Présenté en 1938, le Der Leviathan de Carl Schmitt clos un ensemble de réflexions que le juriste et politologue allemand a consacré au décisionnisme politique. Au long de son commentaire sur Hobbes, Schmitt aboutit toutefois à un résultat inattendu. Naguère loué comme « le cas classique de la pensée décisionniste », Hobbes s’est métamorphosé à son insu en « ancêtre spirituel » de l’État législateur et libéral-constitutionnel. Schmitt a trouvé chez son allié le plus précieux les germes d’une pensée qu’il (...) n’a cessé d’éreinter sous toutes ses formes, qu’on la décline dans sa version techniciste, positiviste, constitutionnaliste bourgeoise et libérale, individualiste ou pluraliste. C’est en ce sens que le Der Leviathan résume à bien des égards le sens et l’échec du décisionnisme politique. (shrink)

Dans cet article, nous présentons une formulation néo-aristotélicienne de la doctrine du juste milieu. Nous commençons par décrire la formulation classique de la doctrine par Aristote, telle qu'elle est exposée dans l’Éthique à Nicomaque. Nous présentons en outre les éléments fondamentaux qui régissent les matrices de concepts (Franceschi 2002). Nous proposons ensuite une nouvelle formulation de la doctrine du juste milieu, directement dérivée de la structure-même des matrices de concepts. Nous comparons également la présente formulation de la (...) doctrine du juste milieu avec celle d'Aristote, en mettant en évidence les points communs et les différences. Nous proposons aussi une interprétation de la formulation aristotélicienne de la doctrine du juste milieu. Enfin, nous montrons comment la version néo-aristotélicienne de la doctrine du juste milieu permet de répondre à plusieurs objections, et notamment à celles qui ont été classiquement soulevées à l’encontre de sa version aristotélicienne. (shrink)

The intellectual temper of the age.--Modernism and Christianity.--The philosophy of M. Henri Bergson.--The philosophy of Mr. Bertrand Russell.--Shelley: or, The poetic value of revolutionary principles.--The general tradition in American philosophy.

The Doctrine of Double Effect has been challenged by the claim that what an agent intends as a means may be limited to those effects that are precisely characterized by the descriptions under which the agent believes that they are minimally causally necessary for the production of other effects that the agent seeks to bring about. If based on so narrow a conception of an intended means, the traditional Doctrine of Double Effect becomes limitlessly permissive. In this paper (...) I examine and criticize Warren Quinn's attempt to reformulate the Doctrine in such a way that it retains its force and plausibility even if we accept the narrow conception of an intended means. Building on Quinn's insights, I conclude by offering a further version of the Doctrine that retains the virtues of Quinn's account but avoids the objections to it. I The key element in the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE) is the claim that there is a stronger presumption against action that has harm to the innocent as an intended effect than there is against otherwise comparable action that causes the same amount of harm to the innocent as a foreseen but unintended effect. Since it is relatively uncontroversial that, except perhaps in cases involving desert, it is wrong to cause harm as an end in itself, the DDE is normally invoked to distinguish morally between harm that is intended as a means and harm that is considered a merely foreseen side-effect. (shrink)

At least from Bentham's time, the dominant interpretive approaches to Hobbes's Leviathan have tended to soften and blur the despotic message of that book. Writers of otherwise very different persuasions and pursuing very different intellectual agendas have sought to soften the way Hobbes's political theory has been understood. In the effort to insulate and preserve obviously valuable aspects of that theory, the elements of tyranny so significant to the text of Leviathan have been ignored, distorted, obscured and denied. The upshot (...) has been to portray Hobbes as no more than a harmless proto-liberal. (shrink)

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-021-00853-5.

In a few hundred pages Santayana endeavors to sum up the dominant intellectual currents of early twentieth-century thought and trace their implications for American culture, for ethics and religion, for arts and letters, and for philosophy.

As a background notion commonly ascribable to all actual beings, the idea of "concern" affords Weiss continuity; in the operation of its actual exemplifications it accounts for novelty and sometimes for radical discontinuity. The major concept of freedom in Weiss's cosmology is not an infinite, wholly vacuous freedom, a completely pure chance, lacking reference to any object or objectives; it is specified in concerns which do have reference both to other entities and to internal demands. Concerns are thus also strategic (...) in the description of actuality and possibility. (shrink)

본 논문은 주여등(周汝登)(호 : 해문海門)의 심성론(心性論)를 통해서 그가 가진 심(心)과 성(性)의 함의(涵義)와 이들 사이의 관계, 그리고 이 심성론을 바탕으로 한 실천 공부인 심성공부에 대해서 간단히 살펴보고자 한다. 해문(海門)이 강조하는 심체(心體)로서의 현성(現成)의 양지는 수시로 영명(靈明)함을 드러내고, 그 감응(感應)은 자연스럽게 이루어진다고 봄으로써 양지를 곧 도덕본심이자 인심(仁心)으로 이해한다. 또 양지의 지(知)는 자성(自性)인 명각(明覺)을 통해 상각상조(常覺常照)하는 무지(無知)의 지(知)로 간주하여, 견문(見聞)으로부터 이야기되는 지식인 정식(情識)의 지(知)와 구별한다. 성체(性體)에 관해서는, 성(性)이란 오직 본연(本然)의 성인 천성(天性) 하나만 있으며, 이 천부(天賦)의 성인 천성과 만물의 형색(形色)을 하나로 간주하여 기질의 성을 따로 (...) 설정하지 않거나 인정하지 않는다. 공부(工夫)에 있어서는 무선무악(無善無惡)한 심체(心體)와 성체(性體)에 대한 공부와 위선거악(爲善去惡)의 공부를 하나로 인식한다. 그리고 이러한 위선거악의 공부를 명심(明心), 연경(練境), 사상마련(事上磨鍊) 등의 일용(日用)과 실질적인 격물(格物)의 공부를 통해서 성색화리(聲色貨利)로 인해 야기된 문제를 해결하고자 한다. 따라서 이 명심 등의 위선거악 공부는 양지심체와 성체의 본연을 회복하려는 격물(格物)의 치양지(致良知) 공부와 다르지 않다. (shrink)

Pitsios, Rigas I saw reproduced a few years ago, in beautiful colours on the jacket of the book Wisdom of the West by Bertrand Russell, the photo of a marble head of Epicurus, who lived and taught in Athens, during and shortly after Macedonian imperialism and its leading actor, Alexander, made their appearance on the Middle-Eastern scene. The fact is probably indicative of the recognition, by an eminent representative of modern civilization, of the ancient philosopher's importance; it may also be (...) taken as a sign of the times, in that it expresses the need of many to reexamine and understand better the teachings of Epicurus, their relevance to our own times and their usefulness in the planning of our lives. (shrink)