Trần Đức Thảo (1917–1993)

Vietnamese-French philosopher, phenomenologist, and marxist. Author of Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique (Minh-Tân, 1951; Gordon and Breach, 1985 trans.) — the principal work integrating Husserlian phenomenology with marxist materialism. Arrested autumn 1945 (during the post-WWII Indochinese pro-independence agitation in France); MP mobilized for him. As gérant of Les Temps Modernes, MP commissioned Thảo's recension of Kojève's Introduction à la lecture de Hegel (TM, September 1948), to which MP responds anonymously in the N.D.L.R. (Note de la rédaction) — the philological anchor of MP's earliest published "déhiscence" on Hegel.

Key Points

  • Born 1917 Vietnam; ENS 1936; agrégé de philosophie 1942 (alongside MP's milieu).
  • Arrested autumn 1945 in connection with Vietnamese pro-independence activity in Paris; MP mobilized publicly for his release (one of MP's first political-personal interventions in Les Temps Modernes).
  • Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique (Minh-Tân, 1951) — the principal work; argues for an integration of Husserlian phenomenology with materialism as historical methodology. Translated to English (Reidel/Springer, 1986) and Italian; influences Althusser, Derrida, Bourdieu.
  • 1951: returned to Vietnam, became professor of philosophy at the new Hanoi University.
  • Recherches sur l'origine du langage et de la conscience (1973) — late work on language genesis.
  • After the post-1945 Vietnamese-marxist establishment turned hostile, Thảo was marginalized in Vietnam and eventually returned to Paris in old age.

Role in This Wiki

The September 1948 Kojève recension

In Les Temps Modernes September 1948, Thảo publishes a recension of Kojève's Introduction à la lecture de Hegel (Gallimard 1947). The recension makes three principal claims:

  1. "La dialectique hégélienne n'a de sens évidemment que par l'athéisme."
  2. Hegel "expose sur le plan du concept un mouvement réel, dont la description correcte n'est possible que dans l'horizon du matérialisme historique et dialectique."
  3. "Il nous a semblé exagéré de vouloir interpréter le contenu de la Phénoménologie tout entière par la dialectique du maître et de l'esclave."

MP's anonymous N.D.L.R. response

MP signs the response anonymously as TM gérant (Dalissier follows Saint Aubert's attribution). The response engages Thảo's three points selectively:

"Le mot de 'matérialisme', l'idée d'une dialectique 'propre' à la nature sont-ils [...] les plus convenables pour exprimer cette pensée, voilà ce que nous demanderions, — si nous ne devions attendre, pour le faire, la théorie de la nature dont l'auteur ne donne ici qu'un aperçu. Mais, même si nous formulons autrement que lui les conclusions, et parlons d'ambiguïté, quand il parle d'objectivité ou de nature, son exégèse a pour nous la valeur d'un rappel à l'ordre: il ne faut pas affadir la pensée de Hegel, il faut en regarder en face l'énigme centrale, cette déhiscence qui ouvre à la nature et à l'histoire, mais qui a déjà son analogue à l'intérieur de la nature, et ne s'explique donc pas 'par en bas', mais pas davantage 'par en haut'."

The response makes three key claims:

  1. "Matérialisme" is not the right word for Hegel; ambiguïté is preferable.
  2. Hegel's central enigma is déhiscence that "opens to nature and history" — without explanation "from below" or "from above."
  3. The master/slave totalization is implicitly endorsed as exaggerated (MP shares Thảo's critique here).

The Sept 1948 N.D.L.R. as wiki anchor

This N.D.L.R. is the philological anchor of three load-bearing wiki claims:

  1. MP's earliest published "déhiscence" on Hegel — predating V&I by 16 years. Cf chiasm page; cf claim candidate.
  2. MP's 1948 turn to "ambiguïté" as Hegel-vocabulary — replacing the 1947 strabisme-of-Gide reading. Cf ambiguity-vs-ambivalence page.
  3. MP's resistance to Kojève's master/slave totalization — confirming the PPH marginalia "Entre autres choses?" Cf Kojève page.

Connections

  • recensed Kojève's Introduction in Temps Modernes September 1948.
  • responded to by MP in the anonymous N.D.L.R. — the philological anchor of MP's 1948 déhiscence and ambiguïté.
  • defended by MP in 1945 (the post-arrest mobilization).
  • parallel phenomenologist-marxist with Lefort, Lefebvre, and others.

Sources

  • merleau-ponty-2022-inedits-ii-1947-1949 — Dalissier editorial introduction (pp. 65–69) reproduces and analyzes Thảo's recension and MP's N.D.L.R. response.
  • T. Đ. Thảo, Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique (Minh-Tân, 1951; English trans. Phenomenology and Dialectical Materialism, Reidel, 1986) — the principal work.
  • TM N°36 (September 1948) — the original Thảo recension and MP N.D.L.R.