Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since 1789

人们经常争辩说，1789年的法国大革命是现代最重要的政治事件。它改变了政治的整个性质和特征，并带来了从那时起塑造政治的术语和思想。这也预示着法国将迎来一段激烈的政治动荡和思想动荡时期。这项研究将试图分析和解释革命前后出现的政治思想模式，并将重点放在这一革命进程中出现的特殊政治形式上：即共和国。然而，它将通过寻求一种全面的元素来做到这一点，这一元素在以前对这一时期的法国政治思想的研究中迄今尚未获得。简而言之，虽然这个项目将侧重于权利、自由、公民身份、主权和平等等关键政治概念，但它也将把这些放在更广泛的法国政治话语和实践的背景下。因此，这本专著将追溯法国专制主义的历史，以及由此引发的关于宪法形式和代表性的辩论；它将探索关于奢侈品和商业的优点或其他方面的辩论；它将探索国家的意义和通向普世主义的冲动；它将试图理解法国人自己对大革命事件，特别是恐怖事件的意义；它将考察自启蒙运动以来科学与宗教之间的复杂相互关系；它将分析法国社会主义传统的所有丰富和多样的形式；它将评估知识分子所扮演的非常具体的角色和地位；它将研究战后存在主义和结构主义的兴盛以及随后的消亡；它将研究当代关于共和模式在事实上的多元文化社会中的相关性的辩论。最后，这本专著将对当代法国的政治思想和辩论的现状进行评估。拟在AHRC休假期间完成的两个章节分别为“历史、革命和恐怖”和“反应、宗教和科学”。第一本书探讨了对法国大革命的解读，从反革命到第一次世界大战后题材的专业化。第二章探讨了同一时期科学与宗教之间复杂的相互关系，包括天主教的演变、实证主义的兴起和对世俗宗教的渴望，以及20世纪初非科学思维模式的复兴。

It has often been argued that the French Revolution of 1789 was the most important political event of the modern era. It changed the whole nature and character of politics and brought into existence the terminology and ideas that have shaped politics ever since. It also heralded a period of intense political instability and intellectual ferment in France. This study will seek to analyse and explain the pattern of political thought that emerged both before and after the Revolution and it will do so by focusing its attention upon the particular political form that emerged out of this revolutionary process: namely, the Republic. However, it will do so by seeking an element of comprehensiveness that has so far not been obtained in previous studies of French political thought in this period. In short, while this project will focus upon such key political concepts as rights, liberty, citizenship, sovereignty and equality, it will also place these within the much broader context of French political discourse and practice. The monograph will therefore trace the history of French absolutism and the debates about constitutional forms and representation that arose out of it; it will explore debates about the virtues or otherwise of luxury and commerce; it will explore the meaning of the nation and the impulse towards universalism; it will seek to understand the sense that the French themselves have made of the events of the Revolution, and specifically of the Terror; it will examine the complex inter-relationship between science and religion from the Enlightenment onwards; it will analyse the socialist tradition in France in all its rich and varied forms; it will assess the very specific role and status attached to the intellectual; it will examine the post-war flowering of existentialism and structuralism as well as their subsequent demise; and it will examine contemporary debates about the relevance of the republican model in a de facto multicultural society. Finally, the monograph will conclude with an assessment of the current state of political thought and debate in contemporary France. The two chapters to be completed during the period of proposed AHRC leave are entitled 'History, Revolution and Terror' and 'Reaction, Religion and Science'.. The first explores interpretations of the French Revolution from those of the counter-revolution onwards until the professionalisation of the subject matter after the First World War. The second explores the complex inter-relationship betwen science and religion during the same period, covering the evolution of Catholicism, the rise of positivism and of aspiration towards a secular religion, as well as the revival of non-scientific patterns of thought at the beginning of the twentieth century.