In “Wheeler and Thompson’s Appeal: refounding utilitarianism through equality between men and women?”, Benjamin Bourcier studies this Appeal in which, in response to James Mill’s article On Government, Anna Wheeler and William Thompson offer a radical critique of utilitarian thought, but also of Mill’s political exclusion of women and legitimization of patriarchy. In contrast to Mill, they defend the political inclusion and equality of women, in order to meet the aspirations of a society of equals and the greatest happiness for (...) all. (shrink)

In “Spinoza between the clouds. Philosophy of identity in Spinoza’s Ethics”, Stéphane Ferret offers a so-called integrative interpretation of the philosopher’s thought that can be summed up in a lapidary formula: Spinoza’s philosophy is a philosophy of identity. To give substance to and articulate this assertion, three statements of identity are proposed: God = World, Thought = Extent, Spirit = Body. With the exception of the first, they are often ignored and, even when glimpsed through the clouds of contradictory interpretations, (...) remain misunderstood. Three and a half centuries after the publication of Spinoza’s Ethics, the author here attempts to uncover the logical underpinnings of the text. (shrink)

The eighth and final chapter of Aron Gurwitsch’s major book, Leibniz. Philosophy of Panlogism, a translation of which is presented here, lays the foundations for Gurwitsch’s phenomenological reading of Leibnizian thought as a whole, understood and interpreted as a transcendental philosophy : as an objective correlate of the divine thought that sustains its systematic unity and original coherence, the world is itself thoroughly understood as the realization and “incorporation” of logic, in a broader sense. Examining the ontological status of relations, (...) and Leibniz’s conception of divine understanding as the transcendental subject of “possible worlds”, this final chapter brings together the guidelines that support and sustain his entire interpretation. (shrink)

Mill’s feminism has been the object of many discussions, from the publication of The Subjection of women onward, especially among feminist theory. In this article, my aim is to join the critical assessment of Mill’s feminism by considering it in regard of Harriet Taylor’s own feminist creeds. To do so, I’ll first highlight the importance of women’s emancipation in Mill’s work, as well as the boldness of his defense of women’s equality. Then, I’ll endeavor to show that despite his genuine (...) commitment to women’s social, moral, and political emancipation, his feminism is still shaped by sexist biases, especially regarding women’s part in the family and maternity. I’ll then by able to argue that reading Mill and Taylor together allows to contend that Mill’s feminism limits cannot be ascribed to the prejudices of his era. (shrink)

The minutes of Adorno’s aesthetics seminar, held during the summer term of 1932 at the university of Frankfurt, are a rare trace of the early philosophical reception of Walter Benjamin’s opus magnum, The Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928). Showcasing his critical spirit and pedagogy, Adorno and his students attempt a clarification, as well as a problematization, of this dense and difficult text, touching on such problems as the historicity of ideas or the concept of a ‘constellation’. This document is (...) thus both a valuable aid for reading Benjamin’ Trauerspiel-Buch and an important document for understanding the sources of Adorno’s own philosophy. (shrink)

Can we trade in the truths we discover? We show that any public work of truth requires the assistance of three collaborators that we call the Inscriber, the Thinker and the Truthmaker. We then show that if the Inscriber can legitimately trade in his inscriptions, the Thinker should not be authorized to trade in those of his thoughts which are true: because he is not the author of their truth.

This article aims to reconstruct the essential lines of Kant’s theory of meaning as it appears in critical Kantian philosophy. More particularly, an originality of the Kantian theory of meaning is highlighted, namely the distinction that this theory introduces between two modalities of meaning, namely a theoretical modality and a practical, that is to say a moral modality.

This text is the transcription, by Jamila Mascat and Sabina Tortorella, of an unpublished manuscript written by Alexandre Kojève in 1965, on the occasion of a conference held as part of the Theological Seminar of the Society of Jesus in Chantilly. In it, Kojève proposes a reformulation of some of his theses from the Introduction à la lecture de Hegel, taken up again in the Essai d’une histoire raisonnée de la philosophie païenne: on the one hand, he identifies the fundamental (...) features of philosophical discourse in relation to other forms of human discourse; on the other, he elaborates a dialectical and historical schema of the evolution of philosophy from its origins. The result is an examination of the status of philosophy, its relationship to time and eternity, and its possible overcoming by wisdom. (shrink)