La Reconstruction Médicale de la Nature de L’Homme Aux XIe Et XIIe SiÈcles

At the end of the 11^th century, translations of Greek and above all Arabic texts played an important role in the building of a new medical science in western christendom. Although the men reading these texts were not all physicians, they could find in them a representation of human nature showing both its specificities and its similarities with the inanimate world. This representation, which was circulating before philosophical texts were first translated, emphasized the links between the state of the body and the passions of the soul, without assuming a psychological determinism that would have been unacceptable in the Christian context.     

Le Travail Artisanal En Chine (Xe–XIIe Siècles)

This study deals with collective representations of handcrafts, which were elaborated by the Song (960–1279) literati. Stirred by the strong demand of urban populations, this ideology was constituted combining the literati’s interpretations of the classical tradition, the social promotion of talent and technical know-how, and the standardization of specialized knowledge in response to government demands. This process had a long-term social impact, in terms of both the professional identity of workers, and the social perceptions of technical knowledge.     

« L’argument vassalique » au service de la prédication des croisades en Terre sainte (fin XIIe – XIIIe siècles)

In the late twelfth century we can observe important changes in the propaganda of the crusades to the Holy Land. The popes and the preachers started to stress that the Holy Land should be defended and, after the disasters of 1187, should be reconquered because of its importance personally for God. Six arguments of the crusade propaganda which were invented or became widespread at that time can be mentioned here. Among them there is one that we can call the “vassal argument”, by means of which the papacy and the preachers pointed out that God should be defended when his beloved land is attacked by heathens because he is the Lord and the listeners are his vassals. It seems that the idea was created by the crusade preachers at the end of the twelfth century and then came to be used by the papacy as well, from Innocent III onwards. In the thirteenth century it was extensively enriched by such preachers as Jacques de Vitry and Humbert of Romans who made the vassal argument more illustrative.     

Les Maladies de L’âme Comme Lieu de Rencontre Entre Médecine et Philosophie dans les Textes Arabes Médiévaux (IXe-XIe Siècle)

In the medical texts written in Arabic between the 9^th and the 11^th centuries, the diseases of the soul played an important part in the physicians’ reflection on the nature of the soul and its relationship to the body. In the 9^th and the beginning of the 10^th century, this medical anthropology was shaped by a tradition that was both Platonic and Galenic. But in the 10^th, the influence of Aristotle became most prominent in Arabic philosophy, and as a result the main lines of this medical anthropology were questioned, as was the role of medical knowledge and its relation to natural philosophy.     

Les Berlaimonts. Manuels Plurilingues à L’usage des Marchands (XVIe–XVIIIe Siècle)

From the 16(th) 16 to the 18(th) century, a plurilingual manual attributed to No?l de Berlaimont, a schoolmaster in Anvers, met with unprecedented success. This article sheds light on the role and evolution of this type of manual by looking at its social and cultural context - the transformation of commercial and urban culture. This transformation triggered a revolution in the material shape of knowledge, and plurilingual textbooks were both symbols and engines of this transformation.     

Les Progrès de la Sériciculture sous les Yuan (XIIIe–XIVe Siècles) D’après le Nongsang Jiyao 農桑輯要

Based on an analysis of Nongsang jiyao (Fundamentals of agriculture and sericulture), the oldest existent work on agriculture published by imperial decree, this article examines how the literati succeeded in obtaining their quality as experts in sericulture by their writings and imperial support. Four aspects will be discussed: a) the historical context of the Yuan period; b) the work of compiling and the careers of the principal authors and editors; c) the diffusion and the influence of the treatise; d) the construction of collective knowledge.     

Marchés des produits de luxe et division internationale du travail (XIXe–XXe siècles)

Cet article aborde la question des changements, dans la très longue durée, de la division internationale du travail à partir d'un observatoire qui est l'échange de produits de luxe. Cette approche est loin d'être mineure, car le commerce international s'est structuré, à l'époque moderne, à partir de ces produits de prix élevé. Dans la première moité du XIX^e siècle, les trois évolutions les plus importantes ont été la régression structurelle des exportations de l'Asie des produits de haute qualité vers les produits primaires, la situation d'exportateur primaire des états-Unis et la division du travail entre Grande-Bretagne et France, entre exportations de produits industriels de qualité moyenne et exportations de produits de luxe et demi-luxe. Cette division internationale du travail marque encore fortement les échanges du XX^e siècle. Au travers de cette étude sont recherchés les déterminants de la division internationale du travail, qui ne se comprend guère avec l'analyse économique standard d'inspiration ricardienne ou néoclassique. Des raisons complexes—provenant de la structure sociale des marchés des pays exportateurs, de leurs traditions de savoir-faire, des pratiques et des circuits commerciaux, des usages de paiement et de la structure des circuits des compensations internationales—expliquent que les actions individuelles des agents économiques convergent vers des configurations macroéconomiques qui ont leurs logiques propres.     

Médecine et Discours sur L’Homme dans la Première Modernité

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, medical knowledge was anthropological in so much as it produced a discourse on man whose ambition and legitimacy needed no justification. Underwritten by the belief that the body was an object of science, the epistemic horizons of a doctrina de homine emerged from the interaction of medical practice, particularly anatomy, with philosophy and theology in a specific framework - the reorganization of knowledge in Europe over the “long 16^th century”.     

L’histoire des mathématiques de l’Antiquité

Historical research, during the last half-century, has improved our knowledge of the mathematics of Antiquity. Texts from Egypt and Mesopotamia have been better understood and their elucidation has left behind the crude alternative between empricism and rationalism. The landscape offered by Greek science grew richer and became more varied: it is no longer possible to reduce it to the sole geometrical theory. The main problems which were raised by its history have been deeply discussed. Things being so, more general questions arise, from an epistemological or philosophical point of view. Does the search into some far past of a single «birth» of mathematics make any sense? What link, if any, is there between the form of mathematics in such and such a civilization and its social structure? Can cultural anthropology help to elucidate the variety and unity of mathematics among various peoples? From what time and under what conditions is it possible for a single united historical progress of mathematics to begin?     

L’ars Dictaminis Entre Enseignement et Pratique (XIIe–XIVe Siècle)

The medieval discipline of the ars dictaminis (or dictamen), which flourished during the 12(th)-14(th) centuries, can be considered as an adaptation of classical Latin rhetoric to the communicational needs of the medieval society. Yet, although the relation between the teaching of the ars and its practice is an important one, it has rarely been addressed because of the persistence of numerous misunderstandings about the various different levels at which the ars was taught. This article offers some suggestions to fill this gap.     

L’Invention du Spectateur au XVIIIe Siècle L’Art Est Usage

18^th century philosophers analyzed art through the aesthetic experience of the audience. By contrast, Adam Smith was interested in the moral judgment that an impartial audience may formulate. How can art and morality, the beautiful and the good, be combined into one analytical framework? Art and morality convey non-transcendental values that are intrinsic to human experience. With the aesthetic experience of the audience, art is used, and ultimately depends on the ways that humans relate to works or art and to the beautiful.     

« Techno-Esthétique » de L’Économie Smithienne Valeur et Fonctionnalité des Objets dans L’Angleterre des Lumières

From The Theory of Moral Sentiments to his essay on The Nature of that Imitation Which Takes Place in What Are Called the Imitative Arts, Adam Smith offered a vision of aesthetics combining beauty and utility. An echo of exchange value as the “ability to buy other goods” — the “power” to organize and achieve one’s goals — his definition of beauty was premised on the “aptness” of things, that is, the fact that they were also useful. Sustained by the commodification of products, a kind of “techno-aesthetics” thus emerged in England in the 18^th century, one that implied designing, adapting, reducing and showcasing the means of production.     

Ludovico Geymonat le Problème de L’épistémologie Historique

The study of the various inspirations of Ludovico Geymonat's epistemology (positivism and neopositivism, neorationalism, historicism and dialectical materialism) illustrates the way in which for the Italian philosopher the problem of objectivity of knowledge remains inseparable from the historicity of the sciences. Geymonat's epistemological approach associates scientific progress to its objectivity.