‘Désobéir’ by Frédéric Gros
Obeying or disobeying: notions that are apparently more complex than they seem. In these times marked by growing pressure on citizens to fall into line and submit without a murmur to the new ‘laws’, it is worth pausing on them for a moment.
Frédéric Gros, a French philosopher who specialises in Michel Foucault and is, among other things, a professor of political thought at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, is the author of several essays, including Marcher, une philosophie (2009) and, more recently, La honte est un sentiment révolutionnaire (2019). He has also written two novels, including Le Guérisseur des Lumières (2019). Désobéir, published in 2017, is nonetheless as topical as ever.
Why disobey?
In his book, Frédéric Gros begins by telling us why we should disobey. He then approaches the question of disobedience through that of obedience, and helps us understand the differences between submission, consent and conformism, and how they carry within them the seed of rebellion, civil disobedience and transgression.
Readers less versed in philosophy will find in this book a valuable source of essential references for examining these questions. The more philosophically minded may find their certainties shaken.
The author does not merely describe well-known cases such as that of Adolf Eichmann, analysed in its day by Hannah Arendt, which gave rise to the famous philosophical concept of the banality of evil. For each case study, he also brings nuances and viewpoints that resonate strongly in the current context.
From Socrates to Plato, by way of Immanuel Kant, Henry David Thoreau and La Boétie, he finally leads us to the notion of choice and of the responsibility that falls to us as citizens.
In any case, ‘Désobéir’ will force every reader to take a stand.
By Géraldine Louis, columnist for BAM!
‘Désobéir’ by Frédéric Gros, Published by Flammarion, 2019, for the ‘Champs’ edition, 243 pp., €8
