Langage et géométrie

A semantic study of the use of French spatial prepositions (dans, sur, sous, etc.) leads to the two following results: it is not possible, in a referentialist approach, to simply characterize the meanings of these prepositions as geometrical relations in physical space; on the other hand, it is possible to characterize their meanings as simple topological relations on a «verbal scene» built by language itself. It can be concluded that topology plays an essential structuring role in the cognitive mechanisms operating in language activity.     

Montaigne et la « vanité » des utopies

This article examines Montaigne’s contribution to the sixteenth-century European debate about the utopia as a form of political thinking concerned with the creation of a better society. It argues that Montaigne participates in that debate, as he does in others, by retreating to the margins. It explores the form this retreat takes in book III of the Essais. The suggestion is that, by retreating to the margins of political debate, the author creates a textual space open to a virtual community of friends, among them the author and the reader, who have in common a mode of free and frank discussion as a truth-seeking and quarrelsome “exercise of minds”. Montaigne is thus able to conduct an unresolved quarrel with others, and with himself, as he weighs in the balance the value–and vanity–of utopias.     

Einstein et «Zweistein»

As the sobriquet «Zweistein» suggests, within the theoretical physics community Wolfgang Pauli came to be regarded as second in eminence only to Albert Einstein. Over a period of thirty-five years, they interacted both intellectually and personally. This paper focuses on four interrelated topics of their discussions. 1) The theory of relativity: at the age of twenty, Pauli prepared the definitive survey of relativity, a survey which he revised near the end of his life and which remains invaluable to physicists and historians of physics. 2) Unified field theories: although initially sympathetic to Einstein's search for a unified theory of electromagnetism and gravitation, and having made important contributions to the subject, Pauli came to regard such efforts as fruitless. 3) Foundations of quantum mechanics: Pauli's negative evaluation of Einstein's program grew out of their sharply differing evaluations of the role that quantum mechanics would play in the future, development of theoretical physics. 4) Quantum gravity: Pauli recognized that, until the achievement of a successful reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity — an achievement that still eludes us — Einstein's challenge to quantum mechanics could not be laid to rest.     

Les «yeux d’Argos» et les «étoiles d’Astrée» pour mesurer l’univers les jésuites italiens et la science nouvelle

As what happened for thenova in 1604 and for the three comets which appeared in 1618 starting the debate between Galileo and the Jesuits of the Roman College, even the comet of 1644 enhanced the curiosity and expectations in astrometers’ and astrologers’ minds. This work focuses on some aspects of the European debate, by fixing our attention on the Bolognese observatory school of Santa-Lucia in particular, where Giovan Battista Riccioli and his socios had started an experimental activity which was known and appreciated for its accuracy all over Europe. It also closely examines the revaluation of the «medium sciences», such as geography and hydrometry, to point out the sociocultural conditions that originated the growth of new professional characters like engineers and technicians in Bologna.     

Anthropologie, psychhanalyse et «civilisation» du brésil dans l'entre-deux-guerres

This study concerns the moral regulation of the Person in Brazil from the twenties to the end of the forties, from the point of view of the intense academic relationship between anthropology and psychoanalysis. It deals with the conditions under which that dialogue took place: the general crusade for the «civilization» of the country, between the central State initiatives in the promotion of hygiene and education and the medical, intellectual debates about the «African» heritage and the possibility of surmounting cultural «backwardness».     

Les «Faits scientifiques» et leur public: l’histoire de la détection de la syphilis

In the 1910's and 1920', thanks to the conjunction of scientific views concerning the specificity of anti-bacterial antibodies, of lay ideas about the existence of anti-bacterial antibodies and of the perceived importance of developing a syphilis test for public health officials, the community of serologists collectively transformed a relatively inefficient diagnostic test described by Wassermann in 1906 into an "incontestable scientific fact". This "scientific fact" established the equivalence: Wassermann positive individual=person infected with the germ Treponema pallidum, the etiological agent of syphilis. It modified the boundaries of the nosologic entity "syphilis", medical practices, professional attitudes, lay perceptions of syphilis, and health policies. In the 1950's, however, discrepancies between Wassermann test data and epidemiological data and, on the other hand, the development of specific anti-treponemal tests, destabilized the previously stabilized "scientific fact". A high percentage of Wassermann positive individuals were redefined as "biological false positifs", that is persons who suffered from chronic affections able to induce positive results of the Wassermann test. The equivalence Wassermann positive person=individual infected by Treponema pallidum was replaced by the equation: Wassermann positive person=individual infected by Treponema pallidum or biological false positive. The new perception of the Wassermann test again changed scientific views, professional practices and lay beliefs. The history of the Wassermann reaction illustrates the complicated interaction between "scientific facts" and "social facts", and the mutual shaping of both.