Penser les limites par Olivier Rey

Olivier Rey is a mathematician and philosopher, a researcher at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research). Video excerpt from the 2017 Ethical Conversations, organized on June 6 by Espace éthique/IDF (Ethics Center/IDF). That the notion of progress is in crisis no longer seems to be up for debate. The axioms that make it an ideology—according to which there is a natural relationship between scientific progress, technological progress, social progress, and human progress—are no longer a credible and shared horizon of meaning. However, we observe that the rhetoric of innovation and the economy of promises seek, not without contradiction, to maintain this defunct, yet dominant, ideology. “The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born, and in this chiaroscuro monsters emerge,” said Antonio Gramsci. We are experiencing the ambiguity of progress and are struggling to find the path to a new horizon of meaning, a new ethic for understanding our place in existence. And in this hesitation of our times, a reflection on the notions of limits and temporality is now essential. Moral limits when science and technology promise us the post-human? Ecological limits when all environmental indicators are flashing red? Social limits when disruptive innovations powerfully destabilize our modes of socialization? Economic limits when the renewal of technologies leads to planned obsolescence? Ultimately, can we conceive of an ethics in the age of limits and thus salvage the notion of progress? Find all the latest news from the Île-de-France Ethics Center on our YouTube channel: conferences, films, meetings, and interviews produced by our teams. Directed by: Patrice Dubosc You can also find these videos, as well as many other resources, on the website of the Île-de-France Ethics Center: www.espace-ethique.org Follow us on social media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/espace.ethique Twitter: www.twitter.com/EspaceEthique