Presentation
Located in a border region ideal for exchanges, the Research Centre for German and Contemporary Philosophy (Centre de recherches en philosophie allemande et contemporaine – CRePhAC) is dedicated to the study of contemporary philosophical thought, in all the breadth and variety of sectors that philosophy covers today, from knowledge to action. It therefore conducts research in aesthetics - in philosophy of science and philosophy of religion - as well as in the history of German thought, particularly on phenomenology, idealism, modernity (from the Reformation to the Enlightenment), and the continental sources of the analytical tradition.
The CRePhAC, which comprises around ten tenured teacher-researchers, including 5 professors authorised to supervise research, and numerous associate members, also has the mission of introducing students to research, by opening up all of its events (colloquia, seminars, study days) to them, involving them in these various activities and helping them discover fields of research. CRePhAC hosts and supervises around twenty doctoral students, organises and co-organises colloquia, and produces an open-access journal (Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg), which has published research articles, translations of unpublished texts and critical reviews since 1994.
Research topics
1. The crisis of the foundations of ethics, from Nietzsche to the present day
Since Kant, philosophy has defined its activity as a critique and self-critique of reason. This principle of lucidity, applied to itself, obliges it to constantly question itself. From genealogy to "deconstruction", this topic explores the different ways in which philosophy today performs this pure (self)criticism.
2. Social and environmental philosophy, world habitability and the "common good" in the Anthropocene era
What remains of the "common", (or that is) common in the Anthropocene era? The certainty that the production methods of contemporary societies are depleting the planet's resources calls for a redefinition of the rights and duties of each individual towards others, and even a new definition of freedom that no longer rests on the abstract foundation of the "metaphysics of the subject". This topic explores the various ways in which we can and must today restore meaning to this notion of "common".
3. The philosophical institution, between epistemology and the human sciences
Topic 3 takes a more precise and historically targeted interest in the history of philosophy in the twentieth century, in its sometimes difficult interactions with the vast field of the human sciences. It focuses particularly on the history of the philosophical institution, and of the University of Strasbourg, from 1919 to the present day.
Major events and works
CRePhAC members are actively involved in publishing, in addition to articles in journals with national and international circulation, monographic works devoted to authors and the issues they deal with (E. Salanskis on Nietzsche, A. Bouffard on Sartre, J.-Ph. Narboux on Wittgenstein, E. Mehl on Descartes, D. Espinet on Heidegger, L. Fedi on Comte, M. Labbé on S. Weil, L. Fraisse on Proust, etc.). The team publishes Les Cahiers philosophiques de Strasbourg.
The members also edit collective works (colloquium reports), organise research seminars, and enrich the corpus by publishing texts (e.g., le Seuil, 2024, the edition of unpublished lectures by Jacques Derrida on Husserlian phenomenology and the question of the other; this project was made possible by a USIAS Fellowship (E. Mehl, R. Authier). In this context, an international colloquium on 'French readings of Husserl's Cartesian Meditations' was organised.
