Human Sciences All books
Stephen Breyer
The Court and the World American Law and the New Global Realities
n this original, far-reaching, and timely book, Justice Stephen Breyer examines the work of the Supreme Court of the United States in an increasingly interconnected world, a world in which all sorts of activity, both public and private—from the conduct of national security policy to the conduct of international trade—obliges the Court to understand and consider circumstances beyond America’s borders.
Jean Guilaine
Women of the Past Images, myths and realities of the Neolithic woman
A book by one of the most renowned specialists of the protohistoric period, to help understand women’s place in the first sedentary societies of the Neolithic period.
Bertrand Roehner
Social cohesion
The methodology of physics is now being applied to the social sciences. Social cohesion, which assures social stability and continuity, is both observable and measurable. It may be observed in events that repeat: in test events such as the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya, India (1992), and of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan (2001); in catastrophes such as the Great Fire of London (1666), the earthquakes and fires of San Francisco (1906) and Tokyo (1923); in the riots of rejection in Lawrence, Mass., U.S.A. (1984), and in Aigues-Mortes, France (1893); in the protest riots in Brixton, U.K. (1981); and in resistance to foreign occupation, as in France (1940). Social cohesion can be measured through the reactions of a given society in the aftermath of a shock: for example, in the number of Hindu temples that were burned down or mosques that were destroyed following the first two test events listed above. By borrowing the methods of physics, social scientists have been able to make predictions in their own field. Bertrand Roehner is a member of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at Pierre et Marie Curie-University of Paris VII. He is the author of Un siècle de commerce du blé en France (Economica), Theory of Markets (Springer), Application of Physics in Economic Modelling, Pattern and Repertoire in History (Harvard University Press) and Separatism and Integration (Rowman and Littlefield).
Daniel C. Dennett
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
In this book, he confronts this approach with the ideas of Charles Darwin and Darwinism, and addresses the question of evolution. What are the implications of the theory of evolution by natural selection? Why is evolution such a disturbing idea, not only for religious believers but also for philosophers and even for some biologists? How does it affect the concept of mind? In the midst of the current neo-Darwinian wave, this book offers a timely dialogue between the ideas of an important contemporary philosopher and those of the greatest nineteenth-century biologist. Daniel C. Dennett teaches cognitive sciences at Tufts University.
Edmund Phelps
Mass Prosperity
A profound reflection, at the meeting-point of economics and psychology, on the forces of innovation and economic well-being and the motivations of both. A view of innovation that confronts many accepted ideas — the Schumpeterian view of the entrepreneur, the development of science as a source of innovation, and so on — and which needs to be debated.
Henri Atlan
Lectures in Biological and Cognitivist Philosophy Spinozist Configurations
An introduction to both one of the greatest philosophies in history, and to the most current issues in the neurosciences. A new way of thinking about the relationships between the brain and the mind.
Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Céline Jurgensen
Nuclear Imaginaries
A cross-sectional approach: from the curious to the specialist, all audiences will find food for thought here. From fiction (cartoons, cinema…) to the military perspective, and including literary references, a great variety of subjects are broached.
Niall Ferguson
The Square and the Tower Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power
Most history is about the people at the top of the towers of power. But what if the real action is in the social networks down below, in the town squares ? Niall Ferguson brilliantly recasts past and present as an unending contest between hierarchies and networks.
Daniel C. Dennett
Consciousness Explained
What is it that transforms a small piece of matter into an animated being? What is it that gives to certain physical structures the enigmatic privilege of feeling sensations and having experiences? Conscience. But what do we know about conscience? Daniel C. Dennet proposes a new explicative model founded on the modern revelations of psychology, neurology, and artificial intelligence. Daniel C. Dennett directs the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is one of the leaders in the philosophy of the spirit in the United States.
Michel Aglietta
Transforming the Growth System
An essential book for thinking in other ways about the relationships between finance, growth, and the climate, and for situating oneself within a long term perspective.
