Pauchant's book emerges from a forum on International Management, Ethics, and Spirituality, the first of its kind to be held at an internationally recognized business school, and represents the thinking of six CEOs and six scholars of ethics and spirituality from Australia, Canada, the United States, and Switzerland.

Popular science writing has received increasing interest, especially in its relation to professional science. I extend the current scholarly focus from the nineteenth to the twentieth century by providing a microhistory of the early popular writings of evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith. Linking them to the state of evolutionary biology as a professional science as well as Maynard Smith’s own professional standing, I examine the interplay between author, text and audiences. In particular, I focus on Maynard Smith’s book The Theory (...) of Evolution and show how he used it to both promote neo-Darwinism and advocate the utility of mathematics in biology. Following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and David Lack, Maynard Smith was a science communicator blurring the lines between genres and audiences while contributing to ongoing discussions within and on the profession of evolutionary biology around the Darwin-Wallace centenary. (shrink)

Thierry Meynard examines how the Jesuits in China came to understand the Confucian tradition, and how they offered the first complete translation of the Lunyu in the West, in the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus.

Valorising the biocultural heritage of common goods could enable peasant farmers to achieve socially and economically inclusive sustainability. Increasingly appreciated by consumers, peasant heritage products offer small farmers promising opportunities for economic, social and territorial development. Identifying the obstacles and levers of this complex, multi-scale and multi-stakeholder objective requires an integrative framework. We applied the panarchy conceptual framework to two cases of participatory research with small quinoa producers: a local fair in Chile and quinoa export production in Bolivia. In both (...) cases, the “commoning” process was crucial both to bring stakeholders together inside their communities and to gain outside recognition for their production and thus achieve social and economic inclusion. Despite the differences in scale, the local fair and the export market shared a similar marketing strategy based on short value chains promoting quality products with high identity value. In these dynamics of biocultural heritage valorisation, the panarchical approach revealed the central place as well as the vulnerability of the community territory. As a place of both anchoring and opening, the community territory is the privileged space where autonomous and consensual control over the governance of common biocultural resources can be exercised. (shrink)

In this interview, Anne Fagot-Largeault discusses with Thierry Bardini her recollections of the life and work of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon (1924–1989). The discussion covers Simondon’s theory of individuation and considers its influences on contemporary thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and François Laruelle. Fagot-Largeault situates Simondon’s thinking within the broader context of 20th-century biological research and the development of life sciences. Informed by her personal association and experiences working with Simondon, her reminiscences shed light on the unique character of (...) Simondon as a person and as a thinker. (shrink)

Ce texte a déjà paru dans T. Paquot, Le quotidien urbain, Paris, La Découverte, 2001, p. 180-188. Nous remercions Thierry Paquot de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. Les intertitres sont les nôtres. Établir une bibliographie sur les temps dans le contexte urbain se révélerait vite une impossible, et prétentieuse, ambition. Qui aurait l'outrecuidance de pouvoir la réaliser? Il est moins vain et plus modeste, et certainement commode pour les lecteurs, de rassembler les ouvrages marquants sur la - (...) Urbanisme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

"Based on the reading of the only twelfth-century manuscript of the Enigma extant, Charleville MS. 114, and an examination of the fifteenth-century manuscript Uppsala C. 79." Revision of the editor's thesis, Catholic University of America, 1971, presented under title: The enigma fidei of William of Saint Thierry, a translation and commentary. Bibliography: p. 119-120.

Résumé Les manifestations du printemps érable à Montréal apparaissent dans les médias comme mettant la ville à feu et à sang. En fait, avant la répression policière, il y a des corps qui marchent ensemble, des airs de musique et des bouts de poèmes qui traversent les têtes, et surtout des rires, qui ont de quoi dissoudre les simulacres médiatiques où nous nous sommes crus enfermés.

John Maynard Smith was one of Britain's most eminent evolutionary biologists. For over forty years, from 1954 onwards, he also regularly appeared on radio and television. He primarily acted as a scientific expert on biology, but in the late 1960s and the 1970s he often spoke on the implications of science for society. Through four case studies, this paper analyses Maynard Smith's scientific broadcasting against developments within the BBC as well as the relation between science and society in Britain. It (...) finds that while Maynard Smith acknowledged and accepted increasing mediation through the BBC and its producers, he stayed publicly and privately critical of both format and content decisions in his reflections on the science–media relationship. At the same time, we find that over a decade before the 1985 report by the Royal Society on the public understanding of science, Maynard Smith came to think of engagement with the public via the media as scientists’ responsibility. (shrink)

Rendell & Whitehead's minimalist definition of culture does not allow for the important gaps between cetaceans and humans. A more complete analysis reveals important discontinuities that may be more instructive for comparative purposes than the continuities emphasized by the authors.

Formal topology aims at developing general topology in intuitionistic and predicative mathematics. Many classical results of general topology have been already brought into the realm of constructive mathematics by using formal topology and also new light on basic topological notions was gained with this approach which allows distinction which are not expressible in classical topology. Here we give a systematic exposition of one of the main tools in formal topology: inductive generation. In fact, many formal topologies can be presented in (...) a predicative way by an inductive generation and thus their properties can be proved inductively. We show however that some natural complete Heyting algebra cannot be inductively defined. (shrink)

The present paper examines how discursive representations and emotive constructions underpin an argumentative dynamic that emerges from apparently non-argumentative statements, like those found in newspaper headlines. Our data comes from Greek broadsheet newspapers in the polarized context of the Greek crisis. First, we outline an analytic synergy that scrutinizes representational meaning and the semiotization of emotions in headlines. We then move towards the reconstruction of the inferential passage, contained in the headlines, that unites the implicit standpoint with its supporting argument.

The primary method by which science endeavors to order the world is the analytic approach, consistent with Cartesian principles of dividing the problem in as many sections as required for an optimal solution, and progressing from the simplest to the most complex reasoning. When the interactions among the various elements of the system being studied are minimal, such a procedure indeed makes it possible to formulate laws that describe chains of causality. However, when the variables are interdependent and linked by (...) non-linear equations, the atomistic method cannot account for the phenomenon in its entirety. Spurred by this inadequacy, scientists sought to discover synthetic methods which, early in the twentieth century, led to the conceptualization of holistic theories in a number of disciplines. The most highly developed fields are the psychology of form, structural anthropology (1), and the various systems theories (2). More recently, the development of epigenetic concepts in biology has corresponded to the appearance of different theories of pattern in physics and mathematics (3, 4) and to the progressive emergence of the concept of self-organization (5, 6, 7). The objective is to explain the production of complex structures on the basis of interacting elements, none of which contains a guiding scheme that dictates these structures. In biology, the challenge is to locate the constraints that are expressed in a space of possibilities (8) in order to develop a theory of organization that is capable of predicting the finite number of forms that living creatures can assume (9). This school of thought can be described as structuralist, emergentist, self-organizational, or epigeneticist, depending on the theoretical version that is emphasized. (shrink)

While "natural history" is practically synonymous with the name of Buffon, the term itself has been otherwise overlooked by historians of science. This essay attempts to address this omission by investigating the meanings of "physique," "natural philosophy," and "history," among other terms, with the purpose of understanding Buffon's actual objectives. It also shows that Buffon never claimed to be a Newtonian and should not be considered as such; the goal is to provide a historical analysis that resituates Buffon's thought within (...) his own era. This is done, primarily, by eschewing the often-studied question of time in Buffon. Instead, this study examines the nontemporal meanings of the word "history" within the naturalist's theory and method. The title of his Natural History is examined both as an indicator of the kind of science that Buffon was hoping to achieve and as a source of great misinterpretation among his peers. Unlike Buffon, many of his contemporaries actually envisioned the study of nature from a Baconian perspective where history was restricted to the mere collection of facts and where philosophy, which was the implicit and ultimate goal of studying nature, was seen, at least for the present, as unrealizable. Buffon confronts this tendency insofar as his Histoire naturelle claims to be the real physique that, along with describing nature, also sought to identify general laws and provide clear insight into what true knowledge of nature is or should be. According to Buffon, history (both natural and civil) is not analogous to mathematics; it is a nonmathematical method whose scope encompasses both nature and society. This methodological stance gives rise to the "physicization" of certain moral concepts--a gesture that was interpreted by his contemporaries as Epicurean and atheist. In addition, Buffon reduces a number of metaphysically tainted historical concepts (e.g., antediluvian monuments) to objects of physical analysis, thereby confronting the very foundation of natural theology. In Buffon, as this essay makes clear, natural history is paving the way for a new physique (science of natural beings), independent from mathematics and from God, that treats naturalia in a philosophical and "historical" manner that is not necessarily "temporal. ". (shrink)

Le Quichotte de Cervantès occupe une place singulière dans l’histoire de la traduction littéraire en langue française, au moins parce qu’il a fait l’objet d’incessantes retraductions. Mais l’ouvrage retient l’attention parce que la traduction y est thématisée pour elle-même en deux endroits. Cervantès, en jouant avec les codes du roman de chevalerie, pose le cadre général d’une réflexion théorique sur la traduction dont on cherchera ici à souligner les principales tensions constitutives. En intériorisant ses propres origines fictives et traductives, dans (...) un intermède à cheval entre les chapitres viii et ix, le Quichotte évoque à la fois l’idée d’une traduction impossible, mais aussi celle de la traduction comme une modalité particulière de lecture où s’origine la littérature moderne comme quasi-monde (Ricœur) propice aux échanges textuels. Il s’agira finalement de montrer que, ce faisant, Cervantès fait signe à la fois vers le structuralisme et la tradition herméneutique, et leur articulation problématique. (shrink)

Considérer saint Thomas d'Aquin comme un philosophe : la gageure est moindre que pour saint Augustin. Les images d'Epinal ne sont pas toujours mensongères et, s'il en est une qui dit la vérité, c'est bien celle de la distinction que Thomas tient entre foi et raison, théologie et philosophie. A condition toutefois de préciser que les deux disciplines ne sont par lui distinguées que pour unir, sinon leurs principes, leurs méthodes et leurs résultats, du moins la totalité du spectre de (...) la sagesse. Cette philosophie aux coudées franches s'avère de premier rang. Elle séduit par sa force spéculative et sa clarté, et trouve ces dernières années un public de plus en plus large. Ce volume est donc consacré à la philosophie de saint Thomas. Il couvre la plupart des domaines majeurs où Thomas impose sa marque, assumant les traditions qu'il fait siennes et aussi qu'il dépasse dans une synthèse originale : philosophie de la connaissance, métaphysique, Dieu, éthique, politique. Sans s'interdire des interactions avec les domaines de la théologie, de l'Ecriture et de la mystique, sans non plus négliger quelques-uns des recoins les plus inattendus de la pensée thomasienne, ni ses liens avec les autres doctrines médiévales, ni l'influence qu'elle exerce sur la littérature moderne. Un tel ensemble témoigne des derniers acquis universitaires, sur les questions qu'il traite, d'une nouvelle génération de chercheurs, ainsi que d'un souci pédagogique d'exposition. En langue française, un tel collectif sur la philosophie de Thomas d'Aquin se faisait attendre depuis longtemps. Thierry Dominique Humbrecht. (shrink)

Dans un article décisif sur la naissance du calcul des probabilités (1970), Ernest Coumet rappelait la formule de Cournot selon laquelle le retard qui marque la naissance de la théorie du hasard est «un pur effet du hasard». On se propose ici de soumettre ce jugement à l'examen critique non de l'histoire, mais de la pensée même de Cournot; sa philosophie de l'histoire et sa représentation de l'histoire des sciences au XVIIe siècle semblant, tout d'abord, dénoncer par avance un jugement (...) aussi péremptoire. Pour rendre compte de ce qui peut alors apparaître de sa part comme une inconséquence, voire un aveuglement, on forme l'hypothèse que cette affirmation constitue un artefact de sa conception internaliste de l'histoire des sciences et des révolutions scientifiques. En ce sens, larticle constitue une illustration de la nécessité théorique, mais aussi des difficultés de l'histoire des mathématiques. (shrink)

In his study of the conversion of Westerners to Islam, a Turkish sociologist revealed in 1996 that it happened that a significant proportion of the converts had adopted that religion under the influence of Islamic mysticism, or Sufism. Now Sufism, located at the meeting-point of the written and oral traditions of Islam, offers an original commentary on the Quran and a spiritual practice based on psychosomatic exercises close to yoga. Interest in Sufism among Westerners was revealed at the end of (...) the nineteenth century and became considerable from the 1930s onwards, resulting in the foundation in Europe of Sufi groups directed by converts who very quickly became shaykhs (shaikh). These first groups, to which new ones were added, are still active today, although somewhat bruised by numerous divisions. The reasons for conversion to Sufism among Europeans, for the most part from intellectual milieux, rest on concerns of a spiritual dimension linked to the climate of religious crisis which the modern West has experienced since the end of the nineteenth century. To which should be added in recent decades the fashionable exoticism fostered by the development of means of transport and communication which have brought East and West closer. (shrink)

Based on large, representative Australian household panel, this study investigates to what extent the Big Five personality variables influence self-employment survival and differentiates between successful or unsuccessful exit. In addition, the influence of two moderating variables, tertiary education and the motivation to become self-employed, are considered. Contrary to expectations, we found no impact of the Big Fives variable on self-employment survival in general. In the case of unsuccessful exit, we found that entrepreneurs with a higher level of Conscientiousness tend to (...) stay self-employed although they may not be satisfied with their job. Similarly, entrepreneurs with a tertiary education prolong unsuccessfully self-employment stints, particularly if they exhibit higher level of Emotional Stability. Necessity-driven entrepreneurs exit unsuccessful stints earlier, especially if they exhibit a lower level of conscientiousness. (shrink)

It is proved in this paper that the positive abstraction scheme is consistent with extensionality only if one drops equality out of the language. The theory obtained is then compared with GPK, a wellknown set theory based on an extended positive comprehension scheme.

We present a proof of Goodmanʼs Theorem, which is a variation of the proof of Renaldel de Lavalette [9]. This proof uses in an essential way possibly divergent computations for proving a result which mentions systems involving only terminating computations. Our proof is carried out in a constructive metalanguage. This involves implicitly a covering relation over arbitrary posets in formal topology, which occurs in forcing in set theory in a classical framework, but can also be defined constructively.