Solidarity is a complex theoretical and historical investigation of one of the most dynamic social movements in post-World War II Europe. For some time now, Touraine has attempted to develop a comprehensive theory of social movements. In Solidarity, he and fellow researchers François Dubet, Michel Wieviorka, and Jan Strezelecki, apply the theories of action, movement and sociological intervention elaborated in The Voice and The Eye to the situation in Poland 1980-1. Solidarity is one of many attempts by Touraine to combine (...) a comprehensive theory of social change and action with the history of a contemporary social movement. Here Touraine et al. attempt to explain “the nature, internal workings and the evolution of Solidarity.”. (shrink)

What were the causes and consequences of the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern and Central Europe? The causes lie in the exhaustion of the model of Soviet-type economic organization, the failure of reform efforts in the USSR, and the persistence of opposition to Soviet-type rule in Central Europe. The ramifications of the events are examined through the prism of three questions: how do they change our evaluation of the past?; what was the significance of 1989 as a moment in time?; (...) and how have they shaped the present? (shrink)

Nach Orientierung fragt man erst, wenn man sie verloren hat. Kant hat das Bedürfnis nach Orientierung sowohl in den unscheinbarsten Regungen des Alltags wie in den großen Fragen des Glaubens aufgespürt. Die Idee zu einer Philosophie der Orientierung findet sich bereits in seinen vorkritischen Schriften. Kant hat sie jedoch erst anläßlich des Pantheismusstreits zwischen Mendelssohn und Jacobi expliziert, als seine Vernunftkritik ihren Kredit unter den Zeitgenossen und bei der preußischen Obrigkeit zu verlieren drohte. Insbesondere die These einer Leiblichkeit der Orientierung (...) verbindet Kants Position mit der phänomenologischen Tradition bei Cassirer, Merleau-Ponty und Plessner. Welches Potenzial in Kants Naturgeschichte und Phänomenologie der Orientierung steckt, zeigt die vorliegende Untersuchung, indem sie einen weiten Bogen von der Genealogie des Orientierungsdiskurses im 18. Jahrhundert zur diskursiven Praxis der Vernunft in der Gegenwart spannt. (shrink)

This chapter covers the traditional role of responsibility, and the possible connections between response and responsibility. These connections are explored through the advance of trust and the surplus of the extraordinary in relation to the Third Party. The idea of responsibility comes from the sphere of juridical law, and has a theological touch. The classical conception presented suffers from a permanent erosion that is reinforced by systemic constraints. Trust is a natural element of every community that is together applied by (...) common aims in life. The phenomenon of trust refers to the bond, the nexus, which holds together the members of a community, creating the requisite solidarity. The term ‘trust’ or ‘confidence’ should not primarily read as a substantive, but as a verb or as the derivative of a verb. Furthermore, it is noted that the responsive ethics proposed could function as a permanent corrective. (shrink)

While the therapeutic effect of post-classical philosophy in antiquity has recently been recognized, Cicero and his oeuvre have been mostly ignored in that respect, because he was deemed too compilatory and eclectic. However, the Tusculanae Disputationes are just that - a philosophical therapy for the soul that pervades all five books of this work - as is brought to light in this new interpretation. German text.

À contre-courant des querelles fratricides qui opposèrent structuralistes et phénoménologues, l’auteur rappelle, tout d’abord, les motifs centraux qui dominent le débat entre les deux courants, avant de dégager une problématique nouvelle dans laquelle les perspectives phénoménologiques et structuralistes s’entrecroisent. Il s’agit de la problématique de la normalisation, entendue comme processus d’incarnation et de genèse des normes, qui thématise de façon centrale la différence entre l’ordinaire et l’extraordinaire.

Part I. Social theory -- Part II. Philosophy -- Part III. History of science -- Notes on contributors -- Index.