Raymond Aron (1905–1983)
Author of The Opium of the Intellectuals
About the Author
Raymond Aron was a French political scientist, economist, and philosopher who was several times a visiting professor in the United States. He commented regularly and influentially on social and political topics and current issues in the conservative French newspaper Le Figaro, in books and on show more radio, and as a teacher at L'ecole pratique des hautes etudes, in Paris. Because of his consistent opposition to Marxism and his admiration and respect for the United States, Aron was perhaps not so highly regarded as French intellectuals of the Left. But he was always a voice for reason and moderation at a time when his critics were often strident and ineffectual. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Raymond Aron
The Dawn of Universal History: Selected Essays from a Witness of the Twentieth Century (2002) 80 copies
Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity (1976) 79 copies
History and the Dialectic of Violence: Analysis of Sartre's "Critique De La Raison Dialectique" (1973) 30 copies, 1 review
The Logic of Personal Knowledge: Essays Presented to Michael Polanyi on his Seventieth Birthday (2015) 12 copies
Les guerres en chaîne 5 copies
El Observador Comprometido.Conversaciones con Jean-Louis Missicka y Dominique Volton (1984) 4 copies
Marx vivo: la presenza di Karl Marx nel pensiero contemporaneo (1969) — Contributor — 4 copies, 1 review
Teoria dei regimi politici 3 copies
Het vraagstuk van de vrijheid 3 copies
La libertad, ¿liberal o libertaria?: La Nueva Izquierda y las revueltas del 68 (Spanish Edition) (2018) 3 copies
L'Homme contre les tyrans 3 copies
Mitos e Homens 2 copies
Democratie et totalitarisme. 2 copies
De la condition historique du sociologue: Leçon inaugurale au Collège de France prononcée le 1ᵉʳ décembre 1970 (1971) 2 copies
Η εξέλιξη της κοινωνιολογικής σκέψης 2 copies
L'etica della libertà. Memorie di mezzo secolo. — Author — 2 copies
Raymond Aron. La Société industrielle et la guerre : Suivi d'un Tableau de la diplomatie mondiale en… (1959) 1 copy
De intellektuellas opium 1 copy
Critique de la pensée sociologique: Cours au Collège de France (1970-1971 et 1971-1972) (2023) 1 copy
ZEIT - Gespräche III. 1 copy
Marxism in the modern world 1 copy
De uma Família a outra 1 copy
L'OPIUM DES INTECTUELS 1 copy
Le grand schisme 1 copy
Sociologiskt tänkande 1 copy
Fortschritt ohne Ende? 1 copy
De Marx à Mao Tsé-toung 1 copy
Coleção Pensamento Político: Paz e guerra entre as nações (Vol 7) — Author — 1 copy
Coleção Pensamento Político: Estudos políticos (Vol 18) — Author — 1 copy
Kebebasan dan Martabat Manusia — Author — 1 copy
Nationalisme og Imperialisme 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Aron, Raymond
- Legal name
- Aron, Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand
- Birthdate
- 1905-03-14
- Date of death
- 1983-10-17
- Burial location
- Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- France (birth)
- Country (for map)
- France
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Cause of death
- Crise cardiaque
- Places of residence
- Paris, France
- Education
- Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ph.D | 1938)
Institut d'études politiques de Paris
Lycée Hoche, Versailles, France
Lycée Condorcet - Occupations
- philosopher
sociologist
political scientist
historian
journalist
memoirist - Relationships
- Schnapper, Dominique (daughter)
Aron, Jean-Paul (nephew)
Karády, Viktor (assistant)
Castel, Robert (protégé)
Aron, Suzanne (wife) - Organizations
- Collège de France (Professeur, Sociologie, 1970 | Professeur, Sociologie, 1970)
Université de la Sorbonne, Institut d'études politiques, Ecole pratique des Hautes études, Paris (Professeur, Sociologie, 1955 | 1967)
Le Figaro, Journal (Editorialiste, 1947 | 1977)
Combat, Journal (Editorialiste, 1946 | 1947)
Ecole Nationale d'Administration (Chargé de cours, Philosophie, 1946 | 1947)
Ministère de l'information, France 'Directeur du cabinet d'André Malraux, 1944 | 1946) (show all 19)
Les Temps Modernes, Revue (Contributeur actif, 1944 | 1945)
La France libre, Revue de résistance à Londres (Collaborateur actif et éditorialiste, 1940 | 1944)
Armée française, WW2 (Mobilisation, 1939 | 1940)
Centre de Documentation sociale de l'École normale, Paris (Secrétaire, 1935)
Lycée du Havre (Professeur, Philosophie, 1933 | 1934)
Institut français de Berlin (Pensionnaire | 1931 | 1933)
Université de Cologne (Lecteur, 1930 | 1931)
Fort de Saint-Cyr, Service militaire (1928 | 1930)
L'Express (Magazine | Editorialiste, Président du comité directeur, 1977 | 1983)
Société française de sociologie (Président, 1962 | 1964)
Institut français de sociologie (Membre, Président, 1961 | 1962)
Centre européen de sociologie historique (Directeur, 1969 | 1983)
Centre de sociologie européenne (Directeur, 1960 | 1968) - Awards and honors
- Goethepreis der Stadt Frankfurt (1979)
Officier de la Légion d'honneur
Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
Commandeur de l'ordre des Palmes académiques
Croix Pour le Mérite (version civile)
Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960) (show all 13)
International member, American Philosophical Society (1966)
Prix des Ambassadeurs (1962)
Prix Montaigne (1968)
Prix des Critiques (1973)
Goethe Prize (1979)
Erasmus Prize (1983)
Croix de guerre 1939-1945 - Short biography
- Raymond Aron was born to a secular Jewish family in Paris, France. His father was a lawyer. After lycée, he studied at the École Normale Supérieure, from which he received a doctorate in the philosophy of history in 1930. He took first place in the civil service agrégation exam in philosophy in 1928. He took a lecturer position at the University of Cologne and focused on major German philosophers, sociologists, and political and military thinkers. Witnessing the rise to power of the Nazi regime and book burnings in Berlin in 1933 Aron presciently concluded that war was inevitable and returned to France. He married Suzanne Gauchon the same year. In 1935, he published his first book, La Sociologie allemande contemporaine (Contemporary German Sociology). He was a professor of social philosophy at the University of Toulouse when World War II broke out in 1939, and he volunteered for the French Air Force. After the fall of France to Nazi Germany, he went to London to join the Free French forces of General Charles de Gaulle in exile and edited their newspaper, La France Libre (Free France), from 1940 to 1944. On his return to Paris at the end of the war, Aron became a sociology professor at the École Nationale d'Administration. From 1955 to 1968, he was professor of sociology at the Sorbonne. From 1970, he was a professor at the Collège de France. Throughout his career. Aron also worked as a journalist, and in 1947 he became an influential columnist for Le Figaro, a position he held for 30 years. In 1977, he left Le Figaro and began to write a political column for the weekly magazine L'Express. Aron had a decisive influence on the political culture in France and in Europe. Through his writings, he gave force to anti-totalitarian liberalism and rationalist humanism, and was often contrasted with his great contemporary (and former classmate) Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist and Communist. Among Aron's most influential works were L'Opium des intellectuels (The Opium of the Intellectuals, 1955), La Tragédie algérienne (The Algerian Tragedy, 1957), and République impériale: Les États-Unis dans le monde, 1945–1972 (The Imperial Republic: The United States and the World, 1945–1973). A constant theme running through his writings was the subject of violence and war, as in Paix et guerre entre les nations (Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations, 1962) and his books on the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. Aron also wrote an influential history of sociology entitled Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique (Main Currents in Sociological Thought, 1967). He published his Mémoires shortly before his death in 1983.
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Statistics
- Works
- 140
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 2,530
- Popularity
- #10,145
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 25
- ISBNs
- 308
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 3
this book reads like satire, because aron is completely incapable of acknowledging the limitations of liberalism, unable to realise that it is his OWN opium, that he is guilty of exactly what he criticises the titular leftist intellectuals of!… (more)