The figure of the public intellectual — a central component of modern political culture to this day — has a long, eventful, and fascinating history. In this story, France plays a crucial role. French society was one of the first Western societies in which men and women whose principal talents were reading, writing and thinking managed to create a substantive audience for themselves, deriving from it a form of power thitherto unheard of since Antiquity. This survey course examines some of the ways in which these men and women defined — in their writings as well as in their way of life — specific understandings of what the public practice of philosophy should be. The course is not devoted to the study of philosophical doctrines or systems per se. Rather, the class asks why and how the public — and often specifically literary — practice of philosophy became, in France, a distinct social and even political activity. To this end careful attention is paid to the social and institutional settings in which (and, in many cases, outside of which) these writers conducted their work. The class also strives to understand how their writings worked to transform and/or uphold the society in which they appeared, with the aim of shedding light on how key representations of public philosophical activity – such as enlightenment or engagement – emerged and were played out. Readings start with Michel Foucault, Simone Weil, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, moving backwards to Montaigne and Descartes, and from there to Pascal, Fontenelle, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Madame de Staël.
All readings, lectures and class discussions are conducted in English. Students receive general training on how to conduct bibliographical research in the humanities, and written exercises include the writing of a final paper with an optional research component.

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (excerpts), Michel Foucault, Discourse and Truth (six lectures given at Berkeley, Oct-Nov. 1983) ; Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosophers (only the of “Life of Diogenes”) ; Michel de Montaigne, Essays (I, 20 and III, 13) ; René Descartes, Discourse on Method, Nicolas Fontaine, Conversations of Pascal with de Saci on Epictetus and Montaigne ; Blaise Pascal, Pensées (excerpts) ; Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Conversations on the plurality of worlds, Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary (excerpts) ; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (books I and II only) ; Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words; Germaine de Staël, A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions on the Happiness of Individuals and Nations (excerpts), Simone Weil, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression (excerpts).