Books & ideas

Ethic of Care or Solidarity Pact?

Marie Matignon — 2024-09-17T06:00:00Z

Since the 1980s, patient accompaniment has been considered a form of care in its own right. Yet, the “ethic of care,” now a key notion in philosophy, is also part of the solidarity pact that governs the welfare state in France.

The Paternalistic State

Cyril Hédoin — 2024-06-18T13:00:00Z

The behavioral sciences have revolutionized our understanding of individual choices and actions. These approaches are leading to new public policies, which raises important ethical and political questions.

The Moral Animal

Anthony Bonnemaison — 2024-02-06T06:38:00Z

Aristotle's ethics is, indeed, a form of naturalism. Yet, according to Pierre-Marie Morel, this is a problematic naturalism in which nature retains a degree of opacity and proves irreducible to any biological determinism.

Are Plants Animals Like Any Other?

Enrique Utria — 2021-04-05T07:00:00Z

Through a phenomenology of plant life, the philosopher Florence Burgat reminds us that plants are defined above all by what they do not have: Lacking an intentional consciousness or a lived world, how could they lead the secret life that certain popular books ascribe to them?

Spinoza as Groundwork for Writing Fiction

Steven Nadler — 2020-06-29T07:00:00Z

The first English translator of Spinoza's Ethics was a woman, and not any woman: the great novelist George Eliot who, before taking to writing fiction, had translated Feuerbach, David Strauss—and Spinoza. Her beautiful translation had remained unpublished until now. It has nothing to envy of the ones that followed.

The Inequality of Human Lives

Perig Pitrou — 2020-02-27T08:00:00Z

Between naturalism and humanism, midway between Perec and Adorno, Didier Fassin suggests considering human lives in terms of the evaluation variable accorded to them by the social environment. Thus, compassionate morality is replaced by the demand for justice.

Scarlet Letters

Nicolas Delon — 2019-09-02T07:00:00Z

In 2018 and 2019, a series of attacks by vegan activists struck meat-related businesses in France. Deemed “extreme” and “violent” by butchers, these actions invite us to reflect on the ethics of activism. Is it ever morally permissible to engage in illegal activism? Are tactics such as shaming even effective?

Morality and Its Limits

Marlène Jouan — 2019-04-08T07:00:00Z

Ruwen Ogien defended moral minimalism, arguing that what can be legitimately prohibited is the harm caused to others, and that, for the rest, individuals should be allowed to live their lives as they see fit. He considered that ethics has meaning only when it is limited.

The ‘Animal Cause' and the Social Sciences

Jérôme Michalon — 2019-02-11T06:00:00Z

How do the social sciences and humanities deal with human-animal relationships? Between epistemic and political aims, animals have progressed on either side of the Atlantic as legitimate subjects of study and even as political subjects in their own right.

Ending the Anthropocene

Claire Sagan — 2019-01-22T07:00:00Z

Predictive models in ecology generally assume that capitalism will be maintained. However, as Claire Sagan argues, adapting to the climate crisis requires that we go beyond the capitalist hegemony and renounce the notion of “Anthropocene”.