Catalog All books
Claude Hagège
The French Language and the Centuries
Claude Hagege illustrates how the internal purity of the French language, less endangered than one might think, has been pushed aside in favor of its external promotion, less real than one might imagine. He increases our awareness of a major reality of the times. The French language is no longer the exclusive property of France; it has become an international affair. Claude Hagege is a professor at the Collège de France.
Paul Milliez
My Hopes
How does a traditionally-educated Catholic become a committed doctor? How do the resistance, the fight for abortion and against all forms of intolerance, intimate relationships with world leaders from General de Gaulle to the Shah of Iran and travels from Liban to Saudi Arabia, combine to create an extraordinary personality? A worldwide specialist in arterial hypertension, Paul Milliez (1912-1994) was the honorary dean of faculty at Broussais Hotel-Dieu.
Jean-Claude Barreau
Of Good Government The Hidden Truths of History and the News
For the edification of the citizens that we are, the author examines philosophical problems that we had considered resolved since the 18th century, in light of current events. A powerful demonstration of the secret pillars of power, which underlines the necessity of the social contract. Jean-Claude Barreau is the Inspector General of National Education, and has held various positions in high-level administration.
Yves-Alexandre Thalmann
We Always Have a Second Chance at Happiness A little lesson in happiness
An original approach to happiness: memories have an immense potential for happiness. An overview of discoveries in the neurosciences, in particular on the functioning of memory and of cognitive biases. A renewed approach to the resources of our mental mechanisms.
Pierre-André deChalendar
For a City That Is Desirable Once Again Cities are our future: what can be done so they will ultimately be desirable again?
Should we leave cities? The subject is very timely, and this book, which argues that we shouldn’t, deals with it intelligently, and without being overly-technical, which is rather rare in the realm of urbanism.
Rita Levi Montalcini
Your Future A Nobel Prize which speaks to young people
When a great scientist makes a point of getting through to young people and those around them.... When a Nobel prize brings within everyones reach all the key principles of biology.... When an exceptional woman passes down to new generations the values on which she has based her life.... Science with a conscience ! Rita Levi Montalcini recieved the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Born in Turin, but forced from Italy by the Fascism, she has for many years taught in the United States.
Étienne Ghys
Snowflakes: A Wonder of Nature
An introduction to the science of crystals within the reach of non-specialists, with a very clear introduction to the physical and mathematical aspects of the subject.
Alain Devaquet
The Amoeba and the Student University and Research: A State of Emergency
The student revolt of December 1986 translated the profound disarray of a university world faced with the mutations at work in modern-day France. In an analysis of the causes of the events that led to the repeal of his project of law on the universities. Alain Devaquet underlines the importance of the stakes represented by higher education and research on the future of a country and formulates an ensemble of propositions in light of their development. Alain Devaquet is a former minister of higher education and research, and a professor at the faculty of sciences of Paris.
Bernard Lechevalier
Mozart's Brain
In this book, the author uses episodes from Mozarts life which illustrate a specific aspect of musical perception. He explores the mechanisms of musical memory - how is it mentally possible to memorise a fifteen-minute musical composition for nine voices, in two choirs? Is this ability due to a listening technique? To an emotionally-based one? What mental operations are at work in musical memory, in general? Bernard Lechevalier is a neurologist specialising in neuropsychology, and a professor of neurology and medicine in teaching hospitals.
Christian de Duve
Listening to the Living
Everything one should know about biology is explained here by a Nobel Prize winner, including the origin of life, its chemical production and reproduction, the history of life, its earliest forms and also human evolution, the brain, the genius of genetics, and extra-terrestrial life. Finally, the author shows that although biology has undermined arguments in favour of the existence of God, religion and faith are a necessary product of nature selection. Christian de Duve is the director of the Brussels-based International Institute on Cellular Pathology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 for his findings concerning the structural and functional organisation of cells.
François Ansermet, Pierre Magistretti
To Each His Own Brain Biology of the Unconscious
This book is the result of the coming together of psychoanalysis and neuroscience around the shared observation that experience leaves a mark. Although the idea that experience produces psychic imprints - whether conscious or unconscious - has always been central to psychoanalysis, it was not until recently that findings in neurobiology demonstrated that neuronal plasticity existed and that it operated throughout a person's life. This constant remodelling in relation to experience poses certain basic questions about each individual's identity and future. How does psychic life emerge from experience and from what it imprints? What are the respective contributions of external stimuli (the reality behind experience) and of internal stimuli (the imprinted marks)? How do the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity participate in the establishment of an unconscious internal reality? What is the role of the body in this new dynamic organisation? This book provides the foundations for a better understanding of the relations between neuroscience and psychoanalysis and offers an original theory of the unconscious, by combining recent findings in neurobiology with the basic principles of psychoanalysis. Eschewing genetic determinism, it shows that each individual is different and each brain unique. Pierre Magistretti, a physician and neurobiologist, is a professor of physiology and director of the Centre for Psychiatric Neuroscience at the University of Lausanne's medical school. In addition, he is the president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. François Ansermet is a psychoanalyst and professor of child and adolescent psychology at the University of Lausanne. He is the co-author, with O. Halfon and B. Pierrehumbert, of Filiations psychiques (Presses Universitaires de France, 2000).