medicine. We argue that effective HREC review requires members to gain familiarity with such research, which helps ensure that such (...) research is conducted rigorously and ethically. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers by Brian C. Ribeiro Donald C. Ainslie Brian C. Ribeiro. Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers. Brill: Leiden, 2021. Pp. 165. Hardback, $154.00. Brian C. Ribeiro’s Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers is a charming and quirky investigation of his three titular skeptics. It is perhaps best understood as a skeptical investigation of skepticism. By that I mean that, like a good Pyrrhonist, Ribeiro explains how (...) things appear to him without claiming to lay down a doctrine or dogma. His topic is how and why skepticism still matters (7). And he suggests that those who are moved by skeptical arguments can learn intellectual modesty from them and thereby achieve a degree of philosophical “calmness of soul” (141).Ribeiro approaches his three figures by taking the cogency of their skeptical arguments for granted. There is little investigation of why these philosophers call various beliefs into question, and his concern is rather what remains once the skeptical doubts are taken on board. Because what he calls “Pyrrhonizing” philosophers reveal that large swaths of our beliefs lack epistemic merit, they also show us how we are not fully rational creatures in our everyday lives. In the case of Sextus, Ribeiro’s focus is on the famous question of whether skeptics can live their skepticism once they have actually suspended all belief. With Sextus, as with Montaigne and Hume, Ribeiro opts for the more radical of the interpretive options; he is not persuaded by Michael Frede’s suggestion that Pyrrhonists restrict their suspension only to abstruse matters, not the everyday (51). But even if we follow the “four-fold way” (20–23) that Sextus offers us as guides for life—the directives of nature, feelings, custom, and expertise—Ribeiro still thinks we will inevitably fall back into belief. He concludes that the original Pyrrhonists should be read aspirationally: insofar as we develop our capacities [End Page 517] to argue on both sides of every question and thus are able to suspend judgment, to that extent we will achieve tranquility. In the case of Montaigne, Ribeiro focuses on his Christian fideism. Once he recognizes the incapacity of reason to resolve intellectual problems, he falls back on faith. And Ribeiro argues that the Catholic flavor of this faith is simply a reflection of Montaigne’s surroundings. In a different community, he could just as easily have embraced a different faith. The heart of the book concerns Hume, whom Ribeiro discusses in three chapters, as opposed to the one each devoted to Sextus and Montaigne. In keeping with his interpretive preferences, Ribeiro’s Hume is a radical skeptic, though he acknowledges the significant yet “utterly perplexing” (95n22) naturalist strains that are also present. Ribeiro takes the resulting tension to be insoluble (98), though I was not convinced. Consider that, in both the Treatise and the Enquiry, Hume uses causal reasoning to investigate causal reasoning. He learns that our ideas are caused by prior impressions; that repeated experience of conjoint events causes us to associate our ideas of similar events; and so on. In the Treatise, he concludes the argument that association is at the root of such causal reasoning by presenting a set of rules, a “logic,” for it. The argument is not as such skeptical, though when Hume “recasts” it in the first Enquiry, he does so in terms of “sceptical doubts” and a “sceptical solution.” In the Treatise, “total” and “extravagant” skepticism come into play only as “systems of philosophy” that Hume uses to shed light on his own core commitments. The problem, I think, is that Ribeiro tends to read Hume a little too literally, as if he is himself falling prey to the skeptical upheaval of the conclusion to the first book of the Treatise, or the final section of the first Enquiry. But I would suggest that Hume is rather deploying the rhetoric of skepticism in these discussions, using it for his ultimate philosophical ends (a point that is especially clear in Ribeiro’s favorite of Hume’s works, the Dialogues). He is showing his reader how his naturalistic philosophical project is itself rooted in human nature, and thus does not yield insight into the intrinsic structure of... (shrink)

We give a short, critical review of the issue of decoherence. We estab- lish the most general framework in which decoherence can be discussed, how it can be quantified and how it can be measured. We focus on environment induced decoher- ence and its degree of usefulness for the interpretation of quantum theory. We finally discuss the emergence of a classical world. An overall emphasis is given in pointing at common fallacies and misconceptions.

In philosophy of science two questions become central in the discussion of the nature of empirical science: 1) What is a theory, i.e. how is it built up, how does it work? And: 2) How does a theory relate to its corresponding experiential basis? To deal with these two questions modern philosophy of science has devised various ‘models’ on the nature and working of scientific theories. Some aspects of these models are widely held within the community of philosophers of science, (...) but others are still being discussed quite controversially. In this paper, we will consider both kinds of aspects. Particularly, we will analyze how the meaning of scientific concepts is determined; the axiomatic construction of a scientific theory; the idea of model building views as a bridge between theory and experience; the holistic semantic thesis of science; the question about the true of scientific theories; and, finally, the hierarchic structure of theories.En filosofía de la ciencia, dos cuestiones resultan centrales en la discusión acerca de la naturalezade la ciencia empírica: 1) ¿qué es una teoría ?, es decir, ¿cómo estáconstituida y cómo funciona? y 2) ¿cómo se relaciona una teoría con su correspondientebase experiencial? Para tratar estas dos cuestiones, la moderna filosofía de la ciencia ha desarrolladovarios “modelos” sobre la naturaleza y el funcionamiento de lasteorías científicas. Algunos aspectos de estos modelos son ampliamente aceptados por lacomunidad de filósofos de la ciencia, mientras que otros son todavía discutidos de manerabastante controvertida. En este trabajo, consideraremos ambos tipos de aspectos. En particular,analizaremos cómo se determina el significado de los conceptos teóricos, la construcción axiomática de una teoría científica, la idea de las concepciones sobre la construcción de modelos como puente entre la teoría y la experiencia, la tesis semántica holista de la ciencia, la cuestión acerca de la verdad de las teorías científicas y, finalmente, la estructura jerárquica de las teorías. (shrink)

The probability ‘measure’ for measurements at two consecutive mo- ments of time is non-additive. These probabilities, on the other hand, may be determined by the limit of relative frequency of measured events, which are by nature additive. We demonstrate that there are only two ways to resolve this problem. The first solution places emphasis on the precise use of the concept of conditional probability for successive mea- surements. The physically correct conditional probabilities define additive probabilities for two-time measurements. These probabilities (...) depend ex- plicitly on the resolution of the physical device and do not, therefore, correspond to a function of the associated projection operators. It follows that quantum theory distinguishes between physical events and proposi- tions about events, the latter are not represented by projection operators and that the outcomes of two-time experiments cannot be described by quantum logic. The alternative explanation is rather radical: it is conceivable that the relative frequencies for two-time measurements do not converge, unless a particular consistency condition is satisfied. If this is true, a strong revision of the quantum mechanical formalism may prove necessary. We stress that it is possible to perform experiments that will distinguish the two alternatives. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Alfred Tarski Alonzo Church Kurt Gödel.

Methods of Argumentation provides a comprehensive overview of the ways in which argumentation has been investigated in the last decade within artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems. By tak...

The Hegel Lectures Series Series Editor: Peter C. Hodgson Hegel's lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel's thought. The Hegel Lectures series is based on a selection of extant and recently discovered transcripts and (...) manuscripts. Lectures from specific years are reconstructed so that the structure of Hegel's argument can be followed. Each volume presents an accurate new translation accompanied by an editorial introduction and annotations on the text, which make possible the identification of Hegel's many allusions and sources. Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion represent the final and in some ways the decisive element of his entire philosophical system. His conception and execution of the lectures differed significantly on each of the occasions he delivered them, in 1821, 1824, 1827, and 1831. The older editions introduced insoluble problems by conflating these materials into an editorially constructed text. The present volumes establish a critical edition by separating the series of lectures and presenting them as independent units on the basis of a complete re-editing of the sources by Walter Jaeschke. The English translation has been prepared by a team consisting of Robert F. Brown, Peter C. Hodgson, and J. Michael Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris. Now widely recognized as the definitive English edition, it is being reissued by Oxford in the Hegel Lectures Series. The three volumes include editorial introductions, critical annotations on the text, textual variants, and tables, bibliography, and glossary. 'The Consummate Religion' is Hegel's name for Christianity, which he also designates 'the Revelatory Religion'. Here he offers a speculative interpretation of major Christian doctrines: the Trinity, creation, humanity, estrangement and evil, Christ, the Spirit, the spiritual community, church and world. These interpretations have had a powerful and controversial impact on modern theology. (shrink)

The Province of Jurisprudence Democratized explores the implications of taking a vigorously democratic approach to issues of traditional legal theory. Allan C. Hutchinson introduces the democratic vision and examines the complementary philosophy of a Dewey-inspired pragmatism. This is followed by an examination from a pragmatic perspective of the dominant theories of analytical jurisprudence in both their positivist and naturalist forms. He emphasizes the contested concepts of 'truth', 'facts' and 'law/morality relation' and explores what a more uncompromising democratic/pragmatic agenda for law (...) and legal theory would entail. The Author's intent is to contribute to the shift away from a technical and elite philosophical approach to jurisprudence to a more democratic engagement. It advances and follows through on the critical claim that there is no position of theoretical or political innocence. Like the law it seeks to illuminate, legal theory must recognize its own political and social setting as well as its own responsibilities. Moreover, whatever else democracy might entail or imply, it opposes elite rule whether by autocrats, functionaries or theorists, however enlightened or principled their proposals or interventions may be: authority must come from below, not above. (shrink)

The 65th year of a scholar who has devoted 40 years to editing and elucidating Robert Grosseteste provides us with a collection of essays. Not surprisingly, they emanate from colleagues and former students of Richard Dales and reflect his interest, among other concerns, in Grosseteste's aspectus et affectus - range of vision and disposition of mind - those twin peaks with which the 13th century thinker helped to get Christian thought through Aristotle without mutual destruction.