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Alain Berthoz, Gérard Jorland
The Empathie
Empathy is the ability to put oneself in the position of others, and thus to understand and know them. Ever since Darwin, empathy has been regarded as the basis of all human social behaviour, and most notably of ethics. Some major psychological disorders - autism, for example - can be described as the inability to empathise. Certain types of perverse behaviour, such as the torture of defenceless victims, have been explained as distortions of empathy. This book offers an overview of studies on empathy for the past 250 years. It also describes the latest research on the subject in a variety of fields: cognitive psychology, philosophy, ethology and ethics. Alain Berthoz is a professor at the Collège de France and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Le Sens du mouvement and La Décison, both published by Editions Odile Jacob. Gérard Jorland is a director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the author of Les Paradoxes du capital (Editions Odile Jacob) and La Science dans la philosophie.
Nicolas Danziger
Life Without Pain?
An intellectual and affective journey, paved with unique stories and experiences, and their often amazing outcomes
Henri Atlan
Postgenomic Life, or What is Self-organisation?)
We spontaneously associate the idea of organisation with that of human production: the fruit of artistic endeavour or rational planning...
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Self-Organisation of Speech
The nature and evolution of language: the latest discoveries, at the crossroads of the neurosciences, linguistics and robotics
Michel Cassé
The Genealogy of Matter
Atoms originate in the stars. There is no real separation between the Earth and the sky, and matter forms one great whole, based on a series of nuclear reactions. Written in a lyrical, poetic style, this is a concise, clearly illustrated account of the birth of matter, aimed at the general reader. Michel Cassé is an astrophysicist and researcher at the CEA and the Institut Astrophysique, in Paris. He is the author of Du Vide et de la Création and La Petite Etoile.
Daniel Nahon
How to Save Agriculture
Only a radical transformation of agriculture will enable us to feed all of humankind
Michel Morange
Life, Evolution and History
In this unique general survey of contemporary research, Michel Morange reveals the recent convergence that is developing between two great segments of biology