Human Sciences All books
Laurence Podselver
Hasidism: The Jews of France in the Face of Fundamentalism
Based on years of study, this unusual anthropological study, helps us understand the individual itineraries that explain why so many Jews...
Daniel C. Dennett
Evolutionist theory of freedom
Billions of years ago, there was no freedom on earth, for the simple reason that there was no life. What forms of freedom have evolved since the first stirrings of life? Can freedom and free will exist in a deterministic universe? If we are free, are we responsible for our freedom, or is it governed by chance? Drawing on evolutionary biology and the cognitive sciences, Daniel Dennett provides a series of unorthodox replies to these traditional philosophical questions. It is generally held that what is determined is inevitable and that freedom can only exist in a non-deterministic universe. This is untrue, says Dennett. It is also held that in a pre-determined universe, we have no real choices: all we have is the illusion that we can choose. This too is false, argues Dennett. He then goes on to explain how, some day, we will be able to create robots endowed with free will. In this groundbreaking book, written in a striking, lively style, Dennett interweaves philosophical creativity with the latest scientific developments, and challenges a series of philosophical orthodoxies. Daniel C. Dennett is University Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, Mass., U.S.A. He is the author of Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
Pierre Lévy
Cyberdemocracy
This book offers a synthesis of the various ways in which the advent of the Internet has transformed daily life in democratic societies, both on a regional and international level," writes Pierre Lévy. This ambitious and down-to-earth analysis is well served by Pierre Lévys style and prophetic vision. He has taken into account the latest and most innovative developments, as well as the political changes brought about by the new information society. Pierre Lévy, a philosopher, teaches at the University of Quebec, in Trois Rivières. He is the author of Cyberculture and World Philosophy.
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.
Maurice Tubiana
Education and Life
This book is a reflection on the alarming fact that France has the highest level of violent deaths (from suicide, drugs, and road accidents) in all Europe among young people between 18 and 22 years old. Tubiana analyses the pleasure principle which runs through our culture and our values, the Freudian principle that demands the immediate satisfaction of our impulses. This brings him to denounce postmodern individualism which does not make any room for the collective interest. Maurice Tubiana is a world-reknowned oncologist and member of the French Academy of Science and the Academy of Medicine.
Gilles Gaston Granger
Essay on a Philosophy of Style
This work offers a definition of the generalized concept of style, considered not only in an aesthetic manner but also as it applies to all human works. The author applies this concept first to mathematical works, and then to the more familiar realm of language, before sketching the project of a human sciences stylistic, complementing a history of knowledge and epistemology of structures. Gilles-Gaston Granger is a specialist in epistemology and an honorary professor at the Collège de France.
Christian de Perthuis, Pierre-André Jouvet
Green Capital
The indispensable book to understand the green economy and boost economic growth
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.
Claude Fischler, Véronique Pardo
Special Diets
In many countries, restrictive diets are changing individual eating habits — and profoundly altering the way we relate to one another.
Laurent Bègue-Shankland
The Psychology of Good and Evil
How our idea of morality builds on and informs our personal life and our relationships