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Part of the book: The Work and Thought of Jean Grenier (1898-1971)

J. S. T. Garfitt

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 20

Modern Humanities Research Association

FrenchPhilosophyopen

Abstract.  Humanity is beset by the weakness of contingency. There is only a limited margin within which man can operate constructively, believing in his own values. One possibility, explored in an earlier chapter, is to adopt a living tradition, such as that of Mediterranean humanism, and see one's own individual contribution as a continuation of it, as a response rather than as an independent act of creation. In Grenier's case it is the physical elements of the Mediterranean landscape and population, just as much as the general cultural tradition, which provide the cadre within which he can be free to respond to an appel. Is it not possible, however, to generalize this solution, and to suggest the kind of cadre that the artist or the intellectual is justified in adopting? The question was of the greatest importance in the 1930s.

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