The nineteenth century was a benchmark in the studying of mankind and of society. This era was the groundwork for a period labeled the Enlightenment. New ideas, concepts, endeavors and ambitions rose and fell within this era concerned with the "community". It is here that I wish to make my first response in reaction with the French Revolution. As stated by Nisbet on page 9; "The major sociologists of the century, from Comte and Tocqueville to Weber and Durkheim, were caught up in the currents of the three great ideologies of the nineteenth centuries: Liberalism, radicalism, and conservatism." These ideologies led to countless others, self labeled as social physicists, social scientists, rationalists, or even social philosophers, expressing their views on the world and how it works. .
Liberalism is devotion to the individual and individual emancipation, but perhaps best put by Nisbet, "What tradition is to the conservative, and use of power is to the radical, individual autonomy is to the liberal. The redemptive possibilities of a society are best categorized by radicalism. Political strongholds and ideals are thrown aside by the radicalistic approach of the enlightenments persuasion and influence to be yourself and to think for yourself. Conservatism is tradition, safety nets, routine, hierarchy, authority and religion. I would like to focus on the last of these three elements of the enlightenment for a minute. Authority and religion are probably in my eyes the biggest .
Benjamin 2.
and most influential aspects of the eighteenth century. Without the political authoritarians and sacred conservatives and the religious factions the French and Industrial revolutions may have still been just that, but by no means in the same light. The French revolution especially holds a serious weight advantage against the conservatives on the era. As put by Nisbet; "the French revolution appeared almost as an act of god in its cataclysmic immensity.
