A New Hand of Cards 1982–1983 343
Châtelet, and he wanted to add me to the team so that the
philosophy of science wouldn’t get left out. What he’d forgot-
ten was the old hostility between Derrida and Faye. The latter
was not best pleased that it was Derrida rather than he who had
been entrusted with the coordination of the project, though this
seemed natural to Châtelet and myself.^2The mission for the creation of the Collège International de
Philosophie was set up on 18 May 1982. In the shape laid down by
the minister, the project followed on directly from the work of the
Greph and the Estates General of philosophy:
Philosophical research in France currently occupies a still
modest place, limited to certain often quite separate domains in
universities and the CNRS. [.. .]
At a time when the government is preparing to extend the
study of philosophy in secondary education, it is important that
research applied to this discipline be assured of the conditions
and instruments best adapted to its fl ourishing. [.. .]
From this point of view, it seems to be opportune to
study the conditions of creation of a Collège International de
Philosophie, a centre of research and training for inter-scientifi c
research, able to foster innovative ideas, open to new research
and pedagogic experiments, and capable of setting up organic
relationships with analogous institutions abroad.^3On 25 May, a mail shot went out through France and several
other countries, while the press reported on the project. Services
were off ered from all sides, in every shape and form, from pretty
much the whole world. Some days, several dozen of them arrived,
many of them addressed personally to Derrida. As he told Paul de
Man, he was living in ‘a state of crazy hyperactivity almost com-
pletely foreign to [his] interests and tastes, against a background
of anxiety at the vanity, the risks, the obstacles’ of everything to
do with the Collège International de Philosophie – especially as
the project was developing ‘amid pitfalls and eagerness, hatreds
and battles’ that he left it to de Man to imagine. As for his per-
sonal situation, Derrida, as often, took a rather sombre view of it
all:
Strangely, and really rather suspiciously, the new regime is
showing me a great deal of ‘symbolic’ deference, sending me
countless signals, but without ever committing itself to any-
thing (for example for a rather more decent post that shows no
sign of coming). They are giving me the most promising signs,
but they are no more than signs and – since I’m rather familiar