John Dupre warns that our understanding of human nature is being distorted by two faulty and harmful forms of pseudo-scientific thinking. Not just in the academic world but in everyday life, we find one set of experts who seek to explain the ends at which humans aim in terms of evolutionary theory, while the other set uses economic models to give rules of how we act to achieve those ends. Dupre demonstrates that these theorists' explanations do not work and that, (...) if taken seriously, their theories tend to have dangerous social and political consequences. For these reasons, it is important to resist scientism: an exaggerated conception of what science can be expected to do for us. Dupre restores sanity to the study of human nature by pointing the way to a proper understanding of humans in the societies that are our natural and necessary environments. Anyone interested in science and human life will enjoy this book--unless they are its targets. (shrink)

v. 1. Reflection & mystery -- v. 2. Faith & reality.

This volume presents two works by Gabriel Marcel.

Štúdia interpretuje udalostnú hermeneutiku francúzskeho fenomenológa Clauda Romana, ktorú postuloval v publikáciách Udalosť a svet, Udalosť a čas a Tam je, a to cez prizmu umeleckej skúsenosti. Štúdia si kladie za cieľ interpretovať pojmy ako udalosť, advenant, ex-per-iancia, rekonfigurácia a ničota a poukázať na ich súvislosť s umením. Pracovná téza je: Advenant býva umelecky. Cieľom štúdie tak nie je len analýza a pred-stavenie Romanovho diela, ale aj vyzdvihnutie tendencií smerujúcich k chápaniu udalosti a advenanta v umeleckých kontúrach. Štúdia preto analyzuje (...) autorov kontext, ktorý tvorí fenomenologická hermeneutika, predovšetkým diela Martina Heideggera a Henriho Maldineya. V súvislosti s rekonfiguratívnym aspektom advenantovho bytia sa v štúdii stáva ústredným konceptom pojem figúry, z ktorého následne vyplýva problém herectva. (shrink)

T he study interprets Alain Badiou’s philosophy using Vincent Descombes’ Le même et l’autre (The Same and the Other). We believe that placing Badiou in the context of French philosophy of the 20th century can show him in a new light. Descombes’ book forms an interpretive framework from which the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and G. W. F. Hegel emerge. We perceive Badiou as an author who connects two phases of French philosophy (postulated by Descombes): the period of the three (...) H’s (Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger) and the period of (post)structuralism (Nietzsche, Freud, Marx). T he study will try to show connections, but also differences, between these concrete philosophies. The goal, in the meantime, is to shed light on Badiou, who can still be described as an (sufficiently) author who isn’t reflected, through the philosophy of authors who have already been reflected. We will move into the center of Badiou’s thinking through his inaesthetics. (shrink)

t. 1. Le mythe cosmogonique, fasc. 1. La creatíon du monde.

Rosa Luxemburg a fondé le Parti communiste d’Allemagne (KPD) dans l’hiver 1918-1919. Peu de temps après, elle était assassinée. Elle fut ensuite largement célébrée au sein du parti. Néanmoins, ses idées touchant la praxis politique du KPD ont donné lieu à de vifs débats – en particulier sa conception de la “realpolitik révolutionnaire”. Dès le congrès de foundation du parti, on a assisté à des affrontements sur les questions de la cooperation avec les sociaux-démocrates, de l’engagement dans les syndicats, et (...) de la participation aux élections legislatives – une aile gauche influente rejetant les trois. Ces conflits perdurèrent tout au long de l’année 1919. Le leader du parti, Paul Lévi, se voyait lui-même comme le gardien de l’héritage politique de Rosa Luxemburg, qu’il ne parvint à préserver qu’au prix d’une scission du parti. Cet article suit le développement du KPD dans la première année qui suivit la mort de Luxemburg, et cherche à éclairer le lien entre les différentes positions présentes au sein du parti et la praxis de l’organisation. (shrink)

The current expression of “flatten the curve” has similarities with mid-twentieth century macro-economic policy that can aptly be characterized as “shaping macro phenomena.” To the extent these similarities hold, the historical-epistemological analysis of this kind of macro-economic policy can provides us with a better understanding of the preconditions for the effectiveness of the current COVID-19 flatten-the-curve policy. Policy in terms of shaping a phenomenon presumes that the phenomenon in question exists and has a certain shape that can be moulded. This (...) moulding, however, is not assumed to be performed directly on the shape itself, but by operating the mechanism that generates this shape, and which is also believed to exist. Therefore the precondition for this kind of policy is knowing the mechanism at work. The knowledge of this kind of intervention needed to change the shape in a desired direction, this knowledge about the mechanism, is assumed to be captured by a mathematical model on which several policies can be tried out to see which one leads to the desired shape. Mid-twentieth century macro-economic policy aimed at shaping the business cycle, and hence was based on the belief in the existence of a business cycle mechanism. With the loss of the belief in the existence of such a mechanism, the policy of shaping the business cycle disappeared with that too. This paper unpacks this history and shows how this policy based on mechanical reasoning, which originated in natural science, was gradually replaced by an approach that takes into account non-natural aspects of human behaviour. (shrink)

Propose une étude sur une période particulière de l'histoire du philosophe, celle de sa compromission avec le nazisme en 1933.

" Si, après Auschwitz, croire en un Dieu-raison n'est plus possible, reste, d'un côté, la foi simple - la foi qui n'est qu'un cri -, de l'autre la raison, pure de religion. Philosopher comme avant, on ne le peut, mais seulement mieux qu'avant - ou pas du tout. Refermée, pour la philosophie, la parenthèse judéo-chrétienne ; fini le temps des castors - des Descartes, Kant, Hegel, des bâtisseurs de digues pour dompter le flot de la Libre Pensée issu de la (...) source grecque. L'heure est aux philosophies du refus. Refus de toute logicisation philosophico-théologique du monde, où le mal absolu n'est plus qu'un détail. De là une vision a-théiste et a-cosmique du monde, une vision déréalisante du " réel ", mais aussi, devant la vie, l'appel à un nouveau courage. Car, dans la défaite des absolus sécurisants, reste, comme corrélat du mal absolu, l'absolu de la mort et du Temps. " M. C. (shrink)

In an age where fake news, conspiracy theories, and outright lies by political and cultural leaders are commonplace, we may be becoming accustomed to lying, or worse, even immune to it. Pseudology unravels the reasons for this by describing a "science of lying" that looks at various aspects of this trait, from how it affects the brain to how it distorts perception.