DIRECTORY 339
DANIEL DENNETT
1942–Born in Beirut, the American
philosopher Daniel Dennett is an
acclaimed expert on the nature of
cognitive systems. Professor of
Philosophy at Tufts University,
Massachusetts, he is noted for
his wide-ranging expertise in
linguistics, artificial intelligence,
neuroscience, and psychology.
Using memorable and creative
labels, such as “Joycean machine”
for stream of consciousness, he
argues that the source of free will
and consciousness is the brain’s
computational circuitry, which
tricks us into thinking we are more
intelligent than we actually are.
See also: Gilbert Ryle 337 ■
Willard Van Orman Quine 278–79 ■
Michel Foucault 302–03MARCEL GAUCHET
1946–The French philosopher, historian,
and sociologist Marcel Gauchet
has written widely on democracy
and the role of religion in the
modern world. He is the editor of
the intellectual French periodical
Le Débat and a professor at the
École des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris.
His key work, The Disenchantment
of the World: A Political History of
Religion (1985), explores the modern
cult of individualism in the context
of man’s religious past. As religious
belief declines across the Western
world, Gauchet argues that elements
of the sacred has been incorporated
into human relationships and other
social activities.
See also: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
274–75 ■ Michel Foucault 302–03MARTHA NUSSBAUM
1947–Born in New York City, American
philosopher Martha Nussbaum is
the Ernst Freund Distinguished
Service Professor of Law and Ethics
at the University of Chicago. She
has published numerous books
and papers, mainly on ethics and
political philosophy, where the rigor
of her academic enquiry is always
informed by a passionate
liberalism. Her exploration of
ancient Greek ethics, The Fragility
of Goodness (1986), first brought
her acclaim, but she is now equally
well-known for her liberal views on
feminism, as expressed in Sex and
Social Justice (1999), which argues
for radical change in gender and
family relationships.
See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Aristotle
56–63 ■ John Rawls 294–95ISABELLE STENGERS
1949–Isabelle Stengers was born in
Belgium and studied chemistry
at the Free University of Brussels,
where she is now Professor of
Philosophy. She was awarded the
grand prize for philosophy by the
Académie Française in 1993. A
distinguished thinker on science,
Stengers has written extensively
about modern scientific processes,
with a focus on the use of science
for social ends and its relationship
to power and authority. Her books
include Power and Invention (1997)
and The Invention of Modern
Science (2000), and Order Out of
Chaos (1984) with the Nobel Prize-
winning chemist Ilya Prigogine.
See also: Alfred North Whitehead
336 ■ Edgar Morin 338NIKLAS LUHMANN
1927–1998
Born in Lüneburg, Germany, Niklas
Luhmann was captured by the
Americans during World War II,
when he was just 17. After the war
he worked as a lawyer until, in
1962, he took a sabbatical to study
sociology in America. He went
on to become one of the most
important and prolific social
theorists of the 20th century.
Luhmann developed a grand
theory, to explain every element
of social life, from complex well-
established societies to the briefest
of exchanges, lasting just seconds.
In his most important work, The
Society of Society (1997), he argues
that communication is the only
genuinely social phenomenon.
See also: Jürgen Habermas 306-07
MICHEL SERRES
1930–
The French author and philosopher
Michel Serres studied mathematics
before taking up philosophy. He is
a professor at Stanford University
in California and a member of the
prestigious Académie Française.
His lectures and books are
presented in French, with an
elegance and fluidity that is hard
to translate. His post-humanist
enquiries take the form of “maps”,
where the journeys themselves
play an major role. He has been
described as a “thinker for whom
voyaging is invention”, finding
truths in the chaos, discord, and
disorder revealed in the links
between the sciences, arts, and
contemporary culture.
See also: Roland Barthes 290–91 ■
Jacques Derrida 308–13