Marginal Thinkers and the Making of European Political Discourse (1760-1860): Models from France, Britain, and Germany

This research examines the role of marginal thinkers in shaping European political discourse during the period (1760–1860), through a study of selected intellectual models from France, Britain, and Germany. In the first section, it addresses the most prominent French thinkers, highlighting Germain de Staël and Benjamin Constant, who represent two of the most important pioneers of European liberal thought in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They sought to create a centrist intellectual current, as their intellectual project was formed within a direct critical context of the French Revolution and its despotic transformations. They called for the defense of individual freedom and constitutional rule and rejected the tyranny of absolute power, whether in the name of the monarchy or in the name of revolutionary will, and they linked culture and politics through salons and political writings. As for the second section, Britain, the research deals with the thought of Mary Wollstonecraft, who was one of the first liberal feminist thinkers, who sought to create a new political thought about women’s rights, education and public participation, along with William Cobbett, who sought to involve the people in political discourse and not limit it to the elites only, using the press as a tool for social criticism and parliamentary reform, and making the concerns of peasants and working classes and serving them the most important goals of the government. Together, they represent a diverse critical current in Europe and link social and political liberalism. Finally, the third section, Germany, sheds light on Arnold Ruge, who was considered one of the most prominent young Hegelians, as he moved philosophy from the field of contemplation to democratic political criticism, and contributed to creating a republican liberal discourse prior to the revolutions of 1848, and on Moses Hess, who combined moral socialism with the unification of Jewish nationalism, and preceded Marxism in focusing on the moral dimension of social justice. He was also one of the first theorists of political Zionism. The two met on the German critical intellectual current, as they took freedom, justice and society as the focus of their interest, with differences between political liberalism and national socialism.