Jan Marejko

This article is about the Swiss philosopher. For the Polish painter, see Jan Matejko.

Jan Marejko (1946 – 21 September 2016) was a Swiss philosopher, journalist, essayist and politician.

Biography

Jan Marejko was born in Gdańsk into a Polish Jewish family. He converted to Christianity and was naturalized Swiss.

Marejko obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Geneva in 1980. He was a writer, researcher at the Swiss National Science Foundation, professor of philosophy, then collaborator in the communication agency Rochat & Partners, columnist at L'Agefi after writing a daily column on international affairs there for three years (Geoscopy).

Involved in politics in the Liberal Party, he was president of the Liberal Circle from 1993 to 1995 as well as liberal municipal councilor at the City of Geneva from January 1994 to October 1999. He has worked as a columnist on the SSR's Grand Huit program since 2005.

He has collaborated with the Swiss geopolitical journal L'Impact.

Thought

During his research in Paris, New York and Harvard University, Marejko came to the conviction that the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century (Galileo Galilei) had not replaced Aristotle's cosmos with another, but had removed the conditions of possibility of any cosmos. We can define modernity as an effort to face the challenge of this suppression. Our universe is now an infinite, homogeneous, isotropic space, and the question arises of how to live there. The consequences of this revolution have indeed been enormous. But we are hardly aware of this, especially in terms of economic thinking. Most of Jan Marejko's writings attempt to better understand this challenge from, among others, thinkers of liberalism who have glimpsed it without, however, succeeding in meeting it.

Works

Major publications

• De la misère intellectuelle et morale en Suisse romande (1981; with Éric Werner)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau et la dérive totalitaire (1984)
• Chroniques d'un révolutionnaire conservateur (1985)
• Le Territoire métaphysique (1989)
• Cosmologie et politique, Lausanne (1989)
• Exercices systématiques de philosophie (1990; 3 volumes)
• Les esclaves du sablier: technocratie et hystérie (1990)
• La Cité des morts: avènement du technocosme (1994)
• Dix méditations sur l'espace et le mouvement (1994)
• Philosophe moi aussi (1996)
• Temps cosmique et histoire humaine (1996; with Ilya Prigogine, Isabelle Stengers, etc.)
• "Le Territoire Métaphysique contemporain." In: Où en est la philosophie? (1993; introduction by Jean Ladrière; with Kostas Axelos, Marc Richir, Jean-Jacques Wunenberger, Raymond Lepee, etc.)
• "Réflexions sur l'action humanitaire." In: L'an 2000, l'humanitaire et les valeurs (1996)
• Passions philosophiques (1998)
• Il n’y a pas de suicides heureux (1999)
• "A quelles conditions le concept de développement durable serait-il crédible?" In: Le développement durable: un développement multisectoriel provisoire (2004)
• La vision romande de l’État en question (2007)
• Je voulais vous dire (2017)

Novels

• Des inconnus dans les couloirs (2012)

Articles

• "Der Gesichtlose Sozialismus," Criticon (September, 1977).
• "Des raisons qui nous empêchent d'écrire et de penser," Nova et Vetera, No. 13 (1977), pp. 227–34.
• "Atomies and Monoliths," Modern Age, No. 22 (1978), pp. 207–09.
• "Mystique et politique," Commentaire, No. 11 (1980), pp. 518–20.
• "Les avatars de l'incroyance," Nova et Vetera, No. 12 (1983), pp. 108–12.
• "Les conséquences philosophiques de la formulation du principe d'inertie," Diogène, No. 1123 (1983), p. 1–30. Translated into English, Spanish and Arabic.
• "Phusis et Polis," Revue de métaphysique et de morale, No. 12 (1983), p. 145–63.
• "World Order or World Control," The Review of Politics, No. 14 (1984), pp. 588–610.
• "Morale et politique étrangère," Commentaire, No. 25 (1984), pp. 178–84.
• "L'espace et le désir," Diogène, No. 1132 (1985), pp. 37–60. Translated into English and Spanish.
• "Légitimité et modernité," Diogène, No. 1134 (1986), pp. 83–100. Translated into English, Spanish and Japanese.
• "Une thérapie alogale," Le discours psychanalytique (septembre 1986), pp. 11–16.
• "The Invisible Foundation of the Visible," Modern Age, No. 34 (1992), pp. 371–75.
• "Figures du refoulement: Œdipe-Chronos-Lucifer," Intermondes, Revue quadrimestrielle d'étude et de dialogue, No. 4 (1992).
• "Du sens, il n’est pas possible de faire l’économie," Revue du M.A.U.S.S. (janvier 2001).
• "La rupture d’Alliance dans la dynamique de la modernité," Cahiers d’Études Levinassiennes, No. 2 (mars 2003)
• "L'infini et le paradigme inertiel," Arkhai, No. 8 (septembre 2003), pp. 35–51.
• "Les fondements cosmologiques du messianisme," Cahiers d’Études Lévinassiennes, No. 4 (2005).

External links

• Works by Jan Marejko at Gallica
• Works by Jan Marejko at Cairn.info
• Works by Jan Marejko at Unz.com