Deux nouveaux projets pour l'année prochaine

During my stay in Japan this fall, two new ideas occurred to me. As Montaigne already noticed, we think elsewhere. One is to open a new cafe for reading philosophical texts written in French and discussing them in Japanese. I named it "Bergson Cafe". According to a view (Alain Badiou), there are two schools of philosophy in the 20th century's French philosophy. One stresses theoretical aspects of philosophy, the founder being Léon Brunschvicg, and another is originated from Henri Bergson who pursued a philosophy of life. Before entering into philosophy, I had an impression that a goal of philosophy is to establish a theory or a concept. If that is the case, I thought philosophy did not suit me. However, I happened to read Pierre Hadot in a bookstore in Paris in 2006 and came to realize there is another aspect of philosophy, namely "philosophy as a way of life", as he called it. This experience changed my perception of philosophy. That is why I chose "Bergson" for the name of this cafe and we are planning to read the texts in this line of philosophy.

The second project is to organize a forum where scientists discuss with philosophers and researchers in the field of humanities problematics in science and medicine, and themes that are not explicitly clear to scientists and thus have not been discussed by scientists. I named it "Forum of philosophy of science for scientists (FPSS: pronounced fipsee)" and posted an announcement in the internet at the end of last month. I have received positive responses from more than 20 Japanese scientists.The aim of this activity is to recognize current situation of science and to make it publicly open, in the hope that it will make science much closer to non-scientists and that many (philosophical) themes hidden in scientific achievements will be revealed to scientists.  

Activities of the ISHE this fall

I went back to Japan last month to organize several small gatherings to discuss science from philosophical perspectives and philosophical matters with scientists and non-scientists. These are popularization activities of the ISHE. The gatherings were held in Sapporo and in Tokyo. The themes we talked about this time were as follows: "the gene" in Sapporo meeting, "Nicomachean Ethics"and "the plant" in Tokyo meetings. In these meetings, I first present the outline of the topics in about an hour and the discussion ensues for the next hour. Often the discussion time is not enough and we continue our discussion at a party after the session. I have benefited a lot from these activities. I hope the participants also enjoy these occasions. The followings are some of the photos taken before each session.

　The Second Sci-Phi Cafe SHE in Sapporo (2016.11.8)

 
　The Fourth Cafe-Philo PAWL in Tokyo (2016.11.11)



 
　The Tenth Sci-Phi Cafe SHE in Tokyo (2016.11.17)

 
　The Tenth Sci-Phi Cafe SHE in Tokyo (2016.11.18)

Une résolution non réalisable ?

The year 2016 turned out to be a transition year, from a student to a researcher. Since the beginning of the year, I have been immersed in the world of the Japanese, and did not have time to visit this blog. As I mentioned before, I have been engaged in translating Le jeu du hasard et de la complexité (Odile Jacob, 2014) by Prof. Philippe Kourilsky into Japanese. Fortunately, I could finish it by the end of summer. Editing process will last for about 6 months, according to the editor. In fall, I moved from Paris, the city I had lived for 9 years, to Tours, the city that seems to be pleasant to live in. Being now in transition from 2016 to 2017, several ideas to be done in 2017 occurred to me. I am thinking of finishing one by one with an ascetic spirit. But is it an achievable resolution?