Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron (March 14, 1905 — October 17, 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist. He was known for his skepticism of French leftist ideology. March 14 is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups and societies. ... See also: Political Science Notable political scientists Kenneth Arrow - Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist who published influential paper on his widely cited Arrows Impossibility Theorem Robert Axelrod Duncan Black - Responsible for unearthing the work of many early political scientists, including Charles Dodgson Jean-Charles de Borda - 18th century mathematician...

Background

Aron, the son to a Jewish lawyer, studied at the École Normale Supérieure where he met Jean-Paul Sartre (who became his friend and lifelong intellectual opponent). He was laureate of the Agrégation of philosophy (before Sartre). In 1930, he received a doctorate on the philosophy of history from the École Normale Supérieure. In 1939, when World War II began, he was teaching social philosophy at the University of Toulouse; he left the University and joined the air force. When France was defeated, he left for London to join the Free French forces, and (1940-1944) edited their newspaper, France Libre (Free France). See also École Normale de Musique de Paris. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Jean Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905–April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic. ... Philosophy of History is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. ... See also École Normale de Musique de Paris. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Social philosophy is the philosophical study of interesting questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). ... The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest universities in Europe. ... The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters who decided to go on fighting against Germany after the Fall of France and German occupation and to fight against Vichy France in World War II. General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French Cabinet...

At the close of the war, he returned to Paris to teach sociology at the École Nationale d'Administration and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (also known as "Sciences Po"), maintaining that the government of Vichy France and Marshal Pétain had chosen the lesser of two evils in collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. From 1955 to 1968, he taught at the Sorbonne, and after 1970 at the Collège de France. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Paris Institute of Political Studies (French: Institut détudes politiques de Paris), often referred to as Sciences-Po (pronounced see-ahns po), is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. ... Sciences Po, often referred to as Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques de Paris, Institut detudes Politiques de Paris, or simply IEP Paris, is a leading specialist school in the French capital. ... Motto Travail, famille, patrie French: Unoccupied zone of Vichy France (until November 1942) Capital Vichy Language(s) French Religion Roman Catholic Government Dictatorship Chief of state  - 1940 — 1944 Henri Philippe Pétain President of the Council  - 1940 — 1942 Philippe Pétain  - 1942 — 1944 Pierre Laval Legislature National Assembly Historical era... Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French soldier and Head of State of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: ) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganised as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... Courtyard of the Collège de France. ...

A lifelong journalist, Aron in 1947 became an influential columnist for Le Figaro, a position he held for thirty years until he joined L'Express, where he wrote a political column up to his death. 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Le Figaro (English: ) is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... LExpress is Frances first weekly news magazine. ...

Infused as he was with a liberal disposition, Aron's views on multiple citizenship and dual nationality were pessimistic. In his 1974 article, "Is Multinational Citizenship Possible?" he clearly considered it an anachronism, totally incommensurate with the logic of the sovereign-state system. Aron argued that multiple citizenship could not break the indelible link between the individual citizen and his nation-state. Citizenship, according to Aron, was a special relation between the individual and the state; citizenship defined the state's rule within a specific territory, and in turn the state determined who its citizens were and what rights and obligations bound citizens to the state.

See also

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... Contributions to liberal theory is a partial list of individual contributions on a worldwide scale. ...

Works

• La Sociologie allemande contemporaine, Paris: Alcan, 1935; German Sociology, London: Heinemann, 1957
• Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire. Essai sur les limites de l'objectivité historique, Paris: Gallimard, 1938; Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1948
• Essai sur la théorie de l'histoire dans l'Allemagne contemporaine. La philosophie critique de l'histoire, Paris: Vrin, 1938
• L'Homme contre les tyrans, New York, Editions de la Maison française, 1944
• De l'armistice à l'insurrection nationale, Paris: Gallimard, 1945
• L'Âge des empires et l'Avenir de la France, Paris: Défense de la France, 1945
• Le Grand Schisme, Paris: Gallimard, 1948
• Les Guerres en chaîne, Paris: Gallimard, 1951
• La Coexistence pacifique. Essai d'analyse, Paris: Editions Monde nouveau, 1953 (under the pseudonym François Houtisse, with Boris Souvarine)
• L'Opium des intellectuels, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1955; The Opium of the Intellectuals, London: Secker & Warburg, 1957
• Polémiques, Paris: Gallimard, 1955
• La Tragédie algérienne, Paris: Plon, 1957
• Espoir et peur du siècle. Essais non partisans, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1957
• L'Algérie et la République, Paris: Plon, 1958
• La Société industrielle et la Guerre, suivi d'un Tableau de la diplomatie mondiale en 1958, Paris: Plon, 1959
• Immuable et changeante. De la IVe à la Ve République, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1959
• Dimensions de la conscience historique, Paris: Plon, 1961
• Paix et guerre entre les nations, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1962; Peace and War, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966
• Le Grand Débat. Initiation à la stratégie atomique, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1963
• Dix-huit leçons sur la société industrielle, Paris: Gallimard, 1963; Eighteen Lectures on Industrial Society, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967
• La Lutte des classes, Paris: Gallimard, 1964
• Essai sur les libertés, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1965
• Démocratie et totalitarisme, 1965
• Trois essais sur l'âge industriel, Paris: Plon, 1966
• Les Étapes de la pensée sociologique, Paris: Gallimard, 1967; Main Currents in Sociological Thought, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1965
• De Gaulle, Israël et les Juifs, Paris: Plon, 1968
• La Révolution introuvable. Réflexions sur les événements de mai, Paris: Fayard, 1968
• Les Désillusions du progrès, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1969; Progress and Disillusion: The Dialectics of Modern Society, Pall Mall Press, 1968
• D'une sainte famille à l'autre. Essai sur le marxisme imaginaire, Paris: Gallimard, 1969
• De la condition historique du sociologue, Paris: Gallimard, 1971
• Études politiques, Paris, 1972
• République impériale. Les États-unis dans le monde (1945–1972), Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1973; The Imperial Republic: The United States and the World 1945-1973, Little Brown & Company 1974
• Histoire et dialectique de la violence, Paris: Gallimard, 1973; History and the Dialectic of Violence: Analysis of Sartre's Critique de la raison dialectique, Oxford: Blackwell, 1979
• Penser la guerre, Clausewitz, Paris: Gallimard, 1976; Clausewitz: Philosopher of War, London: Routledge, 1983
• Plaidoyer pour l'Europe décadente, Paris: Laffont, 1977; In Defense of Decadent Europe, South Bend IN: Regnery, 1977
• Le Spectateur engagé, Paris: Julliard, 1981 (interviews)
• Mémoires, Paris: Julliard, 1983
• Les dernières années du siècle, Paris: Julliard, 1984
• Le Marxisme de Marx, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2002
• De Giscard à Mitterrand: 1977-1983 (editorials from L'Express), with preface by Jean-Claude Casanova, Paris: Éditions de Fallois, 2005

Other media

• Raymond Aron, spectateur engagé. Entretiens avec Raymond Aron. (Duration: 160 mins.), DVD, Éditions Montparnasse, 2005

Bibliography

• Launay, Stephen, La Pensée politique de Raymond Aron, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995
• Anderson, Brian C., Raymond Aron: The Recovery of the Political, Rowman & Littlefield, 1998
• Mahoney, Daniel and Brian Prost (eds.), Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron, New Brunswick/London: Transaction Publishers, 2006

External links

• Articles By Raymond Aron
• http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/19/may01/opium.htm
• Raymond Aron, an Atlantist prosecutor in France (Voltaire Network)
• When the CIA financed European Intellectuals (Aron role in the Congress for Cultural Freedom) (Voltaire Network)
• Profile page for Raymond Aron on the Find-A-Grave web site