Tableau noir et révolution. Etude du "rapport et projet de décret sur l'organisation générale de l'instruction publique".

Abstract

There has been an attempt to interpret in a new light the Project and Report on the General Organization of Public Instruction by defending the thesis that public education of the Third Republic does not continue along these same lines. One must, therefore, turn to the 18th Century and to it alone in order to understand what Condorcet wants to do. First of all, one must try to explain why the 18th Century has such a craving for education ; Turgot's projects as well as those of Diderot and later on that of Talleyrand all give the same answer. The academic issue is absolutely linked to the national issue. It is here that one discovers the originality of Condorcet's "Academic Plan". Education is the remedy not only for the political issue of national democracy, but also for those issues which are just as political-happiness, justice, liberty. Why ? Because education gives the solution in che key-formula of all liberal politic. : equality of men = free education + secular knowledge. One of Condorcet's greatest merits is that he exposed the meaning of this formula to its fullest for the first time ; he thought out completely all the contradictions contained in the definition of liberty as a simple attribute of theoretical reason. This idea must be seen as the key to all liberal thought. We have, therefore, deemed it important to compare the political meaning of Condorcet's plan with that of Talleyrand's and especially with that of Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau, whose plan was supported by Robespierre. This forces one to reconsider the debate of the Gironde and of La Montagne as a debate on the meaning of democracy, still a much discussed issue today.