ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to Malraux's search on fraternity and absolute evil by exploring the institution of fraternity in pledging and the bond of "Fraternity-Terror" in Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason. It seeks to understand Sartre's insight that man is "violent". Sartre's analysis of the pledge is situated within his discussion of the "statutory group" a group of individuals bound to each other through an act of allegiance, pledge, or oath to the group as such and hence to others in the group. Within the Critique's investigation of the dialectical progression from "groups to history", the statutory group represents a decisive transitional stage between what Sartre terms "the group in fusion" and "the organization". Sartre's analysis of the pledge is situated within his discussion of the "statutory group", a group of individuals bound to each other through an act of allegiance, pledge, or oath to the group as such, and hence to others in the group.
