Traducción al español de De Libera, A., “Les sources gréco-arabes de la théorie médiévale de l’analogie de l’être”, _Les Études Philosophiques_, n° 3-4, julio-diciembre de1989, pp. 319-345.

This article offers a tentative deconstruction of Heidegger’s account of the “modern,” that is, the “Cartesian,” “subject.” It argues that subjectivity, understood as the idea of some “thing” that is both the owner of certain mental states and the agent of certain activities, is a medieval theological construct, based on two conflicting models of the mind (nous, mens) inherited from ancient philosophy and theology: the Aristotelian and the Augustinian (or perichoretic) one, developed in connection with such problems as that of (...) the two wills in the incarnate Christ. Starting with Nietzsche’s criticism of the “superstition of logicians” (the belief that“the subject I is the condition of the predicate think”) and Peter Strawson’s question in Individuals (“Why are one’s states of consciousness ascribed to anything at all?”), the article discusses Peter Olivi’s and Thomas Aquinas’s treatments of the problem, as well as the principle invoked to resolve it: actiones sunt suppositorum, “actions belong to subjects.” Against this background, the discussion refers to Heidegger’s notion of “subjecticity” and Armstrong’s “attribute-theory” in order to reappraise the Hobbesian and Leibnizian contributions to the history of the Self. (shrink)

This article offers a tentative deconstruction of Heidegger’s account of the “modern,” that is, the “Cartesian,” “subject.” It argues that subjectivity, understood as the idea of some “thing” that is both the owner of certain mental states and the agent of certain activities, is a medieval theological construct, based on two conflicting models of the mind (nous, mens) inherited from ancient philosophy and theology: the Aristotelian and the Augustinian (or perichoretic) one, developed in connection with such problems as that of (...) the two wills in the incarnate Christ. Starting with Nietzsche’s criticism of the “superstition of logicians” (the belief that“the subject I is the condition of the predicate think”) and Peter Strawson’s question in Individuals (“Why are one’s states of consciousness ascribed to anything at all?”), the article discusses Peter Olivi’s and Thomas Aquinas’s treatments of the problem, as well as the principle invoked to resolve it: actiones sunt suppositorum, “actions belong to subjects.” Against this background, the discussion refers to Heidegger’s notion of “subjecticity” and Armstrong’s “attribute-theory” in order to reappraise the Hobbesian and Leibnizian contributions to the history of the Self. (shrink)

L’A. retrace l’histoire des propriétés individuelles de l’Antiquité et du Moyen Âge à la lumière de la théorie des tropes de D.C. Williams et Campbell. Il insiste sur l’importance de la relation de co-présence et la compare avec des notions apparentées (comme le « syndrome des qualités » ou le « rassemblement des qualités »). L’A. examine également la validité des principes du particularisme ontologique pour la philosophie d’Abélard. Il s’attache à l’examen de la thèse de la non-transférabilité des tropes, (...) chez Boèce, Abélard, et il en rappelle les origines dans l’Islam classique (théologie ash’arite). L’A. insiste sur le fait, en conclusion, que ce particularisme ontologique n’a pas forcément partie liée avec le nominalisme. (shrink)

L’interprétation d’Augustin à partir des Confessions par J.-L. Marion est une topologie de la charité (c’est-à-dire aussi une topique ou logique de l’amour), qui propose à la fois une théologie de l’adonné et une phénoménologie de la grâce. On en présente les principales thèses et quelques concepts fondamentaux en montrant et défendant l’arrière-plan théologique de la troisième voie explorée avec Augustin entre ego transcendantal et moi empirique : celle, précisément, de l’adonné, incompatible avec toute notion de sujet au sens aristotélicien (...) du terme. La lecture d’Augustin par Marion est enracinée dans la lecture augustinienne des Psaumes. Elle ne fait intervenir ni Es gibt heideggérien ni Es denkt anticartésien. Elle est aussi non gilsonienne. Comme telle elle échappe à l’horizon de la métaphysique, qu’il s’agisse de la métaphysique de l’Exode ou de la métaphysique de la conversion, en plaidant pour une lecture apophatique de l’Idipsum (« Lui-même ») comme principal Nom divin. (shrink)

Le XIVe siècle allemand a vu l'apparition et le développement d'une forme de philosophie autonome, fortement influencée par le péripatétisme grécoarabe, mais s'orientant de façon croissante vers le néoplatonisme le plus authentique: celui de Proclus. Si la transition de l'aristotélisme à la «théologie platonicienne» a connu son point culminant dans le Commentaire des Éléments de théologie de Berthold de Moosburg, elle a été préparée par une série de décisions philosophiques, acquises pour l'essentiel chez Albert le Grand. L'objet du présent article (...) est de montrer comment la théorie albertinienne de la contemplation philosophique, avec ses notions spécifiques de «conjonction» et d'«intellect acquis», a servi de point de départ à la reviviscence de l'idéal antique de sagesse contemplative qui caractérise l'école dite «de Cologne», de Dietrich de Freiberg à Berthold lui-même, en passant par Maitre Eckhart. (shrink)

ExcerptDemocracy of opinion? Television democracy? Market democracy? Whether one studies them in the context of the crisis or evaluates them in relation to the dynamic of postmodernism, the pathologies affecting contemporary democracies are attracting more and more attention. The general opinion is that these pathologies, far from being inherent to democracy itself, are the result of a corruption of its principles. The most superficial observers attribute this corruption to external factors or phenomena (hence the ritualistic denunciations of fundamentalism, populism, communitarianism, (...) globalization, etc.), which amounts to questioning solely the changes in morals and the transformation of society. Yet this confuses…. (shrink)

Édition du troisième sophisma « Omnis homo de necessitate est animal » du ms. Paris, BnF Lat. 16135. Le texte anonyme, contenu aux f. 99rb-103vb, appartient à la seconde collection de sophismata transmis dans ce codex légué à l’Université de Paris par Étienne de Genève socius du Collège de Sorbonne, après avoir été maître ès arts à Paris dans les années 1270. Il offre un panorama des principales positions soutenues au xiiie siècle par les Antiqui et les Moderni sur la (...) sémantique des termes vides, la distinction entre l’esse essentiae et l’esse existentiae, l’être effectif et l’être logique, le temps et la modalité. (shrink)

We review the history of the philosophy of fondue since Aristotle so as to arrive at the formulation of the paradox of Swiss fondue. Either the wine and the cheese cease to exist (Buridan), but then the fondue is not really a mixture of wine and cheese. Or the wine and the cheese continue to exist. If they do, then either they continue to exist in different places (the chemists), but then a fondue can never be perfectly homogenous (it is (...) a French fondue). Or the wine and the cheese continue to exist in the same place (the Stoïcs), but then wine and cheese have to be, oddly, penetrable and spatially expansible. Aristote attempted to solve this paradox by arguing that the cheese and wine continue to exist, but only potentially in the fondue. We sketch an alternative answer. The wine and the cheese continue to exist, but only non-spatially in the fondue. Wine and cheese, once mixed, become non-spatial constituents of the fondue, a bit like character traits are non-spatial constituents of persons. The wine and the cheese are in the fondue, but only the fondue is there in the fondue pot. (shrink)

The concept of sovereignty is one of the most complex in political science, with many definitions, some totally contradictory.1 Usually, sovereignty is defined in one of two ways. The first definition applies to supreme public power, which has the right and, in theory, the capacity to impose its authority in the last instance. The second definition refers to the holder of legitimate power, who is recognized to have authority. When national sovereignty is discussed, the first definition applies, and it refers (...) in particular to independence, understood as the freedom of a collective entity to act. When popular sovereignty is discussed,…. (shrink)

In his “Liberality versus Liberalism,” John Milbank certainly begins with good intentions, but the article is open to ambiguous understandings.1 Personally I have no difficulties agreeing with parts of his criticism. Like Milbank, I believe that since the collapse of “really existing socialism,” which the soviet systems claimed to represent, “liberalism” is without a doubt the contemporary “bearer of modernity” and “progress.” In addition, globalization is primarily a “liberal” phenomenon: the transformation of the planet into an immense single market. Milbank (...) is equally correct when he evokes the “vicious global spiral” that tends to transform today's liberal democracies into societies…. (shrink)

There are two different ways of defining complexity.1) Traditionally, the word "complexity" is considered synonymous to "organization". The transformation of species is an expression of victory against random indifferencism.

Peut-on prouver que l’âme raisonnable est par elle-même et essentiellement forme du corps? C’est pour résoudre cette question que des générations de lecteurs d’Averroès recourent à la distinction entre forme inhérente et forme assistante. On examine l’histoire de cette distinction dans l’après-coup du concile de Vienne (1312) et du concile de Latran V (1513), dans sa triple dimension noétique, ontologique et anthropologique. On présente les sources et les divers aspects de la théorie averroïste de la forme assistante, de Siger de (...) Brabant à la scolastique tardive et à la première modernité, selon laquelle l’intellect n’est ni forme inhérente ni moteur séparé, mais forme séparée. (shrink)

Fighting racism requires knowing what it is—not an easy task. Today the word “racism” has so many contradictory meanings that it takes on the aura of a myth and is, therefore, difficult to define. The following will attempt to define racist ideology, independently of any sociological considerations. The first difficulty arises from the fact that racism is a Schimpfwort: a term with pejorative connotations, whose very use inevitably tends to be more instrumental than descriptive. Deploying the adjective “racist” involves using (...) a powerful epithet. It can be a smear designed to disqualify those at whom the term is addressed.…. (shrink)

Alain de Lattre. IV RÊVERIE ET PROFONDEUR Avant d'aller plus loin, tâchons de rassembler sur quelques traits ce que nous avons vu. Il y a de la distance dans les choses, disions-nous '. Fort bien. Quelle distance ? Celle qu'on pourrait voir ...

The publication of this Black Book by a group of historians to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the October Revolution has opened a heated debate, first in France and then abroad. Edited by Stéphane Courtois, who also wrote the preface (instead of François Furet, who died a few months before its publication), this work attempts to provide an accurate account of the human cost of communism in view of the documentary evidence available today. The estimate is around 100 million dead—four (...) times the body-count of Nazism. These figures are not really a revelation. From Boris Souvarine to Robert Conquest and…. (shrink)

IntroductionThe French New Right was born in 1968. It is not a political movement, but a think-tank and school of thought. For more than thirty years—in books and journals, colloquia and conferences, seminars and summer schools, etc.—it has attempted to formulate a metapolitical perspective. Metapolitics is not politics by other means. It is neither a “strategy” to impose intellectual hegemony, nor an attempt to discredit other possible attitudes or agendas. It rests solely on the premise that ideas play a fundamental (...) role in collective consciousness and, more generally, in human history. Through their works, Heraclitus, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St.…. (shrink)