Logic and Existence The place of Necessity or contingency in Jules Vuillemin's work

Necessite ou contingence is a great book in the work of Jules Vuillemin. The text reveals that, long before the first successful demonstrations in the domain of probabilities, in the XVIIth century, a ground was ready to think of them fundamentally, nevertheless with the same divisions that we know nowadays. Vuillemin brings out problems from their historical layers and raises them up to a certain logical purity. So it is surprising that, once brought out from all situation, the probabilist themes, so settled, do not fail to make their authors think of the problems they faced in their time, but also the men who, in the years 1980, are more and more dealing with bioethics. Vuillemin remains silent about these questions. Yet, paradoxically, though he was a frightening critic of the "existentialist" positions, he seems to become, under the effect of his reflection about probabilities of which there is no the least hint in Merleau-Ponty, in line with this author on important matters.