Eveline Groot

The overall project of this dissertation is to give insight into the interconnection between Germaine de Staël’s philosophical anthropology, which is her idea of human nature and the inner workings of human psychology, and her work on politics, moral theory, and aesthetics. By researching the ontological, epistemological, moral, and psychological dimensions of Staël’s idea of human nature I aim to demonstrate that, firstly, Staël developed a coherent and unique image of human nature and, secondly, that this image forms an axis for her sophisticated, well-constructed and full round philosophical theory.

Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) developed a unique philosophical theory about state governance due to her reworking of the republican model of government into an aristocratic liberal republicanism. Staël is, however, a liberal thinker prior to being a republican thinker. In this chapter, the author aims to demonstrate that through the lens of Staël’s philosophical anthropology, and in particular through her use of the passion of love of liberty as an epistemic emotion, Staël is able to develop a fixed set of moral and political values and principles that need to be met as much as possible within the governance of a state. Taking into account such important preconditions for practical politics as the political reality, the psychological zeitgeist, and the stage of human progress, this set of values and principles primarily revolves around the promotion of equality before the law, individual rights, and the requirement of a constrained government.

Germaine de Staël’s theory of the impassioned nature of human beings, as set out in her work De l’influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations (1796), provides an insightful account of a sentimentalist theory in which human sensibility and emotionality are understood to be a core part of moral thought. In this work, Staël develops a psychological anthropology and moral theory that presents an interplay between the rational and the sentimental as one of its core aspects. Understanding the impassioned nature of human beings is crucial if—like Staël—one believes that passions are the most important root from which individual and collective happiness sprout. Furthermore, passions are essential for moral judgement: in the complex human psychology, dual negative and positive influences of both reason and the passions influence each other. This interplay functions on a political and public level as well as on a personal and private level.

Het multiculturalisme wordt al jaren met enige regelmaat dood verklaard. Europese politici–met Sarkozy, Merkel en Cameron voorop–hebben het multiculturalisme definitief de rug toegekeerd. Het bezwaar luidt veelal dat het multiculturalisme te stug heeft vastgehouden aan vastomlijnde identiteiten van zowel inwoners uit Europese landen als immigranten. Ook uit academische hoek klinkt kritiek op het multiculturalisme. Normatieve noties van multiculturalisme zouden te veel nadruk leggen op identiteitspolitiek en culturele verschillen en zodoende sociaal-economische verschillen veronachtzamen. Multiculturalisme zou naar essentialisme neigen, gezien het uitgaat van een concept van cultuur dat te weinig oog heeft voor de contextuele constructie en formatie van cultuur. Hierdoor creëert het ongelijkheid tussen meerderheids-en minderheidsgroeperingen in een samenleving. Yolande Jansen stelt in 'Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism' dat het echter te vroeg is om het multiculturalisme definitief af te wijzen: meer dan assimilatie of secularisme, heeft het politieke beleid van het multiculturalisme aandacht voor de werking van herinnering, de internalisatie van cultuur, de paradoxaliteit van privatisering en individualisering van verschil in de positie van etnische en religieuze minderheden.

In this paper, I investigate the role of public opinion and De Staël’s liberal principles in relation to her psychological image of human nature. De Staël regarded the French Revolution as a new stage of human progress, in which the French people, for the first time, gained a political voice. From her position as a liberal republican, De Staël argues for political progress in the form of civil equality and liberty confirmed by law and political representation, for which public opinion serves as a political tool. I aim to demonstrate that De Staël developed a multi-layered analysis of public opinion as both an emancipatory tool for more equality, justice, and liberty, as well as a discriminating and harmful tool. According to De Staël, human passions play a crucial role in determining the employment and the effects of public opinion, as becomes clear in the case of the trial of Marie-Antoinette.