Roger-Pol Droit

About Roger-Pol Droit

Roger-Pol Droit holds a unique place in literary and intellectual life, as he combines registers and styles that are usually separate, in the French tradition of clarity of Enlightenment philosophers. Born in 1949 in Paris, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure of Saint Cloud. After obtaining his philosophy aggregation in 1972, he began writing for the newspaper Le Monde, and has since continued to balance research work and public writing, over the course of around thirty books and hundreds of columns. On the academic side, as a researcher at CNRS, a teacher at Sciences Po, and a member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee, he works on the representations in Europe of Indian doctrines, tracing the discovery of Buddhism by orientalists and thinkers (The Cult of Nothingness. Philosophers and the Buddha, Points Seuil), and on the history of the figure of the barbarian (Genealogy of Barbarians, Odile Jacob). As a columnist for Le Monde, Le Point, and Les Echos, he contributes to making the texts and notions of philosophy known to a wide audience, and extends this role as a mediator through introductory works translated into many languages, such as Philosophy Explained to My Daughter (Seuil), Ethics Explained to Everyone (Seuil), A Brief History of Philosophy (Flammarion). His most personal creation is manifested in literary texts, straddling philosophy and poetry, such as 101 Experiences of Everyday Philosophy (Odile Jacob, translated into 23 languages) and the brand new Little Experiences of Philosophy Among Friends (Plon), playful exercises where charm, the unusual, and humor respond to each other. Also attentive to contemporary changes, sensitive to the necessity of measuring their risks and hopes without ideological a priori, he co-signed with Monique Atlan Human A Philosophical Inquiry into These Revolutions That Change Our Lives (Flammarion). Roger-Pol Droit was an advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO from 1994 to 1999, founding networks for philosophical education in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in this context. In 2003, he was tasked by Luc Ferry, Minister of National Education, with a mission to reflect on the creation of a Digital Library of Philosophy. He has also been a member of the Universal Academy of Cultures (2002-2006) and the Advisory Board of the Montaigne Institute (2009-2010). He is a consultant for EDF-GDF, the Agnelli Foundation, etc.