Raymond Aron: Engagement and politics in the context of industrial society

Abstract

This article analyses the thought of the French philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron (1905-1983) focalizing the industrial society that emerged from post World War II and the ideological and political debate that marked the French intellectuality of XX century. Engaged liberal author, Aron polarized the French public debate with some of the letf thinkers of his age, such as J.-P. Sartre, M. Merleau-Ponty e L. Althusser. Departs from his trilogy concerning industrial society, established by Dix-huit leçons sur la société industrielle, La lutte de classes e Démocratie et totalitarisme, and approach to his works of intervention L'Opium des intellectuels and D'une saint famille à l'autre, designing to present the mannerwhich they composed some of the liberal critics of Aron to these authors and, consequently, to the communist regime.