Editing Raymond Aron

{{Short description|French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist (1905–1983)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[20th-century philosophy]]
| image            = Raymond Aron (1966).jpg
| caption          = Raymond Aron (1966) by [[Erling Mandelmann]]
| name             = Raymond Aron
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1905|3|14|df=y}}
| birth_place      = Paris, [[French Third Republic|France]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1983|10|17|1905|3|14|df=y}}<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hoffmann|first1=Stanley|title=Raymond Aron (1905–1983)|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1983/dec/08/raymond-aron-19051983/|access-date=10 June 2014|publisher=The New York Review of Books|date=8 December 1983}}</ref>
| death_place      = Paris, [[France]]
| resting_place    = [[Montparnasse Cemetery]], [[Paris]]
| education        = [[École Normale Supérieure]]<br>([[Doctorat d'État|Dr ès l]])
| school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]]<br>[[Liberalism and radicalism in France|French liberalism]]
| main_interests   = [[Political philosophy]]
| influences       = [[Émile Chartier|Alain]],<ref name=A>Brian C. Anderson, ''Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political'', Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000, p. 3.</ref> [[Léon Brunschvicg]],<ref name=A/> [[Alexis de Tocqueville]],<ref>Raymond Aron, ''Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique'', Introduction.</ref> [[Carl von Clausewitz]], [[Célestin Bouglé]], [[Élie Halévy]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brandom |first1=Eric |title=Liberalism and Rationalism at the Revue de Métaphysique Et de Morale, 1902–1903 |journal=French Historical Studies |date=2016 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=749–780|doi=10.1215/00161071-3602256 }}</ref> [[Montesquieu]], [[Max Weber]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]
| notable_ideas    = [[Marxism]] as the [[The Opium of the Intellectuals|opium of intellectuals]]
}}
{{Liberalism in France}}
'''Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron''' ({{IPAc-en|ɑː|ˈ|r|ɒ|n}}; {{IPA|fr|ʁɛmɔ̃ aʁɔ̃|lang}}; 14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French [[philosopher]], [[Sociology|sociologist]], [[Political science|political scientist]], [[historian]] and [[journalist]], one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century.

Aron 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]]; he argues that [[Marxism]] was the opium of the [[intellectual]]s in post-war France. In the book, Aron chastised French intellectuals for what he described as their harsh criticism of [[capitalism]] and [[democracy]] and their simultaneous defense of the actions of the communist governments of the [[Eastern Bloc|East]]. Critic [[Roger Kimball]] suggests that ''Opium'' is "a seminal book of the twentieth century".<ref>Kimball, Roger (2001). "[https://newcriterion.com/issues/2001/5/raymond-aron-the-power-of-ideas Aron & the power of ideas]". ''New Criterion'', May 2001.</ref> Aron is also known for his lifelong friendship, sometimes fractious, with philosopher [[Jean-Paul Sartre]].<ref>''Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection'', Raymond Aron (1990).</ref> The saying "Better be wrong with Sartre than right with Aron" became popular among French intellectuals.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Poirier |first1=Agnès |title=May '68: What Legacy? |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/01/may-68-what-legacy/ |access-date=30 December 2020 |work=The Paris Review |date=1 May 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

Considered by many as a voice of moderation in politics,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosenblatt |first1=Helena |last2=Geenens |first2=Raf |title=French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=271–291}}</ref> Aron had many disciples on both the political left and right; he remarked that he personally was "more of a left-wing Aronian than a right-wing one".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Stephen W. |last2=Stewart |first2=Iain |title=In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France Since 1950 |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |page=25}}</ref> Aron wrote extensively on a wide range of other topics. Citing the breadth and quality of Aron's writings, historian James R. Garland suggests, "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."<ref name="Garland">Garland, James R. "Raymond Aron and the Intellectuals: Arguments Supportive of Libertarianism." ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'', Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall 2007).</ref>

==Life and career==
Born in Paris, the son of a [[Secularity|secular]] [[Jewish]] [[lawyer]], Aron studied at the [[École Normale Supérieure]], where he met [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], who became his friend and later his lifelong intellectual opponent.<ref name="Garland"/> He was a [[Rational humanism|rational humanist]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R_pN217buekC&pg=PA170|title=Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political|first=Brian C.|last=Anderson|year=1997|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|access-date=16 February 2019|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0847687589}}</ref><ref>Aron (1994) ''In Defense of Political Reason'', p. 170.</ref> and a leader among those who did not embrace [[existentialism]].<ref name="Carruth1993p932">Carruth, Gorton (1993) ''The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates'', p. [[iarchive:encyclopediaofwo00carr|932]].</ref> 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, editing the newspaper, ''[[France Libre]]'' (Free France).

When the war ended Aron returned to [[Paris]] to teach [[sociology]] at the [[École Nationale d'Administration]] and [[Sciences Po]]. From 1955 to 1968, he taught at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], and after 1970 at the [[Collège de France]] as well as the [[École des hautes études en sciences sociales]] (EHESS). In 1953, he befriended the young American philosopher [[Allan Bloom]], who was teaching at the Sorbonne.

A lifelong [[Journalism|journalist]], Aron in 1947 became an influential [[columnist]] for ''[[Le Figaro]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mazgaj|first=Paul|date=2020-11-11|title=Raymond Aron, the United States, and the Early Cold War, 1945–1953|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2020.1838599|journal=The International History Review|volume=43|issue=4|pages=796–814|doi=10.1080/07075332.2020.1838599|s2cid=228839187|issn=0707-5332|url-access=subscription}}</ref> a position he held for thirty years until he joined ''[[L'Express (France)|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<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=25 April 2011}}</ref> and an International member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Raymond+Aron&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-09-30 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1978 he founded ''[[Commentaire]]'', a quarterly journal of ideas and debate, together with [[Jean-Claude Casanova]] who was the venture's founding director.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nonfiction.fr/article-919-entretien_avec_jean_claude_casanova__1__la_creation_de_la_revue.htm|title=Entretien avec Jean-Claude Casanova (1) : La création de la revue|author=François Quinton|website=nonfiction.fr|date=10 April 2008}}</ref>

Aron died of a heart attack in Paris on 17 October 1983.

==Political commitment==
In Berlin, Aron witnessed the rise to power of the [[Nazi Party]] and developed an aversion to all totalitarian systems. In 1938, he participated in the [[Colloque Walter Lippmann]] in Paris. By the 1950s, he had grown very critical of the [[Austrian School]] and described their obsession with private property as an "inverted Marxism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosenblatt |first1=Helena |last2=Geenens |first2=Raf |title=French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=223}}</ref> Aron always promoted an "immoderately moderate" form of liberalism which accepted a mixed economy as the normal economic model of the age.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Stephen W. |last2=Stewart |first2=Iain |title=In Search of the Liberal Moment: Democracy, Anti-totalitarianism, and Intellectual Politics in France Since 1950 |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |page=22}}</ref>

==Political thought==
Aron is the author of books on [[Karl Marx]] and on [[Carl von Clausewitz]]. In ''Peace and War'', he set out a theory of [[international relations]]. He argues that [[Max Weber]]'s claim that the state has a [[monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force]] does not apply to the relationship between states.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/68595173|title=Res militaris - Antony Dabila - Raymond Aron: Peace & War (review)|access-date=23 November 2023 |last1=Dabila |first1=Antony }}</ref>

In the field of [[international relations]] in the 1950s, Aron hypothesized that despite the advent of [[nuclear weapons]], nations would still require conventional military forces. The usefulness of such forces would be made necessary by what he called a "nuclear taboo."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://contemporarythinkers.org/raymond-aron/introduction/|title=Introduction|website=Raymond Aron|access-date=16 February 2019}}</ref>

==Honours==
* Officier of the [[Legion of Honour]] (France) 
* [[Croix de Guerre 1939–1945]] (France)
* Commander of the [[Ordre des Palmes académiques]] (France)
* Medal [[Pour le Mérite]] (Germany)

==Works==
A prolific author, he "wrote several thousand editorials and several hundred academic articles, essays, and comments, as well as about forty books",<ref>Henrik Østergaard Breitenbauch, "Aron, Raymond" in Christopher John Murray (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Modern French Thought'', Routledge (2013), pp. 18–19.</ref> which include:
* ''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;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=House |first=Floyd N. |date=1939 |title=Review of Introduction a la philosophie de l'histoire: essai sur les limites de l'objectivite historique. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2769823 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=287–288 |doi=10.1086/218279 |jstor=2769823 |issn=0002-9602|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''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; ''The Century of Total War'', London: Derek Verschayle, 1954
* ''La Coexistence pacifique. Essai d'analyse'', Paris: Editions Monde nouveau, 1953 (under the pseudonym François Houtisse, with Boris Souvarine)
* ''[[The Opium of the Intellectuals|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 (publisher)|Plon]], 1957
* ''Espoir et peur du siècle. Essais non partisans'', Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1957 (partially translated in, ''On War: atomic weapons & global diplomacy'', London, Secker & Warburg, 1958)
* ''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; ''France, Steadfast and Changing: The Fourth to the Fifth Republic'', Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1960.
* ''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, ''The Great Debate'', New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965
* ''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
* ''[[Democracy and Totalitarianism (book)|Démocratie et totalitarisme]]'', Paris: Gallimard, 1965; ''Democracy and totalitarianism'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968
* ''Trois essais sur l'âge industriel'', Paris: Plon, 1966; ''The Industrial Society. Three Essays on Ideology and Development'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967
* ''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; ''De Gaulle, Israel and the Jews'', Praeger, 1969
* ''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 (journal)|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

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Anderson, Brian C., ''Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1998
* Colquhoun, Robert. ''Raymond Aron.'' Volume I: ''The Philosopher in History 1905–1955.'' Volume II: ''The Sociologist in Society 1955–1983''. London: Sage, 1986.
* Craiutu, Aurelian, "Raymond Aron and the tradition of political moderation in France", ''French Liberalism from Montesquieu to the Present Day'', Cambridge University Press, 2012.
* Davis, Reed M. ''A Politics of Understanding: The International Thought of Raymond Aron''. Baton Rouge LA.:[[Louisiana State University Press]], 2009 {{ISBN|978-0807135174}}
* Forneris, Elias, [https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/ttr.43.2.7 "Raymond Aron's War: A 'History of the Present' (1940–1944)"], ''The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville'' 43, no.2 (2022): 7-38. [[Digital object identifier|doi]]:[https://doi.org/10.3138/ttr.43.2.7 10.3138/ttr.43.2.7]
* Forneris, Elias, [[doi:10.1007/s10767-024-09483-4|"Raymond Aron's Sociology of Collaborators (1940–1944)"]], ''International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society'' (2024): 1-23.
* Gagliano, Giuseppe ''La nuova sinistra Americana e il movimento del maggio francese nelle interpretazioni di Raymon Aron e Herbert Marcuse''. [[Uniservice]], 2011 {{ISBN|978-8861786608}}
* 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
* Molina, Jerónimo, ''Raymond Aron, realista político. Del maquiavelismo a la crítica de las religiones seculares'', Madrid: Sequitur, 2013
* 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, [https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/16126041-Bavaj-2-2008 Ideologierausch und Realitaetsblindheit]. Raymond Arons Kritik am Intellektuellen ''franzoesischen Typs'', Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 5 (2008), No. 2, 332–338,
* 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
* Stewart, Iain, ''Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century'' (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}

{{navboxes
|list=
{{Liberalism}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Political philosophy}}
{{Continental philosophy}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aron, Raymond}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:Lycée Condorcet alumni]]
[[Category:Lycée Hoche alumni]]
[[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]]
[[Category:Sciences Po alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Toulouse]]
[[Category:French columnists]]
[[Category:French sociologists]]
[[Category:French political scientists]]
[[Category:French political philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholars of Marxism]]
[[Category:20th-century French philosophers]]
[[Category:French Section of the Workers' International politicians]]
[[Category:Rally of the French People politicians]]
[[Category:French secular Jews]]
[[Category:French agnostics]]
[[Category:French humanists]]
[[Category:Rationalists]]
[[Category:Jewish philosophers]]
[[Category:Jewish sociologists]]
[[Category:French anti-communists]]
[[Category:French military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium]]
[[Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery]]
[[Category:French male writers]]
[[Category:Philosophers of war]]
[[Category:Hudson Institute]]
[[Category:Continental philosophers]]
[[Category:Utopian studies scholars]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Jewish anti-communists]]