The scope of this Research Unit’s work can be defined by three focal points which — without seeking to amalgamate principles — intersect and interact in a spirit of inter-disciplinarity. Firstly, emancipatory transformations in differing worlds and globalisations; secondly, the critical transfer of knowledge under the dual aspect of epistemological rationality and fictional experimentation; and thirdly, the analysis of the philosophical conditions of a fruitful transdisciplinarity. These approaches consider the end, not of the world, but of a world constructed and perceived under a universally prescribed principle. That being said, they do not reject the possibility of building a perspective of a shared world and lateral universality, nourished by the unique nature and heterogeneity of the inventions of life and thought.

In this sense, the objective of the Unit’s research is to shift the boundaries of knowledge, and in some cases to counteract the shadow effects of this knowledge. This is achieved through comparativism of epistemological and cultural paradigms, which proposes the replacement of differential relativism with interactional relativity; by the articulation of scientific invention and the fictional imaginaries of utopian, dystopian or simply alternative visions of the future; or by the theorisation of transdisciplinary practices that can expand and diversify the field of experimentation of thought and sensitivity. But it is equally a question of identifying the emancipatory logics that arise in different spaces and situations in response to new structures of power and domination. The interdisciplinarity this Research Unit works towards is, in this respect, closely interwoven with socio-cultural issues. The colloquium organised by the Research Unit in January 2013 on “The Greek symtoma” was a meaningful translation of this idea and sparked a philosophical and political questioning of the “crisis discourse” regarding issues of domination and emancipation associated with Greece’s situation.

While not strictly dividing its work into research themes, the Unit pursues two specific activities that underpin its history and shape its international influence: under the direction of B. Cany, the Unit makes use of the philosophical archives (oral and written) of Paris 8 University’s philosophy department with a view to their wider dissemination; the Unit is supported by the UNESCO Chair J. Poulain, with whom the LLCPdevelops its cross-cultural relationships through international partnerships.

Research groups:

• Differing worlds and the logics of emancipation by Georges Navet
• Grammars: Comparisons, Fictions, Rationalities by Pierre Cassou-Nogues
• GERPT - European Group of Transdisciplinary Philosophical Research by E. Alliez