photographist

“We should not be afraid of philosophy! In France, we see the work of thought as a solitary exercise and the ability to argue is sorely lacking in French people. In philosophy, one should not want to understand everything immediately, but rather accept not to understand something for a while before understanding it. Sixth-form teachers are extraordinarily important for understanding philosophy, which we could start doing much earlier. It is also important to give solid philosophical training to scientists. Personally, from very early on I wanted to go into philosophy and research. My taste for political issues led me to write a thesis on the emergence of economic thought in 18th century France, which was published by the PUF (French University Press). I became a specialist in philosophy and taught in universities. I worked on Montesquieu and the history of political and economic philosophy.

The year of the Rio Earth Summit, I had the opportunity to go to Porto Alegre, to an environmental ethics symposium attended by the foremost American representatives of the philosophy of nature. The matter of nature is not self-evident in Europe. It is about time that we realise that the world was not made just for us and that it is not just us who matter. From the 19th century, the development of industrial society progressively spread the idea that man would dominate everything. It might be a good idea to get out of that mindset. I am on the scientific council for France's national parks; moreover I was elected President of the new Fondation de l'Ecologie Politique (Political Ecology Foundation). There, intellectuals are tasked with enriching the public debate on political ecology. I think that there is a demand for ecology to develop in Europe, where its cultural dimension is particularly significant.”

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