L'abbé de Saint-Pierre, Rousseau et l'Europe
1993; Société française d'étude du XVIIIe siècle; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3406/dhs.1993.1907
ISSN1760-7892
Autores Tópico(s)Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
ResumoJean-Louis Lecercle : the abbé de Saint-Pierre, Rousseau and Europe. With his project for perpetual peace, the abbé de Saint-Pierre wished to establish an alliance between the states of Christian Europe in order to ensure international peace. He explained to their leaders that it was in their own interests as it guaranteed their power against all attempts at change ; despite his humanistic views, it was a conservative project. Rousseau respected these generous aims, but he showed their Utopian character : the abbé believed he could pacify leaders whose real interest was war. Rousseau, without abandoning the ideal of peace between all men, thought that in that period any attempt to establish peaceful relations in Europe was doomed to failure. According to him, one first needed democratic states in which free citizens, inspired by patriotism, could rise to universal fraternity. But this ideal could only be achieved by violent and frightening upheavals.
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