Abstract
It all started with Germany. Without having experienced German politics and philosophy during the first three years of the 1930s, Raymond Aron would have hardly become the thinker we know today. In this respect, many of those who have dealt with his thought have made much of his academic or philosophical experience—of his discovery of the newer German philosophy of history, of phenomenology, of Marx’s original thought, and of Max Weber’s political sociology. All this was important, of course. Studying German philosophy and sociology helped Aron to overcome what he regarded as the shortcomings of the academic education he received in his native France. However, this academic or philosophical discovery only put him on the path to political liberalism. It was not congruent with it. Far from it: Although Weber gave Aron the munition to repel the positivistic trust in progress, based on several varieties of historical determinism he had been confronted with during his studies at the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure in Paris, the great German sociologist bequeathed him another problem: the naive faith in value-free science totally unfit to an age of ideologies. It took him nearly twenty years to free himself from this intellectual burden, but after the Second World War he came to regard Weber as a “nearly Nietzschean”1 nihilist. By contrast, the political insights Aron received in Germany were much more influential in bringing about his own brand of conservative liberalism. One should never forget that he denied being the representative of an abstract liberalism based on any speculative theory.
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Notes
Raymond Aron, “Introduction,” in Max Weber, Le Savant et le politique, Paris, Plon, 1959, 9–57, 42.
For an explanation of Aron’s Aristotelian approach to politics, see Pierre Manent, “La politique comme science et comme souci,” in Raymond Aron, Liberté et égalité. Cours au Collège de France. Edition établie et présentée par Pierre Manent, Paris, Editions de l’Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2013, 5–26, in particular 20–23.
For two attempts to dissect the Burkean features of Aron’s political thought, see Joël Mouric, Raymond Aron et l’Europe. Préface de Fabrice Bouthillon, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2013, 69–70, 88–89, 97, 106, 234–235
and Matthias Oppermann, “Burkeanischer Liberalismus. Raymond Aron und die Tugend der Klugheit,” in Tobias Beve and Matthias Oppermann (eds.), Der souveräne Nationalstaat. Das politische Denken Raymond Arons, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012, 157–179.
Raymond Aron, Mémoires. 50 ans de réflexion politique, Paris, Juillard, 1983, 7.
Raymond Aron, “Simples propositions du pacifisme,” Libres Propos vol. 5, no. 2, 1931, 81–83, 81–82.
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, London, Macmillan, 1920, 51.
Raymond Aron, Le Spectateur engagé. Entretiens avec Jean-Louis Missika et Dominique Wolton, Paris, Julliard, 1981
reissue Paris, Le Livre de poche, “Références. Sciences sociales,” 2005, 26.
Raymond Aron, “De la condition historique du sociologue. Leçon inaugurale au Collège de France (1971),” in Raymond Aron, Études sociologiques, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1988, 281–309, 288.
See also Raymond Aron, L’Opium des intellectuels. Nouvelle édition. Introduction de Nicolas Baverez, Paris, 2002 [originally 1955], 202.
Raymond Aron, “Lettre ouverte d’un jeune Français à l’Allemagne,” Esprit, February 1933, 735–743, 735.
For the Alliance démocratique in the 1930s, see Jean-Marie Mayeur, La Vie politique sous la Troisième République 1870–1940, Paris, Seuil, 1984, 302–302
René Rémond, Les Droites en France, Paris, Aubier, 1982, 190–192.
For Aron’s economiec thought in that period, see his trenchant critique of the economic policy of the Popular Front, which governed France from 1936 to 1938: Raymond Aron, “Réflexions sur les problèmes économiques français,” Revue de métaphysique et de morale vol. 44, 1937, 793–822.
Elie Halévy, L’Ère des tyrannies. Etudes sur le socialisme et la guerre, Préface de Célestin Bouglé. Postface de Raymond Aron, Paris, Gallimard, 1990 [originally 1938].
See Aron, “États démocratiques et États totalitaires. Communication à la Société française de philosophie. Juin 1939.” Commentaire, vol. 6, 1983–1984, 701–719.
For an examination of this term, see Raymond Aron, “Essais sur le machiavélisme moderne (1938–1940),” in Raymond Aron, Machiavel et les tyrannies modernes, Texte établi, présenté et annoté par Rémy Freymond, Paris, Fallois, 1993, 57–154
Raymond Aron, “Le machiavélisme, doctrine des tyrannies modernes (1940),” in Raymond Aron, Chroniques de guerre: La France libre 1940–1945. Préface de Jean-Marie Soutou. Edition revue et annotée par Christian Bachelier, Paris, Gallimard, 1990, 417–426. At that early period, Aron regarded Italian fascism and German national-socialism as a kind of modern Machiavellianism. He had not yet grasped the ideological originality of Hitlerism.
Nicolas Baverez, Raymond Aron: un moraliste au temps des idéologies, Paris, Flammarion, 1993; new edition Paris, Flammarion, “Grandes biographies,” 2005; reissue Paris, Perrin, “Tempus,” 2006, 104.
See Raymond Aron, “Le socialisme et la guerre” (1939 as: “L’Ère des tyrannies d’Élie Halévy”), in Raymond Aron, Machiavel et les tyrannies modernes, Paris, Éditions de Fallois, 1993, 309–331, 323.
Institut mémoire de l’édition contemporaine, Paris, Fonds Paulhan, PLH2. C4–03.07, Raymond Aron to Jean Paulhan, March 15, 1938. Cf. furthermore an article written during the Second World War: Raymond Aron, “Démocratie et enthousiasme (1942),” in Raymond Aron, Chroniques de guerre. La France libre 1940–1945, Paris, Gallimard, 1990, 649–660, 655: “The excess of partisan loyal-ism sometimes threatened to choke the higher loyalty we owe our fatherland. But democracies that experience ideological and political conflicts perish once the ferocity of these conflicts becomes fratricidal.”
See Pierre Manent, “Raymond Aron éducateur,” Commentaire, vol. 8, 1985: 155–168.
Furthermore Raymond Aron, “Contribution to Golo Mann’s Talk in Front of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (Structure et accident en histoire politique),” Revue des travaux de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques, vol. 129, no. 4, 1976, 381–384, 382.
See Alfred Fabre-Luce, “Le tragique de la politique extérieure française,” L’Europe nouvelle, January 25, 1936.
All materials quoted here can be found by means of Elisabeth Dutartre, Fonds Raymond Aron: Inventaire, Paris, BNF, 2007.
Raymond Aron to Father Gaston Fessard, October 28, 1938, in Raymond Aron, “Lettres inédites,” Commentaire, vol. 26, 2003, 611–615, 613–614.
See Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, La Décadence, 1932–1939, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1979, 208.
Raymond Aron, Introduction à la philosophie de l’histoire: Essai sur les limites de l’objectivité historique. Nouvelle édition revue et annotée par Sylvie Mesure, Paris, Gallimard, 1986 [originally 1938], 398.
Raymond Aron, Démocratie et totalitarisme, reprint, Paris, Gallimard, 1985 [originally 1965], 111. See furthermore Ibid., passim.
See Michael Oakeshott, “On Being Conservative (1956),” in Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays: New and Expanded Edition. Foreword by Timothy Fuller, Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, 1991 [originally 1962], 407–437.
See Raymond Aron, “Les racines de l’impérialisme allemand (1943),” in Raymond Aron, Chroniques de guerre: La France libre 1940–1945, Paris, Gallimard, 1990, 596–607.
For the 1930s, see Raymond Aron, “La révolution nationale en Allemagne (1933),” in Raymond Aron, Machiavel et les tyrannies modernes, Paris, Éditions de Fallois, 1993; reissue Paris, Le Livre de Poche, “Biblio Essais,” 1995, 271–285, 284
Raymond Aron, “Une révolution antiprolétarienne. Idéologie et réalité du national-socialisme (1936),” Commentaire, vol. 8, 1985, 299–310, 304, 306.
For a full development of the concept, see Raymond Aron, “L’avenir des religions séculières, part I and II (1944),” in Raymond Aron, Chroniques de guerres, 925–948.
For an explanation of the development of the concept in Aron’s thought, cf. furthermore Matthias Oppermann, Raymond Aron und Deutschland. Die Verteidigung der Freiheit und das Problem des Totalitarismus, Ostfildern, Thorbecke, 2008, 124–140, 178–200.
Joachim Fest, Der Untergang: Hitler und das Ende des Dritten Reiches. Eine historische Skizze, 5th paperback edition, Hamburg, Rowohlt, 2005, 58.
Raymond Aron, “Pour l’alliance de l’Occident (1944),” in Chroniques de guerre, 949–961, 951.
For other discussions of Hitler’s “program” in Aron’s writings dating from the Second World War and the postwar period, cf. Raymond Aron and Stanislas Szymonzyk, L’Année cruciale. Juin 1940–juin 1941, London, Hamilton, 1944, 7–6, 13–14
Raymond Aron, “Philosophie du pacifisme (1941),” in Chroniques de guerre, 481–491, 489
Raymond Aron, “Mythe révolutionnaire et impérialisme germanique (1941),” in Chroniques de guerre, 440–451, 440
Raymond Aron, “La menace des Césars (1942),” in Chroniques de guerre, 584–595, 591
Raymond Aron, Les Guerres en chaîne, Paris, Gallimard, 1951, 49, 52–55, 108–109
Raymond Aron, “Des comparaisons historiques,” in Raymond Aron, Etudes politiques, Paris, Gallimard, 1972, 426–445, 439.
Raymond Aron, “La stratégie totalitaire et l’avenir des démocraties (1942),” in Raymond Aron, Chroniques de guerre, 559–571, 563; Aron, “Philosophie du pacifisme,” 485.
See Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defense, New York, Scribner, 1944.
Raymond Aron, “France in the Cold War,” The Political Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 1, 1951, 57–66, 63.
Cf. Raymond Aron, Le Grand Schisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1948, 13: “Hitler is dead and for good. But a new Caesar’s shadow tarnishes the world.”
For the year 1945 see Raymond Aron, “Le partage de l’Europe,” Point de vue, July 26, 1945.
Raymond Aron, “La paix belliqueuse (1946),” Commentaire, vol. 19, 1996–1997, S. 913–917, p. 914.
For a short discussion of this problematic term, see Matthias Oppermann, “Ein transatlantisches Vital Center? Raymond Aron und der amerikanische Liberalismus (1945–1983),” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, vol. 3–4, 2014, 161–176, 166–167.
Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 5th ed., New York, Knopf, 1972 [originally 1948], 27.
Raymond Aron, Paix et guerre entre les nations, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1962, 587.
Raymond Aron, “Is Isolationism Possible?” Commentary, vol. 57, no. 4, 1974, 41–46, 46. Cf. Aron, Paix et guerre, 596.
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Oppermann, M. (2015). In the “Era of Tyrannies”: The International Order from Nazism to the Cold War. In: Colen, J., Dutartre-Michaut, E. (eds) The Companion to Raymond Aron. Recovering Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-52243-6_4
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