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aurelian craiuTu Thinking Politically raymond Aron and the revolution of 1968 in france “Libéral et démocrate, j’avais en politique deux passions: la France et la liberté. ” raymond Aron As raymond Aron pointed out in his memoirs, his reflections on 1968 have made him, almost against his will, a political actor rather than merely a committed observer.1 one of france’s most prominent pub1 raymond Aron’s writings include not only reflections on abstract topics such as the philosophy of history, war in modern society, and the virtues and limitations of liberal democracy, but also systematic and well-informed commentaries on concrete issues such as the war in Algeria, the students’ revolt of may 1968, American foreign policy, and the soviet Union. Aron’s most important works, in particular Peace and War, The Opium of the Intellectuals , Main Currents of Sociological Thought, Essays on Liberties, and Clausewitz, along with his writings on marx and his followers, shaped the intellectual climate in france and gained wide recognition in the United states five decades ago or so. Aron never held any political office and was only a simple member of the rally of the french People from 1948 to 1952. for an excellent intellectual portrait of Aron, see Pierre manent’s essay “raymond Aron—Political educator,” in raymond Aron, In Defense of Liberal Reason, ed. Daniel J. mahoney (Lanham: rowman and Littlefield, 1994), 1–23. raymond Aron’s memoirs are another key source of information for any interpreter of his works. for a detailed analysis of Aron’s political theory, see Daniel J. mahoney, The Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron (Lanham : rowman and Littlefield, 1992); Nicolas Baverez, Raymond Aron (Paris: flammarion, 1993); stephen Launay, La pensée politique de Raymond Aron (Paris: PUf, 1995); and Brian Anderson, Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political (Lanham: rowman and Littlefield, 1997). A discussion of Aron’s “morality of prudence” can be found in Daniel J. mahoney, “raymond Aron and the morality of Prudence: A reconsideration,” Modern Age, 43 (2001), i4 Promises.indb 103 2010.10.18. 14:31 104 Promises of 1968 lic intellectuals, Aron wrote a number of important articles on the events of may–June 1968 in france in Le Figaro and devoted an entire book to this issue entitled La Révolution introuvable.2 Although Aron’s book had a rather narrow scope and focus, it elicited contradictory interpretations and, to use serge Audier’s phrase, gave birth to many “aronismes imaginaires.”3 La Révolution introuvable was much more than a circumstantial work and is undoubtedly one of the most important testimonies on the events of may–June 1968. in its pages we see Aron reflecting on what had occurred in 1968 with the characteristic mixture of detachment and intellectual responsibility that marked his entire career. in the foreword to the english translation of the book (The Elusive Revolution) written in June 1969, Aron modestly described his volume as “a personal book, which is less concerned with the students’ troubles as such than with the national crisis of may to June 1968 and with the enthusiasm shown by grown men who thought they were living, or re-living, a revolutionary epic.”4 To his credit, Aron refused to give a one-dimensional explanation of the crisis of 1968 and resisted the temptation of settling scores with his critics. instead, he insisted that the journées of may 1968 defied any interpretation that focused on a single aspect of the events. 243–252; also Philippe raynaud, “raymond Aron et le jugement politique entre Aristote et Kant,” in Raymond Aron et la liberté politique: Actes du colloque international organisé par la Fondation Joseph Károlyi et l’Université de Sciences économiques et d’Administration publique de Budapest (Paris: fallois, 2002), 123–131. Also worth consulting are the articles on Aron published in Commentaire 28–29 (1985) and European Journal of Political Theory 2 (2003). 2 These articles, along with the book, were reprinted in a recent collection of Aron’s most important writings entitled Penser la démocratie, penser la liberté (Paris: Gallimard, Quarto, 2005). This edition also includes La Rèvolution introuvable. Unless specified otherwise, all translations are mine. 3 serge Audier, La Pensée anti-68: essai sur une restauration intellectuelle (Paris: La Découverte, 2008), 53. 4 raymond Aron, “Preface to the english Language edition,” in The Elusive Revolution: Anatomy of a Student Revolt, trans. Gordon Clough (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1969), xviii. in the...

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