An English translation of Pierre Bayle's posthumous last book, Entretiens de Maxime et de Themiste (1707), in which Bayle defends his skeptical position on the problem of the evil. This book is often cited and attacked by G.W. Leibniz in his Theodicy (1710). Over one hundred pages of original philosophical and historical material introduce the translation, providing it with context and establishing the work's importance.

Pierre Bayle was one of the most important sceptical thinkers of the seventeenth century. His work was a major influence on the development of the ideas of Voltaire (who acclaimed it for its candour on such subjects as atheism, obscenity and sexual conduct), Hume, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Banned in France on first publication in 1697, Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique became a bestseller and ran into several editions and translations. Sally L. Jenkinson's masterly new edition presents the reader (...) with a coherent path through Bayle's monumental work (which ran to seven million words). This is the first volume in English to select political writings from Bayle's work and to present its author as a specifically political thinker. Sally L. Jenkinson's authoritative translation, careful selection of texts, and lucid introduction will be welcomed by scholars and students of the history of ideas, political theory, cultural history and French studies. (shrink)

Bayle's Dictionary is one of the best known and most influential works of the eighteenth century. Banned in Catholic France on first publication in 1697 it became a bestseller and ran into several editions and translations. Its merciless scientific and philosophical enquiring challenged all assumptions and blind reverence for authority, setting new standards for all future encyclopedists. This second English edition is enlarged from the fourth French edition, which in turn had been much enlarged from Bayle's manuscripts. Edited (...) and with a life of Bayle by the highly esteemed Pierre Desmaizeaux, this edition represents the most comprehensive English edition available. (shrink)

Pierre Bayle’ın Tarihsel ve Eleştirel Sözlük adlı eserindeki “Spinoza” maddesi, Spinoza felsefesinin temel meselelerine dair genel bir bakış sunar. Söz konusu maddenin burada çevirisi sunduğumuz “N Çıkması”nda ise Bayle, özellikle Spinoza’nın Ethica adlı eserine odaklanarak kip, değişiklik, töz ve Tanrı gibi Spinoza metafiziğinin temel kavramlarına yönelik eleştiriler getirir.

Richard Popkin’s meticulous translation--the most complete since the eighteenth century--contains selections from thirty-nine articles, as well as from Bayle’s four Clarifications. The bulk of the major articles of philosophical and theological interest--those that influenced Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Voltaire and formed the basis for so many eighteenth-century discussions--are present, including David, Manicheans, Paulicians, Pyrrho, Rorarius, Simonides, Spinoza, and Zeno of Elea.

(From Liberty Fund:) The topics of church and state, religious toleration, the legal enforcement of religious practices, and religiously motivated violence on the part of individuals have once again become burning issues. Pierre Bayle’s Philosophical Commentary was a major attempt to deal with very similar problems three centuries ago. His argument is that if the orthodox have the right and duty to persecute, then every sect will persecute, since every sect considers itself orthodox. The result will be mutual slaughter, (...) something God cannot have intended. -/- The Philosophical Commentary takes its starting point from the words attributed to Jesus Christ in Luke 14:23, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be full.” Bayle contends that the word compel cannot mean “force.” From this perspective, he constructs his doctrine of toleration based on the singular importance of conscience. His point is not that coercion usually is ineffective in matters of faith but that, even when effective, it is wrong because it ignores the indispensability of the free conscience. (shrink)

Pierre Bayles "Dictionnaire historique et critique" (1. Aufl. 1697) ist als die "Bibel" oder, in den Worten Wilhelm Diltheys, als die "Rüstkammer der Aufklärung" bezeichnet worden. Die Attraktion, die es nicht nur auf die zeitgenössischen Leser ausübte, beruht in erster Linie auf dem Geist nüchterner, vorurteilsfreier Prüfung, der das ganze Werk durchzieht. Diese Grundhaltung traf den Nerv und das Lebensgefühl des 18. Jahrhunderts, das sich nach Kants Worten nur dem verpflichtet fühlte, was vor dem "Richterstuhl der Vernunft" legitimiert worden war. (...) Bayle steht am Anfang dieser Entwicklung und pocht unbeirrbar auf die Rechte der Vernunft, die sich für ihn in einer schonungslosen Prüfung des überlieferten Wissenstandes manifestieren. Im Jahr 2003 haben die Herausgeber aus den mehr als 2000 Artikeln des Wörterbuchs einen ersten Band mit einer Auswahl von gut 30 Artikeln sowie mit den vier "Klarstellungen" Bayles in neuer Übersetzung innerhalb der Philosophischen Bibliothek (PhB 542) vorgelegt. Infolge der positiven Resonanz erscheint anläßlich des 300. Todestages Bayles jetzt der zweite und abschließende Teil der Auswahlausgabe. Der Schwerpunkt liegt wiederum auf den philosophischen Artikeln des 'Dictionnaire'. Zusammen mit den bereits vorliegenden Texten vermitteln die hier präsentierten gut 30 weiteren Artikel einen Eindruck von Bayles philosophischem Denken. (shrink)

A new translation of Pierre Bayle's first great work, which undermines the influence of "superstition" in political life and laid the groundwork for the separation of church and state.

Das 1697 in erster Auflage erschienene "Dictionnaire historique et critique" von Pierre Bayle ist als die "Bibel der Aufklärung" bezeichnet worden. Seine immense Bedeutung für das ausgehende 17. und das darauffolgende "Jahrhundert der Aufklärung" ist immer wieder auch von prominenter Seite bezeugt worden.

This work presents, interprets, and largely defends the legal philosophy of H.L.A. Hart, except for his account of causation. Hart is considered by many persons to be the most important English writer on jurisprudence in the 20th century. The book considers his general theory of law, his theory of rights and of the enforcement of morality, and his analysis of the conditions of legal resposibility and the justification of punishment.

Résumé Le but de cet article est d’interroger les trois notions de texte, discours et cognition, et les modèles théoriques, complémentaires ou opposés, qui les illustrent et les défendent. Pour cela, les notions ne seront pas analysées à la suite, une par une, mais en parallèle, deux par deux. Reprenant les orientations de mes travaux actuels en linguistique textuelle et en linguistique cognitive, je les confronterai en deux temps : texte vs. discours et texte vs. cognition. Cette double confrontation, avec (...) le texte pour dénominateur commun, laisse ainsi entendre, d’une part, que si je prends en compte le discours comme le cadre contextuel, situationnel, générique, où apparaît le texte, je m’attache au texte comme objet d’analyse, suivant en cela une tradition « pragoise », à la fois structurale ou macro-syntaxique et fonctionnelle ; cela laisse entendre, d’autre part, que cette conception du texte permet de concilier les théories néo-pragoises à celles que développent les linguistiques cognitives d’aujourd’hui, centrées sur diverses compétences, activités ou opérations, mentales, sémantiques, pragmatiques et sémiotiques, souvent regroupées sous le terme englobant ou résultant de représentation : espaces mentaux, projections, mélange, émergence de sens. Pour finir je montre que la procédure de double intégration, conceptuelle et prédicative, permet d’illustrer la complémentarité des deux modèles, mental-cognitif et macrosyntaxique-textuel. (shrink)

Avant-propos.--Philosophie allemande.--Philosophie française.--Philosophie anglaise.--Philosophie américaine.--Valeur des écoles.

This paper explores analyzing criminal responsibility from the Humean position that blame is for character traits. If untoward acts indicate undesirable character traits, then the agent is blameworthy; if they do not, then the actor is not blameworthy — he has an excuse. A distinctive feature of this approach is that that voluntariness of acts is irrelevant to determining blameworthiness.This analysis is then applied to a variety of issues in criminal law. Mens supports inferences to character traits, and the Humean (...) approach provides a reason for rejeting strict criminal liability. The Humean approach also helps resolve a number of issues about attempts, such as punishment for impossible attempts and the defense of abandonment. It also supports the broad outlines of the defense of mistake and provides a third alternative in the Wooton-Hart debate over punishment and treatment. (shrink)

The first part of this paper attempts to clarify the presuppositions and purposes of civil disobedience and to argue against an alleged right to civil disobedience. The second part of the paper analyzes various sorts of considerations relevant from an agent's point of view in deciding whether or not to engage in civil disobedience. The overall conclusion reached in this paper is that while there is no right to civil disobedience as such, given a moral system compatible with the assumptions (...) made in this paper, some instances of civil disobedience may be justifiable. Not only may it be justifiable to break a law itself deemed immoral, but even to violate one considered moral and just in order to protest the existence or absence of another law, regulation or policy. (shrink)

This paper develops the argument that the acquisition of responsible organizations can be a source of competitive advantage for acquiring firms. We arguethat corporate responsibility identity is a tacit and strategic resource because it is valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable. We postulate that organizational identity is a useful framework to better understand corporate responsibility identity. Finally, we argue that to capitalize on the acquisition of responsible organizations, acquiring firms must engage in critical self-reflexivity and be willing to modify their organizational (...) identity. (shrink)