ABSTRACT
The question of the intellectual comes back at regular intervals. I don’t know if it is a French speciality, but ever since the Dreyfus affair at the beginning of the century, we on the continent have continually involved and compromised our thinkers in current political debates. Some, like Michel Serres, are beginning to show impatience and to demand a right of incompetence in political matters. I tend to think that is so much the better in some cases, but basically I prefer the attitude of someone like Maurice Blanchot, who dreams instead of keeping for himself ‘the right of the unexpected word’, that is to say, the possibility of speaking only sparingly about current affairs, and without it appearing to be a duty.2 In short, French intellectuals are probably still in mourning for Sartre.
