For a Responsible Inexpertise: A Conversation with Philippe Van Parijs

In this conversation, Philippe Van Parijs reconstructs his intellectual trajectory, which, starting from philosophical interests, gradually defined itself in an interdisciplinary program that combines political philosophy and the social sciences. His initial epistemological interests gave way to a focus more on issues of justice, discussing themes already present in Marx and Mill, but revisited in light of new debates. The interview also explores the evolution of the September Group’s collective experience, leading to a discussion of the possibility and necessity of a professionally interdisciplinary way of doing social science today. On this last point, Van Parijs asserts the urgent need for academics to participate in public debate in the spirit of what he calls “responsible inexpertise”, a way of avoiding both the fragmentation of knowledge and confinement to the ivory tower.