Terror and Self-Evidence: Robespierre and the General Will

Judging a declaration: Condorcet, rights and the general will in 1789

“…As Andrew Dicus has recently pointed out in his analysis of Maximilien Robespierre's (1758-1794) revolutionary rhetoric, an 'obsessive' focus on the self-evidence of the concepts one is proposing 'undermines the very epistemological stability-and authority-on which they are premised'. 8 This is even more true when there is acrimonious disagreement, as was the case in the National Assembly of this period, over truths which are declared by each side to be selfevidently and obviously true. I will suggest that Condorcet feared that this epistemological instability would have real-world consequences, and that the more the waters of droit naturel were muddied, thereby delaying the promulgation of a Declaration of Rights, the more likely the looming threat of mob violence in France would become a reality.…”