Condorcet

This survey article (in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) offers an introduction to the field of social choice theory. It covers: (i) the history of social choice theory; (ii) three formal arguments for majority rule (procedural, epistemic, and utilitarian); (iii) preference aggregation; (iv) welfare aggregation; (v) judgment aggregation; and (vi) other topics.
Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-choice/

Nicolas de Condorcet was a French philosopher, scien st, poli cal  gure of the XVIIIth century and one of the few Enlightenment ideologues who has not only witnessed the French Revolu on, but also ac vely par-  cipated in the poli cal life of the country, leading the Na onal Conven-  on and taking part in the se ng-up of the legal framework of the French First Republic. This ar cle is meant not only to inves gate the Condorcet’s theory of progress, which is based on the idea of in nite improvement of human individuum and society (perfec bilité), but also to explore the no-  ons of ‘human enhancement society’ and ‘transhumanism society’, that the idea of perfec bility substan ates. Transhumanism is a philosophical, social and cultural movement that promotes a radical improvement of hu- mans through biomedicine, science and technology. For many years, it has fascinated the minds of prominent scien sts, doctors and public  gures all over the world. Based on the concept of unlimited be erment of an indi- vidual as far as their physical, intellectual and psychological quali es are concerned, transhumanism derives from the idea of perfec bility within the meaning ascribed to it by the French philosopher. Guided by the inten on to jus fy this ideology from the historical and philosophical points of view, the apologists of transhumanism aim to declare themselves as the inheritors of the Enlightenment’s humanists, and Nicolas de Condorcet himself as their ‘spiritual mentor’. From this perspec ve, the author of the ar cle raises two main ques ons: what is the idea of ‘perfec bilité’, why does it exist more than two centuries a er the death of this French philosopher, and can Con- dorcet be considered as the ideologist of transhumanism? //
Николя де Кондорсе — французский философ, ученый, политический деятель XVIII века, один из немногих идеологов Просвеще- ния, который не только застал Французскую революцию, но принимал активное участие в политической жизни страны. Задача данной статьи не только в том, чтобы рассмотреть теорию прогресса Кондорсе, в основание которой была положена идея бесконечного совершенствования человека и человеческого общества (perfectibilité), но чтобы исследовать понятия «общество улучшения (амелиорации)» и «общество трансгуманизма», которые эта идея фундирует. Трансгуманизм есть философское, общественное и культурное движение, пропагандирующее радикальное улучшение людей при помощи биомедицины, достижений науки и технологий. Оно в течение многих лет занимает умы ученых, врачей, философов и общественных деятелей во всем мире. Базирующийся на концепте постоянного улучшения индивидом своих физических, интеллектуальных и психологических качеств, трансгуманизм апеллирует к идее perfectibilité в том значении, которое придавал ему французский философ. Руководствуясь желанием обосновать с исторической и фило- софской точек зрения данную идеологию, апологеты трансгуманизма стремятся объявить себя наследниками гуманизма эпохи Просвещения, а Кондорсе — «духовным наставником» этого движения. Автор статьи задается вопросами: что представляет собой идея perfectibilité, почему она не теряет актуальности спустя более двух веков после смерти французского философа, действительно ли можно считать Кондорсе идеологом трансгуманизма?

This article focuses on the alleged direct acquaintanceship between Condorcet and Adam Smith. Mistaken infor-mation about this issue was repeated many times in the literature of the late 1800s and 1900s. It is presumed that they met in France, during Smith’s journey there, chez Sophie de Grouchy. I will attempt to show that the meeting be-tween the two authors was not in fact arranged by Sophie de Grouchy, Condorcet’s wife, even though she was very interested in Smithian theories, especially about the category of “sympathy”, as confirmed by her French translation of the Theory of Moral Sentiments. My purpose is to demonstrate that Madame de Condorcet did never meet Smith and, as a result, she could not have introduced Condorcet to Smith. A greater degree of probability can be attributed to the version that indicates Turgot as the intermediary between Condorcet and Smith. In my opinion, not even this hypothesis is totally convincing, because neither Smith nor Condorcet ever talk about their meeting. Moreover, there is no evidence of correspondence between them.

This paper makes a claim about Constant's intellectual sources in order to throw additional light on the nature of his liberalism. It assesses Constant's views against the background of a tradition of political rationalism. Constant both criticized and inherited that tradition. This paper shows how this process of critical re-appropriation occurred principally with two figures that had a particular significance for Constant: the very Francophile William Godwin and Nicolas de Condorcet. Constant resisted these authors' desire to replace a consent-based decision-making model by a truth-based decision-making model, and condemned their tendency to enrol individual judgment at the service of a politics of truth. At the same time, Constant did not renounce completely to their dream of bringing certainty into politics. As this double-move shows, it is not clear to what extent Constant succeeded in distancing himself from this tradition of political rationalism in order to establish what I call a rationalist liberalism. This problematic intellectual lineage not only challenges received interpretations of Constant's liberalism either in terms of 'scepticism' or 'pluralism.' It should also invite us to reconsider the widespread idea according to which the French liberal tradition had a common and exclusive source in Montesquieu.

Springer Handbook of the Historiography of Science - Call for Contributions.
A new book in the Springer Series on the Historiographies of Science seeks proposals for chapters.
Title: Handbook of the Historiography of Science
Guest Editors: Mauro L. Condé (Federal University of Minas Gerais), Marlon Salomon (Federal University of Goiás)
Springer Book Series: https://www.springer.com/series/15837

Key Enlightenment minds are often juxtaposed with their iconic foes, religious conservatives. When discussing the subject of women's rights, however, this comparison creates a false impression that Enlightenment male thinkers held ideas very much opposed to a dogmatic institution such as the Catholic Church. Ironically, and damaging to their legacy of prejudice-free rationalism, nearly all of the philosophes, many of whom were "freethinking" atheists, viewed woman's intellectual nature and societal purpose through a prejudice-tainted glass, not unlike the most conservative establishments of their time. Indeed, when it came to the perception of women, the philosophes had less in common with a virulently secular feminist such as Nicholas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, than they did with modern conservative Christians who believe women should be treated more fairly, but still cling to gender stereotypes.

This work addresses bell hooks’s call for the development of an alternative to patriarchal masculinity which she calls feminist masculinity. Patriarchal masculinity has convinced most men and women that the development of different forms of masculinity goes against our biological nature. Yet there exists a history of men’s experiences that contradicts this perspective and amounts to, I argue, men’s feminist history.
In particular I argue that the life and work of French philosophe Condorcet constitutes a historical cornerstone for feminist masculinity. An important implication of this work
is the understanding that gender dissolution is not the only strategy capable of rectifying gender inequality. Siding with a range of feminist perspectives, from ecofeminism and Black feminism, I contend that we can accomplish much through a critical reconstruction of men and masculinity, including the reevaluation of historic figures such as Condorcet.

Constitutional democracies have allowed for patterns of accumulation of wealth at the top, leading to acute inequality and dangerous oligarchization of power. Moreover, the theoretical tools that liberal constitutionalism offers are inadequate to recognize systemic corruption and structural forms of domination that are enabled by law or its absence. As an alternative, the article proposes a material methodological approach to the study of constitutions. In the first section, it offers a critical analysis of the intellectual foundations of liberal constitutionalism, engaging with the right to property, political representation, and separation of powers. In the second section, it presents the intellectual foundations of plebeian constitutionalism in the works of Machiavelli, Condorcet, and Marx. Finally, it proposes a material approach to assessing constitutions, identifying the shortcomings of contemporary legal frameworks to materialize social rights, as well as new avenues for institutional anti-oligarchic innovation.

Notre intérêt pour une  l'amitié intellectuelle entre Condorcet et Sieyès repose sur le souci de mesurer l'ampleur de leur débat philosophique investi dans la politique, et des divergences qui s'y expriment, sans a priori sur leurs qualités intellectuelles respectives  Plus largement,  il a pour origine notre  publication  des principaux manuscrits philosophiques de Sieyès au sein d’une édition de ses manuscrits en deux volumes sous la responsabilité de Christine Fauré chez Champion.

Este texto es la segunda publicación sobre la teoría weberiana de la racionalización, que ya precede a la introducción de este autor.
    En este capítulo abordamos el concepto de racionalización: cómo se estructura y se desarrolla este concepto. Del mismo modo, revisamos un poco cuáles son los antecedentes históricos del concepto y qué esferas del mundo de la vida toca el proceso de racionalización.

Democracy was in the margins both as an idea and as a political force in the eighteenth century. Even in the 1790s, ‘democracy’ was hardly the defining notion of the revolutionaries’ political visions. The small states as much as the large states perceived democracy as an outmoded legacy of antiquity leading to anarchy and despotism, inapplicable not least because it was undesirable in the modern world in which commerce was a rising force. This article tells the story of how this changed, how the understanding of ‘democracy’ was transformed during the French Revolution to represent a viable transition mechanism to a state of widespread and durable liberty. To avoid a teleological approach in the process of this analysis, this article examines the works of Condorcet on modern democracy in the context of the predicaments of the eighteenth century and the French revolutionary decade: how to avert at the same time despotism, military government and popular anarchy; and how to establish a free and stable state on the basis of modern commercial society? The history of the French Revolution is hereby placed in dialogue with that of eighteenth-century political and intellectual history. The effect is that a fresh picture of the entirety of Condorcet’s political vision emerges as his idea of democracy is studied from the viewpoint of his historical sensitivity, political economy, constitutional theory and international thoughts. In the end, Condorcet was the thinker who most significantly and prominently contributed to the post-1789 emergence of the concept of ‘democracy’ – which had thitherto been considered as the political form inevitably leading to destructive anarchy and despotic Caesarism – as a viable pathway to stability and prosperity.

Der Wohlstand Frankreichs im 18. Jahrhundert verdankte sich zu einem Großteil dem Kolonialhandel und der Plantagenwirtschaft, die auf Sklavenarbeit beruhte, die in flagrantem Widerspruch zu elementaren Menschenrechten stand. Um Sklavenarbeit zu rechtfertigen, entwickelte man eine Reihe von ‚Legitimationen‘ juristischer, theologischer und zunehmend rassistischer Art. Es gab seit dem ersten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts aber auch eine Gruppe von Intellektuellen, die die Sklaverei massiv in Frage stellten. Ihre Ideen wurden auch ausgelöst durch die realen Sklavenaufstände in der Karibik. Beeinflusst ferner von der rationalistischen und der sensualistischen Tradition versuchten die Schriftsteller in ihren Interventionen sowohl die diskursive Vernunft als auch die Emotion und die ästhetische Sensibilität anzusprechen. Ihre Reaktionen manifestierten sich in unterschiedlichen literarischen Formen in spezifischen Medien des Aufklärungsjahrhunderts. Abbé Prévost veröffentlichte 1735 in seiner Zeitschrift Pour et contre „Le Discours de Moses Bom-Saam, chef des nègres révoltés“. Es handelt sich hier um eine imaginierte Rede eines Anführers einer Sklavenrevolte. Der Autor glaubt, dass mit einer Rede, die dem Prinzip der Wahrscheinlichkeit gehorcht, das Bewusstsein der Leser am besten angesprochen werden kann. Prévost vertritt im Text eine radikale Position gegen die Sklaverei und schlägt gleichzeitig ein gemässigtes Vorgehen der Selbstbefreiung vor. Die Figur des providentiellen Anführers eines Sklavenaufstandes findet sich 30 Jahre später wieder in Saint-Lamberts Erzählung „Ziméo, le chef des nègres marrons“ (1769). Der Autor plädiert für eine humane Haltung gegenüber den Schwarzen, um so Aufstände zu vermeiden und den Bestand der Kolonien zu gewährleisten, eine Haltung, die die Physiokraten teilten, die den Text in einer ihrer Zeitschriften abdruckten. Der Figur des aufständischen Sklaven begegnet man dann in einer ganz anderen literarischen Gattung wieder, in der Utopie L’an 2440 (1771) von Mercier. Der Autor imaginiert eine Zukunft, in der die Sklavenbefreiung schon vollzogen ist, nicht aufgrund eines königlichen Erlasses, sondern wegen der Revolte, die durch einen neuen Spartakus ausgelöst wurde. Die Kritik des Sklavenhandels geht bei Mercier einher mit einer Verurteilung des Kolonialsystems. Nach 1780 nahm der Kampf gegen die Sklaverei immer bedeutendere Dimensionen an. In diesem Zusammenhang kann man die Intervention von Condorcet sehen, der sich nicht im Medium einer Abhandlung äußerte, sondern in einem semi-fiktionalen Text, den er unter einem Pseudonym („Dr Schwartz, pasteur à Bienne“) veröffentlichte: Réfléxions sur l’esclavage des Nègres (1781). Der Autor unterstreicht zuerst die Einheit der menschlichen Natur, um sich dann mit der juristischen und ökonomischen ‚Rechtfertigung’ des Sklavensystems auseinanderzusetzen. Wenn Condorcet hinsichtlich des Prinzips unbeugsam ist, so zeigt er sich in Bezug auf die Modalitäten relativ vorsichtig. Condorcet und Saint-Lambert zählen 1788 zu den bedeutenden Mitgliedern der Société des Amis des Noirs, die einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die öffentliche Meinung ausübte und so das Dekret des Konventes vom 4. Februar 1794 vorbereitete, das die Abschaffung der Sklaverei in allen französischen Kolonien verkündete.Sklavenaufstände in der Literatur. Les Révoltes d'esclaves dans la littérature

Modern democracy is an inclusive, egalitarian and universalistic manner of doing many things, such as governing, thinking or living together. Ancient demokratia is rather the executive power (kratos) of the people (demos). This power was born gendered and sexist. In ancient Greece, the demos is made up of citizens who must be able to debate fiercely and to rule authoritatively. They must be endowed with an active, combative and commanding energy, called thumos, spiritedness. Such a quality is masculine. It contributes to the virtue of "courage", andreia, which literally means “manliness”. Two consequences: women are excluded from the political arena; men's gender expression and sexual activities must conform to an ideal of virility. Only males can hold office. Only males can deliberate properly about the public good. These males must function, morally and sexually, as males. No feminization allowed.
Why is masculinity so relevant to the power of the people? Because the rule of the many is intrinsically belligerent. Moreover, the people are an army. The political culture of ancient democracy connects systematically politics and war, warriors and citizens, public deliberation and defense of the homeland. Same requirements, same meritocracy.
In such a normatively masculine world, what are women permitted to do? What are they supposed to be able to do? These two questions go together. And the answer is: nothing. Of course, women take care of procreation, family responsibilities and religious tasks, which are indispensable contributions to the common good of a society, and the Greeks think that women are good at that. But women are deemed unfit to fight and to govern – which are the essence of ancient demokratia.
From this historical moment, we can reconstruct a cultural history of gender. The Christian turn is crucially important. Far from being stupid or too passionate, a Greek woman lacks a bodily and emotional equipment (thumos), a character without which neither war nor politics is possible. The Ancients do not doubt women’s intellectual abilities. On the contrary, as we can see in the works of Albert the Great or Thomas Aquinas, the identification of the superiority of men (and the justification of their power) with a stable and methodical rationality is a Christian idea. A cold and fluid complexion determines the flux of a woman’s ideas. The passions disrupt reason. La donna è mobile…
Modern philosophy and science endorse and spread these beliefs. There are, indeed, dissonant voices that  made themselves heard over the centuries, from Plato already in classical Athens, to Christine de Pizan in fifteenth century France to François Poulain de la Barre, a Cartesian thinker who converted to Calvinism and moved to Geneva. But the turning point in the cultural history of gender is the Enlightenment. It was the attribution to all human beings of a truly “common sense”, susceptible of flourishing through education, that created the conditions of possibility for a paradigm shift. In the words of the mathematician and philosopher who wrote Sur l’admission des femmes au droit de cité (1790), Nicolas de Condorcet, "the rights of human beings result solely from the fact that they are sentient beings, susceptible of acquiring moral ideas, and of reasoning on these ideas. Thus, women having these same qualities, have necessarily equal rights."
Today, we are still at work on this interminable project.

The article presents a plebeian strand of republican constitutional thought that recognises the influence of inequality on political power, embraces conflict as the effective cause of free government, and channels its anti-oligarchic energy through the constitutional structure. First it engages with two modern plebeian thinkers-Niccolò Machiavelli and Nicolas de Condorcet-focusing on the institutional role of the common people to resist oppression through ordinary and extraordinary political action. Then it discusses the work of two contemporary republican thinkers-Philip Pettit and John McCormick-and contrasts their models of 'contestatory' and 'tribunician' democracy. Finally, I incorporate a political economy lens and propose as part of republican constitutionalism not only contestatory and tribunician institutions but also anti-oligarchic basic rules to keep inequality and corruption under control.

Resumen: La filósofa Sophie de Grouchy realiza una teoría del conocimiento empirista basada en la importancia del placer y el dolor físico. Además, rechaza la ética de Adam Smith y defiende que el dolor físico y moral crea vínculos entre personas a través de la simpatía.
Abstract: Sophie de Grouchy makes a knowledge theory based on empirism and on the importance of physical pain and pleasure. Moreover, she is against Adam Smith´s moral theory, and shows the idea that physical pain and pleasure creates human links through " Sympathy " .

Sadece çifte devrimler çağı olarak adlandırılacak dönem itibari ile değil kadının rolü dünya siyaset tarihinde itici bir güç olarak yer tutmaktadır. Çifte Devrimlerin bir yüzü olan Fransız Devrimi ile birlikte kadın ve modernizm ilişkisi gündeme gelecektir. Ne var ki Fransız Devrimi'nin genel izahı için erkekler daha kapsayıcı bir güç olarak oynasa da, XIV. Louis döneminden beri gözlemlenen kadın hareketleri Devrim'in hem öncesi hem sonrasında büyük önem taşımaktadır.

本稿では「人間科学および社会科学への確率論の応用可能性」という問題を中心に、G.-L. L.ビュフォン (Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, 1707-1788)と J. ダランベール(Jean le Rond d’Alembert, 1717-1783)、そして後続の世代である M. J. A. N.コンドルセ(Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, 1743-1794)らの科学観を分析し、啓蒙期の科学思想における多様性と後続の世代との連続性、差異について検討する（2010年出版の論考ドラフト）

Artículo para la publicación extremeña Paradoxa sobre la propuesta educativa de Sophie de Grouchy y Nicolás de Condorcet, de inspiración republicana y con una evidente vocación igualitaria en lo que respecta a la situación de las mujeres y su acceso a la escuela.

The aim of the research is to give a contribution and an insight on the complex field of stakeholder involvement in transport planning, by analysing the role of decision-support methods and agent-based modelling in guiding a participation process.
The approach is twofold: from one side it is about to deeply understand the process of making a collective decision, by studying how the interaction among different actors can lead to a convergence of opinions towards a shared collective decision. From the other side, it is based on finding appropriate decision-support methods to help the group decision-making process.
Agent-based modelling and simulations have been used, in order to guide real participation processes and predict the results of an interaction process, and group multi criteria decision-making methods, to help taking consistent decisions based on several judgment criteria. The results of the research should help decision-makers and practitioners in dealing with multiple stakeholders and complex decisions and guiding the participation process.

The term 'mixed mathematics' originally derived from the Aristotelian framework of sciences in which mathematics treated abstract entities and could be 'mixed' with sensible properties in varying proportions. Its history is deeply concerned with major events in history of science: the mathematicians' manifesto on mathesis universalis at the end of the sixteenth century, the impact of Newtonian sciences at the end of the seventeenth century and the development of algebraic analysis in continental Europe in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The first two contributed to extending the scope of mathematics to the cognitive territory of the natural philosophers, and the third encouraged the further enlargement of its scope to the fields of engineering and even those of social human activities such as economics and demographics. It was at the beginning of the nineteenth century that the notion of 'mixed mathematics' gradually disappeared and was replaced by a set of modern terminologies.

Depuis les Lumières, la capacité de l'Homme à s’améliorer ou la reconnaissance de sa perfectibilité est la caractéristique fondamentale de l'individu. Le terme de « perfectibilité », apparu pour la première fois dans le dictionnaire philosophique de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a progressivement acquis une signification supplémentaire grâce aux travaux d'un autre penseur français, Nicolas de Condorcet. Ainsi, une personne se caractérisant par sa perfectibilité n'est pas seulement capable de travailler sur elle-même, mais en améliorant ses capacités, elle modifie aussi son environnement, à la fois social et naturel, crée des conditions plus favorables à son existence. C’est précisément pour cela, que la perfectibilité est devenue une catégorie essentielle de la théorie du progrès social des penseurs français.
Dans le cadre de notre recherche, nous avons constaté que le concept de perfectibilité, qui est intrinsèquement l’une des caractéristiques clés de l’individu, de la société humaine et de l’idée de progrès, n’a aucun équivalent dans la langue russe pas plus qu’il n’est étudié dans la tradition philosophique russe.

Artículo propedéutico centrado en la definición, alcance y contenidos de lo que Jonathan Israel denomina Ilustración radical. Se desglosan sus antecedentes, rasgos paradigmáticos e ideas principales de algunos de sus máximos exponentes: Helvétius, Denis Diderot, Holbach, Nicolás de Condorcet, Madame Helvétius, Mary Wollstonecraft y Sophie de Grouchy. El texto, además, presta especial atención a las ideas feministas presentes en dichos autores y autoras.

Starting from the Age of Enlightenment, a person’s ability of self-improvement, or perfectibility, is usually seen as a fundamental human feature. However, this term, introduced into the philosophical vocabulary by J.-J. Rousseau, gradually acquired additional meaning – largely due to the works of N. de Condorcet, T. Malthus and C. Darwin. Owing to perfectibility, human beings are not only able to work on themselves: by improving their abilities, they are also able to change their environment (both social and natural) and create favorable conditions for their existence. It is no coincidence that perfectibility became the key concept of the idea of social progress proposed by French thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment, despite the fact that later it was criticized, above all, by English authors, who justified its organic and biological nature and gave a different evolutionary interpretation to this concept, without excluding perfectibility from the philosophical vocabulary. In this ...

This paper considers the contribution positive political theory has made to the resolution of “Hobbes’ Problem”—the problem of describing the nature of artificial persons, such as states. This problem plays a central role in both empirical and normative work in political science. Several areas of positive political theory, most notably social choice theory, have shed light on Hobbes’ Problem, and the results have been generally negative. That is to say, they have suggested that the conditions necessary to generate an artificial collective agent out of the individual agents comprising it may be impossible to satisfy,
at least if this is done in a nontrivial way. While efforts to establish the possibility of a collective agent continue—notably in recent work by Christian List and Philip Pettit—the primary accomplishment of positive political theory has been to raise the question of whether Hobbes’ Problem can be solved at all.

The paper presents a synthetic survey of the most relevant Enlightment contributions on the topic of freedom of expression. I focus on the main arguments elaborated by a selection of authors -Condorcet, Filangieri, Fichte -in some of their works, where freedom of expression is presented as a natural right which, as such, ought to be recognized and legally protected by political authorities: a right that, as it is known, has two dimensions, being a negative liberty, from preventions and restrictions, and, at the same time, a faculty potentially threatening another's rights and interests. Its primary form of protection is the abolition of State censorship of the press and the jurisdictional organization of a repressive control over its abuses.

Les primaires socialistes viennent de s'achever avec la victoire de Ségolène Royal qui devient la candidate officielle des socialistes pour les élections présidentielles de 2007. Lors des débats internes, une divergence s'est accentuée autour de la notion de démocratie participative, qui ne sonnait pas de la même manière chez les trois candidats. Au-delà de la stratégie de Ségolène Royal qui en a fait sa propre méthode, il importe d'effectuer une brève généalogie de ce cette notion pour voir en quoi elle est un héritage incomplet de l'autogestion, thème qui fut cher à la gauche dans les années 1970 et comment elle permet de poser en filigrane la question de rénovation des institutions de la 5 e République et de la pratique politique.

Panel 1-Théorie du droit : les philosophes anarchistes Présentation journée d'étude & Restitution groupe de lecture Salle Jeannie de Clarens, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume PROGRAMME Panel 4-Droit constitutionnel : les publicistes anarchistes Panel 3-Règlement des différends : les juges anarchistes Modératrice : Catherine Malabou Vincent Forray-Anarchisme et droit naturel Jean-Baptiste Scherrer {Zoom}-L'apport de la pensée de Reiner Schürmann aux juristes anarchistes Modératrice : Séverine Dusollier Edouard Jourdain-Les communs saisis par l'anarchisme : penser le droit d'une utopie concrète à partir de leur apport mutuel Claire Annereau-La technique du droit au service des communs : propriété d'usage et pratiques autogestionnaires instituées Jean-Jacques Gandini-Le match droit au logement contre droit de propriété Modératrice : Horatia Muir-Watt Amina Hassani-Arbitrage : de l'utopie (anarchiste) à la pratique Pierre Delalande-Norme et règlement anarchiste des conflits Modérateur : Guillaume Tusseau Pierre Bance-La construction de la démocratie directe à travers l'expérience du Chiapas et du Rojava Jérémy Kermovant-La pensée de Murray Bookchin au prisme du droit français Erwan Sommerer-Anarchisme et constitutionnalisme : les enseignements du débat sur la réitération des actes constituants sous la Révolution française Pause déjeuner & **Changement de salle** Reprise à 13h15 en Salle A. Percheron-98 rue de l'Université Pause café Remarques conclusives Cocktail au Bistrot des artistes

This paper presents the relation of Kenneth Arrow's 1950 'Impossibility Theorem' to the idea of the 'Condorcet's Paradox'. It shows that Arrow's theorem indeed theoretically proves that democracy is either arbitrary or impossible, and creates a typology of four exhaustive cases to show that this conclusion holds. Nevertheless, this is no cause for despair: seeing Arrow's theorem as representing a trade-off between stability, universal admissibility or non-dictatorship, it renders important insights for constitution-designers that are currently under-utilised.

This essay, accompanying and drawing on the publication of seven original sketches made by Albert Robida for Pierre Giffard’s feuilleton La guerre infernale (1908), locates Robida’s work within a broader history of imagined future wars between the late modern and the early contemporary age.

To foster a better understanding of Robida’s case and of the future-war sub-genre in coeval times, attention is devoted to the birth and establishment of a malleable future as a fictional setting for reflections on technology, warfare, and society. Furthermore, a close reading of Robida’s work helps to shed new light on the ideological strategies and representation practices shared by great international exhibitions and fiction narratives in the building of a hierarchized historical time, and the role of future-war narratives in shaping a globalized mind-set near the end of the nineteenth century.

La guerre infernale case study is thus located against the backdrop of coeval representations of war and violence in European mass media, and as part of the long history of wars to come.

L’historiographie récente montre que l’idée d’utilité des sciences est devenue un topos des discours scientifiques depuis la Renaissance, tant lors d’interventions orales que dans les publications . La notion de l’utilité, utilitas, était associée à l’idée de l’intérêt public, très éloignée d’un simple besoin matériel ou d’une pure recherche de l’intérêt individuel . Tout en héritant de cette tradition, le XVIIIe siècle voit cependant apparaître des discours nouveaux dans les publications de l’Académie royale des sciences de Paris, fondée en 1666 et réorganisée en 1699. Sa publication produit une forme nouvelle de discours s’adressant au public avec tout le poids de la légitimité scientifique. L’idée d’« utilité » tient une grande place dans les discussions académiques comme justification des activités savantes.
La présente contribution se penche sur l’étude de deux cas, Fontenelle et Condorcet, tous deux secrétaires perpétuels, l’un au début, l’autre à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. De l’un à l’autre, on peut suivre un certain déplacement de l’idéal des travaux savants et de la forme d’organisation qu’ils souhaitaient pour l’activité scientifique, depuis l’image d’un cercle sous la protection du monarque, qui est consacrée aux sciences expérimentales chez Fontenelle, vers un centre de theories, de calcul, et de renseignements qui a pour objectif de rationaliser l’action gouvernementale chez Condorcet.

This chapter explores the place of remorse in Sophie de Grouchy’s moral theory, as presented in her 1798 work, Letters on Sympathy, which was originally published with her translation of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. I argue that, for Grouchy, a cultivated sense of remorse weakens our self-conceit by drawing our attention to the ways in which we harm others, even for seemingly justifiable reasons. In so doing, we are led to recognize the equal standing of others, which gives rise to the “sentiment of natural equality.” This “sentiment of natural equality” places a check on our norms and institutions and allows for the potential of moral progress. While Grouchy frames the Letters as a commentary on Smith’s writings, her discussion of remorse, equality, and moral progress shows her to be a bold and original thinker, and one worth taking seriously.

Starting from the Age of Enlightenment, a person's ability of self-improvement , or perfectibility, is usually seen as a fundamental human feature. However, this term, introduced into the philosophical vocabulary by J.-J. Rousseau, gradually acquired additional meaning-largely due to the works of N. de Condorcet, T. Malthus and C. Darwin. Owing to perfectibility, human beings are not only able to work on themselves: by improving their abilities, they are also able to change their environment (both social and natural) and create favorable conditions for their existence. It is no coincidence that perfectibility became the key concept of the idea of social progress proposed by French thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment, despite the fact that later it was criticized, above all, by English authors, who justified its organic and biological nature and gave a different evolutionary interpretation to this concept, without excluding perfectibility from the philosophical vocabulary. In this article, we address the opposition and mutual counterarguments of these two positions. Beyond that, we draw a parallel with some of the ideas of S. Kapitsa, who proved to be not only a critic of Malthusianism but also a direct disciple of Condorcet. In the modern age, the ideas of human self-improvement caused the development of transhumanist movement.