Dominique Janicaud claimed that every French intellectual movement—from existentialism to psychoanalysis—was influenced by Martin Heidegger. This translation of Janicaud’s landmark work, Heidegger en France, details Heidegger’s reception in philosophy and other humanistic and social science disciplines. Interviews with key French thinkers such as Françoise Dastur, Jacques Derrida, Éliane Escoubas, Jean Greisch, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Marion, and Jean-Luc Nancy are included and provide further reflection on Heidegger’s relationship to French philosophy. An intellectual undertaking of authoritative scope, this work (...) furnishes a thorough history of the French reception of Heidegger’s thought. (shrink)

Janicaud draws a firm connection between Heidegger's philosophical position and his political engagement. He thus goes beyond those writers who attempt to handle the issue of Heidegger's Nazism simply on the level of his personal political judgment, in isolation from his philosophy, by attempting to distinguish rigorously between Heidegger the thinker and Heidegger the man.

This book follows up the developments inphenomenology discussed in Phenomenology andthe “Theological Turn”: The French Debate, attempting toestablish what potentialities in the phenomenologicalmethod exist at present.

In an age of cloning, virtual reality and artificial intelligence what sort of future is in store for human beings? If it is a "posthuman" future as some predict, will it also be inhuman? On the Human Condition is a thought-provoking and profound reflection on where the idea of the human stands today. Dominique Janicaud argues that while we need to avoid apocalyptic talk of a posthuman condition, as embodied in technology such as cloning, we should neither fall (...) back on a conservative humanism nor become technophobic. Drawing on topical examples such as genetic engineering, the mythology around the Frankenstein myth and the ideas of Pascal and Primo Levi, Dominique Janicaud urges us to acknowledge the fragile and provisional nature of being human. Above all, he argues that even if we do live in a world that is already posthuman, it is not a predicament we can confront alone and heroically, but must share with others. (shrink)

Janicaud clarifies the project of “overcoming” metaphysics, a project that Heidegger himself recognized as open to innumerable misunderstandings, and Mattei inquires into the major Heideggerian texts produced between 1935 and 1969 to detect the cosmic figure of the Geviert, the initial Fourfold where “earth and sky, the divine ones and the mortals” gather.

Before introducing the subject matter of this paper, I have to make it clear that I shall simply say “Reiner” when quoting the works of the thinker to whom this Memorial Issue is dedicated. This will be a way of expressing how close he remains to our affectionate remembrance. I think he would have approved of Heidegger’s opinion that “the greater a thinker is, the more purely his person disappears behind his work.” As Reiner was a genuine philosopher and a (...) great thinker, we must therefore accept, even if reluctantly, not to speak of the man, but only of his work. In the present case, silence and speech are intimately bound together. (shrink)

Before introducing the subject matter of this paper, I have to make it clear that I shall simply say “Reiner” when quoting the works of the thinker to whom this Memorial Issue is dedicated. This will be a way of expressing how close he remains to our affectionate remembrance. I think he would have approved of Heidegger’s opinion that “the greater a thinker is, the more purely his person disappears behind his work.” As Reiner was a genuine philosopher and a (...) great thinker, we must therefore accept, even if reluctantly, not to speak of the man, but only of his work. In the present case, silence and speech are intimately bound together. (shrink)

Pour déterminer quelle éthique il convient d’adopter à l’ère de la technique, il faut se concentrer sur les problèmes terminologiques que doit résoudre la réflexion contemporaine sur la technique. La distinction entre « les techniques » et « la technique » permet d’opérer une distinction nette entre une histoire des techniques et une réflexion spécifiquement philosophique sur le phénomène technique comme tel. Toutefois, cette réflexion proprement philosophique doit se dédoubler à son tour, suivant qu’elle envisage la technique phénoménalement ou essentiellement. (...) Dans le premier cas, elle étudiera les traits constitutifs et les phases de développement des objets techniques. Dans le second cas, elle tentera de dégager un enjeu ou une « essence destinale » de la technique comme telle, à l’ère contemporaine. On examinera alors la pertinence relative du concept de techno-science et l’on se demandera s’il permet de comprendre l’extraordinaire essor planétaire de la communication. Cet effort de clarification devrait permettre de de préciser les niveaux d’intervention de la méditation philosophique, afin de lui garantir le maximum de pertinence dans la préparation des décisions éthiques. (shrink)

Hegel n'a de cesse de souligner l'enracinement de la modernite dans la culture hellenique: la Grece apparait en effet comme premiere patrie de l'Esprit, c'est la que l'homme a commence a etre chez soi. Que ce soit dans le domaine esthetique (invention d'une religion de l'art) ou ethique (invention de la Cite comme ideal republicain), la Grece est pensee par Hegel comme une etape majeure de l'histoire entendue comme developpement d'une rationalite immanente. Pour autant, Hegel n'a rien d'un idolatre. L'hellenisme (...) des debuts, de rigueur a l'epoque, cede rapidement le pas a une integration au sein d'une philosophie de l'absolu comme processus, comme realisation de soi-meme: la figure grecque est alors pensee dans ses limites et dans son necessaire depassement. Mais doit-on s'en tenir la, a la necessite de ce depassement? Si la Grece fait office d'ideal esthetique et, dans une moindre mesure, ethique, elle est aussi a l'origine meme de la philosophie, elle est le foyer de procedures de pensee dont la philosophie semble etre, a jamais, tributaire. Des lors, le privilege grec semble en mesure de deborder la portee que le systeme avait su lui menager. Le destin de la Grece, c'est alors non seulement d'etre transcendee par le flux historique, mais aussi de representer ce principe dont le destin est accomplissement, et ceci a travers la philosophie hegelienne elle-meme. En croisant demarche genetique et approche systematique, cette etude nous propose plus qu'une mise en ordre interne au systeme, la mise en lumiere d'un veritable impense de la pensee hegelienne. (shrink)

En s’appuyant de manière critique sur une citation d’Alain Badiou, ce texte vise à amorcer une réflexion sur les limites de la technique qui ne mythifie la technique ni positivement ni négativement, en évitant à la fois le ton prétentieux d’une philosophie prétendument souveraine et le mimétisme techniciste d’un discours scientiste.

In the biblical Transfiguration, nothing changes, and yet nothing remains as it was before. From this major reference, this paper articulates some reflections and questions, where esthetics, literature and philosophy combine, intersect and confront.

Par-delà les illusions d’une «philosophie éternelle» et les présuppositions des formes variées de l’historicisme, il est possible de reformuler les questions centrales de la « métaphysique spéciale» (le monde, le sujet, Dieu) selon les termes de la finitude des événements. Au lieu de restaurer des principes absolus, on a besoin d’une approche qui tiendrait compte des enseignements des efforts critiques de Kant, afin d’atteindre des nouveaux points de jonction entre les ressources de la rationalité et les aspects énigmatiques du temps.

La phénoménologie éclatée introduit une réorientation de la méthode phénoménologique dans un sens « minimaliste », c’est-à-dire selon une démarche qui à la fois est plus modeste et se veut plus clairement et rigoureusement délimitée au plus proche de l’émergence même des phénomènes. Mais une méthode sans application resterait vide et purement formelle. C’est pourquoi on applique ici cette méthode à l’analyse des modes de manifestation des temporalisations.

Most American scholars know and admire the works of Jean Hyppolite, Jean Wahl and Alexandre Kojève. The French Hegel revival, thirty or forty years ago, resulted from a rereading and reevaluation of the Phenomenology and of the early writings published by Nohl as well as of some of the Jena manuscripts. Especially in the case of Hyppolite’s and Kojève’s interpretations, one could find in them clever insights which nevertheless involved Existentialist or Marxist presuppositions. Though very stimulating, these interpretations were not (...) entirely faithful to Hegel’s thought. More and more French Hegel scholars progressively made this point clear and understood that a new approach was needed. In this paper, I will try to assess the current state of French Hegel scholarship, pointing out the most recent outstanding contributions and discussing them. (shrink)

On se propose de préciser la signification de l’expression « la fin du politique » afin de soutenir la thèse même qu’elle recouvre. La clarification de quelques mots clés nous permettra de saisir la cohérence de cette thèse philosophique, qui est principalement celle de Heidegger. La discussion de cette thèse nous reconduira, en termes beaucoup plus concrets, à la question du pouvoir politique et à l’étude de l’influence des changements technologiques sur le fonctionnement de l’État et sur la place des (...) idéologies politiques. L’une d’elles mérite d’être examinée plus avant : l’approche originale du libéralisme par Michel Foucault fournira enfin une esquisse qui sera présentée pour essayer d’affronter un défi politique qui se révèlera peut-être sans fin. (shrink)

Trata-se de delimitar uma abordagem não-metafísica de uma fenomenologia minimalista do tempo, através de um reexame da concepção de temporalidade, pela desmistificação do tempo linear e pelo exercicio do que seria uma discordância dos tempos.

Every well-informed American philosopher is aware that the Archives de Philosophie is the best French journal of philosophy, and perhaps even the foremost philosophical journal of Continental Europe. When one considers this special, four hundred page issue devoted entirely to Hegel on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth, the superiority of this journal is quite evident and can be easily appreciated. The very length of this special issue and the richness of the various articles make it impossible (...) to give a detailed account of each contribution. This being the case, we should like to give the reader an idea of the entire work and submit to his judgment some appreciations. (shrink)

The aim of this book is to show that law should be grounded on a metaphysical conception of human personality. Without this foundation, the whole field of law would regress to naturalistic limitations or to neo-positivist determinations. One of the main chapters is intended to show that "naturalistic fallacy" does not lead to the understanding of the concept of person. Even Rawls and Habermas limit their field to an ethics of mutual agreement which falls back into utilitarianism, because of its (...) lack of an absolute ground. (shrink)

“Every angel is terrifying.” Dominique Janicaud evokes this sentence of Rilke in order to illustrate the essentially contextual character of meaning. I shall begin my brief reflections on his book, Powers of the Rational: Science, Technology and the Future of Thought, by situating Janicaud’s thought within the space between two angels, each in its own way terrifying. The first angel is that of angelic rationalism. Angelic rationalism is a strategy for the defense of classical rationalism which vacillates (...) between reason as an actual operation and the essence of reason as an idealization. Reason defends itself, and rightfully so, against the onslaught of the irrational; it evokes the success of the sciences, the accomplishment of modern technology, the fact of modern enlightened politics. When confronted with what one might call the “downside of rational modernity”—the ecological crisis; the possibility of nuclear annihilation; the “iron cage” of modern bureaucracy; the “deficit of meaning” in modern life, and so forth—it switches its focus from reason as an effective force realized in history and intertwined with power, to reason as an ideal, an idealization functioning as an infinite telos of humanity. And for the problems engendered by modern rationality, it prescribes more rationality. (shrink)