Catalog All books
Paul Andreu
Memoires of an Architect
Reflections on creativity, art and science, by a major contemporary architect
Marylène Patou-Mathis
The Savage and Prehistory, the White Man’s Mirror
Throughout history how has Western man regarded human beings that differ from him?
Jeannette Favre, Catherine Jousselme
A Twin and Unique Enjoying Being a Twin
This unusual testimonial will support and assist anyone who is closely or more distantly concerned with twins and twin births
Philippe Descola
Claude Lévi-Strauss, A Journey Through the Century
Eminent specialists on Claude Lévi-Strauss, his disciples and intellectual heirs, from Brazil, Canada, France and the U.S., give us a wide-ranging view of every facet of the works and thought of the author...
François Saint-Pierre
In the Name of the French People Trial by Jury or by Professional Judges?
Who should judge serious crimes?
Stella Baruk
Si 7 = 0. Quelles mathématiques pour l'école ?
Stella Baruk is known for her uncompromising criticism of the way mathematics is taught at school. She sees children's frequent aversion to the subject as a clear demonstration of the failure of current methods. Following her earlier book, L'Age du Capitaine, in which she denounced the meaningless mathematical problems that children were burdened with and enjoined to solve, she now addresses the difficulties encountered by the new generation of the captain's children. She has reproduced pages from the exercise books of primary school pupils, with a commentary underlining the confusion created by modern maths in the minds of children who are not yet familiar with mathematics. Her message is clear: the fault lies not in modern maths, but in the fact that the cart has been put before the horse. Modern maths was created to generalise operations and structures that recur in every aspect of mathematics, and modern maths cannot be correctly understood without the full mastery of those operations and structures. Yet, the teaching of mathematics has been turned on its head, with the abstract being taught before the concrete and the general before the specific - with the result that empty formalism is all that is being passed on. Baruk's very precise analyses, illustrated with specific examples, will help parents understand their children's mistakes and difficulties, so that they can help them overcome them. Stella Baruk is a mathematics teacher and pedagogical researcher.
Jean-Pierre Changeux
The Natural Foundations of Ethics
Is the sense of morality universal, is it inherent to human nature? The members of this symposium gathered around Jean-Pierre Changeux ponder the diversity of moralities and question themselves about the conflicts due to cultural differences and the possibility of attaining a common morality which would be intrinsic to human nature.
Didier Tabuteau
Health as Political Model
This exemplary X-ray of French healthcare argues for a total overhaul of the system
Geneviève Bédoucha
Lunar Eclipse in Yemen An Anthropologist's Emotions and Feelings of Bewilderment
This is a fascinating approach by a woman of a tribal society in a mountain valley in northern Yemen, near the Saudi Arabian border. Partly a travel book and partly a journal of the author's fieldwork, it restores an anthropologist's unique first-hand experience, questionings, hesitations and discoveries, from the first moments spent in an unfamiliar village. There are few anthropological works on Yemen, and even fewer about private life in rural societies in the hinterland of the former Arab Republic of Yemen (the author's fieldwork dates from the 1980s, before reunification). At the time, the presence of a female anthropologist led both men and women to talk openly, often jokingly and provocatively, of male-female relations, and it seemed to encourage women to voice strong criticisms of male behaviour and privileges. The women's comments reveal them to be lucid independent thinkers, and not at all submissive. This book is an invitation to discover a little-known rural community at close quarters, and to penetrate the secret universe of Yemen's many-storied mud houses. It reveals relations between men and women in a closed, but curious and hospitable, Muslim Arab society. An anthropologist and research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Geneviève Bédoucha is a specialist in the relations between socio-political structures and irrigation systems in Arabic and Islamic societies.
Yvonne Knibiehler
The History of Virginity Myths, fantasies, emancipation
An original analysis of the evolution of male-female relations, as seen through the changes in their respective understanding of female virginity.
Mark Williams, Danny Penman
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World
Following The Mindful Way through Depression, the latest success by Oxford professor Mark Williams
Georges Hansel
Talmudic Explorations
Shrouded in legend, wrapped in mystery, disparaged, censored, and sometimes even burned, the Talmud remains one of the cornerstones of Judaism. Yet the general reader knows little about it. What is the source of the shared inspiration underlying Talmudic texts which are known to address every aspect of human existence? What are the basic Talmudic notions of morality, politics, and the law, as well as of family and social relationships? Georges Hansel unveils the basic Talmudic principles as well as the underlying inspirational forces that are responsible for their coherence. Georges Hansel is a mathematician and professor emeritus at the University of Rouen.
Roland Trompette, Daniel Nahon
Short Stories of the EarthAnd Universe
The mysteries of planet Earth revealed in 37 lively accessible chapters
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.
Marie-Christine Hardy-Baylé, Christine Bronnec
What are the Limits of Psychiatry ?
On the one hand, an ever increasing demand, on the other, widespread agreement that the profession in is the grip of a crisis. The result is that the supply is badly equipped to deal with the demand. What are the origins of this crisis ? Does it run as deep as the very foundations and identity of psychiatry itself ? In particular, what can be done to transform this natural diversity into a real strength ? Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Marie-Christine Hardy-Baylé works at the André-Mignot hospital, and is a professor of medicine at the University of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. She heads the Association for the Promotion of Public Health of Yvelines Sud. A hospital director, Christine Bronnec, is in charge of the ANEAS project to evaluate psychiatric needs, and is co-president of the Association for the Promotion of Public Health of Yvelines Sud.
