ARPL 2026 - Table ronde : Corps empêchés

With Christine Leroy and Jean-Philippe Pierron.
Moderator: Lev Fraenckel.

Suitable for all ages › Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes › No booking required

Fitness coaching, the ‘10,000 steps a day’ theory, vitality diets and fitness apps: our triumphant modern age loves nothing more than to celebrate performance, efficiency and bodies that are healthy, athletic, slim and resilient. Is there not, behind this obsession with the perfect body, a form of denial of reality?
And what might philosophy have to say about ‘bodies that are held back’ – those that do not conform to the standards of the age, that are outside the norm, or that have limitations or disabilities? Could this paradoxical weakness not be regarded as a strength?
The round-table discussion will be followed by a book-signing session.

Jean-Philippe Pierron is a professor of the philosophy of life, medicine and care in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Burgundy. He is also director of the ‘Values of Care’ Chair at Jean-Moulin Lyon 3 University and head of the Master’s programme in Medical and Environmental Humanities in Dijon.
His publications include *Caring for Nature and Humans* (Belles Lettres, 2016), *Philosophy of Care: Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics* (Hermann, 2021), *I is We. Enquêtes sur nos interdépendances avec les vivants (Actes Sud, 2021), Méditer comme une montagne. Exercices spirituels d’attention à la terre et à ceux qui la peuplent (Éditions de l’atelier, 2023), Pour une insurrection des sens ? Singing, Dancing and Playing to Care for the World (Actes Sud, 2023).

Christine Leroy holds the agrégation in philosophy, a PhD in aesthetics from the University of Paris 1, and is a researcher and lecturer in the literary preparatory class at the University of Lille. She has written several books focusing on the experience of the body in motion, including *Le Corps* (Atlande, 2022) and *Phenomenology of Dance. *From Flesh to Ethics* (Hermann, 2021). Together with Chiara Palermo, she co-edited the collective work *Weight and Lift: An Ethics of Gravity* (Hermann, 2022).
Her research currently focuses on individuation and the distinction between the self and the non-self, as well as on the clinical and ethical implications of motor practice. She has also worked as a professional dancer and actress.

The YouTuber and TikTok creator Lev Fraenckel, alias Serial Thinker, uses social media to revitalise philosophy and a love of reflection. Currently on leave from his post as a philosophy lecturer, he is committed to making his subject accessible to all. In 2022, he set himself the challenge of summarising every concept in the philosophy syllabus in three minutes. He now has nearly 300,000 subscribers. His first book, *La Philo en mode serial thinker* (Hachette pratique, 2023), was a huge success.