The critic and philosopher Hippolyte Taine is presented here as
one of the pioneers of
the theory of the unconscious in European social thought: a source of the
more explicit writings on
unconscious motivation in the works of Nietzsche, Pareto, and others. Preceding
forms of French
liberalism – particularly those of Guizot and Cousin – had
depended upon an underlying belief in a
number of ideas – in God, in our ability to understand his will,
and in reason. A representative regime
would be able to mobilize rationality in society and give it effective
sovereignty. Taine's life can be
interpreted as one of increasing conservatism, but it was consistent in
his rejection of such a conception
of rationality; first through his technical philosophy, then through the
discussion of psychological
motivation in mass political movements set out in the Origines de la
France contemporaine. It is
argued that such a rejection of rationalism was a crucial first step in
the elaboration of new forms of
liberalism – technocratic, welfarist, and economically individualist.
Taine's work represents the
passage from one type of liberal theory to another at a crucial moment
in French history, the
consolidation of universal male suffrage as a foundation of the Third Republic.
