Books & ideas

The Vertical and Horizontal Axes of Democracy

Laure Gillot-Assayag — 2024-11-19T11:07:36Z

Following in Paul Ricœur's footsteps, Olivier Mongin proposes an interpretation of politics as a tension between state domination at “the top” and living together at “the bottom.” This tension, he argues, contains a potential for reciprocal violence that poses a threat to democracy.

Radical Pragmatists

Roberto Frega — 2021-01-18T08:00:00Z

For twentieth-century American pragmatists, democracy was a radical experiment involving the deliberate and deliberative participation of the people in identifying and resolving their own problems. Who are their descendants today?

Democracy With or Without Borders

Camille Pascal — 2020-01-02T08:00:00Z

Can a state exclude people in the name of the common good? What gives legitimacy to definitions of borders and belonging? In this work of political theory, B. Boudou argues for a pragmatic, democratic and shifting approach to borders: only shared interests can define a community.

On the Green Side

Editorial Team — 2019-07-29T07:00:00Z

Books & Ideas is slowing down for the summer. In the meantime, here is our weekly selection of reviews published over the past year.

The Moral Philosophy of a Political Refugee

Luc Foisneau — 2019-05-27T07:00:00Z

According to A. Abizadeh, Hobbes' moral philosophy is based on two complementary but distinct conceptions: one that classically makes the pursuit of happiness the end of human life, the other, resolutely modern, rests on what we owe to each other.

Theories as Social Action

Florent Guénard — 2019-04-11T06:00:00Z

By insisting on the need to consider philosophical works as interventions in the general, ongoing political debates of their time, Quentin Skinner has profoundly renewed the history of ideas. In this interview, he revisits the main themes of his work.

Advocating for Climate Equity

Pierre André — 2019-04-01T06:00:00Z

Climate change does not affect all of us equally. Developed countries are the largest contributors to global warming, but the main victims are the poorest and future generations. This raises a rarely addressed moral and political problem.

Is the Majority Always Right?

Pierre-Étienne Vandamme — 2019-03-04T07:00:00Z

What justifies majority decision making in democracies? Can we consider that the majority is more likely to be right? Didier Mineur reflects on the philosophical foundations of a rule that has become so self-evident in our societies.

Habermas in the public sphere

Clotilde Nouët — 2019-02-28T07:00:00Z

In this intellectual portrait of the enfant terrible of the Frankfurt School, S. Müller-Doohm presents us with an indefatigable polemicist whose various stands have marked the last fifty years. This first ever biography of Habermas also takes us through post-war German history.

Injustices That Will Not Pass

Magali Bessone — 2019-02-21T06:00:00Z

How can we think about our responsibility in the face of past crimes whose consequences continue to weigh on the living conditions of their victims or descendants? One first step, for the philosopher Catherine Lu, would be to acknowledge and theorise the colonial roots of our world order.