Leibniz, Wolff et la Métaphysique Traitée Selon la Méthode Scientifique

Wolff’s philosophy is often defined by commentators as « dogmatic leibnizism ». However, if we try to read the expression in a positive light, we discover what exactly distinguishes Wolff’s metaphysics from that of Leibniz, thereby establishing Wolff’s real contribution to the history of thought. First of all, the notion of « dogma » presented in Wolff’s philosophy is analyzed. This notion recalls the demonstrative model provided by mathematics and especially, Euclid’s Elements. According to axiomatic patterns, ontology is thought of as the « first philosophy ». This aspect cannot be separated from the function of a posteriori knowledge in Wolff’s thinking. This permits us to comprehend the function of ontology, Wolff’s cosmology, and his invention of the notion of « teleology ».     

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.     

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.     

Ménage et industrie

MORE WORK FOR MOTHER: THE IRONIES OF HOUSEHOLD TECHNOLOGY FROM THE OPEN HEART TO THE MICROWAVE by Ruth Schwarz‐Cowan. Basic Books, New York, 1983, xiv +249pp, planches.     

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.     

Qu'est-ce qu'une ressource locale? Homéostasie et microanalyse en histoire sociale

French historiography is giving increasing attention to the microscopic scale by associating it essentially with the Italianmicrostoria. There are nevertheless in the United Kingdom and in Germany notably, other national traditions of «microhistory», which propose different uses of this level of observation. Similarly, the properties ascribed to the micro (the primacy of the local dynamics, the refusal of functionalist explanations) are not necessarily specific to it. Beginning with a precise issue the question of the relationship between populations and resources and its formulation by the model called «homeostatic», the article strives to nuance the idea according to which each scale would be granted its own attributes. By showing the possible convergences between apparently incommensurable levels of observation, it considers that the effects of scales depend more on local historiographic situations than on abstract properties.     

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.     

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.     

Relire un Essai Wébérien Méconnu Motifs et obstacles

Sans résumé Philippe Despoix enseigne la littérature comparée à l’université de Montréal où il dirige le Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes. Ses recherches portent sur la fonction des médias techniques dans les processus mémoriels et de transferts interculturels. Il a notamment publié éthiques du désenchantement (Paris, L’Harmattan, 1995) et Le Monde mesuré (Genève, Droz, 2005). Nicolas Donin est chercheur en musicologie à l’Ircam, où il dirige l’équipe ? Analyse des pratiques musicales ?. Ses travaux portent sur les œuvres, les pratiques et esthétiques musicales savantes. Il a notamment codirigé, avec Bernard Stiegler, Révolutions industrielles de la musique, numéro spécial des Cahiers de médiologie (n^o 18, 2004). L’Analyse musicale, une pratique et son histoire, ouvrage réalisé en collaboration avec Rémy Campos, est à para?tre (Genève, Conservatoire de Genève/Droz).     

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.