Andre Count-Sponville

Andre Count-Sponville , born in 1952, is a Philosophe French.

Biography

Philosopher materialist, rationalist and humanistic. Former student of the National university of the street of Ulm (where he was the pupil and the friend of Louis Althusser), André Count-Sponville was a long time university lecturer with the Sorbonne (Université Paris I), of which he resigned in 1998 to devote himself exclusively to the writing and the conferences that he gives apart from the University. Its philosophers of predilection are Epicure, the Stoïciens, Montaigne and Spinoza. Among the contemporaries, it feels near especially to Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marcel Conche and Clément Rosset, in Occident, Prajnanpad and Krishnamurti in the East. He wants to join again with the old ideal of wisdom, while assuming the challenges of modernity (such as one sees them appearing at Nietzsche, Marx and Freud).

" To philosophize, written Count-Sponville, it is to think his life and to live its pensée" (Love loneliness, Albin Michel, p. 18). He proposes a metaphysics materialist, a humanistic ethics and a spirituality without God, the whole wanting to constitute " a wisdom for our temps" (Treaty of despair and the bliss, PUF, Foreword). What wisdom? " The maximum of happiness, in the maximum of lucidité" (see " Happiness, désespérément" , ED. Full Fires or Librio, which is undoubtedly the best introduction to its work). Happiness is " on the other side of the désespoir" : where nothing any more is to be believed (since all is to be known), nor to hope (since all is to be made, for what depends on us, or to like, for what does not depend on it). It is what Count-Sponville calls " merry the désespoir" , which is not without evoking certain Eastern wisdoms, but which undoubtedly must more to the Greeks (especially Epicure and the stoical ones) and in Spinoza. Much says it near to Buddhism (see for example Luc Ferry, in the book which they wrote together, " The wisdom of Modernes"). Others see " there; a Christian athée" (like said it Michel Onfray). He is defined as " atheist fidèle" (" The spirit of the athéisme" , chap. 1). " Fidelity, explains it, it is what remains faith when one has it perdue." (ibid) At his place, there in fact remains about it a morals, which are gréco-judéo-Christian woman, and a laic spirituality, which leads to a mystic of the immanence: " We are already in the Kingdom; eternity, it is maintenant" (" The spirit of the athéisme" , Albin Michel, 2006, p. 217). It is to say that we are already saved, but also already lost: " The hell and the paradise are only one and even thing; it is what is called the world or the tragique". Neither optimism, therefore, nor pessimism: it is a question of seeing the things rather as they are, than to deceive itself on them. Faithful to the tradition materialist, he denounces the illusions or spontaneous hopes of the man, which according to him move away us from wisdom. Knowledge and the action must guide us on the way of what the old ones named Ataraxie or bliss. It is a question of knowing and of wanting, without taking note for a will nor the will for a knowledge: " to include/understand the reality of our desires, rather than to take our desires for the réalité." (Value and truth, passim}

From an epistemological point of view, Count-Sponville feels near to the critical rationalism of Karl Popper. He radically separates what he calls the practical order (values) and the theoretical order (knowledge). It is what it calls the cynicism, which must in Diogène (moral cynicism) as much as in Machiavel (political cynicism), and in Montaigne as much as in Pascal. That leads to what it calls the " distinction of the ordres" : truth is not the good; the good is not truth. It is advisable to be faithful to both, but without confusing them (see " Value and vérité" , PUF, 1994).

Politically, Count-Sponville is defined as social democrat or liberal of left (" Is capitalism moral? , p. 154 to 159). It does not count on the State to create richness, nor on the market to create justice (see " Is capitalism moral? " , Albin Michel, 2004, rééd. The Book of Pocket). It is not defined as " intellectual engagé" (which would subject its thought to a cause already in addition made up), but like " philosopher citoyen" (which takes part, as far as its competences, with the public debate). He wrote much in the press large-public (Le Monde, Libération, Nouvel Observateur, the Event of Thursday, the Express train, Psychologies…), but also directed three numbers of the International Review of Philosophy, devoted respectively to Montaigne (n° 181,1992), Pascal (n° 199,1997) and Alain (n° 215,2001).

He is the author of a score of works of philosophy. Among most accessible, it is necessary to quote the " Presentations of the philosophie" (Albin Michel, rééd. The Book of Pocket), " Love the solitude" (Albin Michel, rééd. The Book of Pocket), " Happiness, désespérément" (Full Fires, rééd. Librio) and " The spirit of the athéisme" (Albin Michel). Among most difficult: the " Treaty of despair and the béatitude" (PUF), " Value and vérité" (PUF) and " The being-temps" (PUF). The other books are of an intermediate difficulty: they are addressed, successfully, with the cultivated general public. It is the case especially " Small treaty of large the vertus" (sold with 300.000 specimens in France, translated of 24 languages) and of sound " Dictionary philosophique" (these two books with the PUF).

In is capitalism moral? , which is in fact the transcription of a conference, it shows the amorality capitalism (neither moral nor immoral) in what as a technical (like meteorology, physics…), the economy is external with any moral concern. Count-Sponville then comes from there to define four orders , with the direction pascalien of the term:

the order technico--scientist,
the politico-legal order,
the order of morals,
the order of ethics, the love.

It evokes the possible existence of a fifth order, that of divine, but subscribed there not and shows even as an atheist that one can do some very well. Each order has its own coherence without to function in autarky. They should be distinguished while including/understanding their peremptory necessity from complementarity. One cannot be satisfied of only one order, or want that one becomes hegemonic. One cannot, still, ask an order to find his coherence, to clarify itself, thanks to another. Thus capitalism, the market economy, pertaining to the order n° 1, could not be concerned with morals, the order n° 3. However, each order is directly limited by the higher order: right of the trade (limitation of the economy by the “juridico-policy”), political deontology (limitation of the policy by morals) etc

Anecdote

Andre Count-Sponville often passed on television, in particular at Michel Polac, Bernard Pivot, Guillaume Durand, Frederic Ferney and Serge Moati.

Work

Principal works published:

Treated despair and bliss , PUF, 2 vol. (the myth of Icare/To live), rééd. out of pocket in a volume, coll Quadriga;
a philosophical education , PUF;
Why we are not nietzschéens (in collaboration), Grasset, rééd. The Book of pocket;
Love loneliness , Albin Michel; rééd. The Book of Pocket
Value and truth , PUF;
Camus of the absurdity to the love (in collaboration with Laurent Bove and Patrick Renou), ED. Words of Paddle, réed. Rebirth of the Book;
Small Treaty of the great virtues , PUF;
Impromptus , PUF;
the Wisdom of modern the (with Luc Ferry), Robert Laffont;
Being-time , PUF;
Merry Despair , ED. Alice (Lièges);
Lucrèce, poet and philosopher , ED. Rebirth of the book;
philosophical Dictionary , PUF;
is capitalism moral? Albin Michel;
Philosophy , PUF. coll “What do I know? ”;
the Human life (with drawings of Sylvie Thybert), ED. Hermann;
happiness, hopelessly , Full Fires, rééd. Librio, full text;
Presentations of philosophy , Albin Michel;
the spirit of atheism , Albin Michel, 2006.

External bonds

http://perso.Dromadaire.com/gauthiervanhouwe/photos.html

Conference ''' All the cultures are worth ''', the Sorbonne November 10th, 2007 (mindmap)

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