Guy Besse (25 November 1919 – 16 February 2004) was a French

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and politician, a member of the executive of the French Communist Party (PCF).

Biography

A member of the Responsible du

Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

while a student in Lyon under the pseudonym of ''César'', he was part of the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France during the Resistance, and was the national secretary of the

Union of Communist Students The Union of Communist Students (french: Union des étudiants communistes, UEC) is a French student political organization, part of the '' Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France'' (MJCF, Young Communists Movement of France). It was founded in 1939 ...

from 1944 to 1945. Agrégé professor of philosophy, he graduated from lycée in

Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...

, then studied at the

University of Caen Lower Normandy The University of Caen Normandy (French: ''Université de Caen Normandie''), also known as Unicaen, is a public university in Caen, France. History The institution was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the first rector ...

, the Sorbonne and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. He published a number of socialist texts for many years, and in March 1970, replaced

Roger Garaudy Roger Garaudy (; 17 July 1913 – 13 June 2012) was a French philosopher, French resistance fighter and a communist author. He converted to Islam in 1982. In 1998, he was convicted and fined for Holocaust denial under French law for claiming that ...

as the head of the Centre d’études et de recherches marxistes. A member of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

of the PCF from 1956, he joined its Political Bureau 11 years later as an alternate member, and was its head in 1970. He retired from the PCF leadership in February 1985 at age 65, believing himself to have reached a "militant age limit". He continued to be a member of the PCF and published several books on Marxist philosophy afterwards.''Guy Besse, philosophe et militant'', '' L'Humanité'', 18 February 200

/ref>

Works

* ''Principes fondamentaux de philosophie'', with

Georges Politzer Georges Politzer (; 3 May 190323 May 1942) was a French philosopher and Marxist theoretician of Hungarian Jewish origin, affectionately referred to by some as the "red-headed philosopher" (''philosophe roux''). He was a native of Oradea, a ci ...

and Maurice Caveing, Éditions sociales, 1954 * ''Helvétius. De l'Esprit'', introduction and notes by Guy Besse, Éditions sociales, 1959 * ''Pratique sociale et théorie'', Éditions sociales, 1963 * ''La morale selon Kant et selon Marx'', Centre d'études et de recherches marxistes, s.d. * ''Lénine: la philosophie et la culture'', with Jacques Milhau and Michel Simon, Éditions sociales, 1971 * ''Problèmes de la révolution socialiste en France: Semaine de la pensée marxiste (22-29 avril 1971)'', with Gérard de Bernis and

François Billoux François Billoux (21 May 1903 – 14 January 1978) was a French communist politician. Biography Billoux was born in Saint-Romain-la-Motte. He was a member of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1926, and a member of ...

, Éditions sociales, 1971 * ''Jean-Jacques Rousseau, l'apprentissage de l'humanité'', Éditions sociales, 1988 * ''La philosophie des Lumières'', Éditions sociales, 1990

Honours

* Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur * Médaille de la Résistance

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besse, Guy Academic staff of the University of Caen Normandy Communist members of the French Resistance Recipients of the Resistance Medal 1919 births 2004 deaths Knights of the Legion of Honour French male writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French male writers