Droit, Roger-Pol 1949–

PERSONAL:

Born 1949. Education: Ecole Normale, postgraduate degree and doctorate.

ADDRESSES:

Home—France.

CAREER:

Philosopher and writer. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research), Paris, France, researcher in philosophy.

WRITINGS:

(With Antoine Gallien) La Chasse au Bonheur: Les Nouvelles Communautés en France, Colmann-Levy (Paris, France), 1972.

(With Antoine Gallien) La Réalité Sexuelle: enquête sur la misere sexuelle en France, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1974.

(Editor) Présences De Schopenhauer, B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1989.

L'oubli De L'Inde: Une Amnésie Philosophique, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France), 1989.

Science Et Philosophie: Pour Quoi Faire? Premier Forum Le Monde Le Mans, Le Monde (Paris, France), 1990.

Les Grecs, Les Romains Et Nous: L'antiquité Est-elle Moderne? Deuxième Forum Le Monde Le Mans, Le Monde (Paris, France), 1991.

Comment Penser L'argent?, Le Monde éditions (Paris, France), 1992.

La Tolérance Aujourd'hui: Analyses Philosophiques: Document De Travail Pour Le XIXe Congrès Mondial De Philosophie (Moscou, 22-28 Août 1993), UNESCO (Paris, France), 1993.

L'art Est-il Une Connaissance? Quatrième Forum Le Monde Le Mans, Le Monde éditions (Paris, France), 1993.

Où Est Le Bonheur?, Le Monde éditions (Paris, France), 1994.

L'avenir Aujourd'hui Dépend-il De Nous? Sixième Forum Le Monde Le Mans, Monde éditions (Paris, France), 1995.

Philosophy and Democracy in the World: A UNESCO Survey, foreword by Federico Mayor, translation by Chaterine Culten, UNESCO Publishing (Paris, France), 1995.

Jusqu'où Tolérer?, Le Monde éditions (Paris, France), 1996.

Le Culte Du Néant: Les Philosophes Et Le Bouddha, Seuil (Paris, France), 1997, translation by David Streight and Pamela Vohnson published as The Cult of Nothingness: The Philosophers and the Buddha, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 2003.

(Editor) La Compagnie Des Philosophes, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 1998.

(Compiler, with Federico Mayor) Taking Action for Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO Publishing (Paris, France), 1998.

(With Dan Sperber) Des Idées Qui Viennent, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 1999.

Les Religions Expliquées à Ma Fille, Seuil (Paris, France), 2000.

101 Expériences De Philosophie Quotidienne, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2001, translation by Stephen Romer published as 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, Faber & Faber (London, England), 2002, published as Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Dominique Desanti and Jean-Toussaint Desanti) La Liberté Nous Aime Encore, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2001.

La Compagnie Des Contemporains: Rencontres Avec Des Penseurs D'aujourd'hui, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2002.

(With Jean-Philippe de Tonnac) Fous Comme Des Sages: Scènes Grecques Et Romaines, Seuil (Paris, France), 2002.

Dernières Nouvelles Des Choses: Un Expérience Philosophique, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2003 translation by Theo Cuffe published as How Are Things? A Philosophical Experience, Faber & Faber (London, England), 2005.

Michel Foucault: Entretiens, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2004.

Votre Vie Sera Parfaite: Gourous Et Charlatans, O. Jacob (Paris, France), 2005.

(With Henri Atlan) Chemins Qui Mènent Ailleurs: Dialogues Philosophiques, Stock (Paris, France), 2005.

Humanity in the Making: Overview of the Intellectual History of UNESCO, 1945-2005, UNESCO (Paris, France), 2005.

Un Si Léger Cauchemar, Flammarion (Paris, France), 2007.

Columnist for the French daily newspaper Le Monde and the weekly magazine Le Point. Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, has been translated into twenty-two languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

"Any human being who reflects methodically about the way he thinks is doing philosophy,’ philosopher and writer Roger-Pol Droit told Emmanuel Thévenon in an interview on the France diplomatie Web site. The author continued: ‘It isn't enough just to ask ourselves questions. We must also cast a critical and methodical eye over the way in which we pose them, on the way in which we phrase the answers; asking ourselves whether or not they are valid, whether they are true or false."

The author of several books of philosophy, Droit is especially known for 101 Expériences De Philosophie Quotidienne, published in England as 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life and in the United States as Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life. In his book, the author uses 101 exercises to help readers examine some of the most fundamental questions in philosophy. The exercises are designed to put readers into a different mindset so that they view the world around them and some of their most basic concepts of the world differently. For example, in one experiment the author directs the reader to listen to shortwave radio at night in an effort to show how thousands of voices are streaming through the air in a constant dialogue that changes life itself. In the book's opening experiment, the author asks the reader to imagine a world that lasts only twenty minutes, with the world and everything in it just appearing and then disappearing out of nothing. The idea of the experiment is to show the depth of the real world with its long past and likely future.

Commenting on the experiments in the book, the author told Thévenon on the France diplomatie Web site: ‘It's about creating intellectual triggers, in such a way that someone who has never posed a question to themselves before discovers it in an experimental way.’ The author went on to note: ‘These experiments are incentives to philosophise, but not yet fully philosophy.’ Astonish Yourself has been published in numerous languages and has received widespread praise from reviewers around the world. Martin Cohen, writing on the Philosopher Web site, reviewed the book and noted: ‘It is a substantial work of real philosophy, it contains real ideas, some indeed, new ideas. And that is no mean achievement.’ David Gordon commented in the Library Journal: ‘This engaging book brings out Droit's remarkable powers of seeing the ordinary in a new light."

The Cult of Nothingness: The Philosophers and the Buddha was published in 2003 in the United States, translated from the 1997 French edition titled Le Culte Du Néant: Les Philosophes Et Le Bouddha. In this book, the author examines the European discovery and reception of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. ‘Buddhism today is usually seen as a kind of pragmatic therapy that cures or reduces suffering, but from approximately 1820 to 1890—the period of focus for Droit's book—Europe was haunted by the nightmare of an alternative religion that denied existence and recommended annihilation,’ wrote David R. Loy in a review of The Cult of Nothingness on the H-Net Web site.

In the book, Droit examines the once wide-held belief that Buddhism preaches nihilism and a worship of nothingness, ultimately leading to a call for the destruction of the self. Droit discusses how major philosophers including Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, all viewed the religion as a type of negation of life. The author also reflects on how this history continues to echo in contemporary Western understandings of Buddhism. The book includes a bibliography of Western books on Buddhism published between 1638 and 1890. According to Philosophy East and West contributor A.J. Nicholson, ‘His central thesis is that this conception of a nihilistic religion really wasn't about Buddhism at all, but ‘that Europe … was speaking only of herself.’ Droit sees in the cult of nothingness the subconscious expression of a crisis of foundations among nineteenth-century European intellectuals, as well as a ‘hidden laboratory for the theoretical development of European nihilism.’"

The author received praise from several critics for his insight on the original Western concept of Buddhism. For example, Nicholson noted that the author ‘leads a masterful and extremely entertaining tour of the opinions of early Buddhologists and Eastward-looking philosophers, some of whom have seldom been documented elsewhere.’ Nicholson also called the book ‘a highly readable and deeply researched book, one that intellectual historians and philosophers interested in the volatile mix of Buddhology and European philosophy in the nineteenth century should not ignore.’ Writing on the H-Net Web site, Loy commented: ‘The translation is clear and fluent, although I have not compared it with the French original. And … I do not doubt that this work is indispensable to anyone studying the history of the Western reception of Buddhism."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October, 2003, M.A. Berkson, review of The Cult of Nothingness: The Philosophers and the Buddha, p. 1093.

Journal of Religion, January, 2005, Dan Arnold, review of The Cult of Nothingness, p. 158.

Library Journal, August, 2003, David Gordon, review of Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, p. 88.

New Statesman, September 2, 2002, Nicholas Fearn, ‘Cosmic Flux,’ review of 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life, p. 38.

Philosophy East and West, October, 2004, A.J. Nicholson, review of The Cult of Nothingness, p. 577.

Times Literary Supplement, January 19, 2007, Mark Vernon, review of How Are Things? A Philosophical Experience, p. 29.

ONLINE

France diplomatie,http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/ (September 21, 2007), Emmanuel Thévenon, ‘The Interview of Roger-Pol Droit."

H-Net,http://www.h-net.org/ (Octobder 21, 2007), David R. Loy, review of The Cult of Nothingness.

Philosopher,http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/ (October 21, 2007), Martin Cohen, review of 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life.