Jean-Pierre Dupuy is Professor Emeritus of Social and Political Philosophy, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris and Professor of French and, by courtesy, of Political Science, Stanford University. He is a member of the French Academy of Technology, a spinoff of the Academy of Sciences, and of the Conseil Général des Mines, the French High Magistracy that oversees and regulates industry, energy and the environment. He chairs the Ethics Committee of the French High Authority on Nuclear Safety and Security. He is the Director of the Research Program of Imitatio, a new foundation devoted to the dissemination and discussion of René Girard’s mimetic theory. His most recent work has dealt with the topic of catastrophe, and is being translated and collected in a volume to be published by Stanford University Press. Among his most recent publications: The Mechanization of the Mind (Princeton University Press, 2000); Pour un catastrophisme éclairé (Paris, Seuil, 2002); Avions-nous oublié le mal? Penser la politique après le 11 septembre (Paris, Bayard, 2002); Petite métaphysique des tsunamis (Paris, Seuil, 2005); Retour de Tchernobyl: Journal d’un homme en colère (Paris, Seuil, 2006) ; On the Origins of Cognitive Science (The MIT Press, 2009) ; La Marque du sacré (Paris, Carnets Nord, 2009); Dans l’œil du cyclone (Carnets Nord, 2009); L’Avenir de l’économie (Flammarion, 2012).

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Crisis and the Sacred

Paper Conference paper | | Apr 2013

It would be nonsensical to blame economists for not foreseeing the crisis; even less for causing it. It was obvious there would be a crisis. It was impossible to foresee how it would start and evolve, and at what moment these events would occur.