What is French thinking?

This is a presentation of a course given at Stockholm University ("Culture and politics in contemporary France", basic level) based on the publication of the book of Sudhir Hazareesingh (Hazareesingh, S. (2015). How the French think: an affectionate portrait of an intellectual people. Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group). Look at the following statement of Hazareesingh on the ”Gallic thinking with the love of paradox. "Thanks to this trait, France has given us passionate rationalists, conservative revolutionaries (and revolutionary traditions), violent moderates, secular missionaries, spiritual materialists, spectateurs engagés (committed observers), patriotic internationalists, conflictual allies, and collective-minded individualists – and, by virtue of the sometimes unfortunate fate of French armies on the battlefield, from Vercingétorix to the Battle of Waterloo, perhaps the most exquisite paradox of all: the glorious defeat” (Hazareesingh, 2015: 9)