Hic et Nunc : forces et limites de l'esprit chez Ivan Illich

This thesis explores the foundations of Ivan Illich’s thinking and its implications for language and for our ways of relating to one another. His thinking is rooted in a singular vision of the human being as a creature who achieves perfection by establishing a relationship that is free and fully incarnate. I explore this fundamental idea through three major lines of thought running through Illich’s oeuvre : relations between self and other; the role of institutions; the practice of language. In the first chapter I examine this vision through Illich’s way of thinking together with friends, a convivially practiced search for truth. He thus places himself in the filiation of the Good Samaritan from the parable of the Gospels. In Illich’s highly personal interpretation, which stands outside the mainstream Christian tradition, this parable bears on the relationship between faith and reason. In Illich’s view, Jesus reveals that no rule dictates who is my neighbor: the Samaritan’s gesture of charity toward the Jew is completely gratuitous and comes from a deeply felt unease (Illich refers to the Hebrew word rhacham, often translated as mercy). In the second chapter I discuss the worldview that results from such an interpretation. For Illich, the Gospels open up a unique opportunity to be with each other beyond the rules that frame various groups (clan, tribe, nation etc). This thinking leads him to perceive the institutions and organizations of Western society as resulting from a perversion of that opportunity, because they seek to guarantee—through a structure or a service—precisely what should remain a freely-chosen, personal inclination. Illich demonstrates that by renouncing any guarantee and power in the world, we can still be with each other and live up to our personal inclination as creatures. Jean-Luc Nancy’s thinking on being-one-with-another offers here a counterpoint to Illich’s intuition and shows how this intuition goes beyond the Christian tradition by fully adhering to the human condition. Finally, in the third chapter, I approach language as the intangible reverse side of the irreducible condition of being with one another. According to Illich, the language we speak has also been corrupted through institutionalization. He traces the origin of this corruption to the Middle Ages, with the emergence of the notion of "mother tongue" and of its transmission via teaching. Through both his practice and his writing, however, Illich shows that uncorrupted speech remains possible, when punctuated by the silence of asceticism and listening. The iv words of Paul Celan on the persistence of speech in a corrupt world relays and responds to Illich’s thoughts on this theme, thus opening a rich dialogue on the possibility—always present, but never guaranteed—to speak with one another. Interwoven throughout these themes is the temporal dimension of hic et nunc, the here and now between us, which constantly surfaces in Illich’s writings yet remains difficult to grasp with the human mind.

Keyphrases: Ivan Illich, Jean-Luc Nancy, Paul Celan, institutions, community, language, hic et nunc, faith, Christianism, here and now