Enlightenment During The French Revolution

During the French Revolution a government cemented in the ideas of the Enlightenment was attempted to be created, especially from the year 1789 through the Reign of Terror. Enlightenment philosophies became prominent in many aspects of society, including polices dealing with the Church, the structure of the government, and political principles to base all future forms of government off of. As Enlightenment philosophies were rooted so deeply in the ideas of the French Revolution it was inevitable that the government created would be based upon these ideas in almost every single aspect of its legislation. One of the first declarations of political principles held by the leaders of the French Revolution was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which was published by the National Constituent Assembly in 1789. It was a document that would be consulted throughout the Revolution as a rule of moral principles and theologies that were to
always be at the heart of the Revolution, and it was based heavily of the philosophies of Enlightenment thinkers, particularly Locke. The declaration claimed that all men born free and equal to each other in every way, with four natural rights; liberty, property, security and the resistance to oppression. It continued on to say the purpose of government is to protect these rights. These points are almost exactly the same as those outlined by John Locke in his Second Treatise on Government, with only a few slight variations. For example, Locke described the natural rights of man in three points instead of four; life, liberty and property, however the same general concept of natural rights is still very much the same. Maximilien de Robespierre came to power as head of the Convention, after the death of Luis XVI in the spring of 1793. By this time the idea of a constitutional monarchy had been abolished, and was instead replaced with a republic, which was called a “republic of virtue” by its founders. This system held the interests of itself above the interests of the individuals within it, and although said to be a republic, was lead with Robespierre as its dictator. It was also governed on the basis of general will, which means that the population unanimously agreed on everything, and anyone who did not agree was killed, so that the population continued to be unanimous. These are characterizes of the society which was outlined by the enlightenment thinker Jean Jacques Rousseau his Social Contract. Rousseau believed that without the larger community individual human beings cannot achieve much, but when they worked in accordance with the community they contributed to creating a society based on good moral conduct that is capable of much achievement. Therefore, to Rousseau the wellbeing of the group is much more important than the individuals whom it contains, so he had no qualms about killing individual people, if it benefited the society in whole. Robespierre used this philosophy to justify all of the brutalities he committed during the Reign of Terror, such as beheading all suspected enemies of the republic and barring women from the political sphere, which he saw as necessary for the betterment of the society as a whole. In regard to religion the ideas of the leaders of the French Revolution after 1793 greatly paralleled those of the Enlightenment thinkers.
Many philoshopes of the Enlightenment were deists, meaning they believed that any God that created nature so rationally must also be rational, and should therefore be worshipped in a rational manner. To these Enlightenment thinkers the Catholic Church, and all other established institutes of religion were not rational or enlightened whatsoever. A prominent Enlightenment thinker, Voltaire, who was not a deist, but whom opposed the Catholic Church equally vehemently is another example of enlightenment thought that later influenced the French Revolution. Voltaire, who was strongly against religious persecution, deduced that the Church was the greatest persecuted overall, and was therefore strongly opposed to it. More than anything Voltaire was an advocate for religious toleration and a leader of the crusade against religious persecution. Revolutionary thinkers tended to agree with
these
Enlightenment thinkers’ philosophies, which became evident by November of 1793 when the republic of virtue began its de-Christianization attacks. The Convention began a crusade against Christianity, closing, or even destroying churches, prosecuting and killing clergymen and believers alike, and renaming all religious structures, such as the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was changed to the Temple of Reason. They saw the Church as a counterrevolutionary force, and as a main component of the Old Regime which had to be destroyed for progress to continue in France. The government created by the leaders of the French Revolution was based very strongly in Enlightenment philosophies, and particularly those of Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, and the deists. Although there were some differences in philosophy between the two, the Revolutionary government’s ideas were grounded in the Enlightenment, only with slight twists and different directions added in, but nonetheless its general concept comes from the Enlightenment.