Human Sciences All books
Marc Jeannerod
Of Mental Physiology A History of the Relationship Between Biology and Psychology
A relative newcomer to the world of science, psychology gives rise to a rivalry between two older siblings, philosophy and biology. This enduring conflict between materialism and spiritualism, which continues today in other forms, without adoubt was the driving force behind its progress. What we know today about the spirit is a result of this history. Biology and psychology have shaped each other in turn. This book represents a riveting study on how two centuries of spiritual quarrelling made possible the modern attempt to establish the inner workings of the mind. A professor of physiology at the Université Claude Bernard, Marc Jeannerod is also the director of an Inserm neurological research team in Lyon.
Thierry Lévy
Death Before Injustice The Era of Anarchist Trials
On 8 November 1892, a bomb went off in the staircase of a Paris police station. There was little doubt it had been the act of an anarchist...
Janine Mossuz-Lavau, Anne de Kervasdoué
Women are Not Just Men
The changes which have come to be in the second half of the 20th century have taken women a long ways from the profile adopted by their mothers. Do all these transformations lead us to trace the portrait of a woman who has become a clone of men ? We can ask ourselves this question when we remember the arguments of feminists in the 70's employing the "egalitarian" themes of Simone de Beauvoir. More recently, some have gone so far as to announce the coming of an "androgynous" society. But what do the women and the men of this country think about all this ? How do women see themselves in relation to men ? How do they define themselves and how do they describe the men of their lives ? A very pointed realization of today's female identity. Janine Mossuz-Lavau is Director of Research at the CNRS.
Dominique Schnapper
As Time Goes By A Chronical of 2001-2002
From a mythical meeting in the year 2000, to From our almost mythical appointment with the year 2000, to the presidential upheavals in 2003, this book presents the first expansive record of our entry into a new century. Through insightfully chronicling the passage of time, with both emotion and analysis, the author is able to present us with a picture of our contemporary world. Dominique Schnapper is a director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Xavier Pommereau
Teens.com Follow Their Progress
A new method to understand and treat troubled adolescents based on their own lifestyle
Roger-Pol Droit
The Company of Contemporaries
In this book, Droit reviews the works of some major contemporary thinkers: Bourdieu, Foucault, Girard, Habermas, Lévi-Strauss, Serres, and Vernant, among others. The interviews included here allow the reader to encounter biologists and sociologists, as well as anthropologists and psychoanalysts. Philosophers are well represented, but all the humanities have been included, and practically all major contemporary issues are considered, from bio-ethics to the end of history, from the construction of Europe to the rise of violence, from globalisation to the environment, from the development of science to political and religious extremism. Roger-Pol Droit is a philosopher and researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Jean-Marie Chevalier, Patrice Geoffron
Energy Transitions Making the Right Choices
French leaders need to make the right energy choices — if they don’t the current economic crisis will only become worse
Daniel Hurstel
Socially Conscious Enterprises In Defence of Diversified Capitalism
The author argues that it is time to promote a new form of capitalism founded on socially conscious enterprises pursuing social goals though set up like other members of the business sector.
France Quéré
Ethics and Life
The recent advances in life sciences have modified our knowledge about the nature of man. Genetic engineering has given us a certain power over his future. Which principles must preside over artificial procreation and organ donation? How far can we allow genetic engineering and medical experimentations to go? What are the moral and ethical barriers of human science?
Gérard Chaliand, Sophie Mousset
2000 Years of Christianities A Historical Guide
Two thousand years of Christian thought are reviewed here through some key texts of the Christian tradition...
Ricardo Bofill, Nicolas Véron
Urban Architecture
What is there in common between all my designs ? What meaning can I give today to my architecture ? Without doubt, that of a desire to organise space. Due to an apprenticeship in perception, observation, and geometrisation of nature, in addition to a historical journey, I have learnt that in order to go past the initial momentum, I have to acquire the mastery of a whole new language." Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill is probably one of the most famous, yet most controversial architects of his time. In this book illustrated with pictures and plans, he delivers an analysis of his art which amounts to an invitation to read the city.
Laurent Danon-Boileau
Children Without Language
I have been treating children [with language difficulties] for the past ten years, and making clinical observations from three theoretical points of view: I have used linguistics, psychoanalysis and recent finding in the cognitive sciences. By taking into account and examining the difficulties encountered when working with such children, and by paying attention to the specific character of their development, we will be able to provide essential information for anyone wishing to reflect seriously on a central issue for all of us: Why speak? writes Laurent Danon-Boileau. Laurent Danon-Boileau is a linguist, psychoanalyst and writer.
Daniel Pinto
The Clash of Capitalisms How we were deprived of our entrepreneurial genius and what we can do to reinvent it
Does capitalism still have a future? This book shows that it does, but only if it retrieves the formula that led to its success: the spirit of enterprise coupled with state support.
Georges Charpak, Roland Omnès
Becoming a Magician is Becoming Prophet
In a simple, accessible style the authors address questions that we all ask ourselves about science: Why hasn't science made human beings wiser? Hasn't it even had the opposite effect, rendering humans' criminal tendencies even more devastating? To answer these questions, the authors develop the idea that the advent and triumph of modern science have induced a profound change in humanity because science has given human beings the capacity to understand and master phenomena occurring on the microscopic level - a scale that is alien to them. Some of the fundamental elements of contemporary physics are presented here in game form. The authors argue that physics has left free human beings face to face with an equally free interplay of natural forces and that, without causality and finality, the world has become deprived of meaning. It is therefore hardly surprising that many have taken refuge in religion. But the authors propose an alternative to religion, arguing that we can fulfil our modernity by helping our children develop their love of experimentation so that they can discover the meaning of things for themselves - instead of embracing ideologies that can only be imposed through terror. Georges Charpak is a physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics. Roland Omnès is a physicist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Paris XI-Orsay.
Nathalie Blanc
Animals in an Urban Environment
Those of you who live in an urban centre, do you think the rightful place of the animal is in the countryside ? Do you think that dogs are simply kept at the whim of lonely citizens ? That cats should not be allowed to roam the streets ? That there should be no more cockroaches to invade homes ? Yet, do you really want a city without nature ? Without green areas, but also without animals ? A sterilised city in other words.. Nathalie Blanc analyses here the role of the animal, and thus the living, in our urban societies. Nathalie Blanc is a researcher specialising in urban geography, at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Jean-Pierre Changeux, Paul Ricœur
What Makes Us Think Nature and Rules
'The intention of this book was to put a scientist and a philosopher face to face and spark a dialogue between them on neuroscience, on their results and projects, and their ability to carry out a debate on ethics, its norms, and on peace. In France, ideas are rarely openly discussed. Serious debates are too often hindered by dogmatic statements, one-sided criticisms, incomprehensible discussions and glib mockery, with little or no thought for the solidity of the arguments, which aim only to appear plausible or worthy of being argued, rather than convincing. A totally free and open dialogue between a scientist and a philosopher is necessarily a highly unusual experience for both.' Paul Ricur and Jean-Pierre Changeux Paul Ricur is an honorary professor at the University of Paris-X and an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago. Jean-Pierre Changeux, a member of the French Academy of Science, teaches at the College of France and the Pasteur Institute.
Georges Charpak
Children, Researchers and Citizens
Georges Charpak has taken the initiative for a complete reform of our methods of science teaching. He proposes a teaching method based on creativity and problem-solving, instead of the old theoretical, book-based approach. This book recounts the experiences of two teams of French educators in a research institution created by Leon Lederman in Chicago, and the lessons which we can take from their experiences. Pollens shows that to learn is to discover, and that it is in discovering that one learns. Georges Charpak is a Nobel laureate in physics, and the author of La vie à fil tendu and Feux follets et champignons nucléaires, both published by Editions Odile Jacob.
Marcel Otte
At Humanity’s Spiritual Dawn A New Approach to Prehistory
How did our ancestors think? What did they feel? How did they live?
