[2] He is known in the Anglophone world primarily for his work developing a materialist interpretation of the philosophy of science of Gaston Bachelard.

A former student at the École normale supérieure (1965), an agrégé in philosophy (1969), and a Docteur d'État ès lettres (1980), he was professor at the Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7 and, until 2011, was director of the Centre Georges Canguilhem (Paris 7).

Co-founder in 1984 of the International College of Philosophy, Rector of the National Center for Distance Education (1985–88), member of the Human Rights Commission of UNESCO (1977–90), member of the CNRS Ethics Commission for Life Sciences (1993–98), Chairman of the Ethics Commission of the French Research Development Institute (2002–2009).

Director General of the Institut Diderot and head of the surveillance council of Presses Universitaires de France (PUF),[2] Dominique Lecourt has been decorated with the medals of Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, Knight of the National Order of Merit, and has been awarded the Gegner Prize (2000) and Louis Marin Prize (2010) by the Academy of Political and Moral Sciences.

In addition to numerous publications in philosophy, philosophy of sciences, cloning, ethics, bioethics, and politics, Dominique Lecourt has published more than thirty books.