#023 Emily Eakin on the Intellectual and Philosophical Debates that Shaped a Generation and Changed the Way We Understand Language
Shaping Science with Nick DirksShow Notes
Emily Eakin, senior editor at The New York Times Book Review, whose pieces have also been published in The New Yorker, Vogue, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more. She recently published her first book, ‘The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory,’ which tells the improbable story of the prominent French philosophers that had profound and lasting influence in the 1980s and ’90s. Their impact on American education and intellectual culture was immense, with some of their ideas tying into the cultural wars of present day. ‘The Frenchmen Or, My Life in Theory’ was published in 2026 by Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/317335/the-frenchmen-by-emily-eakin/ This episode of Shaping Science is made possible with the generous support of Tata Sons: https://www.tata.com/business/tata-sons 00:00 Intro 05:50 The Personal and Intellectual History of Language 13:28 A More Scientific Way of Interpreting Meaning in Language 18:40 The Intellectual Embrace of Structuralism 24:40 The French Impact on American Higher Education 28:50 The Emergence of Poststructuralist Thought 32:56 The Role of Jean-Jacques Rousseau 37:00 The Specter of Jacques Derrida 43:35 The Role of Michel Foucault
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