The philosopher Alain in English
A selection of propos translated in English
This is an introduction to Alain’s propos, 41 of which are translated here, most of them for the first time in English.
What is a propos ? The French word is both plain and ambiguous: a suggestion, a comment, a proposition, remarks, notes? Perhaps ‘proposal’ comes closest as a translation. With Alain we can be more specific. It’s a short column, drafted on two pages of letter paper, and, at the beginning, published in a local newspaper. From 1906 he wrote them daily and only ceased with the outbreak of war in 1914; he began again in 1921 and continued to 1936, to make a total of around five thousand. At first they were mainly political commentary, but Alain’s philosophy and very wide interests soon entered in. The brevity of the form brought out a vivid, pithy and forceful style, free of jargon, that soon attracted readers and would lead to republication as several books. They are short essays with the freshness of improvisation. As Alain put it, he found that he had a taste for firing arrows at passers-by to get them to look up from their path in life – provocations in short. And, as he wrote later, by not thinking that philosophy was too good for journalism, he invented a genre of journalism – to which I would add: he also invented a genre of philosophy. (MP)
Shakespeare as a carpenter
I think of Shakespeare in his theatre company as a carpenter in his workshop, looking through his stock of wood for a suitable piece, a man who makes tables, wardrobes and chests according to public taste, and even to order, who freely decorates all these things, following his own genius,
To think is to say no
To think is to say no. Notice that the sign for yes is that of falling asleep; while waking up shakes the head and says no. No to what? To the world, to tyrants, to preachers? That’s only the appearance. In each of these cases, thought is saying no to
Equality through differences
I don’t like to think about the problem of races. This way of thinking is rather insulting. Like deciding whether someone is intelligent or not, vain or not, brave or not. It’s tempting, but should be resisted. Not that I refuse to see differences, on the contrary it seems to
The art of education
I don’t have much confidence in kindergartens and other inventions whose aim is to educate through amusement. It’s not a good method for adults. I could cite people who pass for being well educated and are bored by The Charterhouse of Parma or The Lily in the valley. They read
Fate
We don’t know how to begin anything, I mean even when stretching out one’s arm; no one begins by giving an order to the nerves and muscles; the movement begins of itself; our business is to carry it through as best we can. In this way, never deciding, we are
Make a vow
Pessimism comes from mood; optimism from willpower. Anyone who lets themselves go is sad, which is too mild a term, and soon irritated and angry. As we can see in children’s games without rules that become a fight, and from no other cause than this confused energy turning on and
A duty to be happy
It’s not difficult to be unhappy or dissatisfied ; it’s enough to sit down, like a prince waiting to be entertained ; there’s a look that eyes and weighs happiness like a commodity and casts the colour of boredom over everything; not without a certain majesty, for there is a kind of
A Library
When I see the announcement of a Library of General Culture, I hurry to the volumes, thinking to find beautiful texts, valuable translations, all the treasures of poets, politicians, moralists, thinkers. Not at all; it is, rather, well-educated men, and apparently cultivated, who are sharing their culture with me. Now
Christmas Night
Christmas night is an invitation to overcome something, because this festival is certainly not a festival of resignation. All the lights on the evergreen tree defy the night that now reigns over the earth; and the child in the crib represents our renewed hope. Fate is vanquished – and fate
A Christmas carol
The images of Christmas are astonishing and even, when looked at closely, subversive. The child in a crib, between the ox and the ass, with the adoring kings from the orient, this doesn’t mean that the powers are worth a single grain of respect. There is lèse-majesty in this old
The old myth of Christmas
The old myth of Christmas, through its images, tells us something great. More often than we suppose, every day perhaps, a son of the Spirit comes into the world between an ox and an ass. His mother, a simple soul, and his father, a little uncouth, adore the tiny king
What is Democracy?
I know of a number of good minds who are attempting to define Democracy. I have often worked at it myself, without arriving at anything but trite remarks which, worse, didn’t hold up against severe criticism. For example, someone who defined democracy as equality of rights and responsibilities would define
The king is bored
It is good to have a little difficulty in life and not follow an even path. I feel sorry for kings if all they have to do is express their desires; and the gods, if there are any left, must get a little depressed. It’s said that in the past
All Saints
It’s not surprising that All Saints Eve and the Festival of the Dead, which are just a single festival in two thoughts, should be placed at this moment of autumn, when it‘s clear that all is coming undone and that yet nothing is forecast. Everything is erased by the ceaseless
The taste of strawberries
A child kills himself – that’s something painful and almost unbearable to imagine. Let’s try to think about it clearly and find some order within this disorder. Life is good above everything; it is good in itself; reasoning adds nothing. One isn’t happy through travel, wealth, success, pleasure. One is
Christmas in the war
I remember a Christmas in the artillery. It was the first Christmas of the war; no question yet of oranges, cigars, nor bottles of wine. Still, we had money and links to headquarters through liaison officers who came to make observations from our gun emplacements, from which we had the
The cult of the dead
The cult of the dead is a fine custom; and All Souls Day falls where it should, at the moment when the visible signs make it quite clear that the sun is abandoning us. The dry flowers, the red and yellow leaves under our feet, the long nights, and the
Resistance and obedience
Resistance and obedience, these are the citizens’ two virtues. Through obedience they confirm order; through resistance they confirm liberty. And it’s quite clear that order and liberty are inseparable, for the play of forces, that is, the unceasing internal war, contains no liberty; it’s an animal life, vulnerable to chance.
The Child-God
Christmas is spring for the mind; it is all promise. In June our joys will burn brightly; the middle of the year will soon tilt to the other side. Beginnings are always more beautiful. Anyone who measures these long shadows now will know they will lengthen no further. At the
Loving what exists
Some things we have to accept without understanding; in this sense, no one lives without religion. The universe is a fact; reason has to bow down before it and resign itself to falling asleep before completing its count of the stars. A child is annoyed by a piece of wood
Obedience
I teach obedience. A difficult reader will say that’s what I’m paid for. This is true. But if our Great Men hear me on obedience, they’ll conclude that they’ve made a bad investment of their money; they are an insatiable breed; don’t they also want, along with obedience, respect and
Aristotle
Action is the basis of what we enjoy, not being acted upon. Sweets give a small amount of pleasure; all we have to do is let them melt in the mouth, and many people would like to taste happiness in the same way, but they are quite mistaken. We receive
Our first need
A sociologist said to me: It’s tempting to explain all social organisation by the need for food and for clothing oneself, economics dominating and explaining all the rest; except that the need to organise comes before the need for food. We know of happy tribes who don’t need clothes and
On the jetty at Dieppe
On the jetty at Dieppe I saw a man fishing for seagulls. He let a long line float on the green water, its hook baited. His clear eyes followed the flight of the gulls. They swam in the air with slow movements of their wings; you could see their round
A festival of light
The end of winter is a festival of light. The sun reaches into the depths of the woods. The trunks cast blunt shadows; the stream sparkles; the blue of the sky appears violent in the forks of the trees. Solid masses in the distance are lost in a golden mist.
Red mules
[‘Mean as a red mule’ – old French expression. (translator’s note)] Doubt is the salt of the mind; without the prick of doubt, all knowledge soon goes bad. I mean also the knowledge that is the best established and considered most reasonable. To doubt when you notice you’ve made a
The traffic policeman
If a traffic policeman wanted to be fair, he would question everyone, letting doctors and midwives go first; this would, in fact, be the height of disorder, and everyone would be unhappy. So the policeman doesn’t care to know who is in a hurry nor their reasons; he simply breaks
The ship of state
The old comparison, drawn from a boat and its pilot, continues to instruct citizens on their duties and their rights. First comes the sensible remark that a captain is not chosen on account of his birth but on account of his knowledge. Through this we are liberated from one kind
Candide
Snow is falling. As far as one can see there appears to be only monotonous change, but if one looks more carefully, endless variety; no two flakes have the same form, no two flakes follow the same route. Sometimes a breath of air can be guessed from a movement of
Judging for oneself
Knowing that the earth revolves around the sun doesn’t take us very far, not for happiness, not for wisdom, not for justice. A subtle man, well versed in the sciences, wanted to conclude from this that a lot of fuss was made over Galileo, a lot of fuss over not
Experience
Our distant ancestors were no more stupid than we are. Like us, they had all their experiences to hand; like us, they were within experience; their slightest movements changed the total experience, as ours do; even their thoughts were within the large melting-pot, just like ours. This is why they
Self-government
Plato has said some marvellous things on self-government, showing that this interior government should be aristocratic, that is to say, ruled by what is better over what is worse. By the better he means what in each of us knows and understands; while the people, within us, are our angers,
The stars as models
Yesterday evening the Great Bear stretched out along the edge of the horizon. Cassiopeia lifted her lanterns in a zigzag on the far side of the North Star. Vega, the blue star, was shining at the summit of the sky. Towards the west, Arcturus descended; between the two the Crown
Friendship
There are marvellous joys in friendship. This is easily understood if we notice that joy is contagious. If my presence gives joy to a friend, the sight of this joy is enough to make me feel joy in turn; so the joy that each person gives is returned; at the
The dining hall smell
There is a dining hall smell, which is the same in all dining halls. Whether it is monks eating there, or trainee priests, or schoolchildren, both boys and girls, a dining hall always has its dining hall smell. It can’t be described. Greasy water? Mouldy bread? I don’t know. If
The soul of a dog
One day, by mistake, Jupiter gave a human soul to a dog about to be born. At first the dog followed its dog’s instincts, which had already developed within his body. So he was able to suckle his mother’s milk without having learnt how. A little later, with his dog’s
League of the dogs
In the Committee of the League for the Rights of the Dog, there arose a great debate on human rights. « We must ask ourselves, » said the poodle, « whether the state of domestication in which we have seen man living for so many centuries is due to a real insufficiency of
Festivals
Dawn light bears no resemblance to evening light. Sometimes they have the same colours, but it’s doubtful whether a painter can show, by light alone, the difference between earliest morning and latest evening; it’s because he halts the sun. In reality, dawn grows lighter from moment to moment, which is
Midnight mass
Midnight mass on the 25th of December, what does it mean? I think of it as a festival of the sun, and a kind of farewell to the night. It’s the time when the sun is no longer declining, and is about to begin mounting a little higher each day,
Resistance
‘The laws are necessary relations which derive from the nature of things’. An immense formula, which I can’t get around, but bump up against as something solid, the moment that I launch into desiring laws that please me. The master, whoever he is, is quite attentive to the multitude, and
The Chaffinch
“The chaffinch, a nice subject”. So said the school inspector, a gentle man who had published a book of poems in his youth. Whether it was entitled the Ivory Plectrum or the Silver String or the Nine Holed Flute, no one remembers; but he hasn’t forgotten; he smiles at his
Articles on Alain
– PETHERAM, Michel
- Alain philosopher provocateur, an introduction to Alain
- Alain on religion
- A bibliography of Alain in English
- Why isn’t Alain better known in Anglophone countries?
– FORAY, Philippe – Alain [on education]
– LETERRE, Thierry – A philosophy « written for everyone » : From Alain to Simone Weil, [external link]
Most of the French versions of this selection of propos are taken from the two collected volumes of propos, published by Gallimard in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.
All English translations copyright Michel Petheram, unless otherwise specified.
Michel Petheram