François Joseph Charles Simiand was a French sociologist and economist best known as a participant in the Année Sociologique. As a member of the French Historical School of economics, Simiand predicated a rigorous factual and statistical basis for theoretical models and policies. His contribution to French social science was recognized in 1931 when, at the age of 58, he was elected to the faculty of the Collège de France and accepted the chair in labor history.
François Laruelle was a French philosopher, of the Collège international de philosophie and the University of Paris X: Nanterre. Laruelle began publishing in the early 1970s and had around twenty book-length titles to his name. Alumnus of the École normale supérieure, Laruelle was notable for developing a science of philosophy that he calls non-philosophy. Until his death, he directed an international organisation dedicated to furthering the cause of non-philosophy, the Organisation Non-Philosophique Internationale.
Didier Eribon is a French author and philosopher, and a historian of French intellectual life. He lives in Paris.
Denys Louis de Rougemont, known as Denis de Rougemont, was a Swiss writer and cultural theorist who wrote in French. One of the non-conformists of the 1930s, he addressed the perils of totalitarianism from a Christian point of view. After the Second World War, he promoted European federalism.
Jacques Bouveresse was a French philosopher who wrote on subjects including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Robert Musil, Karl Kraus, philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of mathematics and analytical philosophy. Bouveresse was called "an avis rara among the better known French philosophers in his championing of critical standards of thought."
Sandra Laugier is a French philosopher, who works on moral philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of language, gender studies, and popular culture. She is a full professor of philosophy at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She currently serves as the deputy director of the Institut des sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne. In 2014, she received the title of the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. In 2022, she was awarded the Grand Prix Moron by the Académie française. In 2024, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Pierre Manent is a French political scientist and academic. He teaches political philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, in the Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron. Every autumn, he is also a visiting teacher in Boston College at the Department of Political Science.
Georges Balandier was a French sociologist, anthropologist and ethnologist noted for his research in Sub-Saharan Africa. Balandier was born in Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont. He was a professor at the Sorbonne, and is a member of the Center for African Studies, a research center of the École pratique des hautes études. He held for many years the Editorship of Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie and edited the series Sociologie d'Aujourd'hui at Presses Universitaires de France. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1976. He died on 5 October 2016 at the age of 95.
Dominique Lecourt was 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.
Robert Misrahi was a French philosopher who specialised in the work of 17th Century Dutch thinker Baruch Spinoza.
François Dosse is a French historian and philosopher who specializes in intellectual history.
Édouard Louis is a French writer and sociologist.
René Schérer was a French philosopher and professor emeritus of the universite de Paris VIII.
Georges Bensoussan is a French historian. Bensoussan was born in Morocco. He is the editor of the Revue d'histoire de la Shoah. He won the Memory of the Shoah Prize from the Jacob Buchman Foundation in 2008.
Alain Besançon was a French historian. He specialised in intellectual history and Russian politics. From 1965 to 1992 he was director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He was elected to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques of the Institut de France in 1996.
Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine is a French philosopher, essayist, and historian of East European history and culture.
Nicolas Tenzer is a French civil servant, academic, writer, and editor. He was the editor of the journal Le Banquet (1992-2015) and is the founding president of the Centre d’étude et de réflexion pour l’action politique (CERAP), a position he has held since 1986. He was a director of the Aspen Institute from 2010 to 2015 and has acted as its treasurer and president. He is also a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C.
Assa Traoré is a French-Malian anti-racism activist and leader of the Truth and Justice for Adama Committee, named after her half-brother, Adama Traoré, who died in police custody, the circumstances of his death having been disputed. An autopsy raised in court indicated he may have suffered asphyxiation after his arrest, which was admitted by one of the Gendarmes who held him. Since Adama's death she has attempted to challenge the institutions of France, rallying activists from black neighbourhoods and engaging medical experts to try to get to the bottom of his death. On July 18, 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, she participated in the "Marche pour Adama", and called for the prosecution of the gendarmerie regarding her brother's death.
Joëlle Proust is a French philosopher and emeritus research director at the CNRS. She is a member of the Institut Jean Nicod and, since 2018, of the École normale supérieure.
Gisèle Sapiro is a French sociologist and historian whose specialty area is 19th and 20th century French literature. She is a laureate of the CNRS Silver Medal (2021) and the CNRS Bronze Medal (2000).
