4. Montesquieu and Plutarch: Reflections on Historical Analysis in Broader Social Scientific Comparison

Abstract

This chapter explains how to characterize the specificity of historical analysis as opposed to more general social comparison. It explores Montesquieu's attitudes and sense of history through his use of one source, namely the historical writing of Plutarch, and in particular Plutarch's account of the Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans , a source which clearly shines forth in Montesquieu's invocation of ancient republicanism in L'Esprit des lois . The chapter seeks to shed light on whether or how Montesquieu perceived historical difference and continuity in any way distinct from other forms of cultural and political difference. In the long run, Montesquieu's appeal to classical republicanism, in part through the use of Plutarch's work, outshone Diderot's more ethnographic approach and helped to sustain a long tradition of philosophical expression of social discontent, and this in spite of Montesquieu's express political project. Keywords:ancient republics; European history; historical analysis; lives of Greeks; lives of Romans; Montesquieu; philosophical expression; Plutarch; political project; social scientific comparison