Professor of Contemporary French Philosophy at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (ISJPS/Centre de Philosophie contemporaine de la Sorbonne)
A philosophy about the present, a philosophy for the present
The wealth of contemporary Foucauldian studies has undoubtedly been enriched by “putting to work” Foucault’s thought in fields, or towards objects, to which the philosopher himself had not directly dealt. This is undoubtedly an extremely fruitful extension and actualization of his own research. But, forty years after his death, we’d like to ask a different question. What are the conditions for contemporary philosophy to make the present – our own present – an enduringly fruitful terrain of Foucault’s inquiries? Is it not by considering this terrain of history extended to our own present situation, that we measure the extreme risk taken by philosophy with regard to the truth? I will argue how the project of a critical ontology of ourselves must be epistemologically justified before it can be politically and ethically asserted.
Judith Revel is Professor of Contemporary French Philosophy at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (ISJPS/Centre de Philosophie contemporaine de la Sorbonne) and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She is also President of the Scientific Council of the IMEC. Her work focuses on representations of history in contemporary thought, and on the historicity of philosophical objects and categories.