Background
Revel, Jean-François was born in 1924 in Marseilles.
(Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is th...)
Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil: imperialistic, greedy, ruthlessly competitive--a hyperpower whose riches are acquired at the expense of the Third World. Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil: imperialistic, greedy, ruthlessly competitive--a hyperpower whose riches are acquired at the expense of the Third World.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159403060X/?tag=2022091-20
(Here is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regr...)
Here is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regroup after history delivered its fatal blow to the Soviet system? Simple, argues Jean-Francois Revel: the Left retreated to the impregnable fortress of the Utopian ideal. After all, socialism incarnate was always vulnerable to criticism. Utopia, on the other hand, lies by definition beyond reproach. With the demise of the Soviet system, there is no longer a vast and flailing embodiment of their vision, and Utopia’s haughty champions can again rage boundlessly. In Last Exit to Utopia, the latest English language translation of one of Europe’s most controversial intellectuals, Jean-Francois Revel takes aim at socialist apologists who have attempted to erase or invert the manifest failures of socialist ideology. As the tide of Big Government rises in America, Revel’s forewarnings here are as prescient as they are frightening. Here is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regroup after history delivered its fatal blow to the Soviet system? Simple, argues Jean-Francois Revel: the Left retreated to the impregnable fortress of the Utopian ideal. After all, socialism incarnate was always vulnerable to criticism. Utopia, on the other hand, lies by definition beyond reproach. With the demise of the Soviet system, there is no longer a vast and flailing embodiment of their vision, and Utopia’s haughty champions can again rage boundlessly. In Last Exit to Utopia, the latest English language translation of one of Europe’s most controversial intellectuals, Jean-Francois Revel takes aim at socialist apologists who have attempted to erase or invert the manifest failures of socialist ideology. As the tide of Big Government rises in America, Revel’s forewarnings here are as prescient as they are frightening.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594032645/?tag=2022091-20
(Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life...)
Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters. Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. Does life have meaning? What is consciousness? Is man free? What is the value of scientific and material progress? Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? Their conversation is not merely abstract: they ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life. Utterly absorbing, inspiring, and accessible, this remarkable dialogue engages East with West, ideas with life, and science with the humanities, providing wisdom on how to enrich the way we live our lives.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805211039/?tag=2022091-20
Revel, Jean-François was born in 1924 in Marseilles.
Studied philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure.
Teacher of French Literature, Institut Francais, Mexico, later Florence 1952-1956. Teacher of Philosophy, Lille and Paris 1956-1963. Literary Adviser Editions Julliard and Pauvert 1961-1966, Editions Laffont 1966-1977.
Columnist of L’Express 1966-1981. Director of L’Express 1978-1981.
(Here is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regr...)
(Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is th...)
(Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life...)
(1977, First Edition, Hardcover with dust jacket, 311 pages)
(How Democracies Perish [Jean-Francois Revel, Branko M. La...)
(Histoire de flore. [Jean-Francois Revel] on Amazon.com. *...)
Revel is not a professional philosopher, and his interests are wide-ranging. In addition to the publications listed above he has produced a history of the links between culture and cuisine. And literary and political commentaries, including one about the prospect of a world revolution which would begin in the USA.
Revel sees his function in relation to the philosophical establishment as one of demystification: of challenging and deflating what he sees as the pseudo-intellectual self-satisfaction of much of twentieth-century French academic philosophy.
He has declared himself to be totally hostile to any attempt to formulate an allencompassing ideology or philosophical system, and has issued tirades against metaphysics, spiritualist philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism and the obscurities of structuralism and post-structuralism. Particular philosophers to have come under criticism in Revel's publications include Henri Bergson. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Martin Heidegger and Claude Lévi-Strauss.
The critical standpoint of Revel stems from an approach of everyday common sense in the face of philosophical obscurantism. He raises the issue of whether there is any meaning to the philosophical vocabulary used in the various grandiose systems of the thinkers whom he attacks. In addition, he maintains that many of today’s worthwhile questions are to be addressed, not by philosophy, but by the various sciences.
Although Revel is by no means a rigorous thinker, he can be regarded as aligning himself with the empiricism of much of the Anglo-Saxon philosophical tradition of this and previous centuries.
Riding, swimming.
British empiricist tradition.