323 research outputs found
In the Name of Science: the Conceptual and Ideological Background of Charles Richetâs Eugenics
The French physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Charles Richet was the author of an impressive quantity of writings, including novels and poetry. He was an outâandâout eugenicist, convinced that an âintentional, conscious, scientific, and methodicalâ selection could achieve âany result, provided we had enough patienceâ. He believed that the quantitative and qualitative increase of population was a vital matter for France. In La sĂ©lection humaine (1913) and other writings, he dreamed of a conscious selection creating âintellectual Ă©litesâ. The process would be crowned by the production of a âhigher human nature, a real surhumanitĂ©â. A staunch believer in the inheritance of acquired characteristics, Richet combined Darwinism and Lamarckism
Organic vs. Mechanic. Notes on the History of an Antithesis
The contrast between organic and mechanic arose as part of the reactions against the
French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. It ran throughout the 19th, it fuelled
âRomanticâ reactions to Newtonian science and the antithesis between Kultur and
Zivilisation. This contrast is still evident, to a greater or lesser extent, in many of the
present criticisms of industrial society and technology. There is an interesting continuity
between the arguments used by the early critics of what Carlyle would call the «age of
machines» and some of the arguments and ways of thinking that are current today. The
paper is devoted to stress this continuity by considering some representative authors,
including Burke, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Carlyle, Ruskin, Sombart, Spengler,
Scheler, T. Mann. Their interactions with political and social thought are also discussed
Les mĂ©taphores favorisent-elles la comprĂ©hension dâune thĂ©orie scientifique ? Le cas des images darwiniennes de « lutte pour la vie » et de « sĂ©lection naturelle »
On pense gĂ©nĂ©ralement que les mĂ©taphores ne figurent dans le discours scientifique quâĂ titre dâexemples, de suggestions rhĂ©toriques ou dâimages favorisant la reprĂ©sentation intuitive de concepts difficiles ; bref, elles relĂšveraient plutĂŽt du domaine de la stratĂ©gie communicative et de la vulgarisation que de celui de la construction des thĂ©ories. Cela nâest vrai que partiellement : lâhistoire des sciences nous prĂ©sente beaucoup de cas oĂč les mĂ©taphores ont aidĂ© le savant lui-mĂȘme Ă penser sa thĂ©orie, ou, autrement dit, elles ont rempli une fonction auto-didactique aussi bien que didactique, ainsi que le montre lâanalyse dâun cas trĂšs important, celui des mĂ©taphores darwiniennes de « lutte pour la vie » et de « sĂ©lection naturelle ». Elles ont engendrĂ© des mĂ©prises non seulement chez les adversaires mais aussi chez bien des dĂ©fenseurs de Darwin. La diffusion nâa donc pas coĂŻncidĂ© avec la comprĂ©hension. Câest paradoxal, mais câest normal dans lâhistoire des idĂ©es
De Darwin au débat sur le problÚme de la souffrance animale
Darwin a donnĂ© le coup de grĂące Ă ce que Freud appela le narcissisme de lâhomme. Parmi les raisons de son refus du design, ou du moins de sa remise en cause de lâordre providentiel de la nature, il y avait non seulement des raisons scientifiques, mais aussi des raisons morales : Ă quoi bon « lâimmense quantitĂ© de souffrance » chez les animaux ? Sur ces questions, il prĂ©fĂ©rait « hisser le drapeau blanc ». Mais beaucoup dâauteurs essayĂšrent de concilier la lutte pour la vie avec la croyance en un progrĂšs biologique et moral : lâĂ©volution avançait Ă travers la destruction des ĂȘtres vivants ; la souffrance Ă©tait le prix de lâavĂšnement de lâesprit. Par contre, on trouve chez lâĂ©crivain et poĂšte Thomas Hardy lâexpression la plus frappante dâune compassion pour les animaux, destinĂ©s Ă souffrir autant que les humains dans un univers dĂ©pourvu de sens. Ces notions de sympathie et de compassion sont aujourdâhui au centre des dĂ©bats sur les droits des animaux
The empirical process on Gaussian spherical harmonics
We establish weak convergence of the empirical process on the spherical
harmonics of a Gaussian random field in the presence of an unknown angular
power spectrum. This result suggests various Gaussianity tests with an
asymptotic justification. The issue of testing for Gaussianity on isotropic
spherical random fields has recently received strong empirical attention in the
cosmological literature, in connection with the statistical analysis of cosmic
microwave background radiation
Considerazioni sull'enciclica di Papa Francesco "Laudato si'"
Remarks on the encyclical by Pope Francis Laudato siâ (âPraise be to youâ). The encyclical Laudato siâ by
Pope Francis in June 2015 is undoubtedly an important document. The Roman Catholic Pontiff exhorts âall
persons of good willâ to take care of our «common house». He declares that the narrow-minded, arrogant
anthropocentric conception of nature, for which many Christians have thought to find justification in the
Scriptures, is wrong. He proposes a «comprehensive ecology», embracing both the relationship between man
and nature and the relationship between peoples and generations. He condemns the «dominant technocratic
paradigm», the «consumer culture», the «logic of finance», the «magical conception of the market»,
«utilitarian pragmatism» and «logic lying beneath present-day culture». He states that the cry coming from
the South of the world merges with the cry of the Earth violated and exploited. «Care» and «custody» must
be correlated with «justice». The encyclical text deals with many topics and raises many questions, but also
several doubts. The latter concern the image of nature, which is implicit in the encyclical, and there is some
vagueness in many of the practical suggestions resulting from it.
Parole chiave: Papa Francesco, ecologia, enciclica, degrado ambientale, etica
Key words: Pope Francis, ecology, encyclical, deterioration of the environment, ethic
Come back Marshall, all is forgiven? : Complexity, evolution, mathematics and Marshallian exceptionalism
Marshall was the great synthesiser of neoclassical economics. Yet with his qualified assumption of self-interest, his emphasis on variation in economic evolution and his cautious attitude to the use of mathematics, Marshall differs fundamentally from other leading neoclassical contemporaries. Metaphors inspire more specific analogies and ontological assumptions, and Marshall used the guiding metaphor of Spencerian evolution. But unfortunately, the further development of a Marshallian evolutionary approach was undermined in part by theoretical problems within Spencer's theory. Yet some things can be salvaged from the Marshallian evolutionary vision. They may even be placed in a more viable Darwinian framework.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
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