"What will tomorrow be made of?" asks Victor Hugo. A philosopher and a historian answer during a dense and demanding dialogue. Why did they decide to write this book together? Because of a long friendship, in the name of a shared history, by virtue of the quality of an uninterrupted conversation that began in the late 1960s, when the young student discovered how important this thinker - 15 years her senior - was in awakening, along with others, the critical spirit of an entire generation.
If their perspectives differ, their intellectual heritage is common. It is precisely this heritage they attempt to document before addressing the critical stakes of our time: How can we think about difference within universality? Will the family continue to exist? Will human freedom be limited to the ability to understand the constraints imposed on us, or will desire and unpredictability always play a role? What can we perceive from the suffering of animals? Does the failure of communism mark the end of revolution? Is it possible to abolish the death penalty once and for all? What will the new forms of anti-Semitism be tomorrow, and how can we counter them? The book concludes with a tribute to psychoanalysis, which serves as a common reference throughout this dialogue.