Reflections on Violence
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| Author | Georges Sorel |
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| Original title | Réflexions sur la violence |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Publication date | 1908–1912 |
| Preceded by | The Decomposition of Marxism |
| Fin de siècle |
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Themes
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Post-fin de siècle influence |
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Reflections on Violence (French: Réflexions sur la violence) is a book by French revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel that was published in 1908 on class struggle and revolution.[1] Sorel is known for his theory that political revolution depends on the proletariats organizing violent uprisings and strikes to institute syndicalism,[2] an economic system in which syndicats (self-organizing groups of only proletariats) truly represent the needs of the working class.[3]
One of Sorel's most controversial statements claimed that violence could save the world from "barbarism".[2] He equates violence with life, creativity, and virtue.[2]
A major contention argued by Sorel in the book is on the importance of myths as "expressions of will to act".[2] He supports the creation of an economic system run by and for the interests of producers rather than consumers.[2] Sorel's philosophical influences for the material in the book derive from Giambattista Vico, Blaise Pascal, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard von Hartmann, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, John Henry Newman, Karl Marx, Alexis de Tocqueville and others.[2]
References
- ↑ Perry, Marvin; Berg, Matthew; Krukones, James (2000). Sources of Twentieth-Century Europe. Houghton Mifflin. p. 46.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sorel, Georges (1999). "Reflections on violence". In Jennings, Jeremy. Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press. pp. ix−xxi.
- ↑ Jennings, Jeremy (2011). Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France Since the Eighteenth Century. OUP Oxford. p. 420. ISBN 9780198203131.