In the countries with a strong muslim immigration, the practice and the organization of Islam represent a national and international politica! stake. The Belgian state, which recognizes and supports the most important cults financially, recognized Islam in 1974. But this cult doesn't still obtain this state support and the questions concerning its organization are more complex than ever. Thelegislation is insufficient and its application almost non-existent. The debates on 'integrism' and hijab have confronted us with the problem of the integrating (...) role of Islam. The Belgian political world seems today to fear the influence of foreign countries on immigrants. All these factors throw light on the history and the present state of the Belgian legislation on the organization of the islamic cult, which this article analyses. (shrink)

The proposal of this article is to present and discuss the methodology applied in the frame of a socio-anthropological research held in Bolivia and Peru on child development and growth. The objectives of the investigation were to study the mother?s perceptions (and those of other related caretakers..

Compilation of the most important documents and speeches by Pierre de Coubertin on Olympism and the Olympic Games.

Two populations are subdivided into two categories of individuals (hawks and doves). Individuals fight to have access to a resource which is necessary for their survival. Conflicts occur between individuals belonging to the same population and to different populations. We investigate the long term effects of the conflicts on the stability of the community. The modelis a set of ODE's with four variables corresponding to hawk and dove individuals of the two populations. Two time scales are considered. A fast time (...) scale is used to describe frequent encounters and fightings between individuals trying to monopolize the resource. A slow time scale is used for the demography and the long term effects of encounters. We use aggregation methods in order to reduce this model into a system of two ODE's only for the total densities of the two populations which is found to be a classical Lotka-Volterra competition model. We study different cases of proportions of hawks and doves in both populations on the global coexistence and the mutal exclusion of the two populations. Pure dove tactics in both populations are unstable. In cases of mixed hawk and dove in both populations, there is coexistence. Pure dove or mixed hawk-dove tactics in one population can coexist with pure hawks in the other one when the costs of fightings between hawks are large enough. (shrink)

As the result of the complexity inherent in nature, mathematical models employed in ecology are often governed by a large number of variables. For instance, in the study of population dynamics we often deal with models for structured populations in which individuals are classified regarding their age, size, activity or location, and this structuring of the population leads to high dimensional systems. In many instances, the dynamics of the system is controlled by processes whose time scales are very different from (...) each other. Aggregation techniques take advantage of this situation to build a low dimensional reduced system from which behavior we can approximate the dynamics of the complex original system.In this work we extend aggregation techniques to the case of time dependent discrete population models with two time scales where both the fast and the slow processes are allowed to change at their own characteristic time scale, generalizing the results of previous studies. We propose a non-autonomous model with two time scales, construct an aggregated model and give relationship between the variables governing the original and the reduced systems. We also explore how the properties of strong and weak ergodicity, regarding the capacity of the system to forget initial conditions, of the original system can be studied in terms of the reduced system. (shrink)

These essays derive from Teilhard's concern to reveal the true meaning of our age and to stimulate the "sense of man and sense of the Christian." The controversial essay "The Evolution of Chastity" was published here in its entirety for the first time. Foreword by N. M. Wildiers; Index. Translated by René Hague. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

The Future of Man is a magnificent introduction to the thoughts and writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of the few figures in the history of the Catholic Church to achieve renown as both a scientist and a theologian. Trained as a paleontologist and ordained as a Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin devoted himself to establishing the intimate, interdependent connection between science—particularly the theory of evolution—and the basic tenets of the Christian faith. At the center of his philosophy (...) was the belief that the human species is evolving spiritually, progressing from a simple faith to higher and higher forms of consciousness, including a consciousness of God, and culminating in the ultimate understanding of humankind’s place and purpose in the universe. The Church, which would not condone his philosophical writings, refused to allow their publication during his lifetime. Written over a period of thirty years and presented here in chronological order, the essays cover the wide-ranging interests and inquiries that engaged Teilhard de Chardin throughout his life: intellectual and social evolution; the coming of ultra-humanity; the integral place of faith in God in the advancement of science; and the impact of scientific discoveries on traditional religious dogma. Less formal than The Phenomenon of Man and The Divine Milieu , Teilhard de Chardin’s most renowned works, The Future of Man offers a complete, fully accessible look at the genesis of ideas that continue to reverberate in both the scientific and the religious communities. (shrink)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's spiritual masterpiece, The Divine Milieu, in a newly-revised translation by Siôn Cowell, is addressed to those who have lost faith in conventional religion but who still have a sense of the divine at the heart of the cosmos. "The heavens declare the glory of God," sings the Psalmist. Teilhard would agree. "We are surrounded," he says, "by a certain sort of pessimist who tells us continually that our world is foundering in atheism. But should we (...) not say rather that what it is suffering from is unsatisfied theism?" He sees a universe in movement where progress is the spiritualisation of matter and its opposite is the materialisation of spirit. Teilhard opts for progress. The Divine Milieu is both the divine centre and the divine circle, the divine heart and the divine sphere. The Divine Milieu is an essay on the notion of grace. It is written for those who listen primarily to the voices of the Earth: its purpose is to provide a link to traditional Christianity (as expressed in Baptism, Cross and Eucharist) in order to demonstrate that the fears prevalent in contemporary world society as it abuses its very foundation - Mother Earth - may be better understood by the Gospel path. Teilhard's primary purpose is to show a way forward which he sees as the "Christian religious ideal". (shrink)

The Art Firm explores the seemingly unorthodox alliance of the arts, management, and marketing. Art firms—as avant-garde enterprises and arts corporations—have existed for at least two hundred years, using texts, images, and other types of art to create corporate wealth. This book investigates how to apply the methods artists use in creating value to the methods more traditional managers use in running their businesses. Guillet de Monthoux offers a crash course in aesthetics from Kant to Gadamer, showing how aesthetic management (...) and metaphysical marketing can create value. Using case studies of successful art managers from Richard Wagner to Robert Wilson, the author illustrates the creative role—so central to value-making in contemporary economies—performed by aesthetic play in art firms. Along the way, Guillet de Monthoux points out how responsible aesthetic management and marketing can eradicate the problems of banality and totality, the two capital sins of an art-based economy. (shrink)

Au début du XXe siècle, si la Chine demeure encore largement une terre vierge pour les explorateurs occidentaux, elle fascine également les chercheurs. Qu'ils soient géographes, géologues, paléontologues ou préhistoriens, tous savent que de formidables découvertes restent à y faire. Suédois et Américains font rapidement le voyage vers l'Empire du Milieu, mais ce sont des Français qui, sur le terrain, vont écrire les plus belles pages de la découverte du Paléolithique de Chine, des premières industries lithiques à l'étude du gisement (...) de l'Homme de Pékin. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin est l'un d'entre eux, qui durant près de vingt ans va parcourir des milliers de kilomètres dans les campagnes et les déserts de Chine et de Mongolie, à la recherche des premiers hommes. Entre 1923 et 1940, il maintient une relation épistolaire avec son port d'attache à Paris, le Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, en la personne de son professeur de paléontologie, Marcellin Boule. Au fil de quatre-vingt-neuf lettres, interrompues par seulement une dizaine de retours vers l'Occident et par sa participation à la fameuse Croisière Jaune Citroën, il décrit, sur fond de rumeurs révolutionnaires évoquées ici et là, ses explorations et ses découvertes à son " Maître et ami ", de vingt ans son aîné, et à qui il voue une dévotion reconnaissante et quasi filiale - " [...] celui à qui je dois tout dans ma carrière scientifique [...] ". Au-delà de sa valeur scientifique, chacune de ces lettres - qu'elle soit écrite du désert de Gobi, des rives du Fleuve Jaune ou à bord d'un véhicule de la Croisière Jaune - est le reflet d'une formidable épopée. Véritable " Journal de bord " d'un savant, cette correspondance se révèle, tout autant que l'écho d'une extraordinaire aventure humaine, la découverte d'un pays prodigieux. (shrink)

La messe sur le monde.--Trois histoires comme Benson.--La puissance spirituelle de la matière.--Pensées, choisies par Fernande Tardivel.