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Overview
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Disability Studies. Self-help. Philosophy & Spirituality. Essay. Theater. Translated from the French by Michael Eskin. Foreword by Matthieu Ricard. Alexandre Jollien, who is the first and only major thinker and spiritual teacher in the history of philosophy to have been born with cerebral palsy, tells the story of how he grew up in a home for the severely disabled and was destined to roll cigars; how he discovered philosophy, which changed his life forever, helping him to confront his fate, endow it with meaning, and turn his disability into a source of strength and creative energy; how, against all odds, he fought his way out of the home and into high school and university, where as an undergraduate he wrote IN PRAISE OF WEAKNESS... Imbued with human warmth and wisdom, this modern Socratic dialogue is a poignant testament to the inestimable value of friendship, the power of imagination, and the will to overcome. A book that inspires and gives courage.
"Alexandre Jollien proves that despite being born severely disabled it is still possible ... to construct a personality, build a family, and, most astonishingly of all, to become a philosopher, whose body of work has already been translated into German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese ..." —L'Express
"... a remarkable philosophical work, concise and joyful ... a message delivered from another realm ..." —Libération
"IN PRAISE OF WEAKNESS ... takes a fresh and insightful look at the nature of difference and the adaptive capacity of man." —The Irish Times
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781935830429 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Upper West Side Philosophers |
| Publication date: | 05/30/2017 |
| Pages: | 138 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.70(w) x 7.30(h) x 0.30(d) |
About the Author
Born with cerebral palsy, Alexandre Jollien grew up in a home for the severely disabled, where, as he laconically notes, "rolling cigars" was his "professional horizon." But then, completely by chance, he discovered philosophy, and his life was changed forever. Against all odds, he succeeded in completing secondary education and enrolled at the Université de Fribourg. While studying abroad at Trinity College, Dublin, he met his future wife, with whom he has three children. He published his first book—IN PRAISE OF WEAKNESS—at the age of twenty-two, and has since established himself as a profound and compelling moral thinker and spiritual teacher. Not only is he the first and only congenitally severely disabled thinker in the history of philosophy, but he is also the first original philosopher to have consistently reflected on what it means to be born and live with disability not as an insurmountable obstacle but as a source of strength and creative energy.
Read an Excerpt
In Praise of Weakness
By Alexandre Jollien, Michael Eskin
Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.
Copyright © 1999 Éditions du CerfAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-935830-42-9
CHAPTER 1
one too many somersaults
ALEXANDRE: Socrates?
SOCRATES: Indeed, I am.
ALEXANDRE: Greetings, Socrates!
SOCRATES: Greetings? What is it that you want?
ALEXANDRE: To tell you ... how extremely grateful I am.
SOCRATES: What for? What have I done for you?
ALEXANDRE: You have given me the greatest of gifts!
SOCRATES: Have we met before?
ALEXANDRE: In a certain sense.
SOCRATES: Now you are making me curious.
ALEXANDRE: If you are not in too much of a hurry ...
SOCRATES: I have all the time in the world! Go ahead ... unless, that is, you don't like talking.
ALEXANDRE: Well, then, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Alexandre. I am twenty-three years old, and I am majoring in philosophy at the university.
SOCRATES: So far, nothing out of the ordinary.
ALEXANDRE: Still ...
SOCRATES: Back to your story, then. Proceed with confidence!
ALEXANDRE: As I said, I am twenty-three, and I have embarked on the study of philosophy.
SOCRATES: Go on, step by step. Tell me everything. Stick to the facts and try not to digress. If need be, I will ask the necessary questions. First, tell me about your childhood.
ALEXANDRE: Where to begin? I saw the light of day on November 26, 1975, in a little Swiss village that I had to leave almost immediately. A birth accident wrested me from my family, forcing my parents to put me in a specialized institution — 'would-be specialized' is probably more accurate. There, I had ...
SOCRATES: Let's not get ahead of ourselves! What birth accident?
ALEXANDRE: Athetosis.
SOCRATES: Can you be more specific!
ALEXANDRE: As you can see, I have great difficulty controlling my movements, my gait is unsteady, and I speak slowly. These are the long-term effects of a particular form of asphyxiation that goes by the scientific name of 'athetosis'.
SOCRATES: And what was the cause of it?
ALEXANDRE: Turning one too many somersaults in my mother's womb, I got my neck all tangled up in the umbilical cord ... You are looking at the fallout now.
My birth transpired in a frenzied atmosphere. My mother told me that what she saw emerging from her womb was a baby that was completely black and did not cry. "Is he dead?" she screamed. "No," the midwife replied, "but we don't know if he'll make it." For a brief moment, the baby fixed its mother's tired gaze, and then they were separated. I was taken to a hospital where I received cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
SOCRATES: Your last chance?
ALEXANDRE: More like my first and only chance! To my mother, the word 'resuscitation' meant hope. Deprived of her newborn, she stubbornly insisted with the attending medical staff: "He must live, he must live, no matter how — so long as he lives!" As fate would have it, her wish was granted. Ten days later, she was holding a magnificent baby in her arms. The doctors abstained from making any prognoses about the infant's development. But that didn't matter; her child was alive.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from In Praise of Weakness by Alexandre Jollien, Michael Eskin. Copyright © 1999 Éditions du Cerf. Excerpted by permission of Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword 11
Author's note 17
Prologue 19
One too many somersaults 21
The strange creature that I am 25
Giving meaning to reality 31
The sincerity of true kindness 35
Embracing our condition 41
Drawing strength from our weakness 47
Pity anesthetizes 51
The other's gaze 61
The joy of being alive 65
They talked and analyzed 73
Culture shock 89
Conditional happiness 97
A man of god 105
A craving for learning 109
Genuine friends 119
Marginal? 127
About the authors 133