Robespierre and civic humanism.

The contingency of politics in the face of a moral project

Abstract

The distinction between the language of civic humanism and republicanism is an appropriate conceptual clarification to understand the political actions of Robespierre in the light of a new conception of politics. In civic humanism it is possible to find elements related to the assumptions of communitarianism, inasmuch as they are problems inscribed in a limited region, and republicanism responds to demands that are liable to universality. However, this distinction is not all too clear, since, during the French Revolution, particularly regarding Robespierre, there is a mix between the demand of classic civic virtue and the search of political legitimacy with a social point of view. Therefore, the ideological strangeness of Robespierre can only be clear through the understanding of the peculiarities of the language of virtue and moral universalism

 Keywords

Republicanism, communitarianism, political language, mentalities.