Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason, Volume One: Toward an Existentialist Theory of History (Sartre, Foucault & Reason in History) [Paperback]

Thomas R. Flynn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226254682 | ISBN-13: 978-0226254685 | Publication Date: September 2, 1997 | Edition: 1

Sartre and Foucault were two of the most prominent and at times mutually antagonistic philosophical figures of the twentieth century. And nowhere are the antithetical natures of their existentialist and poststructuralist philosophies more apparent than in their disparate approaches to historical understanding.

A history, thought Foucault, should be a kind of map, a comparative charting of structural transformations and displacements. But for Sartre, authentic historical understanding demanded a much more personal and committed narrative, a kind of interpretive diary of moral choices and risks compelled by critical necessity and an exacting reality. Sartre's history, a rational history of individual lives and their intrinsic social worlds, was in essence immersed in biography.

In Volume One of this authoritative two-volume work, Thomas R. Flynn conducts a pivotal and comprehensive reconstruction of Sartrean historical theory, and provocatively anticipates the Foucauldian counterpoint to come in Volume Two.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Flynn (philosophy, Emory Univ.) details the development of Sartre's theory of history in this first part of a work that requires its latter, as yet unpublished, half to stand as a thoroughgoing comparative study of the titular subject. With insight and clarifying structure, he presents Sartre's theorizing toward history as a value and beyond that to an existentialist theory of history as a dialectic that is aesthetic as well as moral. Only in the final chapter does discussion turn to how Foucault's assessment of the historic event differs from Sartre's: the comparison and contrast between the two theorists' "historical intelligibility" is guided by "Sartrean being-other [and] Foucauldian being-difference." In Volume 2, Foucault's poststructuralist approach should be fully limned, and Flynn's work will stand as a masterful interpretation of 20th-century theory of reason.?Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Thomas R. Flynn is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He is author of Sartre and Marxist Existentialism, published by the University of Chicago Press, and co-editor of Dialectic and Narrative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (September 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226254682
• ISBN-13: 978-0226254685
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,248,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > History > Historical Study > Philosophy of History

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Truth about Foucault and Sartrean Marxism, January 22, 2001

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Matt (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sartre, Foucault, and Historical Reason, Volume One: Toward an Existentialist Theory of History (Sartre, Foucault & Reason in History) (Paperback)

Flynn, a professor at Emory does a really nice job at elucidating a common problem. Foucault is casually lumped together in the structuralist/post-structuralis school because of his association with Althusser and Lacan. While that particular methodology is obviously an influence on Foucault, he distinguishes himself from them in various interviews which can be found in the plethora of collections that contain interviews and articles with or written by Foucault. Foucault (as I maintain and Flynn seems to imply) is more of a "constructivist" (a word I've heard him use to describe himself). In his genealogoy and approach to history he CONSTRUCTS clearer model of of the discourse surrounding our typical views of the social construct. He does more than elucidate the structure, he constructs some sort of history about it...HOWEVER, not to give any kind of conclusion, but rather as a disruptive act to spawn analysis and discourse.

In this way, he is like Nietszche (which he himself claims). He much prefers to be a disruptive force, or a catalyst for change and discourse than a scientific systematic philosopher. In many ways, this is his relationship to the Western Marxists (and Sartre, whose existentialism does owe a great deal to Nietzsche, which Foucault seemed to be proud of in some ways...i'm referring to both thinker's appreciation for Nietzsche). Sartre maintains subjectivity, and the ability of the subject to choose its own history, much as Engels asserts in Marxism, however, he admits like Marx claims, that there are a series of pre-determined factors that influence those choices (within the subjects environment). Flynn explores the TRUE subjectivity of existentialism...not as a will to power (though to an extent, this certainly is the case), but as the starting point for the intersubjectivity that molds our history, and its relationship to the Marxist project that elucidates the ills of captialism, the force behind the mode of production (which is the will of the people), and how we construct our history and discourse, and what that means about ourselves as individuals and our place in the world. Ultimately, reading Flynn's incredible and original book will offer a more thorough, documented and scholarly interpretation. He even pulls on some more obscure later Sartre (like the oft forgotten biography of Flaubert, "The Family Idiot"). His research is astounding, his understading of this very difficult material astounding. He makes a cohesive synthesis between existentialism and post-modernism, better than the post-modernists themselves.