Benjamin Constant and the politics of reason

Ghins, Arthur

doi:10.1080/01916599.2017.1416309

Cited by 16 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Mme de Staël’s (2008 [1788]) first book was the laudatory Letters on Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and she continuously engaged with the work of her father, Jacques Necker (Craiutu, 2012: 113–157). Constant was exposed to the Scottish Enlightenment when he was a student in Edinburgh (Ghins, 2022: 132–137; Kloocke, 1984: 18–22) and spent several years translating Godwin’s Political Justice (Ghins, 2018: 227–232; Hofmann, 1980: 170–178; Rosenblatt, 2008: 67–70, 127–133). The Doctrinaires’ philosophical outlook was derived from Thomas Reid (Craiutu, 2003: 27), and Tocqueville’s sources for Democracy in America ranged from Pascal to Joseph de Maistre (Jaume, 2013: 72–81).…”

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is French Liberalism?

Ghins

2022

Political Studies

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It has become commonplace to argue that Benjamin Constant and Alexis de Tocqueville form a distinct French liberal tradition going back to Montesquieu. Yet Tocqueville showed little interest in Constant, and early nineteenth-century French liberals did not recognize Montesquieu as the father of French liberalism. Based on these observations, this essay demonstrates that the French liberal tradition is a belated construction and explains how, when, and why it was invented. Exhuming the origins of the French liberal tradition, I argue, is important for our understanding of the history of liberalism and the mechanisms behind ideology formation.

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Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%