The NIB

I Think Therefore We Are

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-21T09:45:49Z

A review of
Recommencer en Phénoménologie
("Starting over in Phenomenology")
by Matthieu Villemot; Parole et Silence, 2007

A version in French of this review:
Parutions.com.

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From the beginning of the 20th century European humanism took the form of phenomenology, which can be seen as idealism's modern way of resisting analytical philosophy and the accompanying tendency to lower a positive, determined, naturalistic, ceiling over the world, with technological society — according to this view — being one of the results. Among phenomenology's accomplishments, as it struggles against what some of its proponents call the "thingification" of the world, can be counted a strong comeback staged by the Subject while avoiding the pitfall of relativism, as well as some open and useful philosophical debates between religious believers and non-believers, and, last but not least, the development of a critical and ethical outlook on the social sciences and their big questions.

Matthieu Villemot is a young and skilled phenomenologist who manages to write both clearly and deeply on difficult subjects. His aim in this book is to develop the notion of empathy and "inter-subjectivity" as an important form of solidarity and answer to the question: how should we act in the world? Suspecting that the beginning of the answer lies in the beginning-again which is the heart of the phenomenological method, Villemot chooses to accompany two philosophers as they go back to Descartes and start over: Husserl, considered the founder of phenomenology, and Michel Henry, probably the most outwardly confessional (Christian) of phenomenologists. Husserl first made the pilgrimage back to Descartes' famous cogito starting point in an attempt to re-found philosophy and by extension science on irrefutably solid ground. In his keenly-felt mission to link the conscious subject to the objective fact in some satisfactory way, he discovered to his dismay that retracing cartesian doubt back to that luminous point of consciousness was in fact an act to be repeated continually, each time achieving results a bit more precise. If not, the philosopher is condemned to repeat the cartesian fix-it solution: separating mind and body and making the cogito into a kind of mathematics-like first axiom. Amidst the ruins of his dream of once-for-all re-foundation of scientific knowing, Husserl comes to see the beginning point as the way itself, as the only way to avoid the naturalistic error.

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The Roots of European Subjectivity

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-21T09:42:40Z

A review of
Geneologies of the Subject: From Saint Anselm to Malebranche
("Généalogies du sujet - De saint Anselme à Malebranche")
by Olivier Boulnois et al.; Vrin, 2007

This review in French at Parutions.com

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How did the "I" of common discourse, as it flourished on European soil, come to think of itself as a "subject", complete with an autonomous sphere, and even more as the substance par excellence, more knowable than any other and without which the existence of the world would not itself be knowable?

"It's Descartes' fault" would say Kant and Hegel. But the question is more complex than that; even Descartes himself did not talk about a "subject". To trace this obscure family tree, the researchers brought together by Olivier Boulnois in this book take up the story at the beginning, with Saint-Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century and the philosophical world he inhabited composed of Greek concepts (essence, substance, accidens) reworked in Latin by the likes of Boetius and Saint Augustine.

The first surprise encountered by a reader of Saint Anselm (father of the so-called ontological proof of the existence of God) is that the subject does not exist. The I is clearly a substance (as are all individuals and not simply God) but conceptually resembles an essence rather than being simply a substrate on which are grafted accidents (Aristotle's non-essential properties). In this way the subject as a set of properties is meaningless, explains Kristell Trego, in the face of the primacy of word and of action in determining what is this entity that is acting and thinking. The I is an intellectual construct which brings qualities or properties together rather than a framework to which they are attached. Will and thought are therefore as external to us as are our actions, and the "subject" that unites all of this is for the most part indeterminate. Even in the ethical realm this subject does not gain any consistence (as opposed to what Kant tried to establish); since it has no direct relation to the will it has no more control over it than it does over external acts. This conception can be can be traced back to the ancient Greek predilection for a fundamentally passive notion of the I.

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1. Archives

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-09T10:28:35Z

- Ours

Behind the Glitz and the Gaffes

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-09T05:48:02Z

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Hungry for a story, the media have had a lot of fun and sold a lot of copy chronicling the miscues, the (largely calculated) outrageousness, and headline grabbing antics of French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, while watching his slide toward a Fifth-Republic record (since 1958) for executive unpopularity. And on rare dull days, more than likely one of Sarkozy's ministers will utter something contentious/inept/inflammatory to keep the show well-paced. More recently a few voices have warned against being lulled by all the hilarity into thinking that it's just another neo-Gaullist buffoon at the helm while the storm-tossed left rights itself. The popularity numbers are improving, the new Madame Sarkozy is proving an effective ambassador and foil and, importantly, the rightward reforms pushed by Sarkozy proceed apace, measure-by-measure, directive-by-directive, piling up in the fine print of the Official Journal at a steady rate of accretion.

In his column in the daily newspaper Libération, pundit Alain Duhamel recently makes the point clear that Nicolas Sarkozy is anything but a conservative. It was Carla Bruni-Sarkozy who said it, as a guest editor-for-a-day at Libération earlier in the week, and Duhamel jumped on her statement ("My husband is not at all conservative.") to point out that this was neither eyewash nor disinformation, but simply the unvarnished truth camouflaged as a Sarko-style brash statement. According to Duhamel, France has affair with something new to its political scene, a right-wing reformer. First of all, the right-wing part. France has had no president in the Fifth Republic as unabashedly and clearly to the right as Nicolas Sarkozy, unstoppable on his basic message of law and order, merit, work, competition, wealth is fun, and people who have it shouldn't have to give it back to the State.

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Feminism, Humanism and Surrogate Motherhood

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-09T05:46:33Z

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The French debatosphere has heated up recently not only over how could the national soccer team play so terribly or what is the President thinking of when he proposes that the new public TV czar be appointed by...the President (see "Behind the Glitz and the Gaffes" in this section), but also over a bill being debated in the Senate to legalize certain instances of surrogate motherhood. Hearings included expert testimony by two philosophers, Elizabeth Badinter and Sylviane Agacinski, both of whom have written extensively on feminism and gender. All forms of what is called "gestation for another" (GPA) are currently banned in France, and any children born by this means in other countries have no civil status in France. (In rapt attendance at the recent hearings were parents of such children, from whom legalization would remove a sizable burden.)

The proposed text, which is still a long way from law, includes a number of limits: GPA would only be a legal recourse for women who have no uterus or suffer from other severe forms of infertility; there must be a married or legally identified, heterosexual couple behind the request; a minimum of one of the parents must be implicated biologically in the foetus; and the couple must have primary residence in France (to avoid "procreational tourism"). As for the gestatrice, she must already have given birth and would be limited to two surrogacies, and she may be the beneficiary's sister but not her mother. Of particular importance in the eyes of many are the stipulations designed to keep the activity completely out of the marketplace: no remuneration except a State-regulated indemnity of a fixed amount, and no intermediaries. A certificate issued by a State biomedical commission would be required. Finally the surrogate mother would have three days after birth to retract and keep the child. Negative examples during the debate came largely from US experience, positive ones from Canadian or British policy results.

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6. Subscribe

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-08T13:52:09Z

The NIB is a free monthly Web-based journal of ideas and comments.

SUBSCRIBE: Readers may subscribe to a quarterly email notification of the latest issue of the NIB by sending a message to subscribe@thenib.eu

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5. Links

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-08T13:51:54Z

- Ours

4. Contact

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-08T13:51:29Z

The NIB: A journal of ideas in Europe

Timothy Carlson, editor

10 rue Lacharriere

75011 Paris France

info@thenib.eu

Subscribe to quarterly notification email: subscribe@thenib.eu

POSTAL ADDRESS
THE NIB
10 rue Lacharrière
75011 Paris, FRANCE

3. Comment

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-08T13:50:33Z

COMMENTS: Readers are invited to react to texts published in The NIB, to comment on ideas and events covered, or to suggest topics to be covered, by sending their comments to info@thenib.eu.

CONTRIBUTORS: The NIB seeks well-written texts from informed contributors who understand the purpose of this journal. Articles are unpaid, and authors retain copyrights for any contribution. Texts should be submitted in either English or French (to be translated) and should correspond to the format of the texts found in the section "Observations" or "Reviews". The NIB emphasizes good writing which appeals to the pleasure of reading. Queries may be sent to info@thenib.eu.

2. About The NIB

Timothy Carlson — 2008-07-08T13:50:07Z

Launched in 2008 from Paris, France, the journal No Innocent Bystanders (NIB) is a quarterly on-line review of ideas, debates, writing, policy trends, and other traces of "applied philosophy" in contemporary France and Europe. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, but it does aspire to be informative and stimulating.

MISSION STATEMENT: The notion of the moral responsibility of individuals is one of the pillars of European humanism and a useful perspective for understanding what is going on in Europe today (often by its absence). In Europe this notion cuts completely across east/west, prewall/postwall, socialist/capitalist, economics/all-the-rest, and other even less useful cleavages. Europe — the continent of the examined life according to Jan Patocka — was once and may be the future home of some creative ways of thinking about life on the planet, ways that prove to be less destructive of human beings than the recent Occident has manufactured for shipment around the globe.

The NIB is interested in the implications of European action and the applications of European thought. Why? Not because of any continental pretensions to global leadership but simply because 400 million highly-educated individuals crowded into one of the densest corners of the globe, maintaining a striking variety of lifestyles, a commitment to living together, and a lively interest in culture have consistently come up with some intriguing ideas — particularly to the extent that they are willing to own both the best and the worst of their long, long past. Something similar can be said about other global regions and civilizations. NoInnocentBystanders will be looking for the links.

CONTRIBUTORS: The NIB seeks well-written texts from informed contributors who understand the purpose of this journal. Articles are unpaid, and authors retain copyrights for any contribution. Texts should be submitted in either English or French (to be translated) and should correspond to the format of the texts found in the section "Observations" or "Reviews". The NIB emphasizes good writing which appeals to the pleasure of reading. Queries may be sent to info@thenib.eu.