Raymond Aron
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Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron
(born 1905died 1983) French sociologist and historian. After receiving his doctorate from the cole Normale Suprieure (1930), he taught at the University of Toulouse until 1939. During World War II he joined the Free French and edited their newspaper (194044). He later taught at the cole Nationale d'Administration, the Sorbonne, and the Collge de France. He was also a columnist for Le Figaro (194777) and L'Express (197783). Aron upheld a rationalist humanism that was often contrasted with the Marxist existentialism of his great contemporary and former classmate Jean-Paul Sartre. A continuing theme in his writings was the subject of violence and war.
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Raymond Aron
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Raymond Aron
Raymond Aron (1905-1983) excelled as an academic scholar, teacher, and journalist. He applied the methods of sociology to the study of economics, international relations, ideology, and war.
Raymond Aron was born in Paris, France, on March 14, 1905, the year that brought the separation of church and state in that country. His father, Gustave, was a professor of law who had married Suzanne Levy. After the world depression struck France, Raymond married Suzanne Gauchon on September 5, 1933. Their union produced two girls, Dominique (Mrs. Antoine Schnapper) and Laurence.
Aron had already graduated from the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, the intellectual center of some of France's greatest thinkers, and in 1928, when only 23 years old, he won his agrégation in philosophy. Over the next 10 years he expanded into sociology and economics and received a State Doctorat in 1933. He had already started his career with a lectureship at the University of Cologne in Germany (1930-1931) and as a staff member at the Maison Académique of Berlin (1931-1933).
Having departed just as Hitler assumed power, Aron returned to his native land to become a philosophy professor at the Lycée of Le Havre (1933-1934), and from there he became the secretary of the Center for Social Documentation of the Ecole Normale/Supérieure (1934-1939). Just before World War II began in 1939 he joined the humanities faculty of the University of Toulouse as associate professor of social philosophy. He was active in the military defense against Germany in 1939-1940, and when France fell he joined Gen. Charles De Gaulle in London. Here he began his career as a journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of La France Libre and, after the liberation of France, as an editorial writer of Combat (1946-1947) and Le Figaro, a right of center newspaper within the old liberal tradition of France. Aron referred to himself as a "Keynesian with a certain nostalgia for economic liberalism." For over 20 years he was one of the leading French columnists and thrived in the liberty allowed him by the paper. Later, when the newspaper was taken over by right-wing financiers led by Robert Hersant, he resigned in 1977 to preserve the editorial liberty that he had devoted his adult life to defending.
Aron remained a man of many talents, combining journalism, university teaching, and voluminous writing. He served as professor at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration and at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (1945-1955). He then moved to the Sorbonne, where he joined the Faculty of Letters (1955-1968), and finally, in 1970, to that pinnacle of France's educational system, the Coll'e de France, where he served as professor of sociology until his death in 1983.
Aron's long career as teacher and writer brought him many honors. He was elected to almost all the major academies: Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (honorary foreign member), British Academy, and Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. His prizes include Prix des Ambassadeurs (1962) for his book Paix et guerre entre nations; Prix Montaigne (1968) for the body of his work; Prix des Critiques (1973) for his République impériale; and Prix Goethe. He was elected as a chevalier, later officer of the Legion of Honor, and was awarded several honorary doctorates.
Aron's publications may be summarized by a book review by Stanley Hoffman published in the New York Times Book Review of June 17, 1979:
The range of Raymond Aron's interests is immense. He is a philosopher, a sociologist, a political scientist, an economist; he is a scholar and a journalist. His 40-odd books and innumerable articles fall into two broad categories. Some are profound, often erudite reflections on the meaning of history, on the nature and forms of modern industrial society, on international conflict through the ages, on the evolution of political and social thought. … The second category consists of books and articles suggested by current events and debates, and especially by the political and intellectual tides in France… What is common to both is Raymond Aron's relentlessly analytical and critical mind and his passionate defense of political liberalism. He is a descendant of the Philosophies of Enlightenment, and his intellectual godfathers are Montesquieu and Tocqueville.
Aron had for many years an intellectual mission: to defend the liberal order of the western world and to expose the left-wing myths that undermine the liberal tradition of freedom and private property. His views tended to range him with conservatively oriented groups; however, he insisted that, as a Keynesian liberal, he was neither rightwing nor left on all issues. His position depended on the issue: economic policy, North African policies, or relations between East and West.
His opposition to Marxism was based on several beliefs. In one of his most popular books, The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955, 1957), he contended that Marxism is mental opium and that many learned people create and believe false myths. These myths include the belief that history is progressive and liberating (whereas the victory of Marxism in Russia led to totalitarian controls), and that the proletariat is the collective savior of humanity, while in fact most workers, rather than becoming bearers of Marxism, just want a middle class standard of living.
Another highly influential publication, The Century of Total War (1954), presents a study of the inability of men to shape their destiny. "Since … bourgeois Europe entered into the century of total war, men have lost control of their history and have been dragged along by the contradictory promptings of technique and passions." What was most decisive about World War I was the "technical surprise," the vast use of deadly weapons. Industry discovered the means to provide the "mass production of destruction." This happened with the replacement of old-time professional armies with armies of people, the masses. Popular passions hardened ideologies, especially nationalism, with the result that the war created a "Europe of nationalities." The folly of men led to World War II, a conflict that became global but failed to bring the peace and liberty that west Europeans sought. "European democracy and freedom and civilization are the victims, even more than Germany, of a victory won in their name." Raymond Aron died in 1983.
Further Reading
Reviews of Aron's work can be found in New York Times Book Review (June 17, 1979); TIME (July 9, 1979); Commentary (September 1979); Best Sellers (September 1979); and National Review (November 9, 1979).
Additional Sources
Aron, Raymond, Memoirs: fifty years of political reflection, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1990.
Colquhoun, Robert, Raymond Aron, London; Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1986.
Oxford Companion to French Literature:
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Raymond Aron
Aron, Raymond (1905-83). French liberal sociologist and journalist. Aron studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure and, in 1930-3, in Germany, introducing his close friend Sartre to Husserl's phenomenology. He also introduced Weberian ideas into French sociology. After spending the war in London as editor of France libre, he wrote for Combat, and in 1947 moved to Le Figaro, where for 30 years he wrote a regular column arguing liberal and utilitarian centre-right positions. He combined prolific journalism with an academic career, and in 1955 became professor of sociology at the Sorbonne. He wrote extensively on the philosophy of history and the history of sociological thought, and his Dix-huit leçons sur la société industrielle (1963) popularized non-Marxist notions of the industrial society, economic growth, and structural change. He is particularly known for his polemics with Sartre and other left-wing intellectuals: his L'Opium des intellectuels (1955) and Marxismes imaginaires (1970) attacked as pure myth-making their attachment to Marxism, the Left, revolution, and the proletariat. They were, he argued, more interested in denouncing the world than in changing it. Hostile to the student movement in May 1968 and to Mitterrand's presidential candidacy in 1981, Aron none the less professed more affinity with those he criticized than with the intellectuals of the Nouvelle Droite who took up his ideas.
[Michael Kelly]
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Raymond Aron
_by_Erling_Mandelmann.jpg) Raymond Aron (1966) by Erling Mandelmann |
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| Born | 14 March 1905 Paris |
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| Died | 17 November 1983 (aged 78) Paris |
| Era | 20th century |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | French Liberalism |
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Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron (14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist.
He is known for his life-long friendship, sometimes fractious, with Jean-Paul Sartre.[1] He is best known for his 1955 book The Opium of the Intellectuals, the title of which inverts Karl Marx's claim that religion was the opium of the people -- in contrast, Aron argued that in post-war France Marxism was the opium of intellectuals. In the book, Aron chastized French intellectuals for what he described as their harsh criticism of capitalism and democracy and their simultaneous defense of Marxist oppression, atrocities and intolerance. Critic Roger Kimball[2] suggests that Opium is "a seminal book of the twentieth century."
Aron also wrote extensively on a wide range of other topics, however. Citing the breadth and quality of Aron's writings, historian James R. Garland[3] suggests that "Though he may be little known in America, Raymond Aron arguably stood as the preeminent example of French intellectualism for much of the twentieth century."
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Life and career
Born in Paris, the son of a secular Jewish lawyer, Aron studied at the École Normale Supérieure, where he met Jean-Paul Sartre, who became his friend and lifelong intellectual opponent.[3] Aron took first place in the Agrégation of philosophy in 1928, the year Sartre failed the same exam. In 1930, he received a doctorate in the philosophy of history from the École Normale Supérieure.
He had been teaching social philosophy at the University of Toulouse for only a few weeks when World War II began; he joined the Armée de l'Air. When France was defeated, he left for London to join the Free French forces, then edited the newspaper, France Libre (Free France).
When the war ended Aron returned to Paris to teach sociology at the École Nationale d'Administration and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. From 1955 to 1968, he taught at the Sorbonne, and after 1970 at the Collège de France. In 1953, he befriended the young American philosopher Allan Bloom, who was teaching at the Sorbonne.
A lifelong journalist, Aron in 1947 became an influential columnist for Le Figaro, a position he held for thirty years until he joined L'Express, where he wrote a political column up to his death.
He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960.[4]
Aron died of a heart attack in Paris on 17 October 1983.
Political commitment
In Berlin, Aron witnessed Nazi book burnings, and developed an aversion to all totalitarian systems. In 1938 he participated in the Colloque Walter Lippmann in Paris. While generally considered to the right of most French and European intellectuals of his era, Aron believed in the need for a substantial welfare state.[3]
Political thought
Aron wrote important works on Karl Marx and on Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian theorist of war. In Peace and War he set out a theory of international relations. For Aron, Max Weber's monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force held by the state in its internal affairs does not apply to the relationship between states.
Works
- La Sociologie allemande contemporaine, Paris: Alcan, 1935; German Sociology, London: Heinemann, 1957
- Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire. Essai sur les limites de l'objectivité historique, Paris: Gallimard, 1938; Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1948
- Essai sur la théorie de l'histoire dans l'Allemagne contemporaine. La philosophie critique de l'histoire, Paris: Vrin, 1938
- L'Homme contre les tyrans, New York, Editions de la Maison française, 1944
- De l'armistice à l'insurrection nationale, Paris: Gallimard, 1945
- L'Âge des empires et l'Avenir de la France, Paris: Défense de la France, 1945
- Le Grand Schisme, Paris: Gallimard, 1948
- Les Guerres en chaîne, Paris: Gallimard, 1951
- La Coexistence pacifique. Essai d'analyse, Paris: Editions Monde nouveau, 1953 (under the pseudonym François Houtisse, with Boris Souvarine)
- L'Opium des intellectuels, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1955; The Opium of the Intellectuals, London: Secker & Warburg, 1957
- Polémiques, Paris: Gallimard, 1955
- La Tragédie algérienne, Paris: Plon, 1957
- Espoir et peur du siècle. Essais non partisans, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1957
- L'Algérie et la République, Paris: Plon, 1958
- La Société industrielle et la Guerre, suivi d'un Tableau de la diplomatie mondiale en 1958, Paris: Plon, 1959
- Immuable et changeante. De la IVe à la Ve République, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1959
- Introduction. Classes et conflits de classes dans la société industrielle (Ralph Dahrendorf), Paris: Mouton Éditeur, 1959
- Dimensions de la conscience historique, Paris: Plon, 1961
- Paix et guerre entre les nations, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1962; Peace and War, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966
- Le Grand Débat. Initiation à la stratégie atomique, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1963
- Dix-huit leçons sur la société industrielle, Paris: Gallimard, 1963; Eighteen Lectures on Industrial Society, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967
- La Lutte des classes, Paris: Gallimard, 1964
- Essai sur les libertés, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1965
- Démocratie et totalitarisme, 1965
- Trois essais sur l'âge industriel, Paris: Plon, 1966
- Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique, Paris: Gallimard, 1967; Main Currents in Sociological Thought, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965
- De Gaulle, Israël et les Juifs, Paris: Plon, 1968
- La Révolution introuvable. Réflexions sur les événements de mai, Paris: Fayard, 1968
- Les Désillusions du progrès, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1969; Progress and Disillusion: The Dialectics of Modern Society, Pall Mall Press, 1968
- D'une sainte famille à l'autre. Essai sur le marxisme imaginaire, Paris: Gallimard, 1969
- De la condition historique du sociologue, Paris: Gallimard, 1971
- Études politiques, Paris: Gallimard, 1972
- République impériale. Les États-unis dans le monde (1945–1972), Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1973; The Imperial Republic: The United States and the World 1945-1973, Little Brown & Company 1974
- Histoire et dialectique de la violence, Paris: Gallimard, 1973; History and the Dialectic of Violence: Analysis of Sartre's Critique de la raison dialectique, Oxford: Blackwell, 1979
- Penser la guerre, Clausewitz, Paris: Gallimard, 1976; Clausewitz: Philosopher of War, London: Routledge, 1983
- Plaidoyer pour l'Europe décadente, Paris: Laffont, 1977; In Defense of Decadent Europe, South Bend IN: Regnery, 1977
- with Andre Glucksman and Benny Levy. “Sartre's Errors: A Discussion”. TELOS 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press
- Le Spectateur engagé, Paris: Julliard, 1981 (interviews)
- Mémoires, Paris: Julliard, 1983
- Les dernières années du siècle, Paris: Julliard, 1984
- Ueber Deutschland und den Nationalsozialismus. Fruehe politische Schriften 1930-1939, Joachim Stark, ed. and pref., Opladen: Leske & Budrich, 1993
- Le Marxisme de Marx, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2002
- De Giscard à Mitterrand: 1977-1983 (editorials from L'Express), with preface by Jean-Claude Casanova, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2005
Other media
- Raymond Aron, spectateur engagé. Entretiens avec Raymond Aron. (Duration: 160 mins.), DVD, Éditions Montparnasse, 2005
Bibliography
- Anderson, Brian C., Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political, Rowman & Littlefield, 1998
- Davis, Reed M. A Politics of Understanding: The International Thought of Raymond Aron. Baton Rouge LA.:Louisiana State University Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-8071-3517-4
- Gagliano, Giuseppe La nuova sinistra americana e il movimento del maggio francese nelle interpretazioni di Raymon Aron e Herbert Marcuse. Uniservice, 2011 ISBN 978-86-17-88660-8
- Launay, Stephen, La Pensée politique de Raymond Aron, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995
- Mahoney, Daniel and Bryan-Paul Frost (eds.), Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron, New Brunswick/London: Transaction Publishers, 2006
- Stark, Joachim, Das unvollendete Abenteuer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft und Politik im Werk Raymond Arons, Wuerzburg: Koenigshausen und Neumann, 1986
- Stark, Joachim, Raymond Aron (1905-1983), in Dirk Kaesler, Klassiker der Soziologie, Vol.II: Von Talcott Parsons bis Anthony Giddens, Munich: Beck, 5th ed., 2007, 105-129
- Bavaj, Riccardo Ideologierausch und Realitaetsblindheit. Raymond Arons Kritik am Intellektuellen franzoesischen Typs, Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 5 (2008), No. 2, 332-338, URL: www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/16126041-Bavaj-2-2008
- Oppermann, Matthias, Raymond Aron und Deutschland. Die Verteidigung der Freiheit und das Problem des Totalitarismus, Ostfildern: Thorbecke Verlag 2008.
- Oppermann, Matthias (Ed.), Im Kampf gegen die modernen Tyranneien. Ein Raymond-Aron-Brevier, Zurich: NZZ Libro 2011.
- Stark, Joachim, Das unvollendete Abenteuer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft und Politik im Werk Raymond Arons, Wuerzburg: Koenigshausen und Neumann, 1986
- Stark, Joachim, Raymond Aron (1905–1983), in Dirk Kaesler, Klassiker der Soziologie, Vol.II: Von Talcott Parsons bis Anthony Giddens, Munich: Beck, 5th ed., 2007, 105-129
References
- ^ Memoirs: fifty years of political reflection, By Raymond Aron (1990)
- ^ Kimball, Roger (2001). "Aron & the power of ideas". New Criterion, May 2001
- ^ a b c Garland, James R. "Raymond Aron and the Intellectuals: Arguments supportive of Libertarianism." Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall 2007).
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
External links
- Profile page for Raymond Aron on the Find-A-Grave web site
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