Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, and the “Structuralist Activity” of Sartre’s Dialectical Reason JACOB RUMP ABSTRACT: The paper examines Lévi-Strauss’ criticisms of Sartre’s conception of dialectical reason and history as presented in the last chapter of La Pensée Sauvage, suggesting that these criticisms are misplaced. Sartre’s notion of reason and history in the Critique is much closer to structuralist accounts than Lévi-Strauss seems to rec- ognize, but it differs in placing a strong emphasis on activity and praxis in place of the latter’s passive conception of reason. The active role of the inquirer in structuralist thought is examined using Roland Barthes’ account of “The Structuralist Activity,” which is shown to have important affinities with Sartre’s own conception of the relation of structure and praxis in the Critique. I then briefly consider a mod- ified conception of the role of history in structuralism expressed by Lévi-Strauss in the mid-seventies, suggesting that his altered position still fails to recognize the important role of praxis in structuralist accounts of history. I conclude by suggesting that Lévi-Strauss’ criti- cisms are nonetheless important for illustrating the “Critical” charac- ter of Sartre’s Critique. KEYWORDS: Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, structuralism, dialectic, praxis, history, Critique of Dialectical Reason T he last chapter of Claude Lévi-Strauss’ La Pensée Sauvage contains his well-known criticisms of the conception of rationality operant in Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason. Lévi-Strauss faults Sartre for an overly strong conception of the difference between the “analyti- cal” and “dialectical” functions of reason and for a perceived insis- tence on the primacy of the dialectical in his account of social ontology and history. This criticism illustrates Lévi-Strauss’ ongoing Sartre Studies International Volume 17, Issue 2, 2011: 01-15 doi:10.3167/ssi.2011.170201 ISSN 1357-1559 (Print), ISSN 1558-5476 (Online)