Julien Freund

Julien Freund (8 January 1921 – 10 September 1993) was a French philosopher and sociologist. Freund was called an "unsatisfied liberal-conservative" by Pierre-André Taguieff, for introducing France to the ideas of Max Weber. His work as a sociologist and political theorist is a continuation of Carl Schmitt's. Freund, like many people from Alsace, was fluent in German and French. His works have been translated into nearly 20 languages.

Biography
Born in Henridorff (Moselle) on 8 January 1921, to a peasant mother and a socialist working class father, Freund was the eldest of six siblings. When his father died he had to end his studies. He became a teacher aged 17, and secretary to the council in his hometown.

His brother Antoine, conscripted against his will into the Wehrmacht, was injured in the battle of Orel in Russia and then deserted. This should have caused the deportation of his family, who were also aiding the resistance in Lorraine. However, they were able to destroy the Gestapo-held documents relating to their proposed deportation.

The resistance
During World War II, Freund was a member of the resistance. A member of the Libération group founded by Jean Cavaillès, he was taken hostage by the Germans in July 1940. He managed to escape to the Free Zone of France. In January 1941, he began fighting for the Libération movement of Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie, then in combat groups run by Henri Frenay, all the while getting his degree in philosophy.

Arrested in June 1942 in Clermont-Ferrand, then again in September in Lyon, he was accused alongside Emmanuel Mounier in the trial of Combat. Jailed in the central prison of Elysses, then in the fortress of Sisteron, he escaped on 8 June 1944. Returning to Strasbourg in November 1944, he became a journalist and political activist.

Academic career
Initially, Freund was a young teacher in Hommarting (Moselle). He then became professor of philosophy in collège Mangin de Sarrebourg (1946–49), lycée Fabert de Metz (1949–53) and then the lycée Fustel de Coulanges de Strasbourg (1953–60). From 1960 to 1965, he was a head of research at CNRS. In 1965, the year of his thesis at Sorbonne, he was elected professor of sociology at the University of Strasbourg, where he founded the departement of social sciences. He then taught from 1973 to 1975 at the College of Europe in Bruges, then in 1975 at Université de Montréal.

Beliefs
Freund was a support of limited democracy and that growing democratisation increases the reach of government, allowing it to become ever more invasive. Politics, Freund believed, cannot solve any cultural problems or impose social values upon society, and it should not be involved in religious affairs. Equally, religion also cannot impose upon the principles of democracy. Freund's work also drew attention to the corruption of language and its misuse in democracy: "La démocratie se décompose quand elle dilapide la sincérité en démagogie et en flatterie", i.e. "Democracy breaks down when it squanders sincerity in demagoguery and flattery".

His idea of "mesocracy" was first used in 1978, against the overuse and overreach of democracy. Mesocracy from its Greek roots, is a form of power that exists in tandem with other 'counter powers'. Rather than speaking of a singular, abstract “freedom”, Freund preferred to refer to specific freedoms, freedom of the press, of association, of conscience etc. Without such concrete freedoms, Freund argued, we will never have freedom in the singular.

Translations

 * Max Weber, Le Savant et le Politique, Plon, Paris 1959.
 * Max Weber, Essais sur la théorie de la science, Plon, Paris 1965, et Agora/Presses-Pocket, 1992.
 * Max Weber, Économie et société, Plon, Paris 1971.

Studies on Julien Freund

 * Revue européenne des sciences sociales, « Critique des théories du social et épistémologie des sciences humaines : études en l’honneur de Julien Freund », 19, no 54-55, Droz, Genève 1981.
 * Revue des sciences sociales de la France de l’Est, « Région et conflits. Hommage à Julien Freund » (Strasbourg), no 10.
 * Tijdschrift voor de studie van de verlichting en van het vrije denken, "Politiek en decadentie volgens Julien Freund", 11, no 4, 1983.
 * Studi Perugini, Università degli Studi di Perugia, no 1, 1996.
 * Empresas políticas, Sociedad de Estudios Políticos de la Región de Murcia, no 5, 2004.
 * BIHRA., "L’extrême droite à l’université : le cas Julien Freund",Revue Agone, n° 54, 2014.
 * BLANCHET, C., "Julien Freund 1921-1993 Le maître de l’intelligence du politique et notre ami à l’« enfance éternelle »", Paysans (París), vol. 37, nº 221, 1993, pp. 7-20.
 * CAMPI, A., Carl Schmitt, Freund, Miglio: figure e temi del realismo politico europeo, La Roccia di Erec, Fiorenza 1996.
 * DELANNOI, G.; HINTERMETER, P.; RAYNAUD, P.; TAGUIEFF, P.-A., Julien Freund La dynamique des conflits, Berg International, Paris, 2011 ISBN 978-2-917191-36-1
 * HOLEINDRE, J.-V., "Penser la ruse avec Julien Freund", in: KLINGER, M. (dir.), Héritage et actualité de la polémologie, Tétraèdre, París, 2007, pp. 55–67.
 * LE BOT, J.-M., "Julien Freund and the Essence of the Political, a “Mediationnist” Reading", Tétralogiques, n°20, 2015.
 * MOLINA CANO, J., La filosofía económica de Julien Freund ante la economía moderna, Cuadernos Veintiuno, no 10, Madrid 1997.
 * MOLINA CANO, J., Julien Freund, lo político y la política, Sequitur, Madrid, 1999.
 * MOLINA CANO, J., Conflicto, gobierno y economía (cuatro ensayos sobre Julien Freund), Struhart & Cía., Buenos Aires 2004.
 * PAQUOT, T., "Julien Freund, l’intellectuel frontière qui n’a pas de frontière", Revue des sciences sociales, no 40, 2008, p. 154-161.
 * TAGUIEFF, P.-A., "Julien Freund, political thinker" (tr. Kathy Ackermann), Telos (NY), nº 125, 2002, pp. 37–68.
 * TOUANNE, S. DE LA, Julien Freund — Penseur « machiavélien » de la politique, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2004.
 * ULMEN, Gary G., "Reflections of a Partisan: Julien Freund (1921-1993)", Telos(NY), nº 102, 1995, pp. 3–10.
 * VALDERRAMA ABENZA, J.C.,Julien Freund, la imperiosa obligación de lo real. Estudio bio-bibliográfico, Sociedad de Estudios Políticos de la Región de Murcia, 2005.
 * VALDERRAMA ABENZA, J.C.,"El dolor y la muerte en Julien Freund", in: ANRUBIA, E. (ed.), Filosofías del dolor y la muerte, Comares, Granada 2007, pp. 53-89.
 * VALDERRAMA ABENZA, J.C.,"El orden social: Síntesis de la actualidad de las esencias", in: CORBETTA, J. C. & PIANA, R. S., El valor de lo político: Estudios sobre Julien Freund, Prometeo Libros, Buenos Aires 2010, pp. 95–120.
 * VALDERRAMA ABENZA, J.C.,"Julien Freund, analista político. Contextos y perspectivas de investigación", in: SÁNCHEZ GARRIDO, P. & MARTÍNEZ SICLUNA, C.(eds.), Miradas liberales. Análisis político en la Europa del s. XX, Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid 2014.