Background
Serres, Michel was born in 1930 in South of France.
Philosopher of science epistemologist: mariner
Serres, Michel was born in 1930 in South of France.
Professor. History of Science, Sorbonne.
Main publications:
(1966) ‘Etablissement, par nombres et figures de l'harmonie préétablie’, in Revue of International Philosophy 20: 216-27.
(1967) ‘Analyse symbolique et méthode structurale/ 2’, Revue Philosophique de France 4: 157.
(1967) ‘Le Retour de la nef’, Les Études Philosophiques 22: 251-64.
(1968) ‘L'Évidence, la vision et la tact’. Les Études Philosophiques 2: 191-6.
(1969) Hermès I: La Communication, Paris: Minuit. (1971) Genèse: Récits métaphysiques, Paris: Grasset.
(1974) Hermès III: La Traduction. Paris: Minuit.
(1975) Esthétiques sur Carpaccio, Paris: Hermann. (1975) Feux et signaux de brume: Zola, Paris:
Grasset.
( 1977) La Naissance de la physique dans le texte de Lucrèce: Fleuves et turbulences, Paris: Minuit. (1977) Hermès IV: La Distribution, Paris: Minuit. (1980) Hermès V: Le Passage du Nord-Ouest, Paris: Minuit (Hermès: Literature, Science and Philosophy. ed. Josue V. Harari and David F. Bell, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1982: translation of selections from Hermès I VJ.
(1980) Le Parasite, Paris: Grasset (English translation, The Parasite, trans. with notes Lawrence R. Schehr, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982).
( 1982) Le Système de Leibniz et ses modèles mathématiques 2 vols, republished in 1 volume. Paris: PUF.
( 1983) Rome: Le Livre desfondations, Paris: Grasset.
(1983) Detachment apologue. Paris: Flammarion. (1985) Les Cinq Sens, Paris: Seuil.
(1987) ‘L'Anthropologie des sciences: Un programme pour la philosophie?’ Philosopiques 14: 147-71.
(1992) ‘The natural contract’, trans. F. McCarren, Critical Inquiry 19, 1: 1-21.
Secondary literature:
(1979) ‘Interférence et turbulences *, Critique 380 (contains essays on Serres by Shoshana Felman, René Girard, Pierre Pachet, Claud Mouchard and others).
Descombes, Vincent (1980) Modem French Philosophy, trans. L. Scott-Fox and J. L. Harding, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 85-92. Latour. Bruno (1987) ‘The Enlightenment without the critique: a word on Michel Serres’ philosophy’, Philosophy 21: 83-97.
Mortley, Raoul (ed.) (1991) French Philosophers in Conversation: Levinas. Schneider. Serres, Irigaray, Le Doeuff, Derrida, New York: Routledge.
Serres’ work is encyclopedic in scope and presents a radical challenge to established views on epistemology and the philosophy of science: all kinds of data inform and contribute towards an holistic philosophy calling into question the delimitation of science and knowledge away from a broad interpretation of the senses and communication. The main orientation being to produce a theory of human relations and institutions. Serres began with a study of Leibniz.
Certain themes defined there remain prevalent throughout his work, notably those of combination, communication and invention. In the Hermès series (1969-1977) Serres deals with the relationship between communication, translation and interference. He analyses the fundamental systems at work in a text and shows that such systems are analogous to those at work in other seemingly unrelated texts.
In La Distribution (1977) Serres goes on to ask radical questions about origins, the roots of language and our notions of space and time. Serre’s later work pushes this radical question of the foundation of epistemology into a rethinking of the senses and their relation to preset interferences, both between senses and between preexisting structures and the senses. For example, in Le Parasite (1980) Serres shows that there is a fundamental parasitical component at the root of all major human institutions and disciplines—society, economy, the major sciences and the hard sciences.
Thus a drift away from science and towards the senses marks Serres work as a whole. This move towards the senses and to their poeticliterary presentation can be seen best in the later books, notably in Les Cinq Sens (1985).