Enlightenment to Enlightenment

Henri Atlan is Professor of Biophysics at the University of Paris and Ishaiah Horowitz Hadassah Scholar in Residence for studies in Philosophy and Ethics of Biology at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. He is a member of the French National Presidential Committee for Ethics of Life and Health Sciences.

• Introduction. Right or Wrong? 1. (Experimental) Proceedings A Radio Encounter between Assiduous Listeners of "Cultural" Broadcasts, a Biologist, and a PhilosopherNovember 1978: The President and the BiologistsVersailles, 1974California, 1967-1968Cordoba, 1979—Science and Consciousness: Two Views of the UniverseInitial QuestionsCosmic Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave FunctionConfusions of Levels and Disciplines 2. Scientific Knowledge and Levels of Organization Biological OrganizationFrom the Experience of Separation to the Joy of the EncounterThe Temptations of ReductionismThe Mind-Body ProblemReductionism, Self-Organization, and Levels of ObservationLanguage as the Locus of the Articulation between the Physiological and the PsychologicalCreation of Meaning and Neoconnectionist ModelsSelf-Reference in Language and White Space on the PagePsychosomatic Organization and Unconsciousness of SelfWeak ReductionismThe Role of MathematicsBiological Functions and Intentionality: The Outflanking of the Scientific by the Quotidian and the Ethical 3. Mysticism and Rationality The Rights of Irrationalism: Unreason and AntireasonOrder and Chaos in Symbolic RationalityReason as Complement of IlluminationScholastic Theology and Kabbalistic RationalityMaimonides and NachmanidesKabbala and Alchemy as the Midwives of Modern ScienceA Word about Gnosis: Rationality, Strangeness, and Cunning 4. Intermezzi Unicorns, Electrogenic Demons, and ParapsychologyThe Undecidability of NoncontradictionAbout "Possibles" 5. Interpretation, Delirium, Black Mud The Interests of Reason and the Interpretive ImpulseInterpretandsAn Attempt at ClassificationOn the Relativism of Knolwedge and the Reality of InterpretandsThe Reality of the Real, According to KripkePhysical Science as InterpretationCausality as ProximityExplanation is a Bonus in the SciencesOn the Reality of NumbersThe Dualism of Access PathsAnimism as the Explanatory Absolute; Ethics and MonotheismThe Sciences Humaines and the "Rational Myth of the West"Disinterest: The Price of Entry into ScientificityFrued versus Jung and the Scientificity of PsychoanalysisThe Scientific Wager in Modern Psychoanalysis 6. Ultimate Reality Physical Reality and Quantum RepresentationsThe Reality of Meanings in InterpretationScience and Mysticism: Games of Speech and SilenceNatural Science and the Wisdom of Israel in the Talmudic TraditionMoral Law and Natural LawThe Normative as a Dialectic of OpennessEthics Comes from Somewhere Else"Wisdom Is Superior to Folly" 7. Man-as-Game (Winnicott, Fink, Wittgenstein) "Is That Supposed to Be Serious?"Playing and GamesPlaying as the Symbol of the WorldReality as a Reduction of "Possibles"The Opportunities Provided by Modern AtheismLanguage Games: An Alternative to the Disclosure of Ultimate RealityReal and Unreal in LanguageA Review of the Possible and the LogicalGames of Knowledge and Language; Domains of LegitimacyThe Need for a True Ethics versus the Jokes of Theory 8. An Ethics That Falls from Heaven; or, A Plea for Wishful Thinking The Impulse to Knowledge and the Question of EthicsThe Ethics of Life Dissociated from Objective KnowledgeA Genealogy of EthicsThe Voices of the Right BrainModified States of Consciousness as Sources of RitualTranscendentalities of Ethics and LogicSymbols and RitualsThe Rationalities of Magic and of ScienceModern Unifying Temptations: Jung and ComplementarityThe New Myths of Science FictionSevering Science from Its OriginsScientific TemptationsScience Fiction and Prestidigitation: Effective NonbeliefsFrom Relativism to Social Theories of Knowledge: The Last Temptation?Taking One's Desires for Reality: The Scope and Limits of Wishful ThinkingKnowledge Games about KnowledgeCunning Reason: "Two-Tier Thinking"Norm and ExperienceThe Barrier of Responsibility"Otherwise that Knowing, Otherwise than Being"?A Game of Games 9. Naked Truth The Garments of ModestyThe Great Temptation of the DogmaticThe Games of Scientific LegitimacySpeaking to Say Nothing Index