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[Deranged passions and scientific illusions in Charles Darwin’s “The Expression of the Emotions”]. Charles Darwin used, in his “science” of the expression of the emotions, various means and sources, chasing above all, in the research on the human expressions, spontaneity and lack of conditioning. Therefore, he opted for publishing photographs of the human expressions instead of drawings: in them the emotional conditioning of observer could more probably be transferred. Among the means which could help in seizing the spontaneity of expression, Darwin indicated the observation of the insane, because they have strongest passions and no control over them. But in the very rich route of Darwin’s research, photography seldom gives genuine fruits. The observation of insane reveals in the end unforeseen faces, and even photography’s limited ability to seize emotions and insanity.

This paper, by way of the destiny of Diderot’s Paradox of the Actor, aims to describe the framework of the question of affective dimension in the late 19th Century, investigated in its scientific, physiological, clinical and philosophical implications. A sort of hyperbole where the excessive sensibilities of hysterics, maybe simulated in dramatizing acting, were obliged to fall asleep, to be removed in order of being replaced by a different sensibility “performed” in virtuoso sounds.

[An “orchestrated” democracy? Interview with Timoti Fregni, President of Spira Mirabilis]. Spira mirabilis is an orchestra without conductor holding concerts since 2007. This interview with its president, the violinist Timoti Fregni, aims to understand the decision and choice processes taking place when there is no conductor, namely the person who usually decides and chooses. This interview aims also to understand whether and why it is legitimate to liken – as it is frequently done – this kind of collective choice processes to the processes put in place in a democracy.

[The hidden routes of mesmerism].The recent book Mesmer et mesmerismes. Le magnétisme animal en contexte (edited byB. Belhoste and N. Edelman, Montreuil, Omniscience, 2015) offers a new view on the history of animal magnetism. This article develops in particular its indications concerning mesmerism as a very psychological knowledge.

The article presents an essay concerning the use of the term "the multitude" in political philosophy by the Italian political philosopher Giambattista Vico. This is examined particularly through the use of the term in Vico's book "Scienza nuova." The term multitude is compared to the terms "people" and "plebs" and the relationship between democracy and "the people" is explored.