Some postwar thinkers hoped catastrophe would transform human life for good

Evidence

Hölderlin had said that ‘where danger is, grows / the saving power also’. Perhaps, some thought, the recent war’s catastrophes would not bring disaster but a total transformation of human life, with war and other evils abolished forever. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 764

Categorization

• QUESTION: The chapter seems to be setting up the Sartre/Camus breakup over whether hope in transformation is naive — worth watching how it resolves.
• XREF: connects to: The twentieth century’s catastrophes shook faith in historical progress. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 58; Postwar ruin and atrocity discredited belief in fixed human nature — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 40; Post-war existentialism thrived on the excitement of a shattered world — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 529 (+2 more)