Christian Jambet

Christian Jambet in 2018

Christian Jambet (born 23 April 1949, Algiers, French Algeria) is a French philosopher and Islamologist. He was a student of Henry Corbin. His work has engaged with Nizari Isma'ilism and has explored the thought of Avicenna, Mulla Sadra, and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi among others. In his treatment of these thinkers, he notes the lasting influence of figures associated with Neoplatonism such as Plotinus and Proclus(cf Theology of Aristotle).

The impact of Avicenna upon Jacques Lacan is mentioned in Chapter 3 The Avicennian Moment of The Act of Being: The Philosophy of Revelation in Mullā Sadrā, pg 143:

"...Avicenna's definitions of the possible, the impossible, and the necessary, which are for him the only three 'states' of the existent as existent. He says that it is difficult to define these three modailities and that the ancients, from whom we inherit these terms, did not escape the vicious circle. Indeed, when they wanted to define the possible, they included in its definition either the impossible or the necessary. And when they wanted to define the impossible, they included in its definition either the necessary or the possible.

The three modalities form, as it were, three circles that implicate one another and are all bound together (in a manner that is somewhat analogous to the weaving together of the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary in the Lacanian schema). It is impossible to separate one of the modalities from the others without dissolving all three of them into inconsistency. Just as Lacan grants a certain primacy to the real among the three circles, Avicenna considers the necessary dimension of being 'the one that must be represented as primary.' This comparison of the two schemata is not arbitrary. In his way, Lacan is a distant heir to Avicenna. But he is a very unfaithful heir, and willfully so: the real, which in a certain sense has primacy over the symbolic and the imaginary, is more analogous to the impossible than to the necessary. In the Lacanian schema, the real is analogous to the impossible, the symbolic to the necessary, and the imaginary to the possible.

Giving priority to the circle of the real over the two other circles involves a decision concerning being that is opposed to Avicenna's decision(a decision that governs all of Western ontology up to Leibniz and Hegel). It is an attempt to put an end to the Avicennian moment I am outlining here. I say this in order to emphasize Avicenna's decision, to underline its tremendous importance. For Avicenna, the necessary is first. It is what we must begin with..."

Critique of Hegel

This is the supreme task of a counter-phenomenology. The problem is to sustain within logic the rights of that which is ‘non-totalizable’ (LO: 108). Jambet formulates this idea more Lacanianly: Hegelian dialectic secretes a flaw, the real. It is precisely that flaw that one needs to think within historical reason.

Publications

Essais

• 1976: Apologie de Platon, Essais de métaphysique, coll. « Théoriciens », Éditions Grasset, 249 p.

  With Guy Lardreau, Ontologie de la révolution :

  • 1976: I. L'ange. Pour une cynégétique du semblant, coll. « Figures », Éditions Grasset.
  • 1978: II. Le Monde. Réponse à la question « Qu'est-ce que les droits de l'homme ? », coll. « Figures », Éditions Grasset, 281 p.
• 1983: La Logique des Orientaux. Henry Corbin et la science des formes, coll. « L'Ordre philosophique », Éditions du Seuil, 315 p.
• 1990: La Grande résurrection d'Alamût. Les formes de la liberté dans le shî'isme ismaélien, Verdier, Lagrasse, 418 p.
• 2002: L'Acte d'être. La philosophie de la révélation chez Mulla Sadra, coll. « L'espace intérieur », Fayard, 447 p.
• 2003: Le Caché et l'apparent, coll. « Mythes et religions », L'Herne, 206 p.
• 2004: with Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi : Qu'est-ce que le shî'isme ?, Fayard, 386 p.
• 2007: with Jean Bollack and Abdelwahab Meddeb : La Conférence de Ratisbonne, enjeux et controverses, Bayard, 115 p.
• 2008: Mort et résurrection en islam, L'au-delà selon Molla Sadra, coll. « Spiritualités », Albin Michel.
• 2011: Qu'est-ce que la philosophie islamique, folio essais.
• 2016: Le gouvernement divin. Islam et conception politique du monde, CNRS éditions, ISBN 978-2271069962

Commented translations

• 1994: Oscar Wilde : Ballade de la geôle de Reading, trad. et postface de CJ, Verdier, 104 p.
• 1996: Nazîroddîn Tûsî : La Convocation d'Alamût, Somme de philosophie ismaélienne, Verdier, 375 p.
• 1998: Jalâloddîn Rûmî : Soleil du réel, Poèmes d'amour mystique, Imprimerie nationale, 227 p.
• 2000: Se rendre immortel, suivi de la traduction de Mollâ Sadrâ Shîrâzî : Traité de la résurrection, Fata Morgana, 186 p.

Editions and important prefaces

• 1975: Gilles Susong : La Politique d'Orphée, Essai sur la tradition despotique en Grèce ancienne, Grasset.
• 1991: Les homélies clémentines, Verdier.
• 1992: Leili Echghi : Un temps entre les temps, L'imam, le chi'isme, l'Iran, Le Cerf.
• Henry Corbin :
  • 1993: Itinéraire d'un enseignement, Institut français de recherche en Iran.
  • 1994: Trilogie ismaelienne, Verdier.
  • 2001: Suhrawardi d'Alep, Fata Morgana.
  • 2003: Sohrawardi : Le livre de la sagesse orientale, Gallimard
  • 1999: Correspondance Corbin-Ivanow, Peeters.
• 2000: Isabelle de Gastine, translation of Nezâmi : Les sept portraits, Fayard.
• 2001: Michel Cazenave : La chute vertigineuse, Arma Artis.
• 2005: S.J. Badakhchani, edition and translation of Rawda-yi taslim: Paradise of submission, A medieval treatise on Ismaili thought, Tauris.
• 2005: Forough Farrokhzad: La conquête du jardin, Poèmes, 1951–1965, Lettres persanes.
• 2007: Farhad Daftary: Légendes des Assassins, Mythes sur les Ismaéliens, Vrin.
• 2009: Louis Massignon, Écrits mémorables, 178 texts (some unpublished) edited, presented and annotated under the direction of Christian Jambet, by François Angelier, François L'Yvonnet and Souâd Ayada, Robert-Laffont, coll. « Bouquins », 2 volumes.

Participation to collective works

• 2009: Philosophies d'ailleurs. Les pensées indiennes, chinoises et tibétaines, under the direction of Roger-Pol Droit, Éditions Hermann.

See also

• Gauche prolétarienne

Further reading

• Gibson, Andrew Intermittency pg 112-156 Chapter 3 A Counter-phenomenology of Spirit: Christian Jambet

External links

• Christian Jambet Interview on France Culture
• Christian Jambet : Qu’est-ce que la philosophie islamique ?
• Notice on the site of the École pratique des Hautes Études
• Christian Jambet, l’esprit rebelle on Le Monde (26 May 2016)
• Conference on YouTube (4 August 2014)