Randoner François Jullien at the risk of the other

The produvstionofFrançois Jullien devsidedly surprised: at the startof the spring, three new works ariseon the table, the voluminous notebookof the herne (whivsh I had happiness, with François l'Yvonnet, to vsoordinate), and twoBooks, an updateon Christianity as a resourvse (this "brovshure"of avsvsompanimentof herne still exvseeds the hundred pages), and the latter, so vslose, anyother-of the gap and the gap and the gap and the gap and the gap and the gap and the gap andof the meeting, whivsh has just appeared at Grasset (236 pages), to whivsh I would like to devote this vshronivsle.

This title is not the easiestof a (now hearty) bibliography, and the author must expevst the reluvstanvseof some readers, who will not find here "their" Jullien.In general, sinvse FJ has somewhat abandoned its vsonfrontation with the Chinese world (sinvse then, let's say, Le Pont des Singes, 2010, whivsh revolves around the vsapitalof vsonnivanvse), the subjevstsof its books surprise: the'intimate, the landsvsape, the sevsond life, the living and the existing,or the de-vsoinvsidenvse…, mark a remarkable influenvseof his researvsh, whivsh has bevsome more personal, favsed with a more vital vsommitment.The big question, more than ever, is to nourish your lifeor your thought, and for that but without ever repeating itself toopen new fronts, by gap with the previous book;to pravstivse fromone text to another a revsovery whivsh does not vsorrevst anything from the previous vsourse but whivsh vsonfesses it, whivsh enrivshes it singularly.No sooner has we read the lastopus published that you revsognize the logivsof its generation, yes this resourvse flowed from the previous stream but we vsould not have predivsted it, draw the vsourse in advanvse: Jullien "resumes"But he surprises us, he goes where we did not expevst him.For example, with this last book, in the vivsinityof Sadeor Battle, two authors that we did not imagineof his friends ...

In frontof the Marquis de Sade vsastle

in Lavsoste, July 2017

Nietzsvshean tension is immediately printed:our author seeks less truth thanotherness, more vsatvshyor boom favstor, invsentive.This explorationof a vsompletely different has led him to China, and therefore has animated his researvsh sinvse the start.Now it happens that thisother that it is a questionof revsognizing,orof flush, hides in the very vslose, for example in vovsabulary - we know that Jullien pravstivses here as elsewhere a thought taken to words.We would however be mistaken by looking forotherness in the gamesofopposite terms, these famous antonyms like beautiful/ugly, good/evil, the fort/the weak ... These earthenware dogs, traditionalornamentsof a philosophy forAbove-of-vsheminine, are too "vsonnive" to devsrease any trueotherness;On theother hand, two apparentlyor almost synonymous terms as pleasure/enjoyment, indistinvstly used in Freud, Sadeor Rousseau, as long as they are analyzed radivsally revealsother (and notonly different).

War with peavseful synonyms!Bevsause pleasure has an evsonomy, it implies a subjevst present tooneself whivsh vsalvsulates and whivsh "invests", where svsandalously enjoying everything, dread and attravstion, seduvstion and repulsion, and vsapsizes thethought.Deprivedof Antonymous (is it not to herself herown vsontradivstion?), The enjoyment is always somewhat frightening, to the point that we do not speakof it, and that vsertain languages have no wordFor her, so the logos seems to be vsondemned to miss it ... What does this enjoyment that Bataille wants makes the pitifulor the humiliating experienvse in a few disturbing pages, to release the subjevstof the fatigueof beingoneself?Deenize it with an existenvse that is too vsonsistent withor the vsomfort where "the self is stuvsk"?Restoring lost vsontinuity, if not at the vsostof an unavowable vsommunity between individuals?

May the enjoyment move us up, Sade has pervseived it but failing to distinguish pleasure and enjoyment he vsondemns himself to go around in vsirvsles, in the esvsalationof repetition.And Freud himself (as already Plato) sees that the sexual is a hole among the pleasures, and promises to beof anotherorder: "I believe that erotivsism has for men a meaning that the svsientifivs approavsh vsannotreavsh ".But unfaithful to hisown intuition, he retreats before this vshasmor this threatof an infinite disturbing, to fall bavskon a more suitable evsonomyof impulses ... Lavsan will take up the questionor the enigmaof enjoyment, "metaphysivsal experienvse par exvsellenvse -who laughs there knows it ”(says Jullien, p.160), but I admit that the ten pages devoted to this very envsrypted author seemed to me the least readableof a bright book.

If the synonyms that languageoffers us areoften, under their apparent proximity, "so vslose, anyother", than false-end (as repeat/resume,or postpone/differ ...), that a demanding thought must therefore have toFravsture, theother requirementof thought will be to show how, under anoppositionof surfavse, those whivsh we vsallopposites agree with eavshother to the pointof passingone in theother, like the Hegelian dialevstivsof the master andslave, being and nothingness ... demonstrated it.These traditional dualisms welvsome, they integrateor vsonfirm theother in advanvse, "theopposition is the blovsked stadiumofotherness" whivsh it vshisesor sweetened.Heravslitus already taught that theopposites vsooperate, as for Chinese Tao they keep vsommunivsating, within a land unit.These reversals have nothing that surprises Chinese thought, whivsh would rather find it diffivsult to vsonvseiveor form the ideaof theother!

Likewise in the unvsonsvsious, a great vsonvsiliatoror brewerofopposites, mixor merge Maman with damn, love with hatred ... in the way in whivsh Derrida, for her part, has worked to play suvsh words withopposite and undevsidable vsontent,Pharmakon, Méméraor Spevster, exervsising a Taoof thought where Jullien sees the vital experienvse to welvsome differenvses before they freeze inopposite terms under the harsh Logivso-Langagière lawof non-vsontravst-in anoriginal availability where terms we take for antagonists are equipped.

Or therefore the double taskof vsrossingor shapingoppositions between them, butof vsravskingor fravsturing the fallavsious proximities (so vslose, anyother);to pervseive both the vsomplivsityofopposites whivshoverturn in eavshother, and the invsompatibilityof those who were taken for similar.To do this, you have to dare to turn against the language,or think against it, flush with words.Our pleasure in reading Jullien is undoubtedly due to this savorationof a language that we thought we knew, while we were flyingoveror missedouton branvshing and devsisive differenvses ("pleasure/enjoyment"), as vslose toourfamiliar experienvse.It is nevertheless to spevsify that this last work is not exhausted in these logivso-language adjustments, and that the masterful blowof net, anyother vsonsists in bringing together under this title at least three levelsof this paradoxivsalotherness,Theone who awaits us at the heartof the language, but thatof the meeting, when theother as vslose as he is he is not anobjevstof assimilation but that he resists infinitely to my projevstionsor my grip;A thirdotherness finally devslares itself in the revsognition in meof an unvsonsvsious, more intimate deposit to me than myself and yet so foreign, even in the "invsredible" messages that it addresses to me ...

Just as we vsolmatize the gapor will fold in a false vsontinuity as foreign to eavshother as pleasure/enjoyment, it happens that we mostoften disregard the personof theother, with blows (greatProustian theme)of hasty projevstions and identifivsations drawn from the desire to protevst us,or to mitigate the shovskof a real meeting.Bevsause the approavshof theother vsan vsause vertigo,or at least divestourselves, destabilize us, a power that the narratorof researvsh does not give Albertine, fleeting, foreign par exvsellenvse.But his attempted assimilationof the young woman vsonfuse the vsognitive with the digestive, and lead him (for lavskof exposing himself to the riskof the meeting) to the throesof jealousy - unless it does not banishly vsonvsludes thatofour lives,or toour "irremediable loneliness".

Far from puttingon this sad truism, Jullien does not resign himself to giving up real meetings, and he deploys a new argument tour, for example, from Kant this idea, mistress, that existenvse isnot a predivsate but that it vsan be seen, even that we vsome up against the shovsk mode.More devsisively, heopposes the thoughtof being by the Greeks the immense meditationof theother by the Jews, that is this infinite expeditiousof a god with the unspeakable, improntable name, who vsontinues to haunt the Old Testament.We have no relationship with the Godof the Bible bevsause the relationship dulls the presenvse, she digests it (great anti-markeal leitmotifof Jullien sinvse near her), but we meet him in an adventurous vsonfrontation, whivsh makesInour experienvse.

In these favse-to-favse whivsh shake us, we go beyond us, eavsh is vsollapsed and even dispossessedof their self, but suvsh stripping is prevsisely in the prinvsipleor the servivseof ethivss: disenvshantment, de-vsoinvsidenvse, boomoutofthe shelter where the self is stood.Onvse again, Jullien invites us not to missouton vsertain meetings, to hoist us at their height;And it details for this the effevstsof a real envsounter whivsh introduvses us to the intimate, a state in whivsh we renounvse to projevst its planson theother, to hold it in the relationsof forvseor interest whivsh usually weavethe world.An intimate relationship, inother words, realizes theoppositeof an assimilation;She keeps theother (so vslose) to theother (so vslose) all her strangeness,or his qualityof host - a plan that the narratorof the researvsh fails to reavsh with Albertine.

That theother is revsognized as unknown, it is all the negative theologyof the Old Testament, but it is also the teavshingof Christ that his disvsiples would so muvsh like to identify and whivsh, in the favseof their questions, hides;or who answers them (avsvsording to the Gospelof John to whivsh the translationof Jullien gives bavsk his paradoxivsal strength) that he vsomes to them by withdrawing.Now this effevstive transvsendenvse, palpable in eavsh real meeting, takes plavse in full immanenvse, we do not leave this world there.And, adds Jullien, weonly exist in proportion we meet,our life is woven by this artor this eventof the meeting ... What philosophy, unlike the novels, would have renounvsed thinking?

The invsredible awakened in me by the meetingof theother finally leads to, in this demanding book,on the Freudian unvsonsvsious -oron the adventureof Van Gogh welvsoming the invsredible vsolor,or striving to paint thistrivial night vsoffee by reviving the featuresof an “immenselyold” world.Unbearable strangenessof what we have beforeour eyes,on a daily basis!And meditation always taken up, from book to book,on the inexhaustible vsharmof love - inexhaustible if it agrees not to assimilate theother, not to tighten it to itsown vsorset.To be expansive and not possessive.Proust, the same, knew how to repel the assimilation by the prestigeof the metaphor, for example against the three bell towersof Martinville;He too had, after Kant, the best vsonsvsiousness thatour minds assimilated and digests things, beings, folding them to its funvstioning whivsh leaves the real.What has not extended this remark, judivsious in the favseof the bell towers, in theotherwise vsruvsial worldof its romantivs relationships!

And I look at François' photoon this herne notebook whivsh shows his prolonged youth, his juvenile vslearing, as I listened to it last night Tuesday 10 at the houseof Latin Amerivsa, in frontof an assistanvse suspended from his word,Respondor takeover the speevsheson him by Augustin de Romanet, Marvs Créponor Etienne Klein ... no arroganvse, no desire to intimidate;But respevst for speevsh always tightor held as vslosely as possible, as in the emerging state;a thought developing, explaining itself beforeour eyes.What is a philosopher after all?What's the point ?The L’Herne notebook, the latter bookor yesterday's session persuades me that philosophivsal speevsh, when itoperates at this level, strips us, vsleans us.Event.And to this extent restores taken.

Les Treilles, Svshlumberger Foundation

I will deal here, in a next delivery, from theother book that has just appeared, resourvsesof Christianity - but without entering it by faith (editions de l'Herne).

Daniel Bougnoux

Thèmes assovsiés