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Jean-Paul Sartre is often seen as the quintessential public intellectual, but this was not always the case. Until the mid-1940s he was not so well-known, even in France. Then suddenly, in a very short period of time, Sartre became an intellectual celebrity. How can we explain this remarkable transformation? The Existentialist Moment retraces Sartre�s career and provides a compelling new explanation of his meteoric rise to fame. Baert takes the reader back to the confusing and traumatic period of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath and shows how the unique political and intellectual landscape in France at this time helped to propel Sartre and existentialist philosophy to the fore. The book also explores why, from the early 1960s onwards, in France and elsewhere, the interest in Sartre and existentialism eventually waned. The Existentialist Moment ends with a bold new theory for the study of intellectuals and a provocative challenge to the widespread belief that the public intellectual is a species now on the brink of extinction.

Introducing time (P. Baert, A. Shipman). The complete description of temporal reality (R. Teichmann). The temporalization of time in modern philosophy (M. Sandbothe). Understandings of time in complementaristic language (L. Löfgren). The origin of the universe (W.H. Newton-Smith). A clash of doctrines: The arrow of time in modern physics (P. Coveney). Past events never come back (X. De Hemptinne). Time's poisened arrow: Reconstructing evolutionary history (A. Friday). Time and evolution (I. Tattersall). Real time and telative indeterminacy in economic theory (M. Rizzo). Time in economic theory (F. Hahn). Time in social theory (P. Baert). Political theory and time (M. Lane). Time and anthropology (A. Gell). Postmodernist theories and the question of time (M. Quie). Time in Psychology (W. Friedman). Conclusion: A time whose idea has come (A. Shipman, P. Baert). Index

Abstract
After situating Andreas Reckwitz's The Society of Singularities within the broader context of the tradition of social theory, we discuss in detail the obvious strengths of this book, notably its impressive range and originality. Subsequently, we elaborate on two limitations of Reckwitz's argument. Firstly, we argue that Reckwitz's use of categories such as 'singularity' and 'universality' is too all-embracing, lacking the clarity and focus needed to sustain a productive line of inquiry. Secondly, and related to the previous point, we contend that Reckwitz's claims about the recent trend towards increasing singularity are so broad that they are difficult to refute empirically. Further, we discuss briefly contemporary political developments to demonstrate why the core societal issues at stake cannot be explained through all-inclusive categories such as singularity. Finally, we maintain that existence theory can provide an alternative fruitful perspective on some of the phenomena discussed in this book.

This article sets out the basic principles of a new theory of intellectual interventions centred round the notion of positioning. Intellectual interventions are seen as ways in which intellectuals locate themselves in the socio‐political and intellectual field, thereby also positioning others. The existing contributions to the study of intellectuals often take the self‐concepts or dispositions of intellectuals to be fixed, and they tend to focus on the causes and motivations behind intellectual interventions. Challenging this perspective, the theory proposed substitutes a vocabulary of effects for the existing vocabulary of intentions and causes: rather than speculating on the sociological determinants or purposes that underlie an intellectual intervention, this theory explores its effects for the symbolic and institutional recognition of the author(s) and for the diffusion of the ideas propagated.

This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing the theory itself, it explores how Sartre's book Réflexions sur la question juive enabled him to locate himself within, as well as intervene in, the socio-political and intellectual context at the time. Using the text, Sartre positioned himself as an authoritative public intellectual: that is, a generalist, drawing on his vast cultural resources to speak out about a wide range of important societal issues with moral conviction. He also positioned himself within the tradition of the Dreyfusard notion of the intellectual: that is, as an intellectual who engages with contemporary social and political issues and who is a defender of progressive Republican notions whilst remaining an independent voice – with the qualification that he expressed disquiet about the French Republican notion of citizenship. Drawing on these insights, the article ends by discussing glaring omissions in Sartre's Réflexions sur la question juive, making sense of them in the light of the socio-political context of the mid-1940s in France. The article shows the fruitfulness of positioning theory for analysing intellectual interventions, whether they are in the form of books, essays or articles.

This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of life and death are literally at stake. It counters the prevailing tendency within sociology to study intellectuals within confined academic institutions where power struggles are limited to matters of symbolic and institutional recognition. This study explores the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and it focuses in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials. This article shows that the arguments and meta-arguments put forward in these trials led to broader intellectual debates outside the courtroom. These debates not only centred on the notion of the writer's responsibility, but also dealt with anxieties about the disintegrative forces of modern society. Whereas collaborationist intellectuals portrayed their writing as either separate from politics or rescuing a defunct or degenerate nation, Resistance intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre were keen to portray collaborators as outsiders, both socially and sexually, lacking in social integration and subservient to a strong external force. The Resistance intellectuals saw the notion of individual responsibility not as antithetical but as integral to the remaking of the French nation, and this concept would become the cornerstone of the reshaping of the intellectual landscape in the post-war era in France.

This article introduces and critically analyses Richard Rorty's neo-pragmatism as a contribution to the philosophy of social sciences. Although Rorty has written little about philosophy of social sciences as such, it is argued that his overall philosophical position has significant ramifications for this subject area. The first part of the article sets out the implications of Rorty's neo-pragmatism for various issues in the philosophy of social sciences, for instance, the doctrine of naturalism, the nineteenth-century Methodenstreit, the philosophical tenets of Marxism, and the relatively recent wave of post-structuralism. The second part presents a constructive critique of Rorty's neopragmatist philosophy of social sciences. Although critical of some aspects of Rorty's argument, it is argued that his stance could provide a base for a fruitful view of social sciences, aiming at enlarging human potentialities rather than representation.

This comment is in response to Frederic L. Pryor (2000). "The Millennium Survey: How Economists View the U.S. Economy in the 21st Century."The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 59 (January), pp. 3‐33.