This book is a collection of secondary essays on America's most important philosophic thinkers—statesmen, judges, writers, educators, and activists—from the colonial period to the present. Each essay is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of a noted American on the fundamental meaning of the American regime.

In this wide-ranging historical introduction to philosophical hermeneutics, Jean Grondin discusses the major figures from Philo to Habermas, analyzes conflicts between various interpretive schools, and provides a persuasive critique of Gadamer's view of hermeneutic history, though in other ways Gadamer's Truth and Method serves as a model for Grondin's approach. Grondin begins with brief overviews of the pre-nineteenth-century thinkers Philo, Origen, Augustine, Luther, Flacius, Dannhauer, Chladenius, Meier, Rambach, Ast, and Schlegel. Next he provides more extensive treatments of such (...) major nineteenth-century figures as Schleiermacher, Böckh, Droysen, and Dilthey. There are full chapters devoted to Heidegger and Gadamer as well as shorter discussions of Betti, Habermas, and Derrida. Because he is the first to pay close attention to pre-Romantic figures, Grondin is able to show that the history of hermeneutics cannot be viewed as a gradual, steady progression in the direction of complete universalization. His book makes it clear that even in the early period, hermeneutic thinkers acknowledged a universal aspect in interpretation--that long before Schleiermacher, hermeneutics was philosophical and not merely practical. In revising and correcting the standard account, Grondin's book is not merely introductory but revisionary, suitable for beginners as well as advanced students in the field. (shrink)

L'homme occidental est "augustinien" sans le savoir. Et l'homme du XXe siècle tout autant, car loin de se limiter à l'Antiquité et à l'Eglise, la pensée d'Augustin a irrigué la pensée contemporaine. Voici pour la première fois une présentation extrêmement claire des apports de la pensée d'Augustin à la philosophie européenne du XXe siècle. Augustin fut de tous les grands débats philosophiques et culturels de ce siècle, au coeur des discussions philosophiques sur l'évolutionnisme, notre rapport à la culture antique, les (...) recherches sur le temps, la personne... Jean-François Petit présente chacun des grands moments "augustiniens" de ce siècle, et les interprétations de son oeuvre en jeu, le renouvellement de la lecture de sa pensée. On peut ainsi découvrir les apports de Blondel, Heidegger, Camus, Gadamer, Jaspers, H. Arendt, Emmanuel Mounier, Etty Hillesum, Derrida, Marion, Lyotard... Comme l'écrit Jean-François Petit : "La philosophie augustinienne a aidé des penseurs du XXe siècle à faire surgir la vérité de leur propre philosophie.". (shrink)

Jean-Luc Marion has long endeavored to broaden our view of truth. In this illuminating new book--his deepest engagement with theology to date--Marion proposes a rigorous new understanding of human and divine revelation in a deeply phenomenological key. Although today considered the central theme of theology, the concept of Revelation was almost entirely unknown to the first millennium of Christian thought. In a penetrating historical deconstruction Marion traces the development of this term to the rise of metaphysics from Aquinas through (...) Descartes, Suárez, and Kant; formalized into an epistemological framework, this understanding of Revelation has restricted philosophical and theological thinking ever since. To break free from these limits, Marion takes hints from theologians including Balthasar and Barth while mobilizing the phenomenology of givenness to provide a rigorous new understanding of revelation as a mode of uncovering. His extensive study of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures unfolds a logic of Trinitarian phenomenality, worked out in conversation with Augustine, Basil, Hegel, Schelling, and others, that ultimately transforms our very notions of being and time. The result is precisely what we have come to expect from this acclaimed philosopher: masterful historical scholarship working in tandem with daring originality. (shrink)

Prologue -- Une enfance catholique -- Préparation -- Une initiation philosophique -- Dans le miroir des aînés -- En découvrant la théologie -- Les choix de Descartes -- Communion et communication -- Antitotalitaire -- Le tournant -- Premières percées -- Disputes -- Le cas Heidegger -- Augustin et Thomas -- Entre la Somme et la Réforme -- Dans l'ombre du cardinal -- Le vent de l'histoire -- Figures contemporaines -- Les mœurs et l'Église -- L'illusion des valeurs -- Eros -- (...) Les deux papes -- Les polémiques -- En Amérique -- À l'œuvre -- La France, toujours -- L'Europe malgré tout -- Des honneurs et de l'immortalité -- Nihil -- Tour du monde -- Épilogue. (shrink)

Political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain brings Augustine's thought into the contemporary political arena and the result is a book about one of the world's most complex thinkers.

Les philosophes anciens ont ecrit sur le rapport de la cite et du monde et c'est a eux que l'on doit les premieres theses cosmopolitiques. L'objet de l'essai de Jean-Francois Pradeau est d'exposer ces theses, en les rendant accessibles a des lecteurs qui ne les connaissent pas. Ainsi l'essai presente-t-il ce que des auteurs comme Diogene le cynique, Platon, les stoiciens ou encore le Pere de l'Eglise Saint Augustin ont pu dire de la citoyennete mondiale et du reve d'une (...) cite mondiale unique qui reunirait enfin tous les peuples. Les questions qu'agite cette histoire ancienne du cosmopolitisme sont pour beaucoup celles de notre epoque, qui a fait l'eloge pendant quelques decennies d'une forme d'emancipation cosmopolitique, qui a invente une Europe supranationale, mais qui parait aujourd'hui figee autour de ses frontieres. Les grecs anciens qui ont invente la formule citoyen du monde ont quelque chose a nous dire de la mondialisation. Ils nous rappellent avec une certaine simplicite que la vie humaine, qui est une vie politique, c'est-a-dire une vie qui n'est possible que dans les limites instituees d'une communaute civique, ne peut atteindre la tranquillite ou le bonheur sans apprecier a sa juste mesure la place qui lui convient dans le monde. Il est nefaste et finalement impossible de vivre sans se faire une certaine idee de ce monde et de son ordre, sans se representer, ne serait-ce que de maniere vraisemblable, ce qu'est l'univers et la place qui nous revient en son sein. (shrink)

Lyotard approaches his subject by returning to his earliest phenomenological training, rearticulating Augustine's sensory universe from a vantage point imaginarily inside the confessant's world, a vantage point that reveals the intense point of conjuncture between the sensual and the spiritual, the erotic world and the mystical, being and appearance, sin and salvation. Lyotard reveals the very origins of phenomenology in Augustine's narrative, and in so doing also shows the origins of semiotics to lie there.

Cet article comprend deux parties nettement distinctes. La première retrace l’histoire, de 1925 à 1955, de ce que Henri-Xavier Arquillière a cru bon d’appeler l’« augustinisme politique ». Cette théorie ne prolonge nullement les travaux de Pierre Mandonnet et d’Étienne Gilson ; elle est tissée de nombreuses contradictions ; elle procède d’une erreur sur les idées augustiniennes de nature et de justice. Comme l’avait déjà montré Henri de Lubac en 1984, le prétendu « augustinisme politique » n’est qu’un mythe. La (...) seconde partie relit la façon dont Augustin a critiqué la définition cicéronienne du populus et la définition qu’il en a proposée à son tour : une définition neutre, libérée des connotations religieuses, en pleine cohérence avec son idée de la concorde possible entre les deux cités. Augustin n’est donc pas seulement libre de toute tendance théocratique ; il se situe même aux antipodes de ce que l’on n’aurait jamais dû appeler « augustinisme politique ». (shrink)

This paper aims to connect philosophy of chemistry, green chemistry, and moral philosophy. We first characterize chemistry by underlining how chemists: co-define chemical bodies, operations, and transformations; always refer to active and context-sensitive bodies to explain the reactions under study; and develop strategies that require and intertwine with a molecular whole, its parts, and the surroundings at the same time within an explanation. We will then point out how green chemists are transforming their current activities in order to act upon (...) the world without jeopardizing life. This part will allow us to highlight that green chemistry follows the three aforementioned characteristics while including the world as a partner, as well as biodegradability and sustainability concerns, into chemical practices. In the third part of this paper, we will show how moral philosophy can help green chemists: identify the consequentialist assumptions that ground their reasoning; and widen the scope of their ethical considerations by integrating the notion of care and that of vulnerability into their arguments. In the fourth part of the paper, we will emphasize how, in return, this investigation could help philosophers querying consequentialism as soon as the consequences of chemical activities over the world are taken into account. Furthermore, we will point out how the philosophy of chemistry provides philosophers with new arguments concerning the key debate about the ‘intrinsic value’ of life, ecosystems and the Earth, in environmental ethics. To conclude, we will highlight how mesology, that is to say the study of ‘milieux’, and the concept of ‘ecumeme’ proposed by the philosopher and geographer Augustin Berque, could become important both for green chemists and moral philosophers in order to investigate our relationships with the Earth. (shrink)

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)

Le present ouvrage propose une relecture fidele mais exigeante de la these de doctorat que Jean Guitton soutenut en 1933, deployant un questionnement proprement philosophique sur la question des rapports entre temps et eternite, au travers d'un examen approfondi des oeuvres de Plotin et saint Augustin. L'enjeu est a la fois ontologique et ethique en ce que l'auteur aborde la question meme de l'etre: l'etre de l'homme et l'etre de Dieu, le corps et l'ame, l'accident et l'essence, le vouloir (...) et la pensee, le bien et le mal, en d'autres termes la vie morale a laquelle chacun est susceptible ou non de se convertir. Chacun des deux auteurs eclaire, selon sa perspective, l'aspect de l'etre qu'est la temporalite, nous livrant deux conceptions de la metaphysique, et tout le merite de ce volume tient dans sa facon de faire se reflechir saint Augustin et Plotin, l'un avec l'autre. Il s'agit en effet pour Jean Guitton de mettre en evidence un parallele croise entre les auteurs, de sorte a comprendre la formation et l'aboutissement de leur pensee, et faire emerger une reflexion intemporelle sur les rapports entre le temps et l'eternite. (shrink)

Le present ouvrage propose une relecture fidele mais exigeante de la these de doctorat que Jean Guitton soutenut en 1933, deployant un questionnement proprement philosophique sur la question des rapports entre temps et eternite, au travers d'un examen approfondi des oeuvres de Plotin et saint Augustin. L'enjeu est a la fois ontologique et ethique en ce que l'auteur aborde la question meme de l'etre: l'etre de l'homme et l'etre de Dieu, le corps et l'ame, l'accident et l'essence, le vouloir (...) et la pensee, le bien et le mal, en d'autres termes la vie morale a laquelle chacun est susceptible ou non de se convertir. Chacun des deux auteurs eclaire, selon sa perspective, l'aspect de l'etre qu'est la temporalite, nous livrant deux conceptions de la metaphysique, et tout le merite de ce volume tient dans sa facon de faire se reflechir saint Augustin et Plotin, l'un avec l'autre. Il s'agit en effet pour Jean Guitton de mettre en evidence un parallele croise entre les auteurs, de sorte a comprendre la formation et l'aboutissement de leur pensee, et faire emerger une reflexion intemporelle sur les rapports entre le temps et l'eternite. (shrink)

The idea of God is one from which contemporary philosophy, to say nothing of Western society at large, seems to have turned away from or replaced by other quests. There is however no greater and more vital subject than the idea of God. It is essential because it is difficult to see how life can have an overriding meaning if there is no God. Or, as Ivan Karamazov puts it in Dostoyevsky’s novel, if there is no God, all hell breaks (...) loose. For philosophers and inquiring minds, God also happens to be one of the most cogent answers to the question as to why there is Being and not nothing. There is little to be gained by looking down on such an answer, which was revered as the highest Good in all cultures and epochs. (shrink)

Marx’s debt to the liberal historians of the 19th century, in particular to Augustin Thierry, has long been a key formula in the “materialist conception of history”, through which to explain the crucial function of the concept of “class struggle”. The present article offers a reconsideration of this presumption, by way of a consideration of various sources (including some little-known notes by Marx, published by the MEGA). The analysis addresses both the question of what Marx actually read and drew upon (...) in Augustin Thierry, in particular his Essay on the History of the Formation and the Progress of the Third Estate, and the way that Marxism constructed a positive reference to Augustin Thierry (in particular through the mediation of Plekhanov), consequently evading certain intuitions of Marx. In its conclusion, the article reconsiders some of the tensions which a historical analysis in terms of class struggle gives rise to, between the focalization on the short time of the revolutionary moment (1789, 1848) and the integration of a detailed, longue durée analysis of social classes (in particular for the medieval era and the Ancien Régime). (shrink)

Does Descartes belong to metaphysics? What do we mean when we say "metaphysics"? These questions form the point of departure for Jean-Luc Marion's groundbreaking study of Cartesian thought. Analyses of Descartes' notion of the ego and his idea of God show that if Descartes represents the fullest example of metaphysics, he no less transgresses its limits. Writing as philosopher and historian of philosophy, Marion uses Heidegger's concept of metaphysics to interpret the Cartesian corpus--an interpretation strangely omitted from Heidegger's own (...) history of philosophy. This interpretation complicates and deepens the Heideggerian concept of metaphysics, a concept that has dominated twentieth-century philosophy. Examinations of Descartes' predecessors (Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Suarez) and his successors (Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hegel) clarify the meaning of the Cartesian revolution in philosophy. Expertly translated by Jeffrey Kosky, this work will appeal to historians of philosophy, students of religion, and anyone interested in the genealogy of contemporary thought and its contradictions. (shrink)

An important step in In Pierre Bayle’s defense of religious tolerance is to refute St Augustine’s claim that heretics who refuse to convert to the true faith do so out of ill will. This claim legitimizes, for Augustine and his followers, the application of temporal sanctions to those heretics, in order to offset their wicked inclination and restore their free will. To counter this view, Bayle uses the theological notions of invincible ignorance and dutiful erroneous conscience, elaborated during (...) the Middle Ages. However, these notions had a very restricted scope, which needed to be extended to so-called heretical beliefs. I show how two early modern scholastics, the Jesuits Gabriel Vázquez and Rodrigo Arriaga, have prepared this evolution and have paved the way for Bayle's denunciation any form of coercion in religious matters. (shrink)

Dans la Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, dont la première édition date de 1813, Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle se propose d’expliquer et de fonder rationnellement la méthode naturelle de classification des plantes. Pour cela, il est amené à comparer les différentes méthodes existantes. Par ailleurs, dans l’introduction, il propose une classification générale des sciences. Dans les deux cas, on retrouve un même souci de justifier le statut scientifique de la botanique.