Les éditions du Promontoire
A house dedicated to understanding humanity and transmitting the human sciences
Founded in 2009, Éditions du Promontoire is an independent publishing house specializing in the humanities. It arose from a simple observation: everyone is now convinced that humanity is currently experiencing a pivotal moment in its history—a profound upheaval, a pivotal shift, within human societies. Yet, in the face of these upheavals, beyond the economic and ecological spheres, there exists a third front, of which no one seems to be aware.
This concerns humanity's self-understanding. It concerns how humanity represents, understands, and explains its own humanity to itself. This aspect of the problem is perceptible through the decline of ideologies. The great historical systems of thought have collapsed. Religions are on borrowed time, and "values" are in crisis.
It is urgent to replace them. To shed light on the alternatives and the stakes of this battle, the general public has only a few seasonal bestsellers at its disposal, which most often simply rehash the annual collections of ready-made Anglo-Saxon thinking. Éditions du Promontoire has set itself the goal of remedying this deficiency. It is to this public, informed yet still yearning for clarity, that Éditions du Promontoire addresses itself.
To address this, the editorial content of Éditions du Promontoire is based on fundamental research conducted in the humanities by French researchers and theorists. This work has been taught and published in French universities for over forty years, yet has not yet reached the general public.
In the end of ideologies, it is the human sciences that must articulate the relationships of man with himself, his fellow men and his environment, natural and supernatural.
A desire to transmit and illuminate
to help Humanity find its way
The vocation of Éditions du Promontoire is to make fundamental theoretical works accessible, without ever losing sight of their human dimension and universal significance.
An editorial vision rooted in the humanist tradition
Éditions du Promontoire stands within the lineage of the European humanist tradition, inherited from the Enlightenment, which places the understanding of the human being at the heart of knowledge.
Its approach is based on the conviction that the humanities are today the best and most essential tool for thinking about the future. They make it possible to move beyond oppositions between beliefs, opinions and rationality, between tradition and modernity, and to open up new perspectives for the future of human societies.
By disseminating works stemming in particular from the Theory of Mediation initiated by Jean Gagnepain and the Rennes School, before being further developed by Adrien Morel, Éditions du Promontoire contributes to the development and transmission of a rigorous scientific approach to the human being, still too little known to the general public.
Nourishing thought to illuminate the future
Publishing a book is not merely about transmitting content. It means contributing to an intellectual dynamic, taking part in a collective reflection, and opening up new perspectives.
Éditions du Promontoire seeks to nourish thought, to support readers in their reflection, and to contribute to the emergence of a renewed understanding of the human being and their place in the world.
It is intended for all those who wish to deepen their understanding of the humanities and to take part, in their own way, in this intellectual journey.
For to understand the human being is also to prepare for the future.
Our Authors
Voices that help advance
our understanding of the human being
Adrien Morel
Writer, epistemologist and theorist
Founding author of Éditions du Promontoire, Adrien Morel believes that the breakdown affecting contemporary societies is largely due to the fact that our fellow citizens do not have the right tools to think about society and its difficulties. For him, all ideologies are obsolete, and it is urgent to move beyond them. Only the human sciences make it possible to move beyond ideologies. He therefore devoted his first works to popularising the human sciences for the widest possible audience, before developing, in his later books, a body of fundamental research.
Jean Luc Lamotte
Anthropologist and essayist
Agrégé in classical literature and anthropologist, Jean-Luc Lamotte devoted his life to research and to the transmission of the human sciences. His work, nourished by the Theory of Mediation, contributes to a rigorous scientific approach to the human being and to the dissemination of structured thought, accessible to readers wishing to deepen their understanding of anthropological foundations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the books published by Éditions du Promontoire aimed at?+
The published works are aimed at a diverse audience: students, researchers, teachers, humanities professionals, but also all curious readers wishing to deepen their understanding of humanity, its societies, and civilizations—particularly our own. Part of the catalog is accessible without prior knowledge, while other works offer a more in-depth approach, tailored to a more engaged readership.
What areas are covered by your catalogue?+
The catalogue of Éditions du Promontoire covers all disciplines of the humanities, including anthropology, epistemology, linguistics, sociology, psychology... The works address essential themes such as the specificity and boundary of the human, religion, rationality, morality, language and the evolution of human societies and civilizations.
What is the editorial line of Éditions du Promontoire?+
The editorial policy is based on the publication of works stemming exclusively from clinical anthropology. This adheres to the constraint of an experimental approach to verify all concepts and mechanisms modeled by referring to the clinical study of human pathologies. Éditions du Promontoire is part of the European humanist and rationalist tradition, with the aim of transmitting fundamental knowledge derived from research and making it accessible to a broad audience.
Do you need a university education to read your books?+
No. Part of the catalog is specifically designed to gradually introduce the reader to the humanities, without requiring any prior training. The collections are designed and organized to guide the reader's understanding and allow them to access the entire catalog if they wish.
Why are the humanities important today?+
Because ideologies are dying. Beliefs are obsolete, and grand systems of opinion are in their death throes. The human sciences must succeed them.
Where can I buy books from Éditions du Promontoire?+
The books are available from your usual suppliers: in bookstores, on major online sales platforms, and from specialist distributors. Each book page provides the necessary information to purchase the books.
Éditions du Promontoire has summed up its mission in a manifesto.
The Manifesto of Éditions du Promontoire
An ontonomy is a conception of the world.
The naturalist ontonomy, which has governed Western societies since the Renaissance, has reached the end of what it had to offer and is now in decline.
The culturalist ontonomy that must succeed it is still in preparation — or more precisely, within our books.
The supernaturalist ontonomy, which preceded them, is taking advantage of the space thus left open to attempt a barbaric return.
The first leads to the soft, new-tech totalitarianism of the GAFAM companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, etc.), which only awaits its fulfilment in transhumanism, while the third casts the last flames of its medieval violence…
To move beyond this, it is time for our contemporaries to discover the second: the only alternative to the previous ones and the only path toward the future of our civilization.
This requires introducing them to the humanities.
Rebuilding the world begins with changing our conception of the human being: by adopting the Sciences of Man in place of the ideologies that preceded them. Today, we would call this changing our operating system. Are our contemporaries ready for it? Not certain. Ideologies, like beliefs, are hard to shake.
Promoting this “change of operating system”, through the humanities, is therefore the ambition and mission of Éditions du Promontoire.