La Connaissance Inutile.jean-francois Revel.pdf

At first glance, the title La Connaissance Inutile (Useless Knowledge) seems counterintuitive. Revel was an intellectual, a man of letters who dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth. Why would he declare knowledge to be useless?

Revel famously coined the phrase (intellectual blindness). He argued that this blindness was not accidental but voluntary. It was a refusal to utilize critical thinking when it mattered most. The tragedy, according to Revel, is that this knowledge was available; the crimes of the 20th century were not committed in the dark, but under the gaze of a public that chose to look away. La connaissance inutile.Jean-Francois Revel.pdf

In the text, Revel dissects the psychological mechanism that allows intellectuals to defend oppressive regimes. He observes that while the facts of the Gulag, the purges, and the famines were known, they were treated as "useless knowledge"—inconvenient truths to be brushed aside in service of a utopian ideal. At first glance, the title La Connaissance Inutile

Revel argues that modern intellectuals have abandoned the "referee" of reality. Instead of asking "Is this true?", they ask "Is this critical of the establishment?" Revel cites the persistent denial of Soviet gulags by Western leftists. He posits that knowledge becomes useless not when it is unknown, but when it is deliberately ignored because it conflicts with ideological comfort. Revel famously coined the phrase (intellectual blindness)