Intellectuality in the French Revolution
Edmund Burke is claimed to be one of the first people to
come to a conclusion that philosophers of the Enlightenment can actually be the
cause of the French Revolution. To his surprise, his argument was taken up and
also put emphasis on by a group historians. This group also included
Tocqueville and Lord Acton. It is said that the breakdown of the past regime was
actually the side effects of other factors that were in play. These factors
included economic issues, social unrest, conflicts between groups and certain individuals.
However, as the Revolution began to unfold everything that was thought said and
or advocated was explained by theorists.
The theorists
involved didn’t all share the same ideas, which just goes to show that the
Revolution was not shared by just one single group. Unlike the American and English
Revolutions, the French passed through phases. These phases in themselves were
actually mini Revolutions. As the Revolutionist policies changed to adopt another
one, the different philosophers followed suit. So basically as different ideas
were accepted, depending on thoughts of the philosophers they were also
accepted.
The majority of the
intellectuals were killed because they went against the revolution. These
intellects began to question the ideals of the enlightenment. They were suspicious
due to the bad results from the previous test of the ideals. They started to
think of a more sensible government system, people began to take notice of this
and novels and newspapers were written with strong opinions on the subject. They
ended up coming up with a new constitution from this.
Work cited: "The French Revolution: Ideas and
Ideologies." The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies. Web. 20 May
2015.
Author: Matthew Caldera
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