It is Right to Rebel

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Philippe Gavi, Pierre Victor

The early 1970s were a crucial period in the political and intellectual climate of France. The newspaper Lib�ration was founded in the wake of the protest movements of 1968, and the country was gripped by industrial, political and civil unrest on a huge scale. Behind all this were deep debates about the nature and justification of revolt, class conflict and consciousness, and the nature of what it meant to be free.



It is Right to Rebel, available in English for the first time with a new Preface by Philippe Gavi, is a fascinating discussion between three thinkers about this extraordinary period. The book comprises extensive conversations between the philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, journalist and co-founder of Lib�ration Philippe Gavi, and political radical and Maoist Pierre Victor, all conducted between 1972 and 1974. In these conversations Sartre works out his relation between socialism and freedom, providing fascinating background to his tortured relationship with the French Communist Party. Together with his interlocutors they explore and debate what should be the basis of ethics, the nature of oppression and racism, including immigration, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Chilean military coup in 1973 and more. A recurring theme is their exploration of two major questions: what should ethics be based on, and what makes for a revolutionary?

It is Right to Rebel is a fascinating insight into the philosophical and political background to Sartre's thought as well as the two lesser-known figures of Gavi and Victor, who play political foil to Sartre's measured philosophical stance. It is a fascinating, rich new resource for anyone studying Sartre, political theory, and French politics and political history.

334 pages, Hardcover

Published September 25, 2017

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.