Pierre Manent
Pierre Manent (born May 6, 1949 in Toulouse ) is a French philosopher and emeritus Directeur d'études at the Center d'études sociologiques et politiques Raymond Aron of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales , where he still teaches political philosophy . Each fall, he also works as a visiting professor at Boston College .
Life
Manent grew up in a communist environment. Originally unbaptized, he joined the Catholic Church during high school. After studying at the École normal supérieure , Manent became assistant to Raymond Aron at the Collège de France . He was a co-founder of the anti-communist quarterly Commentaire , to which he continues to make regular contributions. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences .
Manent is considered to be an important representative of contemporary political philosophy in France, taking a position of conservative liberalism in the footsteps of Raymond Aron and Leo Strauss . His work, such as Histoire intellectuelle du libéralisme , contributed to the rediscovery of the tradition of political liberalism, which reached its first high point in France in the 19th century with François Guizot and Alexis de Tocqueville. In the 20th century it was mainly represented by Raymond Aron, whose work Manent continues in his own way.
Teaching
Manents thinking aims to maintain a balance between the important poles of human life: politics, philosophy and religion. He is interested in the emergence of modernity from ancient thinking. Based on Leo Strauss , he sees a historical break with antiquity and medieval thinking in Niccolò Machiavelli and the claim that has since been directed towards the mastery of nature and the autonomous design of human living conditions. The Reformation in the sixteenth century, the emergence of the natural sciences in the seventeenth century, the political revolutions in America and France in the eighteenth century are not contradicting one another, but are only logical phenomena of the new drive for progress and the associated change.
In Les Métamorphoses de la Cité , Manent developed the concept of “political form” as a historical explanatory model of political structures , which is determined by the geographical location and the context of its inhabitants. He defines the characteristic basic types as the ancient Greek polis , the empire , the realm of the church and the nation state . In addition to the geographical boundaries, the size and diversity of the population determine these forms. Politics in the polis was original and immediate because the spatial size and number of citizens remained manageable. The Roman Empire is an example of the expansion of a city into a vast empire. This development is an early example of the emergence of modern states. Manent refers to Cicero , in whom the concept of the state as a public person can be found, on the other hand to property as the basis of the political order , and thirdly to the concept of personality - all institutions that did not yet exist in ancient Greece. After the collapse of Rome, the Papal States offered a new model for living together in a political form. Due to the separation of political and religious leadership (“ secularism ”), this form could not remain stable. The reaction was the formation of nation states independent of the Church. However, their rivalry in turn led to the armed disasters of the 20th century. This was followed as a reaction by the desire for supranational communities, which was realized in the European Union , for example .
From Manent's point of view, this supranational form of organization of the EU has not yet found its “political form”. Europe still seems very limited and artificial. A society emerged in which political life and civilization are divided. The human being in this society is no longer a "political being" ( animal politikon ), but driven by gainful employment and property . Politics is seen as inferior. But because politics is a fundamental factor in coexistence, Manent warns of the risk of instability. It seems important to him that the political agenda should contain an appropriate number of tasks that are subject to mutual appreciation. Too few goals lead to indifference, too many to disorientation and a lack of authenticity. The continual enlargement of the EU also threatens to lose the image of a geographical framework. This prevents a stable public space that conveys security and identities. That is why Manent sees the liberal nation state as an even better alternative for promoting prosperity and political community. Individual freedom can only be guaranteed within the framework of an orderly political community.
In his own way, Manent is a staunch European and has long warned that Europe must find its "political form" if it is to retain or regain political weight in the world. He doubts that the European Union is up to this task, but also criticizes the politicians working in the nation states for their lethargy and their tendency to replace government with mere administration. He has his arguments for this in the book La raison des nations. Réflexions sur la démocratie en Europe . He sees an erosion of the "political form" of the nation without the EU having an answer. Instead, an unspecified “ humanity ” becomes the standard of value. This means that the historically acquired values of individuality, equality and freedom are increasingly being lost. Phenomena such as the European financial crisis exacerbate the situation. Another example is the systematic turning away from their Christian tradition by Europeans. The departure from Christian roots, represented for example by an exaggerated interpretation of secularism in France, endangers both the identity of the individual nations as well as that of the entire continent from Manents point of view.
Fonts
- Naissances de la politique modern. Machiavel, Hobbes, Rousseau . Payot, 1997, Gallimard reprint 2007
- Tocqueville et la nature de la democratie . 1982, new edition 1993
- Les Libéraux . 1986, new edition Gallimard 2001
- Histoire intellectuelle du libéralisme. dix leçons . 1987, new edition 1997
- La Cité de l'homme . 1994, new edition Flammarion, Paris 1997
- Modern Liberty and Its Discontent . 1998
- Cours familier de philosophie politique . Fayard, 2001, new edition Gallimard 2004
- L'Amour et l'amitié d'Allan Bloom (traduction). Livre de Poche, 2003
- Une éducation sans autorité ni sanction? (with Alain Renaut and Albert Jacquard ), Grasset, 2004
- La raison des nations . Gallimard, 2006
- Ce que peut la littérature (with Alain Finkielkraut , Mona Ozouf and Suzanne Julliard ), Stock, coll. «Les Essais», 2006,
- Enquête sur la democratie. Etudes de philosophie politique . Gallimard, 2007
- Le Regard Politique, (with Benedicte Delorme-Montini), Flammarion, Paris 2010
- Les Métamorphoses de la Cité, Flammarion, Paris 2010
- English translations
- Metamorphoses of the City: On the Western Dynamic translated by Marc A. Lepain, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2013
- Democracy Without Nations: The Fate of Self-Government in Europe translated by Paul Seaton, Intercollegiate Studies Instituts, Wilmington, Delaware 2007 ( Review )
- A world beyond politics? translated by Marc A. Lepain Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2006
- Modern Liberty and its Discontents . Translated by Daniel J. Mahoney and Paul Seaton, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 1998
- The City of Man. Translated by Marc A. LePain Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1998
- Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy. Translated by John Wagoner, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 1996
- An Intellectual History of Liberalism. Translated by Rebecca Balinski, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1994 ( Review )
Web links
- Modern Individualism (originally appeared in the October 1995 issue of Crisis Magazine)
- “The Return of Political Philosophy” , First Things (adapted from a conference paper delivered at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in June 1999)
- City, Empire, Church, Nation. How the West created modernity , City Journal 2012
- Birth of the Nation. How this surprising political form became the framework of Western civilization , City Journal Winter 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Manent, Pierre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French political philosopher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 6, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Toulouse |