Enlightenment, Revolution, and Democracy - Essay Example

When the Age of Enlightenment awoke for the world the possibilities inherent in reason and logic, one might say that it was a type of mental and philosophical revolution. One might even go as far as saying that the ideals presented by the Enlightenment and its philosophers were a type of prediction for the French Revolution that would occur at the end of this philosophical period. Currently, there exists a debate regarding the actual influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution, and the extent of its presence during and after the Revolution took place. One can hardly deny that there was some influence, but whether the Enlightenment was the primary reason for the French Revolution, or even significantly influenced it, is under question, though there can be no doubt that Enlightenment ideals and thoughts were put into practice during the French Revolution. With careful consideration, one might draw the conclusion that the French Revolution and the Enlightenment created a mutual influence that resulted in the central ideals and visions that fed the Revolution, perpetuated it, and gave it thoughts that were put into practice. Ultimately, this caused a new type of society in France, even as the Enlightenment created a new type of philosophical basis for scientific thinking. According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2010), the Enlightenment involved revolutions not only in scientific thought, but also in the directions of philosophy, religion, society, and politics. In these areas, centuries-old ways of life were swept away and gave way to reason, logic, and a sense of equality among human beings. For example, one of the basic tenets of the Enlightenment, the fact that all men are entitled to basic human rights, was brought into practice even before the actual French Revolution began. It was expounded on in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen, published in the French National Assembly in 1789 (“Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen”). This document was the first document to set out these ideals and concepts with regards to the country of France itself; concepts which, above all, included freedom, liberty, and equality, founded upon the principles of human reason. It is but one example of how Enlightenment ideals were put into practice in regards to the French Revolution, as the people of France were, in effect, finally stating that enough was enough, and demanding what they felt were their basic human rights (“Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen”). Bruce Kelly, however, points out that the French Revolution became so violent during its later stage, that it could hardly have claimed the ideals of equality and reason (2011). Indeed, he goes so far as to state that many of these ideals have been discredited by the violence during the Revolution. In considering this, however, it is important to consider the length of the French Revolution, and in doing so, one might also surmise that the Enlightenment ideals that influenced the French Revolution underwent a revolution of their own during this time, which indeed they did. Therefore, it is accurate to say that Enlightenment ideals were not wholly abandoned, as Kelly states; they simply changed, as things do over time. In the early stages of the French Revolution, the Enlightenment ideals presented by Charles de Montesquieu were put into practice. Montesquieu had proclaimed that the best form of government was a shared government, or constitutional monarchy, and that a shared government would have a system of checks and balances, such as was seen in England between the Crown, Parliament, and the courts of law (Cranston 1989). Montesquieu and his ideals come through in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen, as well as throughout the French Revolution, since the basis of what people were rebelling against was the absolute monarchy. However, later in the French Revolution, Montesquieu gave way to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, unlike Montesquieu, saw freedom as “ruling oneself, living under a law which one has enacted.” (Cranston 1989). He believed that a monarchy should not be divided and diminished by sharing power; to the contrary, he believed that a nation, in effect, became sovereign over itself (Cranston 1989). These principles were, in effect, taken and twisted during the latter part of the French Revolution into something suitable to the purposes of Robespierre (Cranston 1989). Robespierre used the same language, and expanded on, along with twisting, several of the ideals that Rousseau had brought forth (Cranston 1989). Thus, Enlightenment ideals were still being put into practice during the violent parts of the French Revolution, but perhaps not in the way that the philosopher Rousseau had intended. Historian Stephen Kreis, on the other hand, goes as far as saying that the Enlightenment was much more directly responsible for the French Revolution. He refers to it as a “new era,” which was to realize the ideals of the Enlightenment, such as those of John Locke, the political philosopher widely regarded as a pioneer in modern thinking (Kreis 2006). One of the most pointed philosophies of Locke was that a government was, in essence, a contract between the people and their ruler; the people give up certain rights for fair rule, and the ruler holds power only as long as they can rule in a fair manner (Kreis 2006). This was not the case in France, where the aristocracy and class system was firmly rooted and established; therefore, the people took the ideals of Locke to heart, and the result was that the French Revolution in and of itself, quite literally, put the Enlightenment ideals of Locke into action. According to Kreis, instead of the old tyranny, there would be liberty; instead of authority or blind faith, there would be reason and justice (2006). There were no more barriers to freedom, liberty, equality, or brotherhood. At their inception, these ideals were indeed overwhelmingly positive and highly idealistic. The violence of the later stage of the Revolution, in turn, brought a sense of reality to these ideals. It was as if the French Revolution taught the lesson that, while these ideals are very positive and sweet indeed, they were hardly realistic in the full sense of the word. With the general philosophy being based upon logic and reason, the ideals could then be open for modification and re-deliberation, resulting in the still-surviving ideals of democracy and related philosophies that we see in the world today. Humanitarianism and the drive to help the oppressed achieve liberty are also ideals that were born of the Enlightenment and influenced by the French Revolution, as it was the French Revolution that caused Thomas Paine to put pen and paper together and achieve The Rights of Man, a work that expounded on the fact that man had natural rights, such as that of liberty and free thinking, that were given at the time of creation, and those rights could not be taken away (Brainard 2005). Another practice of the French Revolution that was guided by an Enlightenment ideal was that of religion. One of the most basic concepts of the Enlightenment was belief in human progress, and faith in human nature (Lewis 1992). This concept basically said that, if left alone, man would know and do the right thing (Lewis 1992). This was quite contrary to the power exercised over the population by the Catholic Church in France prior to the French Revolution. One of the first proposals of the French Revolution was to sever all ties with the Catholic church, as it was felt that the new age should be grounded in reason and the natural rights of man; there was no need for any other Biblical analogies or clergy (Hunt 2004). In this way, the French Revolution put an ideal of the Enlightenment into practice, as the people of France prepared to put their faith in each other, as well as the common good of man, and not in an unseen God. By proving different from the ideal suggested by the Enlightenment, human reason had to be applied for creating a more viable social philosophy. In this way, the Enlightenment not only influenced the French Revolution and its underlying driving force, but the reverse was also true; the French Revolution significantly influenced the tenets of the basic philosophy promoted by Enlightenment. Hence, these ideals both survived and were modified by the French Revolution to become the political and economic model for liberalism and humanitarianism, especially during the 19th century (Kelly 2010). Indeed, the possibility and necessity of progress that forms the basis of the 20th century and its innovating force is derived from Enlightenment ideals. Many of the ideals and philosophies promoted by Enlightenment were highly idealistic. The French Revolution served the purpose of injecting some critical realism into them by means of debate and the demand for clarity; the thoughts of the Enlightenment were fine when stated on paper, but the basic fact was that people themselves did not always behave the way those ideals on paper expected them to behave. This is possibly one area of the French Revolution in which the ideals of Enlightenment were not put into action. The Enlightenment ideals never once promote revolution, as the violent overthrow of the existing order of things was contrary to the concept of human reason (Kreis 2006). Instead, thinking was advocated, which in turn produced the revolutionary mindset, as according to historian Henri Peyre, “18th century philosophy taught the Frenchman to find his condition wretched, unjust and illogical and made him disinclined to the patient resignation to his troubles that had long characterized his ancestors.” (Kreis 2006). So, while it is fair to say that the Enlightenment ideals of freedom influenced the French Revolution and were put into practice, the ideals themselves were not, at all times, put into practice, due to the fact that they never advocated the overthrow of any existing system. Due to this, it is important to note that the philosophers of the Enlightenment were not the direct instigators of the French Revolution. Their ideas spurned a population to start thinking, and therefore that population chose to take up a cause against oppression, but it was the general population of France that did this, not Locke, nor Montesquieu, nor Rousseau or Voltaire. The most that can be said about the philosophers was that the ideals they created then promoted a rift between the way in which the people perceived their leaders, and the way that the people believed they should be ruled. While the ideals were therefore potentially directly related to the French Revolution, the philosophers could not be accused of directly starting the French Revolution. The debate of the precise extent of influence on the French Revolution by the idealistic philosophies of the Enlightenment therefore remains in question. Author Richard Bourke, perhaps, sums up best the mutual influence of the French Revolution and Enlightenment upon each other, by creating entirely new, different, and modified concepts from the beginning ideals (2008). According to Bourke, the French Revolution combined with the ideals of Enlightenment sparked a debate regarding the nature of democracy (2008). Today, we consider the concept to be static, meaning the same thing to all who hear it, regardless of the type of regime they live under; even those in oppressed countries, such as France was before the French Revolution, understand democracy to be the same thing that those in the “free” world enjoy. The same is true for Enlightenment concepts such as equality and liberty, which were preached endlessly by philosophers of the time such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Thomas Paine, and which found their way to The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen as well as sparking the French Revolution overall. The end result of the entire process was that the Enlightenment, as a philosophy, and the Revolution, as a movement, exercised mutual influence. There cannot be any doubt that concepts such as democracy and human rights were formed, debated, and reformed during this violent time in human history. Lewis, for example, states that the new vision of the future promoted by the Enlightenment was also a harbinger of the end of absolute monarchy (1992). This was what the French Revolution did prove to be; King Louis XVI was executed, and a new form of government began (Hunt 2004). There was, however, much to learn by philosophers who based their formula for perpetual human happiness upon the pursuit of self-interest on the basis of complete freedom from rule. In conclusion, it would be fair to say that there were, indeed, influences of the Enlightenment and its ideals that were put into practice in the French Revolution, but unfair to say that the philosophers behind the Enlightenment caused the French Revolution directly. The ideal that human beings were all equal must have been a very seductive idea to the French population, as they had been ruled by absolute monarchy for centuries. However, the fact remains that the philosophers of the Enlightenment did not tell the people of France to revolt, nor did they tell them to become violent. They told them to do something far more powerful, which was, of course, to think, to question, and to think some more. The philosophers put pen to paper and caused thought, which in turn caused the people of France in 1789 to think, and to talk about those thoughts, which ultimately led them to realize that, quite possibly, they were not condemned to a rigid class system forever. For the precise nature of some principles, such as democracy and freedom, the world today can thank those who sacrificed their peace and their lives in the pursuit of change during the French Revolution. Bibliography Bourke, Richard. “Enlightenment, Revolution, and Democracy.” Constellations. 15. no. 1 (2008): 10-32. http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/docs/bourke/2652.pdf (accessed December 6, 2011). Brainard, Rick. Independence Hall Archives, “18th Century History: The Influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution.” Last modified 2005. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://www.history1700s.com/articles/article1042.shtml. Bristow, William. “Enlightenment.” The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. (2011). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/enlightenment/ (accessed December 6, 2011). Columbia Law School, "Declaration of the Rights of Man and The Citizen." Accessed December 6, 2011. http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html. Cranston, Maurice. "The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies." History Today. 39. no. 5 (1989). http://www.historytoday.com/maurice-cranston/french-revolution-ideas-and-ideologies (accessed December 6, 2011). Hunt, Lynn A. Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2004. Lewis, Hackett. History World International, “The Age of Enlightenment: The European Dream of Progress and Enlightenment.” Last modified 1992. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://history-world.org/age_of_enlightenment.htm. Kelly, Bruce. “The Age of Enlightenment.” Last modified 2011. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://www.brucekelly.com/library/enlightenment.html. Kreis, Steven. The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, “The Origins of the French Revolution.” Last modified October 30, 2006. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture11a.html. Read More