[2] As a result, she was eligible for a scholarship which allowed her to study at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London.
[3] During this time she attended first the courses of Althusser and Derrida at the École normale supérieure, before developing a passion for those of Jules Vuillemin and Jacques Bouveresse, who would become her thesis advisor.
[4][5] From 2000 to 2003, she was the first female president of the jury des agrégations de philosophie.
She has taught medieval and contemporary philosophy at several universities in France (Rouen, Paris 1, Tours, Paris 12) and overseas, notably at Fordham University in New York where she was the C. S. Peirce Professor of Philosophy.
[8] On 4 December 2017, she was elected member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (Institut de France), to the position previously occupied by Jean Mesnard (1921-2016).