Le Moment Pascalien dans la Querelle de la Grâce

From 1643, the catholic quarrel on grace sees the clash of three theological parties, that of the Jesuits, won oven to molinism, that of the dominicans, defenders of thomism, and that of the jansenists, partisans of a return to strict augustinism but equally concerned with defending themselves from accusations of heresy by putting forward their conformity with thomism. The present article attempts to follow the evolution of the different currents in the time of the crisis of 1655–1657 by utilizing the contemporary texts of Blaise Pascal as an observatory and by showing how the jansenists gradually liquidated the middle solution of a molinizing thomism.     

L'impérialisme institutionnel et la question de la race chez Aristote

In the wake of the current revival of the historiography of racism, this article focuses on the claim that Aristotle is the progenitor of the concept in the West. If a purely textual analysis of Aristotelian political writings can lead to such a conclusion, the historicising of these writings leads to a different result. Rejecting the idea that the normative function of the work of Aristotle is limited to the Athenian polis, this article demonstrates that the imperial context should serve as an ‘available light’ by which the meaning of certain Aristotelian key concepts, including nature, the ‘divine man’ and the natural slave. In doing so, the central role of prohairesis in Aristotle's conception of human nature is highlighted.     

Civiliser en Grèce Ancienne Adoucir la Nature et Naturaliser la Force

Ancient Greeks had neither a single notion nor a single word to express the idea of civilization. As a process of living since the origins, civilization appears as a serie of acquisitions or losses that lead to an ambivalent human condition. As a state, it is a blend of three factors: a diet and an education that tame nature; a legal political system and just foreign politics. But in the Greek language, the same word expresses a political system and domination (archê). Dionysius of Halicarnassus by speaking of the Roman domination as a just and natural phenomena, makes it a civilizing power.     

Les lois de la nature à l'âge classique la question terminologique

Four propositions relative to the laws of nature in the classical period must be noted. 1. Certain regularities in phenomena had been discovered. 2. A concept of law had emerged. 3. Classical science is characterized by the introduction of the notion of the legality of nature. 4. New uses of the word «law» had appeared in scientific texts. This article is devoted to the analysis of only this last proposition, that is to say to a terminological problem. First we will describe the semantic uses of the word «law» that may have contributed to the constitution of its classical meaning: its specific usage, disciplinary usage, usage in physics, in mathematics, in metaphysics. Second we will analyze the various moments of the diffusion of the word in the sciences in the xvii^th century. The general thesis defended in the end is that if the term «law» had indeed been used in science with no reference to a law-giving God prior to the xvii^th century, only this reference, that is, the coming together of its physical and its metaphysical usage, allowed its generalization in the period between the xvii^th and xviii^th centuries.     

Éloge de la politique

Sans résumé novembre 2000 CharlesKleiber, architecte, directeur des h?pitaux universitaires du canton de Vaud, enseignant en économie de la santé à l'université de Lausanne, est secrétaire d'état à l'éducation et à la recherche     

Des Professionnels de la Chaire dans la France de L’?ge Classique

Starting in the 1630s, in French towns, the rise of sermons gave an increasing group of clerics the possibility to become preachers. This article analyses this process of professionalization. First, it takes a look at a number of long - and sometimes quite profitable - careers of men as preachers. Second, it analyzes the know-how that was then developed for to make and recite the sermon. Finally, the article focuses on the transformations brought about by the increasing importance of written communication during the 18(th) century.     

Catholicisme,protestantisme et laïcité: Réflexion sur la trace religieuse dans l'histoire contemporaine de la France

This article examines the traces of Protestantism in contemporary French history and political culture. After contextualising the legacies of Protestantism and Catholicism and recalling the latter's primary role in conceptions of French identity, the study focusses on how Protestant cultural influences came to bear. The article weighs the contributions of renowned Protestant historians and politicians, in the case of the latter, right down to the contemporary period.     

L’Histoire, la Fable et le Fabuleux Analyse de la notion de fabuleux

Paul Hazard has clearly shown the concomitance ofThe Crisis of the European consciousness in various domains, under diverse aspects and diverse interrogations. This crisis, these new issues which arise concern as well the concept of temporality which was then in vogue. This article seeks to study its emergence through a specific question which concerns the status and the significance to be given fables and myths which we have inherited from Antiquity. Thanks to the studies by abbé Anselme, Fontenelle, Nicolas Fréret, the chevalier de La Barre and Lévesque de Burigny of the notion of the marvelous, as found in fables, we can better grasp the development of an historical concept.