Many readers of this blog will be aware of the remarkable institution known as the Collège International de Philosophie, based in Paris and supported by the French government since 1983. During its more than 30-year existence, the Collège has offered an extraordinary range of very high-quality free and public programs in France and around the world. It is, as such, one of the world's foremost institutions dedicated to public philosophy.
Sadly, the Collège now stands days away from being forced to close because the funds to support its operations have not been paid. As is detailed here, the Collège has been the subject of a number of discussions concerning its maintenance since 2012, which led to its association with the new Université Paris Lumières in 2013. This administrative association was supposed to provide a sustainable home for the Collège; but the 240,000 Euros that form the Collège's annual operating budget have been withheld by the ministry responsible for the UPL and its associated elements—leaving the institution days away from bankruptcy.
There is a petition circulating where people can offer support for the Collège—below the fold you can find, with his permission, Gabriel Rockhill's translation of the original French text (which also details the situation that the Collège is facing, and its accomplishments and history, a bit further than my remarks above).
Everyone Should Have a Right to Philosophy: Save the Collège international de philosophie
In November 2014, if an arm of the state does not decide to intervene, the Collège international de philosophie will close its doors after 30 years of activity and production in substantial international networks. A space of experimentation, of innovative research and original training, will disappear. The blade of the Ministry of Research has fallen: a subsidy of 240,000 Euros is about to be eliminated. The Collège needs this sum immediately in order to pay the four salaried employees of its administrative unit who, without this, will be unemployed. It needs it for its minimal subsistence, in order to support the activities, in France and abroad, of 50 unpaid program directors.
A non-profit association, recognized as being of public benefit, the Collège international de philosophie was born in 1983 from the union of the political will of the French state and an unconditional demand for thought, brought forth by intellectuals and philosophers, including François Châtelet, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Pierre Faye and Dominique Lecourt. Alongside institutions of higher learning and research, the Collège has always fulfilled its commitments. It does not defend any official philosophic program. It develops its activities with derisory means, if one compares them to the number and the quality of its activities as well as to their impact on intellectual life, philosophy and the human sciences. Without any other condition than the demand to think, it favors exchanges between philosophers, intellectuals, writers, scientists, artists, and with civil society. It participates in the construction of a public space in which critical thinking can take place and renew itself in complete freedom, overcoming national, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries.
Last year, it offered 720 hours of free, public seminars. It organized conferences, colloquia, and debates with authors on their books. With four issues per year, its review Rue Descartes, entirely online for free consultation, has seen its readership continue to climb.
The Collège is henceforth an associate member of the Université Paris Lumières, composed of the Universités Paris 8 and Ouest Nanterre, the CNRS and other institutions. The subsidy promised by the Ministry of Research via the Université Paris Lumières has in the end—and without explanation—not been paid. This places the Collège on the verge of bankruptcy.
We request that the “Research” finance plan of 240,000 Euros per year, which allows the Collège to function, be maintained. In the name of the right that everyone has to philosophy, in a democratic society, we also request that these conditions for the life of the Collège be made permanent.
Does there exist today in France a clear political will, which is ready to commit itself to the defense of free and ambitious research? Our wish is that the Collège, for years to come, host other generations of thinkers, from around the world, working for the production of free and critical thought that is open to all.
Paris, October 17, 2014
The Collegial Assembly of the Collège international de philosophie
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