The Clash of Rationalism and Empiricism:
Revolution in theory: Conservatism in Practice
OBJECTIVES:
1. Be able to discuss the theory of society and the rights of mankind found in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
2. Be able to discuss the implementation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in France during the first stage of the Revolution.
3. Be able to discuss the views of radical revolutionaries like Marat on democracy.
4. Be able to discuss the Terror during the French Revolution, and its relationship to Robespierre=s Republic of Virtue.
5. Be able to discuss the views of Edmund Burke, and his critique of the French Revolution.
6. Be able to explain Burke=s emphasis on practicality, and the resultant critique of Enlightenment theory.
7. Be able to discuss Burke=s primary innovations in political theory.
FAMOUS QUOTATIONS:
- From the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
- From Robespierre:
AThe object of constitutional government is to preserve the Republic; the object of revolutionary government is to establish it.@
ARevolution is the war waged by liberty against its enemies...the revolutionary government has to summon extraordinary activity to its aid precisely because it is at war. It is subjected to less binding and less uniform regulations, because the circumstances in which it finds itself are tempestuous and shifting, above all because it is compelled to deploy, swiftly and incessantly, new resources to meet new and pressing dangers.@
AWhat is our goal? The enforcement of the constitution for the benefit of the people....The people must therefore be enlightened. But what are the obstacles to the enlightenment of the people? Mercenary writers who daily mislead them with imprudent falsehoods. What conclusions must be drawn from this? 1. These writers must be proscribed as the most dangerous enemies of the people. 2. Right-minded literature must be scattered about in profusion. What are the other obstacles to the establishment of liberty? Foreign war and civil war.....How can civil war be ended? By punishing republican generals in command of our armies and punishing those who betrayed us.@
- From Burke=s Reflections on the Revolution in France:
APeople will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.@
AThe levelers only change and pervert the natural order of things; they load the edifice of society by setting up in the air what the solidity of the structure requires to be on the ground.@
AThe science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
ARage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.@
OUTLINE
I. The Enlightenment and Human Nature
A. Condorcet
B. Role of Education
II. The French Revolution
A. General intro
B. Events of 1789
C. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
D. The Constitution
E. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
F. Robespierre=s Republic of Virtue
i) The Terror: Danton and others
ii) do the ends justify the means?
iii) Robespierre=s fate
III. Edmund Burke
A. Background and brief bio
i) an Irishman
ii) A Protestant father and a Catholic mother
iii) a Whig in the Parliament, country vs. the court
iv) not a professional scholar
B. Opposition to corruption and repression
i) in Ireland
ii) in America
iii) East India Tea Company
iv) elimination of corruption
a) avoidance of state of emergency
v) Glorious Revolution as the model for how citizens should be treated
vi) criticism of pre-revolutionary France
a) criticism of absolutism
b) criticism of Church
C. Critique of French Revolution
i) the dangers of reform
ii) the dangers of theory
iii) dangers of equality, abolition, and other movements of Enlightenment
iv) the logical product of rationalism: terror!
v) advocacy of gradual reform vs. Leveling of past
vi) tradition and sentiment of people vs. the unknown
D. Emphasis on practice: what works
i) the possible vs. the utopian
ii) need for political parties
iii) need for broad representation
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:
Articles:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner's person shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.
