A dissertation on Hegel marked the start of a notable academic trajectory at the École Normale Supérieure for a thinker who would eventually attempt to reconcile phenomenological consciousness with the tenets of Marxist materialism. His intellectual contributions garnered attention across French philosophical circles during the mid-twentieth century, earning him citations from figures such as Jacques Derrida.
Academic Formation and Early Work
Born in 1917 in Thái Bình, he completed his baccalaureate by age 17 before relocating to France in 1936. At the École Normale Supérieure, he studied under Maurice Merleau-Ponty. By 1943, he secured his agrégation with a thesis regarding the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, sharing the honor with Jules Vuillemin. His primary project throughout the 1940s culminated in the 1951 publication of Phenomenology and Dialectical Materialism, which proposed that Marxist accounts of labor were necessary to correct the limitations found in phenomenological theories of consciousness.
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Beyond academia, he engaged directly in anti-colonial discourse. He contributed articles concerning Indochina to Les Temps modernes, a journal managed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, which circulated among prominent anti-colonialists like Frantz Fanon. This activity led to his arrest by French authorities for three months in 1945. Following the publication of his major work, he returned to Vietnam in 1951 to assist the Communist Party, eventually becoming Dean of History at the national university in 1956.
Dissidence and Later Scholarship
His tenure in Vietnam proved turbulent as he openly criticized the government regarding land reforms that caused numerous deaths. Caught in the Nhan Van-Giai Pham affair, he faced public censure and was forced to publish self-criticisms in Nhân Dân in 1958, effectively ending his official authority. Excluded from publishing in Vietnam for over two decades, he focused on translating philosophy and developing his second major work, Investigations into the Origin of Language and Consciousness, which appeared in 1973. He spent his final years in Paris, where he died in 1993.
Fast facts
- Born: 1917, Thái Bình
- Died: 1993, Paris
- Education: École Normale Supérieure
- Primary Field: Phenomenology and Marxism
- Key Publication: Phenomenology and Dialectical Materialism (1951)
- Key Publication: Investigations into the Origin of Language and Consciousness (1973)
- Award: Hồ Chí Minh Prize
Questions readers ask
What was the central argument of his 1951 book?
He argued that the defects within the phenomenological account of consciousness could only be addressed through the Marxist perspective on labor and society.
Why did he fall out of favor with the Vietnamese government?
He became a vocal critic of the Party following land reforms that resulted in significant loss of life in 1956.
Achievements
- Hồ Chí Minh Prize
