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

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

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 The ...

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 o ...

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

, 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 hi ...

under the Austromarxist jurist Max Adler. Martin Jay, ''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 ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

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" 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 The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philo ...

and contested the

structural Marxist Structural Marxism is an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the 1960s and 1970s, and also ca ...

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 Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (; born 12 January 1929) is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of the mos ...

, 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 akin to

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...

's in the existence of God. "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 hi ...

'' 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 ...

's Phèdre, "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 Genetic epistemology or 'developmental theory of knowledge' is a study of the origins (genesis) of knowledge ( epistemology) established by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. This theory opposes traditional epistemology and unites constructivism an ...

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 In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader s ...

.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.

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. 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'': 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 Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thi ...

, Eagleton and Goldmann'', which includes a review of ''Essays on Method in the Sociology of Literature'', in Murray, Glen (ed.). '' Cencrastus'' No. 8, Spring 1982, pp.47 & 48, .