Lucien Goldmann (; 20 July 1913 – 8 October 1970) was a French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. A professor at the

EHESS The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

in Paris, he was a Marxist theorist. His wife was sociologist

Annie Goldmann Annie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress * Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer Th ...

Biography

Goldmann was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, but grew up in Botoşani. He studied law at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

and the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

under the

Austromarxist Austromarxism (also stylised as Austro-Marxism) was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner, Max Adler and Rudolf Hilferding, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria in Austria-Hungary an ...

jurist Max Adler.

Martin Jay Martin Evan Jay (born May 4, 1944) is an American intellectual historian whose research interests connected history with the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, social theory, cultural criticism, and historiography. He is currently the Sid ...

, ''Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas'', University of California Press, 1984, pp. 305–06. In 1934, he went to the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

to study political economy, literature, and philosophy. He moved to Switzerland in November 1942, where he was placed in a refugee camp until 1943. Through

Jean Piaget Jean William Fritz Piaget (, , ; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemolo ...

's intervention, he was subsequently given a scholarship to the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

, where he completed his PhD in philosophy in 1945 with a thesis entitled ''Mensch, Gemeinschaft und Welt in der Philosophie Immanuel Kants'' (''Man, Community and World in the Philosophy of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

''). In 1968, Goldmann was a visiting professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Philosophy

While many Parisian leftists staunchly upheld Marxism's "

scientificity Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

" in the 1950s and 1960s, Lucien Goldmann insisted that Marxism was by then in severe crisis and had to reinvent itself radically if it were to survive. He rejected the traditional Marxist view of the proletariat and contested the structural Marxist movement. In fact, the popularity of such trends on the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terra ...

was one reason why Goldmann's own name and work were eclipsed — this despite the acclaim of thinkers as diverse as

and Alasdair MacIntyre, who called him "the finest and most intelligent Marxist of the age." He refused to portray his aspirations for humanity's future as an inexorable unfolding of history's laws, but saw them rather as a

wager Wager can refer to: Gambling * Wager, the amount of a valuable staked when gambling on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the primary intent of winning money or material goods * Legal wager, required by both parties at the preliminary heari ...

akin to Blaise Pascal's in the

existence of God The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorize ...

. "Risk", Goldmann wrote in his classic study of Pascal's ''

Pensées The ''Pensées'' ("Thoughts") is a collection of fragments written by the French 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the ''Pensées'' was in many ways h ...

'' and

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere Wit ...

, "is possibility of failure, hope of success, and the synthesis of the three in a faith which is a wager are the essential constituent elements of the human condition". He called his work "dialectical" and "humanist". He sought to synthesize the genetic epistemology of Piaget with the Marxism of

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aesth ...

. Goldmann founded the theory of genetic structuralism in the 1960s. He was a humanist socialist, a disciple of Lukács, and was best known for his sociology of literature. In later life he became an important critic of structuralism.Lucien Goldmann, a Dictionary of Sociology
Encyclopedia.com; accessed 3 July 2020.

Selected bibliography

In German

*''Mensch, Gemeinschaft und Welt in der Philosophie Immanuel Kants'' (University of Zurich, 1945).

Doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

In French

*''Le dieu caché ; étude sur la vision tragique dans les Pensées de Pascal et dans le théâtre de Racine''. Paris: Gallimard, 1955. *''Recherches dialectiques''. Paris: Gallimard, 1959. *''Pour une sociologie du roman''. Paris: Gallimard, 1964. *''Sciences humaines et philosophie. Suivi de structuralisme génétique et création littéraire''. Paris: Gonthier, 1966. *''Structures mentales et création culturelle''. Paris: 10/18, 1970. *''Epistémologie et philosophie''. Paris: Denoël, 1970. *''Lukacs et Heidegger''. Paris: Denoël-Gonthier, 1973.

English translations

*''The Hidden God: a study of tragic vision in the Pensees of Pascal and the tragedies of Racine''. Trans.

Philip Thody Philip Malcolm Waller Thody (21 March 1928 – 15 June 1999) was an English scholar of French literature who was Professor of French Literature at the University of Leeds from 1965 until 1993. Early life and education Thody was born in Lincoln in ...

. London: Routledge, 1964. *''Immanuel Kant''. Translated from the French and German by Robert Black. (London: New Left Books, 1971; Verso, 2011). * *''The Human Sciences and Philosophy''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. *'' The Philosophy of Enlightenment''. Trans. Henry Maas. London: Routledge, 1973. *'' Towards a Sociology of the Novel''. 1964. Trans.

Alan Sheridan Alan Sheridan (1934 - 2015) was an English author and translator. Life Born Alan Mark Sheridan-Smith, Sheridan studied English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge before spending 5 years in Paris as English assistant at Lycée Henri IV and Lyc ...

. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1975. * "The Epistemology of Sociology". ''

Telos Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of a work of human art. Intentional actualization of potential or inherent purpose,"Telos.''Philosophy Terms'' Retrieved 3 May 2020. ...

'' 18 (Winter 1976-77). New York
Telos Press
*
Cultural Creation in Modern Society
' Introduction by William Maryl and Translated by Bart Grahl (New York: Telos Press, 1976). *
Essays on Method in the Sociology of Literature
' Translated and edited by William Q. Boelhower (New York: Telos Press, 1979). * " Genet's ''

The Balcony ''The Balcony'' (french: Le Balcon) is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It is set in an unnamed city that is experiencing a revolutionary uprising in the streets; most of the action takes place in an upmarket brothel that functions as a ...

'': A Realist Play." Trans. Robert Sayre. ''Praxis: A Journal of Radical Perspectives on the Arts'' 4 (1978): 123-131. Trans. of "Une Pièce réaliste: ''Le Balcon'' de Genet" in ''Les Temps Modernes'' 171 (June 1960). *'' Lukacs and Heidegger: Towards a New Philosophy''. Trans. William Q. Boelhower. London: Routledge, 2009.

Reviews

Womack, Peter (1982), '' Benjamin, Eagleton and Goldmann'', which includes a review of ''Essays on Method in the Sociology of Literature'', in Murray, Glen (ed.). ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 8, Spring 1982, pp.47 & 48, .