The Warring States period was without doubt a time when reason thrived. The Confucians, Mohists, and Daoists, respectively, displayed three of its intellectual inclinations. One was reason with an exceptionally prominent moral flavor, and the cultivation of human character as its object. It calls on men to uphold the dignity, tranquillity, and loftiness of their inner selves. One was reason with a very strong practical flavor, and the realization of beneficent profit as its object. It leads men to address ways (...) of maintaining the stability of society, material wealth to support men's livelihoods, and individual survival. Apart from these two, there was reason that has spiritual transcendence and human immortality as its object, and which was manifested as a tendency toward anti-intellectualism. It tries to protect individual survival and freedom of the spirit, despite social pressures. As for those mystical ideas and techniques that seemed absurd, they gradually regressed into simplistic ceremonies, fables, and symbols among the cultural workers who pursued reason. The psychological attitude of "sacrificing to spirits as if they were present" led many cultural aristocrats to distance themselves from mystical ideas and techniques. Mysticism gradually disappeared from among men of culture, especially once it became increasingly difficult for those divination methods and technical arts, used merely to satisfy concrete needs, to avoid the scrutiny of reason. Some late Warring States period texts can help us understand the direction this way of thinking took. "Xian xue" in the Hanfeizi says,When the shaman priests pray for someone, they say, "May you live a thousand autumns and ten thousand years!" But the "thousand autumns and ten thousand years" are only a noise dinning on the ear: No one has ever proven [zheng] that such prayers add so much as a day to anyone"s life. For this reason people despise the shaman priests.". (shrink)

As historiographical studies on ancient China gradually move from the center to the margins of the public's field of vision, research on historiographical studies concerning ancient China have been undergoing some unusual changes. A truly considerable quantity of bamboo slip and silk manuscripts have either been discovered by archaeologists or accidentally unearthed in the last twenty years. Although these have been made public very slowly, even maddeningly so, the few of them that have appeared before the world in the course (...) of time have again and again both elated relatively sensitive historiographers and placed them in a quandary. They also have once and again confronted the system of ancient history that had been regarded as "final" with the prospect of utter collapse and the need to be rewritten. After the Mozuizi discoveries in Gansu in the 1950s, there were those of Mawangdui, Yinqueshan, and Shuihudi in the 1970s, and those of Shuanggudui, Bajiaolang, Zhangjiashan, and Baoshan in the 1980s; and it is said that there were astounding discoveries, though not yet made public, at Jingmen and Lianyungang in the 1990s. These "bamboo slip and silk manuscripts" that touch upon almost every aspect of the pre-Qin and Han areas of "the schools of the various masters," "number lore" , "prescriptive techniques" , "law," and "institutions" make us ask ourselves in astonishment: How many more mysteries of ancient China are still buried under the ground? (shrink)

The Daoists were different from the Confucians and Mohists. If we say that the latter already were "famous schools" at the beginning of the Warring States period , then the Daoists of that time may not have been a school with clear lines of transmission. Even their thought may not have been that consistent or clearly delineated. The reason for this is probably because the Confucians, with their teacher-student relationships formed through education, and the Mohists, with their superior-inferior relationships formed (...) through their organization, were able to untangle the strands of inheritance and transmission through time in the history of their thought. But the Daoists found it almost impossible to determine the traces of their origins and transmission. We can only say that, at that time, there were a group of elite thinkers who had generally consistent ways of thinking and intellectual interests, and that these ways of thinking and interests became a particular trend of thought. (shrink)

During recent decades China has been visited by various "heats": the "Culture Heat" in the mid-1980s, the "Cultural Criticism Heat" in the late 1980s, the "Mao Zedong Heat" in the early 1990s, the "Chinese Traditional Studies Heat" in the late 1990s, and the "Old Three Classes Culture Heat" also in this decade, to name only the most prevalent. It is not always clear when and how a hot topic turns into a "heat," precisely what is burning, and how to handle (...) it. "Heats" are cultural movements, difficult to grasp and controversial among intellectuals: To some they are a hearth to turn to, to others a disaster to flee. (shrink)

本書主要編入了從"唐宋變革論"說到宋代思想史與文化史研究;歷史學意義上的新思想史;"前近代"."亞洲出發思考"與"作為方法的中國";清代學術史與思想史的再認識等四講內容.

Volume 1. Knowledge, thought, and belief before the seventh century CE -- volume 2. Knowledge, thought, and belief from the seventh through the nineteenth century.

v. 1 Qi shi ji qian Zhongguo de zhi shi, si xiang yu xin yang shi jie -- v. 2 Qi shi ji zhi shi jiu shi ji Zhongguo de zhi shi, si xiang yu xin yang shi jie.

As historiographical studies on ancient China gradually move from the center to the margins of the public's field of vision, research on historiographical studies concerning ancient China have been undergoing some unusual changes. A truly considerable quantity of bamboo slip and silk manuscripts have either been discovered by archaeologists or accidentally unearthed in the last twenty years. Although these have been made public very slowly, even maddeningly so, the few of them that have appeared before the world in the course (...) of time have again and again both elated relatively sensitive historiographers and placed them in a quandary. They also have once and again confronted the system of ancient history that had been regarded as "final" with the prospect of utter collapse and the need to be rewritten. After the Mozuizi discoveries in Gansu in the 1950s, there were those of Mawangdui, Yinqueshan, and Shuihudi in the 1970s, and those of Shuanggudui, Bajiaolang, Zhangjiashan, and Baoshan in the 1980s; and it is said that there were astounding discoveries, though not yet made public, at Jingmen and Lianyungang in the 1990s. These "bamboo slip and silk manuscripts" that touch upon almost every aspect of the pre-Qin and Han areas of "the schools of the various masters," "number lore" (shu shu), "prescriptive techniques" (fang ji), "law," and "institutions" make us ask ourselves in astonishment: How many more mysteries of ancient China are still buried under the ground? (shrink)

Der vorliegende Sammelband analysiert die diversen Formen einer ideologisch motivierten Instrumentalisierung von Meister Eckharts Mystik in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und bietet darüber hinaus auch ganz neues, bislang noch unveröffentlichtes Quellenmaterial zu den institutionellen Hintergründen der Eckhart-Rezeption im Dritten Reich. This volume analyses the various forms of ideological instrumentalization Meister Eckhart’s mysticism has been subject to during the era of National Socialism. Furthermore, the volume includes hitherto unpublished source material concerning the institutional background of Eckhart’s reception in the Third Reich.

La 4e de couverture indique : "Le monde contemporain a plus que jamais besoin des éclairages de la sociologie : post-truth society, instabilité politique dans les pays démocratiques, montée des populismes... Mais cette discipline à vocation scientifique est prise en otage par ceux qui veulent en faire un « sport de combat » politique. Ce livre s'adresse donc à tous ceux qui s'intéressent aux faits sociaux et sont inquiets ou étonnés des dérives intellectuelles de certaines figures reconnues des sciences humaines (...) et sociales. Les sociologues ne sont pas immunisés contre les biais cognitifs qui peuvent nous égarer dans des récits idéologiques et outranciers : dans ce cas, toutes les conditions sont présentes pour que la sociologie « tourne » en une production plus militante que proprement scientifique. Il est donc temps pour eux de sortir de leur sommeil dogmatique et de s'astreindre aux règles qui régissent la cité des sciences. C'est ce que ce livre propose, en convoquant des données issues tout aussi bien de la sociologie que des sciences du cerveau dans le but de rendre accessibles aux non-spécialistes les enjeux fondamentaux que représente ce continent de la pensée.". (shrink)

This book contributes to the developing dialogue between cognitive science and social sciences. It focuses on a central issue in both fields, i.e. the nature and the limitations of the rationality of beliefs and action. The development of cognitive science is one of the most important and fascinating intellectual advances of recent decades, and social scientists are paying increasing attention to the findings of this new branch of science that forces us to consider many classical issues related to epistemology and (...) philosophy of action in a new light. This book encourages scholars from different fields who are interested in the dialogue between cognitive science and social sciences, to develop and analyze new perspectives that allow us to elucidate the mystery of rationality. What is rationality? What are its limitations? What rationality assumptions must be used to study social and economic phenomena? The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field. Analysis of the concept of rationality is a leitmotiv in the history of the social sciences and has involved endless disputes. Since it is difficult to give a precise definition of this concept, and there is a lack of agreement about its meaning, it is possible to say that there is a ‘mystery of rationality’. What is it to be rational? Is rationality merely instrumental or does it also involve the endorsement of values, i.e. the choice of goals? Should we consider rationality to be a normative principle or a descriptive one? Can rationality be only Cartesian or can it also be argumentative? Is rationality a conscious skill or a partly tacit one? This book, which has been written by an outstanding collection of authors, including both philosophers and social scientists, tries to make a useful contribution to the debates on these problems and shed some light on the mystery of rationality. (shrink)

Pour sortir des intégrismes et en finir avec la violence.

"Après Violences de la Nature Violences des Hommes constitue le second volet d une tétralogie dédiée à la philosophie de la violence. Ces violences, basées sur l orgueil capital (le trop-amour de soi et le trop-mépris des autres), commencent par des exercices de familles déchirées, d amitiés faussées et de fausses amours trahies, pour s épanouir dans les apothéoses que sont les guerres, dans ce métier qui est celui de tuer et d être tué, où Dionysos démembré danse sur les (...) champs de piétaille dans la gestuelle nietzschéenne d un avenir prétendument innocent. - ". (shrink)

Le monde vibre de violences environnantes. Bien avant les violences des idéologies et des théologies, bien avant la violence des hommes, l'assaut commence avec les violences de la nature, par l'écrasement de la petitesse humaine sous le rouleau de l'univers, de son immensité, de son indifférence. Ce livre est un procès à charge dédié à la violence "naturelle", ce mal éternel présent depuis la fondation du monde.

De la vie de cette grande figure juive que fut Moïse Maïmonide (1138-1204), on connaît peu de choses. Mais on sait que son siècle fut marqué par les persécutions et l'exil de son peuple, entraînant l'oubli de la tradition et plongeant ainsi les siens, particulièrement les savants, dans ce que le penseur diagnostiqua comme une douloureuse perplexité. Comment retrouver une sagesse perdue quand on en a un besoin vital? Comment concilier la Torah avec le savoir philosophique d'alors? Telles furent les (...) questions de Maïmonide, traitées dans le Mishné Torah et le célèbre Guide des perplexes (ou des égarés), autour desquels s'organise ce passionnant essai qui enracine la pensée du philosophe et médecin dans ce dont elle est née et à quoi il chercha une voie de guérison. Maïmonide entreprit de pacifier le rapport au savoir plutôt que d'apporter une réponse à des problèmes métaphysiques. C'est en cela qu'il résonne encore aujourd'hui. (shrink)

A quoi réent les machines? La question peut paraître étrange. C’est cependant une manière d’interroger nos propres rêveries autour des réalisations techniques, en faisant jouer aux machines le rôle de reflet de nos propres existences. A travers de nombreux artifices, dont les machines sont les plus élaborés, nous construisons notre monde, enchevêtrant raison et imaginaire et mêlant utile et gratuit. La machine et ses rêves nous renvoient alors une image éclairée de nous-mêmes. Ce jeu de miroir Ne pose-t-il pas la (...) question de savoir si, au bout de toute philosophique interrogation, nous ne serions pas plutôt des machines rêvant de devenir des humains. Ainsi, cette question ouvre une enquête sur l’imaginaire attaché aux machines, des premiers automates à l’ombre du cyborg, La définition rigoureuse de la machine, tentée en début d’ouvrage, se trouve, au fil des pages, débordée sur les frontières ténues entre raison technicienne et imaginaire. Ces rêveries de la machine ont finalement été prises au sérieux par les artistes, depuis Duchamp et Léger, jusqu’aux formes contemporaine de l’art numérique, en passant par Tinguely et Schöffer. S’intéresser aux rêves des machines, c’est prendre conscience qu’avec elles s’insinuent des parts d’ombre et de lumière. Car le songe ne va jamais sans risque. Humains nous sommes des êtres du désir, mais nous sommes aussi des êtres de l’artifice. C’est sur ce terrain-là que cet ouvrage entraîne notre réflexion, au-delà de l’opposition trop simple entre technologie naïve et technologie paralysante. (shrink)

La quatrième de couverture indique : "Rousseau a exploré de nombreux domaines - l'histoire, la morale, la politique, la liberté individuelle - et sous des formes variées : discours, roman, traité, lettre. Ce livre fait voir comment, sous une diversité d'écriture où le littéraire et le philosophique se confortent mutuellement, Rousseau a réfléchi sur des problèmes majeurs de la philosophie moderne pour construire une oeuvre profondément une et cohérente, organisée autour de la théorie politique et dominée par la recherche de (...) la vérité.". (shrink)

Leo Strauss (1899-1973), philosophe juif allemand, est connu pour sa critique aigue de l'ideal radical des Lumieres et ses derives modernes (historicisme, relativisme, progressisme et nihilisme), pour son retour a la pensee politique grecque et sa defense de l'universalite du droit naturel.Sa philosophie tient a un fil directeur : le croisement entre les heritages biblique et grec. Ce sont les Lumieres medievales, plus prudentes et rationnelles que les Lumieres modernes, qui ouvrent, a ses yeux, la question du rapport entre la (...) foi en la Loi et l'autorite de la raison, en inventant un art d'ecrire secret capable d'associer l'adresse au grand nombre et l'adresse aux lettres. Strauss defend l'idee d'un conflit irreductible et fructueux entre Athenes et Jerusalem, entre philosophie et Loi. Nous trouverions en effet dans la tension entre ces deux poles legitimes et, pour partie, contradictoires, le pouvoir de contrer le declin general de la politique contemporaine. La philosophie de Strauss nous alerte par sa critique aussi vigoureuse que mesuree de la democratie liberale moderne, par son intelligence de la tyrannie, de la persecution et de la discrimination etatiques ou sociales, et par sa mise en relief de l'importance du judaisme eclaire. Elle a ouvert la voie a un renouveau de la philosophie politique. (shrink)