From the early reception of Thomas Aquinas up to the present, many have interpreted his theory of liberum arbitrium to imply intellectual determinism: we do not control our choices, because we do not control the practical judgments that cause our choices. In this paper we argue instead that he rejects determinism in general and intellectual determinism in particular, which would effectively destroy liberum arbitrium as he conceives of it. We clarify that for Aquinas moral responsibility presupposes liberum arbitrium and thus (...) the ability to do otherwise, although the ability to do otherwise applies differently to praise and blame. His argument against intellectual determinism is not straightforward, but we construct it by analogy to his arguments against other deterministic threats. The non-determinism of the intellect’s causality with respect to the will results from his claims that practical reasoning is defeasible and that the reasons for actions are not contrastive reasons. (shrink)

This volume, including sixteen contributions, analyses ancient and medieval theories of intentionality in various contexts: perception, imagination, and intellectual thinking. It sheds new light on classical theories and examines neglected sources, both Greek and Latin.

La figure de l'individu, qui a dominé la philosophie et les sciences sociales au cours des trois dernières décennies, semble à bout de souffle. Partout, singuliers et collectifs cherchent à dépasser la simple adaptation au monde fluide imposé par le capitalisme mondialisé et à redevenir les agents de leur propre vie. Au nord comme au sud, un immense désir de subjectivation est en train de gagner nos sociétés. Pourtant, la figure du sujet reste confuse. Longtemps identifiée à une entité naturelle, (...) hors de l'histoire, elle pâtit aujourd'hui également des représentations, tout aussi néfastes, qui concluent de l'historicité radicale du sujet à sa relativité éthique et politique, voire à son inexistence. Ce livre reprend, à la racine, la réflexion sur les relations entre sujet et histoire, en y réintroduisant une tradition oubliée, sinon refoulée par la philosophie : celle qui commence avec Humboldt, se poursuit chez Saussure, Benveniste et Meschonnic. En définissant le langage comme activité et comme mise en circulation de puissances poétiques, cette tradition fournit les bases d'une nouvelle anthropologie historique du sujet. (shrink)

P. Michon, Marcel Mauss retrouvé. Origines de l'anthropologie du rythme, Paris, Rhuthmos, coll. « Rythmologies », 2015, 130 p. Si vous désirez le livre SOUS SA FORME IMPRIMÉE, envoyez-nous un mail à [email protected]. Vous pouvez également le commander sur Amazon.fr ou sur tout autre site plus accessible pour vous. Marcel Mauss est l'un de ceux qui ont le plus fait pour la théorie du rythme au XXe siècle. Pourtant, parmi ses héritiers directs, seul Gurvitch a prolongé sa - Anthropologie – (...) Nouvel article. (shrink)

Cette étude tente de répondre à la question de la possibilité ou plutôt du caractère intelligible de l'attribution à Dieu de la prescience de nos actes libres. Il s'agir d'un problème bien connu des historiens de la pensée, d'Aristote à Leibniz. La question "Dieu a-t-il la science des futurs actes futurs libres (plus généralement des futurs contingents)" doit être précédée par la question "la notion de Dieu comme d'un être qui a la science des actes futurs libres est-elle intelligible?" L'auteur (...) commence par étudier les raisons et enjeux d'attribuer ou de refuser à Dieu la prescience. Puis il s'attache à la conception de la liberté qui semble incompatible avec la prescience, avant de préciser l'idée d'incompatibilité de la prescience et de la liberté puis d'étudier les diverses tentatives proposées pour éviter une telle incompatibilité. (shrink)

Exposé présenté lors de la journée d'études CRAL-EHESS par Christophe Corbier, Marielle Macé et Esteban Buch, « Histoire du rythme, histoire des rythmes » – Paris – 12 décembre 2014. - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

The argument from ignorance mounted by John Schellenberg argues from the existence of non-faulty unbelief to the non-existence of God, from the fact of atheism or agnosticism to the truth of atheism. It relies on two putative conceptual relations: between the idea of love and that of personal relationship, and between personal relationship and existential belief on each side of the relation concerning the other relatum. I argue that each is debatable, and so the argument cannot proceed.

Previous chapter Janina Wellmann's analyses are extremely valuable because they provide us with new historical evidence that can only improve our understanding of a very obscure past. But the general interpretations she proposes are quite questionable. The idea that after 1800 a “Rhythm Episteme” has dominated the field of knowledge erases the very acute conflict that broke out in the early years of the 19th century between poetic and artistic rhythmologies, inspired by a common - Sur le concept de rythme (...) – Nouvel article. (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)

From Physiology to Psychology After 1860 psychology began to emancipate itself from philosophy and to bond with natural science, especially physiology. But there was no direct translation of the rhythm concept from the latter to the former. This can be exemplified by looking at the contributions of the physiologist and psychologist Karl von Vierordt. Vierordt was educated as a medical doctor and began studying breath in the 1840s. Then his interest - Psychologie – Nouvel article.

The history of science is often understood as a succession of theories. However, this conception of the history of science does not do justice to the complexity of the dynamics implemented in scientific development. To illustrate this, we focus on a type of phenomena that cannot be described as a simple linear succession : the desuetude of certain theories and particularly the temporary desuetude of the theory of neuroplasticity. We argue that studying this theory reveals some of the inadequacies of (...) the linear conception of the history of science. (shrink)

Le rôle des femmes dans le commerce maritime reste largement méconnu à l'époque moderne à Nantes. Pourtant, différents documents, en particulier les archives notariales, permettent d'appréhender la diversité de la participation des femmes : elles peuvent être propriétaires de navires, marchandes de divers produits ou intervenir dans les aspects financiers liés au commerce maritime. Les sources révèlent la diversité des profils de ces femmes : elles ne sont pas toutes veuves, certaines femmes mariées commercent seules ou avec leur époux. En (...) outre, des femmes que nous qualifions aujourd'hui de célibataires ont également été recensées. (shrink)

Previous chapter Before entering in the obscure forest of the history of rhythm since the 18th century, we need to know a few things concerning its most ancient past. Therefore I would like to start our journey by presenting the main conclusions concerning the origin of the term rhythm reached more than 60 years ago by Benveniste in an article that has not attracted enough attention in English speaking countries, but that still sheds a precious light on this matter - (...) Sur le concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Au début des années 1980, Elias a montré que la diversification et l'allongement des chaînes d'interaction, phénomènes qui remontent en Occident au moins à la Renaissance, appellent la mise en place d'une mesure du temps standardisée et pour laquelle il n'y a plus aucun moment qualitativement distinct, aucun accent. Afin que des acteurs engagés simultanément dans des interactions multiples et à des tempos différents puissent s'orienter dans la profusion des événements, se joindre malgré tout et s'engager (...) - Sociologie – (...) Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, rhythm begun to be understood exclusively under its Platonic-Aristotelian guise. Rhythm defined as order of movement or succession of time-lengths set up the general theoretical framework within which reflection was to remain in the West until the 18th century. The Platonic metric paradigm became dominant, at the expense of the Democritean physical paradigm but also of the Aristotelian poetic paradigm. The former - Sur le concept de rythme – (...) Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Rhythm as Ornament of Speech – Cicero's De oratore As one may know, in De oratore, Cicero exposes through the character of Crassus a full-fledged theory of rhetoric. The latter starts his speech by emphasizing that there is no science, that is no speculatively elaborated knowledge of oratory and that this theory in modern sense is no theoria in Latin or Greek sense. It is much closer to the practical knowledge gathered through - Sur le concept de rythme (...) – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Rhythm as Prolongation of Breath – Cicero's De oratore Then Cicero comes back to Aristotle's naturalistic definition of the period as “that which can be rounded forth in one breath” and Plato's view which he abruptly re-introduces by praising the order of the universe and tying the functioning of language with that of nature. In oratory, rhythm must follow the compass of the breath, “for the stoppage of the breath, and the confined play of the lungs, - Sur (...) le concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Eurhythmy as Due Proportions – Vitruvius' De architectura Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was an architect, as well as a civil and military engineer. He served under Caesar as senior officer of artillery, probably as head of the experts and in charge of the soldiers operating the machines. He wrote a world-famous work entitled De architectura which is dedicated to - Sur le concept de rythme – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Rhythm as Arrangement of Feet – Quintilian's Institutio oratoria Concerning rhythm properly, Quintilian borrows again most of his presentation from Cicero. He first defines rhythm, along with order and connection, as one of the three qualities necessary to the success of a compositio – artistic structure. Further, in all artistic structure there are three necessary qualities [in omni porro compositione tria sunt genera necessaria], order, connexion and - Sur le concept de rythme – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter In a book that was only recently translated into English, Die Form des Werdens: Eine Kulturgeschichte der Embryologie, 1760-1830, Janina Wellmann has claimed that around 1800 the concept of rhythm emerged and penetrated the entire Western culture. In literature, in theoretical reflection on art, in philosophy, and above all in the newest life sciences, rhythm became, she argues, a common scientific “Paradigm” or better yet, a new “Episteme” - Sur le concept de rythme.

La « théorie des deux noms », qui assigne la même fonction sémantique au sujet et au prédicat, est souvent considérée comme caractéristique de l'analyse occamiste de la prédication, et du nominalisme en général. On l'oppose à la doctrine de l'asymétrie du sujet et du prédicat, telle qu'elle a été formulée par Frege, et qui paraît caractéristique d'une forme de réalisme, ainsi qu'en témoignent Frege lui-même et les versions préfrégéennes de cette doctrine chez les Médiévaux, comme Thomas d'Aquin. L'examen des (...) analyses de la prédication de Thomas d'Aquin et de Guillaume d'Occam montre que le second, comme le premier, a soutenu une forme d'asymétrie sémantique. Les options ontologiques ne déterminent pas, sur ce point, leur philosophie du langage. The so-called « two names theory » which attributes the same semantic function to both subject and predicate, is frequently considered as reflecting the occamist analysis of predication, and as characteristic of nominalism in general. It has been opposed to the fregean doctrine of the asymmetry of subject and predicate, which seems connected with realism, as it can be seen in Frege's work, and in the medieval and pre-fregean versions of that same doctrine, for which Aquinas is a good example. But Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham's analysis of predication do not show such an opposition. On the contrary, both have formulated a kind of semantical asymmetry, which is not undermined by their ontological commitments. (shrink)

Bobby Hutcherson Herbie Hancock Bob Cranshaw Joe Chambers - Galerie sonore – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter The first objective of this book was to examine the most ancient roots of Western rhythmology and clarify the various concepts on which it rests. Our investigation has shown that three different theoretical paradigms surfaced between the 5th and the 4th centuries BC. We then followed, over a period of more than thousand years, their complex relations, their respective fates, and the final global shift that occurred between the 3rd and the 6th centuries BC. The overall - Sur (...) le concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter In the first volume of this series, we followed the emergence and the conflicting development in Antiquity of three rhythmic paradigms which have been active in Western thought ever since: the Democritean physical, the Platonic metric, and the Aristotelian poetic paradigms. We observed how the two rhuthmic models disappeared in the last centuries before the Current Era and how the Platonic model, with its metric and idealistic dimensions, subsequently acquired complete - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Main Features of the Naturalistic Cluster A first important result of our analysis has been to show that, despite obvious differences, Deleuze and Guattari shared fundamental views with Serres and Morin. 2.1 Methodologically and epistemologically, the dynamic perspective advocated in A Thousand Plateaus was very close to that defended in The Birth of Physics and not far removed from that presented in Method, even if the latter might seem almost opposite at first glance. - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Divisions Within the Naturalistic Cluster Naturally, we also found that Deleuze and Guattari's interpretation of the rhuthmic perspective diverged on a certain number of issues from Serres' and particularly from Morin's. 3.1 Regarding methodology and epistemology, although, as already noticed, this argument should not be overestimated, there was an obvious difference between the angles from which each theory was developed. Whereas Morin advocated synthesis based on - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Insights and Difficulties Concerning Language Such differences within the naturalistic group should not be underestimated. They showed that a fairly wide range of ethical and political positions could arise from the same basic assumptions. However, they should not be overestimated either, firstly because of the fundamental points of agreement observed above, but also, paradoxically, because of the common difficulties in tackling questions relating mainly to linguistics, - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Insights and Difficulties Concerning Literature and Art Both Serres and Morin and Deleuze & Guattari encountered profound difficulties in the treatment of literature and art. The hyperpragmatist framework they all shared had unfortunate consequences that, unsurprisingly, were similar to those encountered with language. 5.1 Just like in Serres' paradoxical essay on Lucretius, literature and art were almost totally absent from Morin's point of view, who nevertheless - Philosophie – Nouvel article.

Previous chapter Inconsistencies and Confusions in the Definition of the Concept of Rhythm These limits of Deleuze and Guattari's approach to language and literature have clearly had negative consequences on their capacity to develop their own rhuthmic strategy. Due to their rejection of the lessons learned from experience by writers, as well as the linguistic and poetic theories based on this experience, they did not have all the resources necessary to build a theory of rhythm robust - Philosophie – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

C. Bouton, Le Temps de l'urgence, Paris, Le Bord de l'eau, 2013, 303 p. L'essai de Christophe Bouton s'inscrit dans un ensemble de recherches déjà bien fourni. Depuis quelques années, on observe une inflation d'essais sur la vitesse, l'accélération, l'agitation de la vie quotidienne ou la frénésie au travail. Mais le point de vue qui y est exposé tranche sur la plus grande partie de ces travaux et cela pour un nombre non négligeable de raisons. L'urgence comme norme temporelle de (...) l'action La première (...) - Recensions. (shrink)

Previous chapter Over the past fifteen years rhythm has become the object of increasing attention in social science and cultural studies, both as a subject of research and as a tool. The number of papers and books devoted to rhythmanalysis has increased exponentially, even if one excludes studies more specifically devoted to music. A fairly broad intellectual movement is taking place, which most certainly corresponds to needs motivated by the transformations of the world that we have - Vers un nouveau (...) paradigme scientifique? – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Ce texte est la suite et la fin d'une réflexion présentée ici. Nous commençons juste à découvrir les effets des rhuthmoi théoriques et poétiques mis en mouvement par la pensée baroque ; un énorme travail reste à faire pour identifier leur parcours, leurs usages et leurs effets. Un certain nombre de travaux récents commencent toutefois à jeter un peu de lumière sur ces questions. J'aimerais, moins pour conclure qu'à titre d'ouverture, saluer quelques-unes de ces contributions et en profiter pour discuter (...) - Philosophie – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Rhythm as Regular Beat – Augustine's De musica, 3, 4, 5 Climbing down the ladder, Augustine then differentiates between verse and meter. Some metric lines, he argues, are uneven and do not have a regular pause before their endings. Instead, verse uses meter but possesses regular pauses. For Augustine—who does not mind, here, quoting the “ancients” i.e. the tradition—there cannot be such thing as what will be called much later “free verse”. — Master. Well! You - Sur le (...) concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Rhythm as Divine Arithmetic – Augustine's De musica, 1 After these introductory considerations, let us look now more precisely at Augustine's theory of rhythm. “Regulated movement” means, he says, “rhythmical succession of times and rests” which brings us pleasure. On the contrary, “the same movement does not seem right when it is irregular.” Here Augustine is very close to the Greek opposition between rhythm and arrhythmia and one could with no trouble translate ineptus with - Sur le concept (...) de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Previous chapter In 325 or 337 AD, the emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. In 380 AD, Theodosius I, together with Gratian and Valentinian II, made it the only legitimate imperial religion. From that period on, the spread of Christianity over the empire had a tremendous impact on rhythmology. Most of Christian thinkers heavily borrowed from previous rhetoric, music and metaphysical theories but they substantially transformed them to fit their particular needs, - Sur le concept de rythme – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

Previous chapter Rhythm as Performance of the Soul – Augustine's De musica, 6 Augustine is not drawing from the unitary and hierarchical view that he borrows from Plotinus the same conclusions as his predecessor. Due to his belief in Original sin and in God's Incarnation to save Humanity, his view does not fit any longer in the dualistic Platonic paradigm, even that revamped by Plotinus. Since it considers every being as participating in the One, Plotinus' emanationism provides the - Sur (...) le concept de rythme – Nouvel article. (shrink)