Alain de Libera

Born on September 27, 1948, Alain de Libera studied at the Sorbonne and went on to teach psychology at the École normale d'instituteurs in Quimper (1972-1975), where he was first certified (1971) then agrégé in philosophy (1972). In 1975, he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), first as a research associate, then as a research fellow at the Centre d'Études des Religions du Livre, a laboratory of the École Pratique des Hautes Études associated with the CNRS. In 1985, he was elected Director of Studies in the^5th Section (Religious Sciences) of the EPHE, directing studies in the history of Christian theologies in the medieval West, formerly the history of doctrines and dogmas (Étienne Gilson), then the history of medieval theologies (Paul Vignaux and René Roques). In 1997, he was appointed Professor of History of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Geneva. Elected Professor at the Collège de France in 2012, Mr. de Libera held a chair there, with the same title, until 2019.

Alain de Libera has previously taught at a number of institutions. Lecturer at the University of Paris-X Nanterre, lecturer at the École normale supérieure Ulm-Sèvres, associate professor at the University of Padua, several times lecturer at the Universities of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Neuchâtel, associate professor at the University of Lugano, associate professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, guest professor at the Universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg (Franco-Russian College), he has held the Francqui Chair for Foreigners (1993-1994, University of Liège), the Cardinal-Mercier Chair (1997, Faculty of Philosophy, Catholic University of Louvain), the Étienne Gilson Chair (2000, Catholic Institute of Paris), the Perelmann Chair (2010, Free University of Brussels), the Gastprofessur für französische Literatur und Kultur (2012, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich).

He has directed several research groups in France and Switzerland, including the CNRS RCP 800, Le Néoplatonisme médiéval. Albert le Grand et son école (1985-1993), CNRS GDR 0800, Histoire de la psychologie ancienne et médiévale (1993-1998), FNS projects Signification et référence dans les " Sophismata " (University of Geneva, 2001-2005), Translatio Studiorum. La réception de la philosophie arabo-musulmane dans l'Occident médiéval latin (2003-2007) and Sémantique formelle et langage naturel au XIIIe^siècle(2010-2012). He also co-edited Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie: 12. Jahrhundert (Ueberweg) with R. Imbach, Paris-IV Sorbonne, Th. Ricklin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich and L. Cesalli, Unige, then CNRS).

He has held various posts, including member of the philosophy commission of the Centre national du livre (1988-1992), member of the bureau of the Comité national du CNRS, section 35 (1991-1995), member of the Conseil national de coordination des sciences de l'homme et de la société (2001-2002), vice-president of the Société internationale pour l'étude de la philosophie médiévale (2002-2012), and member of the philosophy, psychoanalysis and religious studies commission of the Centre national du livre (2008-2010).

Co-director of the Études de philosophie médiévale collection (J. Vrin), founder and director of the Sic et Non collection (J. Vrin). Vrin), he was co-director of the Des travaux collection at Éditions du Seuil, is Editorial consultant of The New Synthese Historical Library and Medioevo, member of the scientific board of the Bochumer philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter, member of the editorial board of Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, of the editorial board of Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévales (Cologne-Leuven) and of the editorial board of Critique.

ACorresponding Fellow of the British Academy since 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Université Laval (Québec) in 2013.

He is a chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite (2004) and chevalier des Palmes académiques (2006).

A philosopher and medievalist, Alain de Libera defines his work as a "philosophical archaeology", focusing on the history of medieval logic, philosophy of language and mind, metaphysics and psychology. His research and publications concern, in logic, the theory of signification and reference, the theory of abstraction, the semantics of propositions, the theory of states of affairs, properties, universals and tropes; in metaphysics, the theory of the analogy of being, the division and system of categories, the distinction between substance and accident, the theory of relation and relations, and the genesis and structure of the medieval metaphysical corpus; in philosophy of mind and psychology, the medieval tradition of De anima, theMind/Body Problem, theMind/Soul Problem, the question of the subject of thought, the theory of intentional species, the theory of ideas and representation, the psychology of common sense and the critique of scholastic psychology, the medieval sources of the theory of intentionality, the relationship between medieval psychology, modern psychology (Brentano) and phenomenology (Heidegger). Translator and commentator Alain de Libera has translated works by Thomas Aquinas, Averroës and Master Eckhart, and published several works on Latin Averroism and Rhenish mysticism. He has edited several fundamental texts of^13th-centurylogic(Summulae dialectices, Sophismata).

In 2015, Alain de Libera was awarded the Grand Prix de philosophie by the Académie française for his body of work.

Download his bibliography

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Dante and Averroism

de Libera A., Brenet J.-B. and Rosier-Catach I. (dir.), Dante et l'averroïsme, Paris, Les Belles Lettres/The Collège de France Publishing Department, coll. "Docet omnia", 2019.
Philosophical archaeology

de Libera A., L'archéologie philosophique. Collège de France seminar 2013-2014, Paris, Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2016, 267 p.

Presentation

Chair

Alain de Libera

Selected bibliography