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Jacques Bouveresse

French philosopher (1940–2021)

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He was Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France where until 2010 he held the chair of philosophy of language and epistemology. His disciple Claudine Tiercelin was appointed to a chair of metaphysics and philosophy of knowledge upon his retirement.

Education and career

Born on 20 August 1940 in Épenoy in the Doubs département of France into a farming family, Jacques Bouveresse completed his secondary education at the seminary of Besançon. He spent two years of preparation for the baccalauréat in philosophy and scholastic theology at Faverney in Haute-Saône. He followed his preparatory literary classes at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, and in 1961 entered the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

He presented his doctoral thesis in philosophy on Wittgenstein, entitled "Le mythe de l'intériorité. Expérience, signification et langage privé chez Wittgenstein".

Beginning with his earliest works, he consistently constructed his own philosophical and intellectual path, without following the normal routes and modes of academia. In 1976, Wittgenstein was practically unknown in France, as were Musil and the logic and analytical philosophy which Bouveresse had begun to study in the 1960s. These two last domains notably propelled him towards the lectures of Jules Vuillemin and Gilles Gaston Granger, who at the time were practically alone in occupying themselves with these problems, and with whom he maintained a lasting friendship.

Academic career:

  • 1966–1969: Assistant to the Section de Philosophie of the University of Paris (teaching logic)
  • 1969–1971: Maître-Assistant to the UER de Philosophie of the Université Paris I
  • 1971–1975: Attached to the CNRS
  • 1975–1979: Maître de Conférences at the Université Paris I
  • 1979–1983: Professor at the University of Geneva
  • 1983–1995: Professor at the University of Paris
  • From 1995: Professor at the Collège de France in the chair of philosophie du langage et de la connaissance.

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