Michel Serres

Michel Serres
Michel Serres
	Serres in 2011
Born	1 September 1930; Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Died	1 June 2019 (aged 88); Paris, France
Alma mater	École Navale; École Normale Supérieure; University of Paris
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy; French epistemology
Institutions	University of Paris I; Stanford University
Main interests	Epistemology; Philosophy of science
Notable ideas	Hermes (the messenger of the gods) as standing for the communication taking place between science and the arts

Short description: French philosopher (1930–2019)

Michel Serres (/sɛər/; fr; 1 September 1930 – 1 June 2019) was a French philosopher, theorist and writer. His works explore themes of science, time and death, and later incorporated poetry.

Life and career

The son of a bargeman, Serres entered France's naval academy, the École Navale, in 1949 and the École Normale Supérieure in 1952. He aggregated in 1955, having studied philosophy. He spent the next few years as a naval officer before finally receiving his doctorate (doctorat ès lettres) in 1968 from the University of Paris (with a thesis titled Le Système de Leibniz et ses modèles mathématiques), and began teaching in 1969 at the University of Paris I.

As a child, Serres witnessed firsthand the violence and devastation of war. "I was six for my first dead bodies," he told Bruno Latour.^[3] These formative experiences led him consistently to eschew scholarship based upon models of war, suspicion, and criticism.

Serres served as a professor of French at Stanford University.^[4]^[5] He earned a reputation as a spell-binding lecturer and as the author of remarkably beautiful and enigmatic prose so reliant on the sonorities of French that it is considered practically impossible to recreate fully in another language. ^[6] He took as his subjects such diverse topics as the mythical Northwest Passage, the concept of the parasite, and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. More generally Serres was interested in developing a philosophy of science which does not rely on a metalanguage in which a single account of science is privileged and regarded as accurate. To do this he relied on the concept of translation between accounts rather than settling on one as authoritative. For this reason, Serres has relied on the figure of Hermes (in his earlier works) and angels (in more recent studies) as messengers who translate (or map) back and forth between domains (i.e., between maps). He was an influence on intellectuals such as Bruno Latour, Robert Pogue Harrison, and Jonathan Bate. Perhaps his most enduring book is Le contrat naturel (1990), a prescient work addressing the need for philosophy to address the climate crisis.

In an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serres expressed interest in the emergence of a new political philosophy that addresses the digital context of the 21st century, "I think that out of this place of no law that is the Internet there will soon emerge a new law, completely different from that which organised our old metric space."^[7]

Serres was a vocal enthusiast for freely accessible knowledge, especially Wikipedia.^[8]

He died on 1 June 2019, at the age of 88.^[9]

Honours and recognition

In 1990, Serres was elected to the Académie française in recognition of his position as one of France's most prominent intellectuals.

In 2012, Serres was awarded the Meister Eckhart Prize, and in 2013 he was awarded the Dan David Prize.

Publications

1968: Le Système de Leibniz et ses modèles mathématiques, Presses universitaires de France, rééd. 1982
1969: Hermès I, la communication, Éditions de Minuit, reprint. 1984 (Hermes I, Communication, (2023) University of Minnesota Press (English translation by Louise Burchill)) ^[10]
1972: Hermès II, l'interférence, Éditions de Minuit (Hermes II, Communication, (2025), University of Minnesota Press, (English translation by Randolph Burks)) ^[11]
1974: Hermès III, la traduction, Éditions de Minuit
1974: Jouvences. Sur Jules Verne, Éditions de Minuit
1975: Auguste Comte. Leçons de philosophie positive, (in collaboration), tome I, Éditions Hermann
1975: Esthétiques sur Carpaccio, Hermann
1975: Feux et signaux de brume. Zola, Grasset, ISBN 2-246-00258-3
1977: Hermès IV, La distribution, Éditions de Minuit, reprint. 1981
1977: La Naissance de la physique dans le texte de Lucrèce, Éditions de Minuit
1980: Hermès V, Le passage du Nord-ouest, Éditions de Minuit, Paris
1980: Le Parasite, Grasset
1982: Genèse, Grasset
1983: Détachement, Flammarion
1983: Rome. Le livre des fondations, Grasset
1985: Les Cinq Sens, Grasset; reprint. Fayard, 2014
1987: L'Hermaphrodite, Flammarion
1987: Statues, François Bourin
1989: Éléments d'histoire des sciences, (in collaboration), Bordas
1990: Le Contrat naturel, François Bourin, Paris (The Natural Contract (1995), University of Michigan Press (English translation by Elizabeth MacArthur and William Paulson)^[12]
1991: Le Tiers-instruit, François Bourin
1991: Discours de réception de Michel Serres à l'Académie française et réponse de Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, François Bourin
1992: Éclaircissements, (interviews with Bruno Latour), François Bourin
1993: La Légende des Anges, Flammarion
1993: Les Origines de la géométrie, Flammarion
1994: Atlas, Julliard
1995: Éloge de la philosophie en langue française, Fayard
1997: Nouvelles du monde, Flammarion
1997: Le trésor. Dictionnaire des sciences, (in collaboration), Flammarion, Paris
1997: À visage différent, (in collaboration), Hermann
1999: Paysages des sciences, (in collaboration), Le Pommier
2000: Hergé, mon ami, Éditions Moulinsart
2001: Hominescence, Le Pommier
2002: Variations sur le corps, Le Pommier, 1999; édition texte seul, Le Pommier
2002: Conversations, Jules Verne, la science et l'homme contemporain, 1re version, Revue Jules Verne 13/14, Centre international Jules-Verne, Amiens
2003: L'Incandescent, Le Pommier
2003: Jules Verne, la science et l'homme contemporain, Le Pommier
2004: Rameaux, Le Pommier
2006: Récits d'humanisme, Le Pommier
2006: Petites chroniques du dimanche soir, Le Pommier
2006: L'Art des ponts : homo pontifex, Le Pommier
2007: Le Tragique et la Pitié. Discours de réception de René Girard à l'Académie française et réponse de Michel Serres, Le Pommier
2007: Petites chroniques du dimanche soir 2, Le Pommier
2007: Carpaccio, les esclaves libérés, Le Pommier
2008: Le Mal propre : polluer pour s'approprier ?, Le Pommier, coll. « Manifestes » ( Malfeasance: Appropriation through Pollution (2010) Stanford University Press (English translation by Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dixon)) ^[13]
2008: La Guerre mondiale, Le Pommier
2009: Écrivains, savants et philosophes font le tour du monde, Le Pommier, coll. « Les Essais »
2009: Temps des crises, Le Pommier, coll. « Manifestes », ISBN 978-2746505926
2009: Van Cleef et Arpels, Le Temps poétique, with Franco Cologni and Jean-Claude Sabrier, Cercle d'Art, coll. « La collection »
2009: Petites chroniques du dimanche soir 3, Le Pommier
2010: Biogée, Éditions-dialogues.fr/Le Pommier"" (Biogea, 2015, University of Minnesota Press, English translation by Randolph Burks) ^[14]
2011: Musique, Éditions Le Pommier ISBN 978-2746505452
2012: Petite Poucette, Éditions Le Pommier ISBN 978-2746506053 )
2012: Andromaque, veuve noire, Éditions de l’Herne
2013: Les Temps nouveaux (coffret), Le Pommier
2014: Pantopie, de Hermès à Petite Poucette (avec Martin Legros et Sven Ortoli), Le Pommier
2014: Petites Chroniques du dimanche tome VI, Le Pommier
2014: Yeux, Le Pommier ISBN 978-2746507791
2015: Le gaucher boiteux : puissance de la pensée, Le Pommier
2015: Écrivains, savants et philosophes font le tour du monde, Le Pommier
2015: Du bonheur, aujourd'hui (with Michel Polacco), Le Pommier
2015: Solitude. Dialogue sur l'engagement (with Jean-François Serres), Le Pommier
2016: De l'impertinence, aujourd'hui (with Michel Polacco), Le Pommier
2016 : Darwin, Bonaparte et le Samaritain : une philosophie de l'histoire, Paris, Le Pommier
2017 : De l'Amitié, aujourd'hui (avec Michel Polacco), Paris, Le Pommier
2017 : C'était mieux avant !, Paris, Le Pommier
2018 : Défense et illustration de la langue française aujourd'hui, (avec Michel Polacco), Paris, Le Pommier
2019 : Morales espiègles, Paris, Le Pommier

Notes

↑ Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno Latour, University of Michigan Press, 1995, p. 8.
↑ Schrift (2006), p. 181.
↑ Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno Latour, University of Michigan Press, 1995, p. 2.
↑ "Stanford faculty". http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/people/faculty.
↑ "Stanford faculty webpage". http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/people/michel-serres.
↑ Paulson, William (2000). "Michel Serres's Utopia of Language". Configurations 8 (2): 215–228. doi:10.1353/con.2000.0015. ISSN 1080-6520. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/8197.
↑ 032c.com. "MICHEL SERRES". http://032c.com/2014/michel-serres/.
↑ Kauffmann, Alexis (27 February 2007). "Quand l'académicien Michel Serres valide Wikipédia". https://framablog.org/2007/02/27/wikipedia/.
↑ "Le philosophe et académicien Michel Serres est mort". Le Monde.fr. June 2019. https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2019/06/01/le-philosophe-et-academicien-michel-serres-est-mort_5470322_3382.html.
↑ Serres, Michel; Burchill, Louise (2023). Hermes I, Communication (First ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 294. ISBN 978-0-8166-7882-2. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816678839/hermes-i/. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
↑ Serres, Michel; Burks, Randolph (2025). Hermes II, Interference. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 214. ISBN 978-0-8166-7884-6. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816678853/hermes-ii/. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
↑ "The Natural Contract". University of Michigan Press. https://www.press.umich.edu/9725/natural_contract. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
↑ (in en) Malfeasance | Stanford University Press. 2010-11-11. ISBN 978-0-8047-7303-4. https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/malfeasance.
↑ "Biogea" (in en-US). https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781937561291/biogea/.

References

Alan D. Schrift (2006), Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers, Blackwell Publishing.

External links

Includes a brief exchange on the relationship of Serres to Deleuze.
Steven Connor's website, with links to his writing on Serres
(in French) Radio Interview by Robert P. Harrison
(in French) L'Académie française
Michel Serres talks to François-Bernard Huyghe in the Unesco Courier
(in French) Serres speaking about wikipedia very enthusiastically
Michel Serres, one of France's 'immortels,' tells the 'grand récit' at Stanford by Cynthia Haven, Stanford Report, 27 May 2009.
issuu.com
Obituary in Radical Philosophy Autumn 2019 by Lucie Kim-Chi Mercier

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel Serres. Read more

[1] Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno Latour, University of Michigan Press, 1995, p. 8.

[2] Schrift (2006), p. 181.

[3] Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno Latour, University of Michigan Press, 1995, p. 2.

[4] "Stanford faculty". http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/people/faculty.

[5] "Stanford faculty webpage". http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/cgi-bin/web/people/michel-serres.

[6] Paulson, William (2000). "Michel Serres's Utopia of Language". Configurations 8 (2): 215–228. doi:10.1353/con.2000.0015. ISSN 1080-6520. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/8197.

[7] 032c.com. "MICHEL SERRES". http://032c.com/2014/michel-serres/.

[8] Kauffmann, Alexis (27 February 2007). "Quand l'académicien Michel Serres valide Wikipédia". https://framablog.org/2007/02/27/wikipedia/.

[9] "Le philosophe et académicien Michel Serres est mort". Le Monde.fr. June 2019. https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2019/06/01/le-philosophe-et-academicien-michel-serres-est-mort_5470322_3382.html.

[10] Serres, Michel; Burchill, Louise (2023). Hermes I, Communication (First ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 294. ISBN 978-0-8166-7882-2. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816678839/hermes-i/. Retrieved 17 August 2025.

[11] Serres, Michel; Burks, Randolph (2025). Hermes II, Interference. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 214. ISBN 978-0-8166-7884-6. https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816678853/hermes-ii/. Retrieved 17 August 2025.

[natural-12] "The Natural Contract". University of Michigan Press. https://www.press.umich.edu/9725/natural_contract. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

[13] (in en) Malfeasance | Stanford University Press. 2010-11-11. ISBN 978-0-8047-7303-4. https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/malfeasance.

[14] "Biogea" (in en-US). https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781937561291/biogea/.

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