Pierre A. Riffard - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Pierre A. Riffard is a French philosopher and specialist in esotericism

Esotericism

Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...

. Born in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

(France), he is a professor of pedagogy and philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana (Université des Antilles et de la Guyane).
Teaching in the French overseas departments and territories and elsewhere: Asia, Oceania, Sub-Saharan Africa, Guiana.

Esotericism

For Pierre A. Riffard, esotericism is "occult teaching, doctrine or theory, technique or process, of symbolic expression, of a metaphysical nature, of initiatory intent. Druidism, compagnonnage (the traditional French system of training craftsmen), alchemy

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

are esotericisms."

Pierre A. Riffard defended a Doctor of Philosophy thesis on the Greek formula Έν καì Πãν ["The One and The All"], then a Doctor of Arts thesis on L'Idée d'ésotérisme [The Idea of Esotericism] (Paris 1 Sorbonne University, 1987), after conducting research into occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

ism.
Author of the Dictionnaire de l'ésotérisme [Dictionary of Esotericism] (Payot, 1983), which is an authoritative work in the field, he has also written two sizeable volumes for the "Bouquins" collection of France's Editions Robert Laffont publishing house; one is devoted to esotericism in general: L'ésotérisme. Qu'est-ce que l'ésotérisme ? [Esotericism. What is Esotericism?], 1990; the other treats with non-Western esotericisms: Ésotérismes d'ailleurs [Esotericisms from other lands], 1997. As soon as 87, he proposed nine invariants for defining an esotericism:

the discipline of the arcane (keeping the secret). New Testament: "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."
the impersonality of the author (showing the superhuman aspect of the message).
the contrast between the esoteric and the exoteric (distinguishing the initiated from the uninitiated, the occult from the manifest).
the subtle (admitting invisible or higher planes of reality: human aura
Aura (paranormal)
In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...

, etheric body
Etheric body
The etheric body, ether-body, æther body, a name given by neo-Theosophy to a supposed vital body or subtle body propounded in esoteric philosophies as the first or lowest layer in the "human energy field" or aura...

, astral influences, telluric waves, guardian angel
Guardian angel
A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...

s, etc.). Alice Bailey
Alice Bailey
Alice Ann Bailey , known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB to her followers, was an influential writer and theosophist in what she termed "Ageless Wisdom". This included occult teachings, "esoteric" psychology and healing, astrological and other philosophic and religious themes...

: "Esotericism is a science, essentially the science of the soul of all things."
analogies and correspondences (comparing all the parts of the universe: macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...

, gums and fingers, blood and sap, colours and organs, animals and virtues, etc.).
formal numbers (choosing symbolic arithmetic as the archetypal key: golden ratio
Golden ratio
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.61803398874989...

, cosmic cycles, kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...

of gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...

, metres in poetry, rhythms in music, etc.). Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...

: "Things are numbers. ΄Ολα τα πράγματα είναι αριθμοί."
the occult arts (using alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

, astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

, divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

, magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...

, occult medicine).
the occult sciences (hermeneutics, numerology
Numerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...

, theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...

, the study of the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

, paradoxography
Paradoxography
Paradoxography is a genre of Classical literature which deals with the occurrence of abnormal or inexplicable phenomena of the natural or human worlds.Early surviving examples of the genre include:* Palaephatus' On Incredible Things...

(the cataloguing of wondrous phenomena), etc.).
lastly, and above all, initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...

(seeking improvement, spiritual liberation for others, for oneself or rather for the SELF).

In other terms,

"An esotericism is teaching which takes the form of a secret doctrine or of an initiatory organisation, a spiritual practice or an occult art."

As regards form, esotericists have a secret: paralipsis (apophasis

Apophasis

Apophasis refers, in general, to "mention by not mentioning". Apophasis covers a wide variety of figures of speech.-Apophasis:...

). They purport to say nothing, while at the same time discreetly revealing something (In saying "I will say nothing about the sacred nature of sexuality", I have said that sexuality does indeed have a sacred nature). For example, symbols such as the apple or the coiled serpent reveal numerous clues or keys to sexuality, while simultaneously appearing to obfuscate the discourse or image.

As regards content, esotericists have another secret: reversion. They reverse ordinary ideas, they turn around commonplace behaviour, they overturn shared emotions, to return to the original. For example, kundalini yoga

Kundalini yoga

Kundalini yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline for developing strength, awareness, character, and consciousness. Practitioners call Kundalini yoga the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on practices that expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual...

sends sexual energy up to the brain, and the alchemist returns to primary matter, when everything becomes possible and powerful again.

As regards sense, esotericists have no secrets; they just adopt a lifestyle, one which gives priority to the interior of things. For example, in love they prefer a state of consciousness higher than sexual pleasure; in alchemy they are more interested in the solar image of gold than its market value.
"Riffard's approach may thus be characterized as universalist, religionistic, and trans-historical: Esotericism is a basic 'anthropological structure' and as such not dependent on cultural mediation. Its scope in time and space includes the whole of human history." -Wouter J. Hanegraaff. http://books.google.fr/books?id=GodzjIfO7e8C&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%E2%80%9COn+the+Construction+of+Esoteric+Traditions%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=BVmZy9j6bC&sig=TnMtFr1h04w_aDCKEfE28hifVB8&hl=fr&ei=DvxCTeXVA4XA8QOmstjqDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9COn%20the%20Construction%20of%20Esoteric%20Traditions%E2%80%9D&f=false

Philosophy

Pierre A. Riffard recently published essays examining the lifestyle of philosophers from a psychological and sociological point of view (Les philosophes: vie intime ["Philosophers: private life"], 2004; Philosophie matin, midi et soir ["Philosophy morning, noon and night"], 2006. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France). In Les philosophes: vie intime, he draws attention to some of the philosopher's human traits, which are not generally mentioned, covering everyone from Thales to Sartre:

a handicap: being female. Only one woman philosopher (Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...

) featured on an official list of 305 classical philosophers compiled in 1991.
an opportunity: being an expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

. More than 13% of philosophers are born outside their parent's home country, in the colonies. More than 54% of philosophers have lived abroad. Aristotle was born in Macedonia. Descartes spent 20 years in Holland.
an advantage: being an orphan. 68% of major philosophers are orphaned by the age of five.
no precociousness. As a statistical average, the first work is published at the age of 27, the masterpiece at the age of 42. Kant was already 57 years old when he published his masterpiece, The Critique of Pure Reason
acceptance of the culturally dominant language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

. It is necessary to speak a scholarly language. 23% of major philosophers have written Latin (until 1905 in France), 21% Greek and French, 13% English (this is becoming the dominant language).
rejection of the ideologically dominant religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. One enters philosophy in the same way that one enters the Mafia, by committing an assassination, of the God of the time, the beliefs of the time. The major philosophers are 51% Christian, 27% without religion and 19% pagan.
clumsiness in matters of the heart. The glories of love are not on the agenda for philosophers (apart from Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...

). Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...

: "Truly, with respect to that sex [the female sex], what I abominate is that zealous and disordered venereal love which some are accustomed to expend for it, so that they come to the point of making their wit the slave of woman, and of degrading the noblest powers and actions of the intellectual soul."
the risk of madness. A good philosopher keeps his insanity
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

in check: Heraclitus
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom...

's melancholia, Auguste Comte's manic-depression, Hegel's anxiety, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...

's paranoia, Nietzsche's syphilitic meningoencephalitis, etc.
triumph over illness. Many philosophers suffer, but overcome, whether it be nephritis (Epicurus
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...

), kidney stones (Montaigne), paralysis (Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...

, Feyerabend
Feyerabend
Feyerabend is a German surname and may refer to:* Gottlieb Feyerabend, Student of Kant. His notes on Kant's 1784 lectures on natural right are published in the Academy Edition of Kant's works as Naturrecht Feyerabend....

), poor eyesight (Democritus
Democritus
Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos....

, Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...

, Condillac
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac was a French philosopher and epistemologist who studied in such areas as psychology and the philosophy of the mind.-Biography:...

, Cournot, Gonseth), etc.
obscure identities. Philosophers play around a lot with pen names, anonymity, etc. Descartes and Kierkegaard advance in disguise.
a mixed bag of curriculum vitae. 43,7% of philosophers have been teachers, the rest have been members of the clergy (20,9%), politicians (9,3%), without profession (4,9%), doctors (4%), lawyers or jurists (3,1%), editors or journalists (3,1%), none or almost none have been artisans (Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...

), farmers (Gustave Thibon) or sailors (Michel Serres
Michel Serres
Michel Serres is a French philosopher and author, celebrated for his unusual career.-Life and career:...

).
feet! Aristotelian = περιπατητικός, peripatetic = "walking". Nietzsche: "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."
and, of course, a head (one head or two, or three, if the philosopher changes philosophy, like Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Fichte, his mentor prior to 1800, and Hegel, his former university roommate and erstwhile friend...

, Wittgenstein, Carnap). A major philosopher shows themselves to the world as such thanks to their vast personal semantic memory
Semantic memory
Semantic memory refers to the memory of meanings, understandings, and other concept-based knowledge unrelated to specific experiences. The conscious recollection of factual information and general knowledge about the world is generally thought to be independent of context and personal relevance...

and a universal metaphysical obsession. About Leibniz, we know that "his memory was so strong, that in order to fix anything in it, he had no more to do but to write it once", and he was obsessed by harmony.

"Philosophy is like a nutcracker. There are some who merely end up pinching their fingers in it, professionals who are completely comfortable using it, and then there are people who use it to open those marvellous nuts called thoughts. To philosophise is good; to philosophise oneself is better. To philosophise oneself each day, on the routine, the commonplace, is best."

"Pierre Riffard's vision of philosophy is that of a being torn between opposing demands: analysis and synthesis, the singular and the universal, certainty and doubt." ("La vision qu'a Pierre Riffard du philosophe est celle d'un être tiraillé par des sollicitations contraires : analyse et synthèse, le singulier et l'universel, certitude et doute.") -Thomas Régnier.

Thanatology

Thanatology is the scientific study of death. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the post-mortem period, as well as wider social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of...

is the study of death among human beings.
Raising the issue of the afterlife

Afterlife

The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

is no plain matter, something like “I believe in Paradise”. It actually is a speculative strategy, a rational reckoning, combining several concepts and requiring a number of successive choices. It looks like a decision tree

Decision tree

A decision tree is a decision support tool that uses a tree-like graph or model of decisions and their possible consequences, including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. It is one way to display an algorithm. Decision trees are commonly used in operations research, specifically...

!
As for the afterlife itself, several problems arise. First of all, problems of method.

1 – Is it possible to ascertain whether there is an afterlife (or life after death) : yes (1a), maybe (1b), no (1c) ?

2 – Where is documentation to be found?

3 – What is to be considered as suitable evidence?

Next come the philosophical queries.

A - Should one negate (A1) or assert (A2) or suspend one’s opinion (A3) on the afterlife ?

B – Who survives : a single individual (B1), an elite (B2), a community (B3), Humanity (B4), the World (B5) ?

C - What survives : the soul (C1), a soul, the mind, the Self... ?

D- Under what shape : some specific element in the individual, some universal element... ?

E – Since when : the death of the individual, Doomsday

Last Judgment

The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...

... ?

F – Over what span of time : eternity ?

G – What type of time : cyclical, over an evolutionary period... ?

H – Where : a subterranean place, Heaven... ?

I – Following which law : God’s Will, Chance, One’s karma

Karma

Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....

... ?

J – What types of survival : reincarnation

Reincarnation

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

, resurrection

Resurrection

Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...

... ?

K – to what ultimate end : fusing into God, dissolution of the Self... ?

The Christian view of life after death is a combination of assertions : "the afterlife is a fact"(A2), humanity is concerned (B4), spiritualism (C1), Doomsday (E2)... and resurrection

Resurrection

Skepticism and scientism bring reflection to an abrupt ending through the suspension of judgment (A3), it agrees with Wilder Penfield

Wilder Penfield

Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian"...

’s words : "Whether energy can come to the mind of man from an outside source after his death is for each individual to decide for himself. Science has no such answer" (The Mystery of the Mind, 1976).

All things considered, about a dozen ascertained types of survival are possible; they may either co-exist or follow one another and may vary according to the individuals, the souls, the actions. The history of religions mainly highlights a few types : neutral form of life (ex : the limbo in the Roman Catholic faith), shadow existence (Homer and the Ancient Jews), demonic life, damnation

Damnation

Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...

or salvation

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

, migration of the souls through metempsychosis (whether the soul takes the shape of an animal or a plant or a human being) or reincarnation

Reincarnation

(in the human body's shape), catasterisation (transfer of the souls to the stars), palingenesis

Palingenesis

Palingenesis is a concept of rebirth or re-creation, used in various contexts in philosophy, theology, politics, and biology. Its meaning stems from Greek palin, meaning again, and genesis, meaning birth....

(one does not die but undergoes some transformation, just like mould turning into fungi), eternal return

Eternal return

Eternal return is a concept which posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept initially inherent in Indian philosophy was later found in ancient Egypt, and was subsequently...

(all souls living through the same experiences again, thousands of years later, through cosmic palingenesis).

"La mort selon Leibniz", Paris: Thanatologie, n° 83-84, 1990. Death according to Leibniz.
"Comment se pose rationnellement le problème de la vie après la mort", Thanatologie, n° 87-88, novembre 1991. On afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

.
"La mort selon Steiner", Thanatologie, n° 89-90, avril 1992. Death according to Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...

.
"La mort selon Platon", Thanatologie, n° 97-98, avril 1994. Death according to Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

.
"La mort selon Descartes", Études sur la mort, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), n° 114, 1998, 97-112. Death according to Descartes.
23 articles in Philippe Di Folco (dir.), Dictionnaire de la mort [Dictionary of death], Paris: Larousse, coll. "In Extenso", 2010. "Astrology", "Descartes", "doppelgänger", "Epicurus", "esotericism"…

Books by Pierre Riffard

L'Occultisme, textes et recherches, Paris: Larousse, coll. "Idéologies et sociétés", 1981, 191 p. ISBN 2-03-861028-2.
Dictionnaire de l'ésotérisme, Paris: Payot, coll. "Bibliothèque scientifique", 1983, 387 p. ISBN 2-228-13270-5 ; repr. coll. "Grande bibliothèque Payot", 1993, 387 p. ISBN 2-228-88654-8.
L'Ésotérisme : Qu'est-ce que l'ésotérisme ?, Paris : Robert Laffont, coll. "Bouquins", 1990, 1016 p. ISBN 2-221-05464-4. Repr. 2003.
Ésotérismes d'ailleurs. Les ésotérismes non occidentaux : primitifs, civilisateurs, indiens, extrême-orientaux, monothéistes, Paris: Robert Laffont, coll. "Bouquins", 1997, 1242 p. ISBN 2-221-07354-1.
"The Esoteric Method", in Antoine Faivre and Wouter J. Hanegraaff (eds.), Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion, Leuven: Peeters, coll. "Gnostica", 1998, Xvii/309 pages, 63-74.
"Le penser ésotérique", "Existe-t-il un ésotérisme négro-africain ?", and "Descartes et l'ésotérisme", ARIES. Association pour la Recherche et l'Information sur l'Esotérisme, Paris: Archè, n° 21, 1998, p. 1-28, 197-203. ISBN 8872521920.
Les philosophes : vie intime, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), coll. "Perspectives critiques", 2004, 283 p. ISBN 2-13-053968-8.
"Non-philosophe : ce n'est pas moi c'est toi", in Gilles Grelet (dir.), Théorie-rébellion, Paris: L'Harmattan, coll. "Nous les sans-philosophie", 2005, 42-45. ISBN 2-7475-9210-3.
"La transmission des savoirs ésotériques" (Université Laval, 2006) http://www.ulaval.ca/afi/colloques/colloque2006/actes2006/PDF/III-1%20Pierre%20RIFFARD.pdf
Philosophie matin, midi et soir, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), coll. "Perspectives critiques", 2006, 185 p. ISBN 2-13-055735-X.
Nouveau dictionnaire de l'ésotérisme, Paris: Payot, 2008, 331 p. ISBN 978-2-228-90274-8.
"Qu'est-ce qu'une méthode (philosophique ou pas)?", Revue internationale de didactique de la philosophie, CRDP Montpellier, n° 46 (oct. 2010).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.