Julien Benda (; 26 December 1867 – 7 June 1956) was a French philosopher and novelist, known as an essayist and

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

. He is best known for his short book, ''La Trahison des Clercs'' from 1927 (''The Treason of the Intellectuals'' or ''The Betrayal by the Intellectuals'').

Life

Born into a Jewish family in Paris, Benda had a secular upbringing. He was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. After a period at the

École Centrale Paris École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

, he turned to history, and graduated at the Sorbonne in 1894. His father's death in 1889 left Benda independently wealthy. He wrote for '' La Revue Blanche'' from 1891 to 1903. His articles on the Dreyfus affair were collected and published as ''Dialogues''. He disagreed strongly with

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

, the leading light of French philosophy of his day, and launched an attack on him in 1911, when Bergson's reputation was at its height. In July 1937 he attended the Second International Writers' Congress, the purpose of which was to discuss the attitude of intellectuals to the war in Spain, held in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and attended by many writers including André Malraux,

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry ...

and Pablo Neruda. Benda survived the German occupation of France and the Vichy regime 1940–1944, in

Carcassonne Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department. ...

. The journal of Jean Guéhenno described his life there, and his character: "Unbearable, yet likeable." He died in Fontenay-aux-Roses, on 7 June 1956.

Works

Benda is considered to be primarily an essayist. He was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

four times. His single nomination for the Goncourt Prize was in 1912 for ''L'Ordination''. He lost out to André Savignon's novel ''Les filles de la pluie''. Voting was tied, and the casting vote went to Léon Hennique, in a notorious election that caused Hennique to give up the presidency of the Académie Goncourt.

''La Trahison des Clercs''

Benda is now best remembered for his short 1927 book ''La Trahison des Clercs'', a work of considerable influence. It was translated into English in 1928 by Richard Aldington; the U.S. edition was titled ''The Treason of the Intellectuals'', while the British edition was titled ''The Great Betrayal.'' Aldington's translation was republished in 2006 as ''The Treason of the Intellectuals'', with a new introduction by Roger Kimball. This polemical essay argued that European intellectuals in the 19th and 20th centuries had often lost the ability to reason dispassionately about political and military matters, instead becoming apologists for crass nationalism, warmongering, and racism. Benda reserved his harshest criticisms for his fellow Frenchmen Charles Maurras and Maurice Barrès. Benda defended the measured and dispassionate outlook of

classical civilization Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilization ...

and the internationalism of traditional Christianity. Closing this work, Benda darkly predicts that the augmentation of the "realistic" impulse to domination of the material world, justified by intellectuals into an "integral realism," risked producing an all-encompassing species-wide civilization that would completely cease "to situate the good outside the real world." Human aspirations, specifically after power, would become the sole end of society. In closing, he concludes bitterly, "And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died."Benda, Julien (1956). ''The Treason of the Intellectuals'', W. W. Norton and Co., pp. 202–203. Benda's word "clercs" was borrowed by Anne Appelbaum in her 2020 book '' Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism''.

Other works

Other works by Benda include ''Belphégor'' (1918), ''Uriel's Report'' (1926), and ''Exercises of a Man Buried Alive'' (1947), an attack on the contemporary French celebrities of his time. Most of the titles in the bibliography below were published during the last three decades of Benda's long life; he is emphatically a 20th-century author. In his 1933 publication ''Discours à la nation européenne,'' Benda responded to

Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Ka ...

's '' Addresses to the German Nation''.

Bibliography

* ''L'ordination'' – 1911 **English translation, ''The yoke of pity'', by Gilbert Cannan – 1913 * ''Les sentiments de Critias'' – 1917 * ''Belphégor : essai sur l'esthétique de la présente société française'' – 1919 * ''Les amorandes'' – 1922 * ''La croix de roses ; précédé d'un dialogue d'Eleuthère avec l'auteur'' – 1923 * ''Lettres à Mélisande'' – 1926 * ''La trahison des clercs'' – 1927 ** English translation,''The Betrayal of the Intellectuals'', by Richard Aldington: *** 1955 (1928). Beacon Press. Introduction by

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

. ** ''The Treason of the Intellectuals'' *** 2006. Transaction Publishers. Introduction by Roger Kimball. * ''Cléanthis ou du Beau et de l'actuel'' – 1928 * ''Properce, ou, Les amants de Tibur'' – 1928 * ''La Fin de l’Éternel –'' 1929 * ''Appositions'' – 1930 * ''Esquisse d'une histoire des Français dans leur volonté d'être une nation'' – 1932 * ''Discours à la nation européenne'' – 1933 * ''La jeunesse d'un clerc'' – 1936 * ''Précision (1930–1937)'' – 1937 * ''Un régulier dans le siècle'' – 1937 * ''Un Régulier dans le siècle'' (Paris, Gallimard) 1938 * ''La grande épreuve des démocraties : essai sur les principes démocratiques : leur nature, leur histoire, leur valeur philosophique.'' – 1942 * ''Exercice d'un enterré vif, juin 1940-août 1944'' – 1945 * ''La France Byzantine, ou, Le triomphe de la littérature pure : Mallarmé, Gide, Proust, Valéry, Alain Giraudoux, Suarès, les Surréalistes : essai d'une psychologie originelle du littérateur'' – 1945 * ''Du poétique. Selon l'humanité, non-selon les poètes'' – 1946 * '' Non possumus. À propos d'une certaine poésie moderne'' – 1946 * ''Le rapport d'Uriel'' – 1946 * ''Tradition de l'existentialisme, ou, Les philosophies de la vie'' – 1947 * ''Du style d'idées : réflexions sur la pensée, sa nature, ses réalisations, sa valeur morale'' – 1948 * ''Trois idoles romantiques : le dynamisme, l'existentialisme, la dialectique matérialiste'' – 1948 * ''Les cahiers d'un clerc, 1936–1949'' – 1949 * ''La crise du rationalisme'' – 1949

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benda, Julien 1867 births 1956 deaths Writers from Paris 19th-century French Jews 20th-century French philosophers French male non-fiction writers Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni