The notion of face, referring to the other's manifestation in Levinas's philosophy, does not imply any visibility, but rather signifies a proximity affecting me before any representation. In Levinas's text one can read a great number of statements about the face as not being in the world but as coming from outside to disturb it, to intrude on it. The experience of face is nevertheless made concrete in a phenomenological sense, thanks to somefigures as the stateless' or the refugee's for (...) instance, which are also to be found in Arendt. However, interpreting such a kind at the center of politics, whereas Levinas wants to go through the world in order to thrill the forgotten experience of proximity which is the source of hospitality. This paper argues that Levinas questions a notion of world which is not Arendt's and that, from Arendt's point of view, the disclosure of the Who, necessarily implying the world, is not exactly a visibility. (shrink)
L’ouvrage de Beate Collet et Emmanuelle Santelli vient combler un manque qui pendant de longues années a freiné l’avancement des connaissances sur les populations françaises d’ascendance étrangère. Mieux encore, il fait le lien avec l’ensemble du corps social, montrant à la fois sur quels points les réalités de ces populations rejoignent celles de la société globale, et dans quels domaines elles se différencient. Cet ouvrage ambitieux nous livre une sociologie de la famille qui s’attaque à ce..
Emmanuel Lévinas est indiscutablement le philosophe par excellence de l’éthique. L’un des thèmes majeurs de sa pensée, ou plutôt la clé pour comprendre son œuvre -- qui se situe aux frontières de nombreux domaines --, est la responsabilité à l’égard d’Autrui. Cet article se propose de reconsidérer cet aspect déterminant de ses écrits au regard de l’individualisme contemporain. Nous montronsqu’en aucune façon l’éthique lévinassienne de la responsabilité n’oblitère «la part du Moi dans l’eminence de l’Autre». Bien au contraire, dans (...) l’ouverture à l’altérité, le Moi s’y trouve pleinement reconnu. Autrement dit notre thèse est que le préjugé selon lequella philosophie de Lévinas consiste en une interprétation normative de la condition qui conduit au sacrifice de soi est imputable à un malentendu lié au caractère polysémique et ambivalent du concept d’individualisme.Emmanuel Levinas is unquestionably the philosopher of ethics par excellence. One of the major themes of his thought, or rather the key to understanding his work-work that spans over many fields-is one’s responsibility toward the Other. This article attempts to reconsider this determining aspect of his writings from the perspective of contemporary individualism. We argue that Levinas’s ethics of responsibility in no way obliterates “the share of the Ego in the eminence of the Other.” On the contrary, in his approach to otherness, he takes the Self entirely into account. In other words, our interpretation is that the commonly held view that Levinas’s philosophy consists of normative interpretation of the human condition leading to the sacrifice of the self is imputable to a misunderstanding caused by the polysemous and ambivalent character of the concept of individualism. (shrink)
La question du mal est abondamment discutée dans la philosophie contemporaine, signe de Vinquiétude qui habite notre culture. L'histoire du XXème siècle a certainement aidé à prendre conscience des possibilités qui appartiennent à la raison humaine, mais elle a ègalement révélé que cette même raison ne constituepas un instrument qui, de soi, pro-duit le bien de l'humanité. La première section de l'article présente des textes de Thomas d'Aquin et de Salvatore Natoli, qui cherchent l'un et à l'autre comment bien faire (...) avec le mal. Dans la seconde section, qui lit des pages de Jean Nabert, d'Emmanuel Lévinas et de Paul Ricoeur, le mal se montre injustifiable et donc inutilisable; la conscience y fait l'expé-rience d'une transcendance éthique irréductible. La troisième section commente enfin l'ex-pression biblique "Mysterium" iniquitatis en assumant ce que la contemplation de la Croix du Sauveur enseigne du mal. /// A questão do mal encontra-se amplamente discutida no âmbito da filosofia contemporânea, sinal evidente da profunda inquietude que perpassa a nossa cultura. A história do século XX contribuiu enormemente para nos ajudar a tomar consciência das possibilidades inerentes à razão humana, ainda que ao mesmo tempo tenha também demonstrado não ser a razão um instrumento que, de si, conduza necessariamente ao bem da humanidade. Num primeiro momento, o autor discute sobretudo textos de S. Tomás de Aquino e de Salvatore Natoli, pensadores eminentemente possuídos pela preocupação de lidar bem com o mal Debruça-se depois sobre os contributos de pensadores como Jean Nabert, Emmanuel Levinas e Paul Ricoeur, os quais consideram o mal algo profundamente injustificável e, por isso, também inutilizáva. É neste contexto, aliás, que a consciência experimenta uma transcendência ética irredutível. Por fim, o artigo comenta a expressão bíblica "Mysterium iniquitatis" numa tentativa de assumir aquilo que a contemplação da Cruz de Cristo ensina acerca do mal. (shrink)
In his “Space, supervenience and substantivalism”, Le Poidevin proposes a substantivalism in which space is discrete, implying that there are unmediated spatial relations between neighboring primitive points. This proposition is motivated by his concern that relationism suffers from an explanatory lacuna and that substantivalism gives rise to a vicious regress. Le Poidevin implicitly requires that the relationist be committed to the “only x and y ” principle regarding spatial relations. It is not obvious that the relationist is committed to this (...) principle in such a context. An additional motivation for Le Poidevin's argument, that space should be considered to be discrete, is that he believes that substantivalists are committed to a vicious regress. I show that the regress is in fact not of the vicious variety. These two main arguments show that Le Poidevin's suggestion that we drop the density postulate for space is unnecessary. (shrink)
Jean-Olivier Roy | : L’étude des nations et du nationalisme autochtones contemporains présente des défis en raison des divergences, chez les penseurs et les acteurs politiques, quant à leur nature et leur interprétation. Nous constatons que le nationalisme autochtone, à la base principalement ethnique ou culturel, accorde de plus en plus d’importance aux revendications politiques, dépassant ainsi les simples protections culturelles. Cet article pose l’hypothèse que les nations et le nationalisme autochtones, malgré les références aux traditions et à leur origine (...) immémoriale, sont des construits en perpétuelle mutation, notamment sous l’influence des nationalismes environnants et de la modernité politique. Pour développer cette hypothèse, nous examinons les propos des acteurs et des penseurs au moyen des différentes théories de la nation. | : The study of indigenous nations and nationalism poses several challenges based on the disagreements that their interpretation poses for the theorists and political actors alike. We note that indigenous nationalism, based on ethnic or cultural grounds, attributes increasing importance to political demands, thereby leaving behind claims for cultural protections. This article argues that despite references to tradition and culture, indigenous nations and nationalisms are in constant flux, subject to the influences of nationalisms around them and the demands of political modernity. To support this claim, we examine the proposals by several theorists and political actors across theories of the nation. (shrink)
Origène réplique point par point aux arguments que Celse avait invoqués pour rejeter la caricature du culte des images composée par la polémique chrétienne. Il taxe les philosophes d’inconséquence. Au-delà du pamphlet de Celse, il pourfend une thèse que l’adversaire n’exploitait pas, mais qui était fortrépandue: le culte des statues et des images des dieux aurait une valeur symbolique. Ce symbolisme est attesté chez Plutarque, Dion Chrysostome, Maxime de Tyr, plus tard chez Porphyre. Sa diversité a pour origine la complexité (...) des propos de Platon sur la manière de représenter les dieux. Origène veut dénoncer comme illusoire la signification attribuée à de tels «symboles». Ses propres réflexions dans le Contre Celse leur opposent une conception du «symbole» qui, tout en insistant sur sa matérialité, sa visibilité, son historicité, le distingue de l’«image» mimétique, pour l’orienter vers autre chose que lui. Cette distinction est peut-être à méditer, aux sources de la doctrine ultérieure de l’icône, dont ce «symbole»-là serait un précurseur. (shrink)
In spite of his clear and deliberate distinction between philosophical and religious discourse, Ricoeur lets these two aspects of his thought interweave with respect to the deep "conviction" motiving it. The idea of “attestation”, considered as the "password" granting access to his last "hermeneutics of the self", testifies to this in particular. This term, while containing a religious connotation, refers to what Heidegger calls Fundamentalontologie , in which attestation ( Bezeugung ) is totally de-theologized to indicate how Dasein assumes its (...) own death. But Ricoeur only incorporates this notion into his thought by making it undergo a profound modification. Ricoeur replaces “being–toward–death” with “remaining alive until…”, which allows him to recognize “the religious in common.” How can we develop a conception of the philosophy of religion from this winding process? This article marks a first step toward answering that question. (shrink)
Dans cet article, nous nous efforçons de circonscrire le champ de problèmes à partir duquel Bataille et Queneau peuvent être situés l’un par rapport à l’autre, mais aussi l’un et l’autre par rapport à Kojève et à sa lecture de Hegel dans les années 1930. Ce champ problématique apparaît polarisé par les thématiques du Désir et de l’Histoire. À partir de là, nous montrons comment les spéculations philosophiques et littéraires de Bataille sur l’expérience-limite le conduisent à dédialectiser et, finalement, à (...) détéléologiser le Désir et à substituer à la perspective kojévienne d’une Sagesse post-historique le thème d’un érotisme transgressif. De son côté, Queneau offre une contestation plus nuancée du kojévisme dans le contexte de fictions littéraires où la conception kojévienne de l’Histoire se trouve ironisée, et finalement relativisée. (shrink)
Au début des années Trente, Georges Bataille écrit pour La Critique Sociale « La structure psychologique du fascisme ». Ce texte, destiné à penser le fascisme – à le théoriser – fait émerger deux concepts qui traverseront, d’une certaine manière, l’œuvre entière de Bataille : l’homogénéité et l’hétérogénéité. Nous revenons ici sur l’emploi de ces notions, sur ce qu’elles désignent en politique au début des années trente, au temps fâcheux de la montée du fascisme.
The controversial case of Terri Schiavo came to a close on March 31, 2005, with her death following the removal of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube. This event followed years of controversy and social upheaval. Voices from across the entire political and cultural spectrums filled the airwaves and op-ed pages of major newspapers. Protests ensued outside of Ms. Schiavo’s care facility. Ms. Schiavo’s parents published videos of their daughter on the internet in an effort to prove that she was not (...) in a vegetative state and could potentially recover. There is a certain mystery to the entire controversy given the fact that, legally, it was largely a matter of settled law. Precedent cases and legal statutes clearly set out the proper procedures and decisions to be followed in this case. Nonetheless, powerful challenges and virulent opposition to these standards arose. Through an investigation of this case as well as a comparative study of the case of Dax Cowart (in particular, the documentary depictions of Dax Cowart’s case) and of a photograph by Joel-Peter Witkin, I plan to investigate the source of these social upheavals and hypothesize that they were largely the result of a phenomenological reaction to the human face. (shrink)
This volume contains invited and contributed papers delivered at a symposium on the occasion of Professor Glauber's 60th birthday. The papers, many of which are authored by world leaders in their fields, contain recent research work in quantum optics, statistical mechanics and high energy physics related to the pioneering work of Professor Roy Glauber; most contain original research material that is previously unpublished. The concepts of coherence, cooperativity and fluctuations in systems with many degrees of freedom are a common base (...) for all of Professor Glauber's research initiatives and, in fact, for much of contemporary physics. His role in shaping these cconcepts is reflected and honoured in the papers contained in this book. (shrink)
Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995) is at the center of the renewed debate over the question of the ethical. In the context of the phenomenological tradition, Levinas defines ethics as an originary response to the face of the other. Between 1982 and 1992, Levinas gave numerous interviews, closing a distinguished sixty-year career. Of the twenty interviews collected in this volume, seventeen appear in English for the first time. In the interviews Levinas sets forth the central features of his ethical philosophy. He (...) underlies his dedication to the phenomenological search for the concrete and the nonformal signification of alterity. He also elaborates on issues that do not receive extensive treatment in his formal philosophical works, including the question of pre-philosophical experiences, the ethical signification of money, justice, and the State. The informality of the interviews prompt Levinas to address matters about which he is reticent in his published works. (shrink)
I reject the widely held view that Duhem's 1906 book La Théorie physique is a statement of instrumentalistic conventionalism, motivated by the scientific crisis at the end of the nineteenth century. By considering Duhem's historical context I show that his epistemological views were already formed before the crisis occured; that he consistently supported general thermodynamics against the new atomism; and that he rejected the epistemological views of the latter's philosophical supporters. In particular I show that Duhem rejected Poincaré's account of (...) scientific language, Le Roy's view that laws are definitions, and the conventionalist's use of simplicity as the criterion of theory choice. Duhem regarded most theory choices as decidable on empirical grounds, but made historical context the main determining factor in scientific change. (shrink)
Introduction -- Historical essays -- The humanist brain : Alberti, Vitruvius, and Leonardo -- The enlightened brain : Perrault, Laugier, and Le Roy -- The sensational brain : Burke, Price, and Knight -- The transcendental brain : Kant and Schopenhauer -- The animate brain : Schinkel, Bötticher, and Semper -- The empathetic brain : Vischer, Wölfflin, and Göller -- The gestalt brain : the dynamics of the sensory field -- The neurological brain : Hayek, Hebb, and Neutra -- The phenomenal (...) brain : Merleau-Ponty, Rasmussen, and Pallasmaa -- Neuroscience and architecture -- Anatomy : architecture of the brain -- Ambiguity : architecture of vision -- Metaphor : architecture of embodiment -- Hapticity : architecture of the senses -- Epilogue: The architect's brain. (shrink)
Contemporary Jewish Philosophy offers a comprehensive survey of Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century. At the same time, it gives an appraisal of the meaning of this philosophy within the context of the history of philosophy. Jewish philosophers who are introduced are the most important in this age: Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Strauss, Emmanuel Le;vinas. The problems which are emphasized are the crisis of humanism and the quest for new thinking. This book provides a new approach (...) to philosophical anthropology. (shrink)
This article attempts to understand Emile Durkheim's 1913-14 lectures on pragmatism and sociology by situating them in the socio-intellectual context of the time. An analysis of books and journal articles from the period reveals that the ideas of the Anglo-American pragmatic philosophers Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and F.C.S. Schiller were very popular in pre-World War I France. The French term le pragmatisme, however, was used to refer not only to the thought of these philosophers, but also to the (...) work of French thinkers, such as Henri Bergson and the Catholic Modernists Maurice Blondel and Edouard Le Roy, who wrote extensively about human action. Pragmatism, because of its associations with Bergsonian spiritualism and the theology of the Modernists, came to have religious connotations for many French intellectuals. Durkheim had a similar understanding of pragmatism and his critique of the pragmatists cannot be fully grasped unless these religious connotations are considered. The article concludes by discussing several implications of this interpretation for sociological theory. (shrink)
' What comes through strongly in this book are Weil's power of analysis and criticism, her love of truth and hunger for justice, her commitment to non-violence, ...
The paper presents the main ideas of French conventionalism as represented by Duhem, Poincaré and Le Roy. Clarified are some misunderstandings and misinterpretations on which the negative opinion on conventionalism is usually based. Conventionalism is presented as a source of the antipositivistic breakthrough. It thus led to the most important discussions in 20th century philosophy of science, which tended to undermine epistemological fundamentalism. The influence of conventionalism is shown - on European philosophy and specifically on Polish philosophy, especially on works (...) of K. Ajdukiewicz and his followers. (shrink)
Souvent, Wittgenstein est lu comme un critique de la subjectivité. Et en effet, on trouve dans sa pensée une attaque très forte contre Villusion métaphysique de la subjectivité (comme sphère ontologique spécifique). Mais, une fois qu'on a dit cela, reste à prendre en compte la contribution positive de Wittgenstein à ce qu'on pourrait appeler une phénoménologie concrète de la subjectivité, c'est-à-dire du sujet tel qu'il se manifeste dans le langage. Wittgenstein's work is often read as a criticism of subjectivity. A (...) very strong attack is indeed to be found in his thought against the metaphysical illusion of subjectivity (construed as a specific ontological sphere). This still leaves room for accounting for Wittgenstein's positive contribution to what may be called a concrete phenomenology of subjectivity, that is, of the subject as it manifests itself within language. (shrink)
Critics of Levinas reject the notion that the abstract face of the other can ground ethics and generate specific responsibilities. To the contrary, I argue that the face does ground a practical and pragmatic ethics. Drawing on Levinas' phenomenological analyses of the enjoying subject, I show that the face communicates an imperative to the subject that obligates her or him to repair the concrete context of action in which the subject encounters the other. My elucidation takes very seriously the notion (...) that the face speaks and the face is a body. When coupled with a pragmatic account of communication, Levinas gives us a robust elucidation of the phenomenological and pragmatic dimensions of ethical responsibility. Key Words: embodiment • ethics • face • Emmanuel Levinas • phenomenology • pragmatics • responsibility. (shrink)
Dans cet article, nous introduisons le lecteur à une énigme qui a émergé récemment dans la littérature philosophique : celle de l’influence de nos évaluations morales sur nos intuitions au sujet de la nature des actions intentionnelle. En effet, certaines données issues de la philosophie expérimentale semblent suggérer que nos jugements quant au statut intentionnel d’une action dépendent de notre évaluation de ladite action. De nombreuses théories ont été proposées pour rendre compte de ces résultats. Nous défendons la thèse selon (...) laquelle aucune des théories existantes n’est satisfaisante et que le mystère reste pour l’instant entier. (shrink)
We experience time in different ways, and we construct different kinds of representation of time. What kinds of representation are there and how do they work? In particular, how do we integrate temporal features of the world into our understanding of the mechanisms underlying representations in the media of perception, memory, art, and narrative? Le Poidevin’s well written and carefully argued book is an exploration of these questions. Although interesting in its own right, Le Poidevin pursues this question as a (...) means of exploring another pressing issue, namely the metaphysics of time. The central posit of the book is that we can learn a lot about time from ordinary representations of time, and accordingly the book is an exploration of what representations of time can tell us about the metaphysical structure of time itself. This viewpoint is justified by the adoption of a causal theory of representation, the claim that representations are causally linked to what they represent and that this is what determines both their content and their epistemic status. The central metaphysical concern of the book is the reality of the passage of time. Does time in reality pass, and can events therefore be located in the past, present, or future, or does time not pass and nothing in reality changes its position in time? In McTaggart’s terms, this is the distinction between the A-theory and the B- theory of time. (shrink)
: Emmanuel Levinas compares ethical responsibility to a maternal body who bears the Other in the same without assimilation. In explicating this trope, he refers to a biblical passage in which Moses is like a "wet nurse" bearing Others whom he has "neither conceived nor given birth to" (Num. 11:12). A close reading of this passage raises questions about ethics, maternity, and sexual difference, for both the concept of ethical substitution and the material practice of mothering.
L'auteur cherche à montrer que ce sont les événements exigeant une réponse qui donnent naissance au sujet. Parmi ces événements, le trauma occupe une place insigne car, mieux que tout autre événement, il manifeste la priorité de l'événement sur le sujet et la vulnérabilité de toute réponse subjective. S'appuyant tour à tour sur l'analyse du trauma chez Freud, Lacan et Lévinas, l'auteur interroge plus particulièrement la structure temporelle d'un événement traumatisant auquel le sujet ne fait face que dans l'après-coup et (...) sans pouvoir conjurer la menace de son anéantissement futur. This article aims to show that the subject is born out of events which require a response. Among the events of this sort, trauma is a most significant example because, more than any other, it manifests the pre-eminence of the event over the subject, and the vulnerability of all subjective responses. Using the analysis of trauma found in Freud, Lacan and Lévinas, the author investigates more particularly the temporality of a traumatic event to which the response of the subject always comes too late. As well the response cannot do away with the threat of the subject's future disappearance. (shrink)
From the relative obscurity in which Levinas's work languished until very recently, Emmanuel Levinas must now be judged as one of the most influential figures in contemporary Continental philosophy. There is no better guide than John Lewelyn to lead one through the thickets of Levinas's prose. Bursting with questions, multiple references, cascading citations and multilingual puns and nuances, this book is the compelling record of intellectual obsession. Taking as its guiding thre the theme of genealogy, the book gives a (...) broadly chronological and impressively manageable presentation of the whole sweep of the Levinas's work. Balanced and finely grained, Llewelyn confronts questions of method, Heidegger, phenomenology, the theme of sensibility, religion, enjoyment, feminity, eros, justice and the political. The book reaches a stunning climax in a series of chapters that give a hestitant but tolerant discussion of the question of God in Levinas, the relation to Levinasian ethics to Nietzschean genealogy, and an extraordinary discussion of metaphor that leads into a wholly original analysis of Levinas's poetics and metaphorics. The book concludes with a sensitive reading of the autobiographical epigraphs to Levinas's Otherwise than Being... and a consideration of the Holocaust. (shrink)
Le Locataire ("The Tenant"), one of Polanski's lesser-known films, uses both an unreliable narrator and manipulates an unreliable audience to achieve its horror effect.
: Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973), a staple of short fiction anthologies, was inspired by James's "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life." In Le Guin's moral tale, a devastating bargain causes some citizens of Omelas to reject their apparently utopian community. Although critics have seen this rejection as a Jamesian act of pragmatism and free will, this essay examines the story in the context of "The Moral Philosopher" and other writings by James on (...) pragmatism, its moral consequences, free will, and faith to refute that conclusion. I argue, instead, that James's work suggests responses that reflect his thinking about the limits and meaning of possibility and about sustaining belief in a transcendent force. (shrink)
For Emmanuel Levinas objectivity is intersubjectively constituted. But this intersubjectivity is not, as in Merleau-Ponty, the intercorporeality of perceivers nor, as in Heidegger, the active correlation of practical agents. It has an ethical structure; it is the presence, to each cognitive subject, of others who contest and judge him. But does not the exposure of each cognitive subject to the wants and needs of others result in the constitution of a common practical field, which is not yet the objective (...) world of scientific cognition? For Levinas, the constitution of a world common to all is governed by the practice of justice. Justice begins when above the elf and the other there intervenes a third party, who contests and judges both. But whether this third party is a representative of humanity, or a figure of God, would not his justice be but the name of a higher egoism? (shrink)
Eva Buddeberg: Verantwortung im Diskurs: Grundlinien einer rekonstruktiv-hermeneutischen Konzeption moralischer Verantwortung im Anschluss an Hans Jonas, Karl-Otto Apel und Emmanuel Lévinas Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-2 DOI 10.1007/s10677-012-9366-3 Authors Norbert Anwander, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Philosophie, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany Journal Ethical Theory and Moral Practice Online ISSN 1572-8447 Print ISSN 1386-2820.
The Face of the Other and the Trace of God contain essays on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and how his philosophy intersects with that of other philosophers, particularly Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Derrida. This collection is broadly divided into two parts: relations with the other, and the questions of God.
Ethics as First Philosophy brings together original essays by an outstanding group of international scholars that discuss the work of Emmanuel Levinas. The book explores the significance of Levinas' work for philsophy, psychology and religion. Ethics as First Philosophy comprises an excellent collection of work on this major contemporary thinker. The book presents Levinas philosophy from a wide and well-balanced variety of perspectives. The contributions range from thematic discussions of Levinas central concepts to explorations of his affinities and differences (...) with other key writers such as Kant, Kierkegaard, Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Blanchot and Derrida. Some of the authors focus on the religious and philosophical issues presented by Levinas while others analyze the role of Levinas within phenomenology in or within recent French philosophy. (shrink)
If, as Lefebvre argues, every society produces its own social space, then modernity might be characterized by that (anti-)social and instrumental space epitomized and idealized in Le Corbusier's writings. This repetitively patterned space consumes and regulates the differences between places and people; it encapsulates a normalizing morality that seeks to reduce all differences to an economic order of the Same. Lefebvre's dialectical conceptualization of 'difference' can both help explain the operation of this (im)moral landscape and offer the possibility of alternative (...) post-modern social spaces that might produce and respect Otherness. In this sense Lefebvre's work is an incipient 'difference ethics'. (shrink)
On emploie ici le terme « structuralisme » dans un sens large, incluant les œuvres de Lévi-Strauss et Barthes aussi bien que celles d'Althusser, de Lacan, de Foucault. J'y vois non pas un système ou une école de pensée, mais un mouvement, et j'y inclus également le « post-structuralisme » de Derrida et de Deleuze, en tant que « négation déterminée » de certains présupposés. Je soutiens que le structuralisme ne se caractérise pas par une position objectiviste, mais par la (...) relance de la tentative pour produire une « genèse » ou une « construction » du sujet au sein de structures transindividuelles, et donc pour y voir un système d'effets au lieu d'une cause originaire. Cette conversion d'un point de vue du sujet constituant au point de vue du sujet constitué explique l'importance des modèles linguistique, psychanalytique et anthropologique, ainsi que d'une certaine interprétation du marxisme comme théorie de l'imaginaire social chez les structuralistes. Quant au post-structuralisme, il déploie un mouvement de rectification, en présentant les limites de la subjectivité, qui impliquent la dissolution de la « normalité » et la mise à jour de la violence inhérente au processus de constitution, comme des « différences » pures qui engendrent l'activité et la passivité. Ce second mouvement contribue de façon décisive à conférer au structuralisme, non seulement une portée épistémologique, mais aussi une orientation éthique. (shrink)
In this article we critically evaluate Robin Le Poidevin's recent attempt to set out an argument for the ontological reduction of chemistry independently of intertheoretic reduction. We argue, firstly, that the argument he envisages applies only to a small part of chemistry, and that there is no obvious way to extend it. We argue, secondly, that the argument cannot establish the reduction of chemistry, properly so called.
Spinoza semble adopter une position pleinement nominaliste lorsqu'il discue des notions universelles dans l'Ethique, mais on y trouve aussi plusieurs arguments où, semble-t-il, des universaux sont présupposés. La solution avancé par plusieurs commentateurs, y compris Haserot, est que le système spinoziste est d'inspiration platoniste, et qu'il faut réinterpréter les passages d'apparence nominaliste pour les accorder avec le platonisme ou l'essentialisme. J'argumente qu'un tel procédé n'est justifié ni par le texte ni par la structure du système de Spinoza. L'interprétation du spinozisme (...) que je propose le place dans le cadre logique du nominalisme contemporain, à l'instar du système de Nelson Goodman, par exemple. (shrink)
In this paper, I respond to Pierre Le Morvan’s critique of my thesis that ignorance is lack of true belief rather than absence of knowledge. I argue that the distinction between dispositional and non-dispositional accounts of belief, as I made it in a previous paper, is correct as it stands. Also, I criticize the viability and the importance of Le Morvan’s distinction between propositional and factive ignorance. Finally, I provide two arguments in favor of the thesis that ignorance is lack (...) of true belief rather than absence of knowledge. (shrink)
Edith Wyschogrod presents the first full-length study in English of the important contemporary French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. It is a revision of the author’s earlier study and includes discussions of his recent writings as well as current scholarship. Dr. Wyschogrod’s extensive discussion of Levinas's relation to Judaism, especially his use of literature from the Torah and other religious writings, will be of interest to religious scholars. The author compares Levinas’s thought with that of his contemporaries, most notably Jacques Derrida (...) and Husserl. (shrink)
Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas, two twentieth-century Jewish philosophers and two extremely provocative thinkers whose reputations have grown considerably over the last twenty years, are rarely studied together. This is due to the disparate interests of many of their intellectual heirs. Strauss has influenced political theorists and policy makers on the right while Levinas has been championed in the humanities by different cadres associated with postmodernist thought. In Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation, (...) Leora Batnitzky brings together these two seemingly incongruous contemporaries, demonstrating that they often had the same philosophical sources and their projects had many formal parallels. While such a comparison is valuable in itself for better understanding each figure, it also raises profound questions in the current debate on the definitions of 'religion', suggesting new ways that religion makes claims on both philosophy and politics. (shrink)
L'article traduit ici parut dans le Contemporary Jewish Record, Review of events and digest of opinion, 7 (Juin 1944), pages 115 à 126. Cette revue, l'une des nombreuses publications de l'American Jewish Committee, vit le jour peu avant la guerre, en septembre 1938, et finit avec elle en juin 1945, ne trouvant plus sa raison d'être, à savoir dénoncer les crimes allemands et travailler à la paix. Figurent aussi dans ce volume sept un article de Hannah Arendt : « Concerning (...) Minorities » et la traduction de la communication de Renan à la Société des Études Juives, le 26 mai 1883 : « Judaïsme et Christianisme ». Sur les thèmes évoqués, on se référera aux textes suivants : — « Judaism and the Modem political Myths », Symbol, Myth and Culture, Yale University Press, 1979, p.233-239. Il s'agit du texte, incomplet, d'une épreuve manuscrite (Cassirer Deposit 162 b), restée inachevée, de l'article traduit ici. — « The Myth of the State », Fortune, vol. 26, n° 6, juin 1944. — « Der mythos als politische Waffe », Die Amerikanische Rundschau, Munich, n° 11. — « Philosophy and Politics », in Symbol, Myth and Culture, Essays and Lectures of E. Cassirer, ed. by D.P. Varene, Yale University Press, 1979. Traduction française : « Philosophie et politique », in E. Cassirer, L'idée de l'Histoire, les inédits de Yale et autres écrits d'exil, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1989. — « The Technique of our Modem Political Myths », in Symbol, Myth and Culture, Essays and Lectures of E. Cassirer, ed. by D.P. Varene, Yale University Press, 1979. — The Myth of the State, Yale University Press, 1946. — T. Cassirer, Aus meinem Leben mit Ernst Cassirer, New York, Prìvately issued, 1950, notamment p. 291-296. (shrink)
The rush of interference that produces gaps and unsettles cognition must be seen as a force that weighs in performatively and must be read. The interruptive moment of interference itself calls for a reading.Community is made of the interruption of singularities, or of the suspension that singular beings are. … Communication is the unworking of work that is social, economic, technical, and institutional.Emmanuel Levinas maintains a crucial distinction between the Said (le Dit) and the Saying (le Dire): whereas the (...) Said names the realm of conceptual forms, themes, ideas—signified meaning—the Saying indicates a nonreferential performative intrusion that institutes, produces, transforms. Communication studies focuses .. (shrink)
Cet article poursuit un double objectif: premièrement, de montrer que, dans I’Hippias majeur de Platon, Hippias défend une ontologie matérialiste, et, deuxièmement, de définir la critique de cette ontologie matérialiste. Cette démonstration repose sur l’interprétation du passage qui se trouve en 300b4-301e3. Nous présenterons d’abord les limites des interprétations qu’en font P. Woodruff et I. Ludiam, pour ensuite définir le concept de matérialisme dans le contexte de la pensée ancienne (Démocrite) afin de dégager les traits spécifiques du matérialisme que Platon (...) prête aHippias. L’opposition entre Hippias et Socrate est enfait une opposition ontologique entre deux conceptions de l’unité : les unités corporelles élémentaires (Hippias) et l’«unité formelle» (Socrate).The aim of this article is twofold: first, to show that, in Plato’s Hippias Major, Hippias is the mouthpiece of a materialist ontology; second, to discuss the critique of this ontology. My argument is based on an interpretation of Hippias Major 300b4-301e3. I begin by revealing the shortcomings of P. Woodruff’s and I. Ludlam’s interpretations. Next, I define the concept of materialism as it was understood in ancient Greece (Democritus) in order to outline the specificity of Hippias’ materialism. Finally, I argue that the opposition between the two characters of the Hippias Major represents in fact an ontological opposition between two conceptions of what a unity is, i. e., Hippias’ elementary corporal unities and Socrates’ “formal unity.”. (shrink)
« Les pensées sans intuition sont vides ; les intuitions sans concepts sont aveugles. » Tout le « kantisme analytique » tourne autour de cette formule kantienne et de l'interprétation qu'il essaie d'en donner. Sellars soutient que l'intuition ne peut être une connaissance à elle toute seule. McDowell pense même que l'intuition en tant que telle ne joue aucun rôle dans la pensée – c'est-à-dire qu'il croit que le contenu de l'intuition est encore conceptuel. Nous examinerons ces théories dans leur (...) rapport à Kant, qu'elles discutent et critiquent, et nous essaierons de comprendre pourquoi il y a une « tentation kantienne » en philosophie analytique, en la faisant remonter à l'œuvre fondatrice de Frege. (shrink)
L'article montre que l'idée développée par Popper dans The Open Universe, et reprise par d'autres, selon laquelle la physique moderne serait foncièrement indéterminisme, repose en réalité sur une conception erronée du déterminisme. Popper n'a pas de mal à montrer que l'état initial d'un système n'étant jamais connu avec une précision absolue, il est impossible de prédire avec certitude son évolution future. Mais cela ne signifie pas pour autant que le déterminisme soit réfuté. Popper s'est attaqué à une des conséquences du (...) déterminisme, à savoir la prédictïbilité universelle, mais il laisse intact le coeur même de la doctrine du déterminisme, c'est-à-dire l'idée que chaque événement suit de manière univoque celui qui le précède. La mécanique classique est déterministe, la relativité restreinte est déterministe, et la mécanique quantique elle-même, à condition toutefois de laisser de côté l'épineux problème de l'opération de mesure, est déterministe. The article deals with an idea developed by Popper in The Open Universe, and supported afterwards by some others. Indeed, according to them, modern physics would be basically indeterministic. This idea rests in fact on a wrong conception of determinism. Popper has no difficulty in showing that, as the initial state of a system is never known with an absolute accuracy, one cannot predict with certainty what will come of it But that does not mean that determinism is refuted Popper has critized one of the consequences of determinism, that is universal predictibility, but he retains the main idea of the doctrine of determinism, which means that each event follows univocally the one which preceeds it. Classical mechanics is deterministic, special relativity is deterministic, and quantum mechanics itself is deterministic too, provided that the difficult problem of the act of measurement is put aside. (shrink)
Le jeune Heidegger, dont la lecture principale demeura pendant de longues années les Recherches logiques de Husserl, a consacré ses premiers travaux aux problèmes logiques. Sa Dissertation de 1914 analyse les théories du jugement de cinq logiciens contemporains, Wundt, Maier, Brentano, Marty et Lipps qui ont en commun de demeurer à l'intérieur du psychologisme, c'est-à-dire de considérer le jugement comme un acte psychique au lieu de le situer, comme le fait Husserl, dans la sphère logique du sens. C'est sur (...) cette notion de sens que le jeune Heidegger fait porter ses questions et c'est l'analyse de sa structure relationnelle qui lui permet, en s'appuyant sur la théorie de la validité de Lotze et à la suite de Lask et de sa Théorie du jugement de 1912, d'éclairer décisivement la nature proprement logique du jugement. The young Heidegger, whose main reading remained during many years Husserl's Logical Investigations, dedicated his first works to logical problems. His Dissertation (1914) analyses the theories of judgement of five contemporary logicians, Wundt, Maier, Brentano, Marty, and Lipps, who share the same psychologist attitude, which means that they consider judgment as a psychological act instead of situating it in the logical sphere of sense, as does Husserl. The young Heidegger concentrates his questions on this notion of sense and through the analysis of its relational structure, with the help of Lotze's theory of validity and in following the indications given by Lask in his book of 1912 on The Theory of Judgment, he undertakes a decisive elucidation of the properly logical nature of judgment. (shrink)
Le projet d'E. Lévinas — manifester l'intelligibilité de la transcendance — le conduit à rencontrer, comme une figure exemplaire, l'expression cartésienne de l'extérionté, le thème de l'idée de l'infini. Jusqu'où va cette similitude ? Selon Lévinas, la responsabilité — pour autrui — inscrit déjà la transcendance, comme relation avec un au-delà, dans l'immanence à soi de la conscience, en tant que son en deçà, sa condition. « Par suite, l'idée de l'infini est le mode d'être, l'infinition même de l'infini ». (...) Ici apparaît la divergence : le substantialisme cartésien ne permet pas d'affirmer avec Lévinas que : « Il n'y a pas d'idée de Dieu ou Dieu est sa propre idée ». E. Lévinas' philosophical attempt to make clear the intelligibility of transcendence leads him to Descartes' version of the concept of metaphysical exteriority, i.e. to his theme of the idea of the infinite. How far does this resemblance reach ? According to Lévinas, the responsibility — for — others already places transcendence, as a relation with a beyond, within the immanence in oneself which characterizes consciousness, as its condition. Consequently, « the idea of infinite is the mode, of existence, the infinition itself of the infinite ». Here, the difference points out : cartesian substantialism does not allow to assert, as Lévinas does, that « either there is no idea of God, or God is the idea of himself ». (shrink)
In 1982 the American philosopher and Levinas scholar Edith Wyschogrod conducted an interview with Emmanuel Levinas, the transcript of which she published seven years later. Early in the interview, Wyschogrod proposed to Levinas that his philosophy constituted a radical break with western theological tradition because it started not with a Parmenidean ontological plenitude, but rather with the God of the Hebrew Bible. The God Levinas began with, according to Wyschogrod, wasan indigent God, a hidden God who commands that there (...) be a world apart from God, because God needs the multiplicity of the world in order for there to be justice. Levinas responds to this proposal: That’s quite right. Justice, I call it responsibility for the other, right? There is even in Totality and Infinity, the evocation of the tzimtzum [the idea in kabbalistic writings of the self-contraction of God in order to create the void in which creation can take place], but I won’t venture into that. (shrink)
Si la modernité consiste à trouver le nouveau radical, la fin de la postmodernité ç' est pas la sortie de l'art, dans la culture de masse, le kitsch ou le silence mais bien le moment où la modernité trouve ses marges, repère la lisière de ses différences. La tâche de la pensée ne consiste pas à désespérer de l'art ou de la nouveauté mais à identifier les lieux et les fins de la différence dans ce que l'on peut nommer une (...) « en-différence » (in-difference) qui n'a rien de négatif. Ce que montre une série d'exemples artistiques tirés de la production contemporaine, y compris télévisée. If modernity can be said to be an attempt at discovering a radical new thing in art, the end (the ends) of post-modernity is by no means to absorb art into mass culture, kitsch or silence, but the moment when modernity can lay out its margins, and identify its differences. Modernity is in the process of achieving its postmodern ends when it manages to overcome hopelessness and looks upon a non-negative in-difference. Some examples, particularly chosen in contemporary productions for the cinema or television, can make such a doctrine convincing. (shrink)
This paper discusses the implications of the ethical theory of Emmanuel Levinas for theoretical debates about legal obligation. I begin by examining the structure of moral reasoning in light of Levinas's account of ethics, looking particularly at the role of the third party (le tiers) in modifying Levinas's primary ethical structure of the face to face relation. I then argue that the primordial role of ethical experience in social discourse, as emphasised by Levinas, undermines theories, such as that of (...) H. L. A. Hart, that propose a systematic distinction between legal and moral species of obligation. (shrink)
Partant d’un poème de Cratès de Thèbes transmis par Julien (dans ses discours Contre Héracleios le Cynique et Contre les cyniques ignorants), cet article se propose de revenir sur les notions de bonheur, de plaisir, de richesse et de justice, dans le cadre de la vie kata phusin telle que les cyniques l’ont conçue. L’«éthique du minimum» que ces philosophes ont proposée, et que la plupart des hommes qualifieraient d’expérience volontaire de la souffrance, se révèle un chemin possible pour atteindre (...) à la fois le bonheur individuel et la justice politique.This commentary on a poem of Crates of Thebes, which was transmitted in Julian’s Oration VII, To the Cynic Herakleios, and Oration IX (VI), To the Uneducated Cynics, intends to rediscuss the notions of happiness, pleasure, wealth, and justice in the context of the kata phusin life as viewed by the Cynics. The “minimal ethics” proposed by the cynic philosophers, which many would consider as a kind of voluntary experience of suffering, appears as a possible way to secure both individual happiness and political justice. (shrink)
Descartes ne joue pas, dans la pensée de Heidegger, un rôle limité à l'interprétation de l'histoire de la philosophie. Lorsque Sein und Zeit entreprend de déterminer le mode d'être propre et irréductible du Dasein, Heidegger doit entrer en confrontation avec certes Husserl, mais surtout, par-delà la « conscience » husserlienne, avec Descartes lui-même. Car l'ennemi mortel du Dasein, cest l'ego du cogito. Dans quelle mesure cette rivalité n'induit-elle pas aussi une similitude? Die Rolle, die Descartes in dem Denken von Heidegger (...) spielt, darf nicht in dem Feld seiner Deutung der Geschichte der Philosophie eng begrenztwerden. Denn, als Sein und Zeit eine Bestimmung der eigentümlicheigentlichen Seinsweise des Daseins hervorzubringen unternimmt, setzt die « Destruktion der Geschichte der Ontologie » eine Auseinanderstzung nicht nur mit Husserl, sondern auch, über Husserl hinaus, gerade mit Descartes vor. Der Todfeind des Daseins ist das ego, das aus dem cogito stammt. Inwiefern aber diese ständige Gegenüberstellung eine tiefe Nachahmung hinweise ? (shrink)
Ce texte cherche à montrer que plusieurs allusions textuelles indiquent l'existence d'un lien significatif entre le Choeur de Dionysos et le dans les Lois de Platon. Cette hypothèse inédite se trouve confirmée par un examen attentif des diverses correspondances entre les deux instances, examen qui permet en outre de préciser la nature de leur lien. Il semble d'abord que le Choeur de Dionysos ait pour rôle d'apporter un complément pédagogique de «musique appliquée» à l'élite politique et scientifique de la cité. (...) Plus important encore, le Choeur Dionysien paraît être l'organe idéologique privilégié par lequel les gouvernants du Collège de veille peuvent donner une forme persuasive à leur science et exercer une influence civique puissante sur l'ensemble de la population. (shrink)
Le sous-titre de l'ouvrage est explicite : Essai sur le ménage à domicile et le retour de la domesticité et l'introduction annonce la couleur : « le ménage est un jeu de pouvoir qui renvoie aux rapports de genre, à la définition et à la division du travail, bref à une véritable économie politique » (p. 7). Plus précisément, l'analyse des tâches ménagères pose, selon les auteurs, plusieurs questions : celle de l'inégalité entre les hommes et les femmes certes, mais (...) aussi celles de l'articulat.. (shrink)
Ce texte a été présenté lors de la journée d'études « CHANGER DE RYTHME, CHANGER DE SENS » organisée par Maria Manca (Paris 7), Jean Lambert (Paris 10) et Sandra Bornand (CNRS/LLACAN), journée dont on trouvera le programme ici. L'augmentation du nombre des études rythmiques La première chose qui saute aux yeux quand on traverse les textes consacrés récemment aux phénomènes rythmiques ou utilisant le rythme comme concept opératoire – toutes définitions confondues –, c'est tout simplement l'augmentation (...) - 3. (...) Sur le concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)
