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Biography

Philippe Nemo has been a professor at ESCP Europe Paris Campus since 1982. He is responsible for the course “Humanities and Social Sciences”.
In the 1970s, he was a member of the group called the “nouveaux philosophes” which became renowned in several countries for its radical criticism of the philosophical foundations of marxism.
In 1978, he published a book on the Book of Job (“Job and the Excess of Evil”), translated into English, Italian and Spanish. The book was commented by Emmanuel Levinas, with whom Nemo later wrote a book entitled “Ethics and Infinity”.
Professor Nemo’s main doctoral thesis was dedicated to the Austrian classical liberal philosopher Friedrich August Hayek ( “La Société de droit selon F. A. Hayek” [“The Law Society according to Friedrich August Hayek”]). In the following years, Nemo wrote many other studies on Hayek, becoming the principal French specialist of this thinker. Later Professor Nemo wrote two lengthy treatises, “Histoire des idées politiques dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge” [History of Political Ideas in Antiquity and the Middle Ages]  (1988) and “Histoire des idées politiques aux Temps modernes et contemporains” [History of Political Ideas in Modern and Contemporary Times] (2002).
Professor Nemo then published “What is the West ?”, where he deals with the main historical and philosophical features of what we call  the “West”, in order to facilitate and nurture a dialogue among civilizations. This book has been translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Bresilian, Polish (soon Greek). In 2006, as a result of a joint series of seminars of the CREPHE of ESCP Europe and the CREA of Ecole Polytechnique, he edited with Jean Petitot “Histoire du libéralisme en Europe” [History of Classical Liberalism in Europe].
Philippe Nemo has also dedicated considerable work to educational issues publishing two books and a number of academic and newspaper articles on these topics.
His current research interests are focused on Chinese and Japanese civilizations. In 2006, he was visiting Professor at Keio University, Tokyo.

Current research

Nemo recently published a book called « Les deux Républiques françaises » (“The two French republics”), in which he shows that France has been deeply split into two conflicting sides since the French Revolution. One refers to the “1789” Revolution, which means liberal democracy, the rule of law, individual liberties, free elections. The other side refers to the “1793” revolution, which means socialism, violence and denial of regular elections. This political and even philosophical division explains most of French political life during 19th and 20th centuries. The “1789” style of Republic has been mostly predominan. But the “1793” style comes back in the foreground from time to time until now. As long as this division is not surpassed, there will not exist a genuine political consensus in France.

CREPHE has just completed its prededing research program, hold in common with CREA of Ecole Polytechnique since five years and dedicated to the history of Classical Liberalism in Continental Europe. This research is implemented in the book Histoire du libéralisme en Europe which has just been released at Presses universitaires de France (2006).
The new research program of CREPHE deals with Asian civilizations. Nemo accomplished recently a dozen of study trips in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan (also India). In 2006, he was appointed Visiting Professor at Keio university, Tokyo (Louis Vuitton Chair). The current research program of the CREPHE consists in exploring the links between “confucean” cultures and Asian economic, political, social life.
The purpose of this research is to better understand the deep cultural and social reasons which explain the extraordinary growth of these countries in the last decades. What role confucean, buddhist, shintoist, taoist elements played ? How was possible such an efficient, successfull reception of Western sciences and technologies by Japan, China or Korea since 19th century ? Which new, original culture is presently arising in these countries, going even farther than the West in many fields ?

Publications