Bernard Bourgeois

Bernard Bourgeois (; September 2, 1929 – March 26, 2024) was a French philosopher. He was a member of Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and he was its president in 2014. He was a specialist in the history of modern German philosophy, from Kant to Marx, and in particular Hegel, several of whose works he translated into the French language. His fields of study include logic and dialectics, reason and political law, the philosophy of history, the relationship between religion and philosophy, and pedagogy.

Biography Bernard Bourgeois graduated from the École Normale Supérieure in 1951. He received his agrégation in philosophy in 1954.

After his military service as a rifle officer in Algeria (1954–1957), he taught at the Lycée de Mâcon from 1957 to 1963. He then taught at the Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences humaines de Lyon. He obtained his doctorate from Paris-Sorbonne University in 1972, and went on to become a professor at the University of Lyon 2, then the University of Lyon-III until 1989. In March 1979, he was elected vice-president of teaching at Lyon-III, and expressed his concerns about the university's situation. In 1989, he was elected professor at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

He was also director of the Revue de métaphysique et de morale, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of "Fondation Ostad Elahi – éthique et solidarité humaine" since its creation in 2000.

As an emeritus professor, he was elected on December 2, 2002, to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in the philosophy section, to Olivier Lacombe's chair. He was delegated to the Séance solennelle des Cinq Académies in 2008, and presided over the Académie in 2014.

Bourgeois and Hegel Bernard Bourgeois's work on Hegel's philosophy is situated within the problematics of twentieth-century French philosophy inaugurated by Jean Wahl and Alexandre Kojève, and continued with Jean Hyppolite. At the time, Hegel was a dominant philosophical figure around whom several philosophical currents – existentialism, phenomenology, Marxism and soon deconstruction –crystallized.

Bourgeois saw Hegelianism not as an antecedent of Marxism, but contrary to Marxism as a parenthesis of history, as the philosophy of freedom.

Honors

Publications

L’idéalisme de Fichte, Paris, PUF, 1968 (réédition Vrin, 1985) La pensée politique de Hegel, Paris, PUF, 1969 Hegel à Francfort ou Judaïsme, Christianisme, Hégélianisme, Paris, Vrin, 1970 Le droit naturel de Hegel. Commentaire, Paris, Vrin, 1986 Philosophie et droits de l’homme, Paris, PUF, 1990 Éternité et historicité de l’Esprit selon Hegel, Paris, Vrin, 1991 Études hégéliennes. Raison et décision, Paris, PUF, 1992 La philosophie allemande classique, Paris, PUF, 1995 Hegel, Paris, Ellipses, 1998 Fichte, Paris, Ellipses, 2000 Le vocabulaire de Fichte, Paris, Ellipses, 2000 Le vocabulaire de Hegel, Paris, Ellipses, 2000 L’idéalisme allemand : Alternatives et progrès, Paris, Vrin, 2000 La raison moderne et le droit politique, Paris, Vrin, 2000 Hegel. Les actes de l’Esprit, Paris, Vrin, 2001 Les sciences morales et politiques [sous la dir. de], Paris, Hermann, 2016 Sept questions politiques du jour, Paris, Vrin, 2017 Penser l’histoire du présent avec Hegel, Paris, Vrin, 2017 Sur l’histoire ou la politique, Paris, Vrin, 2018 Pour Hegel, Paris, Vrin, 2019

Translations

Hegel, Encyclopédie des sciences philosophiques, I : La science de la logique, Paris, Vrin, 1970 Hegel, Des manières de traiter scientifiquement du droit naturel, Paris, Vrin, 1972 Hegel, Textes pédagogiques, Paris, Vrin, 1978 Hegel, Encyclopédie des sciences philosophiques, III : Philosophie de l’esprit, Paris, Vrin, 1988 Hegel, Concepts préliminaires de l’Encyclopédie des sciences philosophiques, Paris, Vrin, 1994 Hegel, Préface. Introduction à la Phénoménologie de l’Esprit, Paris, Vrin, 1997 Hegel, Encyclopédie des sciences philosophiques, II : Philosophie de la Nature, Paris, Vrin, 2004 Hegel, Phénoménologie de l'Esprit, Paris, Vrin, 2006 Hegel, Science de la logique, I : L'Être, Paris, Vrin, 2015 Hegel, Science de la logique, II : L'essence, Paris, Vrin, 2016 Hegel, Science de la logique, III : Le concept, Paris, Vrin, 2016