Human Sciences All books
Ann Premack, David Premack
The Baby, the Ape and Man
The issue of the differences and similarities between humans and their cousins the chimpanzees governs the definition of human identity. How can this difference be explained? By studying the learning process of chimpanzees and comparing it to that of children, Ann and David Premack were gradually able to discover a series of differences, none of which were radical but when put together showed a yawning gap between the two species. The results they obtained enabled them to reconstruct little by little the sum of the differences that make up human identity. Ann and David Premack are specialists in the study of primates.
Roger-Pol Droit
Recent News of Ordinary Objects
"Can you learn anything from ordinary objects the things you use in your daily life? The answer is: yes, more than you can imagine. During the course of one year, I assigned myself a sort of adventure: I kept a diary of my encounter with objects, and I suggest you do the same. Briefly, my goal was to try to find the words that are hidden inside objects, to discover the questions that lie at the heart of things. My journey took place in four stages: surprise, groping, panicking, feeling soothed. This experience, touched with humour and a hint of folly, also follows the itinerary of an unexpected spiritual journey," Roger-Pol Droit is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Yves Michaud
China Today Volume 8
China is a nation at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. In this previously unpublished volume in the series "lUniversité de tous les savoirs", the authors review the present-day situation and ask the following questions: How should Chinas current political system be defined? What is Chinas position in the world today? What are the different aspects of cultural and intellectual life in China? This is a novel approach to a history of contemporary China. Contributions by Marie-Claire Bergère, Michel Bonnin, Charles Chauderlot, Anne Cheng, Yves Chevrier, Jean-Luc Domenach, Françoise Ged, François Godement, Wang Shaoqi, Joël Thoraval, Léon Vandermeersch, Chu Xiao-Quan.
Régis Debray, Jean Bricmont
In the Shadow of Lights A Debate between a Philisopher and a Scientist
What is the meaning for us today of the Enlightenment? Of positivism and of the social sciences? How should we envision the revolutions in physics, biology and the neorosciences? What are the future roles of ideology and politics, faced with the challenge of the present religious come-back? Is the notion of progress still relevant? Can a fundamental, universal anthropology be established? In their discussions, the authors Debray from a literary point of view, and Bricmont from a scientific one meet, confront and defy each other. In the course of their talks, they summon theory and practice, past and present, history and current events, facts and their own personal convictions, to give the reader a brilliant lesson against the dominant mood of nihilism. Régis Debray heads the European Institute of the History and Science of Religion. He is the author of numerous works, including God, An Itinerary. Jean Bricmont teaches theoretical physics at the University of Louvain. He is the co-author with Alan Sokal of Intellectual Impostures.
Jean-Paul Betbèze
The Ten Commandments of Finance
Contemporary finance is driven by a quest for a high rate of profitability. According to Jean-Paul Betbèze, this quest is ruled by ten commandments, ranging from "Thou shalt always seek a 15% return on Equity" to "Thou shalt not allow the whole system to explode". He examines how this has upset the old form of capitalism, and in his lively, clear style, the author recounts the unprecedented changes that are now taking place and that will determine our future. Jean-Paul Betbèze teaches at the University of Paris Panthéon-Assas.
Pascal Picq
And at the Beginning there was Man...
In forty years, the genealogical tree of human evolution has grown so extensively that it now spans six million years. But fossils, the tree of evolution and the story they tell openly challenge all prevailing ideas about evolution; and though they have been shaken, these ideas have barely begun to change. In this book, Pascal Picq examines concrete, existing proof of our origins and then goes on to offer a new view of the human position in the evolutionary process. Pascal Picq is a senior lecturer in paleo-anthropology and prehistory at the Collège de France.
Herbert Lottman
The Committed Writer and his Ambivalences From Chateaubriand to Malraux
By definition, a committed writer is a well-known one who puts the respect and admiration his name has accrued in the service of a cause. But is it really that simple? Is political commitment only a matter of principles? Isnt it also driven by a quest for celebrity? Described here are the stratagems adopted by some of the greatest figures in the French literary pantheon of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as they faltered between a quest for purity and the desire for personal glory. Herbert Lottman is a renowned biographer.
Fareed Zakaria
The Future of Freedom
Is it really so that more democracy leads automatically to more freedom ? Why, in the four corners of the world, are we now seeing an increased capacity for religion to mobilise the people ? Why, in Europe as in the United States, do we have minorities and oligarchies reigning in the name of the people ? Why has there been an increase in the number of regimes which are born from the polling booth, yet which exalt fanaticism, repression and war ? A dazzling world tour of the geo-political horizon, and also a lesson in modern and contemporary history, which we lead us to reexamine our own prejudices. Fareed Zakaria is the editor of Newsweek International and was formerly the managing director of the review Foreign Affairs.
Michel Cassé, Edgar Morin
Children of the Sky Between Nothingness, Light and Matter
What is the universe, which we regard as "ours" not only because we live in it but because it produced us? This book is in the form of a dialogue on cosmology between the astrophysicist Michel Cassé and the philosopher Edgar Morin. It is a profound work which revels in the joy of knowledge and restores us to the universe that is in all of us, as it celebrates the "anthropo-cosmos". Michel Cassé is an astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy Commission. Edgar Morin is an internationally renowned writer and thinker.
Janine Thibault
The Air We Breathe
What is air? What is pollution? Whether with regard to the atmosphere, the effects of pollutants, or the weather, teachers will find in this book elementary theoretical information on air, and the essential foundation needed to instruct their pupils with a civic-minded, and preventive attitude to the air they breathe.
Élisabeth Badinter
The Wrong Road
Badinters new book is a candid review of 15 years of feminist discussion and polemics. From womens point of view, what real progress has been accomplished in the last 15 years? Do the feminist voices that are most often heard today express the concerns of the majority of women? What image of women and men are these feminist voices trying to promote? What model of sexuality do they wish to impose? Are we witnessing the return of the old male and female stereotypes, at womens expense?
Luc Ferry, Xavier Darcos, Claudie Haigneré
A letter to all those who like school To explain the current reforms
Our education system was and still is today one of the best in the world. However, it is now experiencing new problems, which have been consistently denied as a result of both political point scoring and a lack of courage. Dare we suggest that the true reasons for these indisputable difficulties actually come, for the most part, from the school itself ? What is the solution ? How can teachers be helped to do their best so that their pupils perform better ?" Luc Ferry
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.
Jerry Fodor
The Mind Doesn't Work That Way The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology
In this book, one of the most eminent figures in the field of cognition reviews his most recent views on the subject, and questions the validity of recent attempts to combine the computational theory of mind with psychological nativism and with biological principles borrowed from Darwinian evolutionary theory. Fodor goes on to examine the question that has remained unanswered for the past fifty years: is the mind a computer? This is a fascinating lesson of philosophical and scientific modesty. Jerry Fodor is a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University.
Michel Godet
The Impact of 2006 Demographics, Growth, Employment
France is undergoing a major recession on all fronts, according to Michel Godet. And it is pointless to blame globalisation, European construction or technological change. The demographic watershed of 2006, when the retirement-pension system will explode, will reveal decades of wasteful mismanagement. For how, he asks, can hope remain if there are no human beings?How can sustainable development be assured within a truly participatory democracy? This iconoclastic, inflamed indictment is above all a voluntarists message of lucidity and hope. Michel Godet holds the chair of futurology at CNAM.
Gérard Bléandonu
What do our children dream ?
When does the foetus start to dream? What are its early dreams? What is the function of infant dreams? What is the impact of nightmares? How do dreams evolve during adolescence? Gérard Bléandonu brings to these questions his experience as a psychotherapist specialising in children suffering from psychological difficulties. The author also makes use of recent findings in neuro-physiology which have improved our understanding of dream mechanisms. Gérard Bléandonu is a psychiatrist and head of Child Psychiatry at the regional hospital of Savoie, France. He is the author of numerous works on child and adolescent psychiatry.
