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https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parti_philosophique


Philosophical Party

Denis Diderot , French philosopher of the Enlightenment .

The "  philosophical party  " generally meant the xviii th  century, in France , advocates intellectual movement of the Enlightenment , as opposed to the "devout party" Catholic and Jansenism.

Definition [ edit | modify the code ]

The term philosophy is to be taken here in the broad sense it had at the time: it covers knowledge in general, both intellectual speculation and science.

In the Encyclopedia , Dumarsais opens his definition of "philosopher" with these terms: "There is nothing that costs less to acquire today than the name of philosopher" . After having criticized those who consider themselves to be just philosophers "because they have dared to overturn the sacred limits set by religion" , Dumarsais puts the reason of the philosopher in parallel with the grace of the Christian: "Grace determines the Christian to act; reason determines the philosopher ” before concluding that “ The philosopher is therefore an honest man who acts in everything for reason, and who joins to a spirit of reflection and of correctness the manners and the sociable qualities ” .

It is because many representatives of this party have collaborated on the Encyclopedia that we also speak of an encyclopedic party .

This “party” was informal and did not correspond to any established association, nor to any political body properly speaking 1 . The intellectuals attached to this party were not all in contact with each other: Diderot and Voltaire , for example, never met.

Polarization of French intellectual society [ edit | modify the code ]

Main articles: Cacouac and Charles Palissot de Montenoy .

This name therefore evokes above all the polarization of French intellectual society into two networks of influence, the philosophical, progressive and materialist party , on the one hand, and the “devout party”, conservative, on the other hand, including the opposition, virulent, leaves traces in the literature, politics and newspapers of the time.

The encyclopedic party clashed with the devout party over certain prominent positions such as seats in the Academy , as Grimm describes in his Literary, Philosophical and Critical Correspondence  :"The Academy, according to the usage of all bodies, is divided into two parties or factions: the devout party, which brings together to the prelates all the academicians who are thinly provided with merit, and therefore all the more eager to pay court. with baseness; and the philosophical party, which the devotees call encyclopedic, which is made up of all men of letters who think with a little elevation and boldness, and who prefer independence and a limited fortune to favors which cannot be obtained. than by crawling and lying. The latter party prides itself on counting among its supporters Prince Louis de Rohan , coadjutor of Strasbourg  ; The Duke of Nivernois , The Archbishop of Toulouse, and was reinforced this winter by the election of M. le prince de Beauvau . There is, moreover, in these two parties, as between two opposing armies, a fund of deserters who line up, according to their fortune, on one or the other side, and one or the other of which is strengthened. by despising them also; there are also those proud and free souls who disdain to belong to any party, like M. de Buffon , for example, and whom their neutrality exposes to the calumny of the two factions ” .

Political program [ edit | modify the code ]

Turgot , the "candidate" of the philosophical party.

Politically, the Philosophers were partisans of enlightened despotism which they saw as the most effective means of imposing very quickly the reforms which they wanted, even if the remarks of Diderot, in his Observations on the Nakaz , show its skepticism about "enlightened despotism" 2 . The main enlightened despots, as Charles III of Spain , Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia , Catherine II of Russia , Gustavus III of Sweden , Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria , Ferdinand I erof the Two Sicilies , thus maintained an ongoing correspondence with the Philosophers, and some of them even supported them financially.

The appointment of their candidate, Turgot , to the post of general controller of finance by Louis XVI , in August 1774, raised great hopes within the philosophical party. When Turgot was appointed, the Philosophers hoped to see the fulfillment of their hopes for reform, which included: unlimited freedom of trade brought in gradually; the elimination of the most onerous duties on consumption, and especially the salt tax; the abolition of drudgery  ; that of the most tyrannical customs born of feudalism  ; two twentieths and sizesconverted into a territorial tax which would subject the nobility and the clergy to common charges; the equal distribution of the tax ensured by the general land register of the kingdom; freedom of conscience; the recall of the Protestants; the suppression of the majority of the monasteries, while preserving to the monks the rights of usufructuary owners; the redemption of feudal rents, combined with respect for property; the abolition of torture , a less frightening criminal code for the accused; a single civil code substituted for the inconsistent provisions of customary law mixed with Roman law ; uniformity of weights and measures; the elimination of laws and control and of all obstacles to industry; all that made the French provinces foreign to each other, and sometimes enemies, modified or removed; provincial administrations, made up of large landowners, orderly combining municipal interests, substituting utility for the capricious luxury of monuments, piercing new roads, joining rivers and seas by numerous canals; the rich abbeys held in reserve after the death of the holders; the ease of parish priests and vicars assured; the philosophers invited to provide the government with the tribute of their philanthropic observations; thought made as free as industry; a new system of public education where all old prejudices would be fought;

The dismissal of Turgot, less than two years later, , marked the end of those hopes that the Revolution would put back on the agenda.

Key Players [ edit | modify the code ]

Philosophers [ edit | modify the code ]

Voltaire , the Encyclopedists in general, Diderot , D'Holbach , Helvétius , Hume , Dumarsais , Turgot ...

Devotees [ edit | modify the code ]

The Jesuits , Palissot , Jacob-Nicolas Moreau , Fréron , Joseph Giry de Saint Cyr ...

Curiously, if one considers his influence on the French Revolution , Rousseau was rather hostile to the philosophical party which he associated - unjustly - with a radical atheism . He spoke of "  Holbachic coterie ", named after Baron d'Holbach, who was indeed very involved in atheism.

Notes [ edit | modify the code ]

  1. ↑ See Historical, literary and anecdotal memoirs  [ archive ] (...), volume 1, London, Colburn, 1814, p. 163]
  2. ^ Jacques Chouillet , Anne-Marie Chouillet , "Diderot and the despots", Mots , 1983, vol. 7, p.  31-49 .

Bibliography [ edit | modify the code ]

  • Pierre Hartmann, Diderot: la Figuration du philosophe , Paris, J. Corti, 2003 ( ISBN  978-2-71430-806-1 ) .
  • Pierre Hartmann, The Philosopher on the Planks: the Image of the Philosopher in the Theater of Enlightenment: 1680-1815 , Strasbourg, Strasbourg University Press, 2003 ( ISBN  978-2-86820-240-6 ) .
  • (en) Alan Charles Kors, “The myth of the coterie holbachique”, French Historical Studies , 9, (1976), 573-595, 1976.
  • Jin Lu, “What is a philosopher? »: Elements of a survey on the use of a word in the Age of Enlightenment , Saint-Nicholas, Presses de l'Université Laval, 2005. ( ISBN  978-2-7637-8299-7 ) .
  • Henri Guillemin, This Hell Affair, The Philosophers Against Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Bats, Utovie, 2001. ( ISBN  978-2-86819-729-0 ) .

Sources [ edit | modify the code ]

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