Synthesized answer
According to Robespierre's speech, the ultimate success of the French Republic depends on cultivating specific individual character traits—"honest men" and "manly greatness"—as replacements for the vices of the old order. He argues that the Republic's goal is to establish a social order that awakens "benevolent and noble impulses" and makes the noblest ambition that of being useful to one's country [1]. This requires replacing egotism with morality, avarice with the love of glory, and "the depravity of the great" with "manly greatness," ultimately creating a "sublime, powerful, victorious and happy people" [1].
However, Robespierre insists that virtue alone is insufficient during the Revolution. Because "perfidious and vicious individuals" seek to exploit the Republic for plunder, the Republic must "stifle the domestic and foreign enemies" or be destroyed [2]. Thus, the relationship between individual character and success is one of mutual necessity: "virtue, without which terror will be a disaster; and terror, without which virtue is powerless" [4]. Terror is defined as "swift, severe and indomitable justice" wielded against enemies, while virtue guides the people through reason…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
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…
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…
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…
as in ours, superstition is still so widespread. … The domestic situation of our country demands your entire attention. Remember that it is our duty simultaneously to make war against the tyrants of all Europe, to keep fed and equipped an army of 1,200,000 men, and that the government is obliged ceaselessly to keep down with due energy and caution all our internal foes, as well as to repair all our defects. … — Speech delivered February 5, 1794.
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"?
- How does Robespierre reconcile the pursuit of "eternal justice whose laws are graven... in the hearts of all men" with the practical necessities of a "revolutionary government" that he implies must "stifle the domestic" opposition? What inherent tensions arise from these two principles in his argument?
- 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"?