To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Guern §467
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Diogenese of Sinope, oil on canvas, 1860 (Walters Arts Museum).
Last book published
Lettres d'ailleurs
Vertiges d'une âme au bord d'elle-même
Cet ouvrage exprime un cri de stupeur devant ce à quoi nous, Occidentaux contemporains, avons réduit la dimension spirituelle de notre condition. Un évêque en enfer y prend la parole pour dire avec quelle banalité il s’est installé dans l’abîme. Une athée écrit au pape. Elle se désole que ceux qui se disent religieux ne soient pas à la hauteur de leur message. Un homme, jadis empressé, se repent de ses brouilles avec le temps. Il fait de sa vie une image de l’éternité. Une âme, enfin, s’avance de derrière la mort pour nous dire ce qu’elle n’est pas.
Book Trailer
“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”
Joseph Joubert, Carnets
Research Area
• Medieval Metaphysics
Medieval Metaphysics. Philosophy, theology, metaphysic. Diffusion of ancient and late ancient sources in the medieval period. Self, subjectivity, personal identity of human being in Medieval Thought (Latin, Arabic, and Greek sources).
• French Philosophy
French “Grand Siècle” and French Moralists. Theory of Subjectivity in Pascal. Descartes. Aphorisms and maxims in Pascal, Joubert, La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort, Cioran and Romanian Philosophy, etc. Atheism in French philosophy.
I also give lectures on diverse topics, such as Blaise Pascal, Human Development, French Moralists, Faith and Reason, etc.
Lucas P. Depierre
Retrieving Premodern Individual Identities
Collective-Evolutive Paradigms in the Hellenism of Proclus and the Christianity of Eriugena
Exploring the notion of individual identity in premodern times necessitates confronting a spectrum of philosophico-theological interrogations that emerge from the fundamental question: what distinguishes one human being from another? I propose a collective-evolutive model to retrieve Proclus’ and Eriugena’s views on individual identity. Within this paradigm, this investigation sheds light on two crucial facets (collective and evolutive) of individual identity during this stage of European intellectual history: the individual identity of the human being was not consistently qualified as immutable, singularly bestowed at birth. Instead, it was perceived as a character with a propensity to evolve, increase or decrease, received within and through a harmonious collective whole.
