Etienne Granier-Deferre
ParisMeet Etienne Granier-Deferre, a philosophy teacher at a Parisian lycée.
Studies, readings, projects... Here is what he has to say!
Could you introduce yourself? What are you currently doing?
I am currently a philosophy teacher at the Lycée Charles de Foucauld in the 18e arrondissement of Paris. I introduce my Première and Terminale pupils to the joys and challenges of philosophy, and I am preparing my doctorate — a doctoral project I hope to present at Sorbonne-Université.
My career path has been rather irregular. I was never particularly academic, which makes my choice of subject incongruous, to say the least.
After sitting my baccalaureate in 2010, I chose philosophy because it was the only subject at school that could address the questions arising in me about society, people, and knowledge.
To this was added my meeting with my father-in-law, Richard Descoings, who introduced me to the world of research and became my first mentor. I owe my career path, my intellectual formation, and my love of philosophy to him.
It was not until my second year of my philosophy degree at the Sorbonne-Paris IV that I decided to build a career in philosophy, when I discovered the field of the ethics of war — and through my meeting with Marie-Kerguelen Le Blevennec, who has been my partner and collaborator for over seven years.
Alongside my studies, I worked as a supervisor at my old lycée, which is when I discovered the other side of the school system by working alongside the teaching staff. It was also then that the idea of teaching first took hold. It was not until I had my first real class, at Notre-Dame des Oiseaux, that I realised teaching was also my vocation.
What memories do you have of your studies and your teachers?
My memories of my studies are fairly clear. Although I was slightly below average, I generally got by without too much difficulty. It was only in the transition from secondary to higher education that I became aware of my real appetite for philosophical knowledge. In particular, it was when I met my Terminale philosophy teacher, Mr Aget, that the doors to philosophy opened. I still remember his excitement and passion when he would talk to us about authors and works — Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, for instance — in his jeans jacket and big Timberlands. Seeing him so passionate, I could picture myself in his place.
I must also mention my former research supervisor, Jean-Cassien Billier, at the Sorbonne, whose Introduction to Ethics and Ethics of War courses fed my appetite for the subject. It was a second revelation: my path would lie in philosophy, and more specifically in ethics.
I have very fond memories of my studies as a whole — my lycée years, because that is where I found the close-knit group of friends I still have today, more than fifteen years on, and my university years, because it was then that both philosophy and teaching revealed themselves to me.
Which philosophical book have you been particularly passionate about? Is there an author you fell in love with at first sight?
All books have fascinated me, some more than others, but two I will never forget: The Social Contract by Rousseau and Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
I fell in love with contractualist thought because it is at once timely and empirical, yet also highly theoretical. Discovering the concepts of the "social contract" and the "state of nature" shed light, around my eighteenth birthday, on my first questionings and doubts about the social dimension of human beings and their essential nature.
That said, I cannot deny my fondness for Plato and his dialogues. They read with great ease and are full of knowledge and open questions. The maieutic method makes the content more fluid and accessible — it was a genuine revelation. What struck me most was the idea of our capacity to acquire knowledge. According to Plato, we all possess this capacity. This egalitarian aspect of his thinking gives me hope: knowledge knows no boundaries, no limits, no elites. Each of us is capable of rising through knowledge. This is shown above all in the Meno, through the dialogue between Socrates and a slave.
Have you ever tried your hand at writing? Could you tell us about your work?
I had bohemian dreams as a teenager. I have hundreds of loose sheets covered in poems, and I am planning to gather and organise them into a collection that may one day see the light of day.
I am also currently writing a few essays. Some are available on my Academia page, but the rest remain unpublished as I use them to apply for conferences and seminars — which means constantly rewriting them and refining my ideas.
One of my proudest achievements is my final dissertation. I put a great deal of work into it, and it is the starting point for my current research. I undertook a critique of the concept of supreme emergency, as theorised by Michael Walzer, within just war theory. My argument was that the concept of supreme emergency can be used to legitimise immoral conduct in war, and may thus lend legitimacy to terrorist strategies.
What are your projects and your research interests?
As I mentioned, I am working on a doctoral project in which I examine the legitimacy of state violence, particularly in war. It is still at an early stage, however, so it would be premature to say much more. The aim is to shed light on the gulf between the theory that lays down the rules to be followed in war and the reality on the ground, through a study of the war on contemporary terrorism.
Thank you, Etienne, for sharing your story!
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