Eighteenth-Century French Enlightenment

Abstract

Chapter 5 discusses developments in the 18th-century French Enlightenment. At the time of the Enlightenment the spiritual and material foundations of the modern constitutional state were established. Of central importance was the rejection of divine authority, both in respect of the truth of science and the authority of politics and law. In its place came the ideal of human autonomy: every person is equally responsible for his own life. With this, monarchy lost its traditional ground of justification. In terms of the new view, government should serve the people, not the other way around. The Enlightenment philosophers thus arrived at a radical critical stance vis-a-vis existing political and social relationships: the French absolute monarchy and feudal division of estates with their inequality and lack of freedom were in blatant conflict with human dignity. The political and legal philosophy of the French Enlightenment showed two different responses to this social exploitation: a liberal response, by Montesquieu and his kindred spirits, and a perfectionist response, by Rousseau. Both would become prominent in philosophy and science, and in addition attain significant historical influence. The chapter furthermore discusses the important contribution of Beccaria to the reform of criminal law and procedure. Beccaria was the first to sketch a criminal law of which not vengeance and retaliation, but the prevention of criminal acts, is the central rationale; and in which criminal procedure does not only serve to detect and punish, but also to protect the fundamental rights of citizens and suspects against the prosecuting authority.