Comparing Human Nature & Democracy in American and French Revolutions - Prof. Stephen Schl, Study notes of World History

Download Comparing Human Nature & Democracy in American and French Revolutions - Prof. Stephen Schl and more Study notes World History in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Sister Revolutions: Primitive Innocence or Human Depravity? HS067 Week 13 / Lecture 01 4 December 2007 2 A turn to the “Third Estate” --- not just Popes and Kings [First and Second Estates] powerful: Third Estate: accumulation of wealth and power through commerce as merchants 5 American Revolution (1776 [1789]): “human nature” is fundamentally corrupt, selfish, even depraved. Reason – yes, but remember it is fallible. “Check and balance” it at every step of the way… Best authority is blocked (gridlocked?) authority. Prevent the tyranny of the majority. French Revolution (1789): in a [primitive] “state of nature,” humans basically innocent. “Civilization” corrupts us. “Regenerate them and their selfish particular wills once again will conform to the General Will … “Rational choice…” Best authority is activist authority. Carry out the General Will. Sister Revolutions thesis: two revolutions based on opposed visions of “human nature.” Key question for HS067: What is the relationship between the [subjective] individual and the community? “Pre-modern” --- communitarian: --Understand the individual in terms of the whole “Modern” --- individualist: -- Understand the whole as a composite of individuals 6 Modern society: “democracy” / individual rights / representative government… Sounds familiar??? but a little more complicated than that !!! Modern society: “democracy” / individual rights / representative government… 7 USA/FRench SHARE: Common belief in representative governments based on popular sovereignty and the will of the majority DIFFER: Two conceptions of unity: American: conflict / dissent is good French: no place for dissent --- a unified General Will American Revolution (1776): Human depravity Prevent the tyranny of the majority. French Revolution (1789): Primitive innocence Enforce the General Will. Two revolutions based on opposed visions of “human nature.” 10 What’s missing: Calvinism John Calvin 1509 - 1564 Doctrine of “Total Depravity” • The one who most thoroughly knows his/her total depravity has the best knowledge of oneself. • Leads to total despair / hopelessness. • Opens the way for total dependence on God’s grace. • Calvin: “Our condemnation is not set before us in the law, that we may abide in it; but that having fully known our misery, we may be led to Christ, who is sent to be a physician to the sick, a deliverer to the captives, a comforter to the afflicted, a defender to the oppressed.” [Commentaries on Romans] 11 Calvin exported to America Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Calvinism in America: The Puritans “Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.” ~from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” 12 Behold, I fall before thy face, My only refuge is thy grace, No outward form can make me clean, The leprosy lies deep within. No bleeding bird nor bleeding beast, No hyssop branch nor sprinkling priest, Not running brook, nor flood, nor sea, Can wash the dismal stain away. from Psalm 51 NB: The “depravity” doctrine preserves God’s absolute sovereignty. God absolutely free to do what God wills. [Predestination] Key for American democracy: vision of “human nature” “The people” are not “good.” The “majority will” Must not be allowed to tyrannize. Keep in mind while reading Adams / Madison!!! 15 18th c. neo-Classicism French “Rococo” Pre-Christian mythology Innocent “state of nature” Jean-Honoré Fragonard Diana and Endymion, c. 1753/1755 Jean-Honoré Fragonard A Game of Horse and Rider, 1767/1773 “childhood” // “innocence” // “nature” 16 a) “Original Innocence” --- in the [mythical / classical?] “state of nature” we are innocent and transparent --- “civilization” (society) corrupts us; we must wear masks and play roles --- we need to “regenerate” ourselves – get back to primal innocence Contrast with Biblical / Calvinist vision! 17 b) “Social Contract”: the foundation of society is not given “in nature” --- rather, we create society by mutual agreement --NB: atomistic individuals come together to form society Rousseau: The Social Contract 20 Catholic Catholic theology of “grace” and “nature” Original Sin of Adam and Eve: corrupted human nature but not radically --- i.e., not “depraved” “Grace”: not radically opposed to “nature” Rather: “grace builds on nature” --- transforms nature into its supernatural potential Hence: “nature” is capable of being good Hence: strong human institutions: monarchy; government; church Abbé Sieyès: “What is the Third Estate?” 21 • Abbé Sieyès writes a “revolutionary script”: – transforms Rousseau’s analytical ideal [social contract] into a revolutionary plan – Question: “What is the Third Estate?” – Answer: “I answer: Everything” – In other words: NOT REPRESENTED according to “Estates” [5% v. 95%] but rather by “Subjective Individuals” [mathematically = 1:1 ratios] Abbé Sièyes: What is the Third Estate? 1. Mathematical view of society: atoms equidistant from center [“law”] --- “I imagine the law as being at the center of a large globe; we the citizens, without exception, stand equidistant from it and occupy equal places.” 22 Abbé Sièyes: What is the Third Estate? 2. What should we do with “privileged orders” [nobility and clergy] who do not want to be stripped of privileges and become citizens like everyone else? --- “This is the equivalent of asking what place one wishes to assign to a malignant tumor that torments and undermines the strength of the body of a sick person. It must be neutralized.” --- NB analogy: EXCOMMUNICATION of dissenters • 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 formation. 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. 25 September 1789: Immunity Protect indiv. against state / majority “negative freedom”: “freedom from…” USA Bill of Rights: 10 Amendments 26 August 1789: Human Rights Strong nation / society + Equal dignity: “positive freedom”: “freedom for…” Declaration of the Rights of Man 25 28 October 1793: Marie-Antoinette Guillotined Crime: “Promiscuity” → Contrast with “pessimism” of American → Optimism: volatile mixture! General Will …. “forced to be free”….. “neutralized” …… 26 John Adams 1735-1826 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Constitutional Convention 2004 Pessimism???