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WORK TITLE: In Praise of Weakness
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.alexandre-jollien.ch/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: Swiss
Married Corine, 2004; three children. * http://westside-philosophers.com/publishing2/author_pages/jollien.php
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: nb2008025467
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/nb2008025467
HEADING: Jollien, Alexandre, 1975-
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035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca07950596
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100 1_ |a Jollien, Alexandre, |d 1975-
670 __ |a Éloge de la faiblesse, 1999: |b t.p. (Alexandre Jollien) back cover (born 1975 in Valais, Switzerland)
PERSONAL
Born November 26, 1975, in Savièse, Valais, Switzerland; married, 2004; wife’s name Corine; children: Victorine, Augustin, Céleste.
EDUCATION:Attended Trinity College, Dublin, 2001-02; University of Fribourg, B.A., 2004, and M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Philosopher, writer, and public speaker.
AWARDS:Prix Montyon, French Academy of Sciences and Académie Française, 2000, for In Praise of Weakness; Prix Psychologies-FNAC, 2010, for Le philosophe nu; Prix Pierre Simon, ethics and society category, 2010, for body of work; Mottart Prize for creative writing.
WRITINGS
Some of Jollien’s writings have been adapted for the stage.
SIDELIGHTS
Alexandre Jollien was born in Savièse, in the Swiss canton of Valais. Though a difficult delivery left him severely disabled by cerebral palsy, he honors “this blind trust of my parents who received a disabled child and wanted to make it a living being,” as he told Violane Gelly in the magazine Psychologies, adding: “They trusted in life, they gave me confidence.” Nevertheless, Jollien spent seventeen of his first twenty years in an institution for the disabled. His salvation came when he discovered philosophy.
Through the works of Plato and other philosophers, both classic and modern, Jollien began to think of his disability not as a barrier, but as an open door to a world where he could explore the concepts of difference, suffering, friendship, and more. His physical weakness became a source of strength and energy. Jollien managed to complete high school and earn a bachelor’s degree in literature. He studied the Greek classics at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and earned a master’s degree in philosophy.
At the same time, Jollien was learning to enjoy his life as it was, not as he might wish it to be. He met his wife in Dublin, married her in 2004, and became a father soon afterward. He embarked on a public-speaking career and began to write. Jollien’s first book appeared when he was only twenty-two, and it was awarded the Prix Montyon of the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie Française. He has continued to write and has gained international respect for his work. Only in recent years has Jollien’s work become available to an English-speaking audience.
Jollien’s debut was published in French in 1999 as Éloge de la faiblesse. More than fifteen years later it was translated as In Praise of Weakness. Framed as a dialogue between the author and Socrates, Jollien shares his struggles with decades of disability. When he recognizes his physical weakness as a challenge to be surmounted, his frailty is transformed from disability into a tool for the journey to happiness, friendship, and wisdom. Though the work is neither fiction nor memoir, Jollien’s victories over suffering have been adapted for the stage and presented on tour in both France and his native Switzerland. According to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, “Jollien’s dialogue is an inspiring work that asks readers to challenge their own preconceptions about disability.”
Having “established himself as a profound and compelling moral thinker and spiritual teacher,” according to his profile at the Westside Philosophers website, Jollien continued to write. In Le métier d’homme (which means “The Occupation of Man”), he emphasizes that the body and soul are not separate entities, one to be deplored and the other to be honored. They are parts of a whole that must function symbiotically if a person is to attain the best that life has to offer.
Le philosophe nu (the title means “The Naked Philosopher”) is a study in authenticity. Jollien does nothing to hide his appearance or his vulnerability. He is “a wise man under construction,” as an interviewer described him in Le Monde, who “practices” philosophy as a way of life, in the most literal sense. “The text corresponds to a vital necessity,” the interviewer explained, “an imperative requirement.” The volume takes the form of a diary, in which Jollien records his daily acts, thoughts, and dreams, and the contradictions inherent within them. He moves “between gratitude and contempt, respect and rejection,” reported his interviewer, and he craves serenity.
In 2013 Jollien and his family moved to South Korea, partly to improve his health and partly in pursuit of the wisdom of the masters of Zen. In Vivre sans pourquoi (the title means “Living without Asking Why”), he discusses his quest for enlightenment as he ponders the concept of living without asking why things are the way they are. Jollien seeks to accept his broken body as it is, to free himself from the mental anguish that distracts him from the joy of living in the real world. The scope of his journey is reflected in Trois amis en quête de sagesse, translated into English as In Search of Wisdom: A Monk, a Philosopher, and a Psychiatrist on What Matters Most, which he explores with French psychiatrist Christophe André and Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard.
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Jollien, Alexandre, Éloge de la faiblesse, Cerf (Paris, France), 1999, translation by Michael Eskin published as In Praise of Weakness, Upper West Side Philosophers (New York, NY), 2017.
Jollien, Alexandre, Le philosophe nu, Seuil (Paris, France), 2010.
Jollien, Alexandre, Vivre sans pourquoi, Iconoclaste (Paris, France), 2015.
PERIODICALS
Le Monde, September 9, 2010, author interview.
Publishers Weekly, April 10, 2017, review of In Praise of Weakness, p. 69.
ONLINE
Alexandre Jollien Website, https://www.alexandre-jollien.ch (January 18, 2018).
Babelio, http://www.babelio.com/ (January 18, 2018), author profile.
France Inter, http://www.franceinter.fr/ (February 12, 2017), partial transcript of recorded author interview by Noëlle Bréham.
Psychologies, http://www.psychologies.com/ (January 18, 2018), Violaine Gelly, author interview.
Westside Philosophers, http://westside-philosophers.com/ (January 18, 2018), author profile.
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Alexandre Jollien
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Alexandre Jollien
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Biography
Birth
November 26 , 1975View and edit data on Wikidata (42 years old)
SavièseView and edit data on Wikidata
Nationality
SwissView and edit data on Wikidata
accomodations
Friborg , Sierre (1978-1995) , Sion (from1997) , Dublin (2001-2002) , Seoul (2013-2016) , Lausanne (from2016)View and edit data on Wikidata
activities
Philosopher , writerView and edit data on Wikidata
Other information
Website
www.alexandre-jollien.chView and edit data on Wikidata
distinctions
Montyon Prize - literary prize (2000)
Psychologies-Fnac Award (2011)View and edit data on Wikidata
Famous works
Praise of weaknessView and edit data on Wikidata
edit - edit code - edit WikidataModel documentation
Alexandre Jollien (born the November 26 , 1975at Savièse 1 ) is a Swiss philosopher and writer .
Summary [ hide ]
1 Biography
2 Privacy
3 His literary work
4 Work
4.1 Books
4.2 Articles
5 Interviews and documentaries
6 Theatrical adaptations of his works
7 Notes and references
8 Appendices
8.1 Bibliography
8.2 External links
Biography [ edit | change the code ]
Question book-4.svg
[ afficher ] This section does not cite its sources enough (January 2017) .
Because of an umbilical cord strangulation at birth, he was born crippled cerebral motor as he says in Three Friends in Search of Wisdom [Where?] .
From the age of three to twenty, he lives in Sierre ( Switzerland ) in a specialized institution for people with disabilities.
He entered the Lycée de la Planta in Sion in 1997, which opened the doors of the University of Friborg where he obtained a BA in literature in spring 2004 and a master's degree in philosophy. He also studied ancient Greek at Trinity College of Dublin ( Ireland ) from 2001 to 2002.
[Ref. necessary]
Privacy [ edit | change the code ]
He married in 2004 with Corine, Swiss met in Dublin. They have three children: Victorine, born in 2004, Augustin, in 2006, and Céleste, in 2011. Since the summer of 2013, he has been staying with his family in Seoul 2 , in South Korea , to "restore his health" . He has the opportunity to deepen his practice of Zen while placing himself under the aegis of a master and continues his quest for knowledge of the Gospels.
His literary work [ edit | change the code ]
His first book, Praise of Weakness , published in 1999 , was acclaimed by the Mottart Prize of the French Academy of Support for Creative Writing 3 and the Montyon 2000 Prize 4 for Literature and Philosophy. It was adapted and directed in 2005 by Charles Tordjman 5 , and toured in Switzerland and France until 2007.
That same year 2007, he helps Bernard Campan to write the screenplay of La Face cachée .
His book The Naked Philosopher received the Prix Psychologies-Fnac 2010 6 .
Specialist Greek philosophy, he is also a speaker and intervenes in the context of the report to disability, as in a video for Pôle emploi in France 7 .
In 2010, Alexandre Jollien received the Prix Pierre Simon "Ethics and Society" for all of his work.
Work [ edit | change the code ]
Works [ edit | change the code ]
Praise of Weakness , Paris, Editions du Cerf ,1999, 108 p. ( ISBN 2-204-06384-3 )
Exist in audio book, read by Bernard Campan and Michel Raimbault, Audiolib editions , 2012 ( ISBN 9782356414328 )
The Occupation of Man , Threshold,2002 ( ISBN 2-02-052606-9 )
Self Construction , Threshold,2006, 192 p. ( ISBN 2-02-062888-0 )
Exist in audio book, read by Bernard Campan , reads in the dark, 2007 ( ISBN 9782952761215 )
The Naked Philosopher , Threshold,2010, 192 p. ( ISBN 978-2-02-095915-5 )
Small Treatise of Abandonment: Thoughts to welcome life as it stands , Threshold,2012, 117 p. ( ISBN 978-2021079418 )
To live without why: Spiritual itinerary of a philosopher in Korea , Seuil-L'Iconoclaste,2015, 338 p.
[From Sketchwriter: Philosopher teaches active, optimistic acceptance of life - Korea.net
m.korea.net/english/Government/Current-Affairs/Others/view?affairId=447...
Apr 26, 2016 - Published in 2015, “Vivre sans pourquoi,” or "Living Without Asking Why," is a book about the life Jollien wishes to pursue, but also about the ways in which he proposes to practice such life. He is a renowned philosopher and best-selling author in Europe. In 2013, he flew to Korea with his family, leaving all ...]
Three friends in search of wisdom with Matthieu Ricard and Christophe André , L'Iconoclaste-Allary Éditions, 2016
Audiobooks
Praise of Weakness , read by Bernard Campan and Michel Raimbault, Audiolib Editions, 2012 ( ISBN 9782356414328 )
Price Read in the dark 2012, and Grand Prix of the audiobook La Plume de Paon 2013 8
Self Construction , read by Bernard Campan , Read In The Dark, 2007 ( ISBN 9782952761215 )
Articles [ edit | change the code ]
In France
In the journal Psychologies magazine : list 9
In the newspaper La Vie : list 10
In the newspaper Le Monde des religions : list 11
In the newspaper L'Humanité : list 12
In Swiss
In the journal Femina : list 13
In the newspaper Le Nouvelliste : list 14
Interviews and documentaries [ edit | change the code ]
Alexandre Jollien, philosophy of joy 15 , interviews with Alexandre Jollien, commentary by Bernard Campan , "La Voix au chapitre" collection, Textuels editions, Paris, 2008 - A sound book, an audio CD ( ISBN 978-2-84597- 305-3 )
The happiness of Alexandre , documentary by Joël Calmettes , Chiloé productions, 2006 - DVD of 85 minutes
Also contains the conference of Alexandre Jollien "The obstacles to happiness" of 2004.
Theatrical adaptations of his works [ edit | change the code ]
Praise of Weakness , Adapted and Directed by Charles Tordjman 5 , Passage Company, Switzerland . Tour in Switzerland and France, from 2005 to 2007.
Self Construction , adaptation of Maryse Hache, directed by Maryse Hache and Olivier Lacut, Théâtre Les Déchargeurs 16 , Paris, March to June 2010.
The profession of man , adapted and directed by Christophe Blangéro, La Genette Verte theater. Tour in Lozère, 2013 and 2014
Notes and references [ edit | change the code ]
↑ " Biography " [ archive ] , on alexandre-jollien.ch (accessed April 23, 2009 )
↑ "It's almost three months since I live in Seoul with my family. " , Taken from its site in November 2013 [ archive ]
↑ « Mottart Prize | French Academy " [ archive ] , on www.academie-francaise.fr (accessed January 18, 2017 )
↑ " Speech on literary awards 2000 | French Academy " [ archive ] , on www.academie-francaise.fr (accessed January 18, 2017 )
↑ a and b The piece, on the site of the company. [ archive ]
↑ Biography, website Psychologies.com [ archive ]
↑ Video [ archive ] - Assedic.fr (WMV)
↑ Sheet of the audiobook and its prices, on the site Audiolib. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ List of articles on its website. [ archive ]
↑ The CD, on the website of the publisher. [ archive ]
↑ Article newspaper Le Figaro [ archive ] , the 31/03/2010.
Annexes [ edit | change the code ]
Bibliography [ edit | change the code ]
External links [ edit | change the code ]
AuthoritiesView and edit data on Wikidata : Virtual International Authority File • International Standard Name Identifier • National Library of France ( Data ) • University Documentation System • Library of Congress • Gemeinsame Normdatei • National Library of the Diet • National Library of Spain • Library university of Poland • Norwegian library Base • Czech national library • WorldCat
Publications by and about Alexandre Jollien [ archive ] in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
Official website [ archive ]
Joy at work [ archive ] lecture given, March 4, 2012 in Paris
Many articles by Alexandre Jollien and videos [ archive ]
About this author
Born with cerebral palsy, Alexandre Jollien grew up in a home for the severely disabled, where, as he laconically notes, “rolling cigars” was his “professional horizon.” But then, completely by chance, he discovered philosophy, and his life was changed forever. Against all odds, he succeeded in completing secondary education and enrolled at the Université de Fribourg. While studying abroad at Trinity College, Dublin, he met his future wife, with whom he has three children. He published his first book — In Praise of Weakness — at the age of twenty-two, and has since <
Alexandre Jollien
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BIOGRAPHY & INFORMATION
Nationality: Switzerland
Born in: Savièse (Switzerland), on 26/11/1975
Biography:
Alexandre Jollien, handicapped by birth (following strangulation by umbilical cord at birth, he has athetosis), studied philosophy at the University of Friborg.
After a stay of more than seventeen years in a specialized institution for people with cerebral motor disabilities, he studied at a business school. He then turned to philosophy.
Today, he gives conferences centered on the theme of difference and communication and intervenes in the context of the report to the handicap, as for example in a video for the Pôle Emploi in France.
His first work, Éloge de la foi, appeared in 1999 and received the Mottart Prize from the French Academy of Support for Creative Writing and the Montyon 2000 Prize for Literature and Philosophy.
Alexandre Jollien was crowned by the Pierre Simon Prize "Ethics and Society" for all of his work.
It was staged in 2007 by Charles Tordjman at the Manufacture Theater in Nancy. That same year, he helped Bernard Campan write the screenplay for "The Hidden Side".
His book "The Naked Philosopher" received the Prix Psychologies-Fnac 2010. He received the same year the Pierre Simon Prize "Ethics and Society" for all of his work.
He currently lives in South Korea with his wife and three children in order to
Source: http://www.alexandre-jollien.ch/, wikipedia
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Home > Me > Events > Pain > Interviews > Alexandre Jollien: Disability opened me to life
Alexandre Jollien: Disability opened me to life
The smile that illuminates the face of Alexandre Jollien is that of a happy man. Yet this young Swiss philosopher, handicapped by birth, lives in pain. His second book, Le Métier d'homme, is a lesson in life.
Violaine Gelly
Alexandre Jollien: Disability opened me to life
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Meeting with a happy man
Alexandre Jollien is a strange being. A borrowed approach, a clumsy word, a sharp intelligence and a vibrant humanity ... He owes the first two to a birth accident: a few moments without oxygen have condemned to the label of IMC (crippled cerebral motor). The next two, he puts them at the service of readers who find in his books some small lights that can illuminate them.
At the age of 27, this exegete of ancient philosophers, this lover of dialectics, opens up new paths from the sources of his suffering and his struggle against the heaviness of disability. No, there is not the soul on one side and the body on the other, the one honorable, the other execrable. The two coexist, the two work together to a thought. That of Alexandre Jollien breathes an incredible commitment to life. And a real lightness.
Psychologies: After your first book, "Praise of Weakness", where you told your fight to get out of the handicap, what did you want to add in "Le Métier d'homme"?
Alexandre Jollien: With the first book, I took advantage of the handicap as an open door. By definition, a door is behind us. I wanted to go further. To talk to everyone, to address the human condition as a whole, I had to go beyond the status of the "handicapped who thinks". By explaining what helps me stand up, I give some keys that may help my reader to ask questions, if not to answer them.
The book is a quest for some existential tools, in the first sense of the term, "useful for existence". It is also very surprising: I re-read myself regularly the chapter on suffering to find comfort. It is as if, at a time of the writing, I had touched something of intimate for which I experience more harm in the concrete life ... In a sense, I take part in the quest of the reader.
Your book shows extraordinary strength. Where is she from ?
It is a force that requires a daily fight. It must be maintained as a flame that is at the mercy of the slightest breath. It comes from the other: we build ourselves with others - sometimes against but more often with - we are founded by the other. I devote a boundless worship to friendship. The first friends, in the etymological sense of "the one who loves", are the parents. Moreover, the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik has shown: when you start in life having healthy relationships with your parents, many things are gained in advance.
Basically, for me, there was <
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Alexandre Jollien: Spiritual itinerary of a philosopher
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Meeting with Alexandre Jollien, a philosopher in search of "joy that dances", peace of soul. It teaches us to live without why ...
The Swiss philosopher and writer Alexandre Jollien
The Swiss philosopher and writer Alexandre Jollien © AFP / Joël Saget
Born in 1975, Alexandre Jollien suffers from cerebral palsy and lives from the age of 3 to 20 in a specialized institution for the physically disabled. He has the revelation by reading a book about Plato that invites to live better rather than live better and then decides to study philosophy at the university.
From the start, his thoughts and writings are on the therapy of the soul . He tries to move forward without a mask, seeking inner freedom in the stripping rather than voluntarism, drawing an art of living in a simple and just language.
His last book: Living Without Why. Spiritual Journey of a Philosopher in Korea (Threshold Points)
Read also: Praise of weakness, published by Marabulle
Instants chosen
"I learned that you can not heal, you have to cure yourself of the idea of healing, to accept to" bring chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star "as Nietzsche says ... I love Nietzsche because he is decapitating the soul ".
"I am a Cameo of affection, I missed it in childhood, I search for it frantically, we must accept that there is an inconsolable part in us".
"Recently a friend who came to us said" it's a mess, but there's no problem ", I liked his remark, chaos can be fruitful sometimes, great health is to embrace our contradictions ... We must be benevolent in the face of our great internal battlefield ".
"The great health is not to make a drama of what torments us but to try to progress towards the love of the other."
"We are too often in the inner commentary more than in real life, let us avoid succumbing to what Spinoza calls sad passions."
"Awareness of our free will can give us life-saving energy, it is essential to put peace at the heart of our lives, we have a natural slope towards passivity."
Noëlle Bréham: Is the place of disability in your life important?
A. Jollien: "Thanks to my entourage, I begin to live this handicap as a kind of human laboratory, There is something universal in this experience of disability that opens the doors to the other. the opportunity to discover in chaos, a little joy and peace. "
"One is perpetually in the judgment of the other and of oneself, one must strip oneself of that, it is an immense freedom when one reaches there ... meditation is one of the possible ways."
"We talk a lot about self-esteem, I'll talk more about trust, having confidence in life, it's an opening of the heart, gratitude opens the way to trust, a good meal, a friendship, the chance to to be alive, to have children ... all this opens us ... and makes us confident
During the show you could hear
• an excerpt from the film Intouchables by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
• Luc Ferry excerpted from the interview with Noëlle Bréham in January 2017
Music programming
Vianney: I'm leaving
Brigitte: fight yourself
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The guests
Alexandre Jollien
writer and philosopher
The references
Living without Why written by Alexandre Jollien (The Threshold / Iconoclast)
The team
Noëlle Bréham Producer
Simone Depoux Director
Fanny Leroy Production Attaché
Keywords : ideas Books Society philosophy
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Alexandre Jollien: "Full control is an illusion"
At 14, he found in philosophy a lifeline. In his new book, the Swiss intellectual tells how he has gradually overcome the fragility of disability and the eyes of others.
THE WORLD OF BOOKS | 09.09.2010 at 12:42 • Updated 09.09.2010 at 12:42 |
By Roger-Pol Right
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A book that sounds right, what is it? It's not easy to define . Because it is not necessarily a masterpiece of writing nor a radically new thought. The feeling of accuracy - tone, fingering, gait - comes from elsewhere. It imposes itself when one observes, without really knowing why at first, that <
With The Naked Philosopher , the new book of Alexandre Jollien, it is the case. This is someone who does not pretend. Or rather, when it happens to him, as to any of us, not to be completely authentic, he realizes it, underlines it, and finds himself the first to laugh at it . For Alexandre Jollien is a philosopher as was done in antiquity - that is to say, not a phrase-maker or a concept sheller, but <>, a man who works day after day with try to be less inconstant, more stable. More solid and more detached.
Do not tell him he's disabled, he knows it. It is even because of that that he committed, towards 14 years, in this way of concrete wisdom. "When I started to read Plato, to hear Socrates speak ," he said, " I understood that the central question for me was that of a good life." Before, I had no real interest in culture. And then the meeting with Socrates gave a new purpose to my life, I decided to build myself , to wipe out fragility. " So begins a long journey, alternately exhilarating and discouraging, a struggle to overcomethe fragility. The young man obviously discovers that the solution to achieve this is not to put his fragility aside but to assume - as pointed out, ten years ago, his first book, Eloge de weakness (Cerf, 1999).
Follow The Profession of Man and The Construction of Self (Seuil, 2002 and 2006), which will make Alexandre Jollien a recognized author, followed by a public friend and faithful. What speaks to very different readers in the sparse accounts of his spiritual as well as intellectual itinerary is precisely the absence of distance or distance. Many authors, in the wake of Pierre Hadot (1922-2010), have discussed philosophy as a way of life , the exercises of schools of antiquity. But these are almost just comments. Alexandre Jollien is in practice because he has no choice.
Few people actually use philosophy as a lifeline to save their skin, not to be nice. Obviously, this unyielding obstinacy is indeed the mark of Jollien, his sign of accuracy. He confirms it today with The Naked Philosopher , the most accomplished and, in a sense, the most endearing of his books . Because he is honest enough to admit that it does not really work, this rescue so logical that promised self-control. "I only believe a little in the power of reason," he writes.
He explains it in person: "For a long time I thought there was no salvation outside of philosophy, sovereign reason had to dominate everything !" In fact, I was an ayatollah of philosophy. I began to understand that this total mastery is a trap - full control is an illusion. " In the form of a diary chronicling his daily efforts, the philosophical thinker delivers a treatise on passions in his own way. Everything starts from the discrepancy between his speeches and his reality: he speaks of serenity but has only torments in his head.
What he dreams of? The bodies of others. Normal, slender, seductive - so happy. He would give everything, some days, to be in their place, in their skin. This jealousy taunts him. He therefore decides to try to tame it , or dissolve it . Just as he wants to end his angry shots and his moments of rage. Now it is no longer Socrates who will help him now. Neither Plato, Spinoza or Kant. Rather a practice of body and silence. It is therefore a journey to the Orient, to Zen and meditation sketched by this newspaper.
What does he learn from Zen? "No concepts, only the silence of the mind, I have understood that in relation to suffering, rather than speeches, action is needed." Besides, it is not a question of escaping from suffering, but to live what comes at every moment If you suffer, be the suffering If you enjoy, be pleasure Instead of looking for the "unconditional joy" as before, I seek joy here and now, in the conditions of the moment. " As a result, it is also his definition of serenity which is no longer the same: "For me, today, being serene means being able to let oneself be traversed by suffering without
One of the essential questions that cross these pages - they seem simple and are not - is to know what is at bottom, "deep down," as Jollien says, about joy, existence and of desire. Obviously, he knows nothing more than all the others, but he has great merit to test how the question arises, hour by hour and gesture by gesture.
For it is with a curious mixture of shame and immodesty that this "naked philosopher" continues the story of his daily journeys between himself and others. The same morning, an unknown woman comes to thank him for the good that his books have done to him and fools, as often, make fun of him on the bus. <
Fortunately, there are the little ones. Alexandre Jollien, 35, is now married and has two children, whom he drives to school, every day, in all weathers, under all eyes. "All my life, " he says, " I fought fiercely, I thought we had to conquer every moment at the price of a fight, that's not true, children are the absolute gratification of joy. , total abandonment, life without protection. I have to say that I first found painful to learn happiness. This may seem paradoxical, I know. But I have been so long accustomed to me beat that enjoyjoy required for me a veritable asceticism. And then I discovered that in joy, in the end, the ego disappears. "
It will not dwell on the fatigue of reading, the efforts to write . He will only say that he gets up every morning thinking "I'm sick of it" and goes to bed saying "thank you". He will insist - as a philosopher - that he is all the more, no doubt, that he is moving away from philosophy - on the fact that reason was his consolation and his lifeline. Before adding : "In recent years, I have tried to adopt the most difficult attitude possible: float without a buoy. It could be something like this, in the end, just ring .
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Print Marked Items
In Praise of Weakness
Publishers Weekly.
264.15 (Apr. 10, 2017): p69.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
In Praise of Weakness
Alexandre Jollien. Upper West Side Philosophers,
$ 19.95 trade paper (150p) ISBN 978-1-935830-42-9
Jollien (Le Metier D'homme), a French philosopher and winner of the Prix Mottart for Literature, uses a
dialogue between Socrates and himself to explore his struggles with his disability (he was born with cerebral
palsy), his discovery of philosophy, and his relationship to weakness. Weakness is not necessarily a negative
characteristic, he writes: it is a quality in one's life to be wrestled with and to supersede. By bringing the
critical inquiry of the philosophical method to his disability as weakness, Jollien was able to redefine what
happiness and joy could mean. Jollien opts for a life lived through shared suffering, collaboration, and
friendship. Through the intimate sharing of weakness, he found that "weakness... was in search of a path to
surpass itself." Knowing one's possibilities and weaknesses and facing one's reality is wisdom, he says. This
process of embracing weakness and deepening wisdom in turn creates an environment in which greatness
and gifts of presence are revealed. Though his Socrates seems to have forgotten his fondness for irony,
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Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"In Praise of Weakness." Publishers Weekly, 10 Apr. 2017, p. 69. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490319322/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=97997ccf.
Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490319322