Jean-Marie Vincent (philosopher)

Jean-Marie Vincent
Born6 March 1934[1]
Nancy[1] (Meurthe-et-Moselle)[2]
Died6 April 2004[1]
Paris
Other nameVincent Valette
OccupationsPhilosopher, political scientist, professor
Education
EducationSciences Po
Paris 8 University
ThesisProblèmes méthodologiques des sciences sociales contemporaines : Max Weber, l’École de Francfort, le marxisme italien[2] (1961, 1972)
Alfred Grosser
François Chatelet
Philosophical work
EraContemporary Philosophy
RegionWestern Philosophy
InstitutionsUniversity of Picardy Jules Verne
Notable students
Denis Berger
Henri Maler
Gilbert Achcar
Daniel Lindenberg
Estelle Ferrarese
Main interests
Marxism, Critical theory, Law of Value
Notable works
Critique du travail. Le faire et l'agir (PUF, 1987)

Jean-Marie Vincent (6 March 1934 – 6 April 2004) was a French political philosopher, political scientist, and Marxist theorist.

Early life and education

Vincent grew up in the Grand Est region of northeastern France, the son of Gaston Vincent, an industrial worker, Marguerite, née Dossmann, a homemaker. He pursued secondary studies and the baccalauréat in Paris between 1952-1953. It was at this time that he joined the Internationalist Communist Party (PCI).[2]

Vincent completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Paris, then he obtained a doctorate from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in 1961, under the supervision of Alfred Grosser, and a habilitation in 1972 under the direction of François Chatelet.[2]

Around the time of the reorganization of the Paris-Sorbonne University system after the May 68 protests, Vincent was deeply involved at what had newly become Paris 8 University, a key figure in the establishment their political science department,[3][4][5][6] and he remained there until he retired in 2002.[2][7] For several years he served as Vice-President of the Council for Academic and Student Affairs at that university.[7]

Career

Vincent based his work on the critical theory of the Frankfurt School,[1][7] and its relationship to Marxism to Francophone readers.[3][a][8] Vincent developed his own conceptual framework, notably in "Critique du travail" (PUF, 1987).[6]

Vincent was a member of the Unified Socialist Party (France)[2][9][6] and involved in the Tribune Socialiste with André Gorz.[10] Gorz spoke about his longtime working relationship with Vincent after the latter's death in 2004, recalling specifically the early 1960s when Vincent strongly influenced him and was, indeed, a "driving force" in the PSU and the Tribune Socialiste where Gorz also worked.[10] Gorz credits Vincent as one of the first in France to change the academic conversations on socialism (a time when Western Marxism tended to focus on the 1844 Manuscripts) by turning their attention to the Grundrisse,[11] a text Gorz says remained fundamental to Vincent's thinking.[10]

At the same time, Vincent also became a specialist on German sociology, especially Max Weber, and also on Italian theoretical Marxism, i.e. Lucio Colletti and Galvano Della Volpe.[10][9] The latter led him to fetishism[6] as a lens through which to interpret Das Kapital,[12][6] which Gorz says kept him from the "pitfalls of Althussérien theory."[10]

Editorial work

After years coediting Futur antérieur, a journal founded by Vincent with Denis Berger and Toni Negri[2] and that folded in 1998,[b][13][14] Vincent founded Variations (revue): Revue internationale de théorie critique in 2001.[5] Vincent was also founder and editor of the revue Critiques de l’économie politique with Pierre Salama and Jacques Valier.[2]

Reception

In The Critique of Work in Modern French Thought (2019),[c] Alastair Hemmens identifies Vincent as an important figure in the development of a categorical critique of labour in France, thus part of a genealogy he goes through in the work including Charles Fourier, Guy Debord, Paul Lafargue, and André Breton.[15] Primarily in the chapter, "The New Spirit of Capitalism and the Critique of Work Since May '68," Hemmens situates Vincent’s work within a strand of Marxist thought that challenged the treatment of labour as a transhistorical or inherently emancipatory category, and links his influence particularly to André Gorz. According to Hemmens, Gorz’s friendship and scholarship with Vincent contributed significantly to his engagement with the critique of labor movement. Hemmens also notes Vincent’s institutional role as founder of the political science department at Paris VIII, thus placing his theoretical work within the broader intellectual history of post-1968 French critical thought.[15]

Political scientist Antoine Artous dedicated his book, Le fétichisme chez Marx, le marxisme comme théorie critique (2006), to Vincent. Artous cites and defends Vincent's "théorie de la forme valeur des produits du travail" in relation to the Marxist theory of value.[16]

Selected published work

Books

  • Fétichisme et société, Paris, Anthropos, 1973. Republished posthumously: Paris, Éditions Critiques, 2020.
  • La théorie critique de l'École de Francfort, Paris, Éditions Galilée, 1976
  • Les mensonges de l'État, Paris, Le Sycomore, 1979
  • Critique du travail. Le faire et l'agir, Paris, PUF, 1987 ; rééd. Paris, Éditions Critiques, 2019.
  • Abstract labour: a critique. Palgrave Macmillan, 1991. (doi:10.1007/978-1-349-21744-1).
  • Marx après les marxismes, L'Harmattan, 1997, 2 volumes. The text " Marx l'obstiné " by Jean-Marie Vincent is founded in Volume 1.
  • Max Weber ou la démocratie inachevée, Paris, Le Félin, 1998 (réédition en 2009)
  • Un autre Marx, Lausanne, Page deux, 2001

Articles

  • "La légende du travail." La liberté du travail, Éditions Syllepse, Paris (1995): 71-82.
  • “Le Désenchantement Du Monde: Max Weber et Walter Benjamin.” Revue Européenne Des Sciences Sociales 33, no. 101 (1995): 95–106.
  • “Max Weber et La Constellation Du Matérialisme Historique.” Actuel Marx, no. 11 (1992): 67–81.
  • "La domination du travail abstrait." Critique de l’économie politique 1 (1977): 19-49.
  • "The PCF and its history." New Left Review 1, no. 52 (1969): 39-46.
  • "Le capitalisme selon Weber." L'Homme et la Société 4, no. 1 (1967): 61-77.

Co-authored works

  • Vincent, Jean-Marie, Joachim Hirsch, and Margaret Wirth. L'État contemporain et le marxisme. F. Maspero, 1975.
  • Cohen, Jim, and Jean-Marie Vincent. Abstract Labour: a Critique. Springer Publishing, 1991.
  • Vers un nouvel anticapitalisme, (with Michel Vakaloulis et Pierre Zarka), Paris, Le Félin, 2003
  • Sciences sociales et engagement, with Alexander Neumann (dir.), Paris, Éditions Syllepse, 2003.
  • La Postérité de l'École de Francfort, with Alain Blanc (dir.), Paris, Syllepse, coll. "Variations", 2004. ISBN 2847970762

Notes

  1. ↑ From Hemmens (2019): "He was, moreover, one of the first to introduce the French speaking public to the foundations of these debates in The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School." Hemmens cites Vincent's own work here: Galilée, 1976.
  2. ↑ The archive for Futur antérieur is available digitally through the ongoing Multitudes (revue) journal.
  3. ↑ Part of a series jointly organized by the Department of Latin American and Iberian Culture at Columbia University and the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UC Davis.

Works cited

  • Marx après les marxismes, L'Harmattan, 1997, 2 volumes. The text " Marx l'obstiné " by Jean-Marie Vincent is founded in Volume 1.
  • Max Weber ou la démocratie inachevée, Paris, Le Félin, 1998 (réédition en 2009)
  • Gianinazzi, Willy. « Vivre une vie qui ne se vit pas. Quand Jean-Marie Vincent et André Gorz débattaient de valeur et subjectivité (2000-2002) », Variations [En ligne], 17 | 2012, mis en ligne le 15 octobre 2012, consulté le 10 août 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/variations/354 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/variations.354
  • Hemmens, Alastair. The Critique of Work in Modern French Thought. From Charles Fourier to Guy Debord. Chapter Six: "The New Spirit of Capitalism and the Critique of Work in France Since May ’68." P.167-192, Springer Publishing, 2019. URL.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lubitz, Wolfgang; Lubitz, Petra (2004). "Jean-Marie Vincent" (pdf). Trotskyana. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "VINCENT Jean-Marie dit Vincent Valette". Maitron (in French). Archived from the original on 16 August 2026. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 Hemmens, Alastair (2019). "The New Spirit of Capitalism and the Critique of Work in France Since May '68". Consacré aux écrits de Jean-Marie Vincent (1934-2004). Springer Publishing. p. 167-192. Retrieved 9 August 2026. Jean-Marie Vincent is an important figure in the history of the development of a categorical critique of labour in France. Vincent was an academic who founded the political science department at Paris VIII university.
  4. ↑ Hemmens, Alastair (26 April 2019). "The Critique of Work in Modern French Thought". Google Books. Springer Publishing. p. 226. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Variations Hiver 2011" [Variations Winter 2011]. Revue internationale theorie critique (in French). Les éditions Parangon. 2011. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2026. Sans parler des inédits de Jean-Marie Vincent, fondateur de Variations et du département de science politique de l'Université Vincennes, qui était le premier à faire connaître les idées torrides de « l'Ecole de Francfort » à un public français plus large. Notre septième numéro (dirigé par Lucia Sagradini et Jan Spurk) a exclusivement porté sur le débat international concernant la Théorie critique.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Jean-Marie Vincent, un des fondateurs du PSU". Le Monde (in French). 9 April 2004. Retrieved 10 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "Autour de Jean-Marie Vincent," Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, March 01, 2005, https://doi.org/10.58079/9ny
  8. ↑ RODIER, Clément. “HABERMAS CONTRE L’ÉCOLE DE FRANCFORT.” Actuel Marx, no. 71 (2022): 131–46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48842463.
  9. 1 2 Adréani, Tony, and JRC. “Jean-Marie Vincent: In Memoriam.” Mientras Tanto, no. 90 (2004): 111–12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27820741.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Willy Gianinazzi, « Vivre une vie qui ne se vit pas. Quand Jean-Marie Vincent et André Gorz débattaient de valeur et subjectivité (2000-2002) », Variations [En ligne], 17 | 2012, mis en ligne le 15 octobre 2012, consulté le 09 août 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/variations/354 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/variations.354
  11. ↑ Fourel, Christophe, and Françoise Gollain. André Gorz: Thinker of Emancipation. 2014.
  12. ↑ Jean-Marie Vincent, « Le fétiche travail et son empire : la critique de l’économie comme critique de la forme valeur ? », Variations [En ligne], 24 | 2021, mis en ligne le 03 juillet 2021, consulté le 10 août 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/variations/2043 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/variations.2043
  13. ↑ "FUTUR ANTÉRIEUR". Éditions L'Harmattan (in French). Retrieved 14 August 2026. La revue Futur Antérieur a été fondée en 1990 à l'initiative de Jean-Marie Vincent, de Denis Berger et de Toni Negri. L'objectif visé était de favoriser un renouveau de la recherche conceptuelle, en créant les conditions d'un débat stratégique et critique
  14. ↑ Aubert, Antoine (2017). "Multitudes : aux origines d'une revue radicale" [Multitudes: The Origins of a Radical Journal]. CAIRN.Info (in French). Multitudes. Retrieved 14 August 2026. Malgré sa clandestinité il parvient, grâce notamment à l'aide de Jean-Marie Vincent, à enseigner à l'Université Paris VIII. Avec ce dernier, il devient co-directeur de Futur antérieur de 1990 à 1997, moment où il décide de retourner en Italie purger la fin de sa peine.
  15. 1 2 Hemmens, Alastair (2019). The Critique Of Work In Modern French Thought: From Charles Fourier To Guy Debord. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 233. ISBN 9783030125851. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
  16. ↑ Guillaume Collinet, « Antoine Artous, Le fétichisme chez Marx, le marxisme comme théorie critique », Variations [En ligne], 8 | 2006, mis en ligne le 27 décembre 2012, consulté le 19 août 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/variations/525 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/variations.525

Further reading

  • Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism. Brill Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789004145986.
  • Sanmartino, Jorge Orovitz, Alberto Rosé, Melisa Demetrio, and Manuel Gorini, eds. “¿QUIÉN ES EL ESTADO?” In Nicos Poulantzas: Escritos de Teoría y Política : Textos Inéditos. Prometeo Editorial, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.41480193.19. (Interview with Jean-Marie Vincent, Nicos Poulantzas, and Guy Perrin in the Spanish language.)
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