In the Meno we have a chance, rare in Greek philosophy, to compare a philosophical theory with the data which make up its ostensible evidence. Meno asks if there is any way Socrates can show him that “learning” is recollecting. Socrates offers to produce the proof on the spot. Meno will see the slave-boy learning, and this will show that he was recollecting. I wish to make the most of this opportunity to examine the presented data before considering the theory. To this I will devote the first and somewhat longer part of the paper, where I will seek by controversial argument to establish the right interpretation of the text. While doing this, it will be convenient to use “recollection” in quotes, suspending judgment upon its philosophical implications and even withholding attention from its dictionary meaning. Plato says the boy is “recollecting” and so shall I of this and all other situations which are equivalent to it in a sense which I shall make clear. When a decision has been reached on what exactly is taking place when people are “recollecting” in this purely nominative sense, it will be time to examine Plato's thesis that this “recollecting” is recollecting.

Je crois qu'il est utile, avant de passer à une étude historique des théories de l'évolution, de préciser quelques notions de sémantique. Aujourd'hui, on extend par « théorie scientifique » dans le domaine des sciences naturelles une explication soit d'une structure, soit d'un mécanisme, d'un lien causal, présentant un caractère plus ou moins hypothétique mais de toute façon basée sur les faits et vérifiée par eux. Or, la première grande théorie de l'évolution biologique, celle de Lamarck, se veut expérimentale mais est en réalité beaucoup plus spéculative qu'expérimentée. Et pourtant cette explication lamarckienne est une des pièces les plus importantes de l'histoire de la théorie de l'évolution et ne saurait être négligée dans notre étude. Je n'ai pas l'intention de faire ici le procès de la valeur d'une théorie scientifique biologique mais je peux simplement souligner qu'il m'apparaît nécessaire d'élargir pour les besoins de la présente analyse la signification actuelle du terme « théorie », de restreindre les exigences de rigueur interne d'une démonstration et de savoir accepter à l'occasion ce qui—en regard de l'usage actuel du terme—ne peut être considéré que comme une intuition ou même une idée assez vague et imprécise.

Cette étude a un double objectif: 10 dégager les grandes lignes de l'ouvrage de Georges de Lagarde, La Naissance de l'Esprit laïque au Moyen Age, tout spécialement du volume V, Guillaume d'Ockham, Critique des structures ecclésiales; 20 retracer les origines de la doctrine actuelle de la laïcité de l'État et ses incidences dans la Constitution dogmatique de l'Église. En un temps où l'Église catholique prend pleinement conscience d'elle-même et approfondit le message qu'elle doit transmettre au monde, l'histoire des manifestations de l'esprit laïque, à une époque qui passe pour avoir réalisé mieux qu'aucune autre l'idéal de la chrétienté, mérite de retenir l'attention. Car cette histoire se prolonge jusqu'à nous.

Most philosophers, I think, would hold that there is a great deal more to be noticed about moral judgments than any special connections which they may be supposed to have with displays of emotion. I strongly hold this myself. Many philosophers, however—and I am one of them—are inclined to believe that special connections of this kind do exist. Agitation counts in ethics. But just what does it count for? What is to be made of the central fact that the same forms of words to which both ethical and “emotive” meaning is ascribed may sometimes be used when emotions are being manifested and sometimes when they are not? Stevenson acknowledges, “There are emotively active and emotively inactive uses of literally all the ethical terms”. But how, in view of this fact, can it be illuminating to say that some forms of words—taken to be the characteristic forms of words for expressing moral judgments—have anything like a distinctive function of expressing (or “venting”) emotions?

If someone reports that he had been thinking that he would very much like to seduce his sister, an appropriate comment might be: “Shame on you for having such a nasty idea.” But if one reports that he dreamt he seduced his sister the situation appears quite different, for while we might be repulsed by the dream shaming seems, to say the least, far less appropriate.

We do not ordinarily, if ever, say things like, “It was bad (naughty, immoral, etc.) of you to dream that.” A child may be sent to bed without supper for saying that he hates his father, but not for reporting a dream which clearly expresses hate for his father.

On pourrait multiplier indéfiniment les points communs et les possibilités de rapprochment entre philosophie et littérature. Tant qu'on s'en tient au plan théorique, la situation demeure è peu près inchangée. Le philosophe peut bien à l'occasion se distraire à quelque roman, le romancier ou le critique peuvent s'essayer à déchiffrer un ouvrage de métaphysique; les rapports n'entreront dans la phase d'efficacité réelle que lorsqu'une méthode adéquate permettra d'établir entre les deux modes d'activité un échange ordonné. C'est d'une telle méthode philosophique en littérature que je voudrais tenter d'établir une définition.

It is no easy matter for a teacher of aesthetics to make a choice among the many textbooks now available in that subject. I have been looking at fourteen books of “readings” in aesthetics, all of them in English, and all but one of them published during the past twenty years. Three were published within the past six months: how many more will arrive before we have to settle down to work on another choice?

There are two main reasons for this proliferation of anthologies or books of “readings”. One reason is that it is almost fatally easy for a busy academic to prepare an anthology rather than to write a book. Deans and presidents are as much impressed by the book a man edits as they are by the book he writes, although they are achievements of two very different levels. The other is that aesthetics is currently big in the booming textbook industry, and every commercial publisher wants a title on the subject in his catalogue.