Synthesized answer
Robespierre reconciles the pursuit of "eternal justice" with the necessities of a revolutionary government by arguing that terror is a form of justice itself, swift and indomitable, wielded by the founders of the Republic [1]. He states that "virtue and terror" are the sources of power for the revolutionary government, with virtue being the ideal and terror being the means to achieve it and protect it from those who would destroy it [1]. The goal is a social order guided by "eternal justice whose laws are graven... in the hearts of all men," which requires suppressing those who oppose this vision [5].
The inherent tension arises from the description of the revolutionary government as "the despotism of liberty against tyranny" [1]. While "eternal justice" implies universal and inherent moral laws, the "revolutionary government" employs terror to "stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic" [2]. This necessity to eliminate opposition, characterized as "traitors," "conspirators," and "enemies," stands in contrast to the ideal of justice inscribed in all hearts, suggesting that the practical application of terror requires defining certain individuals as beyond the pale…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
le of our Republic is this: to influence the people by the use of reason, to influence our enemies by the use of terror. In times of peace, virtue is the source from which the government of the people takes its power. During the Revolution, the sources of this power are virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror will be a disaster; and terror, without which virtue is powerless. But terror is nothing more nor less than swift, severe and indomitable justice. … It has been said that terror is the means by which a despotic government rules. Has your rule anything in common with such a…
of empty show, manly greatness instead of the depravity of the great, a sublime, powerful, victorious and happy people! The splendor of the goal pursued by our Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and our weakness. It is the source of our weakness, because it unites all the perfidious and vicious individuals, all the advocates of tyranny who think of plunder, who think to find in the Revolution a trade and in the Republic a booty. Thus we may explain the disaffection of many persons who began the struggle together with us, but who have left us when our path was but half…
rotect crime? … If tyranny prevails for but a single day, all the patriots will have been wiped out by the next morning. And yet some persons dare declare that despotism is justice and that the justice of the people is despotism and rebellion. … Either we or our enemies must succumb. "Show consideration for the Royalists!" shout some persons; "have compassion with the criminal!" "No, I tell you; have compassion with innocence, compassion with the weak, and compassion with humanity! …" The whole task of protecting the Republic is for the advantage of the loyal citizen. In the Republic, only…
are involved a single indissoluble struggle? Are the enemies within not the allies of those who attack us from without? The murderers who rend the flesh of their country at home; the intriguers who seek to purchase the conscience of the representatives of the people; the traitors who sell themselves; the pamphleteers who besmirch us and are preparing for a political counter-revolution by means of a moral counter-revolution;—are all these individuals any less dangerous than the tyrants whom they serve? All those who would intervene between these criminals and the sword of justice are like unto…
for the needs of the fatherland, than by any precise theory. What is the purpose, what is the goal for which we strive? We wish a peaceful enjoyment of freedom and equality, the rule of that eternal justice whose laws are graven not in marble or in stone, but in the hearts of all men. We wish a social order that shall hold in check all base and cruel passions, which shall awaken to life all benevolent and noble impulses, that shall make the noblest ambition that of being useful to our country, that shall draw its honorable distinctions only from equality, in which the generality shall…
More questions about this book
- Explain Robespierre's desired "social order" by contrasting his vision for "morality in the place of egotism" and "reason in the place of the slavery of tradition." How does he believe these shifts will specifically enable "the generality [to] safeguard the welfare of the individual"?
- Robespierre states that the "splendor of the goal" is both the source of the Revolution's strength and its weakness. Unpack this paradox: How can the very ambition for "freedom and equality" simultaneously inspire "benevolent and noble impulses" and attract "perfidious and vicious individuals" who see the Republic as "booty"?
- If you were explaining Robespierre's core argument to a friend, how would you describe the relationship between individual character (e.g., "honest men," "manly greatness") and the ultimate success of the French Republic, according to his speech?
- Robespierre envisions a "sublime, powerful, victorious and happy people." Based on his critique of those who "think of plunder" or are "friends of the tyrants," who does he implicitly include in—and exclude from—this ideal "people" who will enjoy the "peaceful enjoyment of freedom and equality"?