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{{short description|Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat (1753–1821)}}
'''Joseph de Maistre''' (]- ], ]), was, in the period following the ], of the most influential spokesmen for a counterrevolutionary and ] ]. The ] de Maistre can be counted with ] as one of the originators of the ideology of ] that took hold during ] in ] after the defeat of ]. De Maistre espoused the restoration of hereditary ], which he regarded as a ]. Only ] could guarantee "order in society" and avoid the chaos generated by movements like the then-recent French Revolution.
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = ]
|era = ]
|image = Cogordan - Joseph de Maistre, 1894 (page 12 crop).jpg
|caption = de Maistre by ]
|name = Joseph de Maistre
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1753|04|01}}
|birth_place = ], ]
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1821|02|26|1753|04|01}}
|death_place = ], ]
|school_tradition = {{unbulleted list|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]}}
|main_interests = {{unbulleted list|]|]|]}}
|notable_ideas = {{unbulleted list|]|Necessity of ]|Legitimacy of ]|Legitimacy of ]}}
|influences = {{hlist|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]|]
|]|]}}
|influenced = {{hlist|] |] |]<ref>John Powell, Derek W. Blakeley, Tessa Powell. ''Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1914''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. P267.</ref> |] | ]<ref>{{cite book|title=Giacomo Leopardi's Search For A Common Life Through Poetry. A Different Nobility, A Different Love|first=Frank|last=Rosengarten|year=2012|isbn=9781611475067|page=6|publisher=]}}</ref> |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |]|]| ] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |] |]}}
|signature =
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'''Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre'''{{efn|''Maistre'' is traditionally pronounced {{IPA|fr|mɛstʁ|}} (i.e. sounding the "s" and rhyming with '']''); that is how it is usually heard at university and in historical movies (as in ]'s 1948 film {{Interlanguage link|Le Diable boiteux (film)|fr|3=Le Diable Boiteux (film)|lt=''Le Diable Boiteux''|vertical-align=sup}}). The pronunciation {{IPA|fr|mɛːtʁ|}} (rhymes with '']'') is sometimes heard under the influence of the modernized pronunciation, adopted by some descendants (such as Patrice de Maistre)}} (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821)<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title= Joseph de Maistre |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-de-Maistre}}</ref> was a ] philosopher, writer, lawyer, diplomat, and magistrate. One of the forefathers of ], Maistre advocated ] and ] in the period immediately following the ].<ref>Beum, Robert (1997). "Ultra-Royalism Revisited," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 39, No. 3, p. 305.</ref> Despite his close personal and intellectual ties with France, Maistre was throughout his life a subject of the ], which he served as a member of the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), ambassador to ] (1803–1817),<ref> ''The Dublin Review'', Vol. XXXIII, 1852.</ref> and minister of state to the court in ] (1817–1821).<ref>The issue of Maistre's national identity has long been contentious. In 1802, after the invasion of Savoy and ] by the armies of the ], Maistre had fled to ], the ancient capital of Kingdom of Sardinia that resisted the French invasion; he wrote to the French ambassador in ], objecting to having been classified as a French '']'' and thus subject to confiscation of his properties and punishment should he attempt to return to Savoy. According to the biographical notice written by his son Rodolphe and included in the ''Complete Works'', on that occasion Maistre wrote: {{blockquote|"He had not been born French, and did not desire to become French, and that, never having set foot in the lands conquered by France, he could not have become French."| ''Œuvres complètes de Joseph de Maistre'', Lyon, 1884, vol. I, p. XVIII.}} Sources such as the and the identify Maistre as French by culture, if not by law. In 1860, Albert Blanc, professor of law at the ], in his preface to a collection of Maistre's diplomatic correspondence wrote that {{blockquote|"this philosopher was a politician; this Catholic was an Italian; he foretold the destiny of the ], he supported the end of the ] , he has been, during this century, one of the first defenders of independence."|''Correspondance diplomatique de Joseph de Maistre'', Paris, 1860, vol. I, pp. III-IV.}}</ref>


A key figure of the ] and a precursor of ],<ref>Masseau, Didier (2000). ''Les Ennemis des Philosophes''. Editions Albin Michel.</ref> Maistre regarded monarchy both as ] and as the only stable ].<ref>Alibert, Jacques (1992). ''Joseph de Maistre, Etat et Religion.'' Paris: Perrin.</ref> He called for the restoration of the ] to the throne of France and for the ultimate authority of the ] in both spiritual and temporal matters. Maistre argued that the ] rejection of ] was directly responsible for the ] which followed the French Revolution of 1789.<ref>Lebrun, Richard (1989). "The Satanic Revolution: Joseph de Maistre's Religious Judgment of the French Revolution", ''Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History'', Vol. 16, pp. 234–240.
De Maistre was born at ], in ]. His family had settled in Savoy a century earlier, and had attained a high position. He was a pupil of the ]s, who, like his parents, inspired him with an intense love of the ] religion and detestation of the ] philosophical ].
</ref><ref>Garrard, Graeme (1996). "Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and its Discontents", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 429–446.</ref>


== Biography ==
After the outbreak of the French Revolution, he began to write on current events, e.g. ''Discours à M. le Marquis Costa de Beauregard sur la vie et la mort de ton fils'' (''Discourse to the Marquis Costa de Beauregard on the Life and Death of his Son'', ]) and ''Cinq paradoxes a la Marquise de Nav...'' (''Five Paradoxes for the Marquise de Nav...'', ]). In ''Considerations sur la France'' (''Considerations on France'', ]), he maintains the thesis that France has a mission from ]: France is the principal instrument of ] and of ] on ]. Maistre looks on the Revolution as a providential occurrence: the monarchy, the ], the whole of the ], instead of turning the powerful influence of French civilization to benefit mankind, had used it to foster the doctrines of the ]. The crimes of the ] were the punishment thus merited.
Maistre was born in 1753 at ], ], at that time part of the ] which was ruled by the ].<ref name=berlin>{{cite web |url= http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/maistre.pdf |title= The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism |work= Two Enemies of the Enlightenment |publisher=] |date= 24 November 2005 |orig-year=1965 |access-date= 11 December 2008 |last= Berlin |first=Isaiah}}</ref> His family was of French and Italian origin.<ref name="geneanet">{{Cite web |url=http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=joseph&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |title=Etude Culturelle - Recherches Historiques |access-date=11 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112014623/http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=joseph&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |archive-date=12 November 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His grandfather André (Andrea) Maistre (1661–1722), whose parents Francesco and Margarita Maistre (née Dalmassi) originated in the ],<ref name="geneanet.com">{{Cite web |url=http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=andrea&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |title=Etude Culturelle - Recherches Historiques |access-date=11 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112014626/http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=andrea&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |archive-date=12 November 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> had been a draper and councilman in ] (then under the rule of the House of Savoy) and his father François-Xavier Maistre (1705–1789), who moved to Chambéry in 1740, became a magistrate and senator, eventually receiving the title of ] from the King of Piedmont-Sardinia. His mother's family, whose surname was Desmotz, were from ].<ref name="triomphe">{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Triomphe |title=Joseph de Maistre |url=https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistree0000trio |url-access=limited | location=Genève | publisher=Droz | year=1968 |pages=–41}} Preview available </ref> He was the eldest of ten surviving children and godfather to his younger brother, ], who would become a major general and a popular writer of fiction.<ref name=cath>{{cite CE1913|wstitle= Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre}}</ref><ref name=xav>{{Cite CE1913| wstitle = Xavier de Maistre}}</ref>


] in which he is shown wearing the insignia of the ]]]
His little book ''Essai sur le principe générateur des constitutions politiques et des autres institutions humaines'' (''Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions'', ]) , centers on the idea is that ]s are not the artificial products of study but come in due time and under suitable circumstances from God, who slowly brings them to maturity. After the appearance in ] of the treatise ''Sur les délais de la justice divine dans la punition des coupables'' (''On the Delay of Divine Justice in the Punishment of the Guilty''), translated from ], de Maistre published in ] his masterpiece ''Du Pape'' (''The Pope''). The work is divided into four parts. In the first he argues that, in the ], the ] is ], and that it is an essential characteristic of all sovereign power that that its decisions should be subject to no appeal. Consequently, the pope is ] in his teaching, since it is by his teaching that he exercises his sovereignty. In the remaining divisions the author examines the relations of the pope and the temporal powers, civilization and the welfare of nations, and the ]atical Churches. He establishes that nations require to be guaranteed against abuses of power by a sovereignty superior to all others. Now, this sovereignty can be none but the papacy, which, even in the ] had already saved European civilization from the ]s. As to the schismatical Churches, the writer thinks that they will inevitably fall into philosophic indifference. For "no religion can resist science, except one."
Maistre was probably educated by the ].<ref name=cath/> After the Revolution, he became an ardent defender of the Jesuits, increasingly associating the spirit of the Revolution with the Jesuits' traditional enemies, the ]. After completing his training in the law at the ] in 1774, he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a senator in 1787.


In his early years Maistre was a liberal and supporter of ]. The philosopher and mystic ] was a major and lasting influence for Maistre. In one of his first public addresses Maistre praised the ] proclaiming "Liberty, insulted in Europe, has winged its flight to another hemisphere."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C |date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=72|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 }}</ref>
Besides a voluminous correspondence, de Maistre left two posthumous works. One of these, ''L'examen de la Philosophie de ]'', (''An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon'', ]), is an attack on ] and ], and in general on the French philosophers of the eighteenth century; de Maistre considers Bacon as the father of their system. The ''Soirées de St. Pétersbourg'' (''The St. Petersburg Dialogues'', ]) is a reply in the form of a dialogue to the objection against ] drawn from the existence of evil in the world. For de Maistre, the existence of evil, far from obscuring the designs of God, throws a new light on them; for the ] world and the physical world are inter-related. Physical evil exists only because there has been, and there is, moral evil. So humanity which has always believed in the necessity of this ], has had recourse not only to ], but to ], that is, the shedding of blood, the merits of the ] being applied to the ]y, a law as mysterious as it is indubitable, and which (in the opinion of the author) explains the existence and the perpetuity of ].


A member of the progressive ] ] lodge at Chambéry from 1774 to 1790,<ref>Vulliaud, Paul (1926). ''Joseph de Maistre Franc-maçon''. Paris: Nourry.</ref> Maistre originally favoured political reform in France, supporting the efforts of the magistrates in the ]s to force King ] to convene the ]. As a ] in France, Maistre was eligible to join that body and there is some evidence that he contemplated that possibility.<ref name="lebrun">{{cite web |first=Richard |last=Lebrun |url=http://www.maistre.polthought.cam.ac.uk/maistrebio.html |title=A Brief Biography of Joseph de Maistre |publisher=] |access-date=1 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325225956/http://www.maistre.polthought.cam.ac.uk/maistrebio.html |archive-date=25 March 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Maistre was alarmed by the decision of the Estates-General to combine ], ] and ]s into a single legislative body which became the ]. After the passing of the ] on 4 August 1789, he decisively turned against the course of political events in France.<ref>Greifer, Elisha (1961). "Joseph de Maistre and the Reaction Against the Eighteenth Century," ''The American Political Science Review'', Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 591–598.</ref>
An enthusiastic believer in the principle of ], which the Revolution tried to destroy, Maistre defends it everywhere: in the ] by extolling the monarchy, in the Church by exalting the privileges of the papacy; in the world by glorifying the rights and the conduct of God. The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' of ] describes his style as "strong, lively, picturesque," and adds, "animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone. He possesses a wonderful facility in exposition, precision of doctrine, breadth of learning, and ]al power."


] from ''La Revue blanche'', 1895]]
==External links==
*


Maistre fled Chambéry when it was taken by a French revolutionary army in 1792, but he was unable to find a position in the royal court in Turin and returned the following year. Deciding that he could not support the French-controlled regime, Maistre departed again, this time for ], Switzerland,<ref>Bordeaux, Henri (1895). "Joseph de Maistre à Genève et à Lausanne". In: ''Semaine Littéraire'', II, pp. 478–480.</ref> where he discussed politics and theology at the salon of ], and began his career as a counter-revolutionary writer,<ref>Ferret, Olivier (2007). ''La Fureur de Nuire: Échanges Pamphlétaires entre Philosophes et Antiphilosophes, 1750-1770.'' Oxford: Voltaire Foundation.</ref> with works such as ''Lettres d'un Royaliste Savoisien'' ("Letters from a Savoyard Royalist", 1793), ''Discours à Mme. la Marquise Costa de Beauregard, sur la Vie et la Mort de son Fils'' ("Discourse to the Marchioness Costa de Beauregard, on the Life and Death of her Son", 1794) and ''Cinq paradoxes à la Marquise de Nav...'' ("Five Paradoxes for the Marchioness of Nav...", 1795).<ref name=berlin/>
==Reference==
''This article incorporates text from the public domain '']'' of 1910. Please update as needed.''


From Lausanne, Maistre went to ] and then to ], where the King of Piedmont-Sardinia held the court and the government of the kingdom after French armies took Turin in 1798. Maistre's relations with the court at Cagliari were not always easy.<ref name=berlin/> In 1802, he was sent to ] in Russia as ambassador to ] ].<ref>Teeling, T.T. (1985). ''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', Vol. XX, p. 824.</ref> His diplomatic responsibilities were few and he became a well-loved fixture in aristocratic and wealthy merchant circles, converting some of his friends to Roman Catholicism and writing his most influential works on political philosophy.
]
]


Maistre's observations on Russian life, contained in his diplomatic memoirs and in his personal correspondence, were among ]'s sources for his novel '']''.<ref name=berlin/> After the defeat of ] and the restoration of the House of Savoy's dominion over ] and Savoy under the terms of the ], Maistre returned in 1817 to Turin and served there as ] and minister of state until his death. He died on 26 February 1821 and is buried in the Jesuit Church of the Holy Martyrs (''Chiesa dei Santi Martiri'').
]

== Philosophy ==
=== Politics ===
{{Conservatism in France|Intellectuals}}
In {{lang|fr|]}} ("Considerations on France", 1796), Maistre claimed that France has a divine mission as the principal instrument of good and evil on Earth. He interpreted the Revolution of 1789 as a ] event in which the ], the ] and the '']'' in general, instead of directing the influence of French civilization to the benefit of mankind, had promoted the ] doctrines of the 18th-century philosophers. He claimed that the crimes of the ] were the ] of ] thought as well as its divinely-decreed punishment.<ref name= HCaR>{{cite journal |last=Lebrun |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Lebrun |date=1967 |title=Joseph de Maistre, how Catholic a Reaction? |url=http://umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1967/Lebrun.pdf |journal=CCHA Study Sessions |volume=34 |issue= |pages=29–45 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070107035631/http://umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1967/Lebrun.pdf |archive-date=2007-01-07}}</ref>

In his short book ''Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques et des Autres Institutions Humaines'' ("Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions", 1809), Maistre argued that ]s are not the product of ], but rather come from ], who slowly brings them to maturity.

What was novel in Maistre's writings was not his enthusiastic defense of monarchical and religious authority ''per se'', but rather his arguments concerning the practical need for ultimate authority to lie with an individual capable of decisive action as well as his analysis of the social foundations of that authority's legitimacy. In his own words which he addressed to a group of aristocratic French émigrés, "You ought to know how to be royalists. Before, this was an instinct, but today it is a science. You must love the sovereign as you love order, with all the forces of intelligence."<ref name="Sénart">Quoted by Philippe Sénart in , ''Joseph de Maistre. Les Dossiers H'', (Lausanne: Editions L'Age d'Homme, 2005), p. 646. {{ISBN|2825118710}}</ref> Maistre's analysis of the problem of authority and its legitimacy foreshadows some of the concerns of early sociologists such as ]<ref>Barth, Hans (1956). "Auguste Comte et Joseph de Maistre". In: ''Etudes Suisses de l'Histoire Générale'', XIV, pp. 103–138.</ref> and ].<ref name="Levy-Bruhl">] (1903). . New York: Putnam and Sons, pp. 297-8.</ref><ref name="Pickering">Pickering, Mary (1993). ''Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography'', vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 261–8 {{ISBN|052143405X}}</ref>

Despite his preference for monarchy, Maistre acknowledged that republics could be the superior form of government, depending on the situation and the people. Maistre also defended the government of the ] because its people were heirs to the democratic spirit of ], which he felt France lacked.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C |date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=75, 78-79|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 }}</ref>

=== Religion ===
After the appearance in 1816 of his French translation of ]'s treatise ''On the Delay of Divine Justice in the Punishment of the Guilty'', Maistre published ''Du Pape'' ("]") in 1819, the most complete exposition of his religious conception of authority. According to Maistre, any attempt to justify government on rational grounds will only lead to unresolvable arguments about the legitimacy and expediency of any existing government and that this in turn will lead to violence and chaos.<ref>Murray, John C. (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre," ''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 63–86.</ref><ref>Bradley, Owen (1999). ''A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre''. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.</ref> As a result, Maistre argued that the legitimacy of government must be based on compelling, but non-rational grounds which its subjects must not be allowed to question.<ref>Lebrun, Richard A. (1969). "Joseph de Maistre, Cassandra of Science," ''French Historical Studies'', Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 214–231.</ref> Maistre went on to argue that ] in politics should derive from religion and that in Europe this religious authority must ultimately lie with the ].

=== Ethics ===
{{Theodicy}}
In addition to his voluminous correspondence, Maistre left two books that were published posthumously. '']'' (1821) is a ] in the form of a ]<ref>Kochin, Michael S. (2002). ''Polis'', Vol. 19, Nos. 1–2, pp. 29–43.</ref> in which Maistre argues that evil exists because of its place in the divine plan, according to which the blood sacrifice of innocents returns men to God via the expiation of the sins of the guilty. Maistre sees this as a law of human history as unquestionable as it is mysterious.

=== Science ===
'']'' ("An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon", 1836) is a critique of the thought of ],<ref>Huet, François (1837). "Le Chancelier Bacon et le Comte Joseph de Maistre." In: Gand: C. Annoot-Braekman, vol. I, pp. 65–94.</ref> whom Maistre considers to be the fountainhead of the destructive rationalistic thought.<ref>Gourmont, Rémy de (1905). "François Bacon et Joseph de Maistre." In: ''Promenades Philosophiques.'' Paris: Mercure de France, pp. 7–32.</ref> Maistre also argued, ], that ] plays a pivotal role in great scientific discoveries, as demonstrated by inspired intellects such as ], ] and ], contrary to Bacon's theory about conforming to a mechanistic method.<ref name="Liberalism and Tradition worldcat.org">{{cite book|title=Liberalism and Tradition|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/502414345|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2010|isbn=978-0-521-14305-9|oclc=502414345|first=Bernard|last=Reardon|page=35}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Maistre was married to Françoise de Morand de Saint-Sulpice (1759–1839),<ref>EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTER OF MARRIAGE ACTS OF St-LEGER IN CHAMBERY FOR THE YEAR 1786: The year 1786 and September 17.</ref> with which he had three children—daughters Adèle (1787–1862) and Constance (1793–1882) and son ] (1789–1866), military officer who fought for the ] at the ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Enfant du Siècle : Joseph de Maistre as a Writer|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/845004043|date=2010|isbn=978-1-907548-00-0|oclc=845004043|first=Carolina|last=Armenteros|page=129–130|publisher=Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews }}</ref>

== Legacy and reputation ==
]
], Paris]]
]
=== Politics ===
Together with the ] statesman and philosopher ], Maistre is commonly regarded as one of the founders of European ].<ref>{{cite book|title=Conservatism : The Fight for a Tradition|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780691207773|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=2020|isbn=978-0-691-20777-3|first=Edmund|last=Fawcett|pages=3–18|doi=10.1515/9780691207773 }}</ref><ref>Fuchs, Michel (1984). "Edmund Burke et Joseph de Maistre", ''Revue de l'Université d'Ottawa'', Vol. 54, pp. 49–58.</ref> Maistre exerted a powerful influence on the Spanish political thinker ],<ref>Tarrago, Rafael E. (1999). {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013164745/http://www.catholicsocialscientists.org/cssr/Archival/1999/1999_167.pdf |date=13 October 2014 }} ''Catholic Social Science Review'', Vol. 4, pp. 167–177.</ref><ref>Spektorowski, Alberto (2002). "Maistre, Donoso Cortes, and the Legacy of Catholic Authoritarianism," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 283–302.</ref> the French royalist ] and his nationalist movement '']''<ref>Gerin-Ricard, Lazare de (1929). ''Les Idées Politiques de Joseph de Maistre et la Doctrine de Maurras.'' La Rochelle: Editions Rupella.</ref> as well as the German philosopher of law ].<ref>{{cite book|title=Filosoferna : den moderna världens födelse och det västerlandska tänkandet|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/985104734|publisher=Natur & Kultur|date=2016|access-date=2023-04-20|isbn=978-91-27-14699-0|oclc=985104734|first=Svante|last=Nordin|page=303}}</ref>

However, according to ], who has written four books about Maistre, his writings influenced not only conservative political thinkers but also the ].<ref name="Armenteros">Armenteros, Carolina (2011). ''The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794-1854''. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press {{ISBN|0-8014-4943-X}}</ref> Early sociologists such as ] and ] explicitly acknowledged the influence of Maistre on their own thinking about the sources of social cohesion and political authority.<ref name="Levy-Bruhl" /><ref name="Pickering" />

Maistre has been criticized by ]. Literary critic ] described Maistre as "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous trinity composed of pope, king and hangman, always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism, a dark figure out of the Middle Ages, part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner".<ref>Émile Faguet, ''Politiques et Moralistes du Dix-neuvieme Siècle'', 1st series, Paris: Société Française d'Imprimerie et de Librairie, 1899. Cited in: {{cite book | last = Maistre | first = Joseph de | title = Considerations on France | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-521-46628-8 |page=xi |chapter=Introduction |author2=Isaiah Berlin}}</ref> Political historian ] considered Maistre a forerunner to the 20th-century movement of ], claiming that Maistre knew the self-destructive impulses in human nature and intended to exploit them.<ref>{{cite speech |title=The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism |url=https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/maistre.pdf |page=22–23 |last=Isaiah |first=Berlin |year=1965 |location=Harkness Theater, Columbia University }}</ref> However, ] openly rejected Maistre's reactionary conservatism.<ref>Stanley G.Payne. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–45''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 214. {{ISBN|0299148742}}</ref>

=== Literature ===
Maistre's skills as a writer and polemicist ensured that he continues to be read. ], an influential 19th-century critic, wrote as follows while comparing Maistre's style with that of his Irish counterpart ]:

<blockquote>"Joseph de Maistre is another of those men whose word, like that of Burke, has vitality. In imaginative power he is altogether inferior to Burke. On the other hand, his thought moves in closer order than Burke's, more rapidly, more directly; he has fewer superfluities. Burke is a great writer, but Joseph de Maistre's use of the French language is more powerful, more thoroughly satisfactory, than Burke's use of the English. It is masterly; it shows us to perfection of what that admirable instrument, the French language, is capable."<ref>Arnold, Matthew (1973). "Joseph de Maistre on Russia." In: ''English Literature and Irish Politics.'' Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, p. 87.</ref></blockquote>

The '']'' of 1910 describes his writing style as "strong, lively, picturesque" and states that his "animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone".<ref name=cath/> ] called him "unquestionably one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century".<ref>Saintsbury, George (1917). Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 469.</ref> Although a political opponent, ] called him the "] of the Alps".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C |date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=67|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 }}</ref> Admiring the splendour of his prose, Lamartine stated:

{{blockquote|"That brief, nervous, lucid style, stripped of phrases, robust of limb, did not at all recall the softness of the eighteenth century, nor the declamations of the latest French books: it was born and steeped in the breath of the Alps; it was virgin, it was young, it was harsh and savage; it had no human respect, it felt its solitude; it improvised depth and form all at once ... That man was new among the ''enfants du siècle'' ."<ref>{{cite book |first=Alphonse |last=de Lamartine|title= Souvenirs et Portraits|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/souvenirsetportr01lama#page/n5/mode/2up |volume=1 |location=Paris: Hachette et Cie. |year=1874 |chapter=Les De Maistre |page=189}}</ref>}}

Maistre is also associated with the ] movement ]<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Enfant du Siècle : Joseph de Maistre as a Writer|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/845004043|date=2010|isbn=978-1-907548-00-0|oclc=845004043|first=Carolina|last=Armenteros|page=15|publisher=Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Considerations on France|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|page=11|first=Richard A.|last=Lebrun|year=1974|chapter=Introduction|editor=de Maistre, Joseph}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Menace of the Herd; or, Procrustes at Large|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/733805752|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|oclc=733805752|first=Erik|last=von Kuehnelt-Leddihn|year=1943|page=124}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Introduction|title=An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon|publisher=McGill's Queen's University Press|page=ix|first=Lebrun|last=Richard A.|year=1998|isbn=0-7735-1727-8 |editor=de Maistre, Joseph}}</ref> and is often referred to as a Romantic.<ref name="Liberalism and Tradition worldcat.org" /><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Introduction|title=Considerations on France|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139170758.006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=xxxiii|first=Isaiah|last=Berlin|year=2009|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139170758.006 |isbn=9781139170758 |editor=de Maistre, Joseph}}</ref><ref name= HCaR /><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Day|author-first=Aidan|title=Romanticism|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-08378-8|pages=1–3}}</ref> Among those who admired him was ] – the most famous Romantic poet in France – who described himself a disciple of the Savoyard counter-revolutionary, claiming that Maistre had taught him how to think.<ref>Alphonsus, Mère Mary (1942). ''The Influence of Joseph de Maistre on Baudelaire. "De Maistre et Edgar Poe m'ont appris à Raisonner" (journaux intimes).'' Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College doctoral thesis.</ref><ref>Eygun, Francois-Xavier (1990). "Influence de Joseph de Maistre sur les "Fleurs du Mal" de Baudelaire", ''Revue des Etudes Maistriennes'', Vol. 11, pp. 139–147.</ref><ref>"De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me to reason." – Baudelaire, Charles (1919). New York: The Modern Library, p. 245.</ref>

== Works ==
{{Catholic philosophy|Modern}}
{{Martinism}}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722053002/http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?db=iccu&select_db=iccu&nentries=1&from=5&searchForm=opac/iccu/error.jsp&resultForward=opac/iccu/full.jsp&do=search_show_cmd&rpnlabel=+Autore+%3D+Joseph+de+Maistre+%28parole+in+AND%29++Anno+di+pubblicazione%3E%3D1700++AND+Anno+di+pubblicazione%3C%3D1810+&rpnquery=%40attrset+bib-1+%40and+%40and++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D4+%221700%22++%40attr+1%3D1003+%40attr+4%3D2+%22Joseph+de+Maistre%22++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D2+%221810%22&totalResult=9&fname=none&brief=brief |date=22 July 2011 }} (Turin, 1772) – Joseph de Maistre's decree thesis, kept in the National Library of the University of Turin.
* (Chambéry, 1775)
* (1793)
* (1794)
* (1795)
* (London , 1796)
* ''Intorno allo stato del Piemonte rispetto alla carta moneta'' (Turn, Aosta, Venice, 1797–1799)
* , 1814,
* , , 1819.
* , édit. ], 1821.
* '']'', , édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1821.
* , édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1822.
* , , édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1836.
* , , édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, Paris, 1853.
* , édit. Albert Blanc, Paris, 1859.

; English translations
* ''Memoir on the Union of Savoy and Switzerland'', 1795.
* , 1847.
* , 1850.
* , 1838.
* In Menczer, Béla, 1962. ''Catholic Political Thought, 1789–1848'', University of Notre Dame Press.
** , pp.&nbsp;61–66.
** , pp.&nbsp;66–69.
** , pp.&nbsp;69–71.
** , pp.&nbsp;72–76.
* Lively, Jack. ed. ''The Works of Joseph de Maistre'', Macmillan, 1965 ({{ISBN|978-0805203042}}).
* ], ed. ''Works of Joseph de Maistre'':
** ''The Pope'', Howard Fertig, 1975 ({{ISBN|978-1296620059}})
** ''St. Petersburg Dialogues'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993 ({{ISBN|978-0773509825}})
** '']'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974 and Cambridge University Press, 1994 ({{ISBN|978-0773501829}})
** ''Against Rousseau: "On the State of Nature" and "On the Sovereignty of the People"'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996 ({{ISBN|978-0773514157}})
** ''Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998 ({{ISBN| 978-0773517271}})
* Blum, Christopher Olaf (editor and translator). ''Critics of the Enlightenment'', ISI Books, 2004 ({{ISBN|978-1932236132}})
** 1798, "Reflections on Protestantism in its Relations to Sovereignty", pp.&nbsp;133–56.
** 1819, "On the Pope", pp.&nbsp;157–96.
* Lively, Jack. ed. ''The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion, and Enlightenment'', Transaction Publishers, 2011 ({{ISBN|978-1412842655}})
*In Blum, Christopher O., editor and translator. ''Critics of the Enlightenment'', Cluny Media, 2020 ({{ISBN|978-1952826160}})
**1797, "]" (excerpt of first two sections), pp.&nbsp;75–90.
**1819, "On the Pope", pp.&nbsp;91–100.

== See also ==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2022}}
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Armenteros, Carolina (2007). "From Human Nature to Normal Humanity: Joseph de Maistre, Rousseau, and the Origins of Moral Statistics," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 68, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;107–30.
* Armenteros, Carolina (2007). "Parabolas and the Fate of Nations: Early Conservative Historicism in Joseph de Maistre's ''De la Souveraineté du Peuple''," ''History of Political Thought'', Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;230–52.
* Armenteros, Carolina ''et al.''. (2010). , ''St. Andrews Studies in French History and Culture''.
* Armenteros, Carolina (2011). The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794–1854. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press {{ISBN|0-8014-4943-X}}
* Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). ''Joseph de Maistre and his European Readers: From Friedrich von Gentz to Isaiah Berlin''. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
* Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). ''Joseph de Maistre and the Legacy of Enlightenment''. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation.
* Austern, Donald M. (1974). ''The Political Theories of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre as Representative of the Schools of Conservative Libertarianism and Conservative Authoritarianism.'' Amherst: Boston College Doctoral Thesis.
* ] (1889). "Joseph de Maistre". In: ''Les Prophètes du Passé.'' Paris: Calmann Lévy, pp.&nbsp;50–69.
* Barthelet, Philippe (2005). ''Joseph de Maistre: Les Dossiers H''. Geneva: L'Age d'Homme.
* Blamires, Cyprian P. (1985). ''Three Critiques of the French Revolution: Maistre, Bonald and Saint-Simon.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Bradley, Owen (1999). ''A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre''. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
* ] (1903). In: ''Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. 3. The Reaction in France.'' New York: The Macmillan Company, pp.&nbsp;87–112
* {{Cite book | last = Buchanan | first = Patrick | title = State of Emergency | publisher=St. Martin's Griffin | location = New York | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-312-37436-5 }}
* Camcastle, Cara (2005). ''The More Moderate Side of Joseph de Maistre.'' Ottawa: McGill-Queen's University Press.
* Caponigri, A.R. (1942). ''Some Aspects of the Philosophy of Joseph de Maistre.'' PhD Thesis, University of Chicago.
* ] (1922). "Il Duca di Serra-Capriola e Giuseppe de Maistre". In: ''Archivio Storico per le Province Napoletane'', Vol. XLVII, pp.&nbsp;313–335.
* Edwards, David W. (1977). "Count Joseph de Maistre and Russian Educational Policy, 1803-1828", ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 36, pp.&nbsp;54–75.
* Eichrodt, Joan B. (1968). ''Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality, and Joseph de Maistre.'' New York: Columbia University Master's Thesis.
* Faust, A.J. (1882). ''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', Vol. VII, pp.&nbsp;17–41.
* ] (1963). ''Giusnaturalismo e Teoria della Sovranità in Joseph de Maistre''. Messina: Firenze (Rep. in ''Politica e Mutamento Sociale''. Lungro di Cosenza: Costantino Marco Editore, 2002, pp.&nbsp;191–243 {{ISBN|88-85350-97-6}}.)
* ] (1993). ''Il Pensiero Politico di Joseph de Maistre''. Roma-Bari: Laterza {{ISBN|88-420-4157-2}}.
* ] (2005). ''Joseph de Maistre, Pensatore Europeo''. Roma-Bari: Laterza {{ISBN|88-420-7598-1}}.
* Garrard, Graeme (1995). ''Maistre, Judge of Jean-Jacques. An Examination of the Relationship between Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph de Maistre, and the French Enlightenment.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Garrard, Graeme (1996). "Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and Its Discontents," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 57, No. 3, pp.&nbsp;429–46.
* {{cite book |last=Ghervas |first=Stella |year=2008 |title=Réinventer la Tradition: Alexandre Stourdza et l'Europe de la Sainte-Alliance |location=Paris |publisher=Honoré Champion |isbn=978-2-7453-1669-1}}
* Gianturco, Elio (1937). ''Joseph de Maistre and Giambattista Vico (Italian Roots of the Maistre's Political Culture)''. New York: Columbia University.
* Gianturco, Elio (1936). "Juridical Culture and Politico-historical Judgement in Joseph de Maistre", ''Roman Revue'', Vol. 27, pp.&nbsp;254–262.
* Glaudes, Pierre (1997). ''Joseph de Maistre et Les figures de l'Histoire: Trois Essais sur un Précurseur du Romantisme Français''. In: ''Cahiers Romantiques''. Saint Genouph: Librairie Nizet.
* ] (1982). ''The Counter-Revolution,'' Princeton University Press.
* {{cite book |last=Lebrun |first=Richard A. |title=Joseph de Maistre: An Intellectual Militant |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |year=1988 |isbn=0-7735-0645-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistrei0000lebr }}
* Lebrun, Richard A. (ed., 1988). ''Maistre Studies,'' Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
* Lebrun, Richard A. (2001). ''Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought and Influence: Selected Studies.'' Ottawa: McGill-Queen's University Press.
* {{Cite book | last = Lombard | first = Charles | title = Joseph de Maistre | publisher = Twayne | location = Boston | year = 1976 | isbn = 0-8057-6247-7 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistre0000lomb }}
* Legittimo, Gianfranco (1963). ''Sociologi Cattolici Italiani: De Maistre, Taparelli, Toniolo''. Roma: Il Quadrato.
* Maistre, Rodolphe de, Hexis d'un soir ou de la prénotion d'un retour de l'Esprit dans la science, La Compagnie Littéraire, 2016, 154p. ({{ISBN|978-2-87683-566-5}})
* Mandoul, Jean (1900). ''Un Homme d'État Italien: Joseph de Maistre et la Politique de la Maison de Savoie''. Paris: Alcan.
* Mazlish, Bruce (1955). ''Burke, Bonald and de Maistre. A Study in Conservatism.'' New York: Columbia University Doctoral Thesis.
* ] (2002). ''].'' Oxford University Press.
* Menczer, Béla (1962). In: ''Catholic Political Thought, 1789–1848''. University of Notre Dame Press, pp.&nbsp;59–61.
* Monteton, Charles Philippe Dijon de (2007). ''Die Entzauberung des Gesellschaftsvertrags. Ein Vergleich der Anti-Sozial-Kontrakts-Theorien von Carl Ludwig von Haller und Joseph Graf de Maistre im Kontext der politischen Ideengeschichte''. Frankfurt am Main ''et al.'' {{ISBN|978-3-631-55538-5}}.
* ] (1909). In: ''Critical Miscellanies''. London: Macmillan & Co., pp.&nbsp;257–338.
* Muret, Charlotte Touzalin (1933). New York: Columbia University Press.
* Pranchère, Jean-Yves (1992). ''Qu'est-ce que la Royauté? Joseph de Maistre''. Paris: Vrin.
* Pranchère, Jean-Yves (2005). ''L'Autorité contre les Lumières: la Philosophie de Joseph de Maistre''. Geneva: Droz.
* Sacré-Cœur Mercier, Lucille du (1953). ''The Historical Thought of the Comte Joseph de Maistre.'' Washington: Catholic University of America Thesis.
* Siedentop, Larry Alan (1966). ''The Limits of Enlightenment. A Study of Conservative Political Thought in Early Nineteenth-Century France with Special Reference to Maine de Biran and Joseph de Maistre.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Thorup, Mikkel (2005). ''Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory'', Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;19–39.
* Thurston, Benjamin (2001). ''Joseph de Maistre. Logos and Logomachy.'' Oxford: Brasenose College-Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Vermale, François (1921), ''Notes sur Joseph de Maistre Inconnu''. Chambéry: Perrin, M. Dardel Successeur.
{{refend}}
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{DBI |title= MAISTRE, Joseph de|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/joseph-de-maistre_(Dizionario-Biografico)|last= Pignatelli|first= Giuseppe|volume= 67}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Joseph de Maistre}}
* at ]
* at ]
* at the University of Cambridge
*
* Britannica Com:
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Maistre, Joseph de | volume= 17 |last1= Saintsbury |first1= George |author1-link= George Saintsbury | pages = 445&ndash;446 |short=1}}
* The Super-Enlightenment: {{dead link|date=August 2022}}

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Latest revision as of 22:19, 22 December 2024

Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat (1753–1821)

Joseph de Maistre
de Maistre by von Vogelstein
Born(1753-04-01)1 April 1753
Chambéry, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died26 February 1821(1821-02-26) (aged 67)
Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
Notable work
Era18th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
School
Main interests
Notable ideas

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, diplomat, and magistrate. One of the forefathers of conservatism, Maistre advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his close personal and intellectual ties with France, Maistre was throughout his life a subject of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which he served as a member of the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), ambassador to Russia (1803–1817), and minister of state to the court in Turin (1817–1821).

A key figure of the Counter-Enlightenment and a precursor of Romanticism, Maistre regarded monarchy both as a divinely sanctioned institution and as the only stable form of government. He called for the restoration of the House of Bourbon to the throne of France and for the ultimate authority of the Pope in both spiritual and temporal matters. Maistre argued that the rationalist rejection of Christianity was directly responsible for the Reign of Terror which followed the French Revolution of 1789.

Biography

Maistre was born in 1753 at Chambéry, Duchy of Savoy, at that time part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia which was ruled by the House of Savoy. His family was of French and Italian origin. His grandfather André (Andrea) Maistre (1661–1722), whose parents Francesco and Margarita Maistre (née Dalmassi) originated in the County of Nice, had been a draper and councilman in Nice (then under the rule of the House of Savoy) and his father François-Xavier Maistre (1705–1789), who moved to Chambéry in 1740, became a magistrate and senator, eventually receiving the title of count from the King of Piedmont-Sardinia. His mother's family, whose surname was Desmotz, were from Rumilly. He was the eldest of ten surviving children and godfather to his younger brother, Xavier, who would become a major general and a popular writer of fiction.

Stipple engraving of Maistre from a painting by Pierre Bouillon in which he is shown wearing the insignia of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

Maistre was probably educated by the Jesuits. After the Revolution, he became an ardent defender of the Jesuits, increasingly associating the spirit of the Revolution with the Jesuits' traditional enemies, the Jansenists. After completing his training in the law at the University of Turin in 1774, he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a senator in 1787.

In his early years Maistre was a liberal and supporter of Gallicanism. The philosopher and mystic Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was a major and lasting influence for Maistre. In one of his first public addresses Maistre praised the American Revolution proclaiming "Liberty, insulted in Europe, has winged its flight to another hemisphere."

A member of the progressive Scottish Rite Masonic lodge at Chambéry from 1774 to 1790, Maistre originally favoured political reform in France, supporting the efforts of the magistrates in the Parlements to force King Louis XVI to convene the Estates General. As a landowner in France, Maistre was eligible to join that body and there is some evidence that he contemplated that possibility. Maistre was alarmed by the decision of the Estates-General to combine aristocracy, clergy and commoners into a single legislative body which became the National Constituent Assembly. After the passing of the August Decrees on 4 August 1789, he decisively turned against the course of political events in France.

Portrait of Maistre by Swiss painter Félix Vallotton from La Revue blanche, 1895

Maistre fled Chambéry when it was taken by a French revolutionary army in 1792, but he was unable to find a position in the royal court in Turin and returned the following year. Deciding that he could not support the French-controlled regime, Maistre departed again, this time for Lausanne, Switzerland, where he discussed politics and theology at the salon of Madame de Staël, and began his career as a counter-revolutionary writer, with works such as Lettres d'un Royaliste Savoisien ("Letters from a Savoyard Royalist", 1793), Discours à Mme. la Marquise Costa de Beauregard, sur la Vie et la Mort de son Fils ("Discourse to the Marchioness Costa de Beauregard, on the Life and Death of her Son", 1794) and Cinq paradoxes à la Marquise de Nav... ("Five Paradoxes for the Marchioness of Nav...", 1795).

From Lausanne, Maistre went to Venice and then to Cagliari, where the King of Piedmont-Sardinia held the court and the government of the kingdom after French armies took Turin in 1798. Maistre's relations with the court at Cagliari were not always easy. In 1802, he was sent to Saint Petersburg in Russia as ambassador to Tsar Alexander I. His diplomatic responsibilities were few and he became a well-loved fixture in aristocratic and wealthy merchant circles, converting some of his friends to Roman Catholicism and writing his most influential works on political philosophy.

Maistre's observations on Russian life, contained in his diplomatic memoirs and in his personal correspondence, were among Leo Tolstoy's sources for his novel War and Peace. After the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of the House of Savoy's dominion over Piedmont and Savoy under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, Maistre returned in 1817 to Turin and served there as magistrate and minister of state until his death. He died on 26 February 1821 and is buried in the Jesuit Church of the Holy Martyrs (Chiesa dei Santi Martiri).

Philosophy

Politics

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In Considérations sur la France ("Considerations on France", 1796), Maistre claimed that France has a divine mission as the principal instrument of good and evil on Earth. He interpreted the Revolution of 1789 as a providential event in which the monarchy, the aristocracy and the Ancien Régime in general, instead of directing the influence of French civilization to the benefit of mankind, had promoted the atheistic doctrines of the 18th-century philosophers. He claimed that the crimes of the Reign of Terror were the logical consequence of Enlightenment thought as well as its divinely-decreed punishment.

In his short book Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques et des Autres Institutions Humaines ("Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions", 1809), Maistre argued that constitutions are not the product of human reason, but rather come from God, who slowly brings them to maturity.

What was novel in Maistre's writings was not his enthusiastic defense of monarchical and religious authority per se, but rather his arguments concerning the practical need for ultimate authority to lie with an individual capable of decisive action as well as his analysis of the social foundations of that authority's legitimacy. In his own words which he addressed to a group of aristocratic French émigrés, "You ought to know how to be royalists. Before, this was an instinct, but today it is a science. You must love the sovereign as you love order, with all the forces of intelligence." Maistre's analysis of the problem of authority and its legitimacy foreshadows some of the concerns of early sociologists such as Auguste Comte and Henri de Saint-Simon.

Despite his preference for monarchy, Maistre acknowledged that republics could be the superior form of government, depending on the situation and the people. Maistre also defended the government of the United States because its people were heirs to the democratic spirit of Great Britain, which he felt France lacked.

Religion

After the appearance in 1816 of his French translation of Plutarch's treatise On the Delay of Divine Justice in the Punishment of the Guilty, Maistre published Du Pape ("On the Pope") in 1819, the most complete exposition of his religious conception of authority. According to Maistre, any attempt to justify government on rational grounds will only lead to unresolvable arguments about the legitimacy and expediency of any existing government and that this in turn will lead to violence and chaos. As a result, Maistre argued that the legitimacy of government must be based on compelling, but non-rational grounds which its subjects must not be allowed to question. Maistre went on to argue that authority in politics should derive from religion and that in Europe this religious authority must ultimately lie with the Pope.

Ethics

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In addition to his voluminous correspondence, Maistre left two books that were published posthumously. Soirées de St. Pétersbourg (1821) is a theodicy in the form of a Platonic dialogue in which Maistre argues that evil exists because of its place in the divine plan, according to which the blood sacrifice of innocents returns men to God via the expiation of the sins of the guilty. Maistre sees this as a law of human history as unquestionable as it is mysterious.

Science

Examen de la Philosophie de Bacon ("An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon", 1836) is a critique of the thought of Francis Bacon, whom Maistre considers to be the fountainhead of the destructive rationalistic thought. Maistre also argued, romantically, that genius plays a pivotal role in great scientific discoveries, as demonstrated by inspired intellects such as Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, contrary to Bacon's theory about conforming to a mechanistic method.

Personal life

Maistre was married to Françoise de Morand de Saint-Sulpice (1759–1839), with which he had three children—daughters Adèle (1787–1862) and Constance (1793–1882) and son Rudolphe (1789–1866), military officer who fought for the Russian Empire at the battles of Friedland, Smolensk, Moskova (Borodino), Bérézina, Dresde, and Leipzig.

Legacy and reputation

Statue of the Joseph and Xavier de Maistre brothers outside the old fortress in their hometown Chambéry
Street named after Joseph de Maistre in Montmartre, Paris
Joseph de Maistre's tomb at the Church of the Holy Martyrs in Turin

Politics

Together with the Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, Maistre is commonly regarded as one of the founders of European conservatism. Maistre exerted a powerful influence on the Spanish political thinker Juan Donoso Cortés, the French royalist Charles Maurras and his nationalist movement Action Française as well as the German philosopher of law Carl Schmitt.

However, according to Carolina Armenteros, who has written four books about Maistre, his writings influenced not only conservative political thinkers but also the utopian socialists. Early sociologists such as Auguste Comte and Henri de Saint-Simon explicitly acknowledged the influence of Maistre on their own thinking about the sources of social cohesion and political authority.

Maistre has been criticized by classical liberals. Literary critic Émile Faguet described Maistre as "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous trinity composed of pope, king and hangman, always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism, a dark figure out of the Middle Ages, part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner". Political historian Isaiah Berlin considered Maistre a forerunner to the 20th-century movement of fascism, claiming that Maistre knew the self-destructive impulses in human nature and intended to exploit them. However, Italian fascism openly rejected Maistre's reactionary conservatism.

Literature

Maistre's skills as a writer and polemicist ensured that he continues to be read. Matthew Arnold, an influential 19th-century critic, wrote as follows while comparing Maistre's style with that of his Irish counterpart Edmund Burke:

"Joseph de Maistre is another of those men whose word, like that of Burke, has vitality. In imaginative power he is altogether inferior to Burke. On the other hand, his thought moves in closer order than Burke's, more rapidly, more directly; he has fewer superfluities. Burke is a great writer, but Joseph de Maistre's use of the French language is more powerful, more thoroughly satisfactory, than Burke's use of the English. It is masterly; it shows us to perfection of what that admirable instrument, the French language, is capable."

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 describes his writing style as "strong, lively, picturesque" and states that his "animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone". George Saintsbury called him "unquestionably one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century". Although a political opponent, Alphonse de Lamartine called him the "Plato of the Alps". Admiring the splendour of his prose, Lamartine stated:

"That brief, nervous, lucid style, stripped of phrases, robust of limb, did not at all recall the softness of the eighteenth century, nor the declamations of the latest French books: it was born and steeped in the breath of the Alps; it was virgin, it was young, it was harsh and savage; it had no human respect, it felt its solitude; it improvised depth and form all at once ... That man was new among the enfants du siècle ."

Maistre is also associated with the Counter-Enlightenment movement Romanticism and is often referred to as a Romantic. Among those who admired him was Charles Baudelaire – the most famous Romantic poet in France – who described himself a disciple of the Savoyard counter-revolutionary, claiming that Maistre had taught him how to think.

Works

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See also

Notes

  1. Maistre is traditionally pronounced [mɛstʁ] (i.e. sounding the "s" and rhyming with bourgmestre); that is how it is usually heard at university and in historical movies (as in Sacha Guitry's 1948 film Le Diable Boiteux). The pronunciation [mɛːtʁ] (rhymes with maître) is sometimes heard under the influence of the modernized pronunciation, adopted by some descendants (such as Patrice de Maistre)

References

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  1. John Powell, Derek W. Blakeley, Tessa Powell. Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1914. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. P267.
  2. Rosengarten, Frank (2012). Giacomo Leopardi's Search For A Common Life Through Poetry. A Different Nobility, A Different Love. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 6. ISBN 9781611475067.
  3. "Joseph de Maistre". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. Beum, Robert (1997). "Ultra-Royalism Revisited," Modern Age, Vol. 39, No. 3, p. 305.
  5. "Joseph de Maistre," The Dublin Review, Vol. XXXIII, 1852.
  6. The issue of Maistre's national identity has long been contentious. In 1802, after the invasion of Savoy and Piedmont by the armies of the French First Republic, Maistre had fled to Cagliari, the ancient capital of Kingdom of Sardinia that resisted the French invasion; he wrote to the French ambassador in Naples, objecting to having been classified as a French émigré and thus subject to confiscation of his properties and punishment should he attempt to return to Savoy. According to the biographical notice written by his son Rodolphe and included in the Complete Works, on that occasion Maistre wrote:

    "He had not been born French, and did not desire to become French, and that, never having set foot in the lands conquered by France, he could not have become French."

    — Œuvres complètes de Joseph de Maistre, Lyon, 1884, vol. I, p. XVIII.
    Sources such as the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Catholic Encyclopedia identify Maistre as French by culture, if not by law. In 1860, Albert Blanc, professor of law at the University of Turin, in his preface to a collection of Maistre's diplomatic correspondence wrote that

    "this philosopher was a politician; this Catholic was an Italian; he foretold the destiny of the House of Savoy, he supported the end of the Austrian rule , he has been, during this century, one of the first defenders of independence."

    — Correspondance diplomatique de Joseph de Maistre, Paris, 1860, vol. I, pp. III-IV.
  7. Masseau, Didier (2000). Les Ennemis des Philosophes. Editions Albin Michel.
  8. Alibert, Jacques (1992). Joseph de Maistre, Etat et Religion. Paris: Perrin.
  9. Lebrun, Richard (1989). "The Satanic Revolution: Joseph de Maistre's Religious Judgment of the French Revolution", Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History, Vol. 16, pp. 234–240.
  10. Garrard, Graeme (1996). "Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and its Discontents", Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 429–446.
  11. ^ Berlin, Isaiah (24 November 2005) . "The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism" (PDF). Two Enemies of the Enlightenment. Wolfson College, Oxford. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  12. "Etude Culturelle - Recherches Historiques". Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  13. "Etude Culturelle - Recherches Historiques". Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  14. Triomphe, Robert (1968). Joseph de Maistre. Genève: Droz. pp. 39–41. Preview available here
  15. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  16. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Xavier de Maistre" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  17. Murray, John C (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre". The Review of Politics. 11 (1): 72. doi:10.1017/S0034670500044685. JSTOR 1404500.
  18. Vulliaud, Paul (1926). Joseph de Maistre Franc-maçon. Paris: Nourry.
  19. Lebrun, Richard. "A Brief Biography of Joseph de Maistre". University of Manitoba. Archived from the original on 25 March 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  20. Greifer, Elisha (1961). "Joseph de Maistre and the Reaction Against the Eighteenth Century," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 591–598.
  21. Bordeaux, Henri (1895). "Joseph de Maistre à Genève et à Lausanne". In: Semaine Littéraire, II, pp. 478–480.
  22. Ferret, Olivier (2007). La Fureur de Nuire: Échanges Pamphlétaires entre Philosophes et Antiphilosophes, 1750-1770. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation.
  23. Teeling, T.T. (1985). "Joseph de Maistre," The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XX, p. 824.
  24. ^ Lebrun, Richard (1967). "Joseph de Maistre, how Catholic a Reaction?" (PDF). CCHA Study Sessions. 34: 29–45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 January 2007.
  25. Quoted by Philippe Sénart in "Maistre et Tocqueville", Joseph de Maistre. Les Dossiers H, (Lausanne: Editions L'Age d'Homme, 2005), p. 646. ISBN 2825118710
  26. Barth, Hans (1956). "Auguste Comte et Joseph de Maistre". In: Etudes Suisses de l'Histoire Générale, XIV, pp. 103–138.
  27. ^ Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1903). The Philosophy of Auguste Comte. New York: Putnam and Sons, pp. 297-8.
  28. ^ Pickering, Mary (1993). Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 261–8 ISBN 052143405X
  29. Murray, John C (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre". The Review of Politics. 11 (1): 75, 78-79. doi:10.1017/S0034670500044685. JSTOR 1404500.
  30. Murray, John C. (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre," The Review of Politics, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 63–86.
  31. Bradley, Owen (1999). A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
  32. Lebrun, Richard A. (1969). "Joseph de Maistre, Cassandra of Science," French Historical Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 214–231.
  33. Kochin, Michael S. (2002). "How Joseph De Maistre Read Plato's Laws," Polis, Vol. 19, Nos. 1–2, pp. 29–43.
  34. Huet, François (1837). "Le Chancelier Bacon et le Comte Joseph de Maistre." In: Nouvelles Archives Historiques, Philosophiques et Littéraires. Gand: C. Annoot-Braekman, vol. I, pp. 65–94.
  35. Gourmont, Rémy de (1905). "François Bacon et Joseph de Maistre." In: Promenades Philosophiques. Paris: Mercure de France, pp. 7–32.
  36. ^ Reardon, Bernard (2010). Liberalism and Tradition. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-14305-9. OCLC 502414345.
  37. EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTER OF MARRIAGE ACTS OF St-LEGER IN CHAMBERY FOR THE YEAR 1786: The year 1786 and September 17.
  38. Armenteros, Carolina (2010). The New Enfant du Siècle : Joseph de Maistre as a Writer. Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews. p. 129–130. ISBN 978-1-907548-00-0. OCLC 845004043.
  39. Fawcett, Edmund (2020). Conservatism : The Fight for a Tradition. Princeton University Press. pp. 3–18. doi:10.1515/9780691207773. ISBN 978-0-691-20777-3.
  40. Fuchs, Michel (1984). "Edmund Burke et Joseph de Maistre", Revue de l'Université d'Ottawa, Vol. 54, pp. 49–58.
  41. Tarrago, Rafael E. (1999). "Two Catholic Conservatives: The Ideas of Joseph de Maistre and Juan Donoso Cortes," Archived 13 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine Catholic Social Science Review, Vol. 4, pp. 167–177.
  42. Spektorowski, Alberto (2002). "Maistre, Donoso Cortes, and the Legacy of Catholic Authoritarianism," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 283–302.
  43. Gerin-Ricard, Lazare de (1929). Les Idées Politiques de Joseph de Maistre et la Doctrine de Maurras. La Rochelle: Editions Rupella.
  44. Nordin, Svante (2016). Filosoferna : den moderna världens födelse och det västerlandska tänkandet. Natur & Kultur. p. 303. ISBN 978-91-27-14699-0. OCLC 985104734. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  45. Armenteros, Carolina (2011). The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794-1854. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-4943-X
  46. Émile Faguet, Politiques et Moralistes du Dix-neuvieme Siècle, 1st series, Paris: Société Française d'Imprimerie et de Librairie, 1899. Cited in: Maistre, Joseph de; Isaiah Berlin (1994). "Introduction". Considerations on France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. xi. ISBN 0-521-46628-8.
  47. Isaiah, Berlin (1965). The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism (PDF) (Speech). Harkness Theater, Columbia University.
  48. Stanley G.Payne. A History of Fascism, 1914–45. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 214. ISBN 0299148742
  49. Arnold, Matthew (1973). "Joseph de Maistre on Russia." In: English Literature and Irish Politics. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, p. 87.
  50. Saintsbury, George (1917). A Short History of French Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 469.
  51. Murray, John C (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre". The Review of Politics. 11 (1): 67. doi:10.1017/S0034670500044685. JSTOR 1404500.
  52. de Lamartine, Alphonse (1874). "Les De Maistre". Souvenirs et Portraits. Vol. 1. Paris: Hachette et Cie. p. 189.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  53. Armenteros, Carolina (2010). The New Enfant du Siècle : Joseph de Maistre as a Writer. Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-907548-00-0. OCLC 845004043.
  54. Lebrun, Richard A. (1974). "Introduction". In de Maistre, Joseph (ed.). Considerations on France. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 11.
  55. von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik (1943). The Menace of the Herd; or, Procrustes at Large. Ludwig von Mises Institute. p. 124. OCLC 733805752.
  56. Richard A., Lebrun (1998). "Introduction". In de Maistre, Joseph (ed.). An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon. McGill's Queen's University Press. p. ix. ISBN 0-7735-1727-8.
  57. Berlin, Isaiah (2009). "Introduction". In de Maistre, Joseph (ed.). Considerations on France. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxiii. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139170758.006. ISBN 9781139170758.
  58. Day, Aidan (1996). Romanticism. Routledge. pp. 1–3. ISBN 0-415-08378-8.
  59. Alphonsus, Mère Mary (1942). The Influence of Joseph de Maistre on Baudelaire. "De Maistre et Edgar Poe m'ont appris à Raisonner" (journaux intimes). Bryn Mawr: Bryn Mawr College doctoral thesis.
  60. Eygun, Francois-Xavier (1990). "Influence de Joseph de Maistre sur les "Fleurs du Mal" de Baudelaire", Revue des Etudes Maistriennes, Vol. 11, pp. 139–147.
  61. "De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me to reason." – Baudelaire, Charles (1919). Intimate Papers from the Unpublished Works of Baudelaire. Baudelaire – His Prose and Poetry. New York: The Modern Library, p. 245.

Sources

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  • Armenteros, Carolina et al.. (2010). The New Enfant du Siècle: Joseph de Maistre as a Writer, St. Andrews Studies in French History and Culture.
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  • Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). Joseph de Maistre and his European Readers: From Friedrich von Gentz to Isaiah Berlin. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
  • Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). Joseph de Maistre and the Legacy of Enlightenment. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation.
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