Plenitude and contingency: modal concepts in nineteenth century french philosophy

The author analyses the role of the principle of plenitude (no genuine possibility remains forever unrealised) and its relations to the analysis of modal concepts in nineteenth century french philosophy. He shows that from maine de biran and ravaisson to renouvier, Boutroux and bergson, As well as in the philosophy of science of comte and cournot, There is a common thread in french philosophy, The metaphysical doctrine of "contingentism," according to which a radical contingency is at the root of being. This doctrine leads to the progressive rejection of the principle of plenitude

Designs on the popular : framings of general, universal and common culture in French educational policy

This article examines the culture-shaping strategies pursued through French educational policies. It traces the process through which the republican education system claimed legitimacy to bring all citizens into its universalising embrace, and to institute a form of national popular culture. At the same time, the article shows how specifications of esoterically ‘universal’ and ‘general’ curricular content were used to maintain barriers between elite and popular classes. The article then explores endeavours since the 1940s to delineate more democratically framed notions of ‘general’ or ‘common’ culture, and the difficulties that have accompanied the integration of such perspectives into mass secondary schooling since the 1960s. In particular, one sees in France persistent disjunctions between the ‘universal’ cultures carried by academic curricula and contemporary popular cultures and experience (though the balance of power between these poles has shifted in some respects)