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Moderately Modern
Il faut être « modérément moderne », et non « résolument », comme le préconisait Rimbaud dans un slogan aussi galvaudé que creux. Et prendre ses distances d’avec cette maladie, la « modernite ». De ces fameux « Temps Modernes », que peut dire un philosophe qui a décidé de ne pas avancer masqué?
Complaisante modernité, qui se clame en « rupture » avec tout ! Et d’abord avec le passé pour lequel elle a inventé le nom de « Moyen Âge ». Alors que la modernité en vit comme un parasite, dans une dialectique autodestructrice. Car au fond, qu’a-t-elle inventé ? Ni la révolution technique, ni l’urbanisation, ni la société civile, ni même la personne comme sujet de libertés… Les idées modernes ne sont que des idées prémodernes, maquillées comme une marchandise volée.
Avec le recul et la capacité d’analyse que lui permet sa formidable culture, Rémi Brague nous offre une série de réflexions incisives sur les notions de Modernité, de Culture, d’Histoire, de Sécularisation, de Progrès… Chemin faisant, il met en avant des penseurs qui sortent des sentiers battus, des idées qu’on avait oubliées, des rapprochements qui font avancer.
Peut-on guérir de la « modernite » ? C’est l’ambition de cet essai revigorant, qui n’interdit pas d’être résolument optimiste…
Complaisante modernité, qui se clame en « rupture » avec tout ! Et d’abord avec le passé pour lequel elle a inventé le nom de « Moyen Âge ». Alors que la modernité en vit comme un parasite, dans une dialectique autodestructrice. Car au fond, qu’a-t-elle inventé ? Ni la révolution technique, ni l’urbanisation, ni la société civile, ni même la personne comme sujet de libertés… Les idées modernes ne sont que des idées prémodernes, maquillées comme une marchandise volée.
Avec le recul et la capacité d’analyse que lui permet sa formidable culture, Rémi Brague nous offre une série de réflexions incisives sur les notions de Modernité, de Culture, d’Histoire, de Sécularisation, de Progrès… Chemin faisant, il met en avant des penseurs qui sortent des sentiers battus, des idées qu’on avait oubliées, des rapprochements qui font avancer.
Peut-on guérir de la « modernite » ? C’est l’ambition de cet essai revigorant, qui n’interdit pas d’être résolument optimiste…
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2014
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About the author
Rémi Brague
97 books55 followersFrench historian of philosophy, specializing in the Arabic, Jewish, and Christian thought of the Middle Ages. He is professor emeritus of Arabic and religious philosophy at the Sorbonne, and Romano Guardini chair of philosophy (emeritus) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Brague is the recipient of numerous awards, including honors by both the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Academy of Moral and Political Science. In 2009, he received both the Josef Pieper Prize and the Grand prix de philosophie de l'Académie française, and he was awarded the 2012 Ratzinger Prize for Theology alongside Brian E. Daley. In 2013, he was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur.
Brague is the recipient of numerous awards, including honors by both the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Academy of Moral and Political Science. In 2009, he received both the Josef Pieper Prize and the Grand prix de philosophie de l'Académie française, and he was awarded the 2012 Ratzinger Prize for Theology alongside Brian E. Daley. In 2013, he was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 10, 2021
This is for me a humbling book, really. For example, during my reading I produced a list of approximately 100 words I looked up in order to define, which proved helpful (and rewarding) as I went through the text, rather like revisiting a high school literature assignment for building vocabulary. Not many books I read so challenge my working vocabulary so widely.
But humbling in a deeper way: the book is pregnant with ideas I could have stopped and pondered, scores of statements I could have written down to reconsider at my leisure. To me the author seems an insightful thinker and analyst of our most pressing project, how to deal with Modernity.
Remi Brague conceives that project as an acknowledgement that the past (which he urges us to value) has enabled us to be who we are today, but the future remains in doubt: "The future will not come of its own, one must make it come. There are decisions that prevent the future from coming. Those that will render it possible ought to be taken starting today." [p. 255]
His erudition is evident throughout, with footnotes conveniently placed at the foot of each page in acknowledgment of his sources and inspirations through the ages. It is a Who's Who listing of the major contributors toward the making of what we call Western Civilization, both the well known and the obscure (at least to this reader).
At times I lost the train of his thought, at times he seemed to develop his ideas to a tiresome degree, but I granted him whatever leeway his wished since I found his thesis of vital importance. And he returned again and again to ideas I could readily grasp, so that I could pick up his train of thought and be renewed in reflection.
A book to reread, but I am not sure that I will, which is a shame.
But humbling in a deeper way: the book is pregnant with ideas I could have stopped and pondered, scores of statements I could have written down to reconsider at my leisure. To me the author seems an insightful thinker and analyst of our most pressing project, how to deal with Modernity.
Remi Brague conceives that project as an acknowledgement that the past (which he urges us to value) has enabled us to be who we are today, but the future remains in doubt: "The future will not come of its own, one must make it come. There are decisions that prevent the future from coming. Those that will render it possible ought to be taken starting today." [p. 255]
His erudition is evident throughout, with footnotes conveniently placed at the foot of each page in acknowledgment of his sources and inspirations through the ages. It is a Who's Who listing of the major contributors toward the making of what we call Western Civilization, both the well known and the obscure (at least to this reader).
At times I lost the train of his thought, at times he seemed to develop his ideas to a tiresome degree, but I granted him whatever leeway his wished since I found his thesis of vital importance. And he returned again and again to ideas I could readily grasp, so that I could pick up his train of thought and be renewed in reflection.
A book to reread, but I am not sure that I will, which is a shame.
March 23, 2018
Jeden zo zabalzamovaných humanistov, ktorý v duchu najlepšej tradície francúzskej esejistickej tradície vie písať (za mňa) perfektné analýzy. Keďže som ale nenašla v databáze to, čo čítam (Podstata človeka. O ohrožení lidské legitimity. CDK Praha 2017, pôvodne Propre de l` home), dávam hviezdičky tejto. Kritika liberalistického konceptu humanizmu.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews