Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007.
Katharina Pistor has renewed the critique of economic inequality by showing how the institutions of private law form the lock of an unequal economic and social system.
Michel Crozier’s work was shaped by the conviction that organizational phenomena create society. He helped pioneer the tools for analyzing groups established to carry out a common project according to a specific system of action and rules of the game.
The “California dream” does not date back to the Gold Rush of the 19th century, but only to the 20th, and is more a matter of criticism than enthusiasm. Louis Warren invites us to put this myth into perspective, and to be wary of the tendency to see California as the laboratory of the United States.
Experience can only lead to knowledge if it is organized by concepts that are not derived from experience. This is the paradox at the heart of Kant’s metaphysics, which Antoine Grandjean gives an entirely new interpretation.
After 1946, the process of “decolonization by assimilation” ensured that the French Antilles remained part of France. The departmental framework, seen as the source of all the rights associated with citizenship, had a profound influence on Antillean politics and society.
About: Danouta Liberski-Bagnoud, La souveraineté de la terre. Une leçon africaine sur l’habiter, Seuil
About: Vincent Lemire, Au pied du Mur. Vie et mort du quartier maghrébin de Jérusalem (1187-1967), Seuil
About: Sarah Diffalah et Salima Tenfiche, Beurettes. Un fantasme français, Seuil
The EU aims for net climate neutrality by 2050, utilizing the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) as its main tool. But the climate crisis demands more than market mechanisms. It requires comprehensive planning and legal frameworks that prioritize public over private interests.
Jane Mansbridge has made a major contribution to political theory. She has spent her life combining empirical research with a theoretical approach, and has played a vital role in developing the critique of rational choice and the study of democracy as a permanent process continually in flux.
Rorty made conversation a philosophical genre in its own right, which led him to reject any distinctions he considered futile: between analytic and continental philosophy, between the Enlightenment and postmodernity, between philosophy and literature.
At a time when Europe is equated with sovereign debt and political powerlessness, one should not forget that the foundations for a European citizenship have already been laid. Its potential for democracy needs to be interrogated, as do the cultural resources that it can rely on.
Our Books and Ideas dossier on the American presidential elections will make no forecasts - instead it will look back on four years of Democratic leadership at the White House and four years of right-wing radicalization inside and outside of the G.O.P. Whoever wins will have to deal with the Tea Party, and the record shows it will not be easy for anyone.
Books & Ideas is going on holiday for the summer, and will resume its publication schedule in September. In the meantime, we present you with a weekly roundup of our most recent essays and reviews. Our second summer selection features portraits of prominent intellectual figures: Albert Camus, René Dumont, Ronald Dworkin, Joan W. Scott and Max Weber.
One of Albert O. Hirschman’s contributions to economic theory is a richer understanding of the concept of the “rational actor,” which, he demonstrated, possesses the deliberative capacities that democratic market societies require. This following is a profile of an economist who was also a dissident and an activist.
In an innovative study that returns Albert Camus’ early works to their rightful place in the canon, Laurent Bove suggests we should view Camus as a philosopher of immanence and of acquiescence to the joy of the world. This reading is enlightening as far as Camus’ thoughts on history are concerned, but tends to gloss over the ruptures that run though his work, which is driven with multiple tensions.
Des militants d’un type nouveau rejoignent les organisations de jeunesse du mouvement Identitaire. Si leur capacité à faire le coup de poing reste un facteur d’intégration, la violence physique n’est plus officiellement revendiquée par Génération Identitaire.
Quel sens peut-on attribuer à une vie ? Et quelle valeur peut prendre ce sens ? Selon S. Wolf, la condition est que ce sens soit senti.
À l’opposé de l’idée du texte clos sur lui-même, Florent Coste milite en faveur d’une théorie et d’une pratique politiquement engagées. Comment inventer des formes nouvelles de radicalité agissant depuis l’intérieur du système ?
À propos de : Franck Leibovici et Julien Seroussi, muzungu à la cpi (des œuvres-outils), École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
À propos de : Claire Judde de Larivière, Vénitiens ! Vénitiennes ! La traversée d’une ville (Venise, 1520), Seuil
À propos de : Camille Chamois & Didier Debaise, dir., Perspectivismes métaphysiques, Vrin
