the founding ofLes Temps Modernes, the formulating of a “definition” of
existentialism inEH, and the failure of his experiment with the “third
way” politics of the RDR.^14
It is one thing to make a gesture of reconciliation with the French
Communist Party, but it is quite another to sell them the farm, which
Sartre seemed to be doing inSearch for a Method. Among the startling
claims of this chapter is his famous elevation of “living” Marxism to the
rank of “the philosophy of our time” (SM 30 ), to which existentialism
is related as a (necessary) “ideology” in the sense of being a function
of the cultural “superstructure” built on the economic base (forces and
relations of production). To be sure, glossing one of Marx’s rare utopian
indulgences, Sartre does admit that Marxism itself will eventually be
overcome “once man has been freed from the yoke ofscarcity...and
there will existfor everyonea margin ofrealfreedom beyond the produc-
tion of life.” Because Marxism will have lived out its span, “a philosophy
of freedom will take its place.” But Sartre warns, “we have no means,
no intellectual instrument, no concrete experience which allows us
to conceive of this freedom or of this philosophy” (SM 34 ). Years
later, in his existential psychoanalysis (biography) of Gustave Flaubert,
(^14) Rassemblement De ́mocratique Re ́volutionnaire (RDR). On Sartre’s brief involvement with
“third way” politics between communism (the PCF) and western capitalism see his remarks
with one of the founders of the RDR, David Rousset and an initial member, Ge ́rard
Rosenthal, inEntretiens sur la politique (Discussions on Politics)held on June 18 and Novem-
ber 24 , 1948 (Paris: Gallimard, 1949 ). Several of his examples in that conversation such as
the claim that “the sole way to free men is to act on their situation” ( 39 ) reflect his remarks in
Anti-Semite and Jewand “Materialism and Revolution.” Others anticipate concepts basic to
the social ontology ofSearchand theCritique: “Ours is a mediating position (une position
me ́diatrice 84 ). The building of a socialist Europe is a peace-maker (facteur)( 86 ), discussions
among the members should be conducted “in the presence of theconcrete universal”( 122 )
see thesingular universal of the Critque or regarding the chief barrier to the realization
of concrete freedom, Sartre proclaims: “It’s the existence of these quasi institutional political
formations that are the [political]parties”( 104 , emphasis added). Sartre considered the RDR
to be a non-Communist, non-Party of the Left – a gathering, not a party. But the second
conversation indicates that he had not convinced the French that this was the case. He left
the RDR on October 15 , 1949 as he began to recognize the power of the PCF over and on
behalf of the working class. He also learned that Rousset was seeking financial support for
the RDR from American labor unions and other American sources (seeLife 307 ). Perhaps
reviving memories of his youthful arguments with Sartre, Raymond Aron is reported to have
dismissed the project of the RDR as “revolutionary romanticism”(Life 304 ). Though a bit
harsh, this judgment does touch once more on the role of the imaginary in Sartre’s political
thought.
324 A theory of history:Search for a Method