1st ser. The philosophy of art. The ideal in art.--2d ser. The philosophy of art in Italy. The philosophy of art in the Netherlands. The philosophy of art in Greece.

C'est par anachronisme que l'on distingue aujourd'hui en Taine l'historien, le psychologue, le critique et l'écrivain. Cet ouvrage entreprend de montrer l'unité de son oeuvre et propose une réflexion sur la nature propre des sciences humaines, dont Taine a contribué à forger l'identité moderne.

TAINE ( 1828-1893 ), HISTORIEN ET POLITOLOGUE DU XIXE SIECLE, ASSOCIE HISTOIRE ET POLITIQUE, TRADITION ET NATION, ET RELANCE LE COURANT DE PENSEE CONTRE-REVOLUTIONNAIRE ET TRADITIONALISTE. DISCIPLE DE SPINOZA ET DE HEGEL, IL LAICISE LE TRADTIONALISME EN REJETANT LA REFERENCE A DIEU POUR LE PRIMAT DE LA SCIENCE. COMTISME, POSITIVISME ANGLAIS DE STUART MILL ET BUCKLE, SCIENTISME, NATURALISME ET DARWINISME LE CONDUISENT A ADOPTER UNE METHODE HISTORIQUE DETERMINISTE REPOSANT SUR LES CONCEPTS DE "RACE, MILIEU ET MOMENT". DE CETTE METHODE, (...) TAINE ENTEND FONDER UNE SCIENCE DE LA POLITIQUE NATURELLE, HISTORIQUE ET EXPERIMENTALE. PAR AILLEURS, LA PENSEE POLITIQUE DE TAINE EST DE TYPE DUALISTE, ENTRE TRADITIONALISME ET LIBERALISME. TAINE POSE LA QUESTION DE LA PLACE DE L'INDIVIDU FACE AU POUVOIR. IL SE MONTRE LIBERAL EN PRECONISANT UNE MONARCHIE CONSTITUTIONNELLE ET UN REGIME PARLEMENTAIRE. FACE A L'ETAT, QU'IL SOUHAITE LIMITE, IL DEFENT LES DROITS ET LES LIBERTES DE L'INDIVIDU. IL PROPOSE D'AMENAGER LE SUFFRAGE UNIVERSEL EN LE RENDANT INDIRECT MAIS ACCEPTE CEPENDANT LA FORCE DU NOMBRE. LA PENSEE POLITIQUE DE TAINE APARAIT AINSI TRES ORIGINALE; C'EST CE QUE MONTRE SA POSTERITE PUISQU' ELLE INSPIRE LES PENSEURS NATIONALISTES COMME BARRES MAIS EGALEMENT LES HOMMES DE GAUCHE DE LA IIIE REPUBLIQUE COMME HERRIOT ET BLUM. (shrink)

Hippolyte Taine a rédigé, en 1870, au moment où son oeuvre changea d’orientation, une monographie relatant l’observation du développement du langage chez son propre enfant. Ce texte, connu de Darwin, est l’une des premières tentatives d’observer le développement, l’évolution, de l’enfant. Le but n’en est pas tant de décrire l’enfant pour lui-même que de polémiquer avec le linguiste Max Müller au sujet de l’origine du langage. L’observation de Taine veut montrer expérimentalement que la théorie évolutionniste rend compte (...) de la genèse du langage chez l’individu et dans l’espèce humaine. Mais l’enjeu réel est de nier qu’il existe une rupture entre l’intelligence de l’homme et celle de l’animal. Max Müller s’en tenait à appliquer la théorie de l’évolution au changement des langues. Taine, lui, veut affirmer la continuité du développement psychologique dans la nature: ce ne sont pas les langues qui évoluent mais l’intelligence ellemême. (shrink)

Au milieu du xix e siècle la notion d’arts plastiques vient sous la plume de Félicité de La Mennais dans le cadre d’une esthétique d’en haut (« métaphysique ») qui, pour reprendre le fameux distinguo introduit par Gustav Fechner dans ses Vorschule der Ästhetik, s’oppose à l’esthétique d’en bas (« scientifique »). Or, Hippolyte Taine apporta ultérieurement une contribution à la définition de la plasticité artistique qui n’est pas sans points communs avec celle de Lamennais, alors même qu’il (...) est convenu le plus souvent appartenir à l’esthétique d’en bas. (shrink)

Author: Werner Maria TITLE: EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS OF HIPPOLYTE TAINE’S THEORY OF ART (Teoriopoznawcze i metodologiczne podstawy filozofii sztuki Hipolita Taine’a) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2006, vol:.6, number: 2006/1, pages: 223-237 Keywords: TAINE, THEORY OF ART, METHODOLOGY, POSITIVIST PHILOSOPHERS Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail:Taine postulates that the status of the humanities should be equal with that of the sciences. The claim is based on a conviction, (...) shared by other positivist philosophers, that both kinds of knowledge should share the same methodology. Thus, all knowledge turns out to be a collection of facts and relations among them. The facts are subordinate to some major facts being their “causes” or “principal features”. The task of a work of art is to extract such facts. The emergence of the characteristic feature of a phenomenon allows us to describe a work as a perfect one. The value of the work depends on the kind of a characteristic feature, being more or less universal. (shrink)

First published in 1953. This title provides an exposition and discussion on Hippolyte Taine, the leader of the Naturalist movement in French criticism. The book examines his theories and some of his practice, as a critic of literature and art. A more general consideration of the chief issues raised by his central problem is also given, namely the attempt to approach the analysis and judgement of works of art historically, and thus to provide an objective basis of criticism. (...) This title will be of interest to students of art history and philosophy. (shrink)

First published in 1953. This title provides an exposition and discussion on Hippolyte Taine, the leader of the Naturalist movement in French criticism. The book examines his theories and some of his practice, as a critic of literature and art. A more general consideration of the chief issues raised by his central problem is also given, namely the attempt to approach the analysis and judgement of works of art historically, and thus to provide an objective basis of criticism. (...) This title will be of interest to students of art history and philosophy. (shrink)

In this, the first published collection of writings by Hippolyte Havel (1871–1950), Nathan Jun brings a crucial, yet largely forgotten revolutionary figure back into historical focus. Havel was a Czech anarchist at the center of New York’s political and artistic circles at the turn of the twentieth century. He was an editor of numerous publications, including Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth and his influence on several writers, artists, and intellectuals (including Eugene O’Neill, Joseph Stieglitz, and Sadakichi Hartmann) helped shape American (...) modernism. Proletarian Days provides an illuminating introduction to the man and his times. (shrink)

In this paper, ambiguity aversion to uncertain survival probabilities is introduced in a static life-cycle model with a bequest motive to study the optimal demand for annuities. Provided that annuities’ return is sufficiently large, and notably when it is fair, positive annuitization is known to be the optimal strategy of ambiguity neutral individuals. Conversely, we show that the demand for annuities decreases with ambiguity aversion and that there exists a finite degree of aversion above which the demand is non-positive: the (...) optimal strategy is then to either sell annuities short or to hold zero annuities if the former option is not available. To conclude, ambiguity aversion appears to be a relevant candidate for explaining the annuity puzzle. (shrink)

The minutes of Adorno’s aesthetics seminar, held during the summer term of 1932 at the university of Frankfurt, are a rare trace of the early philosophical reception of Walter Benjamin’s opus magnum, The Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928). Showcasing his critical spirit and pedagogy, Adorno and his students attempt a clarification, as well as a problematization, of this dense and difficult text, touching on such problems as the historicity of ideas or the concept of a ‘constellation’. This document is (...) thus both a valuable aid for reading Benjamin’ Trauerspiel-Buch and an important document for understanding the sources of Adorno’s own philosophy. (shrink)

As a recent addition to the editorial board for the journal of Philosophy in the Contemporary World, I wanted to revisit a practice from past editions of the journal—interviewing philosophers who engage philosophical practice that reflects the mission of PCW. In this interview, a model for what I hope will continue to be a regular feature, I have a dialogue with the philosopher Burcu Gurkan. Professor Gurkan currently lives and works in Turkey while I live in work in the central (...) US, so what follows is edited from an email exchange.—Taine Duncan. (shrink)