Raymond Aron
French philosopher and journalist, critic of Marxism and defender of liberal democracy.
Last updated
Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron was born on 14 March 1905 in Paris.[1]
Life and work
Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron was the son of Gustave Aron, a secular Jewish lawyer.[1] He joined General de Gaulle in London in June 1940 and enrolled in the Free French forces.[2] Aron wrote extensively on international relations, including a theory set out in Peace and War.[3] In 1928, Aron achieved the top rank in the philosophy agrégation, while Sartre did not pass that same examination that year.[1]
Observing the Nazi Party's ascent while in Berlin, Aron cultivated a strong opposition to every form of totalitarianism.[4] Starting in 1947, Aron served as a prominent columnist for Le Figaro for three decades.[5] Together with Jean-Claude Casanova, Aron established Commentaire, a quarterly journal focused on ideas and debate, in 1978.[6]
What the cited sources add
A 2018 Paris Review article notes that Aron wrote La révolution introuvable about the May 1968 events as they unfolded.[2] Aron was critical of both the student protest and the centralized Gaullist government.[2] An introduction to Aron's work describes him as a "committed observer" who bridged theory and practice.[7] That introduction also notes that Aron was a socialist in his youth but became disillusioned with Marxism when he observed radical students as comfortable bourgeois.[7]
The introduction explains that Aron's The Opium of the Intellectuals analyzes Communism's sway over French intellectuals, who regarded a Communist future in quasi-religious terms.[7] Aron called himself a "realist" by disposition rather than by ideology.[7] The introduction states that Aron helped restore the French school of political sociology in the line of Montesquieu, Constant, and Tocqueville.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Raymond Aron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Garland, James R. "Raymond Aron and the Intellectuals: Arguments Supportive of Libertarianism." Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall 2007).; Anderson, "Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political", Rowman & Littlefield, 1997; Aron (1994) In Defense of Political Reason, p. 170.; Carruth, Gorton (1993) The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates, p. 932. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Poirier, "May '68: What Legacy?", The Paris Review, 1 May 2018. facts only, no text reused. theparisreview.org
- Wikipedia, "Raymond Aron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dabila, "Res militaris - Antony Dabila - Raymond Aron: Peace & War (review)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Raymond Aron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rosenblatt, "French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day", Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 223; Sawyer, "In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France Since 1950", Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016, p. 22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Raymond Aron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mazgaj, "Raymond Aron, the United States, and the Early Cold War, 1945–1953", The International History Review, 2020-11-11, p. 796–814 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Raymond Aron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: François Quinton, "Entretien avec Jean-Claude Casanova (1) : La création de la revue", nonfiction.fr, 10 April 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Introduction", Raymond Aron. facts only, no text reused. contemporarythinkers.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Raymond Aron (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
Also in the Codexery
More in Political And Social Theorists
Test yourself
Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.
Answers checked against the source article
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Raymond Aron (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced
