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| Author | Georges Sorel |
|---|---|
| Original title | Réflexions sur la violence |
| Language | French |
Publication date | 1908 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1912 |
| Preceded by | The Decomposition of Marxism |
| Fin de siècle |
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Reflections on Violence (French: Réflexions sur la violence), published in 1908, is a book by the French revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel on class struggle and revolution.[1] Sorel is known for his theory that political revolution depends on the proletariat organizing violent uprisings and strikes to institute syndicalism,[2] an economic system in which syndicats (self-organizing groups of only proletarians) truly represent the needs of the working class.[3]
One of Sorel's most controversial claims was that violence could save the world from "barbarism".[2] He equated violence with life, creativity, and virtue.[2] This served as the foundation for fascism as it broke away from its international socialism roots to become nationalistic. The direct mob action of fascist gangs used the rationale of violence as creation that Sorel had laid out.
In this book, he contends that myths are important as "expressions of will to act".[2] He also supports the creation of an economic system run by and for the interests of producers rather than consumers.[2] His ideas were influenced by various other philosophical writers, including Giambattista Vico, Blaise Pascal, Ernest Renan, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard von Hartmann, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, John Henry Newman, Karl Marx, and Alexis de Tocqueville.[2]
Sorel makes an important note on the purpose of the work in his introduction: "I am not at all concerned to justify the perpetrators of violence, but to inquire into the function of violence of the working classes in contemporary Socialism."[4]
- ^ Perry, Marvin; Berg, Matthew; Krukones, James (2000). Sources of Twentieth-Century Europe. Houghton Mifflin. p. 46.
- ^ a b c d e f Sorel, Georges (1999). "Reflections on violence". In Jennings, Jeremy (ed.). Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. ix−xxi.
- ^ Jennings, Jeremy (2011). Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France Since the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 420. ISBN 9780198203131.
- ^ Sorel, Georges (2004). Reflections on Violence. Dover Publications. p. 59.