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Collectif
The National Gendarmerie A Republican Institution for Civic Service
The national Gendarmerie has passed through eight centuries of history in constantly adapting to the needs of the State and citizens. The changes of political regimes and governments has little by little forged an original military institution, faithful to republican principles. Its specificity lies in the multiplicity of its tasks : defence, judiciary policing, and public security. On October 12th 1999, more than three hundred members of parliament, senior officials, academics, practitioners, researchers and military men were brought together at the Luxembourg Palace. The proceedings of this conference are gathered together in this book for the purpose of helping to trace a vision of the future for tomorrows Gendarmerie.
Bernard Walliser
Cognitive Economics
This book should help readers gain a greater understanding of economic reasoning and rationality. It shows how a period of study and apprenticeship can improve the otherwise limited rationality of economic decisions-makers, how to co-ordinate the various actors expectations in a given situation, and how speculation results from the circulation of the opinions of the economic decision-makers. Bernard Walliser teaches economics at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées.
Giulia Sissa
The Soul is a Feminine Being
Do women have a soul ? Philosophers have historically doubted this, refusing to accord women rationality. However, at the same time, they have been unable to imagine the soul without the help of feminine metaphors : the soul conceives, it is pregnant with knowledge, it gives birth in pain and distress but always with the help of someone. In reading classic texts such as Derrida, and deconstructing them while drawing comparisons with others and focusing on what may seem paradoxical, such as the many Freudian slips, Giulia Sissa leads us to interrogate ourselves on the exclusively feminine attributes of the Western soul. A radical questioning of the difference between the sexes which leads us to the most profound aspects of our culture.
Gérard Chaliand, Sophie Mousset
2000 Years of Christianities A Historical Guide
Two thousand years of Christian thought are reviewed here through some key texts of the Christian tradition...
François Roustang
The End of Complaining
What is the most common reason for going to a therapist? Most patients say it is wanting to change. By the same token, they complain about their present lives. According to François Roustang, all forms of complaining must be dropped; patients must forget their precious egos which serve only to nurture more complaining and whining. Once patients have let go of these trappings, they will be able to remould their lives. This book offers a powerful criticism of traditional therapy and of its failure to reach its avowed goal: to help us to change. It argues for a spiritual approach to inner development. François Roustang is a philosopher, psychoanalyst and unconventional practitioner.
André Klarsfeld, Frédéric Revah
The Biology of Death
Why are most living organisms condemned to die a natural death, even if they are in a well-protected and highly favourable environment ? Is death a "useful" biological process or does it not correspond to any natural necessity ?
Daniel Sibony
Giving Yourself or Sharing Yourself ?
How can one be oneself without denying others? How can one consider others without negating oneself? How can one avoid the two extremes of complete selfishness and total self-sacrifice ? What if the ethics of the other, of responsibility for others which can lead us to risk our lives for others resulted not only in a dead-end (inefficient action, lack of action, justification of past actions) but also kept us from knowing ourselves and, consequently, others and the true nature of our relations with them? Daniel Sibony was trained as a philosopher and is a practising psychoanalyst.
Paul-Henri Rebut
Energy of the Stars Controlled Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion can be likened to God or the devil. Out there among the stars, it is godlike, creating atoms and giving birth to life. But down below, on earth, nuclear fusion is the devil: it has been used to make bombs that can annihilate everything, including all forms of life. Now that the devil of thermonuclear destruction seems to have been locked back in its box, nuclear fusion kept under tight control in civil reactors offers the hope for long-term economic development. Isnt it the only inexhaustible, non-polluting form of energy that offers no limits except that of human technical knowledge? Paul-Henri Rebut is a member of the Academy of Science.