Were we to distinguish the themes purposely adopted as part of a theoretical undertaking from those imposed by an era, then undoubtedly for Lévi-Strauss 'the question of humanism' belongs to the second category. A systematic history of the 'humanist' theme in twentieth-century Europe and notably in post-war France should one day be written. It could not remain a pure history of words and ideas, but would necessarily overflow into social and political history and would encompass what one could call the competition between ecclesiastical forms (church, political parties, intellectual chapels) associated, in the same period, with an exceptionally important and manifest 'ideological' demand. This is as Michel Foucault somewhat bluntly stated in a 1981 interview:

In the aftermath of the Second World War, in a country where the main political parties believed that they bore a message, and where the 'intellectuals' themselves spoke in the name of all, the restoration of a certain confidence in the future of humanity had seemed a priority, just as the reconstruction of cities and economies had been from the outset. Hence, the recurrence of the question which was asked, in various ways, to whoever intended to make a contribution to intellectual life: 'As for man, what do you make of man?'