Evelyne Buissière

Grenoble

We take a look here at the career of Evelyne Buissière, a philosophy teacher who teaches in a literary preparatory class.

Studies, reading, projects... Here's what she has to say!

Can you introduce yourself? What do you currently do?

I teach classes préparatoires littéraires at Lycée Champollion in Grenoble. It's a real joy to push open the door of my classroom and meet up with my students again! Spending your time with young people capable of being passionate about the question of substance in Aristotle or the problem of the procedural nature of justice in Rawls is absolutely extraordinary.

In today's world, where culture is so devalued both by civil society, which values spectacle and vulgarity, and by our politicians, who consider it pointless to read The Princess of Clèves or a waste of time to study Proust, in an age when the label "intellectual" has practically become an insult, my khâgneux give me renewed confidence in the future!

As long as there are young people like them, all is not lost, and passing on to them the desire to understand rationally, to question, trying to communicate to them that "faith in reason" spoken of by Hegel, is the most beautiful profession in the world! When the rise of irrationalism and religious fundamentalism is increasingly threatening, as it is today, it is even a matter of urgency to assert the rights of rationality and bring to life the imperative of the Enlightenment: Dare to know!.

I live in Grenoble. It's also important for me to live at the foot of the mountains, just a few minutes from magnificent hiking trails that offer grandiose panoramas and quite stimulating for philosophical meditation... I'd find it very hard to live anywhere else, except in a smaller town even more lost in the mountains, Gap for example, but there's no literary preparatory class there alas! In any case, if one were to be created, let my superiors know that I'm applying in advance!

What memories do you have of your studies? Of your teachers?

I have dazzling memories of the philosophy teachers I had in khâgne, and they had a lot to do with my career choice.

First of all Jean-Jacques Kirkyacharian when I did my khâgne in Grenoble: a hard-hitting intelligence, sometimes destabilising, biting irony, not always very pedagogical but so dazzling.

And then André Pessel in khâgne at Louis-Le-Grand: his classes were like a kind of fireworks display, jubilant for the intellect, I would come away with a thousand ideas in my head, with the impression of being less stupid and of having a thousand avenues to follow even if I was well aware of not having the ability to bring them to life as he did. I read with delight the book he has just published In Spinoza's Ethics and in certain lines I felt like I was in his lecture room!

Both of them were profoundly Spinozist. I never stop trying to imitate them, in any case, to try to pass on to my students all the pleasure of thinking that they were able to instil in me!

Which philosophy book have you been particularly passionate about? The author you fell in love with at first sight?

The author I always come back to is Hegel. Unfortunately, I'm not a good enough Germanist to be a direct Hegel specialist, but it's Hegelian philosophy that plays the role of an unsurpassable horizon for me. I read the Phenomenology of Spirit when I was in hypokhâgne and I can say that then my fascination was matched only by my incomprehension! I hope my incomprehension has diminished a little but in any case my fascination has continued to grow!

The works of Bernard Bourgeois have been my precious crutch for entering Hegel, more than the exceptional precision and immense knowledge he has of Hegelian thought added to the elegance of his style (for it must be admitted that well-written works of philosophy are not commonplace!), what strikes me most about Bernard Bourgeois's works is the impression that he has really understood the spirit behind Hegelian thought beyond the letter, and that he has managed to make it his own. His latest works in which he analyses current events in the light of Hegelianism are fascinating.

Have you ever tried your hand at writing? Could you tell us about your creations?

I obtained the agrégation and the CAPES in 1985, defended a doctorate in 1991 and then an HDR in 2012, so I have done some research work that focuses on interpretations of Hegelian thought in Italy in the 20^th century. I have published an introductory and introductory text to the thought of Guido Calogero, a work on Giovanni Gentile and recently a short essay, La Dialectique sans la Téléologie, Hegel, Gentile, Adorno. Currently I am working on a book on Alexandre Kojève's reading of Hegel and more specifically his interpretation of the speculative Hegel.

I have no pretensions to being a philosopher, I define myself as a teacher as far as my pedagogical activity is concerned and a commentator as far as my small research activity is concerned. The Italians have a very apt term that is far less pretentious than philosopher and by which I would happily define myself: 'studioso', but there is no equivalent in French. Even if it's without any pretension, I think it's important to maintain a research activity, and if I don't do it, I get depressed very quickly! It's a bit like the fuel that keeps the flame alive to pass on to my students!

Thank you Evelyne, for this testimonial!

> Discover other philosophical journeys in the agora...