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.
Sandra Ristovska examines how images shape judicial reasoning and the new uncertainties introduced by AI and deepfakes. These technologies amplify longstanding problems of evidence, interpretation, and inequality before the law.
Jeanne Tsai and Batja Mesquita show how emotions are shaped by cultural logics that orient our relationships and judgments. Their conversation raises a broader question: what does it mean to understand others in culturally plural societies?
By tracing the history of the French word pute (whore), since the twelfth century, Dominique Lagorgette reveals the mechanisms of linguistic oppression at work in our societies.
A longstanding local historiographical tradition maintains that during the French Revolution, the politics of the city of Orléans were notable for their moderation. Yet this view ignores the presence of highly politicized factions, extending well beyond the revolutionary period.
About: David Copello, Les droits humains armés. Guérillas, dictatures et démocratie en Argentine, Presses universitaires de Rennes
About: Lan Jiang Fu, Confucius revisité. Du marchand confucéen à l’entrepreneur du XXIe siècle, Hémisphères
About : Nadège Vezinat, Le service public empêché, Presses universitaires de France
The female silhouette – understood as the body’s visible form and socially perceived appearance – has long been shaped by social norms. In the age of social media, these norms are intensifying, prompting, in response, the rise of so-called “body-positive” movements.
A rumour is circulating in some African countries: the French state is organising penis thefts to offset declining fertility. The rumour, spread by Russian propaganda, has become fake news.
The American sociologist Harrison White made a vital contribution to the development of social network analysis. Besides his work in this field, his theoretical synthesis and his understanding of social formations have influenced a variety of fields such as the sociology of art and economic sociology.
How to combat growing inequalities and injustice in a given country? Recent research suggests that solutions lie in better understanding and controlling access to education and working conditions but also in regulating tax havens and the salaries of executives.
Over the past few months, Books and Ideas has been running a series of interviews with leading contemporary scholars, who took the time to discuss their particular topics of research with us. For the Christmas season, we have put together a selection of seven discussions with intellectuals across the humanities and sciences: sociology, history, comparative literature, neuro-biology, anthropology and political science.
How do images shape our worldview ? What do their study bring to our understanding of society ? Through interviews, essays and reviews this dossier shows how the close study of still or moving images has become central to the social sciences. From anthropology to history or literature, taking into account the overwhelming presence of visual representation yields unexpected and original information about human, social and political relationships.
Jane Mansbridge has made a major contribution to political theory. She has spent her life combining empirical research with a theoretical approach, and has played a vital role in developing the critique of rational choice and the study of democracy as a permanent process continually in flux.
Rorty made conversation a philosophical genre in its own right, which led him to reject any distinctions he considered futile: between analytic and continental philosophy, between the Enlightenment and postmodernity, between philosophy and literature.
Rediscovering an activist thinker who was at the origins of eco-feminism, but remains unknown. Her work inspired an extremely heterogeneous movement, but has her ambition to concretely transform the social, economic and political organisation of society been pursued?
Sandra Ristovska analyse la manière dont les images façonnent le raisonnement judiciaire et les nouvelles incertitudes introduites par l’IA et les deepfakes. Ces technologies amplifient des problèmes anciens de preuve, d’interprétation et d’inégalités devant la justice.
Pourquoi l’Europe peine-t-elle à faire de sa puissance militaire un projet commun ? Derrière les débats institutionnels, depuis les années 1950, la construction européenne se heurte à une difficulté singulière : partager la souveraineté sans pouvoir pleinement partager les moyens de la défendre.
Toute sa vie, Albert Memmi n’a cessé de scruter les tensions qui le traversaient pour penser la judéité et le judaïsme, la colonisation et la décolonisation, les situations minoritaire et majoritaire, ou encore un sionisme propalestinien.
À propos de : Charlène Dihut et Mathieu Potte-Bonneville (dir.), Planétarium. Un atlas pour le monde à venir, Éditions du Centre Pompidou
À propos de : François Godicheau, Pierre Salmon, Mercedes Yusta, La guerre d’Espagne. 1936-1939. La démocratie assassinée, Tallandier
À propos de : Chantal Jaquet, Révolutions transclasses. Une nouvelle théorie de l’émancipation, Puf
