Surrationalism after Bachelard: Michel Serres and le nouveau nouvel esprit scientifique
Parrhesia 31:60-84 (2019)
Abstract
The work of Michel Serres is often presented as a radical break with the work of Gaston Bachelard. The aim of this paper is to partly correct this image, by focusing on Serres’s early Hermes series (1969-1980). In these books Serres portrays himself as a follower of Bachelard, exemplarily shown in his neologism of the ‘new new scientific spirit’ (le nouveau nouvel esprit scientifique), updating Bachelard in the light of more recent scientific developments. This allows a reinterpretation of the relation between both authors, one where there is room to acknowledge how the roots of Serres’s philosophy lie not in a radical break with Bachelard, but can be partly understood as a Bachelardian criticism of Bachelard himself. This Bachelardian criticism consists in what could be called his ‘surrationalism’: the sciences do not follow the categories imposed by philosophers, but are always more flexible and open than these categories allow. Specific critiques of Serres, such as those concerning the novelty of Bachelard’s thought, the role of epistemology and finally the political dimension of science will be evaluated through a reappraisal of this Bachelardian move that underlies Serres’s criticism.Author's Profile
My notes
Similar books and articles
Michel Serres, passe-partout.Michael Shortland - 1998 - British Journal for the History of Science 31 (3):335-353.
Ruyer, la pensée de l’espace et la métaphore fondatrice de la connaissance.Philippe Gagnon - 2016 - Laval Théologique et Philosophique 72 (3):465-490.
The Parliament of Things and the Anthropocene: How to Listen to ‘Quasi-Objects’.Massimiliano Simons - 2017 - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (2/3):1-25.
The Janus head of Bachelard’s phenomenotechnique: from purification to proliferation and back.Massimiliano Simons - 2017 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (3):689-707.
Gaston Bachelard and the notion of "phenomenotechnique".Hans-Jörg Rheinberger - 2005 - Perspectives on Science 13 (3):313-328.
The Terrifying Concupiscence of Belonging: Noise and Evil in the Work of Michel Serres.Bryan Lueck - 2015 - Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale 19 (1):249-267.
L'ancrage symbolique des œurvres épistémologiques de Gaston Bachelard, Michel Serres et Edgar Morin.Brice Favier-Ambrosini & Matthieu Quidu - 2015 - Revue Philosophique De Louvain 113 (4):645-677.
The Relationship between History and Epistemology in Georges Canguilhem and Gaston Bachelard.Enrico Castelli Gattinara - 2018 - Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 4:14.
Actualité et postérités de Gaston Bachelard.Pascal Nouvel - 1997 - Presses Universitaires de France - PUF.
Analytics
Added to PP
2019-02-20
Downloads
460 (#23,366)
6 months
112 (#6,893)
2019-02-20
Downloads
460 (#23,366)
6 months
112 (#6,893)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Iconoclasm and Imagination: Gaston Bachelard’s Philosophy of Technoscience.Hub Zwart - 2020 - Human Studies 43 (1):61-87.
Obligation to Judge or Judging Obligations: The Integration of Philosophy and Science in Francophone Philosophy of Science.Massimiliano Simons - 2019 - In Emily Herring, Kevin Matthew Jones, Konstantin S. Kiprijanov & Laura M. Sellers (eds.), The Past, Present, and Future of Integrated History and Philosophy of Science. Londen, Verenigd Koninkrijk: pp. 139-160.
History as engagement: The historical epistemology of Raymond Aron.Massimiliano Simons - forthcoming - Perspectives in Science.
“Critique” emerging from marshes and mushrooms parasitism and desterilization in Serres and Tsing.Lilian Kroth - 2020 - Kaiak. A Philosophical Journey 7.
References found in this work
Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society.Bruno Latour - 1987 - Harvard University Press.