Political Philosophy of French Encyclopaedists and its Influence on the French Revolution

Abstract

The intention of this article is to set apart and present segments of political philosophy of French Encyclopaedists and to show their influence on the French Revolution. The French Revolution cannot be easily defined and reduced only to the events which took place in 1789; rather, relative to its reach and plurality of political ideas, it lasted much longer and consisted of many different and ambivalent requests which had been proclaimed by different political groups inspired by the works of the philosophers of the French Enlightenment. This text is limited to the ones who, based on the diversity of ideas and their mutual disagreement, had a crucial influence on the future character of the French state (Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau). Voltaire with his concept of deism and tolerance, as well as Montesquieu with his theory of separation of powers and parliamentarism, remained in the framework of the English political system. Unlike them, J. J. Rousseau stood out in terms of his scope and predominance with his concept of General Will (volonté générale), the theory of democratic republic (republicanism), and by introducing the categories of popular sovereignty and patriotic education, which fully completed the revolution, in this sense he took a step further than his contemporaries and encyclopaedists and in fact he spearheaded the actual Revolution.