Jean-Claude Milner (; born 3 January 1941) is a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, philosopher and

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

. His specialist fields of endeavour are linguistics (which he studied with

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...

) and psychoanalysis (through the teaching and friendship of Jacques Lacan). In 1971, Milner was at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

where he translated

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

's '' Aspects of the Theory of Syntax'' into French. His work helped to establish the terminology of ''theory of syntax'' in the French school of

generative grammar Generative grammar, or generativism , is a linguistic theory that regards linguistics as the study of a hypothesised innate grammatical structure. It is a biological or biologistic modification of earlier structuralist theories of linguisti ...

. Milner is now a professor at the

University Paris Diderot Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

and lives in Paris.

Life and work

Milner, who was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, is the son of a Lithuanian immigrant Jewish father and an Alsatian mother of the Protestant faith. After studies in a second year preparatory class for the humanities during high school, Milner studied at both

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

and at the

. His education was shaped by the thought and teaching of Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan. Lacan's influence may also be tied to his friendship with

Jacques-Alain Miller Jacques-Alain Miller (; born 14 February 1944) is a psychoanalyst and writer. He is one of the founder members of the École de la Cause freudienne (School of the Freudian Cause) and the World Association of Psychoanalysis which he presided from ...

during these early years. Miller became, subsequently, the son-in-law of Lacan. Both Miller and Milner attended Lacan's seminars held at the ENS and their friendship was instrumental in the founding and direction of the

Cahiers pour l’Analyse ''Cahiers pour l'Analyse'' was a magazine published in Paris in the 1960s. Ten issues appeared between 1966 and 1969. It was "guided by the examples of Georges Canguilhem Georges Canguilhem (; ; 4 June 1904 – 11 September 1995) was a Fren ...

several years later. From 1968 to 1971, Milner was affiliated with the

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

movement of the proletarian Left and discovered the path of his own political evolution. Milner seems to have disavowed, or moved away from, these early affiliations.

Alain Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Fouca ...

, who has remained steadfast in his Maoist affiliations, has engaged in a long-standing ''contretemps'' with Milner over these changing affiliations (and many other differences, including accusing Badiou of Anti-Semitism). Milner also received training and education from

and made a close reading of

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18, After his initial association with Chomsky's linguistic theories, Milner's work took a different turn. He published ''Introduction to a Science of Language'' (1989) which melds a general linguistics theory, that rests on a radical separation between sense and syntax (theory of syntactic positions) together with an epistemology that combines concepts of Karl Popper and

Imre Lakatos Imre Lakatos (, ; hu, Lakatos Imre ; 9 November 1922 – 2 February 1974) was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science, known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of proofs and refutations" in its pr ...

. This work tackles a key epistemological problem of the scientific status of Lacan's theories. Milner also follows developments of Chomskyian theory though he does not adhere to the hypothesis of a biological justification for it which Chomsky defended. Milner's later work, such as the English publication of ''For the Love of Language'', has been called, :"a path-breaking reflection on the consequences of Lacan's theory for the study of language"."Introduction". ''Jacques Lacan: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory'', Volume 2/Philosophy, edited by Slavoj Žižek. New York: Routledge, 2002; p. 8 Since 2000, particularly in France, Milner has been recognised for his essays concerning anti-Semitism in European history and culture. For several years, he has held a seminar devoted to this theme at the Institut d’études levinassiennes in Paris. In 2010, Milner became Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the

Université de Paris VII Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

Selected publications

English

* ''For The Love of Language'', translated and introduced by

Ann Banfield Ann Banfield, is a professor Emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California ...

. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1990. * "The Doctrine of Science", translated by

Oliver Feltham Oliver Feltham is an Australian philosopher and translator working in Paris, France. He is known primarily for his English translations of Alain Badiou, most notably Badiou’s magnum opus ''Being and Event'' (2006).Slavoj Žižek (Ed.). ''Jacques Lacan: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory'' (4 Volumes). Volume One contains "The Doctrine of Science" (see above). Volume Two contains "Extracts from ''For The Love of Language''", which is Chapters 5, 6, & 7 of ''For The Love of Language'', pp. 98–127. * "The Prince and the Revolutionary"
Crisis and Critique
volume 3, issue 1 (2016), pp. 71–78 * "The Tell-Tale Constellations", translated by Christian R. Gelder. ''S: Journal for the Circle of Lacanian Ideology Critique''. (2016), pp. 31-38.

Translations into French

: ''Aspects de la theorie syntaxique'', Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1971.

Books

* ''Arguments linguistiques'', Mame, 1973 * ''De la syntaxe à l’interprétation. Quantités, insultes, exclamations'', Le Seuil, collection « Travaux linguistiques », 1978 * ''L’Amour de la langue'', Le Seuil, collection « Connexions du Champ freudien », 1978 * ''Ordres et raisons de langue'', Le Seuil, 1982 * ''Les Noms indistincts'', Le Seuil, collection « Connexions du Champ freudien », 1983 * ''De l’école'', le Seuil, 1984 * ''De l'inutilité des arbres en linguistique'', Département de Recherches Linguistiques, Un. de Paris VII, coll. ERA 642, 1985 * ''Détections fictives'', Le Seuil, collection « Fictions & Cie », 1985 * ''Introduction à un traitement du passif'', Département de Recherches Linguistiques, Un. de Paris VII, coll. ERA 642, 1986 (rééd.) * ''Dire le vers'', (en collaboration avec François Regnault), Le Seuil, 1987 * ''Introduction à une science du langage'', Le Seuil, collection « Travaux linguistiques », 1989 * ''Constat'', 1992 * ''Archéologie d’un échec : 1950-1993'', Le Seuil, 1993 * ''L’Œuvre claire : Lacan, la science et la philosophie'', Le Seuil, collection « L’Ordre philosophique », 1995 * « Les Dénis », dans ''Paroles à la bouche du présent. Le négationnisme, histoire ou politique ?'', sous la direction de

Natacha Michel Natacha Michel is a French political activist, militant and writer, born in 1941. She has published a dozen novels and a growing body of literary criticism. Michel was program director at the College International de Philosophie (1995–2001). S ...

, Éd. Al Dante, 1997 * ''Le Salaire de l’idéal'', Le Seuil, 1997 * ''Le Triple du plaisir'', Verdier, 1997 * ''Mallarmé au tombeau'', Verdier, 1999 * ''Les penchants criminels de l'Europe démocratique'', Verdier, 2003 * ''Existe-t-il une vie intellectuelle en France ?'', Verdier, 2002 * ''Le Périple structural, Figures et paradigmes'', Le Seuil, collection « La couleur des idées », 2002 * ''Constats'', Gallimard, coll. Folio/Essais. (rassemble ''Constat'', ''Le triple du plaisir'', ''Mallarmé au tombeau'') * ''Le Pas philosophique de Roland Barthes'', Verdier, 2003 * ''La politique des choses'', Navarin éditeur, 2005 * ''Le Juif de savoir'', Grasset, 2007 * ''L'arrogance du présent. Regards sur une décennie, 1965-1975'', Grasset, 2009

References

External links

Jean-Claude Milner's Homepage at The Cahiers pour l'Analyse and Contemporary French Thought
(website is in English)

Interviews of Jean-Claude Milner

"A very tense language"
article of Philippe Lançon appeared in " Libération" {{DEFAULTSORT:Milner, Jean-Claude Writers from Paris 1941 births Living people Lycée Henri-IV alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 20th-century French philosophers 21st-century French philosophers French people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Linguists from France Jacques Lacan French Maoists