Philosophers at War

Monument for Ernest Psichari in Rossignol, Belgium

One week ago the end of the First World War (WW1) was commemorated in several countries; especially in France, Britain and Belgium. In 1914, this war was welcomed by many persons with great enthusiasm but this changed soon, when after a month it turned from a war of manoeuvre into a long lasting war of attrition. Finally after four years fighting ended on 11 November 1918. The political outcome was actually not more than a truce and twenty years later a new war started. The human outcome of WW1 was 17 million dead, both soldiers and civilians. For my blog the interesting question is: What did philosophers do in those days? In order to get a small impression I browsed the Internet. Here is the result. Note that the choice of the names is completely arbitrary and not representative. It reflects only my personal interest and what I happened to find during my search. The question would really be worth a thorough investigation.

- Ludwig Wittgenstein. On the outbreak of the war, Wittgenstein volunteered in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He served with the artillery but he has also been involved in some of the heaviest fighting at the front with Russia. Wittgenstein received several decorations for his courage. Later he fought at the Italian front with his Tractatus in his knapsack. There he was taken prisoner on 3 November 1918. It is clear that he run a serious risk to be killed, so how would philosophy have developed if Wittgenstein had died then or had lost his Tractatus?

- Bertrand Russell. Russell was a determined pacifist. He openly opposed WW1 and was, among other anti-war activities, active in an organisation that supported conscientious objectors. In 1916 he was fined for writing a leaflet supporting conscientious objection and in 1918 he was given a prison sentence of six months for “insulting an ally” (the American army). In 1916 he was dismissed from Trinity College (Cambridge University) because of his anti-war activities.

- Alfred North Whitehead. Whitehead had written with Russell the Principia Mathematica on the foundation of mathematics. Different from Russell, he supported the war and sent off his two sons at war. One didn’t come back. Their different opinions about WW1 drew both philosophers apart, although they always stayed on relatively good terms. Later Russell wrote about this that Whitehead “was more tolerant than I was, and it was much more my fault than his that these differences caused a diminution in the closeness of our friendship.”

- Max Scheler. Scheler voluntarily joined the German army, but was declared unfit, so he remained working as a philosopher. In 1917-1918, the German State Department sent him to Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands to influence Catholic circles. He gave also lectures to sick and wounded German soldiers interned in the Netherlands. At the beginning of WW1 Scheler believed in the creative force of war. Later he changed his view and saw it as a moral disaster.

- Henri Bergson. Bergson supported in several philosophical writings the case of war. He was an important French advocate of the USA joining the war. In January 1917 he became a special envoy of the French government to meet the US president Wilson and he participated also in the negotiations that led to the American entry in the war.

- Edmund Husserl. Husserl lost one of his three children during WW1. Another son became wounded but survived. He saw WW1 as the collapse of the old European world. This meant for philosophy that it had to look for a new orientation.

- Ernst Troeltsch. Like most of his colleagues Troeltsch supported Germany’s war against France in 1914. “Yesterday we took up arms. Listen to the ethos that resounds in the splendour of heroism: To your weapons, To your weapons!”, he said. He considered the German soldiers as morally superior to their adversaries. Moreover, the French were decadent and arrogant, according to him. Later he changed his views. Already in 1916 his tone became moderate and after WW1 he supported the Weimar Republic.

- Mohandas K Gandhi. Of course, Gandhi, the advocate of non-violence and opponent of violence, did not support war. Nevertheless, he supported Britain actively in some sense. He happened to arrive in England on 6 August 1914 and one of the first things he did was helping to raise an ambulance unit. However, he became ill and didn’t serve in the unit himself, and soon after his arrival in England, he returned to India again. His motivation for this support of the British was, as he explained later: “I knew the difference of status between an Indian and an Englishman, but I did not believe that we had been quite reduced to slavery. I felt then that it was more the fault of individual officials than of the British system, and that we could convert them by love. If we would improve our status through the help and cooperation of the British, it was our duty to win their help by standing by them in their hour of need.”

The philosophers just mentioned survived WW1, mainly because they didn’t go to war themselves. Others were not so lucky and were killed in action. The names of most of them (as philosophers) will never be known or they have been forgotten by most of us. Take, for instance, Ernest Psichari. Some French readers may know his name, but I think that most readers hear of him here for the first time. I heard of him for the first time on one of my many trips along the battle fields of WW1. This French writer and philosopher died near Rossignol in Belgium on 22 August 1914, 31 years old. It was there on a stele that I read his name. Let him stand for all those fallen philosophers we never have heard of. This blog is dedicated to them.