L'«École de l'ETH» dans l'œuvre de Gaston Bachelard

We retrace here spectral presence in the work of Gaston Bachelard which we call «The School of the ETH». We have chosen three fundamental figures: hermann Weyl, Wolfgang Pauli and Gustave Juvet. For the first one, we consider his central and permanent place in the Bachelardian constitution of a philosophy which seeks to be at the height of the new «physical geometry» rigorously constructed in a Riemannian spirit. As for Pauli, we show an unsuspected affinity which is backed up by the remarkable analyses brought to it by philosophy: from the urgent construction of a «quantic metaphysics», founded on the implications of aPauli principle well understood, to the idea of a «metaphysical particle», going on to the decisive and so promising stakes of the «postulate of non-analysis». In the framework of this convergent polyconstruction of the «surrationalist», enterprise, we treat the third figure, less known but equally important, of the mathematician-philosopher Gustave Juvet.     

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     

Paul Bernays et la rénovation des fondements philosophiques des mathématiques

The history of the foundations of mathematics in the XX^th century leads to a revision of the meaning of traditional philosophical notions such as «evidence», «experience» or «rationality». This paper focuses on the influence of Ferdinand Gonseth's «open philosophy» on Paul Bernays' philosophical interpretations of the technical results in the foundations. Familiar with the ideas of Jacob Friedrich Fries and Léonard Nelson, the logician Bernays turns at the middle of the century more and more towards Gonseth's ideas. Quite before Thomas Kuhn, Bernays considers the revisions under consideration not simply as a problem of truth and falsehood, but as a task requiring the introduction of a new conceptual system. Indeed, in opposition to Kuhn, according to Bernays, the necessary change is less the consequence from a change of paradigm and methodological incommensurability as a epistemological necessity.     

Ordre des décrets divins,hiérarchie des droits humains

Until the xvi^th century, the use of public force in the service of religious unity seems to be a consequence of a zeal for the salvation of others. In order to reach civil peace, in the nations where different creeds confronted each other, it was necessary to find a theological foundation for the legal recognition of a freedom of conscience and of religion. The Protestant theologians of the Academy of Saumur, founded by Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, a negotiator of the Edict of Nantes, sought this foundation in a theology of creation. God created man to live peacefully in the company of his fellow-men and the drama of original sin, although it led for its reparation to a revelation from God, protected by the Church, did not destroy this primary order. «We are men, writes Amyraut, before being Christians.»     

Diversité des réactions réformées à la révocation

Starting from the analysis of the reactions of the Protestant groups to the Fontainebleau edict, this paper examines the development of two main concepts that are at the origin of political modernity, i.e. the distinction between religious and political domains on the one hand, and the popular sovereignty on the other. These two concepts emerged separately as a result of crossed and apparently paradoxal thoughts, whose coherence is to be sought in the anthropological positions underlying them. Therefore the study of the theological debates in the XVII^th century is a way by which the modern political concepts arose.     

Effects of Confidentiality-Preserving Geo-Masking on the Estimation of Semivariogram and of the Kriging Variance

Geostatistical methods, such as semivariograms and kriging are well-known spatial tools commonly employed in many disciplines such as health, mining, forestry, meteorology to name only few. They are based essentially on point-referenced data on a continuous space and on the calculation of distances between them. In many practical instances, however, the exact point location, even if exactly known, is geo-masked to preserve confidentiality. This typically happens when dealing with confidential data related to individuals-health and their biometric parameters. In these situations, the estimation of the semivariogram and, hence, the spatial prediction can become biased and highly inefficient. This paper examines the extent of the bias in the particular case when the geo-masking mechanism is known (called “intentional locational error”) and lays the ground to a full understanding of the phenomenon in more general cases. We also examine how the geo-masking affects the estimation of the kriging variance thus reducing the efficiency of spatial prediction. We pursue our aims by developing some theoretical results and by making use of simulated and real data analysis.     

The Age of Clay: The Social Dynamics of House Destruction

This study provides some fresh insight into Neolithic domestic architecture through the analysis of architectural technology and the control over the practice of house construction and destruction. Examined on a regional or local level, architecture of the Neolithic is often presented as a fairly homogenous social practice over the large area of Southeast Europe. In viewing the Neolithic houses as homogenous and uncontroversial material culture, archaeologists have overlooked not only the possible variation and multimeaning of the Neolithic houses but also their striking and extensive means of destruction. The role of house conflagration, a practice that lasted during the entire Neolithic of Southeast Europe, has not been addressed in archaeological investigations. Indeed the phenomenon of burned houses has been treated as a series of lucky accidents during the Neolithic, which are primarily responsible for the preservation of Neolithic sites. Contrary this view, I argue that it is unlikely that the houses were burned as a result of a series of accidents or for any structural and technological reasons but rather that they were destroyed by deliberate burning and most likely for reasons of a symbolic nature. The causes for the practice of house firing and house abandonment as observed through the architectural evidence at the site of Opovo are believed to have been related to the need for house replacement and securing its postutilitarian visibility in order to show social and material continuity of the Neolithic society. In my view, a struggle for social and material continuity might have been a leading mobilizing force in creating and maintaining social practices and beliefs in the Neolithic society.     

Taphonomy and dispersion of bones scavenged by New World vultures and caracaras in Northwestern Patagonia: implications for the formation of archaeological sites

Scavenger birds can feed on large- to small-sized vertebrates and may contribute in the formation of archaeological sites. To evaluate the modifications and dispersal patterns of bones produced by New World vulture and caracara from Northwestern Patagonia, samples of adult sheep, young sheep, and hare carcasses were offered and subsequently analyzed. New World vultures and caracaras quickly fed on the samples. Taphonomic and bone dispersal patterns suggest two types of accumulations: (1) open-air sites with large and medium-sized vertebrates represented by complete, fractured, scratched, notched, and punctured elements and (2) rock shelter or cave sites dominated by small vertebrates represented by broken, corroded, fractured, and digested elements.     

Representative archaeological finds of <Emphasis Type="Italic">pietra ollare</Emphasis> from Comacchio (Italy): identifying provenance and high-T mineral breakdown reactions hindering lithotype classification

Three different lithotype groups have been recognized in representative fragments of pietra ollare artefacts found in the mediaeval archaeological excavations of Comacchio (Italy). Petrographic, mineralogical and chemical compositions clearly show that Valchiavenna and Valmalenco, in the Central Alps, represent the provenance areas of two of the pietra ollare groups, i.e. grey carbonate talc schist (also known as soapstone) and green chlorite schist, respectively. The third representative pietra ollare group consists of whitish-yellowish rocks inferred to be Alpine talc schists that have suffered some artificial pyrometamorphic transformation hindering their classification in the framework of pietra ollare lithotype categories and source localities reported in literature. A distinguishing feature of these high temperature-fired (HT-fired) talc schist samples is the occurrence of talc and chlorite dehydroxylation and subsolidus reaction products, mainly protoenstatite/enstatite + forsterite, together with relatively low loss on ignition values. These talc schists might have been exposed to temperatures >900 °C (with the resulting talc dehydroxylation producing a void-rich texture), but never reaching 1200 °C, which is the sintering temperature for soapstones. The whitish-yellowish artefacts were definitely not used as containers for cooking food at temperatures below or around 500–600 °C (as instead shown by the preservation of the original physical features of the grey pietra ollare lithotypes), but in some kind of higher-T pyrotechnological processes.     

Beeswax remnants,phase and major element chemical composition of the bronze age mould from Gaj Oławski (SW Poland)

The recently found metal casting mould from Gaj O?awski (SW Poland) was designed for the production of socketed axes typical for later stages of the Bronze Age in Poland (ca. 1100–900 bc). This unique artefact is a half of a durable, two-piece wedge-shaped mould and measures 17.5?×?7.2?×?4.0 cm. The surface of the mould is covered copper oxides and carbonates, and the remnant of beeswax was found on its inner surface. The metal forming mould consists of cored dendrites of Cu-dominated (Cu >96.5 wt%, up to 2.2 wt% Sn) and Cu impoverished (Cu ~86.0 wt%, Sn ~9.4 wt%, some Sb, As and Ag) end compositions and volumetrically subordinate α?+?δ eutectoid. The “as cast” structure of the metal shows that the mould was never used for molten metal casting. Since this kind of moulds was used for mass casting of metal, the Gaj O?awski one was probably never used, and the beeswax is the remain of its coating. This is the first remain of the Bronze Age beeswax described in metallurgical context in Europe.