Reflections on Violence

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Reflections on Violence

Author(s)	Georges Sorel
Original title	Réflexions sur la violence
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	Political theory, Economics, philosophical novel
Publication date	1908–1912
Preceded by	The Decomposition of Marxism

Fin de siècle

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Art and Literature The Antichrist The Brothers Karamazov Degeneration Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development Psychology of Crowds Reflections on Violence Salomé The Scream Studies in Hysteria Thus Spoke Zarathustra
People Gabriele d'Annunzio Aubrey Beardsley Gustave Le Bon Fyodor Dostoyevsky Sigmund Freud Francis Galton Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Edvard Munch Friedrich Nietzsche Max Nordau Georges Sorel Oscar Wilde
Post-fin de siècle influence Dada Fascism Futurism Punk Surrealism Syndicalism

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Reflections on Violence (Réflexions sur la violence) is a book by French revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel that was published in 1908.^[1] Sorel argues that the success of the proletariat in class struggle depended on the creation of a catastrophic and violent revolution achieved through a general strike.^[2] One of Sorel's most controversial statements claimed that violence could save the world from barbarism.^[3] He equates violence with life, creativity, and virtue.^[4] A major contention argued by Sorel in the book is on the importance of myths as "expressions of will to act".^[5] He supports the creation of an economic system run by and for the interests of producers rather than consumers.^[6] Sorel's philosophical influences for the material in the book derive from Giambattista Vico, Blaise Pascal, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard von Hartmann, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, John Henry Newman, Karl Marx, Alexis de Tocqueville and others.^[7]

References

^ Marvin Perry, Matthew Berg, James Krukones. Sources of twentieth-century Europe. Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Pp. 46.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. ix, xiii.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. ix, xvi.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xxi.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xiii.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xiv.
^ Jeremy Jennings, ed. "Reflections on violence" by Georges Sorel, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. x.

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