L'importance du philosophe dans la cité a toujours été reconnue sous une forme ou sous une autre. Quand Athénes par exemple, condamne Socrate á boire la cigüe, ses juges veulent prémunir le corps social contre les effets de l'esprit critique du philosophe. On s'entend par ailleurs á proclamer que Rousseau et Hégel sont les péres du monde moderne et saint Augustin celui de la civilisation chrétienne médiévale. Qui nierait que des philosophes comme Kierkegaard, Marx et Nietzsche ont marqué profondement notre (...) siecle. Enfin, une enquête de l'Unesco faite récemment souligne en ces termes l'importance que cet organisme international attache à l'enseignement de la philosophie: «La place toute particulière qui est faite par cette enquête à l'enseignement de la philosophie s'explique par le rôle que jouent les idées philosophiques dans la conduite et l'opinion des hommes… Le développement des idées philosophiques a eu dans l'histoire et a encore aujourd'hui une grande importance — que ce soit directement ou indirectement — pour l'institution de la démocratic, pour le renforcement des droits de l'homme et pour la sauvegarde de la paix.». (shrink)

La mondialisation soumet l’essentiel des activités humaines, partout, à la même temporalité : de là le sentiment d’accélération et de perte de maîtrise de leur destin que disent éprouver les citoyens de bien des pays. Mais les prospectives du climat, de la démographie, des structures de production permettent de réduire l’incertitude des devenirs possibles. L’action publique peut et doit s’appuyer de manière raisonnée sur ces analyses pour inscrire ses choix de manière consciente dans le temps long. Cette nouvelle forme de (...) planification ne réussira que dans le cadre d’un renouveau des pratiques démocratiques, qui devra lui-même imaginer une articulation qui reste à définir des nouvelles méthodes de la démocratie participative avec les règles classiques de la démocratie représentative. L’action publique devra également trouver les moyens de prendre en compte les mouvements qui font de leurs objectifs des impératifs moraux catégoriques et ne sont pas forcément prêts à prendre en compte d’autres considérations, et à construire des compromis. Enfin, les risques extrêmes ne peuvent être tous anticipés ; mais il est possible d’en rendre plus méthodique et plus systématique l’anticipation et la prévention, ainsi que la préparation des actions à mener pour y faire face quand ils se matérialisent – c’est le sens des démarches d’évaluation nationale des risques. (shrink)

Bertrand de Jouvenel was a renowned French philosopher and political economist. In Sovereignty he turned his attention to the relationship between the distribution of power and the creation of an ethical society. More specifically, he was concerned with the potential confusion of the body politic resulting from the development of increasingly dynamic and nebulous social conditions. The text is written in an exploratory fashion, reflecting the authorial perception of an ambiguity in modern political structures. This translated Cambridge edition, which (...) was first published in 1957, was derived from a 1955 French original. It constitutes an important contribution to post-war political theory that will remain of value to anyone with an interest in questions relating to political structures and the nature of authority. (shrink)

Bertrand Russell se guió en esta obra por el más ajustado sentido de la unidad histórica y estudió a cada filósofo en relación con el medio en que actuó, teniendo siempre en cuenta las circunstancias sociales y políticas de su época. En este primer volumen se analizan la filosofía presocrática, las aportaciones de Sócrates, Platón y Aristóteles, la filosofía helenística y a los Padres de la primera filosofía católica. Jesús Mosterín analiza en su Prólogo la trayectoria biográfica y la (...) evolución del pensamiento de este gran filósofo: su rebelión contra el idealismo vigente; el desarrollo del logicismo aplicado a las matemáticas y al conocimiento empírico; su faceta de filósofo práctico y su trabajo en la historia de la filosofía que tendrá como resultado esta obra. (shrink)

The traditional sporting games correspond to a set of signs full of meanings, which come to life through the motor behaviors of the players as they participate in its semiotic semantics. As a result of this exchange, interpersonal conflicts may emerge because of each person’s semiotic interpretation of the sociomotor dynamics of the game. This research aimed to analyze the comments of intense negative emotions that arise in conflicts of a praxical nature in a TSG, in its different parts, and (...) in the motor interventions of its protagonists. A total of 160 university students participated in a competitive sociomotor traditional sporting game of cooperation-opposition: the Marro. At the end of the practice, all answered the validated GES-II questionnaire. Subsequently, a content analysis of 480 comments was performed using ATLAS.ti 8.4 software. The conclusion of this work verifies the existence of different levels of meaning in the semiotic experience that originate interpersonal conflicts in traditional sporting games. Considering the multidimensional network of signs and meanings that emerge in any game will help to understand the meaning of the protagonists’ conflictive motor conducts. (shrink)

After reading this insightful and charming classic, no one can believe that there are any arguments left for the redistributionist. De Jouvenel devastates every claim for either logic or morality in their position... --Henry G. Manne, Dean, School of Law, George Mason University In this concise and elegant work, first published in 1952, Bertrand de Jouvenel purposely ignores the economic evidence that redistributional efforts sap incentives and are economically destructive. Rather, he stresses the commonly disregarded ethical arguments showing that (...) redistribution is ethically indefensible for, and practically unworkable in, a complex society. A new introduction relates Jouvenel's arguments to current discussions about the redistributionist state and draws out many of the points of affinity with the works of Buchanan, Hayek, Rawls, and others. John Gray is Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. (shrink)

Overzicht van de ideeën omtrent politieke macht in verleden en heden.

El autor intenta mostrar que el concepto de ley es totalmente innecesario y que solo sirve para crear confusiones y generar falacias. Para ello muestra que la supuesta “ley de la causalidad” es inconsistente y que la ciencia no requiere de ella más que en una primera fase. Las ciencias maduras usan relaciones, en concreto, relaciones mediante ecuaciones diferenciales para desempe\ nar el papel que se le quiere otorgar a la ley de la causalidad. Despues de hacer esto, el autor (...) presenta varias confusiones relacionadas con el concepto de causa, y su solución si se asume lo anteriormente dicho. (shrink)

Ethical approval must be obtained before medical research can start. We describe the differences in EA for an pseudonymous, non-interventional, observational European study. Sixteen European national coordinators of the international study on very old intensive care patients answered an online questionnaire concerning their experience getting EA. N = 8/16 of the NCs could apply at one single national ethical committee, while the others had to apply to various regional ECs and/or individual hospital institutional research boards. The time between applying for (...) EA and the first decision varied between 7 days and 300 days. In 9/16 informed consent from the patient was not deemed necessary; in 7/16 informed consent was required from the patient or relatives. The upload of coded data to a central database required additional information in 14/16. In 4/16 the NCs had to ask separate approval to keep a subject identification code list to de-pseudonymize the patients if questions would occur. Only 2/16 of the NCs agreed that informed consent was necessary for this observational study. Overall, 6/16 of the NCs were satisfied with the entire process and 8/16 were unsatisfied. 11/16 would welcome a European central EC that would judge observational studies for all European countries. Variations in the process and prolonged time needed to get EA for observational studies hampers inclusion of patients in some European countries. This might have a negative influence on the external validity. Further harmonization of ethical approval process across Europe is welcomed for low-risk observational studies. Getting ethical approval for low-risk, non-interventional, observational studies varies enormously across European countries. (shrink)

This article deals with the problems of abortion as a political issue, in the form represented in the two reports of the Belgian «National Commission for Ethical Problems». Both the «translation» of the political problem into a question to be handled by an «apolitical» commission on the level of scientific expertness, and the delivery of two mutually dissenting reports, are studied as a typical stage of the development of the political decision-making process in this matter and compared with similar evolutions (...) in the neighbour countries. From a view point of political theory the main problem is the following : how a parliamentary democracy solves such a deap-seated confiict concerning the «basic values» of ethical order of society? Elements of an answer can be gathered from a comparative analysis of the different positions and arguments in the two reports of the Ethical Commission. (shrink)

Reprint of: Art of conjecture / Translated from the French by Nikita Lary. -- New York, Basic Books [1967].

«Without a theory of corruption there cannot be a remedy for corruption unless by happy accident». There are empirical theories, such as the functional approach of the political process, but how useful they may be, they essentially fall short. One needs a normative, i.e. an ethical theory of political action.After having evaluated the idea, that politicians and rulers have the right to make use of violence, lies and ruses in order to combat violence and ruse within the community, the article (...) draws some important conclusions from the general democratic principle «no power without control and possibility of sanction by those being subject to that power».Applied to the problem of corruption, this principle can be used as a guideline for a systematic exploration of the structural sources of corruption, defined in a general way as abuse of power. The main thesis reads as follows. The sources of corruption are to be found in those «deficiencies of the system» that create chances for a particular pressure of power to exert an overweight - without possibilities of control and sanction - in the processes of actual definition of the «public interest» or the «common good».An elaboration of the thesis is made by means of an analysis of this kind of «deficiencies» in the Belgian political-administrative system, most of them however not specific for the Belgian situation in particular.Finally, some suggestions for «remedies » against corruption are made, especially in the field of legislative measures. (shrink)