This is the thirty-first installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This guest post is by, Cédric Paternotte is an assistant professor in philosophy at Sorbonne University (Science, Norms, Democracy research team)
- France
France is a European country of about 67 million inhabitants, which has been a member of the European Union from its start (even if it was one of the few countries to vote against the adoption of the proposed European Constitution in 2005 in a national referendum). The national language is French, and despite a few regional accents, there are very few dialects. This due to the fact that French was imposed as a national administrative language as soon as the 15th century; a French Academy charged with managing and controlling its quality was created in the 17th century. France has long been, and still is, a heavily centralised country.
Politically, France is a democratic republic and has been since 1870, the start of the Third Republic. The First Republic arose after the 1789 revolution, but two periods of French Empires (under Napoleon and Napoleon III) preceded its current democratic streak. In France’s current political system, the legislative, executive and judiciary powers are separated. A president is elected every 5 years, as well as members of the National Assembly, all by direct universal suffrage; Senate members are renewed by half and by indirect universal suffrage, every 3 years. It’s fair to say that the President yields the most power overall (which is particularly striking in 2023, as I write these sentences). Despite recent trends to the contrary, French citizens still enjoy comparatively generous levels of healthcare, of retirement pensions, as well as limited official working hours.
The French education system is as follows: after 3 years in kindergarten, children spend 5 years in primary school, then 4 years in middle school and 3 years in high school, which ends with a national exam: the Baccalauréat (this is the traditional path; more work-oriented ones are possible). Then a typical higher education path would involve going to the University: a 3-year undergraduate school that may lead to a 2-year Master. But there is another option, which is specific to France: going to a so-called “preparatory class”, straight after the Baccalauréat, either in science, literature or business. These are work-intensive places, organisationally much more akin to high schools than to universities, and prepare their students for several competitive exams, after which one may enter engineering schools (including Polytechnique), business schools or one of the renowned Ecole(s) Nationale(s) Supérieure(s). This system is often opaque to foreigners: the reputation that some engineering schools have accrued in France doesn’t translate well abroad. But it is a fact that most educated or well-off parents actually aim for their children to do a preparatory school rather than to go to a university; a significant part of the best high-school students end up in one of the former. Still, whether it concerns universities or engineering schools, annual fees still are reasonably low: typical higher education isn’t expensive in France – unless one chooses private schools, of course.
- Academia in France
A typical academic path would go as follows. After a graduate degree (either started in a university or a literary prep school), students would follow a Master, which finishes with their writing an essay. After a Master, if one wishes to work in the education and/or research system, there are several options. One may take a competitive exam in order to become a teacher. One may look for some PhD funding and do a PhD – even if the funding isn’t necessary, more and more advisors refuse to supervise non-funded students. But another very French-specific option is to prepare a national diploma called the Agrégation, which is particularly important in philosophy. Every year, a national program is produced: in philosophy, a list of themes, of authors, of foreign-language works. Once you have the Agrégation, you will normally become a philosophy teacher in the last year of high school. The Agrégation has long been, and still is to some extent, a tacit necessary condition for being hired in a university (that is, it wasn’t on the official list of documents, but you couldn’t hope to land a job without it). For this reason, after their master, many students still choose to try to get their Agrégation before even starting a PhD. But this requirement has slightly weakened with time, especially for analytic philosophy-inclined jobs.
A philosophy PhD lasts at least 3 years but may be quite longer. After it, there are two kinds of philosophy permanent jobs: as assistant professor/lecturer in a university, or as a full-time researcher (without any mandatory teaching load) at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). These positions are different, as are their application procedure. For assistant professor positions, written applications do not require many documents (and, in particular, no research project). A few candidates are then selected for an interview (typically 30 minutes or so), in front of a jury – typically about 10 people, half of which are internal staff (from the relevant university) and half of which external colleagues. This is all you need for a chance to get a permanent position – the probabilities are low (see below), but at least the procedure isn’t time-consuming, and there is no tenure-track period: full tenure is immediate. Foreigners can land university positions, but a minimal level of proficiency in French is required – assistant professors are typically required to teach 6-7 units each year and very few formations offer courses in English.
Another French peculiarity: in order to supervise PhD students, and then to become a professor, one has to pass what is called an ‘habilitation’ – something like a second PhD, the requirements of which vary depending on universities: sometimes a list of past papers suffices, sometimes an entirely original monograph is needed; and sometimes it’s a combination of both. Once you have it, you can supervise PhDs even if you’re not a professor; to become one, you need to apply to open positions and undergo a hiring procedure again.
The other option is the CNRS, whose national job campaign starts every year in December. Candidates must apply to disciplinary ‘sections’ – for philosophers, the relevant ones would be section 35 (“Philosophy, arts, literature”) and section 53 (an interdisciplinary one, entitled “Sciences in society”, and so relevant for philosophers and historians of science). Every year, each section has a (varying) number of jobs advertised, some of which are thematically ‘coloured’. To apply, one needs to write a full research project (usually 15-30 pages) for at least 10 years; preparing this alone is quite time-consuming. In principle, one should also contact research units that may support them. After a first selection, candidates then undergo an interview (20-30 minutes), after which a list of selected candidates is issued (including a waiting list). A higher-level commission may then approve it (with some occasional changes).
In principle, it is easier for foreigners to get a CNRS job than a university one, as proficiency is French isn’t necessary. Also note that every year, jobs are also offered at the ‘research director’ level (similar to professor but without mandatory teaching). Interestingly, CNRS has recently made a point of trying to attract foreign talents – there is one job specifically for them each year (as a research director), that is, to be filled if a suitable candidate applies. There, non-French people do have a real shot at getting a research-only permanent job, which may be attractive (even if salary in itself isn’t necessarily so).
It’s also worth mentioning that in France, just like elsewhere, the number of jobs in academia has been steadily decreasing. In 2023, there are about 7 assistant professor positions and 2 entry researcher positions at the CNRS in philosophy. This makes for about 10 new jobs a year, nation-wide.
- Philosophy in France
Let’s finish with philosophy in France, where it has a particular status and even a public image. Overall, philosophy is both lauded, sought and mocked. All high-schoolers, during their last year, follow a year-long philosophy course, which is deemed fundamental. Every year, philosophy is traditionally the first exam that takes place during the Baccalauréat, and its topics are sometimes mentioned on national news. This philosophy course is also what allows a number of philosophy students to end up with permanent teaching positions in high school. As a result, even if jobs in higher education are scarce, many individuals with a philosophical education do have jobs in philosophy, as compared to other countries.
Discipline-wise, the majority of philosophical works in France belong to the history of philosophy tradition or the so-called continental one. Still, analytic philosophy went from non-existence to being a minor but steady presence. Overall, it is fair to say that the French philosophical landscape is much more diverse nowadays that it used to be.
France has a long tradition of famous philosophers, and in the 20th century a number of them – Weil, Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Foucault... – were also public intellectuals who displayed political engagement. Since the 80s, they have been replaced by public philosophers that are chiefly media figures – they often do not produce research-level works (although some do). So it is fairly common to see people labelled as ‘philosophers’ appear on info channels, on radios, in various TV shows, etc. If only for this reason, and for better or worse, philosophy does have a steady public presence in France, although a rather distorted one.
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