The Opium of the Intellectuals
E379411
The Opium of the Intellectuals is a 1955 book by French philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron that critiques the allure of Marxism and ideological dogmatism among Western intellectuals.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Opium of the Intellectuals canonical | 4 |
| L’Opium des intellectuels | 1 |
| The Opium of the Intellectuals is a critique of Marxist and left-wing intellectuals | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3689906 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Opium of the Intellectuals Context triple: [Raymond Aron, notableWork, The Opium of the Intellectuals]
-
A.
Farewell to Reason
Farewell to Reason is a philosophical work by Paul Feyerabend that critiques rationalism and defends epistemological pluralism in science and society.
-
B.
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" is a secret speech delivered in 1956 that denounced Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian rule and marked a major turning point in Soviet politics and de-Stalinization.
-
C.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
-
D.
The Appeals of Communism
The Appeals of Communism is a political science work by Gabriel A. Almond analyzing the ideological, psychological, and social factors that make communist movements attractive to their adherents.
-
E.
Le Coup d’État permanent
Le Coup d’État permanent is a political essay by François Mitterrand that sharply criticizes France’s Fifth Republic and the presidential power structure established by Charles de Gaulle.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Opium of the Intellectuals Target entity description: The Opium of the Intellectuals is a 1955 book by French philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron that critiques the allure of Marxism and ideological dogmatism among Western intellectuals.
-
A.
Farewell to Reason
Farewell to Reason is a philosophical work by Paul Feyerabend that critiques rationalism and defends epistemological pluralism in science and society.
-
B.
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" is a secret speech delivered in 1956 that denounced Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian rule and marked a major turning point in Soviet politics and de-Stalinization.
-
C.
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
The Crooked Timber of Humanity is a collection of essays by philosopher Isaiah Berlin exploring pluralism, the limits of human perfectibility, and the complexities of political and moral life.
-
D.
The Appeals of Communism
The Appeals of Communism is a political science work by Gabriel A. Almond analyzing the ideological, psychological, and social factors that make communist movements attractive to their adherents.
-
E.
Le Coup d’État permanent
Le Coup d’État permanent is a political essay by François Mitterrand that sharply criticizes France’s Fifth Republic and the presidential power structure established by Charles de Gaulle.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
Marxism functions as a secular religion for many intellectuals
ⓘ
ideologies can blind intellectuals to empirical reality ⓘ intellectuals often excuse or ignore crimes of communist regimes ⓘ liberal democracy is undervalued by many intellectuals ⓘ |
| author | Raymond Aron ⓘ |
| compares | Marxism to religion ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| criticizes |
Marxism
ⓘ
Soviet communism ⓘ Western fellow travellers of communism ⓘ ideological dogmatism ⓘ revolutionary romanticism ⓘ totalitarianism ⓘ |
| discusses |
myth-making in political ideologies
ⓘ
relationship between ideas and political power ⓘ role of intellectuals in politics ⓘ |
| field |
political theory
ⓘ
sociology of intellectuals ⓘ |
| genre |
political critique
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ sociology ⓘ |
| hasEnglishTitle | The Opium of the Intellectuals ⓘ |
| hasOriginalTitle |
L’Opium des intellectuels
ⓘ
linked to:
The Opium of the Intellectuals
|
| hasReception | considered a classic of anti-Marxist literature ⓘ |
| influenced |
Cold War liberal thought
ⓘ
anti-totalitarian intellectual debates ⓘ criticism of Western Marxism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Alexis de Tocqueville
ⓘ
Max Weber ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Marxism
ⓘ
ideology ⓘ intellectuals ⓘ political dogmatism ⓘ |
| notableConcept | opium of the intellectuals as analogy to religion ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
anti-totalitarianism
ⓘ
liberalism ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1955 ⓘ |
| settingContext | French intellectual life ⓘ |
| supports |
liberal democracy
ⓘ
moderation in politics ⓘ political pluralism ⓘ |
| timePeriodAddressed |
Cold War
ⓘ
post-World War II Europe ⓘ |
| titleAlludesTo |
Karl Marx
ⓘ
opium of the people ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Opium of the Intellectuals Description of subject: The Opium of the Intellectuals is a 1955 book by French philosopher and sociologist Raymond Aron that critiques the allure of Marxism and ideological dogmatism among Western intellectuals.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Raymond Aron
→
describedBySource
→
The Opium of the Intellectuals is a critique of Marxist and left-wing intellectuals
ⓘ
linked to: The Opium of the Intellectuals
subject linked to:
Aron
linked to: The Opium of the Intellectuals