Professor Michel Serres

Despite being one of France’s most enduring and popular philosophers, Branches is the first English translation of what has been identified as Michel Serres’ key text on humanism. In attempting to reconcile humanity and nature, Serres examines how human history ‘branches’ off from its origin story. Using the metaphor of a branch springing from the stem and arguing that the...

According to Michel Serres, a process of 'hominescence' has taken place throughout human history. Hominescence can be described as a type of adolescence; humanity in a state of growing, a state of constant change, on the threshold of something unpredictable. We are destined never to be the same again, but what does the future hold? In this innovative and passionately...

Following the narratives explored in Hominescence, Incandescent and The Bough, Michel Serres continues and concludes his 'grand story' of humanity and humanism. Humanistic Narratives weaves together and condenses the overriding philosophical narratives of the previous books and reflects upon Serres' own humanist theoretical system. With characteristic breadth and imagination, in telling the story of humanity, Serres also tells us why...

Marginalised by the scientific age, the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution. With The Five Senses, Serres traces a topology of human perception. Writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience. The fragile...

The first translation of the volumes in Michel Serres’ classic Humanism tetralogy, this ambitious philosophical narrative explores what it means to be human. With his characteristic breadth of references, including art, poetry, science, philosophy, and literature, Serres paints a new picture of what it might mean to live meaningfully in contemporary society. He tells the story of humankind, from the...

Rome, Michel Serres' first book in his 'foundations trilogy', is all about beginnings. It explores the commencement of Rome itself, as well as the origins of society, knowledge, and culture. Rome is an examination of the very foundations upon which contemporary society has been built. With characteristic breadth and lyricism, Serres leads the reader on a journey from a meditation...