Cosmopolis

Revue de cosmopolitique

 

2018/3-4

 

Presentation

 

Gerardo Ceballos discusses the now well-known phenomenon of the “sixth extinction” of the living world, which is accelerating at the same time as greenhouse gas emissions on the planet continue to increase. He gives a direct account of this, reported from some regions where animal life is concentrated.

Gary McLelland analyses the decisions taken by the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving legislation against blasphemy, between an attitude favourable to “religious freedom” and principles relating to freedom of thought, expression and criticism of religious orthodoxy.

Nicole Morgan anticipates a future that revolutionizes globalized powers, where financial interests, fundamentalist ideologies and market laws are intertwined, with the US presidency representing a most caricatural representation, but revealing a long-term trend.

Henry Martyn Lloyd returns to the identification of the Age of Enlightenment and reason, with the latter commonly opposed to passions both by his critics and apologists, when these would be the two sides of the same coin, far from the usual cliché.

Haider Khan assesses the explanatory nature of scientific theories in the social sciences and the relativity of truth based on comparisons between the root causes of phenomena. The particular case of political economy is examined, by contrasting the “intentional” and individualistic method of neoclassical construction with the structural approach applied to the same phenomena.

The evolution of plurilingualism is addressed by Mathilde Anquetil and Silvia Vecchi, who study pedagogical experiments integrating cultural diversity in American contexts,   to raise the question of plurilingual policies in Europe and the societal hypothesis of mandatory English/local language bilingualism in a multilingual Europe.

For his part, Christian Tremblay draws attention to the link between linguistic diversity, which is essential for sustainable development and the preservation of languages, on the one hand, and biodiversity, on the other, where it appears that the disappearance of languages presents significant risks for biodiversity conservation.

Anwar Shaikh’s book on capitalism and effective competition in a complex globalized context is analyzed by Haider Khan. In particular, the author analyses from the case of Russia the reflections of one of Marx’s interpreters on the semi-peripheral countries of the 19th century, whereas Marx had not made a systematic analysis of capitalism in the non-capitalist world, considering the former as the inevitable fate of the latter.

In addition, the “documents” and “variations” sections include various articles on the epistemologies of the economy (by Jean-Louis Le Moigne to be linked to Pierre Calame’s “oeconomy”, see book review by the same author), literature in a globalized context, sustainable development, cultural diversity in Europe and freedom of expression.  

A propos de l'auteur :

Doctor in Philosophy, professor emeritus of the Free university of Brussels, He taught language sciences and international relations in Algeria, Gabon, Mexico, Iran and Belgium. From 1985 to 2005, he edited Transnational Associations, the journal of the Union of International Associations (UIA), which also publishes the Yearbook of International Relations), and created the cosmopolitical journal Cosmopolis in 2007. He has published numerous studies at the intersection of philosophy, language science and political science. and the and now edits a terminology and conceptual database on various subfields of international relations, hosted by the European Observatory for Plurilingualism (EOP).