TEXT 11: Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, 1689—1755 — КиберПедия 

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TEXT 11: Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, 1689—1755

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Montesquieu is a French political philosopher whose major work appeared under the title The Spirit of Laws. It consisted of two volumes, comprising 31 books in 1,086 pages. It is one of the greatest works in the history of political theory and in the history of jurisprudence. Its author had acquainted himself with all previous schools of thought but identified himself with none.

Of the multiplicity of subjects treated by Montesquieu, none remained unadorned. His treatment of three was particularly memorable.

The first of these is his classification of governments. Abandoning the classical divisions of his predecessors into monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, Montesquieu produced his own analysis and assigned to each form of government an animating principle: the republic, based on virtue; the monarchy, based on honour; and despotism, based on fear. His definitions show that this classification rests not on the location of political power but on the government's manner of conducting policy; it involves a historical and not a narrow descriptive approach.

The second of his most noted arguments is the theory of the separation of powers. Dividing political authority into the legislative, executive, and judicial powers, he asserted that, in the state that most effectively promotes liberty, these three powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies, acting independently. It at once became perhaps the most important piece of political writing of the 18th century. Though its accuracy has in more recent times been disputed, in its own century it was admired and held authoritative; it inspired the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of the United States.

The third of Montesquieu's most celebrated doctrines is that of the political influence of climate. Basing himself on the experience of his travels, and on experiments, he stressed the effect of climate, primarily thinking of heat and cold, on the physical frame of the individual, and, as a consequence, on the intellectual outlook of society. According to Montesquieu, other factors (laws, religion, and maxims of government) are of a non-physical nature, and their influence, compared with that of climate, grows as civilization advances.

After the book was published, praise came to Montesquieu from the most varied headquarters. The Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote from London that the work would win the admiration of all the ages; an Italian friend spoke of reading it in an ecstasy of admiration; the Swiss scientist Charles Bonnet said that Montesquieu had discovered the laws of the intellectual world as Newton had those of the physical world. The philosophers of the Enlightenment accepted him as one of their own, as indeed he was. His fame was now worldwide. But renown lay lightly on his shoulders. His affability and modesty are commented on by all who met him. He was a faithful friend, kind and helpful to young and unestablished men of letters, witty, though absent-minded, in society.

 

 

TEXT 12: Voltaire, 1694—1778

 

Voltaire was the most influential figure of the French Enlightenment. Considered by his contemporaries as the greatest poet and dramatist of the century, he is now better known for his essays and tales. His precocious wit, his upbringing among a group of libertines, and his predilection for aristocratic circles were to mark his life, as his classical education by the Jesuits was to form his taste.

For writing some satirical verses, he spent a year imprisoned in the Bastille (1717—1718), after which he adopted the name Voltaire. Subsequently he quarrelled with a nobleman, was returned briefly to the Bastille in April 1726, then went into exile in England for three years. There he absorbed the lessons of British liberties, deism, and literature. Then, for safety, he moved (1759) to Ferney, just inside the French border, which remained his home until his triumphal return to Paris in February 1778.

Voltaire was pre-eminent in almost every genre. He catapulted to fame in 1718 with Oedipus. His historical works — History of Charles XII, Age of Louis XIV, Essay on Manners — are landmarks of historiography.

Most of all, however, Voltaire was, and remains, famous as a philosopher, a fighter for reform. His ideas were expressed in poems, tracts, pamphlets, and tales, which are still universally read and admired. His philosophical works include the Treatise on Metaphysics (1734), The Disaster of Lisbon (1756), and the influential Philosophical Dictionary, a witty compendium of his ideas.

Finally, Voltaire was the most prolific correspondent of the century. His thousands of letters portray his life and personality, reflect his wit and ideas, and describe his times.

Voltaire was the leader and chief organizer and propagandist of the reformist group called Philosophers. He strove for collaboration with the more radical of the encyclopaedists, such as Diderot, but in 1770 the two groups could not agree on the issue of atheism or on tactics. Although Voltaire is known principally as a reformer and teller of tales, he was one of the originators of modern historiography. Although his use of history for non-historical purposes — propaganda, debunking, philosophical explanations — were justly criticised, he demanded authentic documentation and broke with tradition in his conception of history as the history of civilisation social, economic, and cultural, as well as political.

 

 


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