Vauvenargues describes both the social and philosophical world as a battleground of conflicting interests, thereby extending the premises of Classical ego psychology into the Enlightenment. His heroes, political and philosophical, may be seen as seeking a new kind of peace in their triumph over men and systems metaphorically portrayed as rigid, blind, and imprisoned within their own egocentricity. His ideal philosopher reconciles all conflicting views in an overarching system of truth. Ultimately this system rests not so much on principles of logic as on the personal qualities of the thinker, his “pénétration,” “profondeur,” and “étendue d'esprit,” his ability to transcend the self. In the partially Spinozistic, partially rococo, and eminently conciliatory vision vouchsafed the true philosopher, variety submits to organic order, concepts and people maintain their autonomy, yet grow interrelated. Apparent contradictions vanish in the fullness of truth. Vauvenargues's early works suffer from his inability to articulate this vision within conventional, discursive forms. In the posthumous Caractères, he invents a new technique, the “définition,” which strikingly parallels the idiom of contemporary fictional realism. By capturing visible phenomena and exposing their paradoxically contrasting inner mechanisms, Vauvenargues reveals both the method and the nature of the truth he repeatedly struggled to express.
