Li Gongming | Secretary of the Week: The Dimension of Historical Consciousness and... Life and death decisions

The Dimension of Historical Consciousness, by Raymond Aron, translated by Dong Ziyun, East China Normal University Press 丨Liudian Books, January 2017 edition, 350 pages, 58.00 yuan

Raymond Aaron's Dimensions of Historical Consciousness (originally titled Dimessions de la conscience historique, 1961; translated by Dong Ziyun, East China Normal University Press, January 2017) was read before, but re-reading it today has more feelings. Since entering 2022 – I have noticed that the narrative of this time has been constantly emerging in the recent past, and in real-life situations people's "historical consciousness" seems to be constantly awakened, and this "dimension" does not come from the writings of historians, but naturally emerges from the lives that people have experienced, heard and witnessed. A touching event somewhere in the world, a war that comes and goes, a tense situation that many places enter in the blink of an eye, the past and present lives of a certain city, in the "dust of the times" people will unconsciously "think about the past", "yesterday" becomes not as strange and distant as yesterday. The "backward mirror" of "history" is naturally lifted. In fact, when we are young, we know the famous saying that "forgetting the past means betraying", but we don't know what the "past" is, and we don't understand what "betrayal" is. However, to really think about what is the "dimension of historical consciousness", it is still historians who can give us a broader vision and deeper enlightenment.

The Dimensions of Historical Consciousness is a collection of essays written by Raymond Aron in the 1950s and 1960s on the relationship between historical consciousness and reality, which discuss the relationship between the history in which we live and the history we contemplate from different perspectives. With profound historical knowledge and a unique vision of reality, the author reveals the key connection between reality and history, aiming to inspire readers to think about and judge the problems and trends of life in the current era through the "dimension of historical consciousness".

The concept of "historical consciousness" was not very popular in Raymond Aron's 1950s. The German scholar Bodo von Borries points out that the concept only came to life after the 1970s, and first and foremost in the teaching of history; but it is still relatively vague and full of pitfalls in its understanding. (See Stefan Jordan, ed., Dictionary of Basic Concepts of Historical Science, translated by Meng Zhongjie, Peking University Press, February 2012, p. 82) Aaron also did not define and explain the concept of "historical consciousness" in great detail, but simply said: "Every collective has a historical consciousness." By historical consciousness I mean the meaning of the changes that humanity, civilization, nations, past and future, architecture and cities have undergone for this collective. The "historical consciousness" which he was referring to in his mind referred to the historical consciousness produced by Europeans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which strictly contained three specific components: "The dialectical consciousness of tradition and freedom, the effort to capture the truth or truth of the past, holds that a series of social organizations and human creations that have been diachronic are not arbitrary and irrelevant, but concerned with the nature of human beings." Sounding a bit awkward, his next statement may be clearer: "The free, scientific reconstruction of the past in history, the humanitarian essential meaning of the human process." (The Dimension of Historical Consciousness, pp. 85-87) If it is understood in the everyday sense of "consciousness", this historical consciousness is used to guide action, to make correct judgments and choices in action. Just as the role of the "inverted rear mirror" of history is to move forward correctly and prevent falling into the ditch or driving backwards.

This is a work on the philosophy of history, but its ideas do not arise only from the metaphysical contemplation of history in the study, but more from the controversy that accompanied the world political storms of the first half of the twentieth century. Its origins can be traced back to the reflections on philosophy and history of Raymond Aaron during his residence in Germany in the 1930s, and his doctoral dissertation, Introduction to the Philosophy of History: On the Limits of Historical Objectivity, was passed at the Sorbonne On March 26, 1938, and the defense became a fierce confrontation between two tit-for-tat views of history. At this time, when the black clouds of war are pressing down on the city and the totalitarian storm is coming, the academic discussion of historical philosophy cannot but be shrouded in the atmosphere of realpolitik, and the key issue is that the fate of Western democratic politics is uncertain. The young Ph.D. applicant dared to imagine that democracy might fail, while his professors still believed that the forces of reason could triumph over the madness of mass killings, so much so that Paul Fauconnet, one of the jury, described Raymond Aaron as "desperate or evil." (The Dimension of Historical Consciousness, Preface to the French Edition, note 2, p. 2) With historical hindsight, Aaron had misconceived his vision, but the history of the next half century confirmed that the young man had a deep sense of crisis that did not correspond to his age. As can be seen in Aaron's bibliography, he began to publish some articles on freedom and democracy in 1936, La sociologie allemande contemporaine in 1935, and many sociological and economic research articles from 1934 to 1938. These should be foundational work related to the philosophical topics of history that his doctoral dissertation studied.

I hadn't read Aaron's doctoral dissertation, nor did his Memoirs (which contained several pages on this defense), but his fears about the fate of Western democracy were certainly not the same as Nazi propaganda that democracy was in decline and had no future. Here I recall Hu Shi's July 1941 speech at the University of Michigan, "The Conflict of Ideologies," which has attracted much attention because it details twenty features of totalitarianism listed by M. Eastman in a previous Article by Max Eastman in the New York Times, but he begins by talking about the seriousness and danger of the Nazi offensive against democracies. (Translated by Zhang Qijun, see Hu Songping's "First Draft of the Long Compilation of the Annals of Mr. Hu Shizhi", Revised Edition, Vol. V, Lianjing, pp. 1732-1733) It can also be seen that Aaron's pre-war crisis consciousness was keen and profound.

By the 1950s, after the division and reorganization of postwar Europe and the world's entry into the era of nuclear threats, he continued to think broadly and deeply about historical consciousness, and this Dimensions of Historical Consciousness brings together his philosophical treatises on history from 1945 to 1960. This was a period when Raymond Aron was very active in the media and universities, public opinion and academic fields, and he boldly criticized the blindness of intellectuals, and the 1955 publication of L'opium des intellectuels (1955) caused fierce criticism and isolated him from the French left-wing intellectual circles. In the same year he returned to university and was awarded the Chair in Sociology at the Sorbonne University. In this issue he published a series of articles. Linking these articles to contemporary philosophical papers on history reveals that, like his 1938 doctoral dissertation, Aaron's study of the philosophy of history is still closely linked to the understanding and reflection of realpolitik. "Although they are all adaptations, it seems to me that they illustrate the same problem from different angles," he said. This question concerns two kinds of history: one is the history in which we live, and the other is the history in which we rack our brains. ("The Dimension of Historical Consciousness", "Preface", p. 1) The so-called "works that suit the scene" are actually concerned with reality with historical consciousness. We live in reality, and we live in history, even if we don't "rack our brains" about history.

But if it is not enough to see the close connection between reality and history, it is more important to see that the most crucial thread in this connection is historical consciousness and political consciousness – how to evaluate the history in which we live? It can be judged by different levels, all of which are ultimately related to politics and freedom. This is the thread of thought that runs through Dimensions of Historical Consciousness—from the discussion of Thucydides's grand text to the conclusion of the historian's social functioning. Aaron's special love for political history is that in political history, many individuals embody individual freedom through action, and the expression of the field of political history focuses on individual freedom. (Ibid., pp. 13-14) Readers familiar with Aron's basic ideas may find that he does have a strong interest and sense of mission in political history, and of course political philosophy, as evidenced by his Opium of the Intellectuals.

He himself has a good illustration of intervening in reality and history: "When I was a teaching assistant at the University of Bonn, I decided my intellectual path. I decided to be an 'intervening bystander', to be a spectator of history as it is now proceeding, to treat as objectively as possible a bystander of modern history, but not completely detached from history, but intervening in history. I am willing to combine the dual positions of actors and bystanders. ("Intervention bystander: Interview with Raymond Aaron", translated by Yang Zugong and Haiying, Jilin Publishing Group, 2013, p. 253) Since talking about actors and interventions, it is natural to recall Marx's classic propositions on explaining and transforming the world, before which Aron did indeed say, "When I decided to be both a historical bystander and a historical actor, it was precisely from the study of Marx, especially Capital, that I began." (Ibid., p. 27) It is true that he was deeply influenced by Marx and maintained respect for his ideas, although he disagreed with "historical determinism". As an "interventionary bystander", Raymond Aron believed in his judgment of the situation and the development of events: "I have analyzed a great deal of the political and economic situation in a decent way. I believe that my judgment is generally OK. This is a fundamental controversy concerning the nature of modern society, and I believe that I will always be on the side of the good. I [...]] No illusions. I do not believe that France can renew itself through French Algeria. (Ibid., p. 246) In fact, as a political commentator, he is always involved in the turbulent history, which is the group portrait of the real intellectuals. Aaron, Sartre's generation, and people like Tony Judt, Hobsbawm, Alexander Yakovlev, Bella Greshkovich, Charles Tilly, and Sidney Sidney. Tarot, these historians, sociologists, philosophers, developed their ideas and discourses in the context of the historically significant scene of struggle. For them, Minawa's owl doesn't have to wait until dusk, it takes off at any time in real life, in the whirlpool of struggle and in the square. Politics in life is the truest connection between reality and history.

Politics, therefore, has always been the basic level of understanding Aron's relation to real life and historical consciousness, and it is at this level that Aron points out: "Our conscience politique is, and cannot be, a historical consciousness. (The Dimension of Historical Consciousness, p. 26) This phrase is very important and well worth thinking about and remembering. When we talk about politics, we should not forget that in fact we are also talking about history, and anyway. When we talk about practical problems, political consciousness and historical consciousness are the two most crucial dimensions, if these two consciousnesses are missing, or the two consciousnesses that we think we have are fundamentally confused, then it can be said that there is a problem with this person's brain, that is, as the saying goes, "brain damage". In this sense, it can be said that the growth of a generation's political consciousness cannot be accompanied by the maturity of historical consciousness, and history has been and will always be the most important page in political textbooks. Of course, it is undeniable that there are also some people who read and study history whose political consciousness is upside down and confused. Aaron continued: "Power relations over the past half century have undergone earth-shaking changes that have never been seen in other eras. Europe, which was still the centre of international politics at the beginning of this century, was torn apart by two insurmountable wars, lost its power and, to a large extent, lost its independence. Our historical consciousness is inevitably imprinted by our experience. The instability of civilization becomes apparent to us. (Ibid., pp. 26-27) In the book, Aaron opposes historical determinism with a free and rational sense of history, against any illusory historical myth that ignores reality in the name of the future, the ultimate goal.

For readers who do not study the philosophy of history, is there any necessity or significance in reading this book and thinking about "historical consciousness"? According to the author of the Preface to the French Edition, Raymond Aaron asked the question of wondering "how we should think about the history we are presenting at the moment." "This issue is of unprecedented importance to us today. Aaron, who died in 1983, continues to ponder Les Dernières Années du siècle (The Last Years of the Century). He could not have seen the fall of the Berlin Wall and the upheaval of the Soviet and Eastern Blocs. Nor did he see the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the rise of fundamentalism. However, the realism and critical thinking that he asks the reader to have here, and which he himself practices first, still makes this little book a masterpiece worth reading often. (p. 2) How to think about the history we see now—in Aron's view, the present reality is also history, and we are living in history, which is the original fact, but we may not always think that what has happened has become history, and we may not always consciously obtain lessons from history that help to understand reality and judge trends. We may not be able to think of the time shift of the general pattern of history from the current distant war, nor may we be able to think of the famine and starvation that have existed in history from the daily meal and porridge. Although we recite "historical experience is noteworthy" from an early age, we know that "we must talk about it frequently and repeatedly." It is not enough to tell only a few people, and it is necessary to let the broad masses of the people know it," but what can be memorized is obviously not the same thing as looking at reality from the perspective of "the dimension of historical consciousness."

Speaking of the "broad masses of the people," I recall the idea that as early as 1931, the American historian Carl Lotus Becker put forward the idea that "everyone is a historian." At that time, Becker only emphasized the possibility and necessity of awakening the historical consciousness of ordinary people from the simple empirical level of personal life experience and the establishment of social consensus. After the 1970s, the emergence of "public history" in the United States promoted the use of mass cultural media as a carrier of historical memory, and in recent years, the core theme of the concepts of "applied historiography" and "public historiography" advocated by John Tosh is to cultivate citizens with rational analytical ability and critical spirit. The reader of "historical consciousness" that Aaron talked about at that time was not exactly the same as the concept of "citizens" later. Closer to Aaron's concept of "historical consciousness" and the main theme of the exposition is the famous American media personality Dan Carlin's exposition on the relationship between the "end of the day" in the historical sense and ordinary people, he believes that history and reality are sometimes separated by a thin layer of film, and the repetition and regression of history are not unimaginable things; the progress and regression of history are sometimes determined by "within reach", and the disasters that mankind has suffered are likely to come again in the blink of an eye. (See Dan Carlin, "The End is Always at Hand: From the Collapse of the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Holocaust," translated by Lin Hua, CITIC Press, August 2020) This is a historical consciousness that is closely related to the fate of ordinary people, that is, an important reason why ordinary people should also have a little "historical consciousness".

Regarding war, Aaron talks about Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War in the fifth and other chapters of the book, about the relationship between politics and war, how the historical narrative of war is written, the relationship between ancient war and modern industrial society, and so on. Reading this passage alone is a bit exciting: "The History of the Peloponnesian War is still an exciting work for three reasons. History, the conscious record of witnesses—inheritors of past events or distant observers.— Thucydides's book is also a history. For us, it is the pinnacle of the work: reading through the entire narrative, we can understand how the Greeks thought, how they governed themselves, how they fought each other. The historian Thucydides sketched the main line of the war itself, giving it the beauty of a spiritual work, and the events had various concepts to clearly expound, and did not lose their particularity. In the end, this war is a great tragedy, and we know its outcome, but we are happy to re-experience the twists and turns of it. ...... We want to know how things happened, and we want to know what happened. (Dimensions of Historical Consciousness, pp. 144-145) Aaron associates the Peloponnesian War with the two great wars of the twentieth century, concluding by reminding us that "the state exerts too much influence on society, causing change to change so rapidly." But it also shows the primacy of politics. Those in power impose a style, some goals, a certain way of allocating resources on industrial society. Today, the antagonisms between nations dominate their respective lives. ...... As long as there is war, politics is ruling, and people are active. How can we ignore Lenin, Stalin, Churchill [...] What about the heroes whose times have shaped history? Thucydides still has contemporary significance. He is a witness to the tragic war, the self-generating and inevitable events, and we are not yet ready to look beyond the contemporary fait accompli, or to forget the suffering and exploits of the fighters. (Ibid., p. 153) What exactly is meant in "historical consciousness" here requires further reflection. The Preface to the French Edition argues that "politics, and its ultimate manifestation, war, are, as Greek historians have shown, the most prone to life-or-death decisions and contingencies in history." (Ibid., p. 14) Life-and-death decisions and contingencies are key elements not only in the "historical consciousness" of war but also in politics, and are the primary dimension of our "dimension of historical consciousness." Recalling his years in Germany, Aron said: "I experienced in Germany those tragic months of 1933, week after week, when the streets of Berlin were constantly occupied by brown uniforms, and the workers who had voted for civilized socialism for half a century seemed to magically disappear, and the hoarse howl of an Austrian corporal echoed in all the loudspeakers, drowning out the voices of the cultural man who had inherited a great tradition. (p. 27) "Brown uniforms" and "tweeters," the "historical consciousness" that goes from visual to auditory memory, if revived, is a critical juncture of life and death.

The last thing that comes to mind is that people may say "there is nothing new under the sun" when talking about "historical consciousness", which is true in many cases and to a large extent, otherwise history can still be a really useful "backward mirror"? But Raymond Aron also reminds us that "historical knowledge, if applied correctly, can help us understand how the world we see came into being." But instead of teaching us nothing new under the sun, it makes us have to admit that there are things we have never seen before. (p. 112) This reminder is important, just as Germans do not necessarily know what color uniforms are after brown uniforms, and what horns are after tweeters, people always need to be mentally prepared for new things. Therefore, Raymond Aron wants to advocate and disseminate the "dimension of historical consciousness" in the name of freedom and reason, and oppose any act of oppressing human nature and killing life in the name of the future and the ultimate goal.