Sartre-Camus Resartus

Author(s): Robert Greer Cohn

Source: Yale French Studies, No. 30, J.-P. Sartre (1963), pp. 73-77
Published by: Yale University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929259
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ROBERT GREER COHN

Sartre-CamusResartus
Over a period of thirtyyears or more, Jean-PaulSartre has been
patientlybut stubbornly
workingat an understanding
of realityfrom
the roots up. The monumentalBeing and Nothingness,the likewise
Critiquede la raisondialectique,and a dozen otherworksstandwitness to the man's progress.And still Sartreis so beset withqualms
as to whatbest to do thathis long-announced
book on Ethicshas yet
to appear (thoughrumorsays it is well advanced). In 1952, after
he had gone over the problemof how to become morallyor politically involved without losing one's liberty,with a Kantian or
Husserlianthoroughness
and a modernanguish,up popped his quondam friendand ally AlbertCamus to announce that Sartre'streatmentof the whole issue was based on a contradiction:"As long as
you have notclarifiedor eliminatedthecontradiction
[roughly,
liberty
versushistoricaldeterminism],
definedyournotionof history,assimilated Marxism,or rejectedit, how can we be deprivedof the right
to contend that, no matterwhat you do, you remain withinthe
boundariesof nihilism?"
Since Camus has, in his L'Homme revolte,peremptorily
relegated
all the major mindsfromHegel to Nietzscheand beyond"withinthe
boundariesof nihilism,"Sartremay not have takenthis proscription
too muchto heart;but is it reallyfairto ask a man to solve a kind
of Zeno's paradox in the metaphysicalrealmbeforemakingan ethical move? Is it not ratherthe intensity
withwhicha man attemptsto
solve a dilemmathatcountsmost in our estimationof his fitnessto
judge and to act?
So Sartre:"I don't advise you to read Being and Nothingness,
the
readingwould seem pointlessly
arduousto you: you detestdifficulties
of thought.... But I explainedtherepreciselythe conditionsof this
break [betweenlibertyand determinism]."
And Sartreyet again patientlysummarizedthe paradox of freedom-and-involvement
with
which he has more stubbornlywrestledthan anyone in our time:
"the paradoxicalaspect of thisformulaexpressessimplythe paradox
of our historicalcondition,"meaningthat, in the realm of praxis
thereare no absolute solutions,tryas we may,and must,for them.
As forextendinghis theoreticalpositioninto the domain of ethics
and politics,fewwritershave committed
themselvesas frequently
and
concernedlyas J.-P. Sartre.The textsin whichhe had explainedhis
attitudestowardhistoryand contemporary
ideologyare both num73

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Yale French Studies

theyrangefromthe"Preface"to thefirstissue
erousand weighty;

of Les Temps Modernes,ExistentialismIs a Humanism,What Is

Literature?,Entretienssur la politique,to various editorials,and a

et la paix,"fromwhichwe
articleon "Les Communistes
book-length
shallquote.
But Camuswas oblivious:hereis thewayhe endsthe"Letterto
"For
whichsetoffthefireworks:
theEditorofLes TempsModernes"
and in our time,if we
in ourselves
we shallneversurpassanything,
to use
our contradictions,
howeverlittle,to forget
ourselves,
permit
and a methodforwhich
thearguments
in thecombatsofintelligence
if we conjustifications,
thephilosophic
we do notacceptotherwise
all the whileadmitting
the individual
sentto liberatetheoretically
thatmancan be enslavedundercertainconditions...
practically
howeverlittle,our contraThis "if we permitourselvesto forget,
in theIntroby Camushimself
dictions"is madepalpablenonsense
as an act,is unductionto L'Hommere'volte':"theabsurdposition,
imaginable."
- whathappens
at all thispurity
No wonderSartregotirritated
Camusseemedto be
temperateness?"
to thefamed"Mediterranean
reas soonas thelastwordwas deftly
in readiness,
sayingfarewell,
up intotheair in thewakeof St. Leopold
corded,to zoomstraight
"who
Bloom"likea shotoffa shovel."Hence Sartre'sincredulous
areyouCamus?"ButCamusis alreadyoutof sight,amidtheangels
putshimself.
and prematurely
on whosesidehe so consistently
your
his breath,and muses:"I didn'tunderstand
Sartrerecovers
- 'either
has a senseor else ithasn't,etc.'- until
History
dilemma
I rereadyourLettersto a GermanFriend.But it all became clear to

me whenI foundthisphraseyou addressedto a Nazi soldier:'for

yearsyou have triedto makeme enterHistory.'Parbleu,I said to
to be outside,it'snormalforhimto
sincehe believeshimself
myself,
I'm albeforegoinginside.. . . But supposing
lay downconditions
readyin, supposethatfrommypointof viewyourverysulkingis
there
. . . We willnotdiscusswhether
theproofofyourhistoricity.
notethatifthereare
History:we willsimply
arevaluestranscending
humanactionswhichare by
through
themselves
any,theymanifest
youhave
historical....If yousaythatthisworldis unjust,
definition
a worldwithout
lostthematch:you are alreadyoutside,comparing
content."
without
justiceto a Justice
ButCamushas a trump:Sartrehas "les mainssales,"- thereare
slavecamps.The wayCamuswieldsthistrump(a club,as it were)
He firstaccusesSartre's"disciple"Jeansonof
is notveryedifying.
ignorL'Hommerevolte,
aboutthecampswhilediscussing
nottalking
theoretical
a reviewof a highly
ingthefactthatJeansonwas writing
Sartreis thenjudgedguiltyof his disciple's
book. By association,
omissions.

74

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ROBERT GREER COHN

"We are on the
Sartre'sreactionis typicalSartre-as-polemicist:
Quai des Orfevres,the cop walks and his shoes creak like in the
movies: 'We know everything,
I tell you. It's your silence that is
suspicious.Come on, admityou're an accomplice.You know about
thosecamps,eh? Say it,it'llbe finished,
and thenthe courtwill settle
withyou foryouradmissions.'My God, Camus, how seriousyou are
and, to use one of yourown expressions,how frivolous. ...
"I've seen themrejoicing,the anticommunists,
over the existence
of theseslave camps; I have seen themuse themto give themselves
a ,good conscience; and I didn't get the impressionthat theywere
helpingthe Turkmens,but thattheywere exploitingtheirmisfortune
as the USSR exploitstheirlabor. . . . If one opened one's mouthto
protestover some extortion,he had it clapped shut with: 'And the
camps0' . . . About thattimeI began to findthesemasterblackmailers abject. For, to me, thescandal of the camps is the problemof all
of us. You as well as me. And all theothers;the ironcurtainis onlya
mirror,and each halfof theworldreflects
theotherhalf.... The one
who condemnstoday must know that our situationwill oblige him
tomorrowto do worse thanwhat he has condemned."This "worse"
has not yet occurred,but therehave been furthersigns of the possibility.
Sartredemonstratedhis good faithin regardto his concernfor
universaldecency:"we devotedan editorialto the camps whichcommittedme entirely,and severalarticles.. . . We put the questionof
the camps and took a positionat the verymomentFrench opinion
discoveredthem.We came back to the subject severalmonthslater
in anothereditorialand we made our viewsclear in articlesand notes.
The existenceof these camps can make us indignant,horrifyus; it
may be that we are obsessed by them; but why should they embarrass us? Have I ever recoiled when it came to sayingwhat I
thoughtof the communistattitude?And if I am a fellow-traveller,
a
crypto-communist,
an ashamed sympathizer,
whence comes it that
it is me theyhate and not you?"
At thispointNicola Chiaromonteenteredthe fraywitha "Letter
fromParis" (PartisanReview, Nov.-Dec. 1952) and a prettygood
silencingtechniqueof his own. Aftercitingexactlyfiveand one-half
lines of Sartre'snineteen-page(large format)"Letterto Camus," as
againstwhole pages of Camus' "Letter,"Chiaromontedramatically
proclaimed: "It remains that Jean-Paul Sartre has not answered
AlbertCamus."
From hereon it was easy coastingto persuadean Americanpublic
that "Sartre . . . is ready to swallow a totalitarianideologyplus a
totalitarianorganization"or that "the amateurcommunist[Sartrel
considersit obvious that the Soviet Union is a fundamentally
just
state."
75

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Yale French Studies

of Sartre'sposition,
Thisis, to putit mildly,
an oversimplification
et la
as thefollowing
excerpts
fromhis article,"Les Communistes
. . . wanttheRussiansin
paix,"wouldaloneindicate:"theworkers
the
theUSSR and theAmericans
in theUSA." Next,Sartredefines
relation
between
revolutionary
forcesintheWestandRussia,.making
itclearthatanyalliancebetween
i.e. temporary,
thetwois historical,
and notnecessary:
themoreshewill
"themoresevereherdemands,
tendto appearin theeyesof thepopulardemocracies
and theproof the
letariatsas simplya particular
nation. . . theidentification
USSR and therevolutionary
cause willneverbe complete. . . the
USSR can disappear."
AftertheHungarian
revolt,
he seemedtohope
itwoulddisappear.
in thispartof
Further,
it is important
to notethatSartreis trying
it - to do
his article- and indeedto a certainextentthroughout
who is not quite
justiceto the viewsof a Westernrevolutionary
device,buttheexSartrehimself.
Thisis notmerelya fence-sitting
as wellas external,
the'same
pression
ofa dialecticwhichis internal
Brunet
thatwe see projectedin thecharacters
of Mathieuvis-a'-vis
in thenovelseries,Les Cheminsde la liberte.Of course,a commitmentemergesfromall thisjust as fromCamus'contradictions-absurdity.
The important
thingis that:1) Sartrerealizedit and Camus
did not;2) he had earnedtherightto choosemorethananybody
one can easilythinkof,notexcluding
Camus;3) we are in trouble
out
ifwe allowan intellectual
McCarranActto be enacted,shutting
all buta remoteechoofEuropeanvoiceslikeSartre's.
remarksunfollowing
For thesereasons,I findChiaromonte's
in the
helpful:"havingreachedthe conclusionthat'participation'
Communist
way to pacifyhis political
systemis themosteffective
it followsthatthe philosopher
of 'anguishedfreedom'
conscience,
in themoralsmugness
whichthesystem
grantsitsproseparticipates
had everthought
of callingSartresmug,so
lytes."No Frenchman
faras I know(evenMauriacspeaksof his "tormented
soul"), and
theutteruselessness
of thechargebecomesapparentwhenwe dison Jeanson's
coverthatCamushad alreadyremarked
"curiouscomplex in whichrepentance
and smugnessmingle;"and Sartreon
and vulnerability."
Camus: "a mixture
of somberself-sufficiency
veryseriously
then,temperswere
Well,peopletookthemselves
stuff
is bestforgotten.
The issues,
running
high;all thatad hominem
of course,are stillverymuchwithus and undoubtedly
Sartre,like
therestof us, regrets
thatCamusis no longeraroundto speakhis
thanall
mind.Whilehe was alive,Camuswas morerichlyrewarded
- notalwaysthebest- everwere.As muchas
buta fewwriters
we admiretheman,we knowthatreputations
are apt to suffer
in
thelongrunfromthissortof earlyadulation.Sartre,on theother
fromAmericans.
farlessthanhisdue,particularly
hand,has received
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ROBERT GREER COHN

He was handicappedhere by not being a footballplayer,nor handsome, as well as for otherobvious reasons.But if we can look past
thesethings,to not a fewof us he is stillthe Frenchmanto watch.

77

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