Dans le précédent numéro de Methodos j’avais fait un compte-rendu de la traduction du De beryllo (Traité du béryl) de Nicolas de Cues, proposée par Maude Corrieras (M. C.). Je considérais que cette traduction s’inscrivait dans la suite des récentes traductions en français d’œuvres du cusain, et je concluais : la traduction proposée du Traité du béryl est une aide estimable à la compréhension de la démarche de Nicolas de Cues, sans que pour autant ce traité puisse se substituer aux (...) grands text... (shrink)

L’œuvre de Nicolas de Cues est à la disposition de la communauté scientifique depuis l’édition monumentale de ses Opera omnia par l’académie de Heidelberg, et un grand nombre de publications y ont été consacré. Depuis une vingtaine d’années l’intérêt pour cette oeuvre a été relancé notamment par les études du grand médiéviste Kurt Flasch, et, en France, par la thèse de J.-M. Counet et par plusieurs traductions qui mettent à la disposition d’un public cultivé toute une série de textes du (...) cusai... (shrink)

À partir des deux théophanies de Nicolas de Cues et de Leibniz, qui donnent à l’homme une place privilégiée au sein du monde créé, du fait de son statut de miroir ou image vivante qui reflète ou exprime le monde dans sa totalité, et de conceptions qui pensent la présence de l’infini dans le fini, on s’interroge ici sur la conception de la connaissance comme perspective de la monade chez Leibniz et la connaissance « quo modo capere possunt » des (...) créatures connaissantes dans l’univers cusain afin de voir si se tissent des liens de filiation évidents. On se demandera enfin si le système de l’expression, chez Leibniz, qui fait que toute monade exprime l’univers tout entier – ce qui semble proche de l’idée cusaine de la mens comme miroir ou image vivante – ne dépasse pas le perspectivisme « restrictif » de la conception cusaine et n’inscrit pas la démarche leibnizienne dans un dessein beaucoup plus large, qui nécessite un tissu de relations entre les différentes monades que constitue la compossibilité. Tout mouvement de connaissance est connaissance de toutes choses, mais dans un système de relations qui précède l’existence de la monade et qui résulte du calcul du meilleur, soumis au principe de non-contradiction.Ainsi, si un héritage réel semble se dessiner entre Nicolas de Cues et Leibniz, qui place le sujet connaissant au centre de l’édifice créé par Dieu, ou Création, dans une démarche à la fois libre et dépendante du principe premier, il faut comprendre que les deux systèmes de pensée ne répondent pas tout à fait au même dessein. (shrink)

Sacrificing one's own interests in order to serve another is, in general, supposed to be a good thing, an example of altruism, the hallmark of morality, and something we should commend to (but not always require of) the entirely-too-selfish human beings of our society. But let me recount a story that I hope will persuade the reader to start questioning this conventional philosophical wisdom. Last year, a friend of mine was talking with me about a mutual acquaintance whose two sons (...) were in the same nursery school as our sons. This woman, whom I will call Terry, had been pregnant with twins, but one of the twins had died during the fourth month of pregnancy, and the other twin had just been born prematurely at six months with a host of medical problems. We were discussing how stressful this woman's life had been while she was pregnant: she was a housewife, and her two boys, aged three and five, were lively, challenging, often unruly--a real handful to raise. Her husband worked long hours in a law firm, so the vast majority of the childcare and household chores fell on her shoulders. "You could see that she was exhausted by end of the first trimester," I maintained, "because her eyes were tired, and her cheeks were sunken--she looked almost like a cadaver." My friend agreed. I went on to blame her exhaustion on the fact that she had to do too much during a pregnancy that anyone would have found difficuIt. "I don't understand her husband," I maintained. "Surely he could how badly she looked. If he had concern for his future children, why didn't he do something to help her so that the pregnancy had a chance of going better? And if he loved her, why didn't he cut down his hours so that he could help out at home? Surely he could see just by looking at her that she was in trouble," My friend said nothing at the time, but after a week she called me, and told me that my criticism of this woman's husband had bothered her all week. "You're wrong about Terry's husband not caring enough about her, They have a good marriage," she insisted, and then she continued: "You know, you're not like us, We accept the fact that we should do most of the childcare and housework.. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to clarify the role of category theory in the foundations of mathematics. There is a good deal of confusion surrounding this issue. A standard philosophical strategy in the face of a situation of this kind is to draw various distinctions and in this way show that the confusion rests on divergent conceptions of what the foundations of mathematics ought to be. This is the strategy adopted in the present paper. It is divided into 5 (...) sections. We first show that already in the set theoretical framework, there are different dimensions to the expression foundations of. We then explore these dimensions more thoroughly. After a very short discussion of the links between these dimensions, we move to some of the arguments presented for and against category theory in the foundational landscape. We end up on a more speculative note by examining the relationships between category theory and set theory. (shrink)

This article describes what the earliest concepts are like and presents a theory of the spatial primitives from which they are formed. The earliest concepts tend to be global, like animal and container, and it is hypothesized that they consist of simplified redescriptions of innately salient spatial information. These redescriptions become associated with sensory and other bodily experiences that are not themselves redescribed, but that enrich conceptual thought. The initial conceptual base becomes expanded through subdivision, sometimes aided by language that (...) points up these divisions or suggests new spatial analyses, and by the analogical extension of spatially derived concepts to nonspatial domains. This formulation is contrasted with Fodor's (1998) metaphysical theory of concept formation. (shrink)

THE first and most important deduction from the principles we have so far laid down is that the general will alone can direct the State according to the object ...

In this paper I answer some concerns of the commentators on my article 'On the birth and growth of concepts'. I explain that my theory of concept formation in infancy emphasizes spatial information over bodily information but still allows the body to influence conceptual thought. I suggest that bodily feelings may be represented differently from spatial information. I do not claim that spatial image-schemas account for all conceptual thought, but I show why they are sufficient for the relatively limited conceptual (...) life of preverbal infants, making an innate propositional language of thought unnecessary. Finally, I discuss why uninterpreted percepts cannot be concepts, and clarify the mechanism of Perceptual Meaning Analysis. (shrink)

Categorical foundations and set-theoretical foundations are sometimes presented as alternative foundational schemes. So far, the literature has mostly focused on the weaknesses of the categorical foundations. We want here to concentrate on what we take to be one of its strengths: the explicit identification of so-called canonical maps and their role in mathematics. Canonical maps play a central role in contemporary mathematics and although some are easily defined by set-theoretical tools, they all appear systematically in a categorical framework. The key (...) element here is the systematic nature of these maps in a categorical framework and I suggest that, from that point of view, one can see an architectonic of mathematics emerging clearly. Moreover, they force us to reconsider the nature of mathematical knowledge itself. Thus, to understand certain fundamental aspects of mathematics, category theory is necessary (at least, in the present state of mathematics). (shrink)

Welfarism, a position which for a long time enjoyed a hegemonic status in the field of normative economics, holds that the sole ethically relevant information for assessing social states of affairs pertains to individual utilities. Serge-Christophe Kolm presents the Equal-Labour Income Equalization model very explicitly and repeatedly as breaking with the still dominant tradition of welfarism. This paper explores the meaning of this distancing from welfarism found in the ELIE model. After having provided conceptual clarifications concerning both ELIE and welfarism, (...) we discuss various opposing aspects of this model of income redistribution to welfarism. We show that the refusal of welfarism by the ELIE model does not depend mainly on its axiomatic features, but on its deontological perspective. (shrink)

In an era in which certain arenas of scientific research have become increasingly controversial, this article critically evaluates what it means to “believe in science.” Many scientists today seem to claim a sovereign right to no political interference under the rubric of freedom. This article questions such a notion, and explores the dominance of science and the silencing of moral voices by undertaking two brief investigations—the first into National Socialist Germany, which insisted that it was defined by “applied biology,” and (...) the second into the world of contemporary American biomedicine. When all ethical barriers are eradicated, it seems that a will to power takes over—manifested in Nazi Germany’s vaunted scientific autonomy. In light of these sobering historical examples, this article reminds the reader that members of the public, including physicians, rightly deliberate about how to conscientiously order their lives together, and that part of that instrinsically political deliberation is to set limits to the ways medical science is applied and what scientists may do in pursuit of their goals. (shrink)

¿Hay algún retrato “verdadero” de Descartes? Si bien sabemos, salvo unas pocas excepciones, quiénes pintaron o grabaron el retrato de Descartes, reconocemos a Descartes sin saber si los cuadros y los grabados lo retratan “verdaderamente”. ¿Qué tienen en común los grabados de Hellemans y del autor desconocido de “Descartes como Fausto” con el cuadro de Weenix? La respuesta es inequívoca: los libro; hasta tal punto que el libro funge como un atributo. El ícono de la filosofía moderna es el que (...) se esconde para pensar; es el que, desde el secreto detrás de la máscara, mira al espectador y lo obliga, bajo el prisma de la iconografia, a devolverse del mundo de la representación a la letra del texto. (shrink)

This paper seeks to clarify some of the methodological and conceptual stakes involved in the attempt to think about politics from the point of view of "living labour". In order to avoid confusions further down the track, a formal analysis of the different possible meanings of "politics" is proposed. Politics is first defined as the series of problems that arise when separate individual lives attempt to organise a common life in common. Four types of problems can be identified on the (...) basis of this initial definition, beyond the questions concerning the origin and justification of power, or the structure of the institutions of government. Following a brief characterisation of the paradigm of living labour, with reference to key texts by Marx and Dejours, this paradigm is then put into practice to provide initial answers to the questions raised in the preliminary analysis. First, the meaning of the fundamental norms of social life (equality, liberty, solidarity) is transformed from the point of view of living labour. Secondly, the implicit social ontology on the basis of which political questions are raised is also altered if viewed from the perspective of living labour, as social partitioning acquires a more specific dimension once conflicts around work are taken into account. Finally, the experience of living labour is a condition of democratic life as it determines the acquisition of personal dispositions which represent not only a prepolitical foundation of democratic activity, but are in fact directly involved in the actual process of collective decision-making. (shrink)

John Locke is recognized as a great and original thinker, but the attention paid to his philosophy has overshadowed the many other facets of this man's accomplishments in fields such as medicine, botany, economics and literature. The author has gathered together in A Locke Miscellany many unknown essays, articles and descriptive vignettes that offer new views of Locke - both as a multi-talented individual and as an ordinary human being, forced at one time to live in exile.

The paper examines briefly Kant's and Fichte's, and more thoroughly, Hegel's theses on womanhood and their social and political consequences. It shows, taking Hegel as a case study, that the idealists' conceptual frameworks should have led them to recognize the rights of women, and, importantly, in Kant's and Hegel's case, that they implicitly did so. However, they chose to repress these unwanted outcomes behind teachings that were more in line with the beliefs of their time. This tension, it is argued (...) in conclusion, is indicative of a conceptual crux that is specific to German idealism, but whose effects can still be perceived today. (shrink)

La présente contribution analyse les deux risques auxquels sont confrontés l’administration pénitentiaire et son personnel, les surveillants notamment, dans leur lutte contre la radicalisation : le risque de la protection insuffisante de la société face à des conversions non repérées et susceptibles d’aboutir à des actes violents de type terroriste, d’une part, et, d’autre part, le risque du signalement systématique pouvant conduire au renforcement du sentiment de discrimination chez certains détenus et, paradoxalement, constituer un terrain favorable au développement de la (...) radicalisation violente. Pour dépasser ces deux risques, il est proposé, à partir de données de terrain, une application équilibrée du principe de précaution qui devrait reposer sur une meilleure formation des personnels par la pratique, entre autres, de l’interprétation croisée. (shrink)

This paper explores the scholastic context of the discussion about the unity of the composite or corporeal substance and the nature of the vinculum substantiale or substantial bond in Leibniz’s correspondence with Des Bosses. Three prominent scholastic views are examined: Duns Scotus’s antireductionist account of the composite substance as an entity irreducible to its essential parts ; Ockham’s parts-whole identity thesis, which entails a reductionist view of the composite substance; and Suárez’s explanation of the unity of composite substance through the (...) presence of a substantial mode of union. It is then shown that Leibniz initially combines a reductionist account of the composite substance, with the vinculum playing the role of bond among the component monads. In his last letters, he moves away from this to an antireductionist account of the composite substance, with which he now identifies the vinculum. (shrink)

The End of the Avant-Gardes : May 68 and the Situationists What emerges first and foremost from Debord’s writings in 1968 is that the situationists’ initial reaction to the May “events” was to interpret them as the first example of a spontaneous general strike in the context of what he called “overdeveloped capitalism”. Debord’s position on this question is linked to his questioning of the status of the avant-gardes. At the time, Debord and those close to him sought both to (...) conceptualise and to enact the end of the avant-gardes. And this included the Internationale Situationniste in its status as political, philosophical and artistic avant-garde. e article subsequently sets out to show that if the situationists did have any leverage on the events of May, it was insofar as they practised a maverick Marxism centred on the concept of alienation. is enabled them to conceptualise both the exploitation of the wage-earner and the condition of the consumer. Because they represent a comprehensive critique of capitalism and because, furthermore, they refuse to compromise on the revolutionary and worker dimension of the May-June 1968 moment, Debord’s writings of the period enable us to grasp what, in the strict sense, remains beyond any opportunistic recuperation in these events. (shrink)

Deleuze, même s’il n’en fait presque jamais mention, connaît très bien la pensée de Nicolas de Cues, qu’il a abordée sans doute par la médiation de Maurice de Gandillac, son directeur de thèse. Le thème où l’influence du Cusain se marque le plus clairement est celui de l’Idiot. L’idiot pour Deleuze est l’homme qui philosophe avec les seules ressources de la raison naturelle, sans révélation ni recours à des traditions livresques. Or, dans la conception que Deleuze se fait de la (...) pensée, l’événement vient sortir l’esprit humain de sa torpeur native et l’invite à faire face à de l’inédit, vis-à-vis duquel la pensée est, au départ, démunie. En ce sens, penser véritablement, « c’est faire l’idiot ». L’article examine aussi quelques thématiques connexes : la philosophie comme production de concepts, la nature du concept constitué de notes caractéristiques, le statut du monde et celui des images dans ses études sur le cinéma. Dans ces différents champs, l’influence de Nicolas de Cues sur Deleuze est indéniable. (shrink)

Pour le collectif Erato STENE créé par les auteurs, il existe non pas une géographie mais des géographies et les différences entre elles peuvent révéler des enjeux importants. Chaque auteur fait le point sur le vocabulaire de la géographie qu'il pratique. Sont ainsi proposées des fiches épistémologiques qui peuvent être comparées. Parmi les termes traités : centralité, dynamique, habitat, paysage.