The Political Thought of Anacharsis Cloots
About this book
Historians have often either ignored Anacharsis Cloots (1755–1794) or considered him deranged because he claimed to be the ‘orator of the human race’ and devised a ‘universal republic’ based on the ‘sovereignty of the human race’. This book is the first comprehensive study of the entire body of Cloots’s written works and political actions. By contextualizing them, the book non only rehabilitates Cloots as a political thinker worthy of consideration, but also argues that his political thought constitutes a specific branch of republicanism in the age of Atlantic revolutions: cosmopolitan republicanism.
The introduction suggests how 18th-century French cosmopolitanism was a new philosophical tradition, but was composed of several themes, which the book then analyses in Cloots’s writings. The first chapter provides a brief overview of his life. The second chapter explains why he called himself orator and wrote pamphlets, and why contemporary readers should not discard this as non-philosophical. Having established Cloots’s writings as constituting a philosophical system, the following chapters explores it through the themes laid out in the introduction. First, the concept of reason and his understanding of science. Second, the paradigm of natural law and the role of nature in moral and political thought. Third, the conception of humanity and individuals in nature and society. Finally, republicanism and its principles. The last chapter summarizes the elements of Cloots’s cosmopolitan republicanism and opens a research programme to other political thinkers in the age of Atlantic revolutions for historians and political theorists.
Author / Editor information
Frank Ejby Poulsen, Research Group CINTER/King Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain.
Reviews
world. Despite living more than two centuries ago, many of his values chime with
those that are celebrated today. While his naïvety can be frustrating, when viewed
against a contemporary world beset by conflict, defeatism, and political apathy, I
cannot help but admire Cloots’s revolutionary optimism." – Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle University), in Migrating Minds: Journal of Cultural Cosmopolitanism 2 (2024) 2, 128–131, URL: https://repository.digital.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1100010
Topics
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Frontmatter
I -
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Acknowledgments
VII -
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Contents
IX -
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Introduction: The Importance of Cloots and Cosmopolitan Republicanism
1 -
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1 The Life of Cloots
10 -
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2 Rehabilitating Cloots
41 -
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3 Reason and Science
65 -
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4 Natural Law
110 -
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5 Humanity
147 -
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6 Republicanism
182 -
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7 Cosmopolitan Republicanism
227 -
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Bibliography
235
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