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Julien Benda's classic study of the European 1920s resonates
today. La trahison des clercs is one of those phrases that bristle
with hints and associations without stating anything definite. In
his new introduction, Roger Kimball quotes from a contemporary,
Alain Finkielkraut, who recalls in haunting words the essence of
The Treason of the Intellectuals. "When hatred of culture becomes
itself a part of culture, the life of the mind loses all meaning."
As Kimball reminds us, in the present age, only the title of the
book, not its argument, enjoys currency. The book itself is well
known without being known well. Its release at this time should
overcome that neglect.
The "treason" of which Benda writes was the betrayal by the
intellectuals of their unique vocation. From the time of the
pre-Socratics, intellectuals, in their role as intellectuals, had
been a breed apart. In Benda's terms, they were understood to be
"all those whose activity essentially is not the pursuit of
practical aims, all those who seek their joy in the practice of an
art or a science or a metaphysical speculation, in short in the
possession of non-material advantages." Thanks to such men, Benda
noted, "humanity did evil for two thousand years, but honored good.
This contradiction was an honor to the human species, and formed
the rift whereby civilization slipped into the world."
According to Benda, this situation began to change in the early
decades of the twentieth century. More and more, intellectuals
abandoned their attachment to the traditional panoply of
philosophical and scholarly ideals. One clear indication of the
change was the attack on the Enlightenment ideal of universal
humanity and the concomitant glorification of various
particularisms. The implications for intellectual life today are
transparent, and this long unavailable classic of European thought
should interest all those who teach and who preach the human
sciences.
Julien Benda's classic study of 1920s Europe resonates today. The
"treason of the intellectuals" is a phrase that evokes much but is
inherently ambiguous. The book bearing this title is well known but
little understood. This edition is introduced by Roger Kimball.
From the time of the pre-Socratics, intellectuals were a breed
apart. They were non-materialistic knowledge-seekers who believed
in a universal humanism and represented a cornerstone of civilized
society. According to Benda, this all began to change in the early
twentieth century. In Europe in the 1920s, intellectuals began
abandoning their attachment to traditional philosophical and
scholarly ideals, and instead glorified particularisms and moral
relativism. The "treason" of which Benda writes is the betrayal by
the intellectuals of their unique vocation. He criticizes European
intellectuals for allowing political commitment to insinuate itself
into their understanding of the intellectual vocation, ushering the
world into "the age of the intellectual organization of political
hatreds." From the savage flowering of ethnic and religious hatreds
in the Middle East and throughout Europe today to the mendacious
demand for political correctness and multiculturalism on college
campuses everywhere in the West, the treason of the intellectuals
continues to play out its unedifying drama.
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