...

Eminent philosopher and sinologist François Jullien—born 1951 in Embrun, France—is professor at the Université Paris Diderot and director of the Institut de la pensée contemporaine. 

In The Strange Idea of the Beautiful François Jullien explores the nature of beauty, bringing together the ideas of beauty from both Eastern and Western philosophy, then challenging the assumptions of what is beautiful— while offering a new way of beholding art. 

“The beautiful is the object of the most captivating desire, the erôs of the amorous urge, while belonging to the invisible which results from what is most visible at the heart of visibility.” 

François Jullien shows that practice falls short of history. The ideal, up in the sky, is inaccessible. “Beauty without Being could not be, nor Being voided of Beauty.” 

Jullien’s work includes: The Propensity of Things, A Treatise of Efficacy, The Impossible Nude, The Great Image has no Form, The Book of Beginnings, and The Philosophy of Living. 

François Jullien lives in Paris.