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?     

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.     

Une théorie de l’autobiographie: Georg Misch

Georg Misch, author of a monumental history of autobiography, puts Dilthey’s principles to work: the narrative of a life is as old as history, but it is modified according to the period, and the determinations that it receives in the classical age orient it toward describing the laws of individual development.     

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.     

Les sciences naturelles à l’agrégation

Demandée dès 1840 par Siméon-Denis Poisson, une agrégation spécialisée pour les sciences naturelles est créée par Victor Duruy: elle établit une triple spécialisation (sciences mathématiques, physiques, naturelles) au concours d’agrégation pour les lycées et introduit conjointement dans chacune des agrégations une composition de méthode et d’histoire des sciences dans la spécialité concernée. L’évolution de ce concours est étudiée jusqu’au milieu duxx ^e siècle. D’autres types de concours d’agrégation (agrégation de l’enseignement spécial, agrégation féminine, agrégation des facultés) ont existé où l’histoire naturelle a trouvé place.