This intellectual history study locates the philosophy of history of Pierre-Simon Ballanche (1776-1847) within the intellectual, religious, and social life of Restoration and July Monarchy France, and argues for the recognition of Ballanche as an important contributor to that milieu. Its four parts blend the topical and evolutionary approaches, analyzing dominant themes as they are developed across Ballanche's works, and charts Ballanche's complex relation of dependence and independence to the various intellectual currents of the period. This study clarifies the thought of a notoriously obscure thinker, illuminates the intellectual history of early nineteenth-century France, and demonstrates how Ballanche's project for religio-social regeneration effected a crucial step in the historical-mindedness of the Romantic period.
Author(s): Arthur McCalla
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 82
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 478
City: Leiden
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE. REVOLUTION AND THE LYON WORKS
CHAPTER ONE: THE LYON TERROR AND THE EPOPEE LYONNAISE
The Lyon Terror
Epopée Lyonnaise
CHAPTER TWO: FROM DU SENTIMENT TO ADIEUX A ROME
Expiation and progress
Revolution
CHAPTER THREE: ANTIGONE
Expiation
Revolution and Restoration
PART TWO. RESTORATION AND SOCIAL THOUGHT
CHAPTER FOUR:THE 1818-1820 WORKS
Ballanche and the Récamier salon
THE 1818-182Ο WORKS
CHAPTER FIVE: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY
Basic assumptions about the nature of society
The law of religious equality
Legitimism
CHAPTER SIX: THE CONTEMPORARY AGE OF CRISIS
Revolution
Restoration
CHAPTER SEVEN: BALLANCHE AND RESTORATION POLITICAL LIFE
Reception of 1818-1820 works
Ballanche and Restoration historiography
PART THREE. SOCIAL PAUNGENESIS
CHAPTER EIGHT: ESSAIS DE PALINGENESIE SOCIALE
The plan of Palingénésie sociale
CHAPTER NINE: PALINGENESIS
Palingénésie philosophique
Natural history and the history of humanity
Palingénésie sociale
CHAPTER TEN: SOCIAL EVOLUTION
The three ages of humanity
The struggle of the two principles
Ballanche and Vico
CHAPTER ELEVEN: ILLUMINISM
The Western Esoteric Tradition
Ballanche and Illuminism
Illuminist themes in Palingénésie sociale
Identity of the Fall and rehabilitation
Initiation
Magnetism
CHAPTER TWELVE: HISTORIOGRAPHY & MYTHOGRAPHY
Myth, epic, history
The historiographical Revolution
Ballanche among the mythographers
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: HISTORIOSOPHY
Illuminism and history
Historiosophy
Anterior Christianity
PART FOUR. JULY AND FAME
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE SPHINX OF THE BARRICADES
The Restoration betrayed
July and social evolution
Cassandra in Mycenae
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE ΡΑRTI SOCIAL
Liberal Catholics
Poles and Pobnophiles
Neo-Catholicism
Saint-Simonism and its dissidents
Fourierism and its dissidents
The workers' circle
Foreign reception
The parti social
CHAPTER SIXTEEN 1834 AND AFTER
Crises of 1834
Beyond the parti social
Religious humanitarianism
Social romanticism
Social Catholicism
Polish philosophies of history
Ecole lyonnaise
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE THEODICY OF HISTORY
A final synthesis
Last years
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF NAMES
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
