Written By Alexander Stroem
19/11/2025
If I were to ask you to think of a philosophical prince, you would most probably think of Machiavelli’s conniving and treacherous Principe. Certainly, Machiavelli’s prince has had a fundamental impact on Western political philosophy, but there is another, more pacifistic and loving philosophical prince preaching the philosophies of love, care, and companionship in their most rudimental and necessary forms: The Little Prince. It’s not often one considers Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s work to go beyond the scope of a children’s book, much less a work of complex Comte Philosophique. Certainly, for many (having been translated into over 300 languages) it is nothing but an entertaining bedtime story for children with its vivid imagination of a young prince’s journey from Asteroid B-612 in search of understanding after leaving his rose and his eventual many friendships on his journey, particularly with the fox and the adults (all deemed “strange” on their respective planets), and the accompanying aquarelle drawings by Saint-Exupéry himself. Indeed, at the time of its publication in New York in 1943, the work, written by a French resistance pilot (who disappeared in 1944) was necessary, intending to promote a philosophy of humanity, compassion, and keeping one’s childhood during a time in which humanity was in crisis.
Philosophy is not limited to the dialogues of Plato, the works of Kant, or the essays and stories of Camus and Sartre—its presence is universal. A children’s book might seem like an unlikely place for such a tradition associated with complex thought and intellectualism, with the mediatic radio philosopher Raphaël Enthoven (Europe 1) labelling it as a “salad of feelings” and as “the book of the idea that adults make of childhood”. Yet it cannot be discounted. What matters most lies in its interpretation and understanding. Children’s books are, whether by their price or their apparent simplicity, a good way of instilling certain ideas and conduct in children, particularly if well received alongside their parents. Indeed, in French schools, the work is often read at a very young age in la maternelle préscolaire/Preschool and upwards on the basis that it is accessible for all, and the lessons taught to children. Le Petit Prince is certainly no exception, and similar arguments have been made for other beloved children-aimed works, most notably the Donald Duck cartoons in Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart’s 1972 work How to Read Donald Duck, a commentary on mass media and the incorporation of complex politically-charged notions (i.e. Capitalism and Imperialism) into children’s upbringing and learning. Le Petit Prince is however, less polemical, and what begins with a small boy asking an aviator to “draw me a sheep” slowly becomes a vast and accessible reflection of contemporary French, even global, society through its many characters, whether it be via the businessman who counts the stars as if they were his own, or the unceasing baobab trees. Strangely enough, Martin Heidegger, the former rector of Freiburg university under Nazi rule, even declared in his 1949 preface to the German translation, “this is not a book for children”, going as far as considering it an essentially existentialist text.
Nonetheless, it, and many other works intended for children (or adults), cannot therefore be discounted from the philosophical traditions, particularly that of humanism, a doctrine aimed at the fundamental promotion of the human being, general happiness and kindness (a basic overview of a more complex philosophy). To Paul Meunier, the very core philosophy of the work is outlined by what are probably its most famous words: “One can only see well with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eye”. Revealed to the Little Prince as the secret of the Fox after their friendship blossoms and they finally depart one another, the lines represent the humanist love which Saint-Exupéry sought to instil most in his wide reader group in the context of Nazi occupation: Friendship, love, and self-understanding. Despite his critique of the work, Enthoven, labels the line to be a “Platonic-Pascalian truism with which it is impossible to disagree”, focusing prominently on Pascal’s Platonist emphasis of the heart (Le Coeur) as a central epistemological concept, albeit in a more religious sense, and as the means by which humans sense the divine, rather than by reason. To Pascal, “It is the heart that feels God and not reason. That is faith. God is sensitive to the heart, not to reason” (Pensées, 277-278). While Saint-Exupéry almost certainly did not mean this in a religious sense (a prominent theme nonetheless in his Carnets, his notebook which he frequently flew with, reflecting his flights and world below), Pascal’s influence remains evident. In his Carnets (in which references to Pascal, among others including Plato and Voltaire are numerous, even often travelling with their books), Saint-Exupéry remarks “Something must likewise be done of men. It is the only important problem: Foremostly that of human relations”, subsequently exclaiming the most important being “love”.
Why did such humanistic practices matter to Saint-Exupéry and, perhaps more importantly, to France at the time? Saint-Exupéry’s work was published in 1943, a period of strife and the apogee of the Second World War’s battle against Nazism. His native France was at the center of the war after its declaration of war on Germany, much like Britain, on the 3 September 1939. In May 1940, France became further embroiled in the war as its physical center following the German invasion via the Ardennes. With the division of France in June 1940 into the occupied (Zone Occupée) and free (Zone Libre) zones, France’s situation only worsened. As noted by Charles de Gaulle (whom Saint-Exupéry’s considered a “Candidat Dictateur” in 1943) in his emblematic speech of 18 June, “We [France/the French] are submerged by the mechanical force, aerial and land, of the enemy”. A new government was soon thereafter formed through the armistice of the 22 of June, and a resistance was soon formed thereafter. By this point, Saint-Exupéry himself had been mobilised (as early as 1939), reaching the rank of captain and flying photographic reconnaissance missions with his air squadron (Groupe Aérien 2/33 de Grande Reconnaissance) documenting German advances. Despite being demobilised in the summer of 1940 and subsequently exiling himself in the United States, Saint-Exupéry soon would return to combat under American command, eventually disappearing in 1944 during a reconnaissance mission outside Marseille. Saint-Exupéry maintained a strong role in the Resistance, both directly and indirectly, a focal point of humanism presented in many of his works. Such political commentary is perhaps more evident in his descriptions of the war in Pilote de Guerre (Flight to Arras), published in 1942 in New York (and months later in France, where it was published by Gallimard, removing the phrase “Hitler, who has begun this demented war” and dedicated to his squadron). In its humanism and focus on human care for one another, the Little Prince is subsequently part of a greater canon of humanist writings.
While not presented in the overly political form seen elsewhere in his many other works, Saint-Exupéry expresses this anti-Hitlerian position even before Le Petit Prince has truly begun. In its dedication to Leon Werth, “the best friend I have in the world”, Saint-Exupéry explicitly remarks in excusing himself for dedicating to work to an adult, “this big person lives in France, where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up”. Werth was indeed all the above. A member of the Parisian (also Jewish) population that had fled in the wake of the fall of Paris in June 1940, Werth was in hiding among the peasants of Saint-Amour in the Jura hills of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. While the dedication is perhaps to one man only, the message is one to many children and adults worldwide. Werth features prominently in several of Saint-Exupéry’s works, most notably his epistolary essay Lettre à un Otage, published shortly before Le Petit Prince in 1943. As a letter praising Werth’s friendship and alleviating his suffering in France, Saint-Exupéry makes explicit reference to the war and its accompanying crisis of humanity, stating, “But today, respect for humanity, the prerequisite for our advancement, is in jeopardy”. Months after, Le Petit Prince appeared. Werth’s dedication is not the only reference to the war and Saint-Exupéry’s anti-Hitlerian philosophy. Throughout the work and the prince’s travels between asteroids and planets, various figures and characteristics are encountered, not all of which/whom are to his liking, such as the baobabs and later the businessman, seemingly all references to Hitler’s regime. Some critics even went as far as considering it an answer to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Indeed, to Laurence Vanin, “the businessman who encloses the stars” appeared to represent Hitler, while the “terrible seeds” of the Baobabs, which “you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late” and “spread over the entire planet” are Nazi crosses. Although initially far-fetched, in such manners, the work’s appearance as an anti-Hitlerian tract becomes clearer, alongside Saint-Exupéry’s humanistic philosophy of love.
Whether or not one interprets the work as such, Saint-Exupéry’s work remains fundamental to the French literary canon. It remains a focal point of grownups and children alike all over the world, and regardless of whether one speaks French or not, its lessons of love, compassion, and pacifism are key even today. What once began with a drawing of a boa constrictor and a boy asking, “please…. draw me a sheep!” becomes a work of everlasting imagination and childhood reminiscence, a necessary plea for the reader never to forget their childhood compassion and love, one which France desperately needed in the darkness and despair of 1943.
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image credit: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-strange-triumph-of-the-little-prince
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