Robert Almeder, Professor, Philosophy Department, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
Lecturing/Research: Philosophy, Recent Work on Truth
Host Institution: Université Paris IV, Sorbonne, France
Grant Year: 2004-05

In September, I arrived in Paris to begin a four-month tenure as a Senior Fulbright researcher/lecturer in Philosophy. My project was fairly expansive, embracing as it did a collaborative effort in writing with another senior philosopher, Pascal Engel, in the Department of Philosophy at the Sorbonne. We have worked on a paper entitled Recent Work on Truth and have given some occasional lectures to the Philosophy Department at the Sorbonne. My time has otherwise been spent working at the nice desk provided for me in a building near Le Musée de l'Armée by the wonderful philosophers at the Jean Nicod Institute, which is a part of the National Research Center. I have spent several hours in stimulating conversation with several philosophers, allowing me to not only map out the first draft of our collaborative project on truth, but also to write a paper on contemporary skepticism to give as a lecture in the Sorbonne philosophy department on Nov. 22. The title of the paper was L'argument de l'ignorance and will hopefully see its way into print in a French philosophy journal.

Otherwise, I see the collaborative project on truth possibly extending to a completion date in the spring and after that finding its way into publication when the gods see fit. My collaborator and I, after five or six fruitful discussions, have already agreed on the basic structure of the essay and how things will develop. That was the most important thing to be done this semester. With a little luck, we will have mapped out the first draft by my departure on Jan 1, 2005.

Each day, I go to my office early and try to finish up in time to work out in the fitness center at rue Pontoise where I do my best to explain to the other gentlemen there in the middle of push-ups and bench presses, etc. why I find it something of an exaggeration to think Mr. George W. Bush is a veritable throwback to Attila the Hun or Alaric the Visigoth. This, of course, has been a wonderful cultural experience endearing me immensely in the neighborhood and has further enabled me to function effectively as a source of consolation for the chronically and acutely depressed after the last election in the U.S. At any rate, I walk everywhere, talk to as many people in French as I can, and on the way home after the fitness center I stroll along the Seine. On some nights, the walk home has been transporting in a way I would never have expected. On all my previous trips to Paris, I never had the sense that I belonged, and felt that Paris was simply another big suffocating city. I went to work and went home to bed. This time it was different. I began to feel the sensual texture of the city, the vitality and smooth tranquility of things, the relaxed atmosphere by the river and jogging in the Jardin Luxemberg. Having a hot chocolate in a shop just off blvd. St. Michel turns out to be a spiritual experience. I love walking the city streets now and talking with as many people as I can on whatever seems engaging. I am reading everything I can about things French, going to concerts at the Eglise Saint Ephrem, and found my favorite museum at Musée Mammonet Monet. Just finished reading Abelard's autobiography Histoire de mes Malheurs. Made me wish I had been around here in those days.

Above all else, I find that when walking around the city, or listening to a concert at Eglise St. Ephrem's, I seem to think better because I am in a happy and relaxed conditioned here. The work goes well and although I have not had a chance to do any traveling just yet, and am only a few weeks away from returning to a demanding schedule elsewhere, there is no doubt in my mind that my time here has been a blessing philosophically and otherwise for which I am very grateful, and I look forward to a return visit. If you go to rue Rollins just off place de la Contrescarpe, you will see on the wall of one of the apartment houses a gold plaque indicating that the house in question was where Rene Descartes, the famous French philosopher, lived and worked during three of his extended stays in France. Otherwise, he lived in Holland. There is on the plaque a quote from Descartes to the effect that he considered his condition, that of being able to live with one foot in each country a mark of his happiness in which he found freedom. He said in a letter (1648) to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia:

Me tenant, comme je suis, un pied dans un pays et l'autre en un autre,
je trouve ma condition très heureuse, en ce quelle est libre."

I could not quite understand just what he was getting at when I first saw and read that plaque over six years ago. I do now. Paris toujours!

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