Le Tiers-Instruit

by Michel Serres

Etrange et original, déjà mélangé des gènes de son père et de sa mère, en tiers entre eux, tout enfant n'évolue que par nouveaux croisements, toute pédagogie reprend l'engendrement et la naissance d'un enfant : né gaucher, il apprend à se servir de la main droite, demeure gaucher, renaît droitier, au confluent des deux sens ; né gascon, il le reste et devient français, en fait métissé ; français, il se fait espagnol, italien, anglais, ou allemand, s'il épouse et apprend leur culture et leur langue, en gardant les siennes propres, le voici quarteron, âme et corps mêlés.
Son esprit ressemble au manteau d'Arlequin. Cela vaut pour instruire autant que pour élever les corps. Le métis, ici, s'appelle Tiers-Instruit. Scientifique, plutôt, par nature, il entre dans la culture parce que la science épouse aujourd'hui les questions, par elle seule imprévisible, de la douleur et du mal. Il suffit d'apprendre deux choses : la raison exacte et les maux injustes ; la liberté d'invention, donc de pensée, s'ensuit. Cela vaut enfin pour la conduite et la sagesse, pour l'éducation.
Elle consiste et demande à épouser l'altérité la plus étrangère, à renaître donc métis. Aime l'autre qui engendre en toi une troisième personne, l'esprit.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Education, 20th Century

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Michel Serres was a French philosopher, theorist and author.

Reviews

[EB · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Universally, then, because man is nothing, he can: infinite capacity. I am no one and I am worth nothing— capable, then, of learning everything and of inventing everything, body, soul, understanding, and wisdom. Since God and man are dead, reduced to pure nothingness, their creative power is resurrected” (155).

In-between the humanities and the sciences lies what Serres calls “the third” place: this is the space we inhabit in order to invent and create. The whole book seems to come out of the third place Serres talks about, and reading it really mimics the journey he describes. I felt like as I was reading I was watching the book being invented. It has so many twists and turns into different topics and modes of thinking. (This is pretty standard in many of Serres’s books.)

What I also love about this book is the frustration it creates. In his twists and turns, Serres references so many different theories (philosophical, mathematical, scientific) and works within history that it makes it difficult to understand every single point he’s making. But I think this frustration is exactly part of the learning process that Serres advocates for. Learning isn’t about regurgitating or defining concepts. It’s subtle. It’s a process. It exists in large part outside of language.

[Joseph M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book by Mr. Serres. I enjoyed it! Its a very skillfully written treatise on how the process of learning is about complexity and reconciliation of contrasting parts of ourselves. Living with the unsolvable and no doubt hard contradictions of our day and age: this certainly causes suffering but it also puts us in a 'third place' where joyful invention is possible. As such Serres is veery inventive, and a lot of the 'Ethics' (in the sense used by Spinoza) here are about leaving behind what stabilizes or comforts and instead seeking the unknown playfully and joyfully while knowing the real danger that comes from that. He goes into authors I really didn't know much beyond surface level about, like Prosper Merimee.
Still, Serres is a bit (to say the least) fond of using a very complex, or at least very impulsive (in the sense of raw and polemical), style. You can tell he writes from inner impulse, which is very welcome, but I would like some footnotes, references, and such. The poetic mode of language works to illustrate Serres points well enough most of the time, but a clarifying sentence or two is kind of needed in some of the more abstract passages.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous work from Serres... adore especially the places where he advocates for the use of prose or narrative to articulate elements of experience which theory simply cannot capture in its complexity... amazing mastery of language, honestly Proustian in quality which is exceptionally rare for a political theorist. The only reason I am not putting this on my favourites shelf is bc I already have two Serres books there.

"What does it matter to me to learn whence comes what I will dare to say: I am old enough, that is to say strong enough, to have the courage"

[Dullah Mirza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geser sedikit perspektif dalam kerangka berpikir kritis, And yes, things change.

[Saint Android · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's an unexpected yet beautiful section on herge , the creator of tintin

[myriam kisfaludi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Et bien, je crois que j'ai trouvé pire que Proust pour la longueur des phrases ! on comprend que l'auteur aime les mots, mais que de listes de mots et de jeux de mots! Si on ne sait pas que l'auteur est natif du Sud Ouest de la France, on peut le deviner tellement on a l'impression d'être dans une chanson de Nougaro. le sujet est pourtant très intéressant, Elever, Eduquer, Instruire : passionnant seulement la fulgurance du propos se perd dans ce charabia trop intellectuel et difficilement accessible.

[Clyde Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a dancer and educator I was particularly fond of this book. The first I read after the interviews with Latour. Easier for me to follow even though I don't know all the literary references behind most of his books.