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

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

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 (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

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

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 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 popu ...

) and psychoanalysis (through the teaching and friendship of

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

). In 1971, Milner was at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

where he translated

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

's ''

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax ''Aspects of the Theory of Syntax'' (known in linguistic circles simply as ''Aspects'') is a book on linguistics written by American linguist Noam Chomsky, first published in 1965. In ''Aspects'', Chomsky presented a deeper, more extensive reformu ...

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

generative grammar Generative grammar is a research tradition in linguistics that aims to explain the cognitive basis of language by formulating and testing explicit models of humans' subconscious grammatical knowledge. Generative linguists, or generativists (), ...

. Milner is now a professor at the University Paris Diderot 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, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, is the son of a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n 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 or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

and at the

. His education was shaped by the thought and teaching of

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

and

. Lacan's influence may also be tied to his friendship with Jacques-Alain Miller 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 several years later. From 1968 to 1971, Milner was affiliated with the

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

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 Foucault ...

, 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 (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...

. 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 Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...

and

Imre Lakatos Imre Lakatos (, ; ; 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 pre-axiomatic stage ...

. 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.

Selected publications

English

* ''For The Love of Language'', translated and introduced by Ann Banfield. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1990. * "The Doctrine of Science", translated by Oliver Feltham. ''Umbr(a): A Journal of the Unconscious, Science, and Truth''. (2000), pp. 33–63. This is the second chapter of Milner's ''L’Œuvre claire : Lacan, la science, et la philosophie''. *

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distin ...

(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, 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 (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

" {{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