Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald
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Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald (2 October 1754, Le Monna (part of Millau), Rouergue (now Aveyron) - 23 November 1840, Le Monna), was a French counter-revolutionary philosopher and politician.
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Life
Disliking the principles of the Revolution, he emigrated in 1791, joined the army of the Prince of Condé, soon settling in Heidelberg. There he wrote his first important work, the highly conservative Theorie du pouvoir politique et religieux (3 vols., 1796; new ed., Paris, 1854, 2 vols.), which the Directory condemned.
Upon returning to France, he found himself an object of suspicion and at first lived in retirement. In 1806, he, along with Chateaubriand and Joseph Fiévée, edited the Mercure de France. Two years later, he was appointed counsellor of the Imperial University, which he had often attacked previously. After the Bourbon Restoration he was a member of the council of public instruction and, from 1816, of the Académie française. From 1815 to 1822, de Bonald served as a deputy in the French National Assembly. His speeches were extremely conservative and he advocated literary censorship. In 1825, he argued strongly in favor of the Anti-Sacrilege Act, including its prescription of the death penalty under certain conditions.
In 1822, de Bonald was made Minister of State, and presided over the censorship commission. In the following year, he was made a peer, a dignity which he had lost by refusing to take the required oath in 1803. In 1816, he was appointed to the Académie française. In 1830, he retired from public life and spent the remainder of his days on his estate at Le Monna.
De Bonald had four sons, two of whom, Victor and Louis, led lives of some note.
Ideas
Bonald was one of the leading writers of the theocratic or traditionalist school, which included de Maistre, Lamennais, Ballanche and baron Ferdinand d'Eckstein. His writings are mainly on social and political philosophy, and are based ultimately on one great principle, the divine origin of language. In his own words, "L'homme pense sa parole avant de parler sa pensée" (man thinks his speech before saying his thought); the first language contained the essence of all truth. From this he deduces the existence of God, the divine origin and consequent supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures, and the infallibility of the Catholic Church.
While this thought lies at the root of all his speculations, there is a formula of constant application. All relations may be stated as the triad of cause, means and effect, which he sees repeated throughout nature. Thus, in the universe, he finds the first cause as mover, movement as the means, and bodies as the result; in the state, power as the cause, ministers as the means, and subjects as the effects; in the family, the same relation is exemplified by father, mother and children. These three terms bear specific relations to one another; the first is to the second as the second to the third. Thus, in the great triad of the religious world—God, the Mediator, and Man—God is to the God-Man as the God-Man is to Man. On this basis, he constructed a system of political absolutism.
See also
Quotes
- "Monarchy considers man in his ties with society; a republic considers man independently of his relations to society."
- "There was geometry in the world before Newton, and philosophy before Descartes, but before language there was absolutely nothing but bodies and their images, because language is the necessary instrument of every intellectual operation — nay, the means of every moral existence."
- "Man thinks his word before he speaks his thought, or, in other words, man cannot speak his thought without thinking his word."
Works
- 1796: Théorie du Pouvoir Politique et Religieux.
- 1800: Essai Analytique sur les Lois Naturelles de l’Ordre Social.
- 1801: Du Divorce: Considéré au XIXe, Impr. d'A. Le Clere.
- 1802: Législation Primitive. (3 volumes)
- 1817: Pensées sur Divers Sujets.
- 1818: Recherches Philosophiques sur les Premiers Objets des Connaissances Morales.
- 1815: Réflexions sur l’Intérêt Général de l’Europe.
- 1818: Observations sur un Ouvrage de Madame de Staël.
- 1819: Mélanges Littéraires, Politiques et Philosophiques.
- 1830: Démonstration Philosophique du Principe Constitutif de la Société.
- 1821: Opinion sur la Loi Relative à la Censure des Journaux.
- 1825: De la Chrétienté et du Christianisme.
- 1826: De la Famille Agricole et de la Famille Industrielle.
- 1834: Discours sur la Vie de Jésus-Christ.
Complete Works
- Œuvres de M. de Bonald, 1817-1843 [A. Le Clere, 14 voll. in-8°].
- Œuvres de M. de Bonald, 1847-1859 [A. Le Clere, 7 voll. in-8° gr.].
- Œuvres Complètes de M. de Bonald, 1858 [Jacques-Paul Migne, 3 voll. in-4°].
- Œuvres Complètes, Archives Karéline, 2010 [facsimile of the Migne edition].
