Jacques Ranci猫re (born Algiers, 1940) is a French philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris (St. Denis) who came to prominence when he co-authored Reading Capital (1968), with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser.
Ranci猫re contributed to the influential volume Reading "Capital" (though his contribution is not contained in the partial English translation) before publicly breaking with Althusser over his attitude toward the May 1968 student uprising in Paris. Since then, Ranci猫re has departed from the path set by his teacher and published a series of works probing the concepts that make up our understanding of political discourse. What is ideology? What is the proletariat? Is there a working class? And how do these masses of workers that thinkers like Althusser referred to continuously enter into a relationship with knowledge? We talk about them but what do we know? An example of this line of thinking is Ranci猫re's book entitled Le philosophe et ses pauvres (The Philosopher and His Poor, 1983), a book about the role of the poor in the intellectual lives of philosophers.
Most recently Ranci猫re has written on the topic of human rights and specifically the role of international human rights organizations in asserting the authority to determine which groups of people 鈥� again the problem of masses 鈥� justify human rights interventions, and even war.
In 2006, it was reported that Ranci猫re's aesthetic theory had become a point of reference in the visual arts, and Ranci猫re has lectured at such art world events as the Freize Art Fair. Former French presidential candidate S茅gol猫ne Royal has cited Ranci猫re as her favourite philosopher.
The back cover makes the book sound more interesting than it is. It has some interesting ideas, but is too sweeping and florid in its language to make them stick for me. I was excited to read about what is said and how that relates to what is sayable in different times and places, but I feel none the wiser on the subject after reading this.
Read the entire book in 45 minutes. Excellent consolidation of material, however, many of the ideas have been circulating for quite some time. Nevertheless, there is only one Ranci猫re who can deliver like this.