Metamorphoses: Cloture-Ouverture (Encre Marine)

by Kostas Axelos

Les differents essais qui composent ce livre, a la fois divers et uni, interrogent les grandes metamorphoses du monde. Il est question, tout d'abord, du long chemin qui a conduit de la mythologie archaique - a travers la tradition greco-romaine et judeo-chretienne - a la technologie moderne et ultramoderne. Le passe de l'homme, son present et surtout son avenir font probleme: l'etre humain est destine a connaitre un changement. Ensuite, c'est l'aventure de la technique scientifique devenue planetaire qui est scrutee. Partie de l'Europe, la technoscience s'universalise. Mais qu'en est-il de l'Europe ? Dans quel etat se trouvent ses formations les plus importantes ? Ainsi est posee aussi la question de la fin de l'art, dans toute sa dimension poetique. Une meme structure et une meme histoire - comportant des dimensions multiples et complexes - englobent ce qui est, se fait, se defait. Enfin, si notre epoque marque une certaine fin, une cloture, elle nous appelle egalement a une nouvelle ouverture, ici esquissee.

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2021

About the author

Kostas Axelos (also spelled Costas Axelos; Greek: Κώστας Αξελός) was a Greek philosopher. He was born in Athens and attended high school at the French Institute and the German School of Athens. He enrolled in the law school in order to pursue studies in law and economics. With the onset of World War II Alexos became involved in politics. During the German and Italian occupation he participated in the Greek Resistance, and later on in the Greek Civil War, as an organiser and journalist affiliated with the Communist Party (1941–1945). He was later expelled from the Communist Party and condemned to death by the right-wing government. He was arrested and escaped.
At the end of 1945 Axelos moved to Paris, France, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. From 1950 to 1957 he worked as a researcher in the philosophy branch of C.R.N.S, where he was writing his dissertations, and subsequently proceeded to work in Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. From 1962 to 1973 he taught philosophy at the Sorbonne. His dissertation "Marx, penseur de la technique" (translated as "Alienation, Praxis and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx") tried to provide an understanding of modern technology based on the thought of Heidegger and Marx and was very influential in the 1960s, alongside the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse.
Axelos was a collaborator on, columnist with, and subsequently editor of the magazine Arguments (1956–1962). He founded and, since 1960, has run the series Arguments in Edition de Minuit. He has published texts mostly in French, but also in Greek and German. His most important book is Le Jeu du Monde (Play of the World), where Axelos argues for a pre-ontological status of play.