Les troubles de mémoire sont un motif fréquent de consultation dans les services de gériatrie, psychiatrie ou neurologie. Ils sont pour beaucoup synonymes d’un mot terrible : Alzheimer. Dès l’apparition de troubles mnésiques, chacun s’interroge : « Est-ce l’âge, ou bien la maladie? Puis-je panser ma mémoire, ou vais-je dériver avec elle? » Les docteurs Emmanuelle Candas et Bruno Le Dastumer, gériatres, spécialistes des troubles de la mémoire, font un état des lieux de la maladie d’Alzheimer et répondent à ces (...) interrogations : comment faire la différence entre le vieillissement naturel du cerveau et les troubles mnésiques pathologiques? Existe-t-il un traitement pour soigner la maladie d’Alzheimer? Et surtout, comment accompagner le malade, dès le diagnostic établi? (shrink)

This paper proposes a pragmatic solution to utterances where the various indicators of time and aspect (tenses, lexical-conceptual features of Aktionsart, adverb phrases and contextual cues) seem to have divergent temporal reference and aspectual properties. This type of cases is usually treated at the semantic level as ‘mismatches’ and resolved compositionally through logical operations of ‘aspectual coercion’. We suggest on the contrary that no such effect of ‘mismatch resolution’ or ‘coercion’ is at work: these utterances are worked out inferentially according (...) to the various pieces of evidence they provide for their relevance, in line of Deirdre Wilson’s and Dan Sperber’s (1995) relevance theory. Such utterances give rise to cognitive effects that are hardly attainable by apparently more literal formulations, while being cost-effective. Our analysis follows the work ofEscandell-Vidal and Leonetti (2011)about the rigidity and thus prevalence of computational linguistic expressions, called ‘procedural expressions’ byBlakemore (1987)withinSperber and Wilson’s (1995[1986])framework, relevance theory. (shrink)

Montesquieu's The Spirit of Laws is an enduring classic of social and political theory deserving a fresh reading every generation. The modern reader, however, is likely to find a work that ran to over a thousand pages in its two-volume first edition a bit overwhelming. Presented here, therefore, is the first English-language compendium of The Spirit of Laws, together with the first English translation of the posthumously published treatise containing the physiological theory underlying Montesquieu's theory of climate.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Christian Humanism in the Age of Critical Philology:Ralph Häfner's Gods in ExileMartin MulsowHäfner's book is a monumental study and a milestone of German-language research.1 He delineates, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the Christian humanism of European philologists in the era of criticism. Recovering an immense wealth of forgotten sources, the book reveals the complex interaction and tension between pagan mythology and Christian culture in philological controversies. (...) Though authors might denounce the pagan histories of gods as fabulae, they were constitutive for the productive and emulative reception of ancient Greco-Roman patterns in Renaissance and Baroque culture. How could the peculiar logic of this paganizing be handled? Was it advisable to have faith in the integrative power of Christian truth, which was capable of finding precursors or even proofs of one's own truth in pagan patterns, or should the pagan be selectively separated from the Christian? And what was the role of philology in this process? Did the growing expertise in criticism advance the process of dissociation of paganism and Christianity? Did it further new possibilities of synthesis in the spirit of Apologetics? [End Page 659]The reconstruction of these processes involves much more than what the book's very specific title suggests. It is a large-scale history of scholarship written from the perspective of the most important tensions that Christian humanism had to overcome in its final stage. From an Anglo-American perspective, this book contributes to recent reconstructions of ideas of early modern men of learning, as well as the growing number of studies on antiquarianism and the history of religion.2 The final stage of Christian humanism, the period of time covered by the book, begins in the late sixteenth century and ends in the 1730s, a point in time which Häfner presents, with some justification, as the end of an era.Hymnology and PolymathyThe study consists of three basic parts. The first one is the "Persistence of Orphic-Platonic Hymnology in Christian Humanism" ("Fortleben der orphisch-platonischen Hymnologie im christlichen Humanismus"). This topic, apparently very specialized and marginal, proves to be a key arena of early modern scholarship, an arena traversed by the battle lines between pagan tradition and Christianity as well as between poetry and theology. Were hymns inspired poetry? What kind of inspiration could and should be conceded to hymns to Jupiter and the sun? Of course, those humanists who reappropriated Orphism and Neo-Platonism were interested in this genre. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and even into the mid-sixteenth century, this was not yet a problem. However, the more philological consciousness (and confessionalization) evolved, the more the genre's scope was delimited. What scope remained? Häfner relates the problem to the revival of an "eclectic Platonism" in the wake of the Second Sophistic. This "eclectic Platonism," which was particularly influential from 1500 on, combined Platonism with rhetorics, and the claim of comprehensive polymathy with the joyful presentation of the findings of reading. In this respect, Apuleius and Aulus Gellius were two model authors for early modern polyhistors. We must include Martianus Capella as a continuation of the "Renaissance of the Second Sophistic into Early Christian Encyclopedism" [End Page 660] ("Renaissance der Zweiten Sophistik bis in die frühchristliche Enzyklopädie hinein," p. 18).Häfner's approach is starkly original and, in my opinion, highly productive for the current debates about early modern encyclopedism and "cultures of knowledge" that are sometimes deadlocked.3 Too frequently, polymathy is used synonymously for encyclopedism, which is often associated with modern concepts of systematic classification. Yet, according to Häfner, this is a misunderstanding. It neglects the playful elements and skillful rhetorical options of throwing questions out into the open rather than narrowing them dogmatically. Perhaps the only addition to Häfner's sources could have been Louis de Cressolles's Theatrum veterum Rhetorum, which, according to Marc Fumaroli in L'age de l'éloquence, marked the return of the Second Sophistic.4 The analysis of the work of Gerhard Johannes Vossius, a classical philologist who resided in Leyden and Amsterdam, is the first test for Häfner... (shrink)

Linguists and philosophers examine the representation of temporal reference; the interaction of the temporal information from tense, aspect, modality, and context; and the representation of the temporal relations between facts, events, states, propositions, and utterances. They link this to current research in psychology and anthropology.

Inλ-calculus, the strategy of leftmost reduction (“call-by-name”) is known to have good mathematical properties; in particular, it always terminates when applied to a normalizable term. On the other hand, with this strategy, the argument of a function is re-evaluated at each time it is used.To avoid this drawback, we define the notion of “storage operator”, for each data type. IfT is a storage operator for integers, for example, let us replace the evaluation, by leftmost reduction, ofϕτ (whereτ is an integer, (...) andϕ anyλ-term) by the evaluation oftτϕ. Then, this computation is the same as the following: first computeτ up to some reduced formτ 0, and then applyϕ toτ 0. So, we have simulated “call-by-value” evaluation within the strategy of leftmost reduction.The main theorem of the paper (Corollary of Theorem 4.1) shows that, in a second orderλ-calculus, using Gödel's translation of classical intuitionistic logic, we can find a very simple type (or specification) for storage operators. Thus, it gives a way to get such operators, which is to prove this type in second order intuitionistic predicate calculus. (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)

Ce texte a pour but de mettre en confrontation la conception ruyérienne de la philosophie avec la conception wittgensteinienne. L’opposition majeure consiste dans l’idée défendue par Ruyer selon laquelle on ne saurait concevoir ce qu’est l’esprit sans définir un domaine, intérieur au sujet, qu’on peut identifier avec sa subjectivité. Une telle idée est comprise par Ryle comme un mythe, celui de l’intériorité. Il y a en revanche une volonté commune à Ruyer et Wittgenstein de s’émanciper de la science. Deux thèmes (...) permettent alors de comparer les objectifs de Ruyer et ceux des philosophes wittgensteiniens : le thème des mythes en philosophie et celui de la traduction. (shrink)

RésuméLa sémiotique a inventé ou utilisé plusieurs modèles logiques pour représenter la structure élémentaire de la signification. Le carré sémiotique est sans doute l’un des plus célèbres de ces modèles. Il faut se demander, devant l’importance des phénomènes triadiques, si les modèles dyadiques sont (toujours) adaptés à leur description ou s’il ne faudrait pas se tourner (aussi) vers des modèles triadiques. Or, les modèles triadiques de la structure élémentaire de la signification nous apparaissent bien moins nombreux. À notre connaissance, seule (...) la sémiotique de Peirce et le templum de Boudon occupent cet espace autrement laissé vacant. Nous voulons ici à la fois présenter et exemplifier le templum et le compléter, en nous inspirant du carré sémiotique, pour le faire évoluer vers un « prisme sémiotique ». Nous proposerons également d’autres modèles logiques, comme le pentalemme et le cube sémiotiques. Au passage, nous étudierons plusieurs questions et problèmes – dont la décidabilité – entourant les modèles logiques. Nous ferons quelques applications sommaires de certains modèles, sur le temps, l’espace et la transcendance principalement. (shrink)

Le sens tragique de la vie de l'Esprit chez Hegel implique deux modalités de la vie : une vie sans tragique, qui n'est pas encore la vie spirituelle, et une vie tragique, qui implique la vie éthique. Le tragique est ce qui dissout la pseudo-unité de la nature et de la moralité chez la belle âme. Il s'incarne d'abord dans la tragédie et la tension entre les humains et les dieux, mais la comédie révèle que cette tragédie n'est pas la (...) tragédie absolue, laquelle appartient à la religion révélée, en tant que tragédie de Dieu même, la Passion du Christ étant la tragédie absolue. La forte insistance de Hegel sur l'opposition du Bien et du Mal justifie la mort volontaire du Dieu -homme, l'intériorisation dans la conscience de soi du Mal existant et naturel. C'est dans l'Esprit de la communauté que la mort du Médiateur devient la douleur de la conscience malheureuse. L'histoire de l'Absolu, en tant qu'elle est conçue, devient philosophie, mais, en tant qu'elle est vécue, elle est et reste une tragédie. The tragical meaning of Hegel's life of the Spirit implies two modalities of life : i.e. a life devoid of the tragic, which is not yet a spiritual life and a tragical life which implies ethical life. The tragic is what dissolves the pseudo-unity of nature and morality with the beautiful soul. It first embodies itself within tragedy and the tension between gods and human beings but comedy reveals that such a tragedy is no absolute tragedy, the latter belonging to revealed religion as being the very tragedy of God himself, Christ's passion being the absolute tragedy. The strong instance made by Hegel on the opposition between Good and Evil accounts and justifies the voluntary death of God-Man, the interiorization within self consciousness of existing and natural Evil. It is within the spirit of the community that the Mediator's death becomes the pain of unhappy conscience. The history of the Absolute, conceived as it is, becomes true philosophy, but so long as it becomes experienced, turns out to be and remains tragedy. (shrink)

Excerpt from Die Philosophischen Prinzipien der Mathematik Dieser Stand der Dinge hat sid1 während der zweiten Hälfte des 19.1ahrhunderß vollständig geändert. Auf der einen Seite erfaßten die Mathematiker ihren Vorgängern unbekannte logische Bedenken; sie begannen ihre Beweismethoden zu analysieren. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format (...) whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)