Éric Delassus
Philosopher, consultant, trainer - Philosopher in business
Honorary associate professor and doctor of philosophy, I am particularly interested in medical ethics, as well as ethical issues concerning human relationships in the workplace and management. My books: From Spinoza's Ethics to Medical Ethics, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011. Ethics of Taste, collective work co-directed with Sylvie Dallet, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2014. The Precarity of Life, Wisdom of the Vulnerable Man, Volume 1, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2014. The Quest for Wisdom, Wisdom of the Vulnerable Man, Volume 2, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2014. Thinking with Spinoza – Overcoming Prejudices, Paris, Bréal, 2014. The Subject, Paris, Bréal, 2015. Spinoza – Knowing in Quotes, Paris, Ellipses, 2016. The Person, Paris, Bréal, 2016. What a Body Can Do, collective work co-directed with Sylvie Lopez-Jacob, L’Harmattan, 2018. Philosophy of Happiness and Joy, Happiness on the Horizon, Paris, Ellipses, 2019. It Rains on the City, I Remember, collective work co-directed with Sylvie Lopez-Jacob, L’Harmattan, 2020. The Fair of
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The Ethical Dimension of Medicine and Care
While one is often tempted, when it comes to defining medicine, to refer to its scientific and technical dimension, it seems difficult to limit oneself to this approach. Indeed, as Plato already pointed out, it is not enough to be a true physician to master this type of knowledge and skills. Such mastery could also contribute to making an excellent poisoner. To be a true physician is also to be driven by an ethical intention, by concern for the well-being of others. Therefore, there is undeniably an ethical dimension to medicine that I propose to explore in this conference.
The Power of Desire
If there is a force that sets us in motion and makes us act, it is indeed desire. Desire is the engine of life. Yet, we spend a good part of our lives accomplishing tasks that we do not wish to perform. We too often do things out of necessity without truly wanting to do them. Thus, many people go to work each day without really being driven by an intense desire, and many managers wonder how to motivate the staff they need to lead and support, that is, how to instill desire in them. Therefore, in this conference, I propose to develop a reflection on the nature of desire and to show how a manager's ability to cultivate the desire of others can be a source of leadership, even a way to transcend the very idea of leadership, and can help create the conditions, within the limits of the possible, for genuine joy at work.
A Philosopher in the Land of Managers
What can a philosopher possibly do among management specialists? What can a philosopher, who, like me, is interested in ethical questions and more specifically in medical ethics, do among researchers operating in the fields of management and organizations? What could possibly be common between these areas that some might find antinomic? Indeed, the issues related to medicine and medical ethics evoke care and openness to others. Management, on the other hand, does not always have such a positive reputation. For many, it still evokes techniques of exploitation and manipulation of personnel, an attempt to reduce the human being to the sole dimension of a means, as suggested by the notion of 'human resources.' Certainly, this is a reductive view of management, but it remains present in many minds and is probably fueled by a Taylorist approach still implemented by many managers. Thus, it seemed to me that a rapprochement of these two worlds, that of care and that of management, could probably be fruitful in developing a more humanistic mode of management. A management that would no longer consist of managing human resources, but of taking care of the human being at work to allow them to find in this activity a possible source of joy and fulfillment.