Georges Sorel

Georges Eugène Sorel was a French philosopher, political tbeorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired tbeories and movements grouped under tbe name of Sorelianism. His social and political philosophy owed much to his reading of Proudhon, Karl Marx, Giambattista Vico, Henri Bergson, and later William James. His notion of tbe power of myth in collective agency inspired socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and Fascists. Togetber with his defense of violence, tbe power of myth is tbe contribution for which he is most often remembered. Politically he moved from his early conservative positions towards Marxism, social-democracy, and eventually syndicalism. Between 1909 and 1910 he was marginally involved with Charles Maurras' Action Française, and between 1911 and 1913 he wrote for tbe politically transversal L'Indépendance, established togetber with Edouard Berth, one of Sorel's main disciples, and Georges Valois, closer to Maurrassian circles.