ENG Sarah Kofman, philosophy as aporetic procedure

Abstract

Sarah Kofman (1934-1994), an extraordinary post-World War II French philosopher, remains almost ignored in the great reconstructions of Western thought, for multiple reasons, such as the sad sexism that often characterizes the philosophical gaze, but also the ‘dusty’ custom of the academy (of whatever nation one speaks of) to isolate and discredit rebellious thoughts from the established authority. Sarah Kofman has worked from the inside to disrupt the established order, and has fought for recognition that would allow her to introduce something new into traditional philosophical teaching. Sarah Kofman is an author who demands an attentive reader because of the depth of a thought that often does not appear in all its clarity on first reading, but whose enormous consistency can be perceived. This contribution seeks to sketch her figure, starting with some typical elements of her way of being a philosopher, i.e. taking a critical account of her own gendered position. The lack of neutrality in her thinking was an awareness that guided her in her search for a new way of doing philosophy. This approach has made her capable of irreverent freedom and an original outlook, making her a truly exceptional performer in a landscape dominated by the academic rules of ‘just’ quotation or deference to rules. Sarah Kofman, very clearly and with absolute awareness, bypasses and returns to the text, relying on an excavation that is always first and foremost nourishment for her intelligence, but also a clear understanding of the said and the unsaid.