Mitigating defeat: Vidal de la Blache’s 1885 France Frontière Nord-Est et Alsace-Lorraine

One contributing factor to France’s devastating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War was a lack of geographic knowledge at all levels of the army. As a result, politicians proposed significant educational reforms in the 1880s, which included an enhanced role of geography in the national curriculum. In order to improve access to and understanding of that subject, French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache published a series of Cartes murales that appeared in classrooms throughout the nation. Yet his Carte 10 France Frontière Nord-Est et Alsace-Lorraine, one such map, deviates from his primary mission of teaching pupils about the nation and focuses instead on the delicate topic of France’s new border with Germany. This article will examine Vidal’s map, on which he accurately presents the post-1871 political landscape. However, his cartographic discourse (colour, text, symbols), based on his geographic writings and national sentiment, differentiates Alsace-Lorraine from the new German Empire and helps his readers to question its authority over the two provinces.     

La Sociologie de la Musique de Max Weber Après un Siècle

In this article, the author wonders how the research program sketched out by Weber in early 1910 appears to us today, but also how it would appear if we wished to return to it one hundred years later, making the necessary modifications while remaining true to its spirit. To this end, the author envisions each of the three fundamental components of Weber’s program successively (the particular evolution of Western music, Weber’s emphasis on musical “techniques” and the fact that for Weber, the motor of change is rationalisation) and places them in the context of Weber’s work and of our contemporary concerns.     

Le scepticisme et les hypothèses de la physique

The History of scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza is often called upon to support three theses: first, that Descartes had a dogmatic notion of systematic knowledge, and therefore of physics; second, that the hypothetical epistemology of physics which spread during the xviith century was the result of a general sceptical crisis; third, that this epistemology was more successful in England than in France. I reject these three theses: I point first to the tension in Descartes’ works between the ideal of a completely certain science and a physics replete with hypotheses; further, I argue that the use of hypotheses by mechanical philosophers cannot be separated from their conception of physics; finally I show that, at the end of the xviith century, physicists in France as well as in England spoke through hypotheses and I examine different ways of explaining this shared practice. Richard H. Popkin’s book serves therefore as a starting point for insights into the general problem: to what extent and for what reasons some propositions in physics have been presented as hypotheses in the xviith century?     

Eleusinia ‐ les mystères et l'agriculture

In reply to a recent contribution by C. Coppola (AFLN 21 [N.S. 9], 1978–79, 73–82), the authors discuss the reading and restoration of Cod. Marc. gr. 450, fol. l^r, col. II, lines 1–10, with apo‐graphs. Corrections and modifications to Coppola's text and critical apparatus are offered and a new restoration and translation of col. I, line 29, through col. II, line 13 (=Bibl. p. 1.8–14 Bekker), attempted.     

La tolérance et la crainte

La tolérance, telle que l'entend l'édit de Nantes, est un pis-aller. Les partis catholiques et réformés s'accordent sur l'idée que la tolérance est provisoire, car la restauration de l'unité religieuse doit demeurer la visée. Mais les réformés, minoritaires, sont en position défensive. Beaucoup parmi eux pensent que la tolérance ne tiendra que s'ils continuent de se faire craindre des catholiques. D'où la promotion, par Agrippa d'Aubigné, de l'esprit de résistance. Mais les forces armées protestantes sont réduites en 1629. En fonction de ce nouveau contexte, Moyse Amyraut, tout en professant un parfait loyalisme à l'égard du monarque catholique, sera amené à formuler les linéaments d'une nouvelle théorie de la tolérance, selon laquelle la tolérance n'est plus une grace temporaire, mais un droit.     

Trois revues institutionnelles : Le Journal de l’École polytechnique,les Annales des Mines,les Annales des Ponts et Chaussées

The three journals studied are characterized by their own institutional background, which explains most probably their centenial longevity, and their slow evolution. The Journal de l’École polytechnique is more academic. The two Annales publish scientific, technical and legislative texts. They are a bond between the administration and its engineers. As the bulk of published articles is huge and diversified, it was important to develop an effective system of access to the various articles.     

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”.     

Dynamiques hydrogéomorphologiques historiques et actuelles d'une rivière perturbée par les activités de la drave et analyse des impacts d'un démantèlement de barrage

In Quebec, the fluvial dynamics of the Escoumins River have been disturbed by the forestry industry for over a century. Most specifically, a dam was built near the mouth of the river in 1846 and dismantled in 2013. These disturbances had significant repercussions on the equilibrium of the river and Atlantic salmon habitat. This study therefore proposes to characterize the fluvial dynamics of the Escoumins River and to analyze the impacts of the dam dismantling from the perspective of restoring hydrogeomorphological processes and improving Atlantic salmon habitat. The results suggest that the trajectory of the river evolved differently depending on the fluvial style and the grain size composition of each of its homogeneous segments. However, log drive activities in river and dam removal appear to have been the most important controlling factors on the evolution of the stream trajectory. The dismantling notably allowed the restoration of hydrogeomorphological processes and the free movement of salmonids. A better procedure for dam removal and monitoring should be put in place in Canada to encourage this practice.     

La prière Ahuna Varya dans son exégèse zoroastrienne

Sans résumé