Épistémologie, histoire et histoire des sciences dans les années 1930

During the 1930’s epistemology, history and history of science reciprocally and importantly influenced each other, even if indirectly. Philosophers and historians discussed the epistemological concepts emerging from the crisis of the exact sciences. They rejected Empirism and Idealism for an «experimental Rationalism» that connected theory and experience. It all caused a dialectical conception of science, fundamentally historical, but for which historians were still reluctant from a theoretical point of view. History was nevertheless the centre of philosophical and epistemological reflexions.     

L'ethno‐histoire et sa méthode. Etude de quelques pratiques ludiques et festives en Castille

Ce travail tente de présenter quelques possibilités intéressantes pouvant naître de la collaboration entre l'ethnologie et l'histoire, cela à partir d'une étude concrète de comportements festifs et ludiques, représentatifs de la Castille, et plus exactement d'un vaste espace correspondant approximativement à la limite sud de l'actuelle Communauté Autonome de Castille et León. L'analyse commence par les informations documentaires les plus caractéristiques de la fin du Moyen‐Age et du début de l'époque Moderne. Ces données sont complétées par les résultats obtenus postérieurement au cours d'un travail sur le terrain dans la zone de Cuéllar, région où les références des documents sont les plus nombreuses et les plus explicites. Tout cela sert de base à certaines réflexions méthodologiques sur les avantages que peut apporter l'éviction de critères d'analyse conventionnels qui établissent trop souvent une frontière et une séparation excessive et étroite entre les deux disciplines.     

Questions ethnographiques et mathématiques de la préhistoire

The study of the mathematics of prehistory cannot be founded on bare archeological data alone; it may be useful to set the archeological documents in context, with the help of comparative ethnography, according to which our own contemporaray or near-contemporary primitive societies can help us understand our prehistoric ancestors. Although once used spontaneously by several historians of mathematics, this approach has been rejected on principle by the recent school of ethnomathematicians. This paper sets out to show, by means of a certain number of examples, that the method can nonetheless yield rewards: on the one hand because it demolishes the fantastic theories so fondly constructed by certain mathematicians, and on the other because it opens up a vast field of research which has so far been vitually unexplored.     

Vers une histoire de la mémoire sportive en France ? Cadres théoriques et éléments d’analyse

The main objectives of this article are to highlight memory as a phenomenon in the field of sport, to determine its content and to understand the dynamics that governed it during the twentieth century. Memory and its socio-historical study are two growing dimensions of the postmodern era, while sport, structured by industrial societies, has shaped modes of representation, notably since the second half of the century. Through the link between sport and society, the spatial and temporal considerations as well as the reconfiguration of social frameworks, we will therefore reveal the existence and emergence of memory as a vital element of the contemporary sporting sphere. From this analysis, we will also put forward a first assessment of existing uses of sporting memory: between historical legitimacy and patrimonialisation.     

Narrativisme et philosophie spéculative de l’histoire

Over the last few decades, such important philosophers as Walter B. Gallie, Arthur Danto, Louis Mink, Hayden White and Paul Ric?ur have drawn attention to the role of narrative in history. After evoking the theses of these authors, this paper pays special attention to the works of David Carr which contend that historical action as such has a narrative structure. The paper discusses the consequences of such a «narrativism» and takes sides in the debate on this question which has been waged in part by William Dray and Noël Carroll. It is claimed that a «realistic» thesis on these matters might tend to generate the revival of a kind of speculative philosophy of history, which naturally would raise various questions concerning both political and historical analysis.     

La résistance allemande au nazisme,entre histoire et mémoire

Gerd R. Ueberschär (éd.), Der 20.Juli 1944. Bewertung und Rezeption des deutschen Widerstandes gegen das NS‐Regime, Cologne 1994, 348 p.

Peter Steinbach, Widerstand im Widerstreit. Der Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus in der Erinnerung der Deutschen, Paderborn, Munich, Vienne, Zürich, 1994, 298 p.

Peter Steinbach / Johannes Tuchel (éd.), Lexikon des Widerstandes 1933–1945, Munich, 1994, 238 p.

Wolfgang Benz / Walter H. Pehle (éd.), Lexikon des deutschen Widerstandes, Francfort/Main, 1994, 400 p.     

Mémoire et histoire dans un roman graphique en six volumes: double jeu,infotainment, obsession française?

In October 2012 the sixth and last volume of the graphic novel Il était une fois en France [Once upon a time in France] was released. The six volumes, published at the rate of one per year since September 2007, cover the 60 years of the Jewish protagonist's life. It spans the time from Joseph Joanovici's birth in Kechinev [today's Moldavia] in 1905 to his death, alone and ruined, in Paris in 1965, and covers his four years of collaboration and resistance in Occupied France that saw him become a multi-millionnaire. The series is acclaimed by the public and critics alike. My article demonstrates that this graphic novel cannot belong to what Henry Rousso, in his book Le Syndrome de Vichy, called ‘the French Obsession’, but rather, its narrative qualities, which emphasize the protagonist's ambivalence by using techniques similar to those used in movies like Once upon a time in America and Miller's crossing [both of which are cited by the series' authors in several interviews and are obvious in the visual and narrative style of the series], place this graphic novel in what I see as a new period of infotainment that is closer to the new generation of readers who are immersed in globalization and the spectacularization of history.     

Walter Benjamin: Quel matérialisme? Quelle histoire?

Cet article est consacré à l'étude de quelques uns des aspects de la philosophie de l'histoire de Walter Benjamin qui, aujourd'hui, suscitent le plus d'intérêt. En pratique, il analyse la notion de progrès, le rôle joué par l'écoulement du temps et l'interruption messianique. Il insiste aussi sur la critique du marxisme vulgaire entreprise par W. Benjamin et met en évidence ses apports les plus personnels ; enfin, il attire l'attention sur le risque encouru par les historiens qui orientent leur travail vers le futur et se montrent aveugles en ce qui concerne le passé.     

Histoire du fidéisme, histoire du scepticisme?

«The history of scepticism, the history of fideism?». It is a matter of pondering over the relevance of scepticism’s classification as fideism which Richard H. Popkin establishes in his work:The History of scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza. The calling into question of the link between doubt and belief, and more generally between scepticism and religion, leads to contest the role of religious faith in what is presented by Popkin as the sceptical search for truth. The aim of this criticism is to propose a more conceptual approach to modern scepticism which, unlike Popkin’s historical approach (founded on the consideration of the origin of modern scepticism, the religious crisis of the Renaissance), includes the ethical aspects of this philosophy which are usually and unfortunately neglected.     

Clientélisme et ascension sociale à Ségovie à la fin du moyen-âge

In this study of urban social structures in late-medieval Spain the author takes Segovia, a Castilian town on the northern slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama seventy kilometres north-northwest of Madrid, as an example. The ways and means of social advancement are examined against the background of noble and royal intervention.     

Comment sortir du ‘terrorisme’? La violence politique et les conditions de sa disparition en France et en République Fédérale d'Allemagne en comparaison 1970–années 1990

Research on political violence and terrorism is usually focused on the origins and the dynamics of violence. This article attempts to overcome the neglect of ways of leaving terrorism. One important hypothesis of this article is that terrorism should be understood as a strategy of communication. How did states and societies face the ‘communicative challenge’ posed by terrorism? This question will be applied to the cases of left-wing terrorism in 1970s and 1980s West Germany and France. In the 1970s, in West Germany, a political dialogue with the left-wing group RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) seemed to be impossible, whereas in France violent groups engaged with the wider public through public communication. By this way an escalation of violence could be avoided, but in the 1980s French terrorist groups such as Action Directe modelled themselves on the West German RAF: as a consequence, any communication with the state or society was interrupted. At the same time, in West Germany, the question of whether a dialogue with the RAF should be started was at the core of public discussion. Some stated that it would be the only possibility to make them give up, while others rejected any idea of communicating with terrorists. The West German and French cases show us that the communicational situation, especially the degree of integration of the concerned left-wing groups in public discourse, had an important impact on the outcome of violence.     

Paul Tannery et Joseph Needham deux plaidoyers pour une histoire générale des sciences

Whereas, under the influence of Comte's endeavour, they both present global histories of science, in fact, Paul Tannery and Joseph Needham use distinct historiographical frameworks. Tannery grounds his general history on the notion of civilisation, of which science is a component. The methodological tool he uses to highlight the salient features that characterise a given civilisation at a given time as regards science is synthesis. Needham takes modern science as his starting point, and aims at bringing to light that it was constituted by a synthesis of the contributions of different traditions. For him, the shaping of this modern knowledge proceeded from a continuous effort that, in turn, was carried out by the various groups composing mankind. In contrast, Tannery is preoccupied by ruptures and crises, which can cause the disappearance of entire domains of knowledge, but also intense periods of creation. What is conventionally called the «scientific revolution» thus takes a very different meaning for the two historians.