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The study of the early manuscripts of the great authors most often becomes a process of monumentalising or (re)legitimising their work. The recent publication of two of Sartre's early manuscripts--first Empedocle (Empedocles) in 2016 and second, in 2018, his dissertation for his graduate diploma (diplome d'etudes superieures or DES), L'Image dans la vie psychologique (The Image in Psychological Life), both texts written in 1926-1927--encourages us to propose another type of genetic reading that insists on the collective conditions of the production of knowledge, including philosophical knowledge. Such a collective genetics, applied to Sartre's intellectual formation during the interwar years, allows us to highlight some of the little-known forms of Parisian intellectual societies (the activities of the International Information Group of the Ecole Normale Superieure, the critical logic of the psychology journals, the regular meetings of the cenacles, and the literary and philosophical research groups). It also reveals, at the same time, the original relationship between Sartre's thought and the German literature and philosophy mediated to him by Bernard Groethuysen, Stefan Zweig and Alexandre Koyre. Keywords: Alexandre Koyre, Bernard Groethuysen, collective genetics, Empedocles, The Image in Psychological Life, Jean-Paul Sartre, Stefan Zweig, In recent years, Sartre studies have concentrated their attention on Sartre's years of intellectual formation at the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS). (1) Under the aegis of the Sartre team of [...]

Alfred Betschart, Andreas Urs Sommer and Paul Stephan, Nietzsche und der Franzosische Existenzialismus (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022), 300pp., ISBN: 9783110760101. $126.99 (hardback); ISBN: 9783110760163. $126.99 (e-book). This excellent volume is [...]

This article considers the current position of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research by producing an integrative synthetic overview of all the articles published in three leading international CALL journals: "ReCALL" (in its 31st year of publication), the "CALICO Journal" (its 36th) and "Computer Assisted Language Learning" journal (its 32nd) over a sustained recent period: 2006-2016. They are judged sufficiently representative to enable broad trends to be detected and the sector's strengths and weaknesses to be identified. The focus is on CALL research's international reach, the range of topics researched and the nature of the studies themselves. The findings suggest that CALL research is growing internationally in the number of countries and researchers involved. A wide range of topics is researched, but there is a concentration of papers published on a cluster of popular areas. Consequently, fewer articles are published on a large number of CALL topics or, in some cases, rarely studied. The research methods employed are rigorous: in writing, structure, theory, literature awareness, and discussion and presentation of results, yet there are still weaknesses. Most empirical studies are small scale: based on one institution, a small cohort of students, over a short period of time and seldom followed up. Based on these findings, suggestions are made with a view to broadening and strengthening CALL research through targeting neglected strategic areas with special journal issues and conferences, and improving the quality of research projects. Key areas for future research are proposed.

Francis Walsh, En lisant, en s'ecrivant. La drole de guerre de Jean-Paul Sartre (Paris: Gamier, 2020), 399 pp., 32[euro], ISBN 9782406099062 (paperback). This is an important study of a key [...]

How do constitutions change in response to social problems? This Article explores why constitutions in three East Asian countries, namely Japan, Indonesia, and China, changed rapidly during times of social crisis and then incrementally evolved during periods of stability. It looks for explanations in historical institutionalism, a novel theory developed to understand the factors that give rise to the creation, persistence, and change of political institutions, such as constitutions. Constitutional change in these East Asian countries is explored by examining constitutionally defined eminent domain powers that enable governments to compulsorily acquire land in the public interest. The Article aims to understand whether fundamental constitutional change only occurs through crisis or whether it can also take place gradually by layering new ideational components onto old programmatic ideas, repurposing them to new uses. Drawing on case studies about eminent domain in Japan, Indonesia and China, the Article concludes that although crisis can trigger fundamental change in any political system, incremental reforms are more likely to promote fundamental change where governments are accountable to the public through constitutional courts and/or democratic elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]