The New Philosophers (french: nouveaux philosophes) is the generation of
French philosophers who are united by their respective breaks from
Marxism in the early 1970s. They also criticized the highly influential thinker
Jean-Paul Sartre and the concept of
post-structuralism, as well as the philosophy of
Friedrich Nietzsche and
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
.
They include
Alain Finkielkraut
Alain Finkielkraut (, ; ; born 30 June 1949) is a French philosopher and public intellectual. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, many on the ideas of tradition and identitary nonviolence, including Jewish identity and ant ...
,
André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann (; 19 June 1937 – 10 November 2015) was a French philosopher, activist and writer. He was a leading figure of the new philosophers.
Glucksmann began his career as a Marxist, but went on to reject communism in the popular book ...
,
Pascal Bruckner,
Bernard-Henri Lévy, Jean-Marie Benoist,
Christian Jambet
Christian Jambet (born 23 April 1949, Algiers, French Algeria) is a French philosopher and Islamologist.
Publications Essais
*1976: ''Apologie de Platon, Essais de métaphysique'', coll. « Théoriciens », Éditions Grasset, 249 p.
*: Wit ...
,
Guy Lardreau
Guy or GUY may refer to:
Personal names
* Guy (given name)
* Guy (surname)
* That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart
Places
* Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet
* Guy, Arkansas, US, a city
* Guy, Indiana, US, an unincorpo ...
, Claude Gandelman, Jean-Paul Dollé and Gilles Susong.
Beginnings
The term was created by Bernard-Henri Lévy in 1976. Most of the philosophers he included in that description had a previous history of
Marxism with which they had recently broken. Several had been members of the
Maoist party
Gauche prolétarienne
The (GP) was a French Maoist political party which existed from 1968 to 1974. As Christophe Bourseiller has put it, "Of all the Maoist organizations after May 1968, the most important numerically as well as in cultural influence was without quest ...
.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's writings on ''
The Gulag Archipelago'' had a profound effect upon many of these former Marxists. Besides the content of the book, French Communist Party’s attack on the book further incited discontent with Marxism. International events, such as massacre in Cambodia and Vietnamese refugee crisis, also inspired criticism and reflections regarding communism.
Basic characteristics
The New Philosophers rejected what they saw as the power-worship of the Left, a tradition which they traced back to at least
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
and
Karl Marx in the 1700s and 1800s. They argued that these and other various "master thinkers" who sought to create comprehensive systems of thought had actually created the foundations for systems of oppression. More recently
Pascal Bruckner has targeted
multiculturalism.
Heterogeneity
Because they are defined by a negative quality (i.e., the rejection of systems of authoritarian power) the New Philosophers are very disparate. In 1978, Michael Ryan argued that they exist in name only; their "homogeneity derives from their espousal of heterogeneity." They have been described as "a brand name" for an "extremely heterogeneous group of about ten intellectuals who are held together more from without than from within... they do not serve as representatives of any clearly defined political movement or force."
[Oskar Negt and Jamie O. Daniel (1983) "Reflections on France's 'Nouveaux Philosophes' and the Crisis of Marxism". ''SubStance'' 11(4), 56-67]
Criticism
They were attacked as superficial and ideological by critics such as
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...
,
Pierre Vidal-Naquet,
Pierre Bourdieu,
Alain Badiou,
Jean-François Lyotard, and
Cornelius Castoriadis.
[Christos Memos. "Castoriadis and Social Theory: From Marginalization to Canonization to Re-radicalization". In: Alex Law and Eric Royal Lybeck (eds.). ''Sociological Amnesia: Cross-currents in Disciplinary History''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. p. 190.]
See also
*
Anti-Stalinist left
The anti-Stalinist left is an umbrella term for various kinds of left-wing political movements that opposed Joseph Stalin, Stalinism and the actual system of governance Stalin implemented as leader of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953. Th ...
*
Liberalism and radicalism in France
Liberalism and radicalism in France refer to different movements and ideologies. The main line of conflict in France during the 19th century was between monarchists (mainly Legitimists and Orléanists but also Bonapartists) and republicans ( Rad ...
*
Neoconservatism
*
Neoliberalism
*
New York Intellectuals
References
{{Authority control
Anti-Marxism
French philosophers
Philosophical movements
Continental philosophy