Rate My Professor Frédéric Worms

Frédéric Worms is a professor of contemporary philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris, where he has served as director since March 2022. He previously held the position of deputy director beginning in September 2015. Worms specializes in the work of Henri Bergson and the history of modern and contemporary philosophy, with additional research interests in the philosophy of life, vital relations among living beings, and the ethics of care. He earned his agrégation in philosophy in 1986 after admission to the ENS in 1982. In 1995, he completed his doctoral thesis at Université Blaise-Pascal on the problem of the mind in Bergson’s work. He received his habilitation to supervise research in 2004 with the study Bergson ou les deux sens de la vie. Worms began his university career as a professor at Université Lille-III before joining the ENS faculty in 2013. He has held visiting professorships at institutions including the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Essex; UCLA; Ritsumeikan University; and the University of Chicago. Worms directs the Centre international d’étude de la philosophie française contemporaine and served as a member of the Comité consultatif national d’éthique from 2013. He founded the Société des amis de Bergson in 2006 and has directed critical editions of Bergson’s works as well as collections on care and contemporary French philosophy. His publications include Bergson ou Les deux sens de la vie (2004), La Philosophie en France au XXe siècle: Moments (2009), Le Moment du soin (2010), Revivre (2012), and Pour un humanisme vital (2019). He has also co-authored a biography of Bergson with Philippe Soulez and produces radio programs on France Culture. Worms received the Grand Prix Moron from the Académie Française in 2018 for his body of work.