Thinking Revolution
The French Revolution brought philosophical ideals of equality and self-government into modern politics with unprecedented force and suddenness. In its violent wake, Enlightenment thinkers fiercely debated the limits of progress, institutional reform, and the relation between human nature and government. We will begin with a consideration of Rousseau’s articulation of the social contract and natural right concepts that explicitly inspired revolutionaries. We will then examine the Burke and Paine debate on the comparative advantages of tradition and abstract rights as the basis of government. Finally, we will compare Hannah Arendt’s account of the French and American revolutions with these earlier authors’ challenges in order to reconceive the relation between thought and action in the form of participatory politics. (Political Theory)/