The Slow Reception of Marcel Gauchet

Abstract

The work of Marcel Gauchet remains little known in the academic world outside France. This delay can be seen as an illustration of the power of “French theory” over the reception of new works in the academic world. In the existing discussion, Gauchet’s thought has been framed as a new expression of political liberalism, and hence as a return to political orthodoxy, after the radicalism of the thought of the 1960s. This characterization is likely to have had a discouraging effect on readers marked by “the thought of 68”. In fact, Gauchet’s work is an analysis of the genesis and operative conditions of liberal society, rather than an advocacy of liberal ideology. The key claim is that contemporary liberal democracy can only be understood if it is seen in the long term historical perspective, as an alternative to the religious structuration that has historically shaped collective existence. The opposition of religious and modern society is based on a reflection on the constitution of what Gauchet calls “l’etre-ensemble” (being-together, collective-being). A more intensive reception and discussion of his work will need to engage with the problem of the translation of this and a set of related terms (le champ humain-social, l’espace social etc.) signalling the same problematic. The translation of these terms is key to an engagement with Gauchet’s historical projection since they carry the underlying philosophical reflection on the conditions of collective existence which allows the recasting of the question of modernity in primarily social and political terms.