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Suzanne Bachelard (18 October 1919-3 November 2007) was the daughter of Gaston Bachelard. Her mother died in June 1920 when she was still an infant, and she was brought up by her father. She would sit in on his teaching from a young age, and attend philosophy conferences with him, and it is not surprising she became a philosopher herself. Her training was in both philosophy and mathematics, initially studying with Jean Cavaill\u00e8s, who was shot by the occupying Nazis in 1944. Steven Connor\u2019s recent\u00a0Gaston Bachelard: An Intellectual Biography<\/em><\/a>\u00a0gives some useful detail on her early childhood, and the life she shared with her father until his 1962 death.<\/p>\n She is probably best known for her work on Edmund Husserl\u2019s\u00a0Logique formelle et logique transcendantale<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>which she translated into French and on which she also wrote a long commentary,\u00a0La Logique de Husserl<\/em>, both published in 1957. The commentary was translated by Lester E. Embree as\u00a0A Study of Husserl\u2019s Formal and Transcendental Logic<\/em> in 1968. Husserl\u2019s book was published in English in 1969, translated by Dorion Cairns. The translation of Bachelard\u2019s commentary was made to fit with Cairns\u2019s choices on terminology. This means that both English and French readers had a translation of Husserl\u2019s text made available alongside Bachelard\u2019s commentary, terminologically consistent and a guide to this difficult work.<\/p>\n I am particularly interested in her situation within a French tradition of the history and philosophy of the sciences, a lineage which includes some aspects of the work of her father, Cavaill\u00e8s, Alexandre Koyr\u00e9, Georges Canguilhem, and Michel Foucault. Her major work in this field was\u00a0La Conscience de rationalit\u00e9: \u00c9tude ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nologique sur la physique math\u00e9matique<\/em>, published in 1958. The first two chapters are included in Joseph J. Kockelmans and Theodore Kisiel\u2019s collection\u00a0Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences<\/em>, but the work as a whole is not translated.<\/p>\n La Conscience de rationalit\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0was her primary thesis for the doctorate, with the translation of Husserl\u2019s\u00a0Logic\u00a0<\/em>and the commentary together being the secondary thesis. Expectations for a doctorate in this period were extensive, in extent as well as quality. Foucault\u2019s\u00a0History of Madness<\/em>\u00a0was his primary thesis, and his translation and introduction to Kant\u2019s\u00a0Anthropology<\/em>\u00a0the secondary one. Bachelard\u2019s submission was of a similar scale. Ties Van Gemert says that the formidable jury was \u201ccomposed of the philosophers Ren\u00e9 Poirier, Jean Hyppolite, and Canguilhem, assisted by the Germanist Robert Minder and the mathematician Andr\u00e9 Lichnerowicz\u201d (p. 315).\u00a0<\/p>\n After this astonishing beginning to her publishing career, she seems to have concentrated on teaching, including in Lille and Paris. She did not publish much more, and she never completed another book-length study. Her later publications are mainly book chapters or contributions to conference proceedings. Two lectures were also published as standalone texts. \u201cLes Pol\u00e9miques concernant le principe de moindre action au XVIIIe<\/sup>\u00a0si\u00e8cle\u201d was on the Maupertuis principle and the dispute between Pierre Louis Maupertuis and Johann Koenig over the work of Gottfried Leibniz, and whether Leibniz had formulated the principle years before. The other was \u201cLa repr\u00e9sentation g\u00e9om\u00e9trique des quantit\u00e9s imaginaires, au d\u00e9but du\u00a0XIXe<\/sup>\u00a0si\u00e8cle\u201d. An important report \u201c\u00c9pist\u00e9mologie et histoire des sciences\u201d was presented to the twelfth International Congress for the History of Sciences, held in Paris in 1968. The report appears in Volume 1A of the Congress proceedings, with her shorter spoken presentation and the following discussion in Volume 1B.<\/p>\n She attended the very interesting\u00a01970 interdisciplinary conference on structuralism<\/a>\u00a0held in Saclay which I\u2019ve written about before in\u00a0this series<\/a>, but Andr\u00e9 Malan\u2019s report seems to indicate she did not give a paper. Lichnerowicz was one of the conference organisers, which brought together people from a wide range of disciplines. She was part of the memorial event for Jean Hyppolite at the \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure on 19 January 1969, and contributed to the 1971 tribute volume to him,\u00a0Hommage \u00e0 Jean Hyppolite<\/em>. Foucault wrote its short preface and contributed his important essay \u201cNietzsche, Genealogy, History\u201d; Bachelard\u2019s chapter was entitled \u201cForme et contenu\u201d. It is a discussion of the development of algebra, particularly focusing on George Peacock, Duncan Gregory and George Boole.<\/p>\n Hyppolite succeeded Martial Gueroult to the Coll\u00e8ge de France\u2019s chair in the history of philosophy. After Hyppolite\u2019s death, this was the chair to which Foucault was later elected. On Hyppolite\u2019s courses there, see this\u00a0piece<\/a>. Gueroult\u2019s chair had the title History and Technology of Philosophical Systems\u2019; Hyppolite changed it to History of Philosophical Thought. Foucault would retitle the chair the History of Systems of Thought. Hyppolite\u2019s inaugural lecture was included in\u00a0Figures de la pens\u00e9e\u00a0philosophique<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 a\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0volume<\/a>\u00a0posthumous collection edited by Dina Dreyfus in 1971.<\/p>\n She succeeded Canguilhem as director of the University of Paris\u2019s\u00a0Institut d\u2019histoire des sciences et des techniques in 1971, and as chair of history and philosophy of the sciences at the Sorbonne, both posts which had been previously held by her father. Her assistants included Jacques Bouveresse and Michel Fichant (on whose later work with Althusser, see\u00a0here<\/a>). The young Jacques Derrida had also been her assistant, and his work on Husserl, especially his translation and introduction to\u00a0Origin of Geometry<\/em>\u00a0can be seen in this light. His diploma thesis on Husserl was written before Bachelard\u2019s theses were published, but her work was significant in his other early engagements. Edward Baring\u2019s\u00a0The Young Derrida and French Philosophy, 1945-1968<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is good on this importance, especially in Chapter 5. As he says of the\u00a0Origin of Geometry<\/em>\u00a0introduction, \u201cbeyond works by Husserl, Derrida cited Suzanne Bachelard more than any other author\u201d (p. 160). Bachelard\u2019s translation of the\u00a0Logique<\/em>, her\u00a0<\/em>commentary, Derrida\u2019s translation and introduction to\u00a0Origin of Geometry<\/em>,\u00a0Figures de la pens\u00e9e\u00a0philosophique<\/em> and the\u00a0Hommage \u00e0 Jean Hyppolite\u00a0<\/em>all appeared in the Epim\u00e9th\u00e9e series at Presses Universitaires de France, founded by Hyppolite. (Epim\u00e9th\u00e9e is the French name for Epimetheus, one of the titans, whose name means afterthought.)<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard was unusual in occupying such a senior post at the time. As I\u2019ve mentioned\u00a0before<\/a>\u00a0the first female professor at the Coll\u00e8ge de France was elected in 1973; the second not until a decade later. Perhaps one indication of the male attitude towards her position in academia can be found in the English translation of\u00a0A Study of Husserl\u2019s Formal and Transcendental Logic<\/em>. Despite the book being part of her doctoral work, the translator persistently calls her \u201cMiss Bachelard\u201d, even though when Cairns is mentioned in the preface he is \u201cDr\u201d or \u201cProfessor\u201d.<\/p>\n She collaborated with Canguilhem and others on the\u00a0Introduction \u00e0 l\u2019histoire des sciences<\/em>\u00a0book, in a series Canguilhem edited on\u00a0Textes et documents philosophiques<\/em>. Intended for students, it comprised a series of excerpts from classic texts. I discuss this book and the series in\u00a0Canguilhem<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(pp. 126-28).<\/p>\n In January 1983 she organised a seminar on logic and grammar, with the proceedings published in\u00a0Histoire \u00c9pist\u00e9mologie Langage<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in 1984, brought together by Luce Giard. Bachelard did not contribute a paper to the proceedings, which included Jacques Brunschwig, Bouveresse, who succeeded her to the posts previously held by her father and Canguilhem, Ir\u00e8ne Rosier, and Giard.<\/p>\n She also edited Gaston Bachelard\u2019s\u00a0Fragments d\u2019une po\u00e9tique du feu<\/em>\u00a0in 1988, the completed parts of his planned study which he was working on at the time of his death. The book discusses the phoenix, Prometheus and Empedocles. Connor\u2019s biography of Gaston Bachelard says that the delay was because there were plans for a collected works, in which unpublished material could appear, but that the range of publishers Gaston Bachelard had worked with made this too difficult. It was only when this plan was abandoned that Suzanne Bachelard agreed to edit the surviving material separately (pp. 162-63). Her preface \u201cUn livre v\u00e9cu\u201d is interesting about his way of working, with books always \u2018en chantier<\/em>\u2019, in the workshop or under construction, books becoming other works, possible ideas branching off in different directions. The book had the working title \u201cLe Feu v\u00e9cu\u201d, living or experienced fire, before becoming\u00a0La<\/em> po\u00e9tique du feu<\/em>. She also notes the constraints on a planned\u00a0\u0152uvres compl\u00e8tes<\/em>, but also her father\u2019s stipulation that there should be no publication on texts originally delivered verbally \u2013 in his courses or radio interviews (pp. 20-21).<\/p>\n A \u201cHomage to the \u2018Hommage \u00e0 Jean Hyppolite\u2019<\/a>\u201d was published in the new journal\u00a0Philosophy, Politics and Critique<\/em>\u00a0in 2024, including an introduction by Joe Hughes, and articles by Christopher O\u2019Neill, Lachlan Wells and Alice Nilsson. The contribution by Alice Nilsson uses Suzanne Bachelard\u2019s article \u201cas an entry point to sketch out the possibility (or impossibility) of a dialectic of mathemata following the work of Jean Cavaill\u00e8s and Jean Hyppolite\u201d (p. 373).<\/p>\n Recently, Ties van Gemert has edited and translated the \u201cEpistemology and the History of Sciences\u201d report. As far as I can tell, beyond the book on Husserl, and the excerpts from\u00a0La Conscience de rationalit\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences<\/em>, this is the only other work by her available in English. He does not include the shorter presentation at the conference or the discussion which followed it. He introduces and contextualises her work well, and this is certainly the most comprehensive study in English. He describes her work as \u201cuntimely\u201d, given the prevailing trends of French philosophy and its interest in existentialism and Marxism. \u201cBachelard\u2019s attempt to integrate the history and philosophy of mathematical physics with Husserl\u2019s transcendental phenomenology was novel and ambitious. It most likely struck many of her contemporaries as idiosyncratic\u201d (p. 316).<\/p>\n Van Gemert says that the \u201carchives of Suzanne and Gaston Bachelard were brought to the Sorbonne during spring 2024 and are currently being catalogued. At the time of writing, they were not yet open to the public\u201d (p. 315 n. 5). As far as I\u2019m aware, that is still the situation. While her father\u2019s papers are likely to have wider interest, van Gemert says Suzanne Bachelard\u2019s archive includes unpublished works \u201cincluding a book on the history of modern algebra\u201d (p. 315).<\/p>\n References<\/span><\/p>\n Hommage \u00e0 Jean Hyppolite<\/em>, Paris: PUF, 1971.<\/p>\n Gaston Bachelard,\u00a0Fragments d\u2019une po\u00e9tique du feu<\/em>, ed. Suzanne Bachelard, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1988.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0La Logique de\u00a0Husserl: \u00c9tude sur Logique formelle et logique transcendantale<\/em>, Paris, PUF, 1957;\u00a0A Study of Husserl\u2019s Formal and Transcendental Logic<\/em>, trans. Lester E. Embree, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0La Conscience de rationalit\u00e9: \u00c9tude ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nologique sur la physique math\u00e9matique<\/em>, Paris: PUF, 1958.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0Les Pol\u00e9miques concernant le principe de moindre action au XVIIIe si\u00e8cle, etc<\/em>. Paris: Palais de la d\u00e9couverte, 1961.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0La repr\u00e9sentation g\u00e9om\u00e9trique des quantit\u00e9s imaginaires, au d\u00e9but du\u00a0XIXe<\/sup>\u00a0si\u00e8cle<\/em>, Paris: Palais de la d\u00e9couverte, 1966.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard, \u201c\u00c9pist\u00e9mologie et Histoire des Sciences\u201d,\u00a0Actes du XIIe congr\u00e8s international d\u2019histoire des sciences, 1. A: Colloques, textes des rapports<\/em>, Paris: Albert Blanchard, 1970, 39\u201351; \u201cEpistemology and the History of the Sciences\u201d, trans.\u00a0Ties van Gemert\u00a0in\u00a0\u201cSuzanne Bachelard\u2019s Historical Phenomenology: Recursivity in the History of the Sciences\u201d,\u00a0HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science\u00a0<\/em>15 (2), 2025, 322-34.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard, \u201c\u00c9pist\u00e9mologie et Histoire des Sciences\u201d,\u00a0Actes du XIIe<\/sup>\u00a0congr\u00e8s international d\u2019histoire des sciences, 1. B: Discussion des Rapports<\/em>, Paris: Albert Blanchard, 1970, 74-82.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0\u201cPhenomenology and Mathematical Physics\u201d, trans. Joseph J. Kockelmans, in Joseph J. Kockelmans and Theodore Kisiel eds.\u00a0Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences<\/em>, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970, 413-25.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0\u201cThe Specificity of Mathematical Physics\u201d, trans. Joseph J. Kockelmans, in Joseph J. Kockelmans and Theodore Kisiel eds.\u00a0Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences<\/em>, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970, 426-40.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard,\u00a0\u201cForme et contenu\u201d, in\u00a0Hommage \u00e0 Jean Hyppolite<\/em>, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1971, 217-29.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard, \u201cQuelques aspects historiques des notions de mod\u00e8le et de justification des mod\u00e8les\u201d, in Pierre Delattre and Michel Thellier eds.,\u00a0\u00c9laboration et justification des mod\u00e8les: Application en Biologie<\/em>, Paris: Maloine, two volumes, 1979, Vol I, 3-19.\u00a0<\/p>\n S. Bachelard, J.C. Cadiuex, G. Canguilhem et. al.\u00a0Introduction \u00e0 l\u2019histoire des sciences<\/em>, Paris: Hachette, two volumes, 1970-71.<\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard ed. \u201cLogique et grammaire\u201d,\u00a0Histoire \u00c9pist\u00e9mologie Langage<\/em>\u00a06 (1), 1984,\u00a0https:\/\/www.persee.fr\/issue\/hel_0750-8069_1984_num_6_1<\/a><\/p>\n Suzanne Bachelard, \u201cAvant-Propos: Un livre v\u00e9cu\u201d in Gaston Bachelard,\u00a0Fragments d\u2019une po\u00e9tique du feu<\/em>, ed. Suzanne Bachelard, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1988, 5-24.<\/p>\n Edward Baring,\u00a0The Young Derrida and French Philosophy, 1945-1968<\/em>, Cambridge University Press, 2011.<\/p>\n Steven Connor,\u00a0Gaston Bachelard: An Intellectual Biography<\/em>, London:\u00a0Reaktion, 2025.<\/p>\n Jacques Derrida,\u00a0Edmund<\/em>\u00a0Husserl\u2019s Origin of Geometry: An Introduction<\/em>, trans. John P. Leavey, Jr., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stuart Elden,\u00a0Canguilhem<\/em>, Cambridge: Polity, 2019.<\/p>\n Edmund Husserl,\u00a0Logique formelle et logique transcendantale<\/em>, trans. Suzanne Bachelard, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957.<\/p>\n Edmund Husserl,\u00a0L\u2019Origine de la g\u00e9om\u00e9trie<\/em>, trans. Jacques Derrida, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962.<\/p>\n Edmund Husserl,\u00a0Formale und transzendentale Logik: Versuch einer Kritik der logischen Vernunft<\/em>, T\u00fcbingen: Max Niemeyer, 1981 [1929];\u00a0Formal and Transcendental Logic<\/em>, trans. Dorion Cairns, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969.<\/p>\n Jean Hyppolite,\u00a0Figures de la pens\u00e9e\u00a0philosophique<\/em>, ed. Dina Dreyfus, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, two volumes, 1971.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Malan, \u201cColloque de Saclay\u201d, in\u00a0Structure et dynamique des syst\u00e8mes<\/em>, ed. A. Lichnerowicz, F. Perroux and G. Gadoffre, Paris: Maloine, 1976, 165-90.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jean Mosconi, \u201c\u00c9loge de Suzanne Bachelard (18 octobre 1919-3 novembre 2007)\u201d,\u00a0Comit\u00e9 national fran\u00e7ais d\u2019histoire et de philosophie des sciences<\/em>,\u00a0https:\/\/www.cnfhpst.org\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/eloge_Suzanne_Bachelard.pdf<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Alice Nilsson, \u201cDialectics, Mathematics and the Cavaill\u00e8s-Hyppolite Encounter\u201d,\u00a0Philosophy, Politics, Critique<\/em>\u00a01 (3), 2024, 373-82.<\/p>\n Ties van Gemert, \u201cSuzanne Bachelard\u2019s Historical Phenomenology: Recursivity in the History of the Sciences\u201d,\u00a0HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science\u00a0<\/em>15 (2), 2025, 312-53.<\/p>\n This is the 85th post of\u00a0a weekly series<\/a>, posted every Sunday throughout 2025, and continuing into a second year. The posts are short essays with indications of further reading and sources. The pieces are not as formal as something I\u2019d try to publish more conventionally, but are hopefully worthwhile as short sketches of histories and ideas.\u00a0They are usually tangential to my main writing focus, a home for spare parts, asides, dead-ends and possible futures.\u00a0I hope there is some interest in them. They are provisional and suggestions are welcome.\u00a0A few, usually shorter, pieces in a similar style have been posted mid-week.\u00a0I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d keep to a weekly rhythm throughout 2026, but have ideas for at least a few more pieces.<\/p>\n The full chronological list of \u2018Sunday histories\u2019 is\u00a0here<\/a>, with\u00a0a thematic ordering\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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