For some, Jean Grenier is an intriguing philosopher and essayist, for others he is primarily the madter of Albert Camus. A prolific writer, he worked as a teacher until his retirement in 1968, holding posts in Egypt and Italy as well as France, and was for much of his career therefore away from the centre of French literary and philosophical life: away, in fact, from the limelight. It was his memoirs of and correspondence with Camus which brought him into late prominence.
Garfitt's study presents a faithful picture of a little-known figure who, in his life and in his writing, was constantly expressing and resolving, with a greater or lesser degree of success, man's basic problems of freedom and choice in a puzzling contingent existence.
This book, originally published in paperback in 1983 under the ISBN 978-0-900547-87-4, was made Open Access in 2024 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.
This study of the work of Jean Grenier is an attempt to present a faithful picture of a little-known figure who, in his life and in his writing, was constantly expressing and resolving, with a greater or lesser degree of success, man's basic problems of freedom and choice in a puzzling contingent existence. His œuvre is wide-ranging, and it has not seemed legitimate to leave any area totally out of consideration, simply because, despite its apparent diversity, it presents a remarkable unity. Grenier himself maintained that he had only one song to sing, and the more one explores his philosophy, his art criticism and writings on aesthetics, his essays and novels, his literary criticism, his religious fragments and 'poems', the more the truth of that claim becomes evident.
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13-19
Chapter 1: Philosophical Initiation: Renouvier and Lequier J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c59e9e5
Grenier's dissertation for the diplôme d'études supérieures was presented in 1919, when he was 22, and has remained unpublished. Its title 'Le Problème du mal chez Renouvier' (hereafter cited as R), indicates clearly what aspect of Renouvier's thought attracted him. He had been preoccupied by the problem of suffering and evil since the age of sixteen, according to his own testimony. He had soon discovered the pessimistic interpretation offered by Schopenhauer, and now he was undertaking an exploration of a rather different system.
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20-30
Chapter 2: Contingency and the Intuition of the Absolute: Le Choix J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c69578c
Grenier's studies of Renouvier and Lequier have provided him with themes and a method of approach to them, but alongside these and chronologically prior to them is a basic intuition which is the key to the whole world of metaphysical consciousness.
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31-50
Chapter 3: Entretiens sur le bon usage de la liberté J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c6b092f
The intellectual cast of the argument in Le Choir is such as to suppress the intermediate zone of human values. It was to correct the balance after this uncompromising treatment of the subject of choice that Grenier undertook a more popular but no less significant work, which he called 'Conversations' (Entretiens sur le bon usage de la liberté) and in which the emphasis is strongly on possibility.
In Chapters 2 and 3 it has been shown how Grenier's thought hovers around the twin problems of freedom and choice, reluctant either to make an irrevocable decision or to exclude decisions altogether. Abstention and indifference have inevitably come within the bounds of his meditation, but so far the attraction they hold for him has not been analysed in detail. Grenier, in fact, moves towards a limited interpretation of indifference which excludes many of the attitudes and states that are popularly considered to be indifferent.
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69-79
Chapter 5: Grenier, Mysticism and Religion: Towards Commitment J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c8cf1bd
Taoism had a particular interest for Grenier because it offered a historical example of a doctrine of the Absolute taken to its logical conclusion in terms of an attitude of total indifference. Other religions and philosophies of the Absolute all seemed to him to reveal serious compromise when compared with Taoism. That did not mean, however, that he lost interest in them. Indeed, he was well aware that Taoism represented an esoteric Oriental attitude. His study of Taoism encouraged him to explore elements of more accessible Western traditions that showed similarities with it, especially in the areas of an immediate contact with the Absolute and of an accompanying attitude of indifference to the world.
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80-93
Chapter 6: From Indifference to Humanism: L'Existence malheureuse J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c054b9c
Grenier does not offer his own philosophy of evil, but examines several different approaches to the problem. As in the Entretiens, his own insights and suggestions are to be found in fragmentary form, and are not necessarily susceptible of being compressed into a homogeneous whole. After an introduction in which he notes, like Renouvier, that the human spirit seems to be made for immortality, and, like Camus, that suffering and death present an absurd contrast to that destiny, he begins in the first chapter by asking whether it is not possible to consider le mal and le bien as necessary and complementary aspects of the whole of existence.
The ideals of possibility, of freedom, of a consistent indifference, all militate against anything that could be called commitment. The Absolute itself, while in one sense demanding a total commitment, at the same time denies its adepts the right to any positive commitment in the world of material things and human society. It has been suggested, however, that there is a case to be made out for adopting a provisional set of values which allow for some significant, if limited human action, and that that set of values is not to be created ex nihilo (which would be to usurp the privileges of an Absolute Creator) or chosen arbitrarily (which would undermine even its provisional status), but found within a living, familiar tradition. The tradition is that of a Mediterranean humanism, in which man does not take the place of the Absolute, but lives, works and creates within a limited realm which Grenier calls 'la marge de l'humain'.
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103-111
Chapter 8: Grenier and Camus: Humanism and Indifference J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c380160
Almost every study of Camus includes a note on the influence of Grenier, often with particular reference to Les Îles. A comparison of their expressions of Mediterranean humanism will help to bring out Grenier's distinctive emphasis, and will also clarify the relationship between humanism and indifference in the thought of both writers.
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.
The discussion of Mediterranean humanism has raised the question of the small margin of creative initiative open to man; the chapter on orthodoxy has developed the idea of the cadre within which any such initiative must find expression. This chapter will take up the theme in the wider context of Grenier's aesthetics.
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130-44
Chapter 11: Possibility and Travel: Les Grèves and Voir Naples J. S. T. Garfitt doi:10.59860/td.c69578b
In his youth, Grenier used to spend hours reading Baedeker's guide-books and planning journeys. Although he recognizes several possible intentions where travel is concerned, Grenier is predominantly concerned with two main areas: the desire to escape from something, and the desire to attain something. The need to escape is fundamental to human existence. It is expressed in terms of different constraints: at the most basic level, geographical or social environment; then, at a higher level, self, or destiny. In Grenier's writings, the typical geographical and social environment from which escape is desired is that of Brittany, with its drab climate and its provincial mentality.
Grenier's thought cannot be separated from his life and his literary output. All are expressions of what may be described as a lived meditation in constant movement. Various levels of this meditation may be identified. No level is autonomous, and all Grenier's writings reflect something of the fruitful tension that must exist between them, a tension that Paulhan was ready to call a dialectic.
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