Gaston Berger

Gaston Berger (1 October 1896 in Saint-Louis, Senegal – 13 November 1960) was a French futurist but also an industrialist, a philosopher and a state manager. He is mainly known for his remarkably lucid analysis of Edmund Husserl's "Phenomenology" and for his studies on the character structure.

After managing a fertilizer plant during the 1930s, he created in Paris the "Centre Universitaire International et des Centres de Prospective" and directed the philosophical studies (Études philosophiques). The term "prospective", invented by Gaston Berger, is the study of the possible futures.

From 1953 to 1960 he was in charge of the tertiary education at the Minister of National Education and modernised the French universities system. He was elected at the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1955.

In 1957 he founded the journal "Prospective" and the homonym centre with André Gros. This same year he created the Institut national des sciences appliquées (INSA) of Lyon with the rector Capelle.

He was the father of the French choreographer Maurice Béjart (1927-2007). The university of Saint-Louis, Senegal, where he was born is named after him.

Main works

* Recherches sur les conditions de la connaissance, Paris, PUF, 1941
* Le Cogito dans la philosophie de Husserl, Paris, Aubier, 1941
* Traité pratique d’analyse du caractère, Paris, PUF, 1950
* Questionnaire caractérologique, PUF, Paris, 1950
* Caractère et personnalité, Paris, PUF, 1954

Liens externes

* [http://www2.ac-lille.fr/gberger/FLycee/l2_vieGB.htm Biography in French]
* [http://www.prospective.fr/Bibliotheque/Gaston_Berger_Peslouan.htm "Gaston Berger philosophe et homme d'action" in French]