An Atheism that Is Not Humanist Emerges in French Thought (Cultural Memory in the Present)

French philosophy changed dramatically in the second quarter of the twentieth century. In the wake of World War I and, later, the Nazi and Soviet disasters, major philosophers such as Koj?ve, Levinas, Heidegger, Koyr?, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Hyppolite argued that man could no longer fill the void left by the "death of God" without also calling up the worst in human history and denigrating the dignity of the human subject. In response, they contributed to a new belief that man should no longer be viewed as the basis for existence, thought, and ethics; rather, human nature became dependent on other concepts and structures, including Being, language, thought, and culture. This argument, which was to be paramount for existentialism and structuralism, came to dominate postwar thought. This intellectual history of these developments argues that at their heart lay a new atheism that rejected humanism as insufficient and ultimately violent. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Abbreviations......Page 14 Man Under Erasure: Introduction......Page 20 I. The 1930s......Page 54 Introduction: Bourgeois Humanism and a First Death of Man......Page 56 1. The Anthropology of Antifoundational Realism: Philosophy of Science, Phenomenology, and “Human Reality” in France, 1928–1934......Page 68 2. No Humanism Except Mine! Ideologies of Exclusivist Universalism and the New Men of Interwar France......Page 119 3. Alexandre Kojève’s Negative Anthropology, 1931–1939......Page 149 4. Inventions of Antihumanism, 1935: Phenomenology, the Critique of Transcendence, and the Kenosis of Human Subjectivity in Early Existentialism......Page 192 II. The Postwar Decade......Page 226 Introduction: The Humanist Mantle, Restored and Retorn......Page 228 5. After the Resistance (1): Engagement, Being, and the Demise of Philosophical Anthropology......Page 241 6. Atheism and Freedom After the Death of God: Blanchot, Catholicism, Literature, and Life......Page 270 7. After the Resistance (2): Merleau-Ponty, Communism, Terror, and the Demise of Philosophical Anthropology......Page 287 8. Man in Suspension: Jean Hyppolite on History, Being, and Language......Page 306 Conclusion......Page 324 Notes......Page 336 Bibliography......Page 406 Index......Page 434 French philosophy changed dramatically in the second quarter of the twentieth century. In the wake of World War I and, later, the Nazi and Soviet disasters, major philosophers such as Kojà ̈ve, Levinas, Heidegger, Koyré, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Hyppolite argued that man could no longer fill the void left by the death of God without also calling up the worst in human history and denigrating the dignity of the human subject. In response, they contributed to a new belief that man should no longer be viewed as the basis for existence, thought, and ethics; rather, human nature became dependent on other concepts and structures, including Being, language, thought, and culture. This argument, which was to be paramount for existentialism and structuralism, came to dominate postwar thought. This intellectual history of these developments argues that at their heart lay a new atheism that rejected humanism as insufficient and ultimately violent. French philosophy changed dramatically in the second quarter of the twentieth century. In the wake of World War I and, later, the Nazi and Soviet disasters, major philosophers such as Kojève, Levinas, Heidegger, Koyré, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Hyppolite argued that man could no longer fill the void left by the'death of God'without also calling up the worst in human history and denigrating the dignity of the human subject. In response, they contributed to a new belief that man should no longer be viewed as the basis for existence, thought, and ethics; rather, human nature became dependent on other concepts and structures, including Being, language, thought, and culture. This argument, which was to be paramount for existentialism and structuralism, came to dominate postwar thought. This intellectual history of these developments argues that at their heart lay a new atheism that rejected humanism as insufficient and ultimately violent. French philosophy changed dramatically in the second quarter of the twentieth century. In the wake of World War I and, later, the Nazi and Soviet disasters, major philosophers such as Kojeve, Levinas, Heidegger, Koyre, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Hyppolite argued that man could no longer fill the void left by the 'death of God' without also calling up the worst in human history and denigrating the dignity of the human subject. In response, they contributed to a new belief that man should no longer be viewed as the basis for existence, thought, and ethics; rather, human nature became dependent on other concepts and structures, including Being, language, thought, and culture. This argument, which was to be paramount for existentialism and structuralism, came to dominate postwar thought. This intellectual history of these developments argues that at their heart lay a new atheism that rejected humanism as insufficient and ultimately Introduction : bourgeois humanism and a first death of man The anthropology of antifoundational realism : philosophy of science, phenomenology and "human reality" (1928-34) No humanism except mine! : ideologies of exclusivist universalism and the new men of interwar France An atheism that is not humanist : Alexandre Kojåve's negative anthropology (1931-39) Inventions of antihumanism (1935) : phenomenology, the critique of transcendence, and the kenosis of human subjectivity in early existentialism Introduction : the humanist mantle, restored and retorn After the resistance (1) : engagement, being and the demise of philosophical anthropology Atheism and freedom after the death of God : Blanchot, Catholicism, literature, and life After the resistance (2) : Merleau-Ponty, communism, terror and the demise of philosophical anthropology Dialectical roadkill : Jean Hyppolite and man in suspension.