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The Silent Transformations by Francois Jullien
L’indifferenza che si accentua, giorno dopo giorno, tra gli amanti, senza che nemmeno se ne accorgano, e così pure le rivoluzioni che si rovesciano, senza clamore, in privilegi, o ancora il riscaldamento del tutte modificazioni che si producono apertamente davanti a noi ma in maniera così continua che non le avvertiamo.Attraverso il pensiero cinese, François Jullien getta luce su quelle “trasformazioni silenziose” che, sotto la risonanza dell’evento, rendono conto della fluidità della vita.
Hardcover
First published March 18, 2009
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About the author
François Jullien
173 books109 followersFrançois Jullien, né en 1951 à Embrun (Hautes-Alpes), est un philosophe, helléniste et sinologue français. Ancien élève de l’École normale supérieure et agrégé de l’université (1974), François Jullien a ensuite étudié la langue et la pensée chinoises à l'université de Pékin et à l'université de Shanghai (1975–1977). Il a été ensuite responsable de l'antenne française de sinologie à Hong-Kong (1978–1981), puis pensionnaire de la Maison franco-japonaise à Tokyo (1985–1987).
Il a été successivement président de l'Association française des études chinoises (de 1988 à 1990), directeur de l'UFR Asie orientale de l'université Paris-Diderot (1990–2000), président du Collège international de philosophie (1995–1998), professeur à l'université Paris-Diderot et directeur de l'Institut de la pensée contemporaine ainsi que du centre Marcel-Granet.
Il a été successivement président de l'Association française des études chinoises (de 1988 à 1990), directeur de l'UFR Asie orientale de l'université Paris-Diderot (1990–2000), président du Collège international de philosophie (1995–1998), professeur à l'université Paris-Diderot et directeur de l'Institut de la pensée contemporaine ainsi que du centre Marcel-Granet.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 16, 2019
Reading this compact, handsome book feels like visiting another planet. Not unpleasant, certainly disorientating. Jullien unveils for us the landscape of classical Chinese thinking through an exploration of the notion of change. Western thinking, rooted in a metaphysics of Being, has no truck with transformation. Tied to a language of predicative statements, it is unable to think transition without resorting to artifice and obscurity.
Jullien: “The fact that Greek thought might be articulated in the language of Being has allowed it to deploy the requirement of determination -logos- allowing it to abstract and produce ‘truth’ and, as a result, to construct this requirement indefinitely in thought, the very requirement of which science and philosophy has been able to take advantage. But at the same time it has deprived itself of an inverse, concealed or abandoned fertility, which might allow the indeterminable to be grasped from the passage or transition. This is why transition is really - ‘logically’, i.e. from the point of view of logos - the sticking point of Greek thought. It contains which appears symptomatic of the handicap from which Greek thought suffers, so that consequently we in Europe have paid less attention to it.” More trenchantly: “The transition literally bores a hole into European thought, reducing it to silence.”
‘Fertility’ is a suggestive metaphor here. Because flourishing nature is a potent source of inspiration for China, a land of agriculturalists. Nature is purposeless, but it transforms all the time. That change reflects a dynamic constellation of forces, a rhizomatic network of energy lines that is impossible to demarcate. There is no metaphysical substrate that carries change along, there is no essence, identity, meaning, destination.
Is there any way we can ‘get a handle’ on this way of understanding transformation? Jullien offers different vantage points. One is the Chinese binome ‘modification-continuation’. One the one hand these terms are opposed, but at the same time each of the terms marks the condition of the other. Together they constitute an persistent unfolding: the modification breaks the continuation, but at the same time does not cease to promote the latter as it emerges from the exhaustion that undermines it. For instance, in the unending chain of seasons “the modification occurs from winter to spring or from summer to autumn, when the cold is reversed and tends towards warmth, or warmth towards cold; as for continuation, it manifests itself from spring to summer, or from autumn to winter, when warmth becomes warmer or the cold becomes colder. Each moment alternates, from modification or from continuation, but even that of the modification, as it corrects the factor which is wearying out by means of the other, functions in such a way as to benefit its other and so serves the continuation of the totality of the process.”
Another entry point is the well-known play of polarities (yin and yang): the deployment of one necessarily leads to the contraction of the other; also one spills into the other and cannot renew itself except through this other.
‘Propensity’, reflected in the Chinese notion of shi, is another term foregrounded by Jullien. He discussed that much more elaborately in his earlier book. Shi is a polysemous network of resonances that revolve around the intuition that the world may be perceived as a particular deployment or arrangement of things to be relied upon and worked to one’s advantage. This is another form of ‘efficacy’ than that which is rooted in the Greek concept of ‘eidos’, the ideal model that represents a duty-to-be, and from which a telos is derived.
But we should be weary of ‘conceptualizing’ this too much. The Tao ís transition. But it ‘cannot be named’. Not because of some mystical character, but simply because it is “what one sees but does not perceive”, or “what one listens but does not hear.” It is without characteristic materiality which could individualize it. We, as Westerners, can’t even talk about the Tao as our predicative language inevitably trails essentialisation in its wake. “All philosophy, no matter how radical its questioning, comes only afterwards, and it is enfolded in the idiom which it can only reflect.”
Still, in the final chapter Jullien reflects on the question whether silent transformation could be operationalised as an art of management. Sun Tzu reflected Chinese wisdom in his art of war. Strategically this translates into an approach of inducement and maturation rather than planning and forced intervention. Aid what emerges on its own! “In other words, to tranform silently the situation engaged in such a way that it progressively inclines in a favourable direction and that this gradual inflection, forming a gradient, will cause the effects to come tumbling down by themselves, therefore indirectly of any desired end: as tiny as the favourable factors located in the heart of the situation might initially be, whoever knows how to propagate them will be able to make the ‘potential of the situation’ tip over onto his side.”
The Silent Transformations is an intriguing book. It’s fun to read as Jullien seems to have shaped the narrative intentionally to hint at a yin vs yang play of polarities. The pendulum swings constantly between Greek and Chinese thought, whereby the écart of the swing allows to diagnosticize one through the other (modification) and also allows one intellectual tradition to seek sustenance with the other (continuation). A succession of themes emerges through that meandering motion including the notion of time, the concept of history and the status of the event.
Furthermore, Jullien weaves in poignant reflections on processes that manifest themselves in most lives - ageing, breakups in relations, moves - that help to sense the radically mundane character of Chinese wisdom.
“What remains, in fact? What else is there still right in front of us but the grass which grows and the mountains which erode, bodies which become heavy and faces which become emaciated, life which fecundates, or becomes exhausted, or rather which, while fecundating, is already starting to become exhausted? And vague expectations that crystallize into feverish passion, or else meetings that become less frequent. Or amorous complicities which, without being confessed, turn into relations of power? Or heroic revolutions which (without our being able to locate when) mutate into the privileges of the Party? Or else the wounds of yesterday which are displaced, buried and condensed, and then transcribe themselves into encrypted representation of dreams - and works which ripen in silence?”
Jullien: “The fact that Greek thought might be articulated in the language of Being has allowed it to deploy the requirement of determination -logos- allowing it to abstract and produce ‘truth’ and, as a result, to construct this requirement indefinitely in thought, the very requirement of which science and philosophy has been able to take advantage. But at the same time it has deprived itself of an inverse, concealed or abandoned fertility, which might allow the indeterminable to be grasped from the passage or transition. This is why transition is really - ‘logically’, i.e. from the point of view of logos - the sticking point of Greek thought. It contains which appears symptomatic of the handicap from which Greek thought suffers, so that consequently we in Europe have paid less attention to it.” More trenchantly: “The transition literally bores a hole into European thought, reducing it to silence.”
‘Fertility’ is a suggestive metaphor here. Because flourishing nature is a potent source of inspiration for China, a land of agriculturalists. Nature is purposeless, but it transforms all the time. That change reflects a dynamic constellation of forces, a rhizomatic network of energy lines that is impossible to demarcate. There is no metaphysical substrate that carries change along, there is no essence, identity, meaning, destination.
Is there any way we can ‘get a handle’ on this way of understanding transformation? Jullien offers different vantage points. One is the Chinese binome ‘modification-continuation’. One the one hand these terms are opposed, but at the same time each of the terms marks the condition of the other. Together they constitute an persistent unfolding: the modification breaks the continuation, but at the same time does not cease to promote the latter as it emerges from the exhaustion that undermines it. For instance, in the unending chain of seasons “the modification occurs from winter to spring or from summer to autumn, when the cold is reversed and tends towards warmth, or warmth towards cold; as for continuation, it manifests itself from spring to summer, or from autumn to winter, when warmth becomes warmer or the cold becomes colder. Each moment alternates, from modification or from continuation, but even that of the modification, as it corrects the factor which is wearying out by means of the other, functions in such a way as to benefit its other and so serves the continuation of the totality of the process.”
Another entry point is the well-known play of polarities (yin and yang): the deployment of one necessarily leads to the contraction of the other; also one spills into the other and cannot renew itself except through this other.
‘Propensity’, reflected in the Chinese notion of shi, is another term foregrounded by Jullien. He discussed that much more elaborately in his earlier book. Shi is a polysemous network of resonances that revolve around the intuition that the world may be perceived as a particular deployment or arrangement of things to be relied upon and worked to one’s advantage. This is another form of ‘efficacy’ than that which is rooted in the Greek concept of ‘eidos’, the ideal model that represents a duty-to-be, and from which a telos is derived.
But we should be weary of ‘conceptualizing’ this too much. The Tao ís transition. But it ‘cannot be named’. Not because of some mystical character, but simply because it is “what one sees but does not perceive”, or “what one listens but does not hear.” It is without characteristic materiality which could individualize it. We, as Westerners, can’t even talk about the Tao as our predicative language inevitably trails essentialisation in its wake. “All philosophy, no matter how radical its questioning, comes only afterwards, and it is enfolded in the idiom which it can only reflect.”
Still, in the final chapter Jullien reflects on the question whether silent transformation could be operationalised as an art of management. Sun Tzu reflected Chinese wisdom in his art of war. Strategically this translates into an approach of inducement and maturation rather than planning and forced intervention. Aid what emerges on its own! “In other words, to tranform silently the situation engaged in such a way that it progressively inclines in a favourable direction and that this gradual inflection, forming a gradient, will cause the effects to come tumbling down by themselves, therefore indirectly of any desired end: as tiny as the favourable factors located in the heart of the situation might initially be, whoever knows how to propagate them will be able to make the ‘potential of the situation’ tip over onto his side.”
The Silent Transformations is an intriguing book. It’s fun to read as Jullien seems to have shaped the narrative intentionally to hint at a yin vs yang play of polarities. The pendulum swings constantly between Greek and Chinese thought, whereby the écart of the swing allows to diagnosticize one through the other (modification) and also allows one intellectual tradition to seek sustenance with the other (continuation). A succession of themes emerges through that meandering motion including the notion of time, the concept of history and the status of the event.
Furthermore, Jullien weaves in poignant reflections on processes that manifest themselves in most lives - ageing, breakups in relations, moves - that help to sense the radically mundane character of Chinese wisdom.
“What remains, in fact? What else is there still right in front of us but the grass which grows and the mountains which erode, bodies which become heavy and faces which become emaciated, life which fecundates, or becomes exhausted, or rather which, while fecundating, is already starting to become exhausted? And vague expectations that crystallize into feverish passion, or else meetings that become less frequent. Or amorous complicities which, without being confessed, turn into relations of power? Or heroic revolutions which (without our being able to locate when) mutate into the privileges of the Party? Or else the wounds of yesterday which are displaced, buried and condensed, and then transcribe themselves into encrypted representation of dreams - and works which ripen in silence?”
April 27, 2017
This is a subtle but powerful book which slowly builds within 159 short pages to unfold a questioning of the entire basis of (most) Western thought -- or, at least, a questioning of any Western thought which necessarily presupposes substance/identity/non-contradiction over-and-above process/fluidity/transformation. In his treatment of Chinese thought (and thus of "Eastern" thought more generally, by implication) Jullien is careful to avoid simply advocating for an "exotic window" (p. 126) into another way of thinking, an ultimately empty and condescending multicultural gesture.* (As he notes in another book: "The purpose of dialogue between cultures is not to attach labels indicating what belongs to what, but rather to create new opportunities, to give philosophy a fresh start"; and on p. 154 here: "I would challenge such a culturist point of view just as much as I would our easy universalism...") At the same time he is also clearly aware of the short-shrift Western intellectual culture has by and large given Chinese and Eastern thinking, commonly relegating it to "the flourishing genres of zen, 'well-being' and 'personal development' (in the form of non-books) that prosper from the renunciation of any construction of thought" (p. 146). What he's actually after is to create a "lever to move what has become immoveable within our philosophical questions, and, still more, in their preconceptions" (p. 126). In other words, the aim is not to save the honor of some Western or non-Western "other" (nor to apply an "other" back onto Western thinking as a facelift), but to actually find routes into more insightful ways of thinking (and, hopefully, into more wothwhile ways of acting, also).
What makes this book especially valuable is Jullien's nuanced knowledge of both the Western and Chinese sources -- he easily moves from analyzing Plato and Aristotle's constitutive inability to conceptualize transformation in-itself to applying these same formal insights right back onto contemporary Western life (re: Jullien's re-characterization of Western, globalized media as "spectacle," p. 131; Chapter 9's reading of Alain Badiou's prioritization of "the event" as symptomatic of the mis-recognition of the silent transformations which, from another perspective, actually make "events," and eventuality in general, possible to begin with).
Although he deals with Henri Bergson briefly, Jullien tends to avoid addressing head-on some of the (minor but already existing) trends within Western traditions which are closer to his own emphasis -- some varieties of pragmatism, Whitehead's process philosophy, etc. This omission could be seen as a fault, or else as an intentional decision to streamline his main argument. An expanded version of this sort of analysis could definitely benefit by including more material on the variations within the respective traditions, as well (which Jullien does at least acknowledge, p. 25: "We know that every culture is plural, as much as it is singular..."). Moving seamlessly from various metaphysical debates and/or missed exchanges to their relevant social and political correlates is no small feat, though.
---
*For example, Jullien explicitly avoids the temptation of claiming to "correct" Western thinking by just shuffling or re-prioritizing various subject positions or categorical hierarchies (as opposed to rethinking lousy presuppositions and categories altogether):
< blockquote>"It would be wrong, I think, to consider the diversity of cultures from the perspective of difference. This is because difference relates to identity as well as to its opposite and, as a result, to the demand for identity — we can see well enough how many false debates are pursued today. To consider the diversity of cultures on the basis of their differences leads to their being attributed with specific features and it encloses each of them within a unity of principle" (pp. 25-26).
< blockquote>"...There is another example I hardly dare advance since the determinisms in this case seem so ideologically fixed, defended as they are by good conscience. This is the 'untouchability' by which (as is proved to us every day?) so-called 'subaltern' categories or once scorned social groups are equally able to prevail: more effectively than anyone they can (like civil servants) claim from the outset to be understaffed, overworked, exploited, lacking respect and so on, and on principle to be so badly off that we are always afraid of bothering them and that any action on their behalf appears to be a service . . . They make themselves a rampart, rendering themselves impregnable, from the spectacle of their 'weakness'; indeed have a hold over others by retaliation under cover of this determination....Still more, we tend to engage with these determinations as solid blocks upon which our beliefs and convictions depend, without seeing how, under cover of their fixity, the situation could be radically changed with all the more impunity for its not having been announced" (pp. 95-96).
What makes this book especially valuable is Jullien's nuanced knowledge of both the Western and Chinese sources -- he easily moves from analyzing Plato and Aristotle's constitutive inability to conceptualize transformation in-itself to applying these same formal insights right back onto contemporary Western life (re: Jullien's re-characterization of Western, globalized media as "spectacle," p. 131; Chapter 9's reading of Alain Badiou's prioritization of "the event" as symptomatic of the mis-recognition of the silent transformations which, from another perspective, actually make "events," and eventuality in general, possible to begin with).
Although he deals with Henri Bergson briefly, Jullien tends to avoid addressing head-on some of the (minor but already existing) trends within Western traditions which are closer to his own emphasis -- some varieties of pragmatism, Whitehead's process philosophy, etc. This omission could be seen as a fault, or else as an intentional decision to streamline his main argument. An expanded version of this sort of analysis could definitely benefit by including more material on the variations within the respective traditions, as well (which Jullien does at least acknowledge, p. 25: "We know that every culture is plural, as much as it is singular..."). Moving seamlessly from various metaphysical debates and/or missed exchanges to their relevant social and political correlates is no small feat, though.
---
*For example, Jullien explicitly avoids the temptation of claiming to "correct" Western thinking by just shuffling or re-prioritizing various subject positions or categorical hierarchies (as opposed to rethinking lousy presuppositions and categories altogether):
< blockquote>"It would be wrong, I think, to consider the diversity of cultures from the perspective of difference. This is because difference relates to identity as well as to its opposite and, as a result, to the demand for identity — we can see well enough how many false debates are pursued today. To consider the diversity of cultures on the basis of their differences leads to their being attributed with specific features and it encloses each of them within a unity of principle" (pp. 25-26).
< blockquote>"...There is another example I hardly dare advance since the determinisms in this case seem so ideologically fixed, defended as they are by good conscience. This is the 'untouchability' by which (as is proved to us every day?) so-called 'subaltern' categories or once scorned social groups are equally able to prevail: more effectively than anyone they can (like civil servants) claim from the outset to be understaffed, overworked, exploited, lacking respect and so on, and on principle to be so badly off that we are always afraid of bothering them and that any action on their behalf appears to be a service . . . They make themselves a rampart, rendering themselves impregnable, from the spectacle of their 'weakness'; indeed have a hold over others by retaliation under cover of this determination....Still more, we tend to engage with these determinations as solid blocks upon which our beliefs and convictions depend, without seeing how, under cover of their fixity, the situation could be radically changed with all the more impunity for its not having been announced" (pp. 95-96).
April 28, 2022
Wow, what a book! If I could give it 6 stars, I would. Fantastic essay on the concept of transformations and their qualities with an incredible comparison between ancient Greek philosophy (and language), and Chinese thought (and language).
As a translator of Chinese, I'm in awe of this masterful essay and how well Jullien captures the paradigm difference between western culture and China. Be advised, it's not an easy book to read and requires good focus and loads of quiet, but a must-read for anyone whose thought leans towards long-term mentality and systems thinking.
As a translator of Chinese, I'm in awe of this masterful essay and how well Jullien captures the paradigm difference between western culture and China. Be advised, it's not an easy book to read and requires good focus and loads of quiet, but a must-read for anyone whose thought leans towards long-term mentality and systems thinking.
October 12, 2016
Eh ça devait arriver : je m'étais largement planté sur Jullien. Son charabia en conférence me l'avait fait ranger dans l'étagère des découvreurs d'Orient qui oublient l'étrangeté de leur bas de porte. Je me suis lourdement trompé et, si on peut lui reprocher son parti-pris chinois, Jullien soutient avec beaucoup de finesse ses avancées et incursions. Au commencement était la métaphysique et la physique grecque. L'une amoureuse du Temps support de l’événement et de ses marionnettes tragiques (la mort, la vieillesse, l'erreur), l'autre de tout un tas de choses (le temps aussi mais surtout le sujet, la chose, le réel, le changement et, lorsqu'elle est ivre, le devenir). "La pensée chinoise" (le Classique du changement reste la boussole du livre) ne livre pas clé en main des alternatives et encore moins des solutions ("méfiez-vous des solutions" répétait Deleuze). Ce détour par la Chine nous offre ce que "la pensée européenne" aime tant c'est-à-dire une autocritique. Car c'est via la Chine que Hegel apparaît comme le moins grec des penseurs, et pourtant toujours pris au piège de la grande finalité, "du Dieu caché" bref de l'ontothéologie. Comme quoi Heidi parfois... Les transformations silencieuses, sorte d'autre canevas de la pensée, deviennent alors par réflexion les miroirs sans trace de nos impasses conceptuelles. La bonne nouvelle c'est que ça n'est pas une affaire de philosophe : les transformations silencieuses appellent à mieux voir en quoi l'amour brûlant appelle déjà celui qui ennuie (la négativité donc !). La mauvaise c'est que, pour la même raison, il faut s'y acclimater, se les rendre visibles puisqu'elles ne font pas de bruit - sans toutefois trop les secouer ("briser par un grand acte"). Pour ça l'Europe n'est pas pour autant tout à fait sans ressource : à leur manière Derrida mais surtout Deleuze ont initié cet au-delà de la pensée grecque qu'il est temps de laisser tomber de l'arbre. "Avec toi :) ?"
(septembre)
(septembre)
August 14, 2015
This is probably one of the most exiting books I have ever read. Exiting in that with patience and close(re)reading, new processes of thought and cognition could develop within the reader. In quietness and silence, every page unfolds a philosophy that indeed "silently transforms".
One has to pay close attention, and (re)read carefully, but for all that, what an adventure! Like one of those journeys one has in their early twenties that radically transform the way you perceive the world.
Thank you, François Jullien.
One has to pay close attention, and (re)read carefully, but for all that, what an adventure! Like one of those journeys one has in their early twenties that radically transform the way you perceive the world.
Thank you, François Jullien.
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September 8, 2025“It is the same in life; the heart changes, and it is our worst sorrow; but we know it only through reading, through our imagination: in reality its alteration, like that of certain natural phenomena, is so gradual that, even if we are able to distinguish, successively, each of its different states, we are still spared the actual sensation of change.”
- Marcel Proust
- Marcel Proust
September 18, 2024
an amazing exploration of what change looks like.
December 11, 2011
A rarity in those who would dabble in the dark arts of East-West comparison, Jullien is distinguished by his clear understanding of the Chinese language, which he uses to inform his philosophical insights in a way that is fluid and respectful, and does not exoticize the language or make impossible claims. While I find his ideas convincing, well-expressed and well-argued, I only wish he had something more profound to say (really, the subject/event, the concept of time and binary oppositions in Western though are problematic? Haven't we known that since the sixties). However, even as merely a remarkably lucid (for philosophy) exposition of principles, Jullien is perhaps enacting his ideal; that is, an understated book that simply tries to shift the discourse to where it ought to go anyhow.
January 4, 2015
How does our language grant and shape our sense of “being-ness?” What, if anything, is the beginning of things—and why does the answer matter? Before 1700 CE, the far eastern traditions had an entirely different “common sense” notion of the answers to these questions than we universally hold today. Modernity holds a necessarily “western” bias that is not serving us as well as it once did.
“The Silent Transformations” reexamines “the basics” of epistemology and metaphysics and shows how it is possible to entertain and to profit from ideas that are often truly “alien” to western thinking. This is a slow and difficult read, but it is well worth the effort.
“The Silent Transformations” reexamines “the basics” of epistemology and metaphysics and shows how it is possible to entertain and to profit from ideas that are often truly “alien” to western thinking. This is a slow and difficult read, but it is well worth the effort.
June 4, 2016
Sinologue et héléniste François Jullien met en relief "l'écart" entre la philosophie occidentale et la philosophie chinoise au travers des différences linguistique entre le grec et le chinois. Cet "écart" permet donc de completement chambouler la vision occidental en montrant une ouverture à la dialectique qu'elle a placé en son sein et à la conception du sujet occidental. Il ne s'agit pas d'une critique de l'occident, mais d'un enrichissement et d'un élargissement des conceptions de la pensée occidentale.
February 28, 2015
An important book for those of us who are aging...
December 26, 2015
Il solito Jullien. Espone con semplicità le più profonde riflessioni contornandole con cultura ampia e varia.
March 31, 2016
Peut causer des transformations absolument pas silencieuses dans notre manière de voir les choses. Magnifique et passionnant.
April 23, 2025
Real G's move in silence like transformations.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews