Philosophy as Knowledge of Things: Michel Bastit and the Necessity of Realism
https://doi.org/10.30727/0235-1188-2022-4-141-159
Abstract
Excluding the media’s misuse of the word “philosopher” to describe almost any book writer, aside from novelists and historians, the prevailing perception of “French philosophy” continues to focus on Foucault, Derrida, and the “deconstruction school.” This persistent image, partly due to widespread distortion, nonetheless bears witness to the difficulty that France faces in revising its conceptions of man and human relations to the world, beyond a purely critical approach. The importance of the work of Michel Bastit, who is an active voice in contemporary philosophy, appears then to lie in this effort to restore philosophy as a branch of knowledge, which is the first condition for re-engaging with natural wisdom. In the artcile, I have only given some glimpses of his work and have not discussed the full strength of all his arguments. However, what I have exposed seems sufficient to realize that the main thing Michel Bastit teaches us is that if we want to restore wisdom and establish a respectful relation to nature as well as plainly peaceful and fruitful relations between men in society, the first condition is to turn back to things, both natural and human. The technical manipulation of nature, and even of man himself, is preceded by an intellectual manipulation that leads us to think that, after all, things are nothing. “Things are not things” – this may summarize modern thinking if we are willing to give the proposition the various senses it can endorse. On the contrary, Michel Bastit tells us that things are indispensable, and that in both a practical and a theoretical approach, we cannot do without them. This is true because, at the very root of things, there is always an act, and the act, if one may say so, is the more real part of reality, without which there simply would be no existence.
About the Author
Guilhem GolfinFrance
Guilhem Golfin – Doctor of Philosophy, co-founder of Collège Saint-Germain, member of the Montalembert Institute of Ethics and Politics, associate member of the Archives Poincaré - Philosophy and Research in Sciences and Technology (University of Lorraine).
Paris
References
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Review
For citations:
Golfin G. Philosophy as Knowledge of Things: Michel Bastit and the Necessity of Realism. Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences. 2022;65(4):141-159. https://doi.org/10.30727/0235-1188-2022-4-141-159