The Politics of Belonging represents an innovative collaboration between political theorists and political scientists for the purposes of investigating the liberal and pluralistic traditions of nationalism. Alain Dieckhoff introduces an indispensable collection of work for anyone dealing with questions of identity, ethnicity, and nationalism.

The Politics of Belonging represents an innovative collaboration between political theorists and political scientists for the purposes of investigating the liberal and pluralistic traditions of nationalism. Alain Dieckhoff introduces an indispensable collection of work for anyone dealing with questions of identity, ethnicity, and nationalism.

Effective public policy to mitigate climate change footprints should build on data-driven analysis of firm-level strategies. This article’s conceptual approach augments the resource-based view of the firm and identifies investments in four firm-level resource domains to develop capabilities in climate change impact mitigation. The authors denote the resulting framework as the GISTe model, which frames their analysis and public policy recommendations. This research uses the 2008 Carbon Disclosure Project database, with high-quality information on firm-level climate change strategies for 552 companies (...) from North America and Europe. In contrast to the widely accepted myth that European firms are performing better than North American ones, the authors find a different result. Many firms, whether European or North American, do not just “talk” about climate change impact mitigation, but actually do “walk the talk.” European firms appear to be better than their North American counterparts in “walk I,” denoting attention to governance, information management, and systems. But when it comes down to “walk II,” meaning actual Technology-related investments, North American firms’ performance is equal or superior to that of the European companies. The authors formulate public policy recommendations to accelerate firm-level, sector-level, and cluster-level implementation of climate change strategies. (shrink)

The object of this paper is to retrace the steps that led Buchanan from marginal cost pricing to clubs. We claim that the idea individuals could form clubs to finance public goods can be traced back to his first works on public finance, at the end of the 1940s, and relates to the financing of highways and the pricing of their construction and of their use. Very early in his career Buchanan adopted Knut Wicksell’s proposal to use a marginal cost (...) pricing rule even for public goods. The many criticisms raised against this rule led him to replace it with club pricing. (shrink)

"To think with Nietzsche against Nietzsche." Thus the editors describe the strategy adopted in this volume to soften the destructive effects of Nietzsche's "philosophy with a hammer" on French philosophy since the 1960s. Frustrated by the infinite inclusiveness of deconstructionism, the contributors to this volume seek to renew the Enlightenment quest for rationality. Though linked by no common dogma, these essays all argue that the "French Nietzsche" transmitted through the deconstructionists must be reexamined in light of the original context in (...) which Nietzsche worked. Each essay questions the viability of Nietzsche's thought in the modern world, variously critiquing his philosophy of history as obsessed with hierarchy, his views on religion and art as myopic and irrational, and his stance on science as hopelessly reactionary. Contending that we must abandon the Nietzsche propped up as patron saint by French deconstructionists in order to return to reason, these essays will stimulate debate not just among Nietzscheans but among all with a stake in modern French philosophy. Contributors are Alain Boyer, André Compte-Sponville, Vincent Descombes, Luc Ferry, Robert Legros, Philippe Raynaud, Alain Renault, and Pierre-André Taguieff. (shrink)

The current study investigated the influence of morphological structure on the earliest stages of Arabic reading acquisition. More specifically, we aimed at examining the role of root and pattern units in beginners from Grade 1 to 3. A first set of reading tasks evaluated the presence of a morphology facilitation effect in word and pseudoword reading by manipulating independently the familiarity of roots and patterns. The second one pursued to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to reading performance. The results (...) suggest that reading ability is early influenced by the awareness of morphological composition. Children read faster and more accurately pseudowords composed of familiar morphemes. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed, for every reading measure, a significant contribution of one morphological test in addition to grapheme knowledge. Results are discussed taking into account the differences obtained depending on lexicality and morpheme type (root or pattern). (shrink)

In this final volume of Political Philosophy, Luc Ferry and Alain Renaut summarize these efforts and put forward their own set of arguments.

Ce qui compte, ce n'est pas la question "aristocratique" des fondements d'une proposition, mais la question "démocratique" de la valeur de ses conséquences pratiques : en morale, ce n'est pas l'expérience, mais notre conscience qui décide d'accepter telle ou telle conséquence. Rawls oppose déontologie et téléologie : la première classe de théories définit le juste indépendamment du bien, la seconde le définit comme maximisation du Bien. Mais les approches déontologiques ne sont pas anti-conséquentialistes : "Ne pas prendre en compte les (...) conséquences serait irrationnel, fou". Toute théorie morale rationnelle est une "morale de la responsabilité", et non de la conviction, même si certains énoncés de base de l'intuition sont pour nous des "points fixes". Le conséquentialisme n'est pas nécessairement utilitariste, car l'on peut vouloir minimiser l'injustice. Ces considérations sont appuyées sur l'analyse de plusieurs exemples juridiques, dont celui de la responsabilité civile. (shrink)

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has a new mechanism to receive individual complaints and issue views, which makes the question of how the Committee should interpret the broad articles of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights more pressing than ever. Most commentators on the legitimacy of the CESCR’s interpretation have argued that interpreters should make better use of Articles 31–33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) in order to improve (...) the legitimacy of their findings. In this article, we argue conversely that the individual communication mechanism should be evaluated and reformed in terms of legitimate authority. In the context of the Committee’s process of interpretation, we contend that proportionality is better suited than the various interpretive options of the VCLT to offer a consistent procedure that is able to generate legitimacy by attenuating the tension between personal and collective autonomy. (shrink)

Quand il s'agit de rendre compte, par-delà les calculs intéressés de l'homo oeconomicus, de la manière dont tiennent les sociétés humaines, donner et reconnaître apparaissent comme deux dimensions constitutives de l'agir social. Mais du don et de la reconnaissance, il convient aussi, avant d'en appeler à leur syncrétisme, d'en interroger les proximités et les distances, ainsi que leurs consistances respectives. Par exemple, dira-t-on d'un don sans retour ou d'une reconnaissance sans réciprocité qu'ils sont encore dignes de ces noms? Les activités (...) de don et de reconnaissance se confrontent alors à une tierce dimension qui les taraude de l'intérieur : la domination. Cet ouvrage propose d'examiner plus précisément la façon dont se répondent et s'entremêlent les trois modèles du don, de la reconnaissance et de la domination, sur des enjeux contemporains situés au croisement de plusieurs horizons théoriques (la théorie critique, l'anthropologie, la phénoménologie sociale, la psychanalyse)."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Is medieval logic formal? And if yes, in what sense? There are striking affinities between medieval and contemporary theories of language. Authors from the two periods share formal ambitions and maintain complex, and at time uneasy, relations with natural language. However, modern scholars became careful not to overlook the specificities of theories developed more than five hundred years apart, in particular with respect to their 'formal' character. In 1972, Alfonso Maieru noted that the efforts of medieval logicians to identify logical (...) structures in language which are formal enough to become objects of scientific consideration. He also stressed that the language investigated is a historical one, Latin, so that one can legitimately wonder to which extent... one is allowed to speak of 'formal logic' in the middle ages. In other words, medieval logic is characterized by a tension between 'formalist ambitions' and constraints proper to natural language. Today, our knowledge of the field has considerably expanded, calling for a new assessment of the question. (shrink)

Partons de ce que Daniel Charles appelle le timbre. Le timbre est la matière de la musique, l’événement du son. La façon dont le son sonne, emplit l’espace, devient volumineux, vibre et ondule. Charles dit d’ailleurs avènement et non événement. Le timbre est délié, atomique (c’est le côté lucrétien de la rencontre avec la musiqu...

This study is the foundation of a new interpretation of the introduction and the three first books of Diophantus’s Arithmetica, one that opens the way to a historically correct contextualization of the work. Its purpose, as indicated in the title, is to renew the traditional discussion on the methods of problem-solving used by Diophantus, through the detailed exposition of a new analytical framework that aims to give an account of the coherence and progressive nature of the material included in the (...) three first books of the Arithmetica. One outcome of this new ‘toolbox’ is a new conspectus of the problems and solutions contained in the latter, which is presented in appendix. The first part of the article clarifies, as a necessary preliminary, the key notions and terminology underlying our analysis. Among these new concepts is the notion of “method of invention,” which accounts in general for any way, by which “positions” (hypostaseis) are used in the Arithmetica. The next part proposes a complete inventory of the various methods of invention found in the three first books. Finally the last part presents the above mentioned conspectus and proposes a series of preliminary conclusions that can be drawn from it. (shrink)

[1] Époques et auteurs.--[2] Textes choisis.

L’éthique engage un jugement de valeur absolu et c’est la raison pour laquelle Wittgenstein, conscient que tout sens est relatif, l’estimait indicible. On peut vouloir revenir à une perspective métaphysique pour penser l’éthique, et la construire – comme avait pu le faire Spinoza en son temps – sur la base d’une théorie de la substance absolue. On peut aussi comprendre l’absolu relativement, comme le résultat d’un processus d’abstraction. L’approche n’est plus ontologique, mais sémantique. Telle est notre voie, qui ouvre un (...) espace non encore exploré par la tradition. Die Ethik nimmt für sich in Anspruch, ein Urteil von absoluter Geltung zu fällen, und aus diesem Grund hielt Wittgenstein - im Bewusstsein, dass jede Meinung relativ ist – es für unmöglich, über Ethik zu sprechen. Man kann sich vornehmen, zu einer metaphysischen Perspektive zurückzukehren, um die Ethik zu denken, und man kann sie konstruieren – wie es Spinoza in seiner Zeit vermochte – auf der Grundlage einer Theorie der absoluten Substanz. Man kann auch das Absolute in relativer Weise verstehen, als das Ergebnis eines Prozesses der Abstraktion. Der Gang der Untersuchung ist dann nicht mehr ontologisch, sondern semantisch. Dies ist unser Weg; er öffnet einen Raum, den die Tradition noch nicht erkundet hat. (shrink)

This book studies the occurrence (or not) of a case of circular reasoning in Kant's attempt to establish the foundation of knowledge. The response to this question instigates a commentary on the transcendental deduction of the categories, which lie at the heart of the Critique of Pure Reason, in both the 1781 and 1787 editions.

Leibniz comprenait la question pourquoi y a-t-il quelque chose plutot que rien? sur un mode ontologique; il l'interpretait dans le cadre d'une physique continue, lineaire et necessaire; et il y repondait en invoquant le principe de raison suffisante. Nous comprenons desormais cette question sur un mode non ontologique, en substituant une notion relativiste et pragmatiste de realite a la notion absolue d'etre; nous l'interpretons dans le cadre d'une physique discontinue, non lineaire et probabiliste; et nous y repondons en denoncant, sur (...) un mode non sceptique, le principe de raison suffisante. Operer un tel renversement de l'analyse leibnizienne ne suffit toutefois pas. Car nous restons dans le cadre de la logique binaire adoptee par Leibniz, a savoir l'opposition entre le quelque chose (1) et le rien (0)... (shrink)

Faire comprendre la genèse et la construction de la pensée de Platon, et la méthode inédite qu’il met au point pour penser, tel est l’objet de ce livre. Riche de ses débats avec de grands penseurs de l’Antiquité : Pythagore, Héraclite, Parménide, Gorgias... la dialectique platonicienne, alliant exigence de vérité et recherche d’efficacité, invente ainsi la philosophie. Découvrir la force et les enjeux de cette invention permet d’explorer, aussi, le sens qu’une histoire de la philosophie peut avoir aujourd’hui, et les (...) défis qu’elle porte en elle. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 108 Heft: 1 Seiten: 116-133.

In this article, I study Richard’s paradox, and I consider several of its solutions. I then restate the paradox using Kolmogorov’s theory of complexity. Taking as a starting point Chaitin’s demonstration that Kolmogorov’s understanding of «complexity» is only relative, I put forth a new solution to the paradox.