Reframing Scientific Recognition: The Role of Migrant Outsiders in the Transformation of French Philosophy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.26.020.22709Keywords:
sociology of recognition, Merton, Bourdieu, migrant scholars, Alexandre Kojève, Russian émigrés, interwar France, Outsiders and Insiders, knowledge transfer, French philosophyAbstract
This article examines the dynamics of philosophical knowledge production and the quest for recognition within the framework of Merton and Bourdieu’s sociology of scientific recognition, focusing on the role of émigré intellectuals in 20th-century French philosophy.
The political upheavals of the interwar period led a significant segment of the Russian intelligentsia to emigrate to Europe, where they established academic institutions and integrated into intellectual networks in France, playing a pivotal role in philosophical transformations through the transfer of German ideas.
This paper argues that understanding the mechanisms of recognition and misrecognition within institutions of knowledge production is crucial for analysing the history of philosophy and ideas. This study highlights how Russian émigrés like Alexandre Kojève, categorized as “socially unattached intellectuals,” functioned as Outsiders within the French academic field, yet as Insiders within their own philosophical traditions, facilitating the convergence of German and French thought. The institutional, generational, and existential dimensions of Kojève’s career demonstrate the significant influence he exerted on post-war French philosophy and for the rethinking of the philosophical canon. Drawing on critical histories by Descombes, Roth, Rockmore, Kleinberg, Geroulanos and others, the study explores how émigrés reshaped intellectual norms and contributed to the enduring relevance of their reinterpreted philosophies.
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