Raymond Aron

Raymond Aron (Paris, 1905-1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist of Jewish origin, and one of the most prominent French thinkers of the twentieth century. His work belongs to a liberal and reformist tradition, rooted in the philosophy of history and German sociology. He is remembered for keeping an independent and critical voice at a time when much of French intellectual life sided with Marxism and with the Soviet Union.

He studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he crossed paths with Jean-Paul Sartre, who would remain for life both his friend and his intellectual rival. He earned his doctorate in 1930 with work on the philosophy of history. When the Second World War began, he was teaching in Toulouse; he enlisted in the air force and, after France's defeat, went into exile in London, where he edited the newspaper France Libre. After the war he returned to Paris to teach sociology and, from 1947, wrote for decades as a columnist, first for Le Figaro and later for L'Express. He later held posts at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, and in 1978 he founded the journal Commentaire.

His thought starts from the conviction that history offers no full objectivity, so social knowledge can only be partial and must be tested by rigorous method. This led him to distrust grand theories claiming to explain the whole course of history, and the so-called myth of revolution, which, when joined to a belief in historical necessity, could lead to totalitarian rule. In its place he defended the reformist, who sees progress as contingent, partial and imperfect, and who prefers gradual improvement to sweeping change. His opposition to communism rested on the freedoms of inquiry, criticism and voting, which he saw as the heart of the Western tradition. He also wrote on international relations, war and peace, the role of intellectuals and industrial society, and in his study of totalitarianism he partly followed Hannah Arendt.

His influence on later political and sociological thought is considerable. His 1955 book The Opium of the Intellectuals became a key reference for liberal anti-communism and a central text for understanding postwar French intellectual debate. Although he was for a time less known outside France than some of his contemporaries, his independence from academic fashion has made him a widely cited author for those seeking a moderate and rigorous view of politics.