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Beyond the Hippocratic Oath Sunday October 14th 2012 / Power House Arena bookstore

The Author

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Pierre Zaoui is a senior lecturer in Philosophy at Paris VII University. He is a member of the International Center for Studies in French Philosophy and chair of the International College of Philosophy (Ciph) in Paris. His research focuses on the works of Spinoza and Gilles Deleuze.

La Traversée des catastrophes. Philosophie pour le meilleur et pour le pire [Surpassing Tragedy. A Philosophy for Better of for Worse] (Seuil, 2010)

Bibliography L’abstraction matérielle. L’argent au-delà de la morale et de l’économie [Material Abstraction. Money, Beyond Ethics and Economics] (La Découverte, 2012) La Traversée des catastrophes. Philosophie pour le meilleur et pour le pire [Surpassing Tragedy. A Philosophy for Better of for Worse] (Seuil, 2010) Vivre, c’est croire. Portrait philosophique de David Hume [Living Is Believing. A Philosophical Portrait of David Hume] (Bayard, 2010) Spinoza, la décision de soi [Spinoza, or the Free Will] (Bayard, 2008) Le Libéralisme est-il une sauvagerie ? [Liberalism, a Vicious Concept ?] (Bayard, 2007) Fresh Théorie II [Fresh Theory II] (Joint Publication) (Léo Scheer, 2006) L’Intime [On Intimacy] (Joint Publication) (ENSBA, 2004) © Ulf Andersen

Pierre Zaoui France

Can we survive our own lives? Life always ends badly, but sometimes it can also take several bad turns, following its course marked by failure, grief, mourning, sickness, and death. How can we surpass these tragedies?

Through faith, which seems to give meaning to that which is nothing but suffering? What happens to the atheist then? If he wishes to follow his beliefs, he should not try to find meaning in all these sufferings, he should never look for a justification. But what purpose can a shattered living find if the absurdity of life becomes its only possible solace? How should pain and death be thought of? Can they be considered as that which is not familiar to life, as something that does not refer to it, without underestimating their great importance? The crucial connection to be made is that between the terrible reality of misfortune and the absolute value of life, which is the only thing that matters.

This is a rigorously atheist philosophical essay, which asks one essential question: why do we live?

Reviews “Written in a deft pen, this book does not however deny itself the use of linguistic tools, while managing to avoid all metaphorical traps. Going against the idea that philosophical prose is nothing but chatter, Zaoui succeeds in restoring theoretical thought on its proud and sovereign place. Miles away from narcissistic flaunting, his arguments unfold following a solid logic, extremely visceral and absolutely unbiased in the same time. And this might just be the essential condition for being able to spot, in the meaninglessness of each individual suffering, a universal truth.”

Jean Birnbaum, Le Monde des Livres

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L’abstraction matérielle. L’argent au-delà de la morale et de l’économie [Material Abstraction.

Money, Beyond Ethics and Economics] (La Découverte, 2012)

Vivre, c’est croire. Portrait philosophique de David Hume [Living Is Believing. A Philosophical Portrait of David Hume] (Bayard, 2010)

Spinoza, la décision de soi [Spinoza, or the Free Will] (Bayard, 2008)

Le Libéralisme est-il une sauvagerie ?

[Liberalism, a Vicious Concept ?] (Bayard, 2007)

How should we think of money ? This oxymoron title came forth from the reflections and debates between an economist and a philosopher. They lead this study into the realm of politics, as the only way to resolve these antagonisms : the truth is that money is not about morals or economics but about politics. Money is above all the demand of a collective invention.

“Hume must be read and understood today for at least two essential reasons.

Firstly because contemporary times, whether we like to admit it or not, are profoundly Humian, even in their most plain and ordinary manifestations, in their most sluggish dominant beliefs, as they are characterized by the same idle naturalism and the same hopeless economic liberalism. And secondly, because Hume might just be the best possible remedy for this situation.”

“This book should be read as a novel. The novel of free will. First of all, it is divided in two parts, as many novels are. In the first half, “With Spinoza”, the ideas mount, everything moves forward, we feel relieved: the title was not a lie. Yes, we can decide freely, even though not without great effort, quivering and dramatic turns of events, as our hero does while showing us how.

But then comes the second half, “About Spinoza”, and all Spinozism bursts into a myriad of other possible lives, each of them so different and in the same time so similar to the other. It feels like a dream. Under the watchful eye of our hero, psychoanalysts, libertines, workers, lovers, artists, all seem to join hands and take part in a mad waltz. Spinoza becomes a singular but complex pleasure, life’s moment of leisure.”

Liberalism finds itself today at the center of all moral and political debates.

There are those who claim it is a system, to be accepted or rejected in its entirety; then there are those who distinguish between a good political liberalism and bad free-market economics, between a savage liberalism and a moderate one, or between a humanist liberalism and an abominable neo-liberalism. Thus, some are for economic freedom but against individual moral liberty, while others caim the right to freedom of thought, creation, marriage, but not that of exploiting your fellow man.

How can we escape this state of confusion?

P. Z.

P. Z.

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Fresh Théorie II [Fresh Theory II] (Joint Publication) (Léo Scheer, 2006)

Philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, cinema, music, plastic arts, but also photography, pornography, cryptology… The reader will find in this new volume an update on all theories tackled in the previous one – enhanced once again by illustrations made by contemporary artists - but this time in the (obscure) Gothic light of Tim Burton’s cinema, of Peter Witkin’s photographs and of the Adams Family, for an exceptional voyage to the dark side of French Theory.

L’Intime [On Intimacy] (ENSBA, 2004)

(Joint

Publication)

Edited by Eli¬sabeth Lebovici. Texts by Charles Arthur Boyer, Shere Hite, Elisabeth Le¬bovici, JeanCharles Mas¬séra, Laure Murat, Philippe Peltier, Olivier Séguret, Georges Tony Stoll, Pierre Zaoui.

Photos by Rebecca Bournigault This work, bringing together the texts of ten art critics and theorists, is a study of the notion of “intimacy” in the history of artistic thought.

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