Rethinking Constant's Ancient Liberty: Bosanquet's modern Rousseauianism

Abstract

Benjamin Constant was a vociferous critic of the political Rousseauianism that he saw underpinning French politics in the early nineteenth-century. Yet, his hostile reaction at the political level co-existed with a far more sympathetic attitude towards Rousseau's critical analysis of modernity. This article reflects on that combination through the dual lens of the influence on Constant's position of his ambivalent attitude towards Rousseau on the one hand and the modernisation of Rousseau undertaken eighty years later by the British idealist Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923) on the other. Reading Bosanquet with Constant's criticisms of Rousseau in mind uncovers underappreciated dimensions of both Constant and Bosanquet's thought, and suggests ways to overcome the distinction between ancient and modern liberty that is often simplistically attributed to Constant. Section one introduces the topic. Section two analyzes Constant's dual attitude to Rousseauianism. Section three analyzes Bosanquet's modern Rousseauianism. Section four deepens this analysis by contrasting the theories of modern decadence developed by Rousseau, Constant and Bosanquet. It establishes that Bosanquet articulated key relationships that escaped both Rousseau and Constant, something that led him to see progressive possibilities in decadent societies that Rousseau and Constant neglected. Consequently, Bosanquet modernised Rousseau, while both addressing Constant's criticisms and avoiding Rousseau's shortcomings.