Pierre-Andre Taguieff
| Pierre-André Taguieff | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946 Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Philosopher |
| Employer | National Center for Scientific Research, Paris, and the Political Studies Institute, Paris |
| Known for | Research into racism and antisemitism |
Pierre-André Taguieff (born 4 August 1946) is a philosopher and director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris laboratory, the CEVIPOF. He is also a member of the Cercle de l'Oratoire think tank.
Taguieff is the author of a number of books and papers on racism and antisemitism, including The Force of Prejudice: On Racism and Its Doubles (2001) and Rising from the Muck: The New Antisemitism in Europe (2004). He is known in particular for his studies on the French National Front and populism.
In La Force du préjugé – essai sur le racisme et ses doubles (1987), Taguieff analyzed several different types of racism:
Taguieff was himself accused of racism on several occasions, for instance when he praised Oriana Fallaci's book The Rage and the Pride, a book that some anti-racist militants consider to be racist. He was also criticized for his contribution to the controversial website Dreuz info, which French newspaper Le Monde described as ultra zionist and islamophobic.
According to Taguieff, racist discourse, such as that supported by Alain de Benoist's Nouvelle Droite far-right movement, has accepted the theories of cultural relativism and the non-existence of biological race. Claiming to uphold cultural relativism and thus antiracism, this new racist discourse in fact reiterates the strict distinction of various ethnic groups and segregation between them.
Since it argues that "ethnic groups" exist but are not biological races, it claims not to be racist. However, apart from the pseudo-scientific racist theories of the 19th century, it espouses an anti-assimilationist point of view in completely rejecting the notion of a social melting pot. Arguing that the Enlightenment's philosophy of universality, taken to extremes, is a form of racism, it pretends to be antiracist by preaching strict separation of ethnic groups. However, if the critics of "universal racism" are correct, it is clear that this new form of racism is descended in a direct line from the old discourse of separation between different supposed races.
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