Why are you reading this piece of news? Is it out of habit, because you reach for everything that appears on the website? Or perhaps you are here by chance, because a certain phrase caught your eye? Is it possible that you weren't supposed to read this post at all, because you have a thousand more important things on your mind, but you still want to postpone for a while the moment of entering into the daily ritual of checking off tasks that has been boring and irritating you for a long time? What suited you fine yesterday, a week ago, or a month, now seems uncomfortable because you are a little different, a little changed. And the title I gave to this post, affirming small, barely noticeable changes, gently strikes a sensitive chord with you.
If any of the above assumptions are close to your case, read François Jullien. This French philosopher and sinologist, recently a guest at the University of Lodz, has so far rarely been translated into Polish. Two of his books on the relationship between Chinese and Greek philosophy were published in the first decade of the 21st century; subsequently, his thought was presented in a very fragmentary manner. Therefore, "Ponownie otworzyć możliwości. De-koincydencja i ponowne życie. Wybór tekstów” [Reopening Possibilities. De-coincidence and Re-Life. Selected Texts], translated and edited by Prof. Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka, is an excellent opportunity to familiarise yourself with the most interesting theses of this author from the last dozen or so years.
The volume, with its tender Preface: a letter to Polish Friends, came into being thanks to what should be the essence of academic work, but is not, because scientists are expected to achieve high-scoring results in a short time. Namely, Prof. Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka, a pedagogue, suggested to her colleagues to talk about the lecture that Jullien gave at the opening of the International Biennial of Education, Training and Professional Practice in Paris in 2021. The conversation turned into a Jullien-like seminar, fuelled by subsequent texts that Marynowicz-Hetka translated. She received the author's “blessing,” as evidenced by the fact that she received the manuscript of his last year’s book , “Ponownie otworzyć możliwości. De-koincydencja”, the art of action even before its French premiere. The volume is supplemented by fragments of earlier books, entitled: "Transformacje bezszelestne" [Silent Transformations] (2009) and "Kolejne życie.Jak właściwie istnieć" [Another Life. How to Actually Exist] (2017). Jullien does not agree with the bias of European philosophical thought.
To open our perspective, he needs a few keys. He uses his own concepts for this purpose: silent transformations, clarity of mind and illumination and de-coincidence. The first refers to the fact that we are constantly actors in the process of change that is taking place within us and around us. Transitions are so small that we do not notice them on a daily basis, being surprised only when the results are already advanced. This is how growing up and ageing work, as well as the march of seasons and global warming. Our lives are shaped not by sudden revolutions but sequences of small and progressive changes.
Does this mean that in order to feel the change we have to bungee jump or go to Bali? No, it is enough to be a careful observer and a persistent long-distance runner. It’s enough not to be afraid to take up again (in Kierkegaard's words) the same actions if we feel that we could have done them differently. Clues can be found in Chinese culture. François Jullien does not use it to pillory its European competitor. On the contrary, by gently juxtaposing both traditions, he traces the "folds of reason", the habits of thought that can be noticed when one becomes familiar with alternative ways of perceiving the world. In China, instead of the familiar “beginning – end” sequence, we speak of the “end – beginning” axis. There are no clear boundaries between them – the beginning is an extension of the end, and the end begins something new. There is no start or finish line, but a continuous journey. The subject, unlike in the case of Plato and Aristotle, changes under the influence of the accumulation of experiences, even the most minute ones.
Does the sky always have to be defined – blue, dark, stormy? What if, looking at snow or rain that, when it touches the ground, is no longer the same snowflake or drop that was swirling in the air a moment ago, we tried to think about ourselves anew?
For this we will need more than ingenuity and recognition of desires. The secret is thinking free from the dictionary of basic concepts and the attributes attributed to them. Jullien calls this mental openness clarity of mind or enlightenment. It cannot be learned, but we can trust that it will develop with us. Mental clarity allows for de-coincidence. It opposes the imperative of coincidence, i.e. conformity with being (God, nature, etc.) and its norms of truth. European philosophy, born in Greece, saw the ideal in the adequacy of language and things, people and logos. In school, art, science and in everyday life, something different is needed, the philosopher warns, namely departure from routine and conscious openness to change. It is worth looking for cracks in existence, possibilities of another life involving people we have not taken into account so far.
To many ears this probably sounds like a romantic and naive fairy tale about a second chance. Jullien defends himself by saying that his proposal is far from the fashionable slogans of management discourse such as "efficiency", "sustainability", "innovation" or "resilience", as well as from their passionate criticism. One could answer the philosopher that "de-coincidence" has also already been exploited by capitalist practices of governing the human illusion of happiness and fulfilment. And that we are waiting to go a step further. Reading the glosses included in the second part of the collection, I think Jullien will succeed. Jean-François Lyotard compared his strategy to the "efficiency of a crab", which "is not due to the crushing force of its pincers, but above all to its stochastic sideways movement" between philosophical traditions. Alain Badiou appreciated his ability to find a universal space for thinking about difference. Paul Ricoeur praised him for combining without dividing, that is, the practice of "Chinese thinking in French." Jean-Marie Barbier compared him to such giants as Erwin Panofsky and Michel Foucault. Therefore, let us read him perversely and without haste.
François Jullien's book, reviewed by Prof. Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka, is available in the bookstore of the Lodz University Press..
The publication was published thanks to funding from the French Institute in Poland as part of the Boy-Żeleński Publishing Support Programme..
Cet ouvrage, publié dans le cadre du Programme d’aide à la publication Boy-Żeleński a bénéficié du soutien de l’Institut français de Pologne.