La liberté de l’esprit contre la domination totalitaire. Raymond Aron, critique du communisme réel et imaginaire

Abstract

The critical analysis of Communism as a new regime which appeared in 1917 has been a difficult task in the context of the first half of the 20th century, especially after the alliance against Nazism during the Second War. However, the great French political thinker Raymond Aron structured his scientific and polemical arguments as soon as the thirties and until his death in 1983. His thought stood at the interface of reading Marx and watching at political events. That’s why he displayed his reflection on three grounds: the ideology as a destructor of objectivity, the totalitarian regime as a political monopolistic structure ruining the society, and the foreign policy of the Soviet imperialism, which requires both an acute comprehension and a prudent but determined fight. These were in his view the conditions for the safeguard of freedom of spirit against totalitarian domination