Julien Benda
Julien Benda
Julien Bendawas a French philosopher and novelist. He remains famous for his short book, La Trahison des Clercs...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth26 December 1867
CountryFrance
attitude men greek
Since the Greeks the predominant attitude of thinkers towards intellectual activity was to glorify it insofar as (like aesthetic activity) it finds its satisfaction in itself, apart from any attention to the advantages it may procure. Most thinkers would have agreed with ... Renan's verdict that the man who loves science for its fruits commits the worst of blasphemies against that divinity. ... The modern clercs have violently torn up this charter. They proclaim the intellectual functions are only respectable to the extent that they are bound up with the pursuit of concrete advantage.
modern defiance cult
The modern moralists extol ... the cult of practical activity in defiance of the disinterested life.
teacher passion opinion
Teachers ... preach "the superiority of the intelligence"; but they preach it because in their opinion it is the intelligence which shows us the actions required for our interests, i.e. from exactly the same passion for the practical.
modern contempt romanticism
The modern clercs have created in so-called cultivated society a positive romanticism of harshness. The have also created a romanticism of contempt.
leader honor crowds
Formerly, leaders of states practiced realism, but did not honor it... With them morality was violated, but moral notions remained intact. ... The modern governor, owing to the fact that he addresses crowds, is compelled to be a moralist, and to present his acts as bound up with a system of morality.
philosophy confused humble
Philosophy, which formerly raised man to feel conscious of himself because he was a thinking being and to say, 'I think therefore I am," now raises him to say ... "I think, therefore I am not," (unless he takes thought into consideration only in that humble region where it is confused with action).