Georges Sorel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Georges Sorel
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Georges Sorel
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Georges Eugène Sorel
2 November 1847 |
| Died | 29 August 1922 (aged 74) Boulogne-sur-Seine, France
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| Alma mater | École Polytechnique |
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Notable work
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Reflections on Violence (1908) |
| Era | Modern philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy
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Main interests
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Notable ideas
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Georges Eugène Sorel (born November 2, 1847 – died August 29, 1922) was a French thinker and writer. He was an engineer for many years. Later, he became a journalist. He developed ideas that are now called Sorelianism.
Sorel's ideas about society and politics were shaped by thinkers like Proudhon and Karl Marx. He also studied the works of Giambattista Vico and Henri Bergson. Sorel believed that powerful ideas, or "myths," could inspire groups of people to act. This idea influenced many different political groups. These included socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and even fascists. He is best known for his ideas on the power of myth and his defense of violence.
His political views changed over time. He started with more traditional ideas. Then he moved towards Marxism and social democracy. Eventually, he supported syndicalism. Syndicalism is a movement where workers' unions try to achieve social change. For a short time, he was connected to a group called Action Française. After World War I, Sorel supported Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Russia. He continued to support them until he died in 1922.
After Sorel's death, his ideas were used by groups across the political spectrum. Some former syndicalists even supported the rise of fascism. Some historians say Sorel's changes to Marxist ideas meant that revolutions didn't have to come only from the working class. This opened the door for other groups to be seen as agents of change.
Contents
Georges Sorel's Life Story
Georges Sorel was born in Cherbourg, France. His father was a businessman. In 1864, Georges moved to Paris to study at Collège Rollin. A year later, he joined the École Polytechnique, a famous engineering school. In 1869, he became a chief engineer for the government's public works department.
He worked in different parts of France and even in Algeria. From 1876 to 1879, he was in Mostaganem, Algeria. He then moved to Perpignan, where he finished his engineering career. He retired in 1892. In 1891, he received a special award called the Légion d'honneur. After retiring, he moved near Paris, where he lived until he died in 1922.
In the late 1880s, Sorel started writing articles. He wrote about many topics, including hydrology (the study of water), architecture, and the philosophy of science. His early writings showed the influence of thinkers like Aristotle. In 1893, he announced that he was a Marxist and a socialist. He wrote for some of France's first Marxist magazines. He also took part in debates about changing Marxist ideas.
Sorel supported Alfred Dreyfus during the famous Dreyfus affair. This was a big legal case in France. Later, Sorel felt let down by the political results of the trial.
In the early 1900s, Sorel began to argue that socialism and parliamentary democracy could not work together. He started to support syndicalist ideas more strongly. He wrote for important magazines like Il Divenire sociale and Mouvement socialiste. Around 1905, he helped develop the ideas of revolutionary syndicalism.
In 1905, his most famous book, Reflections on Violence, started to appear in a magazine. It was published as a book in 1908. That same year, he also published Illusions du Progrès.
After a setback for a big workers' union (CGT) in 1909, Sorel briefly worked with Charles Maurras's Action française group. However, Sorel did not agree with their nationalist views. This cooperation inspired a group called the Cercle Proudhon. This group brought together revolutionary syndicalists and monarchists. Sorel also started a journal called L'Indépendance in 1911. But disagreements, partly about nationalism, soon ended this project.
Sorel strongly opposed the "Union sacrée" truce in 1914. This was an agreement to stop political fights during World War I. He spoke out against the war. In 1917, he praised the Russian Revolution. He wrote for a Soviet publication, calling Lenin "the greatest theoretician of socialism since Marx." He also wrote articles for Italian newspapers, defending the Bolsheviks.
While Sorel's support for the Bolsheviks is well-known, his interest in the new fascist movement is less clear. Some nationalist writers from the time said Sorel admired Benito Mussolini. However, Sorel's own letters seem to contradict this. In one letter from June 1921, he wrote that the actions of the fascists could bring Italy back to the Middle Ages. He also said that fascists did not seem more balanced than Futurists.
Sorel's Ideas on Marxism
Georges Sorel studied Marxism for most of his career. However, whether he truly belonged to the Marxist tradition is debated. Some people see his Marxism as heroic and focused on big changes. Others, like Hannah Arendt, saw him more as a thinker about decline. But if you look closely, Sorel was more interested in the deep ideas of historical materialism.
He was influenced by Henri Bergson and Italian thinkers. Sorel developed a version of Marxism that did not believe in strict economic or historical rules. He saw Marxism not as a science, but as a set of ideas shaped by history.
Rejecting Fixed Rules
Before becoming a Marxist in the 1890s, Sorel was a moderate conservative. His interest in Marxism was more about science than politics. He wanted to show that socialism could be a modern scientific idea. To do this, he rejected common French objections to Marxism. These objections were about history and economics being too fixed or determined.
By reading Giambattista Vico and talking with other thinkers, Sorel understood Marxism differently. He saw it as a theory about how groups of people act within their institutions. Because human actions are creative, Marxism could not predict the future based on fixed laws. Sorel wrote in 1897 that "History is entirely in the past; there is no way of transforming it into a logical combination allowing us to predict the future."
Also, the way groups act could not be fully explained by their material conditions. You had to consider legal, ideological, and cultural factors too. In 1898, he wrote that you cannot just separate facts into economic, legal, and political parts. He believed that in history, everything is connected.
Workers' Unions and Change
These ideas led to a Marxism that emphasized human choice and action. Sorel rejected the idea that capitalism would definitely collapse. He also argued against fixed laws of history. Instead, he focused on how workers' unions could grow and develop. He believed unions could be places not just to resist bosses, but also to create new ways of living after capitalism.
He wrote that if unions were only for resistance, it would stop workers from growing. It would make them depend on politicians. It would prevent them from creating new rules for their lives. In short, it would stop workers from becoming a powerful group for themselves.
Until 1900, Sorel thought that workers could achieve their goals through politics and democracy. But his ideas changed around the turn of the century. This was partly because of the results of the 1902 French elections. He also had new ideas about how welfare capitalism was emerging. He now believed that being too involved in regular politics would destroy the revolutionary spirit of the working class.
So, he came up with a new plan. Since class identity isn't just created by the economy, he thought strong, ideologically charged social conflict could help. This conflict, like a general strike, could bring back the conditions needed for a revolutionary working class to thrive. In his book Reflections on Violence, he explained: "Marx thought that the wealthy class didn't need to be pushed to use force. But now we see something new: a wealthy class that tries to weaken its own power. Does this mean Marx's idea is wrong? Not at all. Because workers' violence appears just when people talk about social peace. Workers' violence makes employers stick to their role as producers. It helps bring back the class structure when it seemed to be fading away in democracy."
Georges Sorel's Works
- Contribution to the Profane Study of the Bible (1889)
- The Trial of Socrates, Critical Examination of Socratic Theses (1889)
- Questions of Morals (1900)
- The Socialist Future of Unions (1901)
- The Ruin of the Ancient World: Materialist Conception of History (1902)
- Introduction to Modern Economics (1903)
- The Crisis of Catholic Thought (1903)
- Renan's Historical System (1905–1906)
- The Metaphysical Concerns of Modern Physicists (1907)
- The Decomposition of Marxism (1908)
- The Illusions of Progress (1908)
- Reflections on Violence (1908)
- The Dreyfusian Revolution (1909)
- Materials for a Theory of the Proletariat (1919)
- On the Utility of Pragmatism (1921)
- Letters to Paul Delesalle 1914-1921 (1947)
- From Aristotle to Marx (Ancient and New Metaphysics) (1935)
- From Georges Sorel: Essays in Socialism and Philosophy (1976)
- From Georges Sorel: Volume 2, Hermeneutics and the Sciences (1990)
- Commitment and Change: Georges Sorel and the idea of revolution (1978)
- Social Foundations of Contemporary Economics (1984)
See also
In Spanish: Georges Sorel para niños
- Charter of Amiens, a 1906 cornerstone of the French workers' movement
- Fascist syndicalism
