A New Hand of Cards 1982–1983 347
on new themes still coming into being, as well as to avoid the Collège
International de Philosophie rapidly turning into an institution just
like the others. As he explained in Libération:
We have foreseen original arrangements that ought to ensure
a deontology that is as rigorous as possible. There will be, for
example, no [professorial] chairs, no permanent positions, only
contracts of relatively brief duration. Thus, minimal struc-
ture, collegiality, mobility, opening, diversity, priority given to
research that is, precisely, insuffi ciently ‘legitimated’ or under-
developed in French and foreign institutions.^14For Derrida, the main thing was to contrive a rigorous selection
of research projects in a place that should not thereby become ‘a
“centre for advanced studies”, aristocratic and closed, nor even a
centre of higher education’. He was eager that the Collège should
be exposed to ‘the most irruptive provocations of the “sciences”, of
“technology”, of the “arts”.’ But he also wanted – and this was an
idea that had always been close to his heart – to be able to recruit
speakers and programme organizers without paying too much
attention to academic qualifi cations.
On Monday, 10 October 1983, Laurent Fabius – who had suc-
ceeded Jean-Pierre Chevènement –, Jack Lang, and Roger-Gérard
Schwartzenberg offi cially established the Collège in its provisional
premises, 1, rue Descartes, within buildings that had previously
belonged to the École Polytechnique. A two-headed structure
was set up: on the one hand, there was a ‘Collège provisoire’, of
which Derrida was unanimously elected director; on the other,
an ‘Haut conseil de réfl exion’, an advisory body directed by Faye.
But instead of muting the tensions, this dual organization simply
intensifi ed them. It had initially been laid down that every decision
would be signed by the two directors – including the programme
for all the seminars –, but the risk of paralysis immediately reared
its head. After the threat of a collective resignation of the Collège
provisoire, a more fl exible version of the internal regulations was
adopted. Faye was pleased that agreement had been reached and
again expressed his hope that the two bodies ‘would fertilize one
another’.^15
Relations with the outside world were just as diffi cult, since even
before its opening, the Collège International de Philosophie had
aroused many desires and fantasies. Many people hoped to get their
dream job there. So Sarah Kofman complained to Derrida that she
had not been included in any of the ‘guiding bodies’. He assured her
that he had soon realized that it would be ‘wrong, unacceptable,
and tactically clumsy’ for there to be, apart from a few more distant
allies such as Jean-François Lyotard, ‘more than one friend of the,