Dominique Lecourt

Dominique Lecourt (born 5 February 1944) is a French philosopher. He is known in the anglophone world primarily for his work developing a materialist interpretation of the philosophy of science of Gaston Bachelard.

Lecourt was born in Paris. A former student at the École normale supérieure (1965), an agrégé in philosophy (1969), and a Docteur d’État ès lettres (1980), he is currently professor at the Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7 and director of the Centre Georges Canguilhem (Paris 7).

Co-founder in 1984 of the International College of Philosophy, Rector of the National Center for Distance Education (1985–88), member of the Human Rights Commission of UNESCO (1977–90), member of the CNRS Ethics Commission for Life Sciences (1993–98), Chairman of the Ethics Commission of the French Research Development Institute (2002-2009).

Director General of the Institut Diderot and head of the surveillance council of Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), Dominique Lecourt has been decorated with the medals of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and has been awarded with the Gegner Prize (2000) and Louis Marin Price (2010) by the Academy of Political and Moral Sciences.

In addition to numerous publications in philosophy, philosophy of sciences, cloning, ethics, bioethics, politics, Dominique Lecourt has published more than thirty books.

Read more about Dominique Lecourt:  Works in French, Selected Translations