This dissertation examines the political thought of Cicero in order to shed light on the question of the extent to which politics is or can be made rational. Much of modern political science and policy-making treats citizens as calculating pursuers of interests and preferences, if not as consistently rational. But this view has been powerfully challenged by evidence that human beings are far less adept at the determination and pursuit of our preferences than we believe ourselves to be. As a result, political scientists and policy-makers alike have begun to grapple with the question of how regimes committed to self-government ought to address the limits of our rational capacity, not only in the crafting of particular policies, but also in the rethinking of foundational and constitutional principles and institutions. By considering Cicero’s presentation of virtue and republican politics together with his analysis of the popular philosophical schools that were widely influential in his day, I show that Cicero recognizes and reflects on the pervasive irrationality in human decision-making. Like our modern critics of the irrationality of republicanism, the popular philosophical schools of Cicero’s day both deprecated politics for its inherent unreasonableness and sought to make the world as they experienced it conform to strict rules of reason. Through a reading of Cicero’s evaluation and critique of the schools in De Finibus, De Natura Deorum, and De Officiis, this dissertation aims to shed light not only on his account of the limits of reason in the political arena and the danger of attempting to overcome them, but also on his insistence that the irrational parts of human nature are the source of much that is beneficial in republican politics. Only by understanding this aspect of Cicero’s thought can we understand his reflections on the virtues of republicanism. / text

Notre thèse a comme point de départ la discussion critique d’un concept donné pour acquis par les spécialistes de la littérature et de la philosophie antiques. Il s’agit de la diatribe cynico-stoïcienne, ainsi nommée parce qu'elle ferait coexister des motifs cyniques et des thèmes stoïciens. Nous commençons par évaluer l'exactitude de la définition largement admise qui met la diatribe en relation avec toute une tradition d’argumentations relevant de la philosophie morale vulgarisatrice. Puis nous justifions notre choix d’accepter, en cherchant à les intégrer, certains acquits scientifiques récents, visant à défendre la diatribe comme un genre relevant de la méthode de direction spirituelle à l’intérieur des écoles philosophiques d’origine socratique, avec un accent particulier sur la situation d’énonciation maître-disciple. De ce genre littéraire controversé, d’origine grecque, nous analysons le passage à la latinité en examinant tout d’abord le problème terminologique, puis celui du cadrage philosophique. Parmi les procédés, définis comme diatribiques, nous nous intéressons à la seule caractéristique qui ne paraisse pas être mise en question et qui pour cette raison précisément pourrait servir de fondement à l’existence du genre même : le dialogisme et la présence d’un interlocuteur fictif. Nous concentrons ensuite notre attention sur l’œuvre de Sénèque, et notamment sur Les Lettres à Lucilius où la situation d’énonciation maître-disciple est intensément visible et dans laquelle la présence de l’interlocuteur fictif est structurellement liée au développement de cette relation. Nous passons ensuite à l’étude des formes diatribiques de la satire romaine afin d’aborder les cas de Lucilius, Horace et Perse. Un bref exposé est finalement consacré à l’analyse des relations entre la diatribe, la Seconde Sophistique et la prédication religieuse. / The starting point of our thesis is the critical discussion of a concept taken for granted by literary and ancient philosophy scholars. This is the cynic-stoic diatribe, so named because cynical themes would coexist with Stoic ones. Our first step is assessing the accuracy of the widely accepted definition, which makes the connection between the diatribe and a tradition of topics relating to moral popular philosophy. Then we explain our choice to accept and to try to integrate recent scientific acknowledgments which accept the diatribe as a literary genre relating to the spiritual guidance method of the Socratic philosophical schools, with a particularly attentive focus on the relationship between master and disciple. Starting from this controversial genre of Greek origin, we analyze the transition to the Roman period, by first examining the terminological aspect and then the philosophical framing. Among the methods, defined as diatribic, we focus on the only feature which does not appear to be challenged and that for this exact reason could be the basis of the existence of the genre itself: dialogism and the presence of a fictitious interlocutor.We then focus our attention on Seneca's work, and particularly on Letters to Lucilius, where the attempt to create a master-disciple relationship is intensely visible, and in which the presence of a fictitious interlocutor is structurally related to the development of this relationship. Then we discuss the diatribic forms of Roman satire, to reach Lucilius', Horace's and Persius' cases. A brief presentation is finally devoted to the analysis of relations between the diatribe, the Second Sophistic and the religious preaching.

Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) reste connue pour son engagement pacifiste. Son ouvrage Bas les Armes! (1889) lui a valu une grande notoriété mondiale, avant la première guerre mondiale. Son engagement dans le mouvement de la paix qu’elle a contribué à organiser lui a valu le prix Nobel de la paix en 1905. Engagée dans multiples combats, elle est encore méconnue. Où la situer ? Comment caractériser sa lutte pour la paix, l’émancipation des femmes ou la sécularisation de la société, alors qu’émerge en Europe un discours pacifiste et libérateur ? Il importait de mettre en évidence sa rupture face à la tradition et sa position spécifique politiquement non révolutionnaire. Voilà à quoi s’attache la présente thèse, qui s’appuie sur l’analyse inédite des romans et nouvelles à tonalité autobiographique, et qui s’emploie à jeter un éclairage sur l’influence persistante de la philosophie populaire des Lumières allemandes à la fin du XIXe siècle. Ainsi se trouve montrée l’actualité des positions de cette aristocrate novatrice / Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) is well known for her commitment to peace. Her book Lay down your arms! (1889) made her famous before World War First. She becam one of main advocates of the idea of universal peace through the creation of a European suprantional identity. She owes the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize to her international fame. But beyond this fight she was committed to the defence of women or against the dogmatism of society and the church. How to define the consistency of her many fights at the very time when a pacifist and emancipating discourse was emerging ? the present thesis, based on a original analysis of the author's novels and short stories with an autobiographical undertone, is driving to light her breaking away from tradition but on a politically not revolutionary way, with the persitent influence of the popular philosophy of the German Enlightenment Age at the end of the XIXth century. The thesis shows the topicality of this innovative aristocrat's positions