The New Philosophy: An Exercise in French Thought

Abstract

In studying the "new philosophy" which has emerged in France in the last ten years, I shall attempt three things. First, I would like to present an interpretation of the new philosophy. I will attempt to summarize accurately the position established by the new philosophers regarding man's relationship to his environment, his fellow man, and his government. I have chosen to focus upon three of the most visible and influential of the new philosophers, Bernard Henri Levy, Jean Marie Benoist, and Andre Glucksmann, as well as three other theorists who have provided much of the basis of the new philosophy, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida. In the second section of this study, I shall attempt to present a philosophical critique of the new philosophy. The principal philosophers upon whom I shall rely in evaluating the new philosophy include Rousseau, Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche, and of course, Marx. Finally, I would like to locate some of the cultural sources of the new philosophy.