Philippe Pédrot

Judging What Cannot Be Decided The Body Seized by the Law

This is a careful study of the cataclysm that biomedical technology has wreaked on procreation, gestation, life and death.

Raymond Boudon

Why intellectual peoples don't like liberalism

Given the intellectual force of liberalism, its political appeal, its economic effectiveness and its historical significance, why is it so unpopular among French intellectuals? Why does it elicit so little serious discussion? And why is it the object of so much confusion, so many clichés and misunderstandings? Is it simply out of resentment, because intellectuals feel that the market does not afford them the material and symbolic rewards that they believe they deserve? Is it just because they prefer to play a critical role in a society where capitalism is triumphant? Perhaps, but these reasons do not explain everything — and they certainly don’t explain the systematic rejection of liberal thought in France. A sociologist of knowledge rather than of social determinism, and a specialist in belief systems, Raymond Boudon ruthlessly analyses the cognitive mechanisms that make liberalism so hateful in the eyes of French intellectuals. The result is a keen, detailed review of the clichés that have encumbered discussions for more than thirty years. Raymond Boudon, a professor at the University of Paris-IV, is a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He us the author of numerous works, most notably L’Inégalité des chances, La logique du social, L’Idéologie ou l’origine des idées reçues, L’Art de se persuader, Le Sens des valeurs and Déclin de la morale? Déclin des valeurs. He is the co-author, with R. Leroux, of Y a-t-il encore une sociologie?

Philippe Taquet

The Imprint of Dinosaurs

"In 1964, my steps encountered the prints of dinosaurs and, ever since, my shoes have travelled extensively, from the Tenere desert to the Brazilian Sertao, from the Laos forest to the steppes of Mongolia; I was lucky to discover several dinosaurs and happy to share the life of many inhabitants of this planet, Tuaregs in Niger, Berbers from the Moroccan High-Atlas or winemakers from Corbières in France. By recounting these journeys in search of dinosaurs, I wish to draw the reader in a world that owes nothing to fiction but a lot to science." Philippe Tacquet

Laurent Wauquiez

The struggle of the middle class

In the run-up to the French presidential elections, here are a series of proposals that offer the middle classes the future perspectives they deserve

Alain Peyrefitte

The Confident Society

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.

Béatrice Descamps-Latscha

Children Can Learn — Despite Disabilities and Illness

Dominique Servant

How Not to Crack Up at Work

What can be done, in a concrete fashion, to overcome work-related problems and to obtain professional satisfaction and fulfilment?