New battle in philosophy war

Mainstream philosophers have blocked the academic career paths of four would-be lecturers from France's leading anti-establishment philosophy department at Paris VIII University.

Antagonism between the mainstream and the innovative schools symbolised by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze has been simmering but erupted with the rejection by the national universities council (CNU) of Paris VIII candidates put forward for a lectureship.

The CNU turned down all four candidates who had taken their PhD at Paris VIII or received their accreditation to lecture and supervise research from the university. It even cancelled the qualification it had awarded to one of the four, Rada Ivekovic, from the former Yugoslavia, three years ago.

Under the French system, a university commission submits a list of possibles for a post to the CNU which then "qualifies" candidates, leaving the university to make the final choice.

Paris VIII philosophy professor Jacques Ranci re said: "The system is extremely centralised and hierarchical, with a handful of people deciding everyone's careers. All the candidates who were tarred with the brush of 'bad' philosophy, symbolised by unworthies like Foucault or Deleuze, were rejected."

Mr Ranci re received his professorship after switching to the department of aesthetic arts, where appointments go to another section of the CNU.

"I'm not the only one - other philosophers here belong to the science of education department. Jacques Derrida could never get a university post. One was created especially for him at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes.

"There is a deeper divide in philosophy than in any other discipline. After 1968, when Paris VIII began as an experimental university at Vincennes, the two worlds ignored each other. Foucault never bothered about establishment philosophy but now we have to sort this problem out."

Although some members of the Paris VIII commission proposed rejecting the CNU's decision and going ahead with an appointment from the whole pool of candidates - an act that would have led to a legal battle - they lost by a narrow vote last week.

Under university rules, only commission members who had attended the first meeting on the candidates could vote at the second. Few members anticipated the CNU decision, made just before the general election.

Rada Ivekovic has come to the end of a non-renewable four-year temporary lectureship and her work and residence permits expire in August. She can contest the cancellation of her accreditation only after four months.

"It would not be appropriate for my personal situation to be taken into account in what should be a purely professional decision," she said. "Instead of a priori selection, the CNU should limit its role to invalidating the rare candidates whose dossiers are inadequate. It should leave university autonomy and intellectual freedom intact."

The candidates obtained the reports compiled on them by the CNU. One of them was deemed unsuitable because "the original and personal character of (his) research place him outside the scientific community".

"The CNU uses the same model of power as the state which functions by means of exclusion. Extreme cases of the same mechanism lead to war," said Ms Ivekovic. "France is intellectually quite open - that is why I'm able to develop my critique of nationalism - but institutionally, it is completely closed."