Welcome. You’ve reached the website of Jean-Paul Martinon. I am a writer based in London. I am currently Emeritus Reader at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Writing

This website is part of a writing project consisting in sketching a body of thought in a situation where the course of this sketch is never determined in advance. As such, there’s nothing for sale on this website: neither product nor key-concept, neither slogan nor soundbite. It is devised and developed to simply record and reflect an itinerary of thought in philosophy. This itinerary is succinctly summarised across all its pages, and specifically with regards to time, in Schemes.

Academia

Writing never takes places in a vacuum. It is also above all a practice of sharing the excitement of discovering new ideas, unexpected perspectives, and challenging thoughts in seminars or lectures. As such, this website is a testament and an indebtedness to the many students and colleagues who have helped me and others push thought where it would have never dared to venture. Thank you.

Rationale

Nothing in my hands, nothing in my pockets, I write to safeguard myself from madness, from the irrationality (or is it the rationality?) of life and its inescapable conditions. This, by no means, constitutes a form salvation, not even an aspiration for one. Writing saves nobody. They don’t even justify. For good or bad, writing is just a necessary habit, the daily evidence of an uncalled for passing—I’m not dead yet. Nulla dies sine linea.