Vladimir Jankélévitch (; 31 August 1903 – 6 June 1985) was a French

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

Biography

Jankélévitch was the son of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

parents, who had emigrated to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 1922 he started studying philosophy at the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

in Paris, under Professor

Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

. In 1924 he completed his DES thesis (', roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) on ''Le Traité : la dialectique. Ennéade I 3 de Plotin'' under the direction of Émile Bréhier.Alan D. Schrift, ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers'', John Wiley & Sons, 2009, pp. 140–1. From 1927 to 1932 he taught at the , where he wrote his doctorate on Schelling. He returned to France in 1933, where he taught at the Lycée du Parc in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

and at many universities, including

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

and

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the No ...

. In 1941 he joined the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. After the war, in 1951, he was appointed to the chair of Moral Philosophy at the Sorbonne ( Paris I after 1971), where he taught until 1978. In May 1968, he was among the few French professors to participate in the student protests. The extreme subtlety of his thought is apparent throughout his works where the very slightest gradations are assigned great importance.

Bibliography

* 1931: ''Henri Bergson'' (tr. into Italian, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1991. tr. into English, Nils F. Schott, 2015) * 1933: ''L'Odyssée de la conscience dans la dernière philosophie de Schelling'' * 1933: ''Valeur et signification de la mauvaise conscience'' * 1936: ''La Mauvaise conscience'' (tr. into Italian, Bari, Dedalo, 2000; tr. into English, Andrew Kelly, 2015) * 1936: ''L'Ironie ou la bonne conscience'' (tr. into Italian, Genova, Il melangolo, 1988; tr. into Serbian, Novi Sad, 1989; tr. into German by Jürgen Brankel, Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp, 2012) * 1938: ''L'Alternative'' * 1938: ''

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

, ses mélodies, son esthétique'' * 1939: ''Ravel'' (tr. into German by Willi Reich, Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1958; tr. into English by

Margaret Crosland Margaret Crosland is a Canadian former figure skater from Calgary, Alberta. She is the 1958 and 1959 Canadian national champion. She started skating at age 7, and was coached by the Swiss Olympian Hans Gerschwiler. She represented the Glencoe ...

, NY-London, 1959; tr. into Italian by Laura Lovisetti Fua, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1962) * 1942: ''Du mensonge'' (tr. into Italian by Marco Motto, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2000; tr. into German "Von der Lüge", Berlin, Parerga Verlag GmbH, 2004) * 1947: ''Le Mal'' (tr. into Italian by Fernanda Canepa, Genova, Marietti, 2003) * 1949: ''Traité des vertus'' (tr. into Italian by Elina Klersy Imberciadori, Milano, Garzanti, 1987) * 1950: ''Debussy et le mystère de I'instant'' * 1954: ''Philosophie première introduction à une philosophie du Presque'' (tr. into German by Jürgen Brankel, Vienna, Turia + Kant, 2006) * 1956: ''L'Austérité et la Vie morale'' * 1957: ''Le Je-ne-sais quoi et le presque-rien'' * 1960: ''Le Pur et l'impur'' * 1961: ''La Musique et l'Ineffable'', (tr. into Serbian by Jelena Jelić, Novi Sad, 1987; tr. into Italian by Enrica Lisciani-Petrini, Milano, Bompiani, 1998 ; tr. into English by Carolyn Abbate, 2003; tr. into Dutch by Ronald Commers, Gent Belgie, 2005) * 1963: ''L'Aventure, l'Ennui, le Sérieux'' (tr. into Italian by Carlo Alberto Bonadies, Genova Marietti, 1991) * 1966: ''La Mort'' (tr. into Bosnian by Almasa Defterdarević-Muradbegović, Sarajevo, 1997; tr. into German by Brigitta Restorff, Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp, 2005; tr. into Italian Torino, Einaudi, 2009; tr. into Croatian, Zagreb, AGM, 2011) – * 1967: ''Le pardon'', (tr. into Italian by Liana Aurigemma, Milano, IPL, 1969; tr. into English as ''Forgiveness'' by Andrew Kelley, 2005) * 1968: ''Le Sérieux de l'intention'' * 1970: ''Les Vertus et l'Amour * 1971: ''L 'Imprescriptible'', (a section ("Pardonner?") of which is translated into English by Ann Hobart as "Should We Pardon Them?," ''Critical Inquiry'', 22, Spring 1996; tr. into Italian by Daniel Vogelmann, "Perdonare?", Firenze, Giuntina, 1987; tr. into German by, Claudia Brede-Konersmann, "Das Verzeihen", Frankfurt a. M., Suhrkamp, 2003) * 1972: ''L'Innocence et la méchanceté'' * 1974: ''L'Irréversible et la nostalgie'' * 1978: ''Quelque part dans l'inachevé, en collaboration avec Béatrice Berlowitz'' (tr. into German by Jürgen Brankel, Vienna, Turia + Kant, 2008) * 1980: ''Le Je-ne-sais-quoi et le presque rien'' (tr. into Italian by Carlo Alberto Bonadies, Genova, Marietti, 1987; tr. into German by Jürgen Brankel, Vienna, Turia + Kant, 2009) * 1981: ''Le Paradoxe de la morale'' (tr. into Italian by Ruggero Guarini, Firenze, Hopefulmonster, 1986; tr. into Croatian by Daniel Bućan, Zagreb, AGM, 2004) ; Posthumous publications * 1994 ''Penser la mort? Entretiens'', recueil établi par F. Schwab, Paris, Liana Levi (tr. into Italian, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 1995; tr. into German by Jürgen Brankel, Vienna, Turia + Kant, 2003)

Notes

References

Biography at jankelevitch.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jankelevitch, Vladimir Jews in the French resistance Jewish philosophers Jewish musicologists Lille University of Science and Technology alumni Lille University of Science and Technology faculty University of Paris faculty French people of Russian-Jewish descent École Normale Supérieure alumni 20th-century French philosophers Writers from Bourges 1903 births 1985 deaths Irony theorists 20th-century French musicologists Ravel scholars