Involution and the convergence of minds : the philosophical stakes of Lalande's vocabulaire

André Lalande is known to history almost exclusively as the editor of the famous Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie, promoted by the newborn Société française de philosophie and published even nowadays. Over the years, scholarship has usually focused on the disciplinary and sociological context that instilled in findesiècle academic philosophy the need for a tool codifying and normalizing the language of the discipline. From this perspective, the Vocabulaire has been primarily framed as an instrument of disciplinary selflegitimization. However, little is known about the properly philosophical vision that was at the roots of such an ambitious editorial enterprise. By bringing to light his theory of involution, with its theoretical and social implications, this article sets out to reassess the neglected thought of André Lalande, thereby allowing us to see the philosopher behind the editor. [Publisher's text].