French Encyclopaedists thinkers

The Encyclopaedists

In the middle of the 18th century was published the French Encyclopaedists which contained articles in alphabetical order on all questions of philosophy and religion literature and aesthetics, political and political economy, theoretical and technical science.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) with the aid of a multitude of collaborators- notably D' Alembert, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Turgot, Necker  and Mirabeau (the father of more famous Mirabeau of the Revolution) prepared the text of the Encyclopaedia. The object underlying the preparation of the Encyclopaedia was to express the sceptical, rationalist attitude of the French philosophers on various matters. The Encyclopaedia became in some respects a vehicle of criticism, since by implication at least many existing abuses in French life and society were denounced. Needles to point out that some of the articles in the Encyclopaedia brought home to the people of France that the state of affairs in their country, particularly in the fields of religion and society, was deplorable. 

The Intellectual and Literacy Crusade

The eighteenth century was a very inquisitive, critical and sceptical century. In spite of the political conservatism of its governing classes, its judgment was far more ready to be enslaved by new ideas than by old ones. In so far as the French Revolution was  concerned the intellectual ferment can best be discussed by studying the reconnaissance made by Montesquieu, the attack of Voltaire and the ultimate conquest achieved by Rousseau. besides there were the Encyclopaedists there is no gainsaying the fact that the Revolution of 1789 ''was not caused by the (French) philosophers, but by the conditions and evils of the national life and by the mistakes of the government. Nevertheless those writers were a factor in the Revolution, for they educated a group of leaders, instilled into them certain decisive doctrines, furnished them with phrase, formulae and argument, gave a certain tone and cast to their minds, imparted to them certain powerful illusions, encouraged an excessive hopefulness which was characteristic of the movement. They did not cause the Revolution but they exposed the causes brilliantly, focused attention upon them, compelled discussion and aroused passion'' - C.D. Hazen.

These men of letters demonstrated in innumerable ways the rottenness of the French institutions and expressed disenchantment with the ancient regime. They compared French institutions unfavourably with the English institutions violently attacked the former with every weapon of invective, ridicule, ribaldry and innuendo. When, therefore, the French Revolution broke out their constant undermining had destroyed the self-confidence and prestige of the old order.

The giants of the age were Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. Besides them there were the so-called the Encyclopaedists - writers who had contributed articles to the French Encyclopaedia which was designed to contain the sum of human knowledge at the time carefully strained and analysed.

Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Baron de Charles de Secondat Montesquieu was a leading exponent of rationalism - the idea underlying rationalism was that everything should bear the test of reason.

His earliest work, The Persian Letters, was a satire on French society in which , by viewing it through the eyes of an imaginary Persian, he poked all manner of fun at a privileged aristocracy, the corruption of the court and the folly of religious intolerance.

In 1748, appeared his monumental De I' Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of the Laws) which brought him much acclaim. It was a study of political philosophy, of various forms of governments and their merits and demerits. Setting aside the claim of divinity for the institutions , he examined them with the detachment of a rationalist.

Mainly through the influence of Locke, Montesquieu attributed much of the success of the British constitution in safeguarding individual freedom to the recognition that the powers of government were of three different kinds - executive, legislative and judicial - with should be exercised by different persons. He imagined that this existed more markedly in the British constitution than it actually did, but no other conception of any political thinker had a more practical effect. It inspired rationalist critics of the oppressiveness of the ancient regime and stimulated the constitutional claims of the parlement of Paris (it was a sovereign court which registered all royal acts) just before the outbreak of the Revolution while it exercised a decisive influence upon the framing of the constitution of the U.S.A. and the attempts at constitutional monarchy in revolutionary France. 

Voltaire (1694-1778) 

if Montesquieu may be said to have achieved most in practical result among the philosophers, the most famous and influential during his own life time was Francois- Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire.

The prince of the rationalists, Voltaire was one of the masterminds in the history of Europe. His name has become the name of an era. We speak of the Age of Voltaire in the same way as we  speak of the Age of Luther or the Age of Erasmus. Voltaire's rare and versatile wit, his light touch, his unabashed scepticism, his brilliant commonsense, appealed irresistibly to the minds of his countryman.

Voltaire was a brilliant satirist who, in a series of poems essays and other works, unsparingly criticise the social and political institutions of his time. His chief target was the Roman Catholic church of his tie, which he regarded as a barrier to human progress and as a privileged nuisance. Ecrasez  I' infame' (Crush the vile thing') was his slogan in respect of Church. He also exposed the absurdity of feudal privileges. As a reformer he ploughed deeper than Montesquieu, for he did not hesitate to attack ''privilege''. In his slashing attacks on the Church and other pillars of the ancient regime he was nothing short of a crusader. He exhorted his countrymen to apply reason rather than tradition as a test of established institutions, and to condemn those which failed to justify themselves when judged in this way. 

Rousseau (1712 - 1778) 

While most of the philosophers belonged to the wealthy bourgeoisie and shared their political aims, Jean-Jacques Rousseau came from a lower social class. The ideal of equality before the law, so strongly desired by other thinkers, was not enough to satisfy Rousseau, and his writings appear the first aspirations of the down-trodden class, to which he himself belonged for social and economic equality.

Rosseau's monumental work Du Contract Social (the Social Contract) was published in 1762. In this work he held the opinion that civilised society was based on a ''social contract''. He thought that in the remote past men had lived in state of nature and that they had come to an agreement to live together under a government in order that life and property might be protected. The existing contract, the thought, to be unfair, as it favoured the privileged classes, unduly, and advocated a ''return to nature'' and the formation of a new and more satisfactory contract. He was, therefore, all for the demolition of the existing institutions, and the establishment of a form of government which would ensure that the ''general will'' was sovereign. In other words an entirely new ''social contract''  must be made.

The adherents of Rousseau's ideas extreme revolutionaries who wanted to abolish French institutions as completely as possible, and to build them up again from the beginning. His ideas exercised great influence among the leaders of the French Revolution, notably the Jacobins between 1791 and 1793, and Robespierre in particular.

In assessing the influence of Rousseau, Lord Morley observed : ''In the first place he (Rousseau) spoke words that can never be unspoken and kindled a hope than can never be extinguished ; he first inflamed man with righteous conviction, with the evils of the existing order of things, reduced civilization to a nullity for the great majority of mankind,  second,  by his fervid eloquence and the burning convictions which he kindled in the heart of great number of men, he inspired energy enough in France to awaken her from the torpor as of death which was stealing so rapidly over her. 

 Role played by the philosophers in  Revolution

 According to Mallet, ''The seed sown by these remarkable writers fell upon fruitful soil. An enthusiasm for the natural greatness of man and a boundless contempt for the age of society in which he lived pervaded the thought of the time. In almost every European country observers noticed the same presentiment of impending change - a change which on behalf of humanity most people were prepared to welcome. Thinkers and talkers alike were full of illusion, full of curiosity, full of selfishness, full of hope''. David Thomson is of the opinion that the connection between the ideas of the philosophers (as the philosopher  are called) and the outbreak of the French Revolution ''is some what usually ready enough to lend support to any absolute monarch who was prepared to patronize them and adopt their teachings. Nor were most of their readers inspired to want, or to work for, revolution; they were mostly themselves aristocrats, lawyers, business people, and local dignitaries, whose lot in the existing order was far from unhappy. The course of the revolution in France, often to justify measures that the philosophers themselves would have opposed. Their teaching became more important later; if they had any influence at all on the outbreak and the initial stages of the great revolution, it was only to the extent they had fostered a critical irreverent attitude towards all existing institutions. They made men more ready, when the need arose, to question the whole foundation of the old order. What mattered in 1789 - and what made men revolutionary almost in spite of themselves- was the whole 'revolutionary situation' ; and in producing that situation the work of the philosophers played no very important role.''

In correctly assessing the role played by the philosophers in precipitating the French Revolution, one could say that they heralded the Revolution, but they did not originate it. They were rather its effect than its cause.