Once-believing in a utopia makes one an especially insightful post-utopian critic

Evidence

By this time, Merleau-Ponty had moved closer to Camus’ position, but with the major difference that he had once put his faith in the socialist utopia. Camus had never shared the ‘dream’, but Merleau-Ponty knew what it meant to be a believer. This made Merleau-Ponty an insightful critic after giving it up, but it did not make him any more able to save his relationship with Sartre. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 821

Categorization

• QUESTION: Merleau-Ponty had once shared the socialist dream — what exactly was this dream, and which text shows his subsequent critique?
• XREF: connects to: Utopian visions historically served as critical distance rather than action blueprints — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 840; Utopian visions reveal a system’s limits only through failed attempts at transcendence — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 470; Utopian thinking’s value survives even where its theoretical basis is flawed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2321

Broader Connections

• Utopian visions historically served as critical distance rather than action blueprints #corroborates (0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 840
• Utopian visions reveal a system’s limits only through failed attempts at transcendence #corroborates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 470