Solitude de son propre cœur

Tocqueville and the transformation of democratic solitude

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4523780
AutoresGuy Paltieli (0000-0002-0509-3483, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen37
Número1
Páginas183-206
Fecha de publicación2016-01-01
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0730-479X • E-ISSN: 1918-6649
EditorialUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/ttr.37.1.183
OpenAlexW4205793931
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1

This paper wishes to highlight the meaning of solitude in Alexis de Tocqueville's political thought. Its central claim is that solitude played an important role in Tocqueville's intellectual development, and was regarded by him as a positive concept in his understanding of democracy. It claims that contrary to the accepted interpretation of Tocqueville's thought, solitude was inherently different from individualism. With individualism, Tocqueville pointed to a state of mind that makes each individual believe she does not have the power to influence others, and so she withdraws into her private life. Solitude, this study will show, signified for Tocqueville a precondition for any meaningful intellectual work. Many political theorists addressed the Tocquevillian conclusion that civic participation was essential in a vibrant democracy, but they also reached a conclusion which Tocqueville himself did not reach-that solitude is dangerous for democracies

Aesthetics · Art · Democracy · Epistemology · Individualism · Interpretation (philosophy · Literature · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Solitude · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence