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Conversation With Philosopher Souleyman Bachir Diagne

Date: 
Thursday, 14 November 2019

CONVERSATION WITH RENOWNED AFRICAN PHILOSOPHER

SOULEYMANE BACHIR DIAGNE

« Quelle place pour la

philosophie dans un monde en mutation? »

“Which role for philosophy in a changing world?”

United Nations

14 November 2019

 

Philosopher Souleyman Bachir Diagne is a Professor and Chair of the Department of French Romance Philology at Columbia University.

Philosopher Diagne received his academic training in France. An alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he took his Ph.D (Doctorat d’État) in philosophy at the Sorbonne (1988) where he also took his BA (1977). His field of research includes Boolean algebra of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, African philosophy and literature.

Philosopher Diagne is the author of Boole, l’oiseau de nuit en plein jour (Paris: Belin, 1989) (a book on Boolean algebra), Islam and the Open Society: Fidelity and Movement in the Philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal (Dakar, Codesria, 2011), African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude (Seagull Books,  2011), The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa (Dakar, Codesria, 2016), Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition (New York, Columbia University Press, 2018). His book, Bergson postcolonial: L’élan vital dans la pensée de Senghor et de Mohamed Iqbal (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 2011) is forthcoming in an English version to be published by Fordham University Press. That book was awarded the Dagnan-Bouveret prize by the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for 2011 and on that same year professor Diagne received the Edouard Glissant Prize for his work.

Philosopher Diagne's current teaching interests include history of early modern philosophy, philosophy and Sufism in the Islamic world, African philosophy and literature, twentieth century French philosophy.  His areas of specialization are:  History of Logic; Boolean algebra of logic; French philosophy; Islamic philosophy and Sufism; African philosophy