The Companion to Raymond Aron PDF
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THE COMPANION TO RAYMOND ARON RECOVERING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY SERIES EDITORS: THOMAS L. PANGLE AND TIMOTHY BURNS PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE MACMILLAN: Lucretius as Theorist of Political Life By John Colman Shakespeare’s Political Wisdom By Timothy Burns Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life Edited by Thomas L. Pangle and J. Harvey Lomax Eros and Socratic Political Philosophy By David Levy Xenophon the Socratic Prince: The Argument of the Anabasis of Cyrus By Eric Buzzetti Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s Edited by Martin D. Yaff e and Richard S. Ruderman Sexuality and Globalization: An Introduction to a Phenomenology of Sexualities By Laurent Bibard and translated by Christopher Edwards Modern Democracy and the Theological-Political Problem in Spinoza, Rousseau, and Jeff erson By Lee Ward Prudential Public Leadership: Promoting Ethics in Public Policy and Administration By John Uhr The Companion to Raymond Aron Edited by José Colen and Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut THE COMPANION TO RAYMOND ARON Edited by José Colen and Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut THE COMPANION TO RAYMOND ARON Copyright © José Colen and Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut, 2015. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-52242-9 All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-57463-6 ISBN 978-1-137-52243-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-52243-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The companion to Raymond Aron / edited by Jose Colen and Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut. pages cm.—(Recovering political philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Aron, Raymond, 1905–1983. 2. Political science— Philosophy—History—20th century. 3. International relations— Philosophy. 4. Liberalism—France—History—20th century. 5. France—Intellectual life—20th century. I. Colen, José, editor of compilation. II. Dutartre-Michaut, Élisabeth, editor of compilation. JC261.A7.C66 2015 320.51092—dc23 2015009822 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Foreword ix Pierre Manent Series Editors’ Preface xi Introduction 1 Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut and José Colen 1. Life and Works: Raymond Aron, Philosopher and Freedom Fighter 3 Nicolas Baverez Part I International Relations: “History Is on the Move” 15 José Colen and Bryan-Paul Frost 2. R aymond Aron on War and Strategy: A Framework for Conceptualizing International Relations Today 19 Jean-Vincent Holeindre 3. In the “Era of Tyrannies”: The International Order from Nazism to the Cold War 31 Matthias Oppermann 4. A ron and the Cold War: “Brother Enemies” 45 Carlos Gaspar 5. Forward to the Past: History and Theory in Raymond Aron’s Peace and War 59 Bryan-Paul Frost 6. “Citizen Clausewitz”: Aron’s Clausewitz in Defense of Political Freedom 77 Joël Mouric 7. Fin de siècle: Aron and the End of the Bipolar System 91 Carlos Gaspar vi CONTENTS Part II Theory, History, Philosophy: The Primacy of the Political 101 José Colen and Scott Nelson 8. Raymond Aron and the Notion of History: Taking Part in History 105 Perrine Simon-Nahum 9. T he Question of Political Regime and the Problems of Democracy: Aron and the Alternative of Tocqueville 119 Giulio De Ligio 10. T he Totalitarian Negation of Man: Raymond Aron on Ideology and Totalitarianism 137 Daniel J. Mahoney 11. A Machiavellian Conception of Democracy? Democracy and Confl ict 149 Serge Audier 12. Revisiting Aron’s The Class Struggle: Rereading Fifty Years After 163 Serge Paugam 13. The Origins of the “End of Ideology?”: Raymond Aron and Industrial Civilization 177 Iain Stewart Part III V oices of the Great Men of the Past: Perennial Debates 191 Scott Nelson and José Colen 14. Raymond Aron and Immanuel Kant: Politics between Morality and History 197 Pierre Hassner 15. S tatesmanship and Ethics: Aron, Max Weber, and Politics as a Vocation 205 Scott Nelson and José Colen 16. Aron and Marxism: The Aronian Interpretation of Marx 217 Sylvie Mesure 17. “ Moderate Machiavellianism”: Aron, Machiavelli, and the Modern Machiavellians 231 Diogo Pires Aurélio 18. M ontesquieu and Aron on Democracy’s Virtues and Corruption: The Question of Political Legitimacy 245 Miguel Morgado CONTENTS vii 19. Raymond Aron and Alexis de Tocqueville: Political Moderation, Liberty, and the Role of the Intellectuals 261 Aurelian Craiutu Epilogue: Raymond Aron and History in the Making 275 Christian Bachelier Bibliographical Guide 293 Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut Index 301 FOREWORD Pierre Manent This volume succeeds in bringing to light, with sobriety and nuance, the rare virtues and uncommon merits of an outstanding political thinker. After his death in 1983, friends and foes alike were inclined to think that Raymond Aron’s star would dim with the passing of the political order on which he had shed so much light. The demise of communism and the ensuing end of the Cold War were supposed to usher us into a new world definitively safe for democracy, and which was more in need of brand new “democratic theories” cleverly deduced than of old-fashioned political wisdom painstakingly acquired. The events of September 11 cruelly dispelled these fond illusions. We were confronted anew with the tragedy of history. Raymond Aron, while well aware of the variety of “processes” which brought peace, comfort and order to the life of modern man, had always been alert to the uncertainty, accidents, and disorder, to the “drama” of human history. However impressive the accomplishments of modern science, economy and politics, they have not freed human beings from the risks, the greatness and misery of political life. Raymond Aron is a writer and thinker for difficult times, and human beings always live in difficult times. Raymond Aron was a learned man, and he constantly improved on an impres- sive command of social sciences, including sociology, economics, strategy, and political science and philosophy. While he delighted in analyzing the theoretical subtleties of these sciences, and mapping out their relations and respective limits, and thus greatly contributed to enlightening his various listeners and readers, he never lost sight of their practical, especially political bearing. In this sense, he was this very rare bird, a theoretical man who took very seriously the realm of action. On the one hand, he never tired of questioning the limits of historical knowledge, the relationship between economy and politics, or the possibility of a science of international relations; on the other hand, he was constantly, even anxiously asking the question: “what is to be done?” The cynosure of his deep- est ambition was the producing of what he called “praxeology,” or theory of action, a theoretical endeavor for which Clausewitz’s theory of war provided the template. Using more traditional terms, we could say that his multifaceted œuvre x FOREWORD embodies one of the most successful eff orts in the twentieth century to elaborate a political philosophy as practical philosophy. The most potent and enduring hindrance to practical philosophy in the past century was the prestige of History and the prevalence of what was called “phi- losophy of history.” While very diff erent in their style and content, the theo- retical endeavors belonging to this genus have this character in common: they consider that the innumerable human actions in the past constitute a coherent system that gives us the clue to future human actions. What has been done is the clue to what is to be done. From the time of writing his dissertation to his last courses and publications, Aron made strenuous eff orts to break free from the stranglehold of this kind of “evolutionist” or necessitarian thinking. The most politically infl uential of these doctrines was of course Marxism, of which Aron became the nemesis in France. But he was also very interested in Comte’s positivism which, while no friend of socialism, nourished the hope of bringing action under the rule of a demonstrative science. Marxism and Comteanism shared the ambition to fi nally substitute the administration of things for the governing of men. Now, Aron maintained that men could not rid themselves of the burden of politics because it was up to them as free and moral beings to manage and order their lives. This inescapable end or purpose calls for two kinds of theoretical endeavors. The fi rst deals with the internal order of the political association, which comes under the jurisdiction of a fairly complete and rigorous, but not demon- strative, knowledge: following on the examples of Aristotle and Montesquieu, Aron understood his task as the elucidation, by means of comparison, of the several modern political régimes. For him, just as for his predecessors, this the- oretical or analytical eff ort had an immediate practical import: Aron did not tire of explaining that modern people had to choose between a “constitutional- pluralist” regime or a one-party, totalitarian regime. The sobriety, justice, and fi rmness with which Aron conducted this eff ort are for the reader a political education by itself. The second deals, so to speak, with the political disorder that obtains between political bodies or nations. It is much less amenable to a complete and rigorous knowledge. In a sense, Aron was even more interested in understanding inter- national disorder than national (relative) order. It was more of a challenge. How do you give an account of what has been done or what should be done in a realm where laws are unavailable and which lacks the (relative) stability and predict- ability of a cohesive society? He gave much thought to what Thucydides in ancient times and Clausewitz in modern times accomplished. I am confi dent that the next generation, if they are thoughtful, will ponder what Aron accomplished on this score in the twentieth century. The contributors to this volume originate from various European coun- tries and from the United States of America. They are witness to the breadth of Raymond Aron’s appeal, which their contributions will enlarge and deepen.
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