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Krise Der Fortschrittsauffassung Und Strukturreflexion Auf Die Bürgerliche

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Krise Der Fortschrittsauffassung Und Strukturreflexion Auf Die Bürgerliche HEINZ THOMA Krise der Fortschrittsauffassung und Strukturrefl exion auf die bürgerliche Formation: Aufklärung um 1900 in Frankreich I. Einleitung Das Rezeptions- und Wirkungsschicksal der Aufklärung war im 19. Jahrhundert noch wesentlich politisch vermittelt, Gegenstand direkter weltanschaulicher Ausei- nandersetzungen und bewegte sich in einem in der Regel national gefasstem Inter- pretationsparadigma. Nimmt man als Beispiel das Kernland der Aufklärung, Frankreich, so beginnt der Streit um die großen Orientierungen bereits im direk- ten Umfeld der Französischen Revolution. Hier wird sofort ein Zusammenhang dieser Ideen mit der gesellschaftlichen Umwälzung erörtert, so etwa in Madame de Staëls (1766–1817) De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800), eine erste große kulturgeschichtliche Bestandsaufnahme seit der Antike, die auch das Mittelalter einschloss. Dem Tableau littéraire de la France au XVIIIe siècle gilt eine Akademiepreisfrage (1805–1810) zum französischen 18. Jahrhundert, in deren Resultat ein Konglomerat aus Voltaire, Montesquieu und einem gereinigten Rousseau die Hauptlinie der auf Triumphalismus angeleg- ten Erbeaneignung der Mittelschichten bilden, und der einzige, dem Historismus zugeneigte, und anspruchsvollste Beitrag keine Chance auf angemessene Würdi- gung hat.1 Die Verbindung von Aufklärung und Revolution sehen ebenso, nur unter nega- tiven Vorzeichen, die französischen Th eoretiker der Konterrevolution, die, wie z. B. der Abbé Augustin Barruel (1741–1820) in seinen Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire du jacobinisme (1797–1799), in der Aufklärung eine Art Verschwörung mit dem Ziel des Umsturzes ausmachen, oder die, wie Louis de Bonald (1754– 1840) in Th éorie du pouvoir politique et religieux dans la société civile (1796) und schließlich Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) in seinen Considérations sur la France (1797), die für die Kritik der Aufklärung als spezifi sch erachtete abstrakte Denk- weise am Beispiel von Rousseaus Contrat social für das Geschehen, speziell auch der Terreur verantwortlich machen. Eine wichtige Referenz dieses ersten Traditionalis- mus bilden die Refl ections on the Revolution in France (1790) von Edmund Burke (1729–1797), der schon früh abständlich auf die akademische Herkunft und die geringe Sättigung an Eigentum und Machterfahrung eines Großteils des Personals der französischen Nationalversammlung hinwies, um eine ganze Denkhaltung und 1 Prosper Brugière de Barante, Tableau de la littérature française au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1809, weite- re Auflagen 1810 und 1822. FF5668_Neugebauer.indd5668_Neugebauer.indd 6633 004.02.144.02.14 114:504:50 64 HEINZ THOMA ein bestimmtes politisches Verhalten zu charakterisieren. In dieser Linie stehen auch noch die Origines de la France contemporaine (1875–1893) von Hyppolite Taine (1828–1893),2 der in der Aufklärung eine nur räsonierende Vernunft („rai- son raisonnante“) ausmacht, welche die Diversität der Menschen ebenso verfehle wie die Macht der Geschichte.3 Für diese Denkrichtung ist das Vorurteil ein legi- times Produkt der Erfahrung.4 Auguste Comte (1798–1857), ein weiterer Stichwortgeber von Rang, hatte in seinem auf die Verbindung von Ordnung und Fortschritt zielenden Cours de phi- losophie positive5 im ersten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts noch eine großfl ächigere Sicht auf die Dinge entwickelt und in dem von ihm formulierten Dreistadiengesetz in der geschichtlichen Entwicklung eine seit dem 14. Jahrhundert beginnende Phase der negativen bzw. abstrakten Metaphysik ausgemacht, die das theologisch- fi ktive Zeitalter destruiere, wobei das Zeitalter der Aufklärung den Gipfelpunkt dieses zweiten Stadiums ausmacht. Das Zeitalter der Aufklärung ist aus dieser Sicht bereits historisch, beginnt doch nach Comte mit dem 19. Jahrhundert das dritte Stadium des wissenschaftlich positiven bzw. wissenschaftlich industriellen Zeital- ters. Hier tritt der nationale Gesichtspunkt, der sich bei Désiré Nisard (1806– 1888)6 ausbilden wird, noch nicht nach vorne. Gesichtspunkt ist hier noch ein for- mationsspezifi scher Zugang auf die westeuropäischen Gesellschaften. Émile Littré (1801–1881) bekräftigt im Second Empire in einem Aufsatz des Titels „Le nou- 2 Der multidisziplinär forschende Hippolyte Taine, ein dem Positivismus zugewandter Liberal- konservativer, der sich in der Anschauung der Pariser Commune von 1870 nach rechts wendet, ist Absolvent der École normale supérieure (ENS), scheitert an der Anpassungsübung der Agré- gation, wird Verfasser einer sehr erfolgreichen englischen Literaturschichte (Histoire de la littéra- ture anglaise, Paris 1864, 4 Bde.), damit auch eine Art Begründer der Literatursoziologie nach den Determinanten von race, milieu, moment. Später lehrt er an der Militärhochschule Saint- Cyr und dann in Oxford Kunstgeschichte. Schließlich ist er auch Verfasser einer Schrift zur Er- kenntnistheorie und Psychologie (De l’Intelligence, Paris 1870, 2 Bde.), in der die Idee einer neu- ronalen Plastizität aufscheint, die sich in Henri Bergsons Matière et Mémoire (1896) wieder fin- det (vgl. hierzu Walburga Hülk, Mémoire 1900, in: Heinz Thoma/Kathrin van der Meere (Hgg.), Epochale Psycheme und Menschenwissen. Von Montaigne bis Houellebecq, Würzburg 2007, S. 169–182, hier S. 177). Taines sechsbändiges historisches Werk wird auch ins Deutsche über- setzt und von Nietzsche gefördert. 3 Vgl. hierzu Vf., Zur Prekarität der Aufklärung. Vernunftkritik und das Paradigma der Anthropologie (Taine, Horkheimer/Adorno, Foucault, Lyotard), in: Hans Adler/Rainer Godel (Hgg.), Formen des Nichtwissens in der Aufklärung, München 2010, S. 45–67. 4 Diese aufklärungsgegnerische Tradition verlängert sich bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, so in der von Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) beeinflussten, einflussreichen Promotionsschrift Kritik und Krise. Eine Studie zur Pathogenese der bürgerlichen Welt, Frankfurt a. M. 1954, Ed. Suhrkamp 1973, frz. bei Minuit als Le règne de la critique (1979), von Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006), der in der Tren- nung von Staat und Moral den Beginn einer sich politisierenden Kritik mit dem Ziel der „Unter- werfung des Staates unter den Gerichtshof der kritischen Vernunft“ erkennen wollte bzw. die Vorbereitung der Übernahme der Staatsgeschäfte durch die ‚res publica letteraria‘, und damit den Weg in Terror und Diktatur der Revolution (Ed. Suhrkamp 1973, S. 132 f.). 5 Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, Paris 1830–1842, 6 Bde. 6 Désiré Nisard, Histoire de la littérature française, Paris 1844–1861, 4 Bde. FF5668_Neugebauer.indd5668_Neugebauer.indd 6644 004.02.144.02.14 114:504:50.
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