Why Are Anti-Statism and Anarchism Branches of French Rationalism?

Why Are Anti-Statism and Anarchism Branches of French Rationalism?

—The Constitution of Liberty, pp. 103–104

The two traditions concerning liberty—classical liberalism in the British tradition and, as another branch, the tradition of French rationalism—achieved great political success largely because they appealed strongly to human pride and ambition. As a result, for a long time the tradition of French rationalism was even mistaken for the whole substance of liberalism.

The liberalism of the British tradition was far removed from the claim—often regarded as a fundamental liberal idea—that “all law is an infarction of liberty, therefore all law is evil.” The evolutionary tradition of British liberalism recognized that civilization is the accumulated sum of experience handed down through generations in the form of practices and institutions whose superiority has been demonstrated. It viewed this civilization as resting upon man’s more primitive and violent nature, a nature that is gradually tamed and checked by institutions that human beings neither designed nor can control.

Its adherents never advocated perfect laissez-faire. As the term laissez-faire itself indicates, it belongs to the French rationalist tradition. In other words, the extension of the idea that perfect human reason can reconstruct the world leads to the laissez-faire impulse to destroy the institutions and laws that constrain human reason. Extreme confidence in perfect human reason thus leads to anarchism. The classical liberalism of the British tradition never drifted into anti-statism or anarchism, which are the logical conclusions of rationalist laissez-faire. Instead, it advanced arguments that considered both the proper functions of the state and the limits of state action.

The difference between these two schools arises from their differing assumptions about human nature. Rationalist theories of design necessarily rest on the assumption that individuals are inclined toward rational action and possess innate intelligence and goodness.

British liberalism, by contrast, saw human beings as naturally idle and wasteful, and held that learning to act economically or to adjust means carefully in order to achieve ends is due entirely to the force of the external environment.

The concept of homo economicus—an innate economic man who always makes rational choices—was advocated only by J. S. Mill, and it is no accident that his rationalism ultimately opened the door to socialism. Nor is it an accident that the tradition of anarchism, represented by Proudhon and others, developed among French philosophers.

—Sangmin Nam, 2023.6.27

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Original title: 반국가주의나 무정부주의는 왜 프랑스 합리주의의 한 갈래일까.

Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toron Moim

Date: 2023-06-27

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=2&idx=25839