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1、 STRAUSS, NOTES ON TOCQUEVILLE 1 Strauss, Notes on Tocqueville (from transcript Autumn 1962, Natural Right) Tocqueville, living two generations after Burke, accepted modern democracy on a Burkian basis, without accepting all the ? of natural religion. That is the starting point of Tocqueville. Tocqu
2、eville was here for a very short time, making some inquiries for the French Government. The result of his observations was these remarkable two volumes I believe that no book comparable in breadth and depth has ever been produced afterwards. I believe in no other case in regard to any other country;
3、 that a man after such a short sojourn in a country could give such a comprehensive and profound analysis. Tocqueville had, of course, an excellent teacher, Montesquieu. Those familiar with Montesquieus turn of phrase recognize the master immediately in the work of the pupil. I think the next great
4、book of this kind was Lord Bryces Modern Democracy. But that is not comparable in depth to Tocquevilles book though it may be correct in many points where Tocqueville was wrong. But Tocqueville still has the heritage of a great eighteenth century philosophic analysis. Now Tocqueville accepts the ver
5、dict of providence. Providence has decided in favor of democracy. He makes an important distinction between the sane and moderate democracy which we find in the United States and the revolutionary extremist democracy which justly aroused the ire of Edmund Burke. In other words, America shows to Euro
6、pe its own future. And therefore for a respectable possibility for Europe we have to understand America. I cannot touch on Tocquevilles analysis of American institutions. They are very important, even if obsolete in particulars; the fundamental principles are still of utmost interest. I must forego
7、all this and turn to his analysis of democracy. By the way, one great difficulty in studying Tocqueville is that he speaks of democracy in America, and he thinks, of course, of democracy in general. Sometimes the features are absolutely American and not exportable. In other cases he speaks of ? thin
8、gs and the reader himself must make the distinction between the typically democratic and the peculiarly America. Now what is his analysis of the democratic spirit? “In democratic ages (?) men rarely sacrifice themselves for one another, but they have general compassion for the members of the human r
9、ace. They inflict no useless ills, and are happy to relieve the griefs of others when they can do so without much hurting themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are humane. Although the Americans (meaning the typically democratic nation) have in a manner reduced egotism to a social and phi
10、losophical theory, they are nevertheless extremely open to compassion. “When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizen, it is seldom refused, and I have oft seen it afforded spontaneously and with great ?. All this is not in contradiction to what I have said before, but ? individual
11、ism. The two things are so far from contradicting each other that I can see how they agree. Equality of conditions, that means democracy. While it makes men feel their independence, shows them their STRAUSS, NOTES ON TOCQUEVILLE 2 own weakness. They are free, but exposed to accidents. Experience soo
12、n teaches them that though they do not habitually require the assistance of others, a time almost always comes that they cannot do without it. In democracies no great benefits are conferred, but good offices are constantly rendered. A man seldom ? self-devotion, but all men are ready to be of servic
13、e to one another. Now what does that mean? What he finds characteristic of the democratic temper is a combination of systematic egotism, as he calls it, with compassion. Now systematic egotism means individuals pursuing their own version of happiness. This is a very remarkable remark (this doctrine
14、which presents to interpret American democracy and actually restates the doctrine of Jean Jacques Rousseau.) In other words, that is a very interesting problem for this kind of book. Tocqueville came here, obviously an excellent observer. And at the same time, he had in his head a certain notion of
15、what democracy is from the French democratic tradition, especially Rousseau. It is important to find out whether he was not sometimes misled by his preconceived notions of democracy in his observations. It was stated by Rousseau from the very beginning that it is a fundamental structure of mans natu
16、re: systematic egotism plus compassion. Self-preservation mitigated by compassion. And this leads to a softening of manners, to general human sympathy, compassion, but not to great devotion, or self?sacrifice. The reason is this: democracy means equality, equality of condition, i.e. there are no cas
17、tes, or aristocracy. Equality means independence of the individuals. He is not bound by status, but family, etc. And therefore, he is also not protected by them. The individuals are aware of their weakness, and that makes them compassionate. Equality means everyone is the judge. Everyone is the judg
18、e of the need for self-preservation. In practical terms that means that the father ceases to have authority. That struck Tocqueville very much in this country, great familiarity between parents and children. Now you have this fully developed psychological doctrine, the autocratic and the democratic
19、father, therefore, greater warmth of natural feelings than in aristocratic families. Also equality of the children among themselves, which you would not find in societies of primogeniture, because there the oldest son would be a kind of tyrant eating up his young brothers and sisters. So democracy s
20、trengthens the natural sentiments, whereas it weakens those sentiments which originate in convention. It would be a ? analysis to determine what is really observation and what is inference from Rousseau. Equality furthermore means higher status of women. They become more independent, more reasonable
21、, but the Frenchman adds, lose charm and imagination. Furthermore, everyone has a higher opinion of his personal worth and that leads to a gravity and seriousness which he finds altogether alien to the old World. That, I STRAUSS, NOTES ON TOCQUEVILLE 3 believe, is an observation that is no longer so
22、. Gravity impressed him (he meant all the sturdy citizen virtues, e.g. the town hall and responsibility of the individual citizen), but it has also a certain defect. In democracies men are never stationary. A thousand ? waft them to and fro and their life is always the sport of unforeseen circumstan
23、ces, but they are often obliged to do things which they had imperfectly learned, to say things they imperfectly understand, and to devote themselves to work for which they are unprepared by long apprenticeship. In aristocracies every man has one sole object which he unceasingly pursues, but It means
24、 a leveling, but this is not just a disposal, a caste distinction, but a leveling of the whole of the human aspiration. The first thing that strikes the traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to throw off their original condition; in other words, the enormous mo
25、bility. The second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society. An enormous mobility and therefore a much greater prevalence of ambition than in an aristocratic society, but, on the other hand, a leveling of lofty ambition. This is connect
26、ed with the preoccupation with the present which is inevitable in such a society, such as the family lose their cohesion. Therefore with satisfaction with the present, meaning present small families, parents and children, not the prospect of many generations, as in the older form of society, leading
27、 to a kind of absorption in the present, lack of prospective, lack of lofty ambition. What is the prospect? “Amid the ruins which surround me,“ meaning in Europe, 11848, “shall I dare to say that revolutions are not what I most fear? . . . . . . that humanity will cease to advance.“ (p. 526; all pag
28、e references to Tocqueville are to Democracy in America, in trans. H. Reeve, The Worlds Classics, Oxford University Press, 1946). I dont want to bore you with quotations all the time, but it is of course simply necessary to read Tocquevilles work by every student of political science. We can also st
29、ate what Tocqueville feels in regard to democracy was the rule of mediocrity, or the substitution of quantity for quality, which then became on the political level a stock topic for European criticism of America, but is here meant not as a criticism, but of democracy. There is one section, however,
30、to which I should like to call your attention, because it is is of some interest to us as students of the sciences. “The greater part of the men who constitute the democratic nation . . . . . which is necessary to those who make such applications.“ (pp. 318-9) And he sees in that a very grave danger
31、 for the human mind. Now, this whole analysis, of which I could give you only some specimens, and others might be equally as those which I have selected, shows us that - and that is why he is so important to us in our present STRAUSS, NOTES ON TOCQUEVILLE 4 context - Tocquevilles analysis is guided,
32、 as every analysis must be, by an awareness of alternatives, but whereas in present-day analyses of democracy the alternatives considered are usually communism and fascism, that is to say, to put it mildly most unattractive alternatives from which we learn nothing except self-complacency, Tocquevill
33、es contrasts democracy with a respectable alternative, and that is what makes him so valuable. The respectable alternative is called by him aristocracy and is in practice, the ancient regime, the pre-revolutionary regime at its best. Without considering these passages, one simply cant understand wha
34、t Tocqueville means. I believe also that these passages will show to you the persistence of identically the same problem throughout the times, so that the fundamental point of view of Tocqueville is one which we can easily understand and with which we are familiar. I have already shown by what means
35、 the democratic people almost always . . . . . “ - and to repeat, the United States never means in these passages America; it means democractic nation - “hardly anybody talks of the beauty of virtue . . . . . for whose sake they are made.“ “The Americans, on the contrary, are fond of explaining almo
36、st all the actions of their lives by the principle of interest rightly understood“ - that is, the principle of enlightened selfishness - “they show . . . . . they are more anxious to do honour to their philosophy than to themselves.“ “The principle of interest rightly understood . . . the same instr
37、ument which excites it.“ (pp. 392-4) By the way, you will see that the themes which Tocqueville brings up as observed in practice are all familiar from theory for centuries prior to Tocquevilles visit to the United States. IN other words, the least one would have to say is that certain principles th
38、eoretically developed in the 17th century were actualized in the United States in the 19th century and the late 18th century, which, by the way, is not fantastic, if you think of enlightened self-interest, we think of Benjamin Franklin. There is a very clear line from Europe to some of the American
39、founding fathers, whereas Tocqueville is constantly inclined to minimized the importance of theory and to explain the prevalence of these feelings entirely as a consequence of equality of conditions, what we may call the sociological character (?); he thinks a fundamental change in social conditions
40、 has occurred, that leads to certain theories, and the theories are mere by-products of the social change; whereas it is in this case equally demonstrable that the theories are older than the conditions of which Tocqueville speaks and may be said to have brought about these conditions. But this only
41、 in passing. Now, what then is the principle with which Tocqueville, is concerned, the distinguishing principle distinguishing democracy from aristocracy. Enlightened self-interest versus virtue. That is a theme which goes through the whole book. Enlightened self-interest, that means of course, conc
42、ern with comfort, with reasonable comfort. That means furthermore a love of material pleasures, but wisely tempered. In other words, in America this does not lead, as it does in corrupt Europe, to dissoluteness, and Tocqueville has many words of high praise for the great moral restraint, especially
43、in sexual matters, by Americans. “Some physical gratifications cannot be indulged in without crime. . . . and noiselessly unbend its STRAUSS, NOTES ON TOCQUEVILLE 5 springs of action.“ (p. 403). What he fears is this: “a kind of virtuous materialism may ultimately be established in the world, which
44、would not corrupt, but enervate the soul, and noiselessly unbend its spring of action.“ (p. 403) We may that what he is afraid of is, that it certainly does not lead to dissoluteness in the vulgar sense of the term, but the principle of enlightened self-interest might lead to an obfuscation of the h
45、ighest things in human life, or to what we call colloquially philistinism. Love of material pleasures, a necessary consequence of the principle of enlightened self-interest, leads to restlessness, a secret restlessness, and to that seriousness which I have mentioned before. However, it has also its
46、other side; the love of material pleasures is the spur to commerce and industry, and there is the necessary connection observed before Tocqueville, by Montesquieu especially, between commerce and industry on the one hand and political liberty, on the other. Yet even here when we see the greatest vir
47、tue of this new temper we see a danger, because there is a possible conflict between liberty and the desire for riches, as Tocqueville calls it in a somewhat old-fashioned language, namely the desire for riches in itself leads much more naturally to the demand for order at every price, in other word
48、s, to political apathy, than to political liberty. Tocqueville, reflecting very carefully about this mater and giving a sketch of the possible danger, namely the new despotism, not a despotism of the kind of Nero; he does not believe would come, but a kind of paternalistic welfare state. That was th
49、e great nightmare in which there would be no longer any spirit of liberty and of true rugged individualism. What is the corrective? The corrective to political apathy and to the moral vices which political apathy has as its roots are to realize the inadequacy of the principle of enlightened self-interest. Tocqueville uses very simple and old-fashioned language; if people dont believe in life after death, or in the immortality of the soul, they are bound to fall victims to that materialism, and it is that very materialism which is bound to be fatal to democracy.