Ferdinand Alquié

Who was Ferdinand Alquié?

Ferdinand Alquié was a French philosopher and member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques.

He taught at the lycée Louis-le-Grand and at the Sorbonne university. He was an instructor of Gilles Deleuze, whom, according to Michael Hardt, he accused of drawing on biology, psychology, and other fields, neglecting philosophy. Deleuze said to his former teacher, "Your other reproach touches me even more. Because I believe entirely in the specificity of philosophy and I owe this conviction to you yourself." Alquié also directed Deleuze's secondary thesis, "Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza." He has published many books about Descartes, Kant and Spinoza, as well as a book on Nicolas Malebranche. He was close to André Breton and wrote Philosophy of Surrealism.

He has often been considered as opposed to Martial Guéroult especially during a polemic about Descartes and also about Spinoza.