Post tag : Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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1789: Sovereignty and the Impossible Harmony of Interests
Robert Darnton’s The Revolutionary Temper offers a vivid picture of the moral climate that preceded 1789. He uncovers the accumulated resentment of ordinary people against the Crown, the nobility, and the clergy—a resentment sharpened by hunger and humiliation. Yet emotions, however intense, do not by themselves make a revolution. They ignite revolt, not political transformation.…
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Progress and Limits of Freedom of Thought in Europe from the 16th to the 18th Century
Since the 19th century, Western intellectuals have studied the development of individualization, as opposed to the primacy of society over the individuals who compose it. Probably, the idealizations of the individual as well as the political tensions related to socialism and conservatism have contributed to favouring this angle of analysis. Here, we will focus on…
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The vigour of the desire for recognition
The previous article concluded with the quest for recognition that individuals embark on, a quest that can come into conflict with a desire for intellectual emancipation. In this one, we will specify what the concept of recognition entails and in what way the desire for recognition interferes with the freedom of thought. Along the way,…
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Idealization in History
That humans spontaneously idealize and that their idealizations shape them may seem obvious, but the obviousness vanishes when one considers the extent of their knowledge and achievements, which have literally transformed the Earth, not just on the surface. How to distinguish imagination from reality when the former models the latter? The answer to this question…