Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Jeremy Jennings
- Select bibliography
- Chronology
- Biographical synopses
- Note on the text
- Note on the translation
- Reflections on violence
- Introduction: Letter to Daniel Halévy
- Foreword to the third edition
- Introduction to the first publication
- I Class struggle and violence
- II The decadence of the bourgeoisie and violence
- III Prejudices against violence
- IV The proletarian strike
- V The political general strike
- VI The ethics of violence
- VII The ethics of the producers
- Appendix I Unity and multiplicity
- Appendix II Apology for violence
- Appendix III In defence of Lenin
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Introduction to the first publication
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Jeremy Jennings
- Select bibliography
- Chronology
- Biographical synopses
- Note on the text
- Note on the translation
- Reflections on violence
- Introduction: Letter to Daniel Halévy
- Foreword to the third edition
- Introduction to the first publication
- I Class struggle and violence
- II The decadence of the bourgeoisie and violence
- III Prejudices against violence
- IV The proletarian strike
- V The political general strike
- VI The ethics of violence
- VII The ethics of the producers
- Appendix I Unity and multiplicity
- Appendix II Apology for violence
- Appendix III In defence of Lenin
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
The reflections that I submit to the readers of Le Mouvement socialiste on the subject of violence have been inspired by very simple observations about evident facts which play an increasingly marked role in the history of contemporary classes.
For a long time I have been struck by the fact that the normal development of strikes has included a significant number of acts of violence; but certain learned sociologists seek to disguise a phenomenon that everyone who cares to use his eyes must have noticed. Revolutionary syndicalism keeps alive the desire to strike in the masses and only prospers when important strikes, accompanied by violence, take place. Socialism tends to appear more and more as a theory of revolutionary syndicalism – or rather as a philosophy of modern history, in so far as it is under the influence of syndicalism. It follows from these incontestable data that, if we wish to discuss socialism seriously, we must first of all investigate the functions of violence in present social conditions.
I do not believe that this question has yet been approached with the attention it deserves; I hope that these reflections will lead a few thinkers to examine the problems associated with proletarian violence more closely; I cannot too strongly recommend these studies to the new school which, inspired by the principles of Marx rather than the formulas taught by the official proprietors of Marxism, is in the process of giving socialist doctrines a sense of reality and a seriousness which they have certainly lacked for several years.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Sorel: Reflections on Violence , pp. 39 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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