Florence Caeymaex: "I am on the side of the philosophy of life and the living!"

With one eye on philosophical texts and one foot on the ground, Florence Caeymaex deals with questions of gender, ecology and health ethics. Her work is nourished as much by thought as by the struggles and movements that cross the world today.

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lorence Caeymaex sees philosophy as a formidable lever for addressing social and political issues. In order to contribute to thinking about the world, her priority is to be anchored in life and to put the notion of responsibility at the center. This commitment translates into complementary missions: professor, researcher, advisor to the Rector for ethics and equality policies, vice-president of the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Committee.

What makes her tick? The exchange between people, the sharing, the confrontation of opinions. This is a powerful engine for creating "more just, stronger and more sensitive" thinking. And to provoke sparks of change.

How does feminism, one of your main subjects of study, fit into your career?

Philosophy training in Europe is generally very classical, based on its history - and this history is mostly carried by male voices. Female philosophers are very rare! Over the years, in the political and social philosophy seminar, with my colleague Édouard Delruelle, we have deliberately dealt with current issues, "common" issues. Starting in 2013, buoyed by a shift in thinking, we examined three issues that challenge classical philosophy: ecology, decolonialism and feminism. So feminism came relatively late in my journey, but I found it an essential path, a truly life-grounded approach. And it has become all the more urgent in recent years, with the #MeToo phenomenon, to bring philosophy to this terrain of gender inequality.

What is the link between philosophical thought and reality, the lived experience?

Feminist theories never erase the traces of their origin. Their questions were not born in the academic world - where women were very little present - but are the fruit of struggles, of attempts at emancipation. Where could women make their voices heard? In associations, popular movements and some books. They put on the agenda "objects of reflection" which then led to what is called "gender studies". Our work of feminist philosophy must absolutely keep this close connection with the field and social transformations. Feminists have made visible and therefore questionable practices and realities that were previously taken for granted. Much of this knowledge owes a debt to political movements.

How do feminist theories shake up philosophy?

They give dignity to what the dominant thought has generally marginalized, and thus devalued. In particular, all the questions linked to experience: the body, sensitivity, feelings. Traditionally dominated by the mind, the intellect and reason, the ordinary experience of the body in daily life and work has allowed, once brought to light, to achieve a more complete, more adjusted thought. Health, the tools and technologies that equip our action, the stages of life: the body counts! This opens the possibility of a new vision of the world.

What is this new vision of the world?

The question of the body has become crucial in the 20^th century. Women, assigned to the maintenance of bodies and life, associated with a sensibility held to be inferior to reason, wanted to see things precisely from that place, from their personal and social experience of it. This angle of view has (re)awakened the attention for the environment in which one evolves, whether it is natural or manufactured. It has helped to orient ethics and politics by questioning the kinds of relationships our world is made of. The notion of attachment is a huge issue.

Putting ties back at the center: is this where you see hope?

To leave an intellectual idea of the world to take into account sensitivity and attachment is, in my opinion, very promising, yes! Don't we need today to shape relationships differently, and our love of the world, precisely because it is damaged? Eco-feminism contributes to this. Oppressed peoples, a damaged environment, invisibilized and dominated women: these are all realities that knock on our doors to be heard. To "catch" them through the question of relations (relations to oneself, to others, to the world) is both universal and vital.

Is the university a factory of possibilities?

Knowledge is never closed. The university is a place of quest, of exploration, of permanent "worry". The Earth, like everything else that makes up our environment, must be carefully maintained to be habitable. Relationships are at the center of this challenge. And this reflects on the sciences of tomorrow - human sciences and natural sciences enrich each other - as well as on the struggles to come. We can and must go further. Let us remain attentive and awake.