scholarly journals « Ci-gît, enfin, un tyran ! », ou une épitaphe en tant que prophétie dans les Apologues modernes de Sylvain Maréchal (1789)

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Paweł Matyaszewski
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
The French Revolution

The purpose of this essay is to analyse a forgotten work by Sylvain Maréchal, a French political writer of the Enlightenment. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, his Apologues modernes heavily criticize the socio-political system of the French monarchy of Louis XVI. The analysis of his work proves that the author does not limit himself to criticising the situation before 1789, but he clearly predicts events of the forthcoming revolution and the resulting change. One could say that, like a true prophet, he foresees the end of the monarchy as such and proclaims the arrival of a new social and political order, a universal republic, not only in France, but in Europe in general.

Does Kant's Rejection of the Right to Resist Make Him a Legal Rigorist? Instantiation and Interpretation in the Rechtslehre

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Radu Neculau
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Clear Sign ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Progressive Agenda ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mitigating Circumstances ◽  
The French Revolution

It is generally acknowledged that Kant's political philosophy stands on a par with the great works of the Western liberal tradition. It is also a matter of agreement that the rational principles on which it rests represent an adequate philosophical expression of the progressive agenda that was inaugurated by the Enlightenment and fulfilled, with varying degrees of success, by the French Revolution. Yet Kant's philosophical position is ambiguous when it comes to evaluating that momentous event in modern history. We know, from anecdotal evidence, some surviving letters, several cryptic references in his published works, as well as a number of posthumously published reflections, that Kant was enthusiastic about and strongly approved of the changes that were taking place in France at the time. He certainly condemned, in strong and unequivocal terms, the execution of Louis XVI. But this did not translate into a repudiation of his support for the revolution. And he seems to have found even in this case mitigating circumstances that explained the revolutionaries' decision to execute the monarch, thus in fact excusing their action. Moreover, he argued that all post-revolutionary governments ought to command the same kind of loyalty from their subjects as the ones they replaced, which appears to justify Kant's contention in the Idea for a Universal History that political violence can be a vehicle of progress. Furthermore, in the Contest of Faculties Kant went so far as to identify in the enthusiastic response of the ‘spectators’ to the French Revolution a clear sign of the moral disposition of humankind (CF 182/7: 85).

Sovereignty, Politics, and Reason in the Post-Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
James Livesey
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
International Order ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter focuses on the French Revolution as one of the most important moments in the entangled history of local cosmopolitanisms. Such ideas as rights, property, and democracy were consciously articulated during the Revolution as universals with cosmopolitan spheres of application, and those ideas had profound global consequences over the following two centuries. Alongside this impact on states and legal structures, the Revolution also had direct effects in every community in France and touched communities outside the hexagon, from India to Ireland. The Revolution transformed the most general contexts, putting the nation-state rather than empire as the organizing principle at the heart of the international order, but it also put the most intimate experiences, such as family and emotion, under new light. The drama of the Revolution exemplified the power of ideas and the ambition to create a rational political order.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambrogio Caiani
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Working Relationship ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Marie Antoinette ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Complex Question ◽  
The French Revolution

The important role played by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the radicalization of the early phase of the French Revolution has never been in doubt. Most histories continue to focus on the regal couple’s real, and supposed, role in fomenting counter-revolution at home and especially abroad. This chapter engages with the complex question of the dwindling fortunes of Louis XVI’s monarchy from a more domestic angle. It focuses on that neglected, though crucial, year of 1790 which witnessed the failure to erect a viable constitutional settlement. It became impossible to accommodate both Crown and assembly in a viable working relationship. Essentially, the king’s distrust for the deputies, who had little by little arrogated his remaining powers, proved insurmountable. The monarchy’s passive resistance to the revolution’s early reform programme and political culture became increasingly unpopular. This created a radicalized and tension-filled atmosphere which pushed the revolution into hitherto unexpected directions.

A Constituição de 1822 uma Filosofia Política Intempestiva

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Viriato Soromenho-Marques ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Restoration Age ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The French Revolution

In this paper the philosophical foundations of the first Portuguese Constitution are submitted to critical analysis. Drafted in the aftermath of the 1820 Revolution, the Constitution of 1822 is deeply determined by contradictory tensions and forces. We may see in it the trace of the freedom trends developed in the Enlightenment period and led to practical terms in the dramatic battleground of the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the Portuguese Constitution of 1822 reflect also the energetic resistance from the conservative sectors and values of the Portuguese society and also the coming influence of the Restoration Age political philosophy, aimed to fight the rationalistic paradigm of natural right constitutional theories.

The French Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-21
Author(s):  
Samuel Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Substantial Proportion ◽  
Military Necessity ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
To Come ◽  
Financial Base ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter evaluates the causes of the French Revolution. The problem was not that Louis XVI was particularly wasteful, although he had a lavish lifestyle at Versailles. The issue was instead one of crushing military necessity. Before the revolution, France was dealing with invasion threats from Spain and England and was spending over twice as much as had been spent on the Seven Years' War. However, France was fiscally crippled by the fact that a substantial proportion of its financial base was exempt from paying taxes. The disputes within the elite about who was going to come up with the money to pay for extra military expenses led to revolution. The revolutionaries found divided conservative forces, as well as members of the elite willing to oppose the king if this would help them win their battles about future tax obligations. The result was the overthrow of the king and the entire noble class. But taxes were not the whole story: there was also a rising capitalist middle class resentful of the superior status of the aristocracy.

Freedom and the French Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-65
Author(s):  
John Skorupski
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Catholic Ethic ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Narrative Account ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

Two great revolutions set the stage for late modern ethics: the French Revolution and the philosophical revolution of Kant. This chapter studies the events and conflicts of ideas in the French Revolution and its aftermath in France. It gives a narrative account of the Revolution from 1789 to 1804. Three broad ethical stances are distinguished: the feudal-Catholic ethic of the monarch and his allies, the impartial individualism of the Enlightenment, and the Rousseauian radical-democracy of the Jacobins. Under the violent political conflicts between these views lies a resilient philosophical conflict: between impartial individualism and a generic stance which this study identifies as ‘eudaimonistic holism’. The feudal-Catholic ethic and radical-democracy are two very different forms of it. Hegelian ethics will turn out to be a third.

Regicide and Redemptive Violence in the French Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-52
Author(s):  
Kevin Duong
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
The Law ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter describes how Jacobins crafted a new language of violence during the trial and execution of Louis XVI in the French Revolution: the language of redemptive violence. The execution of the king served as a founding act of French republican democracy. It was also a scene of irregular justice: no legal warrants or procedural precedents existed for bringing a king to justice before the law. Regicide as redemptive violence helped bypass that obstacle. Although redemptive violence had roots in prerevolutionary notions of penal justice and social cohesion, its philosophical ambitions were revolutionary and modern. Analyzing that language illuminates how republican democracy weaponized a distinctive ideology of extralegal violence at its origins. It also helps explain redemptive violence’s enduring appeal during and after the French Revolution.

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