André Glucksmann in 2008 |
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| Full name | André Glucksmann |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 June 1937 Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy 21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
André Glucksmann (born 19 June 1937) is a French philosopher and writer, and member of the French new philosophers.
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André Glucksmann was born in 1937, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Romania and Czechoslovakia.[1] He studied in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. His first book, Le Discours de Ia Guerre, was published in 1968. In 1975 he published the anti-Marxist book La Cuisinière le Mangeur d'Hommes, in which he argued that Marxism leads inevitably to totalitarianism, tracing parallels between the crimes of Nazism and Communism. In his next book Les maitres penseurs, published in 1977 and translated into English as "Master Thinkers" (Harper & Row, 1980), he traced the intellectual justification for totalitarianism back to the ideas articulated by various German philosophers i.e. Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche.
In "The Brothers Karamazov" and other works, Dostoevsky asserts that if God doesn't exist, then everything is permitted. In his book, "Dostoyevsky in Manhattan" André Glucksmann applies this critique of godless nihilism to 9/11. His most recent book, “Une rage d’enfant” (2006) is an autobiography which talks about how his experiences as a youth as a Jew in occupied France led to his interest in philosophy and his belief in the importance of intervention:
“My style of thinking is to compare what happens on the TV, in the news and so on, and then extract what I can from books of philosophers to understand it. Philosophy for me is like subtitles. The problem comes from [current events] but the answer is supplied by philosophy.”
Glucksmann criticises the notion that Islamist terrorism is a product of the clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, arguing that the first victims of Islamic terrorism are Muslims:
"Why do the 200,000 slaughtered Muslims of Darfur not arouse even half a quarter of the fury caused by 200-times fewer dead in Lebanon? Must we deduce that Muslims killed by other Muslims don’t count – whether in the eyes of Muslim authorities or viewed through the bad conscience of the west?"
Glucksmann supports military action by the West in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is highly critical of Russian foreign policy, supporting for example Chechen independence. He, however, is against the Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence from Georgia, arguing that Georgia is essential to maintaining European Union "energy independence," vis-a-vis Russia, through access to oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet republics: "If Tbilisi falls, there will be no way to get around Gazprom and guarantee autonomous access to the gas and petroleum wealth of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan" . As proof of Russia's plans to use energy blackmail, Glucksmann references a biting anti-Gazprom satirical song performed at the annual satirical award show "Silver Rubber Boot", which makes jokes like: If the Eurovision Song Contest denies victory to Russia again, we are going to drive to their concert and block their gas with our bodies!. Glucksmann describes this song as proof that the Russian people want to cut off gas to Ukraine and Europe. He writes: Consider a popular song performed by a military choir in Moscow. Its chorus depicts the “radiant future” that Gazprom is preparing: “Europe has a problem with us? We will cut off its gas... The Russian public loves the song.".[2]
Glucksmann supported Nicolas Sarkozy for the April–May 2007 presidential election.[3] In August 2008 he co-signed an open letter with Václav Havel, Desmond Tutu, and Wei Jingsheng calling upon the Chinese authorities to respect human rights both during and after the Beijing Olympic Games.
He is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.[4]