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A penetrating analysis of our technical civilization and of the effect of an increasingly standardized culture on the future of man.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This collection of essays and interviews, some previously unpublished and almost all of which appear in English for the first time, encompasses the political and ethical thinking of Jacques Derrida over thirty years. Passionate, rigorous, beautifully argued, wide-ranging, the texts shed an entirely new light on his work and will be welcomed by scholars in many disciplines--politics, philosophy, history, cultural studies, literature, and a range of interdisciplinary programs. Derrida's arguments vary in their responsiveness to given political questions--sometimes they are (...) vivid polemics on behalf of a position or figure, sometimes they are reflective analyses of a philosophical problem. They are united by the recurrent question of political decision or responsibility and the insistence that the apparent simplicity or programmatic character of political decision is in fact a profound avoidance of the political. This volume testifies to the possibility and the necessity of a philosophical politics. Negotiations assembles some of the most telling examples of the intrinsic relationship, so often affirmed by Derrida in more abstract philosophical terms, between deconstructive reading practices and what is called the "political"--more precisely, politics in an almost down-to-earth, pragmatic, and commonsense use of the word. Among the many subjects covered in the book are: the death penalty in the United States, the civil war in Algeria, globalization and cosmopolitanism, the American Declaration of Independence, Jean-Paul Sartre, the value of objectivity, politics and friendship, and the relationship between deconstruction and actuality. (shrink)

I shall speak of ghost [revenant], of flame and of ashes.And of what, for Heidegger, avoiding means.What is avoiding? Heidegger on several occasions uses the common word Vermeiden: to avoid, to flee, to dodge. What might he have meant when it comes to “spirit” or the “spiritual”? I specify immediately: not spirit or the spiritual but Geist, geistig, geistlich, for this question will be, through and through, that of language. Do these German words allow themselves to be translated? In another (...) sense: are they avoidable?Sein und Zeit : what does Heidegger say at that time? He announces and he prescribes. He warns [avertit]: a certain number of terms will have to be avoided . Among them, spirit . In 1953, more than twenty-five years later—and this was not just any quarter-century—in the great text devoted to Georg Trakl, Heidegger notes that Trakl always took care to avoid the word geistig. And, visibly, Heidegger approves him in this; he thinks the same. But this time, it is not Geist nor even geistlich that is to be avoided, but geistig.How are we to delimit the difference, and what has happened? What of this meantime? How are we to explain that in twenty-five years, between these two warning signals , Heidegger made a frequent, regular, marked use of all this vocabulary, including the adjective geistig? And that he often spoke not only of the word “spirit” but, sometimes yielding to the emphatic mode, in the name of spirit? Jacques Derrida is Directeur d’Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and also teaches at the University of California, Irvine. His most recent contribution to Critical Inquiry is “Like the Sound of the Sea Deep within a Shell: Paul de Man’s War” . An English translation of De l’espirit: Heidegger et la question is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. Geoff Bennington, author of Lyotard: Writing the Event, is a lecturer in French at the University of Sussex. Rachel Bowlby, author of Virginia Woolf: Feminist Destinations, is a lecturer in English at the University of Sussex. (shrink)

Distinguer pour unir, ou Les degres du savoir was first published in 1932 by Jacques Maritain. In this new translation of The Degrees of Knowledge, Ralph McInerny attempts a more careful expression of Maritain's original masterpiece than previous translations. Maritain proposes a hierarchy of the forms of knowledge by discussing the degrees of rational and suprarational understanding. Nine appendices, some longer than the chapters of the book, advance Maritain's thought, often by taking on criticism of earlier editions of the (...) work. Rightly called Maritain's cardinal work, The Degrees of Knowledge is a magnificent and sagacious achievement. Jacques Maritain's masterpiece proposes a hierarchy of forms of knowledge that culminate in mystical experience and wisdom, which is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Maritain argues that the intellectual life is meant to be complemented by the spiritual life and should culminate in sanctity. (shrink)

In this essay and the next, on Foucault, Derrida reencounters two thinkers to whom he had earlier devoted important essays, which precipitated stormy discussions and numerous divisions within the intellectual milieus influenced by their ...

Ever since its first documented live birth in 2014, the use of uterine transplantation (UTx) for the treatment of absolute uterine factor infertility (UFI) has seen major clinical advances, which include the use of alternative surgical approaches, different donor states, and diverse patient populations. In addition to the thorough research programs that developed the technique, this accomplishment has occurred in large part following a number of ethical frameworks, such as the Montreal Criteria and the Indianapolis Consensus, which paved the way (...) to transition from experimental animal trials to human ones. To date, over 60 uterine transplants have been performed in the world, and at least 18 births have been thus far confirmed. While the procedure remains experimental, the vast knowledge and procedural experience amassed over the last 20 years of rigorous research have hinted at the next step of discovery. In particular, advancing social circumstances have prompted the question regarding the use of this technology in transgender individuals. Though the potential use of uterine transplants in the transgender population has been hypothesized, no in‐depth ethical framework has been developed towards this purpose. Herein, we explore the ethical issues revolving around the use of this technology in this patient population and provide key insights that may advance this cause. (shrink)

The paper presents the notion of “Spirit of Nature” in Henry More and describes its position within More’s philosophical system. Through a thorough analysis, it tries to show in what respects it can be considered a scientific object and in what respects it cannot. In the second part of this paper, More’s “Spirit of Nature” is compared to Newton’s various attempts at presenting a metaphysical cause of the force of gravity, using the similarities between the two to see this notorious (...) problem of Newton scholarship in a new light. One thus sees that if Newton drew from Stoic and Neo-Platonic theories of aether or soul of the world, we need to fully acknowledge the fact that these substances were traditionally of a non-dualistic, half-corporeal, half-spiritual nature. Both More’s “Spirit of Nature” and Newton’s aether can thus be understood as different attempts at incorporating such a pneumatic theory into the framework of modern physics, as it was then being formed. (shrink)

Derrida’s recently published Life Death seminars have again highlighted the importance of values within the ongoing philosophical conversation about overcoming metaphysics. The seminars further indirectly raise a matter of great importance for constitutional theory. Values have become central to constitutional discourse since the mid-twentieth century despite critique due to their supposedly subjective nature, the potential conflict between them, and the legal uncertainty that they bring about. This essay enquires into the origin, logic, structure, and operation of (constitutional) values. It does (...) so through a close reading of the texts of Heidegger and Derrida in which Nietzsche’s call for a revaluation of values takes on a central role, along with a reflection on the relation between life and Being, as well as between life and death. A close reading of these texts in turn makes possible an unorthodox reading of Schmitt’s newly translated text on constitutional values in The Tyranny of Values, which finally opens the possibility of a move beyond such values and thus beyond metaphysics. (shrink)

Twelve essays exploring aspects of literacy and art criticism, retrospective sociology and the effects of relativism on moral behavior.

In my paper, I dispute Christian Hengstermann’s analysis of More’s philosophical system as a form of panentheistic panpsychism in which matter is alive by virtue of being the last emanation from God. I show that, in his mature period, More explicitly rejected such an emanationist doctrine and attributed the non-mechanical powers of matter to an outside immaterial principle, the Spirit of Nature. Ultimately, this leads to a system in which divine space, the Spirit of Nature and the spirit of God (...) are representations of various aspects of the divine essence, as it is at work in the world. On the other hand, matter is not part of this triadic structure and can only be said to be alive at the cost of a rather counterintuitive redefinition of the notion of “life”. (shrink)

Londres, 1945. Giles est declare heritier du titre et de la fortune de son pere Hugo Barrington. Au detriment de son ami - et peut-etre demi-frere - Harry Clifton, mais aussi au grand soulagement de celui-ci qui peut dorenavant epouser Emma, la soeur de Giles. Tandis que Harry et Emma s'installent a Bristol avec Sebastian, leur fils, et Jessica, une petite fille qu'ils adoptent, Giles, devenu membre de la chambre des Lords, se retrouve pris au piege de haines ancestrales dans (...) sa lutte pour le pouvoir. Une decennie plus tard, c'est Sebastian, representant de la nouvelle generation, qui fera basculer la carriere politique de son oncle. Secrets trop longtemps enfouis, vengeances longuement meditees, amours enfin possibles ou alliances interessees, une saga qui se devore d'une traite. Tout est reuni pour rendre cette lecture totalement addictive. Un excellent page-turner. Version Femina. (shrink)

Le present ouvrage est un recueil d'articles de J. Etienne, professeur de philosophie et de theologie morales a l'UCL, en l'honneur de son 75eme anniversaire. Le choix des articles et leur agencement dans une structure tripartite temoignent de la dynamique directrice de la vie et de la pensee de J. Etienne, a savoir une recherche ethique alimentee par la raison et motivee par la foi. C'est ainsi que la premiere partie, consacree aux sources philosophiques de la pensee de J. Etienne, (...) rassemble diverses etudes qui vont de Platon a Ricoeur en passant par Bergson et Nabert; la seconde partie s'offre comme une mediation religieuse et theologique: elle reprend diverses contributions de J. Etienne sur le sacre, sur les relations entre la dynamique evangelique et la vie morale. La troisieme partie, quant a elle, fait se croiser ces deux sources de la reflexion morale que sont la raison et la foi sur des axes fondamentaux de la reflexion ethique ainsi que sur des thematiques plus actuelles: y sont abordes, entre autres, les rapports entre nature et culture, entre anthropologie et ethique, mais aussi les droits de l'homme, le droit d'ingerence, le respect aux mourants. Le recueil se termine par une bibliographie de J. Etienne. Comme un fil rouge qui traverse ce recueil, la mise en evidence du primat dialogue et de la raison sur la victoire privee de parole qu'est la violence, rappelle la capacite ethique qui habite tout etre humain et qui confere a sa liberte sa dignite. (shrink)

Albert Einstein et Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ne se sont jamais rencontrés, même par hasard. Dommage, car il aurait été passionnant de les entendre parler de Dieu... Cet essai ne cherche pas à imaginer une telle rencontre? il aborde la question de Dieu en prenant ces deux penseurs et savants du XXe siècle pour compagnons, pour inspirateurs. Le théologien peut en effet tirer leçon des sujets auxquels ils ont réfléchi, autant que des postures intellectuelles et spirituelles qui ont été les (...) leurs. La question du hasard (Dieu joue-t-il aux dés?) sert de fil conducteur à cette réflexion qui traite aussi du rôle de la théologie et de la place de la mystique, de l'attitude humaine face au réel et du défi de la mort. A l'école de ces deux hommes libres, cet essai ne prétend pas répondre définitivement aux sempiternelles questions : où est Dieu? qui est Dieu?, mais offrir et partager le témoignage d'un théologien qui doit tant à ceux qui ont consacré leur vie à la science et osé parler de Dieu. (shrink)

Is the sky open to us? -- A brief history of space ethics -- Icarus -- Cloud riders -- The spaceship Earth -- A threatening sky -- The greater Earth -- Exploration -- Invaders -- The place of humans.

Face aux sommes colossales investies par les Etats, à l'augmentation des débris dans les orbites autour de la Terre, aux risques pris par les spationautes, et à l'exploitation commerciale de l'espace, cet ouvrage propose une réflexion critique sur les stratégies mises en oeuvre par les hommes dans leur conquête des étoiles.

"L'esprit d'aventure animait-il Pierre Teilhard de Chardin? Il ne suffit pas, pour répondre, de rappeler la devise que lui applique l'un de ses amis, George Barbour : "Ut migraturus habita. Vis comme si tu allais partir." Il ne suffit pas non plus de trouver sous sa plume ce bel aveu : "Je ne saurais désormais être autre chose qu'une sorte d'aventurier spirituel." Il faut le suivre dans ses multiples voyages, lire son abondante correspondance, l'entendre se plaindre d'être retenu à Pékin (...) durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale sans aucun terrain d'action, ou encore douter que la Croisière Jaune puisse lui être utile. Il faut aussi l'écouter se plaindre que le christianisme a perdu l'esprit d'aventure et le voir s'engager lui-même dans les zones laissées en blanc, celles où le savoir comme le croire perdent pied et où le réel reprend tout son pouvoir. Une invitation à mettre les pas dans ceux de ce gentilhomme aux semelles de vent."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Devenu une figure emblématique de l'opposition à l'ascension du nazisme, Theodor Lessing (1872-1933) - philosophe allemand d'origine juive - fut l'objet à partir de 1925 d'une virulente campagne de diffamation qui aboutit à son assassinat le 31 août 1933. Cet essai se propose non seulement d'éclairer les circonstances de sa vie et de sa mort, mais surtout de mieux faire connaître l'évolution de sa pensée et de son action à travers un choix de textes rédigés entre 1906 et 1933, et (...) toujours inédits en français. (shrink)