https://booksandideas.net// 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. en SPIP - www.spip.net https://booksandideas.net/local/cache-vignettes/L144xH68/siteon0-04014.png?1675949311 https://booksandideas.net// 68 144 https://booksandideas.net/The-people-who-count https://booksandideas.net/The-people-who-count 2026-05-19T13:22:12Z text/html en Marion Pollaert Philosophy History democracy people Ancient Greece <p>What is the nature of the distinctive rationality that underpins Cleisthenes' reform, which many see as the birth of Greek democracy? What social mechanisms, civic experiences, and forms of vernacular knowledge made this new system of political organization possible?</p> https://booksandideas.net/Newness-same-old-song https://booksandideas.net/Newness-same-old-song 2026-05-14T06:30:00Z text/html en Lucile Truffy capitalism Philosophy Cairn.info <p>The love for newness did not begin with modern consumer society. It has long been capitalism's primary engine and has been central to how it imagines the market. At present, its environmental impact is disastrous.</p> https://booksandideas.net/The-Correspondence-of-Sentiments https://booksandideas.net/The-Correspondence-of-Sentiments 2026-05-12T09:14:20Z text/html en Vincent Boyer Philosophy sympathy moral philosophy <p>Can morality be grounded in the sense of sympathy? According to Adam Smith, sympathy with the sentiments of others is precisely what allows for self-command, a cardinal virtue that enables us to act from a sense of duty.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Does-Truth-Have-a-History https://booksandideas.net/Does-Truth-Have-a-History 2026-05-05T08:05:30Z text/html en Thomas Boccon-Gibod Philosophy truth Foucault norms epistemology genealogy Cairn.info <p>Is Foucault's genealogy concerned with the will to truth or with truth itself? According to Pascal Engel, in maintaining the ambiguity between the two, Foucault ignored the norms of knowledge as an essential source of emancipation.</p> https://booksandideas.net/A-World-of-Waste https://booksandideas.net/A-World-of-Waste 2026-03-31T08:00:00Z text/html en Jean-Philippe Pierron Philosophy environment nature technics Cairn.info <p>We would rather not see or even think about our waste, but it has a lot to tell us about our habits, our lives, and more importantly, about what we are doing to our world today.</p> https://booksandideas.net/In-Praise-of-the-Unpropertied https://booksandideas.net/In-Praise-of-the-Unpropertied 2026-03-26T08:30:00Z text/html en Pierre Crétois Philosophy property anarchism Marx Cairn.info Proudhon <p>Marx misunderstood Proudhon: he criticized him for neglecting the relations of production, when in fact the French anarchist was interested in the political subjugation that, in his view, private property inevitably causes.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Moral-Socialism https://booksandideas.net/Moral-Socialism 2026-02-18T15:55:56Z text/html en Julien Le Mauff capitalism Enlightenment Philosophy freedom Video Interviews Kantianism <p>How can we move beyond the double deadlock of state socialism and market capitalism? For Lea Ypi, returning to Kant and the Enlightenment offers a perspective to provide a new ground to freedom as social responsibility, and to open up towards a cosmopolitan horizon against the authoritarianism of profit.</p> https://booksandideas.net/A-Return-to-Liberal-Democracy https://booksandideas.net/A-Return-to-Liberal-Democracy 2026-01-22T07:00:00Z text/html en Laurent Warlouzet Philosophy democracy populism European Union human rights Cairn.info <p>Popular sovereignty and the rule of law are inseparable: the idea that there could be “illiberal democracies” is groundless and plays into the hands of populists.</p> https://booksandideas.net/On-the-lookout-for-catastrophe https://booksandideas.net/On-the-lookout-for-catastrophe 2026-01-08T08:46:00Z text/html en Dimitri Robin Philosophy anthropology catastrophe Cairn.info <p>Primitive societies, Lévy-Bruhl explains, are on the lookout for signs of catastrophes, though they are unpredictable. Since we, too, are in a constant state of alert, this insight should inspire us.</p> https://booksandideas.net/Social-Nietzscheanism https://booksandideas.net/Social-Nietzscheanism 2026-01-06T08:57:00Z text/html en Arnaud Sorosina Philosophy critique Nietzsche Cairn.info <p>Can Nietzsche be considered a social thinker? Straddling social critique and critique of the social, French and German interpretive traditions that embrace Nietzsche make it necessary to revise the hasty conclusions of Marxists and anti-postmodernists.</p>