About Emmanuel Faye
Born 1956. Emmanuel Faye is a French university teacher, philosopher and professor of philosophy.
Emmanuel Faye (born in 1956) is a philosopher and historian of French philosophy. A specialist in the Renaissance and Descartes, he has also published several critical studies on Heidegger and his reception.
Biography Family He is the son of the writer and philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye.
Training Agrégé in philosophy in 1981, doctor of the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in 1994, authorized to direct research by the Paris Nanterre University in 2000, and an associate professor there from 1995 to 2009. Since 2009, he has been a professor of modern and contemporary philosophy at the University of Rouen Normandy.
Career In Philosophy and the Perfection of Man, from the Renaissance to René Descartes, Emmanuel Faye sought to show that the Cartesian thought of the perfection of man was part of the continuity of the humanist philosophies of the Renaissance.
In 2005, Heidegger, the introduction of Nazism into philosophy, was followed by a study by Sidonie Kellerer published in Sens Public, on its reception in Germany.
In 2014, he edited with Beauchesne, in the collection "Le Grenier à sel", an international collective work entitled Heidegger, the soil, the community, the race.
In 2016, he published a study on Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger, in which he argues that she “develops a Heideggerian vision of modernity.
Critics Justine Lacroix and Jean-Yves Pranchères criticize him for "listing the errors (of Arendt) and his uncritical references to Heidegger". Guillaume Plas considers that certain arguments would go "against not only the spirit of Arendtian texts, but also of their letter". Plas however modifies Faye's text, making him say what he did not say; while Faye writes that Heidegger's "Arendtian apologetics" are today in ruins (Arendt and Heidegger, p.510), Plas makes him say that it is “Arendt's apologetics” which would be in ruins.
On 21 September 2020, the philosopher and Talmudist Ivan Segré published an autobiographical article in the online weekly Lundimatin, where he examines, with regard to his own work, the rigor and relevance of his reading of Heidegger and Arendt. He criticizes Emmanuel Faye for not grasping the substance of Heidegger's metaphysics, as well as for reducing the problem of the Heideggerian comparison (between the Shoah and industrialized agriculture) to a negation of the genocide.
Books Monographies Philosophie et perfection de l'homme. De la Renaissance à Descartes, Paris, Librairie J. Vrin, « Philologie et Mercure » 1998 . Heidegger, l'introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie : autour des séminaires inédits de 1933-1935, Paris, Albin Michel, Idées 2005. (réédition: Livre de Poche, 2007 avec une préface inédite et la bibliographie des premières recensions du livre). Arendt et Heidegger. Extermination nazie et destruction de la pensée, Paris, Albin Michel, collection « Idées », 14 septembre 2016.
Collective works Hannah Arendt, la révolution et les Droits de l'Homme (Avec Yannick Bosc), Paris, Kimé, 2019. Хайдеггер, «Черные тетради» и Россия. Под редакцией Марлен Ларюэль и Эмманюэля Файя. Перевод под научной редакцией Михаила Маяцкого, Москва: Издательский дом «Дело», 2018, 367 p. Heidegger, « Black Notebooks » and Russia, ed. by Marlène Laruelle & Emmanuel Faye. Translations revised by Michail Maiatsky. Moscow: Delo Editions, janvier 2018. Heidegger, le sol, la communauté, la race, collection « Le grenier à sel», Paris, Beauchesne, 2014. Descartes et la Renaissance, Paris, Champion, 1999 . Cartésiens et augustiniens au XVIIe siècle, Corpus, revue de philosophie, No. 37, 2000. Chemins de la pensée médiévale, Études offertes à Zénon Kaluza, éd. par P.J.J.M. Bakker en coll. avec E. Faye et C. Grellard, Textes et études du Moyen Âge, 20, Turnout, Brepols, 2002. Descartes, des principes aux phénomènes, (avec J.-P. Cléro), Armand Colin, collection « Recherches », 2012. Rouen, 1662, Montaigne et les Cannibales, (avec J.-C. Arnould), Cérédi, collection « Actes de colloques et Journées d'études », 2013
Edition Antoine Arnauld, Examen d'un écrit qui a pour titre : Traité de l'essence du corps, et de l'union de l'âme avec le corps, contre la philosophie de M. Descartes, Corpus des œuvres de philosophie en langue française, Paris, Fayard, 1999. René Descartes, La Recherche de la Vérité par la lumière naturelle, le Livre de Poche, collection « Classiques de la philosophie", traduction et notes par E. Faye, précédée d'un essai introductif: L'invention cartésienne de la conscience, Paris, Librairie Générale Française, 2010 .
Don’t just read it —
keep it.
Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.
- E-book
- Audio
- Video
Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free
Important facts
People in Emmanuel Faye's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Emmanuel Faye's
Frequently asked questions
Who is Emmanuel Faye?
French philosopher
When was Emmanuel Faye born?
Emmanuel Faye was born in 1956.
What is Emmanuel Faye's occupation?
Emmanuel Faye is a university teacher, philosopher and professor of philosophy.
What nationality is Emmanuel Faye?
Emmanuel Faye is French.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Emmanuel Faye. https://biography.guide/emmanuel-faye/
MLA: "Emmanuel Faye." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/emmanuel-faye/.
Chicago: "Emmanuel Faye." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/emmanuel-faye/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-22 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons · author & licence
Page generated 2026-09-27 05:01 UTC