Présentation d'une pensée qui synthétise les savoirs des Lumières et prépare les idéologies contemporaines, du socialisme au libéralisme industriel, et des disciplines comme la sociologie, le management ou la science politique. Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, surtout, peut être considéré comme le fondateur de la religion scientifique, industrielle et technologique contemporaine.

Isaiah Berlin's celebrated radio lectures on six formative anti-liberal thinkers were broadcast by the BBC in 1952. They are published here for the first time, fifty years later. They comprise one of Berlin's earliest and most convincing expositions of his views on human freedom and on the history of ideas--views that later found expression in such famous works as "Two Concepts of Liberty," and were at the heart of his lifelong work on the Enlightenment and its critics. Working with BBC (...) transcripts and Berlin's annotated drafts, Henry Hardy has recreated these lectures, which consolidated the forty-three-year-old Berlin's growing reputation as a man who could speak about intellectual matters in an accessible and involving way.In his lucid examination of sometimes complex ideas, Berlin demonstrates that a balanced understanding and a resilient defense of human liberty depend on learning both from the errors of freedom's alleged defenders and from the dark insights of its avowed antagonists. This book throws light on the early development of Berlin's most influential ideas and supplements his already published writings with fuller treatments of Helvétius, Rousseau, Fichte, Hegel, and Saint-Simon, with the ultra-conservative Maistre bringing up the rear. These thinkers gave to freedom a new dimension of power--power that, Berlin argues, has historically brought about less, not more, individual liberty.These lectures show Berlin at his liveliest and most torrentially spontaneous, testifying to his talents as a teacher of rare brilliance and impact. Listeners tuned in expectantly each week to the hour-long broadcasts and found themselves mesmerized by Berlin's astonishingly fluent extempore style. One listener, a leading historian of ideas who was then a schoolboy, was to recount that the lectures "excited me so much that I sat, for every talk, on the floor beside the wireless, taking notes." This excitement is at last recreated here for all to share. (shrink)

It is sometimes thought that the renowned essayist Isaiah Berlin was incapable of writing a big book. But in fact he developed some of his most important essays--including "Two Concepts of Liberty" and "Historical Inevitability"--from a book-length manuscript that he intended to publish but later set aside. Published here for the first time, Political Ideas in the Romantic Age is the only book in which Berlin lays out in one continuous account most of his key insights about the history of (...) ideas in the period that he made his own--the Romantic age. Distilling his formative early work in the history of ideas, the book also contains much that is not found elsewhere in his writings. The last of Berlin's posthumous books, it is of great interest both for his treatment of the subject and for what it reveals about his intellectual development. Written for a series of lectures at Bryn Mawr College in 1952, and heavily revised and expanded by Berlin afterward, the book argues that the political ideas of the Romantic age are still largely our own--down to the language and metaphors they are expressed in. Vividly expounding the central political ideas of leading European thinkers in the period 1760-1830, including Helvetius, Condorcet, Rousseau, Saint-Simon, Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte, the book is written in Berlin's characteristically accessible style. The book has been carefully prepared by Berlin's longtime editor Henry Hardy, and Joshua L. Cherniss provides an illuminating introduction that sets it in the context of Berlin's life and work. (shrink)

Auteur du Pèlerinage aux sources, du Chiffre des choses, A de La Passion, de Noé, de La Trinité spirituelle, disciple de Gandhi, fondateur de l'ordre de l'Arche, maître de vie intérieure, pionnier de la lutte contre le nucléaire, Lanza del Vasto laisse une oeuvre admirable d'écrivain et de philosophe ; de même que l'Arche, son oeuvre de vie. Notre système économique et politique s'effondre sous nos yeux, la violence prend la forme d'un terrorisme universel, nous subissons la cruauté économique et (...) sommes les témoins du saccage de la terre. Lanza del Vasto l'avait prédit. Son enseignement fut prophétique, parce que lucide ; il est plus actuel que jamais. Seule la non-violence permet de sortir d'un système auto-destructeur, pensait-il. Pour Lanza comme pour Gandhi, elle est " force de vérité " et rien ne peut s'accomplir sans la " force de l'amour ". Par la conversion personnelle et collective qu'il implique, l'enseignement de Lanza del Vasto indique la voie et apprend à résister. Lanza del Vasto, serviteur de la Paix est le portrait d'un homme d'action et d'un penseur essentiel dont le message est à redécouvrir de toute urgence. (shrink)

The basic principles of scientific research from the great French physiologist whose contributions in the 19th century included the discovery of vasomotor nerves; nature of curare and other poisons in human body; more.

C'est le parcours de la composition devenue une oeuvre-objet avant d'être une oeuvre-restituée, médiatisée, publique et partagée, que nous propose Henri-Claude Fantapié, chef d'orchestre, compositeur, pédagogue et musicologue, qui n ...

Parce que le Liber de causis etait au programme de l'enseignement universitaire parisien au XIIIe siecle, il etait naturel pour le professeur, frere Thomas d'Aquin, de composer un commentaire sur ce texte attribue alors a Aristote. Mais parce que, a ce moment meme, le dominicain Guillaume de Moerbeke venait de decouvrir les Elements de theologie de Proclus et de les traduire en latin (18 mai 1268), Thomas, enregsitrant aussitot cet apport nouveau, comprenait que le Liber de causis etait un sous-produit (...) des Elements de Proclus et devait donc etre retire a Aristote. Du meme coup, il saisissait la nature platonicienne de ce texte qui le rapprochait des doctrines du Pseudo-Denys et permettait d'evaluer son platonisme. C'est pourquoi le Commentaire de Thomas sur le Liber de causis offre une presentation des doctrines platoniciennes dans la construction theologiques des premiers principes. Dans l'elaboration de ce commentaire, Thomas se revele un veritable humaniste en avance de deux siecles sur les savants de la Renaissance. (shrink)

For several centuries prior to the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875, individual 'theosophers' in Britain and Europe were quietly in touch with one another all seekers of the inward way. Theosophic Correspondence (1792 1797) is a series of inspiring letters, personal and philosophic, exchanged during the climactic days of the French Revolution between Kirchberger, member of the Sovereign Council at Berne, Switzerland, and Saint-Martin, whom Kirchberger regarded as 'the most eminent writer . . . and most profound (...) of his age'. (shrink)

This study relies on environmental stewardship, a stakeholder-enlarged view of stewardship theory, and institutional theory to analyze the relationship between CEO compensation and firms’ environmental commitment in a worldwide sample of 520 large listed firms. Our findings show that environment friendly firms pay their CEOs less total compensation and rely less on incentive-based compensation than environment careless firms. This negative relationship is stronger in institutional contexts where national environmental regulations are weaker. Our findings have important theoretical meaning and practical implications. (...) Results show that CEOs do not necessarily act opportunistically; rather some of them may be willing to act as stewards of the natural environment and accept a lower, less incentive-based compensation from environment friendly firms. This study also provides evidence of the important influence of the institutional context in setting-up CEO compensation as the relationship is stronger when national environmental regulations are weaker. Our findings question the universal validity of agency theory in explaining CEO compensation. Compensation based on pecuniary incentives might be less indicated to motivate CEOs who feel rewarded by playing a stewardship role for environment friendly firms. When designing compensation for CEOs, compensation committees and external compensation advisors should consider psychological and institutional factors that might affect CEO motivation. (shrink)

This paper critically examines Japan's recent drive to learn from the West. The paper first presents the historical setting and then goes on to develop future scenarios for Japan. The focus of the paper is learning and change following the collapse of the Japanese economic bubble, and the relevance of the US and Western models of corporate governance. The question it raises is what to change, and from which quadrant(s) of society this drive can be initiated and sustained. The paper (...) proposes various paths to learning and change. It recommends that the most challenging and rewarding path is the eclectic-innovative path, which requires active and non-cosmetic management of change. The paper concludes that the West is but one source of learning for Japan. Japan needs to learn from its mother civilisation, from within which fresh challenges will arise again. (shrink)

Assuming that the political information provided to the voters directly determines the communication efficiency of the political system in a democratic framework, this paper therefore proposes and tests some hypotheses explaining the politician's behaviour in that respect. Those hypotheses are tested on statements made by major Belgian parties' leaders at the eve of the 1978 and 1981 national elections. Having first related the degree of reserve on the politician's statement with his party's share in the constituency, a positive relationship is (...) found. The second hypothesis states that the degree of reserve in the politician's statement is explained by his reaction either offensive or defensive triggered by the variation in his party's share given the outcome of the precedent election. It is observed that a defensive attitude is adopted by parties having known a reduction of their market share. The third question dealt with examines the infiuence of the size of the party on the abovementioned relationship between the variation of the market share and the degree of reservedness. The results show that apparently the elimination of the size effect does not affect the findings concerning the second hypothesis. (shrink)

Le Tableau naturel des rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'homme et l'univers est un ouvrage fondamental pour ceux qui cherchent à comprendre les mystères de la Création. Pour Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, l'homme porte en lui-même la clé de tous les mystères. Se connaître soi-même est donc la condition primordiale pour accéder à la Connaissance. Les textes sacrés nous enseignent que l'histoire de l'humanité est liée à un drame en trois actes. Le premier est celui de l'âge d'or ; (...) le deuxième celui d'une chute douloureuse dans la matière ; le troisième, qui reste à venir, sera marqué par une rédemption, une réintégration dans le Divin. L'auteur de ce livre s'efforce de percer le sens ésotérique de ces trois étapes. Il montre aussi que l'impasse dans laquelle se trouve l'homme résulte de la confusion qui règne dans ses pensées. S'il nourrissait sa volonté à la chaleur de l'Amour divin, il accéderait à la régénération d'une manière naturelle, et l'humanité trouverait la Connaissance menant à la Paix Profonde. (shrink)

We compare two Picard groups in dimension 1. Our proofs are constructive and the results generalize a theorem of J. Sands [11].

For several centuries prior to the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875, individual 'theosophers' in Britain and Europe were quietly in touch with one another all seekers of the inward way. Theosophic Correspondence (1792 1797) is a series of inspiring letters, personal and philosophic, exchanged during the climactic days of the French Revolution between Kirchberger, member of the Sovereign Council at Berne, Switzerland, and Saint-Martin, whom Kirchberger regarded as 'the most eminent writer . . . and most profound (...) of his age'. (shrink)