General philosophy

Teacher : Natacha Pfeiffer

Thinking in contact. For a situated philosophy

This course examines contemporary philosophical approaches that decide to think in contact with a particular context, and reflect on the position from which they state their theory. Using Donna Haraway's feminist concept of "situated knowledge" as a theoretical foundation, this course aims to explore philosophies that are in touch with the issues, urgencies and questionings of their time, as well as philosophies that dare to think with this context, i.e., to think in contact with foreign and a priori non-conceptual matter. While this commitment to contextualized thinking may seem counter-intuitive in relation to the challenges of a classical philosophical approach, we shall see how thinking directly with matter can enrich philosophical questioning and take it beyond its usual frameworks. In this way, the various perspectives addressed are designed to give students the tools they need to decode the issues facing the contemporary world, and to question the very act of philosophizing.

Each session is built around a specific text, which will be analyzed collectively, followed by a period of discussion and debate. The course itself is designed as a space for contact, where students are encouraged to confront authors, concepts and their different points of view.

This course, centered on "situated philosophy", is resolutely transdisciplinary and open to concepts drawn from other disciplines. It will question the ways in which different philosophical ideas are constructed, and theorize the epistemological knots and risks involved in these philosophies of contact. Within this framework, the course aims to train students to question the position from which they create and relate to the world.