French philosophy in the 20th century saw the rise of many schools of thought. The
philosophy of science with
Poincaré,
Bachelard,
Cavaillès and
Vuillemin. The phenomenology, presented in a Cartesian format and influenced by German thought, particularly the
phenomenology of
Husserl and
Heidegger. Phenomenology was consistently noticeable throughout the 20th century, whereas
existentialism spread throughout the west and gained fame, only to die out somewhat with the advent of
structuralism, which came to be seen as merely a necessary means of access to
post-structuralism, while
postmodern thought came to dominate the late 20th century.
Philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of
philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, Examples of non-places would be airports, gas stations, and shopping malls.
Phenomenology Phenomenology can be defined as a way of philosophizing which involves descriptive explanations of phenomena as it is given to consciousness and how it is given to consciousness, which attempts to avoid imposed explanations. In France, phenomenology was seen as a radical Cartesianism which rejected
substance dualism to better understand transcendental consciousness. It played a major role in existentialism and many postmodern philosophers' thought, such as
Gilles Deleuze and
Jacques Derrida, who actually began his career with a deep, critical study of
Edmund Husserl. Phenomenology is still an important area of research in France today.
Emmanuel Lévinas (1906–1995) was one of the first to introduce phenomenology to France, through his translation of Edmund Husserl’s
Cartesian Meditations. Lévinas considered
ethics primary in philosophy and once proclaimed that it precedes metaphysics and should be considered the first philosophy. He developed a moral philosophy based around notions of the
other and the
face which introduced ethics into phenomenology, which had been missing since the demise of
Max Scheler.
Albert Camus (1913–1960) rejected being labelled an existentialist, preferring to be called an
absurdist. In the opening pages of
The Myth of Sisyphus, he states what he considers to be the fundamental question of philosophy: is suicide the correct response to an absurd world? Likening a Godless life to the story of
Sisyphus, where he is doomed forever to push a rock up a hill only for it to roll down again, Camus’ answer is "No. It requires revolt. [...] The struggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was an existential
feminist. Beauvoir believed that through surrounding women in a false aura of mystery, man had turned her into "the other". Furthermore, she proclaimed women were stereotyped by this aura and that it was used by man as an excuse for not understanding them and dominating them. "The other" is always the underclass. But Beauvoir maintains that Sartre’s thesis (that is, existence precedes essence) applies to women as much as it does to men and that through their choices and actions, women can transcend this aura and reject being the underclass.
Moral and political philosophy Simone Weil (1909–1943) was a French
philosopher,
mystic and
political activist who greatly influenced 20th century philosophy including influencing
Pope Paul VI. Her notable ideas include decreation (renouncing the gift of free will as a form of acceptance of everything that is independent of one's particular desires; making "something created pass into the uncreated"),
uprootedness (
déracinement), obligations as the basis of rights, attention as compassion, patriotism of compassion, abolition of political parties, the unjust character of affliction (
malheur), and that compassion must act in the area of
metaxy. Structuralism As previously mentioned, French
Structuralism is primarily concerned with the underlying structures which form, limit and affect society, language and the human mind. It finds its roots in the thought of
Ferdinand de Saussure, who was concerned with
linguistics. But soon structuralism began to be applied to
anthropology,
social sciences and
psychology. Structuralism played a major role in intellectual thought after World War Two, where it rejected existential concepts of freedom for the idea of man as determined by structures in the thought of such thinkers as
Claude Lévi-Strauss and
Jacques Lacan. However, by the end of the century it became perceived as important not for itself, but for the schools of thought it produced, such as
poststructuralism and
deconstruction.
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) applied Saussure’s structuralism to anthropology, specifically in the topic of intermarriage between tribes.
Roland Barthes (1915–1980) was a literary critic and semiologist who applied Saussure’s thought to literary theory. In
Mythologies, Barthes explored articles, advertisements, movies, etc. to demonstrate the deep-seated bourgeois propaganda found within. He described these myths as second-order signs. A certain form of green bottles signify red wine. The bourgeois then assign a second signifier to this signifier, that of relaxing, healthy, strong wine, be it to sell products or uphold the status quo.
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) was a psychoanalyst who sought to explain the mind in terms of structures both in order to correct perceived errors in
Freud’s thought as well as errors in the subsequent interpretation of Freud through the theories of Saussure, Strauss and Barthes. Lacan was also influenced by German philosophers
G. W. F. Hegel and
Martin Heidegger through
Alexandre Kojève's lectures on Hegel's
Phenomenology of Spirit.
Louis Althusser (1918–1990) and his colleagues, prominently including
Étienne Balibar, reworked Marxism using insights from structuralism, against the so-called "humanist" trend in Sartrean and
Western Marxisms. Althusser offered an influential new reading of Marx's work, describing an "epistemological break" between the young, Hegelian Marx and the late Marx of
Das Kapital. With his focus on the economic level and theory, Althusser came into conflict with social historians, such as
E. P. Thompson.
Poststructuralism and postmodernism defined postmodernism as incredulity toward
metanarratives. Photograph by
Bracha L. Ettinger, 1995. The second half of the 20th century saw the rise of so-called
postmodern thought. This rise was especially noticeable in France. However, the term is fairly hard to define. In fact, some people maintain that it is nothing but a slur applied to a group of disparate philosophers wrongly grouped together. However, it can also be seen as a critique of traditional western thought, particularly dichotomies and the belief in progress, influenced heavily by
structuralism,
phenomenology and
existentialism.
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) defined postmodernism as scepticism toward
metanarratives. A metanarrative is a kind of grand arching story that encompasses—and claims to predict—everything. An example is
Marxism, which explains the communist as the inevitable historical synthesis of the proletariat and capitalist of modern capitalist
class division. Lyotard considered the metanarrative an essential feature of modernity. Hence the postmodern condition is the replacement of metanarratives with a multiplicity of micro-narratives, or to call them the appellation Lyotard gave them,
language games. Lyotard maintained that these language games lack any all-embracing structure but were brought about by technological developments in such fields as communication and mass media making metanarratives indefensible.
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) maintained a similar scepticism about absolutes, such as right and wrong, sane and insane, and human nature. His method was not to deny such notions, but to historicize them, examining what in the supposedly necessary may be contingent, and demonstrating the relationships between knowledge and politics, power and knowledge. His main fields of investigation were psychiatry, medicine and disciplinary institutions. Foucault was anti-Hegelian and anti-teleological in his historical excavations. Through his examinations of psychiatry in
Madness and Civilization, he showed that the development of psychiatry was not an obvious improvement on previous treatments of the insane, and that furthermore, the apparent scientific neutrality of psychiatric treatments hides the fact that they are a form of controlling defiance of bourgeois society.
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) developed
deconstruction as a response to
structuralism. Deconstruction takes a text, examines binary oppositions within it from several different interpreting standpoints, and then attempts to show them to be dependent upon one another, unstable, ambiguous and historically and culturally defined. Through showing the fluidity of the dichotomies, deconstruction shows the fluidity of the text. Derrida maintained that no meaning is stable, not even the dichotomies classical philosophers took for granted. Through an internal logic, the text deconstructs itself and hence allows highly original interpretations.
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) was concerned with the concealment of the fact that there are no truths in a given field. He termed this concealment
simulacra. An example he gives is the
Borges story of an Empire that creates a map which was so accurate that it laid over and covered the entire city it mapped. The map grew when the Empire grew, and decayed when the empire decayed. When the empire was destroyed, the only object left was the map. For Baudrillard, people live in the map and hence reality crumbles because of misuse. Eventually, the difference between reality and illusion becomes indistinguishable for the consciousness. Baudrillard called this
hyperreality. An example of this is reality television, which is dependent on the watcher embracing it to create the illusion that it mirrors reality.
Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) developed a philosophy of difference which valued the simulacrum higher than the idea and its copy, which is an inversion of Plato’s method, which held the idea and its copy in high esteem and neglected the
simulacrum. He saw difference as prior to identity and reason as not all-encompassing, but a little haven built in the duration of difference-in-itself. He likened it to Christianity, where if you accept original sin and immaculate conception, then it all makes sense. Deleuze also developed a constructivist view of philosophy as the job of developing concepts, just like it is the poet’s job to produce poems and the painter’s job to paint paintings. For these reasons, Deleuze developed an idiosyncratic way of reading philosophers which he once referred to as buggery. He would use them as stepping stones for creating new concepts which appear to belong to the philosopher he’s reading, but are utterly different. An example is that of
Spinoza, whom Deleuze read as an empiricist.
Hélène Cixous (born 1937) developed a feminist interpretation of post-structuralism most influenced by Derrida. She argued that patriarchal cultures build male domination into their language and literary canon, and that a feminist revolution must account for this. She urged female writers to adopt deconstructionist methods and forward their own vision of life as a woman. == See also ==