The posthumous Pourquoi Philosopher? collects Jean-Fran ç ois Lyotard’s previously unpublished four-part introductory course in philosophy, delivered to students of the Sorbonne in 1964. The interest of this text is both historical (appearing at an important juncture in French thought) and meta-philosophical (answering the question "why philosophize?" in such a way that a philosophy of philosophy - or rather several - is offered for consideration). The text will be of interest to readers of various levels of philosophical sophistication.
The most accessible expression of François Laruelles non-philosophical, or non-standard, thought, _General Theory of Victims_ forges a new role for contemporary philosophers and intellectuals by rethinking their relation to victims. A key text in recent continental philosophy, it is indispensable for anyone interested in the debates surrounding materialism, philosophy of religion, and ethics. Transforming Joseph de Maistres adage that the executioner is the cornerstone of society, _General Theory of Victims_ instead proposes the victim as the cornerstone of humanity and the (...) key figure for contemporary thought. Laruelle condemns philosophy for participating in and legitimating the great persecutions of the twentieth century, and lays out a new vision of victim-oriented ethics. To do this, he engages the resources of both quantum physics and theology in order to adapt a key concept of non-philosophy, Man-in-person, for a new understanding of the victim. As Man-in-person, the victim is no longer exclusively defined by suffering, but has the capacity to rise up against the worlds persecution. Based on this, Laruelle develops a new ethical role for the intellectual in which he does not merely represent the victim, but imitates or clones it, thereby assisting the victims uprising within thought. (shrink)
The utterance of a negative statement invites the pragmatic inference that some reason exists for the proposition it negates to be true; this pragmatic inference paves the way for the logically unexpected Modus Shmollens inference: “If p then q ; not- q ; therefore, p .” Experiment 1 shows that a majority of reasoners endorse Modus Shmollens from an explicit major conditional premise and a negative utterance as a minor premise: e.g., reasoners conclude that “the soup tastes like garlic” from (...) the premises “If a soup tastes like garlic, then there is garlic in the soup; Carole tells Didier that there is no garlic in the soup they are eating.” Experiment 2 shows that this effect is mediated by the derivation of a pragmatic inference from negation. We discuss how theories of conditional reasoning can integrate such a pragmatic effect. (shrink)
Using a latent variable modelling strategy we study individual differences in patterns of answers to the selection task and to the truth table task. Specifically we investigate the prediction of mental model theory according to which the individual tendency to select the false consequent card (in the selection task) is negatively correlated with the tendency to judge the false antecedent cases as irrelevant (in the truth table task). We fit a psychometric model to two large samples ( N = 486, (...) twice), and find no evidence for this negative correlation. We examine which of the assumptions of the model theory must be amended to accommodate our findings. (shrink)
Using the Chinese Ring Puzzle, we studied the effect on rule discovery of having to plan actions or not in order to reach a goal state. This was done by asking participants to predict legal moves as in implicit learning tasks and by asking participants to make legal moves as in problem-solving tasks. Our hypothesis was that having a specific goal state to reach has a dual effect on rule discovery. The first effect is positive and related to feedback from (...) moves done in order to attain the goal: generalising the results of action and associating them to the conditions in which they were obtained allows discovery of the rule and learning it. The second effect is negative. In attempting to reach a specific goal, participants first tend to reduce the distance that separates the current state from the goal state and so neglect the kind of exploration that facilitates rule and procedure discovery because this would seem to be a detour from the goal. Results show that having to plan actions improved performance in implicit learning tasks, yet it impaired performance in problem-solving tasks. Although implicit learning and problem solving are based on rule discovery, and entail noticing regularities in the material, in both cases, rule discovery processes appear to be task-dependent. (shrink)
Janicaud clarifies the project of “overcoming” metaphysics, a project that Heidegger himself recognized as open to innumerable misunderstandings, and Mattei inquires into the major Heideggerian texts produced between 1935 and 1969 to detect the cosmic figure of the Geviert, the initial Fourfold where “earth and sky, the divine ones and the mortals” gather.
L’unité du monde est un motif récurrent de l’œuvre de Carl Schmitt, malgré les ruptures apparentes ou réelles qu’elle comporte. Il est présent dans les écrits de la période décisionniste , où il illustre le fantasme d’un dépassement définitif du conflit politique. Durant la période national-socialiste, Schmitt oppose sa théorie du « grand espace » et des Empires aux rêves mondialistes, d’autant plus dangereux qu’ils servent les intérêts d’une puissance aspirant à l’hégémonie, les États-Unis. Mais c’est dans les écrits postérieurs (...) à 1945 que ce motif devient central, en même temps que la réflexion désabusée sur « le nouveau nomos de la terre » qui pourrait succéder au jus publicum europaeum de l’époque moderne. En fin de compte, le rejet constant du rêve d’une unification politique illustre à la fois la conviction étatiste de Schmitt et son refus d’une philosophie rationaliste de l’histoire.The theme of the unity of the world is recurrent in Carl Schmitt’s work, despite the apparent or real breaks it presents. The theme appears in the writings of the decisionist period , as an illustration of a fantasm : that of definitive go-beyond any political conflictuality. During the national-socialist period, Schmitt opposes his theory of the « Great Space » and of the Empires to the dreams of globalisation, considered as a very dangerous as they would, in fact, express the interests of a great power seeking for hegemony, the United States. But, it’s in the writings posterior to 1945 that the theme is becoming central, when Schmitt produces his disillusioned reflexion on the « new nomos of earth » that could take the place of the jus publicum europaeum of the modern period. In the end, his constant refusal of a possible political unification of the world illustrates the statist convictions of Carl Schmitt, and is denial of a rationalist philosophy of history. (shrink)
Comment et pourquoi la philosophie juridique et politique contemporaine est-elle revenue à Kant? Il faut pour le comprendre s'intéresser d'abord à l'ancrage de la pensée du droit dans la théorie kantienne de la raison pratique et aux problèmes que pose le statut kantien d'une raison normative dans les deux champs coordonnés de l'éthique et du droit. L'articulation entre droit privé et droit public, entre droit et politique dans la Métaphysique des moeurs doit être considérée en relation avec l'exigence d'une fondation (...) unitaire du système des normes pratiques. La philosophie politique de Kant peut dès lors être envisagée dans le prolongement de sa théorie du droit international, avec l'ouverture d'une perspective cosmopolitique qu'il importe de définir avec précision. (shrink)
The Kantian theme of ‘cosmopolitan right” has often been used in 20th century’s scholarship to water down the juridicism affecting Kant’s doctrine of private and public law. It would in this sense be the point where law is re-introduced into an ethical, or at least meta-juridical, perspective. On the contrary, we would like to emphasize that Kantian cosmopolitan right has a properly juridical dimension. Far from questioning the sharp separation between law and ethics, the cosmopolitan right is the necessary accomplishment (...) of Kantian concept of law. (shrink)
In this essay, I analyze Kant’s views on the permissibility of revolutions as a means of political change. I hold that in the same way the developments of the French Revolution were somehow contained in the ambiguity of the 1791 Constitution, Kant’s hesitations concerning the continuity of a juridical order reflect his own inability to clearly specify who the sovereign is. This difficulty might be due to the fact that Kant did not develop a sound theory of constituent power.
resumo Esse artigo busca mostrar, em contraste com uma tradição já estabelecida, que a filosofia clássica alemã, longe de fazer do indivíduo simples apêndice do Estado, propõe uma verdadeira teoria do Estado de direito , e isso, antes mesmo que esta tenha sido formulada pelos juristas liberais. Mas se trata de uma teoria crítica, que põe em evidência o caráter ilusório da idéia liberal segundo a qual a sociedade civil poderia furtarse inteiramente à tutela do Estado. Para Fichte e para (...) Hegel, mas também para Kant, apenas um Estado verdadeiro, com os atributos de sua potência, pode ser um verdadeiro Estado de Direito. palavras-chave Fichte; Kant; Hegel; sociedade civil; liberalismo; Estado de direito. (shrink)
resumo O presente artigo investiga as relações entre individualidade e espírito objetivo no quadro da filosofia política hegeliana. Retomando o significado mediador contido na idéia de “vida ética”, procura-se apontar uma alternativa à interpretação de que Hegel seria partidário de um institucionalismo forte, que dissolveria o indivíduo quando de sua institucionalização sócio-política. palavras-chave vida ética – subjetividade – indivíduo – instituição – linguagem universal.
Es ist nicht zuletzt Hegels Kritik der Demokratie gewesen, die ihm den Ruf zugetragen hat, ein Vordenker des modernen Totalitarismus zu sein. Die genaue Analyse zeigt hingegen, dass Hegels Demokratiekritik die Entfaltungsbedürfnisse der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft reflektiert und damit gerade den Anspruch des politischen Raums nach Totalität, wie er sich in der – antiken – Demokratie manifestiert, in Frage stellt. Hegels Zusammendenken von Staat und Gesellschaft lässt sich zugleich als Kritik des vom Liberalismus entwickelten Staatsverständnisses fruchtbar machen.
