Avec les Pensées d’un Biologiste le moraliste rejoignait le savant, l’auteur du Journal d’un Caractère, digne successeur d’un La Rochefoucauld, tirait la leçon de ce que le savant généticien, homme de laboratoire, avait découvert et de ce que le génial vulgarisateur scientifique avait tout à la fois appris et enseigné. Le Droit d’être Naturaliste marque une nouvelle étape. Qu’il écrive ou qu’il parle, dans ses livres comme dans ses conférences, Jean Rostand possède ce don d’expression, cette force de (...) communication, qui éveille l’intérêt, la curiosité, la sympathie et qui, le plus souvent, emporte l’adhésion. Homme de Vérité par excellence, convaincu il sait convaincre. Il apporte à toutes ses entreprises, d’ordre scientifique ou littéraire, le même respect de l’exactitude, le même enthousiasme militant. L’ensemble que constitue Le Droit d’être Naturaliste en fait une œuvre particulièrement riche. A côté de textes qui sont des hommages vibrants et éclairants à des auteurs dont il a plus que d’autres de bonnes raisons de nous entretenir, tels Anna de Noailles et Maurice Maeterlinck, on trouvera, et c’est là l’essentiel de ce livre important, des essais qui sont de véritables professions de foi, des discours qui sont des manifestes, tel “Le droit d’être naturaliste” qui ouvre ce volume ou le Discours sur les Prix de Vertu qui le ferme, déclarations proprement révolutionnaires à bien des égards et dont les conséquences, les projections sur l’avenir, qu’il s’agisse de modifier le système d’enseignement actuel ou d’établir les bases d’une morale biologique, ne laissent pas d’être impressionnantes. En quelques années Jean Rostand, grand humaniste, est devenu l’un des hommes qui honorent le plus notre temps. Sa longue expérience de la solitude, la diversité et la profondeur de ses connaissances, sa passion pour la vie et les vivants, son inlassable générosité font de lui un “phénomène humain” dont les convictions ici exprimées concernent directement le destin de l’homme. (shrink)

En répondant aux questions personnelles que ses correspondants n'hésitent pas à lui poser (Peut-on épouser sa cousine germaine? Deux mulâtres peuvent-ils engendrer un enfant plus foncé qu'eux? ), Jean Rostand a été amené à exposer ses idées sur un certain nombre de sujets qui lui tiennent à coeur : Le Présent et l'avenir de la personne humaine - Les Limites de l'humain - L'Evolution de la génétique - L'Histoire des idées sur l'origine de la vie - Sur la (...) biogénèse - Sur l'Histoire des sciences. Le point de vue du biologiste tient compte de celui du philosophe et du moraliste. Jean Rostand n'est pas seulement un homme de science, mais aussi un homme, avec ses passions, ses engagements et ses doutes. Il est un humaniste des temps modernes. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and (...) made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin’s Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history’s most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker’s art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.

Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was one of the most important French philosophers of the Twentieth Century. His impact has been felt across many disciplines: sociology; cultural studies; art theory and politics. This volume presents a diverse selection of interviews, conversations and debates which relate to the five decades of his working life, both as a political militant, experimental philosopher and teacher. Including hard-to-find interviews and previously untranslated material, this is the first time that interviews with Lyotard have been presented as (...) a collection. Key concepts from Lyotard's thought – the differend, the postmodern, the immaterial – are debated and discussed across different time periods, prompted by specific contexts and provocations. In addition there are debates with other thinkers, including Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, which may be less familiar to an Anglophone audience. These debates and interviews help to contextualise Lyotard, highlighting the importance of Marx, Freud, Kant and Wittgenstein, in addition to the Jewish thought which accompanies the questions of silence, justice and presence that pervades Lyotard's thinking. (shrink)

Presents a series of the Wellek Library lectures given in May of 1986 entitled: Clouds, Touches, and Gaps.

This book explains, in simple terms, with a minimum of mathematics, why things can appear to be in two places at the same time, why correlations between simultaneous events occurring far apart cannot be explained by local mechanisms, and why, nevertheless, the quantum theory can be understood in terms of matter in motion. No need to worry, as some people do, whether a cat can be both dead and alive, whether the moon is there when nobody looks at it, or (...) whether quantum systems need an observer to acquire definite properties. The author's inimitable and even humorous style makes the book a pleasure to read while bringing a new clarity to many of the longstanding puzzles of quantum physics. (shrink)

Discourse on the sciences and the arts -- Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality among men -- Discourse on political economy -- On the social contract -- The state of war.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right represents a turning point in the philosophy of law and the state. In 14 original essays, this volume compiles a collaborative commentary that offers a differentiated interpretation of this controversial classic in legal philosophy. Ideally suited for seminar courses.

In Made for Happiness, Jean Vanier examines the basis for modern moral philosophy and its role in our lives today. Having discovered through his work with the intellectually disabled the degree to which our society is divided, and our values misplaced, Vanier invites us to read with fresh eyes theories of happiness written 2,400 years ago.

According to a well-known view in the philosophy of mind, intentional attitudes by their very nature satisfy requirements of rationality (e.g. Davidson 1980; Dennett 1987; Millar 2004). This view (which I shall call Constitutivism) features prominently as the ‘principle of minimal rationality’ in de Sousa’s monograph The Rationality of Emotion (1987). By explicating this principle in terms of the notion of the formal object of an attitude, de Sousa articulates an interesting and original version of Constitutivism, which differs in important (...) respects from other extant versions. In this paper, I explore this version of Constitutivism against the background of recent developments in the theory of rationality and make explicit its ramifications for the long-standing dispute over whether the mind is essentially normative. My focus will be on how to conceive of the form of the rationality requirements that attitudes as such must satisfy according to this principle. I argue that, although de Sousa seems officially to endorse a structuralist conception of rationality, according to which these requirements are requirements of coherence, his considerations on formal objects suggest that they are more aptly conceived in terms of a reasons-responsive conception of rationality. I further argue that which of these two readings we choose makes a significant difference to the prospect of vindicating the essential normativity of mind by invoking the principle of minimal rationality. (shrink)