I was educated in France (BA and MA in Philosophy, Paris I-Sorbonne), the US (Ph.D in Philosophy, Loyola University, Chicago), and Germany (Postdoc in Philosophy, Hegel-Archiv, Bochum).  Before becoming an ICREA Research Professor, I was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick (UK) for over 25 years. I have held Visiting Professorships in Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano), Moscow (The Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences), New York (The New School for Social Research), Boston (Boston College), and Ca'Foscari (Venice). I have been the recipient of various grants as Principal Investigator between 2007 and 2019 and am currently a co-PI on a project at the intersection of literature and political theory, which explores the utopian/dystopian narratives of Atwood, Ishiguro, and Houellbecq. .

I am a philosopher with a broad range of interests (ontology, aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy), with monographs on Heidegger, Deleuze, Proust, Chillida, and Lacan. Since the 2008 financial crisis, my thought has taken a critical turn. My recent work includes a trilogy on desire as: a genealogy of desire as a way of understanding who we are; as a specifically liberal technology of government; as a constructive approach to the self, aimed at exploring alternative and emancipatory practices.  My most recent includes two books,: a critique of, and a reflection on ways to overcome, the forces or 'vices', such as stupidity and spite, which diminish our ability to think and our agency (individual or collective); a 'philosophy of crisis', which aims to: construct a rigorous concept of crisis; distinguish between types and levels of crises; show how such a concept can help us better understand, engage with, and overcome the most significant crises of our time.