Éloge des intellectuels

by Bernard-Henri Lévy

« Aujourd'hui les intellectuels ne sont ni haïs, ni vilipendés, ni même réellement fustigés comme à l'époque de l'affaire Dreyfus, des années 30 ou de la guerre d'Algérie. Et force est de constater, même si leur narcissisme doit en souffrir, qu'ils traversent une crise molle, voilée, comme étouflée. »

B.-H. LÉVY.

En réponse à la crise, cet Éloge : texte-programme qui expose les données du malaise et dessine la nouvelle figure de l'intellectuel. Un ouvrage essentiel pour élucider les vrais problèmes de la modernité.

154 pages, Broché

First published March 25, 1987

About the author

Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosopher, activist, filmmaker, and author of more than thirty books including The Genius of Judaism, American Vertigo, Barbarism with a Human Face, and Who Killed Daniel Pearl? His writing has appeared extensively in publications throughout Europe and the United States. His documentaries include Peshmerga, The Battle of Mosul, The Oath of Tobruk, and Bosna! Lévy is cofounder of the antiracist group SOS Racisme and has served on diplomatic missions for the French government.

Reviews

[Francisco Pais De Sousa · Rating 2 out of 5]

C’est incompréhensible d’avoir un auteur qui, en même temps, considère l’archéologie du savoir de Foucault comme un plus grande menace le de l’ état de la culture occidentale et critique la acceptation relativiste des cultures à travers du globe.

Même s’il est bien intentionné, il n’est Pas bien structuré et les fondations théoriques sont faibles.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lately people online have been saying "I will die on this hill" for such and such an idea Lévy's argument is basically that beginning with the Dreyfus affair, apart from Zola, no intellectual was willing to stake life or career on Dreyfus's innocence, and so it goes. He says that today's (1987) intelligentsia may love learning, but are too pessimistic to risk anything for their ideas. I think he's mistaken with people today losing their careers over supporting Palestine (he mentions Palestinians a few times, but unfortunately always from a negative point of view). Obviously that's a distillation of his argument with none of his support. I read this in the original French, and it was mostly pretty easy to read as someone with sub-native French reading ability. Most of the words I had to look up (only to find them untranslatable and require further research) refer to "isms" around right-wing political figures, most of whom I hadn't previously heard of, the most relevant today being Marie LePen's father, since she's just like him. French doesn't capitalize as much as English, so such terms are harder to recognize. It's a good read, and a fairly easy one, as Lévy writes in a tone that is almost too conversational. Sometimes I wondered if he was adding extra words to get it to reach a certain length because he often had things like "this, yes this" where "this" is a noun for an idea. While using such phrasing occasionally for emphasis can be good, it felt like a little much here. I'm not really sure Lévy's political bent. He says he isn't a Marxist, but he doesn't come across as a right-winger, either. He may be a liberal, but he criticzes that, too, and he doesn't have anything good to say about the right-wing movements. In most cases, such as Poujadism, they embrace anti-intellectualism and are not of interest to him, and he brings them up only to discuss their relationship to anti-intellectualism.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought

[Eleonora Rech · Rating 1 out of 5]

Beaucoup de banalités sont mises ensables. Beaucoup de répertoire des intellectuels classiques 'mise ensable pour faire ressortir un œuvre d'un certain importance ; il n'est pas réussi.