Class 26: Political Philosophy; French Revolution

1. Class 26: Political Philosophy; French Revolution Dr. Ann T. Orlando 2 April 2014

2. Why was (is) the Church so Traumatized by French Revolution • Recall France as eldest daughter of Church • Clovis • Pepin the Short • Charlemagne • In 17th and 18th C France was the most powerful Catholic country • During the French Revolution, the radical and violent rejection of revealed religion • Echoes of this still in Ecclesial writings

3. ‘Catholic’ Clergy in France in 1789 • Ultramontanists • Support of papacy against French royal government • Viewed with suspicion by all other groups • Gallican French Clergy • Supported French royalty • Jansenists • Opposed French royalty, loyal to opposing French aristocracy • Jesuit loyalists (now suppressed)

4. Conditions of the French Revolution • Political division in France, three estates: • First Estate: Clergy; really upper clergy of Bishops and Abbots; special privileges based on rank • Second Estate: Nobility; also special privileges based on birth and position in society • Third Estate: Everyone else (c. 25M people, other two combined are less than 500,000) • Revolution sparked by economic crisis of 1789; France was bankrupt due to wars and over-reach by Louis XIV and Louis XV • Increased taxes on third estate • Rampant Inflation • Jesuit bankruptcy • Success of American Revolution

5. French Revolution (1789-1799):Extreme Enlightenment • Impetus comes from group of 18th C French philosophers: philosophes (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, Condorcet) • Elements of Enlightenment Philosophy • Man is always making progress (down-grade history, constitutions) • Genuine knowledge available only from science (physics) • Deism: God of Intelligent Design • Social contract theory of government • Religion is, at best, private • Enlightenment philosophy as a weapon against ‘throne and altar’ • ‘Smile of Reason’ turns into glare of tyranny • Individual rights and toleration get replaced by suspicion of ‘enemy of people’ and a new ‘religion’; active persecution of Church • Just before the Terror an important defector from Enlightenment: Voltaire; but a defection to skepticism (we really can’t know anything) and disengagement from society

6. Liberal French Revolution Time Line • Tennis court Oath June 20, 1789 • Louis XVI could no longer rule by divine right • Third Estate met as National Assembly • First Estate (Church) votes with Third Estate • Bastille stormed, 14 July 1789, when Louis XVI tried to reassert his powers • Beginning of cahiers (petitions) to sell Church land and Ecclesial reforms • Civil Constitution of Clergy, 1790 • Pope Pius VI refused to allow clergy to accept Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 1791 • Resulted in 2 Churches, those who took the oath and those who did not

7. Radical French Revolution Time Line • German princes (Prussians and Hussites) invade France to put down rebellion (and also to reclaim lands from 30 Years War) • Catholic ecclesial support for this • Led by Robespierre, more radical elements in the Revolutionary movement take control, August 1792 • Explicit ‘deChristianizing,’ Deism becomes official religion of France • Robespierre advances cult of Supreme Being • All clergy who did not take oath, deported or killed • Goddess of Reason setup in Notre Dame Cathedral • Christian calendar suppressed; 10 day week; months given new names • King and Queen executed 1793; Robespierre executed 1794 • By 1794 Revolution was burning itself out

8. End of Revolution: Napoleon • Napoleon invaded northern Italy in 1796 • In 1797, Pius VI taken prisoner; dies on his way to France • Pope Pius VII elected in 1799; managed to negotiate a truce with Napoleon • Concordat of 1801

9. Role of Prominent Americans in French Revolution • Benjamin Franklin (1776-1785) • Arrived in Paris in 1776 as America’s first ambassador • His scientific and inventive fame preceded him • Darling of salons • Arranged for French financial and military support during Revolutionary War • Thomas Jefferson (1784-1789) • Arrived as second ambassador to France in 1785 • Fully supported bloody revolution • Encouraged direct majority rule in France • NB in France during American Constitutional Convention

10. Prominent Americans (cont.) • John Adams (1778 – 1785) • In France to negotiate trade agreements • Engaged in political discussion, opposed to many philosophe notions • Wrote In Defense of Constitutions against Condorcet (Progress of Human Mind) • Thomas Paine (1789-1802) • With help from Benjamin Franklin, immigrated from Britain to Pennsylvania in 1774 • Moved to France and joined forces with revolutionaries there • Wrote pamphlets supporting French and American Revolution, • Rights of Man written in opposition to Edmund Burke • Made a French citizen and elected to National Convention in 1782 • Imprisoned by Robespierre and nearly executed, wrote deist tract Age of Reason

11. Constitutional Theories • Assume ‘optimistic’ approach to government – Condorcet, On the Progress of the Human Mind • Once liberated, men will naturally be good citizens • Because mankind is always making progress, limited need to rely on past precedent or ‘static’ Constitutions • Government controlled by one house (unicameral) directly elected by people • Assume a more ‘realistic’ approach – Adams, In Defense of Constitutions • A basic belief in ‘original sin’ • Laws should be based in what is ‘time tested’ and changed slowly • No single powerful instrument of government; bicameral legislatures, executive, judicial, legislative as independent branches of government

12. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • Born and lived in Koningsberg all his life; parents were devout Pietists • Perhaps most important of all Enlightenment philosophers • Deeply influenced by Hume, but wanted to avoid Hume’s descent into skepticism • Key Works • Critique of Pure Reason (1781) • Critique of Practical Reason (1788) • Critique of Judgment (1790)

13. Kant’s Theory of KnowledgeCritique of Pure Reason • Empiricism assumed that as tabula rasa, thoughts conform to objects • Mind is receptor • Kant asserts that mind has initial categories of intelligence • Mind as a priori active • Analogy with Copernicus • Human experience includes both external observations and internal knowledge • Laws of nature not inherent in nature, but regularity found in nature based on a priori human categories • God as ordering principle in universe – or just a necessary category of human of mind?

14. Kant’s Theory of Morality: Critique of Practical Reason • Scientific knowledge not sufficient to describe human existence • Humans not passive but active (moral) in world • A priori categories of moral life • Human free will • Human duty to ‘categorical imperative’ • Imperative: act locally as though the act ought to be a universal law • Guides how human ought to act • Kant claims no external, theological foundation for this maxim • However, • ‘Good’ humans strive toward the summmum bonum • Virtue and happiness and combined in summum bonum • Within this life humans cannot attain the summum bonum, yet it is a state that ought to exist; thus God and immortality exists • Conclusion: morality inevitably leads to religion

15. Reading • 1. Civil Constitution of Clergy available at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/civilcon.htm • 2. St Just Republican Institute available at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/stjust.html • 3. Immanuel Kant. What is Enlightenment? Available at http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html.