Enthusiasm and the Metaphor of Revolution

Abstract

This article explores the metaphoric content latent in modern conceptions of revolution. Originary theories of modern revolutions relied explicitly on Copernicus’ rethinking of the movements of celestial bodies. There, spectators were significant in characterizing the logic of revolutions despite the appearances of things, revealing a new center of the universe distinct from their own location. Contemporary political theories of revolution obscure this metaphor. My aim here is to highlight tensions implicit in recent democratic theorizing on the role of spectators in legitimizing political revolutions. Recent accounts of revolution have too often presumed that revolutionaries aspire merely to “join” spectators in an already-existing democratic revolution. Here, spectators understand themselves as the center of things, and thus risk mistaking a new political history for their own. Following Kant’s observations on political enthusiasm, I show how spectators can offer legitimation through their own enthusiasm for revolution as historical event, rather than historical norm. Read this way, revolutions become progressive, uncovering new histories and their own requisite normative orders, and reminding spectators of the limits and possibilities of their own politics.