Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir did it, but not together, later on Alain Badiou did it too. What? It’s the Baccalaureate Philosophy examination taken by French17/18 olds before they go to university, known as the ‘Bac Philo’. Nothing shows the difference between British and French attitudes to philosophy more than a comparison between how it is studied at pre-university level in the two countries. Here, in the UK, we have an A Level Philosophy, which is taken by a relatively small number of students, in France every student who takes the baccalaureate must also take philosophy.
In England the A Level Philosophy exams will come and go without much ado – in France the whole event of the ‘Bac Philo’ exam is a national institution. The TV news will cover the question papers, the daily nationals like Le Monde and Libération will cite them and ask their readers to consider how they would respond. Philosophers will be asked to draft answers to the questions which will then be published in the pages of the newspapers.
Leading up to the examination there is an orgy of publishing: guides advising how to tackle the exam will be available in every single newsagent. This year the newspaper Le Monde has published one such guide and ‘Philosophie’ (a glossy and rather good version of UK’s TPM) has also published its how to survive the Bac Philo.
Not only A level students but many British undergraduate students would balk at the challenge of the exam. 4 hours long and one question to be answered only. Past examples of questions have been:
Can desire be disinterested?
Are we prisoners of the past?
Do artworks have to be pleasurable?
Do technological developments threaten our liberty?
Here are this years questions.
