Catalog All books
Gerald M. Edelman
The Biology of Consciousness
How do we think? What makes us beings that are endowed with conscience, capable of memory, of perceiving the surrounding world, of feeling passion? This book presents an ensemble of mechanisms that compose the human spirit and addresses the progress of the neuroscientific revolution: the biology of the brain and the study of its evolution are in the process of surrendering to us the key to conscience itself. Gerald. M. Edleman, winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine, heads the Institute of Neurosciences at La Jolla, California.
André Miquel
The Event The Koran: Surate LVI
Translation and commentary of one of the most famous surates of the Koran, the fundamental book of Islam, that of The Event or "the key to the door of riches" which teaches of the gifts given to man by God. André Miquel is a professor at the Collège de France.
André Miquel, Jamel Eddine Bencheikh
Of Arabia and Islam
Two French specialists on Islam, one Algerian, the other a native Frenchman, discuss Islam and its confrontation with the Western world. Interweaving references to the past and present, they recount a long history of cultural confrontation, marked by continuous debate and violent conflict, repulsion and fascination. Resolutely optimistic, yet painfully aware of the religious intransigence which enshrouds their subject, their conversations shed new light on the conceptions of power and unity within the Muslim world.
Roger Vigouroux
The Making of Beauty
Where does the gift of artistic genius come from? Why Mozart, why Doestoevsky and Van Gogh? What happens in the brain of a man who devotes his life to writing, painting or music? What is it that pushes us towards the pleasure of listening to a symphony, to the emotion of contemplating a painting, to the joy of reading a poem? Roger Vigouroux is a neurologist.
Marie-Frédérique Bacqué
Living through Bereavement
All civilizations have therapeutic methods to deal with death and the period of mourning. Not ours. By hiding away the experience of death, aren't we becoming more helpless, more disoriented than ever?
Robert Darnton
Berlin Journal, 1989-90
Robert Darnton was in Germany at the moment when the boundaries of post-war Europe came toppling down. Suddenly, the university professor discovered that History was in the making, and the masses were in motion. This is his personal account of the combined drama and celebration that accompanies every revolution. A professor at Princeton University in the United States, Robert Darnton is a specialist in the history of European culture. He is the author of L'Aventure de l'Encyclopédie, Le Grand Massacre des chats and Edition et Sédition.