“After strangling his wife…”: disturbing revelation by André Comte-Sponville at Léa Salamé

Wednesday, January 22, 2025, André Comte-Sponville éwas the guest of Léa Salamé on France Inter. He mentioned the dramatic act of one of his friends that happened many years ago.

© Bestimage André Comte-Sponville spoke of a drama that had affected another philosopher.

IN BRIEF

• André Comte-Sponville presented his book 'L'opportunité de ​​vivre' on France Inter on January 22, 2025, expressing his admiration for Edith Piaf.
• He discussed the connection between Edith Piaf and Louis Althusser, recalling the 1980 tragedy where Althusser killed his wife.
• Discover how André Comte-Sponville's passion for Edith Piaf influences his vision of philosophical writing.

It was to promote his new book entitled The Opportunity to Live thatAndré Comte-Sponville éwas the guest of Léa Salamé, on France Inter, Wednesday January 22, 2025. The philosopher recalled his admiration for the lyrics and voice of Edith Piaf. “This woman overwhelms me, her voice is sublime, at the same time so popular and so elegant in her way“, he declared thus at first.

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But Edith Piaf also reminds him of something else and more precisely of another person: Louis Althusser, a philosopher who died in 1990. André Comte-Sponville returned to the day when he strangled his wife, Hélène Rytmann, on November 16, 1980. In L’Avenir dure longtemps, his autobiography published two years after his death (but written in 1985), Louis Althusser explained his crazy gesture.

André Comte-Sponville returned to the tragedy that affected Louis Althusser

He had written that he had been taken by a fit of dementia. If he knew that his gesture was unforgivable, he had assured to be haunted by the face of his wife dead in front of him. After having strangled his wife, he had been hospitalized and then had regained freedom. André Comte-Sponville describes Louis Althusser as his “master and friend“.

“When he was released from the hospital after strangling his wife, the first of us who was able to go and see him at home was a friend of mine. And one day he told me that there was a pile of paper at Louis Althusser's house. When the latter went to the toilet, the guest could not help but look at the sheets. “'I I only had time to read one sentence,' this friend told me. The sentence was: 'You have to write like Edith Piaf sang'“, declared André Comte-Sponville on France Inter.

Andr Comte-Sponville is a big fan of Edith Piaf

“When you know the work of Louis Althusser, it's very surprising. He is a pure theorist, very abstract, rigorous, and that touched me. First of all because I worship Edith Piaf but also because I dream of a writing, including philosophical, that is capable of moving“, the philosopher added. There is no doubt that the latter must regularly listen to the singer's works to find inspiration.