Of the writing of the great engineer and mathematician Simon Stevin (Bruges 1548 - The Hague? 1620), it is predominantly his scientific work, striking for its diversity and intention to serve as practical handbooks, which has survived the passage of time. His numerous works, almost all in Dutch, cover areas as diverse as arithmetic and navigation.

Freedom of speech stems from a liberating act, as the reactions of institutions and associations concerned attest. This excess, as ideological as it is verbal, should be measured against the progressive control of knowledge, moral standards and the censorial practices which defend them.

This volume traces the tortuous path and failure of human socio-biology, the pseudo-scientific theory which sparked debate between 1975 and 1985 and which established itself as a scientistic ideology amongst the body of theories on human nature.

Modernity, from its origins, has accorded a key role to passions. Whether hostile to Reason or, on the contrary, favourable towards it, passions are dangerous and fascinating and bring out the role of the body, desire, language and the imagination in human nature.