From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought Book

Interesting contribution to the field by Bourg, who notes that one result of 1968 in French intellectual thought was the gradual turn away from political revolution and an embracing of ethical concerns by leading thinkers. This culminated in the primacy of ethics in the works of the 'new philosophers' of the late 1970s. Al-tough I enjoyed Bourg's argument, I would have liked to have seen more references to intellectuals and events outside of France, particularly references to neighbouring Germany.

Quotes:

1. "In the years after 1968, France did experience a revolution. In 1968 that word - revolution - was on everyone's lips. By the early 1980s and especially by the 1990s, everywhere one turned, there was talk of ethics. What had been revolutionized was the very notion of revolution itself." (4)

2. "After 1968 ethics gradually became a preferred term, lens, and framework for grappling with many aspects of life: from interpersonal relationships (especially matters of desire, sex, and gender) to institutions (universities, prisons, and psychiatric hospitals) to politics (violence, law, the state, and human rights)." (5)

3. "The end of the politics of the living revolution, which was concretely embodied in French Marxism, coincided with the return of the theme of political ethics. The ethically problematic aspects of revolutionary politics led to a re-evaluation of political ethics, the political, and ethics tout court. One of the by-products of this transformation on the intellectual-political Left was thus a return -first implicit, then explicit - of ethical approaches to thought and action." (9)