French Philosophy Today

Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, Catherine Malabou, Michel Serres and Bruno Latour: this new generation of French philosophers is laying fresh claim to the human. Across a number of new strains of philosophy, they are rethinking humanity’s relationships: to ‘nature’ and ‘culture’, to the objects that surround us, to the possibility of social and political change, to ecology and even to our own brains. Christopher Watkin draws out both the promises and perils of these new philosophies. And he shows just how high the stakes are for our technologically advanced but socially atomised and ecologically vulnerable society. ; Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, Catherine Malabou, Michel Serres and Bruno Latour: this comparative, critical analysis shows the promises and perils of new French philosophy's reformulation of the idea of the human. ; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Alain Badiou: Formalised Inhumanism; 2. Quentin Meillassoux: Supreme Human Value Meets Anti-anthropocentrism; 3. Catherine Malabou: The Plastic Human; 4. Catherine Malabou: The Epigenetic Human; 5. Michel Serres: Universal Humanism; 6. Bruno Latour: Translating the Human; Conclusion; Notes; Index.