Michel Serres

French philosopher (1930–2019)

Not to be confused with Michel Serre.

Michel Serres

Serres in 2011

Born| (1930-09-01)1 September 1930

Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Died| 1 June 2019(2019-06-01) (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[1]
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 that takes place between science and the arts[2]

Michel Serres (/sɛər/; French: [miʃɛl sɛʁ]; 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 prose.

## Life and career

[edit]

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.[5] 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.[6][7] 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 untranslatable.[citation needed] 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).[citation needed]

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 organized our old metric space."[8]

Serres was a vocal enthusiast for freely accessible knowledge, especially Wikipedia.[9]

He died on 1 June 2019, at the age of 88.[10]

## Honours and recognition

[edit]

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

[edit]

* 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
* 1972: Hermès II, l'interférence, Éditions de Minuit
* 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)[11]
* 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 »
* 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
* 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

[edit]

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. ^ M. Serres, "La réforme et les sept péchés," L'Arc, 42: "Bachelard special issue" (1970).
4. ^ Schrift (2006), p. 180.
5. ^ Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time: Michel Serres Interviewed by Bruno Latour, University of Michigan Press, 1995, p. 2.
6. ^ "Stanford faculty". Archived from the original on 17 February 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
7. ^ "Stanford faculty webpage". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
8. ^ 032c.com. "MICHEL SERRES". Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. ^ Kauffmann, Alexis (27 February 2007). "Quand l'académicien Michel Serres valide Wikipédia". Framablog. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
10. ^ "Le philosophe et académicien Michel Serres est mort". Le Monde.fr. June 2019. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
11. ^ "The Natural Contract". University of Michigan Press. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

## References

[edit]

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

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Michel Serres at Wikimedia Commons
* Interview by Hari Kunzru at harikunzru.com (Error: unknown archive URL) (archived (Date missing)) 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 Archived 13 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine 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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