Marcel Gauchet

Who is Marcel Gauchet?

Marcel Gauchet is a French historian, philosopher and sociologist.

Gauchet is professor at the Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and head of the periodical Le Débat.

Gauchet is one of France's most prominent contemporary intellectuals. He has written widely on such issues as the political consequences of modern individualism, the relation between religion and democracy, and the dilemmas of globalisation.

To date, only two of Gauchet's books have been translated into English, most notably The Disenchantment of the World, a history of Western secularization. His influences include anthropologist Pierre Clastres, philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Claude Lefort. Gauchet has also published in the Revue de Mauss, a French anti-utilitarian journal.