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Chapter 2 - History and Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2019

Iain Stewart
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

This chapter offers a new interpretation of Raymond Aron’s doctoral thesis, Introduction à la philosophie de l’histoire (1938). Described by Aron as having established the basis of all his subsequent political thought, the Introduction contains a pluralist critique of Marx’s philosophy of history which doubles as a normative justification for political liberalism. Anticipating the ‘epistemology of doubt’ characteristic of later cold war liberalism, the book also served as the philosophical basis for Aron’s ethic of intellectual responsibility. Yet the extent to which the Introduction’s historical relativism undermines its ethical and normative arguments has been widely debated. Through an analysis of Aron’s previously under-explored interpretations of Dilthey and Heidegger, the chapter argues that scholarly disagreement on this issue reflects the Introduction’s ambiguous epistemological agnosticism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the influence of the Introduction to the Philosophy of History on Jean-Paul Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • History and Politics
  • Iain Stewart, University College London
  • Book: Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century
  • Online publication: 18 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108695879.003
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  • History and Politics
  • Iain Stewart, University College London
  • Book: Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century
  • Online publication: 18 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108695879.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • History and Politics
  • Iain Stewart, University College London
  • Book: Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century
  • Online publication: 18 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108695879.003
Available formats
×