Intellectual Responses: Thinking After Catastrophe

French intellectuals faced crisis: How could civilization that produced Descartes and Voltaire also produce Verdun? The war challenged every philosophical system, forcing fundamental reconsiderations.

Henri Bergson, France's most celebrated philosopher, initially supported war effort through patriotic speeches. Yet his philosophy of creative evolution seemed mocked by mechanized destruction. His postwar work showed diminished optimism about life force's benevolence. The élan vital that drove evolution also enabled efficient killing.

Paul Valéry's "The Crisis of the Mind" (1919) diagnosed European civilization's mortal illness. "The illusion of European culture has been lost," he wrote. "Knowledge has not protected us from barbarism. We discovered that civilizations can die, and ours shows every symptom of mortality." His pessimism influenced interwar thought profoundly.

Catholic intellectuals faced particular challenges. Jacques Maritain sought meaning through renewed Thomism, finding in medieval philosophy resources for comprehending modern horror. Georges Bernanos, veteran turned novelist, explored evil's reality through fiction. François Mauriac examined bourgeois Catholics' complicity in systems producing war. The Catholic revival, significant in interwar France, responded to war's spiritual crisis.

Romain Rolland, pacifist exile in Switzerland, maintained humanitarian ideals despite abuse from patriots. His "Above the Battle" argued for international understanding while nations slaughtered. Though condemned during war, his position gained adherents among veterans who experienced battle's reality. His correspondence with Stefan Zweig and Hermann Hesse created international pacifist network.

The Surrealists, emerging from war experience, rejected rational thought that had produced irrational slaughter. André Breton, Louis Aragon, and Philippe Soupault, all veterans, created movement exploring unconscious and dreams. Surrealism wasn't aesthetic game but desperate attempt to find meaning beyond reason's failures.