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Label: METAPOLITICS File
Jean Starobinski's ideas of reaction and progress
Philosophy

Jean Starobinski's ideas of reaction and progress

written by Eugène Praz

LONG FORMAT ARTICLE, Eugène Praz | In his essay Action et réaction. Vie et aventures d'un couple (1999), originally composed but of firm intellectual rigor, Swiss literary critic Jean Starobinski revisited the concepts of action and reaction, and showed how they have served in the history of ideas, whether scientific, medical, psychological, literary, philosophical or political. The final chapter was devoted to their political aspect. It's worth coming back to it today, because in addition to serving as an illustration for Alain Badiou's Abrégé de métapolitique, published a year before Starobinski's essay, it demonstrates the easy handling, especially in politics, of the terms action, or progress, and reaction, and that nothing is more misleading than words of such generality. What's more, they encourage a tendency to split any political subject in two, always with a few nuances.

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Johan Rochel, the far-center string-puller
Switzerland

Johan Rochel, the far-center string-puller

By Diana-Alice Ramsauer · 11 February 2021
He has at least thirteen hats on his head, as many as the stars on his cantonal flag. At the very limited level of French-speaking Switzerland, he represents a (small) public voice. He proposes his way of seeing the world to anyone who will listen: through the Appel Citoyen movement he co-founded, the Foraus think tank he vice-chaired or the ethics laboratory he still co-directs. He also unpacks his values on 19h30 when he is invited to talk about fundamental freedom, on Le Temps when he conducts a questionnaire on sustainability, or on his blog when he analyzes current events while presenting the object of his research. And when you're a philosopher, «the object of your research» is vast. And diluted.
Julien Rochedy: «I criticize traditional conservatism for its lack of courage».»
France

Julien Rochedy: «I criticize traditional conservatism for its lack of courage».»

By Antoine-Frédéric Bernhard · 04 February 2021
Thirty-two-year-old Julien Rochedy is a former rising star in French politics. As a member of the Front National, the young Ardéchois achieved his highest responsibilities by becoming Marine Le Pen's political advisor for the 2012 presidential campaign, and then by becoming director of the Front National de la Jeunesse the same year. However, the ideological evolution of Marine Le Pen and the party gradually disgusted him - as he explains in a long-form video posted on his YouTube channel. So, in 2014, Julien Rochedy gave up all political involvement. Today, he is fully committed to metapolitics, where, he says, the aim is to lead the fight on the terrain of ideas. To this end, he publishes books, gives lectures and posts videos on the Internet. It was on the internet, without knowing anything about his political commitment, that I discovered Julien Rochedy before asking him for an interview.