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Cercle d'Épistémologie (1966–1969)

The Cercle d’Épistémologie (‘Circle of Epistemology’, or ‘Epistemology Circle’) was the collective entity behind the editorial production of the Cahiers pour l’Analyse. Each issue of the Cahiers bore as a subtitle: ‘Travaux du Cercle d’Épistémologie de l’École Normale Supérieure’. The membership of the Cercle shifted over time, and the first time a distinction was made within the published journal itself between the Cercle and the editorial board was in the front matter to volume four. The first edition of volume one bears an Avertissement signed by Jacques-Alain Miller ‘on behalf of the editorial board’, and directs correspondence to Jean-Claude Milner. By all accounts, Miller and Milner were the original driving force behind the Cercle d’Épistémologie, and they very quickly enlisted Alain Grosrichard and François Regnault to join them. According to Milner, the idea to establish the Cercle and the journal itself came when his and Regnault’s texts on Louis Aragon and Witold Gombrowicz (CpA 7.2 and CpA 7.3) were deemed too experimental for the Cahiers Marxistes-Leninistes (see Milner Interview).

The first complete listing of the editorial board is in volume two, and contains these four names: Grosrichard, Miller, Milner, and Regnault. Regarding the eventual distinction between the editorial board and the Cercle itself, Jacques Bouveresse recalls that, although he was nominally a member of the Cercle d’Épistémologie for volumes four through ten, he was never consulted about the editorial content or production of the journal (Bouveresse Interview). Indeed, the Cercle seems to have been a more capacious category than the editorial board and contained figures, like Bouveresse, whose projects had a bearing on the concerns of the journal, or indeed who may have contributed, but who were not involved in the production of its content. The Cercle itself grew much larger with volume eight, with the addition of Alain Badiou and several others. Badiou in particular, who was also a member of the editorial board (unlike, for example, Jean-Marie Villégier, who only joined the Cercle) would exercise a decisive influence on the trajectory of the final two volumes of the journal, devoted to the ‘genealogy of the sciences’ and ‘formalisation’.

Membership of the Editorial Board and the Cercle d’Épistémologie for volumes one through ten of the Cahiers pour l’Analyse:

  • Volume 1: La Vérité

    Jacques-Alain Miller, ‘pour le conseil de rédaction’. Jean-Claude Milner, for correspondence.

  • Volume 2: Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, François Regnault. Sécretaire: Jean-Claude Milner.

  • Volume 4: Lévi-Strauss dans le XVIIIe siècle

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Jean-Claude Milner, Jacques Bouveresse, Jean Mathiot, Jean Mosconi, Michel Tort.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, François Regnault.

  • Volume 5: Ponctuation de Freud

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Jean-Claude Milner (sécretaire), Jacques Bouveresse, Jean Mathiot, Jean Mosconi, Michel Tort.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, François Regnault.

  • Volume 6: La Politique des philosophes

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Jean-Claude Milner (sécretaire), Jacques Bouveresse, Jean Mathiot, Jean Mosconi, Michel Tort.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, François Regnault.

  • Volume 7: Du mythe au roman

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Jean-Claude Milner (sécretaire), Jacques Bouveresse, Jean Mathiot, Jean Mosconi, Michel Tort.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, François Regnault.

  • Volume 8: L’Impensée de Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Alain Badiou, Alain Grosrichard, Thomas Herbert, Jean Mathiot, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean Mosconi, Bernard Pautrat, Michel Tort, Jean-Marie Villégier. Secrétaires: Jean-Claude Milner et François Regnault.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Badiou, Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, François Regnault.

  • Volume 9: Généologie des Sciences

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Alain Badiou, Jacques Bouveresse, Yves Duroux, Alain Grosrichard, Thomas Herbert, Patrick Hochart, Jean Mathiot, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean Mosconi, Jacques Nassif, Bernard Pautrat, Michel Tort, Jean-Marie Villégier. Secrétaires: Jean-Claude Milner et François Regnault. Directeur-gérant: Jacques-Alain Miller.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Badiou, Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, François Regnault.

  • Volume 10: La Formalisation

    Cercle d’Épistémologie: Alain Badiou, Jacques Bouveresse, Yves Duroux, Alain Grosrichard, Thomas Herbert, Patrick Hochart, Jean Mathiot, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean Mosconi, Jacques Nassif, Bernard Pautrat, Michel Tort, Jean-Marie Villégier. Secrétaires: Jean-Claude Milner et François Regnault. Directeur-gérant: Jacques-Alain Miller.

    Conseil de rédaction: Alain Badiou, Alain Grosrichard, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, François Regnault.