Dr. Michel Bitbol is Emeritus Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS, in Paris, France. He is presently based at the Archives Husserl, a center of research in Phenomenology. He received successively his M.D., his Ph.D. in physics, and his “Habilitation” in philosophy in Paris.

He worked as a research scientist in biophysics from 1978 to 1990. From 1990 onwards, he turned to the philosophy of physics. He edited texts by Erwin Schrödinger and developed a neo-kantian philosophy of quantum mechanics. In 1997 he received an award from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques for his work in the philosophy of quantum mechanics.

Later on, he studied the relations between the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of mind, working in close collaboration with Francisco Varela. He then learnt some Sanskrit and published a book (De l’intérieur du monde, 2010) in which he draws a parallel between Buddhist dependent arising and non-supervenient relations, in quantum physics and the theory of knowledge. He recently developed a conception of consciousness inspired from an epistemology of first-person knowledge, together with a phenomenological critique of naturalist theories of consciousness (La conscience a-t-elle une origine? 2014). More recently, he engaged a debate with the philosophical movement called “speculative realism”, and published a book about it (Maintenant la finitude, 2019).