Alexis Rosenbaum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexis Rosenbaum (b. 1969, Paris) is a French essayist. After studying philosophy and psychology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, he graduated with a dissertation on "hierarchical representations in the history of philosophy". He currently teaches at various elite engineering colleges.
Although the influence of psychologist Alfred Adler on his thought is undeniable, Rosenbaum's multidisciplinary works are difficult to link up to any prior school of thought. Most of them are meant to put modes of comparison into historical perspective. The sacred order (L'ordre sacré) questions the importance of hierarchical images (levels of thought, strata of Being, scales of virtue,...) in the history of western philosophy. Rosenbaum argues that stratification is the prevailing mode of comparison in antique philosophy, but the decline of hierarchical images during the european Renaissance is misleading, as they have been surviving in more discrete ways ever since. The fear of inferiority (La peur de l'infériorité) investigates the historical changes in procedures of social comparison, highlighting the peculiarities of the contemporary system of "overcomparison". Through the expectation of success, the intensification of envy and the invasion of measures, it is argued, subjects of western societies are constantly comparing to each other and "prone to feelings of inferiority". In Antisemitism, Rosenbaum tries to show how this permanent and ubiquitous social jealousy frames the modern forms of antisemitism.
[edit] Bibliography
- 2006: Antisemitism. [L'antisémitisme]. Paris: Bréal
- 2005: The fear of inferiority [La peur de l'infériorité. Aperçus sur le régime moderne de la comparaison sociale]. Paris: L'Harmattan.
- 2003: Imaginary gazes. [Regards imaginaires. Essais préliminaires à une écologie visuelle.] Paris: L'Harmattan
- 1999: The sacred order. [L'ordre sacré. Les représentations hiérarchiques en philosophie.] Paris : Desclée de Brouwer.
