| This dissertation explores the intellectual contributions of the French political strategist, and reformer—to his nation's struggle to establish a stable democracy during the first decade of the Third Republic. The first two chapters discuss the systematic philosophy he worked out to provide his party with the intellectual tools needed to rethink the republican project, escape from cycles of revolution and reaction, undermine the credibility of the Right and extreme Left, and build a socially progressive democracy based on the ideals of the French Revolution. In his moral philosophy he adapted the ideals of Kantian morality to the real world through the concepts of self defense in “the state of war” and “the solidarity of evil.” In his social philosophy, conceived as an “applied ethics,” he synthesized the French republican, liberal, and socialist traditions: while defending political liberties and private property, he attacked the abuses of capitalism and called for a “liberal socialism.”; The third chapter focuses on his critique of the French Revolution, which blamed its failures on the Jacobin belief, taken from the Old Regime, that the end justified the means. The final three chapters show how he applied his philosophy to the three major tasks facing the Republicans in the 1870s—wresting power from the conservatives at the ballot box through strict adherence to legality; implementing a radical reform program to forge institutions that would support the democratic constitution; and expelling the church from schools while launching a system of state sponsored education to imbue the young with democratic values and teach them to think for themselves.; I suggest that Renouvier's philosophy offered a powerful rationale for Republican opportunism, one that contributed to the reorientation of republican thought and the revival of civic culture that Furet and Nord, respectively, saw as the basis for the political achievement of the Third Republic. However, I also point out that his program was in many ways ahead of its time, and anticipated parliamentary socialism. |
