Human Sciences All books
Bernard Frank
Gods and Buddhas in Japan (Work of the Collège de France)
Japanese Buddhism descends directly from the Chinese Buddhist tradition which flourished from the sixth to the eighth centuries.
Willy Pasini
The Nuisance People
Does your best friend never seem to overcome any of her problems? Does your boss seem overly anxious? Is your partner depressed because he feels inadequate? Even though you may feel that life is generally uncomplicated and happy, recently youve been having trouble coping and fighting off the ambient dejection and the psychological problems of everyone around you. Based on numerous case studies, Willy Pasini reviews the different types of situations that are likely to spoil your everyday life so you can avoid this kind of trouble in the future.
Hervé Le Bras
Essay on Social Geometry
Hervé Le Bras examines here how post-modern mathematics, targeting concrete issues, can help us to address a fundamental concern of all human societies, i.e., how space is occupied. Among many topics he examines pastoral nomadism, agricultural sedentariness, territorial conquest, migrations, ancient and modern urban planning, national and regional development, and road traffic. Hervé Le Bras is a demographer and course director at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
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.
Giulia Sissa
The Soul is a Feminine Being
Do women have a soul ? Philosophers have historically doubted this, refusing to accord women rationality. However, at the same time, they have been unable to imagine the soul without the help of feminine metaphors : the soul conceives, it is pregnant with knowledge, it gives birth in pain and distress but always with the help of someone. In reading classic texts such as Derrida, and deconstructing them while drawing comparisons with others and focusing on what may seem paradoxical, such as the many Freudian slips, Giulia Sissa leads us to interrogate ourselves on the exclusively feminine attributes of the Western soul. A radical questioning of the difference between the sexes which leads us to the most profound aspects of our culture.
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...
Daniel Sibony
Giving Yourself or Sharing Yourself ?
How can one be oneself without denying others? How can one consider others without negating oneself? How can one avoid the two extremes of complete selfishness and total self-sacrifice ? What if the ethics of the other, of responsibility for others which can lead us to risk our lives for others resulted not only in a dead-end (inefficient action, lack of action, justification of past actions) but also kept us from knowing ourselves and, consequently, others and the true nature of our relations with them? Daniel Sibony was trained as a philosopher and is a practising psychoanalyst.
Jean Gallot
The Beautiful Job of Being a Lawyer
Jean Gallot was born at the beginning of the century and studied in Paris. He rapidly made a reputation for himself as one of the most brilliant lawyers of his generation. In this book, he reflects upon the copious experiences of a lifetime, the cases he so ardently defended and his meetings with famous people of the time. This is a precious record of an era, as well as of a profession that is currently undergoing major changes in France.
Claude Fischler
Of Wine
The true wine lover is a rare breed. He doesnt pontificate, instead he asks questions and reflects. When faced with a pompous connoisseur he shuts his eyes so he can sip and taste undisturbed. Which of the two categories do you belong to, reader? Are you a true lover of Bordeaux or a connoisseur of burgundy? What is it that you like about wine? Is it the knowledge that surrounds it or the pleasure it affords? Is it the prestige of a label or the authenticity of its origin? What do all these categories really stand for? The mythology of wine is examined and deciphered in loving detail. Claude Fischler is a sociologist and researcher at Frances Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
