French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Bontems, Bachelard
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Vincent Bontems, Bachelard, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, coll. "Figures du savoir", 2010, 246 p.
ISBN: 978-2-251-76068-1
19 euros
Publisher's Overview
Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962)—an exemplary figure of the secular republican school system, starting as a scholarship student of modest background and ultimately holding the Chair of History and Philosophy of Sciences at the Sorbonne—was an unconventional thinker. Drawing upon physics, chemistry, and mathematics undergoing radical revolution, as well as on (reinterpreted) Freud and Jung, he built an epistemology of subtle rationalism that proved highly influential, understanding scientific progress as a series of discontinuities. As a metaphysician, he opposed Bergson on the problem of time, defending a philosophy of the instant against Bergson's philosophy of duration. He also renewed the approach to poetry by granting unprecedented importance to the Imaginary.
This book examines Bachelard's prolific body of work: his epistemology, from the Essai sur la connaissance approchée to Rational Materialism, via The Philosophy of No and The New Scientific Spirit; his "metaphysics," gathered in The Intuition of the Instant and The Dialectic of Duration; and his poetics, from The Psychoanalysis of Fire to The Poetics of Reverie, passing through Water and Dreams and The Poetics of Space.
Finally, the study explores Bachelard's extensive legacy.
Published: November 18, 2010
Table of Contents
Biographical Landmarks: A "Republican" Trajectory.
Introduction: The Originality of a Research Tradition: Historical Epistemology. (5 pages)
1 The Dynamics of the Scientific Mind
1.1 Approximate Knowledge and Rectification.
1.2 The Concepts of Epistemological Obstacle and Rupture.
1.3 The Crisis of Objects Induced by "New Physics" (Relativity and Microphysics).
1.4 The Structure of Theoretical Revolutions: Conceptual Recurrence.
2 A Contemporary Philosophy of Sciences
2.1 Rational Materialism and Applied Rationalism.
2.2 Regional Epistemologies and Transrationalism.
2.3 The Critique of Metaphysical Substantialism.
2.4 The Advances of the Philosophy of No.
3 The Alternation of Day and Night (20 pages)
3.1 Elaboration of a Metapoetics.
3.2 The Imaginary Exploration of the Four Elements.
3.3 The Nature of Time (1): Against Bergson.
3.4 The Nature of Time (2): Meditation and Rhythmanalysis.
Bachelardism of Yesterday and Today
The First Wave: Cavaillès, Lautman, Gonseth, Enriques, the 1937 Descartes Congress.
Institutionalization: Canguilhem and Simondon, Bourdieu, Foucault, Dagognet, Lecourt.
The Relevance of Bachelardian Thought Today:
The Prospect of a New Transatlantic Dialogue.
Complementarity with the Sociology of Sciences.
The Extension of Phenomenotechnical Analyses.
Vincent Bontems, a former student of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS Ulm) and a philosopher, works at a CEA research laboratory. He is known for his interviews with Bernard Stiegler, published in 2008 (Economie de l'hypermatériel et psychopouvoir).
Gaston Bachelard occupies a singular position in twentieth-century French intellectual history, bridging the gap between rigorous scientific epistemology and the study of the imagination. His work emerged during a period of profound transformation in physics and mathematics, prompting a fundamental rethinking of how scientific knowledge progresses through conceptual ruptures rather than continuous accumulation. This volume examines these diverse facets of his intellectual trajectory, tracing the development of his subtle rationalism alongside his metaphysics of the instant.
The study also situates Bachelard within the broader landscape of French philosophy, noting his engagement with Bergsonian duration and his lasting influence on subsequent generations of thinkers, historians of science, and sociologists. By mapping out the reception of his ideas from his contemporaries to contemporary transatlantic dialogues, the text highlights the enduring resonance of his epistemological and phenomenotechnical analyses. Readers interested in the history of science, twentieth-century French philosophy, and the philosophy of the imagination may find this overview particularly informative regarding Bachelard's wide-ranging contributions.