Critique of dialectical reason. Vol. 2 (unfinished) The intelligibility of history

Volume Two of Sartre's intellectual masterpiece, introduced by Fredric Jameson. Does history produce discernible meaning? Are human struggles intelligible? These questions form the starting-point for the second volume of Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason . Drafted in 1958 and published in France in 1985, this magisterial work first appeared in English in 1991 and now reappears with a major new introduction by Fredric Jameson. Volume Two's theoretical framework is a logical extension of the predecessor's. As in Volume One, Sartre proceeds by moving from the simple to the complex: from individual combat (through a perceptive study of boxing) to the struggle of subgroups within an organized group form and, finally, to social struggle, with an extended analysis of the Bolshevik Revolution. The book concludes with a forceful reaffirmation of dialectical reason: of the dialectic as 'that which is truly irreducible in action'.

At the height of the Algerian war, Jean-Paul Sartre embarked on a fundamental reappraisal of his philosophical and political thought. The result was the Critique of Dialectical Reason, an intellectual masterpiece of the twentieth century, now republished with a major original introduction by Fredric Jameson.

Here, Sartre began a new theory of history that he believed was necessary for postwar Marxism. His substantive concern was the structure of class struggle and the fate of the mass movements of popular revolt, from the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century to the Russian and Chinese revolutions in the twentieth.

This shrinkwrapped set includes Volume 1 and 2 sold together at a discounted price.

During the Algerian War Jean-Paul Sartre reappraised his own philosophical and political thought and wrote it up as a critique of dialectical reason. In this second volume of his writings a new introduction has been added by Frederic Jameson v. 1. Theory of practice ensembles / edited by Jonathan Ree ; translated by Alan Sheridan-Smith - v. 2. The intelligibility of history (unfinished) / edited by Arlette Elkaïm-Sartre ; translated by Quintin Hoare.