Marcel Gauchet

"Robespierre is arguably the most controversial and contradictory figure of the French Revolution. He still inspires more passionate debate than any other protagonist of those dramatic and violent events of the late eighteenth century, and he still retains both unconditional admirers as well as fierce critics. The fervor of those who defend the "incorruptible" is met with revulsion of by those invoke the bloodthirsty "tyrant". Robespierre, in fact, is the embodiment of the two competing memories of the Revolution, much as 1789 and 1793 still symbolize the two opposing faces of this foundational event: the glorious accession of liberty, on the one hand, and the excesses which terminated in the Terror, on the other. Only Robespierre is the link between the two. He championed the rights of the people in the Assembly and then through his Montagnard Convention provided the guillotine. In this extended essay, eminent French historian Marcel Gauchet reflects upon the insight that the contradictions of Robespierre were simply the contradictions of the French Revolution itself, in no small part because Robespierre was in his way the purest incarnation of the Revolution. He was neither the defender of the rights of man only later corrupted by power, nor the tyrant who betrayed the principles of the Revolution. He was both: the figure most associated with the founding of modern French democracy was also the first tyrant of that democracy. Gauchet argues that in Robespierre the transition from opposition to government was the embodiment of the tragedy inherent in the Revolution, as its own prophetic ideals were impossible to implement. To understand Robespierre, then, is really to understand the tragedy of modern democracy, for which the descent into tyranny is a perpetual danger"--

The Man Who Divides Us the Most

Robespierre

Mehmet Emin Özcan

laikliǧin gelişimi

Demokrasi içinde din

Gladys Swain

How the insane asylum became a laboratory of democracy is revealed in this provocative look at the treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century France. Political thinkers reasoned that if government was to rest in the hands of individuals, then measures should be taken to understand the deepest reaches of the self, including the state of madness. Marcel Gauchet and Gladys Swain maintain that the asylum originally embodied the revolutionary hope of curing all the insane by saving the glimmer of sanity left in them. Their analysis of why this utopian vision failed ultimately constitutes both a powerful argument for liberalism and a direct challenge to Michel Foucault's indictment of liberal institutions. The creation of an artificial environment was meant to encourage the mentally ill to live as social beings, in conditions that resembled as much as possible those prevailing in real life. The asylum was therefore the first instance of a modern utopian community in which a scientifically designed environment was supposed to achieve complete control over the minds of a whole category of human beings. Gauchet and Swain argue that the social domination of the inner self, far from being the hidden truth of emancipation, represented the failure of its overly optimistic beginnings. Madness and Democracy combines rich details of nineteenth-century asylum life with reflections on the crucial role of subjectivity and difference within modernism. Its final achievement is to show that the lessons learned from the failure of the asylum led to the rise of psychoanalysis, an endeavor focused on individual care and on the cooperation between psychiatrist and patient. By linking the rise of liberalism to a chapter in the history of psychiatry, Gauchet and Swain offer a fascinating reassessment of political modernity.

The Modern Psychiatric Universe

Madness and Democracy

This text reinterprets the modern West's development in terms of mankind's relationship to religion. It argues that the development of human political and psychological autonomy must be understood against the growth of the concept of divine power and its increasing distance from human activity.

A Political History of Religion

The Disenchantment of the World

D'où vient que nous sommes prêts si communément aujourd'hui à admettre l'idée qu'un inconscient préside à nos actions, lors même que nous restons dans l'incertitude sur ces contenus ? Telle est la question qui fait l'objet de ce livre. Sa réponse : ce que nous savons du fonctionnement du système nerveux, ce que nous avions appris en particulier du réflexe dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. Ce sont les immenses effets intellectuels de cette découverte et des controverses auxquelles elle a donné lieu que Marcel Gauchet s'attache à mettre en lumière. Il montre comment l'inconscient trouve l'une de ses bases principales d'accréditation dans les nouveaux modèles du mécanisme de l'esprit qui en ont résulté. Ce n'est pas seulement le Freud " neurologue " que l'on comprend mieux. Avec Nietzsche, c'est le projet d'une critique du sujet qui s'alimente à la base de la psychologie nerveuse. Chez Valéry, elle nourrit l'ambition d'une psychologie authentiquement désillusionnée. L'héritage revit aujourd'hui, grâce au modèle de l'ordinateur, dans les développements de la science cognitive. L'inconscient cérébral : un secret fil rouge de la culture contemporaine, à la racine de toute spéculation sur l'inconscient tout court.

L'inconscient cérébral

Alain Badiou

The fall of the Berlin wall was seen by many as the final triumph of liberal democracy over communism. But now, in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, things look a little different. New questions are arising about capitalism and democracy, new social movements are challenging established institutions and new political possibilities are emerging. Is democracy an inevitable hostage of capitalism, or can it reinvent itself to meet the challenge of globalization? In an exclusive, previously unpublished dialogue, Alain Badiou, a key figure of the radical left and a leading advocate of the communist idea, and Marcel Gauchet, a major exponent of anti-totalitarianism and a champion of liberal democracy, confront one another. Together, they take stock of history, interrogate one another's views and defend their respective projects: on the one side, the revival of the communist hypothesis, and on the other, the radical reform of a contested democratic model.

A Dialogue on Communism, Capitalism, and the Future of Democracy

What Is To Be Done?

Marcel Gauchet has launched one of the most ambitious and controversial works of speculative history recently to appear, based on the contention that Christianity is "the religion of the end of religion." In The Disenchantment of the World, Gauchet reinterprets the development of the modern west, with all its political and psychological complexities, in terms of mankind's changing relation to religion. He views Western history as a movement away from religious society, beginning with prophetic Judaism, gaining tremendous momentum in Christianity, and eventually leading to the rise of the political state. Gauchet's view that monotheistic religion itself was a form of social revolution is rich with implications for readers in fields across the humanities and social sciences. Life in religious society, Gauchet reminds us, involves a very different way of being than we know in our secular age: we must imagine prehistoric times where ever-present gods controlled every aspect of daily reality, and where ancestor worship grounded life's meaning in a far-off past. As prophecy-oriented religions shaped the concept of a single omnipotent God, one removed from the world and yet potentially knowable through prayer and reflection, human beings became increasingly free. Gauchet's paradoxical argument is that the development of human political and psychological autonomy must be understood against the backdrop of this double movement in religious consciousness--the growth of divine power and its increasing distance from human activity. In a fitting tribute to this passionate and brilliantly argued book, Charles Taylor offers an equally provocative foreword. Offering interpretations of key concepts proposed by Gauchet, Taylor also explores an important question: Does religion have a place in the future of Western society? The book does not close the door on religion but rather invites us to explore its socially constructive powers, which continue to shape Western politics and conceptions of the state.

l'institution asilaire et la révolution démocratique

La pratique de l'esprit humain

Houziaux

Trois penseurs s'interrogent sur le sens de la religion, pour savoir si elle incite l'être humain à fuir les préoccupations du monde ou bien si au contraire elle correspond à une éthique de justice, de liberté et d'égalité.

Marcel Gauchet

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