09 April 2005
sartre on philosophy students
'The Baccalauréat in France is something incredible, in its antiquation. In Rouen-Le Havre recently, the subject of the philosophy paper was: 'Epictetus said to a disciple: "Live Hidden". Comment.' Can you imagine - giving a question like that to school-children of sixteen in this day and age! Not only the reference is outrageous of course. Ten per cent to 20 per cent of the candidates thought that Vis Caché (Life Hidden) was Vices Caches (Hidden Vices), imagining perhaps that this was ancient orthography, and interpreted the quotation to mean: 'Hide your vices.' They then developed at length the idea of Epictetus along the lines 'If you have vices, then satisfy them, but secretly.' The funniest, and saddest thing of all is that they approved the formula of Epictetus! 'For it is like that in society, one can have a vice, but one should practice it in solitude.' Innocent answers, showing what bourgeois morality is in fact like; pitiful answers because these pupils obviously thought, 'Epictetus must be famous, if I criticize him I might get 4 out of 20 and fail, the only thing to do is to agree with him.' There is no relationship, no contact whatever between these young people and their teachers. Bourgeois culture in France is destroying itself. Thus for the moment, regardless of the eventual future, I believe that a radical negation of the existing culture is the only possible option for young militants - a negation which will often take the form of violent contestation.' - Jean-Paul Sartre, 'The Itinerary of a Thought', interview with New Left Review, 1969. Published in Between Existentialism and Marxism, trans. by John Matthews (London, New Left Books: 1974), p. 63.
