Catalog All books
Claude-Paul Bruter
Understand Maths The 10 Fundamental Principles
What does the world look like from a mathematical perspective ? This is what Claude-Paul Bruter explains through the fundamental principles of the discipline, from the theorem of Thalès to differential forms. He explores the notions of vector and space curvature, the implicit function theorem, and the characteristic of Euler-Poincaré, the different geometries and topological surfaces. Written in part for students, this work is accessible to all those interested in mathematics. Claude-Paul Bruter is a professor at the University of Créteil
Robert Axelrod
How to Succeed in a Selfish World A Theory of Cooperative Behaviour
How can one succeed in a world of selfish people ? This is the question at the heart of the work of Robert Axelrod because if cooperation is the social cement of life, it is also one of its greatest mysteries. Basing his analysis on Game theory, in addition to the trench warfare of 1914-1918, the behaviour of legislative bodies, or international negotiations, Robert Axelrod explores the reasons, in turn simple and surprising, which allows cooperation to take hold even in the worst situations. Strategists, negotiators, decision makers, managers, social reformers, people motivated by common sense, honesty or equally dishonesty everyone will find food for thought in the pages of this book, which is already considered as a classic. An expert in Game theory, Robert Axelrod teaches Political Sciences at the University of Michigan, in the United States.
Harlan Lane
When the Mind Hears (Coll. Opus) A History of the Deaf
This historical work recounts the struggle of deaf-mutes against prejudice, so that their rights and their language, sign language, were recognised. The people figuring in this book run from the abbey de l'Épée to Laurent Clerc, the spokesman for this community in the United States. A linguist, psychologist, and specialist in sign language, Harlan Lane teaches in Boston. He is the author of The Wild Child of Aveyron, which inspired the famous film by François Truffaut.
Françoise Héritier
On Violence A Seminar
How can violence can be put in the service of religion ? What political gains can be made from cruelty ? How does a belief system encompassing hatred end in the massacre of entire populations ? Through reflections on, amongst other things, the Bible, Muslim law, the situation in Colombia, the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsi, this book, the product of a seminar organised at the Collège de France by Françoise Héritier in 1995, benefits from a multi-disciplined approach in order to identify and understand a phenomenon which has occasionally plunged societies into a destructive frenzy. Françoise Héritier is a professor at the Collège de France where she heads the Laboratory of Social Anthropology.
Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene has been described as the most important book about evolutionary theory since Darwin. According to Dawkins theory of the selfish gene, natural selection does not take place on the level of the species or of the individual but rather among genes. Dawkins argues that human beings are programmed to preserve their selfish molecules, which are known as genes. Dawkins brilliant style shows that complex scientific ideas can be explained and made accessible to the general public, and that biology can be as exciting as an adventure story. Richard Dawkins is a renowned evolutionary biologist.
Ginette Raimbault
When a child disappears
When a child disappears, the parents of that child have to first of all relearn how to live their lives. How can they face up to this task ? What routes, both conscious and subconscious do they take in order to do this ? Ginette Raimbault explores the mental processes of these devastated parents using the spontaneous testimonies of those who have relied on writing to get them through their bereavement such as Victor Hugo who mourns Léopoldine, and Isadora Duncan and Geneviève Jurgensen who both lost two children at once. Through the anguish of these famous examples, this book movingly asks the universally relevant question : what does a child mean for the parent ?