Albert Caraco

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albert Caraco (born July 10, 1919 in Constantinople , † September 1971 in Paris ) was a Uruguayan French-speaking philosopher and author of Turkish descent.

Life

Albert Caraco was the only child of a wealthy Sephardic family that had lived in Turkey for centuries ; his father was a banker. The family reached Paris via Prague, Berlin and Vienna, where the son graduated from the Lycée Janson de Sailly . In 1939 he graduated from EDHEC Business School , but did not have any paid work in his life. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the family fled to South America and came over Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires to Montevideo . Here the parents converted to Catholicism , gave their son a Catholic upbringing, and acquired Uruguayan citizenship. After the end of World War II, Caraco settled with his parents again in Paris in 1946, where he stayed for the rest of his life. He devoted himself to his literary work in monastic seclusion and planned his suicide, which he only committed out of consideration for his parents and not during their lifetime. After his mother's death in 1969, he wrote the volume Post Mortem . A few hours after his father's death, he committed suicide in September 1971. Although he wrote his works in French, he was also proficient in German, English and Spanish and also wrote some sections in these languages. Because he was barely concerned with contemporary models of thought, he remained unnoticed by the academic establishment for a long time. His works were finally published by the Swiss publisher L'Âge d'Homme under the direction of Vladimir Dimitrijević .

plant

He wrote a large number of works that show a pessimistic view of man and society and have therefore been compared with those of Emil Cioran . He wrote in a language which is often reminiscent of that of the French moralists , but which is sometimes not lacking in the biblical tone and coarseness. Since he does not discuss and analyze the topics he has dealt with in his writings, but rather proclaims the views he has gained in individual sections, which are similar in length to the Propos Alains , he is somewhat reminiscent of a prophet or penitential preacher, but who does not give humanity any may hold out the prospect of a favorable prognosis, even if, unbelievably, it wanted to improve.

Caraco definitely advocates a system of values, so to call him a nihilist is wrong and is - as is so often the case - a denunciating objection on the part of those who are unable to recognize any values ​​where they cannot find their own. Neither does he deny the existence of a reality - on the contrary, he complains that only a small part of humanity is able and willing to take note of its evidence, while he turns the large number of those thoughtlessly and deceived into the "mass of the lost" (« mass of perdus ») calculates. He still lacks a - worldly - ethic, the content of which seems to be almost a matter of course to him and whose concealment by religious and profane ideological structures he denounces as well as the observance of senseless rites, which are only a mockery in the eyes of the truly spiritual. Apparently, he sees humanity approaching a catastrophe, after which some somewhat vague kind of fundamental reform seems to follow for the remainder.

In addition to expressed concern for the whole of human beings, there is often the thought of an esoteric elite, in addition to contempt for those who are unconscious and the sometimes almost anarchistic rejection of order and rule. He rejects all transcendent goals for humanity, but shows personal appreciation himself above all spiritual attitudes. It remains unclear who the evidently not just authorial we , which is often there, is supposed to include apart from Caraco itself.

Caraco's recurring motifs are war, overpopulation, delusion and the ensuing enslavement of people, ugliness of the world through modern life, the domination of the means created by them over people themselves, the ideologically based false order to which people adhere out of need who abused them. At times Caraco refers approvingly to Gnosis .

Works (selection)

  • 1952: L'école des intransigeants
  • 1952: Le Désirable et le sublime . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3112-1
  • 1957: Foi, valeur et besoin
  • 1957: Apologie d'Israël. Tome 1: Plaidoyer pour les indéfendables
  • 1957: Apologie d'Israël. Tome 2: La marche à travers les ruines
  • 1965: Huit essais sur le mal
  • 1965: L'art et les nations
  • 1966: Le tombeau de l'histoire
  • 1967: Le galant homme
  • 1967: Les races et les classes
  • 1968: La Luxure et la mort . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3119-9
  • 1970: L'Ordre et le sexe . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3122-9
  • 1972: Le Galant Homme . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3116-4
  • 1974: Obéissance et servitude . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3121-0
  • 1975: Le Tombeau de l'histoire . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3127-X
  • 1975: Ma Confession . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3120-2
  • 1975: Simple Remarques sur la France . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3125-3
  • 1975: La France baroque . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3115-6
  • 1976: L'Homme de lettres . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3117-2
  • 1979: L'Art et les Nations . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3110-5
  • 1979: Huits Essais sur le mal . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3118-0
  • 1982: Essai sur les limites de l'esprit humain
  • 1982: Bréviaire du chaos . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne 1999, ISBN 2-8251-0989-4 (German: Brevier des Chaos . Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-88221-232-2 )
  • 1983: Supplément à la Psychopathia Sexualis . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, coll. “Le Bruit du Temps”, ISBN 2-8251-3126-1 ( The realm of the senses, supplement to Psychopathia Sexualis . Matthes & Seitz, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-88221-360 -4 )
  • 1984: Écrits sur la religion . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, as part of the complete edition there, ISBN 2-8251-3113-X
  • 1985: Semainier de l'an 1969 . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-1454-5
  • 1985: Le Semainier de l'agonie . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3124-5
  • 1992: Essais sur les limites de L'esprit humain . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-3114-8
  • 1994: Abécédaire de Martin-Bâton . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-0529-5
  • 1994: Semainier de l'incertitude . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-0370-5
  • 2003: Apologie d'Israël . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-1594-0
  • 2004: Journal d'une année . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 2-8251-1752-8
  • 2012: Post Mortem . L'Âge d'Homme, Lausanne, ISBN 978-2-8251-4158-8

Remarks

  1. ^ Albert Caraco: Ma confession , preface by Vladimir Dimitrijević. S. 9. Partial online view
  2. ^ ISBN according to the publisher's website, not noted on the book itself.

literature

  • Ulrich Horstmann: The will to death. A great philosophical curse. Albert Caracos and his “Breviary of Chaos” - Not a book to pray for. In: Die Zeit Nr. 15, April 3, 1988 ( online , accessed September 14, 2012).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Caraco, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Uruguayan philosopher and author of Turkish descent
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH September 1971
Place of death Paris