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Letters, Liberty, and the Democratic Age in the Thought of Alexis De LETTERS, LIBERTY, AND THE DEMOCRATIC AGE IN THE THOUGHT OF ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Natalie J. Elliot, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2009 APPROVED: Steven Forde, Major Professor Richard S. Ruderman, Committee Member John A. Booth, Committee Member Martin D. Yaffe, Committee Member John R. Todd, Chair of the Department of Political Science Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Elliot, Natalie J., Letters, Liberty, and the Democratic Age in the Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville. Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science), December 2009, 203 pp., bibliography, 60 titles. When Alexis de Tocqueville observed the spread of modern democracy across France, England, and the United States, he saw that democracy would give rise to a new state of letters, and that this new state of letters would influence how democratic citizens and statesmen would understand the new political world. As he reflected on this new intellectual sphere, Tocqueville became concerned that democracy would foster changes in language and thought that would stifle concepts and ideas essential to the preservation of intellectual and political liberty. In an effort to direct, refine, and reshape political thought in democracy, Tocqueville undertook a critique of the democratic state of letters, assessing intellectual life and contributing his own ideas and concepts to help citizens and statesmen think more coherently about democratic politics. Here, I analyze Tocqueville’s critique and offer an account of his effort to reshape democratic political thought. I show that through his analyses of the role of intellectuals in democratic regimes, the influence of modern science on democratic public life, the intellectual habits that democracy fosters, and the power of literary works for shaping democratic self-understanding, Tocqueville succeeds in reshaping democratic language and thought in a manner that contributes to the preservation of intellectual and political liberty within the modern democratic world. Copyright 2009 by Natalie J. Elliot ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of gratitude to the following people who have indulged my investigations into democracy, Tocqueville, modern culture, and the human psyche while I have worked on my dissertation. First, I wish to thank my family, Norm, Judy, and Adam Elliot. In some ways, a family is like a little city, and I can say without a doubt that I have learned some of the most important political lessons while I have conversed and laughed with the fine Elliots. I am grateful for their generosity and for their willingness to entertain my curiosity about politics. Second, I am grateful to my friends—particularly the free spirits among them— who have helped me to think more lucidly and with greater depth about politics, culture, and the human condition in the modern world. I am particularly indebted to Laura Field, Andrea Kowalchuk, Paul Diduck, Ruby Hussain, Heidi Studer, and Erin Dolgoy for the sustained conversations that they have shared with me over the past five years. Third, I am grateful to one closest to my heart, Nacona Nix, who has accompanied me on a great adventure through two alien places: the strange world of American democracy and the wonderful world of the human heart. I wish to thank him for what he has taught me about living the good life here. Fourth, I am grateful to the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. John A. Booth, Dr. Steven Forde, Dr. Richard S. Ruderman, and Dr. Martin D. Yaffe for their intellectual generosity, their openness to my schemes with Alexis de Tocqueville, and iii their ever-insightful remarks. I would also like to acknowledge a particular debt to my dissertation chair, Dr. Steven Forde, for his example as philosophical thinker. I am most grateful to him for those times when he brought political philosophy down into the streets of Denton for friendly symposia. He has helped me to see how political philosophy can indeed be brought to life in democracy. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 Chapters 1. A NEW ROLE FOR MEN OF LETTERS IN THE DEMOCRATIC WORLD.....................................................................................................38 2. ON THE PLACE OF CLASSICAL LITERARY EDUCATION IN TOCQUEVILLE‟ S DEMOCRACY.......................................................72 3. ON THE INTELLECTUAL HABITS OF DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES ...99 4. TOCQUEVILLE‟ S TEACHING ON CRAFTING DEMOCRATIC LITERATURE.........................................................................................121 5. DEMOCRATIC POETICS......................................................................141 6. POLITICAL LITERATURE...................................................................165 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................191 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................199 v INTRODUCTION As Alexis de Tocqueville observed the spread of modern democracy across Europe and America he witnessed the emergence of a new state of letters. Amidst the pervasive cultural changes ushered in by democracy, Tocqueville saw that the literary arts and the intellectuals who contributed to them would be transformed. He saw that men of letters would acquire new powers in the realm of public opinion, that classical literary authorities would lose sway, that industry would fuel the circulation of literature, that language would become increasingly innovative, and that new subjects—science, nature, and the future—would be fertile ground for imaginative exploration. Wary as he was of many of the potential pitfalls of the emerging democratic world, Tocqueville was also concerned about what these changes would mean for the literary tradition and how they would influence the human mind. Therefore, as a part of his broad effort to guide the democratic world toward healthy democracy, Tocqueville also undertook to reform the state of letters. One can recognize Tocqueville‟s efforts in this regard in Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution where he offers us critical analyses of the literary 1 sphere as it is transformed by democracy (DA II 1. 1-20, 403-476; OR III 1, 195-209).1 His critique focuses on three subjects: the liabilities of public intellectuals in democratic regimes, the intellectual habits that democracy fosters, and the pitfalls and potential of literary works in democracy. His analyses of these topics convey his vision of a model literary sphere for the democratic world. What I offer here is an account of this vision. In my view, Tocqueville‟s teaching on the literary sphere is among the most penetrating analyses of the prospects for intellectual flourishing in democracy. I consider his teaching to be highly valuable in several respects, some timeless and others particularly relevant to contemporary political life. Among the former, Tocqueville draws attention to perennial questions surrounding the relation between philosophy and politics. As he observes the rise of democracy, he recognizes that the democratic world will foster a new relationship between political thought and political action. A new kind of intellectual—the public intellectual—will bring political theory to bear more directly on democratic institutions and popular opinion. Tocqueville‟s reflections on the relationship between political theorists and statesmen in democracy are intended to illuminate the 1 References to Democracy in America (originally published as De La Démocratie en Amérique in two volumes in 1835 and 1840 respectively) and to The Old Regime and the Revolution (originally published as Ancien Régime et la Révolution in 1856) will henceforth be given in parentheses in the text by volume, part, and chapter number, followed by page numbers. References to Democracy will be noted by DA; references to the Old Regime will be noted by OR. I have relied on Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, eds. and trans. Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), and Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution, eds. François Furet and Françoise Mélonio, trans. Alan S. Kahan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) for quotations. I have relied on Alexis de Tocqueville, De La Démocratie en Amerique ed. François Furet (Paris: GF Flammarion, 1981), and L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution, ed. J.-P. Mayer (Paris: Gallimard, 1952) for the original French. 2 ways in which political theory might serve as a help rather than a hindrance to democratic politics. In his exploration of the ambition of intellectuals in democratic politics, Tocqueville illuminates some of the new hazards that public intellectuals present to democratic regimes. Through a genealogy of the decline of the aristocratic intellectual tradition and the rise of the modern public intellectual, for instance, he explains democracy‟s receptiveness to opinion leaders who peddle pseudo science, demagoguery, and linguistic distortion. In recognition of these sources of intellectual vulnerability, Tocqueville discourages reinforcement of them by presenting a portrait of the responsible public intellectual in
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