bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Writing to the King
Authors: Matthews David
Published: May 2010

In the century before Chaucer a new language of political critique emerged. In political verse of the period, composed in Anglo-Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English, poets write as if addressing the king himself, drawing on their sense of the rights granted by Magna Carta. These apparent appeals to the sovereign increase with the development of parliament in the late thirteenth century and the emergence of the common petition, and become prominent, in an increasingly sophisticated literature, during the political crises of the early fourteenth century. However, very little of this writing was truly directed to the king. As David Matthews shows in this book, the form of address was a rhetorical stance revealing much about the position from which writers were composing, the audiences they wished to reach, and their construction of political and national subjects.
Research in Medicine
Authors: Usher-Smith Juliet , Murrell George , Ellis Harold , Huang Christopher
Published: May 2010

Health professionals are increasingly drawn towards research in the course of their training, often with little guidance on the skills and techniques required. This practical text provides essential advice to guide the beginner through the processes involved in selecting, organizing, funding, undertaking, evaluating and publishing a biomedical research project, and completing a postgraduate qualification. Cartoon illustrations provide a wry commentary on the ups and downs of life in research. This edition contains new content on choosing supervisors, career implications, degree structures, ethical issues and time conflicts between research and service needs, and is fully revised and updated to reflect changes in the structure of medical careers and degree courses, and the use of computational and information technology in research presentation. An invaluable guide suitable for all stages of a medical research career, from the first stages of research, through to professional supervisors, career counselors and postgraduate tutors.
Richard Wagner
Authors: Vazsonyi Nicholas
Published: May 2010

All modern artists have had to market themselves in some way. Richard Wagner may just have done it better than anyone else. In a self-promotional effort that began around 1840 in Paris, and lasted for the remainder of his career, Wagner claimed convincingly that he was the most German composer ever and the true successor of Beethoven. More significantly, he was an opera composer who declared that he was not composing operas. Instead, during the 1850s, he mapped out a new direction, conceiving of works that would break with tradition and be literally 'brand new'. This is the first study to examine the innovative ways in which Wagner made himself a celebrity, promoting himself using every means available: autobiography, journal articles, short stories, newspaper announcements, letters, even his operas themselves. Vazsonyi reveals how Wagner created a niche for his works in the crowded opera market that continues to be unique.
Science and Spirituality
Authors: Ruse Michael
Published: May 2010

Michael Ruse offers a new analysis of the often troubled relationship between science and religion. Arguing against both extremes - in one corner, the New Atheists; in the other, the Creationists and their offspring the Intelligent Designers - he asserts that science is the highest source of human inquiry. Yet, by its very nature and its deep reliance on metaphor, science restricts itself and is unable to answer basic, significant questions about the meaning of the universe and humankind's place within it: why is there something rather than nothing? What is the meaning of it all? Ruse shows that one can legitimately be a skeptic about these questions, and yet why it is open for a Christian, or member of any faith, to offer answers. Scientists, he concludes, should be proud of their achievements but modest about their scope. Christians should be confident of their mission but respectful of the successes of science.
Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation
Authors: Pincione Guido , Tesón Fernando R.
Published: May 2010

In public political deliberation, people will err and lie in accordance with definite patterns. Such discourse failure results from behavior that is both instrumentally and epistemically rational. The deliberative practices of a liberal democracy (let alone repressive or non-democratic societies) cannot be improved so as to overcome the tendency for rational citizens to believe and say things at odds with reliable propositions of social science. The theory has several corollaries. One is that much contemporary political philosophy can be seen as an unsuccessful attempt to vindicate, on symbolic and moral grounds, the forms that discourse failure take on in public political deliberation. Another is that deliberative practices cannot be rescued even on non-epistemic grounds, such as social peace, impartiality, participation, and equality. To alleviate discourse failure, this 2006 book proposes to reduce the scope of majoritarian politics and enlarge markets.
Society and Identity
Authors: Weigert Andrew J. , Teitge J. Smith , Teitge Dennis W.
Published: May 2010

Since the 1940s, there has been an explosion of writings, both scientific and nonscientific, about the question of 'identity' and what it means to be an individual in today's world. This book examines sociological perspectives on identity in order to illuminate the perennial problem of defining the human person, and to pose an alternative definition of identity based on it being socially constructed. Beginning with a review of previous studies of identity, the authors present a set of propositions for organizing the wide range of uses of the term, and for arriving at an adequate definition of it. Identity is then analysed in two contexts: gender identity, linked to present bodies; and prenatal and postmortem identities, linked to future and past bodies. Whereas gender identity reveals the powerful but breakable link between body type and identity, prenatal and postmortem identities illustrate the symbolic reality and partial independence of identity from any corporeal existence. This is an innovative and insightful study which will appeal to all those concerned with understanding the nature of human identity.
Virtue, Commerce, and History
Authors: Pocock J. G. A.
Published: May 2010

This book collects essays by Professor Pocock concerned principally with the history of British political thought in the eighteenth century. Several of the essays have been previously published (though they have not all been widely available), and several appear here for the first time in print.
Southern Paternalism and the American Welfare State
Authors: Alston Lee J. , Ferrie Joseph P.
Published: May 2010

Using institutional economics, Professors Alston and Ferrie show how paternalism in Southern agriculture helped shape the growth of the American welfare state in the hundred years following the Civil War. It was an integral part of agricultural contracts prior to mechanization. Paternalism involved the exchange of 'good and faithful' labour services for a variety of in-kind services, most notably protection from physical violence. The Southern landed elite valued paternalism because it reduced monitoring costs and turnover. Workers valued paternalism because of the lack of civil rights. In order to maintain the value of paternalism to their workers, the agricultural interests needed to prevent meddling from the federal government, which they accomplished through their disproportionate political power. Only the advent of mechanization and complementary technology in the late 1950s and early 1960s finally reduced the desire of Southern agricultural interests to fight the expansion of federal welfare programmes.
The Papacy, Scotland and Northern England, 1342–1378
Authors: Barrell A. D. M.
Published: May 2010

The lengthy period of the Avignon papacy in the fourteenth century created circumstances in which the burgeoning bureaucracy of the papal curia could flourish. Papal involvement in the everyday business of the church at local level reached its fullest extent in the years before the Great Schism. This book examines the impact of that involvement in Scotland and northern England, and analyses the practical effect of theories of papal sovereignty at a time when there was still widespread acceptance of the role of the Holy See. The nature and importance of political opposition, from both crown and parliament, is investigated from the standpoint of the validity of the complaints as indicated by local evidence, and a new interpretation is offered of the various statutory measures taken in England in Edward III's reign to control alleged abuses of papal power. Points of similarity and difference between Scotland and England are also given due emphasis. This is the first work to attempt to analyse the full breadth of papal involvement in late medieval Britain by utilising the rich local sources in association with material from the Vatican archives.
Orthogonal Polynomials and Continued Fractions
Authors: Khrushchev Sergey
Published: May 2010

Continued fractions, studied since Ancient Greece, only became a powerful tool in the eighteenth century, in the hands of the great mathematician Euler. This book tells how Euler introduced the idea of orthogonal polynomials and combined the two subjects, and how Brouncker's formula of 1655 can be derived from Euler's efforts in Special Functions and Orthogonal Polynomials. The most interesting applications of this work are discussed, including the great Markoff's Theorem on the Lagrange spectrum, Abel's Theorem on integration in finite terms, Chebyshev's Theory of Orthogonal Polynomials, and very recent advances in Orthogonal Polynomials on the unit circle. As continued fractions become more important again, in part due to their use in finding algorithms in approximation theory, this timely book revives the approach of Wallis, Brouncker and Euler and illustrates the continuing significance of their influence. A translation of Euler's famous paper 'Continued Fractions, Observation' is included as an Addendum.
Remarques sur « Sources et signification de la théorie lockienne de l'espace »
Authors: Duchesneau François
Published: May 2010

Je m'accorde en général à la thèse de Lennon suivant laquelle Locke aurait admis certains des arguments de Gassendi sur la distinction entre espace et corps ou matière, mais rejeté l'engagement ontologique impliqué par l'existence sui generis d'un espace absolu, distinct de l'étendue corporelle. Il semble raisonnable de concéder que l'analyse de l'espace chez le Locke de la maturité se développe en parallèle à la doctrine révisée des néo-gassendistes sur certains points essentiels: l'espace s'analyse en connexions de distance et de capacité (contenant-contenu) entre éléments solides; le pur espace est une idée abstraite obtenue par généralisation à partir de relations observées; et, comme telle, cette idée représente des connexions potentielles ou imaginaires entre composants matériels analogues aux corps de la perception sensible. Je suis d'accord avec Lennon pour admettre comme sources possibles pour de telles révisions la répugnance de Descartes et des cartésiens à concevoir un infini positif dans tout autre cas que celui des attributs de Dieu, et corrélativement l'analyse cartésienne du lieu et de la distance comme relatifs aux coordonnées géométriques abstraites de l'observateur. Malgré cette influence, Locke n'a de cesse de condamner la doctrine cartésienne de la substance matérielle, dans la mesure où elle ramène les conjuncta des attributs matériels à la pure étendue comme substrat, parce qu'il en résulterait confusion et paralogismes dans l'usage des catégories cosmologiques.
Empirisme et théorie de l'espace chez Locke (en réponse à F. Duchesneau)
Authors: Lennon Thomas M.
Published: May 2010

Nous semblons, mon commentateur et moi, nous accorder sur les points principaux de mon analyse. Notre seul motif de divergence concerne les raisons pour lesquelles Locke aurait rejeté la théorie cartésienne du plein. Je crois que cette divergence est plus apparente que réelle, car elle provient d'une certaine indétermination dans la façon dont j'ai caractérisé la position cartésienne par contraste avec l'empirisme de Locke. Puisque la question est de conséquence pour mon interprétation de la théorie lockienne de l'esprit et par ailleurs intrinsèquement intéressante, je vais tenter de reformuler ma position.
Psycho-Physical Union: The Problem of the Person in Descartes
Authors: Miles Murray Lewis
Published: May 2010

The problem of the person may be described as the crux of Descartes' philosophy in the fairly obvious literal sense that it is the point of intersection of the two chief axes of the system, the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Mind. The actual, if not professed aim of the former is the ousting of the occult powers and faculties of Scholastic-Aristotelian physics by the mechanical concept of force or action-by-contact. The chief tenet of the latter is that mind, whose essence is thinking, is clearly and distinctly conceivable apart from matter, the essence of which is extension. From this, by an illicit inference which need not concern us further, Descartes concludes that the mind is “really distinct” from matter, that is, a substance capable of existing apart from body in its own right. Where these two lines of thought meet, the problem of the person constitutes itself in the following manner.
Une théorie de la négation et de la complémentation locales
Authors: Gauthier Yvon
Published: May 2010

Les questions fondationnelles en logique et en mathématiques (ou encore en physique), les questions de fond et de fondements sont-elles des questions qui relèvent de la foi ou de la croyance ou des questions susceptibles d'analyse rigoureuse et philosophiquement décidables? C'est cette interrogation que je veux développer et à laquelle j'apporterai une réponse personnelle.
Lafrance on Doxa
Authors: Cherniss Harold
Published: May 2010

The word δξα is used frequently by Plato and with the many shades of meaning that it had in the idiomatic Greek of his time. References to all its occurrences and to those of δοξζω in the Platonic corpus Lafrance gives in an appendix to his book (415–422); and from these in his first chapter (19–33) he selects typical cases to exemplify a score or more of what he calls “literary” meanings, which he divides into two main groups, the objective sense, “appearance”, and the subjective, “opinion”. By eliminating the occurrences of doxa in these colloquial or “literary” senses he restricts his investigation to Plato's philosophical uses of the term, disregarding even the occurrences of these in what he deems to be merely repetitious or undeveloped passages and subjecting to minute analysis only the most fully developed and consequently most significant philosophical passages concerned with doxa. This is the fourth of the four methodological principles that are formulated by Lafrance to govern his investigation and read in the light of which the dialogues, he believes, reveal an intelligibly coherent theory of doxa (15–18). According to the first of these principles in the reading of any Platonic text there must be borne in mind the period of Plato's intellectual evolution in which it was written and the nature of his epistemological notions at that moment; according to the second, Platonic dialogues being genuine philosophical dramas, it is always as fulfilling a function in a definite dramatic situation that Plato discloses his thought to the precise extent that he has decided to do so, and consequently any passage on doxa, to which as such no dialogue is devoted, must be understood in the light of the context in which the question of doxa has arisen. According to the third principle the understanding of a Platonic text requires that account be taken of the scholarly literature dealing with it.
Where Do We Go From Here?: A Reply to Terence Penelhum
Authors: King-Farlow John
Published: May 2010

To read a paper of Professor Penelhum's is usually to learn more about carefulness and truth. In the first part of this reply I try to meet his challenge on a matter where we clearly seem to disagree. In the second part I attempt to show that religious believers need not be so very worried about such a challenge, and that this conclusion affects materialists far more than Penelhum. In the third part I clarify where my haste i n expression clouded a point of agreement with Penelhum, other than those which he has generously pointed out already.
La fin de la «raison dans l'histoire»?
Authors: Raulet Gérard
Published: May 2010

Opposer modernité et post-modernité relève d'un procédé simplifica-teur certes commode à des fins polémiques et tactiques, mais qui achoppe rapidement sur la vanité de toute tentative cherchant à s'ac-crocher à la modernité comme à une valeur immuable. II faudrait pour que ce fût possible que la modernité n'eût pas changé et qu'elle cons-titue, à partir d'une date précise, un complexe susceptible d'une définition univoque. Or, un rapide survol historique des usages de ce terme, même s'il tente d'introduire une première délimitation entre la conception antique et la conception chrétienne du rapport anciens/modernes, montre bien plutôt un processus de redéfinition permanente: la Be-griffsgeschichte rend à peu près possible une périodisation, non une définition univoque, en sorte que cette périodisation ressemble bien plutôt à une scansion mettant en relief des périodes de crise et de mutation idéologiques qui prennent conscience d'elles-mêmes au moyen des catégories anciens/modernes, aujourd'hui: modernes et post-modernes.
Heidegger ou le défi de penser la technique
Authors: Beausoleil Jocelyn R.
Published: May 2010

Plusieurs ont pu dire de Heidegger qu'il était résolument contre la technique. Et—il faut bien le reconnaître—beaucoup de choses dans ce qu7apos;il a écrit ou exprimé permettent effectivement d'avancer une telle thèse, quoique Heidegger ait lui-même protesté contre cette simplification de sa pensée. L'on pourrait citer ici un auteur, dont la critique touchant cette question ne présente rien de vraiment original, mais quijustement par son manque d'originalité traduit assez bien l'opinion la plus largement répandue, et aussi la plus facilement acceptée
Getting Out of Harm's Way
Authors: Allen Barry G. , Patten Steven C.
Published: May 2010

Robert Nozick's adherence to Locke's puzzling doctrine about punishment can seem strange. Why does Nozick follow Locke in claiming that individuals in a state of nature have a right to punish any wrongdoer?

Here reflection on this question proceeds by stages to a conclusion that Nozick as well as any other state-of-nature theorist of similar stripe should find disturbing. For, as we shall see (in section 1), what Nozick describes as the general right of a minimal state to punish cannot arise within a state of nature from the more plausible right of individuals to punish only those who harm them.
Fernand Dumont ou L'anthropologue en présence de son ombre
Authors: Audet Jean-Paul
Published: May 2010

L'anthropologie en l'absence de l'homme: le dernier ouvrage de Fer-nand Dumont nous apporte la réflexion d'un praticien des sciénces de l'homme, et notamment de la sociologie, autour de ce que l'auteur appelle, en un sens d'ailleurs trés large, l'anthropologie.

C'est dire tout de suite qu'il s'agit essentiellement ici d'une pensée portée au second degré sur un premier « discours », ou un savoir déjà constitué: celui que pratique, ou auquel prétend l'anthropologue luimême. Critique d'une exploration qui, en un autre sens il est vrai, se veut elle-même critique, l'entreprise de Fernand Dumont se meut ainsi en général dans une atmosphère plutôt raréfiée.
Mill's Criterion of Wrong Conduct
Authors: Brown D. G.
Published: May 2010

There are two related problems in the interpretation of Mill's ethics which become pressing once one has surmounted the more common misunderstandings and seen the over-all shape of his theory. One problem is to state his criterion of moral wrongness; the other is to show how he thinks this criterion derivable with the help ofthe Principle of Utility.
Ryle's Last Thoughts on Thinking
Authors: Goudge Thomas A.
Published: May 2010

Ten years ago in a Critical Notice of Ryle'sCollected Papers(Dialogue11/4 [1972], 600) I remarked that among its various essays those on the topic of thinking were the most impressive. There were half a dozen of them, written at intervals between 1951 and 1968. The puzzlement that provoked them went on unabated until the end of his life, as is shown by a posthumous collection of papers on the topic now published under the titleOn Thinking. They were all written after 1968, and one even appeared in print in 1976, the year of his death. The papers thus continue Ryle's dedicated, multi-faceted attack on what he regarded as an elusive multi-faceted problem. In this critical notice I shall comment on the last phase of a philosophical campaign of more than a quarter of a century and attempt an assessment of its upshot.
La conception hégélienne du Rapport absolu: réflexion sur la relation de la logique à la constitution objective du monde
Authors: Theau Jean
Published: May 2010

L'étude que nous proposons ici a fait l'objet d'une communication au dernier Congrès de l'Hegelgesellschaft (Athènes, avril 1982). Elle était en vérité un peu extérieure au thème central de ce congrès, qui avait choisi de méditer sur le Weltgeist. Mais nous en avions maintenu la présentation pour deux raisons essentielles, où, selon une combinaison en un sens très hégélienne, l'accidentel se mêlait au rationnel, le «Zufallige» au «vernunftige». L'accidentel résidait dans le fait que l'objet de cette étude correspondait à nos travaux du moment sur les catégories hégéliennes et kantiennes. Le rationnel pouvait s'exprimer en une remarque toute simple: c'est dans le Rapport absolu, l'«absolutes Verhältnis», que s'achève, dans la dialectique hégélienne, la constitution logique du «Welt» et que s'opère l'«Aufhebung» de la sphère de l'objectivité à celle de la subjectivité et du concept, où se définit la figure du «Geist».
Belief and Will Revisited
Authors: Holyer Robert
Published: May 2010

The relation of will to belief is an issue of perennial philosophical and religious interest. Most of the classical accounts of religious belief, both ancient and modern, have accorded the will an important, if not the decisive, role. In the philosophy of mind, the issue has traditionally been one of the major dividing lines, some philosophers arguing a position near that of Descartes, that the will is a constituent element of belief, others siding with Spinoza and Hume, arguing that it is not. But what really is the issue? Much recent discussion of belief and will has been devoted to the question whether we can believe at will apart from any sort of evidence—what has been called belief by fiat. While it may be that this is the most natural interpretation of the claim that belief is based on will, it is certainly not the only one. What is more, most of those who have argued for the importance of the will in belief have never really asserted it. No doubt, one can glean statements from their writings that seem to suggest it; but with due allowance for rhetorical excess, a careful reading of their positions will, I think, show that they were really dealing with other issues. What I hope to accomplish in raising again the issue of will and belief is to advance and defend a set of claims that gets at these other issues. Throughout, my concern will be primarily with religious beliefs, and this not simply out of personal and professional interest, but because the issues I want to discuss arise more clearly (though by no means exclusively) in relation to beliefs of this sort.
Doxastic Obligations and the Traditional Definition of Knowledge
Authors: Hess Peter H.
Published: May 2010

In the sixth chapter of his Theory of Knowledge Roderick Chisholm refers to an example suggested by Alexius Meinong in order to show that the traditional definition of knowledge is in need of some modification. In this paper I should like to show that Chisholm's argument rests on a mistaken assumption as to what an individual's doxastic responsibilities are.
Protagoras Among the Physicists
Authors: Rosenberg Alexander
Published: May 2010

Scientific realism at least in large measure reflects the conviction that physics limns the true nature of reality; that it is the right metaphysical picture of things. This conviction is in turn a product of the failure of positivism's attempt to expunge metaphysics from the corpus of philosophically respectable activities. Since natural science is objective knowledge of the worldpar excellencepost-positivists have embraced it as the ontology which their predecessors had failed to make unnecessary. Scientific realism is metaphysics, shameless or unashamed.
Ostension, Names and Natural Kind Terms
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: May 2010

It seems to be a part of the oral and written tradition of contemporary philosophy that Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam have resurrected a kind of Aristotelianism about natural kinds by reference to purely semantic ideas. Thus in a recent issue of the Journal of Philosophy, M. R. Ayers writes that according to Kripke and Putnam: “The names ‘gold’, ‘tiger’ etc. have their meaning … by being the name of, or, more technically, by ‘rigidly designating’, a natural kind.” And in the immediately following pages he suggests that the view Kripke and Putnam arrive at is “not at all unlike Aristotelian doctrine”, but arrived at from “the rather special point of view of a concern with modal logic, and against the background of Russell's theory of descriptions, the modern obsession with proper names, and so forth”. Presumably what Ayers is alleging here is that something like the Aristotelian position on substance, species, essential properties and so forth is or is intended to be the outcome of the Kripke-Putnam investigations.
On the Difference Between Non-Connoting Terms and Rigid Designators: A Reply to Bradley
Authors: Matthen Mohan
Published: May 2010

A main point of my article, as I see it, is that we can solve Putnam's problem, as articulated in the first paragraph of section three, without recourse to the definition of “natural-kind term” as “rigid designator of a natural kind”. I had three main objections to this definition:

(a) It makes the classification of a term as a natural-kind term dependent on one's metaphysics, i.e., on the status given to natural kinds. However, Putnam's argument seems to be independent of such metaphysical considerations, and the sort of natural kinds it establishes (if any) should be “read off its face”, not set down in advance (section 2).

(b) It permits the derivation of “exotic necessary truths” such as “If water is H20 then necessarily water is H20” (sections 9 and 10).

(c) Putnam's main point appears to be about the independence of a term's extension from a linguistic community's beliefs. Why should this point affect the theory of designation? Kripke's argument about names establishes the non-descriptiveness of names while leaving undisturbed the classical conception of names designating individuals. Why should we not take his and Putnam's parallel arguments as establishing the non-descriptiveness (non-connotation) of natural-kind terms while leaving undisturbed the classical conception of general terms designating classes (section 10)?
Inequalities Not Conceded Yet: A Rejoinder to Gauthier's Reply
Authors: Braybrooke David
Published: May 2010

Gauthier's thinking about the social contract continues to develop vigorously. Had I aimed my criticisms at the stage of his thinking that he had reached at the time of his reply to them, rather than at earlier stages already in print, I would have organized my argument differently. Yet the earlier stages were interesting enough—and remain so—to deserve attention for their own sake. Moreover, my criticisms, even as they stand, have some effects that transcend those stages. They undermine the assumption that there is some uniquely attractive principle, whether Gauthier's principle of maximin relative advantage or any other, for determining what bargain is going to be struck on entering the social contract. They also, I persist in thinking, expose the difficulty of bringing home the maximum claims, as matters requiring respect, to agents who may lose out by accepting them as such matters.
Hume's Argument for the Superiority of Natural Instinct
Authors: Winters Barbara
Published: May 2010

In book I of the Treatise Hume argues that we have no reason to believe what we do about matters of fact (139, 265); these beliefs are not “just conclusions” (89), nor are they “built on solid reasoning” (90). Therefore, all such beliefs are equally unjustified no matter how they are acquired. One might suppose, then, that he would hold that no ranking of ways of acquiring beliefs is possible; all are on a par, since all the resulting beliefs are unreasonable.
Justified True Belief is Knowledge
Authors: Hess Peter H.
Published: May 2010

If we accept the traditional definition of knowledge according to which S knows that P provided that (i) P is true, (ii) S accepts P and (iii) S is justified in believing that P, the Gettier's counter-examples will prompt us to look for a fourth condition to complete the analyses of knowledge. Before we determine whether such a fourth condition is, indeed, needed and, if so, how it is to be formulated, we may do well to examine with some care the situations which, according to Gettier, are counter to the traditional definition of knowledge. There are two reasons why this course of action is to be recommended. First, it may enable us to expose the presuppositions, other than those involved in the traditional definition of knowledge itself, which Gettier appeals to in order to construct his counter-examples. Second, this may provide us with an insight into exactly what it is that is supposed to be wrong with that definition.
The Fool's Heart and Hobbes' Head
Authors: Scally Thomas
Published: May 2010

Chapter fifteen of Leviathan is concerned with what Hobbes calls “the laws of nature”; however, it is evident from the start that justice is the central problem of the chapter. Hobbes demonstrates a rather subtle sensitivity to a possible misunderstanding of his views on the state of nature and the function of natural reason by inventing the character of the fool who purports to use Hobbes' own principle of self-interest to deny the existence of justice. The fool may finally be a “straw man” who proposes precisely that argument which Hobbes can quickly refute, but even if this is so, the straw man has Hobbes' face, or one like it, because the line between the views of the fool and those of Hobbes himself is very fine indeed. This section of Leviathan is more significant than it would seem at first glance because it provides an avenue by means of which one can distinguish the political philosophy of Hobbes from that of classical “individualists” such as Callicles and Thrasymachus. It is all too easy to read Hobbes as an elaborate restatement of the sophistic position of Socrates' famous opponents; the example of the fool belies this facile identity and to a certain extent constitutes a refutation of the classical power theorists.
L'identité est-elle relative?
Authors: Longeart-Roth Maryvonne
Published: May 2010

La relation d'identité est-elle univoque, ou est-elle au contraire relative au concept sous lequel le jugement est énoncé? Depuis quelques années, parmi les philosophes anglo-américains, partisans et adversaires de la thèse que l'on a appelée « la relativité de l'identité », se sont affrontés sur ce point.
Intelligibilité et réalité chez Hobbes et chez Spinoza
Authors: Bernhardt Jean
Published: May 2010

Entre deux philosophes on n'établit de confrontation radicale et, éventuellement, de filiation effective que du point de vue des principes de l'intelligibilité. Or, ce n'est pas du tout de ce point de vue central que l'on s'est géneralement placé pour apprécier l'influence de Hobbes sur Spinoza. Presque toujours, on s'est restreint à la sphère de la théorie politique. En première apparence, les textes de Spinoza lui-même cautionnent ce parti-pris, puisqu'on n'y trouve explicitement cité le nom de Hobbes qu'en deux endroits, le Théologico-politique, note XXXIII au chapitre XVI et la lettre L à Jarig Jelles, du 2 juin 1674, qui ont en commun de prétendre l'un comme l'autre s'opposer à la pensée politique de Hobbes. Quant à la litterature critique, on peut se référer à l'exemple d'un ouvrage particulièrement attentif aux problèmes de sources et d'influences: The Philosophy of Spinoza de H.A. Wolson, dans ses chapitres consacrés à la méthode, évoque beaucoup d'anciens et de modemes, sans dire un seul mot de Hobbes.
La logique et la pensée
Authors: Theau Jean
Published: May 2010

Il semble que, surtout dans les pays de langue anglaise influencés par un idéal industriel, un assez grand nombre de phi-losophes, nouveaux Pygmalions sans le savoir, aient caressé le rêve pourtant glacial d'une logique toute mécanique, qui organiserait le savoir en se substituant à la pensée. Le désir de transporter en philosophie les victotres sans réplique du calcul et de la technicité, où le génie humain se dissimule mais se sent sûr de soi comme un dieu, le culte de l'objectivité rationnelle joint au scepticisme sur l'Esprit et à ce genre d'aversion qu'on pourrait appeler misopsychie, car il s'y mêle la crainte de l'erreur et l'antipathie pour les royaumes du coeur ou de l'imaginaire, ont contribué à enfanter et à répandre, entre autres choses, ce nouveau « rêve de pierre » hélas sans beauté! Que serait une « science sans conscience »? N'est-ce pas là une notion aussi contradictoire, et même dont 1'objet s'avère plus radicalement impossible, que celle d'un carré-rond? Néan-moins quand on parcourt la litterature contemporaine sur le sujet, on serait en droit de conclure qu'un assez grand nombre de philosophies, qui cependant passent leurs journées ou leurs veilles à s'in-terroger sur les conditions de la science, ont cessé de se le demander.
Remarques sur le Rousseau de Victor Goldschmidt
Authors: Lafrance Guy
Published: May 2010

Sila philosophie de Jean-Jacques Rousseau connaît un regain devie par l'actualité de ses thèmes et par ses nombreuses affinités avec la conscience contemporaine, la littérature rousseauiste récente témoigne bien pour sa part de l'attrait qu'exerce sur les philosophes la pensée de Jean-Jacques.
Anarchy, State and Utopica, by Robert Nozick
Authors: Narveson Jan
Published: May 2010

Most books defending the position now know as “libertarianism”, the thesis that government ought to confine itself only to the most minimal functions of preventing or punishing force and fraud, can be dismissed with little scruple as the work of cranks. And some have already done so with this one as well: but wrongly. It is clearly the work of a person of extraordinary brilliance, penetration, and learning, possessed of a pungent style and an uncommon flair for paradox and counterexample. Those who are inclined to reject it out of hand because its conclusions will seem incredible might also bear in mind that its author is a man to whom his colleague John Rawls (whose conclusions do seem very credible to many) has expressed gratitude and indebtedness. At any rate, I propose to take the work with complete seriousness. And after all, should there not be considerable attraction i n the view that the only enforceable duty is that of respecting the freedom of our fellows as completely as possible? Surely it behooves us to see just why this will not do, if it won't; and no better opportunity for examining the view has arisen than that provided by the publication of this book.
The Insoluble Problem of the Social Contract
Authors: Braybrooke David
Published: May 2010

The traditional problem of the social contract defies solution. Agents with the motivations traditionally assumed would not in the circumstances traditionally assumed voluntarily arrive at a contract or voluntarily keep it up, as we can now understand, more clearly than our illustrious predecessors, by treating the problem in terms not available to them: the terms of Prisoner's Dilemma and of the theory of public goods.
La mort de Dieu dans la philosophie moderne
Authors: Pereboom Dirk
Published: May 2010

En 1887, Nietzsche écrivait: «Lévénement le plus actuel, à savoir que Dieu est mort, commence à jeter ses premières ombres sur l'Europe». Ceux qui regardent le monde avec attention, avec une certaine suspicion même, remarquent que le soleil s'est couché, que la confiance de jadis s'est transformée en doute, que notre monde quotidien est devenu plus sombre, plus étrange, «vieux». Cependant cet evenement ne s'est pas encore annonce publiquement, continue Nietzsche, et on ne mesure pas encore les implications de la mort de Dieu: une longue suite de démolitions, de destructions, de déclins, de renversements. II y aura une «logique de terreur», comme on ne l'aura pas encore vu sur la surface de la terre.
Bennett's Account of the Transcendental Dialectic
Authors: Dryer D. P.
Published: May 2010

Jonathan Bennett has produced a sequel to his book on the first half of the Critique of Pure Reason. He does not try to cover all the rest of the Critique. He restricts himself to the Transcendental Dialectic. He rightly claims that his is the only book in English treating exclusively of the Dialectic as a whole. It is not written as a commentary dealing with passage by passage. Many passages are left untreated. A distinctive merit is his extensive comparison of Kant with Descartes and Leibniz.
Sémantique de la métaphore
Authors: Brisson Luc
Published: May 2010

Ce texte comporte deux parties. Une première partie, dans laquelle nous situerons le problème de la métaphore à la jonction de la sémantique structurale, dont nous rappellerons quelques distinctions et définitions essentielles, et de la poétique et de la rhétorique générales, qui, l'une et l'autre, se fondent sur l'instauration, dans le langage, d'un écart dont nous essayerons de déterminer la nature. Puis, dans une seconde partie, nous exposerons les conditions de possibilité, au plan de la sémantique, de l'apparition de la synecdoque, de la métonymie et, bien évidemment, de la métaphore, qu'il s'agisse de la métaphore de nom ou de la métaphore non nominale, c'est-à-dire de la métaphore de verbe, d'adjectif, d'adverbe, de préposition ou même de phrase.
L'usage de l'analogie dans l'interprétation de Platon
Authors: Lafrance Yvon
Published: May 2010

Dans un compte rendu récent sur l'ouvrage de L. Paquet, Platon. La médiation du regard, paru dans Dialogue (XV, 1976, pp. 100–105), L. Brisson porte le jugement suivant sur les chapitres philosophiques de l'ouvrage: «Du point de vue philosophique, un relent de ce thomisme modernisé, pratiqué notamment par les membres du clergé catholique en France et au Québec entre 1900 et 1960, imprègne tout ce livre d'une façon occulte. Moins sensible, lorsqu'il s'agit de transposition chez A. Dies, cette orientation philosophique devient particulièrement insistante, lorsqu'il s'agit d'analogie chez P. Grenet. Or, P. Grenet et, de ce fait, L. Paquet ont tendance sinon à identifier, du moins à assimiler analogie et transposition. De ce fait, inconsciemment ou non, ils interprètent Platon à la lumière de Thomas d'Aquin».
Qu'est-ce que l'épistémologie?
Authors: Auroux Sylvain
Published: May 2010

Qui ignore encore Desanti? Ou plutôt, dans une œuvre discrète, finalement abondante quoique dispersée, parcimonieuse, parfois reniée par son auteur, qui ignore encore les Idéalités Mathématiques? La parution en 1968 de cette thèse mérite qu'on s'arrête à son statut culturel. Ce fut un événement; on en parla, on en parle, on y reconnaît le déploiement d'une démarche originale, la mise en ceuvre d'un vocabulaire nouveau, et pourtant peu nombreux sont ceux qui parlent le «desantien», qui sont disposés à prolonger, fût-ce en un autre lieu, des analyses astreignantes. Il faut l'avouer, la trame du livre a quelque chose d'ahurissant; le texte mathématique, livré dans sa pure technicité, s'y enchaîne et s'y croise avec un texte que, faute de mieux, le lecteur identifie comme philosophique, parce qu'y émergent de temps à autre des fragments d'énoncés auxquels quelque parenté voyante assigne une origine en ce lieu. Chacun veut y retrouver son bien: du premier texte, les philosophes se demandent à quoi peut servir une technicité dont ils croient savoir qu'elle n'a rien à dire, du second, les mathématiciens voient mal en quoi ils pourraient éclaircir ce qui à leurs yeux est parfaitement transparent. Nul pourtant ne met en doute la compétence de l'auteur. Tout tient à l'étrangeté du texte.
Usage logique, psychologique et idéologique de la notion de gratuité
Authors: Pellerin René
Published: May 2010

Avant d'examiner l'application du prédicat de «gratuit» et les circonstances psycho-sociales de ce qui est appelé «acte gratuit», je voudrais établir une définition tautologique du terme lui-même. La notion de gratuité réfère à une absence de fondement, soit au plan de l'origine (cause efficiente), soit au plan de la signification (finalité, valeur, cohérence, vérifiabilité). La gratuité, si l'on ne veut pas en faire une réalité substantielle, sera ainsi la propriété logique ou formelle de ce qui n'a pas de fondement, c'est-à-dire pas de cause, pas de valeur (valeur d'utilité tout spécialement) ou pas de sens qui lui donnerait un statut dans la réalité objectale ou phénoménale. Dans la mesure où l'on considère qu'il n'y a rien qui puisse être tel dans l'ensemble des objets qui nous entourent ou dans l'ensemble des événements qui surviennent dans notre réalité, la gratuité ne peut désigner proprement aucune réalité particulière.
La structure tétrahexaédrique du système complet des propositions catégoriques
Authors: Sauriol Pierre
Published: May 2010

Cet Article souligne quelques distinctions fondamentales concernant le système traditionnel des propositions catégoriques, distinctions sans lesquelles il nous semble impossible de bien saisir la structure de ce système, et distinctions dont la négligence vicie certaines études, en particulier celles déjà anciennes de Miller (1938) et de Reichenbach (1952), et celle toute récente de Grosjean (1972), et en général la plupart de celles qui depuis le début du siècle ont traité du problème de la subalternation. II ne faut pas confondre, en effet, la construction ou la définition des propositions du système, les transformations qui, appliquées à l'une d'entre elles, permettent d'en obtenir une autre distincte, les oppositions que ces propositions entretiennent entre elles, et enfin les lois d'inférence que l'on peut formuler à leur propos par le moyen d'opérateurs propositionnels les reliant tautologiquement deux à deux. Nous développons done séparéent chacun de ces quatre aspects du syst`me, et nous apportons également (d'où le titre de 1'article) une solution nouvelle au problème de sa représentation géométrique, problème auquel Reichenbach et Grosjean accordant une certaine importance, et que Blanché (1966) a aussi abordé en partie.
L'affrontement entre le Christianisme et le Paganisme dans le Contre Celse d'Origène
Authors: Letocha Danièle
Published: May 2010

Soixante-dix ans environ séparent le Discours véritable contre les chrétiens (c. 180) du Contre l'écrit de Celse intitulé Discours véritable (248). Origène ne tient pas compte de cette distance historique: il discute au présent. Or, la situation de la culture païenne n'est plus exactement la même qu'au siècle précédent. La dynastie des Sévères s'effondre dans le désordre. La pensée s'appauvrit jusqu'à devenir «un Sahara littéraire» selon l'expression tranchante de Ferdinand Lot. De leur côté, les chrétiens ont gagné du terrain et leur recrutement s'est modifié: désormais ils comptent dans leurs rangs des lettrés capables d'articuler la doctrine. Au siècle des apologètes succède celui des premiers théologiens. Cependant, bien que les interlocuteurs de Celse aient changé, païens et Chrétiens se situent dans la continuité de leur courant respectif. On pourrait résumer la situation en disant que le paganisme continue de s'effriter tandis que le christianisme se définit lentement.
Conventional aspects of human action, its time, and its place
Authors: Castañeda Hector-Neri
Published: May 2010

In the last few years a broad debate has taken place in books and journals about the time of action. Many different views have been propounded, and many an ingenious argument has been devised. I submit that those views are insightful but that the arguments have been misplaced. The views are at bottom compatible, for they differ in what they call ‘action’. I propose that our conception of action is so enveloped in conventions that there is no factual issue, per se, about the time and place of human action. There are actually several layers of conventionality involved in our timing and placing of actions. The crucial philosophical issues pertain to the clarification of those conventional layers. Among these issues are: (i) What are the conventions involved in timing and locating actions? (ii) What is the rationale for those conventions? (iii) Is that rationale sufficient to show the usefulness of those conventions? (iv) Can and should those conventions be improved upon?
La théorie aristotélicienne de la science. A propos d'un livre récent
Authors: Lafrance Yvon
Published: May 2010

C'est un ouvrage difficile, voire même déroutant pour l'historien d'Aristote, que vient de publierl'éminent épistémologue et logicien de l'Université de Provence, G. Granger. Malgré ces difficultés et ce dépaysement que nous aurons à expliquer dans ces pages, on ne saurait cependant nier l'intérêt que peut susciter aujourd'hui une étude sur la théorie aristotélicienne de la science. Et on ne pourrait trop remercier G. Granger de s'être attelé à la tâche difficile de nous expliquer à sa manière la pensée du Stagirite sur la science.
Compte-rendu critique de «Les révolutions du savoir » par Serge Robert, Editions du Préambule, 1979.
Authors: Gagnon Maurice
Published: May 2010

Très ambitieuse, l'entreprise épistémologique exposée dans ce livre «est générale et non régionale, descriptive plutôt que normative, décrit le savoir par des modèles structuralistes logico-diachroniques, et s'appuie sur une théorie matérialiste critique de la connaissance » (p. 70). L'auteur entend couvrir toute l'histoire de la pensée, et il emprunte des concepts fondamentaux à Freud, Marx, Piaget, Barthes et Foucault, sans se priver cependant de modifier ces concepts de façon à les rendre intégrables dans la synthèse qu'il tente de réaliser.
Reply to Phillip Gosselin
Authors: Hunter J.F.M.
Published: May 2010

In acting freely and being held responsible, (Dialogue, 1973), I said it seemed to me that people who took widely divergent approaches to the freedom controversy nevertheless scarcely doubted the principle that only for actions freely done can a person be held responsible; and I presented a line of argument against that principle.