Synopses & Reviews
In March of 1980,
Le Nouvel Observateur published the final interviews between the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, then blind and debilitated, and his young assistant, Benny Lévy. Readers immediately denounced the interviews as distorted and fraudulent for portraying a Sartre who had abandoned his leftist convictions, rejected his most intimate friends, and cast aside his fundamental beliefs in favor of a messianic Judaism. Sartre's supporters argued that it was his orthodox interlocutor, Lévy, who had twisted the words of the ailing philosopher.
Yet, shortly before his death, Sartre confirmed the authenticity of the interviews and their puzzling content. Here presented in translation, the interviews are framed by two provocative essays by Benny Lévy, accompanied by a comprehensive introduction from noted Sartre authority Ronald Aronson, which places the interviews in biographical and philosophical perspective to demonstrate how they confirm and contribute to Sartre's overall philosophy. This absorbing volume at last contextualizes and elucidates the final thoughts of a brilliant and influential mind.
Synopsis
In March of 1980, just a month before Sartre's death, Le Nouvel Observateur published a series of interviews, the last ever given, between the blind and debilitated philosopher and his young assistant, Benny Levy. Some readers were scandalized and denounced the interviews as distorted, inauthentic, even fraudulent. They seemed to portray a Sartre who had abandoned his leftist convictions and rejected his most intimate friends, including Simone de Beauvoir. This man had cast aside his own fundamental beliefs in the primacy of individual consciousness, the inevitability of violence, and Marxism, embracing instead a messianic Judaism. No, Sartre's supporters argued, it was his interlocutor, the ex-radical, the recently converted orthodox Jew, who had twisted the words and thoughts of an ailing Sartre to his own ends. Or had he? Shortly before his death, Sartre confirmed the authenticity of the interviews and their puzzling content. Over the past fifteen years, it has become the task of Sartre scholars to unravel and understand them. Presented in this fresh, meticulous translation, the interviews are framed by two provocative essays by Benny Levy himself, accompanied by a comprehensive introduction from noted Sartre authority Ronald Aronson. Placing the interviews in proper biographical and philosophical perspective, Aronson demonstrates that the thought of both Sartre and Levy reveals multiple intentions that, taken together, confirm and add to Sartre's overall philosophy. This absorbing volume at last contextualizes and elucidates the final thoughts of a brilliant and influential mind.
About the Author
Jean-Paul Sartre (1906-1980) was offered, but declined, the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964. His many works of fiction, drama, and philosophy include the monumental study of Flaubert, The Family Idiot, published in translation by the University of Chicago Press. Adrian van den Hoven is President of the North American Sartre Society.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Sartre's Last Words by Ronald Aronson
Abduction of an Old Man?
Reciprocity?
Between Two Strong Systems?
The Wily Old Man?
The Sartre-Lévy Relationship
Sartre's Intention
New Ideas: Changes in Sartre's Thought
New Ideas: To Be Developed
New Ideas: Contrasts with Marxism
The Sartre-Lévy Relationship Revisited
Hope Now: The 1980 Interviews
Translator's Note by Adrian van den Hoven
Presentation by Benny Lévy
The Interviews
Jean-Paul Sartre and Benny Lévy
1. Beyond Failure
2. The Desire for Society
3. About Man
4. Does One Always Live Ethically?
5. A Thought Created by Two People
6. The Left's Basic Principles
7. A Transhistorical End
8. More Fundamental than Politics
9. Children of the Mother
10. Sons of Violence
11. Unity through Insurrection
12. The Real Jew and the One
The Final Word by Benny Lévy
The Logos and the Myth
The Pure Future and Death
The Messiah
The Resurrection
Notes
Index