Jeanne Proust

Fordham University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, Philosophie, Graduate Student

New York University, The College Core Curriculum, Faculty Member

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Personal Webpage for Up-to-date info:
https://jeanneproust.github.io/

Jeanne Proust has studied Humanities, Philosophy and Visual Arts in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris. She has been teaching Philosophy for the last 12 years in the US. Her PhD dissertation (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) focused on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives, but her interests are wide: among many fields, she does research in Ethics, Philosophy of Technologies, Bioethics, Feminist theory, and Aesthetics. While teaching at different universities in New York, Jeanne is advocating for a widening of philosophical education beyond the Academia frontiers by participating in different events open to the general public. She taught at Rikers Island as a volunteer, and regularly gives public talks in philosophy, leading her to recently produce her own podcast, "Can You Phil It?”. She also collaborates with artists on her photography, drawing and painting works.
Jeanne just moved to Santa Cruz, California, to teach as a lecturer for UCSC and get involved with the Center for Public Philosophy.
Address: Brooklyn, NY, United States

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Papers by Jeanne Proust

Attention and Free Will in Experimental Psychology: An Unexpected Analysis of Voluntary Action by William James and Theodule Ribot

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Sep 23, 2022

This article aims to highlight the difficulties encountered by the experimental psychology promot... more This article aims to highlight the difficulties encountered by the experimental psychology promoted by Ribot, at the end of the nineteenth century up until the beginning of the twentieth century, with regard to the question of free will as part of his analysis of voluntary attention. It also aims to shed some light on William James’s possible role in Ribot’s subtle change of opinion in regards to the power of attention, as a mental effort somehow revealing the possibility of a top-down voluntary activity. In most of Ribot’s work, at first glance, the will is understood as a determined product of our idiosyncratic character, of our affective and physiological tendencies—rather than as an autonomous faculty of self-determination. But what might look like Ribot&#39;s commitment to determinism calls for some nuance. Some uses of the term &quot;voluntary&quot; in his work, particularly to describe the phenomenon of attention, seem to refer to a form of free will looking a lot more like an autonomous faculty than like a mere illusion induced by an epiphenomenal conscious state. We end the paper with remarks about the current state of studies of consciousness and voluntary action in relation to Ribot and James’s accounts of attention and will.

Chanson populaire

Presses Universitaires de France eBooks, Feb 2, 2022

Women and Their Uteruses: Symbolic Vessels for Prejudiced Expectations

International Journal of Feminist Approaches To Bioethics, Feb 1, 2022

What is a uterus to a woman and to society? This article calls for a holistic reevaluation of how... more What is a uterus to a woman and to society? This article calls for a holistic reevaluation of how we perceive and what we expect from women’s uteruses. We explore the powerful and deeply rooted cultural representations of women’s uteruses as mere receptacles and the impact of such representations on biological categories, medical practices, and current policies. Considering controversies surrounding hysterectomies, cesarean sections, and uterus transplants, we elucidate ambivalent narratives that either promote an essentialist approach where the uterus is emblematic of womanhood, or imply that the uterus is a dispensable organ useless outside of reproduction.

La force des habitudes

Editions universitaires europeennes eBooks, Sep 21, 2016

L'habitude qui fait naitre la routine fige le sujet jusqu'a lui oter toute possibilite de... more L'habitude qui fait naitre la routine fige le sujet jusqu'a lui oter toute possibilite de jouir de son hypothetique libre-arbitre. Nous faconnons nos habitudes, puis nos habitudes nous faconnent ; la liberte cede la place - sans forcement qu'il y ait conscience de ce sournois glissement - a l'asservissement. D’instrument ideal pour l’apprentissage, l'habitude se fait appauvrissement et fixation, obstacle par excellence au mouvement de la vie. L'habitude peut certes affiner les sens, mais ces sens orientent leur acuite dans une direction tres specifique, cependant que la multiplicite des impressions plus communes passe inapercue. L'acte familier ne renvoie plus ici a la concentration appliquee, mais a un mouvement automatique qui se derobe a la conscience, jusqu'a scleroser l'individu. Dans quelle mesure et de quelle maniere le processus de fixation des habitudes constitue-t-il une donnee structurante fondamentale du devenir individuel et de la societe ? A quelles conditions peut-on esperer sortir de l'immobilisme intellectuel, social, culturel auquel peuvent mener les habitudes ?

Chanson populaire

Presses Universitaires de France eBooks, Feb 2, 2022

Attention and Free Will in Experimental Psychology: An Unexpected Analysis of Voluntary Action by William James and Theodule Ribot

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science

Attention and Free Will in Experimental Psychology: An Unexpected Analysis of Voluntary Action by William James and Theodule Ribot

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science , 2022

This article aims to highlight the difficulties encountered by the experimental psychology promot... more This article aims to highlight the difficulties encountered by the experimental psychology promoted by Ribot, at the end of the nineteenth century up until the beginning of the twentieth century, with regard to the question of free will as part of his analysis of voluntary attention. It also aims to shed some light on William James’s possible role in Ribot’s subtle change of opinion in regards to the power of attention, as a mental effort somehow revealing the possibility of a top-down voluntary activity. In most of Ribot’s work, at first glance, the will is understood as a determined product of our idiosyncratic character, of our affective and physiological tendencies—rather than as an autonomous faculty of self-determination. But what might look like Ribot's commitment to determinism calls for some nuance. Some uses of the term "voluntary" in his work, particularly to describe the phenomenon of attention, seem to refer to a form of free will looking a lot more like an autonomous faculty than like a mere illusion induced by an epiphenomenal conscious state. We end the paper with remarks about the current state of studies of consciousness and voluntary action in relation to Ribot and James’s accounts of attention and will.

The Will and its pathologies : experimental psychology and theory of the soul in Théodule Ribot’s works

Considéré comme le père de la psychologie expérimentale en France, fondateur de la Revue Philosop... more Considéré comme le père de la psychologie expérimentale en France, fondateur de la Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger, Théodule Ribot a joui de son vivant d'une autorité largement reconnue, difficile à mesurer aujourd'hui. On lui reconnaît l’ambition d’avoir voulu émanciper la psychologie de la philosophie pour tenter d’en faire une science indépendante, mais sa pensée s’en trouve souvent réduite à une sorte de positivisme physiologique, qui ne rend ni raison de l’empreinte qu’a laissée la philosophie sur son œuvre de psychologue, ni plus généralement de la complexité et de l’originalité de sa psychologie « nouvelle ». L’objectif de cette thèse est d’apporter une réflexion comparative et critique sur le problème de la définition de la volonté et de ses troubles à la lumière des travaux de Ribot, qui envisagent cette volonté principalement sous l’angle pathologique de sa « dissolution ». Nous soulignons les ambitions novatrices de cette méthode pathologique...

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